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scottymcgeesterwrites · 5 years ago

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Final Fantasy III Review

Year: 1990

Original Platform: Famicom

Also Available on: Nintendo DS, iOS (DS port), Android (iOS port), Ouya (Android port), Steam (Android port), PSP (iOS port)

Wii/3DS/Wii U Virtual Consoles and Nintendo Classic Edition releases are only in Japan.

Version I Played: DS

Synopsis:

Four orphans (originally only named by the player, DS remake gives them names) fall into a crevice after a sudden earthquake. There, a mysterious crystal warns them about the oncoming darkness that will engulf the world. The four orphans must band together to restore the balance between light and dark.

Gameplay:

ARE YOU READY TO GET YOUR ASS BEAT?

YOUR BALLS ROCKED?

I’m warning you – this is the most difficult Final Fantasy game to date.

There are no ethers - only elixirs, which you should definitely reserve for the hardest battles. Also, phoenix downs cannot be found in stores - only in treasure chests and as dropped or stolen items from enemies.

The gameplay returns to that of the original Final Fantasy – turn-based combat and the Job System, only this time the Job System is greatly expanded. Vikings and Geomancers and Bards and Dragoons and the list goes on. Summons are introduced to the series via the Evoker job, which later gets upgraded to Summoner. The expanded Job System allowed for greater customization of your four characters than in the original Final Fantasy.

This game is notable for the Onion Knight. In the beginning of the original Famicom game, the default job is Onion Knight. If you continue playing as an Onion Knight, your stats remain relatively low. However, if you dare to play the entire game as an Onion Knight and reach level 99 – the Onion Knight suddenly turns into the most powerful job in the game.

The DS remake does things a little differently. Instead of the Onion Knight, you start out as a Freelancer – a new job that has a little bit of everything. However, the longer you use the Freelancer job, the weaker you become. This is a good incentive to have players naturally explore other jobs.

The unfortunate feature of the DS remake though is that the Onion Knight is ONLY available after performing sidequests via wireless with friends. This is impossible to do now since the wireless features for the original Nintendo DS (and also the Wii) have been discontinued. HOWEVER. Playing the DS remake through Steam allows you to unlock the Onion Knight by completing at least 25% of your bestiary. You will then receive a message via the Mognet to start the sidequest.

Final Fantasy III is notorious for its high difficulty. The trick mostly lies in constantly switching between jobs and finding the right balance for the right moment. However, changing jobs requires you to level up that job. This means grinding – lots and lots of grinding. Insane amounts of grinding. This is Final Fantasy: Grind City.

In retrospect, Final Fantasy II was hard as well, yes, but more in a stupid way. Leveling up there was annoying but people could find tricks around it like finding weaker enemies and purposely hitting yourself and healing yourself to raise your HP or defense stats.

Final Fantasy III is difficult but it hurt so good. This game turned me into a masochist. There's two types of video game rage - the good and the bad kind. The bad kind is usually because the game's mechanics are irritating or virtually unplayable. The good kind is cursing out loud but then saying, "I'LL GET YOU NEXT TIME!" and actually being pumped about trying again because you see it as a challenge.

The game has an explosively difficult finale. The finale takes place in the Crystal Tower, which is surrounded by Ancient’s Maze. You have to walk through the maze, then through the tower, then fight multiple bosses through other events which I won’t spoil here. The entire ordeal can pretty well take up an entire hour. At least (in the DS version, I don’t know about Famicom) you can save before entering the Crystal Tower. But if you ever need to venture out into the world map again to get something you forgot, you have to go through the Ancient’s Maze. Once you enter the Crystal Tower, you cannot save the game. It’s one long shot to the final of final bosses. In the Crystal Tower, you get to walk around seemingly endless and maze-like floors such as this:

YAY.

Seriously though - I still enjoyed the challenge and thought it was epic. If you're going to hit me hard, you might as well go all out. Nothing in this game is held back. Also, the expanded job system allowed you to try out so many different things.

I tried for the longest time to play Final Fantasy III on an emulator but for some bizarre reason, I couldn't save, not even on save states. When I have the time, I definitely want to go back to that, try a different ROM or something, and experience the original. But I played enough of the original to know how hard it is. I died right away when I ventured outside the first town.

The DS remake mostly retains the difficulty of the original, which I admired, unlike the watered down PSP Anniversary Editions of Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy II.

Graphics:

The original Famicom game definitely has a lot more going on than the first two Final Fantasy games. Battles are still 90% black space but the rest of the game is 8-bit Heaven.

The DS remake is AMAZING. I would argue that Final Fantasy III DS is really the first great Final Fantasy remake. They got a chibi thing going on and it works here. It’s cute without being obnoxiously cute.

The FMV sequence for the DS is staggeringly beautiful.

I also kind of laugh at this one part where Luneth and Ingus are arguing and it’s the equivalent to a stock photo of two people arguing.

I only wish they added an ending FMV. That would have been the cherry on top for the remake.

Story:

Final Fantasy III is kind of like crossing the original Final Fantasy with Final Fantasy II. The story is wider in scope and more epic. The fictional world is much more interesting. The score has a wider repertoire. You fly many different airships. It also begins what I like to call the "Crystal Trilogy." Final Fantasy III, IV and V, as you'll read later, are quite similar in their general plot, which utilizes crystals as important plot devices.

There’s more to the story than people give credit for. You venture into the world and run into secondary characters who have their own stories, such as Cid, Desh, Princess Sara (reference to the original Final Fantasy), Prince Allus, Priestess Aria, and even four imposters of the four heroes of light. You save towns with a variety of problems, from a village cursed by a genie to finding a missing precious stone for the dwarves. Then you discover the truth behind the world you live in. . .

The DS version elaborates on the story by giving the four orphans names: Luneth, Arc, Refia, and Ingus. This sharpens the story by connecting more dots. The DS story starts with Luneth and Arc as childhood friends. They later meet Refia, a runaway who was tired of her guardian's blacksmith trade, and Ingus, a knight of Sasune who protects Princess Sara. I was disappointed by one rather misleading thing in the DS remake. The opening FMV sequence seemed to imply that Priestess Aria plays a wider role in the story – she doesn’t. That disappointed me.

As I’ve said already, the DS version is a wonderful remake of the original. I very highly recommend it. It enhances everything about the original and more. The remake's heroes hardly get any recognition in other Final Fantasy media and that’s a shame.

Music:

As Final Fantasy games keep getting bigger, so does the score. Uematsu shone here. He did some unique things for a Japanese composer at the time. An example is the illusion of having chords in the track Crystal Cave.

Final Fantasy III’s soundtrack is twice as long as Final Fantasy II’s. I’d say that out of the entire Famicom/NES era, this game probably has the best soundtrack. The battle theme has a sexy bass with more drums added to it. Eternal Wind, the world map theme, is definitely the greatest map theme in an RPG. Period. It truly gives the feel of wandering around a fantasy world.

The DS version reinvigorates the entire score. I loved every second of it.

The way Uematsu composed the final of the epilogue is reminiscent of how John Williams does his finales in the credits for Star Wars or Indiana Jones films. In this case, he references the Final Fantasy Main Theme at the end of the credits.

The result is a wholesome feel to the game. Final Fantasy III has a fantastic score that is perfect for closing the 8-bit era of Final Fantasy.

Notable Theme:

I'm split between Eternal Wind and Priestess Aria's Theme. Fortunately, the DS opening cinematic includes both. It has a great orchestrated rendition of the classic themes.

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Verdict:

The hardest out of all the Final Fantasy games (so far). At the same time, there’s so much to enjoy – but it’s not for everyone. Because of the difficulty, I would save this game for last. There’s something about this game that actually gives me a true “final fantasy” feel. The final stretch is so kick-your-nuts-hard that nothing else in the series can compare to it.

If you go for the DS version, however, that can be a tad bit easier. Just a tad. A smidge. Nothing more. It’s one remake that I highly recommend. They did a good facelift on both the game itself and the story. The DS version was adapted into Android and then ported into Steam, so you can get it there.

Direct Sequel?

No.

#final fantasy iii #final fantasy 3 #final fantasy #black mage #red mage #square enix #nintendo #nintendo ds #video games #rpg #fantasy #magic #onvideogames

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eleventoes · 7 years ago

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the story of us | oneshot

pairing: yoongi x reader; broke-up-but-getting-back-together!au | so much fluff and lots of pining, with almost non-existent angst word count: 7.1k ♪: when night falls - punch, can’t love you anymore - iu and oh hyuk warning(s): none synopsis:

Three times you cross paths with Min Yoongi, and that one time you both find your way back to each other.

***

Yoongi’s mind was empty, for the most part, when he first enters the subway, mundane thoughts like whether he’d let the cat out this morning swirling languidly in his hollow brain. The automated sound system rings from above, politely informing him that it was currently five past twelve and that service would cease soon, as if he doesn’t already know that from having spent the past three months bolting out of his studio at 12.02am on the dot to catch the last train home.

He yawns, lazily glancing around the empty seats and emptier cabins.

Yoongi doesn’t love many things, (his music and his cat made for a grand total of two) but he does love the quietude of the midnight crowd—which was next to none, really.

Then he freezes, mid-yawn and unglamorous, when he catches sight of your familiar figure slumped over the thick plastic of the subway seats, eyelids snapped shut and teetering dangerously to your side whenever the train jerks abruptly with a low rumble.

You were falling asleep, fast, and Yoongi feels the sleep draining from his eyelids as alarm took over and, before his singular brain cell could tell him to walk away, walk away you fucking idiot, he was dropping everything in his arms, knapsack and notebook be damned, to reach over and cup your head gently in his hands. Perfect timing too, because a minute later and you probably would have landed yourself face-down on the grimy floor. And of all things he chose to remember, he remembers that you were a deadweight when asleep.

So no, he couldn’t leave you alone.

A good twenty seconds later and he was nestled comfortably by your side, your bodies snuggling into the other like puzzle pieces that were never part of the same puzzle, but fit perfectly together anyway. Your voice was sounding in his head again, sort of like the kind of habit too far instilled in him to kick, and he quirks a smile at how you would have teasingly tugged at his cheeks claiming that he was a big softie. Because you were right—he doesn’t protest; not even an inaudible squawk of indignance, when the tiniest bit of drool slipped from your lips and onto his denim sleeve, instead glimpsing down at your fluttering lashes and concluding that providence worked in mysterious ways.

Your features were akin to something he’d know better than himself, his memory of your expressive eyes, that gentle slope of your nose, and the natural reddish tint to your lips that has never really faded away, even if it has been a year since the sonorous shattering of rose-tinted glass and scathing words that neither of you could ever dream of taking back.

In spite of everything, he finds his fingers instinctively winding themselves in your soft strands, smoothing it down soothingly and methodically; the two of you have enjoyed all too many late night cuddles for him not to commit the motion to muscle memory after all.

And many people have told Yoongi very matter-of-factly that he wasn’t one to smile often, but if they knew him well enough, they would have known how easy it was for him to smile when you were around, so much that Taehyung, that dramatic asshole, would lament that the world was ending whenever he wasn’t wearing his gummy grin around you; the one where his eyes curve up in crescents, and the one you proclaimed to be your favorite.

So frankly, Yoongi doesn’t know what it means when your mere presence (light snoring and all) still manages to elicit a soft smile from him despite the gap of a whole entire year, but he does know that he missed this.

That you-shaped hole in his heart still remains gaping and empty, squeezing ever so occasionally with the hard pangs of longing.

He missed you, and it hurts to miss you.

It hurts to have everything about you seem so incredibly familiar yet unfamiliar all at once, like how he knew that vermillion scarf around your neck was a handmade gift from your grandmother that you cherished with all your heart, yet he has no inkling of how you had torn a hole in its frayed edges, or whether you had cried like a baby when you did.

He knew you adored the comfort of oversized graphic hoodies, yet it felt odd to be staring at the Pokémon print smacked obnoxiously over the front of your slate-grey hoodie, knowing full well that it wasn’t his.

And he knew you were beautiful since way before, yet you look different, with the yellow hues of the flickering subway lights grazing the curves of your cheekbones, contrasting starkly with the pitch black slathered over the slightly misty windows. Different, but effortlessly ethereal nonetheless.

Yoongi shifts a little, and then maybe it was because it has been a while since he’s allowed himself to be consumed by recurring questions all revolving around you, but for a moment, he decides that he’s done suppressing every other thought he has about you on any other day, and could at least give himself the liberty to wonder freely; without pricks of guilt and the multitudes of ‘what ifs’ holding him back.

For as long as the subway kept on moving along the uneven and gravelly tracks, suspending the both of you in what seemed like a slight timeslip away from your otherwise divergent lives, he’d allow himself this much.

He wonders if the sharper definition of your jaw had something to do with that law internship you had been jabbering excitedly about since over a year ago, and as if it was nearly second nature to him (it was), he immediately worries if you’ve been eating right, or if you’ve been skipping meals the way you were accustomed to whenever you get too caught up in all that’s going on around you. You had a tendency to forget things like that, though truthfully, so did Yoongi, because you know the couple’s a match made in heaven when the both of you had multiple dates in a convenience store at ungodly hours in the morning, bonding over missed meals and anxiety-inducing deadlines.

The faded shade of the pretty pink of your lips—somewhere between the color of peach and cherries—makes him ponder if you had moved on, found someone else who made you laugh as wide as you used to, someone who’d take your freezing hands into theirs and emulated the kind of warmth that made you flush all the way to the tips of your ears, or someone who’d smudge your lipstick as easily as he had once did. Of course, Yoongi couldn’t deny that you would deserve that and everything more, but he couldn’t deny the green-eyed monster clawing at his heart either, the jealousy inching into his gut, along with a small sense of defeat and resignation.

And then he muses if it had been a mistake to have had his heart on a platter, to have been so innocently naïve to have his life so tightly intertwined with yours, to have left himself so explicitly vulnerable to losing everything that could have possibly mattered—but the two of you had been young and so stupidly in love. Too young to not flounder around clumsily all whilst pretending you knew what you were doing, too stupidly in love to have learnt that love wasn’t quite about knowing how to protect yourself above all else.

It was almost predictable, what Yoongi thinks about next.

Would it be selfish of him to wish to try again?

The lady over the speaker system robotically announces that the train was approaching its final station for the night—your stop. Huh, he’s missed his stop (around twenty minutes ago actually, but technicalities).

Truth to be told, Yoongi should probably be fretting about how he was going to get home in the middle of the night with public transport now out of the question, but he couldn’t really find it in himself to care.

He wasn’t afraid to admit to having tunnel-vision, and all he could see right now was you.

“Hey,” Tentatively, he prods at your shoulder in a near-futile attempt to stir you awake. Tentatively because if everyone thought Yoongi was a force to be reckoned with when woken up, you were something else altogether; he’s learnt his lesson after that one time you had tackled him to the floor in a sleepy haze. Not that it hadn’t ended up in an almost instantaneous makeout and cuddle session, but that was obviously not happening anytime soon.

You do, however, end up jolting back to semi-consciousness. Though it could hardly be attributed to that hesitant poke of Yoongi’s finger, because you had brushed it off irritably (Yoongi would argue that it was adorable, but eh, who was he kidding), only coming to your senses after hearing a raspy voice far too familiar for it to be a coincidence.

“Yoon—,” Your voice emerges soft, diffident, and too guarded for him to even be remotely comfortable, “Yoongi?”

You clamber away from him within a span of the next two seconds, which would have been borderline offensive had he been any other well-intentioned stranger sharing the same commute, but he only shoots you a wry smile. He’s reminded of all the times you’ve woken up on your own accord—always on Sunday mornings, because it was universally known that every Sunday was Sleep-in Sunday—and how you’d always loved to bury yourself back into that corner of his body he has carved out for you.

It was amazing how much difference a year could make; how much distance it could drive between two people who had once been very much in love.

