#and also!!!! those people who kept trying to access the computer’s screen remotely!!!!!

[deus-ex-mona]

i have my ✨priorities✨

[inamemyselficarus]

Elias Bouchard x Reader, A Job Interview

The damp London air pressed down on you, almost feeling weighted by some sense of impending gravitas, as if the course of your entire life was about to change. That, of course, was ridiculous, but you couldn’t help but fidget with the leather strap of your messenger bag as you looked  up at the imposing stone edifice of the building in front of you. The Magnus Institute. Arguably London’s most dubious academic institute, it had been the butt of many jokes among your colleagues at UCL, where you had just completed your DPhil in Neuroscience, adding a hard-won “Dr.” to the front of your name. And yet, you were here to apply for a job. The strangest thing was you weren’t quite sure exactly why.

You had always been fascinated by the brain. Growing up a quiet, bookish child in a small but tight-knit farming town in the US, you’d naturally gravitated to the fringes of any social interactions among your peers. You preferred watching, listening, and learning from the interactions of others than participating in these yourself. When the time came to go to college, you’d gotten a scholarship to a small liberal arts school with a good research program, effortlessly transitioning from watching the decisions your peers made to studying the molecular pathways involved in such decision making. Your undergraduate dissertation had won you a spot as a PhD candidate at University College London, where you had spent the past three years.

As soon as you had reached the UK, something had felt different. It wasn’t something that you could explain or even understand, like something in your bones had shifted. It felt… good though, so you hadn’t worried, hadn’t pressed. You were just grateful that moving halfway around the world hadn’t been as difficult as you’d thought. It was about halfway through your first semester when you’d noticed the pull you’d felt. You had taken to enjoying long walks around the city when you weren’t in class or in the lab. You’d found yourself looking up at the gothic facade of the building you now knew to be the Magnus Institute for the third time before you realized what was happening. No matter what your plan was when you set out, you always seemed to end up at this same building when you weren’t headed anywhere specifically. It was like you were a compass needle being slowly and inexorably pulled toward a lodestone.

You’d asked the other members of your lab what the Magnus Institute was the following day and were somewhat startled by their immediate, scoffing laughter. Besides apparently being the laughingstock London’s academic institutions, they were apparently absurdly picky about who could gain access to their library. You’d tried to put it out of your mind, but found that your feet still thoughtlessly carried you there whenever you tried to explore the city. As you approached your thesis defense and began to think of what you wanted to do next, you didn’t expect the sharp jab of panic that lanced through you at the thought of leaving London. It was a ridiculous thought. You’d come here because the program was excellent and you’d gotten the chance to work underneath some of the brightest minds in your field during your degree, but you’d never intended to stay. Still, before you knew it, you had found yourself looking for possible postdoctoral fellowships in the city. Without quite knowing why, you had also pulled up the website of The Magnus Institute and saw a notice that they were seeking to hire a new head archivist for their collection. Despite the job being far out of your field and feeling somewhat insane for doing so, you brushed a cobweb away from your computer screen and sent your resume. You had never expected to be called for an interview.

Now, your hand hovered hesitantly over the Institute’s ornate doorknob, the gold of the metal contrasting sharply with the deep forest green of the door itself. Why had you come here? You weren’t even remotely qualified for this position. As soon as you’d received the interview invitation you should have called and told them that there had been some mistake. But you hadn’t. And you couldn’t stop yourself from slowly turning the doorknob and entering the elegant foyer of The Magnus Institute. The second you crossed the threshold, you stumbled, suddenly feeling the gaze of a thousand invisible eyes probing every facet of your mind and your soul. Perhaps it should have been disconcerting, but you felt seen and known, and, most damnably, understood. The instinctual, bone-deep reaction raced through every cell in your body. You belonged here.

“Miss L/N?” the voice pulled you out of whatever strange thoughts had so suddenly grabbed you, and you turned to see a plain looking woman in a grey cardigan standing in front of what looked to be a reception desk.

“Yes? I mean, yes, I am Dr. L/N. I’m here for my interview?” You stumbled over the words, still feeling somewhat off balance.

The woman smiled and motioned for you to follow her. “Mr. Bouchard is expecting you, please come this way.” She led you through a maze of corridors, not speaking beyond that first sentence. Finally you came to a stop in front of a dark, cherrywood door with a gold nameplate that read ‘Elias Bouchard, Head of the Magnus Institute.’

As you approached, a deep baritone voice called out from inside the room “Come in.”

The woman gestured you forwards and you tentatively placed a hand on the ornate doorknob, twisting and pushing the door open. You stepped into an office filled with shades of a dark, elegant green and polished wood accents, but your attention was immediately drawn to and captured by the man sitting behind the imposing desk in front of a large bay window. His suit was a sharp grey, just a few shades darker than his piercing pale eyes. His eyes. It was like he was looking into you, through you, almost. Like those eyes could see everything you had ever been. You hadn’t noticed that you’d frozen until he beckoned you forwards with a smirk, gesturing to a chair placed in front of his desk. You moved to sit, setting down your messenger bag and subconsciously straightening your blazer.

“Dr. L/N,” he purred. “How delightful to finally meet you.”

When had your mouth become so dry?

“I-- It’s wonderful to meet you as well, Mr. Bouchard.”

He made a dismissive wave with one well-manicured hand. “Please, call me Elias.”

You paused, brain blinking for a second. “Um, okay, If you call me F/N… Elias.” Your mouth twitched up into an awkward smile as you fidgeted with the cuff of your blazer.

“Y/N.” He leaned forward, lips turning up into a leonine grin. “What brings you to my Institute?”

“I don’t know.” The words were out before you could even think, almost as if they’d been pulled directly from your throat. You flushed. “I mean, I shouldn’t even be here.” You couldn’t stop yourself. Your cheeks burned darker in embarrassment as the words just kept pouring out. It was like everything in you ached to be known by the man sitting in front of you and your head was spinning. “I’m certainly not qualified for this job -- I’ve only ever worked as a waitress or in a lab. It’s way out of my field, and everything I’ve ever been led to know tells me that I shouldn’t take this place seriously. But… it feels like it’s calling me, somehow. Like I belong here, like... I’m a part of this place, and even if I tried to leave I couldn’t. I don’t know what’s happening to me. I just want to know what’s happening to me.” Your voice cracked with emotion on the last words.

Elias’ grin only widened, flint-grey eyes sparking as if to light a fire that would burn down the world as you knew it. He leaned forward, steepling his fingers, and a mental image of a cat caging a small bird between its paws pushed its way to the forefront of your mind.

“What are you afraid of?”

You didn’t want to answer this question. Didn’t want this mysterious stranger to see how weak you were, but the words rose up out of you regardless. “I’m afraid of not knowing the things I need to know. Of failing. Of not being enough.” Tears pricked at the corners of your eyes.

“And what do you desire more than anything?” His voice was deeper now, wrapping around each vowel and consonant like liquid darkness. Your eyes slid shut.

“To be known. I want someone to see me, every thought I’ve ever had, every facet of who I am. I want to be completely understood and still, somehow, wanted.” You’d never voiced these thoughts even to yourself, trying to convince yourself that all you wanted was to be successful as a scientist, to use your knowledge to advance humanity’s understanding. You’d always had trouble getting close to people and didn’t want to confront the slowly growing suspicion that no one would ever truly know you enough to truly love you. That, even if you eventually did find someone who wanted to be close to you, it wouldn’t be real, because they couldn’t really see you.

You sucked in a breath, eyes flying open at the sensation of a hand on your cheek, brushing away the tears you hadn’t noticed falling. Elias loomed over you, pale eyes glinting with something that looked almost like triumph as he gently cradled your face in his palm.

“I think you and I are going to get on splendidly.” 

[felassan]

Gamers For Groceries 2 event

A Twitch stream event from a few days ago. It can currently be re-watched here (it was fun & interesting, so I do recommend to check it out direct). This post contains some notes on things of particular interest & relevant timestamps, in case this is useful to anyone (for example bc of accessibility reasons).

First up is the All About Animating panel, a series of mini-interviews with game devs (animators) asking what they do, how they got there, and advice for anyone interested in getting into the industry. Some or all of the devs that were interviewed are currently working on DA4. They talked a bit about their day-to-day work and a lot about the craft of game dev animation in general. This segment runs from timestamp ~38 mins 40 secs to 1:07:50. Some notes:

[sounded like DA4] Right now the creature team are working on different creatures in a way which involves going through a lot of mocap data

At BioWare they have a pretty big technical animation team, to support their animators, so each tech animator has a different specialty. Tech anim involves animation support, character art support, and rigging the characters so that the animators can pose them

[not sure if re: DA4 work specifically, another project or a general comment on the craft] One of the featured animators’ area of specialty at the moment is faces and hair (building the control structure for face animations). First they had to decide how the face rig and its control structure would work. This involves a lot of performance capture of live actors for things like cinematics and gameplay animation, therefore the rigs for bodies and faces have to be able to accurately capture the full range of expressions and emotions that the actor is portraying. Right now the stage that this dev is working on most is setting up the heads that they’re getting through the pipeline from character art e.g. making adjustments based on feedback from the cinematics team. “Polish - just trying to get realism”

Hair tech has come quite a long way in the last few years [in the industry]

[not sure if re: DA4 work specifically, another project or a general comment on the craft] Hair is very complex to get right. “In the past most games have used card-based hair, which is basically like sheets of polygons with a texture on it that looks like hair, through layers of transparency. But real hair is strand-based, digital strands, so we’re starting to look into that kind of tech - try to get more realistic, more beautiful hair, but there’s always a performance cost to hair. Layers of transparent things are always an expense, they need to balance like, it looks good and moves well, but it doesn’t make your computer or console chug. [...] I guess we’re in the prototype stage but we’ve almost got a set pipeline. It’s always fun to experiment”

In Mass Effect 2 or 3, Miranda’s hair was as expensive as a whole character (!)

[on balancing hair costs/performance, general] It depends on things like character importance and how many characters are on-screen at the time. When you’re in gameplay fighting a bunch of monsters you’re not going to be giving full beautiful hair to all the characters and the monsters, as it will cost too much. (Having a helmet on is a convenient way to get rid of hair.) But if it’s a cinematic scene, with 2 characters talking to each other in a dramatic context, there’s a better budget for nice hair allocated

Some of the hair in Anthem was quite expensive in cinematics. They kept getting bugs from QA saying (for example) that a character’s hair was tripling the performance cost in the scene, so it would go back to character art so they could take away some of the hair cards. “Tough balance, quality versus cost”

“I wish all the characters could have beautiful strand hair”

For p-cap, a lot of the time they don’t want to be too prescriptive in terms of the direction that they’re giving the actors, as the actors know what they’re doing and have a lot of experience, so they give them vague instructions that they then riff off of

[sounded like DA4] They recently did a mocap shoot

[sounded like DA4] There’s a bit more productivity happening now in the pandemic situation; now that the animators are not all going to the capture lab in Vancouver in person for shoots, if it’s not their turn to direct a shot they can instead be working on something else on their computers (multi-tasking). ((Lead DA4 Producer Scylla Costa recently gave a talk at a games festival on the challenges of DA production during the pandemic. In part of this talk he talked about various benefits and drawbacks to the remote-working situation. He also talked about and showed some behind-the-scenes stuff for p-cap and mocap. Notes, images and link here))

[sounded like DA4] Special mocap suits were sent out that they can use with a laptop to go anywhere and shoot motion capture. It’s not as high fidelity as what comes out of the capture lab, but it’s really good for prototyping stuff. Before the pandemic they did some of this (going to a park and shooting some running around)

[sounded like DA4] In one of the shoots they had some actors who were really well-trained in dancing. They were trying to get them to do some combat stuff. This was a bit challenging in the pandemic situation as there’s only so much they can demonstrate/portray as an example to the actors from a distance on camera. “It’s hard to describe what a ‘dodge to attack’ is through the camera to somebody who has no idea what combat looks like in video games”

[not sure if re: DA4 work specifically, another project or a general comment on the craft] The pandemic has really affected performance capture for the face side of things badly, as in order to record, the actor gets dots painted on their face in specific locations by a makeup artist. They can’t do that right now because of social distancing/restrictions, so they haven’t been recording faces at the moment

The more detailed a face, the more joints it has, the more the cost to performance is

---

There was also the Writers’ Block panel, featuring DA writers Mary Kirby, Sheryl Chee and Patrick Weekes, and DA editor Karin Weekes. The timestamps for this segment are ~2:37:50 - 3:26:20. Some notes:

PW has never been weirder than when they were writing Cole on DAI

PW thinks that they accidentally wrote part of “Timber” by Kesha into Solas at one point and they were like “Well, okay, I have to stop listening to Kesha”

For Sheryl, after a while Blackwall’s VA always nailed doing his lines. She loved the quality of his voice and so after a while would always hear his voice while she was writing. This really worked out

^ Mary had this with Merrill. As soon as they cast Eve Myles she listened to several hours of her in Torchwood, and then just wrote to the way that she spoke as much as possible

^ PW had this with GDL as Solas and FPJ as Bull. As soon as they heard FPJ’s delivery, they were like “Oh, okay, I have to write some lines differently, because Bull is smarter than I realized”. With GDL they were like “Okay, he’s going to put poetry into anything I say, in the best way possible”. In early drafts of Solas lines there were parts where they [PW] wondered “Is this too melodramatic? Is this too tragically-angstful?” and then they would hear GDL and be like “Oh! [It’s fine] Game on!”

For localization, German words are often quite long so they often have to make sure that everything fits on the GUI

They think scenes like the romance scenes sound prettier in the Italian versions

Behind the curtain in creating the in-world languages: PW: “There are some awesome websites that have every elven word, like ‘Here are the translations and verb tenses and conjugations’ [etc], [...] and usually Mary and I get very sad slightly looking at those pages going like ‘Does that mean that we have to stick to that?’ [...] The rule is, if I’ve looked at the Wiki and the words, and I go ‘Here’s the correct grammatical way to do it’, and if that turns out to be too long or too many disconnected syllables and it just looks bad or sounds bad, then we shorten it to something simpler, because the key is we want to give the flavor of a foreign language, but we don’t have the world-building budget and capacity to make something that is going to be dictionary-real [in a way that] someone could go through and translate all the background things written on the old temple walls”. Part of the reason for this is the consideration for VAs, who already have to act while bearing lots of things in mind, like the cues in the script for each line

Mary: “For building a language, the first things that I started with for qunlat, elven and dwarven, was what words do we need to use the most? Greetings, farewells, words for friend and enemy, basic things that will come up easily in conversation. After that it’s ‘How difficult is this for other writers to use?’ Can they just pick it off the Wiki? Do they need just one word? Do they need to write whole sentences, and how does that work? Qunlat has almost no grammar to it because asking anyone to learn how to use Qunari grammar and conjugate verbs in a pretend language is impossible, and then once you’ve done that a human being has to be able to read it, while not knowing what any of it means”

PW: “One thing that I was really impressed with with Mary in particular doing, Mary was one of the big lore people across the entire DA series; I can look at a word and go like, ‘That has two A’s in a row, that’s definitely a Qunari word. That word is kind of long and maybe has some apostrophes and has a couple of flowy vowel sounds, that’s probably elven’, I think that’s what’s important. You want players to be able to look at a word, players want to feel smart, [like] ‘Oh I don’t know what that means but I totally know that’s a word from the Qunari people!’”. Mary: “Every language has its own set of phonemes, the sounds that they make, and the sort of word structure and spelling so that it gives a flavor to that language. Hopefully that is always chosen to be pronounceable, because again, very important that the words can be said by human beings :D”

Sheryl: “One of the fun things to do is to make up swear words in the fake languages [...] Recently Brianne wanted a word, I don’t know if she managed to find one”

The origin of bosh’tet in ME: it’s just saying “bastard” and slurring it

PW: “I feel like there are times when past writers kind of leave traps for future writers, where past writers will go ‘Okay, I’m going to write this detailed phrase in a codex entry but don’t worry, it doesn’t matter if it can never be said aloud, because it’ll never have to be voiced!’ and then, next game, guess what guys! Look what you have to make someone [a VA] say! And you’re like [facepalm], c’mon!”

Karin: “Now, four games in, we have pages and pages of all these examples, and I wanna say this, well that’s how we said something before, well that’s ridiculous, I don’t wanna say that, but now we’ve said it and it’s out there, so it’s like, how do we, y’know, how do we evolve, and sometimes we just go ‘Screw it! Languages are living languages! We’ll just say it like this now!’”

