A ball throwing machine for throwing projectiles, such as tennis balls or baseballs, includes a yoke assembly for projecting balls and a motor assembly for providing both nominal vertical throwing as well as oscillating vertical movement of the yoke assembly. The suction cavity includes first and second suction channels bounded on both sides by respective working edges. The volumetric diffuser contains one or more regions of volumetric light scattering particles. The platform also causes, at least in part, an association of one or more recommendations models with the user identity, the at least one communication account, the at least one device, or a combination thereof. While in the hybrid graphics mode, the DGPU performs the graphics processing, and the graphics driver transmits the rendered images from the DGPU to the IGPU local memory and, then, to the IGPU DAC. The barrier layer resides between the specular oxide layer and the capping layer.