#Implemented next round of improvements

[thefirstknife]

New article with more details (from Jason Schreier who first broke the story). If you can't see it, I'll copy the whole text under read more.

About 100 employees were laid off in total (8%) and one of the main reasons listed is "underperformance," "sharp drop in popularity" and "poor reception of Lightfall."

So you know when for the last year and a half content creators have been shitting and pissing on the game as a full-time job and the amount of negativity and ragebait content became the only thing to make content about for them? Well they certainly won't take the blame, but I will let it be known. These people either don't understand the influence they have or they do and they're doing it on purpose, and I don't know which of these two options is worse, but I am 100% confident that their campaign of rage and hate contributed to this.

You don't base your entire community around constantly hating everything about the only game you play (despite clearly not enjoying it anymore) and somehow avoid galvanising thousands and thousands of people into perceiving the game negatively. Imagine being employees who have barely worked there for 2 years and the only community reception they've seen is 24/7 hate train for their work and then they get fired because of "poor reception" and "drop in popularity." How can they not take that personally? I am absolutely devastated for these people who delievered a banger product and who were met with an unrelenting barrage of toxic gamer children which ended up having more sway over their boss than them.

Which brings me to the next bit and that's FUCK THE CEO. He is now my mortal enemy #1. I am projecting psychic blasts directly into his brain. What an absolute spineless coward who is more willing to bow down to fucking gamers than to protect his own employees. This is absolutely rage inducing because this has happened before. From the article from 2021 about the toxic culture at Bungie:

Reading this shit from the new article absolutely fucking sent me into blind rage because I immediately remembered this. Another instance of employees suffering because of comments on reddit. And because of toxic players. And proof that leadership is not protecting employees and is instead siding with players.

Match made in heaven. Asshole gamer content creators and asshole CEOs, all of whom sit at home on piles of money made from someone else's labour. I hope they all explode. None of the people that worked on this game deserve this.

Another article with an infuriating comment from the CEO:

In an internal town hall meeting addressing a Monday round of layoffs that impacted multiple departments, Bungie CEO Pete Parsons allegedly told remaining employees that the company had kept “the right people” to continue work on Destiny 2.

"Kept the right people." Really. Veteran composers weren't the right people? Die!

Bloomberg article in full:

Bungie’s decision to cut an estimated 100 jobs from its staff of about 1,200 followed dire management warnings earlier this month of a sharp drop in the popularity of its flagship video game Destiny 2. Just two weeks ago, executives at the Sony-owned game developer told employees that revenue was running 45% below projections for the year, according to people who attended the meeting. Chief Executive Officer Pete Parsons pinned the big miss on weak player retention for Destiny 2, which has faced a poor reception since the release of its latest expansion, Lightfall. The next expansion, The Final Shape, was getting good — not great feedback — and management told those present that they planned to push back the release to June 2024 from February, according the people, who asked not to be identified because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly. The additional time would give developers a chance to improve the product. In the meantime, Parsons told staff Bungie would be cutting costs, such as for travel, as well as implementing salary and hiring freezes, the people said. Everyone would have to work together to weather the storm, he said, leaving employees feeling determined to do whatever was needed to get revenue back up. But on Monday morning the news got worse: Dozens of staffers woke up to mysterious 15-minute meetings that had been placed on their calendars, which they soon learned were part of a mass layoff. Bungie laid off around 8% of its employees, according to documentation reviewed by Bloomberg. Bungie didn’t respond to requests for comment. Employees who were let go will receive at least three months of severance and three months of Bungie-paid COBRA health insurance, although other benefits, such as expense reimbursements, ended Monday, sending some staff racing to submit their receipts. Laid-off staffers will also receive prorated bonuses, although those who were on a vesting schedule following Sony Group Corp.’s acquisition of Bungie in January 2022 will lose any shares that weren’t vested as of next month. The layoffs are part of a larger money-saving initiative at Sony’s PlayStation unit, which has also cut employees at studios such as Naughty Dog, Media Molecule and its San Mateo office. TD Cowen analyst Doug Creutz wrote in a report Monday that “events over the last few days lead us to believe that PlayStation is undergoing a restructuring.” PlayStation president Jim Ryan announced last month that he plans to resign. Many of the layoffs at Bungie affected the company’s support departments, such as community management and publishing. Remaining Bungie staff were informed that some of those areas will be outsourced moving forward.

[pawborough]

October 2024 Check In

Hello, everyone!

Thank you all for being patient while we got our bearings for a big release of content. We’re happy to announce: 

Moontails are here!

In addition, the Leopard overcoat, the Fluff accent, and the Tint accent! 

Have fun! This took a huge amount of effort from the team, considering the amount of colors and stylization we had to implement. We’re very happy with what we have, and the amount of work that Moontails took will pay off when releasing Mystic breeds in the future. 

A big paw of thanks to our artists who helped make this possible! Including: 

Amelia, who illustrated and brought Moontails from concept to reality. 

Asp, who illustrated and designed the majority of the wings. 

Emma, Remmie, and Hydde, and Beetlesprite, all who helped with Moontail wing colors. Emma especially did the lion's share of wing, glow, and accentuating Leopard colors, and deserves ample praise for her hard work!

Hydde, who did plenty of texturing on both the Lacewings and several of the wing designs. And helped loads in the final sprint to get all the assets to a presentable state. 

And of course a big thanks to our wonderful developers who helped to code Moontails in! Round of applause to Harvey! With his work, we can now accommodate Moontail wings and glow in the dress-up section of a cat (moving them among the layers), and because of his work, new Mystics with extra appendages will be easy to implement!

That all being said, we are not completely satisfied with the Butterfly rendering on the Moontail wings. Ultimately, we decided that the design deserved more stylization in an effort to be style-consistent, however we did not want to push the release of Moontails back further, considering the drought of content for our supporters. Especially while we are still working on the game before widespread release. 

So, we made the decision to release a beta-version of the design, and are working on improvements which will be added in the next update. 

We would not do this if this were an official breed release with a fully launched product, instead we would opt to take the time as needed, but we made this decision in the wake of wanting to refresh the demo and the length of time already taken to get this specific breed off the ground, and because the use of our services currently is already a demo-ing rather than a full release. 

Design and illustration by Asp

It is also worth noting that the way we have formatted the wings for Moontails means that we can work on an Appendage accent, one which would change the color of Moontail wings like an accent, while leaving the original design linked to the Overcoat. This is still in development, but we're excited to see the technology in the works!

We are also working on improving the icons in the creator. So far we have altered the formatting to better accommodate longer titles. This will relieve the way that certain attributes would present offset. In addition, new breed icons have been added. We will slowly continue to update these over time. 

Some other notes for now:

The rainbow layers on Lacewings seem to not be working correctly on the demo vs. our staging/alpha server. We'll be taking a look at that when it is not late at night, but it may be more economic to just have it when we go to beta instead of spending a ton of dev time fixing the demo with updated code, when we know it is working in the application itself. 

You may need to refresh your cache or use an incognito browser to see the changes!

There may be errors generating. This comes from the fact that the demo is a snapshot of code a year ago, and as we've updated and perfected the main application, moving things over has been difficult. We have to weigh the pros and cons of keeping the demo as smooth as the cat creator on our application, as the cost does build up. We thank you all for the patience!

New Crests

New crests have been completed! 

Demonic Crest

Illustrated and designed by Giulia

Electra Crest

Illustrated and designed by Giulia

Library Backdrop Work in Progress

And here is a peek at a work in progress shot of our newest Library backdrop!

Illustration by Asp, composition originally by Giulia and Runeowl

Necromantic Cloak Preview

As we've explained, much of our artistic prowress is going towards accessories. The Necromantic Cloak is almost finished on the starter breeds. Here are a few flat colors for preview!