PW's favorite is the sarcastic Mythal’enaste, “Because it’s the sarcastic Mythal's blessing that basically means you’re getting screwed over somehow. I love it because Mythal nasty! Whoever wrote that clearly never thought that someone would have to say this out loud”

Sheryl wrote Bull’s joke icicles line. She also wrote Isabela’s big boats line - Jennifer took it out but then DG was like “No it has to come back”

They have a pun test, they get a few of them and have to allot them wisely so as not to oversaturate on the puns. “Is this good/bad enough to be one of the times that we pull the trigger? We did have one of those recently, I obviously can’t talk about it, but it was pronounced Okay to go ahead”

The ‘baby-est’ writer is Brianne, who’s been there 8 years

It makes PW sad that the players never get to see the writers’ temp-text [placeholder text when portions are a WIP]. “People have the best temp-text". Mary: “The number of conversations that I’ve temped in like ‘WELL. I hope nothing BAD happens HERE’”

Q. If you could bring in anybody from outside of gamedev, who would you like to work with and do a writer’s session with? PW: “I will say romance novelist Nora Roberts, she is really smart and also she knows how to write inside a genre, and do wonders within it. Her structure is so good. If you pick up one of her books, you know here’s when this is gonna happen, here’s when they’re gonna meet, here’s when this first moment will happen. We’re all experienced and I feel pretty good about that but I really like all of the things she does that way, and also I am a sucker for romance so I would love to bring a romance novelist in and just have them look at our scenes and go ‘Okay here, no, they should pull the tie so that the article of clothing comes open, we need a sense of how warm the skin is here’ - something like that. I’d wanna see what they could do with that”

“Luke writes the best worst lines”

“I’m always impressed with Mary getting away with lines. There are lines that I look at like, wow, you buried that one. [...] The only players who get that line, I feel like they earned it if they went that far into it. [...] And then Varric or Merrill says a ridiculous line in a one-time throwaway”

Karin: “The group dynamic, you’ll see conversations or snippets of a lunch chat or a thing we’ve been joking about and you’ll see it get pulled in, and how all of you [the writers] are able to take a normal kind of thing - as normal as we get as a group anyway - and then turn it into a moment, and use it to further the plot or use it to further a character. It’s just the cleverest thing and it happens in so many different ways. [...] The little snippet of life, then how you crafted it into this very cool thing”

Quartermaster Threnn was written by PW in half a day. “When I was writing Threnn, ‘Okay, this is a good-hearted [person], I was doing a little bit of Steel Magnolias, southern, no-nonsense, but like, blue collar Steel Magnolias’. This is someone accustomed to the ways of the world so she’s going to call a spade a spade. If you come up to her and you’re an elf she doesn’t recognize you and says ‘Buckets are over there’ because she thinks you’re there to clean, [but] ‘Anyone calls you a knife-ear you come to me I’ll take care of it’. It’s problematic but she’s trying - the good-hearted person rooted for the wrong group on every occasion. She was a proud Loghain supporter, she gets really exited if he comes to Skyhold.  That was a fun character for me to write because I had a viewpoint in my mind. I remember someone was like ‘Threnn is really important to me’. And you have to honor that, cause you’re like ‘Cool, it means so much to me that this connected with some part of you’”

---

Also of interest was the Mass Affection panel, in which BioWare devs looked back in over a decade of history to remaster a classic. It featured devs who worked on MELE. The timestamps for this segment are ~3:36:09 - 4:24:37. Some notes:

When the pandemic hit the MELE team were in a relatively awkward spot. They were really entering into what they consider full production and were on-boarding a bunch of teams, as well as training and on-boarding third-party external partner specialized teams worldwide. When the pandemic hit, BioWare and EA were super on top of it. They were tracking it weeks beforehand, getting everyone their computers ready, and getting everything encrypted. When the middle of March 2020 hit they were home rightaway. EA were nothing but supportive throughout the entire thing. They got money every quarter for stuff. It functionally ‘hit’ at 4-6 different times for them as the pandemic occurred in different places throughout the world at different times depending on each country’s response plan (and their external partners were in different countries). “So it was one of those things where it was just like, every day we’d come in like can we still work with this company anymore? Do we need to find someone else? Do we need to pull people in off the other projects at BioWare to fill gaps here and there?”

There was a bug on Virmire at the part when you’re coming into the STG camp. If the Mako had its new boosters on and you came hurtling in really fast, it cut to the cutscene, but the Mako hit a jump and when Ash was like “What do we do now?” the Mako ended up literally flying around in the background sideways and then crashing into the camp

Another bug: when they were re-tuning the guns, the physics force on some of the guns with Hammerhead rounds was so high that when you were fighting some of the Thorian Creepers, you could ragdoll them so hard that you could basically embed them in the roof. They’d be moving so fast that they’d penetrate all the walls with their legs dangling out. It was so easy to do and you could do it to everybody. You could launch a geth halfway across an Uncharted World

Another bug: with Shepard’s casual appearance in ME3, if you didn’t have it set up perfectly correctly it would default to Grunt for some reason. You’d be walking around as Grunt, going on dates as Grunt, and your face would be all scrunched up because it was all mapped to human bones still, so it was just, like, Nightmare Fuel of Grunt

Another bug: in ME2 on Illium when trying to recruit Samara, the Asari enemies just would not stop screaming - regardless of whether they were hit or not, it was endless screaming. Later one of the devs got an audio file of the scream, endless and looped, and now one of the devs has it on their phone and uses it for their morning alarm tone

“Shepard would come up to characters and they’d just be screaming”

---

There was also the Programming Variables panel, talking about what hurdles game programmers face. Some [or all?] of the devs that were part of this panel are currently working on DA4. They talked a bit about their day-to-day work and about the craft of game dev programming in general. The timestamps for this segment are ~ 4:24:46 - 5:06:02.

[source]

[insights/notes from Gamers For Groceries 1]

[☕ found this post or blog interesting or useful? my ko-fi is here if you feel inclined. thank you 🙏]

[inawickedlittletown]

And...They Were Zoommates (one-shot)

Summary: Buck and Eddie work for the same company but have never met until working from home during the covid-19 pandemic has them using zoom video conferences. 

Ship: Buck/Eddie

Words: 7,729

Rating: G

Notes: I blame a few people over at the buddie discord for this fic happening. 

With the state of the world being what it is, quarantine fic seems inevitable and I wanted to write something fluffy and happy. I will admit that I'm not super pleased with this fic but I'm posting it anyway. Enjoy. 

Read on Ao3

-

The memo went out on a Monday. Everyone was going to be working from home and they had two days to prepare everything and make their work remote. Buck had been waiting for it to happen. It was a matter of time after the schools were shut down followed by the libraries and then curfews were put on bars and nightclubs. And then as the numbers of infected kept rising, most places started trying to figure out how to make their staff work from home. 

The whole thing wasn’t going to be ideal, but if it meant that more people weren’t out and about getting exposed to Covid-19, well, Buck figured that it was probably a good thing. Buck had done his research, after all, and he knew that it was more than just a flu and that while the WHO didn’t want to call it a Pandemic yet, they soon would. He also knew that in the states things were going to go bad and fast. 

A few days later, Buck had set up a work-station at his apartment. His work laptop was going to remain at his kitchen island so that Buck would feel like he was going somewhere to go to work. He was going to get up at his usual time and maintain his routine partly because he knew it would drive him crazy if he didn’t, but also because a lot of his work was going to require video conferencing and Buck was not going to show up on one of those calls in his PJs. 

On day one, he spent about an hour figuring out what the hell Zoom was. 

Then, he spent another hour trying to log in because for some reason it just wouldn’t let him. 

After that, Buck finally had access to his work and then he dived into what he needed to get done for the day. A bit of time into it, he got an email about the meeting that had gone from in person at the office to a video conference. 

Looking at the email thread, he was not the only one having issues with logging into things and figuring out Zoom. 

The thing about the quarantine and the work from home order was that it had come at a horrible time for them. It was absolutely necessary and they all understood that, but it was happening just as they were taking on a big project that required the work of many different departments at the office. Buck didn’t think he even knew any of the people he was going to be working with other than his boss. That was the part that made him just a little bit nervous and unsettled. Group projects had always been the bane of his existence back when he was in school and he sort of suspected that this was going to end up being a similar experience. 

—

“So, you’re going to be working here, Daddy?” 

Eddie was in the middle of setting up his computer and making sure that he had all the right paper files out. Working from home wasn’t going to be ideal, but Eddie was thankful that he could do it. He couldn’t imagine how else he would have been able to handle things with Christopher out of school and on top of that knowing that his abuela was one of those at risk people so the last thing Eddie wanted was to have to saddle her with watching Christopher. 

“I am, kid. So while you’re doing school, I’ll be doing work. And then we can have lunch together.” 

“This is very silly, Daddy.” 

Eddie chuckled. “It is, isn’t it? But, remember I told you, it’s so that everyone can be safe and so that people don’t get sick.” 

“I know,” Christopher said. 

Eddie ruffled his hair and then nudged him to go back to where he’d been working on what looked to be a math packet. While Christopher went to do that, Eddie got himself set up, but he went to check on Chris a moment later and it was always just to impressive how smart his son was.  

When he got an email about the video conference, he left Christopher to his math and went back to the laptop. Logging in was a task and a half and Eddie emailed his frustrations to the others until he finally got the thing to work and at least it didn’t seem like he was the only one struggling. 

By the time that they had all made it onto the conference call, they were starting the meeting late by about forty five minutes. In that time, Christopher had at least managed to keep himself working and not get too distracted, but Eddie was just waiting for it to happen. It was why he’d left out some apple slices for him as a snack that might keep him from bothering Eddie. 

“Hello, everyone,” Bobby said. “I know this is going to be unconventional and probably make some of us want to tear our hair out, but we’re going to pull this off. It just requires that we all try our hardest to communicate with each other.” 

Eddie wasn’t new to the job, but his job was pretty isolated. So while he knew Bobby because he was their boss, he didn’t know anyone else on the call. He knew Howie — Chim — by reputation alone because he was Bobby’s right hand man but he didn’t know Henrietta or Evan. Henrietta liked to be called Hen and she was the most relaxed of all of them, looking like she was just chilling out on her sofa. Bobby looked to be in a home office type space and he’d gone through the trouble of putting on a collared shirt and tie. Chim was in an AC/DC t-shirt and out on a balcony of all places. Evan — who apparently went by Buck for some reason — was missing the tie to his button up, but the look was good on him. Just a bit put together. It was Buck that Eddie would be working closest with. He seemed friendly and nice enough but also very very attractive.  

—

Buck didn’t think he’d ever written or replied to so many emails in his life as he did in the first three days of working from home. 

The whole thing had been confusing for Sebastian, his dog, who didn’t seem to really understand why Buck was waking up and doing the whole shower, coffee, spending ten minutes staring into the abyss of his fridge every morning before taking him out on a walk, returning to the apartment and then not leaving. After the third day, Sebastian seemed to get over it. 

By day four, Buck was sort of getting sick of going to work in the kitchen. So, he moved to the living room which worked for about a half hour before Sebastian decided it was a good time to try and get a belly rub which led to no work. He did eventually get some done later when he went back into the kitchen for a Zoom conference with Bobby. 

Taking Sebastian out on walks was basically the only time that Buck was going out. and it was weird how the usually busy streets were empty. He’d been smart about getting enough food to last him a few weeks back before the working from home thing started and Buck was reluctant to go out to any grocery store when he heard all the horror stories about how packed those places were. But since Buck wanted to keep Sebastian on his usual schedule, it meant that he really only went outside three times a day and not for very long at all. 

It wasn’t like Buck even had any real down time when he had to be in meetings or responding to emails or just doing his own solo work. The person that he was mostly emailed was someone he’d never met or worked with before. Eddie Diaz. The first time he’d even laid eyes on the guy was in the initial video conference. 

On the morning of day five, it was an email from Eddie that woke Buke.  

Hey, 

Let me know when you have time and we can get on Zoom. I figure we can go over everything we’ve done so far. 

-Eddie Diaz

Buck went through his morning routine which included push ups and sit ups and a bit of stretching before he got in the shower, got dressed and went down for breakfast but more importantly coffee. Sebastian ate when Buck served him some kibble and then they went out for their morning walk. Buck emailed Eddie back as soon as he’d made it back into the apartment. 

They settled for a Zoom conference in an hour and Buck started preparing everything he’d worked on to share with Eddie. Their collaboration was pretty much imperative for the whole project to work. 

Seeing someone through a computer — especially a stranger someone — was odd. He’d seen Eddie before at this point, but they hadn’t had a one on one video call. 

“Hi,” Eddie said. “How are you?” 

“Uh, good. You? How’s this whole quarantine working out for you?” 

Eddie shrugged his shoulders. “It is what it is. Anyway, so I figure we both have to be on the same page.” 

“Yes. Definitely.” 

It was a little awkward until they started talking about the project and then everything just fell into professionalism. Still, Buck had eyes and he could tell even through the screen that Eddie was attractive. He smiled with all his teeth and his eyes were warm and expressive and Buck could tell that Eddie was as passionate as Buck was about the project. 

“So, we touch in every day?” Buck asked. 

“Yes. Video probably works best. Text always leads to misunderstandings.” 

“You’re right about that.” 

Sebastian chose that moment to bark and when Buck looked at the clock, he was about due for a walk. Before the work from home thing happened, Buck had a dog walker that stopped by every day to take Sebastian out. 

“Oh, is that your dog?” Eddie asked. 

“Yup. Letting me know it’s time for his walk,” Buck said with a roll of his eyes. 

Eddie chuckled. “I’m sure he’s happy to have you at home.” 

“Probably. Or maybe he’s missing the dog walker.” 

Eddie laughed again and when he laughed he looked stupid pretty. “I’ll let you get to your dog, then, Buck. See you tomorrow?” 

“Yeah. See you tomorrow.” 

—-

On day six of quarantine, Eddie had to leave the house. He’d been so busy in the days leading up to the work from home order that he hadn’t had much time to actually stock up on much of anything. Usually that was fine because Eddie wasn’t much of a cook and he relied on whatever his abuela cooked and then pushed Eddie to take home with him. Then there was also Carla who took care of Christopher and not only did the shopping but then the cooking too. Eddie just tended to rely on ordering in, but doing that every day was both bad for his wallet and probably not good for him or his kid. 

The only annoying part about all of it was that he was going to have to take Christopher out. Eddie would have preferred otherwise, but he didn’t want to bother his abuela or Carla. It was just a matter of being very careful. But before they could go out, Eddie needed to do his daily call with Buck. 

“Okay, buddie, I want you to get working on your reading, okay? I have to do work for a bit but then we’re going shopping.” 

He set up the computer and went and grabbed himself a glass of water before he initiated the call. He almost laughed when Buck picked up. 

So far, Buck had always been dressed as if he were actually going to the office. Polos and button ups and nice sweaters, but on this day he’d apparently given up on that because he was in a dark tank top and his hair had gained a bit of curl to it. 

“Hi,” Buck said. “Sorry I look a mess.”

“You look fine,” Eddie said. “I usually look a mess, so it’s a nice change.” 

“Funny,” Buck said. 

Eddie just shook his head at him. “No, it’s fine. You look fine.” 

Better than fine, probably, since Buck was just effortlessly attractive and there was something about the dishevelled look that really did it for Eddie. 

They got to business talk, answering questions and suggesting things for the next phase of the project. They were actually both doing well with their deadlines. Of course with the whole Covid-19 thing getting worse and worse, no one knew if rollout would go on as planned. 

“And what else are up to today?” Buck asked once the business talk was over. 

“I have to go grocery shopping,” Eddie said. “Kinda a hassle because I have a son.” 

“Wait, you have a kid?” Buck said, he practically shouted it and his eyes widened. “Sorry. I just...I really love kids.” 

Eddie chuckled. “Yeah, he’s eight. His mom’s not in the picture, so it’s just the two of us.” 

“And you’re going to take him out?” Buck asked, frowning. “You know how crazy the stores are right now, right?” 

“Kinda unavoidable. Can’t leave him home alone and I don’t have anyone to watch him and we need to get a few things.”

“For your sake, I hope you’re not hoping to find toilet paper,” Buck said. 

Eddie rolled his eyes. “No. Small mercies. I bought some before all this madness. Just after food, really.”

“So get it delivered. There’s apps for that now.”

Eddie hadn’t even considered that possibility but Buck was right. “You know, I think you just made my day a lot easier.” 

“Good. I’m glad. Anything to help you, man.” 

“Thanks,” Eddie said. “And what are you up to?” 

The thing about talking to Buck was that it gave him a connection to the outside world. Sure Eddie called abuela and his tia every day to check in with them and see how they were doing or if they needed anything but that felt different than talking to Buck. Even talking to his parents who were in a whole other state or his sisters — when they felt like answering the phone — was  less stimulating. Maybe it was because they were family and Buck wasn’t. 

“I am hanging out with Sebastian for the day and catching up on some Netflix. Might bake something. I’ve been having the worst sweet tooth but unless I eat straight sugar, I don’t have anything sweet in this house.” 

“Sebastian is...”

“My dog,” Buck said with a grin. “I know, human name. No one gets it but my favorite Disney movie is—”

“The Little Mermaid,” Eddie finished for him. 

“Exactly.” 

Eddie shook his head at Buck. “Okay, I’m going to figure out this grocery delivery thing.” 

“It might not be same day,” Buck said. “Maybe it depends.” 

“I have enough food to get by for at least a few more days. But better to get this out of the way.” 

“Yup,” Buck said. 

“And what about you? Did you go out and stock up before all of this?” 

Buck rubbed at his neck in what was clearly a nervous habit. “I bought a lot of stuff,” he said. “But I figured it was best to with all that’s going on. Really, it’s our responsibility to stay home right now. And it doesn’t look like this will be over any time soon.” 

“It doesn’t,” Eddie said. He kind of hated admitting that because it meant that things wouldn’t get back to normal faster. 

Eddie just wasn’t too big a fan of spending a lot of time in doors. That just wasn’t who he was. And Christopher had already been asking about going to the park. Eddie had taken him outside into the yard for a while every day but he could tell that Christopher was getting bored of that and bored of not being able to see his friends. 

“Okay, I’ll go figure that out now. I’ll email you if I have any questions.” 

Buck rolled his eyes. “Just video chat me. I’m kind of liking this a lot more than I expected.” 

It took Eddie about twenty minutes before he called Buck to ask for help. 

—-

On days seven and eight, Buck binged an entire show on Netflix. He got no work done, but he did manage to talk to Eddie for a part of his day. It was practically becoming routine. Sebastian had even decided to make an appearance and Eddie couldn’t praise Sebastian enough. 

“He’s gorgeous,” Eddie said. 

Sebastian was a cocker spaniel mixed with golden retriever. It was easy to see the different breeds in him and in Buck’s opinion it only made him cuter and it helped that when Buck adopted him, he was already well trained that he didn’t have to put too much effort into getting him to listen. 

On day ten, Eddie video called him for a second time late at night while Buck was in the middle of making dinner. He was in the middle of mashing potatoes but he still grabbed his laptop and set it up somewhere that the camera could see him. 

“Hey,” Buck said. “Anything going on?” 

“Not with work,” Eddie said. “Just — okay, so I’m a horrible cook and the internet isn’t exactly helping.”

“What is it?” Buck asked. 

“What does fold mean? Oh...I’m making chocolate mousse.” He panned the camera to where he’d already whipped some cream.

“That’s ambitious,” Buck said with a grin. “And folding just means that you mix it very gently.”

He gave Eddie instructions as he did it and it was definitely an experience to help someone cook — well, mix — something while not being present. 

“Thank you so much, Buck. I had no idea who else to ask.” 

“Really. I was your best option?” 

Eddie shrugged. “My abuela has never made mousse in her life. She makes Mexican things so. And my sisters would never let me live this down.” 

“Ah. So I’m the least embarrassing option.” 

“I suppose.” 

At that moment a kid ran right into the shot. He was small with curly blond-ish hair, and glasses. 

“Daddy, is it ready?” the boy asked. 

Eddie’s son was adorable. He was also disabled but it was very clear that it wasn’t something that defined him. And the way that Eddie looked at his son, it warmed Buck’s heart. There was just so much love between them that it was palpable.  

“Almost, Christopher. How about you go wash your hands?” 

“Okay.” 

He left again and Buck could hear — now that he knew — the way that his crutches clinked on the floor. 

“That’s Christopher,” Buck said. 

“Oh. Yes. That’s my son.”

