History Hides Away More Than One Truth... SOULCALIBUR VI represents the latest entry in the premier weapons-based, head-to-head fighting series and continues the epic struggle of warriors searching for the legendary Soul Swords. Taking place in the 16th century, revisit the events of the original SOULCALIBUR to uncover hidden truths. [Bandai Namco]
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 10-20-2018, 03:36 AM - Forum: Lounge
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Pokemon Go Community Day Event (October 2018): Start Time, Bonuses, More
Pokemon Go's next Community Day is almost here. Niantic's monthly event returns this Sunday, October 21, giving players around the world another opportunity to capture rare Pokemon, take advantage of in-game bonuses, and even add a special move to their repertoire.
While every Community Day lasts three hours, the particulars of each event vary by month. To help you get prepared, we've rounded up all the information you need to know about October's Community Day below, from its start time in each region to the bonuses that are available and featured Pokemon you'll be able to catch.
What Is The Featured Pokemon?
During each Community Day, one particular species of Pokemon will appear in the wild much more frequently than usual, giving you a chance to further fill out your Pokedex. While the newly added Gen 4 Pokemon may be on all players' minds right now, the featured Pokemon this month is Beldum, a Steel/Psychic-type first introduced in the series' Gen 3 games, Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire.
Beldum is a highly sought after Pokemon, so you won't want to miss your chance to catch as many as you can; not only is it fairly rare, it's capable of evolving into Metagross, an especially powerful monster that would make a great addition to anyone's team. You'll also have a chance of finding a Shiny Beldum during the event.
There's an added benefit to capturing as many featured Pokemon as you can. Typically, if you manage to evolve the monster into its final form before the event ends, it will learn a move it normally isn't able to. Such is the case with this month's Community Day; if you evolve Beldum into Metang and then Metagross during the event hours, it'll learn the powerful attack Meteor Mash.
Any Metang that evolves during the event will learn the move, even if you've obtained it before the Community Day began. However, it will only be able to learn the move if it evolves during the event, which means you'll have a fairly brief window of opportunity to get the attack. Fortunately, this time Niantic is giving players one extra hour after the Community Day ends to evolve Metang and learn Meteor Mash, so you'll have a little more time than usual to get it.
What Time Does It Start?
Unlike most of Pokemon Go's other real-world events, which are typically hosted at a particular location, each month's Community Day takes place during a specific window of time, meaning you can participate from anywhere. The event is also available around the world, although its hours will vary depending on your region.
Regardless of where you live, the Community Day runs for three hours, during which time you'll find increased spawns of the featured Pokemon and be able to take advantage of the featured bonuses. These hours are typically consistent each month, so if you've participated in previous events, you'll already know when it'll be available. If you're new to the game or simply need a refresher on its schedule, you can see the event hours for each region below.
North America
11 AM - 2 PM PT
2 PM - 5 PM ET
Europe, Middle East, and Africa
11 AM - 2 PM BST
10 AM - 1 PM UTC
Asia-Pacific
12 PM - 3 PM JST
What Other Bonuses Are There?
On top of increased spawns of a particular Pokemon, Niantic always offers players a helpful bonus to take advantage of during the Community Day. This time, Pokemon Eggs will hatch at a quarter of the distance they typically require, meaning you'll be able to hatch Pokemon four times as fast while the event is running. There's also one recurring bonus in each Community Day: any Lure modules that are used during the event will remain active for three hours, rather than their typical 30-minute duration.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 10-20-2018, 03:36 AM - Forum: Windows
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Microsoft’s anti-hacking efforts make it an internet cop
Intentionally or not, Microsoft has emerged as a kind of internet cop by devoting considerable resources to thwarting Russian hackers.
The company’s announcement Tuesday that it had identified and forced the removal of fake internet domains mimicking conservative U.S. political institutions triggered alarm on Capitol Hill and led Russian officials to accuse the company of participating in an anti-Russian “witch hunt.”
