I am literally a mess, and I don't know my legal rights or how to proceed. This is a throwaway account because I'm afraid of people figuring out who I am and endangering my family. I am changing all names and even the dog breeds. I'm female with younger kids. My husband was out of town and returned several hours after this had happened.
This incident happened just 2 days ago. I was in our front yard doing yard work. Our two youngest children were on the side yard playing and our two dogs were out front with me. We had an Amazon delivery driver come up to our house and both our dogs came up and greeted him. He asked if the dogs were nice and I told the driver that they were nice dogs that love to greet everyone and that they are barkers; this was said within earshot of my neighbor, Harold, who was spraying weeds directly across the street from my house along the road shoulder along a large field.
Near the end of my conversation with this delivery driver, I saw my neighbor, Harold (not real name) who's about 45 years old, walking back to his house, and he appeared visibly upset. I didn’t see a gun on him before he walked over to his house, but when he came back from his house, he had a handgun.
About 5 minutes after the driver left, I saw that my dogs had gone across the street to greet Harold. The smaller dog, Ralph (bulldog mix), was barking at Harold. I never saw Ralph jumping up on Harold or making any physical contact with Harold; Ralph was only barking at Harold. There was no growling, no raised hackles, no lunging. If anything, he was just being annoying. Our other dog, Charlie (Great Dane), was standing near Harold but not barking and he was farther away than Ralph.
Harold has seen our dogs many times and has sprayed the weeds across the street many times throughout the years we’ve been here and have had dogs. There has never been an issue as he has seen and known them.
I walked over to talk with Harold and to bring my dogs back in the house as I didn’t want them to disturb his work or for them to get into the chemicals. As I got closer I realized that Harold was intently narrowed in on Ralph with his gun trained on him. It was a black handgun, I believe a .9mm. I asked Harold if he was pointing a gun at my dog. His response to that question was a slight nod and saying, “ya, uh huh.” I told him, “Ok, I’m getting my dogs. Put the gun away.”
I fully believed he would put the gun away as he saw I was grabbing my dog to stop his inconvenient barking, but he refused to put his gun away and, in fact, it was now pointed at me as I was bending down grabbing Ralph. And when I told him again to put it down, he again refused to put it away and it was pointed at my chest within 12 inches away and not moving it.
Seeing that he was refusing to move it, I became very afraid. I spoke calmly saying things like “everything’s ok”, “there’s no problem here”, and “put the gun away.” I was trying to just hurry and grab the dogs so I could get away from him in case he were to shoot me.
Beyond the initial “ya, uh huh,” Harold remained silent during all of this, as he appeared to become more and more detached and hyper focused on his gun. I was terrified for my life. I kept asking him to put away his gun and telling him that there is no problem here–I must’ve repeated this half a dozen to a dozen times, almost like a mantra.
I slowly backed away with the dogs and Haroldstill did not lower his gun and did not appear to hear me at all. This whole time he was in a shooter stance with his gun fixed on me, and he never once put it away while getting my dogs. This was terrifying.
When I was maybe 5-6 feet away from him, I looked back and saw that he had moved the gun so that it was still pointed at me. I hurried and walked the dogs back into our house, and promptly back out to check on the kids and make sure he wasn’t going to come back and create any trouble. All I could see is that he went back to spraying the weeds.
I was literally shaking for hours. I don’t know at what point the gun was put away. Though I remained very calm throughout the whole situation to try to de-escalate this potential disaster, I was terrified for my life. I’ve never been more afraid in my life as my neighbor had a gun pointed at me as I was pleading with him to just put it down.
I was so shaken that I didn’t know what to do. After a few hours had passed and I had calmed down a bit, I realized I needed to get the authorities involved, which is when I called the police. I felt intimidated and incredibly afraid by Harold and his actions. I truly wasn’t sure if the outcome would be fatal. I do not feel safe with this neighbor nor his family, especially where this is the second incident where one of his family members has inflicted serious harm on one of our family members.
When the police came (2 deputies), I didn't feel like I was not taken seriously. I learned that one of the them liked dogs and the other did not. The one who did not like the dog, though nice, seemed to be more concerned about my dog walking across the street than my angry neighbor pointing a gun at me.
My husband was with me when the deputies came and thankfully helped stress how wrong Harold was, and it's far worse than my dog visiting across the street being annoying with his barking.
They gave me a statement to fill out (which is much of what was written above) and I turned it in this morning. I'm realizing this likely classifies as "Assault with deadly weapon" but I don't know.
We do not earn much money and cannot afford any kind of legal work, but I am terrified that this neighbor will snap again. Perhaps a retraining order? Do states ever offer pro bono legal work with situations like this? It sucks that I have to feel unprotected and unheard when it could literally be a matter of life or death.
I submitted the police statement this morning and had to just hand it over to the receptionist type position at the Sheriff's office. Am I supposed to contact them after a certain amount of time? I'd like to think that the deputy wouldn't make it an "I hate dogs" case if his wife were in my situation with an angry man pointing a gun at her.
Please, please offer some helpful advice.
(I'm pretty fragile right now, so please be gentle if you have something mean to say.)

Hey y'all, trying to help my buddy find the best fix for this. his key shell shattered and needs a new one. i know when i get a new shell there's a small chip or two inside i need to make sure i move to the new one.
issue im having is that the link im seeing on amazon has shit reviews--are my only options really this or spending hundreds at the dealer? maybe go with the linked POS and get a silicon cover to strengthen it a bit / use superglue when im installing?
https://www.amazon.com/Replacement-2008-2013-2007-2011-2009-2014-Screwdrivedp/B08GCB162F/ref=sr_1_7?crid=2R3OA932E34HW&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.tJnDgoGefoGq_NaQl4mlxR43JoW8ycSmDecHlnp_0w5oeomqrBl3ucoULhF0qefjzSJ1DV3O4Gci8n_ei3rDZQDlkIBu8Aq3ClrLnxYWAWWNATWPfwH2ChEI0t7JN8RquogYvvYELIKj4FBK0R1QSrDJ9vsbE5aGnsibnDhuptQ-j5reSQ6LhjutlGbNEipdvCdNBG96ww47iq5RnmfjhsWiOUHgmkezMAjh4YuqcYihmBU2dYAuj6qqc1c1KJZXG1Yv0VPQv7SY5JGvFK-P11lDfUDXmZ7zfUCCHrUrcpo.rFi1fyzAgLKKzr5wQJ2JIaVHhPsNT-HjgtslzK9YDME&dib_tag=se&keywords=2010%2Btoyota%2Bcorolla%2Bkey%2Bshell&qid=1715641108&replacementKeywords=key%2Bshell&s=automotive&sprefix=2010%2Btoyota%2Bcorolla%2Bkey%2Bshel%2Cautomotive%2C186&sr=1-7&vehicle=2010-76-1013------------&vehicleName=2010%2BToyota%2BCorolla&th=1
appreciate the help

Last summer was my son’s first without having full-time summer camp as the default. I’m a CPA, and so I’m pretty flexible with my schedule during the summer, so I took it upon myself to create a “movie master class” series to share with him. If I were “good” at whittling, maybe I’d teach him to whittle – or if I knew jazz piano, perhaps that’s where we would have spent our time. But alas, those are not my skills. However, I’ve been watching movies “seriously” enough and for long enough that I wanted to seize the opportunity to share my love of movies.
Last summer was the movie summer for my son & me. This summer, it’ll be time for my daughter and me to explore movies together. My gallie is 13 years old. (My son was 14 last year for comparison.)
I’m looking for recommendations. In particular, it seems, I need more recs from the last 20 years. I realized upon putting together the first week of my film festival calendar that my knowledge does dry up for more recent fare.
Unfortunately, as I found out last year in trying to pose a similar question to this forum, we’re not allowed to post screenshots of collections from letterboxd. I get it, I get it – but it does take away a nice & easy tool to quickly display a host of movie titles. So, let me do this: I’m in the process of scheduling Week 1 of my festival. Here’s what I had:
20-MayThe Graduate(1967) 21-MayAmélie(2001) 22-MayPi(1998) 23-MayGood Will Hunting(1997) 24-MayFull Contact(1992)

Seeing how compressed in time it is, I’m tempted to find a more recent movie to replace Good Will Hunting, lest the whole exercise feel like exploring “classics,” lol.
Let me also share what my son & I ended up watching.
I’d love to discuss this with you. Y’all on this subreddit are my people, as you’ll see from my son’s summer:
12-JunDo The Right Thing 13-JunTotal Recall 14-JunYojimbo 15-JunScream 16-JunA Fistful of Dollars 26-JunRun Lola Run 27-JunJohn Wick: Chapter 4 28-JunThis Is The End 29-Jun$ 30-JunAsteroid City 5-JulClerks 6-JulSanjuro 7-JulKill Bill, Vol 1 10-JulBowling for Columbine 11-JulAguirre, The Wrath of G-d 12-JulRingu 14-JulCrimes and Misdemeanors 17-JulRashomon 18-JulRushmore 19-JulThe Evil Dead 24-JulKill Bill, Vol 2 25-JulMean Streets 26-JulAkhnaten 27-JulKey Largo 28-JulMenace II Society 31-JulOnce Upon a Time in China 1-AugOnce Upon a Time in Hollywood 2-AugThe 400 Blows 3-AugNo Country for Old Men 4-AugSaving Silverman

Thanks gang!
EDIT to say, I don't know what happened to my tables, which look fine in the previews. If anyone knows how I can make them look better, let me know, please.

Xmind AI (the mind mapping tool) offers currently this 15% off discount promo to its customers.
To apply you need to:

1. go to this discount page (*coupon code included)
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If the discount isn't already on the page, you can use the coupon code "MIND15" for a 15% discount.
The Xmind Pro plan offers the following features:

• Unlimited topics and maps
  
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The features included in the Xmind Pro plan remain the same regardless of the price after the discount.
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943 North Gardner Street, a Mid-Century 8-unit multifamily property in West Hollywood, was sold for $2,990,000. The property offers significant investment potential in a highly desirable location with easy access to amenities, employment centers, and recreational options. Boasting a WalkScore of 93, this property is positioned for strong returns in one of Southern California's most sought-after rental markets.

Summary of transaction details:

• Property Type: Multifamily
• Transaction Amount: $2,990,000
• Units: 8
• Price Per Unit: $373,750
• Square Footage: 6,440
• Price Per Square Foot: $464
• Address: 943 North Gardner Street
• Market: West Hollywood

The deal was facilitated by Matthew Kanner from Keller Williams. As 's representative, he played a key role in the successful sale of the Mid-Century multifamily property. Representing the buyer or seller, the involvement of Matthew Kanner underlines the expertise and professionalism in navigating real estate transactions in the West Hollywood area.
Learn More: Matthew Kanner Of Keller Williams Sells West Hollywood Multifamily For $2.99M

As the title says, I just finished building a new PC, but it has been experiencing crashes back to desktop while gaming on several games (squad, BMX Streets, gray zone warfare) & 1 crash that rebooted the entire system after I closed out of the Xbox app one time. For added context, I have been utilizing XMP mode in my BIOS (3200 speed) Since these crashes, I have done the following to diagnose/fix the problem. - turned down graphics settings in the games but that didn’t help - ran SFC/SCANNOW which did fix corrupted files, but didn’t fix crashing. - used memtest86 to test ram, which found many errors while using XMP profile with using maximum ram speed (3200) - tuned the XMP profile down to 3066 ram speed & used memtest86 again which found 0 errors.
After this, I also looked at my motherboard accepted RAM and did not find my exact model number there (but found others that were very similar to it)
I have 2 questions:

• based on this do you think it is very likely my ram not being on the motherboards list of acceptable ram to be the culprit of my system instability? It can run fine outside of games for the most part, but games have caused issues inside of 1 hour of playtime each time I try to play. Should I buy one of RAM model numbers on the website for my motherboard?
  
