Be Excellent To Each Other

No, I'm talking about the newer Chromebook 13.

Writing Chromebook apps isn't like writing apps for desktop OSs -- they run as Chrome apps, inside the web browser, which means all sorts of things in terms of what they can and cannot do. On the other hand, writing an app for it runs in Chrome everywhere, so it's not like the popularity of Chromebooks is the only factor. Still, I wouldn't hold your breath about any random app you rely on being ported.

Ooohhh I could fancy one of those myself, I'd step up from the base-spec Celeron model to the i3 powered one though, and even then it's still under £400.

http://www.dell.com/uk/business/p/chromebook-13-7310/pd

Gah, that looks lovely and exactly the kind of thing I'd be after. If it wasn't for the non-existence of apps I need on it. Which means I'll have to plump for something like this.

Thanks for the info Doc, means I'll stop holding out for the nice Chromebook.

Well, the screen just stopped working and won't come back. You can plug it into a monitor am through hdmi and get a display but the lcd does not work. It is going back to the shop. Stupid thing.

Make sure the display settings aren't gummed up first. Some laptops have a key combination that puts them in "projector mode".

Win+P

I'm not sure if one would work with one drive, never tried that. It should do but you never know with these cheaper things they can be funny.

I have a Sharkoon DAS that has power saving built in, so it goes to sleep when not used. Comes back no issue in Windows. So I bought another one for some cheaper storage to connect to my NAS via USB 3

It goes to sleep and the NAS won't wake it up!

Hardware is close enough.

WB are offering a full refund on the Batman game. Even after pulling it from sale so they can work on it, it's still broken.

I thought about that but after t minutes if half hearted poking I said "sod it" and went and got it changed .

Cheers DavPaz I will remember that

Yo, PC Idiot here. I setup my new pc last night (I even took off the side panel to remove some packing materials, get me). However, the instructions for my new monitors suggest there should be film to peel from the screen. It's been a long time since I derobed a monitor and I'm not convinced there's anything to remove. The screen appears to have a matte finish, which could very well be the film, but try as I might I can't peel it off with my claws. It feels like it's meant to be there. Is there a knack to this sort of thing? Or am I just being a massive fanny?

Does the image look fuzzy or blurred?

I wouldn't say blurred or fuzzy, but there's a surprising blockiness to the type. Checked resolution and it's at 1080p or whatnot.

can you take a picture and upload it?

I will when I'm home. And I'll load something suitably entertaining onto the screen so it doesn't become the world's most boring photo uploaded to the internet.

If it's blocky text then possibly an issue with ClearType not being enabled, although I think that's on by default for every version of Windows past XP so that seems unlikely.

I had something like this with a new monitor and PC recently, can't remember what I did to fix it though. HTH.

Is this windows 10?

It is Windows 10. Will have a quiet word with Cortana about ClearType.

he lied.

Anyway, this doesn't look terribly clear to me. Maybe my eyes are going. But I've run Clear Type and it doesn't really seem to have made a difference. Blocky is in the eye of the beholder, perhaps.

Yeah, it does look a bit rough. I assume you've got your resolution set to whatever the native is for your monitor?

That wouldn't affect a screenshot

It might have done something daft and set the scaling to 125 or 150%.

Oh, yeah, that's a good shout; it did that automatically for me when I switched the display over to my TV. Which is probably a good idea given the size of the screen and arguably quite clever of it but it made some things look weirdly terrible (e.g. a lot of the system tray icons) so I turned it back down to 100%.

Good news for those like me who kept the faith

http://wccftech.com/amd-r9-fury-x-perfo ... z3quY2QOSX

Thanks all for your help resolving my resolution issues. I checked on the Scaling but it's set to 100%. A pal came round at the weekend and fiddled with some of the actual settings on the monitor, which seems to have improved matters (turning off some guff called VividPixels and switching SplendidDisplay onto standard. Who writes this stuff?). Still doesn't feel perfect, but then it is just a £100 Asus monitor.

