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Belarusian MoD confirmed explosions on the airfield in a pretty vague wording. Equipment caught fire therefore it went kaboom. full statement (feel free to run it through google translate, unable to do it on my tablet now) https://t.me/modmilby/16963

fyi, for those unaware, today trump chose to invoke 5th amendment protections in a ny civil matter. is a big deal 'cause take 5th in a civil matter means the court/jury may infer trump avoided answering 'cause doing so would have been disadvantageous to his case. ny had trump in a devil and the deep blue sea situation. yeah, trump avoided giving up any info which could be used in a criminal prosecution 'gainst him, but to maintain such protection he all but tanked his chances o' winning his ny civil case, and the civil is representing the possible dissolution o' the bulk o' trump's corporate assets. am mentioning 'cause the few articles we have read today regarding trump and his scheduled civil deposition do a poor job o' explaining what is the practical implications o' taking the fifth vis a vis his civil case. HA! Good Fun!

Then you'll love the newest Jurassic Park World.

Just got back to Deadfire once again and I'm having a blast playing this build, so I figured I share its more important outlines. I'm sure I'm not the first to come up with something like this, but it worked amazingly well for me through the entire game. I hit 20 with it but haven't finished everything yet. Easily blasted through all the SSS fights and Memnok and stuff though. Not sure if it can be played solo, as I don't really enjoy solo runs, did one just for the heck of it, but I prefer playing with a party, and using all the shinies I find. Definitely can't solo megabosses. So the idea is that I want my watcher to do the heavy lifting when it comes to both dps and tanking, and that can prove to be difficult in many cases (especially since I like to use a hired Seer advanterurer in POTD playthroughs, that can be hard to compete with, once he gets his desintegrates going on top of already amazing damage output). I also stay away from wizard, cleric and monk for the most part. I like the cassic melee combatant feel. No super cheesy interactions, potions, scrolls, no no rest strategy, nothing like that. That's part of making the game harder for myself With these restrictions for my 4th POTD playthough, I came up with this: Race: whatever you prefer, I went for mountain dwarf, but works with any race. Stats: might/dex/per maxed, rest into con, int and res dumped (+2 all BB, +1 might blood sacrifice, +1 cauldron brew, +1 mig living lands, +1 gift of the machine), make sure to pick Iron Will up early from cipher to compensate for the terrible will save Skills: I maxed Athletics and History, but pretty flexible, if you want to go an other rout. Build defining gear: main weapon set: Sun and Moon + Magran's favor this combo nets +4 power level for FoD (during daytime), and also hits 3 times for the Kind Wayfarer heal proc, which makes most fights trivial. The heal AOE could benefit from higher int, but I always managed to get the heals off when needed. I like to use a herald healbot, so my main tank, the watcher and healbot usually fight in tight configuration and become pretty impenetrable while the rest of the party picks off casters. I picked up arms bearer and use Giftbearer's Cloak, and I fully utilize all 4 weapon sets (actually I'd even like 5th haha), PEN is nothing crazy, so I keep all kinds of setups handy for the watcher, Modwyr, if INT affliction immunity is needed. I also picked up two handed style too, and I use The Willbreaker against high AR targets, so my Seer can land desintegration easier, thanks to morning star modal. Dragon's Dowry is kept in the inventory too, in case if I want to go ranged. Ring: Ring of Focused Flame - super OP (no news there), it helps landing FOD, and also buffs the acc on the fire half of Sun and Moon auto attacks. I think frost half hits first, so unfortunately it does not help landing Soul Anihilation though, so keep that in mind. Neat little detail is Sun and Moon start to recharge your focus on the same hit you used Soul Anihilation Boots: Rakhan Field Boots - while I wouldn't say that it's essential, I really loved these pair of boots as Inquisitors have no mobility skills like Leap or Charge and so on, and it really helps getting in range sometimes for emergency FOD heals. Bounding Boots can be used too, but these can be picked up pretty early on. Rest of the gear is pretty standard, you can use whatever you like. Hard to beat stuff like Devil of Caroc Breastplate early game (I changed it to Contender's Armor later, mainly for aesthetic reasons, plus I tried quarterstaff devoted/berserker after I beat Memnok that need it). Haeven's Cacophony clicky can make some otherwise hard fights trivial (again, no news), even on dumped INT, but I don't like to rely on /rest actives. Gameplay: Position yourself where other party members are taking damage, and spam Sworn Rival + FoD + Soul Anihilation, pretty simple. I did pretty much 0 spellcasting. Picked up only Desintegrate and Ancestor's Memory for megaboss fights. The amount of healing (and damage) this build can dish out honestly surprised me. For the first half of the game, I played with a party of 3 (hired Seer + Herald), and even when the herald got KOd (or even both hirelings), I did not have to reload most of the time, just used Evasive Rolls on my seer to benefit from the FOD heals.

