#the clock time vs digital time thing is very common if you have

[docholligay]

What do you say to the people that question the utility of a watch, since you've got your phone?

If you have difficulty with attention, having a way to check the time without getting pulled into your phone is invaluable. Also, it's easier for me to 'understand' time visually rather than digitally, with the way my brain is wired. I wear a watch probably 80% of the time because it helps me so much with time blindness and attention.

So I like to have nice looking ones! I only have a few because I do spend money on them, so I'd like to have another one, and I think this is classy looking in the way a lot of fandom jewlery isn't always. You wouldn't know what you were looking at unless you knew.

[gingergofastboatsmojito]

It's all in the side notes

I can’t believe why is not painfully obvious for everybody else too, it's like everyone notices everything around it except this huge elephant in the Sydcarmy room.

Let me explain:

The side notes on the script are what the actors play, not just the script itself. The subtexts, the nuances, the silences, all of that is indicated by the director and rehearsed over and over before shooting at least 2 takes of every single scene.

02X01 was about teamwork towards The Bear's opening, that's why the director opened and closed the ep with that, to make that point. The side notes were all about playing every single scene with a SOU, fast-paced dialogues, etc, because every second counts and that's why a clock was ticking on pretty much every scene.

When 02x02 ends with a close-up of Claire smiling after Carmy gives her the wrong number, that´s not the point the director tried to make, but that Carmy TOOK HIS FUCKING TIME in giving her the wrong number, he almost gave it to her in slow motion, meaning that as he was giving it to her he was deciding what he eventually ended up doing with the last digit. He was on the fence the whole time and ended up deciding to "cut her off politely" in a very Carmy way. That was a side note in the script (the speech rate and the "decide as you go", and "be doubtful first" part).

In 02x03, the Sydcarmy vs Clairmy battle really began and it continued throughout the whole S2, all side notes because the script was barely obvious about Claire until he said: "I have to call my GF" after passing the gas inspection. Notice a pattern here? Or is it just me?

02X04 was mostly focused on Marcus in Copenhagen and introduced us to Chef Luca, raising the question, on purpose leaving it as an unanswered question - that will probably be answered in S3- on whether Luca was talking about Carmy when he was talking about a chef that was way better than him and that inspired him to become the chef he is today and up his game as much as he could. In other words: Not Sydcarmy material. Except we buy into the whole SydMarcus shipping they tried to insinuate with the Facetime call, which I won't get into because I feel dirty even typing about it. How dare they? Is it because they are both black? WTF?!! Well, my point is this is probably the least Sydcarmy episode of the season and we need to make a mental note about who directed it.

02x05 This episode's arc is all about the script's side notes: "Who's Claire? / I'm saying goodnight!" is all about the intonation, not the actual words. This is the bridge of the whole Sydcarmy song, that's why it's mid-season. Notice something? I have...

02x06 The masterpiece, it's all about the side notes but again, super non Sydcarmy, it's just supposed to show us The Berzatto's background story so Syd is not part of the equation. Claire is, in a way that will later make a lot more sense during Omelette's panic attack, of course.

02x07 AKA: My favest, is also a non-Sydcarmy kinda ep. Is all about Cousin's arc. BTW: I 100% ship these 2 and I hope S3 brings more RichJess fluff and stuff:

02X08 is all about the side notes again and takes us right back into SydCarmy vs Clairmy territory. Carmy had to call his new GF after passing the inspection to give her the good news.

02x09 I shouldn't even have to say a damn thing about this ep. Other than pointing out the obvious: IT'S THE MOST SYDCARMY EP OF THE WHOLE FUCKING SEASON, TYVM!

All I'm gonna add is that Carmy is laying awake after having sex with her:

I already talked about the common blue light in this scene here.

I'm not even gonna get into his panic attack. I mean... Do I have to? Seriously?

Anyway...

Storer finally joined the ship Calo was sailing since the beginning of the season here and all the side notes in this script are HIS.

The cinematography is his, the music is his, and every line, because he co-wrote it with Sydcarmy CEO: Joanna Calo herself.

And so we arrive to 02X10 where Sydcarmy is eaten alive by The Bear but ironically enough the one who doesn't survive is the Clairmy team LMAO! Sydcarmy on the other hand keeps going strong (Ayo was promoted to co-star for a reason, she's no longer part of the cast, she's the female lead of the show now) and in S3 we'll get to see how exactly will that play out.

My point is: The director and then the editors in the ER with the EP's sign-off can change what the writers write if they choose to and the actors have to perform the side notes according to the director's instructions.

In this case, since Storer joined the Calo Sydcarmy ship as I previously mentioned and usually they co-write and always co-produce the seasons those scripts, side notes, musicalizations and editions ARE ALL THEIRS. Every time Calo touches something, she turns it into Sydcarmy gold, and Storer and her are on the same page. That's why most Sydcarmy eps of the season were hers or his or directed by both.

June can't get here soon enough.

Remember to follow my tag #Gingerpovs 💋

[muoimoffit47-blog]

Mp3 Vs Ogg Vs Wav (Excessive Quality Download) Soundtrap Assist

Xilisoft OGG MP3 Converter proves professional to convert OGG to MP3 as OGG to MP3 converter and to transform MP3 to OGG as MP3 to OGG converter. With a purpose to get a really feel for what I am doing in Perl 6, I'll use Perl 6 to count the Ogg files. This process relies on File::Discover , which comes with Rakudo Star. Perl 6 File::Find works like Perl 5's File::Find::Rule You describe characteristics of the files you're on the lookout for, and it arms you again a lazy list of information that match. OGG is often used for Ogg Vorbis, which is a very free, open compressed audio file format. Compared with MP3 which we are aware of, although they're both lossy compression codecs, OGG is smaller than MP3 in the same sound high quality as a result of ogg to mp3 converter freeware adopts VBR (Variable Bit Fee) encoding while MP3 compresses digital information at CBR (Constant Bit Charge). From Rel. three.2 FreeRIP Professional can take advantage of the multi core structure of newer PCs, spawning as many parallel file conversion duties because the out there CPUs. Which means that converting, to illustrate, 20 FLAC recordsdata to MP3 on twin core machine would take roughly half the time it would be needed on a single core machine with the same clock pace. Ogg Vorbis is a brand new audio compression format. It's roughly comparable to different codecs used to retailer and play digital music, corresponding to MP3, VQF, AAC, and different digital audio codecs. It's totally different from these other formats as a result of it is utterly free, open, and unpatented. It may well copy & save audio tag from the source OGG files to the destination MP3 information, OGG to MP3 Converter is able to writing ID3v1, ID3v2 and APE MP3 tag. This update adds support for the LAME MP3 encoder and fixes some minor issues with the AAC encoders. If you do not want to manually set the audio bitrate, select Auto on the Bitrate listing - the program will robotically modify the audio bitrate to a value near the bitrate in the supply file, and size of the ensuing MP3 file must be close to the scale of your Ogg file.

The audio was encoded utilizing the quality issue technique reasonably than artificially specifying minimal maximum and nominal bit rates, as this is advisable for ogg vorbis. The quality factor (proven) was then adjusted so the file measurement most closely matched the mp3. it is then compared to the mp3's bitrate. The final Ogg file is a high quality issue of 10, that is the maximum quality for an ogg file. Originally, HarddiskOgg was written to record the sound channel from TV, specifically music channels like MTV. With out HarddiskOgg, you would need to report to WAV first, then convert it to an area saving format utilizing an exterior converter. While this is doable, it has one massive drawback: it takes loads of disk house. Whereas it's ok for recording one or two songs, you most likely can not report greater than a couple of hours. You probably have an AMR file you need to open with an iPhone or different mobile device, convert it to a more common audio format like MP3 utilizing any of the converter applications we examined. As a result of AMR is a compressed audio format, you do not danger shedding constancy once you convert it to another lossy format. However, don't expect the audio quality to improve if you convert the file. For those who only have to convert a small variety of files which can be less than one minute lengthy, we advocate a free program like Freemake Nonetheless, in case you have multiple files that it's essential convert and edit, we advise using a extra sturdy converter like Swap or Audials because they're considerably quicker and make it easier to batch convert a number of recordsdata without delay. The most effective for-pay audio conversion software program we tested also includes simple editing instruments you utilize to trim undesirable pauses and parts of the recording you don't want. Convert to a thousand+ formats, like AVI, MKV, MOV, MP4, and so on. Right here is the place you need to set the LAME MP3 encoder for the conversion process. Select the MP3 (LAME) possibility below Encoding Preset. Now click the button beside this selection with the dots in it and one other window will pop-up. If need extra advanced choices, MediaHuman Audio Converter does let you customise things like the default output folder, whether or not you need to robotically add the converted songs to iTunes, ogg to mp3 converter freeware and if you want to search online for canopy art, amongst other choices. Greatest MP3 Converter: Convert any Audio Files to MP3 file format with ease. With this free online OGG converter you can convert to OGG from a variety of audio source formats. Just add your file and the OGG conversion process starts instantly. You may also upload a video to extract the audio observe to the OGG format. OGG to MP3 Converter can effortlessly search, add and manage the OGG recordsdata to be transformed.

