Hasta La Gadget!

A few days back Microsoft confirmed the next update for Windows 8.1. It also clarified that the August update would not bring major changes for the OS even though many had expected that initially. Instead the company is going to break down the changes that it plans on making over the next few months into smaller updates that will be pushed out monthly. Today the Windows 8.1 August update has been released, it comes with some minor improvements and fixes.

Windows 8.1 August update features three new end-user settings to improve the touchpad, these include double-tap and drag, allow right clicks through trackpad and the ability to leave the trackpad on when an external mouse is connected.

Miracast Receive is included in this update which brings a new set of Wi-Fi direct APIs for independent hardware vendor or OEM drivers to develop 32-bit Windows applications that run on supported x86 and x64 versions of Windows 8.1, allowing users to turn their computer into a Miracast receiver.

Last but not the least Windows 8.1 August update reduces the number of prompts when using SharePoint Online websites. Those who check the “Keep me signed in box” will not be prompted for access credentials after the first time.

The update is rolling out now and should be available through Windows Update. The impatient lot can go ahead and download x86 and x64 versions directly from Microsoft’s website.

Windows 8.1 August Update Released

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As Gamescom has kicked off in Germany there’s a lot of gaming news to go through today. Microsoft has made a couple of announcements of its own today, it has detailed some of the new features that will be added to the console over the next few months. The company also confirmed the long talked about preload and digital pre-order features for the Xbox One, however the list of titles that support these features initially leaves much to be desired.

Here’s how preload and digital pre-order works: Microsoft will presumably put a hold for a game’s price on the authorized credit or debit card and it will charge the user when the game officially becomes available. Once the transaction goes through the game will automatically be downloaded on the Xbox One without needing any input from the user.

Xbox One owners that use this feature would no longer need to drive to a local game store to pick up a copy of a game that has just been released, nor will they have to worry about navigating through the console on launch day to manually download the game. Everything will happen automatically.

The feature is only supported by FIFA 15 and Forza Horizon 2 for now, these titles will be released on September 26th and September 30th respectively. Microsoft hasn’t said anything about other titles that might support the feature down the line as well, so Xbox One owners will have to make do with these two for now.

Xbox One Preload And Digital Pre-Order Feature Confirmed

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At Gamescom today Sony made a few announcements of its own. First up the company announced that the PlayStation 4 has sold ten million units around the world, a milestone this console has achieved in just nine months after launch. It also detailed PS4 system update 2.0 which adds a new feature called Share Play. Sony describes it as an “online local co-op experience.”

Sony says that Share Play is basically like a “virtual couch.” You will be able to invite your friends to join a game even if they don’t own a copy of that particular title. They will be able to play with you as if they were in the same room.

Share Play will also allow you to jump into a friend’s game to assist them. If they’re having trouble with a certain level they can simply invite you to take control and guide them through. The screen will be shared with your friend as you navigate through that tricky part of the game.

Apart from bringing Share Play, PS4 system update 2.0 will also add some much awaited broadcast and video sharing features. Dedicated app support for YouTube has been confirmed as well as direct upload of gameplay footage. A real name search function will be added to What’s New, which will also feature more real-time activity based on friend-of-friend suggestions.

PS4 system update 2.0 will be released later this fall. Sony will take about other features that will be included in the update over the coming months.

PS4 System Update 2.0 Brings Share Play Online Co-Op Experience

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I was walking through downtown Seattle yesterday when I got a text alert saying Robin Williams had died, and authorities suspected suicide. I remember the day I attempted suicide like it was yesterday. It was actually Election Day 2000 (there are a lot of really dark jokes I could make about the date I chose, but I will refrain). My day at school was like any other — but there was a layer of fog around me that I just couldn’t quite shake. My mom and I had just moved back to Washington state from Texas, and despite the fact that she made every effort to get me back into the same friend group I’d had when we lived here previously, I missed my Texas friends desperately, and everything about my current life seemed wrong.

I went into the living room, turned on the news to watch the early returns, and then made myself a bag of microwaveable popcorn. I sat eating it, feeling totally and completely overwhelmed by life. People who don’t quite understand depression will describe it as being “really sad,” but beyond sadness, there’s the feeling of a total absence of hope, of complete despair. I felt like I was slowly being suffocated from the inside, like all the light around me had been gradually snuffed out until I was left entirely alone. The depression was so deep and all-consuming that I was ashamed — how could I feel this way and how could I expect someone to help me? And why would anyone want to?

