A visceral, jeckpack-fueled VR Arcade Shooter through which you fly through deadly Orbital Arenas in Hostile Space, facing off in extreme battles. [Ubisoft]
From the creative talent behind the genre-defining Burnout series, Dangerous Driving puts aggression back into the racing genre, recapturing the spirit of the past and taking it to a new place. Dangerous Driving is a game about real driving. The sort of driving you want to do when no one else is looking. The sort of driving you?d love to do if only everyone else would get OUT OF THE DAMN WAY! This game gives you the chance to live out that fantasy. To floor it in everyday cars, at high speeds, weaving in and out of traffic and slamming the other cars right off the road. This is a game built in the spirit of the classic arcade racing games of the 80?s and 90?s. It?s about speed, driving skill and beautiful powerslides around epic corners. It?s also about all out aggression, instant retaliation and sweet, sweet revenge. The more dangerously you drive, the faster you can go.
Game Of Thrones Star Explains How The Show Has Changed TV
Game of Thrones returns for its eighth and final season in less than one week. The show's stars are making the press rounds, talking about the final season and what it means. John Bradley, who plays Samwell Tarly, told Collider that as the show ends, he sees that Game of Thrones has helped TV stand taller and rival cinema in some regards.
"A lot of the TV that comes after [Game of Thrones] is taking lessons from it and using it as a springboard in terms of what can be achieved through the medium of television and how, given the right set of people and the right circumstances, it can rival cinema," Bradley said. "And it's got a right to be ambitious. It's created a whole new sense of ambition in TV that wasn't really there before. There has never been anything on this visual scale before. And I think TV is no longer seen as a kind of poor cousin of cinema. I hope that TV going forward feels that we've empowered it to be as ambitious as we've been."
The final season of Game of Thrones was a massive effort, according to Gwendoline Christie, who plays Brienne of Tarth and is also featured in the Collider video.
"This season has really outdone all the others in all regards," she said. "The production values, and the way in which everyone was pushed is much further than anything they've ever done on the show before. The scale is so much bigger."
In regards to special effects specifically, VFX producer Steve Kullback recalled that Seasons 2 and 3 had about 600-800 VFX shots in each season. Season 8, meanwhile, has "multiples of that" in a single episode, so it is no small undertaking.
Game of Thrones Season 8 premieres on HBO April 14. Soon we'll know who lives and dies, and everything else there is to know. While the show is ending, a prequel series is on the way.
Panty Party Is Receiving A Switch Release Outside Of Japan
No, you’re not misreading the above headline. A retail version of Panty Party for the Nintendo Switch is indeed on its way to the west.
The game’s publisher Cosen has announced the Switch eShop version will be made available in late April or early May for $14.99, and a physical release is also “planned” for outside of Japan.
Panty Party is described as a fast-paced battle game where you fly about “as a panty” on the street searching for fights against “enemy” panties. It promises plenty of comedy, love, passion and a dance-inspired soundtrack.
As badass as it all sounds, don’t expect this game to be filled with adult imagery. As noted by the official game page:
“All you get is funny and stupid panties!”
The Switch version of this title will also include multiplayer battles for up to four players. Below is a trailer leaving very little to the imagination:
What do you think about a local retail release for a game like this? Will you be picking it up yourself? Tell us in the comments section.
The Linux startup process goes through several stages before reaching the final graphical or multi-user target. The initramfs stage occurs just before the root file system is mounted. Dracut is a tool that is used to manage the initramfs. The dracut emergency shell is an interactive mode that can be initiated while the initramfs is loaded.
This article will show how to use the dracut command to modify the initramfs. Some basic troubleshooting commands that can be run from the dracut emergency shell will also be demonstrated.
The InitRAMFS
Initramfs stands for Initial Random-Access Memory File System. On modern Linux systems, it is typically stored in a file under the /boot directory. The kernel version for which it was built will be included in the file name. A new initramfs is generated every time a new kernel is installed.
A Linux Boot Directory
By default, Fedora keeps the previous two versions of the kernel and its associated initramfs. This default can be changed by modifying the value of the installonly_limit setting the /etc/dnf/dnf.conf file.