“It’s the last stop,” He finally replies, surprised at how well he could keep the emotion out of his voice. Then again, maybe his inability to emote how he really felt had been one of the biggest downfalls of your relationship, “Come on, let’s go.”

Yoongi rises to his feet first, and offers you a hand that you don’t take immediately.

Even as the two of you stumble onto the platform in frigid silence, he finds himself still hoping for your heart to be beating as thunderously as his own.

***

If anyone were to take one look at the auburn-haired man sitting before you, they’d say he was graceful, and you wouldn’t fault them for admiring the fluidity of his movement, apparent even while performing menial tasks like sipping on his cappuccino. He did dance a lot back in high school, and was good enough to have been scouted by a couple of major talent agencies.

The Hoseok sitting before you, however, spits out his coffee inelegantly, with about as much grace as a duck on stilts.

You roll your eyes and throw him a couple of napkins you had swiped from the countertop.

“You what?” He all but shrieks, a tad too shrill for two interns who were huddled in a corner of the break room despite not actually being on break.

“I saw Yoongi on the subway last night,” Staring down at the pretty swirls of cocoa in your mug, you try your best not to subject yourself to Hoseok’s incredulous gaze, cursing silently to yourself when the words don’t come out as casually as you had hoped they would. Yoongi was always better at putting up a stoic façade, you were mostly in-charge of being the transparent one.

Your best friend responds by quietly dabbing at the sepia stains seeping through the front of his white button-up, and you knew the silence meant that he understood. The relief, the turmoil, the longing— you knew he’d understand it all.

Not a surprise, given the strange nature of your relationship with Hoseok. The two of you had clicked in Chemistry lab back in high school and that was it. Here you were. The pair of you didn’t need daily texts or anything like that to just get each other, and if you really think about it, it was odd how you barely needed to hear a peep from each other throughout the course of an entire week, yet you both knew exactly when to seek each other out for a good chat over coffee (so what if Yoongi had some part to play in your unrivalled love for coffee?). It was safe to say, you hadn’t had much faith in platonic soulmates before meeting the sunshine himself, and it was a pure stroke of serendipity that you had both been accepted as interns at one of the most prestigious law firms around.

“How are you feeling?”

What you love about Hoseok was how he never shies away from talking about things right out in the open, preferring open and honest communication as “functioning adults do”, but you scowl at having to talk about feelings anyway.

But he knows you well enough to glare from across the cafeteria table, gesturing for you to go ahead and blurt out feelings and shit.

You groan, but comply, “I’m scared, Hoseok.”

“That’s not enough for me to work with, and you know it.”

“Fine,” Burying your face in your hands, you somehow choke out the words lodged deep in your throat, and if Hoseok notices the slight tremble of your fingers, he doesn’t comment on it, “It’s been a good year since I’ve last seen his shadow, and now I fall asleep on him on the subway, and suddenly I’m weak in the knees all over again.”

You wished you were lying, but your knees had decided to bail on you the minute you had alighted the train last night, alarming Yoongi and also embarrassing yourself to infinity and beyond.

“I can’t believe it’s been so long and he still has this hold on me that I can’t seem to shake off.”

Hoseok appears to be thoughtful, and that stain marring his crisp white shirt lies forgotten. Typical Hoseok.

“But do you hate it? The way you feel around Min Yoongi,” He presses, and lord knows you hate it when he presses, but then again you know he’s only trying to help you figure things out, albeit in a straightforward manner that makes it all the more painful, but you should at least attempt to be cooperative.

“I don’t—I don’t hate it, I just, hate that I don’t hate it. I hate that I’m not indifferent, and that I’m still so goddamn vulnerable,” The confession spills before you could make yourself shut up; you had that uncanny habit of always saying too much, “I may as well be holding up a sign for him to just break my heart. Again.”

No, that hardly sounds right; you had broken his heart as much as he had broken yours.

“Like how I shattered his,” You add lamely, leaning back abashedly in your seat after your tiny outburst, realizing that your shoulders had been up to your ears the entire time, all too tense for a friendly conversation.

“I think you need closure,” Hoseok finally speaks, in that comforting tone of his that never fails to calm you down, “I’m not pushing you to do anything you don’t want to, but I don’t think avoiding him would be a good idea. If you see him again, that is.”

“If you’re afraid, confront it. There’s probably a good reason why you aren’t able to really move on,” He continues, downing the last of his caffeine.

“I know, but it’s just—easier said than done.”

Setting his porcelain mug down on the rickety plastic table, Hoseok angles his body forward to land a good flick on your forehead. A surprise attack, if you will.

“Idiot, no one ever said heartbreak was easy.”

***

Yoongi was, for lack of a better word, a wreck.

Not the kind that rolled off bed in the late hours of the afternoon, living amongst endless empty piles of what used to be cup ramen, week-old drool still catching on the corner of his lips. The kind that seemed to have switched off all cognitive functions and had chosen to live out the rest of his days as an amorphous lump burrowed in a nest of Star Wars-themed blankets, a pasty hand reaching out every couple hours for a tub of ice cream.

That was the category he had undoubtedly belonged to a good year ago; the immediate aftermath of having lost someone whom he had considered his other half, but Yoongi was better than that now.

Slightly, but it made all the difference.

He was still fully functional, springing awake every morning promptly at 7am, mechanically washing up and getting clothed (he’s been wearing the loose shirt for about five consecutive days now, but if no one had noticed, he sure as hell wasn’t going to call himself out for it). He still reports to the studio diligently, pouring his all into producing for the artists signed onto the label he works for (namely Taehyung, but he doesn’t have to know he’s Yoongi’s favorite), and bantering over beats with his co-producer, Namjoon, but something feels a little off.

“You’re spacing out again,” Namjoon had blurted through a mouthful of pork belly one day, looking at Yoongi as if he’d grown another head.

Yoongi usually gets away with it by mumbling some lameass excuse about how he was thinking about getting a dog (not a complete fib, because maybe a doggy companion would be ideal for his resident feline grump, but it’s definitely not the truth). Deep down he knew no one was going to buy it any longer, and soon even the company’s board director might demand for Yoongi to explain the reason why he kept naming his tracks wrong and sending the demos instead of the finalized studio recordings.

Fortunately (or maybe not, but no one’s really certain at this point), you don’t occupy his thoughts for long, because about a week later, you were occupying a spot in Aisle 14 of that supermarket two streets over. He’d be laughing if he hadn’t been stunned speechless—he’d dreamt up just about a dozen scenarios in which he’d be able to see you again, but none of them had gone like this.

You stare, gaze unnerving and relentless, and he stares back.

Then the two of you simultaneously glance down at what you had both been vying for moments prior: the last box of Lucky Charms on the shelf.

What the actual fuck.

“You hate Lucky Charms,” Quick to recover and looking all too mortified, you gasp, accusation lacing your bewildered tone, and if Yoongi didn’t know better he’d have thought he had sinned against humanity, “What happened?”

You adored it, so I eventually did too.

Was the answer bubbling in his throat, but unfortunately that wasn’t on the list of Appropriate Things to Say to the Ex You’re Still Hung Up Over. That and Yoongi was not one to be this dramatic over cereal.

Yoongi’s wince precedes his own response.

“I was, uh, charmed,” He vocalizes plainly, the words tasting flat even on his tongue, and heart pulsing at about a million beats per minute. Even Yoongi doesn’t produce beats this fast, and that was saying a lot.

In between the uncertainty and the unmistakable twinge of yearning, he had been worried. Would you stiffen and turn away? Or would you plaster on an obligatory smile, act as if you were strangers and pretend to have never felt the soft pressure of his lips on yours, or the warm hold of your hand in his?

The Subway Incident™ (as he had so eloquently termed in his head) had left Yoongi pining for more than just a hurried glance and a quick ‘thank you’, because every cell in his body had been begging to ask you to stay a little longer, but you were gone before he could even swallow the lump in his throat.

And you have always been full of surprises, Yoongi knew as much, but he’s still taken aback when you do neither, a careful smile adorning your lips as you quip back, “Is this the Seokjin effect? I thought you were better than this, Yoongi.”

The curve on his lips mirroring yours comes involuntarily, more of a reflexive action than anything else, “Can’t help it, you know he’s aiming for world dominance with those terrible dad jokes.”

The initial tension that lay thick in the atmosphere has fallen away (no doubt thanks to Seokjin, but he doesn’t have to know that), and Yoongi thinks to himself that it was fascinating how fluidly the both of you could engage in easy conversation, almost like the casual banter could nullify all the hurt and regret still lodged deep in your guarded hearts.

It couldn’t, but it got pretty damned close.

Yoongi was instantly brought back to the very first morning he had spent with you, the sight of you twirling around in his kitchen stinging at the back of his eyelids, and all the fondness and endearment surging in his gut as he had watched you whip out all the culinary expertise you had accumulated over the years to magic out two bowls of cereal. He remembers the salmon-pink coloring your cheeks when he first told you about his innate hatred for Lucky Charms, the faux fury lining your irises when you found out he was more of a Cheerios kind of guy, and the way your blush had spread all the way to the tips of your ears when he had eagerly finished the breakfast you had made, Lucky Charms or not.

One of the many things he loved (loves) about you was how openly you expressed your emotions, the simplistic way he could read you like a book and how honest you were when it came to telling him how you felt. You weren’t good at masking your emotions, and Yoongi would have thought that it would make you more vulnerable than anything; but you use your candor by means of defending yourself, and he had thought you were incredible, since if there was one thing Yoongi couldn’t do to save his life, it was expressing himself.

This makes it all the more painful, now that you’re here and treading very carefully on thin ice. That much was apparent, because Yoongi was so in tune to your emotions and body language that he knew you were being more than a little wary.

“Uhh.”

The pair of you snap your heads towards the source of the wavering voice, eyes landing on a taller (and evidently younger) part-timer hovering awkwardly between the both of you. ‘Jungkook’, his name tag reads, and he looks every bit as confused as Yoongi could imagine.

“You don’t have to fight each other for the cereal or anything,” Jungkook finally croaks out after stretched silence, “We have more in the back.”

Right, to any other onlooker, the two of you would have appeared like two ludicrous idiots having a stare-off over a puny box of fucking Lucky Charms.

“Oh, um, you can have this then,” Eyes comically widened, you loosen your hold on the incriminating object, before turning on your heels to trail after the part-timer, “Bye, Yoongi.”

By the time Yoongi had caught on to all that was going on and had suspended his hand in the air in some sort of half-wave, you were already turning the corner.

He sighs.

***

You don’t know what you’ve done to deserve this, but here you were, stuck in Jimin and Namjoon’s shared apartment with a sleeping Min Yoongi on the couch, dead to the world.

In retrospect, you should have known Jimin had something up his sleeve from the moment he’d invited you over with the promise of pizza. As much of an angel as he was, free food was taking it a bit too far. But you came over anyway; since refusing free food was definitely stretching it too far.

“Please, Y/N, I just need to head over to the company real quick,” He had pleaded, his weapon of choice being the pair of puppy eyes no one could ever say no to without feeling at least some semblance of guilt, “I don’t want to leave Yoongi all alone here when he’s sick.”

“Where’s Namjoon?”

“Locked in the studio with a broken phone. Basically, unreachable.”

“Taehyung?”

“He has a fansign in Hongdae today.”

“Seokjin?”

“He’s out of town for work, remember?”

You had bitten down on your bottom lip hard, contemplative for a beat or two before taking all of two seconds to agree.

And here you were, hugging your knees to your chest with your ass planted firmly on the floor, facing the man-child who still holds your heart captive.

It was a known fact that Yoongi tends to neglect his health, what with his irregular meal times and messed up sleep schedule, so unsurprisingly, his body fails him often. Multiple times over the span of three years you would worry yourself to death, checking up on him every ten minutes and making impromptu runs to the nearest pharmacy (the old man behind the counter recognizes you and makes small talk sometimes).

Needless to say, you knew exactly how his body functioned; what works for him and what doesn’t.

Rather than the typical dose of paracetamol, ice packs do a better job of cooling down his fever, and nothing does the trick better than honey ginger tea for his hoarse throat.

Right, and a feverish Yoongi also made for a delirious Yoongi.

“Is this a dream?” He whispers for no particular reason, having woken up a couple of minutes ago disoriented and confused, eyes glazed over with so much raw emotion it almost hurt to hold his gaze.

“No,” Lifting the soothing drink to his lips, you couldn’t help but smile when he sips at it obediently without putting up a fight as he usually would have, “Not unless you want it to be.”

“You’re not being fair,” Still whispering, he mumbles in your ear, hot breath fanning across your neck, “You’re not supposed to be nice to me. That’s not how—

He chokes.

—breaking up works.”

Ouch.

He was so, so painfully close, so much that you wouldn’t even have to reach over to feel his warmth encase yours, and he was so, so painfully close, that it hurt so much more to have to pull away.

“Yoongi,” Good, your voice came out steady, very much unlike the flurry of whirlwind emotions you were holding back, “You’re not yourself right now. We’ll talk when you’re feeling better.”

“No we won’t. You’ll leave before I can try.”

You grimace, but you did deserve that one.

With Yoongi, the lines are almost always blurred, yet the end had been crystal clear—you had walked away.

Not enough time has passed for you to truly determine if it had been the right choice to make, if it had even been your choice to make, but the beginnings of penitence were starting to ebb away at your heart.

The final year of college had always been the busiest, where everybody was gearing up to face adulthood, to salvage cherished relationships, to get their lives together; and it was a struggle, to have to wonder what kind of person you were trying to be while cramming for finals at 4am in the mornings, or to be sobbing over a mid-life crisis thirty years too early. It’s easy to forget, in the process of finding yourself, the people around you who made you who you were.

As life picked up its pace, the apartment you shared with Yoongi grew emptier by the day. He had been cooped up in his borrowed studio next to campus, busy with trying to perfect his submissions for his final assignments, juggling the plethora of offers from various record labels at the same time. As for you, law school was hardly a walk in a park; you were spending nearly the entire day stuffed into some shabby corner at the campus library, nose far too buried in your books to even notice you were missing all the important calls.

Lunch dates went forgotten, texts went unanswered, and post-its left all around the apartment went unread. The two of you had drifted apart without having realized it, spinning in different orbits altogether, yet still under the illusion that everything would be okay once the final semester had ended, and life could return to normal, with your worlds still revolving solely around each other.

Normal; like groggy mornings flipping burnt pancakes, quiet afternoons spent doing everything and nothing and all that’s in between, and nights used to bicker over your unfounded desires to be the big spoon for once and Yoongi insisting that your ‘shortass’ arms could barely wrap themselves around the circumference of his waist and that he’d crush you as soon as he rolled over (it doesn’t matter, because you end up falling asleep curling into each other).

Maybe, for a little while, everything had been okay, and the two of you had each other, if nothing else.

And then everything was spiraling out of control again, with Yoongi being offered a contract with a record label based halfway across the country, and with you struggling to land yourself an internship with any of the major law firms around. Suddenly, priorities were being shaken up, and the rapid speed of change had taken a toll on the both of you.

Fighting with each other no longer felt as unnatural as before, and words wielded as weapons had easily slipped out into the open when the two of you were buckling under pressure, a routine that better suited strangers than lovers falling into place.

Hurt, you had no longer tried to initiate contact, and in turn, Yoongi no longer tried to initiate conversations.

It felt as if a part of your heart had been wilting with every night spent missing the familiar warmth that had usually enveloped yours.

And then it snapped; everything, that delicate string barely holding the relationship together, the little dance the two of you do around each other, both too afraid to be the one reaching out, and too terrified of being the one to shatter everything.

What made everything a thousand times worse was that you could hardly remember what the fight had been about; only that it carried the weight of months of having shoved the problem aside in favor of denying its foreboding presence, which had manifested into something far bigger than you would have ever imagined.

And then you had walked away, looking back only once before not looking back at all.

In any case, you would be the first to admit that Yoongi’s accusation doesn’t come without reason; and you completely understood where he was coming from.