Sketched and colored by Remmie, lined by Tybaxel

Peter and Marion

We’re excited to show the designs for the main characters of “arc 1” of the onsite story: Peter and Marion! 

Illustrations and design by Amelia

These two will greet you both as you enter the site, and when you first join The Guild. Peter the Prowler is a graduate student of the World Spire in The Metropolis, and therefore sports its uniform. He is the beloved son of Maven, your Guildmaster. 

Marion the curly-furred Ragdoll, on the other hand, does not particularly want to talk about his past. But he accompanies Peter on most of his magical escapades. 

Borough Introduction Summaries

And speaking of story and lore, we have presentations for the text which will accompany the Boroughs as you sign up for the site and choose. These are not the detailed, dedicated descriptions one would find in the site encyclopedia, but instead summaries meant to entice players who are first learning the world of the game. So, they may be a bit more concise, but they’re still quite fun! 

-

Luna

“The night reveals what the day conceals.”

Nestled deeply in the throes of pine and darkness, Luna citizens study. 

In Luna, knowledge is the ultimate prize, and tradition lights the way. Esoterics, scholars, and those who seek to discern the shadow of the moon find their home here. Precision and understanding are treasured greater than gold. Yet, traveling both in and out of the shadowy deep is difficult and harrowing. The natural flora and fauna are seclusive and seldom friendly, and the people, too, do not take kindly to those outside. No cat but those within know truly what goes on among the penumbra. Yet the outpourings of record and magical cultivation have influence on worldwide culture to this day. 

Cats from Luna are whimsical and prone to deceit. Luna culture enforces a calm, suppressed demeanor, but within each individual beats the heart of an enigmatic philosopher. 

Sol 

"The strong endure, the worthy rise like the sun."

Resting on the backs of gigantic glaciers, the expansive arctic reflects sunlight with such a strong dazzle that it can blind those not amply prepared. The icy winds of the far North sharpen more than just claws, for a Sol cat is known to be intense and frigid. 

Sol’s competitive culture forces each cat to prove their worth through trials, duels, and the unrelenting wilderness. Like the Luna cats they once came from, Sol is adept in ancient magic and finesse. But unlike their sister Borough, tradition and spirituality is not among their values. Instead, Sol cats believe to thrive by individual prowess and self-sustained strength.

While newcomers are welcome to their borders, they are treated with the same icy trials that all Sol citizens are expected to overcome. Sol’s royalty is so revered and their nation so powerful, no cat dares to cross them. 

Abyssal

"Where the sea meets the horizon, adventure awaits."

Among a flourishing archipelago, two capitals oversee an expansive collection of maritime settlements. Vibrant tropical islands give way to mysterious, cold depths of the sea. 

Abyssal cats are explorers at heart, eager to sail new waters or dive for ancient secrets below the waves. Catfolk from Abyssal are seen far and wide throughout Kotemara, delivering large exports of fish, tropical wares, and an enthralling gossip or two. 

Indeed, no cat wields idle chatter like an Abyssal citizen back from sea. Known for being garrulous and guttural, Abyssal cats love a good story. Even if the truth may be hard to believe as you’re told of squids the size of continents and nautical beasts the likes of which have never borne witness. 

A small collection of Abyssal cats have adapted to underwater life and established independent governance among the deep, sparking a rift between Abyssal settlements, and simmering tension between its Queen and its Princess for generations of history. 

What is known as a happy collection of sea-faring catfolk eager to tell a good tale, lies beneath a treacherous background which leaves its citizens biting their claws. 

Zenith

"On the highest peaks, the stars feel close enough to touch."

At the peak of the world, cats of Zenith gaze upwards, seeking sight in the stars and the future they hold. Vast mountain peaks stretch high into the sky, with catfolk settled both among the green valleys and rocky heights. Zenith geology is observed to hold the magic of clarity, with its magicians known to drive themselves mad with future sight and prophecy. 

Yet, the average Zenith citizen is both competitive and friendly, if not a tad feather-brained. Getting a straight answer out of an eclectic Zenith cat can be as challenging as getting a kit off of milk. 

Zenith is known for its sports and physical amusement, both more passionate and proudly entertaining than the brutal and often bloody competitions of Sol. Cats travel far and wide to view Zenith’s friendly sparring, games of feather ball, and traditional olympics. Zenith cats are thrill-seekers at heart, but with a cultural respect for not only fun, but safety. 

Those blessed, or cursed, to bear witness to the future are often made leaders, sentries, and weathermen, gifted with great responsibility to deliver security to their citizens. It is a tumultuous fate, but one which the cultural emphasis on community protection pushes the catfolk of Zenith to seek. 

Harvest

“The deepest roots grow the greatest harvest.”

The heartlands of Kotamara, where the soil is rich, and community thrives. Green hills roll through sprawling prairies, windy fieldlands, and colossal forests, making up the largest expanse of land in all of Kotemara. 

Life here is rooted in the soil, with a delicate balance of cooperation and independence. The catfolk living in Harvest have mastered various agricultural efforts, working together in a smattering of villages and small cities. 

Harvest villages are often isolated by no choice other than the width of the land and the beasts which roam in the wastes outside. Their definition as a Borough has been debated, as there is little unity in the governance, vast differences in regional culture, and the only true commonality among every village is the propensity for agricultural settlement. 

But Harvest teaches value in community and togetherness, and Harvest cats are known for their generosity and hospitality… and delicious food! The traditional home cooked stews of Harvest are said to warm the hearts of even the most frigid Sol cat. 

Yet disagreements of agricultural efforts serve to raise the hackles of every Harvest denizen. Family holidays need not to mention the differences in agroforestry or the benefits of a tilled field, lest a vicious fight break through the friendly veneer of a community feast. 

Cogwheel 

"In unity, there is strength."

In the Southernmost region of Kotemara, several cats from the Metropolis felt stunted by the magical pursuits of the early city, wanting to tinker and create with their own paws. Disgruntled and full of inventive prowess, a traveling union settled themselves among the hissing steam vents and built a new city. 

The grinding gears of Cogwheel never stop turning. Here, cats meld metal and fire into something greater than the sum of their parts. Invention and creativity powers every step forward, as industry blossoms from the smoldering factories. Much of the new age technology with respect to locomotives, plumbing, and electricity have come from Cogwheel inventors. 

Cogwheel cats believe strongly in togetherness, unity, and teamwork, holding onto values kept from their genesis in Harvest. Sharing with their ancestors a propensity for hospitality and good food, with an even stronger emphasis on loyalty. Yet the strong grip that The Metropolis has on their governance and exports is palpable. Warm and welcoming is a Cogwheel cat until pushed so far… 

The Metropolis 

"Innovation never sleeps."

Welcome to the beating heart of progress. Within the towering walls of The Metropolis, artisans and inventors push the boundaries of possibility. Whether you're crafting the finest artisan pastries or magiceering the next world marvel, this is where the mystical and progressive collide. 

Fast-paced and unrelenting, there’s always more to build, more to discover, more to observe. The Metropolis’s center is home to the World Spire, a towering structure which overlooks the Spire Academy and helps to facilitate worldwide, cross-borough affairs. Here, the next generation of magicians are taught modern magical technology, making sweeping strides in the worldwide understanding of magic as a craft, as a power, and as a tool. 

Metropolis cats have a rigorous class system, with catfolk taking full advantage of monetizing new magical discoveries. Artistry has bloomed in the upper echelons, making way for beautiful craftsmanship and culinary elegance. 

But while The Metropolis places high value on aesthetics, beauty, and sophistication, it's home to quite the underbelly; full of scammers, black market traders, and thieves. Not to mention those who starve while others fatten on the spoils. 

