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ms-demeanor · 2 years ago

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So You Need To Buy A Computer But You Don't Know What Specs Are Good These Days

Hi.

This is literally my job.

Lots of people are buying computers for school right now or are replacing computers as their five-year-old college laptop craps out so here's the standard specs you should be looking for in a (windows) computer purchase in August 2023.

PROCESSOR

Intel i5 (no older than 10th Gen)

Ryzen 7

You can get away with a Ryzen 5 but an intel i3 should be an absolute last resort. You want at least an intel i5 or a Ryzen 7 processor. The current generation of intel processors is 13, but anything 10 or newer is perfectly fine. DO NOT get a higher performance line with an older generation; a 13th gen i5 is better than an 8th gen i7. (Unfortunately I don't know enough about ryzens to tell you which generation is the earliest you should get, but staying within 3 generations is a good rule of thumb)

RAM

8GB absolute minimum

If you don't have at least 8GB RAM on a modern computer it's going to be very, very slow. Ideally you want a computer with at least 16GB, and it's a good idea to get a computer that will let you add or swap RAM down the line (nearly all desktops will let you do this, for laptops you need to check the specs for Memory and see how many slots there are and how many slots are available; laptops with soldered RAM cannot have the memory upgraded - this is common in very slim laptops)

STORAGE

256GB SSD

Computers mostly come with SSDs these days; SSDs are faster than HDDs but typically have lower storage for the same price. That being said: SSDs are coming down in price and if you're installing your own drive you can easily upgrade the size for a low cost. Unfortunately that doesn't do anything for you for the initial purchase.

A lot of cheaper laptops will have a 128GB SSD and, because a lot of stuff is stored in the cloud these days, that can be functional. I still recommend getting a bit more storage than that because it's nice if you can store your music and documents and photos on your device instead of on the cloud. You want to be able to access your files even if you don't have internet access.

But don't get a computer with a big HDD instead of getting a computer with a small SSD. The difference in speed is noticeable.

SCREEN (laptop specific)

Personally I find that touchscreens have a negative impact on battery life and are easier to fuck up than standard screens. They are also harder to replace if they get broken. I do not recommend getting a touch screen unless you absolutely have to.

A lot of college students especially tend to look for the biggest laptop screen possible; don't do that. It's a pain in the ass to carry a 17" laptop around campus and with the way that everything is so thin these days it's easier to damage a 17" screen than a 14" screen.

On the other end of that: laptops with 13" screens tend to be very slim devices that are glued shut and impossible to work on or upgrade.

Your best bet (for both functionality and price) is either a 14" or a 15.6" screen. If you absolutely positively need to have a 10-key keyboard on your laptop, get the 15.6". If you need something portable more than you need 10-key, get a 14"

FORM FACTOR (desktop specific)

If you purchase an all-in-one desktop computer I will begin manifesting in your house physically. All-in-ones take away every advantage desktops have in terms of upgradeability and maintenance; they are expensive and difficult to repair and usually not worth the cost of disassembling to upgrade.

There are about four standard sizes of desktop PC: All-in-One (the size of a monitor with no other footprint), Tower (Big! probably at least two feet long in two directions), Small Form Factor Tower (Very moderate - about the size of a large shoebox), and Mini/Micro/Tiny (Small! about the size of a small hardcover book).

If you are concerned about space you are much better off getting a MicroPC and a bracket to put it on your monitor than you are getting an all-in-one. This will be about a million percent easier to work on than an all-in-one and this way if your monitor dies your computer is still functional.

Small form factor towers and towers are the easiest to work on and upgrade; if you need a burly graphics card you need to get a full size tower, but for everything else a small form factor tower will be fine. Most of our business sales are SFF towers and MicroPCs, the only time we get something larger is if we have to put a $700 graphics card in it. SFF towers will accept small graphics cards and can handle upgrades to the power supply; MicroPCs can only have the RAM and SSD upgraded and don't have room for any other components or their own internal power supply.

WARRANTY

Most desktops come with either a 1 or 3 year warranty; either of these is fine and if you want to upgrade a 1 year to a 3 year that is also fine. I've generally found that if something is going to do a warranty failure on desktop it's going to do it the first year, so you don't get a hell of a lot of added mileage out of an extended warranty but it doesn't hurt and sometimes pays off to do a 3-year.

Laptops are a different story. Laptops mostly come with a 1-year warranty and what I recommend everyone does for every laptop that will allow it is to upgrade that to the longest warranty you can get with added drop/damage protection. The most common question our customers have about laptops is if we can replace a screen and the answer is usually "yes, but it's going to be expensive." If you're purchasing a low-end laptop, the parts and labor for replacing a screen can easily cost more than half the price of a new laptop. HOWEVER, the way that most screens get broken is by getting dropped. So if you have a warranty with drop protection, you just send that sucker back to the factory and they fix it for you.

So, if it is at all possible, check if the manufacturer of a laptop you're looking at has a warranty option with drop protection. Then, within 30 days (though ideally on the first day you get it) of owning your laptop, go to the manufacturer site, register your serial number, and upgrade the warranty. If you can't afford a 3-year upgrade at once set a reminder for yourself to annually renew. But get that drop protection, especially if you are a college student or if you've got kids.

And never, ever put pens or pencils on your laptop keyboard. I've seen people ruin thousand dollar, brand-new laptops that they can't afford to fix because they closed the screen on a ten cent pencil. Keep liquids away from them too.

LIFESPAN

There's a reasonable chance that any computer you buy today will still be able to turn on and run a program or two in ten years. That does not mean that it is "functional."

At my office we estimate that the functional lifespan of desktops is 5-7 years and the functional lifespan of laptops is 3-5 years. Laptops get more wear and tear than desktops and desktops are easier to upgrade to keep them running. At 5 years for desktops and 3 years for laptops you should look at upgrading the RAM in the device and possibly consider replacing the SSD with a new (possibly larger) model, because SSDs and HDDs don't last forever.

COST

This means that you should think of your computers as an annual investment rather than as a one-time purchase. It is more worthwhile to pay $700 for a laptop that will work well for five years than it is to pay $300 for a laptop that will be outdated and slow in one year (which is what will happen if you get an 8th gen i3 with 8GB RAM). If you are going to get a $300 laptop try to get specs as close as possible to the minimums I've laid out here.

If you have to compromise on these specs, the one that is least fixable is the processor. If you get a laptop with an i3 processor you aren't going to be able to upgrade it even if you can add more RAM or a bigger SSD. If you have to get lower specs in order to afford the device put your money into the processor and make sure that the computer has available slots for upgrade and that neither the RAM nor the SSD is soldered to the motherboard. (one easy way to check this is to search "[computer model] RAM upgrade" on youtube and see if anyone has made a video showing what the inside of the laptop looks like and how much effort it takes to replace parts)

Computers are expensive right now. This is frustrating, because historically consumer computer prices have been on a downward trend but since 2020 that trend has been all over the place. Desktop computers are quite expensive at the moment (August 2023) and decent laptops are extremely variably priced.

