Posted by: xSicKxBot - 07-14-2018, 02:35 AM - Forum: Lounge
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This Week At Bungie – 07/12/2018
This week at Bungie, Lord Saladin is ornamenting the Guardians again.
Iron Banner is back, and not even for the last time in Season 3. There are matches to be won, ranks to earn, and rewards to collect. This is also your one and only chance to enjoy some 6v6 combat in the Destiny 2 Crucible – for one more week, at least.
Update 1.2.3 lands on Tuesday. With it, Quickplay will evolve to become a 6v6 engagement. Between now and then, our old friend the Iron Lord is the only one with the hookup.
That’s great, Bungie, but what about us solo players?
Rumble is also coming back in Update 1.2.3!
What about those of us who aren’t Crucible warriors, Bungie?
We have other news to report for those of you who prefer to focus your fire on the enemies of humanity.
Let’s dig in and take a look at everything in our immediate future.
Bountiful Harvest
When you light out into the wild in search of action and adventure, the fighting is all the sweeter when you have more ways to reap the rewards. In Update 1.2.3, we’re expanding on that experience with new bounties for Destiny 2. Senior Design Lead Tyson Green, who some suspect is actually the Cryptarch in his spare time, has some thoughts on what we want to accomplish with this addition to the player experience.
Tyson: With the original launch of Destiny, bounties provided a set of daily objectives that players could use to advance faction reputation or earn XP to level up their gear. These were removed to streamline the activity experience in Destiny 2 and reduce the number of “chores” that players felt compelled to complete every day. In retrospect, we realized that was an over-correction, and optional daily objectives to achieve specific goals are something we want to restore.
The bounties returning to Destiny 2 in Update 1.2.3 are a return to most of the properties of bounties in The Taken King. They will be obtained from a variety of vendors, they will generally award XP and faction reputation (though some will offer even better rewards), and can be redeemed “in the field” to immediately claim your rewards. In Forsaken, you may also see some bounties drop in the wild.
There are two new mechanics. Bounties will expire if left uncompleted, and acquiring them will cost a small amount of Glimmer. We wanted to avoid the “grab every bounty you see until your inventory is packed and sort them out later” experience without constraining players to the tiny inventory they found in previous iterations of the game.
In Forsaken, more vendors will have more bounties on offer, and some will provide Legendary (or better) rewards for completing them.
It’s fair to observe that we didn’t answer every question you might ask about the return of bounties. What would be the fun in that? You’ll discover exactly how they work and where you can find them next week, and in all the weeks that will follow.
For the Kids
At the time of this posting, one storm is dissipating online while another one gathers in real life. The GuardianCon fundraising stream is over, with millions of dollars raised for charity. Once again, we are left stunned by the passion and goodwill exhibited by the community. Congratulations to everyone who pitched in and ran their leg of the marathon.
Tomorrow, the after party begins inside the Tampa Convention Center, and the celebration is shaping up to be thunderous. We’ll be on hand to commit all challengers to teams of four to battle each other in Gambit. This is your final blog reminder that we’re also hosting an epic clash of content creators you may know on their mainstage.
Gambit Exhibition Tournament
July 13, 6 p.m. EDT
At this very moment, our away team is building our booth. They’re hanging the art, building the network, and arranging all the velvet ropes. If you’re in attendance, they can’t wait to meet you.
Breaking News
Are you current with all the Forsaken field intel that Game Informer has been serving up?
SUPERS!
FLASHPOINTS!
TANGLED SHORE!
EXOTICS!
In today’s Destiny 2: Forsaken feature, we take a look at the Exotic Auto Rifle Cerberus +1, which harnesses the power of Contra’s Spread Gun (and four separate barrels) to deliver devastating damage in seconds. https://t.co/guj5sqozqYpic.twitter.com/uUQbO3JuAJ
Keep an eye on ’em. They’re not done showing off what awaits you this September.
Coming Attractions
Update 1.2.3 will deploy on Tuesday, July 17. Destiny Player Support will have more information concerning deployment times and download sizes here, but we have a quick preview of what to expect next week:
Misc Quality of Life Changes
PC Clan Chat: Adds a new in-game text chat channel that allows online Destiny 2 clan members to communicate.