No two Metropolis cats are the same, as the culture is a healthy mixture of all the differing catfolk who travel to it. But “stuffy” and “obnoxious” have been muttered around neighboring Boroughs.

- 

They may receive some TLC before final launch, but I'm happy where the lore is now! 

Development Check In: Where we are

This coming Monday, we plan to spin down Alpha and hit the ground running with getting to closed Beta. It’s been one hell of an experience to test and quash all the bugs we have needed to. We feel quite good about how much we have done and the state of the application after it went through the meat grinder. 

We are reaching a point in development where viability and fundraising is very important, so we are eager to polish what we have created, add the vital remaining functionalities, and get it ready for the next stage in testing before users can altogether play again. 

And as of today, we got incense working! 

The biggest things we have to do next for development are hook up proper buttons and routing, clean the formatting, and optimize everything we can for mobile. 

In addition, we’ll be combing over the feedback for how to improve our UX and make for an even better experience. We really appreciate everything users have done for us so far, and we’re super excited to be this far into development!

To summarize: We added two new accents, an overcoat, and a breed with three variations, shared two crests, a backdrop WIP, and Necromantic Cloak progress. Shared the main NPCs for arc 1, and the newest iteration of Borough summaries for sign-up.

What to expect next update: Further asset and development updates. Lots of repeat accessories, decor, and little things!

[morimens-news]

Morimens English Localization Notes #1

Greetings, Keepers!

This is Ace, and I am currently working on Morimens' English localization.

First and foremost—thank you. Seriously. With a tiny but passionate team of devs, our localization journey hasn't been perfectly smooth, but your patience and encouragement have meant everything to us. We're so grateful you've stuck with us while we untangle typos, tweak tone, correct rich text tags, redesign interfaces, and try to make things feel right.

Moving forward, we'll be sharing these Localization Progress updates regularly. No fluff, just honest talk about where we are, what we're improving, and how we're working to continuously make things better.

Over the past 2 months, we've:

– Fixed over 26,000 lines of in-game text:

Our focus was on unifying combat-related terminology in character PVP/PVE skill descriptions and correcting technical issues like incorrect rich text tags, which caused color formatting errors or prevented number values from displaying properly. Normally, a task of this scale would take at least 5 localizers and LQA testers to complete in this timeframe. To speed things up, I taught myself Python (with our amazing QA team's help!) and wrote scripts to identify problematic tags. Thanks to these tools, we caught around 700 tag issues this round.

Some issues are still out there on the run. Some new issues arised from the introduction of new tools. We plan to keep improving the scripts, catch every punctuation/spelling issues, and dedicate more time to playtesting.

Currently, some terms remain inconsistent across areas such as Relic descriptions, Resonance descriptions, WoD descriptions, and Enlighten descriptions. We sincerely apologize for not being able to fix all of them in one go.

Thank you for your patience as we continue working on unifying these terms and resolving the remaining tag issues in upcoming updates. Issues like number values being incorrectly displayed as 'Arg1' will be addressed first.

Combat-Related Text Progress:

This month, we reviewed:

● 1,208 Skill Name terms (for both Awakeners and enemies)

● 62 Orison and State terms

● 156 Relic Name terms (about halfway; around 100 more to go!)

Based on your feedback from the last version, we learned that many of you prefer concise, clear translations. With that in mind, we left terms untouched unless they were mistranslated, overly long, or clearly awkward. We also checked with our amazing narrative designers to ensure that lore-specific terms were translated according to their original intent.

We've also carefully reviewed every player suggestion regarding term translations in the feedback channel. Your valuable input helps us continuously adjust our localization approach to better match your preferences!

Here are some examples for this time's term changes. We will release a full list of terms like last time as google sheet soon, starting with the Attributes. Some term might have been changed in skill descriptions but remain unchanged elsewhere—we will fix them in future updates.

Fixed over 100 UI issues:

These issues caused text in different languages to be cut off or improperly aligned. Fixing them often meant remaking interface layouts, rewriting text entries, and occasionally building things from scratch. I can't overstate how grateful I am to our diligent, talented UX designers! Despite tight schedules and many tasks already on their plates, they supported me every step of the way.There's still more work to be done. We'll continue tackling UI issues to ensure the multilingual experience is smooth and pleasant. Thank you, Keepers, for your patience and for reporting the problems you find!

Newly Proofread Content in the 1.5 Anniversary Update:

We've implemented human-proofread English text for:

● Liz's Psyche Deepdive story: Passion to Dust

● Lore Descriptions for the 4 new Basic Skins

● The 1.5 Anni Wheel of Destiny: Annihilated Rebirth

When our next Awakener, Castor (Ultra), is released, all of his Skill, Enlightenment, and Talent descriptions will also be human-translated.

As for the 1.5 Anniversary Event Story, Glimpse Beyond Sanctum—we originally planned to proofread it too. Unfortunately, due to our limited staff, the event script was finalized only one day before the version update, leaving no time for a human to translate it.We're aiming to release a quick-fix patch during one of the upcoming maintenance updates (schedule permitting) to correct several key errors—such as a mistranslated village name (it should be Celephais, in reference to Lovecraftian lore) and a few other inaccuracies.

During the initial release, another issue caused some English banner and event description texts to display incorrectly. This issue has been fixed through a hotfix update.

Previously, when we used GPT translation for all content, any changes to the Chinese text would automatically trigger an update to the translated text. However, now that we have introduced human translation, the translated text can fall out of sync if the Chinese source is updated after the translation is considered final.

We've reviewed this problem and established a new workflow to prevent it from happening again. Thank you so much for your patience and understanding!

Story Translation Plans:

This month, we received many kind words and thoughtful suggestions about narrative localization. Storytelling is a core part of Morimens' identity, and we want to treat its translation with utmost care.

Due to time constraints, some story content remains machine-translated for now. However, we're actively improving consistency by refining the terminology database these translations draw from. During our human proofreading passes, we're currently prioritizing critical fixes like:

● Correcting major mistranslations (e.g., 'Lemuria' appearing as 'Negen Entropy')

● Resolving grammar issues, typos, and misinterpreted lines

While this means some nuanced polishing may take longer, please know we're committed to systematically revisiting and enhancing all story texts over time.

When the Prologue chapter is dubbed, we'll also revise and enhance its English translation so you can re-experience it in a better form.

As our team grows, we're confident we'll one day be able to release fully human-translated versions of all new story content on day one. We also hope to collaborate with player volunteers to proofread more languages and continue raising the overall quality.

Volunteer Translators:

Now that our tools are more stable, we will be able to start welcoming player volunteers into the translation process.

To those who've already volunteered: thank you so, so much. We'll be reaching out to discuss the next steps. This process may take some time, as we are still finalizing our plans to ensure every contribution is properly implemented and recognized.

For further inquiries about localization, please reach out to Goya or post in the localization feedback channel.

Sincerely,

Ace

[saccharinesugawara]

Lessons in Holding Your Tongue

word count: 1048

pairing: tenya iida x transmasc!reader

includes: d/s dynamic, sub!reader, spanking, dom!tenya iida, use of 'sir' honorific, shibari, aftercare

author's note: this? this is pure self-indulgence. i have a swearing problem and i need tenya to fix it.

----------------------

“Any tingling, darling?” You squeezed Tenya’s index finger and opened your hand against the gentle pressure of his own. Even though you were on your stomach, you could still make out the way the cobalt blue ropes held your body in place. You looked gorgeous, tied up by and for him. 

“No, Sir. All green.” You replied contentedly. Tenya rewarded you with a gentle head scratch and a kiss to your temple.