[localocksmithnearme]

Buick Ignition Repair & Key Replacement Elizabeth NJ

Buick Ignition Repair & Key Replacement Elizabeth NJ - CALL (973)200-4870

http://www.elizabethkeyreplacement.com/buick.html

Instead of using the service of a towing-truck to tow your car to the dealer, we hire an emergency lock-man work truck who is ready to be on the way to you to help you out of your obstacle on-site. We taking pride in our specialist attendants and guarantee to restore your inner calmness by resolving your Buick key-lock challenges safely and regularly on site 24 hr. If you broke your Buick remote, cannot turn your ignition key, need your Buick engine control unit reformat or broke your Buick key in the ignition, Our Buick locksmiths in Elizabeth NJ are available to undertake your lock-out, locks, keys and ignition demands for any Buick model and year you may own, all you need to do is give us a call at (973)200-4870 to talk with one of our customer care office attendant to get an honest pricing appraisal and our beneficial virtuoso Buick lock-smith workmanship will drive to you within the least possible amount of time to get your transponder programmed, fob key placed or ignition repaired on-site morning noon and night.

Buick replacement keys in Elizabeth NJ

One of the core element of any Buick is it's key and lock infrastructure, which have to be re-keyed when misplaced or destructed. When this type of a pain crops up we, at Elizabeth Key Replacement, in Elizabeth NJ, are really skilled to undertake all models of vehicle key, ignition or lock complications onsite.

Buick transponder key is specially programmed to turn on an explicit car and our know how worker force can form Buick keyless entry device, transponder, passive anti theft or Tibbe keys, and moreover install, repair or replace any type of ignition, locks and keys on premises around the clock.

About Buick keys and locks instrument

Buick is a USA car manufacturer of high standard vehicles runs as a General-Motors partition and one of the United States of America's biggest vehicle producer of average vehicles world-wide. with an head-quarter in Detroit, Michigan, introduced to the world in 1903,  Buick primarily utilize the same sort of eletronic locks and key system on most of their designs since 1997.

On early generations, to make an additional key onboard, owner has to have at the minimum 1 programmed functional key, nevertheless to make a surplus key for current model, a unique key programmer and diagnostic devices is required.

Beginning at 2007,  Buick designs might utilize the Passive Entry Passive Start (PEPS) for it's a push start ignition or smart key as a optional or standard system.

Ignition lock repair

The Buick ignition switch utilize 3 positions that turn on different system when the driver turn the key. The ignition will turn on the electrical elements on the 1st phase, turn on the fuel injection on the 2nd phase and start the car engine on the 3rd phase.

A highly common thing we get asked over the phone for assitance with,  ignition  problems. Whilst our agent are generally ecstatic to tackle and diagnose your situation, it might be pretty hard to fulfill over the phone. In addition to carrying the right Buick diagnostic and lock bumping tools, an essential knowledge of how car ignition  function is fundamental, however prior to calling an ignnition key-smith please check following:

</p> <h5>dash board light are off</h5> <p> If you turn the ignition on but see no lights come on on the dash board which means that there is no electricity running from the battery. It may be A deflated battery or maybe even a failed electronic wiring connection or alternator could cause this. Turn on the headlights, if they wont light up, it's actually means the battery is dead which is a job for a  mechanic shop.

</p> <h5>Ignition key wont turn</h5> <p> Exceedingly all vehicle have a locking steering column that is being locked every time you take the ignition key out  at the end of each drive. Sometimes, the steering wheel is in a position that creates strain to the ignition , and wont let the key from turning (usually happens when parking on a hill) or if one of the front wheels is pressed against an object (e.g. curb stone).

* Before you start troubleshooting this issue, ensure that your car shifting gear is on park.

Grasp the  wheel and try to swing the  steering wheel  left and right and back and forth at the same time as mildly jiggling the ignition  key - this may help to release the steering lock.

The ignition cylinder is very important element of any car and containing so many small parts that might be tough to inspect by an inexperienced hands, so the only thing you advised to do experiencing ignition  issues is to assure you’re in fact trying to turn on your own car and ask a vehicle lock-man to come down to your place of choice to replace, rekey  reprogram the key or ignition which will priced as around $155–$340.

Transponder chipped key make

2 decades ago manufacturers of automobiles didn't utilize digital chips in their lock and key system. Car lockpicking and stealing was trivial and was a sizeable headache to insurance companies and drivers world wide.

The concept behind this is to acquire antitheft technology in which the motor vehicle accommodate car main computer and the key accommodate a small chip in general concealed in it's plastic cap.

The moment the owner enter the key into the ignition key hole, a radio frequency signal is committed to the car computer system. If the vehicle computer will not understand the code, the engine won't start up. This instrumentation actually means that in addition to the fact that the key must be physically shaped to sync the cylinder, it also has to be justly programmed to the immobiliser.

Buick smart-key

Buick smart key anable a car owner to lock and unlock the car door besides starting up the vehicle yet avoiding inserting a key, and beginning at 2007, many Buick models on the road come with some type of a proximity key instrument that accommodate a short-range remote transmitter.

With a keyless entry device, entry to your Buick is usually attained by transmitting a radio frequency signal from a remote transmitter to a vehicle computer on a coded channel when you merely walking by within 5 feet of the vehicle with the keyless device in the pocket or on a key ring.

This combination of audio and infrared signal and the Buick smart-key platform, furthermore enable push start ignition (also called Clutch starting or Push starting). Using this method you are capable of turning on a vehicle engine by clicking a push-buttons on the dash-board console alternatively to twisting a key in a crater hole.

Copy vs lost car keys

The actual process of cutting and programming a car key varies among different year and models of your Buick. For some vehicles, on board programming could be used to copy a chipped key. This process bypass the need for fancy key programmer and key codes when linking a new transponder key to the car. Vehicles who don't support Onboard key copy  arrangement should have another key coded employing a compatible key programmer that is available only to a legitimate locksmith or Buick dealer.

This coding machine costs a few thousands of dollars to purchase which is one of the main reasons making an electric vehicle key costs way more than it does to only cut an old fashioned mechanical key.

If you misplaced your last car key you will most likely need to tow your car to the dealership or call a locksmith to come down to your juncture to re-program the immobilized computer to utilize the new key and renounce the lost one. Lost key recovery require ownership documents such as title, insurance or registration and will costs $185–$250.

24hr motor vehicle lock-out

In the situation that you find yourself with the keys locked in the car, you definitely need to hire a swift and trustworthy company! Only our fast lockpicking personnel can fulfill the quest of unlocking your car trunk or door for majority of manufacturer of cars, year and model. Give us a call at our operator office to get principal lockman company in the city who is employing particular lock-picking equipage as well as the skill to eradicate harm to the car door frame, power windows or electrical locks technologies for your complete satisfaction.

Car locks modify

Elizabeth Key Replacement is satisfied to arrange all style of Buick re key services on-site to reinstate a misplaced, jammed or appropriated keys. Most newer car are decked with electric key lock instrumentation and the procedure enforced to get your lock refitted have to accommodate the convenient coder for the detailed car. Instead of ferrying your car to the dealer, just elevate the tele-phone and call our dispatch center in Elizabeth NJ and one of our car rekeying personnel will be with you as quick as possible with a unsteadfast service van containing recent ignition parts, key cutters, blank keys and programmers ready to overcome any type of emergency affairs.

To summarize

Elizabeth Key Replacement renders all sort motor vehicle keys, ignition and locks services onsite. We employ first class, experienced man-power that carry enormous experience with all car makers model and year and our establishment top priority is to extend drivers instant and devoted road side remedy to their difficulties guaranteeing quickest response time to get you back in their vehicle and place them back on the road speedily. . If you are in a search for Buy keys online Elizabeth Key Replacement.