“He’s adorable, Eddie. Like I said, I love kids.”

Eddie smiled wide, his teeth showing. “Yeah...well that one is my world.” 

“And you said the mother isn’t in the picture?” Buck asked.

Eddie shook his head. “No. She’s not. We’re divorced actually, but I have no clue where she is now. I don’t think I would even let her see him if she came looking. Not when she’ll just leave him again. I, um, I have primary custody and she didn’t even try to fight me on it.” 

“That sucks, man. Poor kid.” 

Eddie gave a nod. “He still talks about her sometimes but I think he understands she isn’t coming back.” 

It had to be hard raising a disabled child with an absentee mother. It made Buck admire Eddie even more. 

Eddie kept him on the call even when his son came back and he’d placed a couple of spoons of the chocolate mousse on a small bowl. 

“And what are you cooking over there, Buck?” 

“Mashed potatoes,” Buck said, “to go with my chicken breast. And maybe I’ll make a salad too.” 

“So you’re eating a healthy meal and I’m over here hoping my kid doesn’t start jumping off the walls after all that sugar.” 

“I hope that’s not all you’re having for dinner,” Buck said. 

“No. We had sandwiches earlier. That’s really the extent of my cooking. And he knows it too. Doesn’t expect much.” 

They stayed up talking that night while Buck got his dinner together and even as Buck started to eat. For Buck it practically feelt natural to have Eddie there on his computer. He didn’t care that he was wearing a stained t-shirt and that he hadn’t bothered with his hair all day and that Eddie was going to watch him as he ate. 

They talked about the virus because it wasn’t a topic anyone could easily escape, and then Buck told Eddie that his sister was actually a nurse. 

“She’s right in the thick of this. I’m so worried she’ll catch it but she just says it’s the hazard of the job. And it’s not like I could even stop by her place to see her now. I just worry.” 

“Well tell her I admire her a lot for working through this time.” 

“Thanks,” Buck said. “I’ll pass that along.” 

Eventually the conversation topic switched to something else until Buck’s plate was completely clean and yet he and Eddie just kept talking. Eddie told him about his family in Texas and then about his abuela and tia. 

“It’s my cousins that are really taking care of them,” Eddie said. “They get it. I have Christopher and everything. But I just hope they’re both okay after all of this since it seems like it’s harder on anyone that’s older.” 

“I’m sure they will be,” Buck said. “It’s all about staying home.”

“Yeah.” Eddie said. “Abuela gets stir crazy. So do I, to be honest.” 

—-

Day eleven was a bit of a hard day. He and Eddie didn’t talk at all but Maddie called him in tears because one of her patients died. He spent over an hour on the phone with her talking about it. The virus really wasn’t something to take lightly. After being reprimanded to stay home — even though he already was — Maddie let him go. 

On day twelve they had a big conference call with everyone working on the project. Bobby wanted information from everyone and it was lucky that he and Eddie shared everything with each other because when Eddie didn’t appear on the call, Buck was able to show them everything from his end. He tried not to display how worried he was, but he did send an email Eddie’s way. There was no response. 

Not hearing from Eddie made him antsy. It made him want to leave his apartment and go over to Eddie’s to make sure that he was okay. Buck with everything going on, Buck knew that he couldn’t be rash like that. 

It was on day fourteen that first thing in the morning, Eddie video called. 

“Oh my god, are you okay?” Buck asked before Eddie could even say hello.

“I’m fine. I should have emailed you, I guess. Things got a little out of hand. My cousin has the virus so I’ve been basically stuck on the phone because my tia Pepa was in contact with her and so abuela is freaking out. Pepa doesn’t seem to be showing any symptoms but she’s getting tested today and of course all the other family wanted to make sure I hadn’t been exposed or Christopher. So I’ve been a bit busy. But you were worried?” 

Buck knew he was blushing. “I may have worried a little.” 

“Or a lot,” Eddie said with a smile. “It’s cute.” 

“Well, we’re in quarantine, what else was I supposed to do?” 

Eddie just shrugged, but his smile was pleased and Buck was starting to figure out that he maybe didn’t have any friends like Eddie. That maybe Eddie was more than a friend or someone that could be more than a friend. 

“How’s your sister doing?” 

“She’s still working and still holding on. I don’t know how she can be this strong.” 

Eddie nodded along. “It’s amazing, isn’t it? How strong someone can be — how amazing it is to be witness of that? Christopher is probably the strongest person I know.” 

“I can imagine,” Buck said. “What, um, what is—”

“He has CP,” Eddie said. “But that hasn’t stopped him from doing anything he wants to do.” 

The way that Eddie smiled when he talked about Christopher was almost enough to have Buck smitten. The thing was that he’d never connected with anyone the way that he connected to Eddie. Buck hoped that when it was all over, he wouldn’t lose the friendship or any of what he was hoping was building between them. 

—-

By the time that it had been twenty one days on quarantine — a whole three weeks — Eddie was just about ready to tear his hair off. His growing hair because due to everything but essential businesses remaining open the likelihood of finding a hair salon was low. Eddie didn’t really mind that his hair got longer, it just meant that there were more steps to taking care of it. And even though all he really did these days was watch movies with his son, Eddie still felt like he needed to look good. None of it had anything to do with how he and Buck were still video chatting every day and the length of those calls kept growing and growing. 

Work had pretty much come to a stand still. The project was nearly finished but without a rollout date there wasn’t much for them to do. It meant that things were getting boring. 

He and Christopher had done as much as possible to not get bored. They went outside for an hour most days even if it was just to sit out in the sun. It just felt nice to get outside sometimes. 

Other days they watched movies or shows or Christopher did some drawing and played with his toys. Buck was also there for most things through the screen of his computer or phone. Buck made things a bit more bearable even if Eddie could tell that he was also stir crazy. The only time that Buck went out was to walk Sebastian, but on a few occasions even while out on a walk he would call Eddie and Eddie would get a glimpse of the nearly empty streets.

“I wish I could be out there with you,” Eddie said on a sunny day. Day twenty three of quarantine. 

Buck was on a walk with Sebastian and it was eerie how everything looked just a tad too empty. 

“When this is all over we can go on the longest walk,” Buck said. “We can visit every ice cream shop and any taqueria. We can do anything you want.” 

“Eager to meet me in person, Buck?” 

“Maybe a little,” Buck said and he was just so completely honest.

Eddie would be lying if he didn’t feel something for Buck. There was the friendship they’d formed and the fondness but there was more too. Maybe it was because they were so open with each other and maybe a bit vulnerable, but it was also that Buck was sweet and wonderful and that he genuinely seemed interested in Christopher. 

Eddie would forever remember what happened on what must have been day seventeen or maybe it was sixteen — the days were really blurring together — when Christopher had gotten curious about why Eddie was laughing. 

“I’m just talking to a friend. A coworker.” 

“A friend?” Christopher asked. 

“Yeah. Hey, Buck, you want to meet Christopher?” 

“Of course.” 

Eddie knew that Buck said that he liked kids, but he didn’t expect the patience or the interest that Buck bestowed on Christopher. He didn’t seem to mind listening to Christopher talk about homeschooling or even a silly story about the bunny they’d spotted out in the yard a few days earlier. 

Buck was just wonderful. He asked about Christopher every single call and if Christopher wasn’t busy with schoolwork then sometimes Buck would just talk to Christopher. Buck was just kind of perfect. 

“Are you for real, you want to meet up once we can leave our houses?” Eddie asked. 

Buck chuckled and he ducked his head. His cheeks were noticeably pink even through the phone and Eddie really really liked him. He was adorable. 

“Yes, Eddie. Or should I say, Edmundo.” 

Eddie rolled his eyes. “I told you that with so much confidence and if you keep bringing it up I’m just going to start calling you Evan.” 

“Fine. But, yeah, Eddie. I think you’re one of my closest friends.”

“That’s just quarantine talk,” Eddie said.

Even though for him, it wasn’t. It couldn’t be. The way that he felt about Buck...the way that he felt happy whenever he saw Buck was calling, it made Eddie so absolutely sure that it was more than friendship because they were relying on each other for outside contact. 

“It’s not,” Buck said in all seriousness. “I like you, Eddie. And I think if we had met in any other way I would have liked you then too.”

Talking about his feelings had never been easy for Eddie. What Shannon did to him and Christopher had maybe made that so much worse. 

So it was hard to say it, but Eddie felt like he would burst if he didn’t. “I like you too.”

“Is that a blush?” Buck asked with a goofy grin that told Eddie that Buck was pleased. 

“I’m going to go now. I’ll talk to you later,” Eddie said because he didn’t know if he could keep talking to Buck without being a mess. 

—-

He felt like he could fly, like the butterflies in his stomach from the first moment that he told Eddie he liked him, were ready to just lift him right off the ground. 

And Eddie saying that he liked him too, it nearly killed him to hear it and Buck just wanted for Eddie to be sure that Buck did mean it. 

So with very little to do for work and boredom creeping into almost everything he did, Buck started to plan. There was a way to use Zoom for screen sharing and Buck had helped Eddie with his grocery order so he knew where Eddie lived. He also knew that Eddie and Christopher were both fans of chocolate. 

So Buck called up a local bakery and ordered cupcakes to be delivered to Eddie that night. The girl on the phone seemed entirely pleased with getting the order at all and it made Buck wonder how much business they were actually having. It made him order some cupcakes for himself as well. 

Then he browsed through Netflix for something that Eddie would enjoy but that Christopher could watch too. He found a few different choices and figured he’d just offer Eddie a choice and then he went and got ready. Cleaning himself up a bit and even shaving the growing beard on his face. Then he put on one of his favorite shirts and went down and got his laptop and settled himself on his couch. He got up only when his cupcakes arrived, being just dropped off at his door which meant that Eddie would get his soon too. Buck was going to wait for Eddie to just call him after it arrived. 

The call came just ten minutes later. It was Eddie and Christopher. Christopher had clearly already eaten a cupcake because there was frosting on his nose. 

“You got them?” Buck asked.

“Yeah. Buck, I — you’re incredible. You know?”

Buck smiled at them. “And just wait, I have a whole night planned for us. A quarantine date, if you will.”

“Daddy, what’s that?”

“What?” Eddie asked. 

“What Buck just said.”

Watching Eddie with Christopher and the way that he was such a good dad, it did things to Buck. Buck had always loved kids. He didn’t get a lot of opportunity to be around kids, but he’d always wanted to be a dad. Someday. Maddie often said that it was mostly because he was such a kid that he got along so well with most children. And Buck could tell that Eddie was a good dad. It somehow made him even more attractive. 

—-

When the doorbell rang, Eddie had almost expected it to be one of his cousins or maybe his tia. Instead, he opened it and found a cardboard box from a bakery and atop it an envelope with a note. Eddie took it all into the kitchen, gave the outside of the box a wipe with some lyrol surface wipes and then opened the envelope and pulled out a small card. 

Eddie, 

I figure why wait for our first date? I’m sending you something sweet for you and Christopher and I’m setting up a movie date for the three of us. 

Call me when you get this, I’ll be waiting. 

-Buck

Eddie had never experienced someone like Buck before. Eddie just hadn’t expected for Buck to make a gesture like this and it was just unattached to any expectations and Buck just included Christopher like it was the natural thing to do. 

“Daddy, what is it?” Christopher asked. 

“My friend. You remember from the computer?”

“Buck!” Christopher yelled out. 

“Yes, that one. He sent us a present.” 

Chistopher made a noise in excitement and Eddie chuckled before he opened the box. There were twelve cupcakes inside, each expertly frosted and they were clearly themed. Eddie shook his head and tried not to laugh when he looked at them. There were four rows and each of the rows were decorated differently. The first one was blue frosting with a single roll of toilet paper sitting at the top. The next one had a spray bottle. The one after that had a face mask. The last had hearts. 

“Can I have one, Daddy? Please?” 

Eddie gave in and let Christopher pick out his treat. Then he went and grabbed his laptop to call Buck. 

“You got them?” Buck asked the moment he appeared on the screen. 

“Yeah. Buck, I — you’re incredible. You know?”

Buck smiled at them. He looked good. The scruff that had been growing on his jaw was gone but his hair was still a bit on the curlier side and Buck had explained that it was because it was getting long. Eddie loved it. 

 “And just wait, I have a whole night planned for us. A quarantine date, if you will,” Buck said, his smile was so wide and Eddie wished that they were in the same place because if they were he might have kissed him. 

“Daddy what’s that?” Christopher asked. He was right in the view of the camera and his face was a little messy from the cupcake he was eating. 

“What?” Eddie asked. 

“What Buck just said.”

“It means that since we can’t leave the house we’re going to stay here and he’s going to stay at his apartment but we’re going to hang out. How does that sound, kiddo?” 

“Fun,” Christopher said. 

Eddie looked back at the screen. “So, what does this date entail?” 

Buck smiled at him. “Okay, so I did a bit of research and I was going to try to use Netflix Party for this but then we’d lose the video chat aspect. But we can do screen sharing with Zoom so how about a movie date?”

“Sounds perfect, Buck.”

Buck grinned. “Awesome.”

It was perfect in a weirdly unconventional way. Buck had picked out movies that were Christopher friendly and with Christopher right there, they had a quick choice. Hook. Buck admitted that he’d never actually seen it before. 

“We weren’t big on movies growing up,” Buck admitted. 

“That’s kinda sad, Buck,” Eddie said. “Have you been catching up on everything you missed while you’re stuck at home?” 

Buck rolled his eyes. “Sort of.”

Christopher had never seen Hook either and he was excited when Buck got everything set up on his end. Watching a movie with another person that wasn’t in the room with him was different and yet watching Buck’s reactions to the movie on the screen and the way that they almost matched Christophers was endearing. Eddie really really liked Buck. 

—-

Quarantine kept going. No one knew when it was going to end. By day thirty three, Buck was really getting sick of it. He took Sebastian out on longer and longer walks and he spent as much time as he could out on his balcony, overlooking the empty streets and the very few people taking walks outside. He and Eddie still used Zoom as the primary form of contact, but they’d exchanged numbers too so that they texted constantly, sending memes back and forth because that was one of the few good things to come out of the whole mess. 

Eddie made it all a bit better, even though Buck couldn’t actually be with him. But the prospect of finally getting to see him in person kept Buck going. Almost every day one of them mentioned all the numerous things that they wanted to do once they were allowed out again. 

“I want to go to a museum,” Buck said. “Art or history — it doesn’t even matter. I just want to go. And you’re welcome to come with me.” 

“I want to go to a restaurant and actually be able to eat there,” Eddie said. 

“Amusement park,” Buck added. “A concert.” 

“The mall. I hate shopping, but I’d love to be able to go to the mall.” 

“I’d even love to go back into the office. Or...maybe just anywhere with you.”

Eddie always had a pleased look when Buck mentioned the two of them getting together. They didn’t talk about it often, but they had Zoom dates every other day watching movies or eating together often with Christopher butting in not that Buck minded that in the least. It was late at night when Christopher was in bed that Buck and Eddie had time alone and in the cover of darkness things were different. That was when things got deep. 

It was late at night that Eddie told Buck about Christopher’s mother, Shannon and the turbulent relationship. It was also when Buck told Eddie about Abby and how she left him. They shared stories about growing up and about how they each figured out their attraction to men and women. They talked about Christopher’s CP. They talked about how Buck didn’t actually love his job but that it was something he’d fallen into. Eddie told Buck about his time in the Army. 

Other nights it was different. Less morose. 

They talked about them. About how strange it was to fall for someone over Zoom of all things and yet how their connection was real. The attraction was real. And they both absolutely longed for the day when they could be in person together. 

“I’m going to kiss you so hard, Edmundo Diaz,” Buck said one night after yet another movie night. Christopher was in bed and Buck had walked up to his own bed as well. “You won’t know it’s coming.”

“Well, you’ve just given me warning so now I’m expecting it, Evan,”

“As long as you’ll kiss me back,” Buck said. 

“Of course I’ll kiss you back. I’ll always kiss you back.” 

—-

Day forty hit Eddie hard when he realized that it had been forty days since he stepped outside his house. Christopher was so adaptable that he was fine with the way things were. And truth be told, Eddie had gotten used to working from home. He’d also gotten really used to having Buck on a screen for most of the day or just a text away. Buck texted him good morning every morning when he woke up and Eddie would call him on Zoom and take him along as he and Christopher did their morning routine. 

Buck even taught Eddie how to make pancakes one morning when he was in the middle of eating some and Christopher wanted some too. Eddie usually relied on mixes that just needed water, but Buck instructed him and Christopher until the finished result was fluffy discs that he and Christopher ate ravenously. It made Eddie wish he could have Buck in person. 

The longer the quarantine went, the more that Eddie longed to see Buck off a computer screen. If it wasn’t for Christopher and his CP, Eddie would have already gone and asked Buck to come over or gone to join him at his apartment. But even though Buck had been stuck inside his home and clearly wasn’t sick, Eddie wasn’t stupid enough to risk it. 

So instead he and Buck daydreamed of the day they would finally get their in person date. 

“You know,” Buck said on day forty three, “we’ve been on so many virtual dates already that we should be way past third base.”

Eddie laughed at that. “Oh, Buck.” 

“Listen,” Buck said in a quieter tone, “you don’t make it easy looking like you do.”

“And somehow I’m just fine even though you look like that,” Eddie said. 

Buck just pouted at him. It made him look cute more than anything. Eddie pushed his hair back. It had grown quite a bit since he hadn’t been able to go out and get a haircut but Buck seemed to like the length. It made Eddie consider keeping it. 

Some days they just threw out date ideas at each other. Buck told him he would take Eddie out on a hot air balloon and they could have a picnic up in the clouds. Eddie wanted to take him rock climbing. Buck wanted to go to the zoo but mostly because Christopher wanted to. Eddie wanted the two of them to go hiking. Buck wanted to take Eddie to the beach to hang out at the pier but also out on the sand so they could build sand castles together. Eddie mentioned being good at bowling and Buck wanted to beat him at it. Buck also wanted to beat him at pool. Mostly, though, the two of them wanted to do anything as long as they could do it together. 

But their work from home was being extended as was the stay at home order. Things were bad and Eddie couldn’t really handle watching the news anymore because it was always more and more depressing. 

He could tell that it was getting to Buck some days more than others. 

“I just — I hate this, you know, the staying inside and the lack of seeing anyone but then you hear all these things about the number of cases and it’s horrible. And my sister is right in the thick of it and she’s okay but I worry about her. She called me last night and she was just crying the entire time. And it’s just horrible. And then you have all these idiots not taking it seriously even forty something days into this quarantine and I don’t get it.” 