You can use the lsinitrd command to list the contents of your initramfs archive:
The LsInitRD Command
The above screenshot shows that my initramfs archive contains the nouveau GPU driver. The modinfo command tells me that the nouveau driver supports several models of NVIDIA video cards. The lspci command shows that there is an NVIDIA GeForce video card in my computer’s PCI slot. There are also several basic Unix commands included in the archive such as cat and cp.
By default, the initramfs archive only includes the drivers that are needed for your specific computer. This allows the archive to be smaller and decreases the time that it takes for your computer to boot.
The Dracut Command
The dracut command can be used to modify the contents of your initramfs. For example, if you are going to move your hard drive to a new computer, you might want to temporarily include all drivers in the initramfs to be sure that the operating system can load on the new computer. To do so, you would run the following command:
# dracut –force –no-hostonly
The force parameter tells dracut that it is OK to overwrite the existing initramfs archive. The no-hostonly parameter overrides the default behavior of including only drivers that are germane to the currently-running computer and causes dracut to instead include all drivers in the initramfs.
By default dracut operates on the initramfs for the currently-running kernel. You can use the uname command to display which version of the Linux kernel you are currently running:
$ uname -r
5.0.5-200.fc29.x86_64
Once you have your hard drive installed and running in your new computer, you can re-run the dracut command to regenerate the initramfs with only the drivers that are needed for the new computer:
# dracut –force
There are also parameters to add arbitrary drivers, dracut modules, and files to the initramfs archive. You can also create configuration files for dracut and save them under the /etc/dracut.conf.d directory so that your customizations will be automatically applied to all new initramfs archives that are generated when new kernels are installed. As always, check the man page for the details that are specific to the version of dracut you have installed on your computer:
$ man dracut
The Dracut Emergency Shell
The Dracut Emergency Shell
Sometimes something goes wrong during the initramfs stage of your computer’s boot process. When this happens, you will see “Entering emergency mode” printed to the screen followed by a shell prompt. This gives you a chance to try and fix things up manually and continue the boot process.
As a somewhat contrived example, let’s suppose that I accidentally deleted an important kernel parameter in my boot loader configuration:
# sed -i ‘s/ rd.lvm.lv=fedora\/root / /’ /boot/grub2/grub.cfg
The next time I reboot my computer, it will seem to hang for several minutes while it is trying to find the root partition and eventually give up and drop to an emergency shell.
From the emergency shell, I can enter journalctl and then use the Space key to page down though the startup logs. Near the end of the log I see a warning that reads “/dev/mapper/fedora-root does not exist”. I can then use the ls command to find out what does exist:
# ls /dev/mapper
control fedora-swap
Hmm, the fedora-root LVM volume appears to be missing. Let’s see what I can find with the lvm command:
Ah ha! There’s my root partition. It’s just inactive. All I need to do is activate it and exit the emergency shell to continue the boot process:
# lvm lvchange -a y fedora/root
# exit
The Fedora Login Screen
The above example only demonstrates the basic concept. You can check the troubleshooting section of the dracut guide for a few more examples.
It is possible to access the dracut emergency shell manually by adding the rd.break parameter to your kernel command line. This can be useful if you need to access your files before any system services have been started.
Check the dracut.kernel man page for details about what kernel options your version of dracut supports:
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 04-08-2019, 11:17 PM - Forum: Windows
- No Replies
Hybrid storage performance comes to Azure
When it comes to adding a performance tier between compute and file storage, Avere Systems has led the way with its high-performance caching appliance known as the Avere FXT Edge Filer. This week at NAB, attendees will get a first look at the new Azure FXT Edge Filer, now with even more performance, memory, SSD, and support for Azure Blob. Since Microsoft’s acquisition of Avere last March, we’ve been working to provide an exciting combination of performance and efficiency to support hybrid storage architectures with the Avere appliance technology.
Linux performance over NFS
Microsoft is committed to meeting our customers where we’re needed. The launch of the new Azure FXT Edge Filer is yet another example of this as we deliver high-throughput and low-latency NFS to applications running on Linux compute farms. The Azure FXT Edge Filer solves latency issues between Blob storage and on-premises computing with built-in translation from NFS to Blob. It sits at the edge of your hybrid storage environment closest to on-premises compute, caching the active data to reduce bottlenecks. Let’s look at common applications:
Active Archives in Azure Blob – When Azure Blob is a target storage location for aging, but not yet cold data, the Azure FXT Edge Filer accelerates access to files by creating an on-premises cache of active data.