[evanvanness]

Annotated edition, Week in Ethereum News, March 21, 2020 issue

Shill alert: Gitcoin’s 250k in matching grants is live.  My grant is here.  If you give because you particularly want the annotated edition to continue, could you add .11 to whatever you give?  eg, 1.11 DAI or .11 ETH or .01011 ETH.  The previous round went great but tracking what people like is hard.  

The $250k includes $100k for tech, 50k for media, and 100k for public health, mostly related to covid.  I’m curious as to how this goes - I find it very hard to evaluate the public health proposals, whereas Eth proposals are easy for me to evaluate.  I mostly know the people, I know the ideas, etc.  None of that is true for the public health category.   There’s an opportunity for someone knowledgeable to (anonmously?) evaluate all the applicants and shape what gets funded.  

Eth1

Latest core devs call. Tim Beiko’s notes.

Discussions (non-exhaustive list) about EIP inclusions in next hard fork: eip2537 (BLS12-381 curve precompile) final, so we can have eth2 light clients on eth1. eip2456 timestamp for scheduling instead of block number, eip2542 vs ungas, eip2046 reducing gas cost for static calls, and eip1962 generalized precompile

Geth v1.9.12 – eth_call no longer defaults to first account

Merry Go Round – an idea for syncing state, a la Bittorrent

Lots of talk in the core devs call about all the different EIPs being evaluated for the next fork.  

In some ways this week is a synopsis of what’s happening at the protocol layer: people are working on the things for the next fork and arguing over what should go in, as well as what is ready to go in.  The Geth team are chugging along keeping the majority of the network humming, and there is research and ideas being passed around about how to get the current Ethereum mainnet to be stateless.

Vitalik’s long-term roadmap below also does a good job of explaining the main things being worked on in eth1.   I wasn’t exactly sure where to put it, probably incorrectly chose to put it in eth2 since so many things are long-term.

One interesting thing to note is that this is Vitalik’s “personal” vision.  Of course most of it is not controversial, but he just did this by himself.  Does it mean that it is Ethereum’s roadmap?  No.  It means that Vitalik came up with it at some point and decided to publish it - it does not necessarily reflect what everyone thinks.  He didn’t build consensus, he just published what he was seeing on the day he wrote it down.  

I noticed plenty of misinformation about Vitalik’s roadmap, as if none of this will happen for a decade.  Quite the opposite is true: the top 2/3 of the page is being worked on right now.  The Beacon Chain of eth2 is still set to launch in the next few months. 

The bottom third of the graphic is much more speculative.  Polynomial commitments instead of state roots?  That just got published last week, that’s likely years away.   When CBC Casper?  I’m not sure but it’s not soon and the transition is far from clear - to me, anyway.  Perhaps Vlad would give you a different answer.

Eth2

Danny Ryan’s Eth2 update

Latest what’s new in Eth2

Prysmatic client update – stable testnet for a month (but to be rebooted to current spec), surround vote slashing

Tutorial to run your own Lighthouse testnet

Vitalik’s personal long-term ETH roadmap, beyond eth2

Mikhail Kalinin’s writeup of his eth1<>eth2 bridge idea

Sensor fusion for BFT clock sync. Alex Vlasov’s research on hardening timestamps

State transition in Eth2 explainer from Nethermind’s Sly Gryphon

How Eth2 improves on Eth1’s weaknesses from Prysmatic’s Ivan Martinez

Gitcoin playlist of short eth2 explainer videos

I know probably no one else sees the order of things when I try to order things properly.  So here’s who it went: Danny’s update was high-level.  Ben’s was a bit more in the weeds.  Even further into the weeds is client update and “run your own testnet node.”  Then we got into Vitalik’s roadmap, which bridged the current eth2 with the future work.   So then we got writeups of research like eth1/eth2 merge, hardening timestaps, before getting into a few explainers that were a bit more for broader audience.

The ordering flowed perfectly in my mind, but probably only in mine!

Layer2

Why iden3 is using zk-rollup for universal identities

Having been using Loopring’s exchange running on zk-rollup, gotta say: it’s a great experience.  It’s like using a centralized exchange, only it’s a dex.

Stuff for developers

Solidity v0.5.17 (last?) release of 0.5.x (since 0.6 is out) disallowing overriding of private functions

TenderlyPro released – simulate txs, advanced analytics, debugging

Debugging transactions with Buidler and Truffle

Subspace v2, much easier to track events in React.

A demo on observing Defi with Subspace

svm: Solidity version manager

Choose how many IPFS replications you want pinned in each region with Pinata

Austin Griffith video on gas limits and gas prices

Intro to Eth for Python devs using web3py

Compare Eth API performance with the Versus tool

Tutorial on Ethereum RPCs, methods and calls in Infura

Mahesh Murthy updated his famous “Full Stack Hello World Voting Ethereum Dapp Tutorial” to use current libraries

Guide to building a margin trading platform on 0x

A quick start guide for devs to borrowing assets from Compound

Solidity went back to the v0.5 series to fix a bug that not everyone agrees is a bug!

Meanwhile, lots of interesting tools and tutorials this week, I suppose they all speak for themselves.  I thought it was neat that Infura released a tool to let you compare API performance.  Nice little bit of subtle bragging.

Ecosystem

A taxonomy of the advantages/disadvantages of different types of Eth wallets

How do we better onboard newcomers to Ethereum?

Custom text records on ENS

Onboarding newcomers is something I’ve been thinking about lately, and was tangential to my EthCC talk, which that post references.   Community has decentralized, which is good, but also poses some challenges.  A good portion of people who think of themselves as “Eth community” get their news from publications which are outright clickbait or have historically not done a very good job at ascertaining facts.  Still churning over this one, should probably turn some of my talk into a series of blog posts myself.

Someone at EthCC told me that they summarized my talk as “Make r/ethereum great again,” which is fair.  Yet while I continue to put a decent amount of time into r/ethereum, it’s not crystal clear whether we should try to revive it to be the main community discussion point.  For one thing, the existing rule is that it’s English-only, which feels unfair, but perhaps necessary for moderation purposes.  Can Reddit be the main ecosystem gathering point?  Do we need new tools?  Should they be web3-friendly sites, or should we keep Reddit as something that new people can find?  

Enterprise

Baseline Protocol is now open source, a common system of record between enterprises

“blockchain will do, for networks of companies and business ecosystems, what ERP did for the single enterprise” – Paul Brody, Cornell Blockchain interview

Resolving key considerations for blockchain connectivity with PegaSys Orchestrate

Hyperledger Besu v1.4.1

First public meeting of EEA’s mainnet working group scheduled for April 3

EY and Brody have made a big bet on mainnet, and it appears to be paying off.   In his interview, he framed the competition as between public mainnet and private chains, as EY is far ahead in expertise of using mainnet.  

It was also super interesting to get some of the backstory that led to the IBM/Samsung washing machine in 2014.

Governance, DAOs, and standards

Technical overview of Vocdoni’s anonymous voting system

The two token structure of SingularDTV’s SnglsDAO

Application layer

USDC added as collateral for Maker to help restore DAI to 1:1 parity with USDC and more Dai liquidity in liquidation auctions and MKR auctions. In Maker parlance, liquidation auctions are flips, and MKR auctions to cover system deficit are flops

flops.live to track the MKR auctions

Backstop syndicate is live. Pool your DAI to buy MKR at a favorable price, if an auction should drop that low

NexusMutual declined claims from Maker liquidated auctions since smart contract cover doesn’t include the risk that only one bot bids on the auction

DeFiSaver and liquidated auctions, the oracle delay was a problem but did 12500 ETH worth of Aave flash loan volume over 4000 transactions

Also check out Covalent if you need advanced notification as a user

Balancer’s 80/20 liquidity pools

Making requests on ErasureBay

OpenLaw: smart clauses for digital legal agreements

Depending on how you count, DeFi was 5 or 7 out of 9 bullet points.  That’s my running tracker that I like to occasionally check on.

Backstop was a very cool community effort.  Love to see that people get together to make sure the system functions - and they were also incentivized to do so.  

Tokens/Business/Regulation

Microsponsors: mint and auction your time as NFTs on a 0x market

Making sense of synthetic assets on Ethereum

Ryan Sean Adams on Covid-19 and crypto

Capital markets meltdown signals the birth of DeFi

Jonathan Joseph’s piece on how Black Thursday is the beginning of the DeFi area would have made the #Mostclicked if I’d tweeted it out just a bit later. 

