#Apple turned into the most productive organization in 2014

[librarianrafia]

Aug 2024)

Today's links

"Disenshittify or Die": My speech from Defcon 32.

Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.

This day in history: 2009, 2014, 2019, 2023

Upcoming appearances: Where to find me.

Recent appearances: Where I've been.

Latest books: You keep readin' em, I'll keep writin' 'em.

Upcoming books: Like I said, I'll keep writin' 'em.

Colophon: All the rest.

"Disenshittify or Die" (permalink)

Last weekend, I traveled to Las Vegas for Defcon 32, where I had the immense privilege of giving a solo talk on Track 1, entitled "Disenshittify or die! How hackers can seize the means of computation and build a new, good internet that is hardened against our asshole bosses' insatiable horniness for enshittification":

https://info.defcon.org/event/?id=54861

This was a followup to last year's talk, "An Audacious Plan to Halt the Internet's Enshittification," a talk that kicked off a lot of international interest in my analysis of platform decay ("enshittification"):

The Defcon organizers have earned a restful week or two, and that means that the video of my talk hasn't yet been posted to Defcon's Youtube channel, so in the meantime, I thought I'd post a lightly edited version of my speech crib. If you're headed to Burning Man, you can hear me reprise this talk at Palenque Norte (7&E); I'm kicking off their lecture series on Tuesday, Aug 27 at 1PM.

==

What the fuck happened to the old, good internet?

I mean, sure, our bosses were a little surveillance-happy, and they were usually up for sharing their data with the NSA, and whenever there was a tossup between user security and growth, it was always YOLO time.

But Google Search used to work. Facebook used to show you posts from people you followed. Uber used to be cheaper than a taxi and pay the driver more than a cabbie made. Amazon used to sell products, not Shein-grade self-destructing dropshipped garbage from all-consonant brands. Apple used to defend your privacy, rather than spying on you with your no-modifications-allowed Iphone.

There was a time when you searching for an album on Spotify would get you that album – not a playlist of insipid AI-generated covers with the same name and art.

Microsoft used to sell you software – sure, it was buggy – but now they just let you access apps in the cloud, so they can watch how you use those apps and strip the features you use the most out of the basic tier and turn them into an upcharge.

What – and I cannot stress this enough – the fuck happened?!

I’m talking about enshittification.

Here’s what enshittification looks like from the outside: First, you see a company that’s being good to its end users. Google puts the best search results at the top; Facebook shows you a feed of posts from people and groups you followl; Uber charges small dollars for a cab; Amazon subsidizes goods and returns and shipping and puts the best match for your product search at the top of the page.

That’s stage one, being good to end users. But there’s another part of this stage, call it stage 1a). That’s figuring out how to lock in those users.

There’s so many ways to lock in users.

If you’re Facebook, the users do it for you. You joined Facebook because there were people there you wanted to hang out with, and other people joined Facebook to hang out with you.

That’s the old “network effects” in action, and with network effects come “the collective action problem." Because you love your friends, but goddamn are they a pain in the ass! You all agree that FB sucks, sure, but can you all agree on when it’s time to leave?

No way.

Can you agree on where to go next?

Hell no.

You’re there because that’s where the support group for your rare disease hangs out, and your bestie is there because that’s where they talk with the people in the country they moved away from, then there’s that friend who coordinates their kid’s little league car pools on FB, and the best dungeon master you know isn’t gonna leave FB because that’s where her customers are.

So you’re stuck, because even though FB use comes at a high cost – your privacy, your dignity and your sanity – that’s still less than the switching cost you’d have to bear if you left: namely, all those friends who have taken you hostage, and whom you are holding hostage

Now, sometimes companies lock you in with money, like Amazon getting you to prepay for a year’s shipping with Prime, or to buy your Audible books on a monthly subscription, which virtually guarantees that every shopping search will start on Amazon, after all, you’ve already paid for it.

Sometimes, they lock you in with DRM, like HP selling you a printer with four ink cartridges filled with fluid that retails for more than $10,000/gallon, and using DRM to stop you from refilling any of those ink carts or using a third-party cartridge. So when one cart runs dry, you have to refill it or throw away your investment in the remaining three cartridges and the printer itself.

Sometimes, it’s a grab bag:

You can’t run your Ios apps without Apple hardware;

you can’t run your Apple music, books and movies on anything except an Ios app;

your iPhone uses parts pairing – DRM handshakes between replacement parts and the main system – so you can’t use third-party parts to fix it; and

every OEM iPhone part has a microscopic Apple logo engraved on it, so Apple can demand that the US Customs and Border Service seize any shipment of refurb Iphone parts as trademark violations.

Think Different, amirite?

Getting you locked in completes phase one of the enshittification cycle and signals the start of phase two: making things worse for you to make things better for business customers.

For example, a platform might poison its search results, like Google selling more and more of its results pages to ads that are identified with lighter and lighter tinier and tinier type.

Or Amazon selling off search results and calling it an “ad” business. They make $38b/year on this scam. The first result for your search is, on average, 29% more expensive than the best match for your search. The first row is 25% more expensive than the best match. On average, the best match for your search is likely to be found seventeen places down on the results page.

Other platforms sell off your feed, like Facebook, which started off showing you the things you asked to see, but now the quantum of content from the people you follow has dwindled to a homeopathic residue, leaving a void that Facebook fills with things that people pay to show you: boosted posts from publishers you haven’t subscribed to, and, of course, ads.

Now at this point you might be thinking ‘sure, if you’re not paying for the product, you’re the product.'

Bullshit!

Bull.

Shit.

The people who buy those Google ads? They pay more every year for worse ad-targeting and more ad-fraud

Those publishers paying to nonconsensually cram their content into your Facebook feed? They have to do that because FB suppresses their ability to reach the people who actually subscribed to them

The Amazon sellers with the best match for your query have to outbid everyone else just to show up on the first page of results. It costs so much to sell on Amazon that between 45-51% of every dollar an independent seller brings in has to be kicked up to Don Bezos and the Amazon crime family. Those sellers don’t have the kind of margins that let them pay 51% They have to raise prices in order to avoid losing money on every sale.

"But wait!" I hear you say!

[Come on, say it!]

"But wait! Things on Amazon aren’t more expensive that things at Target, or Walmart, or at a mom and pop store, or direct from the manufacturer.

"How can sellers be raising prices on Amazon if the price at Amazon is the same as at is everywhere else?"

[Any guesses?!]

That’s right, they charge more everywhere. They have to. Amazon binds its sellers to a policy called “most favored nation status,” which says they can’t charge more on Amazon than they charge elsewhere, including direct from their own factory store.

So every seller that wants to sell on Amazon has to raise their prices everywhere else.

Now, these sellers are Amazon’s best customers. They’re paying for the product, and they’re still getting screwed.

Paying for the product doesn’t fill your vapid boss’s shriveled heart with so much joy that he decides to stop trying to think of ways to fuck you over.

Look at Apple. Remember when Apple offered every Ios user a one-click opt out for app-based surveillance? And 96% of users clicked that box?

(The other four percent were either drunk or Facebook employees or drunk Facebook employees.)

That cost Facebook at least ten billion dollars per year in lost surveillance revenue?

I mean, you love to see it.

But did you know that at the same time Apple started spying on Ios users in the same way that Facebook had been, for surveillance data to use to target users for its competing advertising product?

Your Iphone isn’t an ad-supported gimme. You paid a thousand fucking dollars for that distraction rectangle in your pocket, and you’re still the product. What’s more, Apple has rigged Ios so that you can’t mod the OS to block its spying.

If you’re not not paying for the product, you’re the product, and if you are paying for the product, you’re still the product.

Just ask the farmers who are expected to swap parts into their own busted half-million dollar, mission-critical tractors, but can’t actually use those parts until a technician charges them $200 to drive out to the farm and type a parts pairing unlock code into their console.

John Deere’s not giving away tractors. Give John Deere a half mil for a tractor and you will be the product.

Please, my brothers and sisters in Christ. Please! Stop saying ‘if you’re not paying for the product, you’re the product.’

OK, OK, so that’s phase two of enshittification.

Phase one: be good to users while locking them in.

Phase two: screw the users a little to you can good to business customers while locking them in.

Phase three: screw everybody and take all the value for yourself. Leave behind the absolute bare minimum of utility so that everyone stays locked into your pile of shit.

Enshittification: a tragedy in three acts.

That’s what enshittification looks like from the outside, but what’s going on inside the company? What is the pathological mechanism? What sci-fi entropy ray converts the excellent and useful service into a pile of shit?

That mechanism is called twiddling. Twiddling is when someone alters the back end of a service to change how its business operates, changing prices, costs, search ranking, recommendation criteria and other foundational aspects of the system.

Digital platforms are a twiddler’s utopia. A grocer would need an army of teenagers with pricing guns on rollerblades to reprice everything in the building when someone arrives who’s extra hungry.

Whereas the McDonald’s Investments portfolio company Plexure advertises that it can use surveillance data to predict when an app user has just gotten paid so the seller can tack an extra couple bucks onto the price of their breakfast sandwich.

And of course, as the prophet William Gibson warned us, ‘cyberspace is everting.' With digital shelf tags, grocers can change prices whenever they feel like, like the grocers in Norway, whose e-ink shelf tags change the prices 2,000 times per day.

Every Uber driver is offered a different wage for every job. If a driver has been picky lately, the job pays more. But if the driver has been desperate enough to grab every ride the app offers, the pay goes down, and down, and down.

The law professor Veena Dubal calls this ‘algorithmic wage discrimination.' It’s a prime example of twiddling.

Every youtuber knows what it’s like to be twiddled. You work for weeks or months, spend thousands of dollars to make a video, then the algorithm decides that no one – not your own subscribers, not searchers who type in the exact name of your video – will see it.

Why? Who knows? The algorithm’s rules are not public.

Because content moderation is the last redoubt of security through obscurit: they can’t tell you what the como algorithm is downranking because then you’d cheat.

Youtube is the kind of shitty boss who docks every paycheck for all the rules you’ve broken, but won’t tell you what those rules were, lest you figure out how to break those rules next time without your boss catching you.

Twiddling can also work in some users’ favor, of course. Sometimes platforms twiddle to make things better for end users or business customers.

For example, Emily Baker-White from Forbes revealed the existence of a back-end feature that Tiktok’s management can access they call the “heating tool.”

When a manager applies the heating toll to a performer’s account, that performer’s videos are thrust into the feeds of millions of users, without regard to whether the recommendation algorithm predicts they will enjoy that video.

Why would they do this? Well, here’s an analogy from my boyhood I used to go to this traveling fair that would come to Toronto at the end of every summer, the Canadian National Exhibition. If you’ve been to a fair like the Ex, you know that you can always spot some guy lugging around a comedically huge teddy bear.

Nominally, you win that teddy bear by throwing five balls in a peach-basket, but to a first approximation, no one has ever gotten five balls to stay in that peach-basket.

That guy “won” the teddy bear when a carny on the midway singled him out and said, "fella, I like your face. Tell you what I’m gonna do: You get just one ball in the basket and I’ll give you this keychain, and if you amass two keychains, I’ll let you trade them in for one of these galactic-scale teddy-bears."