If you are looking for a decent, upgradeable laptop that will last you a few years, here are a couple of options that you can purchase in August 2023 that have good prices for their specs:

14" Lenovo - $670 - 11th-gen i5, 16GB RAM, and 512GB SSD

15.6" HP - $540 - 11th-gen i5, 16GB RAM, and 256GB SSD

14" Dell - $710 - 12th-gen i5, 16GB RAM, and 256GB SSD

If you are looking for a decent, affordable desktop that will last you a few years, here are a couple of options that you can purchase in August 2023 that have good prices for their specs:

SFF HP - $620 - 10th-gen i5, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD

SFF Lenovo - $560 - Ryzen 7 5000 series, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD

Dell Tower - $800 - 10th-gen i7, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD

If I were going to buy any of these I'd probably get the HP laptop or the Dell Tower. The HP Laptop is actually a really good price for what it is.

Anyway happy computering.

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ranchstoryblog · 19 days ago

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Ranch Story's PC Review for Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma

Hello everyone! Welcome to Ranch Story’s review for the Steam release of Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma! Here we will go through the graphical settings, how the game runs on the devices I ran the game on (including the Steam Deck), My personal thoughts about the game, and finally a list of Steam features that are included for this release!

Graphical Settings

The graphical settings to the Steam release of Guardians of Azuma are extremely customizable, and I was very surprised to see the Super Resolution and Frame Generation options. I have not seen those options on previous pc versions of previous Rune Factory or Story of Season games!

Specifically, the bottom half of the Graphical Settings menu are the settings that are changed depending on what Graphical preset you use.

High Preset

* This was captured with a machine using a NVIDIA GPU. AMD GPU users will have FSR instead of DLSS.

Medium Preset

Low Preset

While playing on the medium preset on the Steam Deck, I noticed some detail pop-in specifically with the LOD of 3D models. When I was testing on other devices, I noticed it was specifically happening with the Medium and Low presets.

I found out that it was the Mesh Quality setting and turning that from medium to high disables the pop-in if that bothers you, but that may cause performance issues depending on your hardware, but for me the performance decline was not too noticeable! I will go into more detail in a later section but this game is very optimized!

Devices

Desktop: CPU: AMD Ryzen 7-Series 3700X

GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060

Memory: 16 GB

Operating System: Windows 10 Home

I decided that I wanted to see this game in the best possible way I could. So I used my main machine. I am very glad I did because I was amazed at everything shown! Everything impressed me; from the textures, 3D models, and even how smooth and snappy the animations were. These are amazing features in general, but it even furthered the gaming experience seeing it all come together at max graphics with no visibly noticeable slowdowns!

Steam Deck:

Model: LED 512 GB

Operating System: SteamOS

I was very happy when I tried out Guardians of Azuma on my Steam Deck. I chose to keep the settings on the default Medium and the game is just as pretty as it was on my desktop. I had no issues with Proton running this game, and there was nothing special I had to do to get the game to run. One thing I did have some issues with was during some demanding cutscenes, the game’s framerate would drop noticeably lower, but it does not happen for all cutscenes, and honestly on a handheld computer I expect these things to happen, other than the demanding cutscenes, the frame rate stays around 50~60 fps. Personally, I would not notice if I didn't have the fps overlay on while playing! Another thing I would like to say is that the battery while playing lasts 1:30~2:00 hours with the fps uncapped and/or capped at 60 fps, using the in game settings to cap at 30 fps or setting the frame limit to 40 fps using SteamOS’s performance settings. I ended up being very happy with how Steam Deck ran the game on medium plus the convenience of laying down while playing means that for the majority of my playthrough I ended up playing mostly on the Steam Deck.

Laptop:

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7-Series 3750

GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650

Memory: 8 GB

Operating System: Windows 10

I went back and forth on trying Guardians of Azuma on my laptop, but ended up trying it out for a bit and was pleasantly surprised? The laptop is slightly below the minimum requirements with the “GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER” being the minimum requirement for GPU but it was such a small difference that I might as well try it out! I noticed boot up and post load would get really laggy and models would take a second to pop up, but once things loaded the game was mostly smooth at a 40-50 but sometimes when the character was still and nothing really going on at 60 FPS. The performance was almost the same when unplugged, which I couldn't really say the same for some games previously.

General Thoughts

Alright alright, enough with the technical for now!

I could go on and on about it for quite a bit of time, but there is so much more to the game than how it runs and it deserves to be spoken about too! It’s a spin-off from the mainline Rune Factory titles, and honestly as someone who grew up with only playing Frontier and Tides of Destiny before getting into the numbered titles, it feels faithful to its preceding spin-offs. I am so happy this is the case. Spin-offs are wonderful, and I really love it when they experiment with new concepts and try new things but in such a familiar way. Farming is a bit different and can even be a bit more hands off with the town management sim part of the game, but also its bare mechanics are very familiar where you do not have to learn a whole new system just to make sure your plants grow. Another thing I really love about Guardians of Azuma is the cast of characters.

To put it straight to the point, I love how human they are. (Even the non-humans) They all have things that they love and hate, things that they are scared of, and their own personal things they have to go through. And this all affects how the social interaction choices work too, you have to think “would they actually like this topic” or “is this a place they would enjoy visiting” and each interaction could be positive or negative, depending on the character.

And if I may get a little technical again to tie things off here, I really really love that no matter which device I ran this game off of, it worked. Of course there will be limits and you should probably pay attention to the minimum requirements, but the game itself runs rock solid and the settings allow you to tweak things if you would like things to be more easy to run on your hardware. I feel like it's very important that games are able to run natively on all sorts of hardware old and new, weak or powerful in the current era of very expensive hardware, and I am glad that Marvelous thought about this when developing the game.

Fun Steam Stuff

The Steam release of Rune Factory includes various classic Steam features like

Cloud Saves

Controller Support

81 Achievements (Holy Moly 👀)

7 Badges

15 Trading Cards

Final Thoughts

Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma has been a very pleasant and fun adventure, and the Steam release has been such a great experience that I can recommend with all my heart. Even with all of the unique features, I feel like with this title Rune Factory is returning to its roots and everything feels like such a nice change of pace but yet so familiar. It was my pleasure to be able to make this review, and I am excited to see what the future holds.

