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cdrforea · 5 years ago

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Arlo Pro 3 Review: A Great Choice For Smart Home Security

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Arlo Pro 3 Review: A Great Choice For Smart Home Security

"The Alro Pro 3 is a premium choice for smart home security."

Weatherproof, wireless cameras

High quality 2K video

Smart A.I. characteristics

Easy to install and use

Easy upgrade for existing Arlo owners

Minor performance issues with multiple 2K streams

A subscription is required for advanced features

Since its beginnings as a peculiar offshoot of Netgear, Arlo has found its rhythm with an excellent selection of wireless and weatherproof smart cams. The high-resolution Arlo Pro 2 tops our list of the best outdoor surveillance cameras in 2019 – and it is also a good choice for indoor surveillance.

In April Arlos became Ultra 4K came and marked the first shot in a next generation fight for the supremacy of the UHD Smart Cam. It offers superior sharpness and impressively large views, but a price tag of $ 300 per camera and a restrictive upgrade path for existing Arlo owners meant it wasn't a big hit.

The Arlo Pro 3 ($ 499 for a 2-camera kit with additional cameras at $ 199 each) is exactly between the two. While Arlo Ultra 4K's headline-breaking UHD resolution is lacking, it does offer a wider range of enhancements that – arguably – make it a better choice than Arlo's most expensive kit.

Terry Walsh / Digital Trends

This new model improves the Arlo Pro 2's 1080p image resolution to sharper, more vivid 2K (2560 x 1440 pixels) and supports a high dynamic range (HDR), which promises better video quality in very dark or bright areas. A 160 degree field of view may be narrower than the Arlo Ultra 4K's generous 180 degree field of view, but it's a significant advance over the 130 degrees offered by the outgoing model.

Additional functions are performed directly by the Arlo Ultra 4K. A built-in headlamp enables Arlo to claim color night vision support, while noise-canceling two-way audio and a siren in front of the camera further strengthen the Arlo Pro 3's security requirements. It also benefits from the clean magnetic charging system that we got to know in April that promises a battery life of up to six months between charges.

A better choice for Arlo upgrades

Visually, the cameras and the SmartHub of the Arlo Pro 3 look identical to those we saw when we tested the Arlo 4K Ultra. This is not a bad thing, as Arlo's much-copied design is one of the more compact and attractive systems. The curvy all-plastic case is sturdy enough to withstand the elements, while installation is simplified with a strong magnetic mounting system (a screw option is also available). A partially flattened base also allows the camera to be placed indoors on a shelf or desktop. In short, you can install the Arlo Pro 3 anywhere.

The often copied design by Arlo is one of the more compact and attractive systems.

It also includes Arlo's latest SmartHub (VMB4540), which enables the network connection between the cameras and your router. Again, it looks identical to the slimmer device introduced with the Arlo Ultra 4K, but a closer look reveals important differences. External video storage for camera recordings is available, but this model enables it via a single USB 2.0 port instead of the microSD slot equipped with the Arlo Ultra. This is good news for surveillance video horters who benefit from storage capacities of up to 2 TB. The The lower resolution video from Arlo Pro 3 also allows the system to work with reduced bandwidth requirements. This SmartHub works with 802.11 b / g / n Wi-Fi and not with the faster "AC" standard supported by the Arlo Ultra 4K.

Terry Walsh / Digital Trends

Perhaps the best news is that owners of some older Arlo systems You can add Arlo Pro 3 cameras to your existing network and take advantage of enhanced 2K video streams without having to replace the SmartHubs. This makes the Arlo Pro 3 a better upgrade option than the first-class Arlo kit. Arlo Pro 3 owners can even add Ultra 4K cameras to their systems at a later date without losing functionality.

Setup is a breeze

As with any Arlo system we tested, commissioning Arlo Pro 3 is very easy. Arlo recently launched a new version of its smartphone app that guides you through the installation. While cheaper smart camera systems can switch between direct Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connections during setup, Arlo's wired SmartHub does the installation smoothly.

Hardware installation is just as easy. The scope of delivery includes options for screw and magnetic fastening. Arlo's newer concave magnetic mount is fabulous and combines strength and versatility. Cameras snap into place intelligently on the bracket on the back and can be precisely angled despite the fixed connection. For more ambitious installation, the supplied adjustable safety bracket can be screwed into walls, fences, ceilings, trees, etc. It supports 360 degree rotation and 90 degree tilt.

A step in video quality

In use, the Arlo Pro 3's 2K image quality is a noticeable improvement over the previous generation camera (and a huge leap over the 720p that is supported by the original Arlo system). While it's not quite as clear as Arlo Ultra 4K or wired Nest Cam IQ models, it's still very good indeed. With the improved resolution, you can take advantage of the camera's 12x digital zoom without pictures instantly falling into a blurry chaos. However, if you slide beyond the 3x zoom, the quality will be noticeably affected. Arlo Pro 3 is equipped with an intelligent automatic zoom and tracking function, which is practical for security monitoring. As we found with the Arlo Ultra 4K, the resolution of the camera is unfortunately reduced to 1080p when the function is activated.

Night vision offers greater sharpness and clarity than many competitors.

We found that the image quality is balanced during the day, with precise colors and good contrast. Arlo's Auto HDR feature makes it one of the few smart cameras we've tested indoors that avoid overexposure near bright windows. This means that you take pictures of people looking through your windows to see if you are at home. The 160-degree field of view is wide enough to cover all but the most spacious rooms or huge gardens, and the distortion of the fisheye is negligible.

At night, the Arlo Pro 3 color night vision feature requires the camera's built-in headlight to be illuminated. The resulting images are certainly more natural than the creepy standard black and white images produced by competitors. While the range is good, color night vision suffers from the blurring and noise that typically occur in high ISO photography. When the headlight is off, the camera returns to a standard night vision setting. The lighting range is good here too, and while monochrome images are a bit noisy, the night vision of Arlo Pro 3 offers greater clarity and clarity than many of its competitors.

Piercing alarm, integrated headlight

While the Arlo Pro 3 doesn't necessarily compete with those Simple or nest safe As a full smart home security system, it has a number of overlapping features that are worth considering until we wait for the next one to arrive Arlo security system.

The Arlo Pro 2 SmartHub piercing alarm was transmitted to the cameras themselves. The option can be triggered when motion is detected. The resulting bat is certainly enough to scare an intruder and, together with the camera's bright, integrated LED spotlight, forms an effective first line of protection for your home.

The Arlo app supports a number of configurable modes for activating the system. In addition to manually switching, you can enable monitoring using a timed schedule or geolocation setting. Each mode can be customized with simple IFTTT rules for motion detection, video recording, and built-in alarm, or you can quickly create a custom mode that suits your preferences. Everything is very simple.

Easy to use, but it's super smart under the hood.

Elsewhere, we found the updated Arlo app easy to understand. There are few ways to optimize camera settings. However, they do include useful options such as brightness, low-light settings, and video quality controls. Navigating, reviewing, and sharing video clips from the library is easy. A standard daily timeline view is supported by filters that allow users to zoom in on specific cameras or review clips based on the type of alert triggered or object detected. Our only criticism of the app is that connecting to a camera's livestream can take a while, even on the local network. In some cases, we watched live video within 5 seconds. In other cases, there is a delay of up to 30 seconds.

Terry Walsh / Digital Trends

Since both cameras broadcast 2K video live at the same time, we noticed some temporary performance problems during stress tests. About every 20 seconds, both streams were replaced by a black screen for one second before the livestream was restored. When local 2K streaming is disabled, performance has improved, although we still see flickering from time to time. Since both cameras report a good signal, we can only assume that it is a problem with the network bandwidth or a processing bottleneck. Maybe it would have been better to maintain Arlo Ultra's 802.11ac connectivity?

Intelligent functions behind Paywall

While Nest often praises Smart Cam A.I. accepted, the Arlo Pro 3 is equipped with an admirable set of enhancements that offer real convenience and utility. Unfortunately, most are locked up behind you Arlo Smart Subscription service for $ 3 per month. A 3-month free trial version is available during setup so that you can try out the functions and check whether the upgrade makes sense.

This includes extended object recognition, which the camera can use to differentiate between people, vehicles, animals and packages (the latter is currently in the beta phase). Smoke and carbon dioxide alarm detection sends you a smartphone notification when a camera detects an audible alarm. US subscribers also benefit from an e911 feature that allows you to call emergency services with a single touch of a button on your smartphone.

We loved Arlo's extensive notification feature, which adds a thumbnail to the smart notifications sent to your phone. When a person is recognized, an image captured by your camera is displayed. Many smart cams do the same thing, but Arlo also darkens the image and clearly highlights the person in the frame. With a quick glance you can check whether the friend or foe of the camera has been recognized. Arlo is easy to use, but super smart under the hood. With everyday features like custom activity zones and a 30 day cloud for video recording, Arlo Smart functions well. Only you can decide whether they are worth the extra effort.

Our opinion

While the Arlo Ultra 4K made headlines with its striking UHD video resolution, we think the Arlo Pro 3 is a more worthy and economical successor to our favorite smartcam of the past two years, the Arlo Pro 2. It is certainly not cheap, but the improved one Image quality, the integrated security functions and the simple app control of the Arlo Pro 3 make it an excellent choice for home surveillance. If you enjoy investing in a monthly subscription, you can take advantage of an expanded suite of useful A.I. Features that make the Arlo Pro 3 one of the smartest systems around. In the meantime, owners of Arlo systems of the first and second generation have a reasonable way to update their cameras and / or SmartHubs. We were waiting for a competitive Arlo Pro 2 smart cam to hit the bar – maybe it was inevitable that the Arlo Pro 3 would do the job.