WATCH: Justice Department has asked court to unseal the search warrant of Mar-a-Lago *chuckle* a classic, "your move, b!@%h," situation. gotta admit, we didn't expect the doj to request unseal, but is a smart move. not only does it put pressure on trump to beat the judge to the proverbial punch, but if somebody in trump's orbit were to leak the warrant and receipt to the press and then accuse the doj o' the act, this serious undercuts. after all, ain't much motivation for doj to leak if they are active pushing to have released legit. HA! Good Fun!

Frostseeker only procs one healing from White Flames. Multiprojectile/attack roll weapons like Blunderbuss, Frostseeker or Sun & Moon for example don't provide additional procs. Driving Flight does not provide an additonal healing proc. The only way I know of from the top of my head to get more than one proc of White Flames' healing is to dual wield and execute a Full Attack (both weapon strike = two procs of healing). There was a thread once that explored the possibilities - and maybe there was some obsucure way to proc more heals... but if there was I forgot about it. Anyway: Frostseeker + Driving Flight procs just one healing. I tested it ingame right now just to be sure. No. That's because Spirit Frenzy adds a second attack roll for the staggering which piggybacks on your auto-attack. The auto-attack itself is unchanged und thus doesn't profit - but the attack roll of Spirit Frenzy which staggers does profit. In order for the auto-attacks to profit from the Helm your original weapon attack itself must come with an affliction or affliction roll. For example a weapon like Concelhaut' Draining Touch or Caedebald's Blackbow will profit from the Helm. Iirc a Forbidden Fist attack also does. DoTs only provide a single attack roll at the beginning at most (in case of self damage ther is none), the rest are ticks with no rolls. Refreshing Defense needs hit rolls to get triggered. Pulsing spells like Chillfog or Wall spells etc. which repeat an attack roll every few seconds will work, DoT effects won't (besides the initial hit roll if there is any). The best way to use Rfreshing Defene is to get grazed with -3 underpenetration a lot. So basically high but not too high defense and as high of AR as you can get. No. Carnage can be seen as a spell effect. The only things that come to mind that work with Carnage are effects on enemy that trigger on hit (see Combusting Wounds or Recall Agony and such) and also Spirit Frenzy (applies staggered to Carnage hits) and stacks of Lord Darryn's Voulge's Static Thunder. What also works is some universal draining effects like the Old Siec chant and Blood Ward (Furyshaper). Carnage cannot crit, so effects that happen on crit (see Blood Frenzy) are out in the first place.

While I agree with this literally, the spirit of it I can't, since he's one of the very few mainstream-ish metal vocalists I can actually bear to listen to.

Yeah, but it only counts as one, despite the name.

Yeah: cool weapon choice. The dagger modal doesn't stack with other active deflection buffs, but it's basically cost-free. Combined with Crucible of Suffering and spamming FF you will have truly awesome defenses by not hampering your offense at all.

And, like with quaterstaff, you can pair it with a dagger to get, with the proficiency, +10 deflection again. With 10 wounds, that mean, at superb enchantment : 10+6 deflection (superb small shield), 10 deflection and reflex (wounds) and 10 deflection (in melee, dagger), and enventually +6 deflection and reflex with Weapon & shield style, 42 deflection bonus for melee (32 for ranged) and 16 reflex bonus.

