#Free iTunes live code

[eliteprepsat]

6 Ways to Show Genuine Interest in Your Intended College Major

Most universities are not particularly interested in students who approach college as the 13th grade—just the next step on a path laid out for them by their parents since before they were born. They instead seek out students who demonstrate passion and curiosity, especially about their chosen field of study.

In your college applications, it’s important that you demonstrate your interests (not just state what they are, but show them at work in your life) and that those interests inform your prospective major. You can and should demonstrate your interests in your college essays, your activities lists, and even in your transcripts.

Here are some specific tips on how to prove you’re invested in your intended major:

1. Take AP, IB, and honors courses in that field

If your high school offers advanced courses in a field you’re passionate about, take those courses. Honors, AP, and IB credits demonstrate that you’ve devoted ample time and energy to a given field.

I would also recommend approaching advanced classes from the opposite direction. If you’re like most high school students, you’re not yet sure what you want to major in or what your academic interests are. Take advanced classes in subjects that you perform well in. You might find that these courses create entirely new interests for you that weren’t there before. 

Throughout high school and college, you will likely develop new passions and a deeper understanding of what you love. Advanced courses are one of the ways in which you can discover what those passions might be.

2. Join a student organization … or start your own

Interested in computer science? Join a coding club at your school. Or, if none exists, create one. If you’re interested in something—whether it be coding, poetry, chess, or pottery—chances are there are other students at your school who are interested, too.

You can demonstrate passion for a field or cause by joining an organization on campus and working your way up the ranks to, say, secretary or even president. You can also demonstrate initiative and leadership by starting an organization of your own.

Not sure where to start? Ask a counselor or teacher at your school about how you might get something new off the ground. With the right support, you can develop your interests and set yourself up for a strong college application.

3. Join a club & volunteer

You can also look beyond the walls of your school for club and volunteer opportunities. Join a mystery book club or a Spanish conversation club at your local library branch. Volunteer as an elementary school assistant at your local school district. There are so many possibilities that you can find with just a quick Google search.

4. Take free online courses

There are a ton of free online courses on subjects ranging from psychology to political philosophy, from computer science to principles of accounting.

You can find courses on the iTunes U app, many of which include syllabi and course readings alongside lectures. There’s a drove of Massive Open Online Courses available, many of which will even provide a certificate for completing the course. MIT hosts a wide range of free courses online, such as this Introduction to Computer Science and Programming in Python.

Many of these free online courses are offered by prestigious universities and taught by some of the most renowned faculty in their respective fields. By completing one of these courses, you can get a head start on university-level work and develop a new or existing passion.

5. Contact an expert

Do you live near a university? If so, reach out to faculty members to ask if they might be interested in your volunteering as a lab or research assistant, or even if you could stop by just to ask them some questions during their office hours. You might receive no response from a number of professors, but you would be surprised by how many would be more than happy to at least discuss what they do and why.

Along the same lines, if you’re passionate about business, reach out to local business owners. You might even find opportunities for employment. At the very least, you’ll gain vital insights into the kind of work you might want to do in college and beyond.

6. Read, watch, and listen on your own

Subscribe to The New Yorker, or The Economist, or Wired, or any number of magazines focused on literature and culture, or economics, or technology, or whatever it is you want to major in. Watch documentaries. Listen to podcasts. Finding media that will fuel your passion and leave you informed has never been easier. 

The kind of knowledge you can gain from reading, watching, and listening first-hand cannot be matched by second-hand commentary. No visit to Sparknotes, or advice from your uncle, or other kind of second-hand knowledge can stand in for the real thing. Hearing or reading about the thing is no match for hearing or reading or doing the thing itself.

With a novel in your hand or even a computer science course on your screen, don’t just be a passive consumer—take notes not only on the content, but your reactions to it. What makes you excited? What leaves you confused? What gets you frustrated?

By staying engaged in a field of study, you shouldn’t only learn new information. You should also learn a lot about yourself.

[uniquejellyfishqueen]

DECEMBER

12/4/1791: British newspaper, The Observer publishes their first edition of the first Sunday newspaper

12/4/1881: The LA Times published its first edition

12/4/1986: An oil spill of approximately 500,00 gallons happens in the Port of Savannah, Georgia on the MV Amazon Venture oil tanker.

12/5/1901: Walt Disney birthday

12/5/1955: Rosa Parks and E.D Nixon lead the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

12/4/1964: Baseball approves a free agent draft.

12/15/1966: Walt Disney died

12/5/1974: The NFL Seattle Seahawks form.

12/4/1991: Pan American airlines shuts down after 64 years

12/10/1997: Slim Shady LP released. Recorded at Studio 8 in Ferndale, Michigan

12/13/2002: Drumline (*this was T.S 13th Birthday)

12/25/2007: The Today Show Las Vegas performed “Christmases When You Were Mine" "Silent Night"

NO FREAKING WAY. Her first time on the today show, THERES NO DAY BUT TODAY!

I die without you-No day but today

This is the Finale B and thats the reputation of us

And then she has the performance the same year on 12/31. Rent celebrates all the holidays in a year as well.

12/31/2007: Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve NY. Performed “Our Song” “Teardrops on My Guitar”

12/2/2008: The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection EP released to the ITunes and Amazon (it was commercially released on 10/14/2007, and then re released to Target on 10/6/2009)

12/3/2008: 51st Grammy Nominations Concert LA “I’m Sorry” “White Horse”

*312 area code for Chicago

12/5/2008: The Tonight Show with Jay Leno “White Horse” and “Our Song”

12/6/2008: CMT Giants: Alan Jackson “Drive (For Daddy Gene)”

12/31/2008: Dick Clark’s New Year Rockin’ Eve “Picture to Burn" "Love Story" "Forever & Always" "Change"

12/11/2009: Z100 Jingle Ball NY. Performed 1/2 of My Heart with John Mayer. And 2 is better than 1 with Boys Like Girls. You Belong with Me, Teardrops on My Guitar, Fifteen, and Love Story. (2+1+.5=3.5)

12/1/2012: iHeartRadio Jingle Ball Tour 2012 KissFM’s Jingle Ball LA. Performed "State of Grace" "I Knew You Were Trouble" "You Belong with Me" "Red" "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together"

12/3/2012: Robert F Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights NY performed “Starlight”

*performed 2x on the Eras Tour as a SS. 1. N2 Denver 7/15/23 2. N1 Singapore 3/2/24

12/7/2012: iHeartRadio Jingle Ball Tour 2012: Z100 Jingle's Ball 2012 performed State of Grace" "You Belong with Me" "Everything Has Changed" (with Ed Sheeran) "Love Story" "I Knew You Were Trouble" "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together"

12/15/2012: Schlag den Raab Cologne Germany “WANGBT”

12/31/2012: Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve. “IKYWT” “WANGBT”

12/11/2013: Red Tour. Perth.

Acoustic You Belong With Me

12/5/2014: iHeartRadio Jingle Ball Tour 2014 performed “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" "Blank Space" "I Knew You Were Trouble" "Love Story" "Shake It Off"

12/9/2014: VS Fashion Show London “Blank Space” “Style”

12/12/2014: iHeartRadio Jingle Ball performed “Welcome to New York" "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" "Blank Space" "I Knew You Were Trouble" "Shake It Off"

12/24/2014: “Earned It” by Canadian singer The Weeknd was released as the lead single for 50 Shades of Grey (those are the same letters as State of Grace

12/31/2014: Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin Eve “Welcome to New York” “Shake It Off”

12/3/2015: Nova’s Red Room Australia “Blank Space” “Out of The Woods” “Wildest Dreams” “Shake It Off”

12/9/2016: The theme song for 50 Shades Darker “I Don’t Wanna Live Forever” by Zayn and Taylor Swift

*for the third installment of this franchise 50 Fifty Shades Freed the lead single was “For You” performed by Rita Ora and Liam Payne. ->that makes 2/5 One Direction members.