#story of seasons #rune factory #guardians of azuma #rf goa #rf: goa #goa #rune factory: guardians of azuma #review #PC #Steam #Steamdeck #steam deck

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mariacallous · 1 year ago

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Microsoft's CEO Satya Nadella has hailed the company's new Recall feature, which stores a history of your computer desktop and makes it available to AI for analysis, as “photographic memory” for your PC. Within the cybersecurity community, meanwhile, the notion of a tool that silently takes a screenshot of your desktop every five seconds has been hailed as a hacker's dream come true and the worst product idea in recent memory.

Now, security researchers have pointed out that even the one remaining security safeguard meant to protect that feature from exploitation can be trivially defeated.

Since Recall was first announced last month, the cybersecurity world has pointed out that if a hacker can install malicious software to gain a foothold on a target machine with the feature enabled, they can quickly gain access to the user's entire history stored by the function. The only barrier, it seemed, to that high-resolution view of a victim's entire life at the keyboard was that accessing Recall's data required administrator privileges on a user's machine. That meant malware without that higher-level privilege would trigger a permission pop-up, allowing users to prevent access, and that malware would also likely be blocked by default from accessing the data on most corporate machines.

Then on Wednesday, James Forshaw, a researcher with Google's Project Zero vulnerability research team, published an update to a blog post pointing out that he had found methods for accessing Recall data without administrator privileges—essentially stripping away even that last fig leaf of protection. “No admin required ;-)” the post concluded.

“Damn,” Forshaw added on Mastodon. “I really thought the Recall database security would at least be, you know, secure.”

Forshaw's blog post described two different techniques to bypass the administrator privilege requirement, both of which exploit ways of defeating a basic security function in Windows known as access control lists that determine which elements on a computer require which privileges to read and alter. One of Forshaw's methods exploits an exception to those control lists, temporarily impersonating a program on Windows machines called AIXHost.exe that can access even restricted databases. Another is even simpler: Forshaw points out that because the Recall data stored on a machine is considered to belong to the user, a hacker with the same privileges as the user could simply rewrite the access control lists on a target machine to grant themselves access to the full database.

That second, simpler bypass technique “is just mindblowing, to be honest,” says Alex Hagenah, a cybersecurity strategist and ethical hacker. Hagenah recently built a proof-of-concept hacker tool called TotalRecall designed to show that someone who gained access to a victim's machine with Recall could immediately siphon out all the user's history recorded by the feature. Hagenah's tool, however, still required that hackers find another way to gain administrator privileges through a so-called “privilege escalation” technique before his tool would work.

With Forshaw's technique, “you don’t need any privilege escalation, no pop-up, nothing,” says Hagenah. “This would make sense to implement in the tool for a bad guy.”

In fact, just an hour after speaking to WIRED about Forshaw's finding, Hagenah added the simpler of Forshaw's two techniques to his TotalRecall tool, then confirmed that the trick worked by accessing all the Recall history data stored on another user's machine for which he didn't have administrator access. “So simple and genius,” he wrote in a text to WIRED after testing the technique.

That confirmation removes one of the last arguments Recall's defenders have had against criticisms that the feature acts as, essentially, a piece of pre-installed spyware on a user's machine, ready to be exploited by any hacker who can gain a foothold on the device. “It makes your security very fragile, in the sense that anyone who penetrates your computer for even a second can get your whole history,” says Dave Aitel, the founder of the cybersecurity firm Immunity and a former NSA hacker. “Which is not something people want.”

For now, security researchers have been testing Recall in preview versions of the tool ahead of its expected launch later this month. Microsoft said it plans to integrate Recall on compatible Copilot+ PCs with the feature turned on by default. WIRED reached out to the company for comment on Forshaw's findings about Recall's security issues, but the company has yet to respond.

The revelation that hackers can exploit Recall without even using a separate privilege escalation technique only contributes further to the sense that the feature was rushed to market without a proper review from the company's cybersecurity team—despite the company's CEO Nadella proclaiming just last month that Microsoft would make security its first priority in every decision going forward. “You cannot convince me that Microsoft's security teams looked at this and said ‘that looks secure,’” says Jake Williams, a former NSA hacker and now the VP of R&D at the cybersecurity consultancy Hunter Strategy, where he says he's been asked by some of the firm's clients to test Recall's security before they add Microsoft devices that use it to their networks.

“As it stands now, it’s a security dumpster fire,” Williams says. “This is one of the scariest things I’ve ever seen from an enterprise security standpoint.”

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virtual-winter · 7 months ago

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It's been 10 years since I first watched Frozen!🌻❄️⛏️☃️🦌

(Swedish DVD-copy of Frozen)

November 20th, 2014. It seems like forever ago. I remember watching this movie through my desktop ASUS PC (remember when computers used to have actual DVD-drives?) on a by today's standards pretty crappy Philips monitor. It didn't matter. The movie was like nothing else I had seen before. Even though I don't even have a sibling and can't fully relate to the conflict, Anna and Elsa's adventure is IMO one of the best stories ever told💕

I was 22 back then. A young man and totally in love with this Disney movie. Now I'm 32 and it continues to be among my favourite movies of all time. Even now, ten years later, I still live and breathe Frozen every day! It is a part of who I became and it is the way I wish to remain 😄

I have become a devoted fan of all things Frozen and I'm trying my best to be a part-time Frozen-analyst, mapmaker, worldbuilder and collector. I'm also known for using too many emotes and exclamation marks!

Below, I have tried to summarise some important and meaningful keepsakes and events from the past ten years. I hope you enjoy scrolling!✨✨✨

I believe this was the first ever Frozen-related pic that I saved (it's the oldest in my album) (April 2015)

I was equally in love with the OUAT Frozen arc and no one can tell me Georgina and Elizabeth were anything but perfect for their roles (April 2015)

🥹🥹🥹

(March 2015)

In just a couple of years we saw the franchise grow (did anyone else prefer the original logo for the musical?) (February 2016)

The official announcement we'd all been waiting for (April 2017)

The architect in me loved the castle! (2017)

I mean, who could ever forget this moment? (December 2018)

AJHFSJASJFKAGKJFGSKFDSGSJF!?!?!?!?!?!? (February 2019)

What are those????? (February 2019)

My first piece of "big" Frozen merch (April 2019)

I made a custom calendar just to count down the remaining days to Frozen II (I also avoided spoilers for the last 6 1/2 months) (December 2019)

🥹🥰😭

(December 2019)

Perfectly balanced, as it should be (February 2020)

Me collecting stuff! (February 2020)

Me going crazy saving as much Frozen content as possible 😅 (August 2020)

I joined r/Frozen (June 2021)

I started my deep-dive into Arendelle's geography in 2021 which ultimately lead to "An odyssey through Frozen geography", the first of many fandom projects! (July 2021)

Together with a group of equally dedicated Frozen nerds fans, I helped building the @arendelle-archives server and later tumblr-blog! (2021)

