Neowin HP Magic Giveaway winners


Recommended Posts

You missed my point, my post could not ruin the competition as it the competition was over with and it would be impossible for me to single handedly ruin the competition, not only me but for most anyone else. What you probably intended is a ruining of a congradulatory thread. But this thread was not entitled as such nor would it preclude someone posting contradictory points of view. To even suggest a blocking of such points of view points to your intolerance of other's points of view.

Let me break it down, Barney the purple dinosaur style for you, since this is apparently a monumental concept for you to grasp.

Let’s use the Oscars as a real world example. Recently, Kanye West (you) lost some awards at the Oscars (Neowin competition), and whined about losing and not getting the appreciation he (you) “should” have deserved for his (your) glorious work.

This in turn, looked disgraceful on the Oscars reputation (Neowin competition) to the public. But, in actuality it made Kanye West (you) look like a turd-sandwich for being a sore loser (or in your words, "contradictory point of view").

The bottom line is, in the next competition (if there ever will be one), the moderators/administrators will have a different outlook on Neowin community, since this is the type of reaction they would receive from some members. So, give yourself a pat on the back for accomplishing that, Turion.

barney.jpg

If I was a mod i'd be going through this thread hitting the ****ing ban button so fast peoples heads would spin. Seriously. What a bunch of whinny little bitches.

+10,000

Turion please just stfu?

You painted a doormat. Get over it.

TBH I think that if we're going for magic here the one with the glass beads and metal NeoWin looked the best, but they were all great :)

Congrats to all involved (barring whiney bitches :p)

Congrats to the winners :-)

I havet to say though, that such competitions tend to reward the wealthy and time-rich (e.g. 1st place).

If I was the owner of a bunch of Yachts and were to take a picture of them on the sea in Neowin-Formation from my helicopter, I most likely would soon be the new owner of the first price. It is flawed from the beginning. And if you wanned the winner to be the one with the most effort, the judges would have to be basic-school teachers :-).

I can live with it, because i already have everything i need in my life and more :-), but i can understand, that some people, who dont own much (no yard, no fancy camera) might feel disappointed.

P.S.: my entry was the one with my white sheet on my bed in Neowin-formation, i thought it had the nice metamessage of "something more" :-P

^

There aren't that many people who associate farmers with wealthy and having a bunch of yachts :p

As for fancy cameras, my uncle's 20-year-old camera could produce the same effects as some of the entries. Granted, I would have to print the result out and scan it.. :D

^

There aren't that many people who associate farmers with wealthy and having a bunch of yachts :p

As for fancy cameras, my uncle's 20-year-old camera could produce the same effects as some of the entries. Granted, I would have to print the result out and scan it.. :D

Well they are landowners, it is at least something compared to people who just might be able to affort a shared student-flat on lown. But that was not the point, the point was that the more money you have, the easier you can takle all kind of obsticles, wich is just how life is. I only even mentioned it because it is Christmastime and it was titled something "magic" so i really did think of the poor ones (not me), which might have taken part in the competition and are now disappointed. If one of those was to complain about the first entries, i think they wouldn't deserve to be called "sore loosers", just my 2 Cent. :)

Let me break it down, Barney the purple dinosaur style for you, since this is apparently a monumental concept for you to grasp.

Let?s use the Oscars as a real world example. Recently, Kanye West (you) lost some awards at the Oscars (Neowin competition), and whined about losing and not getting the appreciation he (you) ?should? have deserved for his (your) glorious work.

This in turn, looked disgraceful on the Oscars reputation (Neowin competition) to the public. But, in actuality it made Kanye West (you) look like a turd-sandwich for being a sore loser (or in your words, "contradictory point of view").

The bottom line is, in the next competition (if there ever will be one), the moderators/administrators will have a different outlook on Neowin community, since this is the type of reaction they would receive from some members. So, give yourself a pat on the back for accomplishing that, Turion.

barney.jpg

You clearly misunderstood my posts and have a skewed perception of the posts and me. Calling me a turd does not help your point. However, you support my point about intolerance. I've not disgraced myself, merely expressed how I didnt' think some of the entries were appropriately judged. THAT's ALL I SAID about that. I was not out of line nor unappreciative of other's work. I've posted as such, please do yourself a favor and not over react by posting such in un-civil posts.

+10,000

Turion please just stfu?

You painted a doormat. Get over it.