General

AZTEC’s Plookup tables for faster SNARK verification of digital signatures

Using machine learning classifiers and SNARKs to detect improper video transcoding in Livepeer

Benchmarking performance of Rescue and Poseidon hash functions vs MiMC

ICL paper says bZx flash loan attackers left money on the table

NYT’s Nathaniel Popper reports on how the lead dev of Venezuela’s Petro scam got screwed

The NYT on how the Venezuelan kleptocrats screwed the dev is the epitome of something-we-all-saw-coming, which you already knew if you’ve read the newsletter for a long time.  I got criticism from a bunch of different corners (”oh that’s because you’re an American,” “you can’t say that, people will think it represents us,” etc) for calling the Petro a scam when it was announced, and I ignored it.  I don’t know why you got into this space, but I didn’t get into it to help kleptocrat leftist authoritarians.  

Meanwhile, lots of cool stuff in SNARKs, including in Livepeer about how they might be able to detect improper transcoding.  

Finally, Cristian Espinoza translated last week’s annotated edition into Spanish, which to my knowledge is the first time that the annotated edition has been translated.  Very cool, and support his Gitcoin grant for more translations!

I’ll add the #mostclicked here.  Amusingly I had some maxis spreading more lies about me this week because my tweets auto-delete.  So here’s a screenshot since that’s more durable than linking to a tweet

[wenepaltrekkingexpertsblr-blog]

Web Development in Nepal | The trend of Web development in Nepal

A new era of digitalization

Nepal is starting to catch up when it comes to several technological advancements that are otherwise a part of ordinary lives in most developed countries. One of our major exports and contribution to this is in the sector of IT and Software solutions. Amongst them, Software and Web development in Nepal are the major categories.

The latest trend of startups popping around in every corner of the street providing a vast array of digital and technological solutions to businesses is not going to stop anytime soon. While it was unheard of in the last 5 years, nowadays it is very common to hear Nepali start-ups and programmers generating revenues in the millions. If you have an idea or a solution, you will find no shortages of companies and individuals willing to help you realize those ideas. 

In recent times, companies from abroad have started outsourcing their technical problems to countries like ours realizing the value of such a fresh and diversely talented market. 

In today's modern digital world, if you or your business is not available online, then you are severely missing out on various opportunities. You can use your website to connect with your clients, create awareness for your brand and overall increase the presence and reach your business can have.

If you are not yet convinced, then here are a few reasons to build a website for your business:-

To build an online presence

Digital marketing possibilities

Engage your customers and build customer relations

Reach a new range of potential customers to increase sales

Providing accessibility around the clock to customers

To build credibility.

To provide more information and guidance to customers before closing

Must consider tips to ensure a proper website design:-

Use minimal and simple design.

Ensure simple navigation between pages.

Provide helpful content and information

Ensure responsive design and mobile-first approach to website development.

Ensure faster website load times.

Make it easy for visitors to convert with a quick and simple check-out process. 

Ensure proper SEO techniques are being implemented on your website.

How to start building a website for your business?

Getting started with professional looking and responsive websites does not need to be a difficult thing. There are various free and paid options for website building services that can accommodate your requirements. Various drag and drop website building services like Squarespace and Wix are easy to use and provide affordable hosting charges. If you are someone with basic web design knowledge, you can also use WordPress, which is free to get started.

However, if you require professional web solutions and want to optimize your site for search engines, then hiring a Web development agency is the path to choose. This might require a significant investment upfront but the outcome achieved as a direct result of their understanding and experience of the digital world is well worth the price.

For one, they know the latest web development trends and can help customize your business needs to provide a positive user experience. A web development agency can also create web page content that is optimized for the search engines. 

WordPress CMS vs Laravel

We here at Top Nepal International are adept at providing website solutions in both WordPress and Laravel. Both of these can meet your requirements but how to choose one above the other?

Well, let’s explore further. WordPress is a content management system (CMS) created with the goal of building websites, whether using customizable themes or creating tailor-made solutions. Laravel, on the other hand, is a PHP framework used for creating web applications and other sorts of websites. They are both focused on the user and devoted to building websites that are easy to use and are also simple and easy to manage.

A simple difference between the two is that WordPress is a system and Laravel is a framework within PHP.

WordPress advantages include:

Search-engine friendly structure

Integrated link management

Clean permalink structure

Ability to assign multiple categories to posts

Automatic filters to format and style texts in posts

Ability to edit content both in a visual editor and an HTML-based text editor

Customizable features with the use of plugins

Easy integration of third-party services

Large supporting community worldwide

Laravel advantages include:

Developer friendly structure supported by excessive documentation

Implemented authentication system

Simple validation and authorization process for web apps

Easily manageable automated tasks

Consistency in database migrations

Fast and painless deployment of apps

Customizable features with the use of packages

Easy integration of third-party services

Large supporting community worldwide

In the end, this all boils down to the specifics of what you and your business needs. If you run a small business that requires minimal complexity and simple e-commerce features, WordPress might be the way to go. On the other hand, if your business needs a complex and robust web solution that can handle large-scale applications and processing, you should look into Laravel as the best choice for you.

If you need help designing attractive websites for your business that’s optimized for the search engines and easy to navigate, it’s time to call in the experts. Our Web development team at Top Nepal International will assess the goals of your business and create a superior product that will surely breathe life to your business and brand.

[gamerscenters-blog]

The review of Xbox One X vs PS4 Pro 2020 PS4 Pro has been out for about a yr now, and the Xbox One X has simply sooner or later been released, and that ability its officially time for Xbox One X versus PlayStation 4 Pro.- [Narrator] Sony. More than a brand, a standard. In this blog, you’re all going to experience new things and the future. (electronic music)To start with, let’s take an in-depth look at the hardware of every one of these systems and what it’s going to cost you, starting with the Xbox One X.Youre getting an eight-core processor that’s clocked at 2.3 gigahertz.

Now, as for the bodily construct of these systems, despite the reality that the One Xis the more effective of the two, it’s additionally the smaller as well. They’re, in general, the identical as far as the width and peak go. The One X is perhaps just a hair taller and little much less wide.

But where you absolutely see the depth of the difference of the systems, where the PS4 has this variety of square design on the top, which makes it a lot larger and have a tons better footprint on your shelf. In these ports, there’s are not but a lot of similarities going on here.

They both provide three USB ports, with the PS4 Pro having two in the front, one in the back, the Xbox One X doing the flip of that. They’re each giving you an ethernet port and an optical out as well.

The One X has a couple of different options on the pinnacle of that, however, with an HDMI-in and IR port. Anthen for the looks, honestly, I type of assume that each of these systems is truly kind of milddowngrades from their slim versions. In my opinion, slim consoles just look better.

But when we’re talking about just these two in opposition to each other, I gotta give the appears to the Xbox One X.

It’s just smaller. It’s sleeker. I like the type of simply clean container monolith design that it was to go on. The PS4, on the different hand, while the triple stack is the type of grown on me, still now not my favourite.

Now, of course, the huge questions when it comes to this two system, is which of them is gonna provide you with the better4K gaming experience, ’cause, after all, that’s the entire factor for this .5 generation that we’ve been getting over the predecessors. And the two systems have taken very one-of-a-kind methods to this.

Now, obviously, as I stated until now with the specs, the Xbox One X is a lot extra powerful system, and that’s due to the fact it’s approaching it just brute forces its way into getting native 4K in its games.

Xbox One X vs PS4 Pro 4k Gaming

So, for massive first-party titles like Gears of War 4or Forza 7, you are seeing native, real 4K resolution, while some different games, or some of the more taxing two like Quantum Break, we stated Quantum Leap, are exhibiting at 4K, but get much near and then upscaled to it and the difference.

Now, on the different hand, the PlayStation 4is absolutely reliant on this idea of the usage of upscaling. Even their very own large first-party games like Horizon Zero Dawn don’t show in native 4K, but as an alternative make use of what’s called checkerboard upscaling, a technique that, while not as true as 4K, gets quite very close, where depending on the size of your TVand how away you sit from it, honestly, the difference is nearly indistinguishable.

Now, matters get a little murkier when it comes to 3rd parties, cause there’s usually that fear that rather of inserting that greater work to make certain the One X gets a higher version and is the usage of all the resources, they’ll rather just make one Pro version that’ll work simply as well on the PS4 Pro and One X, and thankfully, that doesn’t seem to be the case.

A lot of games out right now are showing honestly better versions Games on the One X and the PS4 Pro.