Once all Mercury Forge weapons have been obtained, they become available for direct purchase from Brother Vance in the Lighthouse (on the second vendor page).
Removed momentum from Heroic Adventures.
The Pursuits inventory bucket has been moved to the top of the inventory categories.
Commas have been added to large numbers as separators on the IGCR and PGCR.
Exotic Armor Fixes
Fixed an issue that was causing targets marked by Sanguine Alchemy to produce orbs when defeated.
Fixed an issue that caused Starfire Protocol to not work with Dawnblade’s Attunement of Sky ability path.
Fixed an issue that prevented Warlock melee attack damage when using the Ophidian Aspect Exotic and the Hive Swords or orb carry objects.
Additionally, some Heroic Strike Modifiers will be given slight adjustments in response to player feedback. Test Engineer Drew Martineau has a quick round of developer commentary on the goal of these changes:
Hey all,
Since the release of Update 1.1.3, we’ve been collecting player feedback concerning Heroic strike modifiers. On Tuesday, three of the more punishing modifiers will receive some adjustments. Ultimately, we want your Power, stats, and armor modifications to matter, and we realized that our debuff modifiers were a little too powerful to allow players to see their impact. Here’s what you can expect:
Blackout: We wanted to ensure that enemy melees are threatening, but this shouldn’t dismiss a player’s Power progression or the stats they chose to invest in with their armor. As such, this modifier is changing somewhat: it still increases enemy melee damage significantly, but it’s now no longer a guarantee of players being defeated by a single melee from many enemies. Be careful, though! If you’re not at the recommended Power for the Heroic Strikes playlist, your enemies will be more powerful and pack a harder punch.
Grounded: There are many times players are considered “airborne” when they’re not actually jumping. To account for that, we are reducing the damage threshold so players aren’t punished for things outside of their control. Additionally, we’re looking to prevent players from falling to their demise from a height of 2 meters, just as they happen to land on a rock or some other small object.
Glass: This modifier reduces a Guardian’s shields and health while increasing recovery. We slightly reduced the impact of this modifier to better enable players to see the effects of their overall Power progression over time.
Stay tuned to bungie.net next week for the full patch notes, expected to become available at 9 a.m. PDT on Tuesday, July 17, 2018.
Matrix Reloaded
Over the past few months, we’ve been testing a new feature called the Prismatic Matrix. When we first announced this new reward system, we stated our goals for the experiment:
Give players more control over how they earn Eververse items
Offer a more predictable path each week that guarantees access to specific items
Drop fewer duplicate items
This week, the user interface calls specific attention to the limited time of the feature. To explain our previous objectives and future plans, here are some thoughts from the design team:
The original intent of the Prismatic Matrix was for it to be a special event—something to help players round out their collections, as the odds of earning the items that were eluding them improved as they continued to earn Bright Engrams. We had a limited number of weeks scheduled, designed to keep repetition to a minimum. That schedule of curated offerings is coming to an end, so the feature will be going on temporary hiatus starting next week. Thanks to some good feedback about this new feature, we’ve learned how we can make it better, so we’ll continue to support it in Forsaken. We look forward to your continued feedback and are excited to relaunch the Prismatic Matrix in the next season of Destiny 2.
There will be more on this topic soon. Before the launch in September, we’ll update this conversation with a full preview for how the Eververse Trading Company will be evolving to better serve you.
The Player Support Report
Community management involves a lot more than going to conventions and posing for pictures. Serving the Guardians is a team effort, and some of us are more tactical than others. The specialists on the Player Support Team are experts on how the game evolves over time.
This is their report.
Moments of Triumph
On July 7, we launched Moments of Triumph on Bungie.net and the Destiny Companion. Destiny 2 players can now track their Triumphs online before they go live in-game with the Solstice of Heroes live event. The following is vital information that players should be aware of for Moments of Triumph:
Progress toward Triumphs and event rewards may be lost if players delete any characters on their account. For the best experience, it is recommended that players do not delete any characters until all desired rewards have been redeemed and Solstice of Heroes concludes on August 28, 2018.
Players will not be able to redeem completed Triumphs for points or rewards until Solstice of Heroes goes live in Destiny 2 on July 31, 2018.
