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The Bank of England is using Facebook and Twitter to help set interest rates

When you’re the central bank in charge of determining interest rates for millions of UK inhabitants, being able to predict economic trends is of paramount importance. To do this, the Bank of England has numerous tools at its disposal, but research often depends on assessing trends from the past. In an attempt to become a little more timely, the Bank has set up a special taskforce that will begin scraping internet searches and social networks like Facebook and Twitter for clues about the state of Britain’s economy at any given time. According to Sky News , the world’s eighth oldest bank will now assess the frequency of job searches and monitor prices online to understand potential unemployment rates and monitor inflation. It will also gauge language used on social networks to better understand the state of some financial markets. It’s another example of the shift towards “big data, ” where companies collect and analyse huge sets of digital data rather than use traditional database techniques to detect patterns as they happen. The Bank of England says it used these techniques to help impose new controls on the housing market earlier in the year, and hopes this “big shift from the past” will help it better judge Britain’s financial status in the future. [Image credit: Bank of England, Flickr ] Filed under: Internet Comments Via: Sky News

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The Bank of England is using Facebook and Twitter to help set interest rates

Russia wants to collect the DNA of every creature

Institutions have already been amassing huge DNA collections to catalog the world’s creatures, but Moscow State University might just top them all. It’s planning to build “Noah’s Ark, ” a repository for the genes of every creature, living or extinct — as long as the genes are readable, they’ll either be cryogenically frozen or stored as pure data. Not surprisingly, it’s going to be a massive undertaking in more ways than one. The Russian government is spending the equivalent of $194 million on the facility, which should occupy an enormous 166 square miles when it’s finished in 2018. The collection won’t just be about bragging rights. The university hopes to spur on a younger generation of scientists, and the Ark will connect to other genetic facilities both across Russia and (hopefully) the world. If all goes smoothly, researchers will always have a way to compare genes and even clone animals that are difficult or impossible to find in the wild. [Image credit: Alamy] Filed under: Science Comments Via: Gizmodo Source: RT News

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Russia wants to collect the DNA of every creature

Toyota reportedly working on a flagship, hydrogen-fueled Lexus limousine

Toyota’s first hydrogen car hasn’t even gone on sale yet here in the US, and already we’re hearing rumors about a follow-up vehicle. According to the Australian website Motoring , the Japanese auto giant is planning on taking the same fuel cell system it used in its mid-range Mirai sedan, and putting it into a higher-end Lexus LS limousine. For the most part, then, the new vehicle will make use of the same technology, though Toyota will apparently have to do some retro-fitting in order to make it work inside the current Lexus LS. (Unlike the LS, the Mirai was built from scratch as a hydrogen car.) If Motoring ‘s report is correct, the new Lexus will have a fuel cell under the front seat, with the hydrogen tanks located behind the rear seat. Also, despite the fact that the LS wasn’t originally designed as a hydrogen vehicle, it will reportedly offer nearly the same range as Toyota’s existing FCEV: 239 miles, versus 300 on the Mirai. No word yet on price or whether this report is even true. And we suspect it could be a while before anyone sets the record straight — the hydrogen-fueled Lexus LS is rumored to launch “by 2017, ” up to two years from now. Filed under: Transportation Comments Via: Autoblog Source: Motoring

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Toyota reportedly working on a flagship, hydrogen-fueled Lexus limousine

