Dani ♡

I always get ask for a picture of me so why not ♡

We reviewed a few touchscreen monitors in 2014 and thought at the time that they might catch on as a new category. With the proliferation of phones, tablets, phablets, and pseudo-desktops like the Surface, it seemed logical that users might want to add that functionality to their traditional workstations. Obviously that revolution didn’t happen, but the genre isn’t dead either. One of the monitors we looked at back then was Dell’s P2714T. That display is no longer available, but today we have a new product in the lab from the same company. The P2418HT is an IPS panel with 10-point touch and FHD resolution in a 24” size. Let’s take a look. Clearly, users are not clamoring for touchscreens on the desktop. But if Dell sees a market for a brand new monitor, we can’t ignore it. And commercial applications are still a major driving force behind the adoption of large touchscreens. The P2418HT is a fairly typical IPS panel with a 23.8” viewable area, a super thin bezel, and projected capacitive touch with 4096x4096 resolution. That should make it very attractive to artists and designers who need that fine control when drawing directly on the screen. 10-point touch means it supports gestures like swiping, pinch-to-zoom, and multi-finger/two-handed operation. As far as we can tell, it is not pressure-sensitive like the latest round of iOS products. Windows users can expect plug-and-play operation with versions 7, 8.1, and 10. We’ll be running the P2418HT through our usual battery of color and luminance tests along with some hands-on use connected to a Windows 8.1-equipped PC. Packaging, Physical Layout & Accessories Dell has now committed to foam-free packaging for all its newest monitors. Our sample arrived in a stout box that opens clamshell-style. The accessory tray contains an IEC power cord along with high-quality DisplayPort, USB 3.0, and VGA cables. You also get a quick start guide and a CD with supporting software. We didn’t have to install any drivers to enable the touch function with our PC. The stand and base must be assembled by bolting them together and clicking the result onto the panel. Cable management is accomplished with a snap-on input panel cover and a fabric sleeve that keeps everything neat and tidy. You’ll see in the photos below how well designed the stand is. It enables positions more suited to a display like this. Advertisement Product 360 From the front, the P2418HT looks like many other 24” monitors. Its styling is simple and elegant with a barely-visible bezel just 5mm wide. Across the bottom is a larger 11mm strip that contains a set of small, down-facing buttons for OSD navigation. The keys click with Dell’s familiar firm quality. The overall package is extremely solid and well built. Any desktop-based touchscreen needs a well-designed stand and Dell has met this goal easily. The upright hinges about one-third of the way up to allow the panel to go all the way down to the desk surface. It won’t quite go completely flat like NEC’s E232WMT, but it’s still a comfortable angle for drawing. You’ll note in the second photo above that the steepest angle can be maintained at multiple heights. The base is extremely heavy and works well at balancing both the weight and movement of the panel. You will have to make a concerted effort to knock the P2418HT over. Cable management is well thought out too. This is where Dell’s included cables come into play. They’re more flexible than most and can easily make the sharp bends required when using the snap-on input panel cover. Once the wires exit that small hole, you can wrap them up neatly with an included fabric sleeve and run them through the upright. This keeps everything out of the way when operating the stand. We found no hiccups when moving our sample around. The input panel contains one each of DisplayPort, HDMI, and VGA inputs. There are no built-in speakers, but there is a 3.5mm analog output for either headphones or powered speakers. Dell offers a small soundbar, at additional cost, that attaches to the bottom of the panel if you want an integrated look. The USB hub supports version 3.0 with an upstream and two downstream ports. Two additional outputs are version 2.0. One of these supports charging while the P2418HT is in standby mode.

How often do you install a clean version of a Windows operating system either for yourself or somebody else? Although a lot of users are sensible and make full backups of their system using either disk imaging software or something like the Windows 7 System image function, there is sometimes no option but to reinstall because it can’t be avoided. Hardware failures, viruses, or even computers with poor performing or highly abused operating systems are all reasons to have to wipe the old system and start again. Some users even install their operating system regularly to keep it clean and running at maximum performance. Whether you’re installing a new Windows by choice or by necessity, you will soon be pretty sick of wasting hours downloading all the hotfixes from Windows Update and continuously downloading patch after patch. Having just installed Windows 7 to see how many updates are available for the most po[CENSORED]r version of Windows, it’s quite shocking to see it has 117 important updates ready to be downloaded! And that obviously doesn’t include recommended updates like the multitude of newer .NET Framework patches and subsequent updates after you install software like Internet Explorer 9 or 10 etc. One solution is to use a slipstreaming application like nLite to integrate hotfixes into the install disc, but even these become outdated every month after the latest round of hotfixes. If waiting for all the updates to install doesn’t appeal, an alternative is to have a program store and automatically install the updates for you from a USB stick or external hard drive. While it isn’t as quick as a slipstreamed disc, this method is an awful lot quicker than waiting for everything to be downloaded and installed from the internet, and can be left to it while you go and do something else. Here are 4 applications that can do exactly that, you can even run them on a currently installed Windows to bring it up to date.1. AutoPatcher AutoPatcher has been around for several years and used to be distributed as a huge executable file that included all the update patches inside. After complaints from Microsoft in 2007, it was modified to download and distribute the patches direct from Microsoft’s own servers. AutoPatcher isn’t just a tool to apply Windows hotfixes though. Besides being able to install critical and recommended Windows updates, it can also do the same for Microsoft Office and install a number of extras such as the Office add-on pack, Adobe Flash and Reader, JAVA, the .NET Framework and Visual C++ patches. The package itself is split into 2 modules, the updater module (apup.exe) is where you select and download the chosen update packages, and the Patcher module (Autopatcher.exe) which you run to select the updates and addons to install on the unpatched system. Make sure to select and download the latest AutoPatcher program, engine and common module updates as the patch installer module gets downloaded in the engine update. Tick everything you want and click Next to start downloading. When