TBH I think that if we're going for magic here the one with the glass beads and metal NeoWin looked the best, but they were all :)eat :)

Congrats to all involved (barring whiney bi:phes :p)

Please read the above response to a similiar post as yours and apply to yourself. Merry Christmas, have a good:)ay. :)

Edited by Turion
You clearly misunderstood my posts and have a skewed perception of the posts and me. Calling me a turd does not help your point. However, you support my point about intolerance. I've not disgraced myself, merely expressed how I didnt' think some of the entries were appropriately judged. THAT's ALL I SAID about that. I was not out of line nor unappreciative of other's work. I've posted as such, please do yourself a favor and not over react by posting such in un-civil posts.

Blah, blah, blah...

It’s education time, Turion. Seems you lack of it.

1) Ignorance: the state or fact of being ignorant: lack of knowledge, education, or awareness

2) Selfish: concerned excessively or exclusively with oneself: seeking or concentrating on one's own advantage, pleasure, or well-being without regard for others

First, you come here boasting about how your entry was better than the selected winners. Then you get slapped in the face by the moderators, whom probably told you to stop being arrogant and respect their decision. It was a democratic process after all. But no, this did not hinder you in any way. You still continued to act the same throughout, a way of being ignorant and selfish. You lost, get over it and quit whining. I find it funny how you call me being intolerant; do you even know what it means? It applies to you more than me. If you find my post offensive, you can get over that as well. This is the Internet, not your little Mr. Rogers' World.

So, stop being pretentious and accept that you were and still are... wrong.

Even if this is your edited reply, it pretty much still makes you a disgrace to this competition, and possibly this community.

I would like to know how my entry ranked at the very least. I did put a bit of thought and effort into mine more so than a Kiwi fruit cut out. The only thing I see that the horse field had over my entry was the sheer size of it. I believe I put more creativity into my entry than the vast majority. So at lest tell me how I ranked.

And I rather upset that someone could merely make a design from snow on the ground and be second place. like a number entries I put money and effort into my design. pfft.

So, here's your options.

a) report my post and possibly get it deleted if the moderator find it out of taste, or

b) apologize to the winners and accept you lost, or

c) continue being a turd by defending your stance...

edit: oh and Merry Christmas,

MrHankey.jpg

Edited by NeptuneSaK

Thanks to all the positive comments, below is just an explanation to the negative comments...

i spent a total of $15 AUD on my entry, the cans of line marking paint were $5 each

the sawdust was free, my parents spent 4 hours shoveling it from the back of a furniture making shop a few months ago into bags so it can be used in the horse stables, they said i can use as many bags as i want for my project as long as i give them a hand collecting it next time they need more

if i didn't use my parents backyard i would have asked a friend or relative

as for my camera it is one of the cheapest SLR's you can own, and i used a fisheye lense filter, its a 10th of the price of a fisheye lense

so $15 for paint (which i think most of you could afford), asking permission to use someones backyard, sourcing a cheap/free product and 2 afternoons after work... its not too expensive or hard

edited for civility[/img]

dude you go to great lengths to insult yet you havent' read my posts. I'm not going to apologize nor was I a "turd". You seem to enjoy insulting others as an outlet. Just get over it. Move on.