• I had to do a flashback update to my bios for it to accept my 13th gen CPU. Do you think, no matter the ram I use, the xmp profile on the newly updated bios is causing instability and crashes?
  

Here are my system specs: - GPU: RTX 4070 super gigabyte gaming OC - CPU: Intel i7 13700k - Cpu cooler: NXT Kraken 240mm AIO - PSU: EVGA 1000GT Supernova Gold - RAM: 16GB Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 3200 DDR4 - SSD: 980 Pro M.2 2 TB

Do you remember Microsoft 3D Movie Maker? A free demo of it came with Windows 95. If you really liked it, you could buy the full version on CD-ROM. Basically, you could make your own 3D movies using preset actors, props, and scenes. You could even add your own dialogue & sound effects using the computer's mic. It was such a hit that it developed its own cult fanbase.
A little-known fact is that if you go to the intro page of the talent book and type in “socrates,” you'll find a live-action featurette on the making of 3D Movie Maker, originally known as “Project Socrates" to the developers. It's a pretty fun watch, and I highly recommend it!
What I do not recommend, however, is “Project Caligula.”
I am (very begrudgingly) going to explain the process by which you can access Project Caligula. To start, you must make a movie, choosing Misty City as the scene, and the small café as the camera angle. As a prop, select the sphere, color it red, flatten it all the way, and put it under the left most table. As actors, select S'kelly and Augustin. Change Augustin's outfit to the tuxedo and put him in front of the café door, between the tables. Place S'kelly horizontally at his feet. You can do this using the adjustment tools in the part of the toolbar that is initially covered up.
Next, change the music to “Geist Evil Theme.” Select the Sound effect “Laugh Maniac" and place it on Augustin. Finally, make his action “At Rest" and have him stay like that for EXACTLY 17 frames.
Conclude by clicking “New Movie.” A prompt will ask you if you want to save your movie. Do so and save it as “caligula” (all lower case, no quotes). When the screen comes up, go to “Open Movie" and select caligula. Unlike other movies, whose preview pics are the first frame of the film, the screenshot will be a 3D graphic of the phrase “Welcome To Hell" in the font Bloody (which is not available in the original edition of the game) in front of a black background.
When you open the movie, instead of the preview pic, you will see a blood red background. Again, this is the first of many things you'll see that are not presets of the game. Clicking play will play 21 frames of the screen with an off-key version of Lacrimosa by Mozart playing on piano in the background. The screen will then spiral wipe to the actor Bongo in front of the black background for 13 frames. Then, his skin appears to melt off quite graphically, followed by subsequent layers of muscle, tissue and even organs, until it reaches the skeleton. This skeleton, unlike the default S'kelly, looks eerily... well…
…like it belongs to Bongo.
The shape, lines, and even proportions, are fitted to Bongo's unique build. The music gradually fades, replaced with a crescendo of tortured screams. The skeleton then opens its mouth and says one of the preset lines:
“Those bullies won't bother me now!”
While this IS a line attributed to Bongo, the line is distorted to sound deep and very demonic.
The final thing you see is a text in front of one of the basic backgrounds from the Nickelodeon edition of 3D Movie Maker. The front is hard to read, not only because the color almost completely blends in with the background, but also because it's in a strange font. When translated, it reads:
“Let all those who see this film beware! For whosoever seeks to make it their own shall suffer a fate worse than death.”
I had heard about a member of the 3DMM community who did try to modify the movie, so I found out where he lived to ask him about it. When I got there, the lawn looked like it hadn't been mowed for days, and there was several days worth of mail & papers present. I knocked on the door, but no one answered.
I looked in a nearby window and saw that most of the house was covered in blood, urine, feces, and various entrails. I opened the door only to have the severed torso of the person I was seeking fall towards me. His skin was gone, as were his legs & hips, he was covered in blood, and I thought he was dead.
Until he grabbed my ankle and gasped:
“Why… why won't he let me die?”
“Who,” I asked.
“E… Edgar…”
I called 911 immediately. The doctors made a startling discovery when they examined him: A piece of his brain was missing. According to some psychologists, this part of the brain…
…alerts the body when it dies.
As to the identity of Edgar, according to my research, he was apparently a programmer for Microsoft working on Project Socrates. He was fired for making horrifically graphic movies and later committed suicide. His suicide note read:
“You'll regret this."
I know I did...

Hello, I’m coming here as a bit of a last resort. This is my first time building and even owning a PC so I’m not the most well versed when it comes to this stuff. I spent a lot of time doing research and learning, and even followed a video guide when building. Everything was going smoothly however I’ve now run into an issue:
So after successfully building my first PC with no issues I downloaded the windows 11 installation files onto a flash drive, and set up windows 11 (without a key) on my new system. The next day I began to set up all the other after-build things like downloading the drivers for the motherboard and the gpu and changing a fan speed and the xmp in the bios, I also went ahead and downloaded coretemp. At some point I went AFK for no more than an hour and when I came back I noticed my mouse was laggy, tried unplugging it and plugging it back in and anything else to make sure it wasn’t a fault on the mouse (this is where the problems began). I realized windows 11 itself had froze, so I turned off my pc and booted it back up, loaded it up and was able to log into windows fine and then maybe 2 minutes later, it did the exact same thing. laggy mouse cursor and then total freeze. Another 3-4 times of this happening I had the blue troubleshooting screen pop up in which it gave the option to hard reset the pc. Seeing as I didn’t really have anything to lose data wise, I figured I might as well and just start from the beginning again. Booted it up to the motherboard manufacturer screen popping up and pc continuously resetting, realized I had to reinstall the windows on the flash drive again, did that, and now when I go to install windows 11 again the same way I did the first time, it just freezes. My cursor doesn’t move and the screen is just stuck. The farthest it got to was “Getting files ready for installation: 45%”. Now it won’t make it past “Copying Windows files”.
I’ve tried setting the bios back to default and pretty much every option on the troubleshooting screen of windows that pops up when I reset it, to no avail. I wiped the SSD clean as to possibly purge any files from the original install of windows maybe somehow still messing with something? didn’t work.
Could it possibly be a hardware issue with one of my components causing the pc to freeze? Is there ant way to check? I honestly don’t know, I’m a bit out of my element here and looking for any and all support/recommendations. I’d be shocked if anything was broken as everything was bought new and the pc initially was running fine.
Just in case they’re needed, these are my specs:
-CPU: Intel Core i5-13600K -GPU: NVIDIA 4070 Super Founders Edition -RAM: CORSAIR VENGEANCE RGB DDR5 RAM 32GB (2x16GB) 6000MHz -SSD: SAMSUNG 980 PRO SSD 2TB -MB: MSI PRO Z790-P WiFi -AIO: NZXT Kraken 240 -PSU: MSI MAG A850GL PCIE 5 & ATX 3.0 -CASE: NZXT H6 Flow RGB Mid Tower
Thank you for any help :)

My V2 Pro shuts down instantly when I turn my key from accessory to the start/on position. The screen turns blue and it powers off. It takes almost a minute to power back on.
That half second between turning the key to start the car causes my dash cam to lose power and take a while to restart.
It's powered by the cigarette power adapter. The other things powered by cigarette adapters do not lose power between accessory and on.
Why is my V2 Pro starting to do this?

A month or so ago I busted my phone, and it was a huge pain in the ass. Aside from some lost data which was minor, the biggest PIA was resetting MFA, getting in touch with my US banks, and any other services that were tied to my phone. The experience also made me take a step back and realize I am pretty lax with security, and if someone had gotten hold of my phone and somehow god-forbid gotten the passcode, then I'd be fucked. They could do so much damage with unlimited access to my email + MFA SMS, even in just a few hours.
As a result, I kind of went down the ADHD rabbit hole hyper-fixating on how best to "optimize" my iPhone and iCloud configuration for two things:

1. If it breaks, the transition to a new device will be relatively painless. I won't have to spend several days stressing and trying to find the right international customer support number for a myriad of institutions and services to get into my accounts.
   
2. If it gets stolen and compromised, then there will be enough barriers such that the I'll have enough time to lock down the device and/or my accounts remotely before the thief can get key data or move funds.
   

So I put together this guide and checklist that I thought I'd share with others. I am a programmer but by no means a security guru, and so if any IT, DevOps, or SecOps folks want to chime-in with suggestions or improvements, please do.

Requirements

• an iPhone XR, iPhone XS, iPhone 11, iPhone 12, iPhone 13, iPhone SE (2nd generation), and iPhone 14 or newer for eSIM compatibility.
• a US-based carrier with eSIM support + a pay-as-you-go model for international travel (I use Verizon)
• iOS 17 or above (may not be strictly necessary, but I know my setup works with iOS 17.4.1)
• a password manager. I personally use 1Password because it works, is reliable, has cross-device support, and is easy and intuitive. It's also only $3/month.

Dual Sim Setup

I have been rocking an iPhone 12 for the past few years, and it's served me very well. I know the newer iPhones (14 and up) no longer offer physical SIM card support, but carriers in most developing countries are behind the curve. Even if they offer eSIM support, it's been my experience that it's a major headache to get setup, there is a lack of customer support in English, and they may even require a local ID to register the eSIM. It's way easier to just head to a shop and pay $5 for a SIM card, load some funds onto it, and then you're good to go.
The eSIM has been very helpful for maintaining a US phone number for which I can receive SMS texts from my banks and other financial services as well as continue to use iMessage with all my US contacts since hardly anybody is on Whatsapp.
Most, if not all, carriers in the US support eSIMs now, and so you should try to find a carrier that offers an international pay-as-you-go plan. Verizon offers two international plans - one is a "Travel Pass" where it's a flat fee of $10/day anywhere outside the US or Canada (even for just one text message). The other is "pay for what you use" which has a rate per text, minute, and mb. For my US plan, I only care about receiving SMS texts from my banks and the occasional phone call to a service that doesn't have an international, toll-free number. Data will always be cheaper outside the US, so I disable cellular data switching for my US line.
The last time I was in the US was for the holidays and I bought 2 used iPhone 12's for about $200 each. They have some scuffs, but they're perfectly serviceable. In LATAM, it also doesn't attract nearly as much unwanted attention in the street as an iPhone 14 or 15.
I brought these with me as extra devices. When my phone busted last month, thankfully I had a backup in iCloud and everything was loaded in a few minutes as normal. This was before I was using the eSIM, but if I had the eSIM I could just go to Verizon support online via chat and they could help me switch the line to the new device easily.

Basic Configurations

• Always use the latest version of firmware
• Require a passcode that's unique to that device.
• Use FaceID instead of passcode when possible (a thief can't snipe your passcode from a distance if you unlock your phone with FaceID)
• Set auto-lock to 30 seconds (lowest possible)
• Erase data upon excessive passcode failures note, this is complemented in a later step with daily backups. The odds of you putting in the wrong passcode 10 times is low, but in the event you do and you wipe the device by accident, you should be able to easily load in a back-up from the previous day)
• Turn off "Ask to Join Networks"
• Forget unused networks so that you don't rejoin automatically (airports, hotels, etc.)