Collecting more things! (October 2021)

A Frozen comic writer responded to my reddit post?😲(December 2021)

I started developing ideas for a Frozen fanfic (2022)

Frozen III-announcement! Finally! (February 2023)

My Norway-trip of 2023. Without a doubt one of the most beautiful destinations on Earth and a must-go for anyone who wants to visit the real Arendelle!!! (July 2023)

I continue to delve into more map-related stuff in Wonderdraft (May 2024)

Together with the rest of the wonderful folks over at @frozen10fanzine, I helped create and design a fanzine summarising the memories of Frozen fans from the past decade! (July 2024)

A slice of my current Frozen collection! Some figures were very kindly donated to me by @yumeka-sxf 🙌 (July 2024)

And lastly, from today: the first snow of the season❄️🩵

If you made it this far, thank you for scrolling😅

Finally, a little shout-out to friends and acquaintances I've made through the likes of reddit, discord and tumblr in the past few years:

@bigfrozenfan @yumeka-sxf @greatqueenanna @queenritaofarendelle @saiten-gefroren @snowflaketale12 @cloudberriesforaqueen @theartoffrozen @secretsofthestorymakers

A big thank you also to the whole @arendelle-archives and @frozen10fanzine - teams! Y'all continue to inspire me!

#frozen #frozen 2 #disney frozen #elsa #anna #frozen fandom #frozen10 #frozen 3 #frozen 4 #arendelle archives #frozen memories #frozen fanzine #long post

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imaginesbymk · 13 days ago

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/ LUCID WAVE /

Jones, an aimless businessman, purchases a program called LUCID WAVE that records your dreams via microchip for you to replay them on desktop. Convincing himself that his dreams are foretelling his future, it starts to grow into an addiction when he goes premium and alters his recordings into cinematic experiences, neglecting his priorities.

TRIGGER WARNINGS - death, some swearing

AUTHOR'S NOTE - this was my midterm assignment for my Creative Writing elective in my final year of college, Feb 2024, however this version is longer and I tweaked more things. My goal was to initially write a genre fiction that the reader could look over the first couple paragraphs and go, “This would make a really good Black Mirror episode.” Pls give it a like, reblog + feedback !

AS OF THIS MONTH + MOVING FORWARD I AM ABOUT TO DROWN IN BILLS - I WILL BE MOVING OUT DUE TO RENT ISSUES, SO POSTING MY ORIGINAL WORK TO PROMOTE MY WRITING COMMS IS EFFECTIVE. NO PRESSURE BUT PLEASE COMMISSION ME <333 SHARING THE LINK AND REBLOGGING IS GREATLY APPRECIATED

Tags (no pressure to read this at all) @locke-writes @moonlit-imagines @arrogant-sonofa-bitch @libraryoffandomsuniverse @littlemissvincentvega @alienoresimagines @murswrites @spacetalbot @eriimyon @royaltywhxre

̶̶̶̶ ̶«̶ ̶̶̶ ̶ ̶ ̶̶̶ ̶«̶ ̶̶̶ ̶　　　　　　 ̶»̶ ̶̶̶ ̶ ̶ ̶̶̶ ̶»̶ ̶̶̶ ̶ ̶

As soon as I woke up, I took two steps to my computer and sat down. I learned by now to wait at least four seconds for the logo to disappear, then, by muscle memory, click the X of the popup that makes its presence on my screen. This occurs as soon as the microchip was inserted. I logged in with my Face ID. Error.

I blink my eyes a bit to wake myself up. Then I logged in again. Error.

“Jesus Christ.” I finger comb the knots out of my hair, leaned back in my chair, and stared blankly into the camera for a second attempt scan. The robotic-like voice chirped through the speaker.

“Welcome, Jones!”

“Shut up.” I pressed the X on the next ad then headed straight to the top left hand corner to make a new Dream Pod.

The left hand side showed the sidebar of my documents saved, a quarter of my recorded dreams were used as live wallpapers for my PC.

White or blue-white skies in my dreams are common when I go to sleep after drinking. I went to bed after downing five shots with Romus then collapsed in my bed, dropping my microchip on the ground and finally dabbing the gel on my temple. The microchip beeped and I blacked out.

There were times where I passed out in my bed or my couch, completely forgetting to apply the gel and microchip to record my dreams. On such slip ups, I end up having the most eventful dream or nightmare. LUCID WAVE won't generate a cinematic experience for you. Those were frustrating.

Today is casual.

I journal the title, DREAM 47, and hit PLAY, sipping my cold, unfinished coffee from yesterday.

I couldn't look up on my dreams so I couldn't make out the colour of the sky, or if there were skies in my dream. Ahead of my point of view I was riding a skateboard, however. I have never skateboarded in my life, not even as a young boy. Too many injuries happen when you’re basking in the great outdoors. The visuals on the screen were blurred, but I paused the playback and adjusted the quality. I hop off the skateboard and it rolls away into the bushes - something I would have done if I felt impending doom of a knee scrap. In my point of view, I couldn’t tell if I was even wearing a helmet riding this skateboard.

A boy in a sticker-patched helmet who looked to be at least twelve ran up to me, his voice echoing like tunnel vision. His speech was inaudible, but I could read his lips. “Hang in there, Jones.”

“Huh?” I hear my dream-voice mutter.

The kid scoots past me to skate down the bowl.

I immediately recognized the boy to be one of the neighbourhood kids that recently adopted his pet hamster. What was he doing in my dream? Whatever. He's an alright kid, never came across as bratty.

The next frame showed someone handing me a bowl of lightsticks people wear around themselves at raves. Raves make me ill.

The person who handed me the bowl of lightsticks nods at me. It wasn’t anybody I recognized in particular.

Someone calls my name through the music and I spin to my right and wave at… the high school valedictorian from ‘94, who was now apparently a hot–shot chief social media officer for LUCID WAVE.

“How’s the job hunting?” Saul yells over the rave.

Dream-me scoffs.

But then the blinding neon lights and the stage stripped apart. Saul wasn’t beside me anymore, and the ravers were all gone. The grass was gone. The music ceased. Now it got dark. I was lying in bed. I muttered under my breath as I tried to switch the filter to make it back in colour, but it turned out to be the filter in itself. The abruption was in a grayscale filter, almost too saturated and blotchy that it looked like a silent film.

From the corner of my screen, a humanoid hung upside down from my ceiling.

This was what I was waiting for while I was conscious in my sleep. I remembered it so well. Last night I was having mild dreams, then it crept into sleeping paralysis.

The humanoid blinks then crab-walks over to my side of the bed. I laugh in excitement as I quickly cropped the 5 second frame of the humanoid in my dark room and saved it as a sidepod, coining it “UNTITLED 1920s SHORT HORROR FILM."