“I don’t get it either, Buck. I really don’t.”

—-

Buck stopped counting the days after day forty five because counting made him feel more like a prisoner in his own home more than anything else. So when the stay at home order was finally lifted after what felt like a couple of year length months, it was Eddie that told him they had been in quarantine for nearly seventy days. 

“That’s impossible,” Buck said. 

“My hair says otherwise,” Eddie said. 

At some point, Buck remembered Eddie trying to figure out how to cut his own hair and it had been a combination of Christopher thinking it was a bad idea and Buck repeatedly telling Eddie that he didn’t mind the longer hair that stopped him from doing it. 

“It’s still going to be a while before life goes back to normal,” Buck said. 

Eddie shrugged his shoulders. “But there’s an end in sight now.”

They were still going to keep working from home but the prospect of getting back to the office made things better. It also meant that they all needed to get back on track which began with another Zoom conference with Bobby and all the others. 

Buck looked professional again which made Eddie laugh a little. 

“What’s so funny, Diaz?” Buck asked. 

Everyone was paying attention to him and he could feel himself blushing. “Nothing. Nothing. Let’s get the meeting started.” 

It was after the meeting that Buck called him. He was in a t-shirt and looking a lot more relaxed which made Eddie burst out into laughter. 

“You changed,” Eddie said. 

“Yeah. So?” 

“It’s just cute you dressed up for the meeting,” Eddie said. “You’re just adorable, Buck.” 

“I’m—”

“I like it,” Eddie said and then after taking a deep breath. “So, when can I see you?” 

“Now?” Buck asked. 

—-

The first time that Buck saw Eddie in person he felt like his heart was going to beat out of his chest. He didn’t know why he was so nervous after all the time they’d spent talking and after everything they’d shared with each other but when Eddie noticed him and smiled Buck took a breath and stepped forward. 

“Hi,” he said. 

“Hi,” Eddie said back. 

“It’s nice to not see you on a screen for once,” Buck said.

“Yeah. I think I prefer this.” 

“Me too.”

It was different and a little bit awkward but it was him and Eddie and when Buck offered his hand to him, Eddie took it and laced their fingers and Buck knew with some certainty that things would work out. They may have met over Zoom video conference but it didn’t in any way make what they felt less real or less important. 

“So,” Eddie said.

“So,” Buck said and they both laughed until Buck moved closer. He could smell Eddie’s aftershave and their hands were still linked which grounded him as he leaned into Eddie’s space and kissed him. Eddie pulled him closer, gasping against his lips and deepening the kiss. 

“Told you I was going to kiss you,” Buck said. 

---

Notes: Thank you to anyone that read this. Considering the current situation across the world I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy. 

Find my other Buddie fics here 

[violetsystems]

#personal

The holidays are quiet if not a little more restful than usual.  I facetime’d my dad and his wife and talked to my mom on the phone.  Since I left my job way back in July I haven’t had much video contact with anybody.  Everybody is too busy baking banana bread on YouTube I guess to check in.  The final days of my employment had devolved into a virtual SCRUM twice a day led by myself on camera.  It was exhausting at times to lead but kept people focused.  That is when they bothered to show up.  One of my employees was off making music with my boss half the time I was trying to lead those discussions.  I’m beginning to sense a theme.  People saying they are there but not really.  Maybe the mic is muted.  Maybe you can’t see behind the screen.  All I know is the follow through lately with people is missing entirely.  I spent a good hour the last two days trying to decouple a credit card from my old job’s contact info.  I’m locked out of both the phone number and the email attached to the account.  I got the run around trying to provide a US passport to confirm my identity.  It was good enough to enter China alone.  The first call that ID was sufficient.  They had said they sent an email to follow through with the process to two different emails I provided.  The email never came most likely because neither had been tied to the account previously.  I called back on Christmas eve and suddenly the passport wasn’t good enough.  Neither was an expired driver’s license.  The woman actually asked me why I hadn’t renewed my driver’s license.  I told the truth.  My ex girlfriend stole my car.  That didn’t really help the situation.  I sent a passport photo to unlock my facebook but they never followed through.   I had an easier time unlocking my Fortnite account with it although that took a full week.  I ended having to call the police on Christmas eve to explore filing a report for fraud and identity theft.  The police officer on the phone pretty much gaslighted me at the end of the questioning.  “Nothing criminal.” he stated plainly.  I didn’t get mad.  I didn’t even complain.  I simply said Happy Holidays and hung up.  Much like I’ve hung up on the last twenty years of my life at this point.  Nobody seems to want to answer the video call.  The opening introduction if they did would be something like “What exactly have you done with my life?”  Maybe they’re afraid to confront the truth.  The media, the government, and even the police seem to not want to believe evidence that contradicts their narrative.  I guess you could throw up your hands and revolt.  But the holidays have been peaceful and quiet enough to simply roll my eyes and move on.  I’ve had years of failures to connect.  COVID has taught me a lot of things.  I heard the mantra in all the mandatory corporate webinars.  This pandemic has brought to light structural problems we were never aware of before.  Sexual harassment in the workplace.  Check.  Organizational corruption.  Check.  The fact everybody is full of bullshit and will just mute the mic and pretend it never happened.  Check.  People feel invincible behind a screen and think they know it all.  Check.  Now that we’re aware.  What do we do?  How do we move on with our life now that we have all this space?  How do I even care about participating in a broken process when I have no debt and fiscal maturity?  How can I go back to being the old me when I’ve been completely erased and conveniently forgot about?  Why would I even bother?  

Mostly I take the time with this process to make sure my identity is completely secure.  Which is why it’s not really fun to be locked out of twenty years of your own information in the form of an email account and forgotten about for six months.  But this is just the structural reality come to light.  Much like the rest of America is waking up to the reality of what greed really does to people.  That was my Christmas present this year aside from the coffee that never came and that Cyberpunk game that I don’t really have the time or the subpar computer setup to criticize.  I’m guilty of tricking myself into thinking people care about me.  I have statistical data from the last six months that proves otherwise.  I also have financial data that points to whatever hustle I have been hustling during that time has paid off and will continue to.  But I don’t really have an answer to anything.  I’m in the worst kind of limbo.  I don’t get the sense these days that I should even remotely worry until July.  Which is kind of like saying fuck you to the world for the next six months.  I spent the last six waking up from a nightmare.  The only times I look back is to clean up the mess.  And a Christmas Eve call to the police is kind of messy.  But the result is more of the same for me.  An extravagant “I told you so.”  I’ve been telling myself for awhile now a lot of things.  Some of them were kind of unbelievable.  Now those very dreams are all I really take comfort in.  The limbo I’m in is more pointed to the light at the end of the tunnel than the void.  But I can’t say the same for everybody else.  I work for myself for the time being.  It looks really nice on paper.  I can even pay myself if it fits into my organization’s financial outlook.  But none of this matters when you or your struggles don’t even exist to people other than to mock or judge it.  All the work we do to survive.  All the work we do to create art and to be beautiful in the face of chaos.  All of that is negated by a loud mouthed jerk who can bark you back into submission.  A mob of dumb ass fraudsters that talk over and mute any opposition without any warrant or merit.  The press follows this mentality pretty clearly.  Everybody has a hot take and a theory.   But nobody wants to sit down and listen to the culmination of lies spread about people and situations.  Everyone is too emotionally interested in sharing their recipe for banana bread to an invisible audience.  I guess I could be guilty of that too.  Except that I share actual human emotion and care with a community of people who pay attention week to week.  For a person like myself who has no real need to worry about money for the foreseeable future what’s the value of care and attention?  A lot.  I don’t feed myself with vapor or fake sentiments.  I take it all at base level as real as it gets.  You can’t build a future on speculation.  You can technically if you are in the stock market.  But risk is risk.  And money is money.  No one can be me at the end of the day.  Sometimes I can’t even prove I’m myself.  My mom reminded me I had to provide ten pieces of documentation to renew my passport ten years ago.  The reasoning was simple.  The government did not believe I existed.  No bullshit.  A decade later nothing really has changed.  I’ve been to Shanghai by myself and eaten McDonald’s.  I read all these Republicans talk about how you put your identity at risk just setting foot in that country.  

And yet when does the rhetoric and brainwashing fall flat on it’s face?  When you can’t pass economic stimulus to not only save your own people but the fragile stock market all this bullshit is built upon.  I could keep telling you I told you so.  Or I could save my own ass.  And largely I did without really owing much to this country whatsoever except taxes in Q1.  Taxes billionaires don’t have to pay because they offer us so much relevant employment and benefits that fit on their bottom line.  The real truth is that America would rather not face the truth.  It hasn’t for years.  It’s built on this kind of thing.  It always has been.  And the world gets bigger and the excuses get worse.  And so what does anyone expect a person like me to do after you openly admit that there’s nothing criminal going on here.  How does that sound when you’ve been treated openly like a criminal in so many unsettling ways that you just don’t want to participate in society anymore?  Not that anyone really asks me to participate.  They’re too busy signaling or whispering secret messages.  Is it suggestion or valid communication?  I’m the one that has to shift through it all and detangle the mess from what is real and what is some sort of mass hallucination.  An alternate reality hunger game that the rich have been playing for years without any punishment or oversight.  When you get caught up in the crossfire they expect you to know the drill.  Keep your mouth shut if you know what’s good for you.  None of this is good for me.  You could argue it made me the beast that I am.  But I am the one who had to actively make that choice to adapt and survive.  But I’m not like any normal person these days.  I refuse to admit it anymore.  They say the first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem.  I have a problem.  One that it seems I cannot fix.  And if you isolate and quarantine yourself from an entire twenty years of nostalgia what is left?  Where are the texts of merry xmas from yesteryear.  Probably pinging my old work number.  I can’t access my facebook.  Maybe that’s for the best.  I can’t shut down lines of credit until I renew my state ID.  I could jump on a plane and visit Shanghai Disney quicker than I could prove I’m alive to the US government.  And when does the constant gaslighting break down?  When do we realize that people gaslight to cover up an elaborate lie that has gotten out of control.  That we are not all in this together.  Not by a longshot.  That the problem of connectedness is right there in front of our faces.  We’re exhausted propping up entire infrastructures that keep a bloated empire alive.  Family fortunes built on opioids and war strewn out across the landscape in trusts and elaborate tax schemes.  Oligarchs that have generational wealth that buy our politicians and scam people into debt and forced labor.  This is America.  This is the systemic problem the pandemic brought to light.  This shit was built this way.  And like any fort constructed with shaky foundations, good luck hiding from the storm in that shit.  At least I can still access my Epic account.  What am I going to do for the next six months?  Complain about something I can’t fix because everybody wants to consider me part of the problem?  I don’t know what to do anymore except move forward and lead by example.  There’s enough quality people who follow to keep me warm with those thoughts through the holidays alone.  I won’t be drunk on a zoom call.  I’ll be in bed watching Wonder Woman or something.  When everyone you worshipped comes out of this looking fake, tired and exhausted you’ll know where to find me.  Unlocking more accounts tied to an identity that doesn’t exist anymore.  Nothing criminal.  Hopefully people will stop treating me like one eventually.  <3 Tim

[springhouse12-blog]

The 7 Most Underrated Benefits of Coworking Spaces

There are many proven benefits of coworking, whether in a company or in a shared space where many entrepreneurs and companies can come together to work on their independent goals.

Today's business is very different from what it was in recent decades. The emergence of the Internet has been a major shift in the paradigm, but the way we work and the places we work have not always kept pace.

Let's take a look at some of the most underrated and important benefits of coworking spaces from the perspective of a small team or a solo entrepreneur.

  1. Separate work and private life.

Entrepreneurs are confronted with many difficulties and mental obstacles. When you work for yourself, it is not always easy to stay focused and be responsible. If you already have procrastination and a lot of work to do, but you are at home and comfortable on the same computer you use to surf Facebook and play games, then this might be a recipe for disaster.

Not to mention other distractions like neighbors, family, the barking dog that lives next door.

Having a separate area outside the house, in this case, a coworking environment can help separate your personal life from your professional life, making it easier to focus while working and relax when you relax.

  2. Reduce costs and get the flexibility

In addition to renting, office costs can add up very quickly. From small things like coffee filters and printer to big things like desks, chairs and a super-fast internet connection, it doesn't take much time to cut your budget.

Yes, if you rent hours of co-working space for a whole month, renting a private office is probably cheaper, but that ignores one of the main advantages of coworking and flexibility.

If you want to travel and work abroad for a few months from your laptop, or even rotate your business completely, you are not bound by a long-term contract. In some cases, it will cost you a bit more in the short run, but in the long run it will save you a fortune.

If you decide that you work from home most of the time, but want to leave the house occasionally to work remotely to change the stage, coworking space in gurgaon is perfect.

  3. Be in a community

While we've talked about the benefits of separating your personal life from your professional life, the latter will contradict you a bit.

If you are always attentive, especially when you work from home, it can be easy to forget important things like social interaction. You have to make an active effort to go out, see friends and just explore the world outside your computer screen.

You probably won't find an entrepreneur who hasn't turned down social plans to continue working toward his goals.

If you're in a coworking space, everyone you meet will most likely have at least the same interests and direction in their life, which is a solid icebreaker and a good way to bond. Make new friends and be part of a community.

  4. Network capabilities

To go further, it is not only a question of meeting people over a coffee or talking about the trials and tribulations of entrepreneurship. Coworking environments also provide a great place to network and build business relationships.

You meet people who excel in the areas you struggle with and vice versa. Whether you make business friends who help each other or end up hiring / collaborating, meeting people in person, learning their work habits first-hand and having crucial resources you shouldn't take for granted .

This can help you become a staple of your new local scene, even if you are not the most open person and little interested in self-promotion, your work will speak for itself and people will know who to contact. if they need help. or advice, and it works both ways.

  5. A professional environment for meeting clients

If you work from home and you are a freelance writer, it can be a bit tricky when a client asks you to meet at their office. In some cases, if your client is out of fashion, they may be reluctant to hire someone without their own professional environment.

A coworking space gives you an address to give to your client and a place to meet them, which is not their home.

  6. Coworking makes elegant places accessible

Depending on where you live and work, there may be a clear separation between office space and affordable neighborhoods and those who are just not there to hire a startup.

However, if you want to dive deeper into the hustle and bustle of a bustling city, coworking can take you there at a more affordable price.

Think of it as a timeshare, but without the skeleton man in a cheap suit trying to trap him so that he commits suicide in exchange for an appetizer.

Most cities offer several coworking options, from the cheapest to the most luxurious, so take a look and see what works for you. The best part? You don't have to stay in one place. You can try different parts of the city, explore new areas, it can be a good way to try things out before you settle in.

  7. Acquire new perspectives

Another benefit of coworking is that you are exposed to many different businesses, industries, and niches. Office buildings tend to be much more isolated, but coworking opens doors to meet and chat with many different people.

Aside from the social and networking aspects that we have already discussed, this can be useful because you are looking at it from a different perspective.

Many great startups are born to solve a problem, so it makes sense that if you are closer to different industries and see what their difficulties are and what problems are more universal in the business, you can help solve new angles with your own business or projects.

[gordonwilliamsweb]

From Rotten Teeth to Advanced Cancer, Patients Feel the Effects of Treatment Delays

With medical visits picking up again among patients vaccinated against covid-19, health providers are starting to see the consequences of a year of pandemic-delayed preventive and emergency care as they find more advanced cancer and rotting and damaged teeth, among other ailments.

This story also ran on The Washington Post. It can be republished for free.

Dr. Brian Rah, chair of the cardiology department at Montana’s Billings Clinic, was confused in the early days of the covid pandemic. Why the sudden drop in heart attack patients at the Billings Clinic? And why did some who did come arrive hours after first feeling chest pains?

Two patients, both of whom suffered greater heart damage by delaying care, provided what came to be typical answers. One said he was afraid of contracting covid by going to the hospital. The other patient went to the emergency room in the morning, left after finding it too crowded, and then returned that night when he figured there would be fewer patients — and a lower risk of catching covid.

“For a heart attack patient, the first hour is known as the golden hour,” Rah said. After that, the likelihood of death or a lifelong reduction in activities and health increases, he said.

Dr. JP Valin, executive vice president and chief clinical officer at SCL Health of Colorado and Montana, said he is “kept awake at night” by delays in important medical tests. “People put off routine breast examinations, and there are going to be some cancers hiding that are not going to be identified, potentially delaying intervention,” he said.

Valin is also concerned that patients aren’t seeking timely treatment when suffering appendicitis symptoms like abdominal pain, fever and nausea. A burst appendix generally involves more risk and a week’s hospitalization, instead of one day of treatment for those who get care quickly, he said.

Dr. Fola May, a gastroenterologist who is also quality director and a health equity researcher at UCLA Health, worries about the consequences of an 80% to 90% drop in colonoscopies performed by the health system’s doctors during the first months of covid.

“All of a sudden we were downplaying health measures that are usually high-priority, such as trying to prevent diseases like cancer, to manage the pandemic,” May said.

Along with exacerbating existing health problems, the covid pandemic has also caused a host of new medical issues in patients. The American population will be coming out of the pandemic with teeth worn down from grinding, back problems from slouching at makeshift home-work stations and mental health problems from a combination of isolation and being too close to family.

Dr. Despina Markogiannakis, a dentist in Chevy Chase, Maryland, said patients don’t argue when she tells them they have been grinding or clenching their teeth and might require a root canal procedure, dental implant or night guard.

“These are people stuck at home all day and feeling lonely and feeling a little depression. It is induced by the world we live in and all the changes in our lives,” said Markogiannakis.

A recent American Dental Association survey found that more than 70% of member dentists reported an increase in patients grinding or clenching their teeth since covid. More than 60% reported an increase in other stress-related conditions, such as chipped and cracked teeth.

Dr. Gerard Mosby, a Detroit pediatrician, finds his young patients are suffering more stress, depression and weight gain than before the pandemic. They are confined in their homes, and many are living in multigenerational homes or foster homes or have experienced covid illnesses or death among family members.

“Since their ability to get out is limited, they can’t vent to friends or other family members. Also, most will not have access to mental health for grief counseling,” Mosby said.

Nancy Karim, a Bridgeport, Connecticut, licensed professional counselor and art therapist, said that, in addition to struggling with isolation, her patients are conversely stressed by living too closely with people without the benefit of breaks on work and school days.