Creating Backups

• Set iCloud backups to run automatically every night. This will allow you to load your entire phone as is (contacts, call history, iMessages, apps, even your wallpaper) onto another device during setup. The iCloud backup usually runs at 2am while I'm sleeping.
• You may need to pay for a higher tier in iCloud if you have too much stored on your phone. It's $3/month for 200gb of iCloud storage, and I find it worth it. Though I know some people with tens of thousands of photos for which 200gb might not be enough.

Password Policy

• For any accounts that may contain sensitive data (payments, PII, etc), always generate a unique password with 1Password. Don't reuse passwords. Same goes for PIN codes.
• For core accounts, create a strong but memorable password and then memorize it. The odds of getting locked out of 1Password are low if you're diligent, but for 2 or 3 core accounts (where you access money, your primary recovery email, your iCloud, 1Password), it's worth it to create strong, unique passwords for each core service and memorize them.
• I try not to reuse passwords in general, but I still sometimes am lazy and use one of my handful of typical passwords if there's no sensitive data collected by the service and it's a service I don't use often.

MFA

Set up MFA with everything. Add multiple options if possible. My preferred MFA options are as follows:

1. One-time code that renews every 30 seconds. This is device agnostic and can be stored in 1Password. You could also use Microsoft Authenticator, Google Authenticator, Authy or similar, but there's just more overhead to now recover those accounts if your device becomes inaccessible.
2. One-time code to recovery email.
3. One-time code via SMS to my US phone number. On the pay-as-you-go Verizon plan, I only pay 5 cents per text message received. It's worth it to keep one consistent number.
4. List of recovery codes (stored in 1Password as an attached txt file for the given account)
5. Use another app for verification (Google does this a lot).

Lockdown your iCloud security

• Enable MFA.
• Create a strong, unique password.
• Remove any old or unused devices from the iCloud account (old phones, ipods, etc).
• Enable "Find My" for all of your devices.
• In Find My, configure all devices to send the last known location.
• In Find My, enable the configuration to remotely wipe a device.

In the event your phone is stolen, the idea is you could run back to any of your devices or even use a friend's device to log into iCloud on the web, go to Find My, and then in a single button click you can lock and wipe the stolen device. If the thief turned off the device or disabled wifi/cellular, then as soon as it comes back online it will be wiped.

Final Clean-Up

• Move any compromising photos to the "hidden" folder (which requires FaceID or passcode to unlock)
• Review the Files app for any documents containing sensitive info. If you need these documents to be accessible on mobile, then move them to 1Password and delete them from the Files app.
• Create a shortcut to trigger the lock screen (and thus require FaceID or passcode) when specific apps are opened (banking, email, photos, etc).
• Not sure if this is best practice, but I just keep everything in 1P and turn off apple keychain and the apple built-in password manager. I also don't save passwords in Chrome or Safari.

Extra tips

These aren't really iPhone tips but general tips. They are probably obvious to you if you aren't as scatterbrained as me, but I figured that I'd drop them here in case they help someone.

• Add thorough security measures to iCloud, primary email, and any banking or financial services. Review each account and make sure you have a strong, unique password as well as a unique PIN, MFA configured, login alerts, recovery codes, and an international, 24-hour toll-free phone number stored somewhere to contact the service in the event of a crisis. For banking services, add withdrawal limits, regional restrictions (if you bounce between the same few countries), and SMS notifications for charges over a certain threshold. Open up a second checking account with a separate debit card for trips to the ATM.
• Consolidate and close any unused bank accounts. I realized that on my phone I had Revolut, Venmo, Paypal, Nequi, plus 4 US banking institutions. I took this time to close my Discover account (which is pretty much useless outside the US anyway), close my Revolut account since I'm hardly ever in the UK/EU, and consolidate investment accounts from different institutions into just a handful that's easier to monitor.

Hey all, I'm a new 4KP Attack from Mars owner, but not new to virtual pinball. I'm sure you've all seen the discourse, but many people aren't thrilled with the lag on the 4KP right now, myself included.
Opinions here seem to range from "this is not a problem, calm down" to "native Zen tables are literally unplayable." I land somewhere in between.
I've had some free time over the last week, so here you go: an unnecessarily in-depth look at the state of input lag on the 4KP as of early May 2024. Everything was measured the week of 5/6.
Ideally, my setup is going to be mostly used for OTG play from my PC with Popper as the front end, so my main goal with this process was to calculate the 4KP hardware's "added lag," which I'm defining as lag above and beyond what I get when using a wired keyboard and low latency gaming monitor.
I don't want to bury the lede too much, so let me put some of my conclusions up near the top:

• OTG input lag is noticeable, and IMO is a problem*, especially with Pinball FX.
• Native non-Zen table input lag is excellent.
• Native Zen table input lag is a problem*, and is roughly 2.75 times higher than non-Zen table input lag.
• The 4KP hardware seems to be adding roughly 35-60ms (average ~43ms) of total input lag on OTG VPX as compared to a keyboard + gaming monitor setup.
• Added OTG input lag is being introduced both from button to PC (~10-15ms) and from PC to playfield (~35-35ms).

*I'm defining "being a problem" as lag significant enough to cause some completely missed hits and ball drains. In other words, the issue isn't just needing to learn new timing for precision shots. Basically, situations where my reflexes are fast enough, but the hardware isn't.
Measurement
What matters in virtual pinball is total input lag or latency, as measured from button press to flip. That means I'm not looking at, for example, VPX's self-reported video latency.
For measurement I used high frame rate video, which is really the best way to measure total latency with the actual vpin software in a real world use situation. I used the iOS app Is it Snappy? with my iPhone 15 Pro Max. The phone can do 240 frames per second for a frame duration of ~4.2ms. In the app, you tag the frame where the flipper button was pressed and the frame where flipper motion is first seen, giving us a maximum measurement error of ±~8.4ms, but likely much lower.
To standardize as much as possible, when tagging the input frame I tagged the frame that best represented the button being fully pressed. This goes both for the 4KP flipper button and the keyboard button. This seemed like the best way to be consistent from measurement to measurement. I'll also note that doing this errs on the conservative/low side since both flipper buttons and keyboard keys are actuated before they are fully pressed. So the "true" input lag should be slightly higher even than I'm reporting.
I measured a lot of variables that ended up not making a meaningful difference for my setup. Direct X VPX vs Open GL VPX - didn't seem to matter. DisplayPort to HDMI cable vs HDMI to HDMI cable for the playfield - didn't seem to matter. VPX backglass running in .exe mode or not - didn't seem to matter. Having no VPX backglass at all - well this one did seem to show a very small potential gain, but it was within the margin of error.
Your Brain
One last and important bit of context: research seems to show that the human brain perceives anything under 100ms as an instant effect when pressing a button. Source: Google. That may be true in terms of a value judgment of "was that instant?," but we can still feel the difference between, for example, 50ms and 100ms of total lag. We could still set 100ms of total input lag though as a soft target or maximum lag that still feels purely good. For me, somewhere in the 100-125ms range is where it starts to feel sluggish, and somewhere between 125ms and 150ms is definitely where it starts to feel bad. I don't have a firm line on what qualifies as unplayable, and I'll leave that to each of you to decide for yourselves.
Results:
To keep things consistent, my VPX table was this version of Attack From Mars because it was specifically tagged as having fast flips and wasn't a brand new table with all the latest bells and whistles. These numbers represent the average of at least 3 separate measurements.

	Output: Native 4KP	Output: PC to Monitor	Output: PC to Playfield
Native 4KP:
Magic Pixel Tables	~45ms	-	-
Attack from Mars (Effects off)	~125ms	-	-
Attack from Mars (Effects on)	~138ms	-	-
OTG:
Pinball FX (Effects on and off)	-	-	~150ms
VPX w/ keyboard input	-	~88ms	~114ms
VPX w/ 4KP button input	-	~96ms	~131ms

So there you have it: an average of ~131ms of total input lag when playing VPX in OTG mode. The 4KP hardware seems to be adding roughly 10-15ms of lag on the input side and roughly 25-35ms of lag on the output side, for a total of ~35-60ms of added lag. This is definitely falling short of my soft target of 100ms or less of total lag, which explains why OTG play on the 4KP doesn't feel great right now. Pinball FX is especially bad at ~150ms of total lag, which feels borderline unplayable to me. The native Attack from Mars table is similar right now to VPX OTG. If this level of lag doesn't bother you, I'm happy for you, but it definitely bothers me.
A few last notes:

• I did measure a few different tables in VPX, and some did show PC to Monitor w/ keyboard numbers as low as ~50ms. So even within VPX, there is definitely a range of total input lag that we'll experience. Some tables likely will hit that 100ms or less target.
• I didn't want to clutter this up with another column, but measurements did show that running through Popper may introduce some additional input lag. It was in the 8-12ms range, so not enough outside the margin of error that it made me want to investigate in more detail.
• I replaced the stock 4KP flipper buttons with aftermarket gold leaf buttons, and that is what was used in my measurements. They are allegedly more responsive than stock, but I didn't measure that.
• PC specs: Intel i5-12600KF, 32GB DDR4-3600 RAM, NVME SSD, 4070 GPU, custom usb-c keyboard, Acer Nitro monitor-150hz-led-monitor).