That’s how the guy got his teddy bear, which he now has to drag up and down the midway for the rest of the day.

Why the hell did that carny give away the teddy bear? Because it turns the guy into a walking billboard for the midway games. If that dopey-looking Judas Goat can get five balls into a peach basket, then so can you.

Except you can’t.

Tiktok’s heating tool is a way to give away tactical giant teddy bears. When someone in the TikTok brain trust decides they need more sports bros on the platform, they pick one bro out at random and make him king for the day, heating the shit out of his account.

That guy gets a bazillion views and he starts running around on all the sports bro forums trumpeting his success: *I am the Louis Pasteur of sports bro influencers!"

The other sports bros pile in and start retooling to make content that conforms to the idiosyncratic Tiktok format. When they fail to get giant teddy bears of their own, they assume that it’s because they’re doing Tiktok wrong, because they don’t know about the heating tool.

But then comes the day when the TikTok Star Chamber decides they need to lure in more astrologers, so they take the heat off that one lucky sports bro, and start heating up some lucky astrologer.

Giant teddy bears are all over the place: those Uber drivers who were boasting to the NYT ten years ago about earning $50/hour? The Substackers who were rolling in dough? Joe Rogan and his hundred million dollar Spotify payout? Those people are all the proud owners of giant teddy bears, and they’re a steal.

Because every dollar they get from the platform turns into five dollars worth of free labor from suckers who think they just internetting wrong.

Giant teddy bears are just one way of twiddling. Platforms can play games with every part of their business logic, in highly automated ways, that allows them to quickly and efficiently siphon value from end users to business customers and back again, hiding the pea in a shell game conducted at machine speeds, until they’ve got everyone so turned around that they take all the value for themselves.

That’s the how: How the platforms do the trick where they are good to users, then lock users in, then maltreat users to be good to business customers, then lock in those business customers, then take all the value for themselves.

So now we know what is happening, and how it is happening, all that’s left is why it’s happening.

Now, on the one hand, the why is pretty obvious. The less value that end-users and business customers capture, the more value there is left to divide up among the shareholders and the executives.

That’s why, but it doesn’t tell you why now. Companies could have done this shit at any time in the past 20 years, but they didn’t. Or at least, the successful ones didn’t. The ones that turned themselves into piles of shit got treated like piles of shit. We avoided them and they died.

Remember Myspace? Yahoo Search? Livejournal? Sure, they’re still serving some kind of AI slop or programmatic ad junk if you hit those domains, but they’re gone.

And there’s the clue: It used to be that if you enshittified your product, bad things happened to your company. Now, there are no consequences for enshittification, so everyone’s doing it.

Let’s break that down: What stops a company from enshittifying?

There are four forces that discipline tech companies. The first one is, obviously, competition.

If your customers find it easy to leave, then you have to worry about them leaving

Many factors can contribute to how hard or easy it is to depart a platform, like the network effects that Facebook has going for it. But the most important factor is whether there is anywhere to go.

Back in 2012, Facebook bought Insta for a billion dollars. That may seem like chump-change in these days of eleven-digit Big Tech acquisitions, but that was a big sum in those innocent days, and it was an especially big sum to pay for Insta. The company only had 13 employees, and a mere 25 million registered users.

But what mattered to Zuckerberg wasn’t how many users Insta had, it was where those users came from.

[Does anyone know where those Insta users came from?]

That’s right, they left Facebook and joined Insta. They were sick of FB, even though they liked the people there, they hated creepy Zuck, they hated the platform, so they left and they didn’t come back.

So Zuck spent a cool billion to recapture them, A fact he put in writing in a midnight email to CFO David Ebersman, explaining that he was paying over the odds for Insta because his users hated him, and loved Insta. So even if they quit Facebook (the platform), they would still be captured Facebook (the company).

Now, on paper, Zuck’s Instagram acquisition is illegal, but normally, that would be hard to stop, because you’d have to prove that he bought Insta with the intention of curtailing competition.

But in this case, Zuck tripped over his own dick: he put it in writing.

But Obama’s DoJ and FTC just let that one slide, following the pro-monopoly policies of Reagan, Bush I, Clinton and Bush II, and setting an example that Trump would follow, greenlighting gigamergers like the catastrophic, incestuous Warner-Discovery marriage.

Indeed, for 40 years, starting with Carter, and accelerating through Reagan, the US has encouraged monopoly formation, as an official policy, on the grounds that monopolies are “efficient.”

If everyone is using Google Search, that’s something we should celebrate. It means they’ve got the very best search and wouldn’t it be perverse to spend public funds to punish them for making the best product?

But as we all know, Google didn’t maintain search dominance by being best. They did it by paying bribes. More than 20 billion per year to Apple alone to be the default Ios search, plus billions more to Samsung, Mozilla, and anyone else making a product or service with a search-box on it, ensuring that you never stumble on a search engine that’s better than theirs.

Which, in turn, ensured that no one smart invested big in rival search engines, even if they were visibly, obviously superior. Why bother making something better if Google’s buying up all the market oxygen before it can kindle your product to life?

Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Amazon – they’re not “making things” companies, they’re “buying things” companies, taking advantage of official tolerance for anticompetitive acquisitions, predatory pricing, market distorting exclusivity deals and other acts specifically prohibited by existing antitrust law.

Their goal is to become too big to fail, because that makes them too big to jail, and that means they can be too big to care.

Which is why Google Search is a pile of shit and everything on Amazon is dropshipped garbage that instantly disintegrates in a cloud of offgassed volatile organic compounds when you open the box.

Once companies no longer fear losing your business to a competitor, it’s much easier for them to treat you badly, because what’re you gonna do?

Remember Lily Tomlin as Ernestine the AT&T operator in those old SNL sketches? “We don’t care. We don’t have to. We’re the phone company.”

Competition is the first force that serves to discipline companies and the enshittificatory impulses of their leadership, and we just stopped enforcing competition law.

It takes a special kind of smooth-brained asshole – that is, an establishment economist – to insist that the collapse of every industry from eyeglasses to vitamin C into a cartel of five or fewer companies has nothing to do with policies that officially encouraged monopolization.

It’s like we used to put down rat poison and we didn’t have a rat problem.Then these dickheads convinced us that rats were good for us and we stopped putting down rat poison, and now rats are gnawing our faces off and they’re all running around saying, "Who’s to say where all these rats came from? Maybe it was that we stopped putting down poison, but maybe it’s just the Time of the Rats. The Great Forces of History bearing down on this moment to multiply rats beyond all measure!"

Antitrust didn’t slip down that staircase and fall spine-first on that stiletto: they stabbed it in the back and then they pushed it.

And when they killed antitrust, they also killed regulation, the second force that disciplines companies. Regulation is possible, but only when the regulator is more powerful than the regulated entities. When a company is bigger than the government, it gets damned hard to credibly threaten to punish that company, no matter what its sins.

That’s what protected IBM for all those years when it had its boot on the throat of the American tech sector. Do you know, the DOJ fought to break up IBM in the courts from 1970-1982, and that every year, for 12 consecutive years, IBM spent more on lawyers to fight the USG than the DOJ Antitrust Division spent on all the lawyers fighting every antitrust case in the entire USA?

IBM outspent Uncle Sam for 12 years. People called it “Antitrust’s Vietnam.” All that money paid off, because by 1982, the president was Ronald Reagan, a man whose official policy was that monopolies were “efficient." So he dropped the case, and Big Blue wriggled off the hook.

It’s hard to regulate a monopolist, and it’s hard to regulate a cartel. When a sector is composed of hundreds of competing companies, they compete. They genuinely fight with one another, trying to poach each others’ customers and workers. They are at each others’ throats.

It’s hard enough for a couple hundred executives to agree on anything. But when they’re legitimately competing with one another, really obsessing about how to eat each others’ lunches, they can’t agree on anything.

The instant one of them goes to their regulator with some bullshit story, about how it’s impossible to have a decent search engine without fine-grained commercial surveillance; or how it’s impossible to have a secure and easy to use mobile device without a total veto over which software can run on it; or how it’s impossible to administer an ISP’s network unless you can slow down connections to servers whose owners aren’t paying bribes for “premium carriage"; there’s some *other company saying, “That’s bullshit”

“We’ve managed it! Here’s our server logs, our quarterly financials and our customer testimonials to prove it.”

100 companies are a rabble, they're a mob. They can’t agree on a lobbying position. They’re too busy eating each others’ lunch to agree on how to cater a meeting to discuss it.

But let those hundred companies merge to monopoly, absorb one another in an incestuous orgy, turn into five giant companies, so inbred they’ve got a corporate Habsburg jaw, and they become a cartel.

It’s easy for a cartel to agree on what bullshit they’re all going to feed their regulator, and to mobilize some of the excess billions they’ve reaped through consolidation, which freed them from “wasteful competition," so they can capture their regulators completely.

You know, Congress used to pass federal consumer privacy laws? Not anymore.

The last time Congress managed to pass a federal consumer privacy law was in 1988: The Video Privacy Protection Act. That’s a law that bans video-store clerks from telling newspapers what VHS cassettes you take home. In other words, it regulates three things that have effectively ceased to exist.

The threat of having your video rental history out there in the public eye was not the last or most urgent threat the American public faced, and yet, Congress is deadlocked on passing a privacy law.

Tech companies’ regulatory capture involves a risible and transparent gambit, that is so stupid, it’s an insult to all the good hardworking risible transparent ruses out there.

Namely, they claim that when they violate your consumer, privacy or labor rights, It’s not a crime, because they do it with an app.

Algorithmic wage discrimination isn’t illegal wage theft: we do it with an app.

Spying on you from asshole to appetite isn’t a privacy violation: we do it with an app.

And Amazon’s scam search tool that tricks you into paying 29% more than the best match for your query? Not a ripoff. We do it with an app.

[swiftcodefinder1]

Unquestionably! Here are a few valuable realities about Quick code:

Created by Apple: Quick was created by Apple Inc. what's more, first presented at Apple's Overall Engineers Gathering (WWDC) in 2014. It immediately acquired prominence and turned into the essential programming language for Apple stages.Open Source: In 2015, Apple publicly released Quick, swift code making it accessible to a more extensive local area. This move urged designers overall to add to its turn of events, bringing about a functioning and developing open-source local area.

Quick Development: Quick has a public development process called "Quick Advancement," where proposition for language upgrades and changes are examined transparently with the local area. This cycle guarantees that the language develops in a smart and cooperative way.Quick Reception: Quick saw fast reception since its delivery. It supplanted Objective-C as the essential language for iOS and macOS application improvement, and its usability and execution benefits added to its far reaching reception.

Jungle gyms: Quick Jungle gyms is an intelligent climate that permits designers to explore different avenues regarding code and get brings about ongoing. This component is utilized for getting the hang of, prototyping, and investigating Quick code.Convention Situated Programming (POP): Quick supports the utilization of convention arranged programming, a worldview that underlines planning code around conventions and organizations instead of class legacy. This approach advances code reusability and measured quality.