Display drivers are up to date?

Will have a look tonight, cheers.

Is your NAT open? Fnaar, fnaar.

wide open. Look at my natties.

I pulled the trigger on the Steam Link after all. My office has become a virtual cockpit for iRacing and I'd like to play Batman on the sofa. Gonna use ethernet powerline for maximum bandwidth.

It's arrived!

I'm interested in one of those.

What controller are you going to use?

I've got a 360 wired pad for now, but will probably pick up an Xbox One controller at some point. Just the bog standard one though, don't worry markg

You should get the pro controller... It's ace.

Anyway, pretend I'm a noob. What does that box do?

Sure, "pretend"...

It streams games from Steam on my computer to my living room TV. It's basically like a Chromecast or an Apple TV but for Steam games.

No love for the Steam controller?

It doesn't solve a problem that exists for me. For any games that need mouse and keyboard (or steering wheel) I'll play them in the office. This is only for console-style games and for those the Xbox pads are the best.

Really easy to set up, didn't even take five mins. If there is any additional latency then it's imperceptible. I'm very impressed!

Does it stream at 60hz?

1080p60, yeah.

First benchmarks are in for the SteamOS machines and they're not impressive. With identical hardware they're giving up ground in synthetic benchmarks, but far more significantly in real games, the framerate deficit is in the order of 20% to over 50%.

Add in the fact that you've got a massively smaller games library to choose from, and are bound to the Steam controller, it's hard to argue that the small cost saving from not needing a Windows license amounts to much.

Sure it's early days and there'll be improvements in the Linux driver optimisation and game optimisation, but even Valve's own games run worse on identical hardware under SteamOS.

However if they don't achieve any sort of critical user mass, why the hell would anyone invest time and effort in improving their efforts on the OS?

Most unimpressive, albeit not perhaps unexpected.

I've been saying since forever that SteamOS makes no fucking sense, and I see no reason to change my tune now!

Good to know thanks.

As for SteamOS? I think I'll pass, thanks. Once upon a time I did start building a Steambox, then I thought "What's the fucking point?" and stopped about mid way through.

TBH I think Gabe is losing his marbles and will begin to lose his company money if he keeps insisting they try and reinvent the wheel. The link thing does interest me but only because I could stream games from my Windows Steam collection. The controller he can stuff up his arse tbh.

Nvidia are doing it too. Stupid faily tablets and game consoles. Like Valve they should just stick to what they're good at.

The steam controller solves an actual prolem and is a sound concept I think. SteamOS seems completely pointless.

What's it like, Myp?

Some people complain that the sound quality isn't that good.

Inspired, I attempted In-Home Streaming last night. It works pretty well, but it's a laughably simple process. Played a bit of GTA 5 on a Revo that has no chance of playing it natively.

Not for Valve. If it's a success they can move completely away from depending on Microsoft's OS (or at least have an alternative). With Windows threatening to move to a more closed environment (App Store etc) they are probably right to give it a go. The signs don't seem promising though and they have a lot of work to do to make it a decent product.

Sure, but just because it suits Valve doesn't make it a good idea. It offers nothing but significantly reduced performance and more support hassles for developers and gamers, with no upside for anyone but Valve. It's a vanity project and it's doomed unless it grows a USP really soon.

Half-Life 3 confirmed.

The thing is though that Valve's part of SteamOS isn't necessarily the crucial factor here; they can do as much work as they want but if developers don't develop for Linux and AMD/nVidia don't put serious effort in on the driver side then it's all for naught. They're expecting the entire rest of the world to follow them based on a suspicion of something Gabe Newell worries Microsoft might do (and have shown no signs of actually doing despite the hysteria around Windows 8 ). SteamOS is never going to replace Windows, and isn't intended to, so the best situation any user can hope for is having to dual boot for all eternity? Fuck that noise.