all the required updates are downloaded, simply take the whole folder on a flash drive or hard drive to the target computer, or find the network drive, and run AutoPatcher.exe. After a few EULA screens and a file integrity check, the options screen will be displayed where the available updates and extras can be chosen for install. Critical or important patches will be ticked already, those in blue are currently installed on your system and don’t need selecting unless there is a specific need to do so. Click the button and then wait for AutoPatcher to install all the updates you have selected. To use AutoPatcher all you need on your operating system is the latest service pack to be able to install hotfix updates as it doesn’t support older Service Pack installs. SP3 for XP, SP2 for Vista and SP1 for Windows 7. Windows 8 isn’t supported yet although there is talk in their forum of implementing it in the future. You don’t need a clean install either, even the latest up to date Windows can still install any other add ons or extras that aren’t currently installed. This is an essential tool to save serious amounts of time and effort. 2. WSUS Offline Update Formally called c’t Update, WSUS Offline Update is another tool that can update a number of Windows operating systems to the latest patches, and also keep nearly all versions of Microsoft Office up to date too. Although like Autopatcher in a lot of ways, there’s also some differences. WSUS Offline Update can update any Windows revision and doesn’t rely on it having the latest Service Pack installed. This can be a great help as lots of computers still don’t have XP Service Pack 3 or Vista Service Pack 2 installed which makes Autopatcher unusable until they’re updated. It can also download and install updates for several different languages so you’re not restricted to just English. After downloading, extracting and running the UpdateGenerator.exe, tick the boxes to select the operating system versions, Office versions and languages you require. Everything is split over 3 tabs called Windows, Office and Legacy products which includes Windows XP and Office 2003 as support for them ends in 2014. Some of the Options are very useful such as whether to download Service Packs, and whether to include Microsoft Security Essentials or Defender definitions in the package. The inclusion of C++ Runtimes and .NET Frameworks is also optional but leaving them included will be a BIG time saver. Something else WSUS Offline Update can do is write the update package to an ISO image which can be burned to CD/DVD/Blu-ray. Great for older systems or if you don’t have the right sized USB flash drive handy. Alternatively choose the USB medium option to copy the updates onto a USB flash or hard drive. Once you press Start, a Command Prompt window will open and begin downloading the files from Microsoft, the wait could be long if you’ve selected multiple options. Once completed, you can then take the disc or drive to another computer and run UpdateInstaller.exe to popup the installer window. Some options such as Internet Explorer versions, .NET Frameworks, PowerShell and Media Player will be greyed out depending on whether you have the option already installed or if operating system supports it. The “Automatic reboot and recall” option is a potential big time saver if you want the updates to be installed unattended. Be aware that the option temporarily disables UAC and also creates a temporary new user account called WSUSAdmin while updating. It will be deleted again after updating has completed.

Ettore Bugatti – aka Le Patron – used to ride his horse alongside the production line in Molsheim, Alsace, his exacting gaze sizing up everything from beneath the brim of his bowler hat. But then Ettore always did have a finely-crafted sense of the ridiculous; from his fantabulous Royale model, to boats, planes, trains and furniture. Did I mention furniture? Oh wait, that was his dad, Carlo. Anyway, given the prodigious oeuvre and idiosyncrasies of Le Patron, the idea of a £2.5 million, 261mph supercar seems not (quite) so daft. Plenty of today's designers have egos enough to imagine they control all they survey, but Ettore really did. He studied at the Academy of Art at Brera in Italy, which left its mark on everything he produced; superlative design as the key to great engineering. That such an approach could be even considered today is symptomatic of Volkswagen under the command of Ferdinand Piech, who acquired Bugatti from Romano Artioli in 1998, reasoning that building the world's best and fastest automobiles would set technical goals just as head-scratching as whizzing round a race circuit summer Sundays – Bugatti was to become the VW Group's Formula One. After a trio of concepts – the 1998 Giugiaro-designed W18 EB118; the 1999 EB218; and the 18/3 Chiron, in 2005 it produced the 253mph, €1 million Veyron. This was superlative engineering worthy of any race track, if not absolutely the finest thing to drive. The Bugatti 18/3 'Chiron' concept car made its first appearance in 1999 – and it doesn't take a genius to spot the similarities CREDIT: EPA Two years ago, the last Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse was produced and the Chiron is its replacement. Named after Louis Chiron, the oldest-ever grand-prix driver, Bugatti's habit of naming its cars after famous former drivers must surely eventually result in the Bugatti Williams after Grover-Williams, winner of the first-ever Monaco GP? Since work on the Chiron predated the diesel emissions scandal, it's possible to consider that VW wouldn't have made the decision to embark on a €1 billion hypercar project in more recent times. We'll never know. But with a production ceiling of 500 (50 more than the total Veyrons produced), Bugatti reckons it'll make money on the Chiron not least because owners will splurge an average £250,000 in extras on their cars – and there are already 250 names on top of the build sheets. Under the carbon-fibre skin is a technical tour de force, some of which might one day influence the cars you and I drive, though I doubt the voided carbon-fibre suspensions turrets, reinforced internally with aerospace-type metals will make it into mass production, or for that matter, a carbon-fibre racing-car-stiff tub, which is assembled around the engine with just ten Titanium bolts. Oh that engine. While still an eight-litre W16 quad turbo unit (yep, that’s 16 cylinders arranged in two offset banks of eight cylinders) attached to a seven-speed, twin-clutch transmission driving all four wheels via Haldex clutches, the effort of extracting over 50 per cent more out of it than when it resided in the Veyron has resulted in the replacement of almost every single part including the engine block, gearbox and clutches. Let us know what you think of the Bugatti Chiron in the comment section belowCREDIT: DOMINIC FRASER It’s practically pornographic. From the sculpted con rods capable of handling 50 per cent more power but no heavier, to a gorgeous carbon-fibre inlet manifold, which allows for the twin fuel injectors per cylinder. The four turbos half as big again and now deployed sequentially, the second set puffing in at 3,800rpm and all controlled by a wonderfully expensive investment-casting of the nickel-chrome alloy Inconel 713C, normally used