Meanwhile, optometrist Matthew Jones, who practices in Blytheville and Osceola, Arkansas, reports worsening eye conditions for patients, some of whom stopped taking drops during covid for conditions like glaucoma. He’s also seeing much more eyestrain “because people are spending so much time in front of a computer screen” and recommends eyeglasses that filter out blue light to his patients.

Physical therapy needs are also on the rise.

“Patients that have transitioned to remote work are typically working with poor ergonomic set-ups and spending a lot more time sitting,” said Kaylee Smith, founder and president of Smith Physical Therapy and Performance Studio in San Diego.

“I am seeing more pain and injuries related to poor posture (i.e., neck pain, low back pain, etc.) and a significant increase in patients coming in with tight hips related to increased sitting time,” Smith said in an email.

Some providers report they are finally nearing pre-covid patient levels, but others still face covid resistance.

“Although we have seen an improvement over the past six weeks, it’s still not much,” said Neville Gupta of Gupta Gastro in Brooklyn and Far Rockaway, New York. “Our patients are still avoiding getting the care they need, no matter the safety precautions in place.”

KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.

USE OUR CONTENT

This story can be republished for free (details).

From Rotten Teeth to Advanced Cancer, Patients Feel the Effects of Treatment Delays published first on https://nootropicspowdersupplier.tumblr.com/

[empmoniitor]

HOW EMPMONITOR HELP CORPORATE LAW FIRMS WITH INSIDER THREAT PREVENTION?

Considering today’s business firms, irrespective of the sector they belong to, knowing about making their brand presence and establishing the firm in this tech-savvy world has tons of ups along with some downsides. Thus, placing against the backdrop, keeping your data secured and safe from insider threats is said to be the biggest challenge in today’s digital age.

As per various surveys, firms that are greatly affected and are looking for different insider threat prevention measures especially the ones which work with client’s personal information i.e. Health care industries, real-estate industries, etc. But amongst all, one industry that deals completely with the client’s personal information including financial details, family details, etc. is the law firm.

Law firms collect complete detailed information about their clients. Some of the information is highly sensitive. Therefore, in this digitalized era, confidential data is becoming increasingly vulnerable to fraud and misuse.

According to different surveys, thousands of data breaches resulted in millions of leaked personal records. Ransomware, insider threats, malware and phishing attacks primarily resulted from this.

Because of this, many law firms now rely on remote employee monitoring tools such as EmpMonitor to help them solve these security problems. Let’s examine how. Due to this, various law firms rely on remote computer monitoring tools such as EmpMonitor to help them solve these security problems.

Let’s examine how –

WHAT ARE THE ISSUES THE LAW FIRMS FACE?

In some of the most critical places of its market, these companies faced numerous challenges. The most visible ones were:      

To secure the sensitive data from leaking information outside the premises of their customers from possible traitors.  

Protecting their clients’ confidential information from potential traitors leaking information outside the premises.

Minimize the practice of exchanging information in the public domain or in the possession of other agents in court who are competing against their clients.

Confining the private data of their employees from outsiders and permanently safeguarding their knowledge.        

WHAT ARE THE BEST SOLUTIONS TO HELP LAW FIRMS?

MINIMIZE THE EXPOSURE OF THE COMPANY DETAILS:

Identifying emerging risks and malware online.

Keeping a check on the data edited and maintained by the staff of the saved business and employees.

EXPLORING THE SESSIONS AT WORK:

Recording the keys typed and scanned on the computers of the employees to understand their operations while working.

Check out the real-time screenshots of the employees’ screens, to determine the exact time of the data breach on the premises.  

KEEPING A CHECK ON THE TRAITORS WITHIN COMPANY PREMISES:

Constant tracking of accessed websites and apps.

Identification of irregular activity, over-sharing of knowledge, odd hours of work, etc.

Get a detailed overview of the employee’s computer activities and recognise those who breach the data.

EMPMONITOR FEATURES THAT HELP WITH INSIDER THREAT PREVENTION

EmpMonitor workplace activity monitoring software helps you gain complete insights into the organization’s computers and the way they are used. Some of the EmpMonitor features that help the law firms include –

REAL-TIME SCREENSHOTS –

One of the rules on privacy states that it is the duty of the law firm to protect information about its customers. If the entity fails to protect the data, even if it is accidental or a product of data theft, it may have significant consequences. That is why corporate law firms that offer legal solutions need the insight to prevent insider risks from breaching or verifying.

With EmpMonitor’s real-time screenshot monitoring feature, you can quickly gain detailed insights about the employees work activities, learn about workplace computer activities, irrespective of the place they are situated. With this feature, the managers can take a breath with confidence that their data remains safe and secured.

CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION –

People working in law firms have to take all the required precautions to keep confidential client details compatible with the expensive legal issues. Detailed rules on privacy, access, and disclosure of the information shared by government bodies. It helps advocates or other practising lawyers to share with the legal authorities client information.

With EmpMonitor, you will ensure that confidential information is kept private and secured by both your employees and customers. EmpMonitor enables you to activate activity monitoring to do this and to check the top applications and websites used in a day.

IT FORENSICS

In some cases, the client data gets lost. As due to different government policies, the lawyers need to pay the financial penalties if any data threats occur with the client details. Therefore, to help the advocates out of the scenario, EmpMonitor helps in giving real-time insights about everything and determines the real reason behind the entire scenario.

Since our software records users’ computer behaviour, it will not be difficult to find out who has accessed the missing data. From there, you can do additional research into exactly what happened to the records.

So, these are some of the ways, EmpMonitor helps in Law firms in keeping their data safe and secure their companies by implementing insider threat prevention measures.

Are you also a law firm and looking to safeguard your company from insider threats, then give EmpMonitor a try! SignUp to the 15 days free trial only for you!

ALSO READ –  

Insider Threat: What Is It And How To Protect Your Company From It

Insider Threat Management: 05 How-Tos for Distant Workplaces

But before I wrap up the blog, I want you to know some more about EmpMonitor. Fasten your seat belts, and get to the quick EmpMonitor ride.

QUICK AND EASY PRODUCTIVITY TRACKING

For people, teams and the whole enterprise, with EmpMonitor evaluate success, performance and emphasis with insightful charts.

BROWSER HISTORY TRACKING

Keep a check on the web surfing operation of workers, record their addresses of each website visited, the title of the web page and the number of times visited by the same web page.

DEPUTIZE YOUR PEERS

You may nominate managers (team leaders) to review applications and websites and interpret information for their teams as an administrator.

STEALTH MODE

One of EmpMonitor’s best features is that it enables workers to be tracked in stealth mode. It implies that the workers using the system do not know that EmpMonitor functions in the system, so the employees will not be disturbed.

USER-FRIENDLY DASHBOARD

This platform has a very user-friendly dashboard where various track segments can be quickly moved between pages in the menu and evaluated by the user admin.

So, this is all about EmpMonitor, if you want to know more, then visit its official website empmonitor.com or Sign Up for the free trial now!

If you have any other queries or are willing to know more about some of the best ways about insider threat prevention, then do drop your queries in the comments section below, or contact me over Twitter, till then have a nice and do take very good care of yourself!

Originally Published On: EmpMonitor

[delos-mio]

Cracking The Code- A Griff Series - Part 1

A/N: Here’s part 1! Let me know your thoughts and whathave you! Love you all bunches and bunches!

It’s always nice to make a good first impression. Unfortunately for you, those seemed to be few and far between. If you weren’t pissing off people immediately upon opening your mouth, you were laughably late- much like today. The heels on your boots clipped against the tiled hallway as you rushed to the meeting place you had only learned about 20 minutes ago. Mix that with traffic and the inability to function without stopping for coffee, there was no way you’d be appearing on time.

You pushed the door open as quietly as you could, but the loud metal scrape gave you away instantly. “Shit. Well, there goes that,” you muttered under your breath as four sets of eyes darted to you.

“How nice of you to show up,” Doc quipped, folding his hands behind his back. You slowly walked over to an open stool next to a broad shouldered man covered in tattoos. Everyone had looked away from you at this point besides him. “Team, this is Cat. Cat, this is Buddy, Darling, Baby, and Griff.”

Darling was planted firmly in Buddy’s lap, her delicate fingers toying with the long pieces of his hair. A very young man, who you assumed was aptly named Baby, was sitting at the far end of the table, shades on and earbuds in. That must mean that man who was still staring at you must be Griff. His dark eyes poured over your body, his sharp jaw setting as he very clearly undressed you in his head. You flipped your hair over your shoulder, rolling your eyes and turning to Doc.

“They always like this?” You asked, vaguely gesturing towards the entwined couple. Griff let out a loud laugh.

“I knew I liked you. Where’d you find her, Doc?” He went to run a finger through your hair, which you quickly slapped back before the tip could even graze a strand.

“Don’t ever fucking touch me. Got it?” You bit back. Griff raised his hands in submission, a wide grin painted on his face.

“Whatever you say, ma’am.” Maybe you made a good impression on at least one person. He was handsome, you’d give him that much. Covered in tattoos, a cropped beard, and a strong jaw- Griff was the prototype of all the boys who’d ever gotten you into trouble before. But you were here for a payday and nothing more; no distractions this time. It was a miracle you even convinced Doc to give you another job, so you had to stay one hundred percent focused.

Doc went on about the details of the job, Darling and Buddy casually listening between playing grab-ass. Griff loudly smacked on his gum, occasionally blowing and popping a bubble. You found yourself fixated on his lips, watching as they sucked the gum back into his mouth. No! Bad girl! What did you just get through telling yourself. You folded your arms against your chest and tried with all your might to focus on Doc and the plan.

“…And that’s where you come in, Cat. We’ll need you to take down the cameras at exactly 8:17 am. Not one minute after,” he stated pointedly, raising an eyebrow.

“Consider it done,” you nodded.

“Excellent. Get a good night’s sleep and be here at 8. Don’t make me wait,” he concluded and stepped away from the table. Buddy and Darling stood up, still practically attached at the mouth, and made their way toward the exit. Baby followed close behind, moving his head along with whatever was coursing through his earbuds. You picked up your large leather purse and began to clip for the door. You felt another body behind you and you knew immediately who it was. There was no way you were going to turn around and give him the satisfaction of acknowledging him. Instead, you got into the elevator and leaned against the back wall, never taking your eyes off the panel in front of you. Griff got in and leaned next to you, also looking straight forward. The heavy metal doors snapped shut and started moving you down the building.

“You really gonna make me work for it, huh?” he asked, still smacking on his gum.

“Not sure what ‘it’ you’re referring to, but yeah, suppose so,” you shrugged. He chuckled next to you, finally breaking first and turning to you.

“It’s a real early morning tomorrow. We should probably have a sleepover…you know, make sure we get here on time,” he suggested, giving you a very convincing puppy dog face. For a moment, when you looked back at him, it nearly worked. That was, until you remembered the promise you made yourself and shook your head at him.

“Nice try, but I don’t think so. Besides, aren’t you not supposed to mix business and pleasure or however the fuck that saying goes?” you smiled, not noticing you’d leaned in closer to him. He smelled like cigarettes and amber and it was overwhelming your senses. Being this close made it nearly impossible to stick to your guns.

“So you admit there’d be pleasure?” he asked, coming around the front of you and placing his palm against the wall behind your head, letting his frame tower over yours.

“You miss my point.” You bit down on your bottom lip, willing yourself to behave.

“No, I understood. I just don’t care,” he grinned. “C’mon sugar, it’ll be fun.”

“I have a lot of coding to do before morning and you’ll just distract me,” you said firmly.

“I will sit and watch you work and be on my best behavior,” he said, reaching out with his other hand to try and touch your hair again.

“Thought I told you not to touch me,” you smiled. He moved his hand back and raised an eyebrow. “Fine. But my house and you watch me work. And sleep on the couch.”

“Deal.” His face was dangerously close to yours, so you were thankful at the ding of the elevator doors parting. Griff stood up straight and gestured for you to exit ahead of him. You could feel his eyes on your ass as you walked to your cars. You walked up to your door and called back to Griff.

“You can follow me. It’s not far from here.” You smiled and ducked into the driver’s seat, not waiting for him to respond.

----

Griff had pulled in just seconds behind you. He was quiet as you climbed the stairs to your apartment; he was still conveniently walking behind you. You unlocked your front door and invited him in. The space you kept was very tidy and simple art hung on the walls. Griff kicked off his boots and softly padded around the perimeter of your living room, taking in every detail. You dipped into your bedroom, quickly changing into yoga shorts and a loose tank before going out to the kitchen.

“What, you casing the place?” you asked from the fridge, pulling out a bottle of Riesling. You heard Griff laugh from the other room.

“What makes you think I’d rob you, sweetheart?” he asked, taking a seat on the couch and perching his feet on the coffee table. You walked back to him and sat down with two glasses and the bottle. His eyes were fixed on your legs as you approached, something you noticed immediately.

“Probably the fact that it’s kind of what you get paid to do,” you smirked, filling each glass and passing one to Griff. You raised your glass lightly, “To a successful job tomorrow.”

“I’ll cheers to that.” He clinked his glass against yours before lifting it to his full lips. Once again, you found yourself mesmerized by his mouth and had to shake yourself out of it. You set your glass down and pulled your laptop off the table and into your lap. You also handed Griff a remote and powered up your computer.

“Watch whatever you want, make yourself comfortable,” you instructed and tucked your legs under you, perching your laptop on the bend in your knee. Griff looked noticeably confused, his brow furrowed as he looked down at the remote you had put in his hand. “Pressing power turns the TV on,” you sassed, pointing at the screen in front of you.

“Smart ass,” he scoffed, smiling a little. “But I thought we could maybe get to know each other. You know…” he began, but you were quick to cut him off.

��No. You agreed to watching me work. So here I am, working. You can do whatever you’d like,” you scolded, “but I will be making sure your ass doesn’t get caught tomorrow.” You turned again to the small screen in your lap, clicking open the programs you needed. Griff sunk down on the couch next to you, clearly pouting. He clicked on the TV and settled on the Falcons game.

It wasn’t long before he was tired of listening to the harmony of the sound of your typing and the clash of football players. You were clicking away when you felt the weight of his head on your arm. Griff was looking up at you with his big, brown eyes, silently pleading with you to entertain him. You kept your eyes on the task at hand.

“Can I help you?”

“Whatcha doin?” he asked playfully. A smile broke on your face. Sure, he was forward and annoying, but damn if he wasn’t charming. And handsome. No, you still had work to do.

“Well, right now I’m granting myself access to the bank’s security system and disguising myself as personnel,” you replied sweetly as he looked at your screen.

“Man, I don’t know how you make any sense of that. Just looks like a bunch of numbers and dashes and slashes,” he mused, scooching the rest of his body closer to yours.

“I mean, it is just a bunch of letters and numbers and symbols, really. But see, like this section here--“ you pointed to a chunk of code toward the lower right portion of your screen, “this tells me who all is authorized to use this software. And this bit over here--“ you pointed to another section just above it, “tells me that there are only 8 cameras online at the branch at any given time.” Griff listened intently as you gave him a crash course in hacking. There was something really endearing about him watching as you wrote code. Mostly, he was quiet while you worked. He just watched your fingers dart across the keys and the way your tongue peeked out of the corner of your mouth when you were working on a particularly tough string of code. Occasionally, he’d ask a question about what you were doing when the screen would change. You’d smile and give him an answer and he’d go back to laying on your arm, eyes fixed on the screen.

After a while, Griff noticed your fingers slowing down. He tilted his head up to see what expression you had; perhaps you had encountered a tricky spot. But instead, your eyes were closed, lips parted just slightly. You had fallen asleep in front of the computer like so many nights before. Griff smiled to himself and closed the top of your laptop. He gently placed it back on the table before scooping you up into his arms. With ease, he carried you down the hallway to your bedroom and laid you down, tucking you into your covers. As per the deal made, he retreated to the living room and camped out on the couch, letting his thoughts about the girl he just met carry him to sleep.

Tag: @pathetically-inlove

[jodieelliswritings-blog]

Killer Code

Piece for NYC Midnight Short Story Challenge 2017

Genre: Spy, Subject: Counseling, Character: A hostage

Word Count: 2453

A special agent is faced with an old enemy seeking revenge; the father of a young girl he had killed accidentally in a siege gone wrong. With only his student, an ex-vigilante hacker, by his side, he must try to save the lives of his wife and infant son. 

Three years had passed since the death of Leo Bianchi’s daughter. Charlize was only fourteen, still clad in her school uniform when she was shot in the head during a firefight between Bianchi’s men and the government special agents who had been targeting the crime family for years. I knew the anniversary was coming up because I still had nightmares about that day and they intensified the closer it got. I still feel my finger pulling the trigger. I still see the life fading from Charlize's blue eyes. Almost every night I hear Bianchi’s tormented cries as he realized his little girl was dead.

When I have those nightmares, I have to go into my son’s room and cradle him for a little while. My wife, Manon, calls him “Houdini” because he always finds a way to escape from his confines. By hook or by crook he will get around every baby safe gate and playpen to find us.  Even though he was growing up and becoming a little character, I still cradle him as though he was a tiny newborn, and as I do, I understand the sound Leo Bianchi made.

After the accident, I took a leave of absence. I didn’t want it, I wanted to bury my head in the sand, but I’m glad I was forced to take it. The lawyers managed to worm me out of any criminal charge; Bianchi’s men had killed many more of our's, but I was still moved to a newer clandestine unit that my bosses were developing, training special agents to work like hackers and take down targets remotely. I ended up with a more supervisory role, giving orders rather than getting into the dirty work. I wasn’t trusted out on the field, yet, so I stayed behind. I still kept my service pistol with me at all times, because of the paranoia that someone may one day make me pay for what I had done to Charlize.

It was getting easier and easier to monitor targets these days. With better gadgets more accessible and affordable, the public put anything and everything online. They buy things with their electronic wallets, they tweet their locations for lunch, they send their most private photographs to their lovers. And when everything is online, everything is easier for the wrong hands to get a hold of.

Chosposi Austin used to be those wrong hands. She was a millennial who, somehow, managed to hack into the most secure network in the world. Cho faced an ultimatum; use her skills for the good of the government, or face a prison sentence.

Cho was one of my targets, the best I had ever seen. I still don’t know exactly how she managed to break down every single firewall we had and gather the most closed off documents; documents even the President couldn’t get his hands on. She had no qualms about using the sensitive information against anyone and everyone. She was the perfect candidate for the new, highly skilled technicians we needed. Vigilante hackers were always going to be better than us. Where we had the connections and technology to break down barriers, they had the guts and brawn to do it on so much less.