“I promise, Yoongi,” You breathe softly, pulling up a blanket over his lithe form, “We’ll talk. One day. And you know I don’t break promises.”

“I know,” He responds after a pregnant pause, before adding in a small voice, looking the most sincere you’ve ever seen him, “I really miss you.”

Your fingers had been smoothing his bangs away from his forehead, but you still instantly, only answering moments later, when Yoongi had long succumbed to the sleep weighing on his eyelids.

“I really miss you too.”

***

This was definitely not the college reunion party Taehyung had promised.

If anything, this was reminiscent of those rampant frat parties that Yoongi would much rather leave back in college, where the notorious red solo cups and obnoxious music rightfully belonged.

He should have known Taehyung, being the social butterfly he was, wouldn’t have understood the concept of maximum house capacity, but then again he was the one hosting the party in his penthouse (Taehyung wasn’t their label’s best-selling artist for nothing), so Yoongi supposes he doesn’t have much of a right to complain.

Still, he counts more strangers in his vicinity than actual acquaintances, and more of people he’d caught a glimpse of on campus than people he’d actually given a shit about.

Yoongi doesn’t know why it doesn’t hit him sooner than it should; it was a reunion party, and you had known Taehyung even before you had landed yourself in Yoongi’s psychology elective class. Of course you’d be here.

For a split second, he panics.

Almost immediately after, he finds himself missing you; the way your body molded perfectly against his, the strawberry scent of your shampoo, the softness of your hands and your hair, and it feels like there’s a cavernous hole in his aching heart.

He’s well aware of how you’d taken it upon yourself to babysit his ass a couple of weeks ago; he’d confirmed it with the devil’s spawn Park Jimin himself (their resident self-proclaimed Cupid). He had to, because it had felt too much like a dream he’d never want to wake up from (though when he did wake up, you were gone, leaving him with a note telling him to drink some soup, Min Yoongi, Jesus Christ).

Except now the two of you were stuck in more of a deadlock than before (and Yoongi had thought that it’d be an impossible feat to achieve), hopelessly lost and lacking the direction to find the way back to each other.

Cue the very much welcomed distraction: Taehyung, bless his energetic soul, comes bouncing out of nowhere before Yoongi could further drown himself in more self-pity.

“Yoongi, we got some more booze in the storage room,” The world-class star whips around and yells, airblown chocolate locks following in haste and eyes lit with the kind of high you could really only get at parties, “Would you mind helping to get them?”

If it had been Yoongi on any other night, he would have rolled his eyes and slinked around a little before relenting, but this Yoongi was looking for a distraction, so he might as well (if Taehyung was surprised that Yoongi was giving in this easily, he doesn’t prod further).

So there he was, going on his merry little way to the storage room in the back of the massive kitchen to fetch some good ol’ alcohol.

And there you were, rustling somewhere in the middle of said room, doing the exact same thing.

Yoongi freezes (and it won’t be the first time).

“Y/N?”

Startled, you almost let slip the bottle of vodka, miraculously catching it before it hits the concrete as you angle your vision towards the direction of the storage entrance.

“Yoongi?”

His breath hitches (a little melodramatically, but this time Yoongi thinks a little drama is in order), “What are you doing here?”

You peer up at him curiously, “Taehyung told me to get some booze.”

Oh.

The timing’s almost perfect, and even laughable, because soon after, you could both hear Namjoon and Hoseok talking about some idiot leaving the door to the storage room unlocked, because ‘dude, someone could totally raid the place’.

Then the lock clicks into place and to be fair, neither of you were very fast on the uptake, only belatedly realizing that the door locked from the outside a good minute later.

“Oh.”

Kim fucking Taehyung.

***

The two of you had met well into your second semesters in college, and Yoongi had you drenched in a whole cup of bitter Americano before you even knew his name.

In his defense, class had barely begun and you were already slouched in your seat, drooling on the tables and too far gone to even realize that an accidental slip of his hand had emptied the cool liquid atop your head.

Even then, amidst the multitude of shell-shocked gasps of those in the vicinity and Yoongi’s own strangled shriek, you had only woken up lazily, chuckled a little, and excused yourself to the washroom to get yourself cleaned up (only after Yoongi’s frantic attempt at doing so, and by attempt, you mean he had tried to lather on as many napkins as humanely possible).

So yes, that metal door may be firmly locked shut and so maybe you were stuck in a room with the ex-boyfriend you have yet to get over, but you have never been dramatic to begin with, and you weren’t about to start now.

“It’s chill,” You start brightly (or as bright as you could be in a room as dim as this), to which Yoongi arches an eyebrow, “We could call Taehyung, or Hoseok. I’m pretty sure they’d still be sober enough to get us out of here.”

He falters, sheepishness squirming onto his features, “I left my phone upstairs.”

“Mine’s here—

Fishing around in the back pocket of your all-too-skinny jeans in search of the familiar slab of metal, you triumphantly hold it up.

Then your smile drops.

—and it’s dead? What the fuck?”

Yoongi laughs, the sound deep and raspy, and it brings you back to every movie night you’ve ever spent together, binge-watching every comedy you could get your hands on and laughter bouncing off the walls.

You return his laughter with a toothy smile of your own, in spite of yourself.

And then you’re slapped with the poignant reminder that more often than not, Yoongi’s grin makes you smile harder than any comedy could.

Suddenly, the room was suffocating, and the ensuing silence even more so.

“You still wear it,” Abruptly, he speaks, words choppy and voice in vague disbelief, as if he couldn’t quite believe what he was seeing, “The necklace.”

“Our necklace,” You correct softly, but it doesn’t go unheard.

Let’s just say you had a phase back in your second year with Yoongi, in which you were moderately (and by moderately, you meant tremendously) obsessed with matching everything; matching ugly sweaters, matching shoes, matching lockscreens, for crying out loud. Eventually, Yoongi came through with matching delicate chains on your second anniversary, joking about them being three dollars while insisting that he was not blushing (he was).

The pendants were nothing fancy; just the both of your initials swinging daintily on the thin strings of silver, but its simplicity was beautiful, and you couldn’t have asked for more.

And you had tried, Lord knows you had really tried, to toss it aside and move onto the next chapter of your life, one with the lingering absence of Min Yoongi and his gummy smiles, but you couldn’t quite bear to undo the clasp, nor could you stand having the metallic chain fall apart and have it look like a diamond which had lost its shine. Hoseok had protested otherwise, saying that it could hardly make it easier for you to forget, but as much as you had believed him (Hoseok was never wrong), you had never actually got around to ripping out that piece of your heart that the necklace held.

The truth hurts, but the truth was that you had never really stopped hoping, and the necklace still hung hopefully around your neck.

Routine was busy, hectic even; sure the internship already has you swamped with work as it was, but you needed to somehow sustain yourself, and that part-time job down at the library made sure to always keep you on your feet and on the go.

And when you’re alone, you find yourself missing those slender fingers threading through your hair, and reassuring cuddles telepathically letting you know that it’ll all be okay, and one day your hard work will all pay off and you’d be happy.

But that’s not the only time you spend missing Yoongi, because love, as you’ve later learnt, wasn’t to build an entire world around each other, but to make sure the other fit seamlessly in the world you built together.

You find yourself missing him when you’re on a coffee run, reminded of how he likes his coffee bitter in the mornings and saccharine by night. Or when you pet that stray cat, the one who feigns insouciance when you approach but purrs traitorously when you give him belly rubs.

You miss him even now, and he’s standing right here.

“You’re wearing it too,” Almost shyly, you point it out, finger jabbing harmlessly at his chest, “You miss me too, Min Yoongi, and don’t even think about denying it.”

This was it; neither of you could skirt around the topic any longer, and this conversation was as good a start as any.

“I wasn’t thinking about denying it,” Yoongi admits, a sad smile tugging at the corners of his lips, and you just wanted to wipe any notion of despondency from his features.

Though, his honesty knocks you slightly off balance for a little bit, and your heart rate nearly ascends higher than fucking Everest.

“What are you thinking about, Yoongi?”

It comes out barely a whisper.

“You.”

Huffing, you blow a strand of stray hair from your face.

“And how much I’ve missed you, how it’s ridiculously unreal that you’re here right now, how one year spent without you is a year too long.”

He closes the distance with every pause, steps uncertain but determined, “And I was wondering if you would have felt the same.”

One step closer, and there would be no distance at all.

“And yeah, okay, maybe I was thinking about how much I wanted to kiss you.”

You roll your eyes; trust Min Yoongi to ruin the moment.

But screw it all anyway, to the moon and back.

It’s been a long time, but your body remembers everything, and reaching up to meet his lips seemed nearly instinctual. And the kiss was slow and hesitant, tasting of heartbreaks and fear, before melting into grounded certainty and the kind of want that burns you from the inside out.

He tastes like home.

It feels like ages before the two of you pull apart, breathless, with you searching his eyes carefully, desperately, hopefully.

And that was the thing about Yoongi; he had always understood.

“Do you think we’d be okay?” Sighing contentedly, he nudges his forehead against yours, voice barely audible.

“No,” You laugh, pulling him closer, “But we’ll keep trying, and that’s what matters.”

And maybe, with Yoongi, the lines would always be blurred, and the two of you were destined to stumble around each other, too clumsy to get your feelings across but too stubborn to give up entirely, and that’ll be okay.

Because clarity was in the way he looks at you in a room full of people as if you were the only one he could ever see, and in the way you smile up at him as if he held the entire galaxy in his eyes.

And that was more than enough.

a/n: me: has 139220 wips also me: gets stuck at all 139220 wips and starts a new fic

pls forgive me for not having updated for nearly two months! pinky promise i’m trying really hard but the words aren’t coming out right and i hadn’t wanted to post anything that would potentially be a letdown to you guys, so this is a peace offering of sorts (even if it’s entirely self-indulgent), to thank all of you for putting up with my slow ass afhhdjskdhf.

regardless, i hope yall liked this (hmu with feedback anytime!!)

and to @studying-brb happy birthday loser i kind of love you i guess //shrugs

#sfwbangtan #btswriters #bts scenarios #yoongi fanfic #bts fanfic #yoongi scenarios

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doberbutts · 8 months ago

Note

Certainly, I appreciate you listening to my rambling as well!

It's funny you mention that Josephine reads as Latina to you, because in fact the mixed black girls I'm thinking of that look like her are indeed afrolatina. Since latina is usually a mixture of white Spanish and whatever Native ethnic groups from that specific country, and Antiva is loosely based on Italy but has some Spain mixed in there, and Lucanis has a significant Spanish accent and honestly reads mostly as a Spaniard to me, my brain happily shrugs and accepts that these two people can be from the same country despite visibly being different ethnicities.

I do think it's important again to not expect an exact match in ethnicity in a fantasy genre. Bioware seems to have de-coupled ethnic traits from whatever countries they're choosing to emulate in an attempt to create more diversity, so while it's tempting to try to figure out what country matches what ethnicity, it seems like that's not going to map quite accurately.

I also don't expect too much knowledge on real world race politics and the intricacies of multiple ethnicities existing right next to each other or even mixing from game developers. Call me a cynic myself but I've learned to lower my expectations broadly so I can be pleasantly surprised when I see something better instead of disappointed as a general rule.

As you and I have mentioned, Thedas doesn't seem to have the exact reasons for race and color politics as we do, so outside of the occasional, hard to find, blink-and-you'll-miss-it comment it can be difficult to really say *why* people from the same area look different outside of "because the devs wanted them to". Europe may be majority white, and in fact so is Thedas if you take a survey of all speaking characters or even just all companions, but that doesn't mean the countries represented in Thedas also *have* to match that. Thedas has internal strife between its countries, so with real world ethnicity being decoupled from the represented countries, things like Anders and Duncan can go either way. Are these characters making these comments because it's weird to see someone from *the Anderfells* in Fereldan, or because of an obvious ethnic difference? Or is it both?

Additionally, medieval Europe was more diverse than you might think, as the silk and spice trades were going strong and we have plenty of evidence of travel coming up from the northern parts of Africa and what we now call the Middle East. It never looked like a New York subway, sure, but people of color were not unheard of and it wasn't *that* uncommon to see brown faces in a sea of white.

Back on track... Neve is an interesting one for me, because I have a fairly strong recognition of people who are mixed Indian as mixed black. Neve, I believe, is supposed to look like a darker version of her VA who is Indian and Nigerian, so for her specifically I can understand why I read her as black. It then makes sense to me for Dorian to supposedly be Indian but look quite differently in ethnic features to her. He's also a noble, and she's a commoner that regularly hangs out with freed slaves, and we know Tevinter has a fairly strict caste system so it also makes sense that Dorian and- for instance Maev who reads as white- would visually look quite different to the common Neve.

Krem is a whole different ballgame as he also looks completely different from Neve while also being a commoner. He looks less "of color" than Dorian. This is sort of why I say there's not really a lot of internal consistency in who has what features.

Then for the slave and freed slave class, I fully expect no consistency in ethnic features as every single game has taken the time to tell us that Tevinter takes slaves from other countries all the time. If commoners like Neve are hanging out with former slaves, even if attitudes like hers are relatively uncommon, that means that it's very possible Tevinter's common class is being impacted by the variety of ethnicities stolen from other countries. So if we are truly supposed to read Tevinter as vaguely Indian, Neve's darker appearance can easily be explained away as someone in her family line being a freed or escaped slave from a darker ethnic region, and Krem's lighter appearance points to the absence of that.

I mean, she doesn't read as Indian at all, so again this is what I mean when I say that Bioware seems to have de-coupled ethnic features from whatever country they're trying to emulate. They may have taken away her blonde hair but this is just a white woman, lmao.

That being said, it's happened often enough irl that I have seen someone who is mixed Indian and interpreted them as black despite that individual not being black at all. There was an actress on a show I recently watched who is Indian and Jewish and for a long time I swore she was mixed black, but she is not. So I'm not infallible either, and do make mistakes in my own racial recognition. Being mixed race myself, I find I'm frequently more willing to believe someone with more vague or ambiguous features is whatever race they say they are or represent themselves as, and this sometimes translates into a mistake in the way I clock race of my own interpretation. Generally my read on blackness is "do I know black people who look like this" and if the answer is yes, congrats, that person looks black to me.

As a final aside, I actually asked a mixed black friend who has no experience with these characters on how she would interpret the race of the 6 mentioned, and she gave me an interesting answer- blackness is not just having features consistent with Sub-Saharan Africa but is a social group to itself and requires the social treatment to go along with it (which I mentioned briefly regarding how even the white characters may have a "black" grandfather but I would still call them white and not white-passing like my nephew because Thedas' handling of blackness is different). However Neve, Davrin, and Vivienne were pointed out as having features consistent with Sub-Saharan Africa, while Josephine and Dorian were "could be whatever, too vague", and Lucanis was seen as generic enough to be pretty much anything in Europe or the Middle East. Specifically "you could honestly name a country and I'd accept it".

I saw your recent post about diversity in Dragon Age (and BG a little) and I want to start by saying that I agree with it 100%. Bioware does tend to have primarily white characters, and any characters of color do tend to have very limited sorts of personalities they’re allowed to have, even moreso for those who are explicitly black. I, too, would like it if they could do better.

I did notice something in it that made me curious though and I was hoping you’d be willing to elaborate further on your thoughts.

You identify both Neve and Josephine as black. Neve as “medium toned” and Josephine as “fairly light skinned” but both are used as examples of black women in your post. But then you say that Dorian is “ambiguously ‘of color’” and Lucanis “could be black with, as said, little-to-no change in [his] storyline.”

But Neve and Dorian are both from Tevinter, and while the empire is large and probably contains multiple ethnic groups, my impression from the games is that they’re from the same(ish) region and are probably the same race/ethnicity. Similarly, Josephine and Lucanis are both Antivan – if she’s a light skinned black person, shouldn’t he be considered the same?

