Eleven years came and went, and subscriptions giveaway!


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Came from i3xbeta and never left, it's been amazing to see how far Neowin has come, how it's evolved from a windows site to a tech site and then to a community, how it survived the flame wars, and keeps getting better.

I've been so tied up in the upgrade, that could have gone smoother in my opinion, that I completely missed making a post for October 1st which marked eleven years of Neowin!

We started our upgrade on Sunday 25th of September, and the forums were mostly offline for the two days that followed. And after that, as you may know, many basic forum features didn't work properly, it has literally taken us this long up until this week to sort out those issues, and we still have a list of things that need doing (like syncing main page avatars with the forum ones, among others).

Anyway, what has happened in the last year then?

Tom Warren, who had been here almost from the start went off to launch his own website: winrumors.com on the 25th of October last year, and has done really well since. I always knew he'd do well, and I wish him all the best with that venture, he seems to have made a huge impact already, like he did here at Neowin for the nine years previous.

Tim Kimberl (Timan) stepped down from the developer team, at the end of last month after nine years of making Neowin look great, but he did agree to help us with the upgrade and support Pegasus, which he has done, only yesterday he applied a fix for the main page, so I'm really glad he's still available for those things.

It's not all bad though,

We hired John Callaham back in May to write for Neowin full time, and he has managed to double the amount of content for our main page, starting of with an emphasis on gaming, which is the area he comes from, but that has steadily progressed to tech news and even a couple of editorials that have been very good to read.

The feedback from that decision has been mostly positive, so I feel we're moving in the right direction on that front

And last but not least, our staff team.

In all the years of doing Neowin, I have had to deal mostly with volunteer staff, but never has there been a time quite like the last year that I really feel I'm dealing more and more with professionals, so kudos to the whole staff team for that and making my life bearable!

I say this every year, but we wouldn't be where we are today if not for the support of our members and staff, so give yourselves a big pat on the back, you deserve it, and I can only hope the same level of support continues well into the 2010's and beyond.

Now for a giveaway

Ten Tier 2 subscriptions are up for grabs, these are for new members that have registered here on Neowin after October 1st 2011.

To qualify:

  • You must have more than ten posts, that are on topic and helpful (by Oct 23rd when the draw is made)
  • You must enter your intent to take part in the draw in this topic

And also another ten Tier 2 subscriptions for current members who joined before October 1st 2011.

There will be a random draw of ten people who replied to this topic with their own memories of their time here, or how you found Neowin for example, everyone can participate, current subscribers (if drawn) will have their subscription upgraded from Tier 1 to Tier 2 and extended for another year, members will get a year Tier 2, which is ad free and adds a "special" forum among other enhancements for your experience here.

The draw will be made on Sunday October 23rd, and winners announced here.

Thanks again everyone, on behalf of the whole team we appreciate it.

I'm far from one of the *oldest heads*, though I have been around since 2003.

The discussions have gotten spirited, have occaisionally gotten out of control - however, Neowin is never NEVER dull! (Not even in the Apple forums.)

Congratulations on eleven wonderful years!

Just dropping in to congratulate the site Admins for creating and maintaining a giant forum. It's not always easy (I know :p), but you seem to do an excellent job.

As for why I joined myself, hmm, I guess because I'm into IT, and this is a great site for people like me. As you can see it's mostly lurking I do though :|

But anyway, good luck to everyone entering the draw. :)

I used to go onto a MSNChat site called TG007. They used to be involved in mIRC Scripting and other tech news. I always saw Neowin being quoted as a source in their news posts so I thought, why not go check it out! I lurked for ages until I finally decided to register to do a few posts here and there. I go on neowin pretty much instantly as soon as I open my browser. That's how much I enjoy the forum :p

Wow guys I would buy a subscription soon because I have been in this for 8 years now.

Go for it:

https://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?app=subscriptions

Found the place long before I signed up, Kept looking up how to repair things and I always every single time ended up on Neowin, So eventually when the gamefaq forum became to much of a childish place for me moved full time to posting and trolling around Neowin. Been here ever since

Congrandz neobond and neowin, I won already (err was probably finger pointed :p ) in a previous giveaway! So just giving thanks. Neowin always has 99.9% of the answers for anything I ask and if not, I get pointed where too. The people here, even teh trolls seem a heck of a lot nicer than anywhere else.

Let's hear it for another 11 years!!!

I heard about Neowin from a friend something like a year ago. I was looking for a good tech news site at the time because I wasn't really interested in most news, only the tech variation. Anyway I read the site for a few days and really like the articles even if they were late (I didn't notice). I signed up then, and for a while I was obsessed with posting in the forums, but now I usually just read articles unless I see something interesting in the real world news section of the forums. I hope you don't disqualify me for winning that Auslogistics Boost Pro contest a few days ago. Anyway I love Neowin and I would love to win the contest.