Starting Lines for World First
Next Tuesday, July 17, at 10 a.m. PDT, Destiny 2 Update 1.2.3 will become available to players. To allow players to download and install this update and prepare for the launch of Prestige raid lairs, “Leviathan, Eater of Worlds” and “Leviathan, Spire of Stars” will be temporarily disabled. These activities will become available for players to compete for World First at the following times:
“Leviathan, Eater of Worlds” Prestige, 11 a.m. PDT on July 17
“Leviathan, Spire of Stars” Prestige, 10 a.m. PDT on July 18
Last week, we conducted the Destiny 2 free trial weekend on Battle.net. While players who participated can choose to keep Destiny 2 installed on their PC for use in future free trial weekends, they will receive SAXOPHONE errors if they do not own Destiny 2 when they attempt to launch the game outside of promotional periods.
For more information regarding trial access, players should visit our Destiny 2 Trial help article.
Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
People ask us a lot of questions about how we choose these weekly honors. The hunt begins when we look at our Creations page for entries. The #MOTW tag helps us know you’re submitting for competition. From there, we pick something that catches our eye. With the usual judges hosting sweaties in Tampa (Florida is so hot right now), I thought I’d assemble an alternate panel that includes some of my favorite community artists. Since each them leveraged their artistic expertise to lend a hand in celebrating excellence in multimedia, there are no points for second place.
Get ready to thank the academy. Here are your Movies of the Week.
Congratulations to all the winners. Please hold until next week before you start to ask dmg04 and Cozmo when you can expect to find your prize emblems. In my infinite wisdom, I put them on the road, and I never learned how to do that thing.
When your rightful community managers are back in the saddle, there will be patch notes and deployment status updates and all the hard work that gets done by the real heroes. It’s been my pleasure to return to my roots while they put on their show. Hope I wasn’t overly verbose. Old habits die harder than raid bosses.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 07-14-2018, 02:35 AM - Forum: Windows
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Dell debuts ‘world’s most powerful 1U rack workstation’
Dell delivers compact solutions that pack a punch, including a 1U rack workstation and towers starting at $649.
Companies of all sizes and budgets looking for powerful, affordable, compact industry-leading workstations now have new choices for their needs from Dell, including the world’s most powerful 1U rack workstation.¹
The Dell Precision 3930 Rack delivers powerful performance in a compact industrial footprint. Its 1U rack height delivers better rack density and extended operating temperatures, while features such as its short depth, dust filters, and legacy ports allow it to integrate seamlessly into complex medical imaging and industrial automation solutions.
Other features include:
The rack workstation provides up to 64 GB of 2666MHz DDR4 memory thanks to the introduction of Intel Xeon E processors and an 8th Generation Intel Core CPU.
The Intel Xeon E processor supports Error Correcting Code (ECC) for increased reliability.
The rack workstation offers best-in-class workstation performance and provides the flexibility of up to 250W of doublewide GPUs, and scalability with up to 24 TB of storage.
With 3 PCIe slots, including an optional PCI slot, this workstation can tackle complex tasks with ease.
A range of NVIDIA Quadro professional GPUs are available. With the Quadro P6000, users benefit from 24GB of GDDR5X and powerful ultra-high-end graphics performance.
In addition, customers have the option to choose AMD Radeon Pro graphics.
If your company is looking for versatile, secure, and fast remote 1:1 user access, you can add optional Teradici PCOIP technology. The rack workstation effortlessly integrates into the datacenter, which helps reduce clutter at your desk.
A smaller footprint that doesn’t skimp on performance
Going small can lead to big things, so Dell has built these new entry-level workstations to fuel the future of innovation across engineering design, science, mathematics, and other data- and graphics-intensive fields. Running a highly powerful machine no longer requires having a large work space or a large budget, making this level of performance available to many companies and workers for the first time.
“Customers across Engineering & Manufacturing, Media & Entertainment, and beyond have come to rely on Dell workstations to deliver the highest performing systems for their critical workload. But as we enter the next era of workstations, the conversation is accelerating to immersive workflows utilizing even smaller footprints. Dell is leading the way in this evolution with these new entry-level workstations designed to deliver the ultimate in performance with a substantially smaller footprint,” says Rahul Tikoo, vice president and general manager of Dell Precision. “When access to leading technology improves, innovation flourishes. Sometimes something as simple as a smaller form factor can unleash new ideas and capabilities that have the power to reshape an industry.”