Round 1, Pick 8 - Michael Penix Jr., QB, Washington:
NFL: I’m not sure anyone expected Atlanta, which signed Kirk Cousins to a four-year, $180 million deal in March, to take a quarterback in the top 10, but here we are. Penix is a big-time playmaker who is the top deep-ball passer in this class. He has surgical precision and throws with good anticipation from the pocket.
CBS Sports: B-. They opted to take their quarterback of the future by taking Penix. He has all the tools, but will learn and wait behind Kirk Cousins. I wonder if he can rush the passer. Like the player, but don’t like the pick.
ESPN: Stunner. The Falcons pulled off the shocker of the first round, taking Penix earlier than just about every expert predicted. He was the fourth quarterback taken in the top 10. There's no doubt Atlanta saw something in Penix when watching him on tape and visiting him. The team sent a ton of staff to see him in recent weeks. Obviously, they felt comfortable with his durability, despite four season-ending injuries in college. Penix, a lefty, has an incredible arm, and from a skill standpoint, he's certainly right up there among the best signal callers on the board. And now he's the successor to Kirk Cousins.
NFL Absolutely Not Fake News: Has devoted his life to the church of the flying spaghetti monster.
Round 2, Pick 35 - Ruke Orhorhoro, DT, Clemson:
NFL: Another trade, with the Falcons swooping up. And this is their second curious pick of this draft. Nothing against Orhorhoro, who has some intriguing skills and might be a better stat stuffer in the NFL than he was at Clemson. But with Johnny Newton on the board, this pick felt like a reach when you consider Atlanta's biggest need -- pass rush.
CBS Sports: B. Big, long, powerful interior rusher without many pass-rush moves. But his traits shine against the run and has enough explosion to win between gaps or with bull rushes. Expensive trade up though hurts his grade despite Falcons filling a need with quality prospect.
ESPN: The Falcons needed a pass-rusher, particularly an EDGE. Most of the impact players at that position went in the first round. Atlanta attempted to trade back into the late first, but weren't able to do so. Instead, the Falcons took Orhorhoro, a defensive tackle who has pass-rushing chops from the inside. Since 2021, Orhorhoro had 9.5 sacks lined up as a DT, which were tied for third in the ACC. The Nigeria-born Orhorhoro didn't start playing football until he was a junior in high school, so the Falcons probably like his upside.
NFL Absolutely Not Fake News: His bright green fanny pack when traveling is a must.
Round 3, Pick 74 - Bralen Trice, LB, Washington:
NFL: Trice was a consistent pressure source the past two years for the Huskies but had a rough pre-draft process when he shed a bunch of weight for the NFL Scouting Combine but failed to display better speed because of it. Trice was smart to bulk back up for his pro day because I think his game is predicated on winning with a combination of effort and surprising pop in his hands.
CBS Sports: A-. Bad testing hurt his stock but this is as productive of an EDGE as there is in this class. Slippery with pass-rush plans galore. Smaller than his listed weight and doesn’t have serious burst. Flashes of bend though.
ESPN: The Falcons got their pure pass-rusher and, boy, did they need it. This is a team that has had 18 fewer sacks than any other franchise in the NFL over the past three seasons. Atlanta's pass rush win rate was dead last in the league in 2023. Trice had 16 sacks over the past two seasons, which was tied for the fourth most among Power 5 players during that stretch. He's had 12 games with five or more pressures since the start of the 2022 season, which leads all FBS players. Trice played mostly outside linebacker at Washington and he had a reputation for being able to get to the quarterback.
NFL Absolutely Not Fake News: Smells like Celestial Seasonings sleepy-time tea.
Round 4, Pick 109 - Brandon Dorlus, DT, Oregon:
NFL: Round 4 is for the Ducks. I haven't followed the Falcons' logic on every one of their selections this year, but I like Dorlus here. He can play multiple spots along the D-line and be a movable piece for Raheem Morris' unit.
CBS Sports: A-. Fun, twitchy and thick “tweener” who can literally win at any alignment along the defensive line. Isn’t the most sudden, nor the best with his hands but is so slippery between blockers. Overall athletic profile is impressive. Rushes can get too high, doesn’t play with much power. Can get washed out vs. the run. Has frame to add more weight.
ESPN: It was somewhat surprising the Falcons didn't take a cornerback here or even a safety. But the team is clearly and rapidly reshaping its defensive line, which already had quality veteran players in Grady Jarrett and David Onyemata. Dorlus is Atlanta's second straight defensive line selection. And Dorlus, who led Oregon with five sacks, is extremely versatile. He can play inside, as a defensive end or even outside linebacker. Pass-rushers were the Falcons' biggest needs and now they have three rookies who fit the bill after not taking a defender with the No. 8 overall pick as many expected.
NFL Absolutely Not Fake News: Wants you to call your family and tell them you love and cherish them.
Round 5, Pick 143 - JD Bertrand, LB, Notre Dame:
NFL: An Atlanta native, Bertrand is a coach's dream in spite of his subpar length and injury history. He's instinctive and tough and carries a hard-hat mentality to work every day.
CBS Sports: C. So active, so smart. Always around the ball. Reads his keys in a flash. Block-avoider. Ascending coverage skill just minimal ball production at Notre Dame. High tackling numbers but also misses many.
ESPN: The Falcons are completely reshaping their front seven in this draft. In Bertrand, they not only get their second collegiate defensive team captain (Bralen Trice was captain at Washington), but also someone with significant physical tools. Bertrand was a three-year starter at Notre Dame, led the team with 76 tackles in 2023 and had 16 tackles behind the line of scrimmage this past season. He's also a former Eagle Scout and was a finalist for the Wuerffel Trophy for community service.
NFL Absolutely Not Fake News: Prefers to code in Notepad with the wingding font.
Round 6, Pick 186 - Jase McClellan, RB, Alabama:
NFL: McClellan is a power back who runs with great toughness and exercises great ball security, fumbling only once in college on nearly 400 touches. But he's a one-dimensional runner on a team pretty loaded at running back.
CBS Sports: C+. Jack of all trades, master of none with minimal mileage on his legs. Will run away from some slower defenders but not a true burner. Receiving ability is there. Vision is a strength between the tackles. Elusive but not special in that regard. Classic scatback.
ESPN: The team needed a third running back behind Bijan Robinson and Tyler Allgeier, and that's presumably where McClellan will fit. McClellan was Alabama's primary starter for one year after returning in 2022 from a torn ACL. He ran for 890 yards on 180 carries with eight touchdowns this past season. McClellan, who's only 21, isn't flashy, but Atlanta has been taking upside and translatable physical attributes over flash this entire draft.
NFL Absolutely Not Fake News: Kept calling the NFL at 800-635-5300 to complain about the refs.
Round 6, Pick 187 - Casey Washington, WR, Illinois:
NFL: A strong pro day helped solidify Washington as a draft pick. He looks like a solid, reliable possession receiver with natural route-running skills, but he's not special at any one thing.
CBS Sports: C. Good sized outside WR who plays with a throwback style. Jump balls, back-shoulders, etc. are his speciality. Good speed for his size too. Just doesn’t have the bend or suddenness to separate consistently.
ESPN: Depth at wide receiver was absolutely a need going into the draft, though it's still surprising the Falcons won't pick a cornerback until their final pick, if at all. Washington was sixth in the Big Ten in receiving yards during conference games (589) and finished his career with Illinois very strong -- 218 yards on nine receptions and three touchdowns against Northwestern back in November. Washington is 6-foot-2 and 200 pounds, and Atlanta did need size at the position. He'll be tied for the second tallest wide receiver on the roster after top wideout Drake London (6-4).
NFL Absolutely Not Fake News: Taught his goldfish to play fetch. Not the most exciting game but they’re happy.
Round 6, Pick 197 - Zion Logue, DT, Georgia:
NFL: Logue was a flash player for the two-time champion Bulldogs, often stuck behind a ton of talent in Athens. His length is outstanding, even if his production (1.5 sacks in 50-plus college games) isn't.
CBS Sports: C+. Big, long, thick SEC-tested DL with some above-average burst for his size and a pass-rush move every so often. Production never matched his size or athleticism.
ESPN: This draft, after all the controversy in the first round, was all about front-seven versatility and depth for the Falcons. Logue is a big body at 6-foot-6 and 314 pounds. And the team's fifth front-seven selection of the week. Atlanta has put a premium on length with its defenders so far and Logue has that to go along with his massive frame. The Tennessee native only started one year at Georgia, so he's relatively inexperienced with potential upside the Falcons are once again banking on.
NFL Absolutely Not Fake News: Can eat twenty scones in a single sitting.

Quick question.
Is Petg the best to print the diy closure?
For the clear panels… Has anyone used this from allexpress
Seeemed like this item in the past only had the clear sides but the picture shows frame pieces also.
Background: i’m hoping to make my adventure 5m quieter by making the enclosure. It is in a classroom and distracts some of the students. My students say the 5m pro is quieter so hoping the dyi case helps.

If you have any duplicate game keys that you can't find a trade for or if you're not interested in bartering, then this post is for you!
I'm offering a 1 for 1 trade for your unwanted keys. Think of it like a book swap with game keys - take a game you don't already own from the list and leave one of your unwanted keys for the next person. You don't need to offer me a list, just let me know what game you have and what you want to swap for.

Disclaimer - PLEASE READ FIRST

Due to the nature of the post, most of these keys are from previous trades and donations and I have no way to verify them or check for region locks. Even with the best intentions from all sides, mistakes will be made and some of these keys may not work. I'll always send the key first and ask you to redeem before sending me anything to make sure they work for you. If you choose not to redeem as we trade then I won't be held responsible for any future problems as I have given you fair warning.
Please don't re-trade these keys any further since I can't guarantee they will work and I don't know if there are any region locks. I don't want you to be accused of scamming!
So with all that out of the way...

Games Available:

Please only offer games that do not have profile features limited (check the store page) for games in this list. If you want to trade a game with profile features limited, there's a separate list below.

• Astervoid 2000 Soundtrack (x2)
• A Tale of Paper: Refolded Edition
• Aveyond 3-1: Lord of Twilight
• Bad Rats
• Beat Hazard (x2)
• Call of Juarez
• Commandos 2: Men of Courage (x2)
• Crazy Sapper 3D
• Darwinia Soundtrack
• Deadly 30
• DEFCON Soundtrack
• Deponia
• DESOLATE
• Dreamscaper
• Encased: A Sci-Fi Post-Apocalyptic RPG
• Fallout 3: Game of the Year Edition (GOG key)
• Fallout 76 (Microsoft Store key)
• Fallout 76 (Xbox key)
• Fireburst
• Galactic Civilizations I: Ultimate Edition
• Grav Blazer (x2)
• Greed: Black Border (x2)
• Grid 2 - Bathurst Track Pack (DLC)
• Grotesque Tactics: Evil Heroes (x4)
• Huntsman - The Orphanage (x2)
• Karma City Police
• Konung 2
• Mechs & Mercs: Black Talons
• Men of War
• Mind: Path to Thalamus
• Miner Wars 2081 (x4)
• Monorail Stories
• Monster Slayers
• Monster Slayers - Advanced Classes Unlocker (DLC)
• Monster Slayers - Fire and Steel Expansion (DLC)
• NecroVisioN
• Nomad Survival
• Overcast - Walden and the Werewolf (x2)
• Pumped BMX Pro
• Puzzle Kingdoms (x3)
• Ragnarok: Fallen Legends
• Red Johnson's Chronicles - 1+2 - Steam Special Edition
• Reign: Conflict of Nations (x2)
• Satellite Repairman
• Scheming Through the Zombie Apocalypse: The Beginning
• Square's Route
• Star Wolves
• Stick Fight: The Game
• Switch Galaxy Ultra: Charity Pack 1 (DLC)
• Switch Galaxy Ultra: Music Pack 1 (DLC)
• The Deed
• The Flying Dutchman (x2)
• The Walking Dead: 400 Days (DLC)
• Theatre of War 2: Africa 1943 - Centauro (DLC)
• UNDETECTED
• Unloved
• Valfaris
• Vessel (x2)
• Victory: The Age of Racing - Steam Founder Pack (DLC, base game free, delisted)
• Whispering Willows
• Wordle
• Wordle 2
• Wordle 3
• Wordle 4
• Wordle 5
• Zombie Driver HD

Games with Profile Features Limited

These are games that haven't met minimum sales requirements on Steam. They are usually asset flips and incomplete indie games. Feel free to offer any Steam game key for these.

• Burst Squad (x2)
• Hidden Winter Cats - Bonus Level (DLC)
• Land of Puzzles: Battles (x3)
• Lunatic Taxi Driver
• Madness Chambers
• Magic Forest
• Mentai Uncensored (NSFW)
• Poly Memory: Furries 2
• Primal Age (delisted)
• Professor Watts Memory Match: Shapes And Colors
• Professor Watts Word Search: Yummy Foods
• Quadrant M4 (delisted) (x3)
• Slime Rule (delisted)
• SpaceDog (delisted)
• The Dropping of the Dead (delisted) (x2)
• Trivia Vault: Auto Racing Trivia (x5)
• Trivia Vault: Mini Mixed Trivia 4 (x2)
• Trivia Vault: Super Heroes Trivia (x2)

A Few Rules

• Please comment on this post if you want to trade (no DMs unless we've traded before).
• Games offered must still be active on the Steam store. This is mainly because people get confused when redeeming delisted games and the game doesn't appear on their profile.
• I can take profile limited games but only in exchange for another profile limited game. This is to keep the list from becoming full of asset flips and incomplete games.
• If your keys have an expiry date let me know before we trade and I'll decide whether they can be accepted based on if I think they will trade on before they expire.
• No keys from active giveaways that are open to everyone e.g. Fanatical/Prime. These often have expiry dates shortly after the giveaway ends so can't be traded on.
• I'm trying to avoid taking more than 3 of each key so the list keeps some variety.
• I'll try my best to keep this first come first served.

Donations

If anyone just wants to donate any keys that are no good to them to the list then I’m always grateful to receive them. Just DM me and I’ll add them. A huge thank you to those that have already donated keys to this project.