Microsoft stands virtually alone among tech companies with an aggressive approach that uses U.S. courts to fight computer fraud and seize hacked websites back. In the process, it has acted more like a government detective than a global software giant.
In the case this week, the company did not just accidentally stumble onto a couple of harmless spoof websites. It seized the latest beachhead in an ongoing struggle against Russian hackers who meddled in the 2016 presidential election and a broader, decade-long legal fight to protect Microsoft customers from cybercrime.
“What we’re seeing in the last couple of months appears to be an uptick in activity,” Brad Smith, Microsoft’s president and chief legal officer, said in an interview this week. Microsoft says it caught these particular sites early and that there’s no evidence they were used in hacking.
Republicans and Democratic lawmakers react to Microsoft findings saying a group tied to the Russian government created fake websites to spoof two American conservative organizations., and the U.S. Senate website. (Aug. 21)
The Redmond, Washington, company sued the hacking group best known as Fancy Bear in August 2016, saying it was breaking into Microsoft accounts and computer networks and stealing highly sensitive information from customers. The group, Microsoft said, would send “spear-phishing” emails that linked to realistic-looking fake websites in hopes targeted victims — including political and military figures — would click and betray their credentials.
The effort is not just a question of fighting computer fraud but of protecting trademarks and copyright, the company argues.
One email introduced as court evidence in 2016 showed a photo of a mushroom cloud and a link to an article about how Russia-U.S. tensions could trigger World War III. Clicking on the link might expose a user’s computer to infection, hidden spyware or data theft.
An indictment from U.S. special counsel Robert Mueller has tied Fancy Bear to Russia’s main intelligence agency, known as the GRU, and to the 2016 email hacking of both the Democratic National Committee and Democrat Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.
Some security experts were skeptical about the publicity surrounding Microsoft’s announcement, worried that it was an overblown reaction to routine surveillance of political organizations — potential cyberespionage honey pots— that never rose to the level of an actual hack.
The company also used its discovery as an opportunity to announce its new free security service to protect U.S. candidates, campaigns and political organizations ahead of the midterm elections.
But Maurice Turner, a senior technologist at the industry-backed Center for Democracy and Technology, said Microsoft is wholly justified in its approach to identifying and publicizing online dangers.
“Microsoft is really setting the standards with how public and how detailed they are with reporting out their actions,” Turner said.
Companies including Microsoft, Google and Amazon are uniquely positioned to do this because their infrastructure and customers are affected. Turner said they “are defending their own hardware and their own software and to some extent defending their own customers.”
Turner said he has not seen anyone in the industry as “out in front and open about” these issues as Microsoft.
As industry leaders, Microsoft’s Windows operating systems had long been prime targets for viruses when in 2008 the company formed its Digital Crimes Unit, an international team of attorneys, investigators and data scientists. The unit became known earlier in this decade for taking down botnets, collections of compromised computers used as tools for financial crimes and denial-of-service attacks that overwhelm their targets with junk data.
Richard Boscovich, a former federal prosecutor and a senior attorney in Microsoft’s digital crimes unit, testified to the Senate in 2014 about how Microsoft used civil litigation as a tactic. Boscovich is also involved in the fight against Fancy Bear, which Microsoft calls Strontium, according to court filings.
To attack botnets, Microsoft would take its fight to courts, suing on the basis of the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and other laws and asking judges for permission to sever the networks’ command-and-control structures.
“Once the court grants permission and Microsoft severs the connection between a cybercriminal and an infected computer, traffic generated by infected computers is either disabled or routed to domains controlled by Microsoft,” Boscovich said in 2014.
He said the process of taking over the accounts, known as “sinkholing,” enabled Microsoft to collect valuable evidence and intelligence used to assist victims.
In the latest action against Fancy Bear, a court order filed Monday allowed Microsoft to seize six new domains, which the company said were either registered or used at some point after April 20.
Smith said this week the company is still investigating how the newly discovered domains might have been used.
A security firm, Trend Micro, identified some of the same fake domains earlier this year. They mimicked U.S. Senate websites, while using standard Microsoft log-in graphics that made them appear legitimate, said Mark Nunnikhoven, Trend Micro’s vice president of cloud research.