Facebook facing class-action lawsuit over unauthorized message scanning

We know: Despite its best attempts at proving otherwise , Facebook and privacy have an oil/water reputation — the latest legal news regarding the company won’t help that any, either. A California judge recently ruled that The Social Network will face a class-action lawsuit following accusations that it peeked at users’ private messages without consent to deliver targeted advertising. Facebook tried to dismiss the claims, saying that it didn’t break any laws and that the alleged message scans were protected under an exception in the Electronic Communications Privacy Act , according to Reuters . Which one specifically? That these “interceptions” are lawful if they occur over the “ordinary course” of a service provider’s business. The presiding judge countered, saying that Zuckerberg and Co. failed to offer explanation of how the scans fell under the website’s ordinary course of business. As the lawsuit stands, it’d benefit any Facebook user that’d sent or received links via the site’s private message system in the past two years, as reported by Bloomberg . We’d be remiss if we left out the possible pay-out, though: “as much as” $10, 000 in damages for each user . Multiply that by Facebook’s billion-plus users, carry the one and you come out to a whole lot of money . In less exciting news, the plaintiffs also want the social giant to stop scanning messages moving forward. Sound familiar? Hopefully so, because Google is under similar ( but not class-action ) legal scrutiny for message scanning of its own. The results of both of these cases will almost assuredly have big effects for how we communicate on the web moving forward, and you can bet we’ll be following them closely in the coming year. Update : A Facebook spokesperson declined to comment on the suit. Filed under: Internet , Facebook Comments Source: Reuters , Bloomberg

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Facebook facing class-action lawsuit over unauthorized message scanning

You can now chat on Skype inside Office Online apps

Want to get advice while you’re plugging away at that big report in Office Online? You won’t have to fire up a separate app (or website) any longer. As hinted at by recent leaks , Skype chat is now built into the web productivity suite’s versions of PowerPoint and Word. If you want to share ideas with a colleague, you can keep the conversation running alongside your docs without having to juggle windows or browser tabs. Yes, Google Drive has had a similar option for a while, but this collaboration upgrade is definitely handy if you frequently work in Microsoft’s world. Filed under: Internet , Microsoft Comments Source: Skype

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You can now chat on Skype inside Office Online apps

Google and Microsoft fight hotels’ attempts to block personal WiFi

The battle between hotels and hotspot-toting travelers isn’t over just because Marriott settled a complaint that it blocked personal WiFi — far from it. Google, Microsoft and a US carrier lobbying group (the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association) are opposing a hotel industry petition asking the FCC to let them block guests’ hotspots while they’re on the premises. Google and its allies contend that the hospitality business is not only trying to make customers pay for expensive WiFi, but to effectively take control of unlicensed wireless frequencies. Everyone has “equal rights” to use those airwaves, the carriers say. Hoteliers are mostly repeating Marriott’s arguments. They claim they need blocking to provide a “secure and reliable” connection for guests, and that they’re using FCC-approved gear designed to fight interference and intruders. The FCC hasn’t yet weighed in on this latest battle, but the hotels may have a tough fight ahead of them given the reasoning that led to the recent settlement. Officials didn’t believe that Marriott’s security claims held water, and they argued that the company was trying to charge customers for internet access they already had. Unless the federal agency has a change of heart, there’s a greater chance that you’ll get to use your own hotspot in the future. [Image credit: AP Photo/Mark Humphrey] Filed under: Wireless , Networking , Mobile , Microsoft , Google Comments Via: Recode , NetworkWorld Source: FCC (1) , (2)

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Google and Microsoft fight hotels’ attempts to block personal WiFi

Lens-free microscope lets almost anyone spot cancer

High-powered microscopes are useful for spotting cancer and other diseases in cells, but they’re expensive and complicated. Your local physicians probably won’t have a microscope on hand, and you’ll probably need at least some skill to use one. However, UCLA scientists have developed a lens-free microscope that could put this tissue scanning power in the hands of many more people. The device creates a holograph-like image of your sample using a CCD or CMOS sensor (like that from your camera) to detect shadow patterns cast by a light source, and reconstructs them in software to present what you’d actually see. The result is a microscope that’s just as effective as its conventional optical brethren, but should also be much cheaper and simpler. The tech won’t be truly ready for a while. As senior author Aydogan Ozcan tells the LA Times , there’s a lot of spit-and-polish necessary before the software is truly easy to use. Should everything go according to plan, though, it could do a lot to make cancer detection more accessible. At a minimum, it would let medical staff in small or remote offices get a snapshot of your cells, rather than having to send you to specialists. And ideally, the lensless telescope will help both in education and “citizen-science” activities — you might not diagnose yourself, but you could contribute data to a large research project without leaving home. [Image credit: Aydogan Ozcan] Filed under: Cameras , Science Comments Via: LA Times Source: UCLA , Science

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Lens-free microscope lets almost anyone spot cancer

