Starting a business takes guts. And the right mix of people and technology. Dell’s US-based Small Business Technology Advisors, can help you customize the right tech solution for your business. Meet Kate Zaremba and Patrice Banks. Learn how they use Dell technology to achieve their business goals.
Learn more about how Dell Technology Advisors partner with small businesses: https://www.dell.com/smallbusinesspartner

Source: Dell YouTube
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The Star Wars Battlefront 2 Beta is nearly here. See what’s included and prepare to experience three eras of Star Wars battles.

Subscribe for upcoming Star Wars™ Battlefront™ II video’s: https://bit.ly/2oDLwKI

Star Wars™ Battlefront™ II will be available on PlayStation 4

Release Date: November 17, 2017

www.ea.com/battlefront 2

Source: Playstation YouTube
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https://www.playstation.com/en-us/games/infinite-minigolf-ps4/

Tortuga is a free, pirate-themed expansion for Infinite Minigolf, now available for PlayStation®4 and PSVR.
www.infiniteminigolf.com

‘Infinite Minigolf’ is a trademark of Zen Studios Ltd. © 2017 Zen Studios Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

Source: Playstation YouTube
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Turn up the volume and dance your heart out now to “24K Magic” by Bruno Mars! Download the Just Dance 2018 Demo on Nintendo eShop now!

#NintendoSwitch #JustDance2018

Subscribe for more Nintendo fun! https://goo.gl/09xFdP

Visit Nintendo.com for all the latest! https://www.nintendo.com/

Like Nintendo on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Nintendo
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/NintendoAmerica
Follow us on Instagram: https://instagram.com/Nintendo
Follow us on Pinterest: https://pinterest.com/Nintendo
Follow us on Google+: https://google.com/+Nintendo

Source: Nintendo YouTube
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Earlier this year, we shared an update on some key milestones achieved for Node-ChakraCore like cross-platform support, community participation for N-API, Node-ChakraCore on iOS and more. Today, as Node.js enthusiasts from all over the world gather in Vancouver, Canada for Node.js Interactive, we’d like to share an update on Node-ChakraCore – from its progress in handling production workloads and advancing N-API, to an update on running Node on iOS with ChakraCore.

Node-ChakraCore in production deployments

While Node-ChakraCore is still a pre-release project, and the team has been actively working on improving its reliability, performance and compatibility with popular Node.js modules. As with any new platform, running large production workloads is always a great challenge to test maturity and quality.

Today we are happy to announce that Microsoft Edge Developer portal is handling 100% of its production traffic on Node-ChakraCore! This is a large global website, deployed across multiple datacenters across multiple regions, which handles over 16 million requests per month. Our site uses over 60 npm modules including popular ones like body-parser, cheerio, express, lodash, redis, winston, applicationinsights, and many more.

Node-ChakraCore was a drop-in replacement for Node runtime for this website, demonstrating great compatibility with the existing Node.js module ecosystem—we’re happy to report that not a single line of application code was changed to achieve this migration.

Node-ChakraCore is also beginning to see production usage outside of Microsoft properties, specifically for its Time-Travel debugging (TTD) capabilities. Travix is a global online travel company with various travel brands like BudgetAir.com, CheapTickets.nl, vliegwinkel.nl, Vayama.com and FlugLaden. It handles around 3.5 million bookings per year across all its different brands.

Travix uses Node-ChakraCore for their build system for the entire website, including their CI/CD pipeline. According to Jean Baudin, a software developer at Travix, the main reason for this was Time-Travel debugging capability with Node-ChakraCore.

Using Time-Travel debugging in our CI/CD pipeline has significantly reduced our time to repro and diagnose the issues in our CI/CD pipeline

– Jean Baudin, Software Developer, Travix.com

Their home-grown CI/CD pipeline uses TTD record functionality for pre-production testing to automatically capture traces in case of errors, which is then used offline by developers to quickly reproduce the problem in VSCode with ability to step back and understand the control flow of the faulty execution, thereby saving time in searching through logs and reconstruction of the repro steps.  Travix also uses Node-ChakraCore in its production deployment of one of their microservices that handles its gateway to connect to KongDB for their database access.

These deployments are a significant milestone in our journey to enable Node-ChakraCore as a drop-in replacement for production sites in the future. Our goal is to exit pre-release status having rigorously validated Node-ChakraCore to meet the high quality bar expected by Node.js developers.