Optionals: Quick presented the idea of optionals, which permits designers to securely deal with the shortfall of a worth. This component stays away from runtime crashes because of invalid or unclear qualities.Memory The executives with Bend: Quick purposes Programmed Reference Counting (Curve) for memory the board. Circular segment naturally oversees memory allotment and deallocation, decreasing the weight on engineers to physically deal with memory.Monitor Proclamation: The gatekeeper explanation in Quick permits designers to leave an extension early on the off chance that specific circumstances are not met. It further develops code meaningfulness by decreasing settling levels in conditions and upgrades code security.

Mistake Dealing with: Quick has a strong blunder taking care of component utilizing the attempt, catch, and toss watchwords. This makes it more straightforward for engineers to deal with and spread mistakes in an organized manner.Numerous Bring Types back: Quick permits capabilities to return different qualities utilizing tuples. This component improves on code and decreases the requirement for making custom information designs to return different qualities.

Dynamic Dispatch: Quick backings dynamic dispatch for class cases, permitting designers to utilize legacy and polymorphism when vital.String Insertion: Quick offers string addition, empowering engineers to incorporate factors and articulations straightforwardly inside string literals. This component makes string arranging more helpful and intelligible.Solid Sort Induction: Quick's sort derivation framework can frequently conclude the information kinds of factors and articulations naturally. This decreases the requirement for unequivocal sort statements, making code cleaner and more compact.

Quick's continuous turn of, serious areas of strength for events support, and nonstop enhancements make it a flexible and productive language for Apple stage improvement. Its equilibrium of current language elements, security, and execution benefits have established its place as one of the most well known programming dialects in the business.

[irvinenewshq]

Google Chat Hangouts Meet Speak Allo and DuoDefined

Picture: BigTunaOnline (Shutterstock) Google is an absolute menace on the subject of messaging. Because it formally retires its long-running Hangouts app, it’s price noting that the corporate has launched over a dozen totally different messengers over the course of the final decade and a half. A few of them have had lengthy, confused life cycles; others have died fast and ignominious deaths. Worse nonetheless, many have been developed and launched in tandem to at least one one other, leading to bizarre redundancies for customers. Why the hell have there been so many? And what precisely is Google enjoying at, right here? That’s the everlasting thriller. When in comparison with an organization like Apple (whose iMessages have been tweaked over time to change into a dependable favourite for tens of millions), or Meta (which acquired WhatsApp in 2014 after which swiftly turned it into the hottest messaging app on the planet), Google’s technique looks like a bizarre goose chase of epic proportions. There appears to be no official clarification for why the tech large can’t fairly get it collectively, both. Turning to random voices on the web for interpretation, I stumbled throughout a couple of potential solutions to this enduring thriller. One individual on Reddit defined it this manner: There was a time when Google was the firm I might have thought would nook the messaging market. Greater than any of the rivals on the time, Google had the model picture and technical functionality to push its messaging options. However Google by no means realized that whereas disruption is a enterprise technique in Silicon Valley, disrupting your individual enterprise is a shitty thought. Hmm, attention-grabbing thought, net rando. One other Redditor bought much more analytical: “[They have a dozen messenger apps] …As a result of their org construction & efficiency assessment mechanisms aren’t nicely suited to a coherent product technique. Folks get promotions for releasing new merchandise, not a lot for sustaining and steadily supporting current ones.” Nonetheless one other armchair commentator saved issues fundamental: “Throw sufficient shit on the wall and one thing is certain to stay proper?” Regardless of the motive, Google has definitely made a fame for itself on the subject of blitzing the world with an limitless string of messaging purposes. Whereas the corporate has gone via far too many pivots and rebrands to jot all of them down right here, we determined to compile a couple of of essentially the most stand-out platforms and purposes within the tech large’s lengthy historical past of fumbled product technique. Click on via and be confused. Originally published at Irvine News HQ

[orgbv]

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Monopolists are winning the repair wars

In 2018, dozens of states introduced Right to Repair bills. These bills are wildly popular among voters, but wildly unpopular among monopolists ranging from Apple to Microsoft to Google to GM to John Deere to Wahl. Every one of these bills was defeated.

Repair advocates regrouped for 2021. 27 R2R bills have been introduced at the state level. Every single one that came up for a vote was defeated, thanks to aggressive lobbying by an unholy alliance of the country’s largest, most profitable, least taxpaying corporations.

In 2014, a pair of American political scientists published a groundbreaking peer-reviewed paper analyzing 30 years’ worth of US policy-making that compared policy outcomes to public polling results.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/perspectives-on-politics/article/testing-theories-of-american-politics-elites-interest-groups-and-average-citizens/62327F513959D0A304D4893B382B992B#authors-details

They concluded that general public sentiment had almost no impact on US policy making — but the political preferences of wealthy people and large corporations were hugely predictive of what laws and regulations we’d get.

Or, in poli-sci jargon, “Economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence.”

The Right to Repair fight is a hell of a proof of this principle. It’s really hard to overstate the popularity of the idea that you should be able to fix your own stuff, or choose where you get your stuff fixed.

Take auto-repair. As auto-manufacturing has grown more concentrated, car makers have squeezed independent mechanics — as close to a folk-hero as the American imagination can produce! — to the margins.

After all, forcing car owners to use official service depots has huge advantages: manufacturers can gouge on service prices, they can force drivers to buy expensive original parts, and they get to unilaterally decide when a car is beyond repair and force you to buy a new one.

Drivers have a good intuitive sense that this is going on. That’s why, when Bay Staters voted on Massachusetts Question 1 (an automotive R2R ballot initiative) in 2012, it passed with an 86% majority!

Mass Question 1 is a really good example of how monopolists can arm-twist politicians into frustrating the will of the people. Immediately after the 2012 initiative, auto-makers set about retooling their cars to escape the new right to repair rule.

The 2012 rule forced automakers to give mechanics access to diagnostic info from cars’ wired internal networks, so Big Car moved all the useful diagnostic data to their cars’ wireless networks. Hence the 2020 Massachusetts R2R ballot initiative, which closed this loophole.

The 2020 fight over the Mass. R2R ballot initiative was fuckin’ wild. The car-makers ran some seriously freaky scare-ads, in which the ability of auto mechanics to read wireless diagnostic data led directly to women being stalked and murdered.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/09/03/rip-david-graeber/#rolling-surveillance-platforms

I’m not making this up. The underlying premise was, “We turned your car into a hyper-aggressive mobile surveillance platform that incidentally gets you places. If we let other people see the data we’re nonconsensually extracting from you, it will put you in terrible danger.”

Thankfully, Bay Staters saw through this bullshit and passed 2020’s Question 1 with a 75% majority.

The thing is, people completely understand that they should be in charge of deciding who fixes their stuff.

They understand that the risk of poor repairs should be addressed through consumer protection laws (which also bind monopolists’ own authorized repair depots), not by having the repair market privately regulated by monopolists who have vast conflicts of interest.

This understanding has only deepened through the pandemic year, as authorized repair depots shuttered and vital equipment languished thanks to anti-repair laws and technological countermeasures.

For example, Medtronic’s workhorse PB840 ventilators couldn’t be refurbed without using a grey-market activation dongle that a single Polish med-tech homebrewed, encasing them in cases harvested from busted clock-radios and guitar pedals.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/10/flintstone-delano-roosevelt/#medtronic-again

Medtronic — a med-tech monopolist that effected the largest corporate inversion in history to escape US taxes — argues that letting independent med-techs fix its products puts patients at risk, but this argument is every bit as flimsy as the auto-makers’ Mass. scare-ads.

It ignores three important facts:

I. Med-techs have always done this kind of repair. The change isn’t that med-techs are demanding the right to do something new — it’s that Medtronic leveraged its monopoly to foreclose on the industry-standard practice

II. Medtronic’s own security track-record is comically terrible. This is the company that makes pacemakers that can be wirelessly hacked from across a room to kill its user, whose software update system doesn’t even use cryptographic signatures.

If Medtronic is an expert on any aspect of patient safety, that expertise is certainly hard-won, derived from its long history of lethal patient endangerment.

III. If there is a problem with indie technicians struggling to fix Medtronic products, the obvious answer is to provide service manuals, parts and diagnostic codes.

The case for Right to Repair is incredibly strong. Not only does R2R protect consumers from ripoffs, it also provides local jobs — 1–4% of US GDP comes from the independent repair sector, almost entirely in independent small/medium businesses.

https://pluralistic.net/2021/02/02/euthanize-rentiers/#r2r

Repair is an important environmental, labor and human rights story. As leaked internal memos demonstrate, Apple’s aggressively landfilling of devices (so customers buy more) is environmentally devastating and creates demand for conflict minerals.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/31/hall-of-famer/#e-waste-apple

The average American family loses $330/year because of the lack of access to independent repair, a $40b annual drag on the economy thanks to monopoly rents collected by monopoly firms.

To say nothing of the impact on jobs: landfilling a kiloton of ewaste creates <1 job; recycling that waste creates 15 jobs, while repairing it creates 200 good, local jobs that can’t be offshored (you don’t send a phone overseas for repair).

https://www.ifixit.com/Right-to-Repair/Jobs-Revolution

Then there’s the food security story: John Deere is an agribusiness monopolist that outraged farmers by claiming that they didn’t own the tractors they paid six figures for, merely “licensed” them on terms that forbade them from fixing their own machines.

Deere leads Big Ag’s anti-repair, forcing farmers to use official parts, preventing modifications that would allow third-party attachments, and collecting outrageous service call fees for a technician whose job is to unlock the tractor after the farmer replaces a part.

This policy means that farmers who fix  their own tractors still can’t use them even if there’s a hail-storm coming and they need to bring in the crop. Farmers — who’ve been fixing their own gear since the first farmer built a forge next to their farmhouse — are desperate.

Some farmers download anonymously maintained Ukrainian firmware and overwrite the Deere software, creating unknowable risk of remote attack. Others have to maintain “backup tractors” they use for weeks while waiting for Deere to fix their equipment.

https://www.npr.org/2021/05/26/1000400896/standoff-between-farmers-and-tractor-makers-intensifies-over-repair-issues

Just like Medtronic and GM, Deere claims that allowing independent service creates infosec risk — but just like its anti-repair comrades, Deere’s own infosec is a dumpster-fire, with tractors across America at risk of mass-scale cyber-attacks:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/23/reputation-laundry/#deere-john

The common thread joining these firms is monopoly: a lack of competition that allows them to extract billions from the public, and a cozy cohort of business leaders who can mobilize that loot to ensure that politicians and regulators don’t give the public what it demands.

American industry is experiencing a wave of monopolism not seen since the Gilded Age, and it affects every sector. Take hair-clippers — a category that exploded during the lockdown thanks to the newly created need for home haircuts.

The clipper market is monopolized by a single firm, Wahl. As I discovered — the hard way — Wahl has designed its newest clippers so they disintegrate if you try to take them apart to sharpen them.

https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1380554358824136706

Instead of sharpening these devices, you’re expected to buy a new $40 blade (for a shaver that costs $60 all in!), and throw out the old one — or, less realistically, you can mail them your razor for factory sharpening.