for jet-engine turbine blades. There's also a new form of honeycomb-filled carbon-fibre composite for the floors and the AP racing brake callipers are organically cast to save weight and increase surface area for cooling. The radiator grille is perhaps the most distinctive feature of the car, which to some people looks good from almost every angleCREDIT: DOMINIC FRASER The Veyron's exorbitant Michelin PAX tyres have been replaced by slightly more conventional Michelin covers; 285/30/20 fronts and 355/25-21 rears. The aerodynamics are tweaked with a flat floor and ducting plates, which pull cool air over the carbo-ceramic discs and draft it out of the wheel arches. Flaps forward of the front wheels increase downforce and there's a rear wing as big as a scaffold plank, which has four different positions depending on which mode is selected and also doubles as an airbrake at speeds above 120mph. Speed is an addiction, which has occupied the minds and bank balances of men for centuries. Like mountain climbing, going faster is its own reward and while the Chiron's electronically limited maximum of 261mph is impressively more than half the cruising air speed of the Airbus A320 which I took to meet the car, it's also slightly disingenuous, since Bugatti hasn't yet fully tested an unrestricted Chiron. When it does drag this two-tonne behemoth to VW's Ehra-Lessien test track next year, it's the Michelin tyres that will be the limiting factor. Insiders think that the engine could easily transport the Chiron to almost 300mph, and Michelin has tested its tyres to over 279mph on aircraft rigs in the USA. So what does test driver, Andy Wallace, multiple Le Mans winner and sports-car racing virtuoso think? "The big problem with Erha-Lessien is getting back on that dog leg [track], with sufficient speed," he says. "Then you'd be running against the way the Tarmac has been pressed and moulded down. That might heat the tyres too much. "Michelin is looking for a consistent series of tyres popping around a given speed, which will give us some data, beyond which we wouldn't go. A rear tyre going would be drama, but a burst front would mean the car flies; I've done that before and don't want to again. Perhaps I'll be away on that day..." What does it feel like, this phantasmagorical car? It's hard to describe something that few have ever experienced? Fairground rides have it, but not for long. Superbikes have it, but you are angled into the acceleration. My lunch was cheese and biscuits. "I just want to show you the acceleration," says Wallace. He floors it and there's perhaps half a second's pause before 1,471bhp squirms Michelins and I'm pinned to the seat back like a butterfly mounted on a board, my stomach left somewhere near Lisbon. Sixty, seventy, 100, 150 and 190mph all within 14 seconds, while I'm trapped in accelerative amber, fixed grimace and green of gills. Wallace grins: "amazing isn't it?" he says. Andrew English, pictured, says that the Chiron's cabin is "a slimmed-down, simplified and less tarty interior than the Veyron" CREDIT: DOMINIC FRASER Not that the Chiron, is some sort of rocket-powered Trump Towers. First impressions are of a slimmed down, simplified and less tarty interior than the Veyron. You can choose from a broad palette of colours and materials, including some rather lovely coloured carbon-fibre weaves, but the grey carbon and black leather gives a better background for a clever mix of repurposed Audi TT switches and a multi-switch festooned steering wheel. For something costing £2.5 mil, it's surprisingly simple, the seats adjust electronically, but the steering adjustment is manual. There's a lot you don't see of course, the diamonds holding the speaker diaphragms, or the especially thin leather, or the rear-lamp carrier machined out of a single billet, which runs across the car. We tested the car on flat European roads CREDIT: DOMINIC FRASER The seats are comfortable, but wide enough to accommodate most billionaire's posteriors. There's some storage, but not much (you'll get one airline carry on under the bonnet) and you can see precisely nothing in the rear-view mirror past that enormous wing. It's all immaculately put together of course. The engine is menacingly muted, with its rumbly, uneven beat. The twin-clutch gearbox is as simple as that in a Golf and round-town manners are surprisingly good, the ride particularly so. Compared with the Veyron, the Chiron is a comfortable car though you'd never mistake it for a limo, those tyres and the suspension capable of holding the car off the road at nearly 300mph put paid to that. The speedo goes up to 500km/h. Think about that for a secondCREDIT: DOMINIC FRASER New electronically assisted steering has a slower ratio but it feels sharp and a bit darty, particularly if you select Autobahn or Handling mode on the suspension, both of which lower the front end. Those dampers also lower themselves when the vehicle comes to park, not to aid egress, but because it looks sexier. Perhaps most noticeable is the way the chassis communicates – to drive, the Veyron felt as talkative as a Toyota Corolla. Once used to the steering and the 6ft 8in width, on the right roads you can push this enormous car pretty hard and the steering and chassis will tell you what's going on. The Chiron's phenomenal grip, and it's stability and traction systems ensure you'd struggle to actually drift this car on a public road, although there is a setting to enable you to do just that. In the end, though, it's all about the speed. You need to push an extra key to get up to 261mph, but even up to 236mph it feels superlative. Going that fast might not be comfortable, but it's addictive. On dry and grippy roads, under full throttle there's never a trace of wheelspin, you just feel the Haldex clutches shunting torque around when the going gets bumpy, and all roads are bumpy at that sort of speed. Those huge turbos lag, but not much, and once all four are pumping, the horizon shoots towards you like ink from a defensive squid; so fast it obscures your vision. The engine slurps 1,000 litres of air a second, but your eyes are sucking harder at the scenery, willing it towards you. Details turn from hazy dots to windscreen fillers in microseconds, so much so that a distant heat haze feels like dense fog. Blink at 261mph and you've travelled almost 200 feet, sneeze and you'll have covered nearly 400 yards with your eyes shut. You have to trust, breath lightly, fingers just skimming the wheel, barely touching the earth's surface. This is flying on the ground. Bugatti Chiron TESTED 7,993cc, four-turbo W16, seven-speed dual-clutch semi-automatic gerbox, four-wheel drive PRICE/ON SALE about £2,500,000/now POWER/TORQUE 1,479bhp @ 6,700rpm, 1,180lb ft @ 2,000-6,000rpm TOP SPEED electronically limited to 261mph (236mph in handling mode) ACCELERATION 0-62mph in 2.5sec FUEL ECONOMY 12.5mpg (EU Combined), on test 8.9mpg Length: 4544mm, Width: 2038 mm, Height: 1212mm Wheelbase: 2711mm Weight empty 1995 kg, boot 44 litres VERDICT It's easy to scoff, but the Chiron is an amazing, gosh-wobbling achievement of engineering and design. Near 300mph potential with looks, handling and chassis feedback that feels if not Caterham-like at least more like a car and less like a moon rocket. Expensive, yes, but reckon on about £1 million per 100mph.