NASA wants to build airship cities in the Venus sky

Since Venus is closer to Earth than Mars — both in size and distance — it would be a much more convenient candidate for manned exploration . There’s just a slight hitch: the average temperature is 850 degrees F, and the atmosphere is 90 times denser than ours. In other words, you’d die in the opposite way that Quaid nearly did in Total Recall . Probes have been sent to the planet’s surface, but the Russian Venera 13 survived the longest at just 127 minutes in 1982. As it does, NASA has figured a way around all that. In IEEE Spectrum , it outlined a study called HAVOC to build a floating “city” of astronaut-manned zeppelins that would hover 30 miles above the planet. At such an altitude, the pressure would be the same as Earth’s at sea level and the temperature would be a still scorching, but manageable 165 degrees F. What’s more, radiation levels would be much less than those on Mars — about the same as Canada gets. The travel length would also be much shorter, solar power would be plentiful, the atmosphere is extremely buoyant for blimps and there would be an option to abort the mission early and return home. After a risky arrival, where the goal is most definitely to not land, astronauts would be able stay for 30 days in 400-foot blimps powered by 10, 000 square feet of solar panels. Venus remains one of the least studied planets in our solar system, so scientists could learn about the planet’s runaway greenhouse effect and study its highly acidic atmosphere. The airships could also bring robotic landers to study the soil and other factors on the surface. So far, there’s no plan to turn the study into an actual manned mission, particularly since NASA is focused strictly on Mars . But the space agency’s Dale Arney said “given that Venus’ upper atmosphere is a fairly hospitable destination, we think it’s… probably no worse than the second planet you might go to behind Mars.” Filed under: Science Comments Via: CNET Source: IEEE Spectrum

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NASA wants to build airship cities in the Venus sky

Instagram purges spam fake accounts, costing celebs millions of followers

Instagram has made good on its promise to start purging inactive, fake and spam accounts this December, and it’s doing such a great job that users are calling it “Instagram Rapture” or “Instapurge.” Celebrities ended up losing a big chunk of their followers, like Justin Bieber whose Belieber count went down by 3.5 million, according to the list created by software developer Zach Allia. Ariana Grande’s numbers are also down by 1.5 million, while Kim Kardashian lost 1.3 million fake minions. Someone named chiragchirag78 even went from boasting 4 million fans to have only eight left — poor user was so devastated, he ended up deleting his account. But it’s still Instagram itself that’s suffered the worst blow, shedding almost 19 million followers in the process. Since Instagram’s efforts are sitewide, even ordinary people’s follower counts are affected. And while many praised the Facebook-owned service for cracking down on spambots (thereby exposing those who’ve purchased fake followers), there’s an army of slighted users, as well. Some are continuing to post a barrage of insults and profanities on Instagram’s official account, while others are campaigning for people to unfollow it. What these angry users might not know, though, is that the service deactivated those fake accounts and spambots long ago, an Instagram spokesperson told Business Insider . The service is merely removing them for good. Filed under: Misc Comments Via: The Verge Source: Business Insider , The New York Times

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Instagram purges spam fake accounts, costing celebs millions of followers