You won’t be surprised to learn that Wahl is part of the war on repair, sending letters to state legislators warning that letting people sharpen their own clipper blades could lead to fatal housefires.

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4446374-Wahl-Opposition-Illinois.html

Two years ago, the FTC convened an inquiry on independent repair called “Nixing the Fix.” The Nixing the Fix report was released earlier this month, and it affirms everything that repair advocates have said all along.

https://pluralistic.net/2021/05/07/pro-act-class-war/#we-fixit

The FTC calls bullshit on manufacturers’ claims about cyber-risk, housefires, and whether getting your car fixed by your family’s beloved mechanic will lead to your murder. It broadly and firmly endorses Right to Repair.

Which brings me back to 2021, were every one of the 27 R2R bills that has been brought before a state legislature for a vote has been defeated, thanks to heavy corporate lobbying by monopolists.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-05-20/microsoft-and-apple-wage-war-on-gadget-right-to-repair-laws

These bills were voted down after heartbreaking testimony from ed-tech repair specialists who described the devastating impact that a broken laptop has on poor families whose kids are doing remote learning.

They were voted down despite the record, the public support, the climate questions, the food security issue, the human rights issues — voted down to preserve the monopoly profits of a tiny number of firms whose claim to being “American” is tenuous at best.

These tax-dodging, offshoring companies view the American public as an all-you-can-eat buffet, and disclaim any responsibility to the country — while still expecting its lawmakers to defend their interests, at the expense of the voters.

Image: Jcaravanos (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:E-waste_workers.jpg

CC BY-SA: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en

[dynanatlasalle]

The iPod

Apple recently announced the deletion of the iPod product line from the Apple product mix. This is news for many reasons. (https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2022/05/the-music-lives-on/)

It’s news because this product, a sleek, portable music player, was a very successful product for Apple when it was introduced in 2001. The product was introduced in the early days of the transition to digital music. Although Apple did not invent portable, digital music players, they reworked and redesigned an existing innovation and created a new and better product. The iPod was smaller, easier to use, cool, stylish and held more music than portable music players on the market at the time.

Deleting the iPod is news because the product line created an all new revenue stream for Apple which helped turn the company around in 2001 and avoid financial disaster.  At the time, Apple had only one product line: The Mac computer. Mac’s market share was declining as their competitors offered less expensive computers with software that was compatible with other personal computers.

By 2006, iPod sales were 40% of Apple’s revenue ( (see the chart below).  According to Statista global annual revenue for the iPod peaked at $4 Billion in 2008 and stayed over $3 billion through 2011. The iPod was obviously Apple’s cash cow for many years. We now know that the cash was used for a continuous stream of innovations such as the iPhone and iPad product lines. Until 2014 (the last year Apple reported iPod revenue separately), iPod revenue was still $1 billion. This is the story of a great success, not a modest success!

                                         Source: Statista, 2022 

Although the iPod is being discontinued, the product has a great brand story. The product and product line that was developed, played a critical role in the history of Apple success stories by being the first of many technology device successes for Apple. The iPod was Apple’s entry into the world of technology devices; Apple’s only product line was Mac computers before the iPod was launched. The success of the iPod put Apple on a path for revenue and profit growth through innovation in the device category and gave Apple an opportunity to diversify and become the technology giant it is today.  

For me, the news of the iPod’s deletion from the Apple product line is sad because I am sentimental about the iPod.   I still love my iPod and I am happy that I own the music on my iPod. I love the option of taking my music with me using a tiny and lightweight device.  The iPod is an important product to me and it is an important product culturally. The iPod changed the way we listened to music. This is important to a generation that was introduced to iTunes digital music and digital music players as a replacement for vinyl albums, CD’s and very costly digital music like Napster and LimeWire.

In my opinion, the humble iPod is the most significant product launch for Apple and changed the company forever. The iPod and iTunes transformed Apple into an electronic devices and services company; they are no longer a computer company. The success of the first iPod gave Apple a platform for continued organic growth through the many line extensions of the iPod. The line extensions gave Apple a new revenue stream that did not exist until the iPod and as data from Statista shows   it generated billions of dollars of revenue for Apple. (https://www.statista.com/statistics/263404/global-apple-ipod-revenue-since-first-quarter-2006/)

From a personal perspective, it is sad to see the decline of a great product and one which has been one of my all-time favorite products.  For me, there is still a place for my iPod in my mix of devices. It is small, extremely light and very portable. It has long battery life which is great for long distance traveling such as long airline, train or bus trips. The click wheel is unique and easy to use. I like owning my music and being able to choose exactly which songs to listen to at any given time. I like knowing that I can access my favorite music instantly.

From a strategic point of view, I agree that it was probably time to delete the iPod product line. The portable music device category is in decline and Apple integrated iPod functions into the iPhone.

As I think about the iPod going away forever, I can’t help thinking about the advertising for the iPod. The advertising for iPod is part of the iPod brand story and the iconic silhouettes advertising campaign lives on and can be accessed easily through various internet searches.  The advertising is artistically and strategically excellent: the ad agency (TBWA\Chiat\Day) created a simple product demonstration that captured the unique benefits of the iPod in a creative way. Just about all genres of music were represented in a very creative advertising campaign.

Is the iPod obsolete? Technically, yes because the world of music changed and streaming music replaced ownership of music. Music ownership is not relevant to new generation of music listeners.  Financially, the contribution of the iPod to overall Apple revenue has been declining so there is support for deleting the product line. Apple has moved on and continued innovation and growth beyond the iPod. Statista recently reported that Apple software and services are generating more revenue growth than hardware and devices. This category includes Fitness+, Apple TV, Apple Music, iCloud, Apple Pay, Apple Arcade and Apple Care. The growth in this category translates to about $77 Billion in revenue. 

                                               Source: Statista, 2022

 Did Apple do the right thing deleting the iPod? We won’t know the answer to that for a while.  However, the world of technology and consumer demand for technology has changed and Apple is responding to those changes by focusing resources on the high growth businesses that are relevant to today’s technology consumers.  From a strategic perspective, that is the right thing to do. Which of the high growth services will become a star product for Apple? My instincts tell me it will be either Apple TV or Fitness +.

[prakhayth]

Understanding The Different Types of Cryptocurrency

January 15, 2021 · 8 minute read

We’re here to help! First and foremost, SoFi Learn strives to be a beneficial resource to you as you navigate your financial journey. Read more

Cryptocurrencies can act like real money—in a sense, they are real money—but they take a digital monetary form and are not managed or governed by any central authority. A true product of the digital age, cryptocurrencies operate without the involvement of banks, governments, or any middleman. However, in most cases you will need to use a digital currency exchange to buy and sell cryptocurrency.

In 2020, there were more than 50 million blockchain wallet users.

What provides security is that cryptocurrencies are encrypted (secured) with specialized computer code called cryptography. They’re designed like a complicated puzzle on purpose so that they’re hard to crack (and hack).

By September 2020, the number of blockchain wallet users rose to more than 50 million, according to research published by Statista  —with Bitcoin boasting more than 7 million active users.

Insiders call it “crypto,” so that’s what we’ll be calling it going forward.

How Many Different Types of Crypto Are There?

As of April 2021, there are over 10,000 different types  of cryptocurrency.

The different types of crypto generally fall into one of two categories: •  Coins, which can include Bitcoin and altcoins (non-Bitcoin cryptocurrencies) •  Tokens

Below, we’ll get into the basics of crypto tokens vs coins.

Crypto Tokens vs. Coins

Encrypted coins and tokens can fall under the heading of crypto. And, generally, they can be listed into two sorts of cryptocurrency: alternative cryptocurrency coins (Altcoins) or tokens.

Alternative Cryptocurrency Coins (Altcoins)

Altcoins usually refer to any coins that are not Bitcoins. Bitcoin is a popular digital currency that’s produced by computational solutions to complicated math problems. It works separately from a central bank or state entity (i.e., government-backed Treasury).

Some altcoins include:

•  Peercoin •  Litecoin •  Dogecoin •  Auroracoin •  Namecoin

In fact, the name “altcoin” actually means “alternative to Bitcoin.” Namecoin is considered the very first altcoin, created in 2011.

Like Bitcoin, most cryptocurrencies listed here have a limited supply of coins—to keep the balance in check and to reinforce its perceived value. There is a fixed number of Bitcoins that can exist—21 million, as decided by the creator/s of Bitcoin, though some remain to be mined. Once all 21 million are tapped (the number changes when new blocks are mined), that’s it. The only way to bring in more is for Bitcoin’s protocol to allow for it.

Though most altcoins are built upon the same basic framework as Bitcoin, many claim to be better versions of Bitcoin. Each system can differ from the next, as they’re created to serve various purposes and applications, and identified in different ways.

Some coins don’t work with the same open-source protocol that Bitcoin does, however. For example, the following list of cryptocurrencies have created their own separate systems and protocols:

•  Ethereum •  Ripple •  Omni •  Nxt •  Waves •  Counterparty

They’re each self-supporting, too.

Tokens

Unlike altcoins, tokens are created and given out through an Initial Coin Offering, or ICO, very much like a stock offering. They can be represented as:

•  Value tokens (Bitcoins) •  Security tokens (to protect your account) •  Utility tokens (designated for specific uses)

They are not so much meant to be used as money as they are used to describe a function. Like American dollars, they represent value but they are not in themselves of value. Tokens are a type of encryption, specifically referring to the long lines of numbers and letters representing the crypto used in a transaction, such as a money transfer or bill payment. In short, tokens cover a number of meanings.

For instance, both Bitcoin and Ether (from Ethereum) are considered crypto tokens.

Ready to add crypto

to your portfolio?

Trade Now

The Most Common Types of Cryptocurrency

Here’s a list of popular cryptocurrency types and descriptions:

1. Bitcoin

Bitcoin is a type of digital currency; it is “cash for the internet.” More specifically, it’s considered cryptocurrency since cryptography facilitates Bitcoin creation and transactions.

Possibly the “Kleenex” or “Coca Cola” of all crypto, in that its name is the most recognizable and the most closely associated with the cryptocurrency system.

There are currently  more than 18.5 million Bitcoin tokens in circulation, against a present capped limit of 21 million.

2. Bitcoin Cash

Introduced in 2017, Bitcoin Cash is one of the most popular types of cryptocurrency on the market. Its main difference with the original Bitcoin is its block size: 8MB. Compare that to the original Bitcoin’s block size of just 1MB. What that means for users—faster processing speeds.

3. Litecoin

Litecoin is increasingly used in the same breath as Bitcoin, and it functions practically the same way. It was created in 2011 by Charlie Lee, a former employee of Google. He designed it to improve on Bitcoin technology, with shorter transaction times, lower fees, more concentrated miners.

4. Ethereum

Unlike Bitcoin, Ethereum focuses not as much on digital currency as it does on decentralized applications (phone apps). You could think of Ethereum as an app store.

The platform is looking to return control of apps to its original creators, and take away that control from middlemen (like Apple, for instance). The only person who can make changes to the app would be the original creator. The token used here is called Ether, which is used as currency by app developers and users.