Microsoft has good reason to take them down, Nunnikhoven said, because they can hurt its brand reputation. But the efforts also fit into a broader tech industry mission to make the internet safer.
“If consumers are not comfortable and don’t feel safe using digital products,” they will be less likely to use them, Nunnikhoven said.
___
Associated Press Technology Writer Frank Bajak in Boston contributed to this report.
Get NBA 2K19 Cheap--But Hurry (Xbox One, PS4, Nintendo Switch, PC)
The new season of NBA basketball kicks off today, October 16, and to celebrate, 2K has dropped the price of NBA 2K19 on all platforms down to $40. That's a pretty great discount for a game that launched just last month. So whether you prefer playing games on PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, or PC, you can take advantage of this deal.
NBA 2K19 is this year's installment of the annual basketball sim series. As with most years, it continues to bring considerable depth to its many modes. MyCareer mode is once again the game's centerpiece. It has you create a player from scratch and fill out his skills and abilities as you progress through an eventful narrative that's filled with twists and turns. Once you complete the campaign, you can continue honing your player in pick-up street matches and through full NBA seasons. Other modes include MyGM, which lets you manage a team, and the collectible card game MyTeam.
GameSpot gave the game 7 out of 10 in our NBA 2K19 review. "It's impressive that the game of basketball has translated to controllers and screens in the way it has. If you want to immerse yourself in the sport and culture, NBA 2K19 has you covered with a breadth of content," Michael Higham wrote.
The only real drawback is one fans of last year's installment also complained about (though it's not as bad this year): virtual currency. "At the end of the day, virtual currency (VC) rules everything around NBA 2K19--VC is used to upgrade stats, buy cosmetics, and purchase boost cards that provide a temporary ratings bump. Despite a slight shift towards rewarding those who grind for VC compared to 2K18, the system still feels as if it prefers you engage in microtransactions and buy VC with real money."
If you want to add NBA 2K19 to your collection, you can get it for $40 at the links below. It's unclear how long the price will remain discounted at some of the retailers, so your best bet is to hop on this deal fast.
Back in 2001, a new operating system arrived that promised to change the way users worked with their computers. That platform was BeOS and I remember it well. What I remember most about it was the desktop, and how much it looked and felt like my favorite window manager (at the time) AfterStep. I also remember how awkward and overly complicated BeOS was to install and use. In fact, upon installation, it was never all too clear how to make the platform function well enough to use on a daily basis. That was fine, however, because BeOS seemed to live in a perpetual state of “alpha release.”
That was then. This is very much now.
Now we have haiku
Bringing BeOS to life
An AfterStep joy.
No, Haiku has nothing to do with AfterStep, but it fit perfectly with the haiku meter, so work with me.
The Haiku project released it’s R1 Alpha 4 six years ago. Back in September of 2018, it finally released it’s R1 Beta 1 and although it took them eons (in computer time), seeing Haiku installed (on a virtual machine) was worth the wait … even if only for the nostalgia aspect. The big difference between R1 Beta 1 and R1 Alpha 4 (and BeOS, for that matter), is that Haiku now works like a real operating system. It’s lighting fast (and I do mean fast), it finally enjoys a modicum of stability, and has a handful of useful apps. Before you get too excited, you’re not going to install Haiku and immediately become productive. In fact, the list of available apps is quite limiting (more on this later). Even so, Haiku is definitely worth installing, even if only to see how far the project has come.
Speaking of which, let’s do just that.
Installing Haiku
The installation isn’t quite as point and click as the standard Linux distribution. That doesn’t mean it’s a challenge. It’s not; in fact, the installation is handled completely through a GUI, so you won’t have to even touch the command line.
To install Haiku, you must first download an image. Download this file into your ~/Downloads directory. This image will be in a compressed format, so once it’s downloaded you’ll need to decompress it. Open a terminal window and issue the command unzip ~/Downloads/haiku*.zip. A new directory will be created, called haiku-r1beta1XXX-anyboot (Where XXX is the architecture for your hardware). Inside that directory you’ll find the ISO image to be used for installation.
