Beware the loss of Player skill-tree on Ubisoft Games

My son was playing Watch_Dogs on our PS4 Tuesday, and had just completed a takedown of a Gang Hideout, and went to spend his freshly minted skill point only to discover that ALL of his skills, money, outfits, etc had just disappeared from his gamer profile.  He still had actual access to some of his skills (blowing a steam main, but not focus), so his actual gameplay is now critically impacted.  And he can’t use his new skill points to backfill some of those critical skills because primary skills like Profiling are blank (although this is another skill he can actually use), and not selectable.

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Getting a new HP ProLiant DL380 G4 Server

I am making arrangements to obtain an HP ProLiant DL380 G4 64-bit Rack Server.   This is a professional-grade server, but it’s about two generations old, so it can be had at a totally reasonable price.   Here are some of the specs:

Processors:

  • (2) 64-bit Intel® Xeonâ„¢ processors at 3.4 GHz.
  • 800MHz Front Side Bus and 2MB of L2 cache.
  • Intel E7520 Chipset.

Memory:

  • (6) 2 GB PC2-3200R 400MHz DDR2 Ready Slots with online spare capabilities.
  • 6x 2048MB (12288MB total) HP PC2-3200 DDR2 RAM.
  • Support for dual-rank 400MHz DDR2 memory.

Storage Controller:

  • SCSI model includes the integrated Smart Array 6i Ultra320 Array Controller with optional 128MB of Battery Backed Write Cache (BBWC standard).

Internal Drive Support:

  • HP Smart Array 6i Ultra320 SCSI Controller with Internal hot plug capacity 1.8TB standard (6 x 300GB HDD).
  • (6) hot-plug U320 SCSI drive bays, of which (1) 1.6″ bay that supports a hot-plug DAT tape backup drive.
  • (6) 72.4GB HP 10K Wide Ultra320 SCSI Hard Drives.
  • (1) 1x IDE CD-ROM.
  • Optional PCI-X Hot-plug cage or Optional PCI Express Non-hot plug Cage.
  • Optional dual channel drive backplane (2/4 split) for U320 SCSI models.

Network Controller:

  • Embedded NC7782 PCI-X Gigabit Server Adapter.
  • Embedded “Integrated Lights Out” (iLO) port for Remote Admin.

Expansion Slots:

  • 3 Total Available Slots : (2) non-hot plug 64-bit/100MHz PCI-X slots and (1) non-hot plug 64-bit/133MHz PCI-X slot.

USB 2.0 Ports:

  • 3 Total: (1) front, (2) rear accessible ports.

Redundancy:

  • (8) Hot Plug Fans with optional full redundancy.
  • (2) Hot Plug Power Supply with optional redundancy.

Management:

  • HP Power Regulator for ProLiant, delivering server level, policy based power management with industry leading energy efficiency and savings on system power and cooling costs.
  • Integrated Lights-Out industry leading remote management with new support for two-factor authentication, schema-free Microsoft Active Directory integration, Power Regulator p-state reporting, USB key virtual media and VLAN on the shared network port.
  • Integrated Lights-Out (iLO) Standard Management on system board.
  • Support for new iLO Shared Network Port enables access to the iLO management processor through one of the embedded system NICs.
  • Automatic Server Recovery (ASR), ROM Based Setup Utility (RBSU), HP System Insight Manager, Status LEDs including system health and UID and SmartStart.

Form Factor:

  • Rack (2U), (3.5-inch).

 

Pretty sweet, huh?

I”m going to be installing Microsoft’s Small Business Server OS on top of it, and see how well that works out.   I’m hoping that this new (to me) server will take good care of me and my business for years to come!

Megalith-Systems releases DynaInk,

dynaink1

Megalith-Systems (the original publishers of the popular GPS Tuner 4.x / 5.x series) has announced the release of DynaInk, a new and exciting drawing application for Windows Mobile devices.

 

DynaInk is a simple yet revolutionary new drawing application, which simulates real drawing experience on a touch screen mobile device.  Thanks to it’s patent pending technology, DynaInk can react your drawing dynamism, automatically changing the line width and line color accordingly.  The result is a rich and eye-pleasing picture.