ABI Stable Node.js API (N-API)

Evolving the Node.js ecosystem through community participation is one of the main objectives of Node-ChakraCore and we are humbled to have the opportunity to participate in the conversations regarding future of Node.js. The N-API project is one such example of the Node-ChakraCore team collaborating with the API working group and others in the community to solve a real-world problem for Node.js native module developers by helping define and implement a new ABI stable API surface for Node.js. ABI stability is very important to have a healthy and robust module ecosystem that allows more potential for future growth of the platform. N-API helps reduce the maintenance costs for native module authors by allowing them to compile their modules just once for all future Node versions. More significantly for native module consumers, it reduces friction in upgrading to new Node version since the native module dependencies will “just work” against the new version of Node.

N-API has been available as an experimental feature since May 2017 in Node 8.0, and we’ve been excited by the interest shown in just a few short months, as can be seen by the chart below showing downloads of the node-addon-api module.

We’ve heard lots of great feedback from the community on the initial implementation. The working group has been able to quickly act on your feedback, and has recently landed several important changes available in Node.js 8.6—most notably, the removal of the command line flag, which now enables N-API module deployments in prod/pre-prod environment without having to change the deployment scripts, making it easier to interop with ES6 modules and support for async_hooks. With this, all known breaking changes have landed in Node 8.6, and we now strongly encourage module maintainers to consider porting a native module to N-API.

The next milestone for N-API is to exit the experimental status, which depends on community adoption. Check out the N-API github repository to find out different ways to help in moving this project forward.

Node.js for Mobile Apps

Node.js was born in the cloud, but recently we’ve seen growing interest in running Node.js on mobile devices. Some examples include hood.ie’s offline first initiative, Rockwell Automation’s TeamOne solution for factory floor device automation, and Luna from Craftwork, which runs both on a set-top box and on an iPad to allow same content consumption experience on a TV and on a tablet, and many more.

Janea Systems’ recent announcement about their Node.js for Mobile Apps project is another step towards addressing this growing trend. Earlier this year Janea Systems had shown a demo of Node.js running on iOS, today the project is available for free and is open source so that the community can start building on it.  We are delighted to see Node-ChakraCore being used as a key part of this solution to provide Node.js runtime on iOS and to expand the reach of Node.js usage.

What’s Next

The focus for Node-ChakraCore is to continue making progress on performance, compatibility and cross-platform support for the EcmaScript Internationalization API. In the last 3 months, Node-ChakraCore has gained 30% perf improvement on ACME Air benchmark on Linux. We will be sharing more on this in the coming months.

Get involved

We would like to thank everyone who is already involved and invite more people to help advance the Node-ChakraCore project. If you are building something using Node-ChakraCore, we’d love to hear from you and learn from your experience. Here are some of the ways to help out. If you are a:

1. Node.js Developer – Try testing Node-ChakraCore in your project, and use Time-Travel debugging with VSCode and let us know how it goes.
2. Node.js module maintainer – Try testing your module with Node-ChakraCore. Use these instructions to add Node-ChakraCore in your own CI to ensure ongoing compatibility. If you run into issues, please let us know at our repo or our gitter channel.
3. Node.js native module maintainer – Consider porting your module to N-API. N-API is the future of native modules on Node, and porting your module will help you reduce your maintenance costs and be ready for future versions of Node.js and will also work with Node-ChakraCore.

As always, we are eager to hear your feedback, so please keep it coming. Find us on Twitter @ChakraCore, our gitter channel or open an issue on Node-ChakraCore github repo to start a conversation.

― Arunesh Chandra, Sr. PM JavaScript Platform and Tools

Source: Windows Blog
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Xbox, Gears of War Esports, and The Coalition are proud to announce Season 2 of the Gears Pro Circuit for Gears of War 4. Gears players from around the world can compete in marquee live open events for a starting $1,000,000 in cash prizes. With the addition of new regional events and grassroots tournaments, plus crowdfunding through Esports Supporter Packs, the total prize pool for Season 2 is expected to reach $2,000,000.

Players in North America, Latin America, and Europe can earn “Gears Pro Points” by competing in regional MLG GameBattles.com online ladders and in weekly tournaments. Players can also earn Gears Pro Points through grassroots and community-run approved tournaments and Microsoft Store LAN events. Gears Pro Points qualify teams for seeding and travel coverage to the international open LAN events taking place every 2 months between December 2017 and December 2018.