For my purposes, I installed Haiku as a VirtualBox virtual machine. I highly recommend going the same route, as you don’t want to have to worry about hardware detection. Creating Haiku as a virtual machine doesn’t require any special setup (beyond the standard). Once the live image has booted, you’ll be asked if you want to run the installer or boot directly to the desktop (Figure 1). Click Run Installer to begin the process.
The next window is nothing more than a warning that Haiku is beta software and informing you that the installer will make the Haiku partition bootable, but doesn’t integrate with your existing boot menu (in other words, it will not set up dual booting). In this window, click the Continue button.
You will then be warned that no partitions have been found. Click the OK button, so you can create a partition table. In the remaining window (Figure 2), click the Set up partitions button.
In the resulting window (Figure 3), select the partition to be used and then click Disk > Initialize > GUID Partition Map. You will be prompted to click Continue and then Write Changes.
Select the newly initialized partition and then click Partition > Format > Be File System. When prompted, click Continue. In the resulting window, leave everything default and click Initialize and then click Write changes.
Close the DriveSetup window (click the square in the titlebar) to return to the Haiku Installer. You should now be able to select the newly formatted partition in the Onto drop-down (Figure 4).
After selecting the partition, click Begin and the installation will start. Don’t blink, as the entire installation takes less than 30 seconds. You read that correctly—the installation of Haiku takes less than 30 seconds. When it finishes, click Restart to boot your newly installed Haiku OS.
Usage
When Haiku boots, it’ll go directly to the desktop. There is no login screen (or even the means to log in). You’ll be greeted with a very simple desktop that includes a few clickable icons and what is called the Tracker(Figure 5).
The Tracker includes any minimized application and a desktop menu that gives you access to all of the installed applications. Left click on the leaf icon in the Tracker to reveal the desktop menu (Figure 6).
From within the menu, click Applications and you’ll see all the available tools. In that menu you’ll find the likes of:
ActivityMonitor (Track system resources)
BePDF (PDF reader)
CodyCam (allows you to take pictures from a webcam)
DeskCalc (calculator)
Expander (unpack common archives)
HaikuDepot (app store)
Mail (email client)
MediaPlay (play audio files)
People (contact database)
PoorMan (simple web server)
SoftwareUpdater (update Haiku software)
StyledEdit (text editor)
Terminal (terminal emulator)
WebPositive (web browser)
You will find, in the HaikuDepot, a limited number of available applications. What you won’t find are many productivity tools. Missing are office suites, image editors, and more. What we have with this beta version of Haiku is not a replacement for your desktop, but a view into the work the developers have put into giving the now-defunct BoOS new life. Chances are you won’t spend too much time with Haiku, beyond kicking the tires. However, this blast from the past is certainly worth checking out.
A positive step forward
Based on my experience with BeOS and the alpha of Haiku (all those years ago), the developers have taken a big, positive step forward. Hopefully, the next beta release won’t take as long and we might even see a final release in the coming years. Although Haiku won’t challenge the likes of Ubuntu, Mint, Arch, or Elementary OS, it could develop its own niche following. No matter its future, it’s good to see something new from the developers. Bravo to Haiku.
Emerge from the depths a crumbling kingdom and to the challenge of defeating increasingly difficult demonic bosses. Choose aspects of yourself to weaken before defeating the avatars of Sin.
Sega Pocket Club Manager brings the long-running Japanese Let’s Make a Professional Soccer Club series to mobile devices for the first time. The game describes itself as a casual football role-playing game but, in truth, it doesn’t stray too far from the traditional sports management sim template. This is hardly surprising when you realise that the Football Manager engine powers the game. This also means that there is certainly a lot more going on behind the scenes than the bright and breezy presentation would initially have you believe.