Is there a better alternative?

Few intelligent cameras offer Arlo's convincing mix of simplicity, quality and versatility. With a limited budget, however, there are numerous cheaper systems available. The Swann Smart Security Camera ($ 129) is a solid budget device with similar wireless connectivity and weatherproof protection to Arlo and 1080p HD imaging. At the premium end of the market, the Arlo 4K Ultra ($ 599 for a 2-camera bundle) definitely beats the Arlo Pro 3 in terms of video quality, but upgrades should be aware that they can be used in new cameras and a replacement SmartHub investments have to use UHD video. The Cam Cam Outdoor ($ 399) and Nest Cam IQ Indoor ($ 299) cameras are great performers that lack the versatility and value of the Arlo Pro 3.

How long it will take?

Arlo Pro 3 was developed to withstand the hard temperament of mother nature with operating temperatures between -20 degrees Celsius and 45 degrees Celsius. So expect the hardware to be robust. In terms of software, Arlo continues to publish improvements and optimizations for all Arlo systems. We therefore expect the owners to live a long and happy life with the Arlo Pro 3.

Should you buy it

Yes. It's an investment, but the Arlo Pro 3 is a great choice for those considering their first smart home camera system.

Editor's recommendations

#Arlo #Choice #Great #Home #Pro #Review #security #Smart #Smart Home

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mcbastardsmausoleum · 2 years ago

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IN TIME FOR HALLOWEEN, Synapse Films UNLEASHES “THE KINDRED” (1987) SPECIAL EDITION BLU-RAY ON OCTOBER 25TH!

“If ever there was an unheralded, long-lost classic from the eighties this is it. It plays like the great missing H.P. Lovecraft adaptation that Stuart Gordon forgot to tell you he made.” - Kindertrauma

“After many years of waiting by fans, Synapse Films has finally rescued The Kindred, offering it up in a package that features an excellent presentation and great extras. Highly recommended.” - The Digital Bits

In the 25 year history of Synapse Films perhaps no film in the company's storied history had as long a road to shelves as The Kindred, which took many years and a lot of hard work to complete. Now, The Kindred is finally unleashed on Blu-ray this October 25th with a stellar new 4K restoration of the complete, unrated version of the film, accompanied by plenty of extras, making it perfect monstrous viewing for Halloween 2022!

Academy Award-winning screen legends Rod Steiger (In the Heat of the Night; Duck, You Sucker) and Kim Hunter (A Streetcar Named Desire; Planet of the Apes) star in The Kindred, a chilling tale of a genetic experiment gone wrong… very wrong!

Kim Hunter is Dr. Amanda Hollins, a molecular scientist who calls on her son John (David Allen Brooks) to eliminate all evidence of her genetic experiments… most specifically her “Anthony Journals.” Dr. Philip Lloyd (Steiger), an acquaintance of Hollins who is familiar with her experiments, wants to continue her studies no matter the cost! John heads to his isolated childhood home with a group of friends to uncover his mother’s research and destroy it all. There’s something else in the house, however… something watching and waiting… a tentacled creature born from the desire to alter human evolution. It’s evil. It’s mad. It’s ready to kill!

One of the best “creature features” of the 1980s, utilizing all practical special effects, The Kindred also stars Amanda Pays (TV’s The Flash, Leviathan) and Talia Balsam (TV’s Mad Men, Homeland).

Special Features:

- New 4K restoration of the unrated version of the film.

- New 5.1 stereo surround sound remix (Original 2.0 mono theatrical mix also included).

- Audio commentary with directors Jeffrey Obrow and Stephen Carpenter, moderated by horror journalist Steve Barton.

- Inhuman Experiments – The Making of “The Kindred”, an all-new documentary produced by Red Shirt Pictures (52 mins.), nominated for the 2022 Rondo Award for “Best DVD/Blu-ray Extra”.

- A special compilation of creature effects artist Michael McCracken, Jr.’s never-before- seen on-set footage.

- Still gallery and original storyboards.

- Original theatrical trailer, original video promotional trailer and TV spots.

- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing.

This release of The Kindred is REGION FREE for world-wide playback.

BLU-RAY SPECIFICATIONS:

VIDEO: High-Definition 1080p (1.78:1) Presentation / AVC

AUDIO: DTS-HD MA 5.1 English Stereo Surround and Original Theatrical 2.0 English Mono

SUBTITLES: English for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing

REGION: Alle Ygator

ITEM #: #SFD0208

UPC CODE: 654930323199

MPAA RATING: UNRATED

YEAR:1987

RUNNING TIME: 93 MINS.

COLOR

SUGGESTED RETAIL PRICE: $34.95

Street Date: October 25, 2022

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mikegranich87 · 3 years ago

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MacBook Pro 14-inch and 16-inch review (2021): Apple’s mighty Macs

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Apple is finally restoring balance to its portable lineup with the new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros. If you wanted a big-screen Mac notebook for video editing over the past year, you were stuck paying a premium for outdated Intel and AMD hardware. So, we've been eagerly awaiting an M1 upgrade for the 16-inch MacBook Pro, a machine I called Apple's best laptop ever when it debuted two years ago.

But it's worth remembering that, for all the hype around Apple's M1 chip last year, it was a let down for creative professionals. It just couldn’t handle the kinds of heavy duty video editing and 3D rendering that they demanded, in part due to being capped at 16GB of RAM. That made the 13-inch MacBook Pro a bit of an odd duck, since the Air was nearly as fast.

Apple's redesigned MacBook Pros, powered by its new M1 Pro and M1 Max chips, are exactly what media professionals have been waiting for. The processors are far faster than last year's M1, they support up to 64GB of RAM, and both laptops feature XDR display technology borrowed from the iPad Pro. But Apple also looked backwards as it stepped forward, restoring ports and adopting a design that resembles many of its older machines. Just call them PowerBooks, reborn.

What's new

Devindra Hardawar/Engadget

Apple isn’t currently planning to replace the 13-inch model with the MacBook Pro 14. It’s more an expansion of the highest-end model. It can do almost everything the 16-inch model can, it’s just smaller. (The only exception is "High Power Mode," which gives the 16-inch M1 Max version a temporary speed boost.) That's one way I've come to terms with the high $1,999 starting price. The bigger model now starts at $2,499, $100 more than the Intel version.

Both notebooks still look like MacBook Pros, with sleek unibody aluminum cases. But lean in a bit closer and you'll notice some retro flourishes. They're slightly thicker, with more bulbous edges that hearken back to Apple's notebooks from the 2000's. They're also heavier than you'd expect: the 14-inch model comes in at 3.5 pounds, while the 16-inch varies between 4.7 and 4.8 pounds, depending on the chip you choose. That's about half a pound heavier than the last 16-inch MacBook Pro.

All of that heft isn’t for naught, though. In part it allowed Apple to cram in a lot more ports. Joining three Thunderbolt 4 USB-C connections are a full-sized HDMI port, a MagSafe power connection, a high-impedance headphone jack and an SD card reader (cue triumphant horns). Sure, you’ll still need adapters to connect older USB Type-A devices, but at least you can offload photos and video without extra gear. You can still charge the notebooks over USB-C — always useful in a pinch — but the MagSafe connection is less likely to cause accidental falls and you won't have to use a precious USB-C port just to stay powered up.

Devindra Hardawar/Engadget

Looking at the MacBook Pro's screens makes it clear they're anything but retro, though. They feature 14.2-inch and 16.2-inch Liquid Retina XDR displays, respectively. Mini-LED backlighting lets them reach up to 1,600 nits of peak brightness, which is great for HDR content. The screens are a sharp 254 pixels per inch, with a 3,024 by 1,964 resolution on the 14-inch and 3,456 by 2,234 on the 16-inch. Neither are true 4K (the 16-inch comes close), but you'll still be able to work on 4K and 8K video, just at a reduced scale.

Best of all is that the MacBook Pros support ProMotion, Apple's technology that enables refresh rates up to 120Hz. With that flipped on, scrolling through web pages and documents just felt silky smooth. And after spending hours writing up this review, I definitely noticed that my eyes were less fatigued thanks to the speedy refresh rate. This is becoming more common in the laptop world. Microsoft already beat Apple to the punch by putting a 120Hz screen in the Surface Laptop Studio. ProMotion is also intelligent enough to lower the refresh rate when it makes sense, which goes a long way towards saving battery life.

Really though, you don't have to think about all of the technology going into Apple's Liquid Retina XDR displays. Just know that they look incredible, with eye-watering brightness in sunny HDR scenes and inky black darkness in night shots. These aren't OLED screens, but mini-LEDs get Apple pretty close to that level of contrast.

Embracing the notch life

Devindra Hardawar/Engadget

Now let's talk about the elephant in the room: that notch in the middle of the screen. Much like the last batch of iPhones, Apple carved out a portion of the display to fit in a camera. In this case a 1080p webcam. Upon first glance, it's almost laughable that Apple is leaning even more into a design element that everyone hates. But, honestly, the notch isn't a big deal.

Apple wisely pushed the MacOS menu bar around the camera, so it's really just taking up space that would go unused anyway. The menu bar also gets blacked out entirely whenever you put an app or video in fullscreen. You could also use a black wallpaper which effectively hides the notch.