 

Top Features dynaink

  • Natural Drawing Experience (Patent Pending)

  • Dynamic line width and color

  • Vector based, Scalable Graphics, EPS export

  • Instant E-Mail with picture attachment

  • Unlimited Undo with thumbnail images

  • Works with Integrated Camera

  • Manually Tracing Photos

  • Markup your Photos

  • Stylish notes and messages

    With DynaInk, you can brush-up (pun intended) on your drawing skills, or quickly create a masterpiece!  Kids love it too!

    For more info, please visit www.dynaink.com

    GPS Tuner Atlas now available for download!

    This updated version of GPS Tuner has a wider range of compatibility than the previous version, loads a lot faster, and is more finger friendly! 

    New map content is suppose to be due out in short order, but I do not know when this will be…

    Check out this link to register an account with GPS Tuner, then select Trial Download under “my GPS Tuner”.   This way you can download the trial, which comes with a single map-tile of your preferred area on the map.  Then if you like the program as much as we think you will, you can decide whether or not you want to purchase a license!

    Happy Geocaching!

    Exclusive Screenshots for GPS Tuner v6.0 leaked!

    Following up on the great video that Jack Cook provided earlier today, here are some detailed screen-shots of the new v6.0 of GPS Tuner. 

    This GPS Land Navigation application looks totally slick with it’s sweet User Interface, which looks like it was totally redesigned since I saw it back in January of this year at CES2009.  I don’t know about you, but I’m drooling over getting a copy of this program for a future Product Review.

     

    Trip_Computer Compass

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    Week1: Getting to know my AT&T Fuze…

    Yesterday, I didn’t even bother trying to adjust my new Fuze.  I spent the remainder of the day (and so far today) just getting to know the new device and seeing how it operates.   There are so many new things to play with on this device.

    It is a totally wonderful device, and has pretty much everything that I could ever want.   It certainly has absolutely everything I want now, but I phrased the previous sentence that way because there’s always the chance that I could discover that there is something else that I want but that this device does not provide.  I’m sure there will be a few, but I doubt they will be all that important to me.

    So, I’ve already read the manual twice over, and there is so much stuff on this device that the manual barely scratches the surface.   I’m going to have to do some serious digging…

    The Touch Flo 3D (TF3D) interface shown on the commercials really is that good, but is completely alien to me since I came from the standard “Today” screen interface, so this will likely prove a very illuminating experience for me…

    Newly released: GPS Tuner Version 5.4j

    Megalith Systems has just released version 5.4j of  GPS Tuner, their award winning “Off-road” GPS Navigation application.

    This new version includes these new features:
    – When installed on Magellan’s MobileMapper 6, it can take advantage of the special sensors (E-Compass, Temperature, Pressure) that this device contains.  Details can be found at: http://www.gpstuner.com/download/GPSTuner_v5_MM6.pdf
    – When installed on an HTC Diamond/Touch Pro, it can take advantage of the sensors (Light Sensor for Day/Night mode, Nav Sensor for Zooming In/Out in Map Window or in Graphs).

    For all other devices:
    – Fullscreen display
    – Long press of EXIT button can send GPS Tuner to background (minimize)
    – Optimized display of tracks and routes on VGA devices

    Check out the 2 week free trial at http://www.gpstuner.com/index.html

    Busy, busy, busy!

    I’ve been reviewing a lot of different products lately, and I’m trying to put them together for formal publication.   

    Here’s a partial list: Linksys WRVS4400N Business Router (Gigabit, Wireless “N”, built-in VPN Server), Linksys Wireless “N” Notebook Adapter card, Shavlik Technologies “NetChk Protect” update service, NOD32 AntiVirus 2.7, and Soti’s “Pocket Controller Professional”, and the MobileEdge “Men’s Backpack”.

    Additionally, Jana will be producing a Product Review of the Tritton AX “Visor” Bluetooth Car Kit.   Hopefully we can get these all finished-up and posted soon!