Everything that you would expect from a football management game is present and correct, from setting up your team to developing your stadium. The way that the game drip-feeds new features as the first season progresses, ensures that players new to the sports management genre will not be overwhelmed. There is a rather ingenious combo system, which means that choosing a formation and style and then slotting players with suitable skills into the appropriate position will trigger performance bonuses. It’s a system that works really well and will have you jiggling your formations and players in order to get the best bonus. A player’s affinity to play well in different positions is shown by a simple colour coded system, which makes team selection straightforward. There is also an option to switch on automatic team selection, with the focus either on player levels or team combos.
A player’s level is initially capped at level 30. You can increase this level cap by giving a player some special training as long as you have the appropriate training regime items. Once a player reaches level 50 the only way to improve their abilities further is to promote them by increasing their star rating, this also requires some hard-to-acquire items. Special training and player promotion may give players the opportunity to learn new skills, but it also causes them to reset to level one, which does feel rather harsh, not to mention unrealistic. The best way around this is to send the player abroad for some intensive training.
The real jewel in the crown is Sega Pocket Club Manager’s eye-catching graphical depiction of matches. The easily recognisable big-headed chibi-style players are a real delight. Their dynamic animations and spectacular goals will have you glued to the screen. Every time a player’s special skill triggers, the effect is obvious and immensely satisfying. Admittedly, there are a lot of games to get through and the novelty eventually wears a bit thin. In which case you can elect to watch just the highlights or switch to an overhead quick view mode. However, for those crucial matches, there is nothing better than watching the match in its entirety, throwing up your arms in exasperation as a pass goes astray, or indulging in your very own match celebration when your team slots home a last-minute winner.
Unfortunately, all of this positivity is somewhat tainted by the unnecessarily complicated use of a plethora of game currencies. Things start off reasonably enough with the two chief currencies being club funds and golden balls. Club funds are chiefly earned through sponsorship and ticket sales and can be used to purchase new players, items and stadium developments. Golden balls are awarded for achievements or can be brought in bulk by spending real money. Their main use is to purchase premier scout packs, which improves your chances of scouting new highly skilled players. Otherwise, you will be stuck with your standard scout, who is fine initially, but will not cut the mustard as you rise through the ranks. Whilst we are looking at spending real cash I should mention the passes. Some of these represent a significant investment, ranging in price from £7.99 to £23.99. In addition to providing a steady stream of golden balls, these passes make your progress easier by boosting experience or match income by 50%.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t stop there, as even more currencies are available. Coins are awarded as a consolation prize when your premium scout finds duplicate players. These coins can be put towards the cost of special star players. There are rings, which help with special training and player promotion; these are earned by competing against other player-controlled teams in arena matches. Then there are the mysterious AP and BP points, which put time constraints on how many arena and league matches you can play before they refresh.
I found that during my first full season I was able to win the division with relative ease without spending a penny. After this, the chief barrier to progress is going to be amassing enough golden balls to employ a premier scout or having the club funds available to acquire decent players. The passes offer a big advantage but don’t feel essential.
Sega Pocket Club Manager has a different feel to western style football management games. Japanese sensibilities ensure that players apologise for being booked or even injured. The game doesn’t adhere to typical structures; one season you may be competing in Europe and the next in Africa. Or, you may find your team breaking off from a league campaign to take part in a mini cup competition. The game lacks the licensing agreements of bigger rivals, but although team names have changed, the FIFPro and Japanese National Player Licenses means that there will still be plenty of familiar faces. Overall, everything feels upbeat and positive compared to more serious games where the fans are miserable, the players arguing and the board constantly on the verge of giving you your marching orders.
Sega Pocket Club Manager certainly has a lot to admire, inevitably marred by the convoluted currency system. Some will miss the finer details and omnipotent control of more complex simulations. Yet, if you want a management game that doesn’t take itself too seriously, but still has enough depth to remaining interesting, then this is certainly worth trying. Even if you hate the idea of buying success rather than earning it I would still recommend trying the game for a season or two.
Take Our Cloud Providers Survey and Enter to Win a Maker Kit
Today’s most dynamic and innovative FOSS projects boast significant involvement by well-known cloud service and solution providers. We are launching a survey to better understand the perception of these solution providers by people engaging in open source communities.