MSI GT72 Dominator review: a worthy successor to a great gaming notebook

The last time I saw MSI’s Dominator laptop, I was sick of it . There wasn’t anything wrong with it, but at the time, the product name belonged to the GT70: a powerhouse gaming machine that hasn’t evolved much since its introduction in 2012. Back then, I loved the machine’s heavy chassis, superb keyboard and excellent sound — but over time, the machine’s aesthetic trappings began to bore me. Someone at MSI must have felt the same way: Earlier this year, the company released the GT72, a new Dominator with a whole new design. Soon after, it relaunched the machine with NVIDIA’s latest graphics architecture . OK, MSI, let’s see if you can make me fall in love again. Look and feel On a conceptual level, the new Dominator isn’t all that different from its predecessors : It still features a large 17-inch display and a wide, heavy chassis, plus enough power to make the average gaming laptop blush. Still, its design feels less dated. It’s a study in matte black aluminum with few visual flourishes. The front edge (and the top of the screen lid) comes to a wide-pointed peak with red accents and a subtle crimson paint peers out from behind the speaker grille. LED lighting behind the keyboard adds a little optional color, but overall the Dominator doesn’t overdo it in the aesthetics department, and that’s a good thing. The GT72 still fits the overbearing profile of a 17-inch gaming laptop, but it is a little smaller than the previous Dominator. The new design’s 16.85 x 11.57 x 1.89-inch frame is noticeably thinner than the GT70’s 2.17-inch chassis. It still weighs a solid 8.33 pounds, but at least it makes good use of its size: Four USB 3.0 ports run down the left side of its frame, accompanied by a quartet of audio jacks and an SD card reader. Two more USB connections and an optical drive live on the right edge of the machine, followed by all the other usual suspects on the rear: a power adapter, Ethernet jack, HDMI output and two DisplayPort plugs, just in case you want to rock a three-monitor setup. MSI’s original Dominator featured a parade of physical media keys that lived just north of the keyboard. This switchboard went through a handful of overhauls as the years went on, crowding the edge of the chassis with WiFi toggles, disc-eject buttons, brightness controls and other unnecessary redundancies. The GT72’s control deck is simpler. Five buttons run down the left edge of the machine’s keyboard, and they’re all useful. There’s a power key, of course, but also a button that switches between discrete and integrated graphics (this requires a reboot); a “cooler boost” fan overdrive mode; a shortcut that launches the Dominator’s game-streaming software; and a keyboard backlight toggle. Keyboard and trackpad Speaking of the keyboard, I’m happy to report that MSI is still using SteelSeries to power its backlit keys. It’s a physically satisfying keyboard, with simple, island-style key caps that fall with a short, but soft depression. Even so, most of its magic happens behind the scenes. The included SteelSeries Engine software suite allows the user to create custom macros, and then program those macros to any button on the keyboard’s surface, effectively making it a 100 percent reprogrammable typewriter. You can also customize the backlight with countless color combinations and even create statistical reports that highlight which keys are used most frequently during a timed play session. Useful features if you want them, but invisible if you don’t. I can’t ask for much more. Technically speaking, there isn’t anything wrong with the GT72’s touchpad. Its large, smooth surface accurately reads my finger’s movements and translates them into the exact on-screen action I intended to execute. Its physical buttons depress with a satisfying, tactile response. The pad’s boundaries are defined by a thin LED glow that nicely matches the backlight of the machine’s keyboard — but still, I don’t like it. It’s an issue of form versus function. While technically functional, visually appealing and objectively fine, the Dominator’s pad is impossible to locate by feel alone. It’s not just flush with the palm rest; its surface is the surface of the palm rest. I accidentally dragged my finger off of the touch surface on multiple occasions while using the Dominator, and it was frustrating every single time. Display and audio Large, gorgeous displays are the saving grace of most oversized gaming laptops, and the Dominator has never been an exception to that rule. The GT72’s screen is a strong LCD with few caveats. Sharp visuals