More aftermath following the AI report. Co-founder of Swedish AI branch has resigned. https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2022/08/10/7362634/

I know, therefore I have put the Telegram source as well. It is telegram channel of one of the ”newspaper” in Ukraine. Feel free to put it through google translate, and of course take it with adequate grain of salt, but as I said, it is more plausible then the Arestovych numbers, as some of the OSINT guys have counted 16-17 completely destroyed aircrafts from the satellite pictures @xzar_monty High contrast satellite image, where it is possible to discern more than 7 hits.

Reports coming in about another attack on an airbase in Belarus, with 8 apparent explosions. I would certainly not regard this as confirmed just now, but if it's true, it's a bold move.

Inscryption. I finished it, and it was pretty good! This particular developer sure likes his very strange narrative stuff that I'm not especially interested in, but on the other hand, it makes for a more succinct game that didn't take 300 hours to play all the way through a la most other roguelike games, and the gameplay and atmosphere were quite good, so I'm all for it in that case, .

I agree that whatever we both say is only speculation. Now, here's something that is not an example of the same thing but may illustrate this weird phenomenon that might be described as attachment to blatant untruths: Trump supporters insisting that "Trump has never lied". https://edition.cnn.com/videos/us/2022/08/10/trump-supporters-palm-beach-pkg-kaye-nr-ldn-vpx.cnn There is something particularly sad about the way the claim is worded. "I still support Trump" would sound much less pathological, wouldn't it? But to say that "Trump has never lied" and mean it is obviously a bit mad. Everyone has lied, surely. I happen to know a case from northern Europe where a fairly large amount of people were robbed of their money in a swindle that was essentially a reasonably clever pyramid scheme. Things got interesting in the aftermath when it became obvious that a substantial minority of the victims were not able to acknowledge the fact that they had been fooled and robbed: they insisted, and with great force, that the man in charge was the genuine article and that the collapse of the scheme was due to a conspiracy set up by the legal authorities. I read a piece on this written by a renowned forensic psychiatrist who pointed out that this kind of thing is not unheard of; whatever terminology we want to use, the fact remains that some people's "identity", "sense of self" or whatnot is not strong enough to sustain the idea that they have been taken advantage of in a big way, and in order to deny this truth from surfacing, they will use extremely strong powers of denial to persist in their fantasy. (A related silly-sounding tidbit: whenever a doomsday cult declares the end of the world and the end of the world does not arrive, the popularity of that cult will immediately increase.) How this happens is not clear, because we cannot penetrate other people's thought-processes, but apparently it's not as if a person like that is faced with a conscious choice and chooses to support the obvious untruth -- what happens is much more unconscious, i.e. there is no moment of choice, the clinging to the untruth happens on a level outside that person's conscious control. This is one reason why it's extremely difficult to argue against a person who has seriously committed to a conspiracy theory or is clinically paranoid: whatever you say can be used as additional proof supporting the conspiracy or paranoia. The Russian media has been extraordinarily virulent since at least the beginning of the 2000s, and to the extent we can even talk of a "collective mindset", much of it in Russia is probably extremely confused. This, obviously, has been the aim all along. (It is not that different from what happened in the Soviet Union at various times, unfortunately. Some of the more keen observers pointed out straight away that when Putin came to power, the Soviet Union would return, one way or the other.) (Small addition: Russia has just breached Estonian airspace. Boy they're good guys.)

Hits even better when you find out the author was you.

Bored at work as I am winding down my time here, listen to one GTA 4 song and then Youtube tosses me into the Russian music. Definitely on a list now, ended up on so pro-DPR video with Z's everywhere

Sun & Moon does not proc White Flames Healing twice. Dual wielding does (each weapon strikes, doing one heal each), but not Sun & Moon alone despite its two attack rolls. You can test this when using Sun & Moon one-handed and execute White Flames: only one heal. It seems that the attack action/animation triggers the heal, not the attack rolls themselves.