Visible participation and application of corporate resources has been one of the key drivers of the success of open source software. However, some companies still face challenges:
Code consumption with minimal participation in leveraged projects, impacting ability to influence project direction
Hiring FOSS maintainers without a strategy or larger commitment to open source, impacting the ability to retain FOSS developers long-term
Compliance missteps and not adhering to FOSS license terms.
The experiences open source community members with different companies impact perception of those organizations among FOSS community participants. If companies want the trust of FOSS project participants, they must invest in building strategies, engaging communities, project participation and license compliance.
Cloud Solutions Providers FOSS Survey
The Linux Foundation has been commissioned to survey FOSS developers and users about their opinions, perceptions, and experiences with 6 top cloud solution and service providers that deploy open source software. The survey examines respondents’ views of reputation, levels of project engagement, contribution, community citizenship and project sponsorship by six major cloud product and services providers.
By completing this survey, you will be eligible for a drawing for one of ten Maker Hardware kits, complete with case, cables, power supply, and other accessories. The survey will remain open until 12 a.m. EST on November 18, 2018.
At the end of survey period, The Linux Foundation (LF) will randomly choose ten (10) respondents to receive a Maker hardware kit (“prize”).
Participants are only eligible to win one prize for this drawing and after winning a first prize will not be entered into any additional prize drawings for this promotion.
You must be 18 years or older to participate. Employees, vendors and contractors of The Linux Foundation and their families are not eligible, but LF project participants and employees of member companies are encouraged to complete the survey and enter the drawing
To enter the drawing, you must only complete the contact info (name, email, etc.). Completing the contact info will constitute an “entry”. Any participant submitting multiple entries may be disqualified without notice. The Linux Foundation reserves the right to disqualify any participants if for any reason inaccurate or incomplete information is suspected.
There is no cash equivalent and no person other than the winning person may take delivery of the prize(s). The prize may not be exchanged for cash.
The deadline for participation in the drawing is open until 12 a.m. EST on December 10, 2018. Any participants completing a survey after the deadline will not be entered into the drawing. The survey may remain open to participate beyond the drawing deadline.
Entries will be pooled together and a winner will be randomly selected. The winner will be notified via email. The winner’s name, city, and state of residence will be directly contacted and may be posted on our respective social media/marketing outlets (Linux.com, Twitter, Facebook, Google+, etc.). Winners have 30 days to respond to our contact or a new drawing for the prize will be made.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 10-19-2018, 05:05 AM - Forum: Lounge
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Video: The narrative design of Reigns: Her Majesty
In the sequel to popular mobile kingdom management swipe-em-up Reigns, the team wanted to push past “Yass Queen” and “go girl!” for Reigns: Her Majesty. So how did they go about tackling that challenge?
In this GDC 2018 talk, writer Leigh Alexander (and former Gamasutra editor) shares her narrative design process around the tricky political tightrope of women’s power, especially when it has to be both violent and funny.
In addition to this presentation, the GDC Vault and its accompanying YouTube channel offers numerous other free videos, audio recordings, and slides from many of the recent Game Developers Conference events, and the service offers even more members-only content for GDC Vault subscribers.
Those who purchased All Access passes to recent events like GDC or VRDC already have full access to GDC Vault, and interested parties can apply for the individual subscription via a GDC Vault subscription page. Group subscriptions are also available: game-related schools and development studios who sign up for GDC Vault Studio Subscriptions can receive access for their entire office or company by contacting staff via the GDC Vault group subscription page. Finally, current subscribers with access issues can contact GDC Vault technical support.
Gamasutra and GDC are sibling organizations under parent UBM Americas.
A sci-fi colony sim driven by an intelligent AI storyteller. Inspired by Dwarf Fortress and Firefly. Generates stories by simulating psychology, ecology, gunplay, melee combat, climate, biomes, diplomacy, interpersonal relationships, art, medicine, trade, and more.