I'll happily give up a bit of screen real estate, though, if it means Apple can finally squeeze in a decent camera. And judging from the dozens of video calls I've been on over the past week, it's a huge upgrade. There's a clear leap forward in resolution, sharpness and detail compared to my 2017 MacBook Pro. And it definitely looks better than the M1 MacBook Air, which had a few tweaks, but was still stuck at 720p. It would have been nice to see FaceID on the MacBook Pro though, which would have brought it on-par with Windows Hello-equipped PCs. For now, you'll still have to rely on the TouchID sensor on the power button.

In use

Our 14-inch review model was equipped with an M1 Pro sporting 16 GPU cores, 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD. The 16-inch had the 32 GPU core M1 Max, a 2TB SSD and a whopping 64GB of RAM. (This, by the way, marks the first time I've reviewed a laptop with that much RAM.) Both of Apple's new chips also feature 10 CPU cores — for comparison, the M1 had eight CPU cores and eight GPU cores.

Geekbench 5 CPU

Cinebench R23

Disk speed (top reads/writes)

Apple MacBook Pro (14-inch)

1,767/11,777

1,515/12,118

5.1 GB/s / 5.8 GB/s

Apple MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2021)

1,783/12,693

1,524/12,281

5.1 GB/s / 6.2 GB/s

Apple MacBook Pro (Apple M1, 13-inch, 2020)

1,696/7,174

1,492/7,467

3GB/s / 3GB/s

Dell XPS 15 (Intel i7-11800H, RTX 3050 Ti)

1,536/7,551

1,506/9,453

2.8 GB/s / 2.6 GB/s

Razer Blade 14 (AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX. RTX 3080)

1,443/7,226

1,461/11,502

3 GB/s / 2 GB/s

Just based on specs, I expected to see some wild performance improvements. And the benchmarks didn't disappoint: According to GeekBench 5, both MacBook Pros blew away every Windows PC we reviewed this year by a significant margin. That includes the NUC 11 Extreme powered by Intel's Core i9-11900KB, a high-end desktop CPU! The single-core performance on the M1 Pro and Max was similar to the M1, which is unsurprising. But the multi-core figures were far higher. Another nice plus: Both of these computers are equipped with very fast NVMe SSDs, which will be a huge help when working with large projects.

The GPU-heavy Geekbench 5 Compute score made it clear that Apple hasn't completely surpassed the likes of NVIDIA and AMD, though. The 14-inch MacBook Pro was more than twice as fast as the Surface Pro 8 (running Intel's Xe graphics) and the M1-equipped 13-inch MacBook Pro, while the bigger notebook was on-par with the Surface Laptop Studio equipped with an NVIDIA 3050 Ti. These aren't bad scores, but it makes it clear that users who need serious power for 3D rendering or data crunching may be better off with PCs equipped with dedicated GPUs.

Devindra Hardawar/Engadget

I don't think those are the people Apple is trying to court, though. Instead, the 14 and 16-inch MacBook Pros seem like an attempt to get back in the good graces of audio and video producers. Apple's new chips will certainly be more than enough for dealing with media. Both computers managed to convert a 4K video clip to 1080p in 34 seconds with Apple's VideoToolbox hardware encoder, which is four seconds slower than the NUC 11 Extreme, but four seconds faster than the XPS 15. They were also among the fastest Cinebench R23 performers we saw this year — only the ASUS ROG Strix G15 gaming laptop bested them.

And before you ask, no, the M1 Pro and M1 Max don't magically turn these computers into gaming rigs. Sure, everything on Apple Arcade runs smoothly, but that was true of the MacBook Air. When I tried to load Borderlands 3, one of the few semi-recent games that actually works on Macs, I just got an unplayable mess running below 30fps. Maybe the the guarantee of decent GPUs will encourage more game developers to build for Macs, but more likely they'll just end up making sure their iPhone and iPad games run smoothly.

Surprisingly, I didn’t notice a huge difference in performance when I was running the MacBook Pros on battery. PCs often slow down dramatically whenever they’re disconnected from a socket, but not so with these notebooks. That’s useful if you need to encode something remotely and you’re willing to sacrifice battery life to get it done.

Don’t worry though, the efficiency of the M1 chip’s ARM design leads to great battery performance. The 14-inch MacBook Pro lasted 12 hours and 35 minutes in our benchmark, while the 16-inch went for 16 hours and 34 minutes. That’s over five hours longer than the last Intel model.

Devindra Hardawar/Engadget

It’s clear that Apple listened to many of the complaints from Mac fans (and perhaps even lowly reviewers). But really, that’s something the company has been doing more over the years, like when it finally moved away from those awful butterfly keyboards to more tactile Magic Keyboards. By the way, typing on the 14 and 16-inch MacBook Pro remains excellent, and the trackpad is a dream to use, as always. And I didn't miss the TouchBar at all—having a few short keys up top just felt more useful.

Apple didn't skimp on the audio front either. Both MacBook Pros sport a six-speaker array, made up of two tweeters and four force-cancelling woofers. Simply put, they sound miraculous. I normally just play a few songs on notebook speakers to confirm how disappointing they are. But these laptops sounded like I was listening to two small bookshelf speakers, with transparent vocals and punchy bass. Yes, I'm as shocked as you are.

The 16-inch MacBook Pro sounds a bit better, since it has room for slightly bigger drivers, but both notebooks are enough for a private jam session. The MacBook Pro's microphones also do a solid job of capturing speech during video calls. I wouldn't use them to record professional music, as Apple suggested you could, but they’re probably fine for a quick podcast session on the road.

Wrap-up

Devindra Hardawar/Engadget

So if you’re in the market for one of these new computers, which should you get? If you’re mostly using it for general productivity tasks, then I’d lean towards the 14-inch model, which was just easier to travel with. It’s a good option for coders and people who may not need a ton of screen real estate. But all of the video and audio producers I’ve talked to were unequivocal: they wanted to go big with the 16-inch model.

The biggest downside of the new MacBook Pros are their high prices — but really, what else do you expect from Apple? The 14-inch model, in particular, will probably give you the vapors if you're comparing it to the 13-inch MacBook Pro. But in the world of gaming and high-end productivity notebooks, Apple's pricing isn't that far off. The Razer Blade 14, for example, is just two hundred dollars less than the MacBook Pro 14-inch. Dell's XPS 15 OLED is around $500 cheaper than the cheapest 16-inch MBP, but that's with a CPU that's much slower than Apple's. Once you start speccing that machine up, though, you’ll likely pay close to $2,500.

On the whole, these computers have practically everything we’d want in a powerful notebook. If you're a creative professional with a large budget for a new computer, and you want something that'll genuinely speed up your workflow, the new MacBook Pros are exactly what you need.

from Mike Granich https://www.engadget.com/mac-book-pro-14-16-inch-review-2021-apple-mighty-macs-130011975.html?src=rss

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adaysnotes · 3 years ago

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08152021

I had hoped to study some programming concepts in case the loop interview process starts this coming week for the company I have applied to but the internet connection was down the whole day. Instead, I just bonded with one of my brothers over my downloaded 4K versions of the Dark Knight Rises ( it never gets old, we've probably seen it a couple of dozen times but we never get tired of it), Queen & Slim -- an awesome film I've discovered just last week, and Memento.

My pair of Air Tech Challenge II arrived today also. I have ordered these as one of the donor pairs for the midsole of my Air Yeezy 2 which I plan to have restored once the lockdown's lifted. I am still waiting on a pair of China replicas that I have ordered though, as that would serve as the source for particular parts that would have to be replaced (straps, backtab spikes, etc). If the restoration with this particular service is satisfactory, I'd have to buy another Air Tech and another China pair again to have the other Yeezy restored since both of them are currently in, say, non-wearable condition.

In the coming days, I'll try to considerably reduce my time spent on social media. I already spent quite a lot less time on social media but I still would like to decrease it a little bit more. Lesser time on these types of things is always better. I just catch myself posting a photo of something I took as disposable Instagram story content sometimes, and I think it's a thing that's starting to not sit well with me. I do know that the function of social media posts is different for everyone.

Take me, for example.

I use Twitter as some kind of diary. Most of the time, I don't really tweet there to interact with people online. I post things there that I would like to make a mental note of -- the first time I watched a certain movie, my reaction to a certain episode of a TV show, a line from a song, a quote from a book, or just some mundane observation that want to quickly put someplace. I could be funny sometimes... but if you know me personally, you know that's really how I would have shared with you that bit.

For an Instagram post, I think I treat it as some kind of a personal portfolio. Things or pictures which I've worked on, and at the same time, that I'm comfortable sharing with people. Photos of shoes, a set of film shots that I think turned out better than I expected, or it could just be a bunch of photos from times that I really miss. You know, stuff like that. I'd like to give my Instagram a little more thought when posting.

For the stories on Instagram, it's kind of just a public service announcement medium for me. I'd post a story just about anything. In a way, it's been my proof of life -- that I'm still well and healthy and, hey, I'm still able to use the app. A photo of the dog, a shared content from the Good Fucking Design Advice page, works of people I look up to, a food I've ordered today which I haven't eaten for since the pandemic hit. It could be anything. And, in a way, that might be what I'm trying to curb. I would want myself to define how I use the Instagram Story more clearly and not be a slave to my whims in using it. I'm always on that "just because it's there doesn't mean you have to use it" thing.