The Dell Precision 3630 Tower is 23 percent smaller² than the previous generation with more expandability, so workers can get the precise solution they need regardless of workspace constraints. It features a range of easy-to-reach ports that make it possible to connect to external data sources, storage devices, and more. It offers scalable storage featuring SATA and PCIe NVMe SSDs, which can be configured for up to 14 TB with RAID support.
As workstation users often create intellectual property, Dell will also offer an optional Smart Card (CAC/PIV) reader to make secure data management easier.
If you’re interested in creating or enjoying VR experiences and other resource-intensive tasks, this workstation is a good choice, thanks to an 8th Generation Intel Core i and new professional-grade Xeon E processors with faster memory speeds up to 2666MHz 64 GB. It also offers up to 225W of NVIDIA Quadro and AMD Radeon Pro graphics support.
The new Dell Precision 3430 Small Form Factor Tower is a great fit for many workstation users, offering many of the same benefits as the Precision 3630, but in an even smaller form factor and up to 55W of graphics support. It’s also expandable with up to 6TB of storage with RAID support.
Dell also introduced support for Intel Core X–series processors in addition to the Intel Xeon W processor options already available on the Dell Precision 5820 Tower. These new processor options bring the enhanced performance and reliability of a workstation at a more affordable price point for customers.
Adding Intel Optane memory keeps responsiveness high and high-capacity storage costs lower on all these new Dell Precision 3000 series workstations. Customers can expect the same build quality and reliability of the Dell Precision line.
¹When equipped with Intel Xeon E-2186G processor, available 64GB of 2666MHz memory capacity, NVIDIA P6000 graphics and 2xM.2PCIe storage. Based on Dell internal analysis of competitive workstation products as of July 2018.
²Gen-over-Gen claim based on internal testing, July 2018.
Apple partners with Malala Fund on education for Brazilian girls
By Roger Fingas Friday, July 13, 2018, 01:02 pm PT (04:02 pm ET)
Apple on Friday announced a partnership between its Brazilian Developer Academies and the Malala Fund, which will launch projects intended to “empower girls, teachers and policymakers through skills development, school enrollment efforts and education advocacy.”
Students and alumni of the Developer Academies are being challenged to work with the Malala Fund, named after Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai, to create apps that “enhance education opportunities for girls,” Apple said. Yousafzai was invited to the company’s academy in Rio de Janeiro on Friday to meet students and explain the new initiative.
“Whether she wants to be a developer, a pilot, a dancer or a politician, education is the best path to a brighter future,” she said in a prepared statement. “By tapping into Apple’s network of student developers, Malala Fund will gain access to new tools to support our mission of free, safe, quality education. The students in Apple’s Developer Academy program share my passion for improving the world around us, and I am eager to see their innovative ideas to help girls in Brazil and across the globe.”
The company notes that it became the Malala Fund’s first Laureate partner in January, allowing the Fund to double the number of grants handed out by its Gulmakai Network, while also sponsoring new programs in India and Latin America. The goal was to extend secondary education to over 100,000 girls.
Under current CEO Tim Cook, Apple has become increasingly involved in both education initiatives and social causes. The former are often fairly self-serving, such as its Swift initiatives in schools. While the language does have other uses, and is relatively easy to learn, Swift is almost exclusively intended for iOS, macOS, tvOS, and watchOS.
Cook has championed causes in which the company has no direct financial incentive, such as gender and racial diversity in the workplace, and LGBT rights.
The Weekender: Oh Look Here’s Battleheart 2 Edition
Welcome to the Weekender, your weekly look at the best new games, sales, and updates. We’ve got a few new releases to go over and a whole lot of sales. Let’s get to it!
Out Now
Battleheart 2 (iOS Universal) – Full Review Coming Soon!