12/11/2015: 1989 World Tour Melbourne N2/3 SS Fifteen. Played 3x on the ET (Most recent Lyon N1 6/2/24)

12/12/2015: 1989 World Tour Melbourne N3/3 SS Long Live. Played 46x on the ET (most recent N7 London 8/19/24)

*L is 12 letter of the alphabet L L = 12/12

*3+4+6=13

*346 (overlay for 713) is the area code for Houston, the largest city in TX and the 4th largest city in the US by population.

*643 is Trinidad and Tobago

12/1/2017: iHeartRadio Jingle Ball Tour 2017: KIIS-FM's Jingle Ball 2017. "...Ready for It?" "Blank Space" "Shake It Off" "I Don't Wanna Live Forever" "End Game" (with Ed Sheeran) "Look What You Made Me Do"

12/2/2017: 99.7 Now!’s Poptopia San Jose “Ready for It?" "Blank Space" "Shake It Off" "I Don't Wanna Live Forever" "End Game" "Look What You Made Me Do"

12/7/2017: B96 Chicago and Pepsi Jingle Bash 2017 performed "...Ready for It?" "Blank Space" "Shake It Off" "I Don't Wanna Live Forever" "Gorgeous" "Look What You Made Me Do"

12/8/2017: iHeartRadio Jingle Ball Tour 2017: Z100 Jingle Ball performed "...Ready for It?" "Blank Space" "Shake It Off" "I Don't Wanna Live Forever" "End Game" (with Ed Sheeran) "Look What You Made Me Do"

12/8/2017: Untouchable released as a promotional single for Eminem’s 9th studio album.

12/10/2017: Capital FM’s Jingle Bell Ball 2017 performed "...Ready for It?" "Blank Space" "Shake It Off" "I Don't Wanna Live Forever" "Gorgeous" "Look What You Made Me Do"

12/15/2017: Revival released by Eminem

12/15/2017: River by Eminem ft Ed Sheeran released as a single for Revival ->a music video was released for the song on 2/14/2018 ->Eminem and Ed performed this song live during the Revival Tour on 7/15/2018 at Twickenham Stadium in London. This stadium was built on 10/2/1909 and the architect was John Bradley. ->it is the world’s largest rugby union stadium.

12/5/2018: The Ally Coalition Talent Show “Delicate” with Hayley Kiyoko.

12/8/2019: Capital FM’s Jingle Bell Ball 2019. Performed • "Blank Space" "Me!" "London Boy" "Lover" "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" "22" "You Need to Calm Down" "Christmas Tree Farm" "Shake It Off"

12/13/2019: Z100's iHeartRadio Jingle Ball 2019 performed “Blank Space" "Me!" "Lover" "Welcome to New York" "You Need to Calm Down" "Christmas Tree Farm" "Shake It Off"

12/14/2019: Strictly Come Dancing London “Lover”

12/18/2019: TS on Jimmy Fallon together they sing “Memory” with the cast of Cats.

12/11/2020: Evermore

12/18/2020: Music to Be Murdered By-Side B

*foreshadowing for TDOSS

12/6/2023: Time person of the Year article: Taylor Swift

*Important to mention that Time Magazine published their first issue on 3/3/1923. They are currently on their 4th owner. In 2018 they were under the Meredith Corporation… which is when she was on her Reputation Stadium Tour. Meredith is her first kitty, a Scottish fold (1/3) 3 again…. Meredith was born on 11/10/2010 (7 years before the release of Reputation on 11/10/2017) she was adopted by TS on 10/31/2011.

*I’m gonna have to do a breakdown of the eggs that match the kitties

12/21/2024: Last day of fall 2024.

*this would have also been my 6th anniversary.

[davidfegan]

VisionOS App Development Company

VisionOS App Development Services by Agicent

We’ve started learning and honing our skills on VisionOS from the day it was launched in 2023 and now when the device is actually here, we are getting overwhelming requirements for our VisionOS App development services and we offer a complete spectrum of services which are useful for all sizes of projects and startups.

VisionOS App Discovery Session & Consulting Service

In this step, we understand your product vision and the market you want to cater. We gather all your requirements (feature list, use-case, goal, monetization methods and goals, integrations, future vision etc) and consult you on the best features for the MVP or for full product, and also do a competitor analysis to let you know the gaps in the market and propose you the best possible solution. We also lay out a scope of the work and provide you either a fixed price estimation for the VisionOS App development or offer you a dev team on month-on-month basis with these pricing plans.

You can book a Free VisionOS App Discovery Session from here.

VisionOS Apps Design, Wireframes, Prototyping Service

In this step, we convert your feature list into visual design and wireframes. This is the most crucial step among all others as whatever we are going to launch in the market is visualized and finalized here. We closely coordinate with you at this stage, figure out what kind of target market we have and what type of design would they like, and then create the design and simulate that like a clickable prototype or a demo video like this example.

We send these design visualizations for your feedback and approval and do as many iterations as you want and once approved we proceed towards the actual development.

Tech Architecture and Coding Phase: Agile Sprints

Once design is approved, we create the tech architecture to achieve what we have visualized in terms of the design and functionality. And the next step is coding the VisionOS App using SwiftUI, ARKit, Unity, Xcode, ComposerPro tech stacks as well as backend technologies like Node.js, MongoDB or likes.

We create the tech architecture keeping a larger future vision in mind so the MVP VisionOS App we develop today assuming for a small amount of users, should be scaled easily and quickly to cater millions of the users and more advanced features and also leave a lot of room for future integrations with different technologies. Usually our CTO and Engineering leads do the architecture job.

The whole project is broken down into small feature bunches and then they Weekly Agile Sprints are schedule to achieve those features week by week. At every weekend a progressive Adhoc VisionOS App build is released for testers and clients for the UAT. Any bugs or enhancements are noted down and added with the next week’s dev sprint and the build is shipped to either live or test server depending upon your priorities.

Adhoc Distribution and Final go-live

During the development phase, the visionOS App is distributed across a private network (of clients, early users/ testers, dev teams) as an Adhoc build that we create using Apple’s guidelines and protocols on its iTunes connect ecosystem integrated with the Xcode and other tech stacks associated with the VisionOS App Development.

The final App store submission is done when the Dev cycle is complete and you give us a go ahead to go live. We do the whole job for you.

The whole solution is also ported onto the live cloud server and infrastructure using our DevOps experts.

VisionOS App Maintenance, Enhancements, Upkeep

Once the first version goes live, you can either switch to the maintenance phase for the upkeep of the VisionOS App or can go about launched further features for enhancements. Our Dev and maintenance plans starts from as low as $ 2900 mo and sometimes even lesser if you only need under 100 hours of maintenance a month.

Like advanced mobile apps, VisionOS Apps also utilizes various third party APIs from user authentication to several other features like integration with maps, payment gateways, with other apps and backend and all such APIs launch new updates very frequently and hence the VisionOS app will have to be updated accordingly. Also the VisionOS itself is in its nascent stage right now and we can expect atleast 10 major or minor OS upgrades this year and for which a regular support & maintenance service will be required.

By offer Development, Design, Marketing, Maintenance, Porting services we make ourselves as you one stop VisionOS App Development Company.

VisionPro App Porting Services

Here we work to make your existing web app or mobile app to be absolutely compatible and oriented towards the new VisionPro Devices and VisionOS Operating system. You can leverage your existing product and userbase and scale them for VisionOS VisionPro device.

We’ll consult you in identifying which features can be ported onto VisionOS as is and which ones need to be made cmpatible and adaptable to the visionOS unique spatial features.

