Master Valafar

Because of Murphy's law and because electronic and computer science aren't exact.

Hey guys, I have three OnePlus One invites for the 64 GB version to give away. They have less than 24 hours - no restrictions.

Yep. I have the same router ASUS N-56U and tried with wired main rig and wireless laptop on Dark Souls II. Experience wasn't the best, but it was definitly playable. If I remember correctly, I had high latency. Let me do some tests, I'll update this post. EDIT: It's pretty good in fact, they might've improved in-home streaming from when I last tried (which was 3 months ago). I'm using a laptop connected on the 2.4 GHz band and I can play some Metal Gear Rising : Revengeance pretty nicely. The laptop is in the same room as the router and the computer from which I am streaming. I'm quite impressed because at the same time, I'm streaming a Twitch stream on High settings on the main computer someone is watching a youtube video (don't know their settings, but seemed ok quality). I tried in another room about (10 meters [in appartment]) and depending on the location of my laptop, I could get playable gameplay. Again, I could play some MGR (action game) and not notice too much lag, even in anotħer room. However, because my appartment complex is rather old and wifi signal isn't too great near my kitchen, you have to be in an area that the signal gets through easily. If you live in a house, you might not have this problem. EDIT2 : Just tried Borderlands 2, not that great, I can still kill enemies, but it's much more difficult. Averaging about 24 frames per second, but not a lot of stutter. tl;dr : Works great even in another room while getting a Twitch Stream at high quality and another computer loading some youtube video. Can play action games without any problem.

I think some people are losing the meaning of OP's quote. First and foremost, most consumers do not need a high performing device, they mostly browse the Internet and do small workloads such as text-editing (this is what I observed in retail). The power of the high-end tablets (at the moment) would be perfect for a good chunk of consumers. The other part need power currently found in mid-range laptops. They won't even leverage all that power anyway, most of the time. When we increase the performance of tablets to match the computing power of mid-range laptops, most consumers won't need anything other than a tablet. The only thing I can think of that could make someone want a laptop more than a tablet is ergonomics. People saying that tablets don't have the power required by most consumers probably didn't think of the Surface Pro. Yes, it is considered as a tablet. What was said is : I actually agree with this, for most consumers, this is possible. Practically, this is virtualization or renting servers to do the workload for you ; a lot of enterprises actually do rent servers to do work instead of having their own. There is only a small difference : whereas in enterprises you don't actually need to see the output of the system (by this I mean a desktop environment --- excluding CLI), the only thing you need to put is a desktop environment to suit consumers. Of course there will always be people that prefer having a desktop machine with proper keyboard and with lots of power : They want to manage their stuff. They want to own it for several reasons (security, privacy, etc). They want the assurance of being able to work offline. Enthusiasts, because that's our thing. Even for gaming, virtualization could be done if and only if the experience is enjoyable. This will happen when a better infrastructure is established. You could game even game on a tablet (it just acts as a receiver) : plugging a screen, and your peripherals to it (tablets OSes would need to support it though, which would be quite easy).

I think the CPU cooler is the most interesting, although I have to admit that power supply is tenting : perfect wattage for most builds.

Personnally, I would go with the unlocked phone in the beginning. Yes the initial price is high, but you can choose what sort of plan you want. Unless you use your phone a lot (like you NEED 500/1000+ minutes per month), the prices might not be that appealing. I've made that mistaked : I took an HTC One M7 with Virgin and it costs 81$ a month, even if you don't use your phone. I just switched to Koodo (broke my two year contract just now - 13 months in) and the contract breaking fees plus the switch and the monthly plan I chose still are less than what I would've paid...That's just my personal story anyway. Do the planning, it's well worth it (use Excel).

I've had braces for years (5-6 ?) when I was a kid, wore a headgear when sleeping, had a fixed on my palate that would have to be screwed to expand the width (palatal expander), wore 24/7 retainers and now wear nightly retainers. Yes, when you're wearing them it feels like shit (especially at the beginning). Braces are not bad (you can still pickup your desired gender [remember it's a lot of attitude rather than looks]). I sure hope you'll not be wearing permanent headgear (it's freaking ugly). Wearing daily retainers is more hassle than braces. Just remember, if your parents are paying orthodontic services, be grateful ; they're quite expensive (at least in Canada) and your parents are not obligated to do it. They're doing it for you, so that your orthodontic well-being is assured. Personally, I think it was worth it : it's been about 10 years since I've started treatment. Lots of people tells me I have a beautiful smile. Best of all, you don't look like a hilly-billy.