As you rested your head on the pillow, you relished in the breeze that ghosted over your naked and bound body. All was peaceful in yours and Tenya’s bedroom as he rifled through the box of impact toys you two had accumulated over the years; anticipation lapped at the edges of your mind like waves on a sandy shore.

From behind you, the thwack of wood against skin rang through the air. Tenya hummed thoughtfully before he moved round to your head, wooden paddle in hand. He gently tipped your head up with his spare hand and traced the implement over your cheek. You could just make out the open toy box through the small holes in the paddle.

“Do you think you can handle this today?” His voice was soft; his thumb stroked at your cheek. You nodded in response to which he gently slapped your face, “don’t slip down yet. I need your words, darling.”

“Yes, Sir,” your voice was laced with anticipation, “I can handle the paddle.” A smile spread across Tenya’s face.

“There’s my good boy.” He moved around so he was next to your arse. The paddle settled on your right buttock cheek, pressing into your skin. Tenya cleared his throat. 

“I must say, darling, you’ve been improving your language under these new rules,” his voice was now stern, but loving. The wooden implement rubbed over the globe of your arse as he spoke. “But you still went over your cursing limit. Remind me how many swear words I allow you every week.” 

“Twenty-one, Sir. Which averages out to three a day, Sir.” He softly chuckled behind you.

“I see you’re learning,” he bent down so his lips were ghosting the shell of your ear, “and yet you still went four words over the limit which earns you…?” You took a deep breath to counter the anticipation rising in your throat.

“Twenty spanks, Sir. Five for each swear word.” Tenya rewarded your prompt answer with a kiss on the back of your neck.

“Remember to count aloud.” 

Perhaps it wouldn’t be surprising to the outside world if they knew that his strictness followed him into the bedroom; that didn’t make this any less tantalising, though. This rule was new for the both of you – something you’d been hesitant to bring up to Tenya – but your language had already started improving since its implementation. In fact, expanding your dynamic outside of bedroom matters was doing wonders for both of you.

Whilst the first five strikes were sharp, they were merely warm-ups, and therefore not hard enough to cause any serious bruising. That was for later. For now, you just counted each strike dutifully and thanked him every time. 

Come strike six, his hand squeezed your arse cheeks, admiring the heat that thrummed through them. There was complete still for a moment as he inspected his paddle-work. Your breath quickened. Seven, eight, nine and ten all came in rapid succession, all delivered hard enough to have you jolting forward in your bindings.

“Ah!” You cried out as Tenya roughly pulled you back, “ten, thank you, Sir.” He checked your bindings once again.

“Halfway through, darling. You’re taking this so well,” his hands rubbed over flesh that would surely bruise, “are you still green?” 

“Yes, Sir. Please continue my punishment.” It was impossible to miss the low rumbling of his chuckles even as you breathed deep to settle yourself again.

Already, you were beginning to bruise as the paddle struck down again on the tender flesh. With each hit, Tenya added more force as if he was completely unaware of your loud shouts; the thud of the wooden paddle mixed with the sting of the holes carved into it was making your head spin with overstimulation. 

“Oh- sixteen, thank you, Sir! Fu-Oh!” It took you a moment to regain composure after your close call, “seventeen, thank you, Sir.” Tears were beginning to prick at the corners of your eyes; your legs were trembling under the heaviness of the last few strikes. 

“Good save, pretty boy. Only three more to go.” His voice cooed softly, giving you a moment to catch your breath before he brought the paddle back down with a harsh crack. You screamed in pain.

“Eighteen! Thank you, Sir!” Tears finally pushed themselves over your lash line as you took gasping sobs. Tenya refused to let up and delivered the final two spanks in quick, brutal fashion. “Nineteen! Twen-nty! Thank you, thank you, thank you, Sir!” Your desperate babbling filled the room as you struggled to catch your breath. Your lover set the paddle down and crouched down in front of you. He lifted your face up.

The pillow below you was drenched with your tears. You wept openly and leaned into Tenya’s large hand, still thanking him for punishing you as your brain was teetering on the edge of subspace. With the utmost care, he brought your lips to his, catching them in a loving but uncontrolled kiss.

“You took your punishment so well, I’m so proud of you, baby boy.” He mumbled against your lips as he wiped away the tears from your face with the pads of his thumbs. Here, you were safe. Tenya would always protect you, push you to be the best version of yourself. “You can slip down, sweetheart. Sir’s got you.” You needed no other prompting; any remaining tension held by your body evaporated as you sunk into complete submission.

By the time you came back to the present moment, the ropes and toy box had been stashed back into their rightful places. Tenya had just finished applying the arnica cream and was now holding you close to his chest. His heartbeat thudded calmly against his chest. Maybe this wasn’t everyone’s idea of domestic bliss, but for the two of you? Nothing could ever compare. 

[taz-ma-raz-skylar]

Interview written by Myki Trieu.

" I was able to land on my feet without pain after a year" - One Piece actor trained so hard he was left with scars.

The stunts for Netflix's One Piece series require a lot of training and strength. Actor Taz Skylar even suffered a leg injury for this.

There are tons of epic fights to be seen in the One Piece anime and of course the cool action scenes couldn't be missing from the live-action adaptation. To bring his character Sanji to life, actor Taz Skylar endured a lot.

He decided to perform all of his stunts himself. Skylar trained so hard for this that not only did he get scars, but according to his own statements, he could barely land on his legs without pain for a whole year.

This is what Skylar's daily routine looked like for the first season.

In an interview with Esquire Middle East, the actor spoke more about his intensive stunt training and his ambitions for the second season. Since there were no solid clues or templates for Sanji's live-action implementation, Skylar and the crew simply tested wildly.

His daily preparation for the first season included four hours of physical training and cooking the corresponding dish that was important for the day in the series. According to Skylar's statement, the cooking could take another four hours because he had to repeat it again and again for the recordings.

After training, he went to the sauna and then stretched his muscles. Because of these routines, his physical condition improved very quickly. Nevertheless, the strain of the stunts was so high that he received scars on the inside of his leg. It took a whole year before he could land on both feet without pain after a stunt.

It was personally important to Skylar to be able to perform his own stunts. That's why he taped his legs with special sports tape in order to be able to push his physical limits a little further. He even hid this from the employees out of fear that the stunts would otherwise be banned.

In season 2, Skylar wants to take things down a notch.

For the second season, Skylar wants to take things a little easier now, as he has already laid the foundation through his hard training. He no longer wants to train so much every day, but instead only wants to work on himself for a maximum of four hours and concentrate more on the choreography.

One of his goals for the next season is the well-known “Party Table Kick”. The actor has to turn in a handstand and spread his legs wide in order to be able to perform an all-round kick. The kick is similar to Chun Li's "Spinning Bird Kick" from the Street Fighter video game series, only from a handstand instead of completely hands-free.

[emeraldspiral]

So I don't know how this happened, but after years and years of trying to write a book and abandoning everything I ever attempted because I couldn't get through even one completed first draft, I finally finished one way back in 2018 or 2019. Even more shocking, I managed to get through several rounds of editing with the story still in one piece. Then I got it to a point where I felt like it was as good as I could really get it without soliciting any feedback. So I posted it on Critique Circle and after all my feedback came in and I'd done a few more revisions I got it to a point where I actually thought it was polished enough to start looking into publishing. It was sometime in March or May of 2020 I think when I sent out my first queries to about 4 or 5 agents and I was shocked that one of them actually requested a full. I was expecting dozens of flat rejections or non-replies before seeing even a kernel of interest.

While waiting to hear back from the agents I'd queried I tried working on a few different stories, but then I started thinking about a bunch of things that were bugging me about my book and getting new ideas I thought would improve it greatly. So I decided not to query anymore agents and instead start a new round of revisions. Based on how the writing and revision process for me had been before, I was expecting this to take me maybe a month or two. But somehow it's been FIVE FUCKING YEARS and I still haven't gotten through even one single completed new draft.