Australia said on Thursday it had received information that terrorists may be planning to attack a World War One commemoration service at Gallipoli in Turkey later in the month. Julie Bishop, Australia's foreign minister, said in a statement that Turkish authorities were aware of the information "and traditionally provide a high level of protective security around Anzac Day commemorations on the peninsula". Anzac Day, on April 25, marks the first major battle involving troops from Australia and New Zealand in Gallipoli, Turkey in 1915. Hundreds of Australians and New Zealanders make a pilgrimage to the site every year for a military dawn service. The Australian government has received information to suggest terrorists may seek to target ANZAC Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula," Ms Bishop said in an emailed statement. "We are conscious of the effect of this on the many Australians planning to attend this year’s Anzac Day commemorations at Gallipoli. In the current global environment, major events attract threats of varying degrees of credibility. Regrettably Anzac Day is not immune," the foreign minister said. "We welcome Turkey’s long-term commitment to providing security for all people attending Anzac Day commemorations in Gallipoli. For many years, Turkey has provided a high level of security to Anzac Day. We continue to work with Turkish authorities to keep Australians travelling to Anzac Day events safe." Dan Tehan, Australia's minister for veteran affairs, said intelligence gathered did not indicate a specific plan, but rather a general aim. Australia updated its travel advice for Turkey on Thursday, but did not change its statement that recommends visitors exercise a high degree of caution in the country and reconsider the need to visit Ankara and Istanbul. Watch | The Gallipoli campaign explained04:05 Murray McCully, New Zealand's foreign minister, also urged his country's citizens to avoid travel to Ankara and Istanbul, while also recommending caution in Gallipoli and elsewhere in Turkey. Despite urging Australians to reconsider any plans to attend the annual event, Mr Tehan said he was confident Turkey would ensure sufficient security. "The Turkish authorities are taking this extremely seriously. The celebrations on Gallipoli are as important to the Turkish authorities and Turkish people as they are to Australians," Mr Tehan told reporters.

Love it or you hate it, science has proven that Marmite is actually rather good for you. The latest evidence is a study suggesting that the cult British foodstuff could help boost brain power and stave off dementia. Researchers from York University said the high concentration of Vitamin B12 in the yeast extract increases levels of chemicals in the brain which are thought to protect against neurological disorders. Participants in the study ate a teaspoon of Marmite per day and were found to have increased levels of a neurotransmitter known as GABA, said to calm the brain and soothe the effects of anxiety. Paid content Don’t Risk Being Retired Abroad with a Pension Locked in the UKAbbey Wealth Germany to Britain: Let’s Stay FriendsHandelsblatt Global Edition Recommended by The effects were noted for eight weeks after the study was completed, suggesting that the health benefits of the inimitable brown spread could have a long term impact on the body. Marmite's advertising in the 20th century consistently focused on its health benefits Originally containing only four ingredients (yeast extract, salt, spices and celery), vitamins and minerals were later added to the recipe to boost Marmite's health potential, and scientists have been championing its benefits ever since. It was considered so essential for a healthy diet that it was included in soldiers' ration packs during World War One and has subsequently been used to treat conditions ranging from malaria to malnutrition. Though its potent flavour and tar-like consistency polarises public opinion, there is no doubt that, nutritionally, Marmite has a lot going for it. Here are seven reasons why ... There are plenty of reasons to get excited by the British store-cupboard stapleCREDIT: GEOFFREY ROBINSON / REX FEATURES 1. It's as nutritious as vitamin supplements Marmite is packed with B vitamins that are essential for good health – containing so much per serving that you can probably do away with taking expensive B supplements. A single serving contains 17pc of your recommended daily allowance of Vitamin B1 (thiamin), 18pc of B2, and 36pc of B3. These vitamins are essential for eye and skin health, as well as protecting your nervous system and helping you to break down the energy from food. B vitamins are all water soluble so are not stored by the body, thus requiring a daily dose. As the recommended portion size of Marmite is only 4g, a 250g jar could potentially last two months, costing just over £2. Bargain. 2. It can keep your heart healthy Marmite's high content of Vitamin B1 could be highly beneficial for preventing cardiovascular disease, particularly among diabetics. A study at the University of Bristol found that supplementing diabetic and non diabetic mice with a chemical similar to Vitamin B1 called benfotiamine improved their recovery after a heart attack and lowered their risk of cardiovascular conditions. Further studies are required to see if the same theory can be applied to humans, but it seems a good enough reason to up your Marmite intake, all the same. 3. It keeps vegans alive Vitamin B12 is essential for maintaining a healthy nervous system and blood, but cannot be found in plants. This is a problem for vegans, who do not eat any animal products, which naturally contain the vitamin. Vitamin B12 deficiency can cause numerous health problems, but Marmite may provide a solution. Our favourite savoury spread is fortified with B12 (it contains 116 times as much as peanut butter, in case you're interested), providing 40pc of your recommended daily allowance with a single serving. Someone pass the vegan spread. 4. It can treat your hangover If you're struggling with the effects of a night at the pub, Marmite might be just the ticket to help you on your way to recovery. Alcohol consumption depletes your body's store of B Vitamins, which can leave you feeling low and anxious, and so a teaspoon of Marmite on toast can help replenish your body's supplies in no time. If you can't stomach the thought of solids, try the Sri Lankan hangover cure: apparently they dissolve Marmite in hot water, before adding lime juice and a sliced fried onion. 5. It can beat super bugs A study published by the Journal of Clinical Investigation suggested that niacin (of which Marmite is plentiful) can help the body fight antibiotic-resistant bacteria such as MRSA. The study showed that high levels of niacin could increase the immune system’s ability to kill different strains of staphylococcus bacteria by up to 1,000 times. You'd probably need to eat a lot of Marmite to get those sorts of results, but surely there's no harm in trying? 