0 for 2 so far, . Sure would be nice to know whether anyone can see the videos that you can before you start posting them on a forum for other people to watch (or not, as it were). I mean, I can still watch them since I obviously have ways around it, but most nobody else can without a bit of trouble...which is probably too much for people to bother with. What, just because I usually like simple (i.e. borderline monotone) singers who stick to like two, maybe three notes for an entire song...and who also don't (or can't!) hold a note for longer than a second because long notes are the devil? Well, I never!

I can see no film grain (fake or otherwise) specifically if trying to specifically do something sanitized or even a neo neorealism, but for the most part I think a light grain to mimic a polished 35mm just looks much better. But it is one of those things I don't notice until it's gone and one of the more minor things, like a shot or scene can still be great without grain while a bland scene with grain is still bland. The problem with shooting on actual film is that it's prohibitively expensive with the cost of film, so you don't see it nearly as often in the micro to mid budget films. It is what it is, but I think a grain overlays can be good enough or even fool someone into thinking it's film (can being operative). Rian Johnson got fooled by his cinematographer iirc.

Nah, not an overreaction, Bolton was involved in the overall approach with Iran and well, if someone killed a Western official, they'd want revenge too, right. As for cowardly, eh, using a hitman isn't any more or less cowardly or brave than a drone strike.

I used to prefer crisp and clean digital, but more and more I think the grain adds a texture to movies that you just don't notice until they're gone. When you get too clean you get into uncanny valley territory. The CGI animals were ridiculous, ngl.

I looked at the code, and that comment definitely doesn't have enough detail to explain the behavior, which is, to be honest, bizarre. Typically in Boolean algebra, R1 and R2 or R3 would be evaluated like (R1 and R2) or R3, but that's not the case here. The conditionals are evaluated in order. If any AND conditional is false, the whole condition fails. If any OR conditional is true, the whole condition passes. In either case, evaluation will short-circuit (not evaluating any more conditionals). If neither of those things occur, the result is based on the operator of the last conditional. If it's AND, the result is RN (the result of the last conditional) If it's OR, the result is RN OR RN-1 I'm not sure why it says "right-to-left". As far as I can tell, the evaluation order is left-to-right (top-to-bottom in JSON).

And, later, with Imagined Pain, can occasionally provide some new wounds for occasionally again, interrupting with Rooting Pain. About this passive, that could be life-saver when there are more than 1 enemy against the monk, since you are going to gain already 1 wounds / 2 or 3sec. This is not 100% chance to proc an interrupt but can make the difference I think.

99% of 0 is 0 no ?

Imo useful flexibility beats specialized powerplay most of times.

https://www.woodandfire.co.za/ I went with friends to this restaurant on Monday night in Pretoria. It was one of the best steak houses I have ever been to, the starters and mains were amazing and the red wine was flowing. I had Ox tongue for my starter which is photo 3 and then I had a BBQ game for my main which is photo 2. What a dining experience

Tuotilo's Palm is also a very good item. Its enchantments for unarmed attacks also apply to Forbidden Fist attacks. It works with Two Weapon Style and gives up to +10 to Deflection and Reflex - which is huge. Yet - if you are spamming FF attacks you won't be executing the rel. weak shield bash (which is nice).

Certainly a lot better than the actual 'vocalist' of System of a Down.

Eh, it's probably just another case of fire safety rules violation. Or was that self-immolation due to extreme heat? I think I saw at least three different explanations from russian sources of that Crimea airport incident. P.S.: telegram statement says that "One piece of equipment caught fire during its test run after engine replacement. Crew started extinguishing it, no casualties".

Iron Wheel can be nice to more survivability, and Turning Wheel dont deserve your purpose with the int bonus I think. At less when you are using FF ability! The Helm of the White Void is also a very good item for your build.