I haven’t finished Veilguard yet. I don’t have a ton of time to play games, so I’m making my way though, but slowly. So it’s entirely possible that there’s more information that comes out about Neve and Lucanis’s background later in the game that informs what you’re saying here. If there is, just say “you need to finish the game before we can have this conversation.” But assuming there’s not, would you be willing to explain why you read the women as black and the men as not? I’m wondering if I missed something, or if it’s just different perspectives, or some other secret third option.

If you’re like, “nah, I don’t wanna spend my time answering this” no worries. Delete the ask and move on. But if you have the spoons for it, I am genuinely curious (and would be grateful) to hear your thoughts on this.

Oh no, this is totally a valid question to ask, it's just a little complicated to answer and I didn't want it to clog up the entire post which was already long enough!

First, I will note that I specifically pointed to Vivienne and Davrin as unambiguously black. I called them this because, unlike the other characters of color, there is no question of their blackness. They are black, simple as that. Neve, Zevran, Dorian, Josephine, they are more ambiguous due to their lighter skin tone and more European features, and thus could just as easily not be black. That is why I pointed out skin tone.

Second, I'd like to challenge something you've said here. Why is it unreasonable to think that someone who is from the same country or region may be a different ethnicity? Especially in a country that has a lot of movement in the types of people who circulate in and out, or that has a culture that heavily encourages that (slavery in Tevinter, the crows in Antiva)? That is actually a reason for a region to be *more* multi-ethnic, not less. I myself am from a fairly German-dominated section of the Appalachias despite the Appalachias having a huge population of the ethnic groups I am actually part of- is it so unbelievable that an afronative and Irish person might have been born in a place predominately occupied by the Amish? That I might have gone to class with Korean and Nigerian students in my cute little schoolhouse on a farm? Believable or not, that's how I grew up. So why would it be so hard to believe that two people from the same fictional country are not the same ethnicity?

But putting those two aside, I think it's best if I compare side-by-side:

Dorian is certainly believably "of color"- though I have seen people argue that he is simply intended to be very Mediterranean and others say he is supposed to be Indian or Pakistani or somewhat vaguely Middle Eastern. This is why I say he is "ambiguously of color" but not necessarily black. Neve, on the other hand, is darker than him and with less ambiguous features (and Dorian at 10 years older is also less ambiguous, tho also less convincingly black and significantly more Middle Eastern or Indian or Pakistani).

I know black girls who look just like her. I know Indian girls who do too. If we are to assume that Tevinter is full of people who look at least vaguely Indian, one has to then remember that India as a country has *several* ethnicities itself and thus it is very possible- probable even- to meet 2 people from approximately the same region of India and yet they look nothing like each other outside of a few traits we in the Western world would clock as Indian.

It's also why I called Bellara our first visibly and unambiguously Asian companion- because the others that could count as Asian such as Neve and Dorian are significantly more ambiguous.

The same is true of Lucanis and Josephine- moreso in fact than Dorian and Neve. Lucanis again could be considered somewhat Mediterranean or Middle Eastern, but Josephine? Lucanis may or may not be a man of color, though I would certainly count him as so light skinned he could potentially be white-passing if I'm supposed to read him as somewhat Spanish or Italian. Josephine is absolutely a woman of color, but what color exactly is where it is a little more difficult to determine.

This is also a fantasy world, so I'm not expecting ethnic features to match the real world 100%.

Now compare the four of them to the two I'm calling unambiguously black. While I could make the argument that Josie and Neve are mixed black, there is no need for argument for Viv or Davrin. They're both black, visibly, easily identified.

Now, the thing is with a mixed race and multi-ethnic population, if Thedas doesn't have the same reasons to keep the colors from mixing, then it is certainly possible that Dorian or Lucanis have someone as dark as Davrin in their family tree even as close as their grandparents. My father is about as dark as Davrin and while my bio sis and I are about Neve in tone, my bio sister's children range from Josie to Lucanis. Her son is fair skinned, blue-eyed, blonde haired, and if you didn't see him next to his sister and mother you would think that little boy had nothing but white in him.

But then, if Thedas does not have the same race politics as we do, then the one drop rule would never be enforced upon someone who appears white with black ancestry, and thus I would hesitate to call that person black. My nephew is white passing, but a similar person in Thedas may just be white. Or perhaps Thedas does not consider human ethnicity the way we do, and would take no notice either way. Though I do believe Viv says something about poor treatment due to her skin tone in Inquisition, but I may be mistaken if that was fandom generated or actually within the game.

All this to say- I would consider Lucanis to either be white (albeit Mediterranean) or ambiguously of color and Dorian to be of color but unsure exactly which ethnicity, but neither of them black. Josie and Neve, on the other hand, read to me as mixed black women.

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daspetstuff · 4 years ago

Text

Physical and Pharmacological Effects of Marijuana

Presentation:

Cannabis isn't just the most mishandled unlawful medication in the US (Gold, Ice Pineda, and Jacobs, 2004; NIDA, 2010) it is indeed the most manhandled illicit medication around the world (UNODC, 2010). In the US it's anything but a timetable I substance which implies that it is lawfully considered as having no clinical use and it is exceptionally habit-forming (US DEA, 2010). Doweiko (2009) clarifies that not all cannabis has misuse potential. He hence recommends utilizing the basic wording marijuana when alluding to cannabis with misuse potential. For clearness this wording is utilized in this paper too.

Today, marijuana is at the cutting edge of worldwide contention discussing the propriety of its far and wide illicit status. In numerous Association states it has gotten authorized for clinical purposes. This pattern is known as "clinical marijuana" and is emphatically acclaimed by advocates while at the same time abhorred cruelly by rivals (Dubner, 2007; Nakay, 2007; Van Tuyl, 2007). It is in this setting that it was chosen to pick the subject of the physical and pharmacological impacts of marijuana for the premise of this examination article.

What is marijuana?

Marijuana is a plant all the more accurately called cannabis sativa. As referenced, some cannabis sativa plants don't have misuse potential and are called hemp. Hemp is utilized broadly for different fiber items including paper and craftsman's material. Cannabis sativa with misuse potential is the thing that we call marijuana (Doweiko, 2009). It is intriguing to take note of that albeit generally reads for a long time, there is a ton that scientists actually don't think about marijuana. Neuroscientists and researcher understand what the impacts of marijuana are nevertheless they actually don't completely get why (Hazelden, 2005).

Deweiko (2009), Gold, Ice Pineda, and Jacobs (2004) bring up that of roughly 400 realized synthetic substances found in the cannabis plants, scientists know about more than sixty that are suspected to effectsly affect the human cerebrum. The most notable and strong of these is â-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC. Like Hazelden (2005), Deweiko states that while we know a considerable lot of the neurophysical impacts of THC, the reasons THC delivers these impacts are hazy. Click here : mail order marijuana

Neurobiology:

As a psychoactive substance, THC straightforwardly influences the focal sensory system (CNS). It's anything but a huge scope of synapses and catalyzes other biochemical and enzymatic movement too. The CNS is animated when the THC actuates explicit neuroreceptors in the mind causing the different physical and passionate responses that will be explained all the more explicitly further on. The solitary substances that can enact synapses are substances that copy synthetic compounds that the mind creates normally. The way that THC invigorates mind work instructs researchers that the cerebrum has normal cannabinoid receptors. It is as yet muddled why people have regular cannabinoid receptors and how they work (Hazelden, 2005; Martin, 2004). What we can be sure of is that marijuana will invigorate cannabinoid receptors up to multiple times more effectively than any of the body's normal synapses at any point could (Doweiko, 2009).

Maybe the greatest secret of everything is the connection among THC and the synapse serotonin. Serotonin receptors are among the most animated by every single psychoactive medication, however most explicitly liquor and nicotine. Free of marijuana's relationship with the synthetic, serotonin is now a little gotten neurochemical and its alleged neuroscientific parts of working and design are still generally speculative (Schuckit and Tapert, 2004). What neuroscientists have found completely is that marijuana smokers have extremely undeniable degrees of serotonin movement (Hazelden, 2005). I would speculate that it very well might be this connection among THC and serotonin that clarifies the "marijuana upkeep program" of accomplishing restraint from liquor and permits marijuana smokers to stay away from agonizing withdrawal indications and stay away from yearnings from liquor. The viability of "marijuana support" for helping liquor forbearance isn't logical yet is a marvel I have actually seen with various customers.

Strangely, marijuana imitates such countless neurological responses of different medications that it is incredibly hard to arrange in a particular class. Analysts will put it in any of these classifications: hallucinogenic; psychedelic drug; or serotonin inhibitor. It has properties that impersonate comparative substance reactions as narcotics. Other substance reactions emulate energizers (Ashton, 2001; Gold, Ice Pineda, and Jacobs, 2004). Hazelden (2005) arranges marijuana in its own extraordinary class - cannabinoids. The justification this disarray is the intricacy of the various psychoactive properties found inside marijuana, both known and obscure. One late customer I saw couldn't recuperate from the visual bends he endured because of unavoidable hallucinogenic use as long as he was all the while smoking marijuana. This appeared to be because of the hallucinogenic properties found inside dynamic cannabis (Ashton, 2001). Albeit not sufficiently able to deliver these visual twists all alone, marijuana was sufficiently able to keep the cerebrum from mending and recuperating.

Feelings:

Cannibinoid receptors are situated all through the cerebrum accordingly influencing a wide assortment of working. The most significant on the enthusiastic level is the incitement of the cerebrum's core accumbens debasing the mind's regular prize places. Another is that of the amygdala which controls one's feelings and fears (Adolphs, Trane, Damasio, and Damaslio, 1995; Van Tuyl, 2007).

I have seen that the weighty marijuana smokers who I work with actually appear to share a shared characteristic of utilizing the medication to deal with their annoyance. This perception has proven based outcomes and is the premise of much logical exploration. Examination has truth be told tracked down that the connection among marijuana and overseeing outrage is clinically huge (Eftekhari, Turner, and Larimer, 2004). Outrage is a protection instrument used to make preparations for passionate outcomes of difficulty filled by dread (Cramer, 1998). As expressed, dread is an essential capacity constrained by the amygdala which is intensely invigorated by marijuana use (Adolphs, Trane, Damasio, and Damaslio, 1995; Van Tuyl, 2007).

Neurophysical Impacts of THC:

Neurological messages among transmitters and receptors not just control feelings and mental working. It is additionally how the body controls both volitional and nonvolitional working. The cerebellum and the basal ganglia control all real development and coordination. These are two of the most plentifully animated spaces of the cerebrum that are set off by marijuana. This clarifies marijuana's physiological impact causing adjusted pulse (Van Tuyl, 2007), and a debilitating of the muscles (Doweiko, 2009). THC at last influences all neuromotor movement somewhat (Gold, Ice Pineda, and Jacobs, 2004).

A fascinating wonders I have seen in practically all customers who distinguish marijuana as their medication of decision is the utilization of marijuana smoking prior to eating. This is clarified by impacts of marijuana on the "CB-1" receptor. The CB-1 receptors in the cerebrum are discovered vigorously in the limbic framework, or the nucleolus accumbens, which controls the prize pathways (Martin, 2004). These award pathways are what influence the hunger and dietary patterns as a feature of the body's regular endurance nature, making us desire eating food and remunerating us with dopamine when we at long last do (Hazeldon, 2005). Martin (2004) makes this association, bringing up that extraordinary to marijuana clients is the incitement of the CB-1 receptor straightforwardly setting off the craving.

What is high evaluation and second rate?

A current customer of mine clarifies how he initially smoked up to fifteen joints of "poor quality" marijuana every day except at last changed to "high evaluation" when the second rate was beginning to demonstrate incapable. Eventually, fifteen joints of high evaluation marijuana were getting ineffectual for him also. He frequently neglected to get his "high" from that by the same token. This whole cycle happened inside five years of the customer's first since forever experience with marijuana. What is high and second rate marijuana, and for what reason would marijuana start to lose it's anything but some time?

The power of marijuana is estimated by the THC content inside. As the market on the road turns out to be more cutthroat, the intensity on the road turns out to be more unadulterated. This has caused a pattern in truly rising strength that reacts to request. One normal joint of marijuana smoked today has the same THC power as ten normal joints of marijuana smoked during the 1960's (Hazelden, 2005).

THC levels will rely essentially upon which piece of the cannabis leaf is being utilized for creation. For example cannabis buds can be between two to multiple times more strong than completely created leaves. Hash oil, a type of marijuana created by refining cannabis pitch, can yield more significant levels of THC than even high evaluation buds (Gold, Ice Pineda, and Jacobs, 2004).

Resilience:

The need to raise the measure of marijuana one smokes, or the need to escalate from poor quality to high review is referred to clinically as resistance. The mind is productive. As it perceives that neuroreceptors are being animated without the synapses emanating those substance flags, the cerebrum creatively brings down its synthetic yield so the absolute levels are back to typical. The smoker won't feel the high any longer as his cerebrum is currently "enduring" the more elevated levels of synthetics and the individual in question has returned to feeling ordinary. The smoker presently raises the portion to get the old high back and the cycle proceeds. The smoker may discover changing around in grades successful for some time. At last the cerebrum can stop to deliver the substance by and large, altogether depending on the manufactured form being ingested (Gold, Ice Pineda, and Jacobs, 2004; Hazelden, 2005).

For what reason isn't there any withdrawal?

The other side of the toleran

#mail order marijuana

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droneseco · 4 years ago

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Creative Soundstage V2: Fantastic Budget Soundbar With One Killer Feature

Creative Stage V2

9.00 / 10

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For the price, the Creative Stage V2 is much better than it has any right to be. The separate subwoofer ensures a more full sound stage that's far better than any built-in TV speaker efforts. The killer feature for me is Clear Dialog, and I suspect it'll be hard to go back to one without it. Imagine, finally being able to hear what they're saying!

Specifications

Brand: Creative

Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.0

Ports: HDMI-ARC, TOS Optical, USB, 3.5mm AUX

Power: 80W total

Subwoofer Output: 40W

Speaker Arrangement: 2.1, from dual 20W mid-range drivers

Pros

Clear Dialog feature is superb for hard to hear movies and TV shows

Performance for the price is superb

Cons

It's short, meaning little stereo separation from further away

Volume buttons aren't sticky (so you have to click multiple times)

Buy This Product

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I was an excitable young boy in the early days of computing when my father brought home a Creative Soundblaster Multimedia Upgrade kit. With two desktop speakers, a CD-ROM drive, and a soundcard—what a glorious thing that was, as we ushered in the new "multimedia" revolution on Windows 3.1.

Nowadays we take it for granted that a motherboard should have 5.1 surround sound built-in, but I'm glad that the Creative brand has managed to stick around and continued to innovate beyond simply providing good quality sound for everyone.

The Creative Stage V2 is an affordable ($110/£99) 2.1 stereo 80W soundbar that performs far better than it has any right to at that price. It features a separate subwoofer, and one killer feature that I love: a Clear Dialog setting to enhance vocals in difficult-to-hear or badly balanced TV shows and movies.

Thanks to Creative, we're also giving one lucky reader the chance to win a Creative Stage V2. Just pop your details in the competition widget at the end of this review, and be sure to check out the review video for some bonus entries.

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Creative Stage V2 Design

Among soundbars, the Creative Stage V2 is unique for an unusual reason: it's incredibly compact. In fact, I wasn't sure what the mysterious package was when it arrived at the door, because the box was unlike any soundbars I've tested before.

At just 27 inches long, the main body is made from shiny black plastic. It feels a little cheap and tends to attract dust and fingerprints, but since it's is likely to be hidden away under your TV or monitor, the looks shouldn't be a big deal. At this price point, I don't expect brushed chrome and real wood. Internally, there are dual 20W 2.25" full-range drivers.

In addition to hiding it under your TV (and at just over three inches high, this shouldn't be an issue), you'll also find screw holes for wall mounting it. The power plug and various ports are inset on the rear panel to accommodate this.

