-Lexman™

The Atari 2600 is decades old, but a few industry pioneers aren't giving up on the system yet. Alongside ex-Activision game designers Garry and Dan Kitchen, Activision co-founder David Crane has formed Audacity Games to develop entirely new games on the console--and that's just the beginning. Audacity Games is a new publisher "focused on designing and publishing boxed game products for a variety of retro game systems," the company said in a press release. That means creating new experiences and publishing them for the extremely retro hardware. Because it's 2021, however, those who buy the games will also get a download code that can run on Stella and Retron, if you can't manage to track down an Atari 2600. Every release comes with a download of a digital version (with the same serial number) which is Stella emulator compatible. — Garry Kitchen (@kitchengarry) March 7, 2021 "For years our fans have been asking us to create new games. We heard you, and have decided to do just that," said David Crane. "I have always said that I have as much fun making games as others do playing them, and the retro game systems are my favorites." The catalog of games the three developers have created is impressive, for sure. Crane played a role in games like Pitfall and Dragster, while Garry Kitchen's biggest game may have been Donkey Kong on Atari 2600. Dan Kitchen helped develop the 2600 versions of both Ghostbusters and Kung-Fu Master. For now, only a teaser page is available for the company, but more information will likely be revealed soon and you can sign up for a mailing list.

Whether you've forgotten your Netflix password, or want to change it to something more secure (as well as booting your ex off your account), we've got you covered. Netflix is the most po[CENSORED]r streaming service in the world, with fantastic shows like Sex Education and Queer Eye keeping its 193 million subscribers glued to their screens. As with any online account, it's important to change your password regularly to keep your information secure, as well as stopping unwanted third-parties from using your account for free and potentially kicking you out of the service when you're right in the middle of your favorite show by maxing out the number of devices watching at one time. You can either change your Netflix password through your Internet browser of choice, or via the Netflix app on your mobile or tablet. So, without further ado, here's everything you need to know about changing or resetting your Netflix password. How to change your Netflix password via your browser First, head to Netflix in your browser and sign in by clicking the red button at the top right corner of your screen. Select your profile, and you'll then be taken to the Netflix landing page. From there, hover your cursor over your profile picture in the right hand corner of your browser and select Account from the drop down menu. Underneath the Membership & Billing section, you'll see your password in asterisks – click on Change Password to the right of this. Then, you'll be able to input your current password, followed by your desired new password. Confirm your new password by typing it in again. Below this, you'll see a check box saying "Require all devices to sign in again with new password". Make sure this box is checked to ensure that any third-parties that are using your account will need your new password to continue using your account. How to change your Netflix password on your mobile You can also change your Netflix password using the mobile app. To do this, login as normal and select your profile. Then, click on More at the bottom right corner of the app. Click on Account, and your account settings will open up in your device's browser. From there, follow the same steps as above to change your password. How to choose a strong password When choosing a new password, make sure you use a mixture of numbers, uppercase, and lowercase letters to make it difficult to guess. Punctuation marks like '!' or '%' are worth including, too. It's always best to use a password that you don't use for any other applications – after all, if one account becomes compromised, a hacker could gain access to any other accounts that use the same login details. How to reset your Netflix password If you've forgotten your login credentials, it's possible to reset your Netflix password. Head to the Netflix login page, either in your browser on on the mobile app. Underneath the Sign In button, click on the test that reads, 'Need help?'. From there, you can reset your password using the email address or mobile phone number associated with you account. If you've forgotten your email address too, select Text Message (SMS), and you'll get a verification code to reset your password. Don't remember your email address or the phone number you signed up with? Click 'I don't remember my email or phone' at the bottom of the page, and you'll be able to fill in further account details to recover your credentials. Protecting your Netflix account Aside from changing your password periodically, Netflix offers a few more tips on keeping your account safe, including adding a phone number for recovering a forgotten password. You should also sign out of unused devices, particularly if you're planning on selling them or giving them away. Netflix says that, "if you haven't done this, and the device is no longer in your possession, you can sign out of all devices from your Account page", noting that it can take up to one hour for this to be completed. Netflix also advises that you be aware of phishing attempts from scammers, particularly over email. Keep an eye out for any suspicious emails purporting to be from Netflix. The company says it will "never ask for any personal information to be sent to us over email", including payment information, identification numbers (i.e your social security number) or your account password. Any emails that ask for these details should be regarded as suspicious and ignored.

NASA has partially restored the Hubble Space Telescope to science mode after a software error temporarily halted observations, but engineers continue studying a problem that kept the telescope’s aperture door from closing and a separate concern with Hubble’s main camera. NASA said Friday that Hubble resumed scientific observations at 8 p.m. EST Thursday (0100 GMT Friday) after going into safe mode Sunday. Safe mode is an event in which Hubble places itself into a safe configuration to await instructions from the ground. Hubble entered safe mode Sunday after it detected a software error within the spacecraft’s main computer, NASA said. Ground teams at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland traced the software glitch to code recently uploaded to Hubble to “help compensate for fluctuations from one of its gyroscopes,” NASA said. The gyroscopes are part of Hubble’s pointing system, uses reaction wheels to pivot the telescope toward distant galaxies, stars, and planets to collect scientific data and imagery. The gyroscopes measure the direction and rate of the spacecraft’s movement when it turns. Engineers found the software error that caused Hubble to enter safe mode last weekend involved an enhancement that did not have permission write to a specific location in the main computer’s memory, NASA said. Ground teams removed the suspect code from the computer to allow Hubble to quickly resume scientific operations, and will update the enhancement to upload to the spacecraft again in the future, officials said. But NASA continues to study two separate issues engineers discovered when Hubble was in safe mode. One involves the aperture door at the top end of the telescope, which failed to automatically close when Hubble went into safe mode Sunday. The door prevents bright sunlight from damaging Hubble’s sensitive instruments, and closing the lid to the telescope during a safe mode is supposed to protect the inside of the telescope in case the spacecraft accidentally points toward the sun. NASA closed the aperture door when space shuttles visited Hubble for servicing missions, but the door has never been commanded closed upon detection that the spacecraft’s pointing was straying too close the sun, the agency said in a statement. Further analysis by ground teams indicated the cover remained closed despite commands and power sent to the aperture door. Manual commands uplinked from ground controllers to the door’s primary motor also failed to budge the telescope cover, NASA said. “However, the same commands sent from the ground to its backup motor did indicate movement, and that motor is now set as the primary motor. The team is looking at options to further reduce any associated risk,” NASA said. Engineers are also assessing a “low voltage issue” with Wide Field Camera 3, Hubble’s newest science camera and most-used instrument. The error is preventing the camera from resuming its observations, but Hubble’s other instruments are fully recovered and operational, NASA said. The famed orbiting observatory, developed by NASA with contributions from the European Space Agency, was serviced and upgraded by five space shuttle missions. The most recent servicing visit by astronauts aboard the shuttle Atlantis in 2009 installed Wide Field Camera 3. With the space shuttles retired, Hubble is in the twilight of its mission. NASA’s next advanced space-based observatory — the James Webb Space Telescope — is set for launch in October to extend the vision of Hubble with a larger mirror and a more sophisticated suite of scientific instruments. Last year, during virtual celebrations marking the 30th anniversary of Hubble’s launch, mission managers said they expected to get at least five more years of worthwhile astronomical observations with the long-lived observatory. Only three of Hubble’s six gyros are still functioning, and the telescope needs three for regular operations. That leaves Hubble without redundancy in its gyro system. Engineers have devised ways to continue some of the telescope’s observations with just one gyro, but that would come with limitations in where Hubble could point as it orbits about 340 miles (550 kilometers) above Earth.

Leading workstation vendors offer Linux-based machines with the latest hardware inside, but those PCs are expensive and are not exactly home-friendly due to their expansive design. Meanwhile, buying a boutique desktop PC with Linux is somewhat tricky. Fortunately for Linux users, there are companies like System76, which just launched its Thelio Mira midrange system that can be equipped with a 16-core Ryzen 9 5950X processor and a leading-edge Nvidia Quadro RTX graphics card. System76 doesn't label the Thelio Mira as a workstation; instead, the company brands it as a professional desktop system. Yet the PC can pack an AMD Ryzen 5000-series processor with up to 16 cores, one or two Nvidia's Quadro RTX graphics cards (up to the RTX 8000 model), up to 128GB of ECC DDR4 memory, up to 4TB of PCIe 4.0 NVMe storage (using two M.2 drives), and up to 36 TB of HDD storage. Obviously, all the connectivity features that you would expect from a 2021 desktop are all there, too: Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.0, 2.5 GbE, USB 3.2 Gen 2, USB Type-C, and audio connectors. Measuring 436.35 × 253 × 331mm (17.18" × 9.96" × 13.03"), the System76 Thelio Mira is smaller than most high-end workstations by major vendors and is more compact than the company's top-of-the-line Thelio Major box. While the system isn't large, it can still support two graphics cards and loads of DRAM, which is something you usually don't find in midrange machines. One thing to note about the System76 Thelio Mir is that it does not look as utilitarian as machines from the big suppliers. With a choice of five different wooden finishes, it can actually fit almost any home design. System76's Thelio Mir stats at $1,499 and comes with Pop!OS 20.10 (64-bit), Pop!OS 20.04 LTS (64-bit), or Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (64-bit) operating systems. Meanwhile, nothing is stopping you from installing Windows 10 on these PCs.

Diamond Aircraft has selected LifeStyle Aviation to be their exclusive sales representative for 24 U.S. states. This announcement makes LifeStyle Aviation the latest Diamond Dealer in the United States, building on a 14-year relationship with Diamond Aircraft. “We are very excited to announce LifeStyle Aviation as an exclusive dealer in the U.S.,” said Scott McFadzean, Chief Executive Officer of Diamond Aircraft Industries Inc. “This completes the US Dealer Network and we are certain that LifeStyle will continue to offer innovative leadership in the aircraft sales industry, while proving their passion for helping people discover modern aviation options. We are confident that they will succeed in this large territory assignment.” LifeStyle Aviation will represent Diamond Aircraft in their headquarters state of North Carolina, along with South Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Washington D.C, & Delaware. Across the western and midwestern United States the assignment includes California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Washington, Montana, Oregon, Idaho, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas and Colorado. The company’s territory will also cover Alaska and Hawaii. “We are humbled and honored to be selected by Diamond Aircraft for this designation and opportunity,” said John Armstrong, Founder and CEO of LifeStyle Aviation. “Over the last 14 years, our relationship with Diamond Aircraft has enabled us to be a leader in modern personal aircraft. We are extremely grateful to our clients and Network Partners who have made this success possible, and eagerly rise to this new challenge as we commit to provide even more opportunities for our clients to discover and access the most advanced line of modern aircraft.” LifeStyle Aviation’s success has been driven in part by their unique DiamondShare program, an innovative aircraft sharing and access model; and by their strategic partnerships across the United States, which LifeStyle terms “Network Partner Dream Centers.” Through this program, strong partnerships are fostered to provide access to modern aviation retail growth strategies, collaborative marketing and development, along with innovative options for aircraft ownership, financing and insurance. “The COVID pandemic has caused increasingly more people to discover the freedom and potential of an aviation LifeStyle,” continued Armstrong. “Diamond Aircraft are particularly well suited to provide our clients with modern, safe, private, secure and personal transportation solutions during these challenging times.” LifeStyle, as part of its new assignment, is actively seeking new partners that are looking for opportunities to grow in the assigned states. LifeStyle Aviation provides demo flights for qualified buyers in all Diamond Aircraft types in multiple locations around the country.

Tomorrow marks 25 years since the first Pokémon titles debuted on Nintendo’s Game Boy in Japan – and developer Game Freak has announced two new games to mark the occasion, both inspired by 2006’s Pokémon Diamond and Pearl. The first releases are Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, remakes of the Nintendo DS originals for Nintendo Switch, out later this year. Pokémon Legends Arceus, an adventure set in the region of Sinnoh’s past, and resembling a blend of Pokémon Stadium and Breath of the Wild, will be released in 2022, also on Nintendo Switch. It is a significant diversion from the usual turn-based fights and tightly controlled exploration of a Pokémon game, with free movement and wild creatures roaming an open world. These nostalgic new games tap into the immense fondness that an earlier generation of Pokémon players, now in their 20s, feel for the original Nintendo DS games and their stable of cute creatures. Like Nintendo’s other venerable series Mario and Zelda, which are celebrating their 35th anniversary, Pokémon is becoming cross-generational, as players who first enjoyed these adventures on monochrome Game Boys have children of their own. Pokémon is one of the world’s bestselling video games series, selling over 368 million copies across all its many titles as of March 2020. It has remained po[CENSORED]r since surging to the forefront of pop culture in the late 1990s, and then again in 2016, when Niantic’s Pokémon Go had millions roaming their neighbourhoods catching critters on smartphones. This year will also see the release of New Pokémon Snap, a sequel to 1999’s Pokémon photography game on the Nintendo 64, on 30 April. I'm one of those people in their "twenties" (31) who grew up on the old Pokemon games. I got really into the Switch thanks to lockdown but I when played Sword and Shield I thought they were a bit crap, to be honest. The idea of releasing a remake alongside a bold new iteration is a clever one. Diamond and Pearl weren't the best in the series but they were good, and the new open world is a chance for Gamefreak to actually spread their wings a little. I know they basically print money but they can't be all that creatively satisfied at churning out the same game over and over. I love the idea of an instalment set in the Meiji era, and though I'm a little bit underwhelmed at the graphics and performance above I would assume a lot will change in a year.

Dublin, March 04, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Dental Practice Management Software Market Forecast to 2027 - COVID-19 Impact and Global Analysis By Delivery Mode, Component and Geography" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. Global dental practice management software market is expected to reach US$ 4,030.80 million in 2027 from US$ 1,834.80 million in 2019. The market is estimated to grow with a CAGR of 10.9% from 2020 to 2027. Web-based delivery mode segment is expected to grow the market for dental practice management software over the forecast period for delivery mode segment. Based on delivery mode, the global dental practice management software market is segmented into web-based delivery mode, cloud-based delivery mode, and on-premise delivery mode. In 2019, the web-based delivery mode segment held the largest share of the market; whereas, the cloud-based delivery mode segment is also expected to witness the growth in its demand at the fastest CAGR during 2020-2027. Cloud-based delivery mode helps in providing easy access for dental practices, such as appointments, insurance, and payment for the dental services. In addition, it covers every step of the patient journey from appointment scheduling to sending out reminders, and offers advanced tools for business reporting. The growth of the dental practice management software market is attributed to the factors such as rising prevalence of dental diseases, increasing demand for cosmetic dentistry, and growing geriatric po[CENSORED]tion. In addition, innovative cloud-based practice management solutions is likely to have a positive impact on the growth of the market in the coming years. The major players operating in the dental practice management software market include, Carestream Dental, LLC.; Curve Dental, Inc.; Datacon Dental Systems; Epic Systems Corporation; DentiMax; Henry Schein, Inc.; Patterson Dental Supply, Inc.; Gaargle Solutions Inc.; NXGN Management, LLC; and Compudent Systems Inc. Product launches have been an essential strategy adopted by the industry players in the dental practice management software market.