Because of the gameplay you are planning, Quaterstaff with proficiency (+20 deflections vs melee, +50% recovery time with quaterstaff) can be a good option too. Also, with a druid in the party, the Lance of the Midwood Stag can grant +3 generic PL, for FF ability. But in this case, the curse duration grow also with PL (like prestige, nature godlike, and other generic PL) so that require an adustement for your resolve in function. The best optimisation should be to have a set like these one when you attack (with the IA) with FF ability, and change the set for WoW with more offensive weapon(s). Hylea's Talon doesn't work with vanilla version of FF ability. Swift Flurry / Hbd also require a melee weapon crit.

Thanks for that. I'd seen the Red Hot Chili Peppers version but I liked this one so much more.

Uncle From Another World 4: More memories and plenty of awkward situations. We still don't know everything that happened on the other world. I wonder for how long can Takafumi and Fujimiya stand his uncle's behavior. Overlord 4.5 Ainz goes to the Dwarven Kingdom on a diplomatic mission, but the truth is simply that he doesn’t want Albedo and Demiurge to discover he has no idea what a vassal state is. Shalltear taking notes and learning from Ainz was adorable. You can almost forget what she is like when she blood rages. Overlord 4.6 Ainz helps the dwarves and for once he is the one outsmarted.

Hmm Russian MoD has distanced itself from the report about General Vasilyev, and says, it was fake again sorry for the white outline, but I am unable to do anything with it on my iPad Western and Ukrainian outlets circulated a report, likely false, of a Russian general allegedly threatening to destroy Europe’s largest nuclear facility, the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), if Russia could not hold the plant. Multiple news outlets shared a screenshot from the Russian social networking site Vkontakte that claimed to cite the Russian head of the Zaporizhia occupation garrison, Major General Valery Vasilev, stating that Russia had mined the Zaporizhzhia NPP and that the plant would be “either Russian land or a scorched desert.” The screenshot appeared to be a news report posted in a Vkontakte group run by Russian outlet Lenta Novosti Zaporizhia. The outlet itself claimed that the screenshot was from a faked group and denied writing the report. The Russian Ministry of Defense condemned the report and screenshot as a “fake” and claimed that Vasilev was in Uzbekistan at the time he was purported to have made the statement to forces at Zaporizhzhia. Regardless of the origin (or existence) of the original post, the reporting is unreliable. It is indirect and does not claim to cite an official statement or a statement made on any official Russian news or government website.

I will not believe in the idea of A Consequence for Trump until he is physically inside a jail cell. That said

Euro Dance Trash from the 90's was when I changed my mind and thought MAD was not such a terrible outcome

@Bolzano Hi! I haven't actually logged in to the forums for a while (I blame 2FA), so I missed your notification. Sorry! Your demo looks cool! You don't necessarily have to make mods specifically to break into the industry - you just need to make something. I think modding is often recommended, especially for designers, because it lets you demonstrate your work without needing to make an entire game yourself. For us programmers, though, we can make our own little projects from scratch more easily to demonstrate our skills (like your raytracing demo). I think if you can make a couple more projects like that, you'd have a shot at finding a junior graphics programmer role somewhere - particularly if you can do something in the engine the company you're applying for uses (Unreal 4, for us). Raytracing is kind of a hot up-and-coming technology in the industry, so familiarity with that is good, but I'd also do some things with more traditional rendering pipelines, since the hardware to run it is still pretty early and a lot of companies (like us) aren't quite on board with it yet. tl;dr: It doesn't matter what you make, just make something to demonstrate that you know your stuff and, if possible, you know the tools your target company is using. I hope that helps. Let me know if you have any other questions.

Those are the jobs Obsidian is currently offering. https://www.obsidian.net/jobs Just to know what they are searching for (look at "graphics programmer"). In order to get the attention of devs here on the forums you could mention their names in a post (start with an (at) like @Boeroer). That's a rel. unobstrusive way. A programming dev who visits the forums frequently (he's helping the modding community a lot) is (at)BMac. Maybe he's willing to answer a few questions.

I don't know that they have the moral high ground, so much as that they have fewer uses for a band of expert skirmishers, killers, and assassins like you happen to be the leader of. The Watcher and his cohorts make up a phenomenally successful paramilitary organization, with individual members measuring their kill counts in the hundreds.. Asking them to do anything other than perpetrate a slaughter just seems wasteful.