I'm sure part of it is that the pace I was working at slowed down dramatically because during that 1-2 months I was waiting to hear back from agents I broke the habits I used to have to maintain a steady, reliable flow of productivity and it took me an excruciatingly long time to pick them up again.

But I think mostly the reason for all that time vanishing and leaving me with nothing to show for it is that I did the same thing I always do where I keep coming up with new ideas, but to implement them I have to go back and start weaving them into the narrative from Chapter 1, and half the time those ideas don't even stick and I go back to what I had before or replace them with something else. And regardless of whether it's a big change that requires massively rewriting or throwing out entire chapters or just altering, removing, or inserting a few lines here or there in a couple of chapters, I still ultimately end up disatisfied because there's still a ton of stuff that I don't like that none of these changes ever actually seems to solve. There's still scenes I want to throw completely out but I can't figure out what I could have happen instead to accomplish the same thing. There's still plot points that are vital to the story but I don't know how to make them happen in a way that doesn't feel contrived without having to add a lot of detail that has to be explained in a lengthy monologue. I keep wanting to add more detail to make everything feel really fleshed out and fully realized and thought through but I still want the story to feel simple and streamlined and not overly-complicated.

So the current status of my book is that it's in a million pieces and it feels like there's no end in sight to this fruitless quest to put it back together again. And this is a feeling I'm used to experiencing with every other story I ever worked on, which ultimately led to me giving up on it and trying something else. And I thought this time it would be different because the experience of writing it initially felt really different. A lot of it came together very naturally and the pieces fit together better than I imagined. The fact that I actually managed to finish the story and revise it as many times as I did and still have it end up in one piece, and actually showed it to other people was just leaps and bounds beyond anything I'd ever accomplished before. I used to look at my folder full of story ideas and get exited about the next one I wanted to write because I thought finishing one story meant I could finish others. But now when I look at that folder I just imagine myself ending up here again, right back where I always end up, unable to finish anything because there's always a million little problems I can never figure out how to fix, so it feels pointless to even try anymore.

[digitaldetoxworld]

Building Your Own Operating System: A Beginner’s Guide

An operating system (OS) is an essential component of computer systems, serving as an interface between hardware and software. It manages system resources, provides services to users and applications, and ensures efficient execution of processes. Without an OS, users would have to manually manage hardware resources, making computing impractical for everyday use.

Lightweight operating system for old laptops

Functions of an Operating System

Operating systems perform several crucial functions to maintain system stability and usability. These functions include:

1. Process Management

 The OS allocates resources to processes and ensures fair execution while preventing conflicts. It employs algorithms like First-Come-First-Serve (FCFS), Round Robin, and Shortest Job Next (SJN) to optimize CPU utilization and maintain system responsiveness.

2. Memory Management

The OS tracks memory usage and prevents memory leaks by implementing techniques such as paging, segmentation, and virtual memory. These mechanisms enable multitasking and improve overall system performance.

3. File System Management

It provides mechanisms for reading, writing, and deleting files while maintaining security through permissions and access control. File systems such as NTFS, FAT32, and ext4 are widely used across different operating systems.

4. Device Management

 The OS provides device drivers to facilitate interaction with hardware components like printers, keyboards, and network adapters. It ensures smooth data exchange and resource allocation for input/output (I/O) operations.

5. Security and Access Control

 It enforces authentication, authorization, and encryption mechanisms to protect user data and system integrity. Modern OSs incorporate features like firewalls, anti-malware tools, and secure boot processes to prevent unauthorized access and cyber threats.

6. User Interface

 CLI-based systems, such as Linux terminals, provide direct access to system commands, while GUI-based systems, such as Windows and macOS, offer intuitive navigation through icons and menus.

Types of Operating Systems

Operating systems come in various forms, each designed to cater to specific computing needs. Some common types include:

1. Batch Operating System

These systems were widely used in early computing environments for tasks like payroll processing and scientific computations.

2. Multi-User Operating System

 It ensures fair resource allocation and prevents conflicts between users. Examples include UNIX and Windows Server.

3. Real-Time Operating System (RTOS)

RTOS is designed for time-sensitive applications, where processing must occur within strict deadlines. It is used in embedded systems, medical devices, and industrial automation. Examples include VxWorks and FreeRTOS.

4  Mobile Operating System

Mobile OSs are tailored for smartphones and tablets, offering touchscreen interfaces and app ecosystems. 

5  Distributed Operating System

Distributed OS manages multiple computers as a single system, enabling resource sharing and parallel processing. It is used in cloud computing and supercomputing environments. Examples include Google’s Fuchsia and Amoeba.

Popular Operating Systems

Several operating systems dominate the computing landscape, each catering to specific user needs and hardware platforms.

1. Microsoft Windows

 It is popular among home users, businesses, and gamers. Windows 10 and 11 are the latest versions, offering improved performance, security, and compatibility.

2. macOS

macOS is Apple’s proprietary OS designed for Mac computers. It provides a seamless experience with Apple hardware and software, featuring robust security and high-end multimedia capabilities.

3. Linux

Linux is an open-source OS favored by developers, system administrators, and security professionals. It offers various distributions, including Ubuntu, Fedora, and Debian, each catering to different user preferences.

4. Android

It is based on the Linux kernel and supports a vast ecosystem of applications.

5. iOS

iOS is Apple’s mobile OS, known for its smooth performance, security, and exclusive app ecosystem. It powers iPhones and iPads, offering seamless integration with other Apple devices.

Future of Operating Systems

The future of operating systems is shaped by emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing, and edge computing. Some key trends include:

1. AI-Driven OS Enhancements

AI-powered features, such as voice assistants and predictive automation, are becoming integral to modern OSs. AI helps optimize performance, enhance security, and personalize user experiences.

2. Cloud-Based Operating Systems

Cloud OSs enable users to access applications and data remotely. Chrome OS is an example of a cloud-centric OS that relies on internet connectivity for most functions.

3. Edge Computing Integration

With the rise of IoT devices, edge computing is gaining importance. Future OSs will focus on decentralized computing, reducing latency and improving real-time processing.

4. Increased Focus on Security

Cyber threats continue to evolve, prompting OS developers to implement advanced security measures such as zero-trust architectures, multi-factor authentication, and blockchain-based security.

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from The Hill:

The Biden administration has finalized standards for federal buildings that will eliminate onsite fossil fuel usage for new projects by the end of the decade, the Energy Department confirmed Wednesday.

In the announcement, first shared with The Hill, the Energy Department said the rule will require 90 percent cuts to emissions from new construction between fiscal 2025 and 2029, with onsite emissions eliminated from all new projects and major renovations beginning in 2030.

The administration projects that the cuts will save $8 million in taxpayer funds from equipment and infrastructure expenses, and they will eliminate 2 million metric tons of carbon emissions and 16,000 tons of methane emissions over the next three decades.

An official with the Federal Energy Management Program told The Hill the final rule is part of the mandate given to the Energy Department by the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007.

“DOE has issued three separate proposals over the years to implement this requirement, but as of tomorrow, we will have a final rule for it,” the official said, saying the final rule is “a regulation that applies to new construction and major renovations, and it fulfills Congress’s mandate to cut emissions, reduce fossil fuels.”

The rule defines “major” renovations as those costing $3.8 million or more, the official said, meaning “smaller projects” will be excluded. The rule will also include an option to apply for limited, case-by-case exemptions for scenarios, such as supply chain issues or issues with a building’s physical structure that make the technological adaptations impractical.