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Posts

    • BATorrent 4.1.0 by Razvan Serea BATorrent is a lightweight, open-source BitTorrent client built with modern C++ and Qt 6, offering a clean, fast, and privacy-focused alternative to traditional torrent apps. It supports magnet links, .torrent files, resume data, sequential downloading, per-file priorities, and even imports from qBittorrent. Power users benefit from integrated RSS auto-download with regex filtering, duplicate detection, and automatic tracker lists from Stremio. Streaming is seamless thanks to auto-detected players like VLC and IINA. BATorrent includes robust VPN tools—interface binding, auto-detection for WireGuard-based services like Mullvad and NordLynx, kill switch, proxy support, and IP filtering. A full WebUI enables remote control, while integrations with Plex, Jellyfin, and Emby automate library updates. With themes, speed scheduling, system-tray alerts, and cross-platform support for Windows, Linux, and macOS, BATorrent delivers a polished, high-performance torrenting experience. BATorrent features: Core .torrent file and magnet link support Resume data — picks up where you left off after restart Import torrents from qBittorrent Create .torrent files from any file or folder Sequential download mode Per-file priority control (skip, low, normal, high) Seed ratio limits with auto-pause DHT, PEX, UPnP, NAT-PMP RSS Auto-Download Subscribe to RSS feeds — automatically download new torrents as they appear Regex filters — match only what you want (e.g. 1080p|720p, S01E\d+) Per-feed settings — custom save path, check interval (5–1440 min), enable/disable Auto-download — matched items are downloaded automatically in the background Supports magnet links, .torrent URLs, and tags Tray notifications when items are auto-downloaded Duplicate detection — never downloads the same item twice Stremio Stremio Addon System pre-installed — works out of the box Auto tracker list from ngosang/trackerslist Streaming Play while downloading — stream video files before the download is complete Supports mp4, mkv, avi, mov, wmv, flv, webm, m4v, ts Auto-detects installed players (VLC, IINA, system default) VPN & Privacy Interface binding — lock torrent traffic to a specific network interface (e.g. tun0) Auto VPN detection — identifies VPN interfaces (tun, tap, WireGuard, Mullvad, NordLynx, ProtonVPN) Kill switch — automatically pauses all torrents if the VPN interface drops Auto-resume — resumes only the torrents paused by the kill switch when VPN reconnects Proxy support — SOCKS5 and HTTP proxy with optional authentication IP filtering — load P2P blocklists to block unwanted IP ranges Protocol encryption (enabled / forced / disabled) WebUI Remote management — control torrents from any browser at http://localhost:8080 REST API with JSON responses Add torrents via magnet link or .torrent upload Pause, resume, remove torrents remotely View peers and files per torrent Dark theme matching the desktop app HTTP Basic Auth with SHA-256 password hashing Configurable port and remote access (localhost vs 0.0.0.0) Interface 3 themes: Dark, Light, Midnight (bat/vampire aesthetic) Real-time speed graph Detailed panel with tabs: General, Peers, Files, Trackers Filter bar: search by name, filter by state (Active, Downloading, Seeding, Paused, Finished) Drag & drop .torrent files and magnet links Drag & drop reorder in torrent list System tray with notifications (download complete, kill switch events, RSS auto-downloads) Splash screen with bat animation Bilingual: English and Portuguese (BR), auto-detected from system locale Bandwidth Scheduler Alternative speed limits — set different download/upload limits on a schedule Time range — configure active hours (e.g. 01:00 to 07:00), supports overnight ranges Per-day control — choose which days of the week the schedule applies Automatically switches between normal and alternative speeds Media Server Integration Plex — automatically trigger library scan when a download completes Jellyfin / Emby — same automatic library refresh via API Configure server URL and authentication token/key in Settings System Cross-platform: Windows, Linux, macOS Auto-shutdown — automatically shut down PC when all downloads complete (60s cancellable countdown) Auto-update system (AppImage on Linux, installer on Windows, DMG on macOS) CLI arguments: pass .torrent files or magnet: URIs directly Keyboard shortcuts: Space to toggle pause, Ctrl+A to select all, Ctrl+O to open BATorrent 4.1.0 release notes: A community-driven release: everything here came straight from your reports and requests. It closes the remaining gaps with qBittorrent and fixes the Windows settings/tray/splash issues several of you hit. Fixed Settings now actually save. A whole class of preferences — speed limits (and the alternative limits), max active downloads, seed ratio, listen port, max connections, DHT/uTP/encryption, VPN interface, kill switch and proxy — weren't being persisted and reset to defaults on every launch. They now round-trip correctly. (Thanks to everyone who reported "the upload limit always goes back to 0".) Splash and tray toggles stick on Windows. Turning off the startup animation (or "close to tray") no longer reverts — the Windows registry stored these booleans as integers and the UI was misreading them. Close-to-tray hint. The first time the window hides to the tray you get a one-time notification, so the app doesn't look like it vanished (Windows 11 tucks new tray icons into the overflow). macOS Dock icon size. The icon filled its canvas edge-to-edge and rendered larger than neighbouring apps; it now uses the standard safe-area padding. Native file picker language. The "Torrent file / All files" filter in the open dialog follows the app language instead of being hard-coded. Added — qBittorrent parity Alternative speed limits toggle — a turtle button in the toolbar flips your throttled limits on/off instantly, independent of