The front of the Creative Stage V2 is a black metal grill, with the only discernible features being the Creative brand badge and a simple two-digit LCD panel hidden in the center. When on, this usually shows the current input, but changes to reflect the volume as you adjust it, or as you turn on or off Surround Sound and Clear Dialog.

On the right-hand side of the main soundbar are a few rubber-covered buttons for volume, power, and Bluetooth pairing. You can't adjust the EQ or activate the Clear Dialog and Surround features from here though, so you'll need to keep the included remote safe.

The separate subwoofer doesn't require its own power, drawing instead from the single cable connection to the soundbar. It too is unashamedly compact, at a slim-but-tall 4.57 inches (116mm) wide, 16.65 inches (423mm) high, and 9.84inches (250mm) deep. The main body is laminated MDF, with a fabric mesh covering the 5 1/4-inch 40W bass driver on the right-hand side, and a reflex port of the bottom of the front panel.

Connections For Anything

As a soundbar, the primary connection will be to your TV; through either HDMI ARC or a TOS Optical link.

Intriguingly, there's also a USB-A port, which you can use with PC or PlayStation 4 for a direct digital output. Bluetooth 5.0 provides connectivity to mobile devices, while a standard 3.5mm stereo AUX rounds off the selection as a default for everything else.

Included in the package is both a UK and US power plug, as well as a USB and stereo audio cable.

An optional extra provides further connectivity for wireless audio when it wouldn't otherwise be possible: the BT-W3 adaptor plugs into USB-C (such as from the Nintendo Switch), then streams wirelessly with aptX LL HJD, AptX, or SBC protocol.

Using the Creative Stage V2

Operation is simple and responsive. One thing I've found on other soundbars is that the remote control can be sluggish, often taking a few button presses to actually switch inputs or change the volume. With the Creative Stage V2, the remote was very responsive, and not once did I have to do a dance trying to find the optimal line or sight, or jiggle the batteries because it felt like they were running out. Switching inputs was immediate, and Bluetooth connected promptly and without issue.

On the downside, the volume buttons don't repeat when you hold them, which means if your input levels or media varies a lot, it can be a pain to press the buttons through the 35 different volume levels. For me, this meant 15-20 button presses to normalize between some old TV shows we watch through Plex which are far too quiet, and YouTube. If you forget to normalize the volume back, you're in for an auditory bomb. If I had one feature request, it would be a set of programmable buttons to store all current settings, such that with one button press I could swap to a specific input, change the volume to a favorite level, and adjust my EQ. That's probably a bit much to ask from a soundbar that already offers so much at such a great price point, but one can dream.

One other point worth noting is that if you've set a custom EQ, you lose it when power is off. This isn't a problem for most people, but if you believe that "phantom power" from small LEDs and standby modes eats a significant amount of electricity (it doesn't), then this might frustrate you.

Clear Dialog and Surround Sound

The Creative Stage V2 a 2.1 speaker system, which means it has two main speakers for stereo output, plus a subwoofer to enhance the bass.

It also has a "virtual" Surround Sound feature that you can enable to emulate a more full sound stage, but like most virtual surround sound systems, I found this element disappointing. It does fill the environment a little, but these systems tend to also introduce a sort of ethereal quality to the sound, a floatiness that never quite sounds right to me. The Creative Stage V2 is no different, and after some initial tests, I left the virtual surround feature off. This is perhaps down to individual taste, and if you've experienced this sort of virtual surround before and know you like the outcome, you'll appreciate the inclusion of this feature.

Ultimately even a budget 5.1 surround sound speaker setup will be superior to any emulated attempt from two speakers, whether that's in a soundbar or high-end pair of headphones.

Clear Dialog is the real killer feature here. With this activated, the Creative Stage attempts to identify voices and boost them. I don't know if it's just because I'm aging and spent my youth in clubs, or if sound engineers are genuinely making dialog harder to hear in movies and TV shows (so I'll assume the latter), but I'll tell you this: I turned on the Clear Dialog feature when I first started testing the Creative Stage V2, and can't turn it off.

I don't mean the button is broken; I have tried turning it off multiple times to see if it was just my imagination. But every time I've thought "nope, now I can't hear what they're saying".

Is Clear Dialog just an EQ setting to boost the mid-range? I don't think so. At least, I didn't notice other abnormally loud sounds in the mid-range with the feature enabled, which you would expect if it was just a blind EQ boost. There does appear to be some sort of processing going on, as with the faux-surround feature.

Sound Quality and Stereo Separation

I ran the Creative Stage through a variety of audio tests from audiocheck.net, and while there's nothing major to report, frequent parts of the low-frequency spectrum sweep seemed to dip in volume noticeably, even with the subwoofer plugged in. In normal use, I didn't notice anything unusual.

The overall range was good however and more importantly, playing some of my favorite tracks over Bluetooth resulted in a pleasingly crisp sound stage, with booming bass and clear, crisp vocals. Even at higher volumes, there was little distortion. It sounded great overall; not remarkable by any means, but good. It's also been plugged into our kitchen TV for a month or so, and provides much clearer dialog than the previous budget soundbar we'd been using. This one's a keeper, for sure.

But the Creative Stage V2 won't be right for every use case. Soundbars tend to be extremely long so as to accommodate stereo speakers, directing distinct sounds to each ear in clearly separated left and right channels.

The problem with the Creative Stage V2 is that it's just a little too short. If you're sitting close to it, this isn't a problem. But from about 6 feet away, the stereo separation is difficult to discern. I tried a blind test, in which I had someone play a sound from either the left or right channel, and sat about 6 feet back. I couldn't tell which was which unless I heard the opposite channel shortly after for comparison. This isn't a huge problem for a lot of TV content, nor for music, but you wouldn't be getting an ideal movie experience. At a normal distance from the TV, it's more like a 1.1 speaker system, than 2.1. On larger TVs, the stereo separation may even be worse than the built-in system.

Should You Buy the Creative Stage V2

But while it's certainly better than any built-in speaker solution, set your expectations appropriately: it is a budget soundbar, even if it's a really good one. You can't get stunningly good sound from two mid-range 20W speakers and a small subwoofer. It's also on the short side, so stereo separation is not ideal. Personally, I wouldn't put this in my home cinema; it's worth saving up for a full surround system there. It is, however, perfect for a secondary display (I've been using it with a smaller TV in the kitchen), where you want decent sound but without spending hundreds.

Creative Soundstage V2: Fantastic Budget Soundbar With One Killer Feature published first on http://droneseco.tumblr.com/

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spoorti1509-blog · 6 years ago

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Role of AI in Fashion & Style advice Mobile Application

Now a day’s people seek attention a lot, and addicted to western culture of dressing and fashion. It's hard to follow and keep updated to urban culture and the modern trends that come with it. An oddity of present day shopping is that we frequently do it without taking anyone else's input however despite everything we need other individuals' suppositions and advice. That is the reason individuals depend on fashion device applications developed by mobile apps development companies. These applications are merged with technology with human skill to convey assessments of companions and expert beauticians to your telephone or tablet.

These types of mobile apps come with multiple types: social design recreations where app users can create their own and vote on others outfits as well, Famous Applications like tinder which allow its users to like or expel a thing by swiping the screen, Fashion applications where users can create new board and share it to their friend as

Many peoples often get confounded and don't perceive how style applications are not the same as shopping applications. This disarray is very justifiable on the grounds that these two kinds of applications do cover once in a while. For instance, the yump shopping application gives you a chance to assemble an outfit, inspire your companions to cast a ballot on it, and buy the clothes.

In any case, an essential contrast between style advising applications and shopping applications is that style guidance applications don't focus on selling things. Instead they target individuals who need to revamp their collections and get advice from companions or the design network or community. They may purchase the things promoted in the application, yet they don't peruse with the aim to buy.

Suppose let’s assume you have decided to build up a fashion advice application. What highlights or features would it be advisable for it to have? What is the most fundamental element? How might we make it feel basic and easy to understand? Furthermore, at last, what amount would it cost to make an application, since there is a huge list of app development companies in market which suits your app nature?

Well, let’s checkout one by one features which should be given importance

Highlights for good style applications

1. Customized suggestions

Having a fashion advice app one can get style guidance from a network of companions or experts or professional beauticians. However, what about style services and valuable online stages?

Build style applications where its whole purpose is to allow users to hear a second supposition before making a buy or choosing a look.

The users can transfer an image of their look and get different individuals from the network to vote in favour of or against it. They can likewise transfer two pictures one next to the other and approach the network to vote in favour of their top pick. This element is viewed as among the most profitable as indicated by the application audits on the Internet.

Include a feature that has an editing apparatus that enables users to take a shot at their photos preceding posting them, which is helpful in the event that there are any progressions to be made to the photograph before it is posted.

comparable applications wouldn't be as useful without a customized recommendation system that lets the application show users the things they are probably going to buy dependent on their feeling of style and way of life. This system depends on machine learning innovation implemented by AI Development Companies.

How does machine learning work?

Customized suggestion systems are generally founded on a few distinctive datasets that permit an application to separate things into various classifications to make advices increasingly significant.

· Content-based proposals – a determination of things dependent on what a specific user already loved.

· Collective sifting – a choice of things dependent on what individuals with a comparable taste previously picked.

· Corresponding products– a determination of things dependent on what matches things that a user’s previously picked.

Same kind systems of filters are utilized in various online business applications and they may be similarly valuable for the style guidance mobile application since they enable individuals to concentrate on the most existing things available in market

These datasets help a style advice application limit starter results and after that the machine learning kicks in. Each time a user’s selects a thing or rejects it, the application becomes familiar with their style and inclinations. This implies if a user’s is advising an application sufficiently long, they will get increasingly precise, by and by custom fitted style suggestions.

2. The likelihood to transfer pictures and discover a match on the Internet.

This is the second most vital feature for style guidance applications. With regards to design or shopping on the Internet we are discussing a huge number of comparable things. For any picture coordinating innovation to work, calculations ought to have the capacity to precisely contrast new and obscure pictures with more seasoned, known pictures.

Making a library of pictures should be possible in organization with a specific brand or a chain of stores, or you can match up the application with a database of pictures officially accessible on the web. At that point, you can actualize picture acknowledgment usefulness implemented by machine learning strategies.

How does picture acknowledgment function?

Current machine learning strategies are a long way from impeccable, despite the fact that the most advanced utilize neural systems.

Machines (or, rather, extraordinary application) can without much of a stretch distinguish colours and colours blends and essential shapes, yet uneven backgrounds or odd edges keeps application from perceiving objects in pictures.

If we think practically and if you somehow managed to build up an application that utilizes picture acknowledgment it would require a great deal of investment and cash to make it beneficial: you would need to incorporate a database of a few million pictures (at any rate) and run it through the application or give out application to individuals to test , so they could utilize it over a moderately significant lot of time to take pictures, transfer them to the application, and describe the objects in these photos.

What is the option?

Third-party picture acknowledgment APIs appear to be the best answer for picture acknowledgment. Developers can consolidate them into both mobile and web applications.

Among picture acknowledgment APIs right now accessible available there are a not many that appear to be especially fit for the assignment.

Cloudsight is a visual hunt and picture acknowledgment API that controls the Camfind application. Users snap a photo or transfer it to the library and Cloudsight restores the data that is as of now translated and gives a depiction of items that are found in the picture. The API is intended to be useful and available and fills in as a back-end answer for picture acknowledgment.

Vufind Recognize is another cool picture acknowledgment API benefit which can even perceive brands from a picture. They offer free designs and brand acknowledgment APIs.

LTU Technologies is one all the more excellent picture acknowledgment benefit. It is separate by a few features including colour looking and content tracking.

3. Numerous channels and blends

Very popular design applications like Grabble and Mallzee are regularly alluded to as "Tinder for fashion" and are around a quick "like or dislike" passionate reaction. Both applications picked up ubiquity by emulating renowned Tinder include – users settle on a decision by basically swiping the screen left or ideal (in Grabble phrasing users can "snatch" or "toss" things). Users can share their "grabs" with companions by means of all social platforms, messaging services, or a cloud service.

To be effective and up and coming this kind of application requires filters that can partition or divide all search results lists into groups as per sorts of clothes, colour plans, style or reason (

These filters can work in two distinctive ways. In the first place, users can sort their search lists when they open an application by picking various numbers, for example, a sort of item, size, color, style, and fabric. However, also an application has an option to store or remember what users enjoyed regularly and to offer a customized choice of goods.

4. Pop-up messages

Another best feature that users love is the ability to get push notifications if their favourite items price drops. Individuals perceive how an application can spare those cash, regardless of whether internet shopping isn't the application's real feature; they are bound to utilize it.

5. Social sharing

Individuals love to share their looks to a network and get input before they make a buy at the store. Giving more built in capacities to social in e-commerce and style advice applications should expand an application's popularity - it has been measurably demonstrated that individuals are bound to spend their cash on things that have been affirmed by their companions like friends, relatives or expert style specialists.

Conclusion

Hence, Style advice apps are recognised and gained popularity among both people and as well as mobile app development companies to develop such popular apps. If you are looking to hire developers to develop style fashion apps! Then get in touch with Fusion Informatics and we will enable you to build up a style advice application to stay aware of the occasions you like!

#Fashion App #artificial intelligence #best mobile app development companies Russia #app development companies #app development company

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ahnsael · 8 years ago

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Last night was a much smoother night than the night before. No ambulance calls...there were a LOT of dirty ashtrays, but it was party day (first Saturday of every month is party day were we have giveaways and such) so that was to be expected.

The only hiccup -- during the party, three of our four cash-out kiosks (where people put in their cash-out vouchers and the cash they won -- or had left when they gave up on winning -- is automatically dispensed to them) ran low enough on money that they all shut down. One was working when I got there, but it also ran too low on funds about an hour later and also shut down (and I’m not someone with access to refill them, at least so far).

So I had to cash everybody out myself (not a HUGE deal -- it’s a pretty simple process to scan the voucher and verify that it’s legit, and then pay the person, then put a line through the bar code and write “PAID” on it, then run a report at the end of the shift of every voucher I ran, with the voucher itself as supporting paperwork to show that I did indeed pay it, and didn’t just hand out money for no reason).

But...it was a lot of vouchers.

Well, maybe not that many. I think I paid 13 all night (plus two hand pays, where the machine wasn’t communicating with our voucher system for a short time and wouldn’t print one for them at all, so I had to do different, somewhat more complicated paperwork, and then pay them after I had all four required signatures to verify that I had paid this “mystery money” for a legitimate reason).

But all in all, I paid out over $3,000. If someone would have hit one of our larger jackpots (or even two of our smaller ones), I would have had to get creative. Granted, if “getting creative” is factored in, I could have paid probably three large jackpots or six smaller ones, but nobody hit one. And while I’ve paid multiple jackpots in a single shift, it’s pretty rare.

We have a couple of jackpots that are due to hit any day now, if my gut feeling/past history is any indication (there is one that I was SURE was going to pay yesterday between my shifts, but apparently four people who all knew each other played all four of those machines, at 1¢/spin -- so it didn’t even go up much; it went up more during my shift last night than it did between the shift I left yesterday morning and the shift I started last night). It didn’t.

I chased it for a little bit this morning (I didn’t hit it, but my $100 investment turned into $300 and I chose to cash out rather than keep chasing the $1,050 jackpot -- which is supposed to pay by $1,199). It may still be there when I get to work tonight.

I did have a few players there last night -- and they were all nice people, and I would have loved to pay them. Especially since that jackpot is designed to not HAVE to be paid by a casino attendant, because it maxes out at $1199.99 and taxable jackpots are $1,200 or more.

If it’s still there when I get off work tomorrow, I may spend a little too much money chasing it. But that would be okay if I hit it. But that all depends on how close it is to its maximum. Because when it is hit, it has a random number generator which tells it, “when the jackpot hits this particular amount, pay it.” And whoever places the bet that increases the jackpot to that amount, is the one who wins it.