The Biden administration also introduced a federal standard in 2022 that required at least 30 percent of federal buildings to cut direct greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2030. As part of these efforts, the administration announced the installation of rooftop solar panels on the Pentagon in January as part of the first round of $250 million in awards to improve federal buildings’ energy efficiency.

[bmv1]

Myntra co-founder Mukesh Bansal gets VC funding for new startup Nurix AI

Mukesh Bansal, the co-founder of online fashion major Myntra and Cult.fit, has secured $27.5 million in his new fundraising for artificial intelligence firm Nurix AI. This funding round combines seed investment and series A funding and was supported by Accel and General Catalyst.

Vision and Strategic Partnerships of Nurix AI

Nurix AI is primarily interested in offering AI-based customer communication tools. The kind of AI it seeks to incorporate into companies and organizations is to become functional agents within enterprises, boosting the effectiveness of their communication with an enterprise’s customers. Bansal believes that in the not-too-distant future, advanced intelligent agents supported by the human knowledge base will perform a great portion of work, generating unheard-of levels of efficiency and an increase in product quality.

Nurix AI intends to forge strategic collaborations with AI hardware and product makers. These partnerships help the company aim at the implementation of state-of-the-art AI technologies into the solutions, offering a competitive advantage in the market. Moreover, for Nurix AI, the improvement of the firm’s research & development functions will be vital so that its solutions remain cutting-edge in the field of AI. 

Funding Details

The $27.5 million raised shall play a critical role in accelerating the operations of Nurix AI. The collected funds will be utilized for the company’s improvement of its technological portfolio, strengthening research and development, and for the development of strategic collaborations with AI hardware and product providers. The strategic investment has been informed by the growing demand for artificial intelligence solutions across Asia & North America markets and its ability to address this space squarely will be strategic for Nurix AI.

Mukesh Bansal said, “At Nurix, we envision a future where AI agents, guided by human expertise, handle a significant portion of tasks, driving unprecedented gains in productivity and quality.” 

Entrepreneurial Journey of Mukesh Bansal

Mukesh Bansal co-founded Myntra in the same year and will be one of India’s most popular fashion e-tailers. Mukesh Bansal in 2014 managed to sell Myntra to his biggest rival Flipkart. Later, he started Curefit, a fitness services firm in 2021. It was renamed Cult.fit after receiving funding from Tata Digital. Mukesh Bansal was also the President of Tata Digital before he started his two-year sabbatical from the company in 2023.

Market Potential and Unique Approach

The overall AI market is rapidly growing and enterprises are choosing AI solutions more frequently to improve customer productivity and interaction. The market research shows that the AI market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 42.2% within the years 2020 to 2027. This growth of improvements in AI technology, growing investment, and the ever-growing need for AI solutions in various organizations.

Nurix AI has the opportunity to stand out as the company offering customer experience services enhanced by artificial intelligence, yet implemented jointly with human contributors. The first service offering is in the BPO sector and the company aims at helping enterprises have highly involved and productive conversations with their customers. With AI integration Nurix AI hopes to minimize the time and energy that customers have to spend interacting with the AI itself. 

Conclusion

The new startup founded by Mukesh Bansal, Nurix AI, will be the next major player in AI and customer engagement. After receiving $27.5 million in funding from Accel and General Catalyst, the firm is prepared for increased expansion of operations to meet demand. With the growth and development of Nurix AI, the field of customer interaction with companies through artificial intelligence will be influenced.

[ecargmura]

Wonderful Precure Episode 9 Review - The Dog Goes To School

Komugi going to school was every bit of chaotic as I expected it to be. Since she spent most of her life as a dog and very little as a human, it’s obvious that her animal habits and instincts will dominate her human ones. Iroha legit felt as if she aged ten years due to all of her shenanigans.

How was Komugi able to register for school? Mey Mey got it all solved. He used the power of the Niko Diamond to help her get into school, but how the process went is never explained because Iroha and Komugi stopped paying attention to him. This running joke is starting to get a bit old. It only makes Iroha and Komugi seem a bit disrespectful and Mey Mey a stick in the mud. Hopefully, Mey Mey will find a way to shorten his speeches in a way that they can understand without diverting away.

Komugi transfers to school as Iroha’s cousin, so this is where she uses the Inukai surname as it’s necessary to have one. She reverts back into a dog when she’s tired, so she needs to be extra careful on where she needs to sleep or she’ll be exposed. I do wonder what will happen to parent/teacher meetings. What if the homeroom teacher question Yoko or Tsuyoshi about Komugi and they’re like “What about our dog?”, not knowing that the dog can turn into a person and is going to school as a human. Will Mey Mey go to school as her guardian or something? How will Komugi deal with school subjects too? Like what Iroha warned, if she fails school, she’ll get expelled and she cannot come to school anymore. Komugi never learned anything school-related, so how will she improve academically? If she is able to pass school, she’d be one intelligent dog.

She also gets a rival in a boy named Sho Ikari who is a passionate soccer athlete who never gets his goals through as Komugi finds a surprising talent in goalkeeping and catches all of his goals.The way Ikari and Komugi have a one-sided rivalry is hilarious. Ikari means anger in Japanese, so it makes sense why he’s constantly angry. I do like that he doesn’t look down on Komugi for being a girl. He finds her challenging to overcome, hence a formation of a rivalry. Though, the fact that he has zero sense of danger when balancing the GaruGaru egg on his head surprised me. I’d avoid putting a strange round object on my head.

The GaruGaru segment was…interesting. It was funny how the Precures were gushing over the duck swimming in the lake and then suddenly used Water Gun on them as if it was making them alert of how dangerous it is. It’s nice to implement the goalkeeping part of Komugi’s experience to catch and purify it. The duck just reminded me of Ducklett or Quaxly due to it spitting out water.

I can’t wait to see Komugi on the path to becoming the smartest dog in animated media. Next week’s episode will focus on Yuki and Mayu, so I can’t wait! What are your thoughts on the episode?

[cloudiistudies]

— Day 6/115 of being better ☁️

today I got to try my new keyboard more!!! i love it smmmm

welcome!! If you're new here, I'm doing a challenge where I try to improve myself a little each day for 115 days.

you’ll notice I skipped yesterday.. I was very tired & had no motivation to type up the post ;; i might change these to be 3 times a week instead of every day just so it’s a little easier for me to keep up!

— routines routines went well today and I had a really cute outfit for school!! my workout was my big long walk to and from class which takes me almost an hour round trip ;;

— college today I had bio and eng, and it was really nice to get to learn more about my professors' teaching styles. I made my first pages of notes for bio (which are super ugly,, I need to learn to make them prettier)

— health period finally over and i've been feeling a lot better... the next thing I need to implement into my routine is taking my supplements so I can be physically healthier

— hobby today I watched rottmnt & gravity falls!! not much time for being creative once again tho :(

— work RAAHHH I HATE MY JOB!!! Today I updated my profile on handshake and made an appointment with my college career center to try and get hired..

— language studied my hiragana and katakana, basically just review so that I can begin reading & writing again instead of just looking at symbols and being like "what does this mean...."

[monsterkong]

The Legacy of Julius Caesar - Hero or Tyrant?

Julius Caesar is one of history’s most polarizing figures—a man whose actions forever altered the course of the Roman Empire. But was he a hero who championed the cause of the common people, or a tyrant who destroyed the Republic? The truth, as with many historical figures, lies somewhere in between. 🌟

The Early Years: A Man of the People

Caesar was born into a patrician family, but his early life was marked by financial struggles. Unlike many of his peers, who inherited vast wealth, Caesar had to borrow money to fund his political career. Despite these challenges, he quickly rose through the ranks, becoming a powerful advocate for the Roman people. His populist policies, such as land redistribution and tax relief, earned him the support of the masses but made him enemies among the Roman elite. 💰

Caesar’s rise to power was bolstered by his military success, particularly his conquest of Gaul. His campaigns not only expanded Rome’s territories but also filled its coffers with gold and slaves. However, these victories came at a cost—Caesar’s brutal tactics led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people, earning him a reputation as a ruthless military commander.