Why

I don't do this for profit and don't get much out of it myself. I do keep the occasional game that catches my eye but I already own most of the common bundled games. I see this more as a giveaway that can keep on giving. I want to provide a place for people to find something they can play in return for their unwanted spare keys without the hassle of finding a trade partner interested in the games they have.
My IGSRep Page

9-minute read.

France welcomes the latest round of negotiations between foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Kazakhstan

FM Mirzoyan said the negotiations in Kazakhstan were held in a constructive environment and referred to the statement made after the meeting.
PARIS: France stresses the importance of both sides confirming their commitment to the Almaty Protocol of 1991 and to mutual recognition of each other’s territorial integrity as the core of this process, following the quadripartite meeting in Prague on 7 October 2022.
France calls to continue the delimitation of the border on the basis of the principles agreed in the declaration of April 19, 2024, and as an extension of the first demarcation work carried out on the ground. At the same time, it calls for continuing discussions with a view to signing a peace treaty between the two countries.
France welcomes the initiative of the Kazakh authorities to facilitate the holding of these talks.
France continues to work together with its partners to establish just and solid peace in the South Caucasus in accordance with international law. //
source, source, source, source,

OSCE: Reaching stable and comprehensive peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan remains a priority for us

OSCE Chair-in-Office Ian Borg visited Armenia on Monday.
BORG: The only way to ensure comprehensive and stable peace is through diplomacy. The steps made towards border delimitation between Armenia and Azerbaijan are the actions needed to reach peace. //
Pashinyan and Borg discussed the AM-OSCE cooperation and the peace talks.
BORG: The OSCE is committed to supporting stable peace, solving all conflicts in the OSCE area, and applying the organization’s mandate to ensure regional peace and stability. //
source, source,

opposition activists detained and released after briefly shutting down several streets in Yerevan

Last week the protest organizers, led by Archbishop Bagrat and MPs representing pro-Russian parties, called for strikes and road closures on Monday. They demand PM Pashinyan's resignation. The opposition parties have not yet disclosed when they plan to launch the impeachment process in the parliament. They likely have the minimum number of MPs to launch the impeachment but they'd still need dozens of ruling party MPs to join them for the motion to succeed, which is unlikely.
On Monday over 170 people were detained and released after blocking roads, including with the use of trash cans and hay. A red beret pushed a journalist out of his way while running up the stairs, sending him to the ground. Another journalist fainted during a clash between police and protesters. In the morning, Yandex Maps showed the traffic congestion in Yerevan at Level 5 on a scale of 1-10, a "usual workday".
In one instance, an angry driver got out of his car and pushed the trash can out of the street, while other cars proceeded to drive through the sparse group of protesters. Video.
ARF MP Garnik Danielyan, a co-organizer of the protest, engaged in a dispute with a driver. The angry driver told the MP to go "siktir", while the MP called him "chatlax". Video.
One protester suggested catching and "putting down" police officers one by one while they are alone, "because they feel good in large numbers." Video.
A psychotic incident was recorded between a protester and a bystandedriver who was presumably trying to open the road. The protester hit the man and called him "Nikol's trash". The police intervened to push the protesters out of the road.
During an encounter between a protester and one resident, the protester asked the latter if he was a Christian:
PROTESTER: Քրիստոնյա՞ ես
RESIDENT: Հա
PROTESTER: Հա ու համփ արա [suck my dick]
The resident pushes the protester, and the protester spits on him. Several people got off the buses and urged the protesters to leave or to "go protect the borders" instead. The red berets arrived within minutes and removed the trash cans and the small number of protesters from the road. video, video, video,
While the ARF has long been viewed as the voice of diaspora, other movements have emerged to challenge its dominance. The Armenian Movement of France has organized a change.org petition that calls to encourage Armenia's independence and Euro-Atlantic integration, to keep the church and state separate, and not take any destabilizing actions.
KHURSHUDYAN: They [ARF and protest organizers] are attempting to convince the diaspora to join them by influencing various organizations like the Lemkin Institute. It is strange that the Lemkin Institute released a statement accusing PM Pashinyan's Genocide statement of containing "victim blaming" only now, during these protests, several weeks after Pashinyan made that statement. It took a lot of effort for these forces to lobby and create the impression that the diaspora as a whole is on their side. //
The BEVER (Sasna Tsrer) party leaders said they are cooperating with the pro-Russian former regime parties but only on the issues of removing Pashinyan and stopping the border delimitation process.
BEVER (Ara Papyan): If Pashinyan resigns now and pro-Russian forces win the elections democratically, it will be the population's fault, not ours. // video
As you know from Sunday news digest, the pro-Russian forces and a group of ex-diplomats led by Kocharyan's Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian, are against using the 1991 Almaty declaration as the basis for delimitation. Foreign Minister Mirzoyan was asked to comment on Monday.
MIRZOYAN: The Deputy PMs of Armenia and Azerbaijan, who are in charge of border commissions, have come to an agreement to launch the delimitation process taking into account the 1991 Almaty Declaration. This was welcomed by numerous states and international organizations. The foreign diplomats you mentioned are deserters who fled their duties while Armenia was under physical attack in 2021. I can no longer treat them seriously. That is the most civil language I can use toward them. In reality, by torpedoing the Almaty Declaration and the peace process based on Almaty, these ex-diplomats continue to torpedo the sovereignty, statehood, and territorial integrity of Armenia. In the best-case scenario, they do this without understanding, and in the worst-case scenario, they are following the orders of a foreign state. I don't have further comments. //
Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan said they will not hold daily meetings at Republic Square anymore, and that smaller gatherings will be held near the St. Anna church every evening to wrap up the day and discuss future plans. Yesterday Arman Babajanyan revealed a meeting between church officials. On Monday, Archbishop Galstanyan confirmed that he indeed met Catholicos on Sunday. Galstanyan was asked whether he plans to "transfer" the "leadership" of the movement to political parties. He said he is open to that idea: "Թող գան, վերցնեն, ով ցանկանում է:"
source, source, source, source, source, source, source, source, source, source, source, source, source,

Executive Vice President of the European Commission for Economic Affairs, the EU Trade Commissioner, will visit Armenia this week

Valdis Dombrovskis will meet Armenian and EBRD officials and take part in an annual meeting of the EBRD Board of Governors.
source, source,

PM Pashinyan is in Denmark for the "Copenhagen Democracy Summit"

Nikol Pashinyan will take part in the discussion on “From the frontline: Armenia’s defense of democracy.”
source,

Armenia will bring its consumer protection legislation in line with European standards

The head of Armenia's Competition Protection Commission visited Poland to participate in ICPEN (International Consumer Protection and Enforcement Network).
They spoke about unfair business practices and how to combat them, online taxi service regulations, online casinos, discounting policies used by businesses, etc.
GEVORGYAN: Armenia is going through an important phase in terms of protecting the interests of consumers. Discussions are underway to align Armenia's consumer protection legislation with EU standards. It is necessary to use digital technologies and train skilled experts in this field.
source,

Russia begins withdrawing border agents near the border village Nerkin Hand: residents

The villagers noticed that the Russian soldiers were no longer observing the traffic from the observation post and that they were packing some of their stuff.
source, source,

anti-corruption: Patrol Police officer is charged with accepting a bribe from a driver

INTERIOR MINISTRY: In early March, two officers pulled over an Indian driver on Kievyan St. One of the officers demanded a ֏20,000 bribe to ignore the fact that the vehicle didn't pass a tech inspection. They negotiated it down to ֏7,000. The officer was charged with felony bribery. He confessed. The case is in court. //
source,

Yerevan Mayor Avinyan had a lightbulb moment

The city has purchased 6,000 LED lights producing 4000K white light. Mayor Avinyan instructed the department to install them only on roads and to purchase weaker 3000K bulbs for condo backyards in order not to disrupt sleep.
Last month the city replaced 8.6 kilometers of cables. The Mother Armenia statue and the Opera building will have new գեղարվեստական lighting.
source, source, video,

Yerevan implements GIS (geographic information system) to collect data from various sources and make targeted decisions based on visualized data: VIDEO

MAYOR AVINYAN: The Municipality and all the district offices are switching to a new management style with the introduction of GIS. Every department will join it, phase by phase. We are talking about digital maps which we must learn to use. This is going to significantly simplify some of the work done by departments.
OFFICIAL: This is part of the digitization strategy. This unified GIS platform will collect information from the cadastre, transport, Active Citizen app, utility services, construction, etc., and make them accessible in one place. The visual data allow us to carry out analysis and make fact-based decisions.
For example, we created a cadastre GIS by using a satellite image as the base layer, then integrated it with the cadastre database. This map shows in detail the boundaries of properties, the purpose and status of each land plot, etc.
Another example is a map of air pollution, prior records, and analytical tools.
The GIS map for the Active Citizen app allows us to see the submissions and the completed work, their locations on the map, and how well the city responds to issues reported by citizens. You can filter the issues by category. For example, you can show only the reports about illegal dumping, click on the report and see the image shared by the citizen, then click to see the status and the outcome of city's response. The tools allow you to analyze the data and the performance rate.
Another map shows the 3D image of the city with its buildings and green areas. Here we can calculate the capacity of bus stops, etc. Drones can be used to create a very detailed digital 3D copy of specific buildings.
You can click on a land plot and it'll pull up the ownership information, the permit records, etc.
Connecting two dots shows you the altitude differences and other data that you can use, for example, during the installation of irrigation pipes.
This is less than 1% of its potential. We plan to train employees next week.
MAYOR AVINYAN: We should make some of this data public, like the air quality map or certain maps that did not require financial resources to create [քձիբ խոզ]. This is a revolutionary change in the municipality. We need to speed up the work with the use of digital tools.
video,

Yerevan begins planting hundreds of adult "high-value" trees and thousands of bushes near the new promenade/park around the Yerevanyan Lake: VIDEO

video,

Central Bank chief was invited to Parliament to discuss economy and expenditures

MP: Regarding CB's report on the efficiency of service vehicles used by state agencies. The state buildings scheduled to receive solar panels should also be equipped with EV chargers so the service vehicles can use the energy generated by the panels. I requested information from Yerevan Municipality about the service vehicle expenditures and it shows that EVs are not only cheaper because of electricity, but also because they are overall more affordable to maintain. We are talking about large savings.
CB CHIEF: Our estimates show that EVs are 2x-3x more affordable compared to combustion engine vehicles, even if we factor in all the adjacent expenses. In Yerevan, we have [state] buildings with solar panels on roofs but [connecting them to EV chargers in the parking lot] will be very difficult because these are old and sometimes "historical" buildings. They also have problems with air conditioning, plumbing, etc. At the same time, we are trying to implement this solar panel project in the newer buildings, for example, in Dilijan, where we have EV chargers for service vehicles in the parking lots.
video,

Central Bank chief spoke about the deflation in Q1

RULING MP: It is great for our residents' pockets that the prices have fallen but what is its effect on the economy and exports? What is the best inflation rate to maintain a "balance"?
CB CHIEF: During the discussions with our colleagues from IMF, regarding regional and global events, we agreed that countries develop when the inflation is low and manageable. It encourages investments. In this regard, the overall microeconomic stability and the fiscal policy of Armenia create a very good environment for this predictability. This is one of our "cards" in our relations with foreign entities.
During each CB session, we discuss several market and inflation scenarios. Under one scenario there is a risk of inflation becoming too high, while under other scenarios it could remain low. We are trying to find the most balanced option and thank God we have been able to continuously lower the [refinancing] rates, which helps the state. //
Ըստ զեկուցողիդրամավարկային քաղաքականության ծրագրում ներկայացվող սցենարների համաձայն 2024 թվականի կարճաժամկետ հորիզոնում գնաճը կպահպանվի նպատակային ցուցանիշից ցածր մակարդակում` տարեվերջին այն կկազմի 1,3%-1,5%:
video, source,

Central Bank chief spoke about the refinancing rate, the rate at which the state borrows from banks, copper prices, etc.

video,

how did the family of Ilham Aliyev's security chief obtain so many properties in the United Kingdom?

