General Gaming Article |
- QNAP Claims 'World's First' With Thunderbolt 2 NAS
- Newegg Daily Deals: Asus Mini PC, WD Purple 2TB Hard Drive, and More!
- Microsoft Announces Public Beta of Cortana for Android
- Windows 10 Face Detection Passes Identical Twins Test
- Acer Upgrades Aspire Z3-710 Series All-in-One PCs to Windows 10
- Text Editors Roundup
| QNAP Claims 'World's First' With Thunderbolt 2 NAS Posted: 24 Aug 2015 12:54 PM PDT QNAP launches a NAS with Thunderbolt 2 technologyQNAP Systems is claiming "world's first" with the launch of its Turbo vNAS TVS-871T. The NAS unit comes packed with an Intel Haswell processor, eight drive bays, and Thunderbolt 2 technology, providing customers with both loads of performance and storage capacity. The company also introduced two storage expansion enclosures that are compatible with QNAP's new NAS, the eight-bay TX-800P and the five-bay TX-500P. The specs show that the TVS-871T-i7-16G is powered by an Intel Core i7-4790S quad-core processor clocked at 3.2GHz, and 16GB of DDR3 RAM. The TVS-871T-i5-16G includes an Intel Core i5-4590S quad-core processor clocked at 3GHz, and 16GB of DDR3 RAM. Other ingredients include two Thunderbolt 2 ports, three USB 3.0 ports, two 10 gigabit Ethernet ports, four 1 gigabit Ethernet port, and one HDMI port for connecting the NAS to a monitor or HDTV. The new NAS device features QNAP's QTS 4.2 operating system, which allows the customer to connect a keyboard and mouse for a (somewhat) full desktop experience. The user interface is similar to Apple's iOS in presentation, providing apps with rounded icons that can be added across several "pages." Users can get additional apps by way of QNAP's built-in App Center, but there are already a number of apps preinstalled such as Photo Station, Music Station, Video Station, and more. With Thunderbolt 2, users will experience 20Gb/s bandwidth, twice the speed of first-generation Thunderbolt solutions. This connectivity is ideal for handling lightning-quick 4K video transfers, as are the two built-in 10GbE ports. And while eight drive bays should be plenty for the media artist or CAD operator, the compatibility with TX-800P and the TX-500P means users can add up to six QNAP expansion enclosures that produce up to an extra 448TB. "Most current Thunderbolt DAS users are frustrated with being unable to share large amount of files quickly to increase productivity. The TVS-871T Thunderbolt 2 Turbo vNAS perfectly integrates the high-speed storage of Thunderbolt DAS and flexible file sharing of 10GbE networks, completely solving the obstacles faced by conventional Thunderbolt DAS users," says David Tsao, product manager of QNAP. Customers wanting to get their hands on one of these new QNAP Turbo vNAS TVS-871T units—as well as the TX-800P and TX-500P expansion enclosures—can do so at ASI Partners, D&H Distributing, Ingram Micro, MA Labs, and Synnex here in the States. QNAP did not provide pricing. |
| Newegg Daily Deals: Asus Mini PC, WD Purple 2TB Hard Drive, and More! Posted: 24 Aug 2015 12:22 PM PDT Top Deal: We still love putting together hulking towers filled to the brim with high-end hardware, but we're also willing to concede there are scenarios in which a much smaller (and less expensive) configuration is appropriate. It's for that reason that today's top deal falls on the other other end of the spectrum -- it's for an Asus Mini PC for $210 with free shipping (normally $220 - use coupon code: [EMCAWNK69]; additional $20 mail-in-rebate). This pint-sized PC packs an Intel Celeron 2957U CPU, 4GB of DDR3 RAM, 500GB HDD, and Windows 8.1. It also comes with a USB mouse and keyboard. No, it won't run Crysis, but it should handle general purpose computing tasks just fine. Other Deals: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory for $40 with free shipping (normally $45 - use coupon code: [EMCAWNK65]) WD Purple 2TB SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5-inch Hard Drive for $80 with free shipping (normally $85 - use coupon code: [ESCAWNK75]) Adata UC340 32GB USB Flash Drive for $10 with $1 shipping (normally $13 - use coupon code: [EMCAWNK43]) TDK 4.7GB 16X DVD-R 100 Packs Spindle Disc for $15 with $1 shipping (normally $25 - use coupon code: [EMCAWNK46])
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| Microsoft Announces Public Beta of Cortana for Android Posted: 24 Aug 2015 11:27 AM PDT Cortana comes to Android Microsoft isn't content to let Cortana exist solely on Windows devices, it wants to see its personal digital assistant spread its wings to Android and iOS, too. With that in mind, Microsoft today opened up beta access to Cortana for Android to the general public. There are several changes since the closed beta, one of which is the ability to configure Cortana to load in place of Google Now when long-pressing the home button in Android. However, you still can't wake Cortana up in Android by saying, "Hey Cortana," a feature that's still only available in Windows (for now), nor can it open apps for you. Those things require deeper hooks into Android. Otherwise, Cortana on Android isn't all that different than on Windows. You can use Cortana to perform web searches, set alarms and reminders, look up local restaurants, and so forth. If you want to kick Cortana's tires on Android, you first have to sign up for the public beta -- don't worry, it's a painless process that consists of clicking a button (go here). Once you've done that, you can download Cortana for Android from Google Play. It may take a few minutes to show up in Google Play after signing up for the beta, so keep trying if you get an error message. Note that the beta is only available to users in the U.S. at the moment. If you do decide to give it a try, let us know what you think of it in the comments section. |
| Windows 10 Face Detection Passes Identical Twins Test Posted: 24 Aug 2015 10:43 AM PDT Not so identical after allBad news for evil twins -- it doesn't look like you'll be able to use your face to bypass your twin's security in Windows 10, provided he or she is taking advantage of Windows Hello, a biometric authentication scheme that provides instant access to Windows 10 devices. For systems that support it, Windows Hello takes the place of punching in passwords, allowing you to use your mug (or fingerprint) to log into Windows and authenticate applications, enterprise content, and even some online experiences. Systems equipped with an Intel RealSense 3D camera (F200) can use the facial unlock feature, and based on some recent testing, it does a good job even at discerning between identical twins. To test the feature, The Australian rounded up half a dozen sets of identical twins and had them use Windows Hello on a Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga 14. The laptop has an Intel RealSense camera embedded above the display, which contains an infra-red lens, a regular lens, and a 3D lens. While the sample size is small, in each case, Windows Hello was successful in keeping non-account holders from logging in. It didn't matter if the non-account holder wore his or her hair the same way as their twin, Windows Hello wouldn't let them in. The limited testing bodes well for Intel and Microsoft, though the technology isn't perfect. One of the twins initially had trouble getting Windows Hello configured, and in another instance, it failed to work altogether. In other cases, it would sometimes take a bit of time to identify a twin, though it never let a non-account holder gain access to the laptop. |
| Acer Upgrades Aspire Z3-710 Series All-in-One PCs to Windows 10 Posted: 24 Aug 2015 09:18 AM PDT Joining the Windows 10 party Acer on Monday announced that its 23.8-inch Aspire Z3-710 Series of all-in-one desktop PCs are now shipping with Windows 10, saving you the trouble of performing a free upgrade (from Windows 8.1). There are two models that ship with Windows 10 -- the Z3-710-UR55 ($750) and Z3-710-UR54 ($900). The less expensive model comes with an Intel Core i3-4170T dual-core processor clocked at 3.2GHz with 3MB of cache, 6GB of DDR3L RAM, 1TB hard drive, DVD writer, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 + LE, 1080p webcam, three USB 2.0 ports, two USB 3.0 ports, GbE LAN, and stereo speakers. Acer's higher end configuration ups the ante with a Core i5-4590T quad-core processor clocked at 2GHz with 6MB of cache and 8GB of RAM. Assuming general purpose computing chores, it might not worth the $150 premium. You only get get 2GB of additional RAM, and even though the processor is an upgrade in cores and cache, it's a downgrade in clockspeed. Both systems come wrapped in a slim 1.4-inch chassis with a display that you can tilt from 5 to 25 degrees using just two fingers, Acer says. Alternately, Acer still offers the Z3-710-UR59, a Windows 8.1 model for $700 with an Intel Pentium G3260T dual-core processor clocked at 2.9GHz, 4GB of RAM, and 1TB HDD. All models are available now in the U.S. |
| Posted: 24 Aug 2015 12:00 AM PDT Text Editors for Code MonkeysIf you're getting into programming or coding of any sort, you'll want to find a text editor that you like working with. A text editor is as blasé as it sounds: It's software that you use to read and write files whose sole content is plain ol' text. All coding language source files must be saved as plain text; another program takes that text file and turns it into something else. This also means that text editors can open and edit any text file. This is in contrast to a word processor, which saves files in a binary file to store formatting data. A word processor must support the format the file uses. So, while any text editor can read a regular text file, such as an HTML file, not every word processor can read a Microsoft Word docx file. This is what happens if you open a Microsoft Word docx file in a text editor. One of the main reasons to invest in a text editor beyond a basic one like Notepad is to be able enhance the readability of the files and navigate through them more efficiently. Common features of text editorsBasic text-formatting optionsText editors offer few formatting options that can be set by the user. Any option set will be applied to the text file as a whole, as well. Generally, the most formatting that can be done is which font to use, text size, tab type (actual tabs or just spaces) and spacing, and word wrapping. Search and replaceA search function is, of course, a very useful thing. All text editors include at least a basic search feature. More feature-rich editors will allow you to search not only the file you're editing, but also files within a directory. Some editors will also all you to search by regular expressions, which is a kind of search language that is very powerful once you get the hang of it, allowing you to find text based on rules. For example, you can use a regular expression to find words that begin and end with a vowel. Closely related to the search feature is the replace feature, used if you need to change instances of a search match. This can be within the file itself or across the matches found in a directory. Syntax HighlightingWhile very basic text editors usually lack this, others will have a feature that stylizes text files based on the coding language of the source file. Syntax highlighting is very useful to get a visual idea of what something is in a source file, and helps differentiate aspects of the code to help keep it from just looking like a blob of text. This is what stylizes the text, and while text editors have different ways of styling, they're usually consistent about what gets stylized. A C source file before syntax highlighting… … and after highlighting. An example of where this comes in handy is specific types of variables used in the coding language, e.g., a string of text surrounded by quotes will often be stylized. If you happen to misplace a quote, then code that shouldn't be considered in that string of text will be highlighted, visually indicating something is wrong. Programmer-friendly featuresText editors geared toward programmers will often have these features:
Recommended Text EditorsThere are plenty of text editors out there, but here are some that we recommend. Unless noted otherwise, these are multiplatform and free. Notepad++
Notepad++ is a feature-rich text-editor with many features out of the box and it certainly lives up to its name as being an "incremental" improvement over Notepad. One advantage it has over other text editors is that its syntax highlighting can be changed on the fly, regardless of what type of source file it is. Other text editors normally require the file to be saved, as syntax highlighting is based on the file's extension (Notepad++ will do this too). Notepad++ also includes a plugin system (http://docs.notepad-plus-plus.org/index.php?title=Plugin_Central) to enhance features already there. These plugins are easily installed and removed with its built-in plugin manager. The only downside is it's only available on Windows. Atom
Atom is one of the new kids on the text-editor block. It's built with web-app development in mind, but it supports other programming languages as well. Like Notepad++, it has support for plug-in packages (https://atom.io/packages)(the screenshot featuring one) to enhance the feature set. It's also hackable, as its settings are stored in configuration files that you can edit. One of its defining aspects is its integration support with GitHub, a source control service. If you make changes to the project, it will show up in the project explorer. Its main drawback is that, due to being built on top of Chromium (upon which Google Chrome is based), it's resource intensive. The install alone is 60MB and each file opens up a new tab, which, like Chrome, creates a new instance of itself in Task Manager. GNU Emacs
GNU Emacs is a longstanding text editor with a large following of users. It's a feature-rich editor that can handle a variety of coding languages, create scripts to change the behavior of the program or appearance, and record macros. While you can skirt by using Emacs similarly as you would any text editor, its strength, if you could call it that, is that many commands are mapped to a keyboard command involving CTRL, ALT, and/or "Super" (usually the Windows key). This allows for efficient editing since it allows you to keep your hands on the keyboard (though you will have to memorize those commands before you become a seasoned pro). VimVim is a clone of another longstanding text editor, vi. Like Emacs, it has a large following of users and the two user bases often butt heads with each other over which is better. Vim was developed for programmers and is quite hackable, with editable configuration files. Its commands, unlike Emacs's however, are command line–driven rather than keyboard shortcut–based. This, unfortunately, makes Vim a bit daunting for newcomers, but once you've got the basics down, you can be quite efficient with it. Vim is expandable by way of plugins as well, and there are plenty out there to choose from. Also, Vim or vi is on many Linux distributions, so you're usually not without it. Text editors worth mentioningGNU nanoGNU nano is something like the Notepad of Linux: a very basic text editor. As it's part of the GNU project, it's often included in Linux distributions. Like Emacs, commands are keyboard shortcut–based, but unlike Emacs, they're a lot easier to get a handle on. The bottom two rows display the commands and everything is CTRL-based. Sublime TextSublime Text bills itself as "The text editor you'll fall in love with," and a lot of people swear by it. It's feature-rich like the other recommended editors, is hackable, with plugin support, and with plenty of options and features some other text editors don't have by default. However, its $70 price tag is a tough pill to swallow when other free text editors have plenty of features and provide a pleasant coding experience. GeditIf Notepad is like Paint and Sublime Text is like Photoshop, gedit is kind of like Paint.NET. It's not quite feature-rich, but it's a lightweight text editor with enough features (in particular, syntax highlighting for some languages) to get into coding. It's the default text editor of any Linux distribution using the GNOME desktop environment, but it's cross-platform as well. |
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