WAN Caching – Latency across wide area networks (WANs) can slow productivity. The Azure FXT Edge Filer caches active data closest to the users and hides that latency as they reach for data stored in data centers or colos. Remote office engineers, artists, and other power users achieve fast access to files they need, and meanwhile backup, mirroring, and other data protection activities run seamlessly in the core data center.
NAS Optimization – Many high-performance computing environments have large NetApp or Dell EMC Isilon network-attached storage (NAS) arrays. When demand is at its peak, these storage systems can become bottlenecks. The Azure FXT Edge Filer optimizes these NAS systems by caching data closest to the compute, separating performance from capacity and better delivering both.
When datasets are large, hybrid file-storage caching provides performance and flexibility that are needed to keep core operations productive.
Azure FXT Edge Filer model specifications
We are currently previewing the FXT 6600 model at customer sites, with a second FXT 6400 model becoming available with general availability. The FXT 6600 is an impressive top-end model with 40 percent more read performance and double the memory of the FXT 5850. The FXT 6400 is a great mid-range model for customers who don’t need as much memory and SSD capacity or are looking to upgrade FXT 5600 and FXT 5400 models at an affordable price.
Azure FXT Edge Filer – 6600 Model
Azure FXT Edge Filer – 6400 Model
Highest performance, largest cache
High-performance, large cache
Specifications per node:
Specifications per note:
1536 GB DRAM
768 GB DRAM
25.6 TB SSD
12.8 TB SSD
6×25/10Gb + 2x1Gb Network Ports
6×25/10Gb + 2x1Gb Network Ports
Minimum 3-node cluster
Minimum 3-node cluster
Uses 256 AES encryption
Uses 256 AES encryption
Key features
Scalable to 24 FXT server nodes as demand grows
High-performance DRAM/memory for faster access to active data and large SSD cache sizes to support big data workloads
Single mountpoint provides simplified management across heterogeneous storage
Hybrid architecture – NFSv3, SMB2 to clients and applications; support for NetApp, Dell EMC Isilon, Azure Blob, and S3 storage
The Azure FXT Edge Filer is a combination of hardware provided by Dell EMC and software provided by Microsoft. For ease, a complete solution will be delivered to customers as a software-plus-hardware appliance through a system integrator. If you are interested in learning more about adding the Azure FXT Edge Filer to your on-premises infrastructure or about upgrading existing Avere hardware, you can reach out to the team now. Otherwise, watch for update on the Azure FXT Edge Filer homepage.
Azure FXT Edge Filer for render farms
High-performance file access for render farms and artists is key to meeting important deadlines and building efficiencies into post-production pipelines. At NAB 2019 in Las Vegas, visit the Microsoft Azure booth #SL6716 to learn more about the new Azure FXT Edge Filer for rendering. You’ll find technology experts, presentations, and support materials to help you render faster with Azure.
By Andrew O’Hara Monday, April 08, 2019, 01:00 pm PT (04:00 pm ET)
AppleInsider is going hands-on with the latest beta of iOS 12.3 which includes the newly revamped TV app and several other smaller tweaks.
iOS 12.3 TV app with EPIX channel
The first beta of iOS 12.3 contained the first iteration of the brand new TV app, future home of Apple’s original content. The second beta we saw the app get a new, though sparse, intro screen that signifies the TV app as the home to all of your content.
Apple also added Epix as an Apple TV channel alongside Showtime, Starz, Tastemade, and the Smithsonian. Apple TV channels are services you can subscribe to right from the TV app, though during the beta period they still kick you out to the third-party apps to watch anything. Once launched, this content will be available to watch right from within the TV app.
We’ve been using the TV app quite extensively since it launched in the first beta and were pleased to see how much more stable the app is here in beta two. In beta one, it would freeze constantly, making usage difficult.
The second beta also has more tweaks to the Wallet app in preparation for Apple Card’s launch. The empty icons to the left of your transactions has now been removed in this beta, with just the text available to designate where a purchase was made. This applies to third-party cards. On the Apple Pay Cash card —and forthcoming Apple Card —each transaction has an icon to the left that lines up with the person, business, or category a purchase falls into.
iOS 12.3 beta 2
Lastly, the palm rejection bug on iPad has been corrected. Prior, the screen would jump around at the detection of your palm while using Apple Pencil. This has been fixed and it works as you’d expect in this latest beta.