Battleheart was one of the first real-time strategy gems in the App Store, and remains a fun game, if a bit dated. It’s seven years later and Mika Mobile just released a sequel on iOS and…well, not much has changed. Battleheart 2 definitely took the if-it-ain’t-broke-don’t-fix-it approach and features the same real-time, squad-based combat of the original. While it is true Battleheart wasn’t broken, it definitely needed some freshening up. Unfortunately, there’s no advancement of game mechanics or a new, compelling story within which the action takes place. In fact, there’s not much of a story to speak of, and combat consists of cycling through a few repetitive fights until you’re ready to take on a boss. Once you beat him it’s off to a new area on the world map to rinse and repeat.
Combat that felt fresh seven years ago will leave many feeling a bit bored these days. Characters and enemies still sedately trot from place to place in Battleheart 2, which makes micro-managing four characters easier, but is far from the pace of today’s RTS titles. The graphics, sounds, and effects are also about the same as they were seven years ago in the original game, and while reusing some assets is certainly to be expected Battleheart 2 lacks the polish and pizazz of many of its contemporaries.
The biggest change in the sequel is supposed to be the inclusion of a cooperative multiplayer mode. Mika Mobile cites the ability to split your party among up to four players, each controlling their own hero. This sounds really cool and lots of ways to make use of this spring to mind, but I can’t figure out how it works. You pick a region and are asked to select a room name and once you’ve done that, nothing really happens. Maybe if two or more players enter the same room name something happens but I wasn’t able to test it and I shouldn’t have to guess as to how it works.
The bottom line is that Battleheart 2 is a new game with more of the same. This will appeal to many fans of the original, and there’s certainly something to be said for nostalgia, but for the rest of us there are better options out there.
Fighting Fantasy Legends Portal (iOS Universal and Android) – Full Review Coming Soon!
Fighting Fantasy Legends’ Portal brings three more books from the legendary writing duo Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone to mobile life. It covers the Deathtrap Dungeon trilogy—Deathtrap Dungeon, Trial of Champions, and Armies of Death—three adventures full of choices, tests of luck and skill, cards to collect, and of course combat. The gameplay is similar to the previous Fighting Fantasy Legends adventures by Nomad Games. You move through the adventure making decisions about which way to go and what to do at certain points.
There are a number of event locations throughout where you stop and draw a card from a deck full of monsters to fight, treasures to claim, traps to bypass, and other events. Fighting monsters and surviving traps and other trials are all dice dependent. You have a bunch of six-sided skill dice and luck dice. You start out with one success on each die and are able to improve them over time. When you’re faced with a challenge you have to get a certain number of successes out of your dice which varies based on difficulty. It’s a fun system but obviously prone to chance, both positive and negative, so keep that in mind if you’re not a fan of big luck swings. Fighting Fantasy Legends’ Portal is a lot of fun and Nomad Games has once again done a great job evoking the feel of the old-school books. If you’re a fan of those books, the first game, or the RPG/Adventure genre definitely check it out.
Nightmarium (iPad and Android) – Full Review Coming Soon!
Nightmarium is a tabletop game about bringing nightmares to life in the form of creepily combined monsters. You assemble head, torso, and legs from four different fearful genres and unleash them upon your foes. The first player to Frankenstein up five creatures of doom wins. The game is fast and simple to understand with some relatively simple tactics. It’s good for those easy-breezy gaming needs but won’t satisfy a hard-core strategizing itch. It also only offers pass-and-play multiplayer, no online action, so it’s more of a tabletop-game replacement at this point.
The App Store turned 10 years-old this week and Trism launched on its very first day. It became a star on the fledgling store with its bright colors, easy touch controls, and intuitive gameplay. It’s sequel, Trism II, launched this week into a vastly different App Store, one overflowing with puzzlers and games in general. It’s much tougher to stand out so Trism II introduces weird RPG/adventure-like wrapper with walking and talking triangle people, the trisms. You pick a hero and adventure through a world rescuing trisms and defeating bad guys through beating levels of the puzzle. The puzzle gameplay is a bit different as well, rather than sliding rows of the triangles you tap to add new ones to blank spaces and attempt to match up three adjacent same-colored triangles in order to remove them. I found the early game pretty easy and the adventure story a bit distracting, but then I prefer my puzzlers to be largely unhybridized. If you’re into puzzle/adventure mash ups Trism II may be right for you.
Warbands: Bushido is a digital collectable card and miniatures game with a look, feel, and play style that evokes tabletop miniature war gaming. It’s also free right now on iOS, though it does have in-app-purchases.