In most of the existing mobile apps, voice gesture commands and eye commands will be added as a go-to features when it comes to porting on to the visionOS and then more options can be added as the app grows.

VisionPro App Marketing Services

We render our inhouse marketing and sales expertise, tools and workflows for our clients and craft highly efficient and performance-oriented performance marketing campaigns to promote your VisionPro App.

This can include (but not limited to) – Paid ad campaigns to install VisionOS Apps across big outlets like Google, Meta/ FB/ Insta, Linkedin; organic SEO and organic campaigns, Organic and paid PR campaigns, Video content marketing, influencer marketing, Opinion leadership influenced market, Cross App integration promotion and so on.

You tell us your monthly App marketing budget and goal and we’ll craft and run and optimize the best campaign inside that.

Benefits of creating VisionOS Apps for Startups and Business

Clear Competitive Edge: The early mover advantage

It’s a very new device and have only started being sold in some parts of the US only. Anyone moving first for this device is definitely going to get a lot of advantage in terms of targeting the niche and comparatively upscale user-base.

Even the existing Apps that will scale for VisionPro Device exploiting its AR/ VR spatial capabilities are going to offer enhanced experience to its existing user base and gain more customer loyalty and branding.

A new world of opportunity to Innovative

For the same reasons as stated above, its spatial computing capabilities have opened a whole new world of amazing innovation opportunities. We’ve listed below some of the possible innovative use cases for various industries on this page itself, and we believe that there will be millions of amazing use cases out there that can solve the current world problems in much better ways than what is being done by the current smartphone device and apps.

Integrating the VisionOS apps with different devices will offer great possibility to further innovate as well where several interconnected devices sharing and exchanging data will proide more seamless convenient life to the user especially for healthcare, home automation, and business usage.

Unique and Immersive Experience

Vision Pro’s unique spatial computing, tracking and depth perception allow for highly realistic and interactive experiences in augmented reality (AR) and Virtual reality. Users can experience and manipulate virtual objects in a natural human way and that will create a sense of real presence and break down the barrier between the physical and virtual digital world.

Any app utilizing these spatial immersive capabilities are going to be used more and more by the users compared to regular mobile or web apps and therefore launching an app on VisionOS gives you a more loyal and consistently engaged user-base.

Better interactive Storytelling

You can tell your story in more interactive and appealing way when it looks and feel closer to the reality and that is exactly what Visionpro device offers to its users. Businesses as well as creators can create and tell immersive mixed reality stories that can actually engage users for a longer span than just scrolling back in few seconds.

A historical content creator can create virtual historical battles that you can see happening in front of your eyes, or or viewing ancient battles unfold right before your eyes. Or a virtual story showcasing you the world of dinosaurs as a moving and sounding reality.

Same goes for product visualization as we’ve discussed the same concept in details below in Ecommerce Use-case. You can showcase and appeal your product with a realistic experience, creation of immersive demos and free trials can help marketers win the consumer’s confidence to a higher degree than what you are able to do with the old technologies.

Story is everything, and VisionOS allows you to tell your story in the best way possible so far in the history of the mankind.

VisionOS App development is not complex

Creating mixed reality Apps have always been a complex and typical exercise compared to the conventional software development, especially because of the demand of creating interactive virtual reality UI and UX. However, VisionOS has already done majority of the heavy lifting and if developers are familiar with Apple iOS development and Arkit (which our developers are) then creating VisionOS Apps using the same skill sets becomes really easy.

Its juts a transition of the device and the change of UI, while rest of the technologies will be as same as iOS developers have been using for the last few years.

Process of Creating VisonPro VisionOS Apps and the required Tools

Understanding the Vision Pro Ecosystem and its features

At the heart of the Vision Pro experience is the blend of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), powered by Apple’s cutting-edge M2 chip and a specialized R1 chip. These components work in harmony to deliver unparalleled performance and immersive experiences, tracking your movements and rendering captivating virtual environments.

Understand its most important and unique features, such as:

Eye, Hands, and Voice based gesture commands:So whichever VisionPro app idea that you are contemplating to create should completely exploit these cool features.

Virtual Avatars and 3D Facetime: Virtual avatar in VisionPro universe are going to more realistic and so as the video calls. We also think of a scenario where an AI avatar of yours takes a meeting on your behalf while you physically take another meeting and the possibilities are endless.

Immersive-ness Control:VisionPro users can increase or decrease the level of immersiveness as per their choice, so your App should be compliant to the same.

Transparent Display: As VisionPro is a mixed reality spatial device, the display is actually transparent as it goes hand in hand with the reality. So your UI/UX design must adhere to this fact and in most of the cases a minimal design will turn out to be the best design because everything else will be taken care of by the real world.

02. Getting Started with visionOS App Development

The gateway to creating apps for Vision Pro is visionOS, Apple’s bespoke operating system tailored for spatial computing. This environment is your canvas, allowing you to merge digital creations with the physical world seamlessly. To set sail on this development journey, you’ll need a Mac running macOS Monterey or newer, the latest version of Xcode, and the Vision Pro developer kit. At Agicent’s VisionOS App Development Company, we’ve all the required infrastructure, team, testing devices and some more. You just have to tell us about your project, and we take care of the rest.

03. Ideation of VisionPro VisionOS App

An entrepreneur or startup or a brand should explore all the possibilities a spatial VisionOS App can achieve on this device. Do a market analysis, competitive analysis, go back to the history where web apps exploited mobile capabilities and a new market was emerged, so similarly think of what additional capabilities mobile apps can offer if they are ported onto visionPro devices.

We think of scenarios in the industries like healthcare where preventive healthcare and telemedicine apps can be created for VisionOS with spatial capabilities, or in an industry where there are plenty of machines and a VisionPro Maintenance App can tell the supervisor about health, maintenance schedule, warranty of the machines just by looking at them, or think of a real estate app where you just wear your visionpro device and see which of the properties in front of you are up for sale or rent and so on.

It is always beneficial to have a industry or subject matter expert on board while ideating for an app for that particular industry, however there are some low hanging fruits that anyone can achieve simply by scaling the existing apps with the spatial mixed reality features for the visionpro device.

We as a VisionOS App Development Company provide you consulting service even before development in figuring out the right features, UI/ UX and target userbase for your VisionOS App idea.

Source: https://visionosappdevelopmentcompany.com/

[thelowkeygeek]