Offshore companies owned by Eyyubov’s wife and daughter spent $114 million on real estate in the United Kingdom. The family, including Eyyubov himself, also own over $46 million in properties in Dubai.

OCCRP report,

growing concerns in Abkhazia that Putin might have secretly "sold" them to Georgia as a confederation in exchange for Georgia's neutrality between West and Russia

video,

Hello, as the title suggests, I am considering getting a Macbook Air or a Macbook Pro that has 8gb ram and 256 gb ssd. For context, I am going to a finance program at either a top Canadian university program or a finance program at the top Canadian university's satelite campuses. Now I did some research thanks to past users but the answers are seemingly mixed because some said that I would be fine with a macbook air while others said that they "key functions" in excel would be different in a mac than windows according to the people that go to that university's finance program. The program also has internships and Im am not sure if this would create a problem when I have a Macbook when I will have to adjust to using a windows laptop. I'm wondering if its worth it to get a $1500 CAD Macbook Air M2 for university finance classes or I should just get a Windows laptop for the sake of it?

I wanted to make the ultimate BG3 skill monkey, and this post is the best I’ve been able to come up with so far. I’m looking for feedback and any ideas I’ve overlooked.
[I try not to spoil anything with this post, but you may be able to infer some things from the names of abilities or items I mention, so proceed at your own risk, I guess]
This build gets proficiency in every single skill, expertise in 13 skills, and ends the game at 19 STR, 20 DEX, 8 CON (lol), 17 INT, 18 WIS, and 20 CHA, and can do it all while being a useful support character in combat (you’re going to want someone else in the party to be your carry). In addition, they can buff their own skill checks with Guidance or Enhance Ability, and get 1d10 Bardic Inspiration and/or Guidance or Enhance Ability from a party member. With this character, the vast majority of your consequential skill checks will be made at advantage with a +12 flat bonus and at least 2d4 added on top of that.
I make a few choices that may seem suboptimal at first glance, but I actually think are optimal because I value expertise very highly (this is basically an exercise in seeing how many skills I can get expertise in at once), but don’t value Reliable Talent as much. Scroll to the bottom of this post for my treatise on why Reliable Talent isn’t as good as Expertise in BG3.
If you prefer Reliable Talent, then a Githyanki Rogue 11/Cleric 1 will be a great skill monkey. But I posit herein that it will not be The Ultimate Skill Monkey. The Ultimate Skill Monkey would have Proficiency in every skill and Expertise in every skill possible, and only miss it on the least consequential skills.
How do I do it? With Knowledge Rogue 6, Bard 4, Cleric 2.

Ability Scores

Start 8, 16, 12, 8, 14, 16. As you get certain items, buffs, and feats you’ll respec to slowly dump that CON into other key stats. At the endgame you could use the CON necklace at the expense of your WIS.

Leveling Steps:

Level 1:

• Race: Rock Gnome (History proficiency and expertise). Don’t want to play a gnome? Well guess what, you’re going to be disguised 90% of the time anyway!
• Background: Urchin (Sleight of Hand and Stealth proficiency) [note: we pick this to avoid backgrounds that give WIS skills that would overlap with Knowledge of the Ages, and CHA skills that overlap with Illithid Expertise or the Actor feat]
• Rogue 1 (Perception, Deception, Insight, and Persuasion proficiency, Persuasion and Sleight of Hand expertise - these are my preferences for perceived value, but with proficiency with all WIS skills only 2 levels away, consider, say Intimidation and Acrobatics or some other combination instead of Perception and Insight to maximize your proficiency spread)

Proficiencies: Stealth, Perception, Deception, Insight
Expertises: History, Sleight of Hand, Persuasion
Level 2:
Class: Knowledge Cleric (Arcana and Religion proficiency and expertise, Guidance)
Proficiencies: Stealth, Insight, Perception, Deception
Expertises: History, Arcana, Religion, Sleight of Hand, Persuasion
Level 3:
Cleric 2: Knowledge of the Ages WIS (Animal Handling, Medicine, and Survival Proficiency)
You can use tricks to get the Shapeshifter’s Boon ring this early without risking the cow or Dammon in future acts (attack the cow with mage hand, then offer to bribe it to apologize, which opens up the trade window where you can buy the ring). I’d also recommend you get the Whispering Promise ring off Volo and start applying it with this character to buff your carry. You can also pick up the Warped Headband of Intellect, which amounts to a +4 to all INT-based skill checks for the rest of your career.
Proficiencies: Stealth, Insight, Perception, Deception, Animal Handling, Medicine, Survival
Expertises: History, Arcana, Religion, Sleight of Hand, Persuasion
Level 4:
Bard 1
Level 5:
Bard 2
Around now is when most people can get Hag’s Hair. With Hag’s Hair you can respec to re-optimize your key Ability Scores and eventually get DEX to 20, but if you want to save HH for your carry, you can also skip Khalid’s gift and just make your +2 WIS ASI into a +1DEX +1 WIS and accept the 1 point loss on WIS-based skill checks in the final build.
Level 6:
Lore Bard 3 (Acrobatics, Investigation, and Nature proficiency, and Insight and Perception Expertise, and you can now cast Enhance Ability)
If you haven’t already, go get The Graceful Cloth from Esther and put it on, for permanent +1 to your DEX skill checks and permanent advantage on them as well, for the rest of the game! You can also get the Club of Hill Giant Strength and Titanstring Bow now, which will simultaneously boost your Athletics checks by 5 and allow you to do competent attack damage when you’re done buffing your carries.
Proficiencies: Stealth, Deception, Animal Handling, Medicine, Survival, Acrobatics, Investigation, Nature
Expertises: History, Arcana, Religion, Sleight of Hand, Persuasion, Perception, Insight (bold means it just came off the proficiencies list because expertise got added)
Level 7:
Bard 4: feat: Actor (+1 CHA, Performance and Deception proficiency and expertise)
Respec to accommodate the +1 CHA and to replace Deception at Rogue 1 with Athletics
Proficiencies: Stealth, Animal Handling, Medicine, Survival, Acrobatics, Investigation, Nature, Athletics
Expertises: History, Arcana, Religion, Sleight of Hand, Persuasion, Perception, Insight, Deception, Performance
Level 8:
Rogue 2
Around now you’re getting into Act 3. Choose to become ugly so you get proficiency and expertise in Persuasion, Deception, and Intimidation, allowing you to respec out of those skills in your build (picking up redundant Medicine proficiency at Cleric 1 and Investigation expertise at Bard 3).
Proficiencies: Stealth, Animal Handling, Medicine, Survival, Acrobatics, Nature, Athletics
Expertises: History, Arcana, Religion, Sleight of Hand, Persuasion, Perception, Insight, Deception, Performance, Intimidation, Investigation
Level 9:
Rogue 3 (subclass doesn't matter to me, pick your favorite)
Around now you can get Khalid’s Gift, an amulet that can increase your WIS by 1. It’s not required, but if you want to really max your skil checks, it does allow you to break past another WIS threshold without giving up another important skill check ability score.
Level 10:
Rogue 4 (feat: +2 WIS, or stats of your choice)
Somewhere around now you’ll be ready to access The Mirror of Loss, which, with a little planning/respecccing/save scumming can get you +1 CHA and +2 to another stat. If you don’t/can’t scum or don’t want to put in the effort, you can adjust your ability scores down accordingly.
Level 11:
Rogue 5
Level 12:
Rogue 6 (Stealth and Acrobatics Expertise)
Proficiencies: Animal Handling, Medicine, Survival, Nature, Athletics (final count: 5)
Expertises: History, Arcana, Religion, Sleight of Hand, Persuasion, Perception, Insight, Deception, Performance, Intimidation, Investigation, Stealth, Acrobatics (final count: 13)

Gear:

Almost all of the gear is available in Act 1!

• Warped Headband of Intellect
• The Graceful Cloth (Esther)
• Shapeshifter’s Boon
• Whispering Promise
• Club of Hill Giant Strength
• Titanstring Bow
• Khalid’s Gift

Combat Strategy

There are a lot of options here, but I think the optimal thing is probably to either pre-cast or use your first action to cast Bless on 3 party members. Then on future turns use your BA to apply a weapon oil that will buff the fire damage from your Cleric, then use an Arrow of Many Targets to apply it (in less consequential fights you can conserve resources with a different weapon coating and cheaper trick arrow).
At any point in the fight, use Healing Word or just throw potions at people to apply Bless to the 4th party member with Whispering Promise, or to apply Bless to anyone without actually casting it.
Titanstring counting multiple times on trick arrows, plus sneak attack, and enemies will actually notice that you’re hitting them. And, more importantly, you're providing buffs that are relevant in combat throughout the game.

Party Comp:

Member 2: Monk
You may have noticed that while this Ultimate Skill Monkey covers an extraordinary range of skills and is competent in all of them, there are two skills I didn’t get expertise in that, from time to time, there will be pretty important checks you’ll want to pass, and often they’ll be passive: Athletics and Survival. You also need a strong carry to compensate for your relative combat weakness. Enter the overpowered Tavern Brawler Open Hand Monk/Thief.
Karlach and Wyll both start with Survival proficiency from their backgrounds and Athletics is a Rogue skill, allowing you to spend your 2x Expertise at Rogue 1 on Athletics and Survival.
Then use STR elixirs so you can pump WIS (which you’ll want to do by Act 3 anyway due to Boots of Uninhibited Kushigo), and now you’ve got someone who will spot every buried treasure and can turn valve wheels like a pro. Oh, and also does inconceivably devastating single-target damage.
Member 3: Bard
No skill monkey is complete without a separate bard to give them Bardic Inspiration. I prefer the 10/1/1 Swords Archer, but 10/2 SSB would be great too. Either one can do carry-level damage while abusing Band of the Mystic Scoundrel and Helm of Arcane Acuity to single-handedly trivialize any combat encounter. Can also cast Enhance Ability on you.
Member 4: Cleric
The only thing the team’s lacking is AoE damage, and someone to dump all the remaining caster, radorb, and reverb gear onto. Light Cleric 11/Storm Sorcerer 1 is my favorite option here, with Spirit Guardians applying gobs of debuffs, supplemented by fire spells that are buffed by oil your skill monkey can apply with their bow. I like the side benefits of Warding Flair, Aid, and other Cleric goodies here, but you could totally throw in a Sorcerer here, or swap to a lightning or ice variant with your skill monkey throwing water bottles on enemies as setup.
Thus ends the meat of the guide, thanks for reading and I’m looking forward to your feedback!
My Tiresome Treatise on Reliable Talent vs. Expertise in BG3
Reliable Talent is very good in a vacuum, but its value goes down substantially in the BG3 environment compared to tabletop.