It wasn’t just the fact that she was highly intelligent that caught my attention, and she was one of the most gifted people out there. Cho flew through the special agents testing like we were asking her “What color is the green ball?” And yet she wasn’t this reclusive, nerdy girl with little social skills. She was a vibrant extrovert who went shopping at the mall with her friends and drank beers at bars on a Saturday night. She lived on a reservation with her family, working at a clothing store four days a week and tending the horses the other days. She was a normal girl, with a normal life to everyone on the outside. That was what caught my attention, her ability to appear just like everyone else. Hiding her true identity like a millennial Clark Kent. She fascinated me, captivated me.

Maybe suggesting that she would make a valuable asset to our team was entirely for selfish reasons. I saw potential to make her one of the good guys and I wanted to be the one to steer her in the right direction. Teach her how to use everything that she had taught herself for the greater good instead of filling this void that she had somewhere inside of her. Maybe I was using her to fill the void I had inside of me. Coaching her and guiding her towards this greatness that I took away from myself when I killed Charlize.

When I first started working with Cho, I thought it was going to be a breeze. Intelligent and fast-thinking, I thought she was going to grab the bull by the horns and rise to the top of the hierarchy faster than anyone had before. But what I found was that she had issues. There was no obvious reason for it, but she thrived on being powerful. The power she held when she had the worst of your past organized neatly in a laptop, ready to make you do whatever she wanted you to because, if she chose, she could ruin your life.

She found out about Charlize pretty quickly. Obviously, the first person she planned on manipulating was her mentor. Cho was met with something she hadn’t before, though. I was stone-faced, unmoved by her exploitation. No matter how hard she tried, her manipulation techniques didn’t work on me. She couldn’t find anything else about me online, so all she had to go on was that one legal document. That’s when I finally broke through and she started to listen. That was the moment she started to learn and understand that this opportunity she had was going to help her channel that itching feeling of powerlessness into something productive. Something good. That Cho could fill the void she had by doing to right thing. By being the hero instead of the villain.

Cho was desperate to finally get out on the field and crack down on a target of her own. She wanted the action that I had experienced and told her stories about, she wanted to be a real special agent. I tried to explain to her that the person sat in front of the computer was composed and steady, five steps ahead at all times with every situation planned for in advance. When the screens were taken away, she was reckless and impulsive, her immaturity and superfluous thrill-seeking making her an easy prey. Cho needed to learn how to keep the composure she had in front of the screen when face to face with her target.

We worked together solidly for a year and a half. It wasn’t just me teaching Cho how to become a special agent, either. She taught me so much about technological warfare. Even though I’d been in the department for more than a year, there were things hackers could do that I couldn’t even fathom until she showed me. How easy she found it to hack a nuclear power plant, to cut the power or to combust a reactor. Cho told me she even knew how to hack a pacemaker, but she never tried it out.

She also helped me deal with what I had done to Charlize. Cho was the only one the only one I told my side of the story to, warts and all. Although I was resistant on showing my emotions, due to the agent training and my annoying stubbornness, Cho could see straight through it. She saw human emotion like a hard drive; just needing to be studied before rewiring it.

On the night of the anniversary, Cho asked me to go for a drink with her after work. I politely declined, partially because I don’t drink, but mostly because I didn’t know what her intentions were for the drink. Drink away the memories? Drink until I forget my wife? I instead invited Cho over to my house for dinner. I warned her that dinner would be a Thai takeout and not a fancy, home cooked meal, but she accepted anyway.

Arriving at my home, we found the door barged open. Where other people may have gone into a blind rage, storming the house, the years and years of training had me remaining calm, even if the hostages or victims were my wife and infant son. When Cho turned to me and parted her lips to say something, I swiftly placed my fingers over them and motioned for her to keep quiet. I had a light compact revolver hidden in my coat pocket in the armoire in the hallway, I took it out and gave it to Cho. I had considered telling her to hide, but I knew she wouldn’t. It was easier to just give her orders I knew she wouldn’t disobey.

The house was dark, whoever broke into my home did so while it was still light outside. Manon was terrible for leaving every light on in the house. I swept the entire ground floor; nothing was out of place, not even a picture frame out of line. I motioned for Cho to follow me outside. There was a staircase that led up to the balcony of the master bedroom. Soft orange light glowed against the white exterior wall from the french windows.

As Cho and I crept up the stairs, she grabbed my arm, signaling for me to listen. There were three voices, from what I could gather, whispering in Italian. Cho heard it too. She mouthed “Bianchi” at me, and I felt the color drain from my cheeks. She shook her head as I reached for my pistol, her eyes telling me more than words could. She wasn’t guessing, she knew it was Bianchi. I didn’t want to believe what my gut was telling me, but she knew it was him.

Our heads both snapped towards the top of the stairs when the sound of the door caught our attention. Leo Bianchi stood proudly before us, fresh from high-security prison, feet wide apart and arms crossed. He asked us to join him in the bedroom, Chosposi and I. When I stepped through the balcony door, I saw my wife kneeling on the floor, cradling our infant son. She whimpered, hyperventilating from the panic, her lips turning a soft purple.

“My old friend,” Bianchi said, his baritone voice bounced off the walls in a thick, Italian accent, “I was informed that you took your wife’s name when you married her. I feel it must be some kind of, what is the English word? Redenizone, redemption. Stripping yourself of, well, yourself. Bousignac is much more exotic, though,”

Bianchi took strong strides over to my wife, kneeling down before her and gently wiping away her tears. He moved his hand to stroke the black hair on my son’s head, so softly and delicately, the well practiced touch of a father. He was taunting me, showing me he had complete control and ability to do harm and choosing not to. “Raphael is a very stoic name you chose, Manon, mia cara. Names are very important. My wife chose Charlize, but I never call her that. Patatina, little potato, that’s what I call her. A silly name, but traditional,”   

His gentleness mocked me while his goons were stood with assault rifles aimed at my wife and precious child. He was giving me time to take it all in. Giving me time to feel wretched and sick before he took it all away. Cho was breathing heavily next to me, the revolver I had given her lay on her thigh, no sign she planned on shooting.

Bianchi stood up from his crouch, turning to face Cho and me again. “Chosposi,” he said, “I told you to keep him away for a little longer. Ma non importa. You’ve done well, mia cara. I understand this must have been very difficult, but you were a good teacher to my boys, they have been thriving with their online business. And, again, grazie, for getting my sentence reduced,” Cho had betrayed me, I thought I was training a special agent, and she was training as a double agent. "A very clever girl you have here, Friars- oh, excuse me, Bousignac. She is a credit to you, she can take on the world with just a computer,"

He was taunting me again, throwing it in my face that my student was my enemy. I could no longer keep the stone-faced composure I was taught to keep, that I taught Cho to keep. Before I could lift my pistol an inch, I heard a clamor of gunshots.

There is a myth that when you’re shot, you fall to your knees, but you don’t. I felt the burning pain move up my torso before I looked down at my abdomen, my shirt staining with the blood that oozed from the gaping wound. My vision had begun to blur, but still, I looked to Manon and my son. She was laying on the ground, a bullet wound in the exact spot I shot Charlize. Bianchi’s goons lay dead on the floor too. I looked around feverously, confused about what had just happened, my breath catching as I clung to my stomach.

Bianchi stood with his hands up, the fear in his eyes as he blathered in Italian. Cho came into my field of vision as I finally fell to the floor. She was aiming the gun right at him. She told him that she deserved a lot more credit than he had given her, that the websites his men were running were now easily tracked and that his whole organization was about to fall. That she was going to laugh as she watched it all happen. Then, she put a bullet into his skull.

Cho came to me, once Bianchi was dead. She asked for my forgiveness, but they were going to hurt her family if she didn’t do as they asked. That without me she never would have been able to double cross them like she did.  I could barely speak, I could only manage a few words. “You’re amazing,” I told her.

The only thing that kept me from slipping into the embrace of death was the sound of my son’s cries. I hoped he was crying because of all the noise and not because he knew his mother lay dead beside him. He was all I had left.

No, that wasn’t true. I had Cho, too. My redemption didn’t feel so far away, anymore.

[topicprinter]

TL;DR: Back in 2018 we launched our beta. We did every possible mistake. We relaunched and so far, it is going quite smoothly. This is the story of all the f*ckups and lessons learned.---Our horrible 2018 beta launch.In 2018 we did our small, invite-only beta launch. It was the first time we ever did something like that, and of course, we walked into it blissfully inexperienced. The excitement, the stress, and stage-fright of finally pushing the product we’ve been working on to the people who signed up to our smoke tests was a fantastic rush. It ended up being one of the most enriching experiences our team ever had. We failed. Hard.Instead of folding and disappearing into the darkness, we did our post-mortem, learned and kept going. The product failed, not the idea; our approach failed, not the concept. “ What do we do when we fall? We pick ourselves up.” And that’s what we did. We came out with a stronger team. It’s more difficult to kill us now, we just refuse to die.Here’s a short story of how NOT to launch a startup:It’s March 2018 and our to-do list is almost empty. Two solid years of designing, coding, good days and bad days. We turned a few drawings into a fully functioning music web app. Music was playing through it, loops syncing… this is perfect.The interface is exactly what we need. I pushed hard for that design. I thought it was perfect. My background is in economics, I’m color-blind, and awful at drawing. Naturally, I’m the best-suited person for the job.We had thoroughly tested the idea. The first round of Smoke Tests helped us to validate the idea — before a single line of code or design meeting ever happened. The response was overwhelming: people wanted this. That was the initial spark that jump-started this madness. We lined up the core working team and plunged into work. It took time, more than we ever thought it would take. I wish I could say we are a team that goes from idea to launch in 3 days. We’re not. Most teams aren’t. We’re no exception.A month before, in February 2018, we took the app to the rehearsal studio and played with it (we’re all musicians). It worked. Did some stress tests. Worked. The browser can hold multiple high-quality audio files streaming at the same time. This works.We got an extra batch of loops from friends and users who subscribed to the smoke test, we ran a Facebook campaign to get more people for the launch. We had music, users lined up. Just a few more touches and we’d be good to go.We coded a basic admin interface, an email-based invite system and our social media was packed with content. We were getting ready to launch a rocket to the moon. And so, by early March, we could see the light at the end of the tunnel.L-Day (launch-day) was set for April 20th, 2018.We were getting anxious. I was bursting at the seams. I was very, very anxious. I was so anxious, I bought a ticket to Amsterdam (we’re a remote team, Federico, our CTO, lives in Leiden, The Netherlands) without much thought — “I’m flying over there to launch this, is going to be awesome!”. Was it my wedding anniversary around the same time I was supposed to be in Amsterdam? Yes. Was it Federico’s anniversary also around the same days I was crashing at their place? Yes. Did I think about it when I bought the ticket? Nope.During that final month we did the migration to Amazon S3, did a backend cleanup, tested the invite system, our admin system, a basic analytics Federico built and we were — almost — good to go.Spoiler alert: did I mention anything about thorough QA? No, I didn’t. Did I mention anything about UX testing for the interface? I think I didn’t. Any hints of where this is going?My ticket to Amsterdam was for April 19th, arriving on the 20th. A 90-minute flight from St. Louis, MO (where I live) to St Paul, MN; a 3 and-a-half hour layover and then 8 hours to Amsterdam. Almost 13 hours of travel time. The same day you decide to launch. This will work, of course.April 19th came. I packed, said goodbye to my wife and got on an Uber to the airport. Not before I made sure to send the first batch of “Welcome to XXX, here’s the link to log in” emails to some users. I wanted to “test” how that went, see what kind of response we’d get and iterate — on my way to the airport and flying over the Atlantic!For the following 20 hours, I behaved like a maniac. Got to the airport, checked in, went to the gate, double espresso, opened the computer and kept going. Re-read a few Paul Graham essays, my notes on 2 books on launching products and previous notes I made. Got to St. Paul, MN; another double espresso and listed all the early users, friends and family who would get the email.“Group 5 for Amsterdam Schiphol is now boarding”. Closed the computer, got on the plane, opened the small table, opened the computer and started to re-write the templates for the invite emails. “Sir, you have to close the computer and your table, we’re about to take off”… Sh*t… “We have reached 10,000 feet, it is safe now to use your electronic devices”. Opened the computer, finished the template, planned the next few days, wrote templates for all the follow-up emails, got my notes and the flow of actions for each scenario. 8-hour flight. Not a single minute of sleep. I’m on a roll.Landed in Schiphol, met Federico, got on a train, arrived at his place, said hello to his wife, fresh pot of coffee, opened the computer, sent 223 invite emails + follow-ups, ate an entire tray of lasagna together with Federico, kept going for another hour, went out for beers.System crashed. Please stand by…April 21st, 2018. Noon. Wake up. Feel I’ve been hit by a train. I need coffee and a decent breakfast.I check my emails and there’s not a lot happening. Strange… OK… we check the app analytics, a good number of sessions but not as many as users on the database. Not even half. OK, maybe it’s early. Let’s wait a few more hours. Early evening comes by, let’s apply the follow-up flow of “hey did you get our invite?” and for those who logged in, ask for feedback. Emails sent. Let’s wait.And the answers started to roll in…“None of the links have worked in the emails I’ve received… the invitation, the email login confirmation or when I downloaded a drum loop”.“I first tried on my phone and it was quite hard to navigate, there was an odd control issue that happened whenever the screen rotated. like it would get the horizontal and vertical screen controls mixed up or something. ““I was trying to access it from an android smartphone and the page was really unresponsive.. in fact I couldn’t get anything to work.”And a lot more of the like. This is not looking good.There were multiple issues that were being reported, and given the time difference between the US (where most of our initial users were) and Europe, there we were… pulling hotfixes like maniacs at 2 AM.When you logged in to our app, we used to send you to the “Profile” view, where you had to fill your personal info (name, instruments you played, your social media, etc). We realized that a lot of users were staying in that view and not doing anything, which was very strange. And then, we got an email with a video.You can watch the video here https://youtu.be/xrh7Ly_Cwk4What followed were two weeks of fantastic feedback (fantastic = you’re doing it all wrong). We fixed all (or nearly all) the bugs and let users know when they were fixed. But, there was still one problem that needed more time to fix: the interface was horrible. The same user who sent the video was kind (and awesome) enough to — instead of sending a note -, he actually sent an audio explaining why our product was not working for him.Audio here https://soundcloud.com/tomas-sawada/robinsfeedback/s-r3gVkAnd that was the case with many others. The interface wasn’t good. Users were confused.A month after the launch our engagement was almost nonexistent. It didn’t matter how much we pushed, nothing was happening.Launch: failed.We let a few days go by, but we felt strong. I don’t know why. I was brain-fried (no surprise there), but still eager to understand, learn and keep going. The team was the same. And so, we did a post mortem. An honest, as unbiased as possible, exercise to understand our next steps.Below, the main points we arrived at:What worked:We managed to generate demand and users to the application and the idea; this validates that we are on the right idea.We managed to generate feedback from users. This was vital to understand our failures.We developed an analytics system that allows us to quickly understand what’s not working.We understood very quickly that things had to change. Within a month of the launch, we were working on the redesign. This means we are being agile to understand the problems and addressing them.We reached 65% of the beta users' goal, and although the beta process is not over, we had an interface that didn’t help much. It was a good number to start.We managed to implement all the features we set out to do, with very efficient code and excellent browser load. That’s important.Users sent us music. We did not have to persuade people with money, gifts or other methods.Contacting users through email gives them the initial push to access the app. For a small launch, it is effective enough.What did not work:We did not achieve our user goal, recurrence, and engagement.Based on user feedback, the interface was not intuitive. Only 1 out of 65 users had a recurrence and solid engagement.Only 1 person used the feedback tab that we implemented.30% got trapped in the “profile” view, which led many to not return.We launched without doing QA or usability testing. The rush to launch blinded us of the obvious.The services offered were too many: Jam, Sell, Connect. We communicated everything together and tried to cover everything. It was confusing for many users.What we learned and have to change for the next versionThe interface has to be easy to understand.We have to simplify things to the fullest. From the offer to the UX, to the communication.QA Testing (cross-browser and cross-device).We have to do UX testing with users several times and fix things before launching again until we see that the application makes sense. Let’s be super critical of what we do.More personal contact with users. While we were sending emails, perhaps we lacked more direct contact, which prevented us to understand the context and use cases.Launch small and incrementally add users. Let’s never again launch to everybody at the same time, especially if we have not thoroughly tested.There’s a limit to the “launch fast and iterate”. If you frustrate your users and they hate the experience, then there’s nothing much to iterate. They’re gone.This experience could have easily killed our team. In fact, an experience like this killed the previous team that Federico and I formed a decade ago. What is most surprising to me is the fact that I repeated mistakes, especially launching like this and doing exactly the opposite of what I should have done: be calm, collected and launch in the most efficient way. A decade ago, we launched a product in some similar fashion — although it wasn’t a code-based product — and I (we) crashed and burned. I few weeks after this 2018 launch I felt like a complete idiot. It’s not a nice feeling to have. Never again.My burnout lasted for a few months, and the team rallied and pushed through like spartans. We want to keep working together. The product failed, the idea didn’t. Our approach failed, not the concept. But we had to change a lot and learn. We changed the interface, we now do thorough QAs, UX tests with users. We don’t take anything for granted.But, most importantly, we’re creating a process for launching products. We still have a lot to learn, but we’re getting closer. We’ve made tons of mistakes, and we’ll keep making them. If we’re making mistakes, we’re moving forward.This experience didn’t kill us. It made us a stronger team. In fact, as of January 2020, we are doing our second launch, incorporating 100% of the lessons we learned. So far, it is going quite smoothly. And while things took longer than expected (don’t they always?), we’re proud and happy with what we’ve learned and achieved over the past two years. We’re here. Up & running.Cherish your failures, they are amazing learning experiences!!Hope is useful for some of you before you embark on a launch spree. May the force be with you.