I finally got round to setting up a profile in 2003, but had been lurking for a good while before then, so without realising I was probably reading straight from the start! (not that you'd notice it from my post count - probably for the best as I seem to be a bit of thread-killer!)

Found Neowin via links from Warp2Search which used to be my homepage, wasn't long before I realised that I was spending more time here than at Warp, so from that moment on Neowin has been my homepage. Now I feel old :D

Well, I have been a on neowin for years. I rember years ago when the site was having major issues with hosting and it did look like at the time neowin would fold. I spoke to neobond via chat about it at the time.

But I am glad its still ive and ticking today and getting better all the time. I do miss all the fun from back when longhorn was around as all the leaks and info was great.

I'm definitely not a veteran here like some others, but in the short time I've been a part of this community I've really enjoyed myself. Neowin is the only forum I visit on a daily basis and I can thank the community for that.

Neowin is definitely a great place to be with tons of people ready to help you at any given moment.

Amazing to think how long i've been here. I don't see myself not visiting here though.

It is actually compared to some forums a quite sensible community.

I don't post as often as some people, i like to think most of my comments are on topic and interesting though.

i joined mainly because of the windows news =] im pretty sure i joined b4 i did but was lost when something crashed, oh back 10+ years ago, i cant rember but have had fun here even if it took me 10 years to get 1000 posts =D

This topic is now closed to further replies.
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Then place the DWARF mini outside, make sure your smartphone or tablet is connected to it, and then head back inside, because you can manage it from the comfort of your home. Simply enter the Atlas tab in the app and search for what you want to capture, and then tap on the camera icon; the DWARF mini will then attempt to track the object and give you a live view right on your connected device. Results I've had the DWARF mini since April, but even though my garden is south-facing, I had a lot of trouble trying to capture a good image of the moon. In the end, it was possible after I took it with me on a trip to my parents in Southend, UK, at the end of May. Here is a capture of the moon, resulting from 20 stacked images over a 90-second exposure. What you are seeing here is not AI-assisted. A good example of what I mean is the latest flagships with their 200MP cameras claiming to capture things like closeups of the moon, and while they are not as good as the above example on the DWARF mini, the resulting image on smartphones is actually AI-assisted above 30X zoom. Here is an example of a similar shot at the moon at 200X zoom using an HONOR Magic8 Pro. The difference is clear. Next, here we have a shot of the daytime moon. Here is a shot of Arcturus, the red giant star, which is the fourth brightest in the night sky. As previously mentioned, it could be a bit clearer, but clouds passing in front of it muddied the shot a bit. The Sun The DWARF mini also ships with a sun filter, meaning you can take great shots of the sun as well. Tracking Sun Resulting (stacked) shot Live zoom The pictures themselves are limited to Full HD, and some of the examples actually came out in HD (1280x720), but this is because the standard telescopic result is in 720p while "Wide" is in 1080p. Above you can see how in the app the Sun is tracked, the resulting capture, and Live zoom. I have only scratched the surface of what is possible with this telescope; I found several examples online of shots of the Milky Way, among others, such as nebulae and galaxies. All of this requires patience and knowledge, although if you know what you are looking for, simply enter it in the Atlas tab in the DWARFLAB app, tap the camera icon, and the telescope will attempt to track it. Conclusion The good The DWARF mini definitely places itself in a price point that makes astrology accessible to anyone looking to get started in the hobby. Say you want to have a closer look at the moon, simply enter it in the Atlas, and the Live view also lets you zoom in and snap pictures. The bad Some issues I came across while operating the DWARF mini were that it sometimes failed to connect unless I held my smartphone right next to it, and finding and tracking sometimes took several attempts to get it calibrated. I discovered that it helped if I sort of positioned and pointed the telescope in the general area it was supposed to detect, but this obviously wouldn't work with objects you can't see with the naked eye; more testing is required for that. Another bit of advice is to ensure that the lens is clean. While making the examples of live zooming on the sun, I discovered that the telescope lens and sun filter were not completely clean, and only after cleaning with a microfiber cloth was I able to get a decent shot of the sun. Where to buy and a coupon Okay, $399 is not cheap for a side hobby, but nor is a $1,500 smartphone flagship that you'll most likely have for a couple of years. This is a one-time entrance into astrology, and it won't become obsolete in one year like a smartphone. It's a thumbs up from me. The DWARF mini is available to buy right now in the U.S. and U.K. at the links below. DWARF mini for $399 on the official site DWARF mini for $399 on Amazon U.S. Use the NEOWIN5OFF coupon code for an additional 5% off at checkout (expires June 21) As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
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    • The name, you mean? If so, it's actually the objects common name. There's another one called NGC 7293 which is also known as Helix Nebula (because we're looking at a helix structure top down) but other times also known as the Eye of God. You'll understand when you see it
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