Check out the latest LOWKEY GEEK #youtube video! ST. PATRICK'S DAY Sober Stream by LOWKEY GEEK! It's St. Patrick's Day and right now, there are a bunch of underage kids in the city getting drunk. So i'm here streaming to just chill and hang out! So ask me anything and we'll just have some fun! Great ways to show support to the channel is by donating during the live stream in the following ways: TTS is ON at $5+ Super Chats & Donations - Get your messages read out loud! Donations: https://ift.tt/MmhbvnW Become a friend of the channel for just $1 a month. Join a membership TODAY! 🔔 Consider Subscribing: https://ift.tt/OTWqpoU 🎧 Listen on Spotify: https://ift.tt/P5zbpQU 🎧 Listen on iTunes: https://ift.tt/X5V91aw ► The gear used on this channel: https://amzn.to/3L79c1Y ► Sign up for Surfshark VPN and get 85% OFF + 2 Free Months: https://bit.ly/3ZLU5Cn ► Get 3 months of UNLIMITED DATA for only $15/mo with Mint Mobile: https://ift.tt/a6OZADV ► Fever events and experiences: https://ift.tt/xtFSI1W ► 80s Tees: 30% OFF with code WINTER30: https://ift.tt/q4jw7Fn ► Entertainment Earth - 10% OFF In-Stock Items Plus Free Shipping On Orders $40+: https://ee.toys/LOWKEYG Other Great Content ---------------------------------- ► Movie Review & Out of Theater Reactions: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsH8u5sKE6YH2jORSfkqtudOJX2KFFJkK ► The Trailer Park: Trailer Reactions: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsH8u5sKE6YETuoR2B2Y1ulc_TfFKkyGZ ► The MovieTime Podcast: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsH8u5sKE6YFrFx7-xandmlAgLWoUwIhc ► The Talking Talk Podcast: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsH8u5sKE6YG3kXuSkEzu2PGgnjvU70Kc ► Special Events & Travel: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsH8u5sKE6YGUo9x5FHnbideFkmHV_lAM ► Japan WOW Now: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsH8u5sKE6YFX48uPJl5FwipHSTGis9Qy ► LOWKEY GEEK Gaming: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsH8u5sKE6YHHmgt_YpmNFEbOi0d52hic ► One-Shots: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsH8u5sKE6YGDDThqnXOa9FOLYtvAjFNK Follow Us --------------------------------------------------- Twitter: https://twitter.com/the_lowkey_geek Instagram: https://ift.tt/wTpgR5K Threads: https://ift.tt/4zs6Yba Follow the Team on Letterboxd ----------------- Blake Wolf: https://ift.tt/vN2KZlJ Rene A. Zelada: https://ift.tt/ifmHaIj Chapters ----------------- #stpatricksday #stpattysday #themorningafter #podcast #movienews #morning #morningnews #morningafter #headlines #entertainmentnews #moviereviews #moviereview #headlines via YouTube https://youtu.be/AytsaiIzKcs

[reikisthan]

Vibe & Read | Channel Bday Party! Free Card & Donation Priority Reads

🌟 A quick Link to Classes & Fan-favorites: ✨ Feather's Memberships: 🔹 Unlimited Reiki Healing Membership 🔹 YouTube Membership: Weekly exclusive content. 🌟 Feather's Featured Classes & Healing Sessions: 🔸 Cord Cut & Protection 🔸 EFT Tapping Session to Heal Heartache 🔸 Reiki Heal Heartbreak 🔸 All Classes 🔸 Fans get a 10% discount using code: FAN1010 ✨ Book with Feather: Please note, I only offer personal readings via my website. Never respond to anyone who offers you a reading via Social Media, DM, text, or online comments. 🌟 Feather's Merch: ✨ Feather's Books: 🔸 Oh Please! Be Your Own Hero: Manifesting Survival Guide! 🔸 Review my book 🔸 The Art of Aloneness 🔸 Amazon Author Page 🌟 Check out my Extended Readings: ____________________________________________ 🌟 LIVE VIBE & READS - Donation Readings! 🔸 3 Cards $11.11/ 6 Cards $22.22/ Mini Reading $33.33 PayPal/Cashapp Preferred. (SuperChats are also appreciated) 🔸 PayPal link: Pay and type your question in at the same time! 🔸 CashApp $nourish77 🌟 Tips & Reviews! Enjoy the show and messages? Tips & Reviews are so loved and appreciated! 🔹 CashApp $nourish77 🔹 PayPal 🔹 Leave a review ____________________________________________ 🌟 Feather's Channels 🔹 Get Feathered - Live Shows & More, Tarot, Twin Flames, All Zodiacs 🔹 Nourish Heal Live - Life Coach, Wellness, Spirituality 🔹 Feathered Libra Tarot - Readings For Libras (all aspects) 🔹 Feathered Leo Tarot - Readings For Leos (all aspects) ____________________________________________ 🌟 Free Online Retreat: Access My Totally Freaking Reset Your Vibes 10-Week Retreat 🌟 Free Resource Library! Get instant access to free worksheets, challenges, meditations, and more! Request Instant Access 🌟 Get Feathered Podcast! Listen & Subscribe on iTunes, iHeartRadio, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts, and more! ____________________________________________ Success & Wellness Coach - Author - Reiki Master - Psychic Medium - Feather is a Libra Sun, Leo Moon, Leo Rising, and Virgo Venus. She has 20+ yrs experience in Alternative & Clinical Medicine. She left the 9-5 hustle to work with clients worldwide, publish online content, and write books to help people manifest their most authentic desires. If you feel guided to watch or drawn to a title, you are here for a reason. If you resonate, your comments, donations, likes, shares, and subscriptions (click the bell for all notifications) are loved and appreciated! Let's Connect! 🔹 Email: nourishheallive@gmail.com 🔹 Instagram: 🔹 Twitter: 🌟 Join the community - The Good Vibe Tribe: ✨ Feather's Website:: _____________________________________________ 🌟Helpful Videos & Playlists: 🔸 Learn Tarot with Feather Playlist: 🔸 How to Stop Runner/Chaser Dynamic: 🔸 Energy Work/Spirituality Playlist: Videos, general, and private readings are for entertainment and are not intended to provide professional advice or counseling. Please seek help from licensed therapists, legal entities, and medical professionals, as necessary. Use your own discernment, for your highest good, when making personal choices. #twinflames #soulmates #tarot #lifecoach #spirituality #selflove #wellness #spiritual #tarot #lifecoach #relationshipcoach #wellness source Read the full article

[telestos-final-shape]

This is becoming an extensive problem in the AAA game industry. Just off the top of my head, I can list a number of broken-at-launch, updated-to-success stories. No Man's Sky, Destiny 1, Cyberpunk 2077, and Halo Infinite are all right there at the forefront of "released in trash condition" and then updated over several years to have the same quality standard that games 10 years old launched with. Halo Infinite specifically is a very recent example, launched in winter of 2021 with a really great skeleton of a game, but the single player was empty and the multiplayer was so broken people barely stuck around. After a massive paradigm shift in upper management, 343i's been pushing out content and it's only now becoming marketable as a complete game with full content. They've only just started overhauling the network and desync issues and they've already started hiring for a new Halo game.

There are so many reasons this has become standard practice in the industry, and I hate every single one of them.

The most obvious one, I think, is that with the progress of technology and expectations, games are just taking longer and requiring more resources to make. Upper management expects the same timeframe that older games took and put too much pressure on the devs to rush the game in an unready state.

That obviously leads to a multitude of development problems, but a really big one is the fact that devs can't spend time optimizing the game code. That's why games are so massive these days. Non-optimized code leads to larger game files and longer loading times, inhibiting player experience.

I also understand that some of the game studios hiring and employing processes are pretty scummy. During the development of Halo Infinite, Microsoft used contracted devs on ~1 year long contracts that they wouldn't renew. They would just replace them with new contracted devs who were excited to put "worked on Halo" on their resume. So what you got was a working team of devs who are completely unfamiliar with the code written thus far, and had to continue writing code for a game that they could only work on for a year or so. Halo Infinite was in development for 6 years.

And finally, one of the killers of the industry is the Live Service game model. The shift from "product" to "service" is a massive market shift that we're seeing in every industry of the world, not just games. We see it in housing (rent instead of own), we see it in media (Netflix, Disney+, Paramount+, etc), we see it in music (Apple Music and Spotify, instead of iTunes), and we see it in so many other industries. We even see it in lesser forms, owning digital copies of movies and games instead of physical copies. When you buy a digital copy of a thing? You're not purchasing the thing, you're purchasing the license to consume the thing. And the owner of the thing can usually revoke your right to use the thing at any time, depending on how the terms of use are written. Digital copies are one-time rents for the thing. Premium subscriptions are active rents for using the product service. All because companies can make more money, and it's damaging the customers experience and the industry as a whole.