Hanseatic League trading sim Medieval Merchants has been around since 2013 and is hitting a mere $.99 for the first time ever. It’s only been on sale one other time, so act now if you’re interested!
Text-based adventure, turn-based combat…Dust and Salt just came out last May, looks quite intriguing, and is on sale for the first time for a mere $1. That’s probably worth checking out, right?
Old-school meta-RPG Knights of Pen & Paper is down to its lowest price in four years, just a buck.
Asmodee Digital Sale
A large selection of Asmodee Digital games are on sale this week. We’ve only linked to the iOS store below, but the discounts are also on Android as well.
Act as GM and coach and lead your favorite baseball team to success in MLB Manager 2018, on sale for the first time for $2.
The Quest Games
Classic role-playing game The Quest and the Islands of Ice and Fire expansion are both on sale. Check out our five-star review of The Quest and then get going with some old-school adventuring.
To pieces of news in one post! First off, today CopperCube 6 was just released. Second, it is now also available for free! If you are interested in learning more about this 3D game engine aimed at creating games with little to no programming, be sure to check out our CopperCube 5 hands-on video available here.
Of course, there has to be a catch… how are they going to make money to support continued development? Well, there are upgraded versions available:
So basically the Free tier lacks post processing effects, video playback and a command line interface while requiring a splash screen. The Studio version is the same as the pro version, except comes with the game client source code.
As to what is actually new in CopperCube 6, here is the feature list from the forum announcement:
– Post-Processing Effects – Full FBX import with Animation – New lighting system – Unified colors and lighting – DDS support – WebGL 2 support – Loading screen image – Multi Selection – WebGL automatic pointer lock – Freeze Scale command – Better Wireframe mode – Automatic DirectX installer – Scene Metrics tool – Nicer User Interface – More terrain generation options – Lots of performance improvements – Updated Lightmapper – Improved OpenGL renderer – Improved WebGL font rendering – Automatic clip prevention for FPS camera children – Preview of new D3D 11 renderer (alpha, not public yet) – and many more smaller new features
Full change log available here. CopperCube is already available for download on Steam, weighing in at just under 100mb. CopperCube is available on MacOS and Windows, sorry Linux users.
The Linux Foundation Transforms the Energy Industry with New Initiative: LF Energy
We are thrilled to introduce the new LF Energy initiative to support and promote open source in the energy and electricity sectors. LF Energy is focused on accelerating the energy transition, including the move to renewable energy, electric mobility, demand response and more.
Open source has transformed industries as vast and different as telecommunications, financial services, automobiles, healthcare, and consumer products. Now we are excited to bring the same level of open collaboration and shared innovation to the power systems industry.
We are also honored that several global, highly influential energy leaders and research institutions are supporting The Linux Foundation including RTE (Europe’s biggest transmission system provider), the European Network of Transmission System Operators, Vanderbilt University and The Electric Power Research Institute.
LF Energy is welcoming four new projects as part of the initiative, and we plan to host numerous information and communication technologies (ICT) that will advance everything from smart assistants for system operators to advanced grid controls, analytics, and planning software.
PS4's Free PS Plus Games Are Available For July 2018
We're now well into July 2018, and with a new month comes another batch of free titles for PlayStation Plus subscribers. As per usual, July's PS Plus lineup consists of six games divided up across PS4, PS3, and Vita, all of which are available to download at no charge through the end of the month.
Headlining PS4's selection of freebies is Heavy Rain, the narrative-driven game from Detroit: Become Human developer Quantic Dream. Heavy Rain originally launched for PS3 back in 2010 and was re-released on Sony's current-gen console in 2016. Joining it is Absolver, a unique and flexible third-person adventure/fighting game in which players can fully customize their fighting style.
On the PS3 side, Plus subscribers can now download the classic 3D platformer Rayman 3 HD, as well as Extreme Exorcism, a retro-style platformer in which players hunt their own ghosts. Extreme Exorcism is available in place of Deception IV: The Nightmare Princess, which was initially announced to be one of this month's free PS Plus titles. The game is also playable on PS4 via Cross-Buy.
Finally, Vita owners can download the acclaimed adventure game Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma and the action game Space Overlords for free this month. Like Extreme Exorcism, the latter also supports Cross-Buy with PS4, getting you four possible freebies on that platform in July.