and vibrant colors are the standard here. Games look great; Blu-ray discs are a joy to watch; and there’s very little to complain about. If I were to nitpick, I’d say that it loses contrast if you view it from harsh, impractically low angles, but that’s true of most displays. The Dominator series has a history of offering great audio, and that tradition lives on with the GT72. Like its predecessors, this machine boasts Dynaudio speakers and, as always, they sound great. Loud, clear sound pumps from the laptop’s speaker bar. It’s among the best audio you can get on a laptop without plugging in a pair of headphones. The machine’s sound is augmented by Sound Blaster Cinema software as well, with distinct modes for gaming, music, cinema and voice. That said, you won’t need to touch it: The GT72’s equalizer pretty much manages itself. Performance and battery life PCMark7 PCMark Vantage 3DMark06 3DMark11 ATTO (top disk speeds) GT72 Dominator (2.5GHz Core i7-4710HQ CPU, NVIDIA GTX 980M 8GB) 6, 319 21, 593 29, 707 E13, 867 / P10, 734 / X4, 203 533 MB/s (reads); 323 MB/s (writes) ASUS ROG G751 (2.5GHz Core i7-4710HQ CPU, NVIDIA GTX 980M 4GB) 6, 191 23, 861 29, 752 E14, 516 / P11, 304 / X4, 304 1.06 GB/s (reads); 775 MB/s (writes) GT70 Dominator (2.7GHz Core i7-4800MQ CPU, NVIDIA GTX 880M 8GB) 6, 308 23, 431 27, 775 E11, 433 / P8, 344 / X2, 877 1.4 GB/s (reads); 498 MB/s (writes) Razer Blade 14-inch (2.2GHz Core i7-4702HQ, NVIDIA GTX 870M 3GB) 5, 664 19, 994 24, 255 E9, 533 / P6, 541 / X2, 236 542 MB/s (reads); 257 MB/s (writes) MSI GS60 Ghost (2.4GHz Core i7-4700HQ, NVIDIA GTX 860M 2GB) 5, 909 22, 602 22, 898 E7, 908, / P5, 152 / X1, 519 537 MB/s (reads); 495 MB/s (writes) Alienware 14 (2.4GHz Core i7-4700MQ, NVIDIA GTX 765M 2GB) 5, 310 21, 502 20, 868 E6, 529 / P4, 211 507 MB/s (reads); 418 MB/s (writes) Alienware 17 (2.7GHz Core i7-4800MQ, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M 4GB) 5, 647 22, 114 27, 137 E10, 638 / P7, 246 509 MB/s (reads); 420 MB/s (writes) So far, we’ve seen that the GT72 has stayed consistent with every other machine that bears the name “Dominator”: It has great audio chops, a comfortable keyboard, solid build quality and a screen worthy of almost any media you’d want to watch on it. Is it ridiculously powerful, too? Of course it is. The spec list for my $2, 400 review unit is practically a cheat sheet for building an overwhelmingly powerful mobile gaming rig: a 2.5GHz (3.5GHz with Turbo Boost) Intel Core i7-4710HQ CPU, 16GB of DDR3L RAM, a 128GB boot drive, a second 1TB drive for game installs and NVIDIA’s latest GPU — an 8GB GeForce GTX 980M. It’s not even MSI’s most tricked-out configuration, but it’s close — and has more than enough power to shrug off anything my game library could throw at it. Fancy yourself a round of Battlefield 4 ? You’ll be clocking over 100 frames per second on ultra high visual settings if you turn V-Sync off. More of a Call of Duty fan? No problem: Advanced Warfare runs at a steady 81 fps on “extra” detail with 2x supersampling enabled. Not everything I played pushed triple digits, but I couldn’t find a single game that didn’t run at a respectable clip. Maxing out the visuals in Titanfall will run the game at 44 fps, but you can easily kick that above 60 fps by tweaking the anti-aliasing settings. The Witcher 2 , meanwhile, racked up 38 fps on ultra with Ubersampling enabled (and 90 fps without). The only game that stuttered was Ryse , which actually ran at 57 fps on its maximum default settings, but sometimes fell into the low 20s with supersampling turned on. This kind of performance usually turns laptops into PC gaming hotplates, but the GT72 actually stays fairly cool under pressure. It took almost 20 minutes of fast-paced multiplayer action before I felt the heat of the Dominator’s frame on my lap, and it never reached the point where I was uncomfortable. Turning the machine’s “cooler boost” function on will kick its internal fans into overdrive and drive the temperature down a bit further, too. I never reached a point where I needed to use this feature, but I often did anyway: A cool laptop is a happy laptop. Battery life MSI GT72 Dominator 3:09 (discrete GPU) 4:38 (integrated GPU) Razer Blade 14-inch 6:24 MSI GT70 Dragon Edition 4:34 Razer Blade (2014) 4:27 Razer Edge Pro 3:40 ASUS ROG G751 3:40 Razer Blade 2.0 3:29 MSI GT70 Dominator (2014) 3:21 MSI GS60 Ghost 3:13 Alienware 14 3:07 Alienware 17 2:55 At first blush, the GT72 Dominator Pro seems to have short run time: Our standard video-looping test drained the battery in just three hours. That’s a mediocre showing for a high-end gaming laptop with