Crossing the Rubicon: The Point of No Return

By 49 BC, Caesar’s enemies in Rome were determined to bring him down. Led by Pompey the Great and Cato the Younger, they accused Caesar of crimes committed during his time as consul and in Gaul. Caesar knew that if he returned to Rome without his army, he would be arrested and possibly executed. Faced with this dilemma, he made a fateful decision: he would march on Rome with his army, crossing the Rubicon River—a point of no return. 🌉

This act of insurrection marked the beginning of the Roman Civil War. Caesar’s enemies, realizing they had underestimated him, fled Rome, leaving the city in chaos. Over the next few years, Caesar hunted down his enemies one by one, eventually emerging as the undisputed ruler of Rome. In 44 BC, he was declared dictator for life—a title that many saw as a threat to the Republic.

The Reforms and the Assassination

During his brief time as dictator, Caesar implemented a series of reforms that had a lasting impact on Rome. He reformed the calendar, creating the Julian calendar that we still use today, and introduced laws that improved the lives of the common people. But his efforts to centralize power and bypass the Senate alienated many in the Roman political class. 😡

On the Ides of March, 44 BC, a group of senators, including his former ally Brutus, conspired to assassinate him. Caesar was stabbed to death in the Senate, his murder seen as an attempt to save the Republic from tyranny. But instead of restoring the Republic, Caesar’s assassination plunged Rome into another round of civil wars, leading to the rise of his adopted heir, Octavian, who would become Rome’s first emperor, Augustus.

The Legacy of Julius Caesar

So, was Julius Caesar a hero or a tyrant? The answer depends on whom you ask. To the Roman elite, he was a tyrant who destroyed the Republic. But to the common people, he was a hero who stood up to the corrupt ruling class and fought for their rights. ��

Caesar’s legacy is complex. On one hand, he implemented reforms that benefited the masses and laid the foundation for the Roman Empire. On the other hand, his actions contributed to the collapse of the Republic and the rise of autocratic rule. His life and death serve as a reminder of the dangers of concentrated power and the fragility of political systems.

In the end, Julius Caesar remains one of history’s most fascinating figures—a man whose ambition and charisma shaped the course of Western civilization. Whether you see him as a hero or a tyrant, there’s no denying the impact he had on the world. 🌍

[pawborough]

Beta Update - 20/03

Thanks everyone for showing up for wipe day!

Devs are pretty beat after the grind, so we're wrapping up for the night. We'll be back bright and early tomorrow to tackle some of the biggest problem points!

We learned a lot this time 'round. Every time we do this, we learn a little bit more on how to make a smoother experience the next time. The biggest problem today was the system handling user spam, and we have solutions for these issues that we'll be implementing tomorrow! The good news is that we can remember these fixes and employ them in the next iteration. Thanks so much for helping us grow! If you have broken cats, or you need to be pushed back into onboarding, we'll help you soon as we're up tomorrow!

And if for some reason you cannot get past onboarding, we'll help you once we're back to work!To summarize:

* We wiped the DB today and pushed everyone back into onboarding.

* We saw some functions break, but others now work much smoother. Mixed bag, but notably an improvement.

* We worked a lot on backend optimization and system adaptability.

* Tomorrow we're hitting the ground hard with a rise and grind! Errand problems, stat problems, money drops, all of it will be looked at!

Goodnight, catfolk!

[1automation]

What is Round Robin Lead Allocation for Your Business | Case Study

One of our clients came to us after losing $500,000 in sales due to bad Lead Management, and one Automation improved his revenue by 180%

This client ran an EdTech company selling Teaching Material and Study Guides in Minnesota. He was generating 500 Leads a day, about 10k leads per month costing him $40,000 just on Ad Spend!

He was selling 5 unique products in multiple countries and regions and had over 40 sales executives to manage all the incoming leads. To manage these salespersons, he hired a Sales Manager to handle all incoming leads and allocate them manually.

He used to hand over all incoming leads to the Sales Manager’s inbox, hoping the Manager could assign leads to all the salespersons. He anticipated that at most there would be a delay of about a day or so in Lead Allocation, and he was ready to bear the cost of missed leads as he had huge ticket sizes.

However, the manager often forgot to assign leads, or was on leave, or just fell sick! As the business was not set up for WFH setup, the Manager could not be allowed for such arrangements. This small managerial task was the choke-point of his entire business plan!

As a result, his conversion rates were abominable and he was thinking of shutting down the whole operation.

Fixing the Issue

When the client came to us with this problem, we told him about our round robin scheduling automation — specifically dedicated to lead distribution and allocation.

This round robin scheduling and lead allocation automation retrieves incoming leads from various sources, filters them based on specific criteria, identifies the appropriate salesperson for each lead, and verifies the availability of the required salesperson. Additionally, it ensures that leads are assigned in a way that distributes the workload evenly across the sales team.

No points for guessing but our client was elated to learn about and finally use this automation. He didn’t have to monitor the business or worry about lead allocation to his employees. Everything happened seamlessly, thanks to our Round Robin Scheduling Automation.

By implementing this single automation, the Client enhanced employee work efficiency by 2 hours per day, converted more clients, and started making an extra $260,000 per month!

Before jumping into the detailed questions like: What is this automation? How does it work? What is the cost? Is it well suited for your business use case?

First, let’s learn about Round Robin Scheduling.

What is ROUND ROBIN SCHEDULING :

It is a way to schedule, allocate, and distribute incoming data to multiple stakeholders in a sequence. In other words, Round Robin Scheduling is the act of distributing information ‘One piece at a time.

Round Robin Scheduling/Allocation distributes incoming information evenly across multiple channels, ensuring that each channel gets the information in a cyclical pattern.

Now that we are familiar with what Round Robin Scheduling is, let us learn how Round Robin Scheduling can help your business using this example:

Imagine you have a team of salespeople named A to Z (26 people).

Whenever you receive new leads, you need to schedule them first and distribute them one by one to each salesperson in order.

The 1st lead goes to Person A, the 2nd lead to Person B, the 3rd lead to Person C, and so on.

When you reach Person Z with the 26th lead, the 27th lead will go back to Person A, and the 28th lead to Person B, continuing this cycle.

If a salesperson is on leave or busy, their leads will be given to the next available salesperson.

This ensures that leads are distributed equally among all available employees.