All of the aforementioned games will remain free to download for PS Plus members until next month, when they'll return to their regular prices. You can see the full list of July's free PS Plus games below.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 07-13-2018, 11:41 AM - Forum: Lounge
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Marvel's Black Widow Movie Finally Has A Director
After searching for over half a year and meeting with more than 70 directors in order to find its ideal candidate, Marvel's standalone Black Widow movie has finally found its director, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Cate Shortland, the Australian director responsible for movies like 2004's Somersault and 2012's Lore, has signed on to direct Marvel’s action-adventure romp led by Scarlett Johansson.
According to the report, "A female filmmaker was the priority even as the search stalled at one point and the studio looked at male directors." However, the hunt for a director finally narrowed in June of this year, as the studio landed on three candidates: Amma Asante (A Way of Life, Belle), Maggie Betts (Engram, Novitiate), and the aforementioned winner, Cate Shortland. Two others were also up for consideration: Melanie Laurent (Inglourious Basterds, Enemy) and Kimberly Peirce (Boys Don't Cry, The L Word).
With the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the studio has said that it's finally moving forward with the Black Widow movie. Earlier in May, Marvel president Kevin Feige said, "I would say certainly the one creatively and emotionally that we are most committing to doing is Black Widow." He also called the character a "lead Avenger [that] has amazing stories in her own right to tell that we think would be fun to turn into a standalone franchise." Simultaneously, the studio found a screenwriter in Jac Schaeffer (TiMER, The Hustle). Though it's still unconfirmed and unannounced, Marvel's Black Widow is getting closer to becoming a reality.
Clear Linux Makes a Strong Case for Your Next Cloud Platform
There are so many Linux distributions available, some of which are all-purpose and some that have a more singular focus. Truth be told, you can take most general distributions and turn them into purpose-driven platforms. But, when it comes to things like cloud and IoT, most prefer distributions built with that specific use in mind. That’s where the likes of Clear Linux comes in. This particular flavor of Linux was designed for the cloud, and it lets you install either an incredibly bare OS or one with exactly what you need to start developing for cloud and/or IoT.
What is Clear Linux?
Clear Linux comes from Intel’s Open Source Technology Center, which focuses primarily on the cloud. With that in mind, it should come as no surprise that Clear Linux was designed specifically for the cloud while best leveraging Intel hardware. Because Clear Linux focuses primarily on Intel hardware, it can make best use of power management features and performance optimizations. Clear Linux also features:
FUSE file system debugging tool (for complete debug info)
Automatic feedback-directed optimizer
Function multi-versioning (to assist in developing platforms that can run anywhere)
Autoproxy (no need to manually configure proxies)
Telemetry (detect and respond to quality issues)
Mixer tool (for composing a specific use-case OS)
Software Update
Stateless (separates the OS configuration, per-system configuration, and VT user-data)
Supported hardware
Clear Linux can run on very minimal hardware (e.g., a single core CPU with 128MB of RAM and 600MB of storage). But it should be known (as you might already suspect), Clear Linux can only run on Intel 64-bit architecture and the hardware must support UEFI (otherwise it won’t boot). The following processor families have been verified to run Clear Linux:
2nd Generation, or later, Intel® Core™ processor family.
Intel® Xeon® Processor E3
Intel® Xeon® Processor E5
Intel® Xeon® Processor E7
Intel® Atom™ processor C2000 product family for servers – Q3 2013 version or later.
Intel® Atom™ processor E3800 series – Q4 2013 version or later.
Beyond Intel architecture, the minimum system requirements are:
I want to show you how to get Clear Linux up and running. I’ll be demonstrating on a VirtualBox VM. The installation isn’t terribly difficult, but there are certain things you need to know.
Installation
If you are going the route of VirtualBox virtual machine, create the VM as per normal, but you must enable EFI. To do this, open the Settings for the VM and click on the System tab. In this tab (Figure 1), click the checkbox for Enable EFI (special OSes only).