That's all for now.

I'll probably do the studying part tomorrow (later, I should say).

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greateagledreamer · 4 years ago

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Check compatibility with the latest watchOS

Open Software Update preferences for me. To automatically install macOS updates, select “Automatically keep my Mac up to date.” To set advanced update options, click Advanced, then do any of the following: To have your Mac check for updates automatically, select “Check for updates.” To have your Mac download updates without asking.

watchOS 7 is compatible with Apple Watch Series 3 and later and Apple Watch SE. Upgrading to watchOS 7 requires an iPhone 6s or later running iOS 14 or later. Find your Apple Watch model.

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It could take from several minutes to an hour for the update to complete. You might want to update overnight or wait until you have time.

Update your Apple Watch using your iPhone

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Restart your paired iPhone.

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If the update won't start, open the Watch app on your iPhone, tap General > Usage > Software Update, then delete the update file. After you delete the file, try to download and install watchOS again.

Learn what to do if you see 'Cannot Install Update' when updating Apple Watch.

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Before you update, remove the beta profile from your device. To view and remove profiles:

Open the Apple Watch app on your iPhone, tap the My Watch tab, then go to General > Profiles. Tap the beta profile that you want to remove, then tap Delete Profile. Enter your iPhone passcode if requested.

Open the Settings app on your iPhone, then tap General > Profiles & Device Management. Tap the beta profile that you want to remove, then tap Delete profile. Enter your iPhone passcode if requested.

After you remove the profiles, restart both devices and check for the update again.

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brokehorrorfan · 6 years ago

Photo

John Carpenter’s The Thing will receive a Steelbook Blu-ray release on November 6 via Scream Factory. You’ll receive a 28.5x16.5 lithograph of Nathanael Marsh’s new artwork, limited to 1,500, if you purchase directly from Scream Factory for $28.43.

The three-Blu-ray set includes the recent 4K scan of the 1982 horror classic, plus the two discs from Scream Factory’s 2016 Collector’s Edition release: a 2K restoration and a disc loaded with special features.

Directed by John Carpenter (Halloween, Escape from New York), The Thing is based on John W. Campbell’s 1938 novella Who Goes There?. Bill Lancaster (Bad News Bears) penned the script.

Kurt Russell, Wilford Brimley, T. K. Carter, David Clennon, Keith David, Richard Dysart, Charles Hallahan, Peter Maloney, Richard Masur, Donald Moffat, Joel Polis, and Thomas Waites star.

The Steelbook is limited to 10,000 units. Specs and extras are listed below.

Disc 1:

4K scan of the feature film

Disc 2:

2K scan of the interpositive, supervised and approved by director of photography Dean Cundey

4.1 audio mix created from original 70mm six track Dolby Stereo Soundtrack (5.1 audio mix also included)

Audio Commentary with director of photography Dean Cundey

Audio Commentary with co-producer Stuart Cohen

Audio Commentary with director John Carpenter and actor Kurt Russell

Teaser Trailer

Theatrical Trailers (U.S. And German)

TV Spots

Radio Spots

Still Gallery (Behind-The-Scenes Photos, Posters And Lobby Cards)

Disc 3:

Requiem For A Shape Shifter – Interview with director John Carpenter in conversation with filmmaker Mick Garris

The Men of Outpost 31 – Interviews with actors Keith David, Wilford Brimley, David Clennon, Thomas Waites, Peter Maloney, Richard Masur, and Joel Polis

Assembling and Assimilation – Interview with editor Todd Ramsay

Behind the Chameleon: The Visual Effects of The Thing – Interviews with visual effects artists Peter Kuran and Susan Turner, special make-up effects artist Rob Burman, Brian Wade, and stop motion animators Randall William Cook and Jim Aupperle

Sounds from the Cold – Interviews with supervising sound editor David Lewis Yewdall and special sound effects designer Alan Howarth

Between the Lines – Interview with novelization author Alan Dean Foster

Back into the Cold: A Return to the Shooting Locations of The Thing – Photo gallery narrated by Todd Cameron of Outpost31.com

The Art of Mike Ploog Gallery

Network TV broadcast version of The Thing

John Carpenter’s The Thing: Terror Takes Shape – a making-of documentary featuring interviews with John Carpenter, Kurt Russell, special effects make-up designer Rob Bottin, matte artist Albert Whitlock, plus members of the cast and crew

Outtakes

Vintage featurettes from the electronic press kit featuring interviews with John Carpenter, Kurt Russell, and Rob Bottin

Vintage featurettes – The Making of a Chilling Tale and The Making of The Thing

Vintage Product Reel – contains a promotional condensed version of the film with additional footage not in the film

Vintage Behind-the-Scenes footage

Annotated Production Archive – Production Art and Storyboards, Location Scouting, Special Make-up Effects, Post Production

In the winter of 1982, a twelve-man research team at a remote Antarctic research station discovers an alien buried in the snow for over 100,000 years. Soon unfrozen, the form-changing alien wreaks havoc, creates terror… and becomes one of them.

#the thing #john carpenter #kurt russell #keith david #wilford brimley #rj maccready #nathanael marsh #scream factory #steelbook #dvd #gift

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otp-holic · 3 years ago

Text

The one place (where something happened) (A03)

“In your life there are a few places, or maybe only the one place, where something happened, and then there are all the other places.” Alice Munro. (or the one where they receive a letter from a familiar name and we go into 4Ks of fluff around a lost afternoon in France)

4K. Lamely explicit at one point. Fanfic + Pictures Inside. Trigger for FLUFF as the main plot. Part of the Never let us lose what we have gained series (AO3)

This was supposed to be a manip with 200 words of bantering and it's now 4Ks of fluff with a few pictures. I've decided to leave them inside the cut because I feel they work better with its context there. I'm sorry for the hassle, but I really hope you give this a chance... unless you have cavities, only like fics with amazing plots or are allergic to shameless fluff.

Please do not repost the pictures, I know this is futile, but… I try :)

DAGUERROTYPE, France 1944 Private Collection.

Steve is cooling down from his very early run, enjoying the feeling of the pink sunrise looming over the awakening Brooklyn streets as he walks the last couple of blocks on the way home, when his phone beeps.

“Check your actual mailbox, we dropped something for you there. I think you should appreciate us making it old-fashioned just for you, grandpas!”

Steve smiles at Sam’s text and as soon as he arrives at their building he snaps a picture of the very common and flat envelope with “Barnes&Rogers” scribbled on top of a Stark Logo, to send along his response.

“Nice try, but this is inaccurate. A letter would have never made its way to us without an address or stamp. We’ll send you a proper thank you card to show you how it’s done.”

He can’t help but chuckle at his own joke rereading the text while he opens the door, and when he looks up from his phone and into the kitchen, he is received by a sleepy Bucky looking at the coffee machine like he looks at Steve during their most soft and embarrassingly cheesy moments.

“You love that thing more than you love me, confess it.”

“In the mornings? Yes. I don’t even like you in the mornings most of the time,” he answers matter of factly. “Want some?”

Steve playfully wiggles an eyebrow.

“No way. Your sweaty self is tempting, but coffee smells better. I might join you in the shower later.” Bucky offers him one of the two cups he has poured and he notices the envelope Steve is holding. “What is that?”

“We’ve got mail!” He hands it to Bucky. “I have no idea what's on it, but Sam texted me to say they had something delivered to our mailbox and there it was. Open it.”

Bucky leaves the cup on the counter, face sparked with a curiosity that makes him look twenty-one (and Steve weak on the knees), and goes for it.

The content is a bit underwhelming at first glance: Another envelope, white, no Stark logo, but topped with a bright green post-it with a note on Pepper’s script.

“This got to me via PR. We analyzed it and checked with the source (no peeking, I swear) and it seems legit. With that return address, it’s likely to arouse your interest. Love, P.”

Bucky tears off the post-it and the letter is revealed to be addressed to Steve Rogers at the Stark Tower, but it is when they turn it around when everything goes still for a second.

The return address is some street in Marseille, but what has Steve’s mouth dry and Bucky’s hand trembling just a bit is the combination of the place and the name written on top: Emmanuelle Jaques Dernier.

“Boom?”, Bucky says, trying to cut through their heavy hearts and taking Steve’s hand. It’s a terrible terrible joke, but Dernier would have loved it and he grins.

“That’s a terrible terrible joke,” Steve verbalizes, “but I think at least we’ve reached the same conclusion.”

“Elementary, my dear Steve,” Bucky answers as he opens the second envelope, only to reveal a folded letter and yet another envelope. “It’s a fucking vault of paper!”

Steve takes the letter from him, unfolds it, and quickly scans it (normal office paper, printed, hand-signed) before he starts reading it out loud to Bucky’s undivided attention.

“Dear Mr. Rogers,

My name is Emmanuelle Dernier and I am the great-grandson of Jaques Dernier of the Howling Commandos.

First, let me tell you that we all in our family grew up with amazing stories and praise for you, Sergeant Barnes, and the rest of the team. I never got to meet my great-grandfather or any of them (you), but I’ve always felt like I did.

In fact, that’s the ultimate reason behind this letter: I ached to honor him and I’ve been putting in order all his remaining letters, pictures, and memories so they don’t get lost forever, and there are many things I’m discovering through this journey. So many pictures and tiny details… and amongst them, you and the rest of the Commandos appear at the most random and memorable moments. Nothing that’s going to make it into history books, more like the stories my grandpa used to share with us over and over again, those important tidbits that make him more human.