• Inspiration exists: if you happen to get a low roll, you can use inspiration. Meanwhile, there’s no mechanic that allows you to pump up your maximum skill check that you aren’t already using (Guidance, SSB, BI).
• Enhance Ability: you can pretty much always have this up, and use it during dialogue. Advantage greatly diminishes the odds of a bad roll
• Similarly, you can add Guidance and Bardic Inspiration at will
• Also similarly, the more dice you roll, the less likely you are to get all 1s, and in BG3 you can add Guidance and Shapshifter’s Boon to every roll, plus potentially BI.
• Reliable Talent has a very high opportunity cost in BG3: compared to my build, to get Rogue 11, you have to give up 4 skill proficiencies and 3x expertise, as well as the ability to cast Enhance Ability yourself (or Disguise Self without having to swap your hat in and out): without Knowledge Cleric 2 you have to drop Rock Gnome for Githyanki, and you can’t take Bard 3. And that’s before considering actual combat utility of the builds.
• 55% of the time (at least) it does literally nothing. If you have advantage, which you will have most of the time, the odds of it doing anything at all dwindle to 20%. When it does do something, it will add +5 to a roll on average…which is just 1 more than expertise is guaranteed to add to every roll over proficiency alone. In practice, it’s better than expertise about 11% of the time.
  • Granted, those are the times you need it most, and when it’s at its best, it’s adding a whopping +9 to your roll.
  • But how often is it actually going to turn a failure into a success when expertise wouldn’t? If with proficiency you’re adding +8+2d4 to most skill checks, you still beat a DC10. If going for a DC 20, with expertise and 1s on the extra dice (6.25% chance), you’d have to roll below 6 twice (advantage) to fail, which is 9%. You have a 0.6% chance of that happening, and if did happen to you, it might be in another scenario where it didn’t end up mattering! But if you rolled average on the d4s, you’d have to hit below 3 twice (2.25% chance) . In that extremely unlikely event, use an Inspiration point. To put it in plain language: you have something like a 1/50 chance that RT will give you a success when Expertise would not on a DC20 check.
  • But what if the DC is very high? In that case, Expertise can cause success where RT would fail any time where a 10 on the die is still 1-4 short. If you’re only adding 13 on average to your roll, then you’d need a 17 to pass a DC30, while expertise brings that down to 13. With advantage you have a 36% chance to break 17, but a 51% chance to break 13. Forgive my napkin math, but that’s like 40% better odds, vs. the 11% chance RT will even be better than expertise, let alone the

To put it in plain language: in BG3, when the choice is between Expertise and Reliable Talent, Expertise is equal on DC10 checks and better on DC30 checks. On DC20s, you have something like a 1/50 chance that RT would save you when expertise would not. Do you think you can have an inspiration on hand for 1/50 of your consequential rolls?
[edit 1: in response to comment, rearranged first two levels to start Rogue instead of Cleric because I was mistaken about how many skills you get when multiclassing into Rogue.]