5. Ripple

Ripple is one type of cryptocurrency on the list, but it’s not Blockchain-based  . It’s not meant so much for individual users as it is for larger companies and corporations, moving larger amounts of money (its coinage is known as XRP) across the globe.

It’s more well-known for its digital payment protocol more than for its XRP crypto. That’s because the system allows for transfer of monies in any form, be it dollars or even Bitcoin (or others). It claims to be able to handle 1,500 transactions per second (tps). Compare this with Bitcoin, which can handle 3-6 tps (not including scaling layers). Ethereum can handle 15 tps.

6. Stellar

Stellar focuses on money transfers, and its network is designed to make them faster and more efficient, even across national borders. It was designed by Ripple co-founder Jed McCaleb in 2014 and is operated by a non-profit organization called Stellar.org  .

Its goal is to assist developing economies that may not have access to traditional banks and investment opportunities. It doesn’t charge users or institutions for using its Stellar network, and covers operating costs by accepting tax-deductible public donations.

7. NEO

Formerly called Antshares and developed in China, NEO is very aggressively looking to become a major global crypto player. Its focus is smart contracts (digital contracts) that allow users to create and execute agreements without the use of an intermediary.

It’s going after its main competition, Ethereum, but NEO lead developer Erik Zhang mentioned  on a Reddit AMA that NEO has three distinct advantages—better architecture, more developer-friendly smart contracts, and digital identity and digital assets for easier integration into the real world.

Ethereum, on the other hand, uses its own programming languages that developers must first learn before creating smart contracts on its platform.

8. Cardano

Cardano aka ADA is used to send and receive digital funds. It claims to be a more balanced and sustainable ecosystem for cryptocurrencies, and the only coin with a “scientific philosophy and research-driven approach.”

That means that it undergoes especially rigorous reviews by scientists and programmers. It was founded by Charles Hoskinson, who is also the co-founder of Ethereum.

9. IOTA

Launched in 2016, IOTA stands for Internet of Things Application. Unlike most other Blockchain technologies, it doesn’t actually work with a block and chain; it works with smart devices on the Internet of Things (IoT).

All you need to do to use it is to verify two other previous transactions on the IOTA ledger, which is called the Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG), but IOTA creators call it The Tangle.

According to Coin Central  , this means the devices need to be able to purchase more electricity, bandwidth, storage, or data when they need them, and sell those resources when they don’t need them.

The Role of Miners In Cryptocurrency

How exactly do you get your virtual hands on different types of cryptocurrency? You can buy it the old-fashioned way. Or, you can trade it on an exchange using other crypto (for example, using Bitcoin to buy NEO). Some blogs and media platforms pay its content providers in crypto.

Then, there are the miners  . Miners usually don’t pay directly for their crypto; they earn it with their smarts. These tech savvy investors can be compared to the prospectors of the Old West, panning for gold in 1848.

The value is built in because the supply is limited—it’s just up to the complex computers to dig it up by cracking codes and solving complicated puzzles. A lot of it is guesswork, but once the “block” (of the blockchain) is solved, the other miners drop what they’re doing and go on to the next block. No parting gifts—the contestants just turn their attention to the next game round.

If the puzzle is solved, the reward is a certain amount of crypto, and sometimes even voting power on the platform. As of October 2020, the value of one bitcoin had well exceeded $13,000  .

Sounds sweet, but mining isn’t cheap. It requires powerful, expensive hardware and lots of electricity. Also, the number of awarded crypto will be going down, usually by halves every four years or so. Unfortunately, that might not do your utility bill any favors.

Forks, Hard Forks, and Soft Forks

Sometimes, a cryptocurrency—whether Bitcoin or an altcoin—forks. This typically happens when systems need an upgrade or update, or occasional steering (ie a large enough group of miners decide to make new rules for the network.

You could think of a fork like an actual fork, the kind you eat with. Each prong represents a different open-source code modification, but the prongs are designed to work together to assist in the main function.

Sometimes, forks happen by accident when nodes start making copies or if they do not recognize conflicting or unfamiliar information or characteristics. This is what leads to the difference between hard forks and soft forks.

Hard Forks

If a protocol is changed so that the old protocol version is no longer valid, call that a hard fork. This could be problematic, because if the older, now-invalid protocol is still running, it could lead you to scratch your head and say, “what the fork?” It could cause confusion and even possibly a loss of funds, because the old and new protocols running together are butting heads and making mysteries.

An example of a hard-fork problem—with Bitcoin, for instance, a hard fork is a must when making changes and protocol updates to the Blockchain. The new protocol is cool with the changes, but the old protocol becomes a hot mess, not understanding the new activity going on.

Since the old protocol rejects the new changes because it doesn’t recognize them, that causes a traffic jam or worse. The old protocol will claim that the changes and updates are not valid, even if they are. What you then get are two blockchains, one old and one new. As these chains grow, so can your problems.

The hard-fork challenge, then, is to get all the nodes on the old protocol to switch to the new protocol all at once, and at the same time. This sounds easy, but technically it’s easier said than done.

Soft Forks

Unlike a hard fork, a soft fork is totally cool with the new changes and keeps working. The old version accepts the newer version. Harmony! The newer, updated blocks become longer, and it becomes obvious that the older (shorter) blocks are obsolete and unusable. This recognition eliminates confusion over which protocol is now the real deal (it’s the newer, valid one.)

When a soft fork is implemented, there has to be a “majority vote” on whether to accept it into the established fold. If not, the new soft fork fails, and the rest of the chain simply goes on it with its life with no interruption. Hard-and-soft forking can cause all kinds of unintended consequences. When members of the Ethereum community rejected a hard-fork change and decided to keep going with the non-forked version of Ethereum, that old-school system was renamed Ethereum Classic.

When Bitcoin hard-forked in order to add more functionality, a portion of the Bitcoin Cash community was left behind and was cut off from the rest of the network.

The Current View of Crypto

Bitcoin and other crypto have recently come under fire for their ability to be involved in illegal transactions.

Three words—wait and see. And add two words to that—be careful. An October 2020 Bloomberg report  stated that Bitcoin approached its highest valuation since 2017.

Dead Coins lists 1,050 digital currencies and initial coin offerings (ICO) as either “deceased.” Coinopsy  catalogues cryptocurrency lists of more than 1,700 coins as nearly worthless.

It’s possible that a good number of those failed cryptos were scams, and the authentic, true-quality systems remain in place.

Furthermore, from a perception perspective, Bitcoin and other crypto have recently come under fire for their ability to be involved in illegal transactions, thefts, and scams. That’s just one of the reasons that investing in the list of cryptocurrencies out there still carries significant risk. Crypto has also been suspected as being a part of an economic bubble that may still pop.

The Takeaway

While Bitcoin launched a new asset class little more than a decade ago, today there are many different cryptocurrencies for investors to learn about and invest in.

If your curiosity about cryptocurrency is fueled by a desire to start investing, SoFi Invest® can be a great place to start. SoFi members can manage crypto investments in the SoFi app, with the peace of mind of knowing their crypto is in a secure platform.

Find out how SoFi Invest can help you with your investment goals.

Learn More

SoFi Invest® The information provided is not meant to provide investment or financial advice. Investment decisions should be based on an individual’s specific financial needs, goals and risk profile. SoFi can’t guarantee future financial performance. Advisory services offered through SoFi Wealth, LLC. SoFi Securities, LLC, member FINRA  / SIPC  . SoFi Invest refers to the three investment and trading platforms operated by Social Finance, Inc. and its affiliates (described below). Individual customer accounts may be subject to the terms applicable to one or more of the platforms below. 1) Automated Investing—The Automated Investing platform is owned by SoFi Wealth LLC, an SEC Registered Investment Advisor (“Sofi Wealth“). Brokerage services are provided to SoFi Wealth LLC by SoFi Securities LLC, an affiliated SEC registered broker dealer and member FINRA/SIPC, (“Sofi Securities). 2) Active Investing—The Active Investing platform is owned by SoFi Securities LLC. Clearing and custody of all securities are provided by APEX Clearing Corporation. 3) Cryptocurrency is offered by SoFi Digital Assets, LLC, a FinCEN registered Money Service Business. For additional disclosures related to the SoFi Invest platforms described above, including state licensure of Sofi Digital Assets, LLC, please visit www.sofi.com/legal. Neither the Investment Advisor Representatives of SoFi Wealth, nor the Registered Representatives of SoFi Securities are compensated for the sale of any product or service sold through any SoFi Invest platform. Information related to lending products contained herein should not be construed as an offer or pre-qualification for any loan product offered by SoFi Lending Corp and/or its affiliates. Crypto: Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies aren’t endorsed or guaranteed by any government, are volatile, and involve a high degree of risk. Consumer protection and securities laws don’t regulate cryptocurrencies to the same degree as traditional brokerage and investment products. Research and knowledge are 

[tiblog158]

Where To Find Your Ip Address

Enter an IP address (or hostname) to lookup and locate.

What's My Wifi Ip Address

Where To Find Your Ip Address Iphone

How To Find My Ip Address

My Computer Ip Address Windows 10

Your Chromebook's IP address and MAC will appear in a small pop-up window. The Mac address is listed as Wi-Fi. Double-check on the Your Wi-Fi name and it will pop up on the Settings page. Click on Network, you will also see the IP Address, Subnet Mask, and Default Gateway.

Dec 10, 2020 Your Chromebook's IP address and MAC will appear in a small pop-up window. The Mac address is listed as Wi-Fi. Double-check on the Your Wi-Fi name and it will pop up on the Settings page. Click on Network, you will also see the IP Address, Subnet Mask, and Default Gateway.

Step 1, Open a web browser. The IP address you'll find with this method is the one assigned to you by your internet service provider (ISP).1 X Research source Tip: If you're using your computer behind a router or wireless access point, your local IP address will be different than your public IP address. See one of the other methods to find out your local IP address.Step 2, Navigate to 3, Type what is my ip and press ↵ Enter. Your IP address will now appear at.

Oct 21, 2020 How to find your internal IP address Windows. Open up the Command Prompt via your Windows Start menu. Type in “ ipconfig ” and hit Enter. First, click on the Apple icon in the top-left corner of your desktop and open System Preferences.

IP Address Location Lookup

Find IP Address is designed to provide you information about a given IP Address. The details include location, region, ASN, Maps position, ISP and many more. By default, Find IP address will lookup your IP Address. In the box above you can fill in any given IP Address.

Last found IP address

200.8.212.226 111.119.187.20 109.104.93.153 194.156.228.111 150.109.190.31 139.45.193.10 61.19.1.145 72.14.185.43 150.109.190.33 121.241.45.21 172.221.114.33 177.39.74.141

Mar 16, 2021 Share FAQ, Technology

You can find your IP address in your computer’s settings. An IP address is four numbers (usually) that make an important part of how your devices connect to the internet, as well as how you are seen and tracked online. It usually works behind the scenes making sure that the data you request makes it back to your computer, but sometimes you need it when troubleshooting your home network or internet connection. There are several ways you can find your IP address, so we’ll go through some of the basic ones.