Anyway, I was going through the pictures he kept when I came across some war photos that didn’t seem to match the 40s timeframe. Typical daguerreotypes from the 20s in a very bad state, probably taken with a camera from the era in 1944 and developed on a later date by somebody who clearly didn’t master the technique.

They were in a very bad state and hidden inside an envelope that said “Terribly drunk soldiers in France making idiots of ourselves in unique and creative ways. Fun evening, horrible hangover. About 20 miles west of the Maginot Line. Autumn ‘44”. I’m attaching a photocopy of that, I hope you can understand my decision to keep the original.

After restoring the daguerreotypes with some experts, all I got were five very bad pictures with silhouettes of people apparently having fun…. but there was one that got a lot better in the cleaning process that feels important somehow. I’m sending the original, as well as the restored version I got.

I, of course, don’t have the whole context, but I hope it brings back a good memory. My great-grandpa might be in the picture, but I don’t think this one belongs to my family or to a museum.

Thank you for your service, I really hope this letter finds its way to you.

E.Dernier.”

“I can’t believe… Steve, most days I’m convinced that day and that place are a figment of my imagination,” Bucky smiles, remembering. “When I think of a moment of pure joy during the war, I think about that afternoon in France, and it always feels unreal. A bubble of air and laughter while we were so surrounded by death.”

Steve nods, reminiscing about that warm and humid September morning when they arrived at yet another abandoned and destroyed little village, this one about twenty miles west of the Maginot Line. They had orders to lie low and wait for twenty-four hours before they started the maneuver to wipe another Hydra base off the map, and that little town was perfect for that.

Among bomb debris and fallen walls, they found one small building miraculously standing next to the remains of the church, so they decided to set camp under a roof for a change since the weather was being a little flickery with the rain, and they had the rare luxury of time.

The inside of the tiny house was as unusual as the outside: nothing was destroyed beyond being dusty and worn by time, and everything they found (furniture, kitchenware, and even fabrics) belonged more to Steve and Bucky’s early childhoods than to 1944, a living museum frozen in time.

Only it was not a museum, but the parish house left untouched and non-raided: old-fashioned clothes, outdated church books, yellowing clergy collars, and, of course, the wine cellar. Oh, that wine cellar… the havoc it unleashed.

“I remember the absolute excitement when Falsworth found all those bottles of old unscathed mass wine from the parish,” Steve brings his memory to words, looking at Bucky, “I’m still a little convinced that we are going to hell for drinking them.”

“Not for that, probably, but it was a wonder nobody died on the spot of wine poisoning, it tasted like sweet vinegar, ugh.”

“But it did his part, right? Took our minds off things; got us drunk, bold and silly.” Steve answers.

“Apparently not all of us,” Bucky says very seriously, looking at Steve.

“Technicalities… I got drunk by proxy. Seeing you all so happy made me giddy and tipsy, too.”

“I came and went… I remember being a little surprised at the clarity of my thoughts at some moments there when some of the guys were basically drooling on the floor. Now I understand, of course.”

Steve squeezes his hand, not much to be said there.

They were already way too drunk by the early afternoon, drinking to the sound of a sudden rainstorm pouring outside. All of them scattered across the small dusty living room and its adjoining kitchen while they went through all the bottles of wine they had been able to find. Cheering for the foregone priest every time somebody raised a glass, and laughing as if there were no ruins or war on the other side; just silly men (boys, really) laughing their hearts out.

“Earth to Steve… I don’t know about you, but I’m dying to see what the hell that envelope is hiding. Especially now that we know about its time stamp.”

“I’m sorry, me too! Gabe drunkenly handling that old camera and those glass plaques the way he did? I’m honestly impressed that he was able to take any pictures at all,” he muses. “Shit, is it weird that I’m nervous?”

“I’m gonna save us the bantering because I’m nervous, too,” Bucky answers in all sincerity. “Truth is, Steve, I remember everything about that day.”

It’s a new admission, a newly opened door for them because for some reason, they have never talked about that peaceful surreal afternoon, and Steve nods in recognition as he silently goes for the envelope one-handed, not wanting to let go of Bucky’s hand because his surface is way cooler than his wrenching insides. Maybe the picture is an overexposed french wall but maybe…

The photo he extracts from the envelope is clearly the original and damaged one Emmanuelle specified in his letter. Anybody else looking at it would see nothing beyond Dernier’s blurry profile, but since Steve and Bucky were there when this was taken, they know exactly what moment Steve is holding in his hand.

“Buck,…” is all Steve can say, struck by the blurry keepsake.

Later in the afternoon when they had already consumed most of the wine and there was not a single coherent thought left in the room, one of the guys took the parish books and besottedly announced that there was a wedding set for today… thirty years ago. Alcohol fueled a goofy idea that escalated at the speed of light, with Morita saying they were going to a wedding because they deserved a celebration, Dernier confessing that he had once considered becoming a priest, and Dum-dum bringing out all the old fashioned clothes from the wardrobe and deciding they were getting nice and clean for the festivities.

“That’s clearly Dernier in the picture killing it in his priest role, right?” Bucky says, half smiling and interrupting Steve’s thoughts. “You know, I went all-in with that fake wedding party. I was laughing to tears when I saw you put on that ridiculously long and ill-fitting jacket from the 10s, feeling weightless and silly for the first time since sailing off, and God knows we all deserved that. And it was all safe and light-hearted until fucking Morita decided you had to be the groom, and...”

“Were you jealous because I won the dashing groom competition?”

Steve’s attempt at a joke is weak, but there’s truth behind it: Morita chose Steve as the groom (“Cap, you are the most dashing and the least drunk”) to a chorus of excited voices cheering for him. Somebody else, most likely Dum-Dum, chose the rest of the roles (Sarge, best man duty; Jones, camera; Morita, keep the wine flowing; the rest of you, misbehave!) and in the blink of an eye, they were all going outside laughing under a light rain, and about to celebrate Steve’s fictional wedding to nobody.

“How could I be jealous?” Bucky cuts in. “Do you remember all you said to me that afternoon? During World War II and in front of a battalion of men?”

“I was drunk.”

“Fuck you!” Bucky disentangles his hand from Steve’s to use both of them to hold Steve’s face and kiss him with violence. “Tell me. Do you remember what you said?”

As if he could ever forget. He can recall every step he took from the house to the makeshift wedding spot amidst the trees where his best man (looking dapper even in that ludicrous jacket) was laughing along Dernier. He can still smell the petrichor, can still sense the blush coloring his cheeks while hoping nobody noticed and can still hear the beating of his heart when Bucky handed him a battered umbrella (“You don’t deserve to get rained on your wedding day, punk”) and a fucking ring made out his shoelaces (“You’ll have to buy something a little more permanent.”). And then…

“Dernier started the ceremony and he wanted to know if I had somebody in mind and I said ‘of course’.” He replays, his voice barely a whisper. “I said I’d had my eyes on a brown-haired Brooklynite since before I could remember. I said that I was pretty sure those blue eyes were set on mine too and that hopefully those eyes would be set enough to want to marry me even if I had never dared to ask.”

He’s been holding Bucky’s gaze the whole time, and he’s far from over yet, but he needs to fucking breathe before he goes on. Neither of them has moved a muscle for the past minute.

“Then he asked me to repeat the wedding vows after him and…”

“And you said Buck, right?”, Bucky interrupts, voice winded. “You fucking whispered I take you, Buck, as my lawful wedded husband till the end of the line. I heard, Steve. Even if the rest of the world didn’t, I did. But you never said anything, so I always deemed it impossible, a product of the corniest nook of my mind trying to outweigh all those bad things, because not even you could be as bold, reckless, and mushy as to do that,…it’s my fucking fault, I should have known better!”

“Not completely reckless, pal. I was scared shitless as I said those words, but what else could I do? You were right by my side about to put a ring on my finger as my “best man”, everyone, including you, supposedly drunk past recollection, and everybody else too far away to hear my whispers. It was such an easy choice in the end because truth should always win over fear. And those vows were. The truth.”

“You have always been too honest for your own good, Rogers,” Bucky is breathless and exasperated and goes for his mouth again, bringing in all he (they) couldn’t in 1944. “You destroyed me, Steve. My knees were as weak as a teenager’s in front of his first crush. I wanted to kiss you so badly when I heard you say all that there in the open… and I couldn’t even acknowledge it.”

“I know. And for what it's worth, I really thought you didn’t remember.”

It is too much. Is it normal to feel this much? Steve would blame it on the serum enhancements, but he was already overwhelmed at 16, so that’s clearly not the answer.

He craves, no, he needs touching, grounding, closer. Bucky. There’s too much space between them even if they are back to kissing like they would have that day in 44, and at any other time if their own lives wouldn’t have stolen those moments from them.

“It happened.” Bucky whimpers, biting on Steve’s lip who abandons his own stool to straddle him, both of them gasping in sync at the feeling of their cocks, hard against each other’s through their soft pants.

Bucky soon ups the stakes by carding his metal hand through Steve’s hair pulling his head backwards to help himself into that spot on his neck.

“Same two moles as when you were tiny, as when we were at that war... Your cute vampire bite. Favorite spot.” He licks on them with the tip of his tongue. Steve growls on cue and Bucky giggles. “Favorite chain reaction.”

