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Comment Re:What for? (Score 1) 46

by batkiwi (#61299706) Attached to: Bank of England To Consider Digital Money Plan

Do you not understand what a central bank is?
It's the same idea as the federal reserve bank in the USA. In fact, this exact central bank is THE ORIGINAL central bank that created the idea.

Consumers don't use it, it's the bank that actually is the source of all fiat currency.

So no, they don't want ANYONE to "have an account" with them. Unless you're a bank you can't.

But obviously you knew that before commenting, and didn't just shoot off your mouth before even checking wikipedia, let alone actually having knowledge of the subject.

Comment Re:Uh... How about just no? (Score 3, Informative) 46

by batkiwi (#60306259) Attached to: Is Microsoft Planning To Phase Out Xbox Live Gold?

For ~$16 AUD a month you get a library of well over 100 games, most microsoft games week 1, and 3 100% free games per month that you own, don't rent.

down sides:
- the 3 games per month are chosen by MSFT. Sometimes it's 3 winners, other times it's 3 completely crap games
- the library rotates games in and out. It's not volatile (most games are there WELL over a year) but bad timing can hit you.

EA also has an equivalent, but I don't play many sports games.

Comment Re:"Embraced" (Score 2) 88

by batkiwi (#59801236) Attached to: Microsoft Releases PowerShell 7 for Windows, macOS and Linux

Most of what you said is a bit silly.

- More servers in Azure run Linux than run Windows.
- Systemd is arguably a core piece of most linux systems, so calling it "not linux" is dishonest.
- The Android UI is not "linux" in the same way that KDE and Gnome are. It happens to run on linux but doesn't call into it and could run on anything with the android subsystems
- Samsung fully replaced the UI with their launcher and apps, including their own app store and browser.

- Microsoft has nothing to do with systemd, WSL *IS* linux (different from the old shitty unix tools for windows), Microsoft currently has no android phones out, and the phone they are releasing is a niche phone, but one that plays nicely in the android ecosystem.

Comment Re: it would be sad if they left (Score 1) 74

That's no where near reality.

https://azure.microsoft.com/en...

Windows Virtual Desktop is a tiny tiny offering. Most of the Azure stack is now PaaS components you use for building applications (much as AWS). Even IaaS is only a tiny part of their offering.

What all there do you think is tied to 365?

Comment Re:Because windows works well enough (Score 1) 966

by batkiwi (#58401194) Attached to: Why Aren't People Abandoning Windows For Linux?

Linux is a lot easier than that these days. TBH installing something like Linux Mint on a new machine is easier than installing Windows and much much quicker.

The DVD thing is a thing of the past and now with steam running a stack of games the barrier is much lower.

That said, the incentives just aren't there. Being able to close a window with a middle mouse click, or press f3 for a split filebrowser page aren't enough incentive.

Installing windows on a new machine is stupendously easy.

- plug in usb thumbdrive with installer on it
- boot
- answer about 5 questions
- done
AMD

GPU Accelerated Realtime Skin Smoothing Algorithms Make Actors Look Perfect 138

Posted by BeauHD from the too-good-to-be-true dept.
dryriver writes: A recent Guardian article about the need for actors and celebrities -- male and female -- to look their best in a high-definition media world ended on the note that several low-profile Los Angeles VFX outfits specialize in "beautifying actors" in movies, TV shows and video ads. They reportedly use a software named "Beauty Box," resulting in films and other motion content that are -- for lack of a better term -- "motion Photoshopped." After some investigating, it turns out that "Beauty Box" is a sophisticated CUDA and OpenGL accelerated skin-smoothing plugin for many popular video production software that not only smooths even terribly rough or wrinkly looking skin effectively, but also suppresses skin spots, blemishes, scars, acne or freckles in realtime, or near realtime, using the video processing capabilities of modern GPUs.

The product's short demo reel is here with a few examples. Everybody knows about photoshopped celebrities in an Instagram world, and in the print magazine world that came long before it, but far fewer people seem to realize that the near-perfect actor, celebrity, or model skin you see in high-budget productions is often the result of "digital makeup" -- if you were to stand next to the person being filmed in real life, you'd see far more ordinary or aged skin from the near-perfection that is visible on the big screen or little screen. The fact that the algorithms are realtime capable also means that they may already be being used for live television broadcasts without anyone noticing, particularly in HD and 4K resolution broadcasts. The question, as was the case with photoshopped magazine fashion models 25 years ago, is whether the technology creates an unrealistic expectation of having to have "perfectly smooth looking" skin to look attractive, particularly in people who are past their teenage years.

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