[codyfycr209-blog]

The Leading CCTV Video Cameras

With the high success rate of cordless security video cameras in preventing criminal activities, do not be surprised if these children of technology will certainly be here for a long period of time. As a matter of fact, as you read this, it's highly possible brand-new protection video camera designs are being set up in at the very least 50 company establishments and also 15 workplaces around the country. It's just as feasible that in the time it takes you to learn how to run your new cordless safety video camera, a better and more advanced version is being made. | Not all safety and security cam Digital Video Recorders, or DVRs, are created equal. Remember this as you look for safety camera DVRs for your organisation. There are excellent DVRs, great DVRs, and also DVRs so horrible you can not tell what you're looking at. | Many times these safety and security cameras are fundamental, as well as some just to record security, while others can show actual time viewing. The idea of having a security cam enables the resident to really feel tranquil knowing the electronic camera is installed. For some homeowner who desire the concept of feeling more secure to have safety and security cams installed over their garages targeted at the driveway or street, and possibly one more one over their door entrance. Or at the back entrance entryway of the residence. | Today's innovation has actually made setting up protection precautions such as protection video cameras a cinch! You no more need to be a millionaire to establish one. You can even set up one yourself! Security electronic cameras provide a means for its proprietor to watch over his/her building from the security as well as benefit of any kind of location he chooses. This kind of system is a great deterrent to burglary and unwanted entry. Many companies that have delicate items or are off restrictions to the public use these video cameras to aid maintain their areas safe.

Wireless security camera technology usually involves a battery-operated electronic camera. It does not save tape-recorded photos in its inner memory. What it does, rather, is to beam to a getting device that might be located as far as up to 500 meters away. Remote surveillance can after that be done by hooking up the receiver to a television. At present, there is a broad selection of versions offered for wireless safety and security video cameras. So, you have an alternative between a battery-operated as well as an AC-powered one. | DVR stands for Digital Video Recorder. It is much faster and also easier to take care of than non-digital and also analog systems. In addition, it offers instantaneous access to taped or live video clip. You need not bother with storage space, as well, due to the fact that the mass of video that can be kept ccd cctv camera suppliers on a solitary disc significantly outweighs that saved on tape. Actually, a solitary disc is the matching of over 30 VCR tapes. What this means is that you get to save money on space use and also prices. The bigger your office space as well as thus, the more cameras you utilize, the more you will be able to value the cash DVRs can conserve you. | A lot of the time if a burglar sees the security cam he or she will do everything possible to avoid the electronic camera, and also essentially feel as though there are various other extra safety and security procedures tackled your house. Such as door alarm systems or home window alarm systems. In this case a burglar would at first leave the properties trying to stay clear of being seen on the security electronic camera. | Investing in and carrying out such a system might save your company from the fears of unlawful entry. Investment in such might save you a whole lot of difficulty. Before buying a system, you will certainly intend to think about the list below aspects. Your demands: Study your demands. The type of safety and security procedures mounted will rely on your particular security requirements. For example, how huge is the location you would certainly such as covered? The number of electronic cameras will it require to monitor this location? You should make sure the safety and security video camera system you will certainly acquire can accommodate enough slots for expansion.

Your Friendly Neighborhood Wireless Security Camera: Wireless safety and security cameras have actually gotten appeal in home usage as a way for monitoring caregivers. These electronic cameras, also called nanny cams, are put in discreet areas around the house. They tape-record the communication in between the caregiver and the kid, generally without the caregiver's knowledge. The purpose of the recording is to capture any kind of signs of injustice in the component the baby-sitter, especially while the child's parents are away from the house. | There are 2 main kinds of protection camera DVRs, pc-based and stand-alone. PC-based Security Camera DVR with Video Capture Board: A PC-based DVR is a digital video recorder built like a computer. It may consist of two things: a tower install or a rack place. Inside it, you will certainly find a mommy board, network card, video card, CPU, hard disk drive, as well as memory. The DVR video card as well as the DVR camera surveillance suppliers software application to provide individuals remote gain access to. The DVR capture board obtains video directly from safety cams. The DVR software application, in turn, works in conjunction with the DVR board to first, modification caught video clip photos into a workable and also recognizable style and second, to provide camera controls, as well as record and playback functions. | An additional reason homeowner have safety electronic cameras mounted might be if they take a trip a lot, the safety video camera's video clip the surroundings while they are away and if any type of kind of criminal damage or break in does occur, the suitable steps can be taken. | Do you need sound also? Some video camera systems have audio recording tools as well so you can not only see what takes place but hear it as well. This is essential in situations when you would like http://query.nytimes.com/search/sitesearch/?action=click&contentCollection&region=TopBar&WT.nav=searchWidget&module=SearchSubmit&pgtype=Homepage#/cctv camera everything documented. Nevertheless, this might be pricey. Many facilities only need video documents of their protection. Additionally, you must establish whether you require to have your safety and security video cameras document in shade or black as well as white. Color cams are, of course, a lot more advanced and also show a clearer image. However, they often tend to be expensive. Shade cameras may additionally not operate in low-light situations.

Wireless security electronic cameras mounted in shops, public locations, as well as crime-prone neighborhoods have been really effective in recognizing burglars, capturing speeding motorists, and dramatically lowering the rate of criminal offense in certain areas. Wireless Security Camera of the Future: Software designers are now hard at work to find up with security versions that are more than just easy recorders of goings-on in their line of focus. These designers guarantee a newly progressed security cam that can in fact stop criminal offenses prior to they happen. | Stand-alone Security Camera DVR: A stand-alone safety video camera DVR is an all-in-one system. All components of a stand-alone security video camera DVR are built on one full circuit board. Its appearance is extremely comparable to that of a VCR or DVD player. Stand-alone protection cam DVRs are very trusted as well as are really simple to use and mount. | Some apartment complexes have safety and security electronic cameras at the entrance of the establishments for security reasons as well. Each time a lorry or individual experiences the entry, the protection cam supervises, and also many times the protection video cameras can be readied to move after a few mins after that relocate once again. At the very least at one factor of a cam's activity in such a location like an apartment complex, the safety cam will go for the tags of cars. This is frequently successful for security precautions when lorries that do not belong in the complex are tape-recorded or viewed on the protection video camera. | Think about the area of the video cameras. Will the area be difficult to set up an electrical wiring system in? In that instance, you may want to take into consideration cordless safety and security cam systems. However, these electronic cameras should be in a place that is conducive to premium quality program. There should be no disturbance. They can, though, be moved the location. They are a bit much more versatile than their fixed-wire relatives. Will the cam system to be for outside purposes? Cameras that keep an eye on exterior areas need special weatherproof housings and may not be advised for severe temperature levels as well as various aspects. Likewise those that may be ruined need to be protected versus such.

The wireless security camera of the future will certainly have the ability to: Identify faces. A cordless protection video camera can swiftly match bottom lines in a person's face and compare it with the info in a data source of videotaped cup shots or pictures of individuals associated with criminal tasks. This is extremely helpful in screening people getting in a country. Identify hidden weapon under a person's cloak or clothes. The premise for this modern technology is that individuals that are concealing some form of firearms will stroll in a different way compared to individuals who are unencumbered. Estimate a person's elevation and also weight. Once again, this is a feature that will can be found in handy in instance an individual may be hiding firearms or a bomb underneath his/her garments. | The Difference: A stand-alone safety and security cam DVR is really trusted and straightforward, mostly because it is built on just one circuit board. One need not worry about system security cctv camera equipment suppliers collisions or software program conflicts, since all the software and hardware are installed on one board. A PC-based safety camera DVR, on the other hand, supply advanced attributes as well as are better suited for upgrades and also system growths. They have larger CPUs and memory, as well as you can easily add burners as well as hard disks. | Safety and security cameras are used in numerous various locations for security purposes. Although in many cases, the cameras are wireless cctv suppliers out of sight of the general public eye. Safety and security cams are a good resource of viewing what is going on specifically and no one can lie regarding incidents that may happen. Particularly in populous locations. Protection cams have actually raised being used by practically 60% over the last years. By sellers in addition to exclusive use. | Additionally, you have to absorb consideration the illumination for an area. If your video camera can not tape a scene due to poor illumination, you will certainly wind up with sloppy images that won't assist in your monitoring activities. Choose a protection video camera that has an excellent sensitivity to light. Likewise, attempt to light up such areas with external illumination. You need to take into consideration where the power sources will certainly be located. Ensure they are well safeguarded versus the components as well as from tampering.

The majority of bombs are camouflaged as luggage. It is understood method operandi for terrorists to leave bags or other similar luggage in busy public transportation terminals. A kind of cordless safety and security video camera is now being established to determine such ignored bundles in any public area. These cordless protection cams will be designed to notify authorities that can after that safeguard the location. | Stand-alone Versus PC-based: Most hefty and large-scale individuals, such as financial institutions and also airport terminals, opt for PC-based models. Even if they do, however, doesn't suggest you ought to participate the bandwagon and acquire the exact same for your workplace or manufacturing facility. In reality, you need to base your selection of safety camera DVR on your surveillance requires. If your company's electronic camera network is comparatively little and does not need much use sophisticated controls, after that a stand-alone safety and security electronic camera DVR ought to be sufficient. If, on the various other hand, your monitoring needs need using innovative controls or if you are planning to expand your business's monitoring system in the future, after that the wisest option would be a PC-based version. | So the truth stays obvious that safety and security cams being utilized to offer safety measures for a lot of individuals, even those who don't actually like the idea of safety and security electronic cameras being in use. They feel although in some ways it does hinder their right to personal privacy they recognize the boost of the acts of physical violence in the United States today. Therefore, they are not going to whine. | The majority of residence security electronic cameras need little electrical wiring, however setup varies according to model. Below are the basic steps: Consider the offered methods for videotaping the images. You may use a variety of backup media. And with the introduction of computer storage space media, also making use of hard drives, cds, and also DVDs can show to be an inexpensive means to store your data. Installing a Security Camera System

No Compromises to Safety: Although there is still much controversy bordering the principles of security systems, the ranges are still tipped for placing civilians' safety and security initially. security cctv suppliers Some states in the United States got to a compromise with critics of cordless protection cameras by decreeing that monitoring systems mounted in public areas need to be plainly presented and also visible to all passersby. | Below's another method of checking out it. If reliability and also stability are what matters most to you, then acquire a stand-alone safety video camera DVR. If sophisticated viewing, playback as well as video data saving over the Internet mean even more to you, after that opt for a PC-based security electronic camera DVR. Ultimately, what would matter the most is not the kind of safety video camera DVR you purchased yet exactly how it safeguards your business. | If a protection video camera remains in a parking area and also their automobile is swiped in most cases it can be retrieved, in addition to they have that assurance of strolling to their autos under monitoring and understand that there is a reduced danger of being attacked or abducted by somebody intending to harm them or harm them in order to gain access to their belongings or their car. There's simply excessive criminal offense to not have safety and security cams in most places today. | Survey the area to be monitored. Comply with the instructions/manual that includes your security video camera item. Install the electronic camera at an appropriate range from the area to be surveyed. Cameras differ distant where they focus, so it would succeed to pay notification to such. Safeguard the electronic camera utilizing appropriate installs, etc. Ensure that if the cam you are to mount must not be moved, its placement must be secure and tamper proof.

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How to fix Software with latest update in Windows PC

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You can control this new software with your brain, and it should make Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg nervous

Tesla's Elon Musk and Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg each aim to create the world's first brain-computer interface — devices that put the functionality of a laptop in your head.

But those devices would require invasive brain surgery and are unlikely to become available in the immediate future.

In the meantime, a startup called Nuro could beat them to the punch with a simpler piece of software.

Two minds may be better than one, but one mind connected to millions of others would be infinitely superior.

That's the thinking behind several companies that are currently racing to link mind and machine by way of devices called brain-computer interfaces. The first to put the functionality of a laptop in your head would pave the way for people to communicate seamlessly, instantly, and with whomever — or whatever — they want.

So far, two figures are publicly leading that race: Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg. Their clandestine projects, known as Neuralink and Building 8, respectively, focus on approaches that will require brain surgery, according to researchers familiar with their efforts.

But there's a less ambitious and less invasive way to tackle the brain-computer interface problem. It involves translating data from brainwaves into simple commands that can be processed in an app or device. A startup called Nuro is taking this route. It hopes its software platform can give the ability to communicate back to people who've lost it as a result of severe injury or disease.

Outside researchers say the approach is simpler and less functional than invasive approaches, but easier to put into practice.

If Nuro's product succeeds in that initial market, the company plans to expand the technology and test it more broadly in cars and homes. As a result, the company could shape the broader future of technologies that link mind and brain.

Communicating with thoughts

In April, Nuro opened up for the first time about a version of its software called Nuos, which is designed to give a voice to people who've experienced spinal cord injuries or other major illnesses and can't communicate as they once did. 

Nuro CEO and founder Francois Gand envisions the system for use first in a hospital or intensive-care setting. It could allow so-called "locked in" patients to do things like ask for a glass of water or play music on an Amazon Echo smart speaker.

Gand has test-driven his tool in at least one person with a severe brainstem disorder, and recently showed me how a Nuro user could interact with the technology using a tablet. A black and teal screen is divided into tiles with icons and pre-written messages displaying basic commands like “I need water” or “I’m feeling cold." By focusing intently on a given icon or piece of text, a user can select that tile.

It's the same idea used in neurofeedback, a practice in which people use real-time displays of brain activity to do things like play basic video games in order to better regulate their brainwaves.

Nuos users could even use that technique to type custom messages using a keyboard on the screen. 

An OS that runs on brainwaves

Computer interfaces powered by brainwaves aren't completely new.

Before Stephen Hawking settled on the Intel setup he primarily used to communicate, he tested several EEG-based caps. But because of his age and the severity of his condition, the caps couldn't get a strong enough brain signal to function properly.

Studies suggest that EEG technologies have the potential to help thousands of other disabled people, though. Every year, roughly half a million people across the globe injure their spinal cord, according to the World Health Organization. The authors of a 2018 paper published in the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience called the use of EEGs for people with disabilities "a novel approach of the 21st century."

"Development of a brain-computer interface technology that does not replace but complement[s] existing therapies is a...promising field," the authors wrote.

But Gand envisions Nuro's technology — which is essentially an operating system, or OS, that runs on brainwaves — extending far beyond a hospital, to people's homes and even cars. That's something automakers are interested in. In January, the Nissan revealed it was working on helping drivers avoid crashes using EEG data.

"Fundamentally, we're an OS company," Gand said. 

Investors see Nuro's potential to expand, too. The company, whose team is based in Waterloo, Canada and San Francisco, California, got a $100,000 grant from Google to build a part of its system in the Google Cloud platform. Nuro also recently got $250,000 in seed funding from Silicon Valley biotech accelerator IndieBio, and $40,000 ($31,000 USD) from Canadian startup hub Waterloo Accelerator Centre. And it won two MIT competitions (Hacking Medicine and the MIT Barracuda Bowl) at the South by Southwest festival, which brought in $7,500.

Karen Moxon, who runs a lab focused on brain-computer interfaces at the University of California, Davis, told Business Insider that she's not surprised by Gand's vision. A less invasive and more user-friendly brain-computer interface is ripe terrain for future advancements.

But Moxon expressed concern about some of the technical and financial roadblocks Gand might face, such as raising and making enough money to stay financially viable over the long term.

"This has been done well by gobs of people — but in a laboratory setting," she said. "Being able to do it isn't surprising; translating it to a company that can be financially viable is another."

The race toward a superpower: Where Neuralink and Facebook are headed

As our smartphones grow smaller and more advanced, we grow increasingly dependent upon the services they provide. (Not convinced? Try taking your next trip without opening Google Maps.)

Devices embedded in our bodies and brains are a logical next step.

Zuckerberg said last year that Facebook is working on brain-computer interface technology that "one day will let you communicate using only your mind."

Whether the first brain-computer interface runs on EEG or something harder to access, the first company to nail that technology could rocket decades into the future.

"Just being able to communicate at the speed of a BCI without having to speak or type would have a radical effect," a former Neuralink employee who asked to remain anonymous told Business Insider. "It's not so much a race to a long-term goal as much as it is a race to a near-term goal in which somebody gains a metaphorical superpower that enables them to start accelerating faster than anyone could catch up."

Musk and Zuckerberg have both kept details about their progress toward achieving this superpower under wraps.

But there are some clues. Several former Neuralink employees told Business Insider that they were engaged in building microchips and small electronics that could eventually be tested on animals. They said employees of Neuralink have frequently interacted with people researching the subject of animal testing.

Andy Fell, a communications director at the University of California, Davis, confirmed to Business Insider that several university employees were actively working with Neuralink on research projects using mice. 

Facebook, meanwhile, does not yet seem to have plans to open an animal-testing facility in California, according to a public records request filed by Business Insider with the California Department of Health.

Given how little we know about the brain, experts say it's unlikely that we'll see an invasive, surgery-based BCI used on a person within the next few years.

That's where Nuro comes in.

"We want to be as safe as possible. We’re not inclined to open up the brain. For some people who might ask, 'are we hacking the brain?' doing it non-invasively kind of solves that issue," Gand said.

From hospitals to homes: Bringing apps into the Nuro ecosystem

In addition to allowing "locked-in" patients to communicate, Gand's Nuro system is set up to give doctors or physicians access to a separate interface from the one users see. That would allow for remote monitoring of people with a severe injury or those at risk of a stroke.

The software is also capable of passively collecting data on brain activity, including the various levels of brain waves linked with alertness and sleep.

The Nuro system could therefore detect aberrant patterns of brain-wave activity, like those exhibited by people at risk for neurological problems like stroke, Gand said. Health professionals monitoring the situation remotely could use those observations to inform decisions about calling for emergency assistance.

But Gand hopes that if his OS moves beyond the medical setting, people using Nuro within the home would have access to a wider range of EEG-enabled activities than someone in the hospital.

Home users could eventually see features designed to speed up the communication process, such as a faster and more dynamic keyboard that could be used in conjunction with applications like news apps and social-media platforms. In the future, Gand also envisions developers creating versions of their apps that are compatible with the Nuro ecosystem, just as they currently are with Android or iOS.

"We can also give you the ability to have your app controlled neurologically," Gand said.

SEE ALSO: A controversial technology could save us from starvation — if we let it

DON'T MISS: A little-known tool that Fitbit and Apple are exploring could be the answer to healthy eating and peak performance

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[nedsvallesny]

Adrian Lamo, ‘Homeless Hacker’ Who Turned in Chelsea Manning, Dead at 37

Adrian Lamo, the hacker probably best known for breaking into The New York Times‘s network and for reporting Chelsea Manning‘s theft of classified documents to the FBI, was found dead in a Kansas apartment on Wednesday. Lamo was widely reviled and criticized for turning in Manning, but that chapter of his life eclipsed the profile of a complex individual who taught me quite a bit about security over the years.

Adrian Lamo, in 2006. Source: Wikipedia.

I first met Lamo in 2001 when I was a correspondent for Newsbytes.com, a now-defunct tech publication that was owned by The Washington Post at the time. A mutual friend introduced us over AOL Instant Messenger, explaining that Lamo had worked out a simple method allowing him to waltz into the networks of some of the world’s largest media companies using nothing more than a Web browser.