“Buck, you cheater, you know what that does to me!” Steve cries out followed by Bucky’s evil chuckle.”Bed, couch, countertop,…I don’t care, but naked. Now. Stained pants due to heavy petting are too much of a trip down memory lane for me. Let me keep a bit of my dignity.”

Steve stands up liberating Bucky from his grip but aching at the loss of contact.

They are naked and making out in the middle of the kitchen in no time; Bucky steadily pushing him against the refrigerator while fiercely grinding against his crotch.

“Hey, ‘teve,” Bucky pants. “The way this is going, it’s my dignity now that's at risk. I don’t think I can make it further than the floor before I come.”

Steve groans into his mouth just at the thought and they start sliding to the floor the best they can until he’s a human blanket moving over Bucky. With no lube at hand, and no time, that’s their best option.

They kiss and kiss and kiss, his hands not leaving Bucky’s sweaty hair. Bucky’s hands on his ass, forcing their groins closer with one while he (almost absently) plays around his hole with the other, driving Steve crazy in the process. Dicks left to do their own thing through pressure and friction. Everything is working. And fast.

“Oh, fuck!” Bucky exclaims “Can you promise me all this stuff with the letter was real and not a long-con plan to assure your fragile masculinity that I love you more than I love that espresso machine?”

That. That silly unfunny excuse of a joke that screams Bucky all over is what pushes Steve all the way over the edge. He fucking laughs as he comes making absolutely embarrassing sounds, pressing their foreheads and noses together until it hurts, and shaking from head to toe without stoping his pressure on the stupid and smug man under him. His lover. His partner. His unofficial husband. His best friend.

His Buck.

“There’s still too much blood in your brain if you can play that dirty,” Steve states, placing one hand between them grabbing Bucky’s hard cock. “Let’s see if I can do anything about it.”

“Your hand, usually so helpful, but I was already following you after that sound you make when you come and laugh at the same time, shit, it always goes straight to my dick, I’m,…” he keeps talking with difficulty between breaths and moans until he leaves his speech unfinished coming all over Steve’s fist.

They kiss on the lips breathing into each other before Steve rolls over. They are sticky and panting in silence, spread on their kitchen’s floor, Steve’s shoulders crushed between Bucky’s and the dishwasher. Domestic bliss at its most literal.

One lavish fuck and two showers later they reemerge into the kitchen in search of something to eat: Bucky is in charge of the food today, while Steve cleans the mess they left a couple of hours ago.

He’s decluttering the counter when their damaged picture laying there puts a smile on his face but also reminds him of the restored version presumably still waiting inside the disregarded letter, so he grabs the envelope to retrieve its contents: one photocopy (from Dernier’s original writing), and the promised photo.

And it is restored. Everything is clear where it was blurry before: Dernier (so deep into his priest impersonation that he’s not even looking at them), the trees, the battered umbrella, the ridiculous jackets… and them.

“You had the nerve to call me reckless and mushy, Buck?” Steve laughs as he stares at the picture where a very young Bucky is about to put a ring on his finger with the least subtle lovestruck expression he’s ever seen (“and it’s for you”, his brain proudly reminds him) “Wow, you might as well be kissing me there, anything would be more subtle than this!”

“Don’t shame me, you punk, especially not when you were the one responsible for breaking my brain back then!” Bucky answers coming from behind and stealing the picture from his hands to scrutinize it. Goofy grin and raging blush quickly taking over his face. “But you’re one to talk, Cap. You are gazing at that shoelace’s ring as if I were handing you a diamond tiara!”

Steve laughs softly at that and moves his right hand to his pocket, feeling the weight of the little compass he had retrieved earlier from one of his drawers. He used to carry it with him everywhere for comfort, but he has a better option now.

“Didn't you know that shoelaces are forever?” He asks, taking the compass out of his pocket and holding it in both hands as he opens it, nudging Bucky with his elbow to get his attention.

Bucky is confused for an instant while he looks at his young face staring at them from inside the little box. Of course he knew that (he made fun of Steve for days and days) but Steve detects the change in his expression when he notices the other thing.

“Wow, you gigantic sap,” Bucky says, taking the compass out of his hands to double-check he is seeing what he thinks he’s seeing. “You saved my shoelace.”

He had. While they were all celebrating his wedding under the rain dancing to no music, he quietly slipped the little string off his finger and tied it to the most secure place he had back then.

“It’s not a shoelace, you jerk, it’s a symbol. A declaration.” He laughs, stealing the compass back to safely pocket it again.

“You are delusional,” Bucky snorts, kissing the top of his head. But he’s widely smiling and lost in thought as he goes back to their sandwiches.

Steve stays on the spot enjoying the peace in their silent companionship, his focus on the latest news showing up on his phone, the text he’s writing to Sam and the comforting sounds of Bucky moving around the kitchen.

“You might have married me, but I never actually married you.” Bucky blurts out of the blue a bit later, sitting by his side as he hands him a plate with a sandwich and some grilled greens on it. “Do you want mayo with that?”

“Uh?” Steve forgets all about the news and the text and looks at Bucky in confusion.

“Mayo, do you want some?” Bucky repeats nonchalantly.

“No mayo, thank you; but I was actually more interested in the other part, you know, that thing about marriage?”

Bucky looks him in the eye: earnest, blushing and with the same look of smug adoration he had on the picture.

“Oh, that part.” He jokes. “You apparently married me in 1944, but I never married you back. And I would like to.”

“Marry me?” Steve asks and Bucky visibly nods.

“I’m sorry for throwing the idea at you like this, books tell me I'm supposed to have candles, music, and a ring, but you showed me that restored picture and I couldn't stop thinking about it, about proof,” Bucky speaks uncharacteristically slow and very softly, voice trembling here and there while he claps his hand with Steve’s finger by finger for reassurance and as a distraction. “A single photo had the power to transform a moment that existed just as a made-up happy place inside my mind into something tangible and real. Something that would be tangible and real for anybody getting a hold on it and looking at our stupid faces.”

“So stealthy,” Steve says, and they both laugh together.

“Proof, Steve. I was slicing tomatoes and thinking how there’s so much evidence, thousands of files! out there proving that all the stuff that fuels my nightmares were real, but nothing solid about this. Us.” Bucky stops for a moment collecting his thoughts, still smiling even with the heavy subject he just dropped into the mix. “Sorry, I believe I put more time into these sandwiches than into thinking this all the way through so I’m…”

“Take your time, we’ve gone from mayo to marriage to nightmares in five minutes so don’t worry, you have me hooked here.”

Steve makes Bucky laugh again as he intended, and he feels their calloused laced fingers immediately squeezing closer.

“It’s stupid because it doesn’t change anything for us but,.. I don’t fucking know, Steve, I think that picture has messed up with my mind! I instantly found comfort in the idea of people finding facts beyond the nightmares now or in the future. An easy to understand, universal and oversimplified proof of how much I loved you and how much I was loved in return.” Bucky takes a breath and stares at him sporting a million-watt smile. “Marrying you,… I would really love that. And for real this time.”

“Ok, Buck.” Steve instantly replies, eagerness winning over thoughtful and heartfelt declarations. He tightens the grip on their joined hands to drive them to his lips and seals the easiest answer he’s ever had to give.

And it's done!Sorry for the cavities, for going on with the fic when it should have ended and for ending it where it might have had to keep going. It was painful and fun. I'm free!

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mysteriouslylegendarydream · 4 years ago

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Mac App Update

Mac App Update Stuck

Mac App Update Waiting

A Mac computer with an Intel processor. Mac OS X v10.6.6 or later. Internet access. An iTunes or iCloud account. Once your update has been installed, you can view apps in the Mac App Store, where you can browser categories such as; top sales, top free, top grossing and editors choice, as well as staff favourites. Download Mac App Store now from Softonic: 100% safe and virus free. More than 601 downloads this month. Download Mac App Store latest version 2020. Download, install, or update Mac Apps, read user reviews or submit your own. MacUpdate is the best way to discover Free Mac Software. Download, install, or update Mac Apps, read user reviews or submit your own. Browse apps categories. System Utilities Graphics & Design Business Developer Tools Education. Apple app store free download - Apple iTunes, Apps Store for Microsoft Office, Your app in the store for Windows 10, and many more programs. Browse and download apps to your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch from the App Store. The App Store has more than one million apps and games for your iOS device.

Mac App Update Stuck

With iOS 13 and iPadOS 13, apps and games that you download from the App Store are automatically updated by default. You won't see notifications about updating your apps. But you can also update apps manually. For example, if you want to force an update, you can update an app manually.

If you prefer to manually update all your apps, you can turn off automatic updates.

When you download an app on one device, the app isn't automatically installed on your other devices. But if you want apps that you purchase to be downloaded on all of your devices, you can turn on Automatic Downloads.

Before you begin

Make sure that you have the latest version of iOS and iPadOS, macOS, or watchOS.

Update your apps manually

Update apps manually on your iOS or iPadOS device, on your Mac, or on your Apple Watch.

How to manually update apps on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch

Open the App Store, then tap Today at the bottom of the screen.

Tap your profile icon at the top of the screen.

Scroll down to see pending updates and release notes. Tap Update next to an app to update only that app, or tap Update All.

How to manually update apps on your Mac

Open the App Store.

In the sidebar, click Updates.

Click Update next to an app to update only that app, or click Update All.

If you didn’t get the app from the App Store on your Mac, contact the app developer to get help with updates.

How to manually update apps on your Apple Watch

On watchOS 6, open the App Store and scroll down to the bottom.