6. It can help with morning sickness Strictly Come Dancing presenter Claudia Winkleman tweeted that she was eating Marmite to help combat terrible morning sickness. Pregnancy forums and blogs are filled with mothers-to-be waxing lyrical about the miracle effects of the brown stuff in calming a churning stomach. (Theory that it could also guarantee Marmite-loving offspring as yet unproven.) Ardent Marmite lovers can now order personalised jars of the spread 7. It makes healthy babies Marmite's high folic acid content has been championed ever since British scientist Lucy Mills found it could be used effectively to treat anaemia in the 1930s. Folic acid is essential for pregnant women and anyone hoping to conceive, as it can help to prevent birth defects such as spina bifida. The NHS recommends 400 micrograms a day for the first 12 weeks of pregnancy: the equivalent of four servings of marmite. And two other reasons to love it: It's eco-friendly Marmite is made from the byproduct of beer production: brewer's yeast. Essentially using a product that would otherwise be sent to a landfill, this makes Marmite an environmentally responsible product. As it has such a strong flavour, you only need a small amount to get the desired effect, meaning you can cut back on kitchen waste, too. Furthermore, by dissolving Marmite in your cooking, rather than a powdered stock cube, you will reduce your use of palm oil, which is responsible for deforestation. If you're feeling really virtuous, keep the jars for storage: the small ones can be used for spices, while the larger ones are ideal for buttons and pens. It makes vegetarians happier Anyone who's ever tried to cook with vegetarian "mince" knows that recreating anything resembling a Bolognaise is nigh on impossible without generous seasoning. Marmite is a storecupboard saviour in the sometimes bland world of vegetarian alternatives: its rich, umami flavour adds a punch to any dish, and can transform ingredients such as tofu or Quorn. And there's no need to feel snobbish about using it in the kitchen: plenty of chefs do! Jamie Oliver puts it in veggie burgers, and Nigella Lawson likes it with pasta.

Without doubt, the worst component in your PC to go wrong is the hard disc drive. After all, that’s where all your personal data and information is stored. Potentially you could lose days, months or even years worth of hard work if the hard drive or your files have not been adequately backed up to another location for safe keeping. Although it’s not an everyday occurrence, hard drives do fail from time to time and being prepared by backing up your files regularly is good practice in case the unexpected happens. Often they fail gradually and the drive slowly and randomly starts to fill with errors meaning you might be able get your essential data off in time, but it’s not recommended to take that chance. When I’m working with old machines, one of the first checks I perform is have a look at the hard drive for potential problems. Catching a failing hard drive at the earliest opportunity is important for the best chance of data recovery. Running a bootable CD from the drive manufacturer such as Maxtor Maxblast, Seagate Seatools or Hitachi Drive Fitness Test is a good idea as they can give you information such as error codes which can be given to the manufacturer in the event the drive needs returning for repair or replacement. There is also a great little hard drive utility available for Windows which scans for errors on your drives, benchmark them so you can see if they are performing as they should, and also give valuable snippets of information about each attached drive and what features it has. HD Tune has been around for several years as both freeware and shareware, and although the freeware version hasn’t been update for a few years, it’s still one of the most valuable tools in any USB toolkit for running simple checks on drives. HD Tune downloads as an installer but can be either installed and the executable copied to another location, or extracted with Universal Extractor. The Benchmark Tab The Benchmark tab obviously doesn’t help check your drive for errors, but can give you a good idea of how well it’s performing. Select your drive from the drop down and press the button to run the test. For mechanical hard drives the blue transfer speed line should gently arc down in speed the closer it gets to 100%, similar to the image below. Any big downward spikes or drops in the graph could potentially be errors on the drive and definitely worth doing an error scan. Memory based drives such as SSD’s and USB sticks can also be benchmarked but the blue line should stay quite constant across the graph with only small deviations. The temperature reading will not display for external drives, SSD’s or USB sticks. The Info Tab The Info tab shows information like the partitions on the drive, what features the drive supports, firmware revision, serial number and the transfer modes. This is where the freeware utility limitation comes into effect as this tab is useful for internal hard drives, but is largely irrelevant for external drives, USB sticks and SSD’s as the majority of the information isn’t available for those devices. The Health Tab Health reads and displays the hard drives S.M.A.R.T. Information. Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology is present on all modern hard drives and is basically a small monitoring component that constantly watches the drive and makes changes to its health status over time. If a S.M.A.R.T. value reaches a Red or Failed status, that is cause for great concern and the drive should be backed up immediately as failure could be imminent. One of the most important values is “Reallocated Sector Count” because Red or Failed here means there are bad sectors on the drive and it is starting to fail. Like the Info tab, external drives, USB sticks and SSD’s will likely have no readable information in here. The Error Scan Tab This is the most valuable part of HD Tune because you can find out if there are damaged sectors on the drive. There is a quick Scan tick box, but this is a very fast and therefore very inaccurate test although useful to get a general idea about how the health of the drive looks in a few seconds. A thorough default scan is highly recommended which will take a lot of time so you will need to be patient running it. I have found it to be very good at detecting how many bad sectors there are, and where they are. Usually 1 red block is enough for there to be concern about the drive’s reliability and you should look into it more thoroughly. HDTune v2.5.5 runs on Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 and while it is running you will get the drive’s current temperature reading in the system tray. The temperature unit, color and critical temperature can be changed in the settings (2 yellow cogs in the main window).