Some of them are very famous and close margins, but others are very large. For instance, The Evil Within 2 is a PS4 game, that on the Xbox One X, is strolling at a native decision of 1800p, while the PS4 Pro version is only at 1280p. Now, for reference, if you don’t know, the technical time period for 4K is 2160p, so, the Xbox One model is much, tons closer to that.

So, for the money, the PS4 Pro is giving you an awesome 4K like experience for a lot of their games, that for most of you isn’t going to matter in a regular entertainment setup. But if you’re searching for true, proper 4Kand getting the very best resolution possible in each single and multiplayer game, the Microsoft One X is the winner here.

So it truly is how the 4K gaming experience works up between these two systems, however what about everything? What about the regular consumer experience between the Xbox One X and the PS4 Pro? Well, to be honest, lower back when these buildings first launched, I truly preferred the consumer outing on the PS4, however as time has long gone by, Xbox has put a lot of work into upgrading lot of their UI and services, to make, what I think is now a greater system.

Starting with the UI, for instance, while I anticipate PS4s is a little greater intuitive, Microsoft, as quickly as you get the dangle for it, is really, simply good. You have the most important page ideal here where you see all the modern games you have been playing. You can go down to your pins, showing a record that you have picked specifically, that you can go back to on each and every event you want.

Going once more up, you can go to Mixer, neighbourhood stuff, entertainment for things like TV and movies, or the store to purchase more video games and DLC. And if you ever want to go to your list of video games you already have, you truly hit the Xbox button, go proper here, bam, all the video games you have installed, or all the video games you’ve owned that you can install later on.

Just overall, it is such a pinnacle notch experience once you get the hold of it. Meanwhile, on the PS4, as I stated earlier, things are a bit greater intuitive at first, but its’ also extra limiting. On the essential menu, you have this most necessary line right here that has all the unique hooked up games and apps that you have, along with updates and the store

And going up above, you ought to come across the total issue else, like buddies list, notifications, messages, settings, all that applicable stuff. The trouble is, is that it’s no longer true that handy to in reality locate control over the place you desire matters to be. All the video games and apps they have listed here are primarily based on what you most currently launched.

You can prepare them into subfolders like this, which makes it a little cleaner, but ultimately, things are continuously transferring around based on what you’re beginning up when, which certainly receives tense overtime.

Compared to the Xbox, where you’re in a position to barring troubles bounce between distinct menus and now not constantly have to go to this predominant one, and then find out your way to remarkable subsections. It virtually gets a little tiresome. It’s flawlessly usable, but at the supply up of the day, comparing it to Xbox One X, it’s absolutely a little larger clunky.

 Where there are, of course, differences between these systems, there’s a complete lot they have in common as some distance as the ordinary customer journey goes. For instance, multimedia. They both offer a lot of the large identify apps like Netflix, Hulu, Crunchyroll, HBO Go, YouTube, and for some special ones like Netflix, they every provide 4K and HDR video support.

Offers And desig

They also both offer Spotify for music, something that was once at the beginning one-of-a-kind to Sony but made its way to the Xbox greater recently. They every enable you to move to Twitch, they both have sort of faux broadcast that we have seen in the TV options like PS Vue in the PS4 and Sling TV on the Xbox One.

And as some distance as their memberships go, they’re basically the equal thinking now, where they have the equal price, they both permit you to play video games online, and they each grant you a small handful of free video games every month. start seeing some distinction again, though, with some of the increased special services on each system.

For instance, on PS4, you can get PlayStation Now, a carrier that permits you circulation play games over the web with a big catalogue of PS3 and some PS4 titles, which acts as a variety of the backwards well-suited option for the PS4. The factor is, is it lets you circulate play video games for a monthly fee.

On the special hand, with Xbox, you’ve obtained Xbox Game Pass and EA access, two separate choices that additionally cost a month-to-month fee, but on the other hand of having to go with the flow play over the internet, which can sometimes be a truly massive problem for those of you with worse net connections, you just set up the games and play them appropriate in your system, which leads to a lot higher experience, but every one of them has catalogues that is an accurate deal smaller than PS Nows.

There’s also a difference in phrases of what variety of additional gaming options you have on these systems. For instance, the Xbox One is pushed very hardon it having actual, full-blown backwards compatibility, offering the conceivable to play 360and even some unique Xbox games on your Xbox One.

Now, it’s now not the full catalogue for each of these systems, but the listing is persevering with to grow with a very large extent of 360 video games reachable proper now,  and more unique Xbox games planned for the near future. On the one-of-a-kind hand, with the PlayStation, you don’t have any real backwards compatibility.

I mean, we have pushed that you people can now play PS3 games through PlayStation Now, and there are some select PS2 games that you can purchase digitally, but neither of these enables you to honestly put the disc in your gadget and play them as the Xbox One does. On the different hand, something that PS4 does provide that the Xbox One doesn’t have at all is VR gaming with their personal headset, the PS VR.

Xbox One X vs PS4 Pro VR

Given the list of video games on this is not gigantic, however, if VR gaming is some problem that you are in fact interested in getting into, it is presently something you can only find on the PS4 as some distance as console gaming goes.

Another exceptional advantage of the PS4 Pro properly really worth citing is even as every machine allow you to a long way flung play on a PC, the PS4 Pro has the greater option of the remote taking section in on the PS4, giving you a way play your PS4 video games handheld. So, so a long way matters are searching out exceedingly awesome on the Xbox One X.

I mean, it sold the more wonderful hardware, splendid updates to the purchaser experiences, some gorgeous services, but there is one huge wall the device is nevertheless going for walks into and it is one of the defining things about this generation, and it’s recreation exclusivity. I mean, without a doubt seem to be at 2017 on its own, you can list all the massive title Xbox One exclusives one hand; Super Lucky’s Tale, Halo Wars 2, Forza 7, Cuphead, and soon, PlayerUnknowns Battlegroundswill at least is consoled extraordinary to them.

Meanwhile, on the PS4 you’ve offered Nioh, NieR Automata, Persona 5, Horizon Zero Dawn, GT Sport, Pyre, Hellblade, a new Uncharted, so many higher video games that I cant even surely document them all right now, that absolutely dwarfs the list in comparison.

This is not to say that the one-of-a-kind of the Xbox One has are always worse, it is honestly that there is no longer as many of them. So, possibilities are if you are looking for increased games that’ll cater to your tastes, Sony is gonna give you greater options. Now, you can moreover love Gears of War, Halo, and no longer care about Uncharted or any of the games on the PlayStation.

Great But for those of you definitely looking out for the most choices, Sony is winning that market challenging suitable now. You know, returned when this era started, there used to be a lot of favour in PS4s camp.

Specifications and Price

It had the greater hardware, they had greater exclusives, and simply ordinary the sales supported that it was the extra prevalent console. But as a result, Xbox has been struggling enamel and nail to grant better software and accelerated lately higher hardware, and as a result, honestly, if software program libraries had been the unique same, Id have to say the One X is, in fact, the higher system. But inside the context of what games are available, and what you can grab, at a minimize price thing, the PS4 Pro is a very tempting offer.

You know, if you are the shape of individual that simply likes to play massive name, triple-A video games that are available on every platform, the One X is honestly the secure choice, however, if you prefer to have as many video games available at your disposal, with only one console, the PS4 Pro then once more has a large advantage.

You’re getting a GPU that’s capable of six teraflops,12 gigabytes of RAM, and a 1 terabyte difficult drive, all at the fee of $500.

Meanwhile, on the PS4 Pro,you’re nevertheless getting an eight-core processor, but its clocked at 2.1 GHz, a GPU that’s solely successful of 4.2 TFS. You’re getting eight gigs of RAM, plus one additional gig of a slower RAM type, so it just provides a little extra power, and you’re still getting a one terabyte challenging drive. So, overall, across the board, the PS4 is virtually the weaker of the two systems, but this does come at the benefit of it being more lower-priced system at $400.

[expatshaarlem]

10 Things All Women Travelers Should Know About Staying Safe Abroad

It’s not always easy being a woman. As much as we’d like to think that women travelers have the same freedoms as their male counterparts, this is not always the case. And as far as the feminist movement has come over the past decade, it remains true that women travelers need to take certain precautions while traveling abroad.

I traveled through Africa solo in my early twenties – much to my parents’ horror! – so I know firsthand that traveling can be an enormously fun and life-changing experience. I soon caught the travel bug and have rarely stayed home for longer than six months before jetting off again. It’s not difficult for women travelers to stay safe while traveling abroad, and many of these tips will be equally useful for male travelers. A little prior planning and foresight allow women travelers to experience more freedom and a level of spontaneity while abroad than ever before.