I cried for a while, and then, when there were no tears left to cry, I took a half a bottle of Tylenol PM and lay down in my bed. People will often say that those who commit suicide are selfish — that they do something that will hurt the people around them who love them in unbelievable ways. And I understand that, truly I do. But as someone who has survived major depression, I can tell you that I felt like I was helping my family and friends by removing myself from their lists of things to worry about. The logic you apply to your day-to-day life simply doesn’t match up with someone who is clinically depressed or suffering from major depression.

Half a bottle of Tylenol PM is far from a lethal dose, something I overheard later that night as I lay strapped to a gurney in a hospital room that was as close to a jail cell as I hope to ever get, the taste of charcoal lingering in my mouth — used to treat patients for poison consumption — and was a cry for help. I was diagnosed with clinical depression, and started outpatient therapy and medication and began the long road toward recovery.

According to a 2012 study conducted by the National Institute of Mental Health, “an estimated 16 million adults aged 18 or older in the U.S. had at least one major depressive episode in the past year. This represented 6.9 percent of all U.S. adults.” Millions of Americans suffer from major depression, and still, our culture places a huge stigma on mental health issues. But the more we deny that these issues are very real, the harder it is for people you know and love to come to you and ask for help when they need it most.

I won’t pretend that my road to semi-functioning, 30-year-old adult was easy. My default setting when confronted with a stressful situation is to go on radio silence to everyone around me until I feel like I’ve got a good grasp of the situation at hand. What I’ve learned is that sometimes, actually, frequently, it’s okay to ask for help. Life is long and can be almost unbearably tough at points, and it would be a terrifying journey to make alone. So I’ve learned to ask for help when I need it, to pick up on the triggers that can send me down a dark path, and I’ve learned to make a plan that involves staying healthy.

And if you’re reading this and battling your own demons, please know that whether you’re a Hollywood legend or a high school junior, there’s help for you. With the care and support of a mental health care professional, and in some cases, prescription medication, you can learn to cope deal with and even flourish in the face of major depression. It can seem hopeless and pointless to continue on with life, but it never is. No matter how dark and hopeless the world around you might seem, there are people who care about and love you, and want nothing more than to help you find your own light. If you don’t feel comfortable reaching out to family or friends, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.

Need help with substance abuse or mental health issues? In the U.S., call 800-662-HELP (4357) for the SAMHSA National Helpline.

The contents of this post may be sensitive for readers.

Frank Meeink beat the odds; he survived. An Irish-Italian kid, he grew up in the slums of South Philly. Both of his parents were alcoholics, drug addicts and dealers. Frank was 2 and his mother was 19 when his parents split up. A few years later, during their once-a-month visits, Frank’s father taught him how to fight with beer bottles, pool cues and lead pipes, then later with knives and guns. His mother remarried a brutal man who physically abused Frank frequently calling him his “prisoner of war” and “retard.” Frank’s mother did little to protect him from the savagery that he was subjected to on an a daily basis. She made it clear to him that she would always choose her husband over Frank, every time. The one only bright spot in his life were his loving grandparents, Nanny and Pop. He lived with them intermittently throughout his teens. During this time Frank’s big love was sports. He played hockey, football, and baseball, and he played well.

“Wardens and gang chiefs parented me more than my parents ever did,” Frank told us. “As a kid, I never felt accepted by the Irish or the Italians because I was half of each and they didn’t like each other. I also never felt accepted in my own home.” Filled with rage as a result of the humiliation and abuse from his mother and stepfather, Frank was ripe for joining a gang to find somewhere to belong. Frank found his way into a white supremacist group of kids, shaved his head, covered his body with tattoos, and cruised the neighborhood with his gang of misfits, bashing in skulls for kicks.

In his late teens, Frank went on to join the American Nazi movement, which provided his life some structure and a philosophy to live by. Because he had a charismatic personality, Frank quickly rose to a position of leadership in the organization, even though he was one of its youngest members. Through his leadership, Frank drew other bored, angry youths into the group. They shared a common hatred for all minority groups, particularly blacks, Asians, Hispanics gays and Jews. During the five years that he was involved in the movement, Frank absorbed the propaganda he was fed, believing that he was fighting a holy war to rid the world of all undesirables. He was convinced that he was dealing out God’s justice.