It's a sad state of affairs when most of us expect healthy foods to cost a great deal more than their less-healthy alternatives: a recent study from Ohio State University found that the healthier a food is perceived to be, the more people are prepared to pay for it. In the past, eating healthy foods has cost up to three times as much as consuming unhealthy foods, and it is those ingredients often hailed as being 'superfoods' - such as goji berries, quinoa, and avocado - which have a reputation for being the most expensive. Thank goodness, then, for a sensible new book by James Wong, "a botanist obsessed with food", in which he reveals the simple (yet ingenious) ways we can turn many everyday ingredients into so-called 'superfoods'. In How to Eat Better (Mitchel Beazley, £20), Wong writes, "I am forever surprised by how many simple tweaks can radically alter the chemical composition of crops, even when they are sitting on your kitchen counter. "With a few ridiculously easy hints and tips you could dramatically improve the nutritional value of everything from fruit and veg to carbs and coffee, thanks to the miracle of kitchen chemistry." Here are some of our favourites tips that Wong recommends for turning any food into a superfood... Reheat your pasta For the carb-conscious, pasta can be a big red flag but Wong has a clever workaround: "Chilling and reheating cooked pasta converts its carbs into a form that is less easy for our bodies to absorb. "Reheating cooked and cooled pasta [also reduces] the rise in blood sugar by 50 per cent, according to one small pilot trial run by the University of Surrey." Wound your veg Cut your veg into pieces to boost the levels of phytonutrients CREDIT: KEITH LEIGHTON/ALAMY Phytonutrients are a substance found in certain plants which are believed to prevent diseases and be beneficial to our health. If you want to boost the levels of phytonutrients in your food, Wong recommends a process food scientists refer to as 'wounding': "Many of the protective antioxidant compounds in leaves are generated at the sites of injury, helping shield their tissues from further damage. "To non-geeks, this is also known as slicing or tearing, just as you would do when preparing a salad. Pop cut lettuce or leaf endive in a sealed container in the fridge overnight to give these chemical reactions time to happen and their polyphenol levels can jump up to 50 per cent, according to the University of Pisa in Italy." Add some chilli If you can handle the heat, try adding some chilli to your diet. Wong refers to "a fascinating trial by the University of Tasmania", which found that "adding chillies to people's everyday diet, in the form of basic chilli sauce, could significantly reduce their spikes of insulin after a meal." Keep tomatoes out of the fridge Store tomatoes in room temperature conditions CREDIT: OLGA MILTSOVA/ALAMY Not only does storing tomatoes in the fridge cause them to lose their flavour, but it can also reduce the amount of lycopene (a phytochemical with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties) they contain. To combat this, Wong recommends storing your tomatoes at room temperature: "Even once detached from the plant, tomato fruit will continue to ripen, becoming sweeter, more aromatic, redder and, as a consequence, much higher in lycopene. "In fact, tomatoes can almost double their lycopene levels if stored at room temperature for a week or two according to a Japanese-Indonesian research team. However, the chemical reactions responsible for this transformation will not occur below 10C." Pick the right apple Not all apples are created equal. Wong says some apple varieties can contain varying antioxidant levels despite being the same product: "Pick a Red Delicious apple over an Empire, for example, and get two and a half times the potential antioxidant benefit for zero extra work or cost. In a nutrition chart created by the University of Leeds, Braeburn apples top the lot with the highest content of antioxidants than any other variety in the trial. Cook your spinach If you fancy some spinach, Wong recommends cooking it briefly first: "Take a crisp, leafy spinach salad and whack it in a pan for a few minutes and its vitamin A levels shoot up three times (and that's before we even mention that because spinach wilts down so much on cooking, one serving of cooked greens can contain up to five servings of raw)." Choose small potatoes... Smaller potatoes are best CREDIT: JOHN SMALLER/ALAMY Potatoes can also be a rich source of phytonutrients, particularly smaller ones: "Up to 50 per cent of polyphenols in potatoes come from their fibre-rich skin. The smaller the spud, the more skin they have, which means that by simply picking new potatoes over giant types will get more phytonutrients." ...and slice into thin pieces Once you've picked out your small potatoes, Wong recommends slicing them into thin pieces: "By simply slicing them into 5mm-thick pieces and bunging them in the fridge, this combination of mechanical damage to the cells and cold can trigger them into almost doubling their antioxidants in just two days. "This does require quite a lot of forward planning, but is easy to do if you have the time, and comes with a pretty big potential benefit." Microwave your kale Steam or microwave your kale first CREDIT: ANDREW CROWLEY Already a well known superfood, kale gets even healthier when steamed or microwaved first, says Wong: "Steam of microwave kale and its antioxidant and polyphenol levels jump 40 per cent." Stick your funghi on the windowsill Mushrooms have the potential to be an excellent source of vitamin D, Wong explains, if you know what you're doing: "Doing one simple thing to your shop-brought fresh mushrooms can transform them from containing virtually zero vitamin D to one of nature's richest food sources. "Popped on a sunny windowsill, the mushrooms (which commercially are grown in near total darkness) will react to the UV light, churning out loads more of antioxidant vitamin to defend themselves from damage from solar radiation." How to Eat Better: How to Shop, Store and Cook to Make Any Food a ‘Superfood’, by James Wong (Mitchell Beazley, £20)