the scheduler. Follow system theme — switch light/dark automatically with the OS (Settings → Appearance). Pre-allocate disk space — reserve the full file size up front to reduce fragmentation (Settings → Downloads). Recheck data on add — optionally force a hash check when adding a torrent, so existing or partial files on disk are detected. Port status indicator — a 🔴 dot in the status bar shows whether your listen port looks reachable (UPnP/NAT-PMP + listen state; fully local, no external check). Add torrent from URL — File → Add torrent from URL (Ctrl+U) fetches a remote .torrent and routes it through the normal add dialog. Export .torrent — right-click a torrent → Export .torrent to save its metadata file. Already there (in case you missed it) Watch folder — auto-add .torrent files dropped into a monitored directory (Settings → Files). This release just surfaces it. Incomplete files already carry a .!bt suffix until they finish. Under the hood Regression tests for the settings-persistence and Windows boolean bugs. A new Qt Quick Test harness covering the startup splash and the design-system widgets. Download: BATorrent 4.1.0 | 37.5 MB (Open Source) Download: BATorrent Portable | 51.7 MB Links: BATorrent Website | Screenshot | Changelog Get alerted to all of our Software updates on Twitter at @NeowinSoftware
    • Disabling open on hover, great! That was so stupid! They need to do a fix, where if a network share is disconnected, it doesn't hang when opening "This PC" for 20 seconds.
    • Microsoft releases major feature updates for stock Windows 11 apps by Taras Buria In addition to releasing new Windows 11 preview builds, Microsoft announced that inbox Windows apps now have dedicated release notes in the official documentation. At long last, users have access to all the release notes for each app, with changes listed in chronological order. Microsoft used to announce feature updates for stock apps with each build. Now, with Windows Insider release notes hosted on the Microsoft Learn website, each app has a dedicated space for its changelog, which is very useful for those who want to track new features and improvements. Alongside that, Microsoft dropped massive feature updates for six stock apps: Clock, Media Player, Calculator, Voice Recorder, Photos, and Paint. Each app packs quite a lot of changes and new capabilities, so here are the release notes. Here are quick notes so that you can jump to the app you are interested in the most: Calculator Camera Clock Media Player Paint Photos Sound Recorder Here is what is new for the Calculator in version 11.2605.9.0: More accurate square-root results — Fixed rare cases where a calculation that should equal zero (like sqrt(2.25) - 1.5) returned a tiny leftover value instead. Readable text in High Contrast themes — Settings text now shows the correct colors in the High Contrast Aquatic and Desert themes. Fixed layout for right-to-left languages — For languages like Arabic and Hebrew, the graph, number pad, equation fields, and scroll buttons now appear correctly oriented. Reliable launch after upgrading — Fixed an issue where upgrading from much older versions could leave outdated settings that stopped the app from opening. Here is what is new for the Camera app (version 2026.2605.7.0): Zoom slider works on more cameras — The zoom slider now works on the latest cameras, respects your system zoom settings, and updates instantly when you change those settings. Full range of zoom levels — Fixed an issue where the zoom slider only showed three steps on some devices that zoom in finer increments. Front camera works on more devices — Resolved a problem that blocked the front-facing camera on certain wide-angle devices. More video resolution choices — You can now pick video resolutions that were previously hidden; the app shows a heads-up warning instead of removing them. QR links you can still use — When a scanned QR code points to something with no matching app, the link is now copied to your clipboard (with a notification) while still offering a Store search. Smarter default settings — When you haven't set a preference, the app now follows your system settings by default. The Clock app has a massive changelog with the following improvements in version 11.2605.9.0: Timers keep counting after they hit zero — When a timer runs out, it now keeps counting up (for example, -00:27:31) so you can see how far past the time you've gone. You can turn off the daily goal — Focus Sessions now include an "Off" option so you can skip setting a daily goal entirely. New 15-minute snooze option — Alarms now offer a 15-minute snooze interval. Run up to 3 countdowns at once — The Countdown Widget now supports three simultaneous countdowns, up from two. Timer Widget notifications now appear — Fixed an issue where the "timer finished" notification didn't show when the timer was started from the widget. Less clutter in Focus Sessions — Tasks you've already completed no longer show up in the Focus Session task list. More accurate focus progress — Fixed a rounding issue that could show your daily focus progress as a minute short (for example, 49 minutes instead of 50). Smoother World Clock comparisons — The World Clock compare page now loads dates as you scroll, so it feels more responsive. Up-to-date World Clock locations — Refreshed country and city names to match their current names. Correct sun and moon icons during midnight sun — Fixed an icon that wrongly showed a moon during all-day daylight in polar regions. Fixed back-button behavior in clock comparisons — Pressing back once now takes you back as expected, instead of jumping the date to 1926. Corrected the Newfoundland time zone — Newfoundland now uses the right time zone (St. John's). Disabled alarms stay looking disabled — Editing a turned-off alarm no longer makes it appear turned on. Cleaner timer cards — The expand button is now turned off on timer cards that have no time set, preventing actions that