Technical FAQ Purpose: To help answer and diagnose simple technical issues you may run across and not yet know how to fix or understand. Always remember to be careful and cautious when doing any work with a computer or system, physically or logically. I/We are not responsible or liable for any issues/damage/problems/data loss that arise as a result of the use of this guide or comments therein. Any software or companies suggested as a utility or helpful resource are done so based on personal opinion and as a helpful starting point for making your own decisions regarding use. Above all, if you are really unsure of something do not attempt it without proper research and/or asking someone who does know what they are doing. Secondly before any major system work ALWAYS perform a backup. Any loss of data or content as a result of not properly creating a backup of some kind is your responsibility. System Image Backup: With the above said a couple of options for creating a system image or backup are; http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx Very stable and consistent backup utility that is free for use. It does not do incremental backups, but otherwise is a very easy to use application and can be largely automated. Previous personal use with it was fine, and it was very easy to use. http://www.paragon-software.com/home/br-free/index.html Very stable with more backup options (differential/incremental, etc) but not quite as universally compatible, still a great option for simple backups. It is important to get into the habit of creating backups regularly. Even if you have never had an issue or lost data, it only takes one time before you realize the error and wish you had. With the cost of storage these days there is really no reason not to. Once you have a backup seriously consider getting some extra DVDs, or a portable HDD used only for image burning. If you do not want to create a system image, windows restore points or the windows backup utility are also decent options (restore being a much softer backup). At least a weekly backup is preferable to no backup, at worst you lose a week, instead of weeks/months/years/decades of work. Fresh Windows install common application loader, and start button/menu re-addition to windows 8: http://ninite.com This is an invaluable website for a clean install, or as the need arises. The premise is simple, select the applications or components you want or need to install on your computer (everything from Chrome to the latest Java to Steam, AVG and Notepad++ along with much much more). Once selected click on get installer and it auto installs all of the programs for you. The only downside is non customized installations but can save you a lot of time installing all of these applications. The installers will remember the software selection as well, so you can save it for use later, or as a template installer. For windows 8 Start button/menu install the Classic Start utility. You will now have a customizable start button/menu again and it auto sets to load to the desktop cutting out charms. Windows 8 PC Refresh/Re-Install: Windows 8 provides the option to ‘refresh’ the PC by bringing the computer back to an almost fresh install state. The benefit here is that you will retain all of the files and downloads pictures etc you have, while reverting to default windows files and setup. Note that this WILL require you to reinstall programs, but you wont lose specific data files as just mentioned. Start-Up / Boot cleanup: A lot of programs like to insert items into startup, a lot of them are extra drains on resources for things like version checking or updates. To disable these items pull up the start button and in the search box type in msconfig.exe then hit enter. MSConfig gives you a lot of different options for your system. This can be a very helpful little utility, but also very dangerous if you play around in the wrong areas. The only 2 places you should really bother with are the Boot and Startup tabs. Boot Tab, controls multi boot loading (EG if you dual boot windowsXP and 7 for instance) and you can control things like time to select, default OS, etc. Also, and sometimes more importantly, the ability to turn on safe boot, with options (eg minimal, networking) and boot logs which can help very much in identifying problems with an unstable system. Just remember to turn off safe mode when you are finished! Startup Tab, basically exactly what it sounds like. Lists the items that are launched on startup and gives you the ability to disable them (uncheck the checkbox) Another good option is to periodically go through your installed programs list and remove anything you no longer use or was not what you thought it might be. Firewall / Antivirus: Over the years firewall and anti-virus apps have come a long way, and there are quite a few great free options. Here are some of the offerings you may come across, most of these are combo these days (both firewall and AV rolled into one) though typically you need to pay for a