The panoply of alternate nicknames he used on instant messenger in those days shed light on a personality not easily grasped: Protagonist, Bitter Geek, AmINotMerciful, Unperceived, Mythos, Arcane, truefaith, FugitiveGame.

In this, as in so many other ways, Lamo was a study in contradictions: Unlike most other hackers who break into online networks without permission, he didn’t try to hide behind the anonymity of screen names or Internet relay chat networks.

By the time I met him, Adrian had already earned the nickname “the homeless hacker” because he had no fixed address, and found shelter most evenings in abandoned buildings or on friend’s couches. He launched the bulk of his missions from Internet cafes or through the nearest available dial-up connections, using an old Toshiba laptop that was missing seven keys. His method was the same in every case: find security holes; offer to fix them; refuse payment in exchange for help; wait until hole is patched; alert the media.

Lamo had previously hacked into the likes of AOL Time Warner, Comcast, MCI Worldcom, Microsoft, SBC Communications and Yahoo after discovering that these companies had enabled remote access to their internal networks via Web proxies, a kind of security by obscurity that allowed anyone who knew the proxy’s Internet address and port number to browse internal shares and other network resources of the affected companies.

By 2002, Lamo had taken to calling me on the phone frequently to relate his various exploits, often spoofing his phone number to make it look like the call had come from someplace ominous or important, such as The White House or the FBI. At the time, I wasn’t actively taking any measures to encrypt my online communications, or to suggest that my various sources do likewise. After a few weeks of almost daily phone conversations with Lamo, however, it became abundantly clear that this had been a major oversight.

In February 2002, Lamo told me that he’d found an open proxy on the network of The New York Times that allowed him to browse the newsroom’s corporate intranet. A few days after that conversation, Lamo turned up at Washingtonpost.com’s newsroom (then in Arlington, Va.). Just around the corner was a Kinkos, and Adrian insisted that I follow him to the location so he could get online and show me his discovery firsthand.

While inside the Times’ intranet, he downloaded a copy of the Times’ source list, which included phone numbers and contact information for such household names as Yogi Berra, Warren Beatty, and Robert Redford, as well as high-profile political figures – including Palestinian leader Yassir Arafat and Secretary of State Colin Powell. Lamo also added his own contact information to the file. My exclusive story in Newsbytes about the Times hack was soon picked up by other news outlets.

In August 2003, federal prosecutors issued an arrest warrant for Lamo in connection with the New York Times hack, among other intrusions. The next month, The Washington Post’s attorneys received a letter from the FBI urging them not to destroy any correspondence I might have had with Lamo, and warning that my notes may be subpoenaed.

In response, the Post opted to take my desktop computer at work and place it in storage. We also received a letter from the FBI requesting an interview (that request was summarily denied). In October 2003, the Associated Press ran a story saying the FBI didn’t follow proper procedures when it notified reporters that their notes concerning Lamo might be subpoenaed (the DOJ’s policy was to seek materials from reporters only after all other investigative steps had been exhausted, and then only as a last resort).

In 2004, Lamo pleaded guilty to one felony count of computer crimes against the Times, as well as LexisNexis and Microsoft. He was sentenced to six month’s detention and two years probation, an ordered to pay $65,000 in restitution.

Several months later while attending a formal National Press Foundation dinner at the Washington Hilton, my bulky Palm Treo buzzed in my suit coat pocket, signalling a new incoming email message. The missive was blank save for an unusually large attachment. Normally, I would have ignored such messages as spam, but this one came from a vaguely familiar address: adrian.lamo@us.army.mil. Years before, Lamo had told me he’d devised a method for minting his own .mil email addresses.

The attachment turned out to be the Times’ newsroom source list. The idea of possessing such information was at once overwhelming and terrifying, and for the rest of the evening I felt certain that someone was going to find me out (it didn’t help that I was seated adjacent to a table full of NYT reporters and editors). It was difficult not to stare at the source list and wonder at the possibilities. But ultimately, I decided the right thing to do was to simply delete the email and destroy the file.

EARLY LIFE

Lamo was born in 1981 outside of Boston, Mass. into an educated, bilingual family. Lamo’s parents say from an early age he exhibited an affinity for computers and complex problem solving. In grade school, Lamo cut his teeth on a Commodore64, but his parents soon bought him a more powerful IBM PC when they grasped the extent of his talents.

“Ever since he was very young he has shown a tendency to be a lateral thinker, and any problem you put in front of him with a computer he could solve almost immediately,” Lamo’s mother Mary said in an interview in 2003. “He has a gifted analytical mind and a natural curiosity.”

By the time he got to high school, Lamo had graduated to a laptop computer. During a computer class his junior year, Lamo upstaged his teacher by solving a computer problem the instructor insisted was insurmountable. After an altercation with the teacher, he was expelled. Not long after that incident, Lamo earned his high school equivalency degree and left home for a life on his own.

For many years after that he lived a vagabond’s existence, traveling almost exclusively on foot or by Greyhound bus, favoring the affordable bus line for being the “only remaining form of mass transit that offers some kind of anonymity.” When he wasn’t staying with friends, he passed the night in abandoned buildings or under the stars.

In 1995, Lamo landed contract work at a promising technology upstart called America Online, working on “PlanetOut.com,” an online forum that catered to the gay and lesbian community. At the time, advertisers paid AOL based on the amount of time visitors spent on the site, and Lamo’s job was to keep people glued to the page, chatting them up for hours at a time.

Ira Wing, a security expert at one of the nation’s largest Internet service providers, met Lamo that year at PlanetOut and the two became fast friends. It wasn’t long before he joined in one of Lamo’s favorite distractions, one that would turn out to be an eerie offshoot of the young hacker’s online proclivities: exploring the labyrinth of California’s underground sewage networks and abandoned mines.

Since then, Lamo kept in touch intermittently, popping in and out of Wing’s life at odd intervals. But Wing proved a trustworthy and loyal friend, and Lamo soon granted him power of attorney over his affairs should he run into legal trouble.

In 2002, Wing registered the domain “freeadrian.com,” as a joke. He’d later remark on how prescient a decision that had been.

“Adrian is like a fast moving object that has a heavy affect on anyone’s life he encounters,” Wing told this reporter in 2003. “And then he moves on.”

THE MANNING AFFAIR

In 2010, Lamo was contacted via instant message by Chelsea Manning, a transgender Army private who was then known as Bradley Manning. The Army private confided that she’d leaked a classified video of a helicopter attack in Baghdad that killed 12 people (including two Reuters employees) to Wikileaks. Manning also admitted to handing Wikileaks some 260,000 classified diplomatic cables.

Lamo reported the theft to the FBI. In explaining his decision, Lamo told news publications that he was worried the classified data leak could endanger lives.

“He was just grabbing information from where he could get it and trying to leak it,” Mr. Lamo told The Times in 2010.

Manning was later convicted of leaking more than 700,000 government records, and received a 35 year prison sentence. In January 2017, President Barack Obama commuted Manning’s sentence after she’d served seven years of it. In January 2018, Manning filed to run for a Senate seat in Maryland.

HOMELESS IN WICHITA

The same month he reported Manning to the feds, Lamo told Wired.com that he’d been diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome after being briefly hospitalized in a psychiatric ward. Lamo told Wired that he suspected someone had stolen his backpack, and that paramedics were called when the police responding to reports of the alleged theft observed him acting erratically and perhaps slurring his speech.

Wired later updated the story to note that Lamo’s father had reported him to the Sacramento Sherriff’s office, saying he was worried that his son was over-medicating himself with prescription drugs.

In 2011, Lamo told news outlet Al Jazeera that he was in hiding because he was getting death threats for betraying Manning’s confidence and turning him in to the authorities. In 2013, he told The Guardian that he’d struggled with substance abuse “for a while.”

It’s not yet certain what led to Lamo’s demise. He was found dead in a Wichita apartment on March 14. According to The Wichita Eagle, Lamo had lived in the area for more than a year. The paper quoted local resident Lorraine Murphy, who described herself as a colleague and friend of Lamo’s. When Murphy sent him a message in December 2016 asking him what he was up to, he reportedly replied “homeless in Wichita.”

“Adrian was always homeless or on the verge of it,” Murphy is quoted as saying. “He bounced around a great deal, for no particular reason. He was a believer in the Geographic Cure. Whatever goes wrong in your life, moving will make it better. And he knew people all over the country.”

The Eagle reports that Wichita police found no signs of foul play or anything suspicious about Lamo’s death. A toxicology test was ordered but the results won’t be available for several weeks.

from Technology News https://krebsonsecurity.com/2018/03/adrian-lamo-homeless-hacker-who-turned-in-chelsea-manning-dead-at-37/

[megadarkbouquettidalwavethings]

Here Come the Fake Videos, Too

The scene opened on a room with a red sofa, a potted plant and the kind of bland modern art you’d see on a therapist’s wall.

In the room was Michelle Obama, or someone who looked exactly like her. Wearing a low-cut top with a black bra visible underneath, she writhed lustily for the camera and flashed her unmistakable smile.

Then, the former first lady’s doppelgänger began to strip.

The video, which appeared on the online forum Reddit, was what’s known as a “deepfake” — an ultrarealistic fake video made with artificial intelligence software. It was created using a program called FakeApp, which superimposed Mrs. Obama’s face onto the body of a pornographic film actress. The hybrid was uncanny — if you didn’t know better, you might have thought it was really her.

Until recently, realistic computer-generated video was a laborious pursuit available only to big-budget Hollywood productions or cutting-edge researchers. Social media apps like Snapchat include some rudimentary face-morphing technology.

But in recent months, a community of hobbyists has begun experimenting with more powerful tools, including FakeApp — a program that was built by an anonymous developer using open-source software written by Google. FakeApp makes it free and relatively easy to create realistic face swaps and leave few traces of manipulation. Since a version of the app appeared on Reddit in January, it has been downloaded more than 120,000 times, according to its creator.

Deepfakes are one of the newest forms of digital media manipulation, and one of the most obviously mischief-prone. It’s not hard to imagine this technology’s being used to smear politicians, create counterfeit revenge porn or frame people for crimes. Lawmakers have already begun to worry about how deepfakes could be used for political sabotage and propaganda.

Even on morally lax sites like Reddit, deepfakes have raised eyebrows. Recently, FakeApp set off a panic after Motherboard, the technology site, reported that people were using it to create pornographic deepfakes of celebrities. Pornhub, Twitter and other sites quickly banned the videos, and Reddit closed a handful of deepfake groups, including one with nearly 100,000 members.

Before the Reddit deepfake groups were closed, they hosted a mixture of users trading video-editing tips and showing off their latest forgeries. A post titled “3D face reconstruction for additional angles” sat next to videos with titles like “(Not) Olivia Wilde playing with herself.”

Some users on Reddit defended deepfakes and blamed the media for overhyping their potential for harm. Others moved their videos to alternative platforms, rightly anticipating that Reddit would crack down under its rules against nonconsensual pornography. And a few expressed moral qualms about putting the technology into the world.

Then, they kept making more.

The deepfake creator community is now in the internet’s shadows. But while out in the open, it gave an unsettling peek into the future.

“This is turning into an episode of Black Mirror,” wrote one Reddit user. The post raised the ontological questions at the heart of the deepfake debate: Does a naked image of Person A become a naked image of Person B if Person B’s face is superimposed in a seamless and untraceable way? In a broader sense, on the internet, what is the difference between representation and reality?

The user then signed off with a shrug: “Godspeed rebels.”

Making Deepfakes

After lurking for several weeks in Reddit’s deepfake community, I decided to see how easy it was to create a (safe for work, nonpornographic) deepfake using my own face.

I started by downloading FakeApp and enlisting two technical experts to help me. The first was Mark McKeague, a colleague in The New York Times’s research and development department. The second was a deepfake creator I found through Reddit, who goes by the nickname Derpfakes.

Because of the controversial nature of deepfakes, Derpfakes would not give his or her real name. Derpfakes started posting deepfake videos on YouTube a few weeks ago, specializing in humorous offerings like Nicolas Cage playing Superman. The account has also posted some how-to videos on deepfake creation.

What I learned is that making a deepfake isn’t simple. But it’s not rocket science, either.

The first step is to find, or rent, a moderately powerful computer. FakeApp uses a suite of machine learning tools called TensorFlow, which was developed by Google’s A.I. division and released to the public in 2015. The software teaches itself to perform image-recognition tasks through trial and error. The more processing power on hand, the faster it works.

To get more speed, Mark and I used a remote server rented through Google Cloud Platform. It provided enough processing power to cut the time frame down to hours, rather than the days or weeks it might take on my laptop.

Once Mark set up the remote server and loaded FakeApp on it, we were on to the next step: data collection.

Picking the right source data is crucial. Short video clips are easier to manipulate than long clips, and scenes shot at a single angle produce better results than scenes with multiple angles. Genetics also help. The more the faces resemble each other, the better.

I’m a brown-haired white man with a short beard, so Mark and I decided to try several other brown-haired, stubbled white guys. We started with Ryan Gosling. (Aim high, right?) I also sent Derpfakes, my outsourced Reddit expert, several video options to choose from.

Next, we took several hundred photos of my face, and gathered images of Mr. Gosling’s face using a clip from a recent TV appearance. FakeApp uses these images to train the deep learning model and teach it to emulate our facial expressions.

To get the broadest photo set possible, I twisted my head at different angles, making as many different faces as I could.

Mark then used a program to crop those images down, isolating just our faces, and manually deleted any blurred or badly cropped photos. He then fed the frames into FakeApp. In all, we used 417 photos of me, and 1,113 of Mr. Gosling.

When the images were ready, Mark pressed “start” on FakeApp, and the training began. His computer screen filled with images of my face and Mr. Gosling’s face, as the program tried to identify patterns and similarities.

About eight hours later, after our model had been sufficiently trained, Mark used FakeApp to finish putting my face on Mr. Gosling’s body. The video was blurry and bizarre, and Mr. Gosling’s face occasionally flickered into view. Only the legally blind would mistake the person in the video for me.

We did better with a clip of Chris Pratt, the scruffy star of “Jurassic World,” whose face shape is a little more similar to mine. For this test, Mark used a bigger data set — 1,861 photos of me, 1,023 of him — and let the model run overnight.

A few days later, Derpfakes, who had also been training a model, sent me a finished deepfake made using the footage I had sent and a video of the actor Jake Gyllenhaal. This one was much more lifelike, a true hybrid that mixed my facial features with his hair, beard and body.

Derpfakes repeated the process with videos of Jimmy Kimmel and Liev Schreiber, both of which turned out well. As an experienced deepfake creator, Derpfakes had a more intuitive sense of which source videos would produce a clean result, and more experience with the subtle blending and tweaking that takes place at the end of the deepfake process.

In all, our deepfake experiment took three days and cost $85.96 in Google Cloud Platform credits. That seemed like a small price to pay for stardom.

What the App’s Creator Says

After the experiment, I reached out to the anonymous creator of FakeApp through an email address on its website. I wanted to know how it felt to create a cutting-edge A.I. tool, only to have it gleefully co-opted by ethically challenged pornographers.

A man wrote back, identifying himself as a software developer in Maryland. Like Derpfakes, the man would not give me his full name, and instead went by his first initial, N. He said he had created FakeApp as a creative experiment and was chagrined to see Reddit’s deepfake community use it for ill.

“I joined the community based around these algorithms when it was very small (less than 500 people),” he wrote, “and as soon as I saw the results I knew this was brilliant tech that should be accessible to anyone who wants to play around with it. I figured I’d take a shot at putting together an easy-to-use package to accomplish that.”

N. said he didn’t support the use of FakeApp to create nonconsensual pornography or other abusive content. And he said he agreed with Reddit’s decision to ban explicit deepfakes. But he defended the product.

“I’ve given it a lot of thought,” he said, “and ultimately I’ve decided I don’t think it’s right to condemn the technology itself — which can of course be used for many purposes, good and bad.”

FakeApp is somewhat finicky and hard to use, but it’s easy to imagine it improving quickly. N. said that in the future, FakeApp could be used by all kinds of people to bring high-budget special effects to their personal projects.

Deep learning algorithms, he added, were going to be important in the future, not only as stand-alone apps but as powerful components of many tech products.

“It’s precisely the things that make them so powerful and useful that make them so scary,” he said. “There’s really no limit to what you can apply it to with a little imagination.”

‘Next Form of Communication’

On the day of the school shooting last month in Parkland, Fla., a screenshot of a BuzzFeed News article, “Why We Need to Take Away White People’s Guns Now More Than Ever,” written by a reporter named Richie Horowitz, began making the rounds on social media.

The whole thing was fake. No BuzzFeed employee named Richie Horowitz exists, and no article with that title was ever published on the site. But the doctored image pulsed through right-wing outrage channels and was boosted by activists on Twitter. It wasn’t an A.I.-generated deepfake, or even a particularly sophisticated Photoshop job, but it did the trick.

Online misinformation, no matter how sleekly produced, spreads through a familiar process once it enters our social distribution channels. The hoax gets 50,000 shares, and the debunking an hour later gets 200. The carnival barker gets an algorithmic boost on services like Facebook and YouTube, while the expert screams into the void.

There’s no reason to believe that deepfake videos will operate any differently. People will share them when they’re ideologically convenient and dismiss them when they’re not. The dupes who fall for satirical stories from The Onion will be fooled by deepfakes, and the scrupulous people who care about the truth will find ways to detect and debunk them.

“There’s no choice,” said Hao Li, an assistant professor of computer science at the University of Southern California. Mr. Li, who is also the founder of Pinscreen, a company that uses artificial intelligence to create lifelike 3-D avatars, said the weaponization of A.I. was inevitable and would require a sudden shift in public awareness.

“I see this as the next form of communication,” he said. “I worry that people will use it to blackmail others, or do bad things. You have to educate people that this is possible.”

So, O.K. Here I am, telling you this: An A.I. program powerful enough to turn Michelle Obama into a pornography star, or transform a schlubby newspaper columnist into Jake Gyllenhaal, is in our midst. Manipulated video will soon become far more commonplace.

And there’s probably nothing we can do except try to bat the fakes down as they happen, pressure social media companies to fight misinformation aggressively, and trust our eyes a little less every day.

Godspeed, rebels.

Kevin Roose is a columnist for Business Day and a writer-at-large for The New York Times Magazine. His column, “The Shift,” examines the intersection of technology, business, and culture. @kevinrooseFacebook

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: It Was Only a Matter of Time: Here Comes an App for Fake Videos. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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