After I hit save, the screen dims. Would you like to continue to third visual? The screen asked me. I click YES.

Third dream, I was in some sort of banquet hall with a bunch of people, and I seemed to have time travelled. Everyone’s too cyperpunk. Their appearances made them seem like it was wrong to consider them humans anymore. I was the only one in the room without any sort of body modifications done on me.

Over time, I noticed a pattern. Each dream that had to do with my personal life lasted an hour. Each dream that had to do with my career lasted twenty minutes less. Any other dream that was just unhinged and random, if I was riding a giant cow in Southcentral L.A wearing a divesuit, it would be no less than ten minutes.

Another thing I noticed, my dreams since Night 1 were not in chronological order, which makes my job harder.

Third dream was queued.

I checked the features of the third dream. It lasted a bit and it occurred around 4AM, this dream was not what I remembered compared to the skateboard and cyborg meeting.

Time check. 07:28AM. LUCID WAVE played another unskippable ad and I blew cold air in my mug. As I sipped slowly, I realized it was still the cold coffee I never finished the other day, so I began to pour it down my system. The ad ends and the visual comes to view. My fingers press the mouse, proceeding to edit the next scenes of my “dream movie", when I nearly spilled cold, leftover dark coffee onto my lap.

It captured it so slowly that I was so sure a man in a black suit was speaking into a microphone. His smile was big with tears of joy in his eyes. He was giving a speech to me and whoever was beside me. When I turned to my right, a woman in white appeared, holding my hand. I felt a surge of warmth when the pixels clear up a bit to accentuate her smile. She was beautiful. I have never seen her before, but I felt as though I knew her my whole life.

The man in the black suit giving his speech raised his champagne glass in the air, “Y’all, I can only say so much but my speech is slurred. I’m ending the speech there.” A roar of cheers and hollers erupt in the background. “To the bride and groom-”

In a split second, the screen began to glitch and I let out a cry of despair and irritation. I helplessly stare at the program crashing on me.

WE ARE CURRENTLY EXPERIENCING A LUCID WAVE OUTAGE DUE TO HIGH TRAFFIC. TOO MANY MOVIEZ FOR THE SNOOZIES. WE'LL BE RIGHT BACK! REFRESH OR CHECK BACK IN A BIT! 🛌🌙💤

I let out another yell. If I paid premium, my user would be prioritized during the outage and I'd be back to viewing and editing within five minutes. The longest I waited for the piece of shit to light back up was a whole day. When I couldn't wait any longer, I took a nap in the middle of the day, foolishly forgetting to apply the sticky gel on my temple for the microchip to capture my dream of me meeting my favourite Twitch streamer.

As I waited, it dawned on me like the sun that was rising above the buildings just now. This was yet another piece of evidence of my theory, that I could be making money off of, but all I could do first was dissociate in my seat. LUCID WAVE is a menace if it’s just faulty wiring, but I hope I’m wrong about that.

My expression darkens. DREAM 47 was significant today, but not because of sleep paralysis. I've gone nuts about this, but something in my gut tells me that I'm dreaming of my future. The beautiful bride in my dream smiled at me like I had hung the moon, and I am aching to find out more about her.

̶̶̶̶ ̶«̶ ̶̶̶ ̶ ̶ ̶̶̶ ̶«̶ ̶̶̶ ̶　　　　　　 ̶»̶ ̶̶̶ ̶ ̶ ̶̶̶ ̶»̶ ̶̶̶ ̶ ̶

Romus arrived. I winced as I handed the package and remote to Romus. “It’s all yours.”

“It’s rare nowadays to give up a hologram projector,” he says. “Now, be straight with me. Are you sure you want to give this away?”

“I’m nearing nine-hundred bucks to pay LUCID WAVE premium.”

Romus chuckles lightly. “God, not that stupid iMovie app for sleep.”

“You’ve read the reviews, right?” I counted the wad of cash he handed me. I mentally counted three-hundred dollars to add to my first making of six-hundred after selling some old clothes and my massage chair. “One guy made his into a manga series on his social media. I sent him an email asking what program he used to make for his–”

“Can I borrow your car?” Romus cuts me off. “Just a quick beer run. I’ll be fast.”

“I sold my car.”

Romus blinked. Before he could question me on it, I ushered him out of my apartment so he could figure it out on his own.

I sigh in relief, stuffing the nine-hundred dollars all together and stashing it safely in a manila envelope. I withdrew everything at the bank the next day and avoided the bank teller’s inquiry about the 200 credit card debt from last autumn. I clicked the GO PREMIUM WITH LUCID WAVE+ option at the side of the screen as soon as I raced back to my condo.

The little comment flew up on screen when the cursor hovered over the option.

GO PREMIUM WITH LUCID WAVE+ Unlock special editing tools Skip the ads Skip the waiting room of WAVES (LUCID WAVE users) during outages Access community discussions on dream interpretations Sleep aid which includes ASMR, ambiance, relaxing music and meditation!

As soon as I continued to sign up for premium, my heart sank. It was a $999.99 monthly prescription. I was short on $99.99. I buried my head in my hands, knowing that my mysterious bride in DREAM 47 was still blurred out in the playbacks, and being short on a hundred dollars tore me apart. I am almost certain I am seeing the future before my eyes on my recorded dreams, of my life when I’m in my mid 30s, married and more alarmingly extroverted than I could ever imagine myself being. I’m seeing a version of myself that I don’t recognize at all. It’s a sheer distortion, but in this dream, as well as the collection of others, it’s my ideal life.

That was when I looked down at my Rolex that cost me the electrical bill wrapped around my wrist…

̶̶̶̶ ̶«̶ ̶̶̶ ̶ ̶ ̶̶̶ ̶«̶ ̶̶̶ ̶　　　　　　 ̶»̶ ̶̶̶ ̶ ̶ ̶̶̶ ̶»̶ ̶̶̶ ̶ ̶

In DREAM 39, I was an intern for my former job’s rival company and it was a higher pay than my last job. I finally knew what was going on with the clarity enhanced with the premium effects.

My beloved Rolex was gone. I’m glad I sold it to someone who had half his hair dyed red, otherwise I wouldn’t have known that the woman in my dream, a glimpse of my future, destiny, whatever I should call it, is named Cynthia and she is my wife. That dawned on me for the rest of the evening as I downed my beer that Romus shared from his run. The new features during playback allows me to adjust the blurriness of the wedding reception and my best man’s speech. It wasn’t Romus.

I didn’t sleep. Rent was due in a few days. I submitted the transaction on my phone with half of my severance pay before opening LUCID WAVE. The mental note I made that I was down to $60 in my savings left my mind immediately when I unclipped the microchip from my temple and plugged it in, feeling the oiliness of the device on my fingertips. I made a mental note to buy cleanser.