How to find your IP address in a browser

No matter what device you’re using, one simple way of finding your IP address is simply asking Google. The steps are pretty easy:

Open a browser like Chrome or Safari.

Navigate to Google.

Search for “What is my IP address?”

Google will display your IP address at the top of the search results.

What's My Wifi Ip Address

This method requires the extra step of running a browser (which you’re doing anyway if you’re reading this), but it’s still pretty simple on any platform. There are also other sites that will tell you your IP address, along with other information, such as guessing your rough location based on your IP address.

How to find your IP address on a PC

The fastest way to find your IP address on a PC is to use the IPCONFIG command. To do this, follow these steps:

Open the Command Prompt. This can be done by finding it in your Start Menu, by right-clicking on the Windows icon at the bottom of the screen, or by just searching for “Command Prompt.”

Type the command “IPCONFIG” into the Command Prompt and press Enter. This will list all the Windows IP configuration information.

Your IP address is the IPv4 Address. which should be four numbers separated by periods.

Where To Find Your Ip Address Iphone

Click the Apple icon, and choose System Preferences.

Select Network.

Find and select your network, and then click Advanced at the bottom of the window.

Under the TCP/IP tab, the IP address should be listed next to IPv4 Address.

Navigate to Settings.

Select Network & internet.

Go to Wi-Fi and click on the Wi-Fi network you’re using.

Hit Advanced.

Your IP address is listed under IP address.

Open Settings and select Wi-Fi.

Find and select your Wi-Fi network.

Your IP address is listed under IP Address.

Having issues with your internet connection? See what other options are available in your area.

What is an IP address?

An IP address is a number that identifies your device on the internet. IP stands for internet protocol, or the rules and standards that devices use to communicate with each other over the internet. This protocol is responsible for making sure that all of your online requests go where you want them to go and come back.

Any time you interact with a website, your device has to send a message to a web server, telling it what you want to do. If you click on a link, your device sends a message to the server asking for the new page. Your IP address tells the server where it needs to send the new page.

Every packet of information that travels across the internet has both the IP address of its source and its destination, along with other information about the packet. These addresses ensure that your information is routed in the right direction as it winds its way through the pathways of the internet.

How do I get an IP address?

Every device that connects to the internet is assigned an IP address. This is usually done by your internet service provider (ISP), though it can’t just make up a new number for you. There are large international organizations that divide up available numbers by region. These regional organizations then give them out to ISPs that operate in those regions so that they can assign them to devices—like yours—on their network.

Is my computer’s IP address permanent?

Your IP address isn’t permanent and can change periodically. This can happen for many reasons, such as turning your modem off or having certain kinds of service disruption. Although older dial-up connections assigned a new IP address every time you connected, most modern internet connections will keep the same address most of the time.

Your IP address will also change if you connect to a different network. For example, if you take your laptop to a coffee shop and connect to its Wi-Fi, the coffee shop’s ISP will assign you a new IP address so that it knows where to send the information you’re requesting from the internet.

Can I be tracked by my IP address?

Yes, you can be tracked by your IP address. In fact, that’s the whole point. Your ISP tracks your IP address in order to make sure the information you want—which could be text, images, video, or more—gets to your device. That also means that lots of other people on the internet could see where you’re going on the internet. For example, advertisers might use your location to sell you products or media companies might restrict access to content in certain countries.

Since IP addresses change fairly often, it’s pretty hard to trace them back to a specific person or home address (unless someone subpoenas that information from your ISP). It does, however, give a fairly good idea of where information is going. For example, one developer was able to create a program that tweeted every time someone from the US congress edited a Wikipedia article.1

How To Find My Ip Address

Your IP address can be used to track your online activity, even if you’re browsing in private or incognito mode. If you don’t want your location to be public, you can use a VPN service to hide your IP address. For more information, check out our review of the best VPN services.

Ben Gilbert, Engaget, “The United States Congress edits Wikipedia constantly” July 11, 2014, Accessed February 25, 2021.

Author - Peter Christiansen

Peter Christiansen writes about satellite internet, rural connectivity, livestreaming, and parental controls for HighSpeedInternet.com. Peter holds a PhD in communication from the University of Utah and has been working in tech for over 15 years as a computer programmer, game developer, filmmaker, and writer. His writing has been praised by outlets like Wired, Digital Humanities Now, and the New Statesman.

My Computer Ip Address Windows 10

How to Pause Your Internet Service Apr 30, 2021

How to Find Wi-Fi Hotspots Apr 27, 2021

15 Things You Didn’t Know About Your Internet Apr 27, 2021

How to Know If Someone Is Stealing Your Wi-Fi Apr 14, 2021

Why Can I Only Get a Few Internet Providers? Apr 14, 2021

[michaeldempsey]

The Deep Tech Deficit: Why more people aren't starting technically ambitious companies right now

This is an internal note I sent to a few investors/friends a few months ago.

Over the past 6+ months there seems to have been a noticeable drought in the creation of new deep tech or just broadly technically ambitious companies (ex-biotech). This is a sentiment that has been echo'd heavily from other investors, and has only accelerated with COVID. This became especially noticeable as startup fundraising has massively increased in adjacent areas in H2 2020. 

While there isn't a data-driven reason as to why this has occurred (or if it has, indeed occurred) my working hypothesis is three-fold.

1) The maturation of platforms and no clear outbreak of new platforms

After a fervor of excitement surrounding areas like VR, ML, and Robotics from 2014-2018, we've largely seen unabashed excitement die down and be traded with hopeful skepticism. VR was too early and is looking increasingly like a platform that will be subsidized and dominated in early innings by incumbents due to heavy R&D costs. 

Machine Learning has shown a commoditization curve that erodes value for much core ML development, while also has been incredibly difficult to implement at scale to build vertical specific companies that accrue value (read our 2019 annual letter for more thoughts on this). ML companies have largely turned into product-centric organizations versus true research engineering orgs, which many investors aren't quite sure how to parse mid to long-term defensibility or economics (see Martin Casado’s wonderful post).

The closest next platforms that people seem to be centering on are AR and Quantum. AR has its own difficulties, again, largely a value accrual in the short-term towards incumbents (Snap, Apple, MSFT) and at the application layer very little differentiation in technology (my view is that most enterprise AR companies are building product orgs with little technical moats and early product UI/UX that will be considered cringey in 2-4 years). 

Quantum has a usability problem in addition to a timeline narrative that "this will take awhile and is incredibly capital intensive" so the only vertical use-cases we've seen really have been pharma and finance. In addition, some argue that ML algorithm development has kept pace in lockstep with quantum in reality.

So TLDR, investors need a narrative to drive them towards a Schelling point surrounding "what's next" but can't find consensus. 

Again, Computational bio and further on the spectrum, biotech seems to be only area, but has debates around moats and is incredibly hard to parse and pattern match for technology investors.

Thus we default to what we know has killer cash flow dynamics in a time where TAM has materially expanded (SaaS/dev tools/infra), or follow narratives that we want to be (and may be!) true, like social being ready for VC investment again.

2) COVID & Founder Profile: “It's time to build" wasn't meant for deep tech founders.

Founding a company becomes sexy as generational startups scale and with a large amount of money in stock options, employees feel the desire to work on a new problem where they can seek a new form of status, both social and financial (early ESOP or founder title). It's no longer cool to be at the $10B+ tech company and there are hundreds of people at these companies starting funds, syndicates, and companies, so you should too.

Some subset of employees on the technical side look at internal tools that were built and democratize them (think data science teams, but there are tons of examples).

Another subset are PMs and software engineers who read Marc's essay, saw a year of remote work ahead of them and thought "great I can move out of SF, live cheaply and stomach going from $250k/year to $100k/year, and be a Founder. 

These people like building software that can quickly be iterated upon and is quite realistic to raise $1-$3M to run at for 24 months. In addition, these people likely feel time pressure because multiple other teams are starting startups similar to their idea. It’s time to build because everyone is building.

Deep/frontier/emerging/whatever we call them tech founders sometimes follow a bit of a different founding story. Many have dedicated 4-10 years of their life becoming an expert in a given industry, or banging their head against the wall in academia, in pursuit of applying a technology to the real world, or bringing some other initially non-sexy technology to production level. The time pressure for these companies and founders could be viewed as less existential, as many companies aren’t speedrunning capital markets for a 12 month seed to series A sprint comprised of MVP -> early pilots -> highly extrapolated MRR/ARR. 

Instead, many deep tech companies are operating with a 2-4 year R&D window, hoping to show a step function in technology reality and value creation by month 18 to raise a Series A, where they then start to either begin converting pilots, or testing hypotheses on commercialization over the next 2-4 years. 

Candidly, there ain’t that many people signing up for that trajectory.

So when you're a deep tech profile founder (not to be overly prescriptive but often something like PhD/academic, eng/product lead at incumbent R&D group, Engineering at prior deep tech co, Engineering at scaling tech company with material infrastructure innovation, etc.) your calculus is a bit different.

If you're thinking about hardware, you might say, you don't want to deal with the dynamics of having possible supply chain headaches (not as much a concern today vs. 6 months ago), you don't want to deal with dynamics of really not being able to do remote work, and you know VCs are probably a bit risk averse on funding hardware at this stage as a whole. In addition, while customers might have a strong desire if you're automation focused, you won't be able to ship product for another 12 months probably so, why not just wait to see how the election/transfer of power/vaccine timeline shakes out to truly understand the economy in 2021, before starting something that could be de-railed from random economic/geopolitical policy.

Calculating the risk factor and why now of your business. The reality is, you must convince a smaller universe of investors every 12-36 months in the future you believe in and hope to pull forward, so why *now* matters more when these futures are less consensus. So just doing simple calculus, all of these things once again could lead to waiting. Bank your $300k+ salary at bigco through 2020 and see where the world is in 2021. You're operating on a true long-term time horizon so there isn't as much deep desire to uproot your life/family just to build asap.

TLDR - Deep tech founders maybe viewed as slightly less beholden to the time pressures of the market as many are solving previously unsolvable problems. I will say, many do underestimate the commoditization curve they are running up against though.

3) Burn Out

This point is not talked about enough publicly but is a consistent sentiment I’ve noticed over the past few years.

The first wave of "deep tech as a category" really hasn't created many successful businesses yet (we can debate the recent run of SPACs in deep tech on it creating successful outcomes). As you talk to more veterans in this space, many are pretty disenchanted by their past 7+ years of work. 

Their friends at Uber, AirBnB, and Stripe are multi-millionaires (some on paper), same with their friends at FAMGA, and they possibly are too but don't really have anything material to point to in the real world. They’ve spent a good chunk of their professional lives to hopefully get swallowed up in an offensive acquisition (Boston Dynamics, Skybox Intelligence, Zoox, Cruise) or early commercialization that is strategic (Kiva, Six River, Blue River), and a bunch more are sitting at these companies that weren’t able to quite deliver on the future they believed in. 

I think many are kind of waiting for a "moment" that feels like everything is once again possible. I don't think those moments are obvious in the present, but alas, it's a real sentiment.