Be sure to catch up with everything that changed in the first beta of iOS 12.3 on iPhone, iPad and Apple TV.
Next Week, Fortnite Is Adding Apex Legends-Like Respawn System
Epic Games has announced a new addition to Fortnite: Battle Royale. Called the Reboot Van, the feature allows you to bring back squadmates that have died in battle--similar to the respawn stations in Apex Legends.
As part of Fortnite's next update, Reboot Vans and Reboot Cards will be added to the battle royale game. Upon death, squadmates will drop their Reboot Card, which can be used at a Reboot Van to respawn them.
"After a squadmate has been eliminated, grab their dropped Reboot Card and any surviving squadmates can activate it at a van," Epic Games community manager Nathan Mooney said in a video detailing the new respawn feature, which can be watched below. "Once activated, you'll definitely know, as a beacon and audio cue will be set off, informing nearby players to the reboot in progress and how many players will be arriving. You're squad will appear, one by one, on top of the van--ready to jump back into the match."
Much like in Apex Legends, your teammates will respawn back into the match without their weapons or items. So, in order to be sure they aren't left completely helpless, it's in your best interest to have something on hand that you can drop for your revived allies. Upon respawning a player, the Reboot Van will temporarily deactivate, and only turn back online after a set period of time.
The idea of respawning in Fortnite was first addressed in an Epic Games Reddit AMA in February 2019. "We've been considering this mechanic for a while and have been exploring it," an Epic producer said. "[We] want to make sure we give it the time it needs and fully understand its impact on the game as a whole. Look for further updates during Season 8." Season 8 started shortly thereafter, on February 28, and introduced pirate-themed content into Fortnite. The new Legendary skin for Season 8, Ruin, has just been revealed, and it can be unlocked in Week 8 by completing the season's weekly challenges.
In our Fortnite review, Michael Higham gave the game an 8/10. The battle royale game is available on Xbox One, PS4, PC, Switch, and mobile.
Wolfenstein: Youngblood Might Come With A Download Code Instead Of A Game Card
According to multiple retailer listings in North America, the physical Deluxe Edition of Wolfenstein: Youngblood on the Nintendo Switch might not actually include a game card. This version of the game will instead come with a download code which can be redeemed from the eShop. The same applies to the game’s Standard Edition physical release. Here’s the notice on the GameStop web page:
No cartridge for this game. Code will be packed in box. Internet connection required.
Until now, there’s been no mention about the Deluxe Edition possibly being a download-only retail release. Assuming these listings are accurate, Bethesda could have easily revealed this on the extensive FAQ page, as it does provide some extra information about the Standard Edition in certain regions:
*Note, the Standard Edition is only available as a digital download across Europe, Australia & New Zealand
Right now, there’s no word if this will apply to the physical Deluxe Edition release in regions outside of North America.
What do you make of this? Tell us down in the comments.
Super Rare Games Announces Joe Dever’s Lone Wolf Physical Release For Switch
Super Rare Games has teamed up with Italian developer Forge Reply to physically release Joe Dever’s Lone Wolf on the Switch. Pre-orders open next week on 11th April for $32.54 / £29.99 / €33.99 and there’ll be a total 4,000 copies available.
The Super Rare edition of this game will include a gorgeous cardboard slipcover, 20-page full-colour artbook, interior artwork, exclusive sticker and three trading cards selected from a five-card set. Take a look below:
Here’s a bit about the game, from the Super Rare PR:
With Joe Dever’s Lone Wolf, Forge Reply has evolved the classic “choose your own adventure” format enhancing non-linear narration with actual role-playing game elements, such as a unique turn-based combat system, inventory and upgrade mechanics, as well as an interactive world map. The story fits within the official continuity of Joe Dever’s beloved fantasy saga, with a brand-new adventure in four acts. In order to prevail over his enemies, Lone Wolf will have at his disposal a diverse arsenal of weapons, powerful magical disciplines and his signature sword, the fabled Sommerswerd.
Will you be adding this one to your Switch library? Tell us down in the comments.