1. Keep Your Valuables On-Hand

Whether you’re a flashpacker who can travel for weeks with a single day pack’s worth of luggage, or whether you can’t leave home without your five-piece Samsonite luggage set, never let your valuables out of your sight. Your passport, cell phone, money, and travel documents need to stay as close to your body as possible, never in an overhead compartment of a plane or bus, and certainly never in checked baggage. A good way to make this process simple is to practice packing light – practicing piles vs. stuffing, and opting to go digital (music, books, etc.) to keep things light.

2. Blend In

Even if you plan on hitting every tourist hotspot imaginable, try not to look too much like a tourist. Do your best to blend in with the locals, especially in terms of fashion and cultural gestures. Do your research in advance to find out whether tank tops or sundresses will be appropriate at your destination: you may find that it’s customary to cover your shoulders and wear long slacks. If you look too much like a tourist, you’ll be easy prey for pickpockets.

3. Know Where You’re Going (Or Do a Good Job of Pretending To)

Confidence is vital for women travelers. When you walk with purpose and maintain good posture, you’ll give off an air that you know exactly where you’re going. This has nothing to do with being ladylike and everything to do with not becoming a victim, especially to pickpockets and scammers who target women travelers who look lost or alone. Even if you’re traveling solo, pretend you’re meeting a group of friends on the next corner.

4. Stay Accountable

Leave your travel itinerary with a trusted person back home, and promise to check in regularly. A quick email or Skype session from a public internet booth or Wi-Fi hotspot every second day will suffice to make sure that someone knows where you are and that you’re safe.

5. Dump Your Drink

This tip is no different for women travelers as it is for women in their hometown: if you need to leave your drink, even for a moment, dump it to escape drink spiking, and buy a fresh one instead. Anyone interested in spiking your drink will be able to do it in a fraction of the time you may think it would take, so don’t leave anything to chance. Keep your drink in your hand or within sight, or start fresh with a new one.

6. Prepare for Your Cell Phone to Die

When packing, assume that your cell phone will break or run out of charge at least once during your trip. With that in mind, pack a small notepad and pen to write directions, phone numbers, and addresses, and consider bringing a small travel alarm clock so you don’t miss a flight or transfer.

7. Write The Address of Your Accommodation on Small Cards

Print out a few small business card-sized copies of the address of your accommodation, and keep them in your purse. If you’re traveling to a non-English speaking country, write out the address in English as well as in the local language. It was much easier for me to hand over a card with the hotel’s address in Chinese characters to the Cantonese-speaking taxi driver in Hong Kong, rather than trying to communicate the address using pidgin English and arm gestures.

8. Keep Up Your Fitness

Vacation is usually the time to allow yourself the luxuries that you might otherwise be denied, but as a woman traveler, it’s important to stay fit and healthy while abroad. Get enough sleep, keep taking your vitamins, and don’t completely forego exercise while abroad. Your health and energy will be one of your greatest assets while traveling.

9. Remember Your Medications

Even if you’ve regularly taken medication for years, it’s very common for even long-held habits to disappear in a new environment. Set an alarm on your phone to remind you to take any regular medications, or link your medications to another daily activity. I like to tie my contraceptive pill packet to my toothbrush handle so that I’m reminded twice a day.

10. Trust Your Instincts

As Anna Faris’s character said in Scary Movie 3, “Call it women’s intuition, or ESPN, or both, I can tell when danger’s near.” If something doesn’t feel quite right, it probably isn’t. If you’re getting negative vibes from someone, don’t pursue it. There are so many amazing things to experience and millions of people to meet in this world, it makes no sense to go against your gut instinct.

[elizabethrobertajones]

Hey you, during the course of this season i Have seen more and more people leave the fandom or grow disinterested in spn, and im confused why that it. I get why maybe s12 wouldnt be a fave season but if I look at the wank and bads of the previous ones (destiel fiasco in/out the show s9, charlies death Dean cruelty to Cas in s10, Dean/baby love interest s11) s12 didnt really do much that would drive people away en masse I feel? Yet it seems like more people left it :(

Heya! :D

Idk, maybe it was that more vocal people drifted off? I always feel like people’s attention spans are usually only a few years or so. I mean, I feel like I’ve been in the fandom a Long Time and I’ve only been here since the end of season 9, so really this is only my 3rd hiatus, and coming up to 4th year watching with fandom, on a 12 year show I’ve been watching for nearly 10 years, for the most part as a moderately casual viewer… I think I clock up about 5 years major interest and then drift, based on me vs several other things like how invested I was in LotR or Harry Potter or Animorphs, or whatever (to go back in time to my pre-teen interests :P) and it’s not a bad thing and I still love 2 of those franchises and have engagement in them but back to being a casual fan (if “religiously watches LotR at Christmas” is casual allowing for cultural/social stuff, but I’m not composing Legolas/Aragon smut in my teenage journal in secret code any more :P) 

Anyway the season 8 bubble of fandom could be deflating about now - that’s long enough for people to feel they’ve given the show their full attention and it’s still going so it’s getting tiring. That’s the major feeling I get - people are exhausted and we had a baby boomer fandom around season 8 so that ~generation~ of fans is now reaching the natural end of its attention span in a very human natural way. But there’s a ton of new or newer fans who are still enjoying the heck out of it, and the fandom’s still huge and full of people with a commitment to the show or ships. And some people don’t work like that and are loyal from start to finish or commit to TV shows fully to see them to their end. I would dump a show I was getting bored of but come back to watch the end later in a big marathon to find out what happened, but Supernatural hasn’t given me a reason to get totally un-invested until that time… I suspect a lot of people will watch the entire show ONE DAY but don’t want to do fandom and give it all their leisure time any more either.

[under a cut for meandering rambling]

But yeah I think you’ve named some pretty big mass exodus moments (I would like to clarify “Dean/baby” is “Dean/Amara-as-an-infant” right? Because Dean/Baby totally was a thing in 11x04 and it was GLORIOUS :P) and I feel like I DID lose people from my dash all through the time I’ve been watching. Heck, I hit up fandom right after 9x18, and started following people, and that was the JIB of “we don’t play it that way” so I immediately was following several abandoned blogs and I’d barely even started to get to know the landscape :P I feel like people HAVE been jumping ship the entire time and I remember most of those instances as sadly clearing several favourite people off my dash or turning them into different fandom blogs that I eventually unfollowed out of confusion… 

I don’t know, I think people leave when they want to leave because as long as you like the core of a thing and it holds your interest, you can forgive or ignore or scowl at but hold out for better the bad bits and problematic parts. I’m sort of weary of them killing all the women and PoC but I’m still at the stage where I identify it sucks, but I still care too much about the main characters that I’m sort of stuck on this ride with them. 

(I have 2x21 paused on the screen next to me right as Sam meets all the special children, aka introducing Lily the lesbian who dies horribly as a disposable red shirt to show how awful this situation is, and Jake, a black guy whose power is being super strong and to fall to Azazel’s manipulation, kill Sam, and then get killed with extreme overkill by Sam. In the same season he set the cops on Gordon, also a black man who was really aggro and cruel, but in the next season becomes a monster and Sam kills him also one of the most brutal kills he has up there with Jake. Basically, the show’s always had some issues and if we carried on watching all the way to season 12, well, apply self-reflection, but at this point if you’ve been watching as long as I have, you just kind of accept the show sucks at certain things, and for ME personally it’s not kicking off the sort of weariness that others felt about Billie and Alicia and Eileen being killed off this season)

… I don’t really have a point, expect about the demographics of fandom during season 8 getting to the end of their interest now. I don’t think EVERYONE who did will leave, and we’re getting fresh blood all the time, but I think that’s just part of the nature of being in fandom. I don’t think season 12 is particularly bad from my experience, although some pretty high profile bloggers have gotten exhausted - again, they’ve been maintaining blogs and producing content since single digit seasons so they’ve contributed a LOT to the fandom and there’s a fatigue about contribution as well… 

That’s partially why I meta and gif and write fic and occasionally make random shitposts… I don’t want to burn out because any one of those things on its own can get pretty boring, even writing fic. Or especially, idk, as a writer I tend to bounce around projects, so this is keeping me weirdly focused on writing my original fiction on one side of my brain and fan fic on the other and it seems to be a better way of splitting my attention… But I digress. :P 

I know how to manage my own brain to some degree but I have a lot of time to contemplate and self-reflect on why I’m in fandom and what I get out of it, and mostly I just conclude I’m bored and house-bound and I’ve found a few tried and tested things that get me some positive attention in a non-weird rat with a pleasure button way like people running hate blogs or something… But I know my own head and that I can get bored of stuff so I marathon a lot of other shows and think about other things than fandom stuff as much as possible and just let this be the gutter my brain drains into when my attention span is too shot to hell to do anything else and I just want to slump over a keyboard and do the easiest activity I know bar playing Animal Crossing for hours. 

