PC Connection acquires

PC Connection acquires software technology firm

Softmart deal seen as helping NH firm grow sales to larger businesses

BY BOB SANDERS

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Published: June 2, 2016

 

PC Connection has purchased Softmart, a firm based outside of Philadelphia that sells software technology to institutions with more than 200 employees and $200 million in sales. The terms of the deal are not announced.

The Merrimack-based company said the deal will help it continue to grow its business selling IT to larger businesses and institutions.

In the last year, small business sales constituted 41 percent of PC Connection’s sales, with 37 percent going to large businesses and 22 percent to the public sector.

“Through this acquisition, PC Connection is enhancing its service and solutions capabilities, including our cloud services, and strengthening our position with Microsoft,” said CEO Tim McGrath

PC Connection record $2.6 billion in sales last year with a net income of $46.8 million, up a little more than $4 million compared to the prior year.

In the first quarter of this year, however, sales fell 1.5 percent, to $572.4 million, largely because of a decline in the number of larger customers. Profits, however, increased by 5.6 percent, to $9.1 million, or 34 cents a diluted share.

McGrath said that he expected the deal to be accretive to PC Connection’s earnings, but offered no details.

Richard Sloane, Softmart’s founder and chairman, will be leaving the organization to pursue other interests. The company will continue to operate under the Softmart, PC Connection said.

http://www.nhbr.com/June-10-2016/PC-Connection-acquires-software-technology-firm/

CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS 3 REVIEW

BY BRIAN ALBERT With alternate histories and crazy weapons, Treyarch’s Black Ops games have always been Call of Duty’s oddballs. After killing mind-wolves with a swarm of nano-bees in the new campaign, I’m happy to say Black Ops 3 not only continues that trend, but smartly embraces its sci-fi oddities more than ever before.

But the most remarkable thing about Black Ops 3 isn’t its tone; it’s the sheer amount of content which, at its best, is some of the greatest I’ve seen in Call of Duty (note: the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions lack many of the features of the current-gen and PC version). Multiplayer still has the depth fans expect by now, but the addition of unique Specialists makes every player more important. Likewise, the option for four-player co-op and the new focus on playing how you want make the campaign and Zombies modes more rewarding and fun to play than they’ve ever been.

Mind Games

The six-hour story is set in the not-too-distant future, and, like most similar sci-fi fare, it includes its own techno-gibberish to get used to. Black Ops 3 settles on “Direct Neural Interface,” or DNI for short. This ubiquitous technology allows humans to mentally interact with computers, weapons, and other people. It introduces both terrific new abilities and important new limitations that changed the way I thought about playing Call of Duty. For example, you can’t use enemies’ dropped weapons because they’re registered to someone else’s brain – hence Black Ops 3’s focus on cool new combat powers.

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Humans can mentally interact with computers, weapons, and other people.

Without getting into spoilers, I’ll say that Black Ops 3 didn’t spend enough time making me care about its characters before it tried to cash them in for an emotional payoff. It’s disappointing, because Black Ops 3 begins to explore some genuinely interesting and taboo topics: What happens when people no longer own their thoughts, or when they don’t receive the mental health care they need? The answer: kill more robots!

With Our Powers Combined...

Killing more robots (and other enemies) is actually quite fun thanks to the new powers, which come in three flavors: blow things up, beat things up, or control your enemies and have them blow things up for you. Each power tree promotes a certain style of play, and you don’t earn enough points to level up all three paths unless you choose to sacrifice extra perks, weapon upgrades, and more. Even then, you can usually only use one type per level, so committing to one path is important. Plus, this leaves enough points to beef up your trusty primary weapon, which feels more important than it ever has. The gun you pick will likely stay in your hands for the entire level.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/11/06/call-of-duty-black-ops-3-review

METAL GEAR SOLID 5: THE PHANTOM PAIN REVIEW

BY VINCE INGENITO Editor's Note: Review updated on 10/15/2015 to include impressions of Metal Gear Online.