This season’s exciting Gears Pro Circuit features both major and minor open LAN events in the following locations, open to all players around the world:

Date	Location	Partner	Prize Pool (USD)
Winter 2017	USA	MLG	$250,000 minimum
January 26-28	Mexico City, Mexico	Gamelta	$150,000 minimum
Spring 2018	North America	TBD	$150,000 minimum
Spring/Summer 2018	North America	MLG	$250,000 minimum
Summer/Fall 2018	Mexico	Gamelta	$150,000 minimum
Summer/Fall 2018	North America	TBD	$150,000 minimum
Fall/Winter 2018	North America	MLG	$250,000 minimum

*All locations and dates subject to change.

With the postponement of the Mexico City event to January (from the original date of October), the Gears Esports team is proud to present an additional series of sanctioned events in the Fall for Gears Pro Points and cash prizes.

Gears Esports Fall Regionals – 24 Team 5000 Series Pro Point Events
Date	Location	Partner	Prize Pool (USD)
November 11-12	New York, NY, USA	Microsoft Store	$20,000
November 11-12	Corona, CA, USA	CMG	$20,000
November 11-12	London, UK	EGL	$20,000
November 11-12	Mexico City, MX	Gamelta	$20,000

 

In addition, we are proud to announce several new community tournaments with some in new cities and regions:

Date	Location	Partner	Starting Prize Pool (USD)
October 20-22	Madrid, Spain	Xbox Spain Fan Fest	$5,000
November 25-26	Sydney, Australia	ESL	$10,000 AUD + Winning Team Travel to MLG Fall/Winter 2017 Major
Spring 2018	Birmingham, UK	Insomnia Festival	$10,000 minimum
TBD	Brazil	Gamelta	TBD
TBD	Italy	Xbox Italy	TBD
TBD	France	Xbox France	TBD

*All locations and dates subject to change.

More community and regional tournaments will be announced and funded through to December 2018.

We are also excited to announce significant funding increases for travel coverage for this season’s Gears Pro Circuit based on Gears Pro Points rankings. Latin America events will see a big increase to the Top 8 North American teams, Top 8 Latin American teams, and Top 3 European teams all receiving travel coverage. North American Minor events cover the Top 8 North American teams, Top 3 Latin American teams, and Top 3 European teams. MLG Major events will cover the Top 8 North American teams, Top 4 Latin American teams and Top 4 European teams.

Season 2 will also see the return of Gears Esports Supporter Packs that help provide prize pool crowdfunding to events and support the expansion of the regional community events. Gears Esports will continue to collaborate with popular esports team organizations to bring their brands into cosmetic digital in-game content that fans can wear and equip. This season also sees the addition of a Preferred Partner program for major esports organizations. Organizations can qualify for financial incentives based on audience size, participation, and regional representation. Organizations can also work with the Gears Esports team to raise the visibility of their brands in additional content planned for Season 2 such as our new reality series, event content and profile features, in-game promotions and on social media.

Weekly Gears Fight Nights broadcasts will return live from the MLG Studios in New York, featuring weekly Pro Circuit online tournament finals with teams from around the world. These weekly broadcasts will continue to feature both pro and amateur teams and special prizes for viewers.

Season 2 of the Gears Pro Circuit has already officially kicked off in September with Gears Pro Points activity via MLG online tournaments and ladders. For more information on how to participate in Season 2, check out this information page here.

For more detailed information on the Gears Pro Circuit and Gears Esports, please visit www.gears.gg. You can also follow us on Twitter @EsportsGears and @GearsofWar and on Facebook at /GearsofWar.

We’re proud to present the largest ever Gears of War Esports program and can’t wait to see all the pro and amateur teams from around the world compete in Season 2!

 

See the rest of the story on Xbox Wire

Related:
Assassin’s Creed Origins: Using All of Bayek’s Tricks in the Nile Delta
New Xbox One S Assassin’s Creed Origins Bundles Launch October 27
Next Week on Xbox: New Games for October 2 – 8

Source: Xbox Blog
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Like no other game in the series so far, Assassin’s Creed Origins will push you to use every tool and tactic at your disposal as you hunt for the secret society known as the Order of the Ancients. In our case, this was something we realized during a quest in the latest preview demo, set in the Giza Plateau and in the Nile Delta — both of which looked beautiful running on Xbox One X, with huge sweeping vistas and intricately detailed architecture that was mesmerizing in 4K. Our task was to free an old man named Ghupa, who’d been kidnapped by a handful of guards and caged at the center of a hilltop camp. Not too complicated, right?