As pertains to games specifically, a lot of the studios are turning to live service models for their games. Oh you can download the game for free, but if you want full access to all content, you have to buy the dlc, buy the battlepass, level the battlepass before it times out, and even pay for PS+ or XBox Live Gold if you're on console. And even then there's still a plethora of microtransactions and predatory FOMO events that inhibit player experience. This live-game service means devs don't have to have everything ready for launch. The content comes after the gameplay. So they build the skeleton of a game so that the players can get a taste of what they're "not" paying for, and then work on cranking out one-time-use content as the seasons progress.

All of this builds up to a very terrible game experience. Incomplete games built on scummy management practices and predatory monetizations that have free passes to fix the game up after release, all at the expense of the developers and the consumers. And don't get me started on pre-order culture and loot boxes.

Rant over, I'm out.

i don't care if Cyberpunk 2077 was patched and made good. I genuinely think it's shameful that a video game could come out that broken and win an award years later. it's like if Morbius won an Oscar because the DVD release was good.

[free-gift-card-codes-generator]

Free✪ itunes gift card  / iTunes gift card codes giveaway 2020【No Human Verification】

FREE✪ itunes Live Gift Card Codes Code Generator - 25$ 50$ 100$ free is here for you to add unlimited 25$ 50$ 100$ infinitee in itunes Live Gift Card Codes Code Generator cheat codes 2020 latest update tested click button on top on this page and it will shortly land you on online tool page

Get✪ Free iTunes Gift Card Codes Here: https://giftcardscodes.site/

Get✪ Free iTunes Gift Card Codes Here: https://giftcardscodes.site/

itunes Code Generator is a online tool that makes you to generate the free itunes gift codes. Get the free itunes gift card codes without survey from us. At gift card generator, we have created the tool called as itunes gift card generator that will help you to get the itunes gift codes or gift cards for free.

[niamhgeorgeblog-blog]

free itunes gift card - itunes gift card - free itunes cards 2019

[awesomeannafisher-blog]

free itunes gift card - itunes gift card - free itunes cards 2019

[eliteprepsat]

Most universities are not particularly interested in students who approach college as the 13th grade—just the next step on a path laid out for them by their parents since before they were born. They instead seek out students who demonstrate passion and curiosity, especially about their chosen field of study.

In your college applications, it’s important that you demonstrate your interests (not just state what they are, but show them at work in your life) and that those interests inform your prospective major. You can and should demonstrate your interests in your college essays, your activities lists, and even in your transcripts.

Here are some specific tips on how to prove you’re invested in your intended major:

1. TAKE AP, IB, AND HONORS COURSES IN THAT FIELD

If your high school offers advanced courses in a field you’re passionate about, take those courses. Honors, AP, and IB credits demonstrate that you’ve devoted ample time and energy to a given field.

I would also recommend approaching advanced classes from the opposite direction. If you’re like most high school students, you’re not yet sure what you want to major in or what your academic interests are. Take advanced classes in subjects that you perform well in. You might find that these courses create entirely new interests for you that weren’t there before.

Throughout high school and college, you will likely develop new passions and a deeper understanding of what you love. Advanced courses are one of the ways in which you can discover what those passions might be.

2. JOIN A STUDENT ORGANIZATION … OR START YOUR OWN

Interested in computer science? Join a coding club at your school. Or, if none exists, create one. If you’re interested in something—whether it be coding, poetry, chess, or pottery—chances are there are other students at your school who are interested, too.

You can demonstrate passion for a field or cause by joining an organization on campus and working your way up the ranks to, say, secretary or even president. You can also demonstrate initiative and leadership by starting an organization of your own.

Not sure where to start? Ask a counselor or teacher at your school about how you might get something new off the ground. With the right support, you can develop your interests and set yourself up for a strong college application.

3. JOIN A CLUB AND VOLUNTEER

You can also look beyond the walls of your school for club and volunteer opportunities. Join a mystery book club or a Spanish conversation club at your local library branch. Volunteer as an elementary school assistant at your local school district. There are so many possibilities that you can find with just a quick Google search.

4. TAKE FREE ONLINE CLASSES

There are a ton of free online courses on subjects ranging from psychology to political philosophy, from computer science to principles of accounting.

You can find courses on the iTunes U app, many of which include syllabi and course readings alongside lectures. There’s a drove of Massive Open Online Courses available, many of which will even provide a certificate for completing the course. MIT hosts a wide range of free courses online, such as this Introduction to Computer Science and Programming in Python.

Many of these free online courses are offered by prestigious universities and taught by some of the most renowned faculty in their respective fields. By completing one of these courses, you can get a head start on university-level work and develop a new or existing passion.

5. CONTACT AN EXPERT

Do you live near a university? If so, reach out to faculty members to ask if they might be interested in your volunteering as a lab or research assistant, or even if you could stop by just to ask them some questions during their office hours. You might receive no response from a number of professors, but you would be surprised by how many would be more than happy to at least discuss what they do and why.

Along the same lines, if you’re passionate about business, reach out to local business owners. You might even find opportunities for employment. At the very least, you’ll gain vital insights into the kind of work you might want to do in college and beyond.

6. READ, WATCH, AND LISTEN ON YOUR OWN

Subscribe to The New Yorker, or The Economist, or Wired, or any number of magazines focused on literature and culture, or economics, or technology, or whatever it is you want to major in. Watch documentaries. Listen to podcasts. Finding media that will fuel your passion and leave you informed has never been easier.

The kind of knowledge you can gain from reading, watching, and listening first-hand cannot be matched by second-hand commentary. No visit to Sparknotes, or advice from your uncle, or other kind of second-hand knowledge can stand in for the real thing. Hearing or reading about the thing is no match for hearing or reading or doing the thing itself.

With a novel in your hand or even a computer science course on your screen, don’t just be a passive consumer—take notes not only on the content, but your reactions to it. What makes you excited? What leaves you confused? What gets you frustrated?

By staying engaged in a field of study, you shouldn’t only learn new information. You should also learn a lot about yourself.

[roo-bastmoon]

How to help Jimin this week

This is for US/PR ARMYs. International puppykitties, please keep going with whatever you know works in your countries. Fighting!

So last week, you might have bought Jimin's two physical albums and/or digital versions at Target, Amazon, iTunes, and WeVerse. And when the alternative covers for the digital album dropped on the BTS US store, maybe you got those too. If you didn't? Please do that by this Wednesday night at the latest.

So what happens this week, to avoid free fall?

Welp, you can buy the digital album on Qobuz using your Facebook login if you want, it's very easy. You can go pick up the 4 physical single CDs from the BTS US Store, if you wanna do that.

You definitely should make use of Jimin Funds, which will help you use PayPal, or you can go buy your own gift cards (pre-paid VISA or iTunes gift cards), and then you make new emails and just pick up the 5 digital versions of Like Crazy, which cost a whopping $3.70 all told. You can do this on iTunes and the BTS US store!

You should sign up for free trial premium streaming if you haven't already with Apple, Amazon, Spotify, and YouTube--and then a JRJ-OT7 Face-focused playlist should be playing on your computers, tablets, phones, and smart TVs 24/7 this week. On Spotify, you swamp accounts after 20 plays and on YouTube you swap accounts after 50 plays. Remember you can buy a song for 69 cents or you can play a song 150 times on a premium account.

And you need to tweet or call your local radio stations and politely ask for them to play Like Crazy English Version every morning and every evening.

Finally, please turn on notification for VoteforPJM and follow their instructions. You'll want to watch videos every day on the idol apps (Mubeat, FanStar, IdolChamp, etc.) so you can gather up free tickets to vote for Jimin to win awards. TMI? I literally do this when I go to the bathroom. I'm a captive audience anyway and it only takes a few minutes.

Listen...

I know you're tired. I know it's been a hell of a week. I know we have other members we will need to support soon. But from now until April 21, we fight and fight hard.

