Dani ♡

“We have nothing to sell and nothing to oversell,” said Reid Bigland, Alfa Romeo's chief executive last week, before describing the new Giulia saloon as “the first perfect Alfa Romeo”. Haven't we been here before with Alfa Romeo; like some naughty two-year old promising to be good, but forever left sitting on the naughty step? Daniele Bandiera, promised to rebuild the marque when he was appointed Alfa's chief executive in 2002. Karl-Heinz Kalbfell, his replacement appointed in 2004, promised an Alfa revolution so groundshaking “it would be like the Pope changing his religion”. Two years later Roberto Ronchi replaced him. I can't remember exactly what he promised, but his replacement Luca de Meo, appointed in 2008, promised a complete industrial revamp of the company. “We need a step change in the way we do business,” he said. “If we fix the industrial side, it's almost done.” Then he departed for VW. Harald Wester, Bigland's predecessor, promised an Alfa production revolution - which involved Fiat’s factory at Monte Cassino becoming an Alfa plant in 2015 to produce the Giulia saloon and now the Stelvio SUV. The factory opened in 1972 to build the Fiat 126. Exactly 73 years ago, this was the site of one of the most ferocious battles of the Second World War where German troops held up the allied advance into Rome for four months, resulting in the deaths of 55,000 Allied troops and 20,000 Germans. At the top of the mountain, near the abbey which was destroyed by allied bombing but rebuilt on the 70th anniversary of the battle, lies a poignant war cemetery containing the bodies of the 1,051 brave Polish soldiers in memoriam. The battle to rebuild the Cassino plant has also extracted a toll of managers and managing directors. The enemy? German again, this time Volkswagen under Ferdinand Piech, who with design director Walter de Silva (formerly of Alfa Romeo) schemed to get their hands on Alfa, with one delicious rumour suggesting that VW had a shadow studio producing concepts and design studies for Alfa Romeos that they would produce come the victorious day. Yet Sergio Marchionne, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) boss, at the same time as working his way through a legion of Alfa heads, also stuck to the line: "Alfa is not for sale." Marchionne authorised a rebuild of Cassino as comprehensive as you could wish for - assuming you had the €1.3 billion that FCA has pumped in for work that lasted a year from September 2014. Bigland says: "We didn't refurbish anything, not even the toilets." Fabrizio Curci, head of Alfa Romeo in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, adds: "There were a few walls we kept, but the toilets really are all new. I could never find anywhere to pee in the old factory." Last week we were the first journalists to visit the factory now renamed as Premium Cassino Plant but unofficially known as 'House Of Giulia'. The statistics are as impressive as they are bewildering: 2 million square metres, 1,400 robots, a staff of 4,300 who will be joined by another 1,800 by 2018. There are 440 suppliers and 11,145 part numbers fitted to the cars, delivered by a fleet of 230 trucks a day. The cars, (Giulia saloon and its Stelvio SUV sister) are built out of forged and hot-stamped steel, aluminium and carbon-fibre, with robots spot- and laser-welding, riveting and glueing, then galvanising and painting, before the staff move in and put them together at potential maximum rate of 1,200 a day. It's all powered by a 3 megawatt solar-generating array up on the hillside and watered by half a million cubic metres of harvested rainwater a year. It's shiny, smells of new paint and each of the six workers per team leader looks bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. But does any of this make it a good plant? We don't know and, without access to the highly secretive Harbour Report (an annual productivity study of car factories) comparison data we may never know. Does it make for a better and more reliable Alfa Romeo? It's a good question, and with the Giulia on the shortlist for this year's European Car of the Year award - announced in early March - and the Stelvio about to be driven in earnest by the press, you'll be finding out in the next few weeks. The point is that Cassino is a statement of FCA's commitment to Alfa Romeo. It's more than just the boastful talk and living in the past that Alfa has previously specialised in. Curci says: "From the inside, the most difficult thing to do has been to build a foundation, and to get there has been bloody hard. You can shuffle things around or you can start from scratch and we chose to start from scratch." Watch | Driving a 1963 Alfa Romeo Guilia TZ His message seems to be that Alfa Romeos are now made in Italy, engineered in Italy and brand managed in Italy. For the moment nothing is shared, although the Giulia's 'Giorgio' platform will eventually go under other models and it seems likely that the forthcoming smaller, C-segment (family hatchback) car, likely a crossover SUV, will also share its underpinnings across the FCA stables. The aim of building 400,000 Alfas by 2020 remains and while Curci agrees that it's "a tall order" he also says it's possible. Early signs are that the Giulia, which Curci admits was late to launch, is selling reasonably if not spectacularly. It's interesting that no sales numbers are offered by Alfa, always a sign that they aren't as high as hoped. In the next couple of weeks we'll bring you our impressions of the new Stelvio as well as further thoughts on the Giulia. Is it time to consider and Alfa Romeo on your drive? Watch this space.

Monsters, mad scientists and macabre experiments may be what’s evoked when someone says Frankenstein, but the German name has a history stretching back centuries before Mary Shelley wrote her famous novel.With “Frank” being an ancient Germanic tribe and “Stein” meaning stone, many places in Germany share this moniker. But the place most associated with Shelley’s novel is Castle Frankenstein, seated 400m above the Rhine Valley within the Odenwald, a tree-lined mountain range in southern Germany. Overlooking the city of Darmstadt, the 13th-century hilltop castle has long been shrouded in folklore and myth. Alchemy and anatomy at work No resident was more notorious than Johann Conrad Dippel. Born in the castle in 1673, he eventually became its official alchemist. Dippel dabbled in elixirs and experiments seeking the secret to immortality. Frequently experimenting with animal cadavers, he created “Dippel’s Oil” made of a distillation of horns, blood, leather and ivory. He claimed the black concoction was the “elixir of life” and could be used to cure everything from epilepsy to the common cold. While there’s no evidence that he actually performed Frankenstein-like experiments on human cadavers, Dippel had a strong interest in anatomy and he wrote about his belief in the ability to transfer the soul from one corpse to another with the use of a funnel, hose and lubricant. Dippel died of a stroke in 1734 (just one year after publishing a claim he would live to 135), but many speculate he was poisoned, a punishment for his unpo[CENSORED]rity with the locals. The ruins behind the literary legend Rumours persist that the Brothers Grimm shared Dippel’s dark history with Shelley’s stepmother, who was an English translator of fairy tales. Shelley herself was travelling through the Rhine region near the castle in 1814, four years before Frankenstein was published, but she never claimed the castle or Dippel as a direct inspiration. This hasn’t stopped visitors to the castle from immersing themselves in the legend. The castle fell into ruin in the 1700s, but was restored (if historically inaccurately) in the mid-19th Century, with the two prominent pointed towers taking on a Romantic-inspired Gothic architecture look that was po[CENSORED]r at the time. Still, the stones of the lower walls and parts of the original drawbridge remain intact, and the well-marked forest trails around the ruin provide plenty of fodder for folklore. A haunted American import Finding a fright at Castle Frankenstein gets a little bit easier every October, when the spooky ruins host one of Germany’s biggest Halloween parties. After World War II, US troops were stationed at the nearby Rhein Mein Air Base. After their annual Halloween celebrations became a bit too rowdy for the barracks, in 1978 the soldiers moved their party to Castle Frankenstein – and the tradition has stuck ever since. The festival has grown over the years to be one of Europe’s largest Halloween celebrations, especially as Germany hasn’t traditionally celebrated the event. To mark the 200th anniversary of Shelley’s finishing her manuscript of her famous monster, the castle has chosen the classic Frankenstein story as its theme this year, complete with mad scientists, grave robbing and creepy experiments. Tickets are available from 21 October through 6 November.