The twist was that our Bayek wasn’t quite up to the task in his current state, as all the guards were at a significantly higher level and could kill him easily. Nevertheless, we plowed into the camp and started attacking, only to suffer a quick death. On the second try, we perched nearby and used the unlockable Enhanced Predator Bow ability to fire remote-controlled arrows into the guards’ heads, which weren’t quite strong enough to do the job. We crept in and smashed open the cages of several lions the guards were keeping, only to have them turn on us instead. We’d even tried to stealth-kill the guards, although given that we hadn’t gathered enough resources to upgrade Bayek’s Hidden Blade – the iconic, wrist-mounted retracting dagger that he’ll carry throughout the adventure – the weapon was only strong enough to injure one guard before the rest descended on us.

All our attempts had been in broad daylight, so we tried a new tactic: we made Bayek pass time until nightfall. With half of the guards asleep and visibility limited by darkness, we crept in, threw a couple of sleep darts at the watchers, and fled with the old man before they could wake up. At no point had the game pushed or even suggested a stealth approach, but pulling it off flawlessly felt amazing. And as it turns out, Assassin’s Creed Origins is full of these little moments, which give you a tool set and a set of objectives, and let you decide on your preferred path to victory.

If you’re strong enough, you can draw a weapon and hold your own against any number of bandits, soldiers, or angry hippos, and Assassin’s Creed Origins offers plenty of options for going toe-to-toe with enemies, each suited to different tactics. Swinging a spear in a wide arc can fend off multiple enemies and create some distance between you and your opponents, for example, while the quick strikes of a blunt scepter are perfect for dealing damage before your enemies can react.

Even if you’re underpowered for the task in front of you, though, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s time to put the mission on hold and go pursue some side quests. Unless the objective is to eliminate every enemy, there’s usually another way. Sneaking around at night, or sniping enemies with arrows from a safe spot can get what you need and earn a pile of XP in the process.

That openness also extends to the game’s design and the structure of its missions, many of which can be found just by wandering around the open world. Anything out of the ordinary – a woman banging on a locked door, a farmer sitting by a broken cart – is usually a sign that someone needs help, and these tasks can be surprisingly involved. For example, our wandering took us past a weeping couple by the side of the road, who begged us to enter a hippo-infested field and retrieve the bodies of several workers the rampaging animals had slain after being upset by some local bandits. When we failed to find the body of their protector, Meketre, among the dead, we paid the bandits a visit in their canyon hideout and found the missing man in chains. After clearing the camp and dramatically shoving their captain off a cliff to his death (using Attack & Push, an unlockable ability that lets Bayek chain a light attack into a push attack combo), we learned that some of the bandits had ridden out to raid Meketre’s village. We then followed him home on horseback and waded into a pitched battle between the bandits and the villagers, after which we smashed a statue of the pharoah Ptolemy just to make our views on the subject clear.

The high point of the session, however, came when the story directed us to ride into the desert and investigate Letopolis, a lost city being exhumed from the sands as part of a grand public works project. At the head of these efforts was Taharqa, a powerful local leader (and son-in-law of Ghupa) who seemed to hold the key to finding the Scarab, a prominent Order of the Ancients member infamous not only for taxing the locals into poverty, but for burying people up to their necks in the desert and leaving them to die.

Our meeting with Taharqa was cut short when raiders attacked the city, forcing us to run outdoors and fight alongside our new friend and his men while a fierce sandstorm raged through the streets. This dramatic climax was followed up immediately by a counter-raid on the raiders’ watery cave hideout, which ended shortly after we snuck around to a rooftop opening and dropped down to kill the raiders’ captain with a quick stab of Bayek’s Hidden Blade. Even with an expansive bag of tricks, sometimes the familiar methods are the most satisfying. And you’ll be able to start exploring and experimenting for yourself starting October 27, when Assassin’s Creed Origins launches on Xbox One and will be Xbox One X Enhanced when the Xbox One X launches on November 7.

See the rest of the story on Xbox Wire

Related:
Gears of War Pro Circuit Season 2 Announced with new expected prize pool of $2,000,000!
New Xbox One S Assassin’s Creed Origins Bundles Launch October 27
Next Week on Xbox: New Games for October 2 – 8

Source: Xbox Blog
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