When you get tired, remember that Jimin used to diet until he passed out. Jimin used to work in the studio until 4am and then go to school at 6:30am and get straight A's. Jimin used to go on world tours while also getting his BA and MA and being a UN ambassador. Despite COVID and appendicitis and mail tampering and apartment seizure and death threats, Jimin worked hard on concerts and his album and Expo duties--even falling asleep in the studio most nights. For 10 long months, Jimin quietly took his pain and his loneliness and he turned it into art. He coded and he hid a love track... and he paid to do music shows and did fan calls... all for fans because he had something to share with us... and those of us who love him clearly see what he meant us to.

He did all this, and he made history. And the first thing he did was come live to credit BTS and ARMY.

Of course ARMY will have his back now, right?

[thelowkeygeek]

Check out the latest LOWKEY GEEK #youtube video! Who Had A Naked JOHN CENA On Their OSCARS Bingo Card? | The Morning After LIVE by LOWKEY GEEK! Good morning and Happy Monday! Hollywood celebrated the movies over the weekend and we celebrated in seeing a naked John Cena present Best Costume Design, a dog clapping and Ryan Gosling stealing the show with the best musical performance of the evening. I'll be recapping the Oscars and also going over the weekend box office along with the recent headlines. Great ways to show support to the channel is by donating during the live stream in the following ways: TTS is ON at $5+ Super Chats & Donations - Get your messages read out loud! Donations: https://ift.tt/9K7NztD Become a friend of the channel for just $1 a month. Join a membership TODAY! 🔔 Consider Subscribing: https://ift.tt/rFZitxL 🎧 Listen on Spotify: https://ift.tt/uV6KmsD 🎧 Listen on iTunes: https://ift.tt/Q7zgFYO ► The gear used on this channel: https://amzn.to/3L79c1Y ► Sign up for Surfshark VPN and get 85% OFF + 2 Free Months: https://bit.ly/3ZLU5Cn ► Get 3 months of UNLIMITED DATA for only $15/mo with Mint Mobile: https://ift.tt/ANtXGTx ► Fever events and experiences: https://ift.tt/jEubtiC ► 80s Tees: 30% OFF with code WINTER30: https://ift.tt/gVvDwal ► Entertainment Earth - 10% OFF In-Stock Items Plus Free Shipping On Orders $40+: https://ee.toys/LOWKEYG Other Great Content ---------------------------------- ► Movie Review & Out of Theater Reactions: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsH8u5sKE6YH2jORSfkqtudOJX2KFFJkK ► The Trailer Park: Trailer Reactions: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsH8u5sKE6YETuoR2B2Y1ulc_TfFKkyGZ ► The MovieTime Podcast: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsH8u5sKE6YFrFx7-xandmlAgLWoUwIhc ► The Talking Talk Podcast: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsH8u5sKE6YG3kXuSkEzu2PGgnjvU70Kc ► Special Events & Travel: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsH8u5sKE6YGUo9x5FHnbideFkmHV_lAM ► Japan WOW Now: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsH8u5sKE6YFX48uPJl5FwipHSTGis9Qy ► LOWKEY GEEK Gaming: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsH8u5sKE6YHHmgt_YpmNFEbOi0d52hic ► One-Shots: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsH8u5sKE6YGDDThqnXOa9FOLYtvAjFNK Follow Us --------------------------------------------------- Twitter: https://twitter.com/the_lowkey_geek Instagram: https://ift.tt/RIreVaL Threads: https://ift.tt/4bSvDRy Follow the Team on Letterboxd ----------------- Blake Wolf: https://ift.tt/C1h5eTL Rene A. Zelada: https://ift.tt/LJepZKk Chapters ----------------- #oscars #oscars2024 #themorningafter #podcast #movienews #morning #morningnews #morningafter #headlines #entertainmentnews #moviereviews #moviereview #boxoffice #weekendboxoffice via YouTube https://youtu.be/RIABZtbziqs

[reikisthan]

ARIES | Whatever Comes Out | Deep Dive #aries #tarottherapy #timeless

🌟 A quick Link to Classes & Fan-favorites: ✨ Feather's Memberships: 🔹 Unlimited Reiki Healing Membership 🔹 YouTube Membership: Weekly exclusive content. 🌟 Feather's Featured Classes & Healing Sessions: 🔸 Cord Cut & Protection 🔸 EFT Tapping Session to Heal Heartache 🔸 Reiki Heal Heartbreak 🔸 All Classes 🔸 Fans get a 10% discount using code: FAN1010 ✨ Book with Feather: Please note, I only offer personal readings via my website. Never respond to anyone who offers you a reading via Social Media, DM, text, or online comments. 🌟 Feather's Merch: ✨ Feather's Books: 🔸 Oh Please! Be Your Own Hero: Manifesting Survival Guide! 🔸 Review my book 🔸 The Art of Aloneness 🔸 Amazon Author Page 🌟 Check out my Extended Readings: ____________________________________________ 🌟 LIVE VIBE & READS - Donation Readings! 🔸 3 Cards $11.11/ 6 Cards $22.22/ Mini Reading $33.33 PayPal/Cashapp Preferred. (SuperChats are also appreciated) 🔸 PayPal link: Pay and type your question in at the same time! 🔸 CashApp $nourish77 🌟 Tips & Reviews! Enjoy the show and messages? Tips & Reviews are so loved and appreciated! 🔹 CashApp $nourish77 🔹 PayPal 🔹 Leave a review ____________________________________________ 🌟 Feather's Channels 🔹 Get Feathered - Live Shows & More, Tarot, Twin Flames, All Zodiacs 🔹 Nourish Heal Live - Life Coach, Wellness, Spirituality 🔹 Feathered Libra Tarot - Readings For Libras (all aspects) 🔹 Feathered Leo Tarot - Readings For Leos (all aspects) ____________________________________________ 🌟 Free Online Retreat: Access My Totally Freaking Reset Your Vibes 10-Week Retreat 🌟 Free Resource Library! Get instant access to free worksheets, challenges, meditations, and more! Request Instant Access 🌟 Get Feathered Podcast! Listen & Subscribe on iTunes, iHeartRadio, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts, and more! ____________________________________________ Success & Wellness Coach - Author - Reiki Master - Psychic Medium - Feather is a Libra Sun, Leo Moon, Leo Rising, and Virgo Venus. She has 20+ yrs experience in Alternative & Clinical Medicine. She left the 9-5 hustle to work with clients worldwide, publish online content, and write books to help people manifest their most authentic desires. If you feel guided to watch or drawn to a title, you are here for a reason. If you resonate, your comments, donations, likes, shares, and subscriptions (click the bell for all notifications) are loved and appreciated! Let's Connect! 🔹 Email: nourishheallive@gmail.com 🔹 Instagram: 🔹 Twitter: 🌟 Join the community - The Good Vibe Tribe: ✨ Feather's Website:: _____________________________________________ 🌟Helpful Videos & Playlists: 🔸 Learn Tarot with Feather Playlist: 🔸 How to Stop Runner/Chaser Dynamic: 🔸 Energy Work/Spirituality Playlist: Videos, general, and private readings are for entertainment and are not intended to provide professional advice or counseling. Please seek help from licensed therapists, legal entities, and medical professionals, as necessary. Use your own discernment, for your highest good, when making personal choices. #twinflames #soulmates #tarot #lifecoach #spirituality #selflove #wellness #spiritual #tarot #lifecoach #relationshipcoach #wellness source Read the full article

[anwmark]

Classified

We provide a powerful array of industry-leading tools and configurations so you can focus on building innovative apps that impact culture and change lives using the latest Apple technologies. And we make sure the App Store services are always available, thanks to our hundreds of sustainability and reliability engineers who manage our dedicated data centers (powered by 100% renewable energy).

