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  1. The world has more developers than ever, a new SlashData survey has reported - with 1.4 million more JavaScript developers than six months ago - and developer work patterns have been permanently altered by the COVID-19 pandemic. SlashData's six-monthly State of the Developer Nation report is based on a survey of over 19,000 developers combined with the researchers' estimate of the global number of active software developers. This number, they believe, has increased from 21.3 million in October 2020 to 24.3 million today, an increase of around 14 per cent. The first estimate of the number of developers was published by Slashdata in mid-2017, when it reckoned there were 15 million globally, of which 11 million were professionals. Incidentally, the researchers have always recognised that the term "developer" describes a "continuous spectrum of involvement with coding," to quote from its 2017 report, from casual to hardcore. SlashData attempted to narrow it down to those involved in "substantial coding projects." Locking down your code The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has been to further accelerate trends that already existed, in areas such as e-commerce, automation and communications, making software development a growth area in hard times. The consequence for programming languages is that the number of developers for each needs to grow for their market share to stand still. According to the new survey, there are now 13.8 million JavaScript developers (including TypeScript and CoffeeScript), up from 12.4 million last October. That is way ahead of Python, which is number two with 10.1 million; Java with 9.4 million; and C/C++, with 7.3 million. That, we note, means that more than 50 per cent of active developers use JavaScript. They do not use only JavaScript though; more that at least a smidgen of JavaScript is needed in many projects even where the main language might be Java, C# or PHP. The researchers noted, though, that even in less likely sectors such as data science or embedded development, "about a fourth of developers use it [JavaScript] in their projects." Python developers have something to celebrate too: its growth rate is 20 per cent, "the highest across all the large programming language communities," the report said. Rust is growing faster but from a smaller base, and now claims 1.3 million active developers, up from 800,000. PHP, at 6.3 million, has slipped to sixth place behind C# at 6.5 million, after overtaking it in the previous survey. PHP is said to be the most widespread server-side programming language by a huge margin, according to W3Techs, but that is largely because it is used by massively po[CENSORED]r content management systems such as WordPress, most of whose users are not developers. The number of PHP developers has grown by only 200K since October. The number of active C# developers, meanwhile, has increased by 500K. The news is not great for Microsoft, however, since according to SlashData it is most po[CENSORED]r in AR/VR development, thanks largely to its use in the Unity platform. The researchers marked it as "little used" in data science and mobile development, suggesting that the company has work to do if it is to make its Xamarin and MAUI (Multi-Platform App UI) technologies a success. This time around, SlashData looked at emerging technologies with high developer traction. Topping their list was robotics, mini apps, and computer vision. Mini apps are apps embedded in another app, such as those for WeChat or India commerce platform Paytm. Another area studied was the impact of the pandemic on remote working among developers. "No effect, I've always been remote," said 25 per cent of respondents; but 30 per cent said that they "went fully remote" because of COVID-19 and 11 per cent expect that shift to be permanent. Digging deeper, it turns out that the biggest employers were the most impacted, with 50 per cent of developers working for employers with over 5000 staff going fully remote, compared to just 25 per cent of those working for smaller firms. There were also regional differences, with the trend toward remote working most pronounced in western Europe, and least pronounced in East Asia. Predictions about the long-term impact of the pandemic on how developers work are of course speculative, but it seems safe to state that there has been a significant permanent effect.
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  2. Hello, According to your replies and answers, it seemed that you will not handle the rank for now. It would help if you had more time to understand how the work goes here. Your activity is good. You had a chance to use the translator tools to understand what our staff was asking you. My vote will be CONTRA. Come back after enough time of improving. Waiting for you.
  3. LONDON — Red Bull have hired Ben Hodgkinson from Formula One rivals Mercedes as technical director of their own engine company, the team said on Friday. Hodgkinson is head of mechanical engineering at Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains (HPP), the company whose engines have dominated Formula One since the start of the V6 turbo hybrid era in 2014. Red Bull said Hodgkinson would be "heading up all technical aspects with a key focus on developing Red Bull’s inaugural power unit, to comply with the new Formula One regulations currently planned for 2025." No starting date was given. Mercedes, the team of seven times world champion Lewis Hamilton, have won the last seven drivers' and constructors' titles. Red Bull, with Dutch youngster Max Verstappen tipped as Hamilton's likely successor as champion, appear to have closed the gap and are pushing hard this season for a first championship since they dominated from 2010-13. Hamilton and Verstappen are separated by just one point after two races. Red Bull announced in February they had formed a powertrain company to build engines using technology from partners Honda, who are leaving the sport at the end of this year. The agreement with Honda covers the duration of a Formula One engine 'freeze', which will run until the sport introduces a new power unit in 2025 whose specification has yet to be finalized. Team boss Christian Horner has said the new facility at Milton Keynes will be "fully capable" of designing and operating the next generation of engines. "He comes to this hugely exciting project as a proven race winner and as an innovator capable of leading a like-minded team of highly skilled engineers," said Horner of Hodgkinson. "When Red Bull announced the creation of Red Bull Powertrains it was also announcing a new phase of the company’s ambition in Formula One — to bring every aspect of car design in-house and to put our destiny in our own hands. "The ultimate expression of that is the development of a Red Bull power unit to meet the next generation of Formula One engine regulations. Ben’s appointment signals our long-term intent..." Hodgkinson said it had not been an easy decision to leave HPP after almost 20 years at Brixworth but he was excited by the challenge. "Red Bull is a serious player in Formula One and have been our biggest rival in the hybrid era, so I’m looking forward to seeing what we can achieve together in this new phase of the company’s journey," he said. ©2021 Verizon Media. All rights reserved.
  4. Jemimah was just three and a half when she came to see me and she’d already was on a barrage of medication. She’d been diagnosed with epilepsy a year earlier and since then, she had swellings on her hands and legs, around her joints. Despite her anticonvulsant medication, she still had a seizure every two weeks. Furthermore, the swellings around her wrists, elbows, ankles and knees were hard and showed no sign of subsiding – despite having taking powerful steroids. When her mother Pauline brought her to see me, she felt that there was little I would be able to suggest, especially when little Jemimah had suffered for so long. The first thing I asked Pauline to do was to take wheat and dairy out of Jemimah’s diet. Now I realise that this is a fairly common suggestion when dealing with children’s ailments, but I find that omitting these foods allows you to see what’s really going on. What’s more, the proteins found in wheat and dairy (namely, gluten and casein) can be fairly damaging to the intestines and, in cases like epilepsy, their omission can give the body some reprieve. To cut out wheat, Jemimah had to eliminate chapatti, mandazis, pasta, cereals, cakes and biscuits from her diet. She would also cut out all dairy produce, namely cheese, yoghurt, milk and ice-cream. Adequate hydration is also paramount in cases like this. That means no dehydrating drinks (tea, coffee, cocoa, milo etc) and about 2-3 glasses of pure water. I also prescribed some fish oils, to help nourish Jemimah’s brain. Two weeks on, even though Jemimah had had a seizure, the swellings, which had persisted for the past nine months, had almost gone (sugar appeared to be the trigger). A further two weeks on, Jemimah hadn’t had a single seizure. Another month after that, still no seizure. That’s when we began to reduce the dosage of her medication. Sometimes, we feel that going to the doctor and getting medication is the best thing for our child. As in this case, it’s not always the best solution. A little nutrition can go a very, very long way. Jemimah responded very well to just a few omissions, but sometimes more are required. The key thing to remember is the need to ensure that the foods that are being cut out, are replaced with equally, if not more, nourishing fare. For example, when dairy is eliminated, calcium intake is ensured by increasing amounts of bone-building foods like beans, lentils, dark green vegetables, omena. Three months on, Jemimah is almost medication free and hasn’t had a seizure. Nation Media Group © 2021 Nation Part of Nation Media Group
  5. A Somali-Norwegian model whose Instagram post criticising a proposed ban on the hijab in France went viral has said she wants to fight “deeply rooted stereotypes” against Muslim women. Rawdah Mohamed posted a selfie on Instagram with “hands off my hijab” written on her hand, starting a campaign that has been trending on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok. #Handsoffmyhijab, along with its counterpart #PasToucheAMonHijab, has been taken up by the Olympic fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad and the US congresswoman Ilhan Omar, as well thousands of women internationally. They have used the hashtag to protest against the French senate’s vote to ban anyone under 18 from wearing the garment in public. “I started the hashtag as I felt the need to humanise the movement,” Mohamed told the Guardian. “Ethnic minority women are always spoken for. I wished to take back the control of our narratives and tell our stories.” Mohamed added that the proposed legislation “stems from discrimination and deeply rooted stereotypes against Muslim women”. France was the first country to ban the niqab in public spaces, in April 2011, and French provinces have banned the burkini, starting a national conversation around nationalism, identity and feminism. “I wanted my oppressors to see my face and the women who look like me,” she said. “They don’t get to hide in their luxurious parliament offices and regulate women’s bodies without a fight.” On Instagram, Mohamed wrote: “The hijab ban is hateful rhetoric coming from the highest level of government and will go down as an enormous failure of religious values and equality.” The model went on to relate a story of being told that she could not wear her hijab to school as an anti-bullying measure. “Sitting in a room full of adults discussing my body and what I could and couldn’t wear as a young girl left more scarring than the bullying itself,” she explained. She said it only made the bullying worse. “I have lost count of the many times I was rejected for a job because of my hijab and not because of my lack of skill.” Speaking of her experience in the fashion industry, she claimed she had been rejected for lots of jobs because clients feared a backlash from politicians and the media for featuring a woman in a hijab in advertising campaigns. “I constantly have to fight against inaccurate representation and biased perceptions coming from the highest level of government, which is further perpetuated with the general public [and] the fashion industry,” she said. © 2021 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. (modern)
  6. Name of the game: Tropico 6 Price: 19.99$ Link Store: Steam Offer ends up after X hours: After 2 days Requirements: MINIMUM: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system OS: Windows 7 64-bit Processor: AMD or Intel, 3 GHz (AMD A10 7850K, Intel i3-2000) Memory: 8 GB RAM Graphics: AMD/NVIDIA dedicated GPU, 2GB dedicated VRAM (Radeon HD 7870, Geforce GTX 750) DirectX: Version 11 Storage: 16 GB available space RECOMMENDED: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system OS: Windows 10 64-bit Processor: AMD or Intel, 3.3 GHz (AMD FX 8300, Intel i5 3000) Memory: 16 GB RAM Graphics: AMD/NVIDIA dedicated GPU, 4GB dedicated VRAM (Radeon R9 380, Geforce GTX 960) Storage: 16 GB available space
  7. Game Information: Initial release date: 5 May, 2017. Software Developer: RainGames. Publisher: RainGames. Platform: PlayStation 4, Windows Microsoft. What happens when a teleportation-mishap leaves four heroes lost in a strange world, each packing their own unique special powers? Teamwork, that’s what. From the makers of cool 2D puzzle-'em-up Teslagrad, Rain Games brings a new title to the same universe in the shape of World to the West. The big change this time around is that this is a Zelda-esque top-down adventure-puzzler-brawler rather than 2D platformer. So what’s the deal here, then? You start off as Lumina – a ‘Teslamancer’ who can teleport short distances in order to cross gaps and wield electricity as a weapon. The intro levels guide you straight into a series of strange places that serve as introductions to each of the characters. In addition to Lumina, there's Teri who has mind powers and can possess creatures; Knaus, who's a shovel-equipped digger who can travel underground; and Lord Clonington, who's fond of fisticuffs and is good at climbing and breaking barriers. It actually takes a decent amount of time before the team are brought together, at which point the game changes and the adventure kicks into gear, bringing some fun, team based, brain challenging twists and turns as you make your way through the World to the West. We found it a bit of a slog to get to that point, but once you have the full compliment of heroes under your control, half the fun is working out whose skills you’ll need to crack the various puzzles and move forward. There's a major bad guy who seems to be based in part on President Trump, giving World to the West a fun political angle. The plot isn’t very deep, but it somewhat makes up for being shallow with a good amount of humour. As you progress, the heroes get to use new abilities and upgrades though finding hidden goodies, so it’s worth trekking around the map in order to find all that you can. The combat is good too, and defeating a group of enemies will often give you access to a new location. What's more, there's a nice range of different beasties to battle. The controls are easy to pick up and fairly intuitive, although the platforming does require quite precise movements at times so that you don't fall off a ledge and are forced to retrace your steps. Speaking of which, because the heroes move independently rather than as a group, you’ll often have to try and navigate areas multiple times using different character powers in order to access some locations which are ‘locked’. However, the path of progression isn't always immediately clear, and will sometimes require trial and error as well as a decent amount of guesswork - especially when controlling the native animals who offer up a host of possible uses. Meanwhile, the graphics of World to the West are similar to those of Teslagrad – just in 3D. Think cartoony and simple rather than cutting edge; they serve the game well, but won’t win any awards or offer much by way of iconic character designs. Sadly, some rough edges do hold things back a little. Expect to see the occasional annoying collision bug which may force you to play through the same level trying not to trigger it again. Thankfully, there are multiple save points which can be used to fast travel, but only by the character that discovered them. Others in the group will also need to make the journey to the same point in order to fast travel later, which feels a bit convoluted. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS: OS: Windows 7 or higher. Memory: 4 GB RAM. Storage: 3 GB available space.
  8. Arm is the technology company of the hour. Or one of, at least. The chip designer rose to great heights in the mobile phone biz and now its many license holders are looking to twist an ARM processor into something more computer-shaped. Arm is finding increasing number of advocates from Intel and AMD's firm customers too: perhaps the most notable among them being Apple, with the M1 chip in MacBooks and the new iMac, but Amazon, Microsoft, and Arm's prospective buyer, Nvidia, all have skin in the game. Yet Intel has a plan: a brand new foundry business. That which will offer flexibility in a way that was largely ruled out by oppressive x86 licenses and Intel's unwillingness to share in the past. It's what Arm offers, after all. A way for companies to design a chip as they see fit, and leave the unwanted features on the cutting room floor. During the company's most recent earnings call, Pat Gelsinger, Intel CEO, told shareholders that offering to "comingle" chips with customers could change opinion in the ongoing x86 versus Arm argument. In response to a question on whether Intel would ever consider licensing x86 out for them to design their own products, Gelsinger responds "The simple answer to the last part of the question is, yes." "We do believe that the ability for our customers to take advantage of x86 this way will be a meaningful shift in how people think about ARM versus x86," Gelsinger continues (via Seeking Alpha). "Because part of it was we weren’t giving them the flexibility to design to comingle IP, as I have described it. So they were trying to do unique design work. They didn’t have a good x86 choice. We gave them our standard products, which have lots of capabilities, but particularly for the cloud guys they'd say, boy, I don’t use those particular features. I really could optimize with the few of these other things in the network and the memory hierarchy. "And now we are saying absolutely come on in and we are opening the doors of our IP, the doors of our leading process and packaging technologies."
  9. COVID-19 vaccinations have been administered to hundreds of millions of people, but Apple seems to think that you'll be safest if you don't go out until at least the end of year. The Register offers that analysis because Cupertino has extended – for the second time – its waiver of in-app-purchase fees for purveyors of “one-to-few and one-to-many realtime experiences" sold on its App Store. Apple first waived the fees in mid-2020 and set December 31st, 2020, as the last day on which it would not take its customary 30 per cent cut of in-app purchases. The iGiant later extended the waiver until 30 June, 2021. And now the company has given developers another extension: January 1st, 2022, is the date fees will resume. This is good news for developers, but maybe not for the rest of us because Apple’s motivation is: “As the world continues to recover from the pandemic, we’d like to support the communities that are still providing digital services in place of in-person group events.” Apple’s update also reminds developers that apps like tutoring, medical consultations or fitness sessions don’t have to use in-app purchases. The subtext to both that reminder and the ongoing waiver could well be that Apple is totally not a monopolist that gouges developers and content-makers who seek to access its platforms, as some told US Congressional hearings this week.
  10. "Our previous studies have demonstrated that the Philippines has the greatest concentration of unique species of mammals of any country, most of which are small animals, less than half a pound, that live in the tropical forest," Larry Heaney, the Neguanee Curator of Mammals at Chicago's Field Museum and an author of a study in the Journal of Mammalogy describing the new species. "These recently extinct fossil species not only show that biodiversity was even greater in the very recent past, but that the two that became extinct just a few thousand years ago were giants among rodents, both weighing more than two pounds. Their abrupt disappearance just a few thousand years ago leaves us to wonder if they were big enough that it might have been worthwhile to hunt and eat them." "We have had evidence of extinct large mammals on the Philippine island of Luzon for a long time, but there has been virtually no information about fossils of smaller-sized mammals. The reason is probably that research had focused on open-air sites where the large fossil mammal faunas were known to have been preserved, rather than the careful sieving of cave deposits that preserve a broader size-range of vertebrates including the teeth and bones of rodents," says Janine Ochoa, an Assistant Professor of Archaeology at the University of the Philippines -- Diliman and the study's lead author. At the outset of the study, Ochoa was examining the fossil assemblages from caves in the Callao limestone formation, where a couple of years ago, scientists discovered the remains of an ancient species of humans, Homo luzonensis. "We were looking at the fossil assemblages associated with that hominin, and we found teeth and fragments of bone that ended up belonging to these new species of cloud rats," says Ochoa. The fossil fragments discovered by the excavation team in Callao Cave aren't the only traces of the cloud rats, though -- they were able to add to them some other fossils in the collections of the National Museum of the Philippines. "Some of these fossils were actually excavated decades ago, in the 1970s and 1980s, and they were in the museum, waiting for someone to have time to do a detailed study. When we began to analyze the fossil material, we were expecting fossil records for known living species. To our surprise, we found that we were dealing with not just one but three buot, or giant cloud rat species that were previously unknown," said Marian Reyes, a zooarcheologist at the National Museum of the Philippines, one of the study's authors. The researchers didn't have a ton of material to work with, though -- just fifty or so fragments. "Normally, when we're looking at fossil assemblages, we're dealing with thousands and thousands of fragments before you find something rare and really nice," says Ochoa. "It's crazy that in these fifty fragments, we found three new species that haven't been recorded before." The fragments that the researchers found were mostly teeth, which are covered in a hard enamel substance that makes them hardier than bone. From just a few dozen teeth and bits of bone, though, the researchers were able to put together a picture of what these animals were like in life, thanks to, in Heaney's words, "days and days and days staring through a microscope" By comparing the fossils to the 18 living species of giant cloud rats, the researchers have a decent idea of what these three new fossil species would have looked like. "The bigger ones would have looked almost like a woodchuck with a squirrel tail," says Heaney. "Cloud rats eat plants, and they've got great big pot bellies that allow them to ferment the plants that they eat, kind of like cows. They have big fluffy or furry tails. They're really quite cute." The newly recorded fossil species came from Callao Cave, where Homo luzonensis was discovered in 2019, and several adjacent smaller caves in Penablanca, Cagayan Province. Some specimens of all three of the new fossil rodents occurred in the same deep layer in the cave where Homo luzonensis was found, which has been dated at about 67,000 years ago. One of the new fossil rodents is known from only two specimens from that ancient layer, but the other two are represented by specimens from that early date all the way up to about 2000 years ago or later, which means that they were resilient and persistent for at least 60,000 years. "Our records demonstrate that these giant rodents were able to survive the profound climatic changes from the Ice Age to current humid tropics that have impacted the earth over tens of millennia. The question is what might have caused their final extinction?" adds Philip Piper, a coauthor based at the Australian National University. Two of these giant rodents apparently disappeared about two thousand years ago, or soon after. "That seems significant, because that is roughly the same time that pottery and Neolithic stone tools first appear in the archeological record, and when dogs, domestic pigs, and probably monkeys were introduced to the Philippines, probably from Borneo. While we can't say for certain based on our current information, this implies that humans likely played some role in their extinction," says Armand Mijares, Professor in the Archaeological Studies Program at the University of the Philippines -- Diliman, who headed the excavations of Callao Cave. "Our discoveries suggest that future studies that look specifically for fossils of small mammals may be very productive, and may tell us a great deal about how environmental changes and human activities have impacted the really exceptionally distinctive biodiversity of the Philippines," according to Ochoa. And such studies may also tell us a lot specifically about the impact of human activities, perhaps specifically including over-hunting, on biodiversity, notes Heaney. "This is something we need to understand if we are going to be effective in preventing extinction in the future." Copyright 2021 ScienceDaily or by other parties
  11. Tesla has revealed the data logs of the car that belonged to a protestor that made an appearance at the Shanghai Auto Show earlier this week. The data indicates that the driver of the car, who was the protestor’s father, was traveling well above the posted speed limit of 80 kilometers per hour (49.7 MPH). Zhang Yazhou, the protestor who stood on top of a Model 3 at the Tesla booth at the Shanghai Auto Show this week, pleaded that her electric vehicle’s braking system had failed, eventually leading to an accident. “Tesla brakes failed me,” a custom shirt that Yazhou wore to the event said. It turns out the brakes might not have been the problem, the speed of travel was. Records now made public by Tesla indicate the car was traveling at 118.5 kilometers per hour (74 MPH) just before it crashed. Before impact, the vehicle had slowed to around 48.5 km/h (30.14 MPH). Additionally, the brakes were applied more than 40 times in the half-hour before the accident occurred, and the car traveled at more than 100 km/h (62.14 MPH) several times. The automaker also released a lengthy statement on its Weibo account, breaking down some points of the case. ” Driving safety and product quality issues have always been our top priority, so we think it is necessary to inform the facts we have for everyone to understand,” the company said. Tesla says there is no dashcam footage of the accident because the owner didn’t create “a dedicated folder” for videos. The side airbags didn’t deploy because they “did not reach the threshold” needed for deployment. Also, Tesla maintained that its vehicle data is recorded with encryption technology, and it cannot be read, modified, or deleted directly. “You’ve got to look at the data and the data, in this case, is available because the car can actually monitor the performance of the driver,” Bill Russo, Founder and CEO of Automobility Ltd. in Shanghai, told Bloomberg. Zhang and Tesla have been in a bout of contradiction for several months, each side pleading their own case. Zhang is adamant that the braking system failed, while Tesla continues to standby the fact that the driver was not operating the vehicle at the appropriate speed posted for the roadway that was traveled. Zhang believes Tesla tampered with the data to make it favorable for the automaker’s side of the story. Copyright © TESLARATI. All rights reserved.
  12. For the first time, MPs in the House of Commons have declared China's treatment of the Uighur people and other religious minorities as genocide. It's believed more than a million people are being subjected to human rights abuses in the region of Xinjiang in north-west China. Ben Rogers, a member of the Inter -Parliamentary Alliance on China, gave his reaction to Premier: "I think it's hugely significant. It's actually historic. And it comes after quite a few months of efforts by parliamentarians to address this question. The most significant thing about it is that it was unanimous. And that's a clear view from the House of Commons, which I hope will urge the government now to take this seriously and to do more." The motion, calling on the government to fulfil its obligations under international human rights law, is non-binding, but it's thought it will prompt the government to take a harsher stance on the issue: "We don't know yet what the government will do in response, but I think the government can't ignore such a unanimous motion, they will need to look at ways to strengthen their reaction to the atrocities against the Uighurs and others in China." Ben Rogers says that while the vote also applied to other religious minorities in China, including Christians, not all are facing genocide: "I didn't think the motion is necessarily saying, for example, that Christians who face severe persecution, are facing genocide, no one is suggesting that. We believe the Uighurs are facing genocide, and certainly others are facing crimes against humanity and very grave human rights violations." Mr Rogers, who is also an adviser to the Stop Uighur Genocide Campaign, is now calling on the UK government to form an international coalition to take action against the Chinese Communist Party regime: "Is this a regime that we really want to be doing business with? I think there needs to be a recalibration of that relationship .a kind of coalition that could co-ordinate sanctions against both individuals and entities associated with the regime that are complicit in the genocide." © Premier Christian Communications Ltd.
  13. South-east Asian leaders are to hold Myanmar crisis talks with junta leader Min Aung Hlaing, who has become the focus of international outrage over a military coup and crackdown that has left more than 700 dead. The senior general was expected at the Association of South-east Asian Nations (Asean) meeting in Indonesia’s capital on Saturday, marking his first foreign trip since security forces staged a coup that ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi in early February. Mass protests by an angry po[CENSORED]tion have been met by a brutal crackdown that has left blood on the streets. An estimated 250,000 people have been displaced, according to a UN envoy, with Myanmar‘s democratically elected top leaders in hiding or under house arrest. On Saturday, Indonesian President Joko Widodo and the Sultan of Brunei, the current chair of Asean, were to be joined by leaders and foreign ministers from most of the 10-country group, which also includes Singapore, Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines and Laos. Protests were expected around Asean’s downtown headquarters, which is being ringed by heavy security. The meeting was to be closed to media. The general’s expected involvement has angered activists, human rights groups and a shadow government of ousted Myanmar lawmakers, which was not invited to the talks. “The crisis initiated by a murderous and unrepentant Myanmar military has engulfed the country, and will cause severe aftershocks – humanitarian and more – for the entire region,” Amnesty International said ahead of the meeting. “The Indonesian authorities are duty-bound to investigate Senior General Min Aung Hlaing and other Myanmar military officials who may join his delegation to Jakarta,” it added. There have also been calls for the regional bloc to expel Myanmar. But Asean generally takes a hands-off approach to members’ internal affairs. Few analysts expected major breakthroughs from the meeting, saying instead it was a chance to bring Myanmar‘s military to the bargaining table and pave the way for a possible resolution. “We have to be realistic here. I don’t think the summit is going to bear out a full-blown plan on how to get Myanmar out of the conflict,” said Mustafa Izzuddin, senior international affairs analyst at Solaris Strategies Singapore. “But rather I think it will start the conversation and perhaps lay the parameters as to how a resolution could be found.” UN special envoy for Myanmar, Christine Schraner Burgener, is expected on the sidelines of the summit. © 2021 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. (modern)
  14. Name of the game: The Jackbox Party Pack 7 Price: 19.49$ Link Store: Steam Offer ends up after X hours: 26 April Requirements: MINIMUM: OS: Windows 7+ Processor: 2.66 Ghz Core 2 Duo or Greater Memory: 4 GB RAM Graphics: GeForce 500+ / Radeon 5000+ or Greater Network: Broadband Internet connection Storage: 3 GB available space RECOMMENDED: OS: Windows 8.1+ Processor: 2.33 GHz Quad Core or Greater Memory: 8 GB RAM Graphics: GeForce 600+ / Radeon 6000+ Network: Broadband Internet connection Storage: 3 GB available space
  15. Game Information: Initial release date: 22 Apr, 2021. Software Developer: KOEI TECMO GAMES CO., LTD. Publisher: KOEI TECMO GAMES CO., LTD. Platform: PlayStation 4, Windows Microsoft. Koei Tecmo has re-released yet another Atelier Trilogy, this time giving the Mysterious series the ‘Deluxe’ treatment. Unlike the Arland and Dusk trilogy, this threesome is already on PlayStation 4, so it does seem a little strange that they’re being released again on the same console. However, this is now the most complete versions of the games as they include most of the DLC as well as a small amount of brand new content. This Mysterious Trilogy consists of Atelier Sophie: Alchemist of the Mysterious Book, Atelier Firis: The Alchemist and the Mysterious Journey, and Atelier Lydie and Suelle: The Alchemists and the Mysterious Paintings. If you’re not already familiar with the Atelier series then be aware that these are much more laid-back games than your typical Japanese RPGs. Instead of being on an epic quest to save the world, your time will be spent making friends, learning alchemy, gathering ingredients, and fighting any monsters that happen to stray across your path. In Atelier Sophie the main protagonist finds a strange book in her grandmother’s workshop which starts to talk after she writes a recipe in to it. This book, called Plachta, has lost her memories and needs your help to restore them. While the story pacing is a little slow at times, there is a fantastic cast of characters who do a great job of holding your interest throughout. Every time you return to town it’s fun to just run around and chat to everyone and see if there are any new character developments. The story in Atelier Firis is a big improvement as it has a much stronger narrative with far better pacing. Firis is a young woman who has grown up in a small mining town located underground, she’s desperate to go and explore the world outside. After discovering that she has a natural talent for alchemy she manages to persuade her parents to let her go. Of course, as with most things in life, there's a bit of a catch. She’ll need to get three letters of recommendation from renowned alchemists and also pass the alchemy license exam. If she can’t achieve this within one year then she’ll have to return home forever. As you may have guessed, this does mean that the time limit system is back. Time moves forward whenever you perform alchemy, gather ingredients, and even when running around outside. It can definitely feel a bit stressful at first. Rest assured, however, that you should have plenty of time to pass the exam even if you do get a little side tracked while exploring. After acing the exam, the time limit is lifted and you’re free to travel around the world at whatever pace you want. This was actually the first time in the Atelier series that there was a sprawling open world structure to explore. The world still feels really dynamic, and you’ll end up wanting to explore every inch of it, so it’s great that the time limit does eventually get lifted. Atelier Lydie & Suelle is the third game in the trilogy. Strangely, this one doesn’t have an open world to explore. The areas that you traverse are much larger than in Atelier Sophie, but it doesn’t have quite the same wow factor as Atelier Firis. On the other hand, it does get rid of the time limit system so you are at least able to explore and do as many side activities as you want without feeling constantly pressured. This third game has the most interesting story in the trilogy, with twin sisters, Lydie and Suelle, trying to turn their alchemy workshop into the best in the kingdom. It’s a simple enough premise but the rivalry between the twins and their childhood friend, as well as all of the visiting alchemists, makes it a really entertaining tale. You’ll also be able to travel inside some mysterious alchemic paintings which is a great excuse to have lots of weird and wonderful environments to explore. This Atelier trilogy also introduces a new process for alchemy; every ingredient has a different shape which you’ll need to place onto a grid. The order and way you place these ingredients can drastically change the quality and traits of the finished item. This alchemy system is used throughout the trilogy but each game has its own unique spin on it, adding things like catalysts and bonus panels in the later games. What this means is that, although you’ll be familiar with how alchemy works after the first game, it still feels challenging to try to master it in each instalment. While Atelier Sophie was released on the PS4 and PS Vita only six years ago it does look a bit dated. The backgrounds look a little drab and character models are a rather plain. Atelier Firis is definitely a big step forward when compared to its predecessor, but Atelier Lydie & Suelle is easily the best of them all. It looks much more detailed and far prettier, with lots of varied environments to explore. All three games have a turn based combat system, which is slightly different in each title. They’re all fairly simplistic but they do start to become more interesting as you gain access to new characters and abilities. Again, Atelier Lydie & Suelle does it best. Here you’ll have the ability to switch between characters in the front and back row as well as the ability to perform synthesis during battle. These additions make it a much more varied and engaging combat system. It's also worth reiterating that most of the DLC that has previously been released is included in the Deluxe versions of the games. So, it includes things like additional costumes, music packs, and playable characters that were previously locked behind paid DLC. There are also some brand new extras thrown in. Atelier Sophie has some new cauldrons and a new outfit, Atelier Firis has new boss battles and four new vehicles, and Atelier Lydie & Suelle has a new mysterious painting to explore featuring Nelke from Nelke & the Legendary Alchemists: Ateliers of the New World. There is also an absolutely gorgeous digital art book for each game, as well as an in-built photo mode. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS: MINIMUM: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system OS: Windows® 8.1, Windows® 10, 64bit Processor: Intel Core i5 750 or over Memory: 8 GB RAM Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 or over, AMD Radeon RX 560 or over, 1280x720 DirectX: Version 11 Network: Broadband Internet connection Storage: 12 GB available space Sound Card: 16 bit stereo, 48kHz WAVE file can be played RECOMMENDED: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system OS: Windows® 8.1, Windows® 10, 64bit Processor: Intel Core i7 2600 or over Memory: 8 GB RAM Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 or over, AMD Radeon RX 470 or over, 1920x1080 DirectX: Version 11 Network: Broadband Internet connection Storage: 12 GB available space Sound Card: 16 bit stereo, 48kHz WAVE file can be played
  16. The Oculus Quest 2 is the best VR headset for most people when you factor in the comparatively low cost (it starts at $299) and robust capabilities, but is it about to be replaced by a newer model? The short answer is no, it's not. As for the longer answer, Andrew Bosworth, vice president of Facebook Reality Labs, offered some clarity during a recent question and answer session on Twitter, which has been transcribed by UploadVR. "People are also asking about the Quest 3, which doesn’t exist yet, and everyone who is listening to us who is a reporter there isn’t a Quest 3, there’s only a Quest 2," Bosworth said. It would be easy to get fixated on the keyword "yet," as it suggests a Quest 3 is on Facebook's roadmap. However, Bosworth is not being cagey about the situation. While a Quest 3 may eventually materialize, a Quest Pro will come first, but "that's a little ways off still." A little more specifically, it's "not gonna happen this year." "For those who are curious, Quest 2 is going to be in the market for a while—for a long while, and it’s gonna be, you know, I think the best bet for the most accessible way to get into VR and have a great experience," Bosworth added. Put another way, if you just purchased a Quest 2, you can rest easy knowing it will not be replaced by something newer and shinier in the near the future. Even if a Quest Pro were to land on January 1, 2022, the earliest date it could arrive without rendering Bosworth's statement untrue, that's still over seven months away from now. Outside of the cost of entry, the other big appeal of the Quest 2 is that it's a standalone headset with inside-out tracking, meaning it doesn't have to be tethered to a PC or require setting up base stations. It's powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 processor and 6GB of RAM built into the headset, with 64GB ($299) and 256GB ($399) storage options available. It's been improving over time, too. A software update bumped the initial refresh rate up from 72Hz to 90Hz, and there are plans of enabling 120Hz sometime later. Additionally, since launching the Oculus team added the ability to play PC VR games on the Quest 2, either through a USB cable or, with yet another upcoming software update, through Air Link, which enables streaming over Wi-Fi. The one knock against the Quest 2 (and it's a big one for some people) is that it requires linking it to a Facebook account. If you can get past that, though, the Quest 2 is a fantastic VR headset that gets better with each update. It's also comfortable (the Elite Strap is a total game changer). And now we know it won't be replaced by newer hardware anytime soon.
  17. Indian IT trade association and advocacy group National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) has appointed Rehka Menon of Accenture as chairperson – the first woman to take the position in the organisation's history. Previously there were 18 members, two chairs, and a NASSCOM president, totalling 21, on the executive council. The new exec council has 27 members, inclusive of chairs and NASSCOM president. Krishnan Ramanujam from Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) will serve as Vvice chair. He replaces the previous TCS representative, Ravi Viswanathan. Other new members of the board hail from Fractal (Srikatnh Velamakanni), Integra (Sriram Subramanya), Firstsource (Vipul Khanna), KPMG (Akhilesh Tuteja), Mastercard (Dr Sukanyya Misra), Philips (Kalavathi GV), Cyient (Karthikeyan Natarajan), Salesforce India (Arundhati Bhattacharya), Snapdeal (Kunal Bahl), Cognizant (Rajesh Nambiar), Yellow Messenger (Raghu Ravinutala), RBS Services (Punit Sood), and Netsolutions (Sameer Jain). Delipkumar Khandelwal remains on the board but has left SAP for Deutsche Bank. Sindhu Gangadharan now represents SAP Labs. Dell, HP, IBM India, MindTree, NIIT Technologies, Bosch, SAP Labs, and Tech Mahindra no longer have representation. Dell and HP's departure from the board comes about two months after servers, laptops, tablets, and all-in-one PCs were added to a list qualifying for a government incentive totalling more than $1bn. The scheme is available to new production-linked manufacturers operating or performing unspecified value-adding activities in India.
  18. It's not a good idea to encourage people one by one to join our projects; they will not be interested as they would be if we used other ways. We have many people who join our TS3 to play different games every day. Have you tried to invite them to join our projects? It's not a bad idea but think about things that make people come by themself to our projects and forum. We will think about returning the DJ channel if there are many interested. You got a PRO from me. Try to think more about new things and propose them in the proper section of proposals. Good Luck.
  19. Hello, Thanks for applying again to be one of our staff. Before deciding my vote. Could you please tell us one thing which has the ability to improve our forum's activity? If you were the founder of this forum, what will you do to get back its activity? Waiting for an answer.
  20. Jakarta. BMW Group Indonesia has introduced the all-new BMW 5-series, the BMW 520i M Sport and BMW 530i Opulence, and The BMW 8 Series luxury sports car Golden Thunder Edition at Indonesia International Motor Show (IIMS) Hybrid 2021 in JIexpo Kemayoran, Central Jakarta on April 15, 2021. This was the first time BMW launched a new product through an offline exhibition since the COVID-19 pandemic last year. The 520i M Sport and 530i Opulence are local assemblies from the BMW Astra factory in Sunter, North Jakarta. The New BMW 520i M Sport is equipped with a 2.0-liter TwinPower Turbo 4-cylinder engine that produces a maximum power of 184 horsepower (hp) with a peak torque of 290 Newton-meters (Nm). The car has an 8-speed Steptronic automatic transmission. With this power and torque, the BMW 520i M Sport can accelerate from 0 to 100 kilometers per hour (km/h) in 7.8 seconds. Meanwhile, the BMW 530i Opulence is equipped with a 2.0-liter TwinPower Turbo 4-cylinder engine that produces a maximum output of 252 hp with a peak torque of 350 Nm. This car can accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h in just 6.1 seconds. The BMW 8 Series luxury sports car Golden Thunder Edition is Germany's manufacturing accented with a special gold design and many high-end equipment features for the exterior and interior. In the global market, the BMW 8 Series Golden Thunder Edition is available for all variants for the new BMW 8 Series Coupe, BMW 8 Series Convertible, and the new BMW 8 Series Gran Coupé from the BMW 840i and BMW 840d xDrive to the BMW M850i xDrive.
  21. A well-known Islamic expert in Algeria has been given a three-year jail sentence for “offending” Islam with comments he posted on Facebook, which Amnesty International has described as a “flagrant violation of the rights to freedom of expression and freedom of belief.” In three Facebook posts in January 2020, Said Djabelkheir drew comparisons between Eid al-Adha and the Berber New Year celebrations, referred to some stories in the Qur’an as “myths”, and said he considered certain hadiths “apocryphal”. The Sidi Mhamed Court of First Instance today convicted him of “offending the Prophet of Islam” and “denigrating the dogma or precepts of Islam" under Article 144bis of Algeria’s Penal Code. The court sentenced Djabelkheir to a three-year prison term but did not issue a detention order so he has not yet been taken into custody. Lawyers will appeal the decision. The charges were brought after a teacher at the University of Sidi Bel Abbès, who considered Djabelkheir’s Facebook posts had violated religious precepts, pressed charges against him with the investigative judge of the Sidi Mhamed court. Djabelkheir told Amnesty that he was not notified about his prosecution and that he only learned of it when friends alerted him in January 2020. The scholar said that during the course of the entire investigation by the Sidi Mhamed judge he was never summoned for interrogation. Neither was he informed of his trial date, and only learned of it via Facebook posts. His trial took place at the Sidi Mhamed court on 1 April. For years Djabelkheir has been the victim of online and offline harassment for peacefully expressing his views. He told Amnesty that he has received numerous death threats on Facebook since he joined it in 2007. Amna Guellali, Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Deputy Director, said: “It is outrageous that Said Djabelkheir is facing three years in prison simply for voicing his opinions about religious texts. “Punishing someone for their analysis of religious doctrines is a flagrant violation of the rights to freedom of expression and freedom of belief - even if the comments are deemed offensive by others. “Algerian courts have no business judging people’s religious beliefs and opinions. Said Djabelkheir’s conviction must be quashed immediately. Any provisions in Algeria’s penal code that criminalise the rights to freedom of expression, opinion or belief must be urgently repealed.” Crackdown on dissent The Algerian authorities have previously used Article 144bis of the penal code to crack down on dissent and prosecute activists. On 8 October last year, a court in Khenchla, in eastern Algeria, handed down a ten-year prison sentence and a heavy fine against the activist Yacine Mebarki for charges that included “offending the Prophet of Islam”. The verdict was later reduced on appeal to one year in jail. In 2016, a court in Setif sentenced Slimane Bouhafs, a Christian convert, to three years in prison under the same article for Facebook posts criticising religious ideas. Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Algeria is a state party, guarantees the right to freedom of expression and opinion. The UN Human Rights Committee noted in 2011 that “prohibitions of displays of lack of respect for a religion or other belief system, including blasphemy laws, are incompatible with the Covenant”. © Amnesty International UK 2019. Amnesty International UK Section Charitable Trust. A company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales (03139939) and a charity registered in England and Wales (1051681) and Scotland (SC039534). Amnesty International United Kingdom Section. A company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales (01735872). Registered office 17-25 New Inn Yard London EC2A 3EA.
  22. Civil servants found themselves “drowning” in bids for Covid contracts that failed to meet due diligence standards after the government created a “VIP lane” for politically connected suppliers, a court has been told. Evidence disclosed as a result of a legal action brought against the government by the Good Law Project suggests the controversial scheme resulted in a deluge of non-credible offers to supply personal protective equipment (PPE), some of them recommended by MPs and ministers. The government has repeatedly refused to reveal which companies were awarded public money after having their bids assessed through the VIP lane, citing “commercial confidentiality”. It denies that ministers had any role in dictating which companies received contracts, or that the scheme was used to direct public money to applicants favoured by the government. The Good Law Project case, however, illustrates how in at least two instances the political connections of companies appear to have factored into their bids for government Covid contracts being referred into the VIP lane. One company, PestFix, was referred into the VIP lane after its chairman contacted the Department of Health saying he had recently attended the 80th birthday party of its procurement director’s father-in-law. A Deloitte consultant assisting with Covid PPE procurement forwarded the offer to civil servants, writing: “One for the VIP lane please.” The National Audit Office, Britain’s spending watchdog, has previously said that PestFix was added to the VIP lane in error. In a second instance a civil servant commented that “the bar seemed to be lowered for this one” after attending a meeting to discuss a bid to supply PPE by Ayanda Capital, which had been promoted by an adviser to the trade secretary, Liz Truss. The government has explained that the purpose of the VIP lane was to enable civil servants to more effectively triage a large number of unsolicited offers to supply PPE, enabling them to identify credible offers from genuine companies. However, one email dated 14 April 2020, shown to the court as part of the Good Law Project’s legal action, suggests the VIP lane in fact had the opposite effect. “We are currently drowning in VIP requests and ‘high priority’ contracts that despite all of our work and best efforts do not either hold the correct certification or do not pass due diligence,” an unnamed civil servant complained in the email. The same email appears to suggest companies referred into the VIP lane would have their offers handled more quickly than companies that were not. “This contact has already been allocated a team member – unfortunately if he jumps to the front of the queue, it then has a knock-on effect to the remaining offers of help,” one of the civil servants wrote. A separate email sent on 25 April 2020 by Max Cairnduff, a Cabinet Office procurement director, to civil servants echoed the same concerns. “We’re getting far more cases in VIP than Wendy [Burdon, a government procurement officer] and her team can sensibly be expected to manage … despite the fact that Wendy is doing a fantastic job,” he wrote. “There’s simply too much volume.” He described various types of bids for public contracts finding their way to the VIP lane, including those referred by MPs after failure to elicit a response through other approaches to government, as well as “suppliers who are personally recommended by ministers directly”. Speaking separately to the hearing, a Cabinet Office representative pointed out that, contrary to allegations of the VIP lane being used to direct money to friends of ministers, the documents in fact showed companies being rejected because they didn’t meet the standards required by the civil service. © 2021 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. (modern)
  23. Name of the game: Buildings Have Feelings Too. Price: 15.99$ Link Store: Steam Offer ends up after X hours: 29 April Requirements: SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS MINIMUM: OS: Windows 7 or later Processor: Any Memory: 2 GB RAM Graphics: Onboard Intel Processor Storage: 1 GB available space Sound Card: Onboard soundcard
  24. Game Information: Initial release date: 22 Apr, 2021. Software Developer: Blackstaff Games. Publisher: Merge Games, Maple Whispering Limited. Platform: PlayStation 4, Windows Microsoft. Buildings Have Feelings Too is essentially a city-building management game without the people. Instead of keeping a growing po[CENSORED]tion happy, you instead have to please personified houses, office blocks, industrial chimneys, and more as you work through Victorian times to the modern age. It's an odd but likeable premise, and certainly unique. Playing as a nondescript building with great organisational skills, you take on various tasks in order to get the town looking lovely. Your goal is to improve the overall appeal of a location, and you do that by installing buildings and giving them jobs, so to speak, that are compatible with their neighbours. A block of flats, for example, provides residents to nearby structures, and in turn, wants to be positioned near a pub to improve its appeal. Conversely, placing those flats next to, say, a linen mill will reduce its appeal because of the pollution. In essence, the game becomes a puzzle — you need to try and optimise the appeal by lining up the right buildings in the right way. Initially it's quite a novel experience, despite controls feeling fairly clunky. You solve problems, earning bricks with which to create new buildings and slowly unlock new business types, which expand your options. However, after a while, it becomes more difficult to manage; if a building is really lacking appeal, a circular meter will begin to fill. If you let it fill up, the building's business will close, and will be essentially useless. The trouble comes when you have buildings that won't move, and more than one suffering this red circle. This is just an example really, but the point is that the gameplay becomes too complicated. After a while, it loses the fun factor, and becomes a frustrating balancing act with too many plates to spin. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS: OS: Windows 7 or later Processor: Any Memory: 2 GB RAM Graphics: Onboard Intel Processor Storage: 1 GB available space Sound Card: Onboard soundcard
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