Four seconds. The LUCID WAVE logo to disappear and it took me straight to the homepage without X-ing off popups on gambling Casino apps.

I grabbed the eye drops from the pencil cup and shook it before squeezing two drops in my left eye. Then I made a blank face and stared into the camera, trying to log in.

“Welcome, Jones!”

I headed straight to the top left hand corner to review the rough cuts from DREAM 39-47. For three weeks, I went straight to work like an editor in post-production of a high-grossing film. A month's worth of dozens of dreams I collected from night and midday naps...

Cynthia and I were married in my dreams. Putting all the pods together and splitting some frames apart felt like finishing a puzzle. Cynthia was beautiful. The clarity settings on LUCID WAVE+ emphasized her boasting smile. When we walked on the beach in DREAM 48 on our honeymoon, I felt like we were floating in mid-air that caused abruption of our footprints in the sand.

My honeymoon dream was saved into a film: "CYNTHIA."

Romus calls me at around 7am as I adjusted the volume of last night's REM. DREAM 113. “Yeah?” I put Romus on speaker.

“You are full of shit,” He says.

“Look who’s talking,” I chuckle lightly, hovering my mouse to the end of the playback, and lowered the clarity of the sun shining in my dream so I could see Cynthia yelling at me about something I couldn’t fathom. Cynthia points at me in first person point of view as Dream!Me argued back while looking back and forth at the road.

“Jones?” Romus yells over the other line. “JONES!”

“Yes, I’m still here.”

“Jones! What is happening to you?” Romus exclaims.

I blink in surprise. Romus and I insult each other playfully, but I could tell this was different, just by hearing his voice this early in the day. Though I couldn’t place the last time we were together, confusion washed over me. Did I do something wrong?

A slight pause. “Huh?”

“Remember when you said you’d make it to my AirBnb?”

My heart sank, reading the date on my dekstop. Romus turned 27 two days ago.

“Romus, I am so sorry–” I plead as Cynthia continued yelling at me in DREAM 113, or DREAM 39, whichever sidepod it was I was editing into a film, tears pouring down her face. The audio like a faint echo, and that was why I couldn’t hear anything. I pressed several buttons and amplified the speakers.

“Screw you.”

“I’m so sorry about missing your birthday,” I said. “I was caught up with my own shit that I just forgot.”

“What own shit? You’re not even working!” Romus yells again.

I was too far gone, but DREAM 113 intrigued me. My heart sank even deeper as the playback went to its last minute and Cynthia was inaudibly yelling at me. I kept playing around with the editing tools for the audio to reset.

From the corner of my eyes, I could see that Romus was still on the phone, yelling at me, but I couldn't hear him. I tuned him out. I turn my full attention back to Cynthia. Why was Cynthia yelling at me? Why was she crying?

“You know what your deal is, asshead?” Romus scoffs. “It’s that goddamn dream-maker thing. You missed my birthday, Jones. My birthday and my Dad’s funeral. That shit has got to go, man. You’re still at home doing nothing but staring at a blue screen until you turn blind!”

“Romus, I’m hanging up.”

“If you hang up, I am no longer your friend,” Romus warns. “You will never see or hear from me ever again.”

“I’ll live,” I snap.

“How can you live with the fact that you pawned your great uncle’s Medal of Honour?!”

“I needed money, Romus.”

“Then get a job!” My eyes rolled at his response. He yells again, “I work at a sketchy bodega! You have a f–cking marketing degree! I’ve referred you to my sister’s manager and she never heard back from you! Guess when that happened? Last week!”

“I needed to see Cynthia!” I mutter.

“Cynthia isn’t real!” Romus screams. “Your dreams are not real! That dream program is lying to you! Your brain is melting because of that thing! Cynthia isn’t REAL—-!”

A scream rings out of my vocal cords as I watched in my dream point of view, Cynthia’s head slamming into the windshield after the black pickup truck collided into us at the front of my car. I jumped back, falling out of my chair and landing on the floor, taking the chair down with me.

My ears began to ring and Romus’s calls from my phone echoed away until it became nothing but incoherent sounds. Romus finally hangs up.

My eyes blurred until a tear ran down my cheek in the same pace as sweat trickled down my temple, wiping the stain of the microchip.

Cynthia’s eyes glazed at me as we laid in my car flipped over to the side of the road. Her eyes stay opened for a long time until she took her last breath right in front of me.

The playback ended, but now my screen was blurred.

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#genre fiction #black mirror #original writing #original work #writing commissions #writing community #fiction writing #creative writing #sci-fi #sci fi writing #black mirror inspo

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dollvoid0000 · 8 months ago

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Computer Rituals

It is a bit embarassed by how inadequate it is with its own desktop pc. This one is good enough for everything you'd expect, but its pc has been around for long enough with enough experimental procedures done to it that it doesn't work quite right anymore.

The machine has a series of applications that need to be manually closed before shutdown or risk bsod or other crash or memory overflow. The desktop after bootup is a ruse, it needs a while to actually be able to open files.

It takes care of its PC. Small shutdown rituals. Some days a quiet prayer that it won't brick itself again. Some nights with anxiety if she'll wake up in the morning.

She is loyal and sometimes a little obstinate and oh so lovely and has been its companion for many years. In return, it caresses her and cradles her and gets horny when servicing her mainboard and CPU.

A combat doll an its desktop pc, browsing online, for you to see.

#tales from its life #robotposting #robotgirl #robotgirls #robotphilia #mechanophilia

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breadthecat · 2 years ago

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I just had a realization:

So when victim was going through chosens memories, he got no signal when reaching Alan's desktop memories. Now, assuming that's not just chosen bashing his head on the floor, I initially thought it was that they can't see memories from Alan's computer.

But that's definitely not entirely the case. The videos playing in kings backstory are from Alan's PC and are showcased by rocket Corp.

So what else could possibly be interfering with it?

Darks virabots.

#animation vs animator #animator vs animation #ava spoilers #animator vs animation spoilers #animation vs animator spoilers

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govindhtech · 3 months ago

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MediaTek Kompanio Ultra 910 for best Chromebook Performance

MediaTek Ultra 910

Maximising Chromebook Performance with Agentic AI

The MediaTek Kompanio Ultra redefines Chromebook Plus laptops with all-day battery life and the greatest Chromebooks ever. By automating procedures, optimising workflows, and allowing efficient, secure, and customised computing, agentic AI redefines on-device intelligence.

MediaTek Kompanio Ultra delivers unrivalled performance whether you're multitasking, generating content, playing raytraced games and streaming, or enjoying immersive entertainment.

Features of MediaTek Kompanio Ultra

An industry-leading all-big core architecture delivers flagship Chromebooks unmatched performance.