Classified

Distribution is easy, safe and reliable. Unlimited hosting and bandwidth for all apps, updates, in-app purchases, machine learning models and more – even for free apps. Apple is engaged in global payment processing. Depending on the region, users can pay with credit or debit cards, carrier billing, digital wallets, or App Store and iTunes gift cards. Users can restore apps and in-app purchases on a new device to seamlessly maintain access to content. Apple verifies user accounts to check that your users are real, helps see that you're getting paid, and protects your intellectual property. We also assist with tax obligations in over 60 regions and support all disputes to help you protect your trademarks and copyrights. Users can opt in to download the latest version of your apps with automatic updates. Release apps and updates manually or automatically at the time you choose - or gradually over 7 days. Keep 70% of your sales revenue (85% if you're enrolled in the App Store Small Business Program) and 85% for qualifying subscriptions. With TestFlight, you can share your betas with up to 10,000 external testers just by using their email address or sharing a public link. Respond to user reviews of your apps in the App Store. AppleCare provides customer support for billing issues, app downloads, and more.

Built-in business and marketing opportunities. Choose from eight business models: free, free with advertising, free with physical goods and services, free with in-app purchases, free with subscription, paid, reader and cross-platform. Apple only collects a commission if you sell a digital good or service through your app. Provide introductory offers, promotional offers and subscription offer codes. Distribute promotional codes for apps or in-app purchases. Let users pre-order your new app and get it via automatic downloads when it's released. Bundle up to 10 of your apps as one purchase. Promote your app in the App Store with Apple Search Ads.

[sbrn10]

3000 words on NFTs

Here is my stupidly long post to memorialize what I have learned from 4 hours of law-focused web seminars on NFTs and/or the gaming industry to try to answer the question: What the fuck is an NFT and what is it for? 

First of all, I know nothing about cryptography or security, I am approaching this with a 5 year old’s understanding of the tech behind blockchain/NFTs. That said, NFTs are just tokens that are purportedly unique and secure -- i.e., they can function as proof of ownership of ~something~ -- that live on a distributed ledger (or database) called the blockchain. “Non-fungible” just means unique -- bitcoin is fungible because every bitcoin is exactly like every other bitcoin. NFTs are all unique -- even if two NFTs point to the same asset (more on this later), they have different token IDs and are distinguishable. Like all cryptocurrencies, they are held in “wallets” -- which are just accounts for this blockchain.

Note: This post uses nested bullets, which are broken on dashboard/mobile. tumblr is trash. If you are sane, probably skip this. If you want, lots of words behind the cut that are best viewed on my tumblr on PC.

What the seminars told me NFTs are good for

The purported unique/secure part means that it is (next to) impossible for someone to pretend that they own an NFT that you own. For example, a much touted use case for NFTs goes something like this: You buy a pair of Nike shoes. They come with an NFT that proves you own those shoes. You then go to a “metaverse” operator and show them the NFT, so that they know you bought the shoes, and then you can wear your Nike shoes on your avatar in that “metaverse”. You can do this in multiple metaverses because the NFT lives on a distributed ledger outside that metaverse operator’s own database, and no one can “fake” the NFT.

Compare this to how digital ownership is handled today in two illustrative cases:

1. You buy a thing from a platform owner (say, iTunes or Steam or Google Playstore): your purchase is recorded in each platform owner’s own database (ledger), which is centrally managed by that owner. This cannot (easily) travel to any other platform, because it lives only on the platform owner’s, e.g., Apple’s database. Also, only Apple controls that database, and you can’t, for example, sell your ownership of a purchase you made (e.g., song on iTunes) to someone that uses Google Music without Apple’s permission.

2. You buy a thing from a third-party seller; they give you a code that you can turn in to a platform owner (e.g., you buy a game on Amazon, Amazon sends you a 16-digit alphanumeric code, which you then redeem on Playstation Store). In this case, the code itself is not safe or permanent -- once you use it, it is gone, and ownership is transformed into variant 1 above (now your PS Store account has a record saying you own X game). If anyone else has access to the code and submits it to PS Store before you do, PS Store can’t tell whether you’re using it or anyone else is using it. You also can’t buy a code that will work on any store -- you always get a code that works with only one store (Steam, PS Store, EGS, etc.).

So the NFT evangelist’s argument seems to be primarily as follows:

NFTs are a form of proof of ownership that can travel and is free from a platform owner’s control. So the utopian vision is something like:

You can buy an item (e.g., a skin) that can be used in any game

You can buy Nike shoes or a Gucci shirt and wear them in any metaverse

Your ownership is independent of the platform, so even if, e.g., iTunes shuts down, you won’t lose the songs you purchased because you can show the NFT to another service and access those songs

NFTs are secure in a way that central databases are not -- the blockchain, because it is distributed, has no single point of failure. To simplify, imagine Apple’s database as a single phonebook. It shows the name and phone numbers of everyone who has an Apple account. If someone gets to that phonebook and changes your phone number, you can’t stop that--the phonebook itself is the only copy of the ledger. Blockchain is like 100 people each hold 1 page of the phonebook and are constantly calling each other to verify whether any change to the phonebook is legitimate. Because of this, nobody can forge or hack the blockchain phonebook the way they could with Apple’s one phonebook. (This is a gross simplification; let’s accept it for the sake of argument.)

One oft touted argument is that NFTs can come with “smart contracts” that automate payment of a royalty on any resale of an NFT to the original minter (presumably also the original artist for argument’s sake). So especially for artists who are often struggling, but also for people who want to support artists, the idea of an NFT that later somehow skyrockets in value but keeps generating a continuous stream of 1% or 5% to the artist on every resale can be enticing.

NFTs as-is are also often used as a sort of “club membership” -- people who own a Bored Ape or Pudgy Penguin are granted exclusive membership to a club, which... is somehow desirable. BAYC had some event in NYC where recognizable bands and celebrities performed for this exclusive audience. It sounds mostly like an MLM type scheme, but also does make at least MARGINALLY more sense than programmatically generated monkey pictures selling, by themselves, for millions.

Why I still think NFTs are stupid

However, if you’ve followed along so far and have a lot of fucking questions, that’s completely normal, because:

Okay, so NFTs are proof of ownership of ~something~. That ~something~ can be really anything (you could, say, make an NFT that “proves” ownership of a house or a star or a car), but at present is usually a piece of art (whether a jpeg or a music album or an NBA highlight clip or whatever).

But the NFT can be made (minted) by anyone, including someone who has no rights to the underlying art. In this case, ownership of nothing is actually worth nothing and is just 100% a scam that further defrauds artists. Also note that if the minter is not the artist, then the potential royalty on resales to the minter is also further fraud! (The NFT minting process is such that it is probably impossible to actually effectively police this in the near future. Also yes, it’s copyright infringement to do this, but who’s going to enforce and how?)

What rights you, as the NFT owner, even have to the ~something~ are not universally defined, have to be determined on an NFT by NFT basis, and are therefore very nebulous. The NFT is, basically, technological proof that you have X rights to the connected art, but what the X rights are? Can wildly differ by NFT. The artist MAY intend to transfer ownership of the art itself (copyright) but probably not. The buyer MAY think they’re getting ownership of the art itself, but they’re probably not. (Even assuming you’re getting an exclusive license, is that the same as ownership? Would an NFT owner have standing to sue over the underlying art? Like, sure, there’s caselaw out there that’s probably relevant, but do I want to get into it, no.) Laypeople almost never actually understand IP laws in the first place (which is not meant in any derogatory sense -- I also do not understand the cryptography behind why NFTs are secure, I am merely operating on someone else’s explanation that it is -- we are all laypeople about most subjects in this world), so there’s a serious problem that people buying and selling NFTs often actually have no idea what they’re buying or selling in the first place. Figure in the amount of propaganda around the scene, and. Well.