--

I know I’ve painted a fairly jaded point of view on both sides of the market but ultimately I think there are massive tailwinds for all of tech over the next few years and believe COVID has pulled forward some futures we were expecting to take 3+ years.

I’m confident that we will see a high volume of deep tech startup creation over the coming 18 months, but as an investor with a large focus on these types of businesses, it has been interesting to hear how many have felt similarly in 2020 and thus I felt the need to litigate *why* this was happening.

[jazzumin-desu]

Blog Post (E-Portfolio) - Look Who's Famous

1) Tim Cook

-Cook is the CEO of the most valuable company in the world, Apple. He took over Apple after the company’s founder, Steve Jobs, succumbed to cancer in 2011. Cook has helped navigate Apple through the transition after Jobs’ death as well as developing new product lines and opening Apple retail stores in China. He has also led a very public battle against the FBI and their demand that Apple creates a backdoor for users’

-Harvard Business Review has classified Tim Cook as a “multiplier,” a leader who can actually make employees smarter, more innovative, and more competent via his leadership style.

-style integrates the following elements: Democratic leadership style. In contrast to Apple founder and late CEO Steve Jobs highly autocratic leadership style, Tim Cook exercises and promotes democratic leadership.

2) Sheryl Sandberg

-Sandberg has been the Chief Operating Officer of Facebook since 2008. She founded a nonprofit, Lean In, named after her best-selling book. She has been an influential advocate for women in the business world. She has made the successful transition from government work at the Treasury Department to the tech industry at Google and Facebook.

- Sheryl Sandberg is undoubtedly a transformational leader, who is a visionary, charismatic, inspiring, communicating and innovative in her approach with people and organization. Sheryl Sandberg is a great leader who believes in transformation of people. She loves her work, and her people.

3) Jack Ma

-Ma was the first entrepreneur from mainland China to appear on the cover of Forbes magazine. He is also the founder of Alibaba Group, a group of internet companies. Before getting accepted to Hangzhou Teacher’s Institute, Ma was rejected from university three times. After graduation, he applied for 30 jobs and was turned down for all of them. He first learned about the internet during a short trip to the U.S., and when he returned home, he created a small website about China and Chinese products. This would be his first step towards creating a company that would hold the record for largest IPO in history.

- Jack Ma used to be an autocratic leader. However, he found that this type of management will limit employees' freedom and ideas. Thus, he allows his employees to take part in decision-making because he believes that the best decisions come when everything is agreed upon by the majority.

Although they are all successful, they have different kind of platforms that made an impact to their appearance.

Tim Cook made his first appearance that made him famous is the internet (New Media). Way back 2014 where Tim Cook take over the company they publish an article online, and let is spread all over the world.

Sheryl Sandberg first arisen the peoples attention through television, news to be precisely, after that she have been interviewed by many news channel internationally.

And lastly Jack Ma he was shown in print media such as newspaper and magazine in late 90’s, at a young age he started thinking and building his own company and when it has been launch all the types of print media is spreading his success to the world.

Nowadays New Media is taking over the system of spreading news because it is faster and easier. but whatever the media you choose, your business will make name and impact itself.

Image Source:

https://www.google.com/search?q=tim+cook+first+interview&sxsrf=ALeKk012TFtromo0rJ7K3DpEUj5of-Gqrg:1603083350735&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjgtqnt7r_sAhWtGaYKHcrjAbAQ_AUoA3oECBUQBQ&biw=1366&bih=625#imgrc=cowqi5aG6-YkZM

https://www.google.com/search?q=sheryl+sandberg&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwjDw-zu7r_sAhVI5JQKHfeYAyYQ2-cCegQIABAA&oq=she&gs_lcp=CgNpbWcQARgAMgQIIxAnMgQIABBDMgQIABBDMgQIABBDMgQIABBDMgcIABCxAxBDMgUIABCxAzIFCAAQsQMyAggAMgUIABCxA1DLtAFYwbYBYJHGAWgAcAB4AIABeIgBwwKSAQMxLjKYAQCgAQGqAQtnd3Mtd2l6LWltZ8ABAQ&sclient=img&ei=WRyNX4OzOMjI0wT3sY6wAg&bih=625&biw=1366#imgrc=FOhIvXQK3EH1HM

https://www.google.com/search?q=jack+ma+&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwi45Or77r_sAhVxI6YKHT_-CXsQ2-cCegQIABAA&oq=jack+ma+&gs_lcp=CgNpbWcQAzIECCMQJzIFCAAQsQMyAggAMgIIADICCAAyAggAMgIIADICCAAyAggAMgIIADoECAAQQ1DhkgFY1aIBYLCmAWgAcAB4AIABcogBvgaSAQMyLjaYAQCgAQGqAQtnd3Mtd2l6LWltZ8ABAQ&sclient=img&ei=dRyNX_jVCfHGmAW__KfYBw&bih=625&biw=1366#imgrc=27QG1PELeGJVCM

Biography Source:

https://www.bizain.com/top-10-richest-entrepreneurs-list/

[spookytyrantmagazine-blog]

History and Evolution of Digital Marketing

Nowadays, digital marketing is bumming with ever-green opportunities, and people don't want to slip these opportunities as they conclude that this will promote their business evolution. Nowadays due to the arrival of the internet and smartphones, more than 170 million population are using adopting social media usually and thus, digital marketing exporters are trying to improve themselves with the foundation source of digital marketing so that they can get attention and consideration from more population.

After all people are now enhancing tech-savvy and are adopting laptops, tablets and smartphones thus they are adopting digital marketing over traditional marketing.

History and Evolution of Digital Marketing

A few advantages of digital marketing are,

Very reasonable, profitable and beneficial.

Range is incredible which means you can reach a huge crowd within a few minutes.

It provides two-dimensional way delivery.

These days every person is familiar with the benefits of digital marketing. But do you have a capable concept about its history and evolution? If not, then keep learning as we are going to consider the history and expansion of digital marketing.

The word Digital Marketing was first made and used in the year 1990. At that time Web 1.0 platform was developed which advises users to asset out their required information. But, it did not confess them to assign this knowledge over the web

Later, in 1993, the first clickable web-ad banner went live.  At that instant, HotWired make a purchase a few banner ads for their promotion, broadcasting and advertising.

In 1994, few new technologies (First e-commerce transaction was developed over the internet) were invented and listed the market with a new purpose. Yahoo was also launched during that year. In one year of its project launching, it obtained 1 million hits. Yahoo has alternated the meaning of digital marketing, and the organization has tried to improve their websites so that they can get a better position in search engine.

In 1996, they launched more search engines and tools like HotBot, LookSmart. The site Sixdegrees.com was first social media was launched in the year 1997. In the year 1998 was the glorious year for digital marketing as Google was launched in this year. Likewise, in this year also Microsoft launched MSN, and Yahoo launched Yahoo web search.

Two years later (in 2000), the internet explosion and all the minor search engines were wiped out. This build more area and opportunities for the bulk in the business.

Then, the social media network professional LinkedIn was launched in 2002. The year 2003 was supported by the release of WordPress and the launched  MySpace.

In 2004, Google went public, Gmail was launched and the same year Facebook has gone live.

Later in 2005, YouTube was launched.

In the year 2006 was one more curious year because search engine service traffic was recorded to have grown to about 6.4 billion in a single month. This year mentioned Microsoft launched an MS live search and together, Twitter was also launched. Meanwhile, Amazon e-commerce sales have extent over  $10 billion.

Later in 2007, Tumblr was launched. Besides, web streaming service Hulu was also established in this year. Mobile giant Apple launched its iPhone during the same year.

In the year 2008, Groupon went live and Spotify was launched. In the year 2009, Google launched a contemporary for real-time search engine results. Google popularized products like AdWords, that are 3 line ads that are visible at the top or to the right of search engine results,  AdSense which is a cost-per-click broadcasting program. Meanwhile, Google initiated to target ads established on the interests of the population and it became an executive in the world of digital business.

Later in 2010, Whatsapp was launched along with the Google Buzz. And in 2011, Google Panda and Google+  were launched. Society then started to spend time on these intermediate mediums, and these mediums have exceed the television viewership.

And in 2012 is the year of social media. The organization have expanded their social media aggregate budget up to 64%,  Google knowledge graph was also launched. Myspace and Facebook are the trendy social media sites surrounded by the people. The association has realized that these sites will advise them in widening up their employment over the internet and hence, they were dramatically trying to advertise their products and brands on numerous social media channels. They have also approved to edge social media to their businesses.

In 2013, Yahoo earned Tumblr.

History and Evolution of Digital Marketing

In 2014, the total number of mobile and smartphone end users had to exceed the total number of PC users. Facebook messenger app onward with custom-made ads on LinkedIn and iWatch was launched. At this same time, Facebook earned Whatsapp.

Later In 2015, Snapchat has launched its distinguished appearance. In this area several new high tech technologies like wearable tech, analytics, and content marketing have also created. Facebook has also launched its “Instant articles” in this same year.

The cookie was one more important turning point in the field of digital marketing. The first cookie was sketched out to record user patterns. The use of the cookie has traded more over the years, and cookies today are organized to afford marketers a range of ways to assemble user data.

Most accepted popular social networking sites in the last few years are and in 2020 are Instagram, Whatsapp, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube etc..

Conclusion

So, it can be concluded that digital marketing is spreading universally and every day it brings a toss of opportunities to the customers as well as the organization owners. If you want to establish your existence thoroughly in this digitalized generation, then you need to use all these opportunities intensively. And Sprintzeal’s Digital marketing training can be a great way to start your career in this field.  

[ahanaseth-blog]

The List Of Top 10 Best Selling Products In The World

The following is my contribution to "Top 10 Best Selling Products" and originally posted by The Youth. The concept of this Story/post is as follows:

Distinguishing and fulfilling the necessities of a client is called 'Marketing'. Despite the fact that there are endless products, very few make it to the best selling class. Be that as it may, making the most mainstream result of the year satisfies each financial specialist. Truth be told, each business person has an aim to deliver and sell the best result ever. There are various products that rule the market over the world. An audit was additionally led by all day, everyday Wall St. what's more, the products which have the most elevated deals were additionally recorded.

The list of the top 10 selling products ever:-

Sony PlayStation:

Everybody thinks about the Sony PlayStation. It was first propelled in 1995 by Sony in the United States. It was presented with a 32-piece processor. The A-complete sales of 440 million units have been recorded until today.

Lipitor:

Lipitor was propelled by Pfizer in 1997 and it is only a drug endorsed to patients with low or elevated cholesterol so as to shield them from the danger of heart-related diseases. Up until now, offers of about $141 billion have been recorded.

Toyota Corolla:

Toyota Corolla was propelled without precedent for Japan in 1966 and the vehicle turned into an enormous achievement in the market attributable to its unwavering quality, low gas mileage, and reasonableness. A recently overhauled model was propelled in 2014 and is known to have better gas mileage and a bigger inside. Until this point, more than 40.7 million units have been sold.