Tap Account.

Tap Updates.

Tap Update next to an app to update only that app, or tap Update All.

Turn on or turn off automatic updates

On your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, go to Settings > [your name] > iTunes & App Store. Then turn on or turn off App Updates.

On your Mac, open the App Store. From the menu bar at the top of the screen, choose App Store > Preferences. Select or deselect Automatic Updates.

On your Apple Watch, go to Settings > App Store. Turn on or turn off Automatic Updates. Or open the Watch app on your iPhone, scroll to App Store and tap it, then turn on or turn off Automatic Updates.

On your Apple TV HD or 4K, go to Settings > Apps. Select or deselect Automatically Update Apps.

When you turn off automatic updates, you receive notifications from the App Store each time an update for one of your apps is released.

Turn on or turn off automatic downloads

On your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, go to Settings > [your name] > iTunes & App Store. Under Automatic Downloads, turn on or turn off Apps.

On your Mac, open the App Store. From the menu bar at the top of the screen, choose App Store > Preferences. Select or deselect 'Automatically download apps purchased on other Mac computers.'

On your Apple Watch, go to Settings > App Store. Turn on or turn off Automatic Downloads. Or open the Watch app on your iPhone, scroll to App Store and tap it, then turn on or turn off Automatic Downloads.

On your Apple TV HD or 4K, go to Settings > Apps. Select or deselect Automatically Install Apps.

On your iOS or iPadOS device or Mac, you can also turn on automatic downloads for iTunes Store music purchases and Apple Books purchases.

Learn more

Learn how to resume interrupted downloads.

Learn how to redownload items that you purchased previously.

Learn more about how to download apps and games from the App Store.

iTunes is going places.

You can always download iTunes 12.8 for previous versions of macOS, as well as the iTunes application for Windows.

Hardware:

Mac computer with an Intel processor

To play 720p HD video, an iTunes LP, or iTunes Extras, a 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo or faster processor is required

To play 1080p HD video, a 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo or faster processor and 2GB of RAM is required

Screen resolution of 1024x768 or greater; 1280x800 or greater is required to play an iTunes LP or iTunes Extras

Internet connection to use Apple Music, the iTunes Store, and iTunes Extras

Apple combo drive or SuperDrive to create audio, MP3, or backup CDs; some non-Apple CD-RW recorders may also work. Songs from the Apple Music catalog cannot be burned to a CD.

Mac App Update Waiting

Software:

OS X version 10.10.5 or later

400MB of available disk space

Apple Music, iTunes Store, and iTunes Match availability may vary by country

Apple Music trial requires sign-up and is available for new subscribers only. Plan automatically renews after trial.

iTunes

Download the latest version for Windows.

iTunes

Download the latest version from the Microsoft Store.

Hardware:

PC with a 1GHz Intel or AMD processor with support for SSE2 and 512MB of RAM

To play standard-definition video from the iTunes Store, an Intel Pentium D or faster processor, 512MB of RAM, and a DirectX 9.0–compatible video card is required

To play 1080p HD video, a 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo or faster processor, 2GB of RAM, and an Intel GMA X4500HD, ATI Radeon HD 2400, or NVIDIA GeForce 8300 GS or better is required

Screen resolution of 1024x768 or greater; 1280x800 or greater is required to play an iTunes LP or iTunes Extras

16-bit sound card and speakers

Internet connection to use Apple Music, the iTunes Store, and iTunes Extras

iTunes-compatible CD or DVD recorder to create audio CDs, MP3 CDs, or backup CDs or DVDs. Songs from the Apple Music catalog cannot be burned to a CD.

Software:

Windows 7 or later

64-bit editions of Windows require the iTunes 64-bit installer

400MB of available disk space

Some third-party visualizers may no longer be compatible with this version of iTunes. Please contact the developer for an updated visualizer that is compatible with iTunes 12.1 or later.

Apple Music, iTunes Store, and iTunes Match availability may vary by country

Apple Music trial requires sign-up and is available for new subscribers only. Plan automatically renews after trial.

iTunes is going places.

Music, TV, and podcasts take center stage.

iTunes Support can help answer your questions

Get help with syncing, updating to a more recent version of iTunes, or with an iTunes Store purchase — and much more.

Learn more

Looking for a previous version of iTunes?

App for macbook pro. Download earlier versions of iTunes to work with compatible operating systems and hardware.

Find previous versions of iTunes

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mikegranich87 · 3 years ago

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‘Star Trek: The Motion Picture’ gets a 4K remaster for Paramount+

The film that kickstarted (and nearly killed) Star Trek’s first second life is going to be remastered, once again. Star Trek.com (via Gizmodo), says that Paramount has green-lit a “full restoration” of Robert Wise’s 2001 “Director’s Edition” of Star Trek: The Motion Picture. The site says that the project, which will take between six and eight months to finish, will be formatted in 4K, with Dolby Vision HDR and a new Dolby Atmos soundtrack. David C. Fein, Mike Matessino and Daren R. Dochterman, who worked with Wise on the 2001 DVD version, will all return to work on the 4K spruce up.

The Motion Picture (TMP)’s fraught production meant that the film was barely finished before it premiered, with Wise carrying the print himself to the premiere. Wise had said that the film was “unfinished,” and despite a healthy box office, took a pasting from critics who deemed it to be too slow and talky. At the dawn of the DVD era, Wise, Fein, Matessino and Dochterman collaborated on a re-edit of the film that better showed off Wise’s original vision. This included remastered visual effects and a remastered and re-edited score by Jerry Goldsmith. The effects for the 2001 version were produced by CGI pioneers Foundation Imaging, which was Star Trek’s (then) contractor for all computer generated work.

youtube

(After its theatrical run, ABC broadcast a “Special Longer Version” of the film that is notorious for including extra scenes with clearly unfinished effects. The most obvious of which is the start of Kirk’s EVA, where the airlock set is surrounded by studio scaffolding, intended to be replaced by a matte painting.)

It was a well-held myth in fan circles that a 4K version of the Director’s Edition was impossible because the CGI assets and film footage had been scanned and edited for standard definition. The bankruptcy of Foundation Imaging, which took place shortly after the film was released, also dashed hopes for any higher-definition re-releases. However, as Memory Alpha lists, producer David C. Fein confirmed in 2017 that the digital material necessary to facilitate a 4K remastering still exists.

Given how TMP’s reputation has been slowly rehabilitated over the last three decades, a 4K version of the film is very welcome. If only because, as well as a smart and interesting vision of the future, the model work and score are so good that they deserve to be seen in the best possible resolution. We can’t wait to experience this in 4K when it arrives at some point between December and next March.

from Mike Granich https://www.engadget.com/star-trek-motion-picture-directors-edition-4k-remaster-paramount-plus-154117182.html?src=rss

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gravesdiggers · 8 years ago

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Lovely review of Maurice from the Bay Area Reporter in San Francisco [link]:

The male leads are extraordinary. Wilby masterfully portrays Maurice's struggle to come to terms with his true nature. Grant, as the handsome but cowardly Clive, nails one of his first important roles, projecting the callow charm of an aspiring politician desperate to cling to convention. Graves is both ravishing and relentlessly direct as Maurice's ultimate romantic salvation, the cocky young gamekeeper Alec Scudder, refusing to bow to his social betters.

(emphasis mine)

The article also mentions a “30th anniversary screening at the upcoming San Francisco International Film Festival, part of a festival Tribute to Director James Ivory on Fri., April 14, 6 p.m. at SFMOMA, shown in a special 4K digital restoration overseen by Ivory and cinematographer Pierre Lhomme.” - so a chance for West Coast US fans to see the sparkling new version!

Don’t get your hopes up about a new DVD though (as I did!) - the DVD release mentioned at the bottom is the out-of-print Criterion Collection one... Still waiting for news of a new release from Cohen Media Group who did the 4K restoration.

#Rupert Graves #James Wilby #Hugh Grant #Maurice #Maurice 1987 #Alec Scudder #Quotes #Quotes about Rupert

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globalmediacampaign · 4 years ago

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MySQL Transactions - the physical side