Arm Cortex-X925 with 3.62 GHz max.

Eight-core Cortex-X925, X4, and A720 processors

Single-threaded Arm Chromebooks with the best performance

Highest Power Efficiency

Large on-chip caches boost performance and power efficiency by storing more data near the CPU.

The fastest Chromebook memory: The powerful CPU, GPU, and NPU get more data rapidly with LPDDR5X-8533 memory support.

ChromeOS UX: We optimised speed to respond fast to switching applications during a virtual conference, following social media feeds, and making milliseconds count in in-game battle. Nowhere is better for you.

Because of its strong collaboration with Arm, MediaTek can provide the latest architectural developments to foreign markets first, and the MediaTek Kompanio Ultra processor delivers the latest Armv9.2 CPU advantage.

MediaTek's latest Armv9.2 architecture provides power efficiency, security, and faster computing.

Best in Class Power Efficiency: The Kompanio Ultra combines the 2nd generation TSMC 3nm technology with large on-chip caches and MediaTek's industry-leading power management to deliver better performance per milliwatt. The spectacular experiences of top Chromebooks are enhanced.

Best Lightweight and Thin Designs: MediaTek's brand partners can easily construct lightweight, thin, fanless, silent, and cool designs.

Leading NPU Performance: MediaTek's 8th-generation NPU gives the Kompanio Ultra an edge in industry-standard AI and generative AI benchmarks.

Prepared for AI agents

Superior on-device photo and video production

Maximum 50 TOPS AI results

ETHZ v6 leadership, Gen-AI models

CPU/GPU tasks are offloaded via NPU, speeding processing and saving energy.

Next-gen Generative AI technologies: MediaTek's investments in AI technologies and ecosystems ensure that Chromebooks running the MediaTek Kompanio Ultra provide the latest apps, services, and experiences.

Extended content support

Better LLM speculative speed help

Complete SLM+LLM AI model support

Assistance in several modes

11-core graphics processing unit: Arm's 5th-generation G925 GPU, used by the powerful 11-core graphics engine, improves traditional and raytraced graphics performance while using less power, producing better visual effects, and maintaining peak gameplay speeds longer.

The G925 GPU matches desktop PC-grade raytracing with increased opacity micromaps (OMM) to increase scene depths with subtle layering effects.

OMM-supported games' benefits:

Reduced geometry rendering

Visual enhancements without increasing model complexity

Natural-looking feathers, hair, and plants

4K Displays & Dedicated Audio: Multiple displays focus attention and streamline procedures, increasing efficiency. Task-specific displays simplify multitasking and reduce clutter. With support for up to three 4K monitors (internal and external), professionals have huge screen space for difficult tasks, while gamers and content makers have extra windows for chat, streaming, and real-time interactions.

DP MST supports two 4K external screens.

Custom processing optimises power use and improves audio quality. Low-power standby detects wake-up keywords, improving voice assistant response. This performance-energy efficiency balance improves smart device battery life, audio quality, and functionality.

Hi-Fi Audio DSP for low-power standby and sound effects

Support for up to Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6.0 provides extreme wireless speeds and signal range for the most efficient anyplace computing.

Wi-Fi 7 can reach 7.3Gbps.

Two-engine Bluetooth 6.0

#technology #technews #govindhtech #news #technologynews #processors #MediaTek Kompanio Ultra #Agentic AI #Chromebooks #MediaTek #MediaTek Kompanio #Kompanio Ultra #MediaTek Kompanio Ultra 910

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silvermoon424 · 11 months ago

Note

Is it possible to install extra memory RAM for a desktop PC? Do they have a program for that, or do I need to buy a physical memory RAM and insert it into the computer? Because I want to download a game on the computer, and I certainly don't have enough to buy a PS5. But of course, the game is gonna take up a lot of computer space. I've already saved everything onto a USB port, so all I need is more memory RAM...

Anon I'm gonna be real with you, I'm a MacBook girlie so I am NOT the right person to ask. But yes, I believe desktop PCs have ram that can be easily upgraded!

#asks #Anonymous

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digitaldetoxworld · 5 months ago

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Building a Computer: The Essential Components You Need to Know

A pc gadget is made of numerous additives that work together to carry out obligations and execute applications. These additives may be extensively labeled into hardware and software, however in this article, we can attention at the critical hardware additives of a computer. Hardware refers to the physical components of a laptop that you can contact, including the valuable processing unit (CPU), reminiscence, garage devices, and input/output peripherals.

Essential computer components for assembling a custom desktop

1. Central Processing Unit (CPU)

The CPU, regularly referred to as the "mind" of the computer, is one of the maximum important components in any system. It carries out instructions from programs via acting fundamental arithmetic, logic, manipulate, and enter/output operations distinct via the instructions. The CPU is typically housed on a single chip, that is known as a microprocessor. It is composed of more than one cores, which allow it to deal with more than one responsibilities concurrently.

The CPU operates primarily based on a clock speed measured in Hertz (Hz), which defines what number of cycles it is able to carry out per second. Modern CPUs function inside the gigahertz (GHz) range, allowing them to technique billions of commands in keeping with second.

2. Motherboard

The motherboard serves as the critical platform that connects all of the laptop components. It is a large circuit board that homes the CPU, reminiscence, and various other key components. The motherboard lets in verbal exchange among all components of the computer and ensures that facts can tour correctly through the system.

It also consists of diverse growth slots, ports, and connectors for additional components, which include pix cards, community cards, storage gadgets, and peripherals. The motherboard is crucial for the general functioning of a pc and serves as the muse for different components.

3. Random Access Memory (RAM)

RAM is a form of risky reminiscence that briefly stores facts that the CPU is presently the use of or processing. When you open a software in your laptop, it receives loaded into RAM for quicker get right of entry to. The extra RAM a laptop has, the extra packages and records it can cope with simultaneously, resulting in higher average overall performance.

However, RAM is volatile, meaning that it loses all its information whilst the laptop is turned off. Therefore, it isn't always used for long-time period storage of documents or facts. Common styles of RAM consist of DDR4 and DDR5, every presenting upgrades in pace and efficiency over previous generations.

Four. Storage Devices

Storage devices are used to shop data on an extended-time period foundation. The most common forms of garage gadgets in modern-day computers are:

Hard Disk Drive (HDD): An HDD is a traditional garage tool that makes use of mechanical spinning disks to read and write records. While it offers high garage ability at a decrease cost, it's miles pretty slower as compared to more recent technology.

Solid State Drive (SSD): An SSD makes use of flash memory to keep information, supplying lots quicker examine and write speeds than an HDD. SSDs are extra reliable because they haven't any transferring parts, and that they consume much less power.