Challenges with the existing system:

Specialization: All 40 salespeople are divided into teams based on their expertise in a particular product and geography/region

Absenteeism: The sales team generally has 10% absent rate due to various reasons — so leads allocated to absentees will go to waste

Over Allocation: Every sales guy has a daily limit of Max 10 leads, which was always overshot for some guys and some were left with 2 leads for the whole day. Overallocation causes either wastage or poor handling

Productivity: Needed sequential and equal allocation of the leads to keep everyone engaged with most productivity

Over/Under Marketing Spend: The marketing team needed visibility of lead consumption to avoid any over or under-output regarding ad spend on Meta and Google

CRM Limitations: The CRM system i.e. Zoho and SalesForce were not able to handle these many conditions and the workflow led to failure frequently

SUPER IMPORTANT ISSUE — The Company did not follow the 15 MINUTES LEADS RESPONSE TIME policy, where the lead should be attended to almost as soon as it allocated

Our Strategy for New Advanced Automated System:

Step-1 Create a database of Sales People with the following attributes:

Product Expertise (one or more)

Geography (one or more countries and regions)

Attendance Status (Present, Absent, or Half Day Working)

Daily Leads Limit (10 per salesperson)

List of Backup persons (if some salesperson are absent)

Step-2 Connected this database with their Attendance System using APIs — with an hourly refresh frequency

This even ensures someone is on a half day leave wouldn’t get allocation during his absence

Step-3 Identification and mapping of various Leads Forms and their parameters to the sales team database

This helped us map the right attributes that follow the allocation algorithm

Step-4 Implemented Advanced Round Robin Allocation Algorithm, where

Leads are allocated to each salesperson in a sequence

Everyone gets an equal number of leads allocated throughout the day

Allocation based on all the database conditions like Product, Geography, Daily limit, and Attendance

Handling of backup resources for lead allocation

Step-5 Optimisation and handling of UnAllocated Leads

Implemented Leads prediction model to optimize the Daily Ads spending to reduce over-production

Created a separate parking database of Unallocated leads (overproduced)

Setup allocation priority and tagging for these unallocated leads

Step-6 Real-time Notification to Sales Person

This company is using Microsoft Teams for internal communication

We integrated the MS Teams in the Automation workflow to notify them instantly via Direct Chat Message

Bonus steps

Step-7 Leads Allocation and Planning Dashboard for Marketing Team

This is so they can see the daily & monthly leads consumption trend for each product, geography, and salesperson

Real-time dashboard on Leads requirement — this helps them to plan the ad spend to avoid under or over-production of leads

Allocation tracking helps the marketing team to optimize the daily campaign spending to prevent over or under-output of leads and run campaigns 24*7 for optimal results

Step-8 Notification to Prospect (Real-time)

Now that we know which salesperson lead is allocated to — so we started sharing the salesperson’s Name and phone No. & Email with the lead

This boosted the Lead’s confidence even before they interacted with this sales guy.

Results of the New Lead Management System

The lead wastage came down significantly to just 2% (From 20–25% earlier)

Added $260k per month in the Mainstream Revenue

The conversion rate increased by 180% — all because of the 15-minute response time

$6000 Saving in Marketing Ad Spend

Boosted confidence across, Sales Teams, Marketing and Management Team

Enhanced Visibility & Dashboards to Key Decision Makers

The client went on to ad on more products to their repertoire of offerings and is currently one of North America’s leading EdTech Startups.

The Initiative

Understanding the lack of awareness of automation as a strategic business move, that can potentially skyrocket your Business Potential; we at 1automation.us have taken up the initiative to teach business owners to automate your business themselves.

This initiative will be supported by world-renowned automation agencies like Growwstacks.com and MTech Automation Solutions (one of the world’s largest business process automation firms)

The initiative is named Automation DIY — with the vision of Empowering Small Business Owners to scale their businesses.

This FREE initiative is live on YouTube.

So why wait? Visit Automation DIY and Start Learning Automation

Want Experts to Build Your Business Automation?

Reach out to us at admin@1automation.us

Or book a call at www.1automation.us/contact-us

[ajcgames]

Mini performance update

I've spent my free time over the last few days working on some significant performance improvements for some of the core elements of the game and how it runs.

Now, I'm not making the next DOOM so I shouldn't be so precious over framerates for an indie project. I should also remember that the general scope of what I'm trying to achieve probably allows for a few inefficiencies here and there.

But performance optimisations can be a fun engineering challenge in themselves, and there were some obvious changes I could make.

New stress tests

After finishing up all the tweaks I wanted to make, I fired up the stress test again to first get a baseline of an empty level, then following up with a large-scale performance test.

In idle mode in an empty level (nothing placed and the player isn't doing anything), the frame rate has jumped into the >2,000 range. Given the low scence density at this point (only a handful of single polygons representing the floor), I can imagine most games would run like this. Not an entirely practical test, but it's a baseline if nothing else.

Using the same packing method as before, I filled a 40x40 level with belts, and lined each edge with machines. So that's a total of over 1,500 belts and 40 machines running.

On my previous stress test at this rate, you may remember that I had managed to get the FPS up to 180 - after I'd done my first round of optimisations. So to have brought this up to over 400 is a really great step forward.

So how would this fare in the oversized 80x80 level - a size that will likely never be seen in the game?

Somewhat predictably the framerate has dropped by half, though I expect this is less to do with the GPU at this stage and the game is starting to become CPU bound due to the vast number of objects.

The game still chugs at a respectable >200 fps, which can't be bad. Again, there's no real likelihood that a given level will ever reach that kind of load. Belts are the most complex objects in the game compared to machines - which are comparatively basic. So getting over 200 fps with over 6,000 of them is something I'm pretty pleased with.

I spent a little while reading some old developer blogs from Factorio's earlier days - specifically how they optimised their belts. The methods they used feel a little complex for me to implement, and ultimately for now - I'm just one person. I've got a lot of other game logic to work on alongside the visual assets and other paraphernalia. So I'm happy to take this small win and move the project forward from here.

😊

The next update should have some normal game-related updates in, so I'll be back with some more soon!

Thanks for swinging by, and I hope you've all had a great week!

[seedlessmuffins]

hi, k! since you opened your inbox for hockey asks, here we go...

one you told me your team was the same as ferrari in the sense of the teams' management being harmful to the athletes' performance. could you explain exactly how it happens? i'm curious!

nikka i am kissing you on the forehead because i love this question, but this explanation is also very long so im hiding it under the cut but i hope you enjoy!

k ama: hockey edition!

ok so back story time. from about 2008-2012, the canucks (my team) were a very good team. because of the nhl's salary cap, this means that in order to stay very good and competitive for the stanley cup, they were implementing a strategy called "going all in" which means they were trading future draft picks and spending all their money to make sure the team was good in the present, even if it meant that the team would be worse in the future.

in 2011, the canucks were very very good. one of the best in the nhl. they had won the president's trophy, the award for the team with the most points at the end of the regular season (so the best team in the league, it is the equivalent of a football team winning their league and then going into the cl), and they had so many amazing players. they made a run to the stanley cup finals and lost in game 7 (sports trauma for me as a kid). because they lost though, they needed to trade and let some players leave so they could build up the team to be good again the next year, and have the salaries fit under the cap.

the next year in 2012, they also won the presidents trophy, but they were out in the first round of the playoffs (like the knockout stages of the cl). same as in 2013. now the organization is in a bit of a panic, because they have sacrificed players who could play for them in the future in order to get players who can play well for them now, but the team isn't performing like they expect them to.

this is when the spiral started. the team was playing bad, so a lot of the young players who we drafted had to play on the nhl team too early, before they were ready to, which lead to their player development being stunted when they were playing in the higher leagues before their skating ability and strength had developed. a lot of them were also too young, and having all the pressure of being in the highest league in a city crazy about hockey led to them burning out of the nhl and not filling their potential.

the team also took a lot of bets on players that didn't pan out for one reason or another, either because they were put into a role that they weren't ready for or because they were given too much responsibility, but either way they didn't thrive and sometimes haven't played for a good nhl team, or even in the nhl at all, since they left the canucks. the list is endless juolevi, virtanen, goldobin, granlund, stetcher, macewan, and those are just a few of many.

the team has gone through many phases since 2011, but they have hit rock bottom like three times and still haven't really bounced out of it. the player development thing is better now, but a lot of our superstar players are stuck on a mediocre, mid table team that doesn't seem to be changing drastically to improve. of course i have hope, i want to see hughes and pettersson and demko and the rest of our young star players to win a cup together (and i want to see the city of vancouver get a stanley cup. we deserve it) but realistically,,, we aren't ready and it has been this cycle since 2012/2013.