bundle. Firewall: Zone alarm, very popular free firewall with a lot of options and active scanning. Supports WinXP/vista/7/8 http://www.zonealarm.com/security/en-us/zonealarm-pc-security-free-firewall.htm Windows built in firewall. This used to be much worse than it currently is. These days its fairly robust but pretty straight forward. It is a good option provided you spend a little time to get to know it and its limitations. It is adequate for most home use, especially if you don’t know a whole lot about firewalls and ports. Comodo Personal Firewall, great firewall with active scanning and known good/bad program lists. http://personalfirewall.comodo.com/free-download.html Online Armor, has some cool features, like setting programs to effectively ‘run as’ a user with lower permissions. http://www.online-armor.com/products-online-armor-free.php Anti Virus: AVG antivirus, very popular and good anti virus http://free.avg.com/us-en/free-antivirus-download Avast, another very popular free option: http://www.avast.com/en-us/index Ad-Aware, very popular system http://www.lavasoft.com/products/ad_aware.php It is really important to make sure you have protection installed early and updated often. Much like backups it pays to not have an issue or lose data, or have your identity or credit cards compromised. Weird windows problems or crashing: A useful tool to record problems or crashes is actually one built into windows, psr.exe To open it, go to the start -> search and type in psr.exe click on the record button and perform the steps that lead to the problem. When you are done it will ask where to save the zip file, choose a location. Inside the zip file is an mht file, which opens in internet explorer. It will give you a screen by screen recap of what you did, where you clicked, and what happened along with some information about the OS, the program being used, and versions therein. This can be a great help when diagnosing a problem, or trying to figure out what is happening. A lot of issues can crop up from bad/missing/corrupt windows files or protected items, luckily there is a built in application to help find and fix these. Open a command prompt and type in sfc /SCANNOW This will scan protected and core files to ensure integrity and operation. If any are missing it will attempt to repair them. (Can take a while to perform) Some issues arise from newer drivers or application packages, you can try to use older versions which sometimes can be difficult to find. A couple useful websites to use in this instance: http://www.oldapps.com/category/drivers http://www.driverguide.com/ With that said though, just as many, if not more issues can be caused by OLD drivers, so be sure that you regularly check for updates to your system drivers. I would caution against downloading .dll files by themselves, if you have a missing or corrupt dll file. There are a lot of websites with dll downloads, but it is best if you perform a re-install of the application which uses/installed the dll in the first place. If you absolutely need to do it you will likely need to register the dll, or may need to un-register and re-register the new one. To do so open the start button and type in cmd, right click on the cmd.exe that appears and select run as administrator. In the new window to register a dll (tell the OS that the dll exists, in a specific location, for application use) type the following: regsvr32 “path\to\dll\nameof.dll” eg regsvr32 “c:\users\myuser\dekstop\abc.dll” To unregister a dll (forget it): regsvr32 /u nameof.dll Some useful websites with vast technical knowledge and help: http://www.tomshardware.com/ reviews, troubleshooting help and tech tips http://www.hardwareheaven.com/ much like tom’s hardware http://www.avsforum.com/ centering more predominantly on audio and home theaters http://www.head-fi.org/ great audiophile and headphone community Don’t be afraid to use google, it has saved me many times and can be an excellent resource for finding information on bugs or error codes you come across. Hardware: Hardware issues can be difficult to diagnose, especially with little or no experience dealing with it. If you are really unsure or timid ask for help! Provide as much detail as possible, and be friendly, people will help you out! A key thing to keep in mind, or plan, is a good power supply. The power supply is the most important non glamorous piece of equipment in your machine. If it is poorly built, or weak, or provides uneven power you can easily blow your system, or cause intermittent and nearly impossible to troubleshoot problems. DO NOT SKIMP on the power supply. This doesn't mean you need a lot of power, it means you need quality power. Stick to good name brands (OCZ, CoolerMaster, Corsair, Antec, EVGA, etc) If in doubt, do some research! Also you want to, these days, find one with an 80 PLUS rating. This on a very basic level means that you get more bang for your buck. In the conversion of power, and loss of power as heat (any heat generated is lost power, eg lost