If it’s still over $100 away, I won’t spend more than $20 chasing it. But if it’s at something like $1,195, I’m gonna chase it until it pays -- because that would happen before I lost more than I would win (I love being the shift that tracks our progressive jackpots and knows all this -- but is also allowed to gamble at the casino, including on the very same progressive jackpots that I track).

I may have had to pay someone in all $20s instead of our usual $100s if multiple people had hit last night (our policy is to pay in the biggest bills possible unless requested otherwise, because if someone hits $4,000 -- which I’ve seen happen several times now; that’s a Royal Flush betting five $1 credits -- and we pay them $3,600 in $100 bills and the rest in $20s, that looks like we’re “fishing for tips,” which is a thing our company is against (and I’m 100% okay with this policy -- while tips are wonderful, and I love getting them [managers on my shift are the only ones in the company allowed to even get them, though I usually leave them to my staff unless we get enough that, even splitting it evenly, all of us can have a nice chunk of change]).

I don’t do what I do for tips, and I want to provide the same level of service to a non-tipper as I do to someone who tips us out -- this is my record -- $140 to each person who is working if they hit a jackpot (there were three of us). That person literally tipped out over 20% of her win, when I include the bartender (who doesn’t split tips with the rest of us unless they choose to -- and they never do, naturally, but they tipped him on top of the tip they gave the rest of us).

But it’s not a requirement, and we’re not supposed to even DISCUSS tips on the casino floor lest we end up pressuring someone into thinking they have to tip us (that’s a company rule I’m still trying to pound into my employees’ heads because some get really upset if someone doesn’t tip on a jackpot but we don’t know if they just came out WAY ahead or whether they have already put in MUCH more than what they just won -- even on a $4,000 jackpot sometimes that person may be $5,000 in on that machine and now they’re at least in better shape but they could still be down a grand) so it’s not our place, policy-wise or Kenny-wise, to question the lack of a tip.

So for you occasional Vegas (or other gambling destination) visitors: I can’t speak to policies at other companies or as to whether you are treated well if you don’t tip on a big win. Or even for a drink. I still have to remind my bartenders that they should provide the same service/drinks to a non-tipper as to a good tipper.

You are not required to tip.

If you do, that’s fantastic. From someone who has made it to my next paycheck simply because of tips, I can tell you with 100% certainty that any tips you give are appreciated. I personally tip when I can -- usually $2 per drink (it used to be $1, but one of my favorite players at MY Casino always tips $2, and I no emulate her in that -- and it seems to make me VERY welcome at other casinos, as opposed to just being “tolerated”).

And yesterday, I had a VERY good day. I gambled too much this week, and as a result lost too much money. But yesterday, I got a few VERY nice wins -- which got me my entire paycheck back and then some (you should NEVER count on this, and I still shouldn’t have gambled as much as I did, but at least the $20 I put in yesterday turned into -- very literally -- $700 by the time I left). I tipped my cocktail waitress/slot attendant (the same person; they do both) $20. I tipped one of the porters (that’s “custodian” to those of you who don’t know the term “porter,” as I did not before I was in the business) $20. I even went to the bartender and handed him $20 (even though I’m pretty sure he splits the tips that the server gets). That was on top of my regular $2/drink tip.

I don’t say this to say “this is how you do it.” How you do it is completely up to you. I’m just saying that we appreciate tips. But, unlike most food servers at restaurants who are paid less-than-minimum wage, we aren’t (or at least should be) relying on them. Granted, in our company, most employees DO start at less-than-minimum wage (Nevada has a silly law that, if you work for a company that offers health insurance -- which is expensive and not that good, though we’re hoping [and working] to change that -- then that company can pay you $1 less per hour than minimum wage. And we do. And I’d be willing to bet that other casinos in Nevada do the same.

What it all boils down to: tip if you want to. If you don’t want to, don’t tip. For me, personally, I’ll treat you the same way no matter what, but I can’t promise the same from other casino employees (especially if it’s a different company than the one for which I work, where I’m at least TRYING to get the employees on the same page as me -- but since they make a bit less than I do [I’m not exactly getting a living wage but I definitely get by], it’s a hard sell).

If someone is a server (full disclosure: I know from my time in Washington state that there is a state law there that requires servers to get at least minimum wage as opposed to something like $5-$6 less because they’re traditionally tipped -- but not ALWAYS tipped), please tip them. If they’re a casino employee in Nevada, they may be making $1 less than minimum, so tip if you please.

But if you’re ever in MY casino, I’m gonna flat out tell you that while I appreciate any tip(s) you give, whether it’s enough for me to take a cut or not without feeling like a heel (I had two different people tip me $10 each last night -- one of which said “you’re the only cool manager here, so this is for you” -- but I gave both of those tips away because my staff makes less than me and even with an even split as policy says, I would have felt bad taking some of that), they are not necessary.

My industry, and even my company within this industry, is different than most (which is part of what I LOVE about my job). So while this is my point of view on the subject, I cannot promise that every other company in the industry (or other people in that company) will agree with this little rant.

But personally, I’m just happy that you’re in my casino. After all -- you may win or you may lose, but the house ALWAYS has the advantage. So even if you win, someone else will lose. And that’s my job security, right there.

It’s when there’s nobody in my casino at all (tipping or not) that I start worrying about my livelihood. But I’m pretty sure we’re gonna be okay. Even if our head-count goes down to zero sometimes on my graveyard shift, we have a lot of people come in during the day. And even on graveyard, I see more losers than I do winners (I mean that in a “did-they-win-or-did-they-lose” sense, not a “these people are just losers” sense).

Granted, last night we had more winners than losers, it seemed...but that’s great, because they can tell their friends, who will come in and play with us -- and again, while some people will win, and win BIG, in the short term, in the long term the house ALWAYS has the advantage. People can and DO win -- sometimes life-changing amounts of money. But in the long run, I know my paycheck is secure.

#work things #Kenny rambles #bedtime for me #goodnight tumblr #goodnight

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holytheoristtastemaker · 5 years ago

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The best part of any idea is when it's fresh and new, and you don't yet know the limitations and restrictions. It can be almost magical! Oh, the customers you'll help and the money you'll make! All you have to do first is... write a lot of code.

How much code? Well, obviously that depends on your idea and what business you're planning on setting up. But there's a huge amount of code you'll need and want for any SaaS business, and a lot of it you'll have to write before you can write even line one of your business logic.

Where did I come by this list? Well, I've spent quite a few years working on SaaS businesses at a variety of stages of maturity, and I keep my ear to the ground by listening to good SaaS podcasts. I noticed that there are a lot of common tasks necessary to launch a new SaaS product, and I decided to help fix that problem by taking it all and packing it into a SaaS starter kit to help cut down on the code you need to write (and the time you need to spend) to launch your business.

Let's explore that huge list of code.

Stuff You're Gonna Need

The basics

Okay, first you're gonna need something to start from. Unless you plan on writing everything from scratch, you'll need to set up some common frameworks to enable a modern web app to run. On the front-end, that's something like:

A bundler/build system. Examples: Webpack, Parcel, Gulp, Grunt.

Babel, if you want to use modern JavaScript features on older browsers.

A UI library. Examples: React, Vue, Angular, Elm.

A CSS framework. Examples: Bootstrap, TailwindCSS, Semantic, Bulma.

An HTTP requests library, if your framework doesn't come with one. Examples: Superagent, Axios, got.

A testing library. Examples: Jest, Mocha, Jasmine, Ava.

Getting all these various tools set up to work together will take some time as well. Just searching "configuring webpack for X" reveals a minefield of blog posts written for various versions of webpack and X. Some will help, some won't, and sometimes only experimentation will reveal which is which.

Thankfully, there are tools that make a lot of this easier. Next.js for React and Nuxt.js for Vue are just two examples, but there are many flavours of UI frameworks that can significantly reduce the setup time for the above. Of course, now you have to learn how your UI framework works as well as your UI library, but generally that trade-off is worthwhile.

Moving on to the back-end, you're going to want a web framework. This will largely depend on the language you're working with, but you have plenty to choose from:

Node.js: Fastify, Koa, and Express.

PHP: Laravel, Symfony, and CakePHP.

Python: Django, Pylons, and Zope.

Go: Gin, Beego, Martini.

Ruby: Sinatra, Hanami, and of course Rails.

This list is by no means extensive - just tracking down all the available frameworks for a single language would be an article in it's own. But it does display the variety of choices available. Each language and framework has its own capabilities and trade-offs, and that's something you'll have to take into account before you make your choice. (Or after! It's just harder to change your mind at that point.)

Development build system

Actually, let's take a step back for a second. Sure, those are the basics, but you still need someplace to run all that code, and in a way that speeds up your evaluation of code changes.

You could run everything on your local machine, but that's rarely ideal. For starters, your local environment is highly unlikely to resemble your production environment, and you don't want seemingly-minor differences causing problems when you deploy. Plus, it's very hard (comparatively) to automate local environment setup, so adding anyone else to the project is bound to cause conflict, especially if they want to use an entirely different OS from you.

You have a lot of options for this, but the two easiest/most-common are:

1) Use a Virtual Machine

Virtual Machines have the advantage of being very simple to understand and work with. If you know how to navigate your own system, you'll know how to navigate a virtual one just fine. They're easily automated with something like Ansible, and easy to use for development with something like Vagrant. Plus, you'll likely only need to modify a bit of your Ansible scripts or variables to turn your development deploy script into a production deploy script.

But they can be a bit heavy, as they are emulating an entire other machine. There are good solutions to this (enabling CPU optimizations, using AMIs or other machine images to reduce deploy time, etc), but there's also an alternative.

2) Use docker

Docker containers are crazy lightweight. Essentially, they just run the bits of the system required to run your code, as dictated by you. Plus, a great many CI systems accept dockerfiles as input to automatically run tests and deploys of your code. A well-built docker setup is a thing of beauty.

However, docker can be a bit confusing. It requires learning a different mindset and tooling from working directly on a machine or virtual machine, and can lead you naturally towards more-complex solutions where a simpler one would otherwise work better for your use case. (Hello, microservices!)

Reducing your development cycle time with watchers

A small thing that can save you a lot of time is setting watchers on your code. These are programs that keep an eye out for changes in your code, then re-compile and restart servers so that the latest version of your code is always running when you refresh your browser. Many of the tools you'll use will come with built-in watchers (webpack, for example), but for others, you'll need to install your own (nodemon to watch your Node.js server).

And like with anything else, there's configuration you have to do to make sure that each watcher is only watching the correct directories, that files are shared between your host system and VM/docker container in a fast method that won't trip up your watchers, etc.

Application template & UI architecture

With any luck, you'll have a design already to work with, but you still need to translate that design into an application template and common UI components and architecture. A good CSS framework can really help here, allowing you to set up common colours and sizes that you can use across the entire project, and using component-based development can allow you to, say, create a TextInput element once, then use it across your project multiple times. You'll also need to set up some form of menu infrastructure that allows you to enable/disable or hide/show certain menus based on user access or page location.

Logging

Proper logging can give you more and more-useful information than a slapdash setup can. You'll want to log requests and request data, useful checkpoint information, and the usual stuff - errors, stack traces, etc. But you also want to make sure not to log too much. For example, you'll obviously want to omit passwords, but you should also in general omit headers, especially headers containing authentication tokens, for obvious security reasons.

Database migrations

Database schemas are part of your app as well, and that means they need to be represented as code somewhere and checked into version control. Manually updating your production database to match your development database is amateur-hour.

So in addition to your back-end frameworks and your front-end frameworks, you'll need a database migration framework, and you'll need to write migrations for it.

Users

Users are the fundamental primitive of a SaaS application, and there's a common set of interactions you'll require: sign-up, login, logout, edit profile, etc. But sitting underneath all that is a bit of a contentious topic: user authentication.

There are a bunch of ways to do user authentication, but most of them are wrong and will end up leaving you with security vulnerabilities. JWTs are popular and can be secured, but you need to follow some best practices:

Don't store JWTs in localStorage, since any JS that runs on your page can access them, and if you get hit with a cross-site scripting attack, they can export your tokens en masse.

Store JWTs in secure, HTTPS-only cookies.

Include a global version code in your JWTs so that you can instantly invalidate all JWTs every issued.

Include a user version code in your JWTs so that a user can instantly invalidate all JWTs ever issued for them specifically. This is useful to include a "log out all devices" option for users who may have lost a device or had their account compromised.

Send a Cross-Site Request Forgery token with every request as a javascript-injected header, and make sure that token matches one you've stored for the user on login.

You'll notice a lot of these practices are "in case of a security breach", and you'd hope that if you did everything correctly, they'd be unnecessary. However, that's a fantasy and should be treated as such. No site is 100% secure and bug-free, and yours won't be either. Instead, you need to work in layers, so that if any one layer of security fails, there are still other layers and countermeasures in place.

Form validation

When users sign up, log in, and really all throughout your app, they'll be filling out and submitting forms. These forms will need to be validated for the appropriate data, preferably on both the front-end (before the data is sent to the server, to provide the best experience to the user) and the back-end (to ensure no junk data is saved to the database). If your back-end isn't in JavaScript, you'll need validation libraries for both languages that have the same semantics.

Transactional email

Transactional email is the email you send when certain events happen for your users. These can be lifecycle events, like welcome emails, "trial about to expire" emails, etc, or service-related emails like email address confirmation emails, password reset emails, notifications about your service, etc.

You'll need to find and configure a decent mailer module, and usually perform some DNS configuration at your mail service host's instruction. Some mailer modules will come with template capabilities built-in, while others will leave you to install your own.

Subscriptions/Payments

Getting paid is why most people are going to start a SaaS in the first place, so processing payments and subscriptions is mightily important. Choosing and setting up an account with a payments provider is up to individual preference, but Stripe offers probably the best API and developer experience out there, while PayPal is usually the most-requested provider of choice from users. It's likely that you'll want to offer multiple ways to pay through multiple providers, just to ensure that no potential customer is left behind.

If you offer subscriptions, you'll want to allow users to choose between a monthly billing cycle and an annual one. Annual billing is a great way for dedicated users to save money, while also offering you the benefits of higher LTV and getting you the money up-front, increasing your liquidity.

If you have multiple levels of plans, you'll need to implement the ability for users to change between those levels, usually offering a prorated fee for the month of transition.

Though it's definitely not the "happy path", you'll need to offer users the ability to cancel subscriptions. You shouldn't add extra friction to this, since some users will just be cancelling temporarily, and you want to leave a good impression on them, but it's important to try to capture the reason they're leaving, so you can improve your service.

Production deploy system

Once you've fully-developed your fancy new SaaS, you're going to need to put it up on the web for people to interact with, and for that, you're going to need a deploy system. Even if that system is largely manual, you're going to want defined, repeatable, documented steps that ensure that deploys go off without incident.

You're going to want to cover the following bases, at a minimum:

Ensure server is reachable

Ensure server is set up correctly (correct runtime libraries installed, etc.)

Update code

Run DB migrations

Ensure front-end UI code is not cached in user's browser (update ETags, etc)

There are a whole lot more things you can do to ensure a safe and clean deploy, but this list is at least a good starting place.

Production backups

Much like how we discussed security in layers above, backups of production data are another layer of defence in case something goes wrong. If you're still using manual processes to alter user data, it can be very easy for a slip of the keys to accidentally alter or delete the wrong user's data. And if you're using automated processes, it's usually a lot harder to make those simple mistakes, but more complex mistakes can make it very easy to edit or delete huge swathes of user data. Proper backups will one day save your bacon, bet on it.

What makes a proper backup, then? That's a whole topic on its own, but you should start with:

Complete: Don't just backup the database - if the user uploads files, those should be backed up as well.

Regular: Backups should happen on a schedule, ideally daily or more, for more-volatile data.

Retained: You'll want to keep your backups around for a while, though you might want to set up a schedule for longer-retained backups. (i.e. Daily backups retained for 30 days, weekly backups retained for 3 months, monthly backups retained for 1 year.)