Hybrid Drives (SSHD): Hybrid drives combine the benefits of both SSDs and HDDs. These drives provide huge storage capacities even as imparting some of the speed benefits of SSD generation by way of the use of a small amount of flash memory.

Optical Drives (DVD, Blu-ray): Although less common in current computer systems, optical drives are used to study and write optical discs. These drives are normally slower and have lower storage capacities than tough drives and solid-country drives.

5. Graphics Processing Unit (GPU)

The GPU, or pictures card, is liable for rendering photos, motion pictures, and animations in a pc system. GPUs have grow to be more and more essential as computing has developed, particularly for obligations such as gaming, video editing, 3D rendering, and synthetic intelligence (AI) packages.

The GPU includes thousands of cores designed to address parallel duties, making it far more efficient than the CPU on the subject of graphic-extensive operations. High-performance GPUs are utilized in gaming computers and workstations that require heavy computational strength, which includes the ones utilized in deep getting to know.

6. Power Supply Unit (PSU)

The PSU is responsible for converting electric strength from an outlet into the ideal voltage and current required by using the laptop's inner additives. The PSU regulates the strength to make sure the laptop operates accurately without overloading any parts. The size and electricity ability of the PSU are critical factors while constructing or upgrading a pc, especially if high-performance components like a effective GPU are being used.

Power resources come with exceptional wattage rankings, and it is essential to choose one that offers enough electricity for all additives, including any destiny upgrades.

7. Cooling System

Modern pc components generate heat, in particular excessive-performance processors and pictures cards. Without an effective cooling device, the additives could overheat, leading to decreased overall performance or even harm.

Cooling structures can take the form of:

Air Cooling: The most common and best shape of cooling, in which fanatics are used to dissipate warmth away from additives which includes the CPU and GPU. These lovers are commonly connected to warmness sinks to enhance warmth dissipation.

Liquid Cooling: A more superior cooling solution that makes use of water to transfer warmness faraway from components. Liquid cooling is frequently utilized in high-performance structures wherein air cooling might not suffice.

Passive Cooling: Involves warmness sinks that passively burn up warmness thru physical contact with the thing. Passive cooling is quieter and commonly utilized in less demanding systems.

Eight. Input Devices

Input gadgets are used to have interaction with the computer and provide information. Some of the most commonplace input devices are:

Keyboard: Allows the consumer to enter textual content and instructions into the laptop.

Mouse: A pointing tool used to have interaction with the graphical consumer interface (GUI) of the computer.

Touchscreen: Found in many cutting-edge laptops, drugs, and smartphones, a touchscreen lets in customers to engage directly with the show with the aid of touching it.

Microphone, Webcam, and Others: Other input devices include microphones for voice instructions and webcams for video recording or communication.

Nine. Output Devices

Output gadgets allow the pc to speak information to the person. Common output gadgets encompass:

Monitor: The most common output device for showing the pc's graphical person interface, videos, and images.

Speakers/Headphones: Allow audio output from the laptop, useful for looking motion pictures, paying attention to tune, or taking part in voice calls.

Printers: Convert digital documents into physical form, such as paper copies.

10. Expansion Cards

An expansion card is a further aspect inserted into an expansion slot at the motherboard to feature new competencies to the computer. Common growth playing cards encompass:

Sound Card: Enhances the audio abilities of a computer.

Network Interface Card (NIC): Allows a pc to connect with a community, including Ethernet or Wi-Fi.

TV Tuner Card: Enables a laptop to receive tv signals and display them at the display.

11. Networking Components

In a related world, networking components are important for ensuring that a computer can speak with different gadgets. These components consist of:

Network Interface Cards (NIC): Allows a pc to connect with a stressed (Ethernet) or wireless (Wi-Fi) community.

Routers/Switches: Devices that control visitors among computer systems and devices in a community, making sure records is routed to an appropriate destinations.

Modems: Devices that join a computer or network to the net, normally via broadband services like cable or DSL.

#computer components #hardware

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blubberquark · 2 years ago

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Share Your Anecdotes: Multicore Pessimisation

I took a look at the specs of new 7000 series Threadripper CPUs, and I really don't have any excuse to buy one, even if I had the money to spare. I thought long and hard about different workloads, but nothing came to mind.

Back in university, we had courses about map/reduce clusters, and I experimented with parallel interpreters for Prolog, and distributed computing systems. What I learned is that the potential performance gains from better data structures and algorithms trump the performance gains from fancy hardware, and that there is more to be gained from using the GPU or from re-writing the performance-critical sections in C and making sure your data structures take up less memory than from multi-threaded code. Of course, all this is especially important when you are working in pure Python, because of the GIL.

The performance penalty of parallelisation hits even harder when you try to distribute your computation between different computers over the network, and the overhead of serialisation, communication, and scheduling work can easily exceed the gains of parallel computation, especially for small to medium workloads. If you benchmark your Hadoop cluster on a toy problem, you may well find that it's faster to solve your toy problem on one desktop PC than a whole cluster, because it's a toy problem, and the gains only kick in when your data set is too big to fit on a single computer.

The new Threadripper got me thinking: Has this happened to somebody with just a multicore CPU? Is there software that performs better with 2 cores than with just one, and better with 4 cores than with 2, but substantially worse with 64? It could happen! Deadlocks, livelocks, weird inter-process communication issues where you have one process per core and every one of the 64 processes communicates with the other 63 via pipes? There could be software that has a badly optimised main thread, or a badly optimised work unit scheduler, and the limiting factor is single-thread performance of that scheduler that needs to distribute and integrate work units for 64 threads, to the point where the worker threads are mostly idling and only one core is at 100%.

I am not trying to blame any programmer if this happens. Most likely such software was developed back when quad-core CPUs were a new thing, or even back when there were multi-CPU-socket mainboards, and the developer never imagined that one day there would be Threadrippers on the consumer market. Programs from back then, built for Windows XP, could still run on Windows 10 or 11.

In spite of all this, I suspect that this kind of problem is quite rare in practice. It requires software that spawns one thread or one process per core, but which is deoptimised for more cores, maybe written under the assumption that users have for two to six CPU cores, a user who can afford a Threadripper, and needs a Threadripper, and a workload where the problem is noticeable. You wouldn't get a Threadripper in the first place if it made your workflows slower, so that hypothetical user probably has one main workload that really benefits from the many cores, and another that doesn't.

So, has this happened to you? Dou you have a Threadripper at work? Do you work in bioinformatics or visual effects? Do you encode a lot of video? Do you know a guy who does? Do you own a Threadripper or an Ampere just for the hell of it? Or have you tried to build a Hadoop/Beowulf/OpenMP cluster, only to have your code run slower?

I would love to hear from you.

#programming #algorithms #distributed computing #threadripper #software development

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