Other people with busier lives and actual jobs and energy and limbs that don’t just randomly stop working when they do anything for more than 5 minutes and so on might not be casual fans but they make a certain space in their life for fandom and get out of it what they need but it’s a high quality demand thing so if their carefully allocated me-time isn’t rewarding them like it should it’s totally their right to go find another OTP to amuse themselves with a fandom producing stuff they want to see and a media source that’s giving them what they want immediately and in a way they don’t have to “look for scraps” as some people were saying about Destiel in season 9, 10 and 11 while things were thinner on the ground.

And as one of the too-much-free-time fandom contributors, I’ve got an enormous luxury to stick out things people who don’t have time for being jerked around or over-analysing to find what they want to see have… Although I’ll try and pass on my thoughts for the people with less time to think them to try and help them enjoy themselves as much as possible :P Anyway I think a whole range of reasons happen that people might get fatigued of the show especially as lives change and people blogging enthusiastically one day might get a job or a new relationship or a dog or SOMETHING and just not spend quite so much time online and then discover they don’t NEED to spend so much time on fandom, and drift naturally… Then try and find some reason on the show they’ve stopped watching, but often it’s just that things look worse after time away when the spark has started to fade because it’s not being nurtured in the same way any more. 

And 12 years is a LONG ASS TIME to be invested in something, so I think in general the fatigue or changing interests is all over the place and we might see it more and more as people drift… People who might watch it all as a catch up one day maybe a year or two after the show ends, but just don’t have the patience to stay in fandom and put in that energy over and over and over. 

Also the show is in a really weird place where it has some of the best writers it’s ever had in Berens and the newbie writers, and Dabb’s doing some fascinating things with the plot, but Buckleming are the executors of the story, in several interpretations of that phrase :P And there are people who skip MotW and find them unimportant or would judge the season on the plot, not the heart of the story… It’s a pretty precarious place, quality-wise. I think season 11 and 12 are a proper like, silver age revival of the MotW (with Nancy Won and Robbie giving last season a massive boost) where I think those episodes are really innovative and interesting, and the writers are being allowed a lot of freedom to play on THOSE canvases, but while the character development and *reasons* for the story have been fascinating and important, obviously 5 of the plot episodes this latest season were Buckleming and crucial to watch to know wtf was going on, even though the writers of those episodes seem to have such a terrible problem with hating the audience (literally, it’s in their scripts and off-screen comments), the genre, second drafts, common human decency towards characters and understanding why they’re important, pacing, you name it… :P So the show literally has 2 faces these days and depending on which one you see when you think of season 12, probably defines how you feel about the show as a whole and all that. I treat the plot episodes these days as a necessary evil between episodes written by people who actually like the show and care about it and its characters (see also: my non-stop sobbing about 12x22 since it aired)… But seeing the other face can really cast a cloud over the show and I’ve seen it make people wonder why the other writers even try. (I mean Perez did an incredible salvage job on Crowley in 12x15 only for it to immediately get yanked away again the next time BL wrote him and I think only they really got to play with him for the rest of the season, meaning all that work to make it seem important and thematically relevant that Perez had set up in 12x12 and messed with in 12x15 ended up being for nothing and Dabb had no time to do anything deep with Crowley, because 12x13 turns out to be the big Crowley & Rowena farewell episode, except for how it flubbed the entire premise of Grand Send Off Episode a la 7x10 or something despite all the ingredients being there…)

I am just rambling now so… Gonna hit post. Hope this makes sense :P This is just my interpretation of how people are feeling/how fandom as an entity seems to work, so it’s pretty subjective and others might feel very differently especially people who have been in negative echo chambers while I’ve built myself a reasonably positive one plus SENSIBLE and CONSTRUCTIVE wanky criticism that doesn’t go off the deep end :P

[skillzme]

2018 In-House Creative Industry Report [Infographic]

It is always the question in a lot of organizations. Where does the creative team report to, where does their budget come from, how do costs get replicated to actual client job cards? In the 2018 survey of over 400 in-house creative teams in agencies, the questions get highlighted and answered. 

Digital Marketing is not anymore like traditional marketing. In the era of digital transformation happening everywhere, marketers want a proof of their investment. The 2018 In-House Creative Industry Report by Cella The BOSS Group looks into the creative departments and compiled a summary of the report which we illustrated in the infographic below. Let's have a quick look at the most important findings in the survey.

Department Organization

83% of responding creative leaders indicated their department reported through a strategic, value-adding department such as marketing, communications, advertising, brand or some combination of those divisions. When the creative team is positioned within one of these divisions, the organization is more likely to be considered strategic and value-adding. In contrast, when a creative team reports through a shared-services division, the department is often viewed as a commodity, which makes it more difficult to succeed in becoming a strategic partner. It is possible to overcome the disadvantage of not being aligned with the marketing (or alike) department; it just requires the creative team to create a brand for itself outside of its "home". Leaders of in-house groups regularly face ongoing competing priorities, leaving them without adequate time to develop their leadership teams. It is important that leaders prioritize professional development for themselves and their direct reports to ensure the ongoing growth and success of the team members and group. Q: Into which division does your creative team/in-house agency report? 1 Hybrid of two or more: advertising, brand, marketing, communications and/or sales 2 Other includes advertising, brand and public affairs 3 Other includes but is not limited to: R&D, procurement, legal, finance, misc. executives

Department  Funding

Regardless of an in-house agency’s financial model, proving the group’s value is a constant expectation. Tangible results stem from managing your group’s budget and demonstrating cost savings against external agencies, in addition to providing on-time, high-quality creative. Instituting a chargeback funding model is a natural evolution for an internal creative organization and an important step in eliminating a number of challenges common to “free” creative services. Typically, this shift is due to several factors, including department size, project volume/workload, resourcing and competition with outside agencies. This evolution requires many organizational changes that include standardization of processes and procedures, internal marketing activities, realignment of resources and improved project management. Moving to a chargeback model signals the team will operate more like a creative agency in both business operations and creative direction. Being a cost center (non-chargeback department) can be a great thing, the creative leader can focus on the value of the creative that his or her team is creating and won’t be burdened by financial pressures. However, the most significant challenges for non-chargeback departments still remains affecting client behaviors. Q: Have you ever been asked to provide a cost comparison between your in-house team and comparable external agencies?

The smaller a creative team/in-house agency, the more likely they are to not charge back. Case in point: only 27% of departments with fewer than 30 team members charge back,whereas 65% of teams over 50 charge back.

Department Resourcing

Creative leaders must be careful in demonstrating a desire to grow their team. Too often a desire to grow a team can be viewed as “empire building;” leaders must be prepared to substantiate headcount requests based on business need. In addition, leaders need to be prepared to promote the adoption of new processes and tools to support the growth in order to grow in a mature, scalable manner. Ensuring you’re appropriately staffed is a constant balancing act creative leaders face on a day-to-day basis. Flexible staffing models and principal partnership agencies continue to provide creative teams and in-house agencies support during peak periods without increasing staff size. Including a budget that allows for flexibility is critical — in fact, your budget may be better spent in not hiring an FTE and instead using the same funds to pay several temporary workers during peak periods. Q: What is your perception of the available talent in the marketplace right now?

Service Offerings

The number of projects creative teams and in-house agencies produces annually is loosely linked to their size. While it’s interesting to discuss volume in terms of the number of projects, it’s not an apples-to-apples comparison across organizations. Service offerings continue to evolve and expand, providing growth for creative teams and in-house agencies. However, new complexities require specific expertise and skill sets. Volume in its truest form should be discussed in terms of the number of “billable” or “utilized” hours per year. In addition, the various complexities in the work itself are not captured under project count and are better evaluated with hours in assessing the level of effort put into the project. Core Competencies Staying current with, let alone ahead of, the growing complexities of our ever-evolving service offerings opportunities is no easy feat. Determining which service offerings to expand into is a process, and you shouldn’t set your team’s goal to “be everything to everyone.” Be selective in your core competencies and stick to them, regularly reevaluate them and adjust as needed. Don’t be afraid to identify work to be outsourced to third parties. There is still value in your team art directing and project managing projects; creative execution of all media types doesn’t have to be within your core competencies. Q: What is the % of team hours spent on digital projects vs. print projects?