Star Wars:

The Star Wars has recorded the most extreme profit of $7.5 billion. It ought to be noticed that the motion picture "Gone with the Wind" brought more cash than the Original film of Star Wars yet the set of three gathered $2.4 billion. Regardless of the way that twentieth Century Fox offered it to Disney in 2012 for $4 billion, it has rights over the first Star Wars.

iPad:

iPad is one of the two first Apple products on the rundown and it is as yet the best selling tablet. Up until this point, Apple has sold in excess of 400 million iPads.

iPhone:

Innovation has achieved its huge development exponentially as of late. There is a ton of interest for the cell phone that chips in with cutting edge highlights. iPhone was first propelled in the year 2007 by the Apple organization. Up until this point, it has discharged upwards of 12 ages of models and has become the best-selling cell phone on the planet. Apple has sold in excess of 2 billion duplicates of various things to date.

Super Mario:

Super Mario is the most well-known computer game ever. Indeed, even now, scores of individuals play this game for diversion and spare the princess from the program. The arcade game was propelled in the year 1981 by Donkey Kong which was later ventured into establishment Mario Bros. Up until now, a duplicate of 262 million has been sold throughout the years.

Michael Jackson's Thriller:

At times we run low on modifiers and superlatives to depict the King of fly in a single word. Among the entirety of his star collections, Thriller was seemingly the best one. It was the best dealer collection and was additionally granted in the MTV age. It has been said that more than 70 million duplicates have been sold.

Harry Potter:

Harry Potter-scripted by J.K Rowling is a dream novel and has been converted into 73 dialects of the world. The narrative of the youthful British wizard has additionally become the best book on the planet. More than 450 million duplicates have been made worldwide and the procuring by the motion pictures scaled up to $ 7.7 billion.

Rubik's Cube:

Rubik's 3D square was made by the educator of design Erno Rubik and it has by a long shot been the best-selling toy up until now. The 3D square was planned by him while showing his understudies three-dimensional geometry. There are numerous instructional exercises on YouTube channels on the best way to comprehend the solid shape. Be it 3×3, 4×4 or 5×5, there are various answers to tackle the block. Up until now, in excess of 350 million blocks have been sold.

Referral/Source Website:- The Youth

[femmesfollesnebraska]

Barbara Carter, art-poetry feature

Barbara Carter shares images/poems that are in her self-published book, SAD Girl, BAD Girl, and I, released last fall. Carter writers about how this project came together:

The contents of these poems/drawings consist of poetry I wrote while in my teen years and current pencil drawings combined with those poems.

At the age of fifteen I started writing poems as a release from my inner pain. Having no one in my life that I could share my deepest feelings with, it was only through putting words on paper that I could find a sense of comfort. Much of what I’ve written has been lost over the years but I managed to hold on to some of what I considered my “better” work. Years ago I typed these old poems into a file on my computer and that is where they’ve sat waiting for what would happen to them. In the writing of my memoirs, I include these poems where they fit in the timeline of my story.

The work in this book began in a most interesting way… The first combination a drawing around one of my old poems was accidentally. It was the day of September 21, 2015, a Saturday before leaving for my nephew’s wedding. All week I’d been coping with anxiety and apprehension because I knew I’d need to deal with facing my mother. The relationship with my mother one of always being a difficult one. But in June of 2015, we had an argument, a final fight where I made the decision that enough was enough and unless she could apologize to me I would have nothing more to do with her. 

In the three months since that event, we had not spoken. So, on the morning of the wedding I found myself recalling the words in one of my poems: the one who gave me life now denies me breath. I’d always believed that I’d written it about a man I was involved with at that time, but reading these words clearly made me aware that if I took it literally, the one who gave me life was clearly my mother. I printed the poem off to carry with me in my purse as a reminder of standing in my own truth, that if the day got emotionally difficult I could go off somewhere, alone and read those words and remind myself I was doing as I needed to do. Immediately, as I looked at the words on the paper, I noticed how the lines formed the outline of a woman’s body.  So I sketched in the lines and when I added a head to the top of the body, the title of the poem full of lies became the mouth, totally amazing me. It speaking volumes about my mother. The sensation that ran through me was powerful. Right away I knew I was on the right track in what my actions.  

See IMAGE "Full of Lies" (above). I was finally coming to terms with accepting the way things were and tuning in and listening to my inner guidance for self-care and what was best for me. In the months previous I had discovered Reiki and was reading books about Buddhism. I was finding my voice by chanting and singing when I now played guitar. I went to my nephew’s wedding that day and my mother sat in one corner while my husband, daughter, her husband, their two children sat with me at a table in the opposite corner—none of us speaking to my mother. At the time I didn’t think much more about that experience of the image around my poem. I stuck it on the wall in my writing room, where it still remains. In the summer of 2018 when another incident in my life had me thinking back to the words in another one of my earlier poems. My question being about ties that bind, webs we get caught in and the strings that keep us attached.     So I printed out that poem and just started doodling, with no set idea in mind of how I wanted it to turn out. A woman’s body once again appeared. See ATTACHED IMAGE "Strings" (below).

I had at this time been working with two young voices from within. SAD Girl and BAD Girl, two parts of myself that were so dominant in those years of writing poetry and trying to figure out life. I saw the heaviness of the body. Almost like an apple shaped top and an upside down pear shaped middle, maybe like a uterus? The voices in the poem were like two sides of a coin. And this became the catalyst for this book. I printed out my poems, arranging the words on paper as inspired in the moment. Those words written by those two younger parts of me: In honouring/mothering/ accepting/ and caring and loving for these lost parts of myself, I , as an adult decided to honour and respect their words by drawing images around those words. The three parts of myself united in a common goal of creative expression and the healing of old wounds. -

View the cover of the book: www.barbaracarterartist.com.

~

Les Femmes Folles is a volunteer organization founded in 2011 with the mission to support and promote women in all forms, styles and levels of art from around the world with the online journal, print annuals, exhibitions and events; originally inspired by artist Wanda Ewing and her curated exhibit by the name Les Femmes Folles (Wild Women). LFF was created and is curated by Sally Deskins.  LFF Booksis a micro-feminist press that publishes 1-2 books per year by the creators of Les Femmes Folles including the award-winning Intimates & Fools (Laura Madeline Wiseman, 2014) , The Hunger of the Cheeky Sisters: Ten Tales (Laura Madeline Wiseman/Lauren Rinaldi, 2015 and Mes Predices (catalog of art/writing by Marie Peter Toltz, 2017).Other titles include Les Femmes Folles: The Women 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 available on blurb.com, including art, poetry and interview excerpts from women artists. A portion of the proceeds from LFF books and products benefit the University of Nebraska-Omaha’s Wanda Ewing Scholarship Fund.

Current call for collaborative art-writing: http://femmesfollesnebraska.tumblr.com/post/181376606692/lff-2019-artistpoet-collaborations

https://www.facebook.com/femmesfolles

[finleyskriver92-blog]

Coordinated Veterans' Care Course.

Turned up on my door Sunday, but as a result of premade strategies currently, haven't had a likelihood to actually start on this yet. http://frenesie-endorphinee.info/artrovex-ueberwindet-gelenkschmerzen-fuer-immer/ with institutions, looking into how lifestyles will definitely view items and also policies or even doing marketing research for a company, while others focus on the social and social aspects from major present complications. like destitution and also brutality. Quarterly Census from Employment and also Salaries -complete job and wage records by industry and also geographical region for employees dealt with through State Lack of employment Insurance coverage rules. When mine managers carried improving refinement to the institution from function in the mines, charcoal miners responded by organizing in to commercial business unions. Here is actually a thoughts astounding statistic: baseding on Louisa Peacock, the tasks publisher at the Daily Telegraph, something like 80% from jobs aren't really promoted, so it'ses a good idea to put on your own on the market. Work Health and wellness & Safety and security (WHS) isn't the sexiest Human Resources specialized, but that's definitely one that pays out effectively because of an increasing demand for this niche market skillset. You'll now manage to prepare from your phone or even tablet computer effortlessly, or even dish program while driving to work to and also coming from school or partner with hassle-free offline gain access to. Many qualified useful and licensed trade nurses function full time, although concerning 1 in 5 worked part-time in 2014. This also encourages companies to disperse the work to other workers to stay away from paying a premium. Therefore you may examine in the evening as well as indeed you can go to operate and you may examine simultaneously, yet it makes incentives that develop this weird valley in the middle of, type of the method welfare systems, our well-being body acquires carried out in the USA. The majority of budget plan experts work full-time, and overtime is actually in some cases called for during the course of ultimate evaluations of budgets.. You could find respectable on the internet sales of this toothsome delight if you are possessing trouble discovering rabbit regionally. Lead author Eli Finkel, a Northwestern psychology professor, talked with HuffPost Wedding ceremonies regarding why this 21-minute composing duty was so influential in maintaining marriage high quality. Often childcare and job worked, as well as females had their children along with them to the shops or areas where they worked. About a third of respondents mentioned their work partner's. appearance is very important to them. The presumptions concerning variations in other people, including racial discrimination, bias, ageism, homophobia, etc, disrupt job methods as well as can easily stop staffs from accomplishing their objectives. No matter just what procedure you use, all-time low product line is this: Carry out the absolute most important point 1st every day and let the momentum of the first job carry you in to the upcoming one. Helpful interaction within a group doesn't take place through incident; as an alternative, this needs preparing as well as association, as well as an effective crew leader or facilitator. Create certain that if you perform consider to use 2 or more graphics memory cards. your PSU depends on the task through being sure that it possesses sufficient electrical power as well as making sure that this has the requisite slots demanded. Zombie Banks and the Collapse of The big apple's Protection Fund." Eastern Economic Journal 22, no. 1 (1996): 21-34. I will reallly adore to find a complete week planning from vegetation located consuming along with a grocery checklist to make that extra easy:-RRB- Thanks for all your excellent dishes! This checklist excludes the fact that 90% of all architecture" definitely is actually certainly not design however rather is actually typically routine and also inconsequential work (yet function just the same I mean, if it'ses a good idea the costs) that will definitely neither get you recognition or even prominence, after performing such rubbish work with a quarter from a century. Then choose a 4x4 vehicle, if you organize to see the awesome deserts neighboring the UAE. When http://frenesie-endorphinee.info understands exactly what they are actually functioning in the direction of, activities have been accurately described as well as passed on, assumptions are actually precisely prepared and they possess the means to build relationships of leave and possess open communication, the supervisor has to go back and allow the staff work. Safety and security First: Innovation, Work as well as Service in the Building from Work Protection, 1870-1939. I was only assuming ... I can multiply this and keep that in the refrigerator for those cool hangovers the 6 am pet walk before I get out to operate. Jobs in individual services vary coming from partnering with clients to handling organizations to building frameworks. Child care facilities typically are open year round, with lengthy hours to ensure that parents could deliver as well as get their kids prior to and also after work. They typically have great reasons for this type of habits that clouds supervisor attempts to repair the issue. Agricultural laborer sustain the top quality of ranches, crops, and also animals through working equipment and also performing physical work force under the guidance of planters, cowpokes, and also other agricultural supervisors. Like many poor hires, she didn't final lengthy-- she quit after recognizing she wasn't aligned along with the provider's goal and also wound up leaving her company down two laborers rather than one.