Secure: Your backups should be kept with the same level of security as your data. If your data is encrypted at rest, your backups should be as well. Make sure to keep your encryption keys secure. If you lose those keys, you lose the backup.

Tested: A backup that hasn't been tested is not a backup. You don't want to find out that your backup process doesn't work (or stopped working) when you need to restore critical data. There should be an automated test process that runs after backups are created.

If you're lucky, your hosting platform will offer some level of database backup as a service, which will save you a lot of time and effort setting up. It likely won't cover 100% of your needs, but it will get you a lot closer than starting from scratch.

Stuff You're Gonna Want

Okay! That'll get you off the ground, but once you start seeing any success at all, you're going to start wanting something a little more... robust. Eventually, manually editing the database is going to get tedious (not to mention dangerous), and users will start asking the same questions over and over. You're going to have to slow down on development related to your core business and implement a bunch more supporting features.

Admin console

You can edit and delete users directly from the database, sure, but all it takes is one time forgetting to add a WHERE or LIMIT clause to a statement to make you long for a proper administration console. (And backups. You set up backups, right?)

An admin console is also a great place for dashboards, user statistics, summaries, metrics, etc. Your admin console can become your one-stop-shop for running your SaaS.

Documentation

Documentation can serve multiple purposes. Primarily, it's for user education, but conveniently, this is user education you don't have to do manually. Think about it like automated customer support - a user that answer their question from your documentation is a user that doesn't email you.

If your documentation is publicly available, it can also help users make purchasing decisions. By answering questions about your service openly and up-front, you can let users more-easily determine if your service will work for them, as well as reassure them about your transparency.

Public documentation also helps with SEO, since your keywords will likely naturally come up frequently on your documentation pages.

Billing history

Once you have a sufficient number or sufficiently large customers, you'll likely start getting requests around tax time for their billing history. Your payment system will keep track of payments for you, and many of them will be able to generate invoices from their web interface that you can send to customers who request it.

That might hold you for a while, but eventually, you'll want this functionality built into your system, so clients can self-serve, and your customer support team can focus on more-important issues.

Stuff That's Gonna Make Your Life A Lot Easier

Making the right decisions early on and as your service grows can have compounding benefits, but frequently, it's difficult to find time to devote to tasks that aren't seen as critical. Still, if you can make the time to invest in them, it can pay off for you and your users as well.

Pause subscriptions & credit

Especially now, when people are trying to cut costs in both their lives and businesses, the ability to pause a subscription instead of cancel it outright can mean the difference between saving a customer and losing them. Similarly, the ability to credit customers some free time or usage on your service can aid in retention, especially if something goes wrong and you want to make it up to them.

User ID obfuscation

When displaying publicly-visible auto-incrementing IDs (such as user IDs), it can be a good idea to obfuscate what that number actually is. This prevents competitors and skittish customers from identifying how much usage your service has seen so far. A great library for this is Hashids, which has many compatible implementations across many languages.

Limited number of development languages

The fewer languages your app uses, the less common code that you'll have to duplicate between the various services and projects you require. Some are going to be unavoidable, such as JavaScript if you have a web app with any serious browser interactions, Swift for iOS, and Java/Kotlin for Android. Web apps, however, offer a truly terrifying number of languages you can choose for server code: PHP, Ruby, JavaScript, Typescript, Go, Rust, Java, Python, Perl, Scala, Erlang, and even C# and C++. In a microservices environment, it can be tempting to use a variety of languages for your different services, but that means redeveloping and maintaining common libraries for every new language you want to include.

In extreme situations, you can limit yourself to just one language, even across multiple disparate platforms. JavaScript can do front-end and back-end web development, desktop development through Electron, and mobile development through Cordova. There are definite trade-offs for going this route, but for a smaller studio, this opens up a multi-platform strategy on a limited budget.

Linters

Linters like ESLint, RuboCop, and Flake8 can make a marked improvement in your code. They can catch stylistic errors long before they make it into production, and many stylistic errors are really just shortcomings of your chosen language, where hard-to-find bugs breed and propagate.

Monorepo

Monorepos are great! They're especially great if you're just starting your SaaS, as they're far simpler than trying to work with multiple repositories when managing dependencies, figuring out code re-use, and ensuring that all the correct code is committed before deploys go out.

Everyone's situation is different, of course, and it may make sense in your case to go with multiple repositories, or even one day switch to such a strategy, but when you're starting out, you want to limit the complexity of your project as much as you can, and the monorepo strategy will definitely pay off in this regard.

User impersonation

Being able to log in as your users from your Admin Console can help immensely when trying to sort out customer service issues. Instead of having several back-and-forth "what do you see now?" emails, you can just log in as them and find out. There are a lot of things to consider when writing a user impersonation feature, however: Do you require special access to impersonate users? Do you require the user's permission to impersonate them? Are actions taken while impersonated logged? Can you even take actions when impersonating, or view only? How do you indicate that you are impersonating a user (vs. logged in under your own account)?

These aren't the only considerations, but ideally it's enough to make the point that there's a lot more to user impersonation than simply changing a token ID.

Improved production deployments

Once you start getting enough customers with sufficient expectations, you'll have to make modifications to your deploy process for increased reliability and flexibility:

Updating in-place won't work forever. Eventually, switching to blue/green deploys or even something as simple as displaying a maintenance mode page while you update will be necessary to keep people from interacting with the system while performing significant changes.

If you have a complex SPA, you'll want to be able to inform users when you've made an update that requires reloading that code. Tracking version numbers both in your UI code and on the server will allow you to pop up a notification, allowing the user to save their work and then reload.

Ideally, you should be using a bug tracking service. If you also send your source maps to them when performing a deploy, they can provide even better error messages when UI errors occur.

Serving your UI JavaScript from your server is simple and easy, but users appreciate fast, and your job is to do the hard work so that users have a good time. A relatively easy way to speed up your user's experience is to upload your UI JavaScript on release to a CDN. This is a one-time change you need to make that pays dividends for your users going forwards.

You'll likely be manually checking that releases go as expected, but automated smoke tests that run on every deploy are a better way to catch issues that might otherwise slip by you when you're tired, distracted, or in a hurry.

What's the alternative?

If you don't want to start from an empty folder and write all this code yourself, you should consider using a SaaS starter kit, and it just so happens that you're reading the blog for one right now! With Nodewood, you can get started writing business logic today, saving weeks or even months of development time.

Nodewood starts you off with a full working web app, with a Vue front-end and Express back-end, built entirely from JavaScript. Form validation, testing, user authentication and management, subscription/billing are all built-in, alongside a sleek and customizable application theme with an easy-to-extend admin console.

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click2watch · 7 years ago

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Down More than 70% in 2018, Bitcoin Closes Its Worst Year on Record

Exhale. The nightmare of the 2018 cryptocurrency market is finally over.

Of course, more downside is always possible, if not likely, but at least the year in which bitcoin prices dropped more than 80 percent and the broarder market lost nearly $700 billion of total capitalization is over.

By now, you’re probably well aware the world’s premier cryptocurrency, bitcoin (BTC), catapulted more than 2,500 percent from its 2017 low to reach a new high of almost $20,000 by December of that year.

Unfortunately for those at the time who were betting on more immediate upside, one of bitcoin’s many speculative bubbles or “hype cycles” reached its peak on Dec. 17, 2017 and its price has been trapped in a steep and record-setting downtrend ever since.

What exactly transpired for the price of bitcoin over the past 365 volatile days is explored below.

Price History

When reviewing bitcoin’s 2018 price history, two technical developments stand out: the moving average death cross and breaking support of $6,000.

Moving averages are exactly what the name suggests – an average of bitcoin’s price over specified time periods that when plotted on a chart tend to provide support and resistance for price, as well as the strength and bias of the longer term trend.

Multiple moving averages are commonly used on the same chart and complete the bearish development known as a ‘death cross’ when a major short-term moving average crosses below a major long-term moving average, indicating a significant loss of strength to the longer term trend.

BTC/USD witnessed a death cross between the 100- and 200-day moving averages on April 16, confirming the end of its most recent bull market.

Before the death cross had taken place, price fell to and found support near $6,000 in February.

All eyes were on this level from that day forward as price went on to test it several more times before finally breaking down nine months later on Nov. 14.

Up until this point, many believed $6k had fortified itself as the ‘bottom’ of the 2018 bear market since it had been strongly defended for what in crypto time seemed like an eternity.

Coincidentally, Nov. 14 was the day before one of the world’s largest crypto-networks, bitcoin cash (BCH), underwent a divisive hard fork, which many suspect provided enough uncertainty in the broader market to catalyze bitcoin’s break below $6,000.

Now having closed the year at the price of $3,747, 2018 will go in the record books as bitcoin’s worst performing 12-month stretch ever in terms of price.

The leading cryptocurrency’s 2018 performance of a more than 70-percent depreciation from its opening price of $13,062 is considerably worse than the previous record holder, 2014, the year when its price fell roughly 55 percent open to close, according to CoinDesk’s pricing data.

Trading Volume

Bitcoin monthly trading volume peaked towards the end of 2017, bringing in a total of $70.2 billion across exchanges in November just before its price reached an all-time high, according to data from Bitcoinity.

Trading volumes, along with price, have been stuck in a downtrend ever since and for all of 2018.

Just $7.8 billion in monthly trading volume was recorded in September – a stark difference and 88 percent drop from the high recorded in Nov. 2017 and a 15-month low at the time.

The volume performance for 2018 isn’t all discouraging, however.

Using data from Coinmarketcap, a post from Satoshi Capital Research revealed over $2 trillion worth of bitcoin was traded in 2018, which as of Dec. 1 marked a 61 percent increase from the previous year.

While it’s not quite the 96 percent increase recorded in 2017 over 2016, it’s clear investor interest still grew substantially in 2018 despite the relentless bearish market conditions.

NVT Ratio

There are plenty of other tools that can be used to evaluate bitcoin’s 2018 market conditions besides technical analysis.

Our favorites of which are those created by cryptocurrency researcher Willy Woo that focus on various bitcoin blockchain metrics and its relation to price and network value, like the NVT Ratio.

The network value transmitted (NVT) ratio emulates the price to earnings ratio (P/E) used to value a company’s stock price by comparing bitcoin’s network value (market capitalization) and the value of funds transmitted through its blockchain.

A ratio above 100 suggests bitcoin’s price has outstripped its network value, or in other words has become overbought. Conversely, a reading below 100 indicates the market is representing a truer value for bitcoin where price is at less risk of witnessing an aggressive and elongated downtrend.

As can be seen in the above chart, bitcoin’s NVT ratio was well above 100 for almost all of 2018 and even reached its highest level since 2011 above 200, confirming the market was significantly overvalued and a drop in price and network value was highly likely.

Now at the year end, bitcoin has witnessed a near 80 percent drop in network value, falling from $280 billion to $56 billion. While the downtrend is still aggressive, the daily estimated value transmitted through its blockchain stopped plummeting in May and has stabilized above roughly $250 million ever since, allowing the NVT ratio to finally begin deflating.

At the time of writing, bitcoin’s NVT ratio records 108, so the market is still slightly overbought but is much closer to finding a healthy bottom than it was earlier in the year.

If the bear market experienced in 2014-15 is any example, the NVT ratio will once again need to stabilize for several months below 100 before another sustained uptrend can begin.

It should be noted Blockstream’s liquid side-chain was launched on Oct. 10 which takes some bitcoin volume off-chain so not all transmitted volume is being taken into account in the NVT ratio.

Looking forward

Indeed, 2018 was a historically bad year for bitcoin if solely price action and network value are being taken into account.

Other metrics though, like total trading volume, show a substantial increase in investor interest from the prior year, whereas the NVT ratio shows bitcoin’s latest bubble is coming close to being fully deflated.

All in all, 2019 will be an interesting year for bitcoin as valuations deflate and continue to align with fundamental principles.

Simply put, bitcoin’s market in 2019 can’t possibly be worse than 2018, right?

Disclosure: The author holds BTC, AST, REQ, OMG, FUEL, 1st, and AMP at the time of writing.

Bitcoin bubble via Shutterstock; charts by Trading View

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cashsyyq038-blog · 7 years ago

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Best CPUs For Gaming

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thetapelessworld · 8 years ago

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Unfiltered Audio announces availability of overhauled Dent 2 and Indent 2 plugins exclusively from Plugin Alliance

Plugin Alliance, is proud to announce availability of Dent 2 and Indent 2 — all-new and advanced versions of Plugin Alliance partner Unfiltered Audio’s different distortion/waveshaping plugins par excellence — as of August 22…

Unfiltered Audio’s original version of Dent was a very different kind of distortion plugin, produced by the cutting-edge Californian company to enable every engineer and sound designer who had ever longed to manipulate waveforms on a molecular level to do just that. Now, with the release of Dent 2, audio control freaks can really rejoice since this time its creators have gone subatomic… we’re talking about a let’s-sharpen-the-peaks-on-the-negative-half-of-the-waveform level of control here! However, those seeking sweet analog hardware emulation are advised to look elsewhere since those mad scientists at Unfiltered Audio are digital to their core… collectively, they truly know how to turn those ones and zeros into musical magic!

Any audio making its way into Dent 2 is first met by the plugin’s freely-adjustable and highly-customizable sample reduction engine. Next, the signal passes through as many as three different distortion types in series, selectable from among ten unique clipping algorithms. Within those gain stages, users can add or subtract a DC (Direct Current) BIAS, adjust the waveform’s SHAPE by flattening or sharpening it, and independently adjust the positive and negative (UPPER X and LOWER X) halves of the waveform. Thereafter, the bitrate engine is a continuous and automatable parameter with six different Bitcrush algorithms. After that, the audio finally passes through one of four different resonant filter types — that is, unless, of course, the user opts to position the filter at the beginning of the signal path, rather than at its end. Even making the filter position dynamic is perfectly possible — alternating on dotted eighth notes between placements at the beginning and the end, for example. End users can freely witness creative possibilities really starting to unfold before their eyes and ears!

Even experienced sound designers would be hard-pressed to dream up a wave-shaping scenario that cannot be customized by Dent 2 with exacting precision. Put it this way: what about a broken guitar amp that has an interesting sound? Easy. Emulate it by adjusting the PROBABLILITY controls so that Dent 2 randomly applies distortion to only 70% of the audio signal’s wave cycles. Or take things a step further forward by flipping on the Drop switch to silence all the undistorted waveform segments. Subsequent setting of the clipping type to Tape and the filter type to Low Pass puts things into the realm of emulating the sound of an cassette that has been chewed by a tape deck. Dent 2 does it all.

And here is the best part: almost all of those parameters can be modulated with Unfiltered Audio’s unique and intuitive modulation system. Simply assign a parameter by using a virtual patch cable, then select from eight different modulators, including LFOs (Low Frequency Oscillators), a randomizer, and even a user-programmable step sequencer. So using a sine-based LFO on the filter frequency, for example, can produce a conventional wah effect, or setting the filter to Band Reject mode and applying the step sequencer can create a Leslie effect with syncopated rhythms. Moreover, modulating DC offset with an input follower makes a snare drum track with hi-hat bleed sound like heavy machinery pounding away on a demonic assembly line!

Letting loose with more hands-on control options in Dent 2 is perfectly possible, too, thanks to Unfiltered Audio’s recently-developed ROLI Lightpad modulator making for seamless integration with ROLI’s latest controller, users of which can creatively apply simple gestural controls to modulate Dent 2 parameters in real time. The Lightpad’s three-dimensional interface is in a class by itself, so can easily be used to modulate multiple parameters or even modulate other modulators! Alternatively, apply a step sequence modulator to the sample rate, then use finger pressure to scale the modulator’s amplitude. Applying the X and Y axes to the filter’s CUTOFF and REZ (Resonance) parameters to ‘draw’ filter envelopes on the Lightpad’s surface during live performances likewise puts this killer creative combination into its rightful perspective.