Paying a premium for a secure proof of ownership of a jpeg is, in most rational people's minds, not very useful since the art itself is freely accessible in other ways, including so-called right clicking. So, right-clicking is, you know, piracy and all, but given that the premium -- the difference in valuation of the NFT and the value of accessing the art without that proof -- is fucking bonkers right now, like... I am not here to make any moral arguments against piracy in the context of NFTs, man.

All of the above is exacerbated by the fact that NFTs usually don't include the actual art in the token because putting the whole fucking file in the blockchain is expensive (remember, blockchain requires everyone with a page of the phonebook to be constantly checking with each other, and if the phone number is a million digits long rather than 10 digits, it takes much more work to check -- see also energy use point below) -- so USUALLY the NFT only contains a URL pointing to a file on an external server. Besides the fact that the art is obviously freely accessible on that external server, servers also often disappear, leaving you with an NFT that points to nothing.

Sidebar: No, the Australian man did not “funge the tokens”. (However, I still salute you, sir.) He just made a copy of the art that the tokens point to, which is the same as right-clicking, which falls under the general bucket of “piracy” insofar as you accept that the underlying art is owned by either the original artist or the NFT owner. I also get that “funging the token” is a meme and not always meant seriously, but the point is, I find that internet discourse on NFTs, whether for or against, is frustratingly unclear on what NFTs actually are, which prompted the said web seminars and this post.

Re: the Utopian Purchase Once Use Everywhere model: so I get that there’s a minor technological innovation here that makes it marginally easier to do this, but what currently stands in the way of this is not technology. Technologically, it is already 100% possible for you to resell your iTunes purchases to another iTunes account; Apple just won’t let you because they would rather the other iTunes account owner buy the songs again at full price. Technologically, sure if you only use an alphanumeric code to relay purchases from one platform to another, that’s not secure, but you could also have Playstation’s server link up to Amazon’s server to verify your purchase (and this does sort of work across things like EA Origin, Steam, and UPlay). It’s not really technology that’s standing in the way of this; it’s that major platform owners have very little incentive to recognize and enable third-party purchases because they make a fuckton more money selling directly. NFT technology doesn’t change that. Same goes for game items -- Overwatch, Halo, and CoD could all recognize and implement a shiny gun made of diamond that you can buy with an NFT on some external marketplace, but why would they???? (In the case of games specifically, all of these games run on different engines and would require different assets so it’s also a nontrivial amount of extra work required beyond mere proof of ownership.) I cannot fathom any world where we get anything more than all of them issuing NFTs separately and all you did was change normal purchases tied to a user account on platform servers to NFTs, needlessly burning tons of energy in the process.

This does not mean that there is NO scenario where something like this might happen. For instance, Facebook has just rebranded to Meta or whatever and they seem to be throwing all of their eggs in this metaverse basket, so, despite this not making sense in any traditional media platform way, maybe they’ll think, okay, we want to get ahead in the metaverse and have our metaverse be the most popular one, and the way to do that is to partner with Nike and Chanel and Disney or whatever and help them implement their NFTs in our Facebook Metaverse. But that will require a LOT of negotiating between platforms and content owners and it’s really difficult to imagine it shaking out the way NFT proponents imagine for any platform that also has its own store (Facebook currently doesn’t, is the thing. But I also can’t imagine them not wanting their own store for their metaverse eventually once they have the market share??? I don’t know, maybe I lack imagination).

Okay, so NFTs are cryptographically secure or whatever but, as with any other cryptocurrency, the wallets that contain them are still just as hackable and people are just as social-engineerable, so fraud with NFTs (and crypto generally) has already been documented multiple times. And because there is no central authority, nobody can help you if someone transfers your NFTs to a third party without you knowing -- you're just screwed. In other words, if someone fraudulently makes or sells a purchase on your iTunes account, because Apple controls their own database, they can undo that transaction if they verify it was fraudulent, but nobody can undo a transaction on the blockchain, because distributed ledger.

On the royalty for resales argument (which, again, is theoretically possible but not a necessary feature of NFTs) I’m not entirely convinced that that’s even all that desirable. First sale doctrine holds that the artist was sufficiently compensated when they sold their art the first time and the copy (which the NFT basically is: it acts like the physical CD of an album, your copy that you bought and hold, which nobody else does, even if they have a different copy) being sold has nothing to do with the artist. Personally, I think first sale doctrine overall makes sense--artists being underpaid is generally not because they can't get royalties on further downstream resales of their art. On this point, I also think people should ask themselves whether they want Disney getting another cut on every resale of a DVD or BluRay as well as Struggling Artist 1 with digital painting 1?

On the other hand, I acknowledge that because digital goods never degrade, first sale doctrine could make less sense -- secondhand physical goods involve a tradeoff, while digital ones don’t, so if the artist can never sell more copies of their art once enough copies are out in the world circulating as NFTs, maybe it makes sense to have continuous royalties. On the other other hand, maybe digital goods don’t last forever without degradation -- in 100 years, maybe no devices can actually play mp3 files because the codec is obsolete by then. Maybe it makes more sense to have a set number of transfer restrictions on each NFT (it can only be resold N times) rather than royalties. What makes sense for both corporate IP holders and individuals?

I’m not saying it’s conclusively UNdesirable, just that I don’t think it’s a slam dunk desirable. There’s more nuance here than “artists get paid more, ergo good.”

I will also note that this argument might be different for fine art where the NFT is attached to one piece of unique art as opposed to NFTs for popular art which can act either as a collectible (often speculative) asset (baseball cards, pokemon cards, etc.) or unique copies (releasing an album as an NFT really just seems like you’re selling an NFT the way you would sell a CD). But also, I’ve never understood fine art as an institution anyway.

Yeah, the BAYC sounds stupid. I mean, power to you if you want in on the club? But. Eh.

All of this is still happening primarily on Ethereum, which is still not Proof of Stake despite people yelling to the high heavens that it's happening any day now. As is well known Proof of Work cryptocurrency is currently using as much energy as several combined countries, and I will fucking believe the whole crypto will move to PoS thing when it actually happens.

Also, while there are theoretical legitimate use cases or places where an NFT might be an improvement over existing technology and the whole point of diving into this was to try and learn what those might be, you cannot convince me that the BULK of money in NFTs right now isn't just shameless speculation and money laundering.

As an aside I am in Korea; the seminars I took were specifically law-focused, and non-crypto-industry lawyers were rather skeptical on NFT viability with an eye toward regulations here. Anti-money laundering laws, yes, but also with the use case of game items specifically, Korea has very strong anti-gambling laws so that in-game items being convertible to real money is just flatout illegal in Korea. So anything like Axie, Mir4 or other any other play-to-earn game is illegal RIGHT NOW in Korea. Obviously the game industry in Korea is lobbying to change that, but, like, good on you, Korea. It’s only one good thing in a sea of very bad ones, but. One good thing at least. (The history behind these laws is tragic though, because it involves an arcade gambling game rising to the level of social/political scandal as people ruined themselves playing slot machines...)

Anyway, how regulation will shake out globally will probably be a massive hurdle for NFT industry, and I have very little idea of how it’s going to go except that it will be messy.

This is 3000 words long what is wrong with me

Which is to say four hours of seminars and however many hours of writing this later I remain unconvinced that any of this is worth it in the short term -- in the long term, if NFTs stop burning as much energy as a mid-sized country AND regulations step in to stop the pump and dump bullshit going on, then maybe you could discuss whether they're worth it and whatever advantages they might have.

P.S.: Maybe in five or ten years I look back on this post like, wow, I was dumb. I don’t know. NFTs are just a technology and they could end up being used for things that they’re not at all today, so maybe I missed the whole point. However, SO FAR, I did my goddamn diligence and am not impressed.