a beefy GPU — and not nearly enough to justify using the rig more than six feet away from a wall outlet. Fortunately, better battery life is just a reboot away: Pressing the Dominator’s dedicated GPU-switch button (on the left) puts an integrated Intel HD Graphics 4600 in charge of visuals. It won’t be able to play games until you switch back to the discrete NVIDIA GPU, but now the machine can run for over four and a half hours unplugged. Perfect for web browsing and general computing tasks. Software There’s nothing better than booting up a new laptop to a blank, unmolested installation of Windows. It’s satisfying — no bloatware, no trial software to uninstall and no garbage apps — but it’s not an experience you’ll get with the GT72 Dominator. The machine certainly isn’t the worst offender in terms of pack-in software, but an advertisement to activate (read: purchase) Norton Security will never be the first thing I want to see when I start a new machine for the first time (and no, Norton, I don’t really want to get my “Norton Toolbar” back either). Most of the software here isn’t too bad. NVIDIA’s GeForce Experience is naturally installed as part of the GPU’s software suite and there are applications for controlling the keyboard backlight, macro keys and an MSI-sourced app to track system performance, temperature and hotkeys. There’s also a six-month trial of XSplit Gamecaster. Normally, a game-streaming trial wouldn’t bother me, but the GT72 has a hardware button dedicated to that trial software. If you don’t buy it, that button loses its utility. That’s awful. Configuration options and the competition The $2, 400 GT72 2QE I’m reviewing here (Intel Core i7-4710HQ, NVIDIA GTX 980M graphics and 16GB of RAM) isn’t the most expensive Dominator MSI offers, but it’s not that different from the product’s higher-end configurations either. Adding $250 will score you an additional 8GB of RAM and a pair of 128GB SSDs arranged in a RAID 0 configuration (that’s 256GB of combined space). Another $350 (for a total price of $3, 000) will double that SSD boot disc again and bring you to 32GB of RAM. If you’re looking for a little more power or a slightly smaller price tag, you’ve got options there too: MSI sells a $3, 400 variant with a 2.8GHz Intel Core i7-4980HQ CPU, and will upgrade the SSD storage to a full terabyte for an additional $500. Alternatively, you could pay as little as $2, 000 for a Dominator more closely matching our review unit, but you’ll have to settle for a downgraded 6GB NVIDIA GTX 970M GPU and only 12GB of RAM. Still not what you want? Search around: Sites like iBuyPower can tweak and customize the rig beyond MSI’s stock configurations. As always, there are plenty of alternative PC gaming powerhouses available if you know where to look. Folks into MSI, but not sold on the GT72’s new chassis may want to look at the GS60 Ghost — it can be built to match the GT72’s lower-end configuration in both price and specifications, but is somehow less than an inch thick. Last year’s Dominator might be a compelling option too: The GT70’s design may be outdated and its internals may represent the best of last year, but it’ll still run almost anything you throw at it (and cost hundreds less, to boot). Looking for NVIDIA’s latest GPU from a different manufacture? It can be done, but you’ll have to walk off the beaten path. GTX GeForce 970M and 980M equipped-laptops can be had from Maingear, AVADirect, Gigabyte and Digital Storm in dozens of configurations — from the modestly priced $1, 600 Clevo P150SM-A to Digital Storm’s $4, 021 Behemoth . If you’re willing to put in some leg work, there are plenty of options. If you want my advice, though, take a look at the ASUS ROG G751 : it’s a close match to the GT72 in both price and specifications (an Intel Core i7-4710HQ CPU, 32GB of DDR3 RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M graphics with 4GB GDDR5 and a $2, 499 price tag), and features a unique, classy design. Wrap-up Objectively, there was never anything wrong with the original GT70 Dominator. Sure, I grew tired of its design, but it still featured top-notch internals, excellent speakers, a solid keyboard and a great screen. The GT72 took all of those elements and wrapped them in a new skin. Now, MSI has a new Dominator — one with better heat distribution, a (slightly) thinner profile, notably better battery life and, of course, a fresh, modern design. It’s a lot of little things, and it’s enough. Filed under: Gaming , Laptops Comments

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MSI GT72 Dominator review: a worthy successor to a great gaming notebook