I had planned it all very carefully. There were way too many guards still looking for me, and with sunrise coming shortly, I had almost no chance of making it out to the nearest safe landing zone with an injured prisoner on my shoulders. But I wouldn’t have to. During the night, I planted some C4 on this outpost’s radio communication equipment, the anti-aircraft battery, and most importantly, their AA radar. So I took a deep breath, detonated all three at once, called in a chopper, and watched it all unfold. After a short while, my ride swooped in, blasting an APC to bits with a ferocious rocket barrage, and cutting infantry down with heavy machine gun fire as I scrambled from my hiding place to the main courtyard, prisoner in tow. I hopped in with my precious cargo, and then jumped on the side-mounted minigun to keep the newly arrived reinforcements at bay as my chopper smoked and sputtered its way out of the hotzone.

www.ign.com/articles/2015/08/24/metal-gear-solid-5-the-phantom-pain-review

The witcher

About This Game


The Witcher: Wild Hunt is a story-driven, cutting edge open world pretending amusement set in an outwardly shocking dream universe loaded with important decisions and impactful results. In The Witcher you play as the expert creature seeker, Geralt of Rivia, tasked with finding an offspring of prediction in an immense open world rich with shipper urban areas, viking privateer islands, hazardous mountain passes, and overlooked sinkholes to investigate.

PLAY AS A HIGHLY TRAINED MONSTER SLAYER FOR HIRE

Prepared from early youth and changed to increase superhuman aptitudes, quality and reflexes, witchers are a questioned balance to the beast pervaded world in which they live.

Horrifyingly crush adversaries as an expert creature seeker outfitted with a scope of upgradeable weapons, changing elixirs and battle enchantment.

Chase down an extensive variety of colorful creatures from savage brutes sneaking the mountain goes to shrewd otherworldly predators prowling in the shadows of thickly populated towns.

Contribute your prizes to overhaul your weaponry and purchase custom reinforcement, or spend them away in stallion races, card amusements, clench hand battling, and different joys the night brings.

Investigate A MORALLY INDIFFERENT FANTASY OPEN WORLD

Worked for interminable experience, the gigantic open universe of The Witcher sets new guidelines as far as size, profundity and intricacy.

Navigate a fantastical open world: investigate overlooked demolishes, surrenders and wrecks, exchange with traders and dwarven smiths in urban communities, and chase over the open fields, mountains and oceans.

Manage treasonous officers, underhanded witches and degenerate eminence to give dim and perilous administrations.

Settle on decisions that go past great and wickedness, and face their broad results.

Pursue DOWN THE CHILD OF PROPHECY

Tackle the most essential contract to find the offspring of prediction, a key to spare or devastate this world.

In times of war, pursue down the offspring of prescience, a living weapon of force, prognosticated by antiquated elven legends.

Battle against fierce rulers, spirits of the wilds and even a danger from past the shroud – all never going to budge on controlling this world.

Characterize your fate in a world that may not be worth sparing.

Completely REALIZED NEXT GENERATION

Manufactured only for cutting edge equipment, the REDengine 3 renders the universe of The Witcher outwardly nuanced and natural, a genuine consistent with life dream.

Dynamic climate frameworks and day/night cycles influence how the nationals of the towns and the beasts of the wilds act.

Rich with storyline decisions in both principle and subplots, this terrific open world is impacted by the player not at all like ever some time recently.

Framework Requirements

Least:

OS: 64-bit Windows 7, 64-bit Windows 8 (8.1) or 64-bit Windows 10

Processor: Intel CPU Core i5-2500K 3.3GHz/AMD CPU Phenom II X4 940

Memory: 6 GB RAM

Design: Nvidia GPU GeForce GTX 660/AMD GPU Radeon HD 7870

Capacity: 35 GB accessible space

Prescribed:

OS: 64-bit Windows 7, 64-bit Windows 8 (8.1) or 64-bit Windows 10

Processor: Intel CPU Core i7 3770 3.4 GHz/AMD CPU AMD FX-8350 4 GHz

Memory: 8 GB RAM

Design: Nvidia GPU GeForce GTX 770/AMD GPU Radeon R9 290

Capacity: 35 GB accessible space

Days Gone on PS4: The Origin of an Antihero

If there’s one thing the team at Bend is keen to impart about the universe it’s crafting, it’s the uncompromising, dog-eat-dog nature of things. “Desperate people do what desperate people need to do to survive,” creative director Ron Allen explains.

“In most open world games, when there’s danger, it’s usually because you’ve brought it on yourself. Days Gone is a dangerous world — always.”

Watching a horde of infected “Freakers” pour over the environment in the extended demo shown on stage at the PlayStation E3 press conference, we’re left in little doubt as to what he’s getting at.

“Pretty much any of the survivors of the pandemic had to have a certain something about them — the appropriate skills to steal, kill and survive in a harsh world,” he continues.

“If you didn’t know from the kutt on his back, in his previous life, Deacon St. John was the MC of a motorcycle gang. He learned a lot from being part of that group, and that’s helped him survive.”