Once you have the VM setup, download the clear-23550-installer.iso.xz file. You will then need to uncompress the file with the command:
unxz clear-23550-installer.iso.xz
Once the file is uncompressed, you’ll see the clear-23550-installer.iso file. If you are going to use this as a virtual machine, you can attach that to the VM. If you’re installing on bare metal, burn that file to either a CD/DVD or USB flash drive as a bootable media. Boot the media or start the VirtualBox VM to be greeted by the text-based installer (Figure 2).
The installer is fairly straightforward. However, you do need to know that if you don’t go the Manual/Advanced route, you’ll wind up with a very bare system. Most of the questions asked during the installation are self explanatory. Just make sure when you reach the Choose Installation Type screen to select Manual (Figure 3).
If you go with the default (Automatic), you cannot select any additional packages. Chances are, you will want to go the Manual route (Figure 4).
Another task you are able to take care of in the Manual installation is the ability to create an admin user. If you don’t do that, the only user available is root. Of course, even if you go with the minimal installation, you can add users manually with the useradd command.
Post installation
After the installation completes, reboot and login. If you didn’t install the graphical environment (which probably will be the case, as this is geared toward the cloud), you might want to install more applications. This is done via bundles, using the swupd command. Say you want to run container applications with Docker. For this, you’d add the containers-basic bundle (for a list of all available bundles, see this page). To install the containers-basic bundle, the command is:
sudo swupd bundle-add containers-basic
After that command runs, you can now deploy container applications from Dockerhub. There are quite a large amount of bundles you can add. You can even install the GNOME desktop with the command:
sudo swupd bundle-add desktop-autostart
In fact, using bundles, you can pretty much define exactly how Clear Linux is going to function. Just remember, the base install is pretty empty, so you’ll want to go through the list of bundles and install everything you’ll need to make Clear Linux serve your specific purpose.
It should also be noted that the swupdcommand also takes care of the updating of bundles. This process is handled automatically. The autoupdate process can be enabled and disabled with the following two commands:
You can also force a manual update with the command:
sudo swupd update
Once you have everything installed and updated, you can start developing for the cloud and/or IoT; Clear Linux will serve you well in that regard.
Make it yours
If you want a cloud/IoT-specific Linux distribution that lets you build a distribution for a very specific need, Clear Linux might be just what you’re looking for. Give it a go for yourself.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 07-13-2018, 03:30 AM - Forum: Lounge
- No Replies
Best Pre-Amazon Prime Day 2018 Deals Available Now
Amazon's Prime Day doesn't start until July 16, but the online retailer is already offering a number of deals to spark interest and get people talking about the retail holiday. The only hitch is that, like the deals on Prime Day, you need to be an Amazon Prime member to get the sale prices. You can sign up for Prime here, with a free one-month trial for first-time subscribers. With that out of the way, let's look at what pre-Prime Day deals are available to Amazon Prime members right now.
Free PC Games
Amazon owns the streaming platform Twitch, and each month Amazon/Twitch Prime members get free PC games. The difference this month is that Prime Day is coming up. To celebrate, Twitch Prime members will get 21 free games in July, including Brutal Legend and Tacoma. You can find the full details here.
Amazon Echo owners know how convenient it is to ask Alexa to play a song or inquire what the weather will be like on a given day. The Echo Show is an Alexa-enabled device with one big difference--it has a screen. It can do everything a standard Echo can do (including playing Skyrim), while also allowing you to view Amazon Video content, see music lyrics, security cameras, photos, weather forecasts, to-do and shopping lists, and make video calls to others with an Echo Show.
Kindle Unlimited is Amazon's subscription service that offers unlimited access to over a million books. It also comes with a rotating selection of magazines and thousands of books with Audible narration. You can access all the Kindle Unlimited content on any device with the Kindle app. The service normally costs $30 for three months, but Prime members can get it now for just $1.
You can also enter to win a number of prizes without spending any money at all. The prizes include $50,000 in cash, a 2019 Lexus ES with Alexa, a trip for two to Seattle, and more. To enter, you can visit this page and click links to find out more about Amazon's offerings. Alternatively, if you have an Alexa-enabled device, you can ask the AI assistant a number of questions that count as entries as well. Questions like, "Alexa, what is the news?" and "Alexa, what is Prime Day?" qualify.
More deals are coming for Prime members in the lead-up to Prime Day. We'll continue covering the best deals, so be sure to check back later.