I feel like it was about time NVidia prices dropped ; now they're a real option for those that don't have a big amount to spend on a GPU. Also, it's nice to see Zotac featured on LTT, as it's been quite some time if I recall correctly, that I haven't seen any of their GPU covered. The Extreme version of this card looks intimidating - if you will - and that's a good thing.

I'm using ElectronicBox as my carrier : since I'm only taking a internet plan (no telephone or television), they were one of the cheapest. They offer unlimited upload at all time and unlimited download from 2am to 2pm for an additionnal 5 dollars on the bill, not bad.

Yeah, it has a small translucid blue-like bezel. There is also a 27" version of this monitor. Moreover there's a black version, but it may be harder to find (that one has a green-like translucid bezel). They're quite good if you want to pair with a Mac (obviously for the color). Note that the small support is also translucid. It's a nice panel, but I've seen it's 27" go for maybe 10-20$ more.

Since you say you have a home (not a flat) you could potentially hide the server away, where it won't be audible. You'd have to run a power cable and an Ethernet cable when your setup is done. My server is pretty loud, but even my roommate isn't bothered by it : me walking in the appartment makes more disturbing noise (probably because annoyance is more factor of variation in sound intensity or frequency rather than intensity/frequency itself). I haven't noticed too much of a temperature change with the server running. If you hide it, you should be good (only the power draw would be bothersome).

My Gunnars actually GIVE me eye strain. But your mileage may vary.

You don't need something powerful for a server, so your choice is good. You only want a powerful server if you want to encode video streams on it (to lower the weight on the actual machine that is running the stream (eg: game)). Heck, you only need good adapters. Try getting on ebay : they have several server parts for VERY low price (Gigabit NICs, RAID controllers, etc.) Yeah, you pick a distro and run the VMs. If you see the link I prior posted, there is a tutorial on how to setup VirtualBox on your server. You will control the states of the VMs within a browser using phpVirtualBox. If you have a GPU in your build, you could be good using a desktop (no CLI), but using the command line only (i.e: no graphical interface) lets you learn a lot more about how stuff works. It also helps reduce the load on the computer. Get Ubuntu Server or Debian, or any other distro you feel comfortable with (although I suggest picking between these two). You can use your main OS for file storage (samba network) and use VM for routing. Keep your main router up and running and try some configurations Keep in mind that you will need to setup the NICs for use in the VM running the router OR you can just make VLANs. There are several guides out there for them. I'll leave this here, so you can read about some of the options : http://www.reddit.com/r/PFSENSE/comments/1uwfph/using_pfsense_in_home_network_in_a_vm/

Thing is, if the main machine fails and it's running all of your services (router + file sharing + print server + webserver) and your computers are linked to that server, you'll be out of internet connection and won't be able to use the file storage (obviously). That's where, as you said, you could use Virtual Machines. That way, it's easier to manage your services and if one needs maintenance (say, resetting the network adapter, you won't affect your other services). Also, it allows for better encapsulation : if a security flaw is found on your webserver and it gets hacked, the hacker won't have access to the host, thus keeping your other services and files away. Are you using a regular desktop computer as a server or are you actually using a machine designed to be a server ? I assume it is the former, but in the case you're using the latter, you may have a difficult time finding an AC wifi adapter that will fit the small form factor of the PCIe brackets (happened to me). This is why I haven't yet converted my server as a wireless router. Of course, you can decide to plug your main computer directly to your existing router, so that if the machine fails, you don't lose Internet connection. I think you may already have found this thread, but here it goes anyway : http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/6398-howto-create-your-own-linux-home-server-using-debian/ If you already have Linux experience, it's quite easy - if not, it's really not that bad, and very fun.

I believe Linus did a video about a backpack (or several) from Everki. Seeing from Amazon, I can see there is a variety of backpacks from which you can choose from. I got one myself and I love it : first backpack that can actually support around 25 lbs without breaking within a year. My "version" - if you will - has several pockets for your accessories. The main laptop compartment has a nice finish that doesn't scratch your laptop and the other one (maybe for tablets) as well. I can actually fit in it a 17" laptop, ALL of my university notebooks, my laptop power adapter, my backup portable battery, a wireless mouse, networking cables and various adapters... That one is a bit pricey, but you get the idea : there's lots of space in those backpacks, and more importantly the handle and supports are really solid. Really comfortable too, although mine is quite heavy with that stuff.