The team doesn’t flinch from its protagonist’s anti-hero persona. “He’s a dangerous guy. He’s using his skills where he can — his appetite for violence and mayhem help him excel at his job.”

“He can find things out in the field and create better tools. For example, you’ll see he’s actually threaded the barrel of his pistol with the same thread pattern as an oil filter, so if he finds oil filters out in the world he can screw them on and it’ll allow him a couple of suppressed shots.”

We ask him how much of a role Deacon’s vehicle of choice — a muddied, off-road, dirt bike — plays in the game.

“The motorcycle plays a huge, huge part,” he assures us.

“It’s extremely nimble — a car can’t fit into certain spaces, and can’t do certain things a motorcycle can do. It’s not the normal biker gang motorcycle. He’s adapted this thing to work in the wild. There’s no way you’re going to pull off jumps or cross the kind of terrain you saw here on a Harley-style bike.

Allen explains that not only can you store extra items on your bike, it’s also your primary means for traversing the game world and, of course, escaping from those aforementioned Freakers.

Despite the team’s insistence on an uncompromising world, Ron is anxious to share Bend’s deeper ambitions for Deacon and his story.

“It’s about the human condition — this guy’s a broken man,” the creative director explains.

“A lot of us are motorcycle riders. It’s a really vibrant culture. It’s often associated with criminals, mayhem, and violence, but it’s also about brotherhood and family. Because Deacon has suffered so much loss he holds on to that aspect of his past, and cherishes those relationships. It’s about him finding himself, because he no longer has his motorcycle gang.”

We’ll have more on Bend Studio’s exciting new project as development progresses.

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2016/06/22/days-gone-on-ps4-the-origin-of-an-antihero/

The ALICE robot

The ALICE
A.I. Establishment as of late got a survey duplicate of the virtual colleague Denise from Guile 3D studio. More than only a chatbot, the Denise framework is a finished desktop right hand that incorporates an adaptable talking vivified symbol, is coordinated with PC capacities and web benefits, and even incorporates a full AIML improvement environment to make and alter the visit bot identity. The Denise bot can be conveyed on a PC desktop, or incorporated into business applications, for example, stands and office frameworks.

Denise is the formation of Brazilian engineer Guile Lindroth, who was enlivened while working

with a man with a genuine abdominal area incapacity. He chose to begin to  clients, as well as numerous others too, were looking for virtual

The Denise programming executes the full AIML 1.1 standard and a few augmentations. Dissimilar to some visit bot frameworks that have been incorporated with programs, the Denise framework incorporates its own particular coordinated web program. The AIML expansions make it conceivable to control occasions in this program, for example, turning upward data on Wikipedia. Different expansions accommodate joining with outsider applications including Skype, Email and Facebook. It is even conceivable to associate Denise to an AIML bot running remotely on Pandorabots.

When you introduce and dispatch Denise, she starts a meeting to take in somewhat about you. She recalls your name, age, sex and alternatively substantially more data. The framework incorporates a coordinated discourse acknowledgment framework from Nuance, and Denise takes the client through a discourse acknowledgment instructional course to enhance the exactness of the recognizer. Subsequent to preparing, the client may start a discussion with Denise, requesting data, send and get messages, interpreting dialects, or simply appreciate a talk with the Denise identity. The stage likewise incorporates a coordinated AIML editorial manager, so that the client can include his own particular custom voice charges.

Cleverness Lindroth could secure a venture to dispatch his organization and the Denise venture. He says his greatest test is "keeping the fantasy alive...(while) contending with mammoths." Lindroth sees three noteworthy territories of specialized headway: enhanced authenticity of symbols, enhanced discourse acknowledgment, and enhanced counterfeit consciousness. Since the Denise framework is intended to help PC clients complete errands, Lindroth says it doesn't need to be "awesome AI", yet AI that is adequate to comprehend and help clients. Forseeing a period when omnipresent, learning virtual associates will control home robotization frameworks, serve us in our autos, keep us educated and associated, and go about as virtual office aides at work, Lindroth says "We are really not a long way from this day."

GTA 5 download

GTA 5: New Rockstar

In spite of the fact that the diversion producer did not uncover a particular discharge date or discharge window for the approaching DLC redesign for GTA 5, it is trusted that the following title overhaul will present Rockstar Editor for PS4 and Xbox One stages, while additionally offering new amusement content for both story mode and online mode.

download the game 

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