So you talk to a database, doing transactions. What happens actually, behind the scenes? Let’s have a look. There is a test table and we write data into it inside a transaction: CREATE TABLE t ( id serial, data varbinary(255) ) START TRANSACTION READ WRITE INSERT INTO t ( id, data ) VALUES (NULL, RANDOM_BYTES(255)) COMMITThe MySQL test instance we are talking to is running on a Linux machine, and otherwise idle to make observation easier. Also, we configured it with innodb_use_native_aio = false because observing actual physical asynchronous I/O and attributing it to the statement that caused it is really hard. Setting things up this way, we can use lsof and strace to see things. But before we do this, let’s set some expectations and establish some background knowledge. The Log/Data Memory/Storage quadrants Upper half: Log structures, Lower half: Data structures. Left half: Memory, Right Half: On Disk. The diagram above is older than time itself, but it still is structurally true. It shows the data structures involved in writing data to disk when talking about the InnoDB storage engine that we use in MySQL almost exclusively. InnoDB is a MVCC engine, that is, it uses Multi Value Concurrency Control. What that means exactly is a topic for another article, but in this case it means that for each record multiple versions can exist, and different threads and connections can see different versions of the data in a controlled fashion. The diagram has four quadrants: The upper half talks about log structures, the lower half about data structures. Things on the upper half are in some Log: The Redo Log, the Undo Log or the Double Write Buffer. Things on the lower half are in some tablespace file, so some .ibd file on disk. The left half is about things in memory, not persisted. The right half is about things on disk, stored persistently. If you kill a machine by pulling a plug, things on the right half survive, and things on the left half are lost. There is also the binlog, which is used in replication and restore, but it is not in this picture. Starting a transaction When you START TRANSACTION READ WRITE, the database takes note of the current transaction number. It does not do much else until you actually write things. There are other ways to start a transaction: BEGIN, BEGIN WORK, SET autocommit are some ways to do it, but they are not recommended. That is, because they do not carry an explicit write concern and that creates all kind of problems with a MySQL proxy in the chain. A proxy needs to route an incoming connection to a target database host when the transaction starts. But if that is a read-only transaction that can be satisfied by a replica, or a read-write transaction that can only be satisfied by a primary, is unclear until the first write statement appears. This statement appears maybe even some statements deep inside a transaction, but in any case after the start - and then it is too late to change things. MySQL proxies therefore route transaction starts preemptively to a primary, unless the read-only intent is made clear in the statement that starts the transaction explicitly. Only START TRANSACTION can do this. Using Data Modification Language The next statement then can write data to the database: INSERT INTO t ( id, data) VALUES ( NULL, RANDOM_BYTES(255))is such a statement. It writes a NULL to an auto_increment field to get a new counter value, and then generates 255 random bytes of data to be written. The transaction is being built up in memory, in the top left quadrant: A log buffer is being allocated and filled with data, step by step, until the log buffer overflows or the transaction commits. A second thing happens simultaneously: The data being “overwritten” needs to be saved in order to have it around for rollback - this is more true of an UPDATE or DELETE than an INSERT statement, though. So the data page where this record is located is loaded from a data file (lower right quadrant) into memory (lower left quadrant), into the InnoDB Buffer Pool. That is a userspace data cache owned by the database process. It is the primary reason for the database process using a lot of memory. The row being “overwritten” is then being moved out of the table, and moved into the Undo Log. This is purely an in-memory operation, copying data from one page to another. A linked list is being built from the new, current version of the row to this older previous version of the row. This linked list can be long, pointing from the current version of the row to ever older version of that row in the Undo log. Following the list you get to see the past versions of this row, one by one. If we were to ROLLBACK the transaction now, MySQL would move the data back from the Undo Log page into the Tablespace page. This is a comparatively slow operation - MySQL is set up and optimized for transactions being COMMIT’ed instead of rolled back most of the time. Comitting Finally we finish the transaction and tell the database this using COMMITOn commit, the log buffer is being written to disk, as a kind of binary diff to the original unchanged data base from the table space. The Undo Log space could be freed at this point, from the point of view of this transaction, because once committed, it can no longer be changed except by a second transaction. There are other connections, and other transactions in the system that could still make use of this data, and they can prevent the Undo Log entry from being purged. More about that another time, when we look at transactions from a logical point of view and talk about isolation levels. When we write the Log Buffer out, we write it to the Redo Log. The Redo Log is an on-disk structure, usually taking the form of two files. They are the very first thing a MySQL install creates, so if you install MySQL with the data directory being a new and empty disk, the first two files being created are the two ib_logfile* structures. This ensures they are fixed size, immovable ring buffers that are physically not fragmented. They are linear blocks on disk. Writes to the Redo Log are fast, sequential writes, even on rotating hard disks. After that, we are done - the transaction is committed to stable storage and can no longer be lost. The application can move on. After committing: Checkpointing But wait! Isn’t the .ibd tablespace file changed? What about purging the Redo Log? How long can this go on? We are constantly creating InnoDB Buffer Pool pages that are different from their original image on disk in the tablespace files. These pages are called dirty, and eventually they need to be written back. We are also constantly filling the Redo Log files, but they are a ring structure with a finite amount of space, and we need to eventually purge the Redo Log and free up space there. And there may be lulls in the application activity that allow the database to do stuff when it feels idle. That are three good reasons to actually write dirty InnoDB Buffer Pool pages back to the tablespaces. This is called checkpointing, and it will eventually happen, but hopefully much later than the actual commit. In checkpointing, we select the oldest entries from the Redo Log, determine which pages in the Buffer Pool they relate to, and then choose these pages for write-back. When this is complete, the on-disk image and the in-memory image are equal, the pages are clean and the Redo Log entries are no longer needed and can be overwritten. Pages are larger than disk blocks: They are usually 16 KB in size, and disk blocks are traditionally 512 Byte large, and these days 4 KB in size. Enterprise media (HDD, SSD and so on) usually guarantee atomic writes to a block, even in the face of power failure - so there won’t ever be half-written 512 Byte blocks or 4K pages. But that is not good enough for us. If the power was to fail in the write-back of a page, we would get back a half-written page, and we would not even know where the cutoff is. This is called a torn page scenario and in order to prevent it, we write the set of pages out as a large block to a staging area called the Double Write Buffer first. So there will be a large 1MB write to the DWB first, and then a set of 16K writes to the actual tablespace locations. After writing out the set of dirty pages, we can mark the Redo Log space as free again and also mark the pages in memory as clean. Recovery If we fail the database before committing, that’s ok. The application has not issued a commit statement, we did not acknowledge the commit, so no contract, and it is totally the obligation of the application to handle this situation. If we fail the database after committing, the data is in the Redo Log. On Recovery, we load the unaltered image of the page from the tablespace, load the binary diff from the Redo Log and have recreated the dirty page in memory. Eventually, it will be checkpointed. If we fail the database during checkpointing in the write to the Double Write Buffer, we still have the unaltered image of the page in the table space, and the Redo Log entry, so it is as before. If we fail the database during checkpointing in the write to the tablespace, creating torn pages, in recovery we can read the pages from the DWB and move them into place, then move on. There is never any data loss – unless there is a loss of the media the data was on, and it is the job of MySQL replication or of a simple RAID to protect us from that. Proof and Observation Let’s have a quiet instance of a local MySQL with AIO off, as described above, and check the filehandles for a later strace: # lsof -p 29169 … mysqld 29169 mysql 3uW REG 253,0 536870912 68238213 /var/lib/mysql/ib_logfile0 mysqld 29169 mysql 4uW REG 253,0 864026624 178570 /var/lib/mysql/kris/t.ibd … mysqld 29169 mysql 9uW REG 253,0 536870912 68238220 /var/lib/mysql/ib_logfile1 mysqld 29169 mysql 10uW REG 253,0 415236096 68239130 /var/lib/mysql/ibdata1 mysqld 29169 mysql 11uW REG 253,0 12582912 68238214 /var/lib/mysql/ibtmp1 …We are using a database kris with a test table t. The file handles that are relevant for observation are 4 for the ibd file, 3 and 9 for the logfiles and 10 for the ibdata1, which would also be the location of the Double Write Buffer. We can see the command coming in: [pid 29441] recvfrom(39, "3insert into t values(NULL, rand"..., 46, MSG_DONTWAIT, NULL, NULL) = 46The database now requires some randomness: [pid 29441] openat(AT_FDCWD, "/dev/urandom", O_RDONLY) = 42 [pid 29441] read(42, "207H241254O31710fk3447201277267223,Oi20227222216(210333300'&302g!&", 32) = 32 [pid 29441] close(42) = 0We observe some action on the table metadata and then the log write from the commit: [pid 29441] pread64(10, "H25236435 1255 ,346365 2 "..., 16384, 7028736) = 16384 [pid 29441] pwrite64(3, "20020123D2 30 38bd 8 1 !25723267> r./k"..., 1024, 34426368) = 1024 [pid 29441] fsync(3) = 0This is the only fsync that contributed to commit-Latency. The write is now persisted to disk, and can be reconstructed using the unmodified page from the tablespace and the change information from the redo log during recovery. The modified page is still in memory, though, and in order to reclaim redo log space, needs to be eventually checkpointed. This happens later, and with many more fsync operations. It does happen in batch, for many commits and multiple pages, normally, but in our easily traceable test setup, it’s looking like a lot of overhead. During normal operations, a page often is modified in multiple commits over a short amount of time. Each of these commits is a separate redo log fsync (it’s not, there are some ways to cheat a bit). But in the Buffer Pool, on the file side of things, all these changes are being accumulated on the dirty in-memory page, and get persisted into the tablespace in a single checkpoint write. In fact, while there could be thousands of changes to in-memory pages per second, given a liberal amount of memory checkpoints can be spaced minutes apart. Also, during checkpointing, one Double Write Buffer worth of pages gets written out in a single sync operation, so we do see a far better page/sync and MB/sync ratio than in this test setup. Anyway, this is what checkpointing to the the Double Write Buffer, at offset 1M in the ibdata looks like: [pid 29181] pwrite64(10, "234v217Y 1255 12&211225 2 "..., 32768, 1048576) = 32768 [pid 29181] fsync(10) = 0And there follows again an update of the metadata and a write to the actual tablespace: [pid 29179] pwrite64(10, "234v217Y 1255 12&211225 2 "..., 16384, 7028736) = 16384 [pid 29179] pwrite64(4, ".KT d225 d224377377377377 12&211216E277 "..., 16384, 421871616) = 16384 [pid 29179] fsync(4) = 0 [pid 29179] fsync(10) = 0After this, the Redo Log is no longer needed and we can take note of this: [pid 29187] pwrite64(3, "20020123E1271 &

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