Today I plugged my USB at school and noticed that I had a little but annoying virus that converted all my files into .lnk files. So when I came back home I plugged it to recover my files and format it but then I realised that Windows Defender put the virus in quarantine and made my files “invisible” (couldn’t see it even with show hidden files at Windows Explorer).
The good thing is that this can be easily fixed, but I don’t know if any common user actually knows how. So this is the main reason of this easy pie tutorial.
Open your My PC and see where your USB drive is located (or sdcard, whatever).
Then, just open the Command Prompt and write this (change the drive letter to your own).
It’s been 18 months since the release of Windows 8 and 6 months since the release of Windows 8.1. But yet, many people are using outdated operating systems.
Windows XP and Windows 7 still have a big user base. The main reason is because they been told that the Windows 8 interface is not friendly. Some of those people claim that they used it a little and that they didn’t like it. The main reason is the introduction of the “Start Screen” and the removal of the “Start Menu” that has been used from Windows 95 to Windows 7.
So, what are the reasons to upgrade to Windows 8?
Faster startup: Apparently Microsoft started to realize how important it is to get the desktop running as fast as possible. It’s the first improvement that you notice when you update. They also added an easier way to disable some applications that run at boot from Task Manager. You can disable a few things to make it even faster. My start-up time currently is 7.8 seconds, which is awesome. The time used by Windows 7 can even be the double.
Starcraft looks as it should. It looked really bad on Windows 7. This also happens with other old applications that used to work fine on Windows XP and didn’t work as they were supposed to since Vista.
Windows App Store, some applications may be so useless but we have to admit that some look neat, like Twitter and Netflix. If you have 2 screens or more you will be in love.
PC settingsis easier for computer illiterates that have used to have a bad time using Control Panel on older versions.
Touch screens are a nice extra. Although this post is about desktop computers, most of the newest notebooks are shipping with a touch screen and Windows 8.1 support is awesome. Just use a Surface and you will know what I’m talking about.
There are lots of bad things about Windows and sometimes I wish I could be using an *NIX shell or using applications like Linkinus, Transmit and Sequel Profrom OS X. But Linux and OS X are far from being usable on some work environments because of the lack of professional applications. (Solidworks and Proteus for example).
After many months after I said that I would talk about Starcraft, finally, I found a right topic to start, micromanagement.
What is micromanagement?
Micromanagement relies on getting more juice from your units, which means doing more for less and doing it better. The most important things may be: getting information from your enemy ground, correct unit placement and little but highly mobile engagements with few units avoiding his army. And of course, micromanagement on a battle.
Scouting
Scouting is the most important thing on the game since your strategy will be based on how to defeat your opponent strategy (which means that is also very important to avoid being scouted).
An example of scouting could be looking into your Protoss enemy ground and see a very early Twilight Council, a heavy gas production, a low gate count and probably Chrono Boost on Cybernetics Core. Based on that, anyone should know that getting detection should be a priority. Dark Templars are coming. This early game scouting is essential but you need to do it throughout the whole game to reveal your enemy strategy and act in consequence.
I took this little list from Liquidpedia that describes what an early scout can reveal by seeing just the basics.
Proxy: Lack of buildings in base.
Cheese: Lack of workers and more unit-producing structures.
Double gas: Would indicate a fast tech build.
No gas: Usually indicates a fast expand.
Structures: The type of unit producing structures will give an indication of what build or what units the opponent will use
Placement – the placement of the buildings can indicate if the opponent will turtle or play aggressively.
Scouting will reveal what your opponent haves now and what he will have on the next 5 minutes, at least, as long you know how to read this. This will allow you to get a counter or doing a timing attack.
Each race have a different approach of how to scout on mid/late game more effectively and cheaper. Terrans do buildings, Zergs do overseers and changelings and Protoss have observers and hallucinated phoenixes.
Positioning
While scouting focus on knowing your enemy, positioning is more about how your own army must engage your enemy. This is hard, as your enemy will try to avoid awkward grounds where is possible to set up a concave, this heavily depend on which match are your playing and the map. This video will give you an idea of how important positioning is and how to deal with it on TvT for example.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOCOddbWUGA
Positioning can be approached using different techniques depending on your unit composition and how to use ranged units as BroodLords, Tempests and Tanks and also having enough of other units to tank damage and by using terrain. You can also put units as this ones on unreachable places for your enemy. Other terrain techniques are used with units like High Templars, so they can use storm from places without visibility for the enemy while his army goes by. There is a full article about this on Liquidpedia that is a must-read.
Engagement micro
This is more about keeping your units alive and attacking for more time, so they can be repaired/healed/recharged for the next engagement. This can be done on big fights and little ones to get more juice from each unit. An usual kind of micro could be the stalker blink or something very usual (at least for me) wait until the enemy targets the colossus and bring it back, so all enemy units try to get my colossus while his units are being attacked by the rest of the army.
How to get better at micro?
There are lots of games at arcade such as Starcraft Micro Tournament that can be play with your friends and Starcraft Master that allows you to learn the basics and also gives you a new avatar.
Today, May 1st, is the commemoration of the death of Ayrton Senna, a Brazilian that is better known for being one of the best F1 pilots ever. Senna was born in São Paulo in 1960 and died at the age of 34 in 1994 at Imola, Italy.
Senna was recognised for being faster than anyone before. He won three F1 championships, 41 Grand Prix, had 81 podiums and 65 pole positions at the end of 10 years career in the maximum motor sport category.
His qualifying times were insane! He was faster than anyone at the grid. Including his own team mate, Alain Prost. He surpassed all the limits previously known with an innate driving talent.
All the other drivers at the grid were his rivals but also his work partners, his friends, as he demonstrated when he saved Érik Comas after his crash. He was the first to arrive to the crash scene and disregarding his own security ran to help him. He was a winner, as he demonstrated at Brazil. All his fans were shouting his name, wanting him to take his homeland Grand Prix. His McLaren transmission got jammed and was stuck on sixth-gear, but he still amazingly keep the lead from start to finish. He was someone that learned from his mistakes, as seen when he took his first championship by winning six of eight races after his crash at Monaco in 1988.
The main thing is to be yourself and not allow people to disturb you and change you. You have to be yourself, even though many times you make a mistake due to your own personality. You learn, and you must learn through your mistakes and get better.
I believe if you have the ability to focus strongly on something then you have the ability to gain from it. It’s been like that all my life—it’s always been a question of improving. There is no end, as you go through you just keep finding more and more, it’s fascinating. We are made of emotions and we are all looking for emotions—it’s just a question of finding a way to experience them.
– Ayrton Senna
Besides his performance at the sport, his legacy is bigger than that, as he was also knew for being a man of faith, a devout Christian and his philanthropicgenerosity.
When the Brazil football team won the 1994 World Cup, they dedicated their victory to Senna by holding a banner after winning the finals. The FIA greatly improved the safety to the sport after this, which included improved crash barriers, more safety standards and redesigned tracks.
Many people that have lots of money do philanthropy to have a better image. Senna was different as he really wanted the best for the youth of his country. His family continued his philanthropy work by founding the Ayrton Senna Institute months after his accident.
He will always be a hero to remember for his personality and skills, rest in peace Ayrton.