wouldn't do anything. Clearer theme setting — Updated the wording to "Choose your preferred app theme." Smoother Settings links — The "About" links in Settings no longer trigger an unexpected "switch apps" prompt. Fixed spacing in Spotify settings — Corrected uneven spacing in the Spotify settings card. Better focus visibility in High Contrast — The focus highlight in World Clock is now clearly visible in the High Contrast Aquatic and Desert themes. No more double announcements — Screen readers no longer read the timer value twice. Countdown names read correctly — Screen readers now properly announce the name of each countdown. Keyboard focus stays put — Focus no longer disappears after you press the Timer Reset button. Clearer alarm toggle for screen readers — Tidied up how the alarm on/off switch is announced. The Media Player app received plenty of changes as well (version 11.2605.14.0): Custom captions — You can now personalize how closed captions appear, with caption styling tied to your Windows caption settings, plus a quick link to open those settings directly. "Indexing" banner in the play queue — When your media library is still being scanned, a banner now explains why some items may not appear yet. Fixed the look of selected items — Corrected a layout glitch with selected items in lists. Fewer playback failures — Improved how the app recognizes supported file types, so more files play without issues. Playlists need a name — You can no longer accidentally save a playlist with a blank name. Cleaner look for empty playlists — Improved how a playlist appears when it has no items yet. More stable play queue edits — Fixed a crash that could happen when changing the play queue while the app was switching between sessions. Clearer "missing codec" message — Improved the dialog that appears when a file needs a codec you don't have, with clearer guidance on what to do. A big update is also available for Paint in version 11.2605.61.0: Adjustable eraser transparency — You can now control how transparent the eraser is. Cleaner stamp brush strokes — Fixed visible color shifts and artifacts when using stamp-style brushes. JPEG photos save in place — Opening a rotated JPEG and pressing Save now overwrites the original instead of unexpectedly prompting "Save As." No more crash on bad image files — Opening a damaged or invalid image, from within the app, by double click, or commandline, now shows a clear error message instead of closing the app. Classic selection behavior restored — The selection outline now hides while you move, resize, or rotate a selection, just like in classic Paint. Tidier AI image panel — Fixed missing spacing at the bottom of the AI image generation panel for a cleaner layout. Visible button hover in light theme — Toolbar split buttons now show a clear hover highlight in the light theme. Snappier toolbar — Streamlined how the ribbon lays out, giving a small speed boost at startup. Fewer background crashes — Fixed a crash that could happen while background tasks were finishing up. Stable app shutdown — Prevented rare crashes when closing the app. Fixed layer removal glitch — Deleting the active layer no longer leaves the layers list in an inconsistent state. Here is what is new in the Photos app (version 2026.11060.2004.0): AI watermarking — AI-generated or edited images can now carry a visible Copilot watermark. You choose Never, Always, or Ask Every Time in Settings, with a confirmation when saving. The watermarking is off by default in settings. Better viewing of small images and pixel art — Tiny images (like 16×16 pixel art) now zoom in far more to fill the screen and stay crisp instead of looking blurry. Select scanned text with the keyboard — When text is detected in an image, you can now navigate and select it using the arrow keys, Shift+Arrow, Home/End, and Ctrl+A, with a clear focus highlight. Fixed a crash in text recognition — Resolved a crash that could close Photos while detecting text in images; the app now recovers gracefully. Easier keyboard navigation — Tabbing through the navigation bar no longer stops on hidden controls, so it takes a single Tab to move past it instead of three. And finally, here is the Sound Recorder (version 11.2605.1.0): Waveform shows with Bluetooth mics — The live waveform now displays correctly when you record using a Bluetooth audio device. No more stray scrollbar — A non-working horizontal scrollbar no longer appears at the bottom of the waveform unless you've zoomed in. Mark button ready right away — The Mark button no longer looks grayed out until you hover over it after opening the app. Markers hidden for WAV files — Markers are now turned off for WAV recordings, since that format can't store them — so they're no longer lost silently. Smoother deleting — Quickly pressing Delete and Enter to remove several recordings in a row no longer triggers a "file doesn't exist" error. Fixed a memory issue — Resolved a memory leak that occurred each time a recording started. You can find all these changelogs in the official documentation here.
    • again, an article about Microsoft Edge and ridicules hater's comments
    • From this very same article: "For organizations that prefer a “more deliberate pace”, the Extended Stable channel remains an option."
  • Recent Achievements

    • Very Popular
      AndrewSteel earned a badge
      Very Popular
    • Veteran
      Taliseian went up a rank
      Veteran
    • One Month Later
      Clizby earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • One Month Later
      Timaximus earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • Week One Done
      Timaximus earned a badge
      Week One Done
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      514
    2. 2
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      170
    3. 3
      +Edouard
      162
    4. 4
      Steven P.
      84
    5. 5
      ATLien_0
      78
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!