Indent 2’s signal path, meanwhile, consists of a customizable multimode filter, sandwiched between two different clipping stages, both of which offer the same ten different user-selectable saturation modes found in Dent 2: Hard Clip, Soft Clip, Wavefold, Overfold, Harsh Fold, Distortion, Tube, Tape, Gloubi, and Cubic. Including a filter in the plugin’s internal signal path dramatically expands its versatility, so it is easily adaptable to a broad range of wave-shaping tasks. Try adding a modulated, resonant High-pass filter after the first clipping stage to get an old-school techno sound on a synth bass track, then set the second clipping stage to Wavefold to smooth out the signal and bring back some of the harmonics that were cut off by the filter. Further experimentation shows that Indent 2 can imbue an almost endless range of tones and emotions for any musical genre, and — like its Dent 2 bigger brother — almost all of its parameters can be modulated by that same intuitive and unique Unfiltered Audio modulation system, supporting seamless integration with ROLI’s Lightpad controller.

Dent 2 and Indent 2 both benefit from several key upgrades since v1, including two new modulators added to the modulation section (Step sequencer and ROLI Lightpad); six new saturation modes; new Complex Mode (gives Dent 2 users the option to apply a different saturation algorithm to each of the three clipping stages); multimode filter; AGC (Automatic Gain Compensation); and OpenGL toggle switch.

So, whether working with a toolkit that can expertly soothe, saturate, or strangle sounds beyond recognition (Dent 2), or an intuitive and sleek saturation/tone box with a powerful modulation system (Indent 2)… don’t just distort it, dent it.

Dent 2 and Indent 2 are available for purchase — as AAX Native-, AU-, VST2-, and VST3-supporting plugins for Mac OS X (10.8 through 10.12), Windows (7 through 10), and Pro Tools 10.3.10 (or higher) — exclusively from Plugin Alliance for $99.00 USD and $49.00 USD, respectively. (Owners of Dent can upgrade to Dent 2 for free at any time, while a time-limited promo offer allows owners of Indent to upgrade to Dent 2 for $29.00 USD until September 30, 2017; either way, customers upgrading to/purchasing Dent 2 will receive Indent 2 for free.)

Fully-functional, 14-day trials are available to anyone registering for a free Plugin Alliance account here: http://www.plugin-alliance.com/en/registration.html

Note that the proprietary Plugin Alliance Installation Manager means users can select,

download, and install only the products and formats needed for their system.

For more in-depth information, including several superb-sounding audio demos, please visit the dedicated Dent 2 webpage here: https://www.plugin-alliance.com/en/products/unfiltered_audio_dent_2.html

For more in-depth information, including several superb-sounding audio demos, please visit the dedicated Indent 2 webpage here: https://www.plugin-alliance.com/en/products/unfiltered_audio_indent_2.html

Watch Plugin Alliance contributor Charles Stella and artist/producer Logan James showing how to use Dent 2 and Indent 2 to get anything from gritty saturation and attitude on drums to reality-defying wave modulation and harmonic destruction on vocals in this demystifying demo video: https://youtu.be/GfpTkUlF0gA

youtube

#pluginalliance #unfilteredaudio #vst #aax #au #mixing #musicproducer #music production

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onireview · 8 years ago

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Instamate 2.0 Review – How To Upload Videos On Instagram From Your Computer & Automate Posts?

Instamate 2 Review - Everything you need is in one

Hey money-makers on Instagram, before digging into this brand new updated version of the already well-known Instamate – Instamate 2.0 – let me ask you 2 questions I had been wondering ever since started doing Instagram marketing and I believe these are pretty much common headaches to us all: How do you put your Instagram account on autopilot in a smart, light-weight and time-saving way? And how do you upload videos directly from your computer?

Now you may have in your mind several names for the first question and several others for the second. What if I tell you that you can do BOTH in the same one software?

That is what I mean to discuss in this Instamate 2.0 Review so stick with me as I am going to show you how rounded, ultimate and convenient this software is to any Instagram marketer.

What is Instamate 2.0?

So you are reading about the newest update of Instamate – Instamate 2.0, which is a cloud-based website software that helps you do literally everything – from finding, editing, scheduling, uploading, especially uploading videos directly from your computer, to monetizing the most viral contents on social media into your Instagram page – that is needed to earn the craziest money from your Instagram accounts.

[wp-review id="57"]

Instamate 2.0 Review – Overview

Vendor: Luke Maguire

Product: Instamate

Launch Date: 2016-Mar-02

Front-End Price: $37-$47

Niche: Software

What are the features of Instamate 2.0?

Schedule Your Posts

Now let’s get back to my first question – how do put your Instagram account on autopilot in a smart, light-weight and time-saving way?

Hootsuite? ScheduGram? Latergramme? Onlypult? Or TakeOff? Yeah, those used to be the temporary solutions and I have tried a bit of everything much enough to tell they are not the answer I had been looking for. Indeed, they have somewhat solved the problem but with lots of bottlenecks and inconveniences. So I think I probably should as well detail my experience using some of the above tools.

Hootsuite

https://www.flickr.com/photos/onireview/35765023854

It is true that Hootsuite is delivering an excellent service on various tasks like managing multiple Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, WordPress, Foursquare and Google + networks all at one unique place, scheduling updates (of course) both on a calendar and a spreadsheet, customizing analytics and scheduled reports, posting updates from an RSS feed and providing a super helpful supporting system. It also enables users to use it on mobile phone with its own mobile application too and that is very convenient.

Back at the time I was using Hootsuite, it was still allowing people to collaborate as a team so it helped with things like delegating replies, tweets, mark-as-done or tracking messages – for free. Now that free usage has long gone and the price to enact the team function is crazy, especially for small businesses like mine.

About pricing of this software, I can tell you, it totally was not worth for how much it charged. But I will go into details later with pricing comparison of all the alternatives.

Alright, there are actually more but I do not wish to sink you guys in a lagoon of Hootsuite’s disappointments so let’s move on to, uh, the disappointments of ScheduGram.

ScheduGram

https://www.flickr.com/photos/onireview/35765023594

So this was also another bitter-sweet experience. Perhaps the bitter part was a bit more dominating.

ScheduGram was cute enough to let me try the service for free within 7 days, convenient enough to let me upload photos from my hard drive to the destination, schedule posts (of course) and report in pretty much details about those posts, re-post without re-uploading content, and time-saving enough to keep my accounts logged in. It also has somewhat a special software that can “bypass” Instagram’s Terms of Use and get access to Instagram’s API.

Now it comes the bitter part of the experience. After the trial period, lots of fucked-up things happened. First, only 2 out of 10 of my scheduled posts actually showed up while all of them were reported as successfully posted. In fact, those 2 surviving posts were deleted a few days, or even, minutes after being posted without leaving any trace – no spamming warning or error message. So after consistent attempts, it turned out that ScheduGram just did not let me post many photos within a day while it had promised that the waiting time between posts could be up to only 15 minutes. I ended up posting only 3 photos per day, 5 hours apart, and only 2 actually appeared on my Instagram.

It was very obvious that there was no reason to keep using ScheduGram so that was the end of my story with the software. Another fail attempt to find a decent Instagram post scheduler.

Instamate 2.0

https://www.flickr.com/photos/onireview/35765023614

What about Instamate 2.0? Instamate’s Auto Scheduler granted an IP address to my account so I could schedule content – both photos and videos – and be totally guaranteed that it will appear at the exact time on my Instagram page. No mess-up at all. Everything worked smoothly, on time and most crucially, never got deleted. This Auto Scheduler also allowed me to add and automate up to 2 extra Instagram accounts and brought my total possible account number to 5. I always had the ability to post my scheduled posts instantly, edit them or change the date.

And you know what – Instamate used my Google Chrome and IP to post to Instagram, which means the software’s behavior will be more human-like because by using my IP for posting, it did not look like a bot. So you know, the social networks do not favor bots very much and especially when it comes to Instagram, any bot-like behaviors may cause the account to be banned. That was why the posts never got deleted. When I figured this out, I was even so much more excited about this Instamate 2.0.

So to be able to make the most out of this Instamate 2.0, you need to get the Auto Schedule one-time offer, which is not free. If you do not want it, that is fine too, you still can schedule posts just like I did. The difference is you will need to leave your computer turned on just so Instamate 2.0 can use your Google Chrome to post – that is all.

I would like to just mention about the features here and let the pricing comparison to be discussed in the pricing part later on in this Instamate 2.0 Review so keep moving on with me till you have a complete picture about Instamate 2.0.

Allow Videos to Be Uploaded Directly From Your Computer

https://www.flickr.com/photos/onireview/36431928792

Now what about solution to my second question? I can name several soft wares that could be of service to the question myself too – like BlueStacks App Player, Gamblr, or even Dropbox. However, I was only using those tools in hope for a better software to be made and was so ready to take my hands off them anytime.

BlueStacks App Player was a phone emulator that I installed on my computer. What I needed to do was searching for “Instagram” with the software’s search engine and also installing it just so when I ran Instagram on computer I could see videos that other people had uploaded. Then I had to install another software that acted as a media uploader – I used Media Sync – to finally be able to upload videos from my computer to Instagram. I can hardly imagine how I managed to use this software back then because I could just fall asleep halfway describing how to use it. I did not had it in use for a long while though.

Gamblr was another trial. The good news is it was simpler to install and use. The bad news is it was not totally compatible with my Mac – like seriously? But no – so I tried with a Windows computer and it made me fork over my Instagram password so goodbye Gamblr. No question asked.

That was how I got back to classic – uploading videos stored in Dropbox. Too simple. Yet the disadvantage was the option did not give me any access to Instagram’s filtering feature. So I had to edit the video somewhere, put it in my Dropbox and then upload it. I do not know if any of you like that process, but switching between places is not my thing.

So that was where Instamate 2.0 saved the day. It worked on computer, used Google Chrome to post to Instagram and it definitely could get access into my computer’s library and get any of my desired photos or videos appeared on Instagram, of course, with full editing and scheduling feature applied to those photos and videos. I have never had to use any other software beside Instamate 2.0 to get a single video uploaded from my computer ever since. Oh and Instamate 2.0 does not only allow you to post directly to your Instagram, but also your Instagram Story – for real!

Complete Automation for Your Accounts

https://www.flickr.com/photos/onireview/35765023924

Instamate 2.0 uses Instagram Finder to find whatever trending posts you wish to see. Simply enter either a hashtag or a keyword from your desired niche and it will search all the related contents on Instagram based on your input.

With that being said, the product has totally put my Instagram account on autopilot for life. It helped finding the most viral content on the Internet, all social media platforms, daily, in any niche, and engaged the top followers in each particular niche with my posts in a complete automatic way.

Besides, after the search, as I got a list of the most popular content corresponding with the hashtag I had inputted, I could also see how many times a photo was liked, how many comments it received, additional content the users posted with their photos and all the hashtags they used. This made the job of re-using the same hashtags a lot easier and more certain that I was using the proven popular ones.

There was also a repost button that was totally brilliant. All I needed to do was clicking it, Instamate 2.0 then listed all the information related to the content and also added credit to it itself. Then it allowed me to add my hashtags as the first comment to complete a professional post without too many hashtag in the caption – brilliant!

All-In-One Editing – Uploading – Scheduling Machine

https://www.flickr.com/photos/onireview/35791170933

Now, I did say Instamate 2.0 is the magical machine that has your videos uploaded directly from your computer and your posts scheduled seamlessly by using solely and entirely only itself, didn’t I? That cannot be done without a software being able to provide a thorough editing function.

Instamate 2.0 let me play freely with my photos and videos. Its editor totally replaces 3 of the most commonly used Instagram image editing tools – text, filter, call to actions – with a full Instagram editing module built inside Instamate 2.0’s editor so we could just stay in one place and have everything done. You can edit the imagery Instamate 2.0 find for you, use all the filters plus many more functions that Instagram has right within Instamate 2.0, add call to actions and make your content look like no other. Perfectly save your time, effort and your computer’s memory space.

Put Affiliate Links into Your Instagram’s Biography

Instamate 2.0 has this thing called Link Cloaker, which is a brilliant tool to monetize your content. Finally I was able to monetize both my updates and advertisements with Instamate 2.0’s Octosuite Autobot cloaker. It safely let me add my affiliate links to Instagram for 1 directly click sales. I was fully grateful to enjoy having my content go viral instantly while monetizing them at the same time.

How does the software work?

Sorry for my speak english is pretty bad so I can't record video demo for you. You can see the demo below by Luke Maguire, the creator of Instamate, is going to show how the software works.

https://youtu.be/eO1Wcshq9I4

Price and How to buy it?

Alright now this is the determining part. The price to own an Instamate 2.0 is $37 - $47. I cannot tell the fixed price because this hot issue is absolutely trending and pricing could be increasing. Also, that is the price to get a standard Instamate 2.0, there are one -time offers that you may not want to miss out:

Its Instamate Auto Scheduler is $37 to $47. Without this guy you will have to keep your computer turned on all day to have your scheduled contents posted.

Image & Video Editor is $27 - $37. Surely your Instamate 2.0 will not be an all-in-one machine without it.

VIP Training for $27 - $37. If you have a Viral Autobots and have seen the training there then you know how valuable training sessions of Luke, the guy behind Viral Autobots and this Instamate 2.0, are. This VIP training reveals everything you need to know about generating crazy money on Instagram, Luke’s 6-figure Instagram page and the exact process Luke has used to earn like a boss with Instamate on autopilot. Trust me, they are precious knowledge.

Link Cloaker for $27 - $37. This is the guy that will enable you to add your affiliate link to your Instagram safely. There is training included.

20 Account Keys for $297. I did not get this because I did not need that many accounts but for big businesses, it may be of help to you.

To purchase the product, you can get access to its official sales pages in HERE or you can buy it through MY LINK and enter coupon code "instalucky" to get a discount of $3 if YOU ARE PLEASED. I will be able to earn some commissions. And of course, I will be honored to give you all of my bonuses, such as some of my tips in making profits with Instagram or special tricks that you can do when using Instamate 2.0. I have been helping most of my friends succeed with those tips so I hope they will be useful for you as well. You can check here

Why I bought Instamate 2.0?

I Never Have to Pay For Ads Again

Well, we all know that organic engagement on Instagram is like over 2 times that of Facebook. Besides, Facebook limits organic reach while Instagram does not. Now with Instamate 2.0 you can empower your Instagram account to maximize your profit without having to pay for Facebook ads ever again.

Only One Software for Everything

No more paying for this scheduler, that poster and another editor. Or having to jump from tools to tools and go through a crazy complex process just to have a single nice photo or video posted. Just relax and play within only one tool like Instamate 2.0, where most parts of the process are already automated for you.

Vendor’s Credibility

Luke Maguire is no stranger to the online marketing world. He has his prestige widely known with Viral Autobots, Octosuite and now Instamate. He launched this Instamate 2.0 last year on March 2nd and picked up approximately 29 thousand and a half sales within a day. Although, to be fair, there are refunds claimed too, but the rate is reasonable for such a crazy sales rate.

Reasons for the claims back then were mostly the scheduling function did not work well when turning off computers, accounts were not able to be deleted once added or slow response on support system. I personally did not experience any of those flaws and for what I have seen on their forums, the problems have been addressed, refunds have been delivered and flaws have been working through. Make sure you get all the information and guarantees you need before purchasing.

Conclusion

I am personally grateful for having come across this software. It did not only totally solve the problem of scheduling posts and uploading videos from computer but also was such a massive supporter on my Instagram marketing tasks, automating everything, driving crazy traffic, and helping generating more money in such a lightweight approach I have ever experienced. The final verdict is absolutely yours. Give a closer look here and see if you want to give it a try: http://special.instamate.com/

Thanks for your time on my Instamate 2.0 Review.

Check out the text at : Instamate 2.0 Review – How To Upload Videos On Instagram From Your Computer & Automate Posts?

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