Partnerships

Partnering with agencies is often in the best interest of the business or organization and your internal team. So as a leader you must work to take away the fear of bringing in outside expertise and embrace the possibilities. It is difficult to do everything on your own. Beyond simply sharing the workload, there are other key reasons to further agency relationships, including keeping up with a dynamic business environment, “integrated” creative excellence, career development for your team and efficient delivery.

Global Operations

Firms are taking two approaches with global operations. Some teams are choosing to use a global approach in low-cost markets to take advantage of cost savings and offer a more “24/5” approach, while others are serving global creative needs by positioning their teams in global offices close to their customer base. For in-house groups with multiple locations, tactically evaluating the benefits and drawbacks of each location’s operations is critical. Most commonly you will find trends demonstrating a need for brand continuity, increased cost savings, which leads to shifting more capabilities and roles to a lower-cost labor market, either domestically or internationally. Following are challenges to prepare for with global operations: Technology: Remote teams often experience slowness in the shared network, which is something that may not be able to be improved. Process: There is a critical need for effective and efficient project hand-offs across locations. Communication of project details and creative direction is a constant challenge. The clock: Depending on the global locations, short or nonexistent time zone overlaps create hurdles in connecting and clarifying, which in turn can negatively impact turnaround time.

Values & Challenges of In-House Teams

Many creative groups stand on the value proposition of being lower cost (whether that is free or a charge back rate that is lower than agencies), and while that value will open doors, it won’t keep them open. It’s extremely important that creative leaders identify and preach the team’s value outside of cost. Institutional knowledge and shared company values and goals are other highly recognized values of an in-house group, with the greatest value being brand knowledge. Almost regardless of industry, company size and team size, the challenges of creative leaders are very consistent. Year over year, affecting client behaviors remains the greatest principal challenge. Resourcing, innovation and skill sets are also top challenges. Ensure your group’s value proposition by proactively creating a strategic plan with these challenges in mind.

Creative Leader

Though 74% of in-house creative leaders are mostly or extremely satisfied in their current roles, almost half responded that career pathing for themselves and their teams is one of their greatest challenges. It’s not surprising to learn that almost 30% of creative leaders aren’t confident in the job market for roles similar to the ones they are in. Although creative teams and in-house agencies are on the rise — both in size and number — there still isn’t an abundance of them, let alone open senior roles. So for the 61% of leaders who responded that their next career move could most likely be another in-house creative group, they may be looking at relocation or alternative options.

Summary - Survey Participant Demographics

Survey responses were filtered to represent only responses by in-house creative leaders. To identify leadership-level responses Cella filtered titles per the chart below. Responses were further narrowed down to eliminate duplicate responses and ensure one unique response per company and/or each in-house agency residing within an organization. See the summary infographic below and read the complete report, the link can be found below.Source: http://www.creativeindustryreport.com/2018/2018_IHCSIR_Report_by_BOSS_and_Cella.pdf Read the full article

[greatdrams]

Dillon vs Wells and a few thoughts on blind tasting

Unless you happened to be an incredibly secure character at school, you’ll know the deal. A couple of the big kids are doing something fun, and you want to join in. Partially because it’s fun (obviously), and partially (if you’re honest with yourself) because you want to be part of what the big kids are doing.

So when the big kids of the whisky blogging scene (Greg and Malt Review’s inimitable Mark Newton) challenged each other to a blind tasting, I took to twitter and digitally hollered the adult equivalent of “can I play?” Though actually, why shouldn’t the adult equivalent of “can I play?” be “can I play?”?

Shortly thereafter I sent Greg an unlabelled sample of the Kilkerran Open Day 2016 bottling, which he covered here. The return sample was sent once Greg had completed his move to Manchester, and arrived on my desk a couple of weeks back. First thing in the morning; completely ruined my day’s productivity, but that’s because I’m an excitable child.

As soon as the bell went for the end of the day I was out of the office and straight home. Metaphorical bell, you understand, though I’ll dispense with the children analogies now; I promise I am actually allowed to legally drink whisky... Bottle was breached, cursory sniff was taken, sample was poured and notebook was flipped open beside me.

But let’s pause there for a moment, because the practice of blind tasting is one that’s worth a smidge of consideration.

Ostensibly, blind tasting is the only way to give your fully objective opinion of a whisky. (Or wine/beer/cider/cat-food brand [delete as appropriate].) It theoretically frees you of biases and prejudices, it strips away distracting information and it forces you to focus on the drink alone.

I’ve lost count of the number of people who sneer at non-Scotch malt when they know what they’re facing, but proclaim their admiration when it’s just amber liquid in a glass. Or take me, for example – I’m quoted as saying Aberlour A’Bunadh is my favourite whisky for under £50. But one day some vicious ne’er-do-well will doubtless hide one next to a similarly secret Glenfarclas 105, and when that day comes I can only hope I get my call of “heads” right.

Blind tasting also exposes you; makes you really think; underlines any shortcomings or gaps in your experience. Not tried Rye before? Then that spicy kick will mean nothing. Didn’t know countries outside of Scotland use peat? Then good luck when Paul John Bold crosses the table. And who hasn’t indulged in a bit of a smile when a trained expert, or a particularly vocal individual comes unstuck on confronting an anonymous glass?

The problem with objective blind tasting is that it effectively requires the taster to be a robot. Human nature being what it is, we start guessing the end before we’ve even finished the beginning. We want to skip to the last page of the book. No one, on being presented with a glass, can ever truly extinguish the irritating light in the back of their head that immediately flashes: ‘WHAT IS THIS?’

And so we start guessing. I don’t care how expert or practiced you are. I taste up to fifty wines a week at work, and countless more for my wines and spirits diploma. And that’s without getting into all the whiskies I pump my salary into. (I do have a life outside alcohol; I play hockey and everything.) But that light never goes off. Dark colour: “I wonder if that’s a sherry cask?” Slight hint of peat: “hmm, could that be Highland Park?” Bit of meatiness: “do I have a Mortlach here?” You know the drill.

And once an idea pops into your head, it’s very hard to ignore. Just ask the cast of Inception. You want to be right. You want to be validated. You want to have ‘won’ at blind tasting. Most of all, you don’t want to look like an idiot. And so you subconsciously ignore the niggling uncertainties. You shoehorn your blind tasting into what you want it to be. Perhaps you try to second guess the person presenting you the sample. “Ah, she’ll give me something off-piste...he knows I’ve said mean things about this distillery before...hang on, is this even whisky?” Sound familiar?

Blind tasting can be influenced by all sorts of things. Your mood; what you’ve eaten recently; the temperature of the room; the time of day – even what music is playing (or not playing) in the background. And if you’re on the spot and nervous about getting it wrong, you haven’t a hope. You stress, you panic and your common sense slips. Which is why most tasting competitions worth noting are judged anonymously. No one does their ‘best’ tasting under pressure.

So yes – everyone should do some blind tasting once in a while. It’s fun! But stop worrying about getting the whisk(e)y right. After all, with so many countless thousands of whiskies in production, what realistically are your odds? You might get the distillery or producer from time to time. Heck, you might once or twice nail the whole shebang. But you’ll have missed the point of whisk(e)y in the process: to enjoy it. After all, the end is just a tiny part of the journey. You’re really best off taking the Ferris Bueller attitude. It’s a pretty hollow ‘victory’ otherwise – if you even score the victory at all.

And we’re back in the room. (At my house, in case you’d lost track. Wouldn’t blame you.)

My cursory sniff (ok, I also took a cursory sniff at the office when it arrived, but so would you if you’re human) raised some suspicions. Greg and I had set the rules as Single Malt Scotch of £50 or lower, but something about the aromas I found myself picking up suggested foul play.

Far be it from me to accuse my charming new boss of hoodwinkery, but I’m a mistrusting soul where blind tastings are concerned. (See: told you they bring out the over-thinker.) Besides, any holder of an Anfield season ticket who moves to Manchester has to have a wily streak about them. In as unaccusatorial a tone as I could manage I casually checked that the rules still stood. (Is unaccusatorial a real word? There’s a red squiggly line, but I feel in my heart that it deserves to be one.)

“It might well be on brief...or might have changed the game a little...who knows...” replied the Machiavellian Dillon, admitting that it was definitely a Scotch. