#Material Lite Template

[themefork]

Material Lite – The Ultimate Free Bootstrap 4 Admin Template for Developers Who Mean Business

Why You Need the Material Admin Template If you’ve ever spent hours trying to build a backend from scratch—just to get a functional admin panel—you know the struggle. It’s not just about getting something that works. It’s about building something maintainable, responsive, and clean. And for developers or startup founders juggling multiple roles, the last thing they want is to start from zero.…

[cityof2morrow]

Event: Repository Technique Workshop

Published: 3-4-2024 | Updated: N/A WHEN: FRIDAY, MARCH 8TH, 10AM EST WHERE: Sim 2 Shenanigan’s Discord Video will be uploaded to the youtube channel afterwards. SYLLABUS In this workshop, I’ll show you how to repository objects (not clothing) to a single mesh – but why repository?

It applies recolors for the mesh to ALL objects linked to it.

That means fewer recolors to make and fewer files overall in your game.

It means more matching CC objects in your game.

I’ll show you two methods: (1) using SimPE and following Huge Lunatic’s “The Repository Technique” tutorial, and (2) using Pick n’ Mix’s new Repository Wizard. DETAILS – REQUIRED MATERIALS: If you want to work on your own repo’s during the workshop, have the following materials handy:

Huge Lunatic’s “The Repository Technique” tutorial

Pick n’ Mix’s new Repository Wizard

An object you want to use as a mesh for other objects (aka the thing you wanna repo stuff to – commonly called mesh, parent, root, master, or donor file). I use parent/mesh.

An object you want to link to the mesh (commonly called repo, child, reference, slave, or dependent file). I use repo.

EXAMPLES My Neon Lites Pack 001 (Simmons, 2023) collection uses the repository technique – lighting objects are repo’d to a neon light from the Nightlife EP. This project was delayed for years until I found this add-on template (PineappleForest, 2022). I was NOT about to make that many recolors for every single mesh in the set.

The Gallery Collection 001 (Simmons, 2024) contains one mesh file and several repo’s. I made 30 recolors for the mesh and reposited the other five paintings to it. Otherwise, I would’ve had to make all 30 recolors SIX times in total. That’s at least 150 more files you’d need to put in your game!

The Nook and Niches series (BuggyBooz, 2012), the Super Stone Set (Frac, 2017), Jonesi's Bed Blanket and it's many repo's (Jonesi via HugeLunatic, 2009), and my Repository Pack (Simmons, 2023) sets use the technique. It allows sharing of texture materials across dozens of objects (dozens upon dozens and counting!).

Objects in the Bella Brand series (#co2bellabrand) rely HEAVILY on repo’s – there are over 25 sets and hundreds of files to choose from – and there would be 3 or 4 times as many (we’re talkin’ actual thousands!) without the repository technique. Yikes!

BONUS: Repository technique works for certain CAS items, such as clothing and skins, too! CAS items won’t be covered in Friday’s workshop but know that it’s possible! The technique differs in some ways when working with these items.  See examples below. SKINS: Wide range skin palette for maxis/custom bodyshapes  (2nd edition, @letomills, 2024) HAIR: 4t2 Hair Defaults (@platinumaspiration et al., 2024) CLOTHING: The Bella’s Secret (2023) and Bella Park (2023) sets by @somedaythesun.

CREDITS Thanks: Sims 2 Shenanigans Discord community, @hugelunatic, @picknmixsims. Sources: Beyno (Korn via BBFonts), EA/Maxis, Offuturistic Infographic (Freepik).

[elmalo8291]

Elmalo, let's move forward with scoping a full pilot buildout—starting with the v1 Mars Habitat Monitor. This path offers a compelling, high-stakes testbed for the Iron Spine system and allows us to prototype under extreme, failure-intolerant conditions. Designing for Mars pushes the architecture to its limits, ensuring resilience, autonomy, and layered intelligence from the outset.

🚀 v1 Mars Habitat Monitor – Pilot Buildout

🔧 Environmental Design Requirements

Radiation-Hardened Components: Select radiation-tolerant MCU/FPGA and sensor components (e.g., RAD750 derivatives or Microsemi FPGAs).

Thermal Regulation: Passive and active methods (phase-change materials, aerogels, thin-film heaters).

Dust Protection: Hermetically sealed enclosures with electrostatic or vibrational dust mitigation (similar to the Mars 2020 rover’s approach).

Power Constraints: Solar panels + supercapacitors for charge buffering, with ultra-low power idle modes.

Communications Delay Tolerance: Incorporate DTN (Delay-Tolerant Networking) bundles for relayed Earth-Mars messaging.

🧠 Sensor Suite

Life Support Monitoring:

CO₂ / O₂ / CH₄ levels

Humidity / Temperature / Pressure

Structural Integrity:

Microfracture sensors (piezo-acoustic or fiber optic strain gauges)

Vibration analysis (accelerometers/IMUs)

Radiation Exposure:

Ionizing radiation detectors (Geiger-Müller tubes or RADFETs)

Environmental:

Dust density (LIDAR or IR scattering)

UV exposure, ambient EM fields

🧩 System Architecture

Sensor Synchronization:

Use local PTP clocks with oscillator drift correction from a central unit

Redundant clocks for fault detection

Data Fusion Layer:

Edge-level Kalman filters for each sensor type

Onboard anomaly detection with TensorRT-lite or ONNX models for pattern deviation

Edge Inference:

PyTorch Mobile or ONNX on an ARM-based SOM (e.g., NVIDIA Jetson Nano with radiation shielding)

Data Relay and Storage:

Store all telemetry in redundant onboard buffers

Use prepackaged DTN bundles and error-correcting transmission protocols to transmit during windowed comms

Digital Twin Integration:

Each monitor syncs with a simulated Mars habitat replica in Earth orbit or ground control

Dashboard via Prometheus/Grafana or a bespoke Unity/Unreal-powered 3D monitoring console

⚙️ Resilience & Power

Watchdog Timers: Auto-reset on failure, with a secondary power rail for minimal heartbeat signal

Power Monitoring: Real-time tracking of draw, supercapacitor status, and solar charge

Failover States: Downgraded functionality tier for power preservation and sensor core redundancy

Would you like a modular breakdown of the above, suitable for PCB design, mechanical housing, and software stack implementation? Or perhaps a visual mission profile that tracks expected operational phases, anomaly response, and maintenance cycles for the Mars system?

Let’s make this pilot the template for Iron Spine’s interplanetary leap.

[jcmarchi]

25 Free Tailwind CSS Admin Dashboard Templates

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/25-free-tailwind-css-admin-dashboard-templates/

25 Free Tailwind CSS Admin Dashboard Templates

As Tailwind CSS offers greater control over the design of admin dashboards this makes it the preferred choice for web developers who would rather focus on development than on aesthetics. Its utility-first approach aligns well with the need for rapid, responsive, and customizable dashboard design.

Tailwind CSS templates will save you a significant amount of development time. They come pre-designed and include a variety of layout options and components, which means you can set up your admin panel quickly without starting from scratch.

Tailwind CSS is also known for its adaptability. With its utility-first approach, you can adjust the design directly in the HTML, giving you precise control over the appearance of your admin dashboard. This makes it easier to align the dashboard’s design with your application’s overall aesthetic.

The responsiveness built into Tailwind CSS ensures that your admin dashboard will look good on any device. This is critical in today’s diverse device landscape, where you can expect users to access the panel from various devices.

Using Tailwind CSS templates also encourages consistency in design. By starting with a template, you’re adopting a set of design patterns and components that work well together, ensuring a cohesive look and feel across your admin dashboard.

The free Tailwind CSS dashboard templates we have for you here all offer a fast, flexible, and consistent solution for building the admin areas of your applications. If you want to streamline your workflow, these are the free web templates for you!

If you prefer Bootstrap, we have a collection of free dashboard & admin templates here for you.

Tailwind CSS Admin Dashboard Templates

These free Tailwind CSS dashboard templates offer various page templates and pre-designed components, like buttons, forms, navigation bars, charts, and tables, which can be easily customized to fit your project’s needs.

Flowbite Admin Dashboard (Free)

This open-source template combines Tailwind CSS with Flowbite, giving you a beautifully designed dashboard with a range of interactive components for creating dynamic UIs that are both functional and appealing.

TailDash Tailwind CSS Admin Template

TailDash is a professionally designed UI kit for creating modern admin dashboards. It includes over 300 widgets and components, and over 50 pre-designed page templates to help kickstart your next project development.

Tailwind Admin Template (Free)

Built with Tailwind CSS and Alpine.js, this open-source template is perfect for developers looking for a simple yet effective dashboard design. It offers basic UI components and layout options for quick setups and custom projects.

Mosaic Lite Dashboard (Free)

Mosiac Lite is an open-source dashboard template with a clean, user-friendly design. It is ideal for projects that require a minimalistic yet fully functional admin dashboard. It includes various types of pre-designed charts.

Minia Tailwind CSS Dashboard Template

Minia delivers a sophisticated dashboard experience with its clean design and light and dark color scheme options. Packed with charts, widgets, and ready-to-use pages, this template is suited for analytics-heavy applications.

Cleopatra Dashboard Template (Free)

Cleopatra is a simple dashboard Tailwind template with a clean design. It comes with two dashboard templates – analytics and eCommerce – and a basic toolkit for quickly building admin interfaces.

Material Tailwind Dashboard (Free)

This template merges the Material Design aesthetic with Tailwind CSS in a React environment, offering a robust set of over forty components for creating interactive and user-friendly admin pages.

Admin Dashboard Tailwind CSS Template

This template stands out with its elegant design and functionality. It’s perfect for developers looking for a sophisticated style combined with easy-to-use components. It includes both light and dark versions.

Vue Tailwind Admin (Free)

This open-source template combines Vue.js with Tailwind CSS to give you a simple, lightweight, and customizable platform for creating dashboards. It’s ideal for developers who prefer Vue.js for building dynamic and fast-loading admin interfaces.

Tailwind Dashboard Template (Free)

This open-source template offers a simple foundation for dashboard development, providing only the most essential UI components and basic layout options for getting you up and running quickly.

Soft UI Dashboard Tailwind (Free)

This free template features a modern, soft UI design aesthetic. It’s packed with beautifully designed components and layouts, making it an excellent choice for creating modern admin panels. It comes with over seventy frontend components and elements.

Notus React Admin Template (Free)

Notus is a free React-based template that combines Tailwind CSS with a set of beautifully designed components. It’s perfect for building fast, reactive admin panels or web applications.

V-Dashboard Tailwind CSS (Free)

The free Tailwind CSS template V-Dashboard offers a clean and modern design for building simple admin dashboards. Features include customizable components, intuitive layout options, and light and dark modes.

Windmill Admin Dashboard (Free)

The open-source Windmill offers a clean design with a basic set of UI components. It is ideal for quickly building responsive admin panels and web applications. It also includes both light and dark versions.

TailAdmin Dashboard Template (Free)

This minimalist TailAdmin template provides the essentials for quick and easy dashboard development. It includes over 30 UI components and over 50 UI elements.

Githr Dashboard React Ui (Free)

This free React dashboard template has been built using Next.js and Tailwind CSS. It has a beautifully clean design and layout and includes a main dashboard template and page layouts for teams and integrations.

Admin One React Tailwind (Free)

Built with TypeScript, React, and Next.js and styled with Tailwind, Admin One is the complete package. This free dashboard includes everything you need to build and design a powerful dashboard.

Modernize Tailwind Admin (Free)

Modernize offers a contemporary design packed with advanced features and components. It has been built for developers looking for a modern, efficient, and free solution for their admin and dashboard interfaces. A pro version is also available.

Tailwind CSS Starter Templates

Unlike the fully-featured dashboard templates above, these barebones templates offer only basic layouts and few components. They serve as foundational building blocks for web development projects.

Shadcn Tailwind Dashboard (Free)

This dashboard combines Next.js with Tailwind CSS for a minimal admin dashboard design. Its focus is on efficiency and ease of use.

Minimal Starter Admin Template (Free)

This template’s barebones structure makes it perfect for starting small projects or as a foundation for more complex designs.

Kamona-WD Dashboard Template (Free)

A basic starter layout for dashboards. This free template mixes simplicity with Tailwind CSS’s customization capabilities for a clean UI.

Next13 Dashboard Template (Free)

A simple and clean Next.js and Tailwind CSS template for quickly building a barebones admin dashboard.

Nextui Dashboard (Free)

This starter template integrates Next.js and NextUI with Tailwind CSS for a basic, minimalist dashboard layout.

Admin Starter Template Night (Free)

This barebones template offers a dark mode design, keeping the interface simple but visually appealing for night-time or low-light environments.

Admin Starter Template Day (Free)

The day-mode counterpart to the night template, offering a light and simple design for admin dashboards with all basic functionalities.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Can Tailwind CSS be used for any web project?

Yes, Tailwind CSS works well for all kinds of web projects, including admin dashboards. It’s designed to handle projects of any size.

Why choose Tailwind CSS for admin dashboards?

It is great for dashboard design because it offers easy customization and ensures your project looks good on any device.

Do I need to be an expert to use these templates?

No, you don’t need to be an expert to use these templates. A basic understanding of HTML and CSS is helpful. Tailwind CSS templates are beginner-friendly, with plenty of resources available for learning.

Are these templates customizable?

These Tailwind CSS templates all offer high levels of customization. You can quickly tweak the design to fit your specific needs.

Can Tailwind CSS work with other frameworks?

Tailwind CSS can be integrated with various JavaScript frameworks and libraries, making it versatile for different development environments.

More Free Web Templates

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[ntmyrp]

happy wednesday to all you cute little fish! (we’re still coming up with a good nickname for all of you, bear with us!!!!) we’re only three days away from the grand opening of our site, and we have a great preview coming for you in two hours that’s going to help you push on forward with your character development! until then, we’re going to be giving you all a full look at our guidelines. behind the cut, you can find the guidelines that we will be running by upon site opening in their full format. despite having a lite version of our rules both on our blog and in our discord, we’ve decided to be as transparent with you as possible with everything! we hope that this can help answer any questions that you may have been having!

for aliases, duplicates are not allowed. please refer to our member directory to make sure an alias is not in use upon registration. if your alias is in use please make sure to make a distinction in the alias you choose to go by to avoid any confusion. (ex: bri, brie, bri2, etc.)

the first six characters that you make after joining the site are free! when and if you reach that amount you will need to purchase slots for any additional characters that you choose to make through our point store.

we have a limit of fifteen characters per member and all characters made on the site must be over eighteen years of age. there is also a limit of two sets of identical twins per member.

we will be allowing duplicate first names (though we reserve the right to put a hold on certain names in the future if too many, for example, becky's or mark's start to pop up). with the exception of surnames from cultures that have a smaller romanized surname pool (such as chinese, korean, taiwanese and vietnamese), we will not be allowing duplicate surnames. please check our member list to make sure a surname is not in use already before registering your character.

your profile on site will have four graphics: a 280x375 avatar, one rectangle gif (185x100 in approximate size, but it'll resize) and one square gif (will also resize). the final graphic is located in your avatar section and is of same size as the square gif.

we ask that members do not use nsfw or suggestive images in their mini or main profile section as to keep the scrolling experience a little more... visually sfw for those who keep tabs on the site at work and in public spaces.

all codes provided on nice you to meet ya! were made exclusively in order to maintain the aesthetic for the site so we’d like for you to use only the codes provided in the code bank. outside templates are not allowed on here and we ask that you please not edit our templates or their css. if there is a change you'd like to ask about or an issue, please contact an admin and we'll do our best to help. if any of the codes are seen taken outside of the board we will not hesitate to contact and potentially ban you from the site.

all faces claims must have a confirmed birth year and either be signed to agency / label or have verified social media. we will not be allowing any faces to be used that are under 18 years of age or that are deceased.

we are very serious about respecting the backgrounds of all faces being used on the site. therefore, we have implied a strict policy condemning any and all whitewashing or ethnic bending. all characters created must be portrayed in accordance to the cultural and ethnical background of the faces being used for them. for example: if you are using alisha boe as for a character, that character must be portrayed as half-somali and half-white. there is no exceptions to this rule. this rule also applies to characters who's face claims are ashkenazi jewish, etc.

if you plan on using a face that is trans, or that identifies as gender nonconfirming, genderfluid or nonbinary, the character that you create using them must respect this by identifying as the same. cis faces may not be used to portray any of the aforementioned.

we have a +3 / -3 year rule with face claims which means that your character must be within three years of age (younger or older) of the face claim that you are planning to use.

face claim reservations will last for 72 hours with a 24 hour extension if you have already started your application. after acceptance you will get a 24 hour grace period to claim your face before it is up for grabs again. you will have to wait 24 hours after your initial reserve or extension wears out before you can reserve the same face again.

we aim to be a relaxed but active community. we understand that all of us have duties and responsibilities outside of the site. the focus of this site is to have fun and develop your characters comfortably while still maintaining the board. in order for your account(s) to be considered active, you must have at least one thread post or three communication posts every 14 days. we will be doing sweeps every 14 days as well to reflect this and if you do not meet those requirements your account will be moved to inactive.

please post in our absence thread if you will be busy and not capable of meeting the regular activity requirements for [x]-amount of time. if you will be away longer than fourteen days, you must speak with an admin. after the timeline for your initial away post expires, you have two days to meet the above activity requirements with all of your accepted characters.

while on absence, you cannot reserve face claims and create new characters.

as we are a premium site, we are rated as mature, meaning that we will allow the playing out of mature topics (that are not banned). please make sure to appropriately tag your threads in the topic title if they will be featuring material that is either sexually mature (preferably with [m]) or potentially triggering (preferably with [tw]). please see our trigger warning guide below for more information on triggers and how to tag them properly.

admins will use discretion with potentially sensitive topics (such as crime, sexual assault, abuse, violence, etc.).

as we have stressed more than once already: we want all of our members to feel safe and comfortable on nice to meet ya!. any passive aggressive behavior that we either see occurring or that has been brought to our attention will be taken very seriously and addressed immediately.

we have a zero tolerance policy for coercion and take harassment very seriously. if you feel that you have been harassed or pressured to partake in something that you do not feel comfortable with you can contact our admins either by direct messaging one of our core accounts here on the board, or by messaging one of us directly on discord. respect is priority here! please have respect for one another. roleplaying is a hobby for us all and we deserve to be able to do it in an environment that is neither stressful or negative. let's do our best to keep this experience a fun and positive one for everyone on the board. please don't be a beach!

[snowphat]

Edit Video: The Best Free Video Editing Programs

Large videos in particular can be divided into smaller parts. The video editing program supports many formats compared to others, including VOB, 3GP, FLV, MP4, MPG, ASF, AVI, RM and WMV. You can easily get rid of unwanted parts of the video, such as trailers and credits. odnoklassniki video download The output settings such as video codec, size, bit rate and frame rate can also be adjusted , Video Edit Master is a free video editing program with a user-friendly interface and numerous functions for video editing and video editing.

The costs are within the same range as for Adobe Premiere, which can only be subscribed to as a paid version. Accelerating (slow motion) or decelerating (slow motion / slow motion) film material is also possible without any problems. VideoPad Video Editor comes with more than 50 visual effects that you can use for transitions between clips, title animations and credits. The Windows program also masters advanced techniques such as green screen and subtitles. Videos can be customized with optical effects, supplemented with VoiceOvers (spoken text) and audio effects. You can easily adjust the device templates in all important audio and video properties from frame size to frame rate and save them as individual profiles. If you choose the DVD layout, the film can be burned to DVD directly from the program. The app crashes while splitting a file into video and audio while the object is locked.

Welcome to Filmpuls | By using this website, you consent to the use of cookies.

You can then choose an output format and save your video for further use.

Video editing shows better and better performances.

And frankly, I've repeatedly given up trying to find a solid one on many occasions.

Errors can hardly be avoided during video creation, so video editing is inevitably concerned with correcting these errors or removing unwanted parts. The tools required to cut out these parts are free video editing programs. This image editing program has a basic user interface and advanced tools. No powerful PC configuration is required. This free Movavi alternative is primarily aimed at basic photo editing and color correction. DaVinci Resolve Lite is a powerful video editor for amateurs. You can then capitalize the editor to adjust the resulting video accordingly. It may take some time for a beginner to get used to everything here. But I think that's something we should expect from a software solution that has so many tools. At least the learning curve is not as steep as with Adobe Premiere.

»Mr. Robot «

The free version has some limitations. Import in particular is particularly limited in AVI or MOV videos - but if you can live with it, there is plenty of power left. You get 3D transitions, cropping, video borders and side effects, sharpening and color tweaks, brightness and contrast settings, also a capable chroma key (green screen) tool if you are particularly creative feeling. The package has more than enough power to handle some very complex tasks.

[krainecommissions]

Satin Stitching Overview

After finishing up a recent commission, I thought it would be a neat idea to make a short overview on how I did the satin stitching for my Djeeta commission. I wouldn’t call this a full tutorial, but a overview for satin stitching if you want to do something in a similar way.

Materials I Used:

Spandex

Heat n Bond Lite

Gold Thread

Iron

Water Soluble Stabilizer

For this particular costume, I wanted to satin stitch these little bird designs along the hem of Djeeta’s waist piece. I needed 12 of these little birds in total that all needed to be matching in shape and size, so I created a template for it. The birds needed to be 4” wide by 3” tall and the template needed to be symmetrical, so I drew half of what I needed on a folded piece of paper. Once my design was drawn, I cut it out on the fold, giving me a symmetrical bird shape.

Once you have your template, you’ll need to trace the part you want on the paper side of your Heat n Bond.

I took the sheet that I traced the design on and ironed the whole sheet onto my fabric. You want to make sure the web side, which is the shiny side, of Heat n Bond is facing down on the WRONG side of your fabric, and the paper side is up. You’ll need to press the iron down on the paper side to adhere it to the fabric. The fabric that I chose to use for the birds was gold spandex. I chose spandex because of the nice metallic shine it has. It also doesn’t fray, so it was easier to work it.

Once the Heat n Bond was on the fabric, I took the time to carefully cut out each shape. This way you already have your heat n bond attached to your fabric.  

Once all the shapes were cut out, I carefully peeled off the paper side on the back and placed them on the waist piece here I wanted them. Once I had them positioned properly, I placed a pressing cloth over the fabric and ironed them on. I needed a pressing cloth for this, because my base fabric was spandex and spandex generally can not take the high heat needed from the iron. It’s always a good idea to test this out on a bit of scrap fabric before you adhere your piece to your main piece. It’ll also give you an idea of what’s the right temperature you’ll need for your iron to help the Heat n Bond adhere to the fabric.

With the bird pieces adhered to the fabric, now I can move forward with satin stitching. I used the water soluble stabilizer to keep the fabric from warping. It’s clear, so it’s easier to see your design underneath it. I used the Sulky Fabri-Solvy Soluble stabilizer for this project.

I used a zig-zag stitch and narrowed shortened the stitch. The tighter and smaller stitch was made it easier to work with, because of how small this design is. If you are working with a larger piece, you may need different settings. I suggest testing out a scrap piece and adjusting your settings to what works best for you. The more narrow your stitch, the more time it’ll take to do. But you get beautiful embroidery-like results if you do.

I carefully followed outline of the design. Curved shapes can be tricky to do for satin stitching. The best advice I can give for following curves is to keep your machine speed lower, and to not stop as your going around the curve.

When it comes to the points in the shape, what I’ll do it stitch until the corner or end piece, stop with the needle still stuck within the fabric and lift the foot up. Then I’ll turn the fabric to the angle I want it and continue. That way I don’t loose my place where I’m stitching.

When I finished, I hand washed off the stabilizer. The nice thing about the water soluble stabilizer is how easy it is to remove. Once it’s washed off, you just have to wait for it to dry. I used the heat from my iron on the wet piece of fabric to help it dry faster. You could use a dryer to help speed the process along.

Overall fairly this was simple. It's more time consuming than complex. You'll find yourself slowing down focusing on the shape and making sure your stitches are tight. If you really take your time, you can get some beautiful results.  

All amazon links here are affiliate links!

[pass-the-bechdel]

Marvel Cinematic Universe: Doctor Strange (2016)

Does it pass the Bechdel Test?

No.

How many female characters (with names and lines) are there?

Two (16.66% of cast).

How many male characters (with names and lines) are there?

Ten.

Positive Content Rating:

Three.

General Film Quality:

A mediocre story that mostly relies on its special effects in order to appear interesting.

MORE INFO (and potential spoilers) UNDER THE CUT:

Passing the Bechdel:

The only time that Christine and The Ancient One share the screen is when the latter is unconscious and dying, so the failure here is particularly unsurprising. For that matter, you could even argue that ‘The Ancient One’ isn’t much of a name for a named character to have...

Female characters:

The Ancient One.

Christine Palmer.

Male characters:

Kaecilius.

Stephen Strange.

Billy.

Nicodemus West.

Etienne.

Jonathan Pangborn.

Mordo.

Wong.

Daniel Drumm.

Dormammu.

OTHER NOTES:

Kaecilius produces two blades simultaneously for the beheading of the librarian, but the head is removed in a single slice, which means that one of those blades was being waved around purely for the Cool Points of dual-wielding. All about that aesthetic.

Someone sure did enjoy Inception, huh?

Remember that thing about how Iron Man balanced Tony Stark’s initial self-absorbed asshole behaviour really well with his journey to heroism in order to make him palatable enough to watch in the first place? Strange categorically does not get that treatment. He’s just an egotistical jerk who is tedious to watch, and while his arrogance is variously addressed by other characters, him going through an emotionally redemptive process is presumed by the script rather than actually being included.

If they really, really wanted Benedict Cumberbatch for this role, I feel like they should have just allowed him to be a British doctor living and working in the States. The guy cannot do accents.

My sister saw them filming the scenes in the streets of Kathmandu. Small world.

I understand that The Ancient One was an Asian man in the comics, and while I applaud the decision to make the character female in this film (especially considering that the only other significant female character is the awkwardly-included personality-lite love interest Christine), they shoulda done it without the white-washing. Tilda Swinton is great, though.

...Mister Doctor.

in an altogether lacklustre film, The Ancient One’s final moments are a highlight.

Also a highlight: the reverse destruction in Hong Kong, a much better use of the bountiful reliance on special effects in this movie, where so much of it previously had been empty spectacle.

So, let’s talk a bit about that well-known writing rule: Show, Don’t Tell. 

While this movie certainly does a lot of showing in the showy sense of the word - the frequently-empty spectacle of special effects as mentioned above - that’s not the type of show from whence story comes, and it leaves the thin plot to be almost exclusively told, without active support in the content of the film. Having characters charge around in the mirror universe doing weird spatial warping shit may be visually entertaining enough to hold the audience’s interest (at least the first time around), but it doesn’t help us to comprehend any aspect of the plot, its rules, what drives it, what matters, etc. It’s just...empty spectacle. Doctor Strange doesn’t pretend to be complex or deep storytelling outside of that anyway, and that’s ok insofar as there’s no reason it has to be or even should be, but what it is, when you set that spectacle aside, is...kinda nothing?

The game of ‘recount the plot as simplistically as possible’ goes like so: arrogant doctor suffers a seemingly incurable injury, searches for a cure anyway, finds a temple of the mystical arts, learns some mystical arts, fights some rival magicians, thwarts their evil plot, the end. As I’ve noted before, the ability to distill a plot to its simplest form is not in itself proof that the plot is somehow bad or lacking; the question is what does the actual film do to make that simplistic plot work for it? When the answer is ‘...kinda nothing?’, that’s a bad sign, and particularly unfortunate here because the whole mystical arts and magicians and the freakin’ multiverse thing has no excuse for being this boring. As a simplified plot, Doctor Strange still sounds like it could be intriguing, it’s brimming with potential, and yet the only thing it exploits that potential for is an excuse to over-indulge in special effects. It’s a waste of story ideas, to start with, and considering the cast, a waste of actors, too. If you’re not gonna make the most of their skills, you might as well cast a horde of unknowns and save the casting portion of the budget for, I dunno, another gravity-defying skyscraper battle?

It should come as no shock at this point that I’m about to make this about the greatest resource of any story: the characters, both because that’s what I always do, and because damn, did they forget about characterisation being, y’know, a thing you actually have to write into the script? You can cast the greatest actors in the world if you want, and they’ll do their best to make a symphony out of the single note you give them to work with, but even then all they can do is make thin material look its best; they can’t magically generate story action and development in the places where their characterisation should have been. Let’s talk about Kaecilius as an example, because as the plot’s antagonist, he’s the most egregious of the lot: why is Kaecilius the villain? The part where he’s positioned opposite the protagonist characters and their ethos is an indicator, yeah, but why is he there, doing what he’s doing, what are his motivations? The basic answer is that he wants to bring Dormammu and the power of the dark dimension to Earth because he thinks it will bring peace and life everlasting. How do we know he wants that? We’re told so in the dialogue. Why does Kaecilius think this is a good idea? Don’t know. Turns out Dormammu’s bad news, but we don’t know how or why Kaecilius was misled on the subject. Power from the dark dimension is apparently bad news too - we know because we are told so in the dialogue - but why exactly this is and what the consequences are is unclear. We don’t have the information we need in order to understand why Kaecilius turned so severely, why certain rules exist or why they are being broken; everything we know, we know because it’s delivered to us in plain speech, not because we see it demonstrated in the events of the film, and considering that the core of the conflict seems to have come from distrust in The Ancient One’s teachings, it’s pretty ironic that the narrative then expects the audience to know or believe the truth in anything that she or her acolytes utters. If we were shown the truth of it, or at least shown the reasons to doubt or contemplate alternatives, we might be able to build a story out of this, but instead, we get ‘fuck you, it’s like this coz we said so. He has metallic purple eyeliner, isn’t that enough?’

This lack of character building spills out to impact the rest of the characters too, naturally; the criminally-underused Mordo suffers especially as a result, since everything from his reason for coming to Kamar Taj, to his supposed rigid outlook on life, to his disillusionment with the cause, all relies on the audience simply shrugging off the idea of being shown the evidence in behaviour, the influence of the past, how it shapes his perspective in the present, etc, just forgoing anything that could be considered characterisation (and therefore, fodder for character development), and settle for ‘he’s like this: we know because another character said so’. Functionally, Mordo is hardly a character at all, he’s just The Other Guy that Strange sometimes interacts with, and big revelatory moments for him - Strange outing The Ancient One’s use of dark dimension power, Mordo grappling with his shaken faith - fall flat because we haven’t seen why this should matter, why Mordo can’t bring himself to see shades of grey in a situation, why The Ancient One has kept these secrets in the first place etc. The Ancient One herself fairs only marginally better as a character because the only thing we know about her (mostly because we’re told) is that she’s secretive; that said, ‘she’s secretive’ doesn’t work all that well as a sneaky way to avoid actually fleshing out a character, and the fact that instead of having any more meaningful secret revealed other than her power usage (which, again, isn’t that meaningful really because we aren’t shown a genuine reason to attribute it meaning, we just know that the characters are saying upset words about it), The Ancient One simply dies without ever becoming less enigmatic, means that we’re still left with more of a shell of a character than a real one, just the concept of a person, not an actual person with motivations and decisions we are privy to or could understand (and therefore, could judge or attribute meaning).

Strange, at least, is shown to be an arrogant jackass, but, as noted, that personality template is presented in a very cliche manner that - in the context of the MCU - reads much like a Tony Stark knock-off, only without any of the character nuance or developmental arc to pull it off in a palatable or entertaining fashion, and part of that problem is the fact that while Strange’s initial personality is shown, his process of change is...not. Like anything else in the film that should have been dynamic, it’s told to us in words more that it is demonstrated in actions. The earlier portion of the film is somewhat slow and low on intrigue or tension due to the fact that Strange doesn’t know the extent of the world he has become involved with, and he’s wholly occupied with his quest for a cure (though, frustration with his progress or with the fact that none of his training seems relevant to it is pretty light-on, as are any moments of struggle with his own self-interest vs the greater good - Strange’s hands are just a means to an end so that he has a reason to find Kamar Taj, rather than a sustained part of his struggles on a physical, mental, or emotional level). As soon as Strange learns that there’s a bigger battle out there, Kaecilius attacks (very convenient timing), and the story changes gears to launch headlong into its final act, with only time for The Ancient One to tell Strange that this is not about him (though, again, his self-interest has not remained centralised enough nor created continued strife necessary to make this declaration seem revelatory) before Strange is faced with either playing the game, or letting Kaecilius bring Dormammu and end the world. As such, Strange deciding that endless dark dimension torment is a bad thing isn’t really a big forward step (or even a selfless one - he could still be 100% focused on returning to his old life and leaving the multiverse to the pros, he just obviously can’t achieve his own self-interest with Dormammu around). Technically, we never see proof that Strange has given up his old ways, bettered himself as a person, or made any kind of decision that isn’t about his own ego (sticking around to become a universe-saving time-lord sorcerer is, um, a distinct step up the power trip ladder, after all). The idea that this character has actually gone through anything more than a career shift is just kinda assumed, rather than being demonstrated, and consequently, the idea that this is a character worth rooting for now is also, just assumed.

Ultimately, the moral of the story is pretty obvious - ‘show, don’t tell’ doesn’t have to mean ‘never provide exposition to explain anything’, but it does mean that you should try to demonstrate essential things like worldbuilding and characterisation as often as possible, if for no other reason than because letting your audience see that something is so is much more engaging and powerful than just telling them how it is. If all you’re gonna do is tell, you might as well just stick with reciting the plot aloud, it’d be cheaper and less time-consuming, and while it wouldn’t really take advantage of the fact that film is a visual medium, just churning out a bunch of special effects shenanigans without a plot to underpin them doesn’t take as much advantage of that as you might think, either. Imagine what an interesting, dark, twisty film we could have made out of this story if, say, questioning The Ancient One’s teachings (or cleaving to them unflinchingly) had been made a prominent concept, so that rifts in trust and the shaking of core beliefs about the universe were more meaningful developments? Imagine if Dormammu was a more significant idea about which we heard conflicting information from unreliable sources, imagine if we could see how tantalising Kaecilius’ perspective was, if Strange struggled at all with who to believe and how to reconcile his ego with the smallness of his existence in the vast multiverse, etc, etc. Imagine if the plot had some sort of core concept instead of just empty spectacle and placeholder characters. Imagine. What a waste.

[twstechnology-blog]

Top 10 Best Email Marketing Tools For 2019

Email Marketing is like the king of online marketing no matter what it will always have its own importance it can change its form but it will never lose its importance as per marketers perspective.

What is Email Marketing?

An email marketing service is dedicated to sending the information to the prospects and customers in an e-mail format. Basic activities in email marketing tools are the ability to create and send email campaigns to large contact lists, to design attractive emails using email templates, to create and format newsletters, and to gather details of the prospect clients.

While looking into email marketing services, we precisely test all highlights including customer services, measurable and systematic instruments, and ease of use. Furthermore, client audits are likewise thought about. This detailed analysis guarantees that a far-reaching rating of every single one of the services you see included here.

Why Email Marketing so Important?

More than 35% population of the world is using email to communicate i.e around 2.6 billion people. Yes, this number is increasing rapidly also many users have more than a single email account. As per some stats till 2022 there will be around 333 Billion mail exchange in a single day. This is the largest platform of consumers more than any social platform, which makes it the major player in the field of online marketing and makes it the favourite to online marketers.

“66% of online consumers bought something based on an email marketing message. That’s a lot of conversions that are based solely on an email. In the consumer age group of 45–54, a whole 71% made a purchase based on an email message. These statistics come from the Direct Marketing Association.”

Now the Top 10 Email Marketing Service Providers picked by Us are!

1. MailChimp2.Constant Contact3. Aweber4. Active Campaign5. Sending Blue6. GetResponse7. BenchMark8. Campaign Monitor9. Drip10. Mail get Bolt

1. MailChimp MailChimp is an IT company favourite tool and it is one of the best email service provider with more than 14 million customers.

MailChimp has a great drag and drops email template builder to create beautiful customized emails. Also, it provides one of the best automation for e-commerce businesses ensuring right emails are sent to the right people.

One can easily segment your subscribers, and target emails based on their preferences, previous sales, and behaviour.

The starters can get started with MailChimp for free, and the growing business can start with $10/month.

2. Constant Contact Constant Contact is one of the biggest and fastest-growing email marketing services in the world. It is known for its user-friendliness which makes it even more popular in Email Market.

One can easily manage email lists, contacts, email templates and much more.

Every account gets a detailed summary of activities done related to email, built-in social media sharing tools, an image library and 1GB of storage for your own files.

Constant Contact offers constant support with live chat, email, community support.

They provide online training as well as live seminars in your neighbourhood. This allows small business to quickly learn the basics of email marketing and start using it like a pro.

Constant Contact has a 60-day free trial (no credit card required). Their paid services start as low as $20/month.

3. Aweber AWeber is one of the most popular business email marketing service providers in the world. They offer simple pricing plans that cover a wide range of small and medium-sized businesses to manage their email marketing.

Aweber has its focus on Personalized Email Marketing and Automation which makes it more effective as well as it increases the user-friendliness of the tool It connects seamlessly to most platforms like WordPress, Facebook, Paypal and Shopping Carts, Etsy and many more.

With the access of ready to use Email Templates, List management, Autoresponders, Landing Pages, Email Analytics, Drag and Drop Editor they have almost every new feature running in the email market.

The Aweber customer support team helps through various mediums like Live support, Knowledgebase, FREE live webinars, Tons of blog articles.

AWeber offers a 30-day free trial. After that, their pricing starts from $19/month for up to 500 subscribers and unlimited emails.

4. ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign combines your email marketing, Marketing Automation, Sales, CRM and messaging. It includes features like Sign Up forms, Split Testing, Email Segmentation, event tracking, contact and lead score etc.

ActiveCampaign comes with an amazing email template editor and mobile friendly signup forms. It allows you to segment contacts based on their behaviour, actions, location and social data. It has the capability to fetch additional data about your contacts using only their email address.

It integrates beautifully with many third party software including WordPress. You can also send SMS messages to your contacts for follow up on campaigns.

ActiveCampaign’s plans begin from $9/month. You can likewise ask for a demo with restricted highlights for a trial.

In spite of the fact that the price on ActiveCampaign gets very high, it’s absolutely justified regardless of the money if marketing automation is your deal. 5. SendinBlue SendinBlue is another popular and top email service provider, that you will love to use for promotional purpose.

SendinBlue is best suited for small or medium-size business as the audience can easily be targeted with beautiful designs and optimized campaigns.

Send promotional and transactional emails, Test the responsiveness of emails and optimize them for a variety of devices.

Integration with third-party application and API’s is very easy.

Send 9,000 emails with no contact limit to test all features and facilities for free. Other than that there are 4 paid plans to choose.

Lite Plan:- Deliver 40,000 emails to unlimited contacts and get billed around $8 monthly. Essential Plan:- 60,000 email access which can be delivered to limitless contacts at a rare price of $39. Premium Plan:- $66 will be charged monthly for 120,000 e-mail delivery to unlimited contacts. Enterprise Plan:- For more details about the pricing and other information contact the sales team.

6. GetResponse GetResponse is a very popular email marketing solution. It is very easy to use and simplifies email marketing for small businesses and absolute beginners.

It comes with some amazing marketing automation tools which allow the user to create smart automated campaigns. With a drag and drop editor, you can create campaigns, segment contacts, and send customized design for specific groups.

GetResponse provides features like beautiful responsive forms, landing pages, A/B testing, tracking, and autoresponders. It also integrates with third-party lead generation software like OptinMonster, SalesForce, Google Docs, ZenDesk, etc.

Customer Support is provided by phone, live chat, and email. They also provide learning material including videos, webinars, how-tos, guides, etc.

GetResponse offers a 30-day free trial. Their pricing starts from $15/month.

7. Benchmark Benchmark offers a perfect and clear interface to gives you a chance to make striking messages, with no hard work. It is the best solution for a startup.

It accompanies various overpowering highlights, including Google Analytics tracking tool, live client support, and email automation tools that will make your activity much simpler.

Indeed, you can make mobile-ready templates for potential clients to give them a rich client experience.

The only thing keeping it behind is the third party and integration which sometimes work against it. Main highlights include drag and drop editor, photo editor, a code editor and a large bunch of ready to use templates.

It provides 30 days free trial or up to 250 emails sent, afterwards, it has plans as a medium, large, extra large and massive and the minimum starting Cost is around $11 per month.

8. Campaign Monitor Campaign Monitor is an easy-to-use email marketing tool that allows startups to send beautiful, meaningful newsletters, creating a reliable channel to grow engagement with their subscribers and promote loyal readership.

Our beautiful templates, drag and drop interface and engagement-based segmentation allow marketers to deliver targeted content to large lists of subscribers with ease.

The basic plan starts from $9/month with around 500 subscribers.

9. Drip Drip is an advanced email marketing platform focused on eCommerce, bloggers, and marketers. They offer a wide range of tools with their smart email marketing platform.

It is created while keeping in mind the beginners' way of using the email tool. Integration addons are available for all popular website builders including WooCommerce and WordPress. This allows the user to easily add sign up forms to their website and capture more leads.

What sets Drip apart from the competition is their advanced marketing automation tools, advanced email segmenting, list groups, and tons of amazing features that allow a user to reach specific audiences in their email list.

They offer a free trial account for up to 100 subscribers. After that their plans start from $41 / month.

10. Mailget Bolt MailGet Bolt one of the best email marketing software that any organization can rely on regarding the promotion of their products and services.

Mailget provides free access up to 500+ email templates that are ready to use and easy customization which can be used for promotional purposes. The best thing is that there is no requirement of SMTP settings.

Email building, contact segmentation, healthy list management, track each & every e-mail after sending, all these services at a very affordable cost.

Free Plan of MailGet Bolt lasts for 30-Days and consist of 9,000 emails that can be sent to 300 users.

The starting paid plan allows sending unlimited emails to 10,000 subscribers at a cost of $42/month.

I hope this article will give you a good overview of the best email marketing services for your business.

Choose the best email marketing tool for your digital marketing company.

[hostingnewsfeed]

Stocks To Watch: Tencent Music, Starbucks And Under Armour In Focus

New Post has been published on http://rentts.org/stocks-to-watch-tencent-music-starbucks-and-under-armour-in-focus/

Stocks To Watch: Tencent Music, Starbucks And Under Armour In Focus

Welcome to Seeking Alpha’s Stocks to Watch – a preview of key events scheduled for the next week. Follow this account and turn the e-mail alert on to receive this article in your inbox every Saturday morning.

Investors are prepping for another week of volatility as concerns over the China trade deal and the impact of the U.K. Brexit withdrawal bill are sure to linger. Add in the drama of a yield curve that inverted on the short end and it’s small wonder that the Santa Claus rally is having a hard time materializing. With major indexes having now erased their gains for the year, expect to hear some noise from value investors after seeing the one-month drops in names such as Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) -25%, Target (NYSE:TGT) -22%, Tiffany (NYSE:TIF) -22%, Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) -19%, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) -18%, Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) -15% and Altria (NYSE:MO) -15%. On the economic front this week, new reads on producer prices, consumer prices and retail sales will be closely watched.

Notable earnings reports: It’s a very thin week for earnings reports, but companies due to spill numbers include Ascena Retail (NASDAQ:ASNA) and Stitch Fix (NASDAQ:SFIX) on December 10; American Eagle Outfitters (NYSE:AEO) and Dave & Buster’s Entertainment (NASDAQ:PLAY) on December 11; Phototronics (NASDAQ:PLAB) and Oxford Industries (NYSE:OXM) on December 12; Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE), Costco (NASDAQ:COST) and Ciena (NASDAQ:CIEN) on December 13.

IPOs expected to price: Tencent Music Entertainment (TME) is pressing ahead with its IPO as the company looks to take advantage of the 90-day pause on tariffs between the U.S. and China. The music streaming service plans to sell 41M ADSs in the offering and selling shareholders will also unload just under 41M ADSs. Tencent Music owns three streaming music platforms in China – QQ Music, Kuguo, and Kuwo – with a count of over 700M monthly active users. Heading into the IPO, Tencent (OTCPK:TCEHY) holds a 58.1% stake in Tencent Music and Spotify (NYSE:SPOT) owned a 9.1% stake.

IPO lockup expirations: Greenpro (OTCQB:GRNQ) on December 10; US Xpress Enterprises (NYSE:USX) and Charah Solutions (NYSE:CHRA) on December 11; Avalara (NYSE:AVLR), Verrica Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:VRCA) and Puixin (NYSE:NEW) on December 12.

Analyst quiet period expirations: Vapotherm (NYSE:VAPO) and Eton Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ETON) on December 10; Weidai (NYSE:WEI) on December 11;

Projected dividend changes (quarterly): Abbott (NYSE:ABT) to $0.30 from $0.28, AES (NYSE:AES) to $0.14 from $0.13, Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) to $1.39 from $1.32, Boeing (NYSE:BA) to $2.08 from $1.71, Franklin Resources (NYSE:BEN) to $0.25 from $0.23, Lilly (NYSE:LLY) to $0.57 from $0.5625, Realty Income (NYSE:O) to $0.221 from $0.2205, AT&T (NYSE:T) to $0.51 from $0.50, Ventas (NYSE:VTR) to $0.81 from $0.79, ABM Industries (NYSE:ABM) to $0.18 from $0.175, Balchem (NASDAQ:BCPC) to $0.46 from $0.42, SEI (NASDAQ:SEIC) to $0.32 from $0.30, Urstadt Biddle (NYSE:UBA) to $0.275 from $0.27, WD-40 (NASDAQ:WDFC) to $0.59 from $0.54.

60 Minutes: Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk was interviewed by Leslie Stahl for the weekly news show. In a clip already released, Musk said “I don’t really want to try to adhere to some CEO template.” Musk also stated that the EV automaker would have interest in setting up shop in an old General Motors (NYSE:GM) plant if one is available.

Analyst/investor meetings: Arthur Gallagher (NYSE:AJG), Enbridge (NYSE:ENB), American Water Works (NYSE:AWK), ServiceMaster Global (NASDAQ:SERV), TreeHouse Foods (NYSE:THS) and Crown Holdings (NYSE:CCK) on December 11; Aimmune Therapeutics (NASDAQ:AIMT) and Hess (NYSE:HES) on December 12; ImmunoGen (NASDAQ:IMGN), Health Insurance (NASDAQ:HIIQ) and Danaher (NYSE:DHR) on December 13; Hartford Financial (NYSE:HIG) and Centene (NYSE:CNC) on December 14.

Spotlight on coffee: Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) hosts its biannual investor day event on December 13. The meeting will occur about a month after Starbucks announced a round of corporate-level job cuts. While the company isn’t directly in the line of fire of tariffs, an escalation of the U.S.-China trade battle could end up hurting its business if Beijing slows the regulatory process or a consumer backlash pops up.

Spotlight on Under Armour: Under Armour (UA, UAA) will hold an investor meeting on December 12. CEO Kevin Plank, President, COO Patrik Frisk, CFO David Bergman and other Under Armour execs will provide an overview of the company’s long-term strategy, financial outlook and key initiatives to deliver sustainable, profitable growth and shareholder value.

Capitol Hill watch: Google (GOOG, GOOGL) CEO Sundar Pichai is due to appear before a House panel on December 11 in a hearing rescheduled from last week. Height Capital Markets expects the tough questions to be asked to Pichai by lawmakers to be just the start, not the end. The firm thinks Big Tech companies will be exposed to regulatory headline risk into 2019, even as it predicts final legislation will be tough to pass both houses. The House is also slated to vote next week on a bi-partisan measure that would punish drugmakers trying to game Medicaid’s rebate system to garner bigger profits.

FCC watch: The FCC is due to start its quadrennial review of some media ownership rules, including the issue of owning multiple stations in a single market. Companies watching the developments include Entercom (NYSE:ETM), Emmis Communications (NASDAQ:EMMS), Cumulus (NASDAQ:CMLS), Cox Radio (CXR), Clear Channel, CBS, Disney (NYSE:DIS), Beasley Broadcasting (NASDAQ:BBGI), iHeartMedia (OTCPK:IHRTQ).

Short report: Nasdaq is due to issue a new short interest report on December 11 for positions settled by November 30. Stocks with the highest level of short interest as a percentage of total float at the time of the last Nasdaq report included GNC Holdings (NYSE:GNC), Lannett Company (NYSEMKT:LCI), J.C. Penney (NYSE:JCP), Carbo Ceramics (NYSE:CRR), Carvana (NYSE:CVNA), Buckle (NYSE:BKE), Revlon (NYSE:REV), RH(NYSE:RH), Dillard’s (NYSE:DDS), Camping World (NYSE:CWH), B&G Foods (NYSE:BGS) and Pyxus International (NYSE:PYX).

M&A tidbits: Lumentum’s (NASDAQ:LITE) acquisition of Oclaro (NASDAQ:OCLR) is expected to close on December 10. Shareholders with Akebia Therapeutics (NASDAQ:AKBA) and Keryx Biopharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:KERX) vote on the merger between the two companies on December 11. A special meeting is scheduled on December 11 for shareholders of Dell Technologies (NYSE:DVMT) to vote on the Class V common stock exchange transaction. CVS Health (NYSE:CVS) has a deadline of December 14 to issue a briefing defending the Aetna (NYSE:AET) deal.

Sales updates: Franklin Resources (BEN) on December 10, TD Ameritrade (NASDAQ:AMTD) on December 11; E*Trade Financial (NASDAQ:ETFC) and Charles Schwab (NYSE:SCHW) on December 14.

More Prime Time: It’s another notch on the belt for Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) as its streaming service launches on Comcast’s (NASDAQ:CMCSA) Xfinity X1 platform.

Cyberwatch: Zix (NASDAQ:ZIXI), Calix (NYSE:CALX) and GigCapital (NYSE:GIG.U) are scheduled for one-on-one meetings at the Cowen 5th Annual Networking & Cybersecurity Summit on December 12.

Barron’s mentions: The share price drop on Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT) looks overdone, reasons Jack Hough. He notes that a midyear price increase by Caterpillar on machines helped offset higher costs related to steel and other tariffs, while booked orders are strong for 2019. Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) is also seen as being on the cheap side, with shares trading at only 10X forward earnings. That’s despite the huge upside for Applied Materials in AI chips. There’s also a deep dive on Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX) after the company’s bumpy road.

Sources: Nasdaq, EDGAR, Reuters, CNBC, Bloomberg

Editor’s Note: This article covers one or more microcap stocks. Please be aware of the risks associated with these stocks.

[rpgsandbox]

With simple, story-forward rules and an intense, edgy setting, Over the Edge broke new ground in roleplaying games. When it was released over twenty-five years ago, it influenced a generation of game designers and spawned countless campaigns on Al Amarja.

Today, we’re bringing Over the Edge back with a new vision, new era, and new stories. We want you to be a part of that effort.

Return to the island you only think you remember.

                                                Design not final

WHAT IS AL AMARJA?

The setting of Over the Edge is a fictional, modern-day island in the Atlantic Ocean that’s home to the weirdest city in the world, the Edge. All sorts of conspiracies, paranormal entities, mad scientists, secret agents, and more lurk here. It’s the front line for the Last War, a conflict that rages unseen and unknown to most of its inhabitants. You remember Al Amarja, but not like this.

WHO AM I WHEN I’M HERE?

We believe you're going to be more invested in a unique character you create yourself. Over the Edge helps you draw on modern pop culture and paranormal traditions to craft these exciting characters.

We also believe it’s fun to get into trouble, and so characters in Over the Edge are defined not only by their distinguishing traits, but by the ways they leap from the rails and subvert expectations. They question their own core truths, and everyone gets to see what happens next.

For example, you might play…

a jet-setting grifter in Al Amarja to pull off the greatest caper in modern history.

a psychic super-child in pursuit of the remnants of a shadow government.

a reincarnation of an Atlantean Priest of Excess ready to indulge in the island’s forbidden tastes.

Characters are the best part of Over the Edge because…

The modern-day setting makes it easy to create characters that are relatable and that have depth.

The paranormal-friendly setting makes it easy to use your imagination to create a unique role.

Without even knowing the rules or the setting, you create your alter ego from scratch using concepts and words, not numbers, lists, or templates.

WHAT’S FAMILIAR AND WHAT’S ALL-NEW?

If you’ve played Over the Edge before, you might wonder what’s different this time around. We know you like touchstones and something to connect to, but you also want to feel as if there’s a reason to pick this edition up.

The major conspiracies and characters of the previous editions are still here, but they’ve all been reimagined and rewritten. The new game is inspired by the original material but not limited by or derivative of it.

A few re-imagined concepts include…

The police are still corrupt, but now, instead of being paramilitary officers with grease guns, the rank-and-file cops are schlubs with only their legal standing going for them.

One district is still patrolled by thugs with baboons, only now the baboons also roam on their own begging for food and sniffing out troublemakers.

The poorest neighborhood is still the turf of Lucifer’s Glorious Lords of Passion, a ruthless gang of metal heads, but now the gang is also a bona fide heavy metal band, and they use their music to solidify their hold on the district.

FREEFORM, STORY-FORWARD RULES  

We believe the island of Al Amarja is best experienced through light, free-wheeling mechanics.

Over the Edge uses a simple, easy-to-understand game mechanic called “casting lots.” You throw two six-sided dice to resolve any decision, choice point, or challenge. This generates both a succeed-or-fail result as well as the possibility for a special result: good, bad, or both.

A single casting of lots can generate the results for…

A week of surveilling a shady target.

An evening burgling a house for loot and information.

A moment of deadly struggle in a big climactic fight.

Dive deep into the action or pull back and resolve only the key choice points of any situation. Over the Edge lets you determine the scope and stakes of any casting of lots and provides tools to tailor any scenario to the expertise of the player characters.

We believe in gorgeous, evocative books. This Kickstarter features a single rulebook written by original Over the Edge designer Jonathan Tweet. It also features assistance from writer Chris Lites, development by Cam Banks, graphic design by Thomas Deeny, art direction by James Mosingo, and editing by Jaym Gates.

This new edition is also inspired by 25 years of other game designers’ work, including Robin Laws, Ron Edwards, Luke Crane, Vincent Baker, John Harper, and Jason Morningstar. Many designers say that the original Over the Edge inspired them to design roleplaying games in a new way. We embrace that creative feedback loop by re-incorporating some of their amazing innovations here.

Kickstarter campaign ends: Tue, August 14 2018 7:00 PM BST

Website: Atlas Games

[publicgreys]

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#Download zbrush update

#Download zbrush full

On the other hand, most advances features have been removed from the core version. Similarly, the program comes with templates that facilitate producing jewelry, pen holders and many more items. To get beginners started quickly, Pixologic included a host of mannequins that provide the basic layout of humanoid characters and animals. ZBrushCore also offers mesh optimization for 3D printing and Pixologic’s own KeyShot rendering software! So what are the “Core” functionalities that Pixologic has packed into ZBrushCore? You get ZBrush’s popular brush system, you can sculpt with the acclaimed DynaMesh dynamic digital clay.

#Download zbrush full

This lite version of ZBrush will only throw you back $149.95 which is a steal considering the $ 895 of the full version. It is a complete offline setup of Pixologic Zbrush for macOS with a single click download link.As the name already suggests, ZBrushCore is a streamlined version that provides the same basic functionality. Latest Version Release Added On: 15 August 2022Ĭlick on the button given below to download Pixologic Zbrush free setup.Compatibility Architecture: Apple-Intel Architecture.Setup Type: Offline Installer / Full Standalone Setup DMG Package.Setup App File Name: ZBrush-2022.0.5.rar.Mac Software Full Name: Zbrush for macOS.

#Download zbrush for mac

Technical Details of Pixologic Zbrush for Mac

Provides an accurate understanding of XYZ space with CamView.

Allows users to use the colour picker to mask or unmask portions of the mode.

New Texture Adjust by Color and PolyPaint Adjust by Color features.

Enables artists to view the unwrapped UV layout of a model within ZBrush.

Got new XTractor, HistoryRecall and DecoCurve brushes to touches new heights.

Excellent ability to fulfil the needs of various users in 3D modelling and texturing.

Empowers artists with greater sculpting flexibility via powerful brushes.

Got excellent ability to work with models of up to 1 billion polygons.

Sets the industry standard for digital sculpting and painting.

Other key features include Dynamesh, Sculptris Pro, ZModeler, Live Boolean, ZSpheres and Mannequins. In 3D model optimizing, its Texture Adjust by Color & PolyPaint Adjust by Color not only gives the power to adjust the colours in a model’s PolyPaint or Texture Map but enables users to restrict these adjustments to specific colour selections. The captured details can then be used elsewhere on the same model, or on any other model in the future. Users just need to simply drag their stroke across the surface of any model to capture the details of the sculpt. XTractor Brushes enables users to convert detail from a specific model into a new alpha or texture for future reuse. With the ability to sculpt and PolyPaint on the UV unwrap of a model, digital artists can easily apply long continuous strokes across a mesh. Its installation process does not take long and does not pose any kind of problems, while the interface you come across is quite minimal and clear-cut.

#Download zbrush update

This update comes with the new XTractor, HistoryRecall and DecoCurve brushes. You may also like Claydo for Mac freeload It uses a proprietary pixol technology that stores lighting, colour, material, orientation, and depth information for the points making up all objects on the screen. Digital artists such as filmmakers, producers and game developers use it for enhancing and beautifying their 3D models. Zbrush is known to be one of the “go to” applications whenever you need to create 2D/3D models or any other digital sculpts. Zbrush is an accessible application that you can use to create digital sculpts and other 2D and 3D models.

#Download zbrush full version

Download Pixologic Zbrush 2022 for Mac full version program free setup.

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PriceX | Material Design Pricing Table Set

PriceX | Material Design Pricing Table Set

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