New Features and enhancements
New AI-enhanced tools join Smart Tempo and the Pitch Correction plug-in to augment your artistry.
Bass Player and Keyboard Player join Drummer to complete a set of Session Players — all built with AI making it easy to create performances that respond to your direction.
Session Players can follow the same chord progression using Global chord track.
Add warmth to any track with ChromaGlow, an advanced plug-in with five saturation models designed to simulate the sound of vintage analog hardware.*
Separate a stereo audio file into stems for vocals, drums, bass and other parts with Stem Splitter.*
Session Players, ChromaGlow, and Stem Splitter also come to Logic Pro for iPad 2 — making it simple to move between projects created in Logic Pro for Mac.
Play any of six deeply-sampled acoustic and electric basses with Studio Bass.
Perform any of three meticulously-sampled pianos with Studio Piano.
Loops that contain chord tags will automatically populate the chord track when added to a project.
Three new Producer Packs are available: Hardwell, The Kount, and Cory Wong.
Original multi-track project of Swing! by Ellie Dixon available as in-app demo song.
Downmix and trim options allow custom mixing for non-Atmos channel configurations.
Exported ADM BWF files have been expanded beyond Dolby Atmos and can contain settings for stereo and other multi-channel formats.
Bounce in place adds automatic real-time recording for External Instrument regions or tracks that utilize external hardware using the Logic Pro I/O plug-in.
Route MIDI signals generated by supported software instruments and effects to the input of other tracks for creative layering during playback or recording.
Edit more efficiently using key commands for moving, extending, or resizing marquee selections.
The Nudge Region/Event Position key commands now also nudge Marquee selections.
The Transpose Region/Event key commands now also move or expand the Marquee selection up/down.
Pattern regions can now be created on Drummer tracks, and Drummer regions can be converted to Pattern regions.
New key commands include Trim Note End to Following Notes (Force Legato) With Overlap and Trim Note End to Selected (Force Legato) With Overlap.
Bounce in Place and Track Freeze can now be performed in real time, allowing for use of external instruments, I/O plug-ins, and external inserts.
Mastering Assistant analysis now can be performed in real time, allowing for use in projects that incorporate external I/O or instruments.
The Dolby Atmos plug-in now offers Downmix and Surround/Height Trim controls.
The Recent Projects list can now be configured to show up to 50 projects.
* Requires a Mac with Apple silicon.
Stability and reliability
Scripts with 1071 characters or more in Scripter no longer cause Logic Pro to quit unexpectedly.
Fixes an issue where creating a an event in a lane assigned to Note off in Step Sequencer could cause Logic Pro to quit unexpectedly.
Fixes an issue where Logic Pro could fail to launch with an Error Initializing Core MIDI message when the system is under heavy load performing other tasks.
Resolves an issue where Logic Pro could quit unexpectedly when a 64-bit floating point IR file is loaded into Space Designer.
Fixes an issue where Logic Pro could hang when opening a project while the Project Settings > MIDI window is displayed.
Logic Pro no longer quits unexpectedly when creating multiple Aux tracks with multiple existing Aux tracks selected.
Improves stability when bypassing control surfaces with Musical Typing open when EuControl software is installed.
Fixes an issue where Logic Pro could hang when quitting a project containing a large number of instances of Sampler.
Fixes an issue where Logic Pro could quit unexpectedly when replacing a playing Live Loops cell with another loop.
Performance
The UI is now more responsive when adjusting Flex Pitches directly on regions in Deviation mode.
Performance is improved when editing Transient Markers in Take regions with Flex enabled.
Performance is improved when making Flex Pitch edits in the Tracks area with a large number of selected regions.
Alchemy's Performance is improved.
Performance is improved when moving regions in projects with a large number of tracks and regions.
Projects containing a large number of flex-pitched regions now open more quickly.
Resolves an issue where loading a project saved with a Summing stack selected that contains Software Instruments that have no regions and/or with the tracks turned off could load the Software Instruments into memory.
Accessibility
VoiceOver now announces the state of Automation mode buttons on channel strips.
VoiceOver now announces the status of the Pause button in the LCD.
VoiceOver no longer announces hidden controls in the Smart Controls view.
VoiceOver no longer reads the values of pan knobs that are currently hidden in Sends on Faders mode.
VoiceOver now announces the state of the Details button and the Follow button in the Drummer Editor.
VoiceOver now announces left-click and Command-click Tool selections in the Control Bar.
VoiceOver now announces the name of the Time Quantize button in the Piano Roll.
VoiceOver now announces changes in value when the Next/Previous key commands are used to change Quantize values.
VoiceOver now announces state of key commands for Cycle, Mute, Track Solo, Input Monitoring, Track On/Off, and Lock/Unlock Track.
VoiceOver now announces the selection state of focused tracks.
Spatial Audio
Fixes an issue where adding a new 3D Object track for the first time to a Spatial Audio project could cause the Renderer to switch from the current model to the Apple renderer.
The Dolby Atmos plug-in now offers a 5.1.2 monitoring option.
Fixes an issue where setting a project to Dolby Atmos could output to 7.1.4 even when the mode defaults to Apple Renderer.
It is now possible to monitor Dolby Atmos projects directly via HDMI to a surround capable receiveamplifier.
The metering for Height channels now shows as post-fader on the Master channel as expected.
Loading a Master Bus channel strip setting in the 7.1.4 channel format now preserves the 7.1.4 channel layout as expected.
Session Players
Resolves an issue where loading a user-created Drum Machine Designer patch could set the input to a bus and fail to load the Drum Machine Designer instrument.
Using the Create Drummer Region command in a Marquee selection now creates a region that corresponds to the Marquee.
Smart Tempo
In cases where there is not an existing Smart Tempo Multitrack Set, selecting an audio file in the Smart Tempo Multitrack Set window and disabling the “Contribute to analysis” check box now causes the Update button to change to Analyze as expected.
Pressing the Space bar now immediately stops a Free Tempo recording.
Fixes an issue where projects previously open in the same Logic Pro session could unexpectedly affect “Contribute to Analysis” in the Smart Tempo editor.
Recording
Audio regions recorded to unnamed tracks now include the project name and track number in their name.
Mixer
The channel strip Stereo Pan control and the Pan menu now can be adjusted when Caps Lock is enabled.
Creating a single Multi-timbral Software Instrument in the New Track Sheet no longer creates two Software Instrument instances in the All view of the Mixer.
Resolves an issue where remaining tracks in a Multitimbral Software Instrument Track Stack could unexpectedly rename the channel strip.
Adjusting the activity status of a speaker in the Surround panner no longer causes the signal to unexpectedly mute.
Groups now immediately show as inactive when switched off for a selected set of channels in the Mixer.
Metering now correctly works on individual channel strips with plug-ins that send to more than two channels and are routed to a surround bus.
Option-clicking on a send in a selected group of channel strips now sets all corresponding sends to 0 dB as expected.
Fixes an issue where performing Undo after adjusting the fader values of grouped channels with Group Clutch enabled and then disabled could cause the faders to jump up to +6 dB when one member of the group is touched.
Setting multiple selected channels to No VCA now works as expected
Alchemy
The oscillator section in Alchemy offers a new Wide Unison mode.
All controls for Additive Effects now accept typed-in values as expected.
Values typed into parameters related to milliseconds (MS) in Acoustic Reverb are no longer interpreted as full seconds.
Resolves an issue where performance control destinations for modulation could show as duplicated.
Sampler, Quick Sampler, and Quick Alchemy
The Playback direction button in Quick Sampler now immediately updates when clicked.
The view now scrolls correctly when dragging the Trim marker in Sample Alchemy.
It is now possible to adjust the level of a group in Sampler up to +24 dB.
The Up/Down buttons for navigating zones in Sampler now remain available after adjusting the start or end positions of samples.
The general Zoom/Scroll key commands now can be used to trim the current view in Sample Alchemy.
Handles and Trim Handles in Sample Alchemy behave correctly when click-dragged, even when the plug-in window does not have focus.
The Ancient Vocal Chop and Baily Glide plug-in settings for Quick Sampler now open in Classic mode, as expected.
Plug-ins
The MIDI Scripter plug-in now shows in Logic Pro when running in dark mode.
Fixes an issue where clicking on Sampled IR in Space Designer could activate Synthesized IR mode unexpectedly.
Resolves an issue where repositioning the playhead could cause audio to cut out on channel strips that use Step FX.
The preset Note Repeater in Scripter now works as expected.
The wet/dry setting on Ringshifter is now always set to 100% wet when inserted on an Aux.
There's now a DI Delay Compensation switch in Bass Amp Designer to improve phase correlation when blending between Amp and Direct Box in the plug-in.
StepFX now includes presets using Sidechain.
The Beat Breaker preset called “Basic / 2 Slices, Speed 66%” no longer plays the slices at 50% speed instead of 66%.
Resolves an issue where ES2 could produce glitching sounds when using Sine Level or Poly Voice mode on Apple Silicon computers.
Mono > Stereo instances of Console EQ no longer can cause unexpected feedback.
Using the Delete all Automation key command while an Audio Unit window has key focus no longer causes the Audio Unit window to go blank.
The menu for the compression section of Phat FX can now be opened by clicking on the Up/Down arrows.
Beat Breaker now offers new default patterns divided evenly into 2, 4, 8, 16, and 32 slices.
Mastering Assistant
There is no longer unexpected latency with bounces from projects that use the Clean or Clean + Excite mode in Mastering Assistant.
Mastering Assistant analysis is no longer incorrectly triggered in projects that contain no regions, but are previewing audio from Ultrabeat, etc.
Mastering Assistant no longer allows the -1 dBFS peak limit to be exceeded in certain cases.
Automation
The Consolidate Relative and Absolute for Visible / Automation menu item now only displays when automation types that support relative automation are active in the lane.
Region-based Automation is now pasted as Track-based Automation when pasted to an area of a track that does not contain regions.
Pitchbend now works as expected with zones in Sampler that do not have Flex Pitch enabled.
Selecting Region-based automation points on a region now deselects previously selected automation points on other regions
Disabling Region-Based Automation no longer dims the Power button for MIDI CC data lanes in the Piano Roll.
The movie window now updates to show the correct frame when moving Region-based automation points.
The Autoselect automation parameter now works as expected when clicking any plug-in control.
Automation of the Gain plug-in no longer exhibits unexpected latency.
Region-based automation is now drawn correctly when recorded into projects that start earlier than 1 1 1 1.
Automation lane views for all tracks are now maintained when switching into Flex view and then back to Automation view.
Flex Time and Flex Pitch
Flex Pitched notes now play as expected when clicked while Record or Input Monitoring is active on the track.
Flexed audio tracks using Monophonic or Slicing mode no longer produce clicks at tempo changes.
Takes and comping
Fade-ins are now applied when flatten and merge is performed on Comps.
Renaming a take that encompasses the entire length of an audio file no longer unexpectedly changes the file name.
Comps in Take Folders are now preserved when performing Cut Section Between Locators on a section that includes the end of one Take folder and the beginning of another, with a gap in-between.
Track Stacks
Record-arming a Track Stack now arms grouped audio tracks in a Track Stack it contains.
Dragging a subtrack out of a Track Stack that is assigned to a VCA now removes the assignment for the subtrack.
Fixes an issue where Track Stacks could sometimes be dimmed when some, but not all, subtracks are muted or off.
It's now possible to replace stacked instrument patches that are inside a Summing Stack with single track patches.
Track Alternatives
Loading a patch on a Summing Stack containing sub-tracks with Track Alternatives no longer causes inactive alternatives to be deleted.
Track Alternatives can now be created for the Stereo Output track.
Selection-Based Processing
Using Selection-Based Processing on a Marquee selected section within a Take Folder no longer creates an unexpected comp.
Selection-Based Processing on a comp now retains the comp.
Score
The spacing of notes is improved in cases where there is a dotted note on a line with the stem is pointing upward.
Command + Z to undo now works after deleting a Score Set.
Upward bends in TAB staves now display correctly.
Importing an instrument track no longer can cause Score Sets in the current project to disappear.
Imported Score Sets can now be deleted from a project.
Live Loops
“Join Region and Fill Cell” now works as expected.
Recording a performance in Live Loops now temporarily puts all tracks into Automation: Latch mode.
Fixes an issue where changing patches for a Live Loop track could cause the length of cells to change unexpectedly.
It's now possible to paste MIDI notes into a Live Loops cell.
Step Sequencer
It's now easier to use the disclosure triangle to open sub-rows in Step Sequencer.
Pattern regions now play back correctly immediately after being nudged.
Pattern Regions now immediately play as expected after using the Slip/Rotate tool to drag their contents to the left.
The “Separate pattern region by kit piece” command on Drum Machine Designer tracks is now applied to the correct area of the Pattern Region, in cases where the left border of the region has been moved to the right.
The length and number of steps of a newly created Pattern Region accounts for Time Signature changes correctly.
The maximum possible pattern length of a Pattern region is now 4 bars of the current time signature.
Step Sequencer now allows pattern lengths to be added based on 5/4 and 7/8 time signatures.
The Step Sequencer Inc/Dec controls now work in Loop Edit mode.
Fixes an issue where Pattern Regions on frozen tracks be edited unexpectedly.
Region-based automation now displays properly on Pattern regions in tracks that have been partially frozen, and on regions that have been frozen and then unfrozen.
It's now possible to assign MIDI channels per step in a Pattern Region.
MIDI
Reset messages for Software Instruments now work correctly.
Sustain messages are now sent correctly when playing back regions with Clip Length enabled in cycle mode.
There is now an “Internal MIDI in” setting in the Track Inspector to allow for recording MIDI from any other software instrument or External MIDI Instrument track.
The “Send all MIDI settings” key command now sends program changes to external devices assigned to empty tracks.
Resolves an issue where 3 bytes of random MIDI data would be sent when playing back regions containing SysEx data with MIDI 2.0 disabled
New 'internal MIDI in' feature allows recording of MIDI from other tracks, including MIDI FX plug-in output and 3rd party MIDI generators.
The “Delete MIDI events outside region boundaries" key command now correctly creates a starting CC event in the region to match the last matching CC of the same type in the track.
Fixes an issue where Chase could cut off notes that are preceded by notes of the same pitch on tracks with third-party instrument plug-ins.
Editing
The Humanize transform set now works as expected when the Randomize functions for Position, Length, or Velocity are set to very small values.
The menu item Delete and Move in the Event List is now only displayed if regions are displayed in the window.
When MIDI 2.0 is selected in the Settings, clicking on an Event in the Event List no longer plays events back with MIDI 1.0 resolution.
Fixes an issue where using the Cut command in the Audio Track Editor could switch the view to another editor.
When a region in the Project Audio window is double-clicked, the Audio Track editor now opens as expected.
The content link buttons for the Piano Roll and Score show the correct color as expected when toggled using the mouse.
The Event List correctly updates to reflect changes made by using key commands to select notes in other editors.
Resolves an issue where the Velocity tool in the Piano roll could affect the values of non-note events.
Fixes an issue where applying the Transform set Double Speed could cause the notes to disappear from the Piano Roll.
Step Input
Extending the length of note entered using Step Input now works correctly.
Global Tracks
Adding multiple audio Apple Loops of the same key to different tracks of a new project now changes the project key as expected.
Clicked in Tempo points are now placed at their correct positions in projects that start earlier than 1 1 1 1.
Share and export
When No Overlap is enabled, regions bounced onto existing regions no longer overlap them.
Audio files bounced from Logic Pro now include the proper Encoded Date in the metadata.
Fixes an issue where MIDI regions could be truncated when bounced in place.
Fixes an issue where audio files including Volume/Pan automation exported from mono tracks that use plug-ins could export as stereo files.
It is now possible to bounce sub-channels of multitimbral instrument tracks as individual files.
Import
Resolves an issue when dragging multiple audio files into a project, choosing the “Place all files on one track” option could create a second track and places the first file on one track, and the rest on the second.
Output channels in the Mixer can now be imported from other Logic Pro projects.
Apple Loops
The Loops browser now correctly shows the same enharmonic key an Apple Loop was tagged with.
Apple Loops now preview using the Key Signature active at the current position of the playhead.
It's now possible to add Aliases to bookmarks and untagged loops.
Dragging an Apple Loop from the loop browser to an existing track no longer changes the input for the track.
Fixes an issue where MIDI Apple Loops could jump to the start of the nearest bar position when dragged from the Loop Browser to the middle of a bar.
Video Support
A secondary screen that is running a full screen video with Show Animations off will no longer remain black after closing the project.
Key Commands
The “Increase (or Decrease) last clicked parameter” key commands now work for controls in the LCD.
The “Record off for all” key command now works on Software Instrument tracks in cases where one or more audio tracks are also record-enabled.
There is now a key command to add to the current selection of regions or cells that are assigned to a toggle solo group.
The Zoom Toggle key command now works in the Step Editor.
Compatibility
GarageBand projects that use Pitch Correction now sound the same when opened in Logic Pro.
Undo
If Undo is used immediately after creating a project, the New Track Sheet is displayed as expected rather than leaving a project with no tracks.
Undo/Redo now works as expected with Audio Unit v3 plug-ins.
Changing the Automation Mode, or changing a Track On/Off state now creates an Undo step.
Performing Undo after adding a surround track no longer corrects Drummer tracks in the project.
Logic Remote
Logic Remote immediately updates to show time and signature changes made in Logic Pro.
Control Surfaces and MIDI controllers
Controls on Control Surface devices that use Lua scripts now provide feedback when learning assignments for them in Logic Pro.
Illuminated buttons on control surfaces now show the correct state for Show/Hide Track Editor.
General
The LCD now displays the Cycle start and end times in both SMPTE time and Bars/Beats when the secondary ruler is displayed.
Search in the All Files browser now finds matching items in bookmarked folders.
Fixes an issue where the visible editor in the Main window could unexpectedly switch when rubber-band selecting regions.
Audio Take folders created in Cycle mode now loop as expected after recording when Loop is enabled in the Region Inspector.
It's now possible to create external MIDI tracks when Core Audio is disabled in Logic Pro.
Resolves an issue where deleting a Flex marker from an audio region while a Marker List is visible could switch the key focus to the Marker List.
Track information pasted into a text editor now includes the TIME position when the Use Musical Grid setting for the project is not enabled.
Input monitoring buttons are now displayed on audio tracks when Logic Pro has fallen back to an alternate audio device because the selected device is not available.
Previewing an audio region in the Project Audio window no longer causes it to jump to the top of the window.
Command+Option clicking on the On/Off button of a track now toggles the button for all tracks, as expected.
Copy/paste of regions now works when Automation view is enabled.
Right-clicking on a looped segment of a region now opens the contextual menu as expected.
It's now easier to see when black keys are depressed in the Musical Typing window.
The right arrow key now reliably moves the text cursor in the Bounce > Save As file name panel.
Groove Templates created from audio regions now work in Smart Quantize mode.
Dragging multiple regions from the same audio file from the Project Audio browser to the Tracks area now works correctly.
Audio regions are no longer moved to unexpected positions when trimming, if absolute Snap mode is on, and the region anchor is moved away from the start of the region
Fixes an issue where pasting a Marquee selection with No Overlap and Snap Edits to Zero Crossings mode enabled could delete a non-overlapping part of an existing region.
Autozoom now triggers when a region's upper right corner is dragged in the Main window, or the Audio Track Editor.
The Playhead no longer may briefly appear to be in the wrong position when zooming horizontally.
The Time Ruler now immediately updates to reflect changes made to the “Bar Position [bar position] plays at SMPTE” setting.
The File browser correctly shows the full path when using Save As.

I have a question that might seem trivial, but it's been on my mind. Like many of you, I use multiple audio software programs—Cubase, Pro Tools, FabFilter, iZotope, Waves, Native Instruments, Soundtoys, UAD, Plugin Alliance, Altiverb, MeldaProduction, Sonarworks, and countless others. Each of these comes with its own licensing system, whether it's through an iLok USB key or cloud-based activation. For instance, I have an iLok usb key (or cloud) for some of them, but Izotope has its own license activation system, same for Cubase, Waves, NI, Meldaproduction, Sonarworks and so on.
Working across different studios, I find it frustrating to manage these licenses. Each software has its own activation process, which means I have to transfer licenses every time I switch locations. Given that we're dealing with a multitude of audio plugins, I've often wondered: Has there ever been consideration for a universal licensing system to streamline this process?

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