The Trump administration is cutting off US funding to the United Nations agency for reproductive health under an abortion-related provision in law that Democratic and Republican administrations have used as a cudgel in the global culture wars. The UN Po[CENSORED]tion Fund will lose $32.5 million in funding from the 2017 budget, the State Department said, with funds shifted to similar programs at the US Agency for International Development. The administration accused the agency, through its work with China's government, of supporting po[CENSORED]tion control programs in China that include coercive abortion. Accusations have focused on UNFPA programmes in China CREDIT: EPA It wasn't immediately clear whether the UN fund would also lose out on tens of millions of additional dollars it has typically received from the US in "non-core" funds. By halting assistance to the UN Po[CENSORED]tion Fund, the Trump administration is following through on promises to let socially conservative policies that President Donald Trump embraced in his campaign determine the way the US government operates and conducts itself in the world. Though focused on forced abortion — a concept opposed by liberals and conservatives alike — the move to invoke the "Kemp-Kasten amendment" was sure to be perceived as a gesture to anti-abortion advocates and other conservative interests. The policy change comes days before Trump is set to host Chinese President Xi Jinping for a highly anticipated meeting at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. In a shift from President Barack Obama's approach, Trump has avoided elevating human rights concerns in diplomacy, with White House officials saying those issues are most effectively advanced by raising them with foreign leaders in private. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee was notified of the move by the State Department in a letter received Monday. The letter followed a formal designation by Tom Shannon, the State Department's undersecretary of political affairs, that said the fund "supports, or participates in the management of, a program of coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization." Under a three-decade-old law, the US is barred from funding organizations that aid or participate in forced abortion of involuntary sterilization. It's up to each administration to determine which organizations meet that condition. The UN Po[CENSORED]tion Fund has typically been cut off by Republican presidents and restored when Democrats control the White House. In a lengthy memorandum obtained by The Associated Press, the State Department said the UN fund partners with China's National Health and Family Planning Commission, responsible for overseeing China's "two-child policy." It said the UN collaborates with the Chinese agency on family planning. Still, the memo acknowledged there was no evidence of UN support for forced abortions or sterilization in China. The UN Po[CENSORED]tion Fund, known as UNFPA, said it regretted the US move and argued it was "erroneous" to suggest it was complicit in China's policies. "UNFPA refutes this claim, as all of its work promotes the human rights of individuals and couples to make their own decisions, free of coercion or discrimination," the agency said in a statement. Starting in 1979, China had a "one-child policy" enforced in many cases with state-mandated abortions. But the policy was eased over the years, and now allows married couples to have two children, in a nod to the aging po[CENSORED]tion in the world's most populous country.

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Eurocom announced that it has updated its Tornado F5 desktop-replacement gaming laptop with a new optional BIOS that unlocks overclocking capabilities in the mobile powerhouse. Similar to many other high-end laptop vendors, Eurocom rebrands gaming notebooks manufactured by Clevo. These shells are usually given the reseller’s personal touch with their choice of CPU, storage, and memory (and, of course, a logo). However, many of those vendors keep the stock BIOS, which is incapable of overclocking, even with K-series (unlocked) CPUs. This creates a problem for consumers purchasing a high-powered desktop-replacement laptop with the expressed interest of overclocking, and the discrepancy is somewhat misleading (what do you mean I can’t overclock my K-series CPU?). Eurocom is now offering an unlocked BIOS for the Z170 chipset in its 15.6” Tornado F5 so that users can claim the full potential of unlocked Intel 7th generation (Kaby Lake) processors, including the Intel Core i5-7600K and i7-7700K. Similarly, you can also configure the F5 with older 6th generation (Skylake) CPUs. The Tornado F5 also features up to 64GB (4 x 16GB) of DDR4 memory (with speeds up to 3,200MHz), and it can accommodate up to three storage drives (two M.2 SSDs and one 2.5” drive). It also supports up to an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 graphics card, and you can choose between a 1920 x 1080 (in 60Hz or 120Hz) or 3840 x 2160 display (both featuring Nvidia G-Sync). You can customize your own Tornado F5 gaming laptop at Eurcom’s website, with configurations starting at $1,450. The unlocked BIOS is optional, and it will be offered for free until the middle of April. After the deal expires, the unlocked BIOS will cost a cool $100.

I think just about every person who has used a Windows computer for a while will have seen the infamous Blue Screen of Death (BSOD). This screen often appears in the event of a serious system error or crash and is supposed to give some information about the possible cause of the error. You can then look up the error code, known as a STOP error code, to try and find the problem and what common solutions there are to fix it. Unfortunately, when a lot of users come into contact with a screen like the one below, it usually fills them with dread because it means there’s likely to be a problem your average user can’t understand or even attempt to fix themselves. Even Mr Bill Gates couldn’t escape the Blue Screen of Death when he got one demonstrating a beta of Windows 98 on stage! It’s not only your average user or novice that hates the sight of this screen either. Computer technicians and power users usually don’t like it either as they know it could lead to hours of troubleshooting because many STOP error codes are very generic. Wouldn’t it be a great practical joke to scare anyone into thinking they have a Blue Screen of Death error when there is actually nothing wrong? There is a very easy way to do this and that is to use a Windows screensaver to pop up a fake blue screen whenever the screensaver kicks in. There are actually screensavers around that can do just that! They mimic a BSOD to make the user think they have a real blue screen and therefore a problem. Here are 3 different screensavers that can emulate the Blue Screen of Death: 1. SysInternals BlueScreen Bluescreen is indirectly from Microsoft because it’s made by SysInternals! This screensaver not only mimics a BSOD quite accurately, but it also simulates the Windows startup screen seen during the system boot process. The boot screen and errors are taken from your current system so the information displayed during the screensaver like NT build number, processor revision, loaded drivers and addresses, disk drive characteristics, and memory size is correct for the operating system it’s running on! The screensaver cycles between different Blue Screens and simulated boots around every 15 seconds. There is one setting for this screensaver that can be reached through the settings button in the system Screensaver/Power management window. This option simulates hard drive LED activity during the fake reboot in the screensaver to make it look even more authentic! For the BluesSreen to show in the Screensaver/Power management window and enable the timer for the screensaver, the .scr file needs to be copied to the Windows\System32 folder. Bluescreen runs on Windows NT 4.0, 2000, XP, Server 2003, 9x, Vista and 7. Note: The animated progress meter on the startup screen didnt work in Vista or 7. 2. Bluescreen Screensaver This screensaver has its own installer so you don’t have to manually copy any files to the System32 directory. Although it’s supposed to emulate the correct BSOD depending on if you are running Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000 or XP, I only got the old NT blue screen when I tried in XP which won’t fool anybody with a bit of experience. The same applies to Vista and 7, only the NT type BSOD. This one is probably best to use on unsuspecting novices who have heard of a blue screen but perhaps have never seen one up close! Works on everything from Windows 95 up to Windows 7 3. “The other” BSOD screensaver This screensaver is a bit more humorous as it’s more of an animation. Because of that, Adobe Flash player is required. What it does is emulate a blue screen, then do a reboot including showing the POST screen. After that it pretends to format your hard drive, then install and boot into Linux! Watch out for who it logs into Linux as… Like Bluescreen Screensaver above, it won’t fool experienced users as the BSOD is from an old NT system, but could still be entertaining to let loose on less experienced users! For the BluesSreen to show in the Screensaver/Power management window and enable the timer for the screensaver, the .scr file needs to be copied to the Windows\System32 folder. Works on all versions of Windows

In about 50BC, Julius Caesar wrote that of the Britons, “by far the most civilised are those who inhabit Cantium, the whole of which is a maritime region; and their manners differ little from those of the Gauls”. As a Kentish man with Gallic roots, I’m inclined to agree with him. It’s before dawn and an amber glow blurs the cloudy horizon ahead on the southbound M20, a vital conduit between Britain and the Continent. I’m staying on the motorway until it becomes the A20, remaining firmly on this side of the Channel to explore Dover and the surrounding area, Britain’s most south-easterly corner and one that bears the stamp of thousands of years of history. There’s just enough ice on the road to remind me that January is a bad time to test a rear-wheel-drive sports coupé, in this case the new Toyota GT86, a driver-focused car that’s so far proven more po[CENSORED]r with critics than it has with buyers....

US President Donald Trump has said the United States will "solve" the nuclear threat from North Korea, with or without China's help. "If China is not going to solve North Korea, we will. That is all I am telling you," he said in an interview with UK newspaper the Financial Times. Pressed on whether he thought he could succeed alone, he replied: "Totally." Mr Trump was speaking ahead of a scheduled visit from Chinese President Xi Jinping this week. "China has great influence over North Korea. And China will either decide to help us with North Korea, or they won't. And if they do that will be very good for China, and if they don't it won't be good for anyone," Mr Trump told the FT. Asked if he meant "one-on-one" unilateral action, Mr Trump said: "I don't have to say any more." He did not give any further details on what action he would take. Mr Trump's brief comments, published just days before the key meeting with Mr Xi at Mr Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Thursday, are the latest in a series of warnings over North Korea's nuclear development. There are fears that Pyongyang could eventually develop the ability to launch long-range nuclear missiles capable of striking the mainland US. However, it is generally thought that military action against North Korea would lead to very high military and civilian casualties. US officials stress that contingency planning for the military option has been discussed for decades, but the preferred course of action remains pressing North Korea to abandon its weapons programmes via sanctions and other diplomatic pressure. The United Nations and several nations already have sanctions in place against North Korea, targeting its weapons programme and financial ability to function abroad. Meanwhile food aid to North Korea - which relies on donations to feed its people - has fallen in recent years as tensions have risen. But these measures do not appear to be slowing down North Korea's ability to move forward on the military front. It is argued that sanctions that targeted the intermediaries that keep North Korea moving - like Chinese banks - would make a real impact, as would targeting the oil that Pyongyang imports from China. Can US do it alone? BBC defence and diplomatic correspondent Jonathan Marcus: North Korea is fast emerging as one of the Trump administration's most pressing security concerns, but it's a problem that Washington cannot deal with alone. China remains essential. President Trump's insistence that he can deal with North Korea's nuclear programme alone is at this stage simply mood music ahead of the US-China summit. Of course the Pentagon has contingency plans for military action on the Korean Peninsula - some defensive and some offensive. That is what prudent military planners do. But the strategic realities are grim. Leaving aside its nuclear arsenal, North Korea could devastate the capital of South Korea, Seoul, with massed artillery fire and rockets just as any US offensive action was getting under way. Up to now the focus has been on rolling back Pyongyang's nuclear programme. Now it may be more realistic to seek to contain it. But here again Beijing holds the key. Trade 'incentive' Mr Trump is expected to put pressure on China's president to do much more about North Korea at their meeting this week - and he has implied that the issue of trade could be used as leverage. The president told the Financial Times that "trade is the incentive. It is all about trade." But he said he did not plan to discuss tariffs during the meeting. At the end of March, he signed two executive orders to deal with the US trade deficit, reviewing current rules and foreign trade abuses. White House officials insisted China was not the focus of his orders - but it is the largest source of the US trade deficit, accounting for about $347bn (£276bn) a year, out of a total of $502bn (£400bn). And Mr Trump himself tweeted that "the meeting next week with China will be a very difficult one in that we can no longer have massive trade deficits". Mr Trump has not said how he will negotiate trade with China while also pressing them to influence Pyongyang. What is China's position? China is a historic ally of North Korea's, although ties have been strained in recent years. It has taken action in light of the reclusive nation's latest missile tests. In February, it banned coal imports from North Korea until the end of 2017, cutting a major source of cash income for Pyongyang. Analysts say China has maintained its support for Pyongyang as it fears a complete collapse of the North Korean regime could lead to Korean unification, with US soldiers based in a country with a land border with China. It is thought that China is also concerned at the prospect of millions of North Korean refugees crossing the border.

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