Frank found that getting drunk and beating up ‘”scum” were powerful ways of shutting down his emotions and not feeling the pain of alienation, loneliness, and despair. He would often lose himself in a frenzy of violence that left him exhausted and his victims bloodied beyond recognition. He justified his actions by claiming that he was fighting the forces of Satan. Aryans, he believed, were the only true children of God. He became the crew commander in a subgroup of the Ku Klux Klan, named “Strike Force,” and he had the words tattooed on the back of his neck. “I was covered in so many tattoos,” he told us, “that I was a walking Nazi exhibit.”

At 17, Frank was arrested for kidnapping and assault with a deadly weapon and sentenced to three to five years in prison. Since there were Aryan Brotherhood and Aryan Nationalists in the prison, Frank received protection while he was incarcerated. During that time he became steeped in the philosophy of the Aryan Brotherhood and earned their respect. He also, for the first time in his life, engaged in sports and card games with blacks and Hispanics. He was the only white person on the football team, but he was faster and more talented than practically any other player. Although both Frank and the other players experienced racial tensions when he first joined the team, those tensions soon turned into feelings of mutual respect. For the first time in his life, Frank began to see the humanity of those he had previously viewed as sub-human.

As his awareness began to deepen, Frank started to face the reality of the destruction he had caused and pain that he had created in so many lives. Two of his closest friends in prison were black teenagers named Jell-O and Little G. Frank’s life was beginning to change in ways that he could never have imagined. His father did not visit or call the three years he was in prison. Frank’s first child was born when he was in prison. He loved his new baby daughter but was on terrible terms with the baby’s mother.

After prison, Frank returned to his skinhead friends. His life soon became out of control with excessive drinking, drugging, and irresponsible sex. By the time he was 20, he had fathered a daughter and two sons with three different women. Then one night Frank had a transformative moment at a white supremacy movement meeting. While listening to their usual racial slurs, he realized that he no longer fit in the group. His deep friendships in prison had changed him. “I saw the lies behind the ‘truth’ that I had believed with all my heart since I was 14 years old.” Becoming a Nazi is a life-long commitment, punishable by enduring a serious assault if one leaves. When Frank left the movement, he was savagely beaten by the gang, after which time he recovered and had no further dealings with them.

When Frank tried to get work, some places wouldn’t even let him fill out an application because he was covered with tattoos. He ran out of money and finally got a job moving furniture for an antique dealer. The owner of the business happened to be Jewish. Frank wasn’t the first troubled kid this man had tried to save by giving him a job. His employer knew Frank was a ninth grade drop out, a convict on parole, and a neo-Nazi, yet he was kind, generous, and respectful to Frank. He blew Frank’s last prejudicial stereotype to bits.

As Frank’s transformation continued, his narrow life broadened, and he began to meet people of different races, religions and ethnicities, people he had never actually encountered before, that he had only known through his bigoted beliefs. These experiences helped Frank to understand that hatred, his own and that of others is caused by fear and ignorance.

Today Frank is living a life that was inconceivable to him when he was in his teens. He has dedicated himself to service and his primary focus is on youths in need of responsible support, guidance, and a sense of belonging. Traveling throughout the country Frank has become a much sought-after speaker whose words of inspiration and recovery have been received by thousands of people of all ages. He has been a speaker for the Anti Defamation League, and has spoken at many universities and conferences. Frank also started an organization in which black and white kids from different parts of Philadelphia, who would otherwise grow up to hate each other, learn to play hockey, get to know each other, and work together. He calls it “Harmony Through Hockey.” He is their head coach.

Frank tried to find respect by being like those whom others feared. What he learned was that respect comes from treating others respectfully. He told us that in sharing his story, his pain, and his shame with others, a common bond is created that enhances the lives of everyone involved. “It’s the simple things: keeping your promises, treating people the way you want to be treated, and doing good things for others. What goes around comes around. You always get paid back for whatever you do.”

Frank has written a book called Autobiography of a Recovering Skinhead: The Frank Meeink Story, published by Hawthorne Books in 2009. His website is: FrankMeeink.com.