A new rumor has emerged regarding NVIDIA's upcoming GeForce RTX 3080 Ti graphics card from reputable leaker, Kopite7kimi. According to the information, the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti will retain the same specifications that were detailed last month but will also get the same GPU hash rate-limiting treatment as the GeForce RTX 3060 to counter crypto miners. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Could Be Launching Soon With 12 GB GDDR6X Memory, 19 Gbps Pin Speeds & The Hash Rate Limiter To Counter Crypto Miners The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti has been doing the rounds in the rumor mill for quite some time. It has disappeared and reappeared several times with different GPU configurations but as we get closer to April, things are getting clear. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti may indeed be launching and will retain the same core configuration as the ones rumored before and will also come with a new feature that was first introduced on the GeForce RTX 3060.NVIDIA had already stated that existing GPUs will not be affected by the hash rate-limiting tech but upcoming SKUs will definitely be receiving modifications to counter cryptocurrency miners. As such, the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti will also limit its hash rate in several cryptocurrency algorithms, making it pretty useless and not a great investment for miners. The GeForce RTX 3080 for example features a mining hash rate of around 95-100 MH/s in Ethereum using the Daggerhashimoto algorithm. If we use the same 50% hash rate limit as the RTX 3060 and apply it to the RTX 3080 Ti, we get around 45-50 MH/s which is the same mining rate as the RTX 3070 while you're paying a vastly higher sum for the Ti variant. This will mean that more cards can end up in gaming PCs than mining platforms however we can't say if the availability of the card will be that great to begin with since the RTX 3080 and RTX 3090 based on the GA102 GPU are still short in supply. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti 12 GB 'Rumored' Graphics Card Specifications NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 3080 Ti 12 GB FE (Founders Edition) graphics card is expected to feature the PG133-SKU15 PCB design and the GA102-250-KD-A1 graphics core. The GA102-250 GPU has also changed since the last time we saw them and will now feature 10240 CUDA cores within a total of 80 SM units. Since the main core configuration is entirely brand new, the previously leaked clocks & TMU/ROP counts should now be dismissed. As for memory, the card will feature 12 GB of GDDR6X memory. Unlike the 19.5 Gbps speeds of the RTX 3090, the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti is said to retain the same memory speeds as the RTX 3080 at 19 Gbps. Since we are getting 12 GB memory, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti will be using a 384-bit bus interface which equals a total bandwidth of 912 GB/s. So while we see an 8 GB VRAM reduction over the previous spec, the larger bus interface should drive higher memory bandwidth. The TGP for the card is set to be the same as the RTX 3080 at 320 Watts. That's definitely needed to feed the extra cores so NVIDIA might have to optimize the clocks a bit here

Nick: RedBuLL Time: now Site: gametracker.rs Proof: Contact method: - Daily/Weekly/Monthly boost? : daily

Facebook has expanded the voice commands that allow you to interact with its Oculus virtual reality headsets, and its latest Quest 2 model will be able to be activated by the new phrase 'Hey, Facebook'. Oculus introduced voice commands in mid-2020, but until now to activate them it was necessary to do it manually from the settings menu or press the button on the Oculus controller twice. Now, Facebook allows interaction with its Oculus visors completely without using the hands, through the use of the new activation voice command 'Hey, Facebook', as reported by the US company in a statement. At the moment, this feature comes from this week to the latest model of headset, Oculus Quest 2, but Facebook has indicated its intention to reach all its Quest devices in the future. The company has detailed that 'Hey, Facebook' is a "completely optional" experience, and that users can deactivate it in the experimental functions panel of the settings, as well as continue to use voice commands manually as it happened until now. Additionally, users have the option to decide if they want their voice commands to be saved for future enhancement, and they can access, hear and delete their activity at any time from the Oculus Settings menu.

The venerable Nvidia GTX 1060 looks like it might be making a return to the GPU crypto-mining coal-face, with Palit today registering a whole bunch of new P106 cards with the Eurasian Economics Commission. The original Nvidia P106 cards were introduced at the height of the mining boom times in 2017. They were purely designed for mining Etherium using the same Pascal-based GPU that powered the immensely po[CENSORED]r GTX 1060—the GP106 GPU. Looks like Palit might have tracked the GP106 down to the farm that the aged mercenary disappeared off to back in the haze of 2018, bringing it out of retirement again for one last big job. I can see a grizzled, cigar-chewing GPU being dropped into a mining rig, growling "I'm getting too old for this shit…" The original Palit P106 cards had slightly different product codes, with these newly registered versions sporting a similar designation to the GTX 16-series cards. Though I doubt these will be updated to use the TU116 GPU, otherwise we'd be seeing the P116 listing instead. Back during the last big cryptocurrency mining craze both AMD and Nvidia responded to the then-unprecedented demand by massively upping its GPU manufacturing, though when the bottom fell out of the market second-hand cards started flooding the market. That meant no-one wanted to buy new cards, which left both the green and red teams—and their graphics card partners—with a huge amount of excess stock sitting in warehouses across the globe. That was one of the big reasons Nvidia's Turing generation took so long to get released, and why you can still buy AMD RX 570 graphics cards today. But the P106 GPUs were effectively dumb GTX 1060 cards with the outputs lopped off as they weren't designed to plug into displays. That made them useless for anything other than mining, and gave them no resale value without crypto as a going concern. Nvidia has itself announced it's releasing specific CMP cards specifically for GPU mining, as a way to take the pressure off the GeForce market, and that those GPUs are a mix and match of one Ampere chip at the high end and a bunch of older Turing silicon making up the bulk of the Nvidia CMP lineup. The P106 GPUs aren't bad Etherium mining cards if you bunch them up, after all. The lowest of Nvidia's Turing-powered CMP cards comes in with a hashrate of 26MH/s while the P106 holds its own with a listed hashrate of around 24MH/s. So, it's possible that encouraged Palit to dust off a warehouse full of unsold P106 cards and try to capitalise on the shortage with a bunch of cheap GPUs. It is worth noting, however, that EEC listings, especially from Palit, have the potential to be more speculative than concrete in terms of cards that will actually hit the shelves. The EEC doc lists 12 different product codes, while, as far as I know, the company only released a single P106 card back in the day.

AMD released its StoreMi storage drive acceleration software in 2018. It is software created by Enmotus and has a commercial version called Enmotus FuzzyDrive. The idea behind this technology is very similar to what Intel had with the first Optane units: An SSD that caches our HDD and accelerates the performance of our equipment. StoreMi came free of charge for AMD's X470 chipsets and Ryzen 2000s. It wasn't too successful, partly because it was limited to high-end chipsets and enthusiast users already have fast SSDs as main drives, and partly because it is assumed that abusing an SSD as a cache can shorten its life, in addition to that AMD did not do enough promotion of it, although it did try as we can read here. The company behind the software already pointed out at the time that it was not exactly a cache, but that the most used data was directly moved to the fastest unit. StoreMi did not have a good acceptance, and last April AMD announced that it would stop supporting it, although whoever was using it could continue using it, it was understood that the company's new products would not have support for this software. However, it was not a final goodbye, as AMD said it was working on a replacement for StoreMI. And it was in September when we saw that AMD released StoreMI version 2, although the company continues to keep the name of StoreMi dry from the software. By then they fixed several bugs, and changed part of the concept of the technology so that the "cached" data would also be kept on the source drive instead of being changed drives. Although this means more space occupied, it avoids data loss in the event of an accident such as the disconnection of the SSD or a malfunction or interruption of the program, etc. In addition to this change, AMD expanded support for more chipsets, including the B450 ideal for cheaper computers, where it is easier to find mixed SSD + HDD solutions . And it seems that AMD is still determined to expand the user base, and today we see that they have released a new version of it in which support is added for the Ryzen Threadripper Pro, in addition to the TRX40 and WRX80 chipsets. Another novelty is that we can now create a partition on our SSD exclusively for the cache task. So currently StoreMi works with 500, 400, X399, TRX40 and WRX80 series chipsets and can be downloaded from the official AMD website.

Right now is not necessarily the ideal time to build a new PC, because Intel is launching Rocket Lake next month and AMD's Ryzen 5000 series are still mostly MIA. However, timely discounts are there to test your patience and resolve, especially when you can snag a 10-core/20-thread CPU and motherboard bundle for well below market value. More specifically, Newegg is selling an Intel 9th Gen Core i9 10850K processor and Asus Prime Z490-A motherboard combo for $499.98. That works out to $123 below the cost of buying these parts individually at the going rate. BUNDLE UP AND SAVE Intel Core i9 10850K + Asus Prime Z490-A Combo | $622.98 $499.98 at Newegg (save $123) Amazing times we live in, when you can snag a 10-core/20-thread processor and a high-end motherboard for a couple pennies below $500. This could be the foundation for a monster PC capable of gaming, streaming, and everything else. VIEW DEAL I don't typically highlight combo deals, but that is enough of a saving to make this one worthwhile. Even with Rocket Lake around the corner, a strong case can be made for building a gaming and/or streaming PC around the Core i9 10850K, which sits near the top of Intel's Comet Lake stack (just a hair below the 10900K). It's also worth noting that Rocket Lake will top out at eight-core/16-thread configurations, albeit with a promised 19 percent boost in IPC performance. The Core i9 10850K gets you two additional cores and four more threads to throw at multi-threaded workloads, if that is what you need. As to the motherboard, the Prime Z490-A is a well-rounded option with features like 2.5Gbps LAN connectivity, USB 3.2 Type-C and Thunderbolt 3 support, dual M.2 slots, RGB lighting, and an enhanced power design to help facilitate stable overclocks. There's nothing at all wrong with waiting for Rocket Lake or Ryzen 5000 availability if you'd rather have the latest and greatest. However, you could also build a high-end gaming PC around this foundation and get more bang for your buck. Now, if you could just find a graphics card to go with it...

LAHORE: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) announced on Friday that the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) has fined cricketer Umar Akmal Rs4.25 million and reduced his ban to 12 months. A press release by the PCB said Akmal had been found guilty of violating Article 2.4.4 of the PCB Ant--Corruption Code and a fine of Rs4.25 million had been imposed on him. Akmal, according to the PCB, will be eligible to return to cricket after paying a fine of Rs4,250,000 and undergoing a rehabilitation programme under the PCB's Anti-Corruption Code. The CAS has rejected Akmal's appeal to have his two mobile phones returned to him. The court said that the PCB is holding the phones for different investigations and it has the right to do so. On 27 April 2020, the Chairman Disciplinary Panel had found Umar Akmal guilty on two charges of separate breaches of Article 2.4.4 of the PCB Anti-Corruption Code in two unrelated incidents and handed a three-year suspension with the periods of ineligibility to run concurrently. After Akmal appealed against the decision on July 29, 2020, the Independent Adjudicator modified the sentence and reduced the ineligibility period to 18 months. The PCB and Akmal had both approached the CAS against this decision, with the latter claiming he was not guilty of the charges while the PCB's appeal "had been filed focusing on a point of law in regard with cumulative operation of the sanctions for the two charges upheld by the Independent Adjudicator". The PCB reminded all cricketers to promptly report incidences of match-fixing and spot-fixing when they take place to help "the anti-corruption unit effort to eliminate the anathema of fixing". PCB disciplinary committee bans Umar Akmal for three years In April 2020, the PCB had banned Akmal for three years after finding him guilty of breaching Article 2.4.4 of the PCB's Anti-Corruption Code. Akmal had landed in hot water after he revealed in an interview that he was offered $200,000 by fixers to leave two deliveries in one of the matches. He had also claimed that he was offered money to skip matches against India. “I was once offered $200,000 for leaving two deliveries. I was also offered to skip matches against India,” he had said in the interview. The batsman had also said that he was approached by fixers duri ng the ICC World Cup, including the 2015 edition played in Australia and New Zealand. However, Akmal had failed to mention if he had reported this to the anti-corruption unit or not. According to the ICC's Anti-Corruption Code 2.4.4 and 2.4.5, players are bound to report all the corrupt approaches made to them during any event and failure of doing so carry a minimum punishment of five years. Akmal was suspended from the Pakistan Super League (PSL) on Feb 2, 202 and charged with two separate violations of the PCB's code of conduct.

The trouble with getting into Crusader Kings II was knowing which bits of it you needed. Even after going free to play, Paradox’s big medieval grand strategy game offered more than $300 USD worth of DLC – expansions, flavour packs, and unit packs making up a daunting list of potential add-ons. Now you can have it all for the cost of a monthly subscription. Paradox has been talking about moving to a subscription model for its in-house strategy games for at least a year now, and it seems the company has kicked things off today with the Crusader Kings II Expansion Subscription. For $4.99 USD / £3.99, you get 30 days of access to all the Crusader Kings II DLC ever released – that’s 13 major expansions like The Old Gods and Rajas of India, 12 unit packs, 14 music packs, 10 portrait packs, and the game converter that lets you move your save from CK2 to Europa Universalis IV, and the Ruler Designer. “With so much additional content available, the cost for new Crusader Kings II players can seem prohibitive or intimidating”, Paradox says on the subscription’s Steam page. “This is an affordable way for players to experience the entire Crusader Kings II catalog without having to weigh which items they would prefer to purchase.” It’s certainly a great opportunity to get acquainted with the Crusader Kings II landscape and work out which parts of it you like the best. Rather than signing on indefinitely, we reckon a good approach would be to get a 30-day pass, then use our Crusader Kings II DLC guide as a blueprint for trying out the stuff that seems most interesting to you. Once you’ve gotten a chance to experiment a bit, you’ll be able to figure out which parts you want to keep around and which you’re less interested in. Of course, the new hotness is Crusader Kings III, which modernises the core experience significantly. It’s still early days for the third game in the series, though, and there are some truly weird and surprising twists and turns to be found in Crusader Kings II DLCs, particularly in some of the later packs.

If you're a fan of lightweight laptops, this weekend's Chromebook deals at Best Buy and Amazon are yielding some really great prices on a variety of machines. Best Buy, for example, has Chromebook deals starting at just $249 (was $299) for this Lenovo Duet 2-in-1 device - which is a great little machine if you're looking for something capable of straddling both the laptop and tablet worlds. Amazon too has a great deal on this Acer Chromebook Spin for $269.99 (was $499), which features an Intel Celeron processor and five different modes of use. For something in a bit more of a traditional laptop form-factor, we'd recommend checking out this $50 off sale on this 15.6-inch Samsung Chromebook for $329 (was $379) at Best Buy. With a bit of a larger screen, spacious keyboard, and Intel Celeron processor, this one will serve you well for more productivity-focused tasks. And finally, Best Buy also has an absolutely bonkers $300 off this stunning Samsung Galaxy Chromebook for $699 (was $999) - a machine that not only packs ultrabook level specs but is also capable of 4K resolution. Chromebook deals have really taken off in po[CENSORED]rity in the past year - primarily because they're fantastic tools for kids doing school work from home. Of course, that's not the only application they're great for though, and if you're someone who simply needs to cover the basics on a budget, you'll find them a great purchase. The ChromeOS is simple to use, lightweight, and generally runs on really power-efficient hardware, lending really good battery life on most of these laptops. Outside the US? See the best Chromebooks in your region just down below.

Lenovo (via HXL) has teased the Radeon RX 6900 XT and Radeon RX 6800 XT Legion Edition graphics cards on the company's Weibo account. The graphics cards are likely an exclusive for Lenovo's Savior Blade 7000P 2021 gaming PCs, though.It's unknown if Lenovo manufactures the Legion graphics cards itself or the company relies on a third-party OEM. Aesthetically, the Radeon RX 6800 XT Legion Edition looks awfully familiar, like a dolled-up Radeon VII. The rectangular shroud makes a comeback with the characteristic "R" logo with red illumination in the corner. To give the design a new twist, Lenovo opted for a black exterior and some RGB lighting.The Radeon RX 6800 XT Legion Edition looks a tad bigger than AMD's reference edition, however, so it should still take up three PCI slots inside your case. The triple-fan cooling setup remains untouched, but the backplate has been customized to Lenovo's Legion branding.The Radeon RX 6800 XT Legion Edition draws power from two standard 8-pin PCIe power connectors. Other than that, we don't know the graphics card's other specifications.Lenovo has given its Savior Blade 7000P gaming systems a much-needed upgrade to AMD's latest Ryzen 5000 (codename Vermeer) processors. Therefore, the Radeon RX 6800 XT Legion Edition will be able to leverage the Smart Access Memory (SAM) feature, which essentially allows the processor and graphics card to tap into each other's memory. This results in a nice boost in gaming performance.The graphics card shortage is affecting both AMD and Nvidia graphics cards, and it doesn't look like the situation will improve anytime soon. Lenovo's Savior Blade 7000P 2021 could provide consumers an option to gain access to a high-end graphics card, even if it's just in China.

Brisbane took a major step towards being named 2032 Olympic hosts after the International Olympic Committee said on Wednesday that the Australian city had been picked as the preferred partner to start talks for the Games. IOC President Thomas Bach said the IOC had approved a recommendation of the commission in charge of future hosts. “This commission recommended to the IOC executive board to enter into a targeted dialogue with Brisbane 2032. The Executive Board has unanimously approved this recommendation,” Mr. Bach told a virtual news conference. Several cities and countries had publicly expressed an interest in the 2032 Games including Brisbane, Indonesia, Budapest, China, Doha and Germany’s Ruhr valley among others. Australian Olympic Committee boss John Coates, also a vice president of the IOC, said the other candidate cities had been “parked for a future Games” by the IOC. “It was a very mature decision by the IOC,” Mr. Coates told reporters in Brisbane on Thursday. “To take a decision when you’ve still got a few other cities there and say we’re going into targeted dialogue with one preferred city was a big call by them and that’s where they ended up. It’s a significant recognition of the way we’ve worked together, the three levels of government, the Paralympic Committee and the Australian Olympic Committee in presenting this bid together,” he said. Brisbane earned bonus points for its high percentage of existing venues, a good masterplan, experience in organising major events and its favourable weather among other things. The state of Queensland hosted the 2018 Commonwealth Games. The IOC has overhauled its bidding rules in 2019 to reduce costs and make the process easier for cities. There are no official candidate cities campaigning ahead of the vote as has been the case in the past. Instead the IOC puts the preferred host to the vote at its session following another review by the commission. Kristin Kloster Aasen, who heads the Future Host Commission, said it was not yet clear when the IOC vote would be held, as it all depended on the targeted dialogue with Brisbane which would start right away. “They are a very advanced project, a number of criteria that sit very well with us. It has been moulded for a number of years, good legacy plans, good venue plan,” she said. “There are many, many things that made us put this forward,” she added. Mr. Coates said Australia hoped to conclude its work on the bid by early May and the vote could come in Tokyo, where the IOC have a meeting before the July 23-August 8 Olympics in the Japanese capital. We have been keeping you up-to-date with information on the developments in India and the world that have a bearing on our health and wellbeing, our lives and livelihoods, during these difficult times. To enable wide dissemination of news that is in public interest, we have increased the number of articles that can be read free, and extended free trial periods. However, we have a request for those who can afford to subscribe: please do. As we fight disinformation and misinformation, and keep apace with the happenings, we need to commit greater resources to news gathering operations. We promise to deliver quality journalism that stays away from vested interest and political propaganda.

Oxbotica is a U.K.-based company that takes care of the navigation, perception, user interface, fleet management, and other intricate features and software required to power self-driving vehicles. This startup was launched in 2014 by Paul Newman and Igmar Posner, both professors at the Oxford University. From then onwards, this company has grown from one strength to another. The main aim of Oxbotica is to create software that drives autonomous vehicles without having to depend on any third-party for the conduction of operations. Oxbatica recently raised $47 million of funding in the Series B round, taking the net funding to about $76.4 million. This funding would be primarily utilized towards accelerating the commercial deployment of the software in the leading industries and markets all over the globe. Self-driven cars have captured millions of people’s attention, but these cars have not been deployed on a large scale due to safety concerns. Oxbotica aims to bridge this gap and provide software that acknowledges all the situations. The basic technology in play here is a general adversarial network (GAN) based simulation technology-selenium. The GAN works as a generative model that employs two neural network models where one model is known as the generator, and the other is the generative network. This technology, when applied successfully, generates photorealistic images within a brief time. The technology can reverse the road signage and even change a particular image’s lighting to demonstrate the different times of the day or even the seasonal change. For example- it can replace a tree with a building in the photorealistic image while also ensuring that the reflection indicates precisely what it should. These synthetic images are deployed to teach the software aptly and to verse it well with reality. The technology generates every possible experience down to even raindrops.The platform that Oxbotica is developing seeks to include mapping, simulation, indexing, logging, diagnostics, and vehicle to vehicle communication. This software will also need less computing power and would easily blend in with cloud management. Safety will be the primary concern in the development of this software. For that purpose, lidar sensors, radar for localization and perception have been put into place. All these will increase the fleet’s intelligence, and therefore the safety of any individual will not be put into jeopardy by the self-driven vehicle. This software has been practically implemented on private roads, test tracks, and simulations for hundreds of thousands of miles. It has been found to work in almost all scenarios across the American, European, and Australian tracks. Oxbotica also plans to retain the vehicle’s manual control, thereby making the vehicle function dually. The company also conducts regular penetration testing to look out for potential hackers who could wreak havoc. With the world facing a pandemic, this technology’s deployment is likely to take place sooner than expected. Self-driving cars, vans, and trucks will help control the pandemic as it will reduce person-to-person contact. This could also potentially assist in establishing the trust of people with autonomous vehicles.

Searching for a good gaming monitor? Gigabyte is a good brand to look at for their range of premium specs at affordable prices, made even better by this deal. For a limited time over at Newegg, you can get up to 22% off a whole range of Gigabyte gaming monitors — some of which rank highly on our best gaming monitors list. We’re particularly impressed by the G27FC, which is available for under two hundred bucks and gives you incredible bang for your buck with a 165Hz curved displayr. On the other end of the price scale is the Gigabyte Aorus CV27Q, which boasts a pixel-dense QHD resolution, HDR and adaptive sync, along with a 165hz refresh rate. Whatever specs you're looking for, the wide variety of discounts in Gigabyte's latest sale should have got you covered.

Last year, Hogwarts Legacy Last year, Hogwarts Legacy developer Avalanche distanced the Harry Potter RPG from series creator JK Rowling and her transphobic commentary. It's going to be harder to separate the game from lead designer Troy Leavitt, however, after it was discovered the industry veteran had a side-gig as a pro-Gamergate YouTuber.On Friday, a series of tweets from Did You Know Gaming contributor Liam Robertson gained traction highlighting a snapshot of Leavitt's YouTube channel. While it's been inactive since March 2018, the channel has quietly acquired over 2 million views largely through videos lashing out at feminism and social justice.I know this is just shocking but the lead designer of Hogwarts Legacy is Troy Leavitt, a far right YouTuber who used to make anti-fem and pro GG vids: https://t.co/kDNm9ri9zH pic.twitter.com/w3dDy0YXe4February 20, 2021In follow-up tweets, Robertson claims that he's not trying to "cancel" Leavitt. None of this information is particularly private, but he felt it important to share to help people make more informed choices over whether to support Hogwarts Legacy. The replies also summarise a video Leavitt made in defence of John Lasseter, dismissing the sexual assault allegations against the former Pixar boss—who left his position in 2017 in response to the scandal—and the wider #MeToo movement as a "moral panic", while noting that Lasseter was "personally nice" to him during development of the Cars 2 licensed game.At just under 26,000 subscribers, Leavitt's channel isn't overwhelmingly po[CENSORED]r. But it also isn't hidden, with the designer still linking to it in his Twitter bio. In a 2018 video titled "Bushnell did nothing wrong", he explains that publisher WB Games was not only aware of, but completely unfussed by his video output when he was hired at Avalanche."I’m happy to say that, even though I disclosed my YouTube channel to WB Games, it didn’t appear to be an issue for them," said Leavitt. "Not that they endorse anything that I’ve said, of course, but at least they seem more concerned with making good games than with pushing some kind of a social justice agenda, so there is hope."For many, Hogwarts Legacy was already tainted. Despite an official FAQ insisting that the story was crafted without input from Rowling, whose sharp turn into transphobia has shattered many long-time Potter fans' love of the series, WB Games declined to comment when Kotaku asked whether the author will be paid royalties.PC Gamer has reached out to WB Games for comment.