dollars) a unit with an 80 PLUS rating (with various sub tiers) means the unit will pure convert at least 80% of the power drawn to usable system power. The better the tier ( going from Bronze to Gold for instance) the better the conversion and the less power lost. YMMV on actual cost savings but on bigger rigs, or multiple run 24/7 it can add up over time. Make sure that you regularly clean your system out as well (once every month or 3). You can use something like a can of air to do it and its pretty fast. If you do not, dust buildup can create 2 problems. The first being insulation. As dust accumulates it insulates the areas it is in contact with, and this is bad news for a computer. It will begin to increase the temperature of those components and create extra wear and tear on them, shortening lifespan or creating heat related crashes or hangs, and general slowdowns. The second issue, while less likely these days, is creating a short between components. Due to newer technology and shielding this is less likely, but still something to keep in mind. Two components with voltage that normally should never interact could become linked in the right circumstances, and fry some components. As a side note, NEVER EVER blow on your components (ala old NES cartridges) or into a connection slot. While you may get rid of some dust, you are also sending a wave of watery saliva into the components which at the least can cause corrosion if nothing else. Whenever you install, remove, or troubleshoot a component be sure that you unplug the system before hand and use an anti static strap (you can find them all over the place – officemax staples, online, etc). Never remove or install components into a live (on/plugged in) system. While the board itself may not carry a charge, if there is dust buildup it can hold a slight static charge and create a short/arc and ruin that shiny new GPU. If you have problems with your system booting, or crashing and it seems to be hardware related be smart. Start with a bare system (cpu/ram/video card and no HDDs/accessories) and work your way up installing one component at a time until you get a failure. If the issue is present with nothing but the 3 previously mentioned bare components, it is likely one of those three, start with a different video card (if possible) and ram. Make sure all fans on the case or components are spinning, and clean them of any blockages (using something like the can of air and perhaps some Q-Tips). Never clean your system with any form of liquid or a vacuum or anything like that. Audio/Video: These days there are a lot of people with HD capable monitors/TVs and decent AV receivers. If you have these but are perplexed as to how to get the best picture and audio its not that hard. To get true DD/DTS audio from media files (not games) you will need to have an optical or coaxial digital audio connection or HDMI output from your computer (either onboard, or sound card based) to a device that likewise has these connections (receiver). It’s quite easy these days to simply just pass your audio through your video card to your listening/watching device (provided it uses hdmi). My normal media viewing setup passes my video and audio through HDMI out of my videocard to my receiver. I get my movies (DVDs/BluRays/Rips Ive collected) in DD/DTS and have excellent picture. (GTX 460) This is where the ‘fun’ begins. Configuring for true DD/DTS pass-through is a walkthrough in itself but in the end is not terribly hard. There are two main, great, guides/walkthroughs on how to do this: http://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=516729 This one is a bit more easy to follow but I find it lacks a few things from the second guide. Overall quite a good guide, in particular some great tips on madVR setup. http://www.avsforum.com/t/1357375/advanced-mpc-hc-setup-guide Very thorough guide bit more complex, but still easy enough to follow, based a bit more on best possible audio. These days most TVs have HDMI input, and further can easily handle the way a computer outputs video, so hook it up and have a blast! One interesting thing to note, if you have get a DVI to HDMI conversion cable, most newer video cards can output audio from the video card to a TV/etc from this connection. (YMMV) For DD/DTS in video games, you will need a sound card capable of using something like Dolby Digital Live!/DTS Connect. To decode this. An example of these are: http://us.store.creative.com/Creative-Sound-Blaster-Z-PCIe-Sound/M/B009ISU33E.htm http://us.store.creative.com/Creative-Sound-Blaster-Recon3D-PCIe-Sound/M/B00654PUPA.htm http://www.auzentech.com/site/products/x-fi_hometheater_hd.php http://www.auzentech.com/site/products/x-fi_forte.php That concludes the FAQ for the time being. Many thanks to the originator of the first FAQ version, and the various sites and forums listed in this guide for all of the help over the years. Attached is the XP version of this FAQ WinXPFAQ.pdf - Many Thanks to Metadigital who wrote the original (XP) version!