The US will consider working with Russia but will stand up for its own interests, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has said. Mr Tillerson met Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on the sidelines of a G20 meeting in Germany as part of his first foreign trip in his new job. Meanwhile, US Defence Secretary James Mattis said Washington was not ready to collaborate militarily with Moscow. US President Donald Trump has called for improved ties with Moscow. But the new administration's diplomatic initiative comes as questions are raised about the Trump team's dealings with Russia dating back to last year's election campaign. US intelligence services have concluded that Moscow hacked into emails of President Donald Trump's Democratic opponents during the election. And three of Mr Trump's aides have been forced out over allegations about their links with Russia, including National Security Adviser Mike Flynn earlier this week. After his meeting with Mr Lavrov, Mr Tillerson said the US was willing to co-operate with Russia if Moscow lived up to its commitments. "As I made clear at my Senate confirmation hearing, the United States will consider working with Russia when we can find areas of practical co-operation that will benefit the American people.," he said. "Where we do not see eye to eye, the United States will stand up for the interests and values of America and her allies. The secretary of state added that he expected Russia to honour its commitment to the Minsk agreements aimed at ending the conflict in eastern Ukraine, and to work to stabilise the region. Mr Lavrov said the two sides had agreed to co-operate in areas where their interests coincided, particularly in the first against terrorism, over Syria and in other countries in the Middle East where "terrorism has put down roots". Mr Tillerson also met the UK's Boris Johnson and other foreign ministers from the G20, made up of developed economies and emerging nations including China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, South Africa and Brazil. At a Nato meeting in Brussels, Gen Mattis rejected calls by Russian Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu to "restore co-operation with the Pentagon". "We are not in a position right now to collaborate on a military level, but our political leaders will engage and try to find common ground or a way forward," he told reporters. The defence secretary said that Russia had to abide by international law, adding that there was "little doubt" that Moscow had interfered or attempted to interfere in several Western elections.

If you’re a computer technician, the computer geek in your street or just a user who likes to play around with Windows, something you’ll face quite often is re-installing the operating system. Assuming installing Windows itself goes without any problems, the nightmares can really start when Windows doesn’t have generic device drivers for some of the hardware components. You need to identify the brand and model of the hardware and sometimes you even need to look for drivers using another computer when there aren’t any driver CD’s to hand. When using a slow Internet connection it can take ages to even find a driver for a specific hardware component never mind downloading it, which could be in the hundreds of Megabytes. A simple solution is having a program to make installing Windows drivers an automated process which can be done from the local computer without having to use to the internet if you can help it. If you already have just about all drivers that would be needed for almost any machine stored on a CD/DVD or USB flash drive, it would take the hassle out of you finding, downloading and then installing them yourself. Here are 3 solutions for installing device drivers in Windows from a local source. 1. DriverPack Solution DriverPack Solution is a po[CENSORED]r Russian program to automatically install drivers for Windows XP, Vista, 7 and 8 for both 32-bit and 64-bit. It greatly simplifies the process of updating your system drivers or any other computer that needs new drivers installed. The program bases itself around the po[CENSORED]r DriverPacks set of compressed drivers which are packed with 7-Zip and contain thousands of different drivers for just about any piece of hardware. DriverPack Solution comes in two flavors, a Lite version and a DVD version. The Lite version is only around 10MB and doesn’t include any driverpacks, you select which packs you want from the program and they download via bittorrent. The DVD version comes as a 4GB+ pre-built ISO image with all the driverpacks included which you download also via BitTorrent and burn to a DVD disc. The major problem we encountered was the full DVD version was extremely poorly seeded, never having more than 1 during testing. The Lite version is much quicker because it uses the official DriverPacks torrents which have more seeds and will download far faster. The program will automatically scan for any drivers that need to be installed or can be updated. If missing drivers are found, simply click Update All, or if you want to see and control what’s installed, tick the Settings box, then tick Expert Mode. If you downloaded the Lite version the required driverpacks will need downloading. Do note that even if you choose to download no drivers at all, there’s still 700MB+ of updates, 3rd party programs and touchpad drivers which download by default and can’t be disabled. Once you have downloaded the driverpacks they will be stored in the default location of “C:\DriverPack Solution” and the contents of the folder can be copied to USB flash drive or burned to a CD/DVD. There is also a diagnostics option in the DriverPack Solution window which provides some basic information about your computer, a CPU temperature monitor, hard drive low space warning, a memory test and disk defrag. The system cleanup and antivirus options are really nothing more than affiliate links to other 3rd party software. A few other features on offer are a backup tab that can backup all the drivers in use to an executable file for restoring again later, and a Programs tab which offers to install a few Windows and 3rd party utilities. 2. DriverPacks Script File Although the DriverPacks driver archives are still the standard way to get hold of Windows drivers in compressed form, their DP Base utility is all but useless for this task now because it only supports creating a driver disc for XP, and then hasn’t been updated since 2010 to reflect newer updated packs. In their forums, a developer and forum member have created a batch script that works on Window XP, Vista and 7 (and 8 if you can find some DriverPacks) which will auto install the correct drivers from the DriverPack archives for your system. All you need is to download the packs you want and place them in the correct location. Here’s how to do it. 1. Download and extract the Stand Alone Driverpack utility (SAD 2.5) from the DriverPacks forum thread. The file is a 7-Zip archive so you need a compatible archiver to extract it. 2. Go to the DriverPacks website and download the packs you want. All DriverPacks are only available as torrent files these days, so you will need a torrent client to get them or use an online service such as BitLet. 3. Once you have all the needed DriverPacks, they need to be copied into the correct folders inside the SAD folder. XP DriverPacks – go in the NT5\x86 folder. Vista/7 32-bit DriverPacks – go in the NT6\x86 folder. Vista/7 64-bit DriverPacks – go in the NT6\x64 folder. There will be an example dummy 7z file in each folder. 4. After this, the contents of the whole SAD folder can be copied to hard drive, USB flash drive or burned onto a CD/DVD. When you want to install drivers simply run the DP_Install_Tool.cmd. You MUST run the tool as administrator. 5. The tool will ask you a few questions before extracting and installing the drivers. First it will ask if you want to keep the drivers after install. Yes is useful to keep the drivers for future reference. The next question will ask if you want to create a restore point. 6. Next you will be asked of you want the drivers not required by the system to be removed, press Y so it doesn’t extract non related driver archives. The tool then extracts the needed DriverPacks to C:\D\ and then installs the needed drivers. This may take a few minutes and you will be asked to restart the system afterwards. 3. DriverForge (XP only) DriverForge is a program that will automatically install all drivers from a specified location onto your Windows XP install. The tool actually works in quite a similar way to the DriverPacks script above and extracts the drivers from the DriverPacks archives and then installs them, but does it from the comfort of a graphical interface. It’s known not to be compatible with Windows Vista or 7. Here are the steps to do it. 1. Download DriverForge and place it in an empty folder. 2. Go to the DriverPacks page and download the packs you want. It can be anything in the Windows 2000/XP/2003 (x86) DriverPacks section but remember the files need to be downloaded using bittorrent so could take a while. Copy the downloaded .7z packs to the same folder where you put the DriverForge program. 3. You can then either burn the whole DriverForge folder to a CD or copy it to a USB flash drive. When you want to install drivers on a system, run the DriverForge tool. 4. Check “Restart when completed” as Windows usually requires a restart after installing drivers, and “Delete uncompressed drivers when completed” if you want to save some hard disk space. In the “Path to Compressed Driver Files Location” box, browse for the folder where DriverForge and the DriverPack files are located. 5. Click the Start button and it’ll automatically extract the drivers to install and then install them.

A premiere European manufacturer of air-based CPU coolers, Thermalright initially launched its value-based solutions under the Cogage brand. The True Spirit model line is what remains of those early attempts to crack the mainstream market, as Thermalright eventually put its own name on the original Cogage model. Years of price-conscious performance optimizations have led to it its latest iteration, the True Spirit Direct 140. The package includes a heat sink solution with 1.5”-thick (38mm), 140mm radiator, an oversized 152x140mm fan that’s 27mm thick, two sets of wire clips that enable installation of a second 140mm (or 152x140mm) fan, and an installation kit that goes from current CPUs all the way back to AMD socket AM2 and Intel LGA-775. Compared to early models, the half-based True Spirit 140 Direct uses direct contact, rather than encapsulated heat pipes. While some of Thermalright’s competitors have claimed performance superiority of this design for many years, our comparisons of similar coolers have proven those claims baseless. I’ve postulated that direct-contact pipes were a way to cut manufacturing cost without hurting performance, and Thermalright is pushing the second half of that hypothesis by not even flattening the pipes enough to fill most of the void between them. Rather than attempt to make its True Spirit 140 Direct base completely flat, Thermalright uses extreme contact pressure to get maximum thermal transfer from a reduced surface area. The installation kit therefore includes a heavy duty back brace designed to push against both the holes and the socket plate of LGA 115x/1366, a center plug to make it work on boards that have no support plate such as LGA-775 and AMD (using the four holes of the original clip bracket), and a separate set of standoffs for LGA-2011x (aka, v1 and v3). The small plastic washers provide additional clearance for components on the back of a motherboard, which is a fairly common concern on mini-ITX motherboards, and a separate (larger) set of plastic washers are used on AMD motherboards. Thermalright addresses the “extreme contact pressure” concern of Kaby Lake CPU owners with a shim that allows the CPU clip to press against the entire land grid, preventing it from bending back away from contacts. The large volume of damaged processors we’ve seen could make this shim a viable standalone product! And if the rumors of “resurrected” processors prove true, a shim like this could be used to reinforce the weakened LGA package. Special standoffs screw directly onto the integrated support bracket of our LGA 2011-v3 motherboard. Users of other sockets will find a different set of standoffs, with plastic insulating washers stuck on one side, to secure the support plate shown two images above. The standoffs are topped with the chrome ring-shaped bracket, which is secured to the top of the standoffs with another four screws. After applying thermal paste to the point that it fills the gaps between heat pipes, the CPU cooler’s integrated bracket screws to the ring-shaped bracket, as shown. Small grooves in the heat sink’s fins are designed to hold included rubber tubes, which reduces the transmission of fan vibration. Clipping the fan to the heat sink and plugging it into the board finalizes the True Spirit 140 installation. It’s important to note that the clip wires should be inserted prior to heat sink installation, as outlined in the manual, to assure motherboard component clearance.

A Ford GT supercar formerly owned by Formula 1 driver Jenson Button MBE is for sale at auction next week when it is estimated to sell for £250,000 to £300,000. The Ford GT was advanced for its day, employing an aluminium chassis clothed in superplastic-formed composite and aluminium body panels. Button’s car was finished in a Le Mans 24 Hours-inspired colour scheme of white with blue stripes - the machine closely resembled Ford’s Le Mans-winning GT40 racers. Powered by a mid-mounted, hand-built, supercharged quad-cam 550bhp V8 engine mated to a six-speed manual transaxle and featuring racing-derived suspension and braking systems, the GT accelerates from 0-60mph in 3.5sec, with a maximum of 205mph before the speed limiter kicks in. The 2005 Ford GT is one of five cars denoted “VIP” by Ford out of only 101 supplied to Europe, which Ford of Britain then allocated to Button in May 2005, while he was racing for the BAR in F1. He took delivery through Swiss Ford GT dealer Grimm in Geneva that August and the car was subsequently registered in the UK in 2006. This car was acquired by the current owner in 2011 and has covered only 8,350 miles. It will be supplied with a history file including stamps and invoices from Mountune and two services by Ford GT expert GT101, as well as copies of the order form signed by Button. Will Smith, sales manager, Silverstone Auctions, said: “The Ford GT is part of a rare class of modern cars that instantly become collectable and have become more and more sought-after. “Given its inimitable heritage, prolific performance, stunning design, and thrilling driving experience, the Ford GT is a very special creation that will undoubtedly be revered for many years to come. In addition, it was once Jenson Button’s, adding even more exciting provenance and collectability to this particular example.” The ex-Button Ford GT will be offered during Silverstone Auctions’ sale at the Race Retro historic racing and rallying show taking place at Stoneleigh Park, Warwickshire on February 24-26. The Race Retro show also includes the Bentley Speed 8, believed to be valued at £10 million, in which Tom Kristensen won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2003. Kristensen, the most successful driver ever at Le Mans, will be present. Other vehicles of note include John Surtees’ F1 team’s Ford DFV-powered racers. The TS7 was Team Surtees’ first F1 car and made its debut at the British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch in 1970. The TS14 was raced in 1972 and was driven by Mike Hailwood and Carlos Pace. Hailwood took second place at the Italian Grand Prix and the team finished fifth in the Constructors’ Championship, just behind Ferrari. Adding to the DFV 50th anniversary celebrations will be James Hunt’s McLaren M23, the Williams FW08 raced to the F1 title in 1982 and the Lotus 49B R10, along with the famous six-wheeled Tyrrell. Rally legends Markku Alén and Ari Vatanen are also represented, with an ex-works Fiat 131 Abarth, and a Ford Escort 1700T they both drove in period. The Live Rally Stage will se them reacquainted with the Subaru Legacy they drove in the early 1990s. Vatanen will also drive a Rothmans Escort. The Live Rally Stage will also feature famous cars such as the Opel Manta 400, Ford Escort RS1800 and Sierra Cosworth, Subaru Impreza 555, and the late Colin McRae’s Ford Focus WRC. For all the latest news, advice and reviews from Telegraph Cars, sign up to our weekly newsletter by entering your email here

We all have our idea of a perfect pub Sunday lunch. Mine involves driving in my friend’s blue MG Midget, with the roof off, to a country pub. It overlooks the village green where the local cricket team is playing. We walk into the pub, ducking slightly under the low beams. It’s not too full and the atmosphere is relaxed, yet buzzing. We go to the bar and order drinks – a pint and a half of bitter – and two plates of roast beef. When the food arrives, the rib of beef is pink; the Yorkshire pudding tall and crisp; the potatoes crisp on the outside, fluffy and salty within. The vegetables are a just-cooked vibrant green and the gravy is dark brown, thick and plentiful. When our plates are cleared we are asked if we want pudding and, even though we’re stuffed, we can’t resist the apple crumble. It arrives with a thick layer of crisp and crunchy crumble – hopefully involving oats – and a stewed...

Throughout the confusion of Donald Trump's campaign and the chaotic events of his early days in the White House, one controversy has clung to the Trump train like glue: Russia. The sudden departure of Michael Flynn from his role as national security adviser on Monday was the latest in a string of controversies tying the administration to apparent Russian interests. Mr Flynn resigned after misleading the president, and Vice-President Mike Pence, over whether he discussed sanctions with Russia's ambassador in the weeks before Mr Trump took office - which would violate a law that prohibits private citizens from conducting diplomacy. It was back in May 2016 that the first reports emerged of hackers targeting the Democratic Party. Over the next two months, the reports suggested US intelligence agencies had traced the breaches back to Russian hackers. In July, on the eve of the Democratic National Convention, Wikileaks published 20,000 internal emails stolen by the hackers. US intelligence officials said they believed with "high confidence" that Russia was behind the operation, but the Trump campaign publicly refused the accept the findings. Instead, at a press conference, Mr Trump caused outrage by inviting Russian hackers to target Hillary Clinton's controversial personal email server, saying: "Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing". About the same time the hacking scandal was beginning to unfold, Mr Trump's then campaign manager, Paul Manafort, was accused of accepting millions of dollars in cash for representing Russian interests in Ukraine and US, including dealings with an oligarch with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. While Mr Manafort was running the campaign, the Republican Party changed the language in its manifesto regarding the conflict in Ukraine, removing anti-Russian sentiment, allegedly at the behest of two Trump campaign representatives. Mr Manafort was investigated by the FBI and quit as Mr Trump's campaign chairman. Like Mr Flynn, Mr Manafort, a political operative with more than 40 years' experience, was supposed to marshal some of the chaos and controversy around Mr Trump, but ended up falling prey to it. In December, the FBI and Department of Homeland Security published a report of the US intelligence findings linking Russia to the hack. In response, President Barack Obama expelled 35 Russian diplomats and levied new sanctions on Russia. The world awaited Mr Putin's response but he chose not retaliate. Mr Trump, by then the president-elect, sided with the Russian president, tweeting: "Great move on delay (by V. Putin) - I always knew he was very smart!" Mr Putin's decision not to respond in kind struck many as a canny PR move, but reportedly set off suspicions among US intelligence officials that Russia was confident the sanctions would not last. The same month, Mr Trump picked Rex Tillerson as his nominee for secretary of state, arguably the most important job in the cabinet. The biggest hurdle for Mr Tillerson's confirmation? Close ties to Mr Putin. As CEO of the ExxonMobil oil company, Mr Tillerson cultivated a close personal relationship with the Russian leader, leading many to speculate on whether he was fit to serve as America's most senior foreign diplomat. In January, Buzzfeed published a dossier compiled by Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence official and Russia expert, which alleged that Moscow had compromising material on the then-president-elect, making him liable to blackmail. Among the various memos in the dossier was an allegation that Mr Trump had been recorded by Russian security services consorting with prostitutes at a Moscow hotel. Mr Trump dismissed the claims as fake news. CNN revealed that President Obama and President-elect Trump had been briefed on the existence of the dossier by intelligence officials, and Buzzfeed went one further, publishing the entire thing. The document went off like a hand grenade tossed into the already febrile political scene and generated a backlash against Buzzfeed for publishing what were essentially unverified claims. In February, the most concrete and damaging Russia scandal finally surfaced, months after suspicions were raised among intelligence officials. A Washington Post report said Mr Flynn had discussed the potential lifting of Mr Obama's Russia sanctions with the Russian ambassador, Sergei Kislyak, before Mr Trump took office. Mr Flynn, who had appeared regularly on Russian propaganda channel RT and once attended dinner with Mr Putin, resigned as Mr Trump's national security adviser, saying he had "inadvertently briefed the vice-president-elect and others with incomplete information regarding my phone calls with the Russian ambassador" late last year. It is illegal for private citizens to conduct US diplomacy. Mr Trump has made no secret of his regard for Mr Putin and his desire to establish closer ties with Russia. But the more pressing question, and one which the president just can't seem to shake, is just how close those ties already go.

The Swedish government has defended its decision to have its officials wear headscarves during a trip to Iran, saying that failing to do so would have broken the law. Trade Minister Ann Linde led a business team last week and faced criticism for wearing a headscarf, or hijab. Sweden says it has the world's first "feminist government". A prominent Iranian women's rights activist and Swedish politicians have criticised the decision."It is ruinous to what is called a feminist foreign policy" said Liberal party chief Jan Bjorklund, who said Iran oppressed women through legislation. The Swedish government should have requested that female members of the delegation should not have been required to wear a headscarf, he said, and that if the request were not granted any trade agreements should have been signed in Sweden or a third country. But Ms Linde told the Aftonbladet newspaper that she was not willing to break Iranian law. She said that since the only other option would be to send an all-male delegation, she was required to wear a headscarf. Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven was also in Iran and said he raised human rights issues with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. Masih Alinejad, an Iranian journalist and activist, posted an image of Swedish Deputy Prime Minister Isabella Lovin signing a climate bill surrounded by female colleagues earlier this month next to one of several female Swedish government officials wearing headscarves and greeting Mr Rouhani. The image of Ms Lovin was widely seen as mocking a picture of Donald Trump signing an anti-abortion executive order surrounded by male aides and advisers. Women in the Swedish government "should have condemned an equally unfair situation in Iran," Ms Alinejad posted to My Stealthy Freedom, a po[CENSORED]r Facebook page she runs that encourages Iranian women to post pictures of themselves without the hijab. "Because if you are feminists and you care about equality then you should challenge inequality everywhere," she told the BBC. "They must stand for their own values." In 2015, several media reports noted that former US First Lady Michelle Obama did not wear a headscarf during a visit to Saudi Arabia after the death of King Abdullah, although numerous foreign female leaders and dignitaries had previously done so. Foreign women are not required to wear a headscarf in the country, unlike in Iran. Ms Linde said she would not wear one during an upcoming visit to Saudi Arabia.

This healthy take on a traditional chicken pie is packed with extra veggies thanks to its cauliflower mash topping. This meal provides 522 kcal, 61g protein, 17g carbohydrate (of which 14g sugars), 23g fat (of which 11g saturates), 13.5g fibre and 1.6g salt per portion. Ingredients For the pie filling 1 tbsp ghee 2 leeks, trimmed, sliced 2 large celery stalks, trimmed, diced 1 bay leaf 500ml/17fl oz hot chicken stock, preferably homemade 4 carrots, sliced 1 small fennel bulb, outer leaves removed, flesh diced 250g/9oz mushrooms, sliced 600g/1lb 5oz cooked leftover roast chicken large handful chopped fresh flatleaf parsley salt and freshly ground black pepper For the pie topping 1.2kg/2lb 10oz cauliflower, outer leaves removed, florets chopped into 5cm/2in pieces 4 garlic cloves, peeled and left whole 50g/2oz butter salt and freshly ground black pepper Method 1.Preheat the oven to 220C/200C Fan/Gas 7. 2.Heat the ghee in a frying pan over a medium heat. Add the leeks and fry for 4-5 minutes, or until softened but not browned. Add the celery and bay leaf and increase the heat to high. Fry for 1-2 minutes. 3.Add the chicken stock to the pan and bring to the boil, then add the carrots, fennel and mushrooms and reduce the heat until the mixture is simmering. Continue to simmer the mixture until the volume of liquid has reduced and thickened, and the vegetables are tender, about 12-15 minutes. 4.Meanwhile, for the topping, put the cauliflower, garlic cloves and half of the butter in a large, lidded saucepan. Add 4 tablespoons of water and cover. 5.Bring the pan contents to a simmer over a medium heat and steam for 6-8 minutes, or until the cauliflower is tender when pierced with a knife (add a splash more water during cooking if necessary). Remove from the heat and transfer the contents to a food processor. Blend to your consistency of choice - either smooth and creamy or roughly textured. Season witth salt and pepper. 6.To finish the pie filling, remove the bay leaf and add the remaining filling ingredients to the pan. Season with salt and pepper. Stir well, then transfer the mixture to an ovenproof pie dish. 7.Spoon the pie topping over the filling and spread into an even layer using a palette knife. Use a fork to create a criss-cross pattern on top of the filling. Dot the top of the pie with the remaining butter. 8.Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the filling is bubbling and the topping is golden-brown.

It is common for people especially who are in the tech industry to have more than 1 computer at home with one laptop that they can bring in to their office and the other desktop for their family to use. Setting up a local area network with the computers connected to each other is really easy with a router. When the computers are connected, not only they can share the Internet connection and files, but they can also be managed remotely from one computer as there are many free third party networking tools that comes with remote features. Some examples are ProduKey and USBDeview by Nir Sofer, USB History Viewer, USB Remote Drive Disabler and Enable Remote Desktop by IntelliAdmin and the excellent PsExec by Windows Sysinternals. Even the built-in Registry Editor (regedit) in Windows has the functionality of connecting to a network registry. As useful as the remote features are in the networking tools, the biggest problem is they don’t seem to work even if you entered the correct username and password. It is common to receive an error message that says “Access is denied” like the image below. The access denied problem is actually caused by Windows default hardened security settings preventing the tools to work. If you would like to use the networking tools on remote computers, here are the configuration that must be made on the remote computer before you can connect to them. 1. User Account Password We are putting this as a requirement because Windows does not force you to set a password during installation. So it is possible that your account does not have a password. For the remote functions to work, you will need to create a password for your user account. Make sure that the user account belongs to a group that has proper permissions. Go to Control Panel. In Windows 7, the control panel is located in the Start menu while in Windows 8, right click on anywhere at the Start screen and click on “All apps” icon at the bottom right. The Control Panel icon is in the list. Then go to User Accounts and Family Safety > User Accounts > Manage Another Account > click on the user that you want to set a password > Create a password. Type in your password twice and click the “Create password button”. 2. Remote Registry Service The Remote Registry service has been disabled by default since Windows Vista and is only automatically enabled in Windows XP. This service needs to be started and optionally set to automatic startup type if you need connect to the remote computer next time. Simultaneously press Win+R to launch the Run window, type services.msc at the Run box and click OK. At the Services window, look for Remote Registry on the list and double click on it to open up the properties window. Click the drop down menu for Startup type, select “Automatic” and click Apply. Then click the Start button. 3. Firewall The File and Printer Sharing services must be excluded in the built-in Windows Firewall. If you are on Windows 8, you can skip this step because it is allowed by default. However for XP, Vista and 7 users, you will need to allow the feature through Windows Firewall, or alternatively disable the Firewall. Go to Control Panel > System and Security > Allow a program through Windows Firewall. Click on “Change settings” button and tick on the “File and Printer Sharing” option for Home/Work. If you need to do it remotely via the Internet, make sure Public is checked as well. Click OK. 4. User Account Control User Account Control was first introduced in Windows Vista and it blocks changes and commands that is capable of corrupting the operating system. Some tools requires higher privilege to run and to fix this, you can either disable the User Account Control or alternatively just disable UAC remote restrictions by running this simple registry file or the Microsoft Fix it 50005 tool. 5. Sharing and Security Model Windows XP comes with Simple File Sharing option enabled by default to easily and quickly create shared folders to share files. You will need to disable the Simple File Sharing option and use the classic mode instead. Go to Control Panel > Folder Options > View tab > scroll right to the bottom and uncheck “Use simple file sharing”. Although Simple File Sharing is only available in Windows XP, you can also check if the classic sharing mode is being used in Vista, 7 and 8 instead of Guest mode. Go to Control Panel > Administrative Tools and run Local Security Policy. Then expand Security Settings > Local Policies > Security Options > and look for “Network access: Sharing and security model for local accounts. Make sure that the “Classic – local users authenticate as themselves” option is selected instead of “Guest only – local users authenticate as Guest”. Once all of the above conditions are met, you should be able to run remote commands on another computer instead of getting the dreaded “Access is Denied” error. As you can see at the screenshot below, I have successfully ran a remote command prompt process on my other computer.

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It’s hard to imagine a more difficult buying decision than one in a new product category like virtual reality, especially when innovation seems to be happening in the blink of an eye. We’ll witness many changes in VR platforms in the coming years, including significant enhancements to the VR ecosystem, like eye tracking inside HMDs, peripherals and controllers that add more realism to games, hand and gesture tracking, and various forms of precision body tracking. These are the early days of VR and you’d be excused for sitting on the sidelines for a while. For one thing, the cost of entry is nothing to sneeze at. On top of the already steep cost for your HMD, you’ll need a powerful gaming PC just to get started. For the Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive, you’ll need a GTX 970 or R9 290 or better on the GPU side of things. The current generation of mid-range GPUs, AMD's RX 480 and Nvidia’s GTX 1060, should provide an enjoyable experience, which brings the cost of a VR-ready system down a little bit, but you still need a powerful CPU. If you don’t have a modern Intel Core i5 or i7, or one of AMD's top chips, you’ll be due for an upgrade to achieve enjoyable performance in VR. Still, the first generation of virtual reality hardware already delivers an incredibly compelling and indescribable experience. If you’re not afraid of being an early technology adopter, and you want to have a front row seat to the next wave of gaming and computing experiences, today’s options are definitely worth considering.

Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat The Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat has the sound that cars had back in the day before regulations and emissions control took some of the fun, and pollutants, away. Dodge went back to 1970 when they brought back the Challenger, so it makes sense that some of the sound returned alongside the name and shape. This special version of the Challenger has a 6.2-liter engine with supercharger that can propel the car to 200 mph. The V-8 is connected to an 8-speed transmission. Pagani Zonda Cinque With a price that was around $2,000,000, a lot was expected from the Pagani Zonda, Cinque and the noise it makes gives the impression that a Formula 1 race is about to begin. It delivers in the sound category. A V12 Mercedes-AMG 678 CV engine produces the roar. It is a special car with special features, like its carbon-titanium frame. The sound also comes out of something rare on a car – the exhaust is an Inconel and titanium exhaust system that is coated with ceramic. Lamborghini Aventador It isn’t just the history, name, doors and performance that drivers want when they buy a Lamborghini; it is also the ear-splitting sound coming out of the exhaust. The Lamborghini Aventador provides that. Its V-12 doesn’t just make a loud noise; it is the right type of loud. At this YouTube video, you can hear Lamborghini Aventadors roar through the streets and tunnels of Monaco. Lexus LFA While Lexus started with luxury as a key part of their brand, performance would become just as important. The LFA was the result of ten years of research and engineering at Lexus, and for that, they got a supercar with the right look and sound. One thing that Chief Engineer Haruhiko Tanahashi and his staff at Lexus wanted, as they worked in conjunction with Yamaha and their sound engineers, was a great exhaust note that covered the spectrum “from a rumbling idle note to a redline wail” and they achieved that with their 4.8-liter V-10. Porsche Carrera GT A very fast supercar has a very appropriate exhaust note. This Porsche has a 5.7-liter V-10 engine that can push it over 200 mph, and a sound that is the right combination of a powerful growl and a fast shriek.

Federal circuit courts usually toil in anonymity. They are a legal rest stop for landmark cases on the way to the Supreme Court. But this week it was different. All eyes were on three judges of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, who, for a brief moment, had the fate of Donald Trump's immigration order in their hands. They were considering whether to sustain a temporary injunction preventing implementation of Mr Trump's sweeping travel ban on seven predominantly Muslim nations. On Thursday night they gave their ruling. Mr Trump's order stayed on ice. Here are three things we learned from the ruling - and two questions that remain unanswered. 1. The immigration ban is going nowhere fast The Ninth Circuit was the Trump administration's best chance to get the president's immigration order up and running again quickly. The three judges could have re-instated the order and closed the borders as early as Thursday night. Instead, the order remains in limbo and it's likely to take time to resolve. The Supreme Court could hear an appeal, but the chances of more than four justices agreeing to reverse the Ninth Circuit ruling seem slim. Is Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor, Stephen Breyer or Elena Kagan going to side with Mr Trump? Not likely. If this goes back down to the district court in Seattle, where it began, the gears of justice will grind even more slowly. A trial on the merits - which is slated to happen next, pending Supreme Court action - is a slow process. Briefs need to be filed. Evidence has to be submitted. Oral arguments will be scheduled. These things can take months or even years. That's a painful lesson Barack Obama learned in 2015, when a district court judge blocked implementation of some of his immigration reforms and the Supreme Court didn't hear the case for more than a year. 2. The case will be no slam-dunk for Trump This may seem obvious now, but on Thursday the president was fairly certain that his case was open-and-shut when he read what he viewed as the governing immigration statute to a gathering of law enforcement officers. "You can be a lawyer, or you don't have to be a lawyer; if you were a good student in high school or a bad student in high school, you can understand this," he said. "And it's really incredible to me that we have a court case that's going on so long." Some conservatives, as well, wrote that the governing laws were clear that the president has broad powers when dealing with immigration issues. "For all except the most partisan, it is likely impossible to read the Washington state lawsuit... and not come away with the conclusion that the Trump order is on sound legal and constitutional ground." In the end, however, the three justices - two appointed by Democrats and one nominated by Republican George W Bush - saw things differently. While they acknowledged the president's authority on immigration matters, they said the statute Mr Trump cited was not the final word on the matter. "Although our jurisprudence has long counselled deference to the political branches on matters of immigration and national security, neither the Supreme Court nor our court has ever held that courts lack the authority to review executive action in those arenas for compliance with the Constitution," the judges wrote. In other words, federal immigration law may have been on Mr Trump's side, but the Constitution wasn't. 3. The haphazard rollout hurt the order At the heart of the Ninth Circuit's decision to uphold the injunction against Mr Trump's order was that it violated the constitutional due process rights of all persons in the US, regardless of their citizenship or immigration status. And time and time again the judges pointed to how the order was initially implemented as reason for keeping it on hold. They wrote that permanent residents and lawful visa holders were not given "constitutionally sufficient notice and an opportunity to respond". While they noted that the Trump administration had since interpreted the order as allowing all permanent residents into the US, they were unconvinced that this new interpretation would be uniformly followed or safe from reversal. They said that the travel ban caused considerable harm, including the separation of families, stranding of US residents abroad and prevention of students and employees from travelling to American universities. A more measured, orchestrated rollout of the immigration order may have avoided these complications, weakening the case against it. Mr Trump said on Wednesday that speed was necessary in implementing the ban because otherwise a "whole pile of bad people, perhaps with very evil intentions" would enter the country before border restrictions tightened. Here, however, haste may have killed his legal case. 1. Is the immigration order anti-Muslim? Shortly after the Ninth Circuit issued its opinion, Nevada Democratic Senator Catherine Cortez Masto released a statement saying that the court "reaffirms that President Trump's hateful and divisive executive order amounts to religious discrimination against Muslims". While the decision was certainly a blow for the Trump administration, the judges were notably restrained in discussing the religious issue. "The states' claims raise serious allegations and present significant constitutional questions," the judges wrote. Then they said they wouldn't consider the question further, since they had already decided the case on due process grounds. They did offer one clue as to how they might eventually rule, however. The Trump administration had insisted that the order must be judged on its own, without taking into consideration past remarks made by Mr Trump and his supporters touting a "Muslim ban". The judges disagreed. "It is well established that evidence of purpose beyond the face of the challenged law may be considered in evaluating Establishment and Equal Protection Clause claims." In other words, when it comes time to consider whether the order amounted to a de facto Muslim ban, everything is on the table - Trump tweets, Rudy Giuliani diatribes and all. 2. What happens next? Now that the Ninth Circuit has rendered its decision, the ball is firmly in the Trump administration's court. They could appeal to the US Supreme Court, where the eight justices - four liberal, four conservative - can consider as much, or as little, of the ruling as they see fit. Mr Trump certainly seemed to hint that this was the next step, tweeting: "SEE YOU IN COURT, THE SECURITY OF OUR NATION IS AT STAKE!" shortly after the ruling. The administration could also decide to let the circuit court's decision stand and fight out the case in a full trial back in the Seattle district court. This would buy the president time to get his Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch, confirmed by the Republican-held Senate. Then, when the case eventually made its way to the high court, his chances of victory could be markedly improved. Whatever happens, it's clear that this case will be a political football. The fight will be personal, and it will be ugly.

Will you be spending Valentine’s Day – this year falling on a pretty humdrum Tuesday – with your loved one, friends or yourself? All equally satisfying options so long as the company is good. Valentine’s Day gets a bad rap:out of all the days of the year to grandly express your love, it’s the one day that often ends up feeling coerced, overpriced and veering on schmaltzy. You may be adamant that 14 February is a day you’d rather miss altogether, after all who wants to pay through the nose for average-looking flowers, chocolate and Champagne? And why isn’t there a day to celebrate being single and free? But I feel there’s a small part in all of us that still wants some sort of recognition to be given, however microscopic to our inner Valentine. egardless of which side you’re coming from, we can all agree it’s intimate, and a bit of a treat, to open up a bottle of something special on the day – each sip recalling a memory of your first date, a care-free holiday with friends under the Tuscan sun, or just total relief the day is over and you can enjoy the slow calm of the evening ahead. I don’t think you have to get caught up in the frenzy of overspending on Valentine’s Day. There are affordable options with great quality, if you take the time to look. So create a memory that makes you feel special this year. Show yourself, or another, the colour of your love with these pink and red options. Dumangin Fils. Brut Rosé £35.70, YappBrothers.co.uk An attractive, delicate pink in colour, with wild raspberry on the nose and palate, this is a blend of 50 per cent Chardonnay, 40 per cent Pinot Noir and 10 per cent Pinot Meunier. Fine bubbles and an unexpectedly saline, tangy finish beautifully balance out the red-fruit juiciness. Domaine des Rouges-Queues Maranges 1er Cru Clos Roussots, Burgundy 2013 £24.70, NaturalVine.co.uk In the tiny village of Sampigny-les-Maranges, at the southern end of Burgundy’s Côte de Beaune lies Domaine des Rouges-Queues. Husband-and-wife team, Isabelle and Jean-Yves Vantey started the vineyard in 1998 with only one hectare of Pinot Noir. A labour of love, they have now expanded to six hectares across eight different appellations, working with biodynamic methods since 2008. This Burgundy is fresh and light-bodied with a flourish of juicy red cherry and raspberry, framed by structured tannins. Perfect with some light conversation. Dominique Piron, Saint-Amour, Beaujolais 2015 £14, MarksandSpencer.com One of the 10 Cru villages producing superior Beaujolais, Saint-Amour is the most northerly and this 2015 from Dominique Piron is a well-priced example of the complexity and elegance Beaujolais is capable of. Made from old-vine Gamay, this is ripe with crunchy berries and a touch of violet. Medium-bodied and well structured, this is a great match for cosy dishes including lamb chops, grilled pork or cassoulets. Albert Levasseur Extrait Gourmand Brut Rosé £40, RedSquirrelWine.com From grandparents to grandson, Albert Levasseur is a small grower house, founded in 1944. Now run by grandson David, who blends predominantly Meunier and Chardonnay grapes with 20 per cent from Pinot Noir, a small portion of which is taken from the red wine of Coteaux Champenois (the AOC for still wine production in the same Champagne region). On opening the stylish, opaque bottle, the pale salmon-pink liquid reveals mature notes of green fruit, cherry, seductive strawberries and vanilla. With a relatively higher dosage of 10g/L, and full of flavour, this is one to crack open with a good spread of sushi, or aromatic and spicy dishes from India, Thailand or China. Graham Beck, Brut Rosé NV £11.99, Majestic.co.uk A great-value sparkling rosé, this is perfectly suited to enjoy with main courses or canapés – or to knock back all on its own. Crucially it’s easy to get hold of in the UK, making it even more perfect for those last-minute gifts and impromptu celebrations. It is made in the traditional method from hand-picked grapes from Robertson, Franschhoek and Stellenbosch, with sufficient bottle age to reveal notes of crushed red berries, cherry and raspberry. The fruit is perfectly balanced with refreshing acidity, leaving a deliciously moreish finish.

Most computer users like to make things easier for themselves because there can be a lot of pointing and clicking while using your PC. Although keyboard shortcuts are a big time saver, many people are not proficient enough using just a keyboard and prefer to use a mouse to perform tasks. One thing you can do is use gestures and they are more common than you might think. Phones, tablets and touch screen computers use gestures all the time. Actions like swiping from side to side, pinch zoom or even sliding down to scroll are all types of gestures. For a traditional keyboard and mouse things are a bit different. A mouse gesture is simply pressing a mouse button and dragging the mouse in a specified direction or pattern. Windows has no built in method to use an ordinary mouse gesture to do things like open programs or execute keyboard shortcuts. They are quite common in web browsers though, with Opera, Vivaldi, Cent Browser, Slimjet and others having the feature built in. Failing that, Firefox and Chrome extensions for mouse gesture are available. Having mouse gestures in a supported web browser is one thing but if you want to use them within Windows itself, Internet Explorer/Edge or your favorite software, a third party solution is needed. Here we show you 5 mouse gesture programs to make your computing tasks a bit easier. All were tested in Windows 7 and 10. While StrokesPlus is free and reasonably up to date, the developer is working on a new version. That will be shareware though and means development of the free version will likely be just the odd minor update. This program is feature rich but it comes at a cost, StrokesPlus is not very user friendly and requires scripting to get it working. There is ample online help available , which is needed as you will be referring to it a lot getting your gestures to work. There are around 35 already configured gestures which cover global actions in all programs, Windows Explorer and Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer. Adding a new program to the list is quite easy and you only have to click the Add App button, give it a name and drag the find window target icon over an open window of your program. Then click Apply. To add a gesture select the application and click Add Action, then you can choose from one of the known drag gestures or create your own. This part is quite powerful because it can also use the scroll wheel and rocker gestures. Adding an action is the difficult part and where Strokes Plus becomes problematic because it relies on small pieces of Lua Script and you have to know the right commands and syntax to get the action to work with the gesture. For instance, the hotkey for our screenshot software would be Ctrl+Shift+A, but in Lua Script the command would be “acSendKeys(“^+a”)”. It will take time and effort to get all the gestures you want. Strokes Plus also has an exclusion list, the option to use left/right/middle buttons as the trigger, custom hotkeys and a useful right click tray menu. It also has a portable version and amazingly only consumes around 300KB of RAM in the background. If you have patience and can persevere, Strokes Plus is a very good and powerful tool. 2. gMote The gMote software has not been updated since 2008 but it’s still a potentially useful tool. What might make it appealing is it’s a relatively good blend of being easy enough to use while still having enough features and functions for most users. Another plus is gMote comes as a portable program so no installation required. Adding a gesture to the program is quite simple, click on Create Gesture and draw a pattern in the window you wish to associate with that gesture. If you are not happy with it press Record again. Click the new gesture on the left and use the default action drop down to select what you want the gesture to do. The options are do nothing, open a program, open a folder, open a website, use a key combination or one of the predefined options for browser, media player or Windows (Explorer). 3. High Sign High Sign is open source and a bit old dating from 2009. The author of Strokes Plus is a former developer and pays credit to High Sign for making his program possible. It’s one of the easiest and cleanest mouse gesture programs to use but it lacks more advanced features. For instance, there is no exclusion list and the option to use another mouse button other than right was never finished. After install, High Sign starts in training mode which records any gesture you perform with the right mouse button held down. Double click the tray icon to turn training mode off or on. If you’re happy with the gesture, click Next and decide whether to apply it to all applications, a currently running application or one of four that are already defined. The number of available actions are slightly limited but should be adequate for many users. From the drop down you can select opening the default browser, send a hotkey combination, send keystrokes, run a command or program or mani[CENSORED]te an open window. The send keystrokes option is useful because you can send blocks of text to Word, Notepad or even online forms. Right clicking the tray icon allows you to view all entered gestures or view and edit the actions that have been applied to the gestures. By default the program comes with around 30 preset gestures for Explorer, Firefox, Internet Explorer and a general set for all applications. Go to Preferences to start High Sign in Gesture mode once you have finished training. The program uses about 15-20MB of memory while in use. Although High Sign works in Windows 10 it is a little inconsistent, working fine on some occasions and not others. 4. Just Gestures The author of Just Gestures released what he called probably the last version of the program in 2015, version 1.5. It was also made open source on Github so anyone else can continue the project if they want. Just Gestures has a reasonable combination of features and usability including whitelisting, blacklisting and an auto enable mode. A post install a wizard will popup asking which gestures to enable and which mouse button to hold down. Curve Gesture is the normal hold down and drag method, Double Button Combination is commonly known as rocker gestures while Wheel Button Combination can perform tasks by using the scroll wheel. 13 global gestures are already configured and another 6 are for the system’s default web browser. To create a gesture click the far left button in the toolbar, choose a gesture type from the category and whether the gesture will be global or applied to specific application. Gesture types are split into categories of window options, Windows shell, audio volume, media, internet, send keystrokes and wheel button actions. When using custom keystrokes make sure to use modifier key down first, then the shortcut key, then modifier key up. To finalize creating the gesture you need to supply the mouse drag movement. Hold the left mouse button and draw the shape in the box, and optionally give the curve a name at the bottom. Finally give the gesture itself a name and it will be created ready to use. Note that if you create two actions for the same gesture you may be presented with a small context menu asking which action to use. Just Gestures used around 20MB in the background. In Windows 10 use the 32-bit version even if you are using Windows 10 64-bit, or the gestures won’t work. 5. StrokeIt StrokeIt is another tool that unfortunately has not been updated recently, the last release was in 2010. What makes this program useful is it’s extremely light on system resources so is ideal for old or low power computers. The downside is the lack of help or documentation which it clearly needs because StrokeIt isn’t novice friendly. Although not perfect, we did find an old StrokeIt Wiki page at the Internet Archive which can help with how the built in gestures work. StrokeIt gives you a head start in terms of gestures because around 80 are preconfigured already. These include mIRC/AIM, Chrome, IE, Firefox, WMP, Photoshop and Winamp. Others like Outlook Express and Safari are probably of no use anymore. Some applications require updating though, for instance, Chrome needs a new application identifier. Click Add and drag the finder onto the Chrome window. This will add the Chrome_WidgetWin_1 class and make the gestures work on Chrome. Creating gestures is possibly a three step process. Optionally right click > New application to create a new program to use gestures in, then add an identifier dragging the finder tool onto the program’s window. Secondly, right click on the app > New Action and pick a gesture from the drop down list or create your own by dragging an unknown gesture. Click Add Gesture to add it to the action. Lastly right click on the new action > New Command. There’s a ton of commands to choose from, including internet options, monitor options, mani[CENSORED]ting windows, sending hotkeys or keystrokes, opening programs, an on screen display, even sounds or simple message boxes. Note that you can use the right, left or middle button to trigger the gestures, change it from the Prefs window. StrokeIt has minuscule memory usage of around 300KB while sitting in the tray.

Car enthusiasts can’t get enough of the BMW M2. The six-cylinder turbo rocketship oozes attitude, goes like stink and costs less than £45,000. Chuck in a brilliant engine note to create a car dripping in desirability – a proper return to form for the small, relatively affordable BMW performance car. But car enthusiasts also can’t get enough of the Porsche 718 Cayman. That’s for slightly different reasons. It too costs less than £50,000. It too also performs brilliantly. A more convincing junior 911 would be hard to imagine. There’s just one problem. It has a four-cylinder turbo engine instead of a six-cylinder. And this is something about which enthusiasts have, to put it mildly, not been wholly convinced. Because we’ve already reviewed them and readers made each piece our first and second most-po[CENSORED]r road tests of the year, we decided to bring them together at the tight and twisty Blyton Park circuit, to see how they matched up. Dan’s in the Porsche and Matt’s in the BMW. Each of them has already rated the car they’re driving as the best drive of the year just past. Each of them has pride at stake. Which aces it – a four-cylinder Porsche that thinks it’s a 911, or a six-cylinder BMW that thinks it’s a genuine M-car? Will one of the boys end up swallowing their pride as the other one howls into the victorious distance? Sit back and watch to find out…

Enermax is one of the oldest PSU OEMs around, and perhaps the only one that preferred selling designs under its own brand, rather than selling them to other companies. Only Sapphire has been allowed to use Enermax's platforms. A series of unfortunate events forced Enermax to eventually shut down its manufacturing line, so now it relies on the work of other OEMs, including Channel Well Technology (CWT) and Yue-Lin. With its Platimax D.F. family, Enermax partnered up with Fortech Electronics, a division of Colorful Group (CFG). Chaintech and Segotep belong to CFG, the first brand dealing with graphics cards and mainboards, while the second sells cases and PSUs. The subject of today's review is the Platimax D.F 500W. It's a mid-capacity PSU with interesting features like Dust Free Rotation (DFR) technology. According to Enermax, DFR allows the fan to automatically remove dust from its blades by spinning in reverse and at full speed during the PSU's start-up phase. Another catchy feature is the Sleemax cable design, which describes the individually sleeved cables and nice braiding that Enermax uses. Unfortunately, this feature is probably why the EPF500AW costs as much as $140, making it one of the most expensive 500W PSUs out there. Enermax's second-gen Twister Bearing fan is notable as well, as it's rated for an exceptionally long 160,000-hour life. Most sleeve bearing fans are close to 30,000 hours, while good double ball-bearing and FDB/HDB fans exceed 50,000 to 60,000 hours. Besides its extra-long lifetime, this bearing type makes it easy to detach the fan's rotor thanks to the "Click Mechanism." This means you can clean the rotor and remove any dust that does accumulate. The EPF500AWT is 80 PLUS Platinum-certified, and is able to deliver full power at up to 50°C, continuously. Most protection features are present with the exception of OTP, which we feel is essential to every PSU. We can't help but wonder why manufacturers find it so difficult to incorporate this protection capability in their designs. It really saves the day when a fan goes out, for example. Heat is a PSU's worst enemy, affecting its short-term stability and long-term reliability. The general rule is that a 10°C increase in a capacitor's operating temperature reduces its lifetime by 50%. A seemingly odd-diameter 139mm cooling fan is used because 140mm fans are patented. This might sound unbelievable, but indeed someone was smart enough to patent the use of 140mm fans in PSUs. Of course, there's a workaround for everything. Despite the EPF500AWT's high efficiency, Enermax doesn't implement a semi-passive mode. This is absolutely fine with us. In fact, we prefer to keep the fan spinning at all times so at least some air is moving over heat-sensitive components. Finally, the dimensions are normal for a 500W PSU. We would like to see a longer warranty given Enermax's premium price tag. The individually sleeved cables aren't cheap, but $140 for 500W of capacity is incredibly steep. That's going to negatively affect the EPF500AWT's performance per dollar score, to be sure.

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Earlier on Saturday, volunteers had refloated some 100 of the more than 400 pilot whales which beached on Thursday. But a human chain, with volunteers wading neck-deep into the water, failed to prevent a fresh pod making landfall. The whale stranding, at Farewell Spit at the top of South Island, is one of the worst ever in New Zealand. Dozens of volunteers turned out to help. More than 300 of the 400 original arrivals died while medics and members of the public tried to keep survivors alive by cooling them with water. It is hoped that those of the new arrivals that survive can be moved back out to sea during the next high tide in daylight on Sunday. It is not clear why the whales continue to arrive on the 5km-long (three mile-long) beach next to Golden Bay. One theory is that they may have been driven on to land by sharks, after bite marks were found on one of the dead whales. Herb Christophers of New Zealand's department of conservation told the BBC that the whales were trying to get round the top of South Island, but if their navigation went wrong they ended up on the beach. In the shallower waters, the animals' use of echolocation was impaired. "It's a very difficult place if you get lost in there and you are a whale," he said. Experts say that whales that become beached will send out distress signals attracting other members of their pod, who then also get stranded by a receding tide. Andrew Lamason, from New Zealand's department of conservation, said those refloated had been tagged, whereas the latest arrivals were not, indicating that they were a new group. He said 20 whales had been humanely killed by conservation workers as they were in a poor condition. Officials have also been looking into how best to dispose of the whale carcasses. Mr Lamason said that simply towing them out to sea could be problematic as they may become gaseous and buoyant and float into po[CENSORED]ted bays. The latest incident in New Zealand was first reported on Thursday evening, but conditions were too dangerous at the time to launch a rescue operation. New Zealand has one of the highest stranding rates in the world, with about 300 dolphins and whales ending up on beaches every year, according to Project Jonah. Many of these incidents happen at Farewell Spit. In February 2015 about 200 whales beached themselves at the same location, of which at least half died.

Imagine for a moment you can get fit, toned and lose weight by doing as little as three minutes exercise a week. Sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it? Yet latest research, by scientists at Loughborough University, shows that short bursts of high intensity exercise can be just as beneficial for health as spending hours doing conventional exercise. "Current government guidelines recommend that we exercise at moderate intensity for at least 150 minutes a week," says Professor Jamie Timmons, Professor of Systems Biology, School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences at Loughborough University. "It works out at 20 minutes a day, or at 30 minutes, five times a week. But, in reality, most people don’t do this. Only five per cent of us do the recommended amount of exercise. ‘For the rest, the most common excuse for not exercising is lack of time. There are also people who simply don’t want to spend hours jogging, running or working out." So, what are the options if you want to improve your fitness levels but are too busy or unmotivated to exercise? If this sounds like you, then HIT (high intensity training) might be worth a try. The Independent is working with AXA PPP healthcare to provide affordable health insurance to Independent customers. Click here for more information, PLUS a FREE £50 M&S Voucher when you take out a plan*. Exercise just got simple Basically, HIT is a quicker, simpler version of interval training – where you do a number of short bursts of intense exercise with short recovery breaks in-between. With HIT 80 per cent of the body’s muscles are activated, compared with 20–40 per cent when exercising moderately. Professor Timmons has even devised a very simple HIT formula. "All you have to do is exercise three times a week for three bursts of 20 seconds, with a two-minute break in-between each 20-second burst. The only piece of exercise equipment you need is a stationary exercise bike. Or use a regular cycle or rowing machine. High impact activities, e.g. running, walking, jogging or jumping, are not recommended as they put too much stress on the muscles." Anyone can do HIT: "It doesn’t matter if you’re overweight or completely unfit," says Professor Timmons. "HIT is totally self-limiting; 20 seconds is very short, with no danger of overdoing it. There is no need to measure your heart rate. You do your maximum effort for 20 seconds. This will vary from person to person. You can expect to see improvements in about 4 weeks." But is it natural to exercise so sporadically? "You only have to look at animals in the wild," says Professor Timmons. "They spend most of their time sitting around and only break into action for very short periods at a time to catch their dinner. I think it’s the same with people. We’re not genetically programmed to be on the go all the time." The Independent is working with AXA PPP healthcare to provide affordable health insurance to Independent customers. Click here for more information, PLUS get a FREE £50 M&S Voucher when you take out a plan*. The health benefits Professor Timmons and his team of researchers have conducted 10 clinical studies looking at the health benefits of HIT. These have shown HIT can improve aerobic fitness, tone muscles, speed up metabolism and reduce diabetes risk factors. One study showed insulin sensitivity was improved by 24 per cent. "Maximal intense exercise enables the body to handle blood glucose more efficiently after eating – and, this may help people to avoid Type 2 diabetes," says Professor Timmons. "The findings are very clear. We can now state that to improve aerobic fitness you do not need to do 150 minutes of jogging a week. Three minutes of HIT can also do it." There will be further studies later in the year. Professor Timmons also hopes that employers recognise the potential health benefits of HIT. "In my opinion," he says, "anyone who employs large numbers of people should install an exercise bike on the premises. This is a simple way to keep healthy and fit. You don’t need much time, or to change and shower. Yet, the benefits in terms of employee health and wellbeing are immense." HIT All you have to do is use a standard exercise bike. You’ll find these at all reputable gyms. Or, if you think the benefits are worth it, consider investing in one that you can use at home. You can also use a rowing machine or regular bicycle. First warm up with some gentle pedalling Cycle as fast as you can for 20 seconds Rest or pedal gently for two minutes, while you catch your breath Cycle flat out for 20 seconds Rest or pedal gently for two minutes Cycle at maximum capacity for 20 seconds Rest or pedal gently for two minutes Repeat this HIT workout three times a week for a minimum of four to 12 weeks. Sprint interval training SIT (sprint interval training) is another short duration, high-intensity workout regime that has been devised by researchers at Liverpool John Moores University and the University of Birmingham. Researchers claim three weekly sessions (90 minutes in total) improves cardiovascular health and reduces diabetes risks, being as effective as 5 sessions of traditional endurance exercise (taking five hours a week). SIT All you have to do is three sessions a week of six rounds of 30 second bursts of exercise – sprinting or cycling as fast as possible – interspersed with four and a half minutes of low intensity exercise. Warm up Sprint or cycle at maximum capacity (high intensity) for 30 seconds Sprint or cycle at low intensity for four and a half minutes Repeat each high and low intensity about six times each. Do this workout three times a week. Continue for four to 12 weeks. Keeping safe "High intensity workouts can help to get you fit, but there is also a high risk of developing musculoskeletal problems," says Professor Nicola Maffulli, Professor of Sport and Exercise Medicine and Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon, Centre for Sports and Exercise Medicine and Dentistry at Barts and The London, Queen Mary’s School of Medicine. "You’re also more likely to sustain an acute injury, for example, a tear of muscles, tendons or ligaments," she says. "Or an overuse injury, from prolonged exertion. This is more of a risk if the exercise involves running, hopping or jumping. So these are things to consider, especially if you are unfit or elderly." The Independent is working with AXA PPP healthcare to provide affordable health insurance to Independent customers. Click here for more information, PLUS, get a FREE £50 M&S Voucher when you take out a plan*. Terms and conditions *The Marks and Spencer voucher offer is for new customers only. The vouchers will be sent to you within 28 days of receiving your first subscription payment if paying annually. Or, if paying monthly, within 28 days of receiving your second month’s subscription. Only one voucher will be issued per household. The above offers cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer, apart from our 5% discount for paying annually. Offers may be withdrawn at any time. Lines are open 9am to 8pm Monday to Friday. AXA PPP healthcare may record and/or monitor calls for quality assurance, training and as a record of the conversation. The Independent is introducing customers to AXA PPP healthcare to provide affordable health cover to our readers. The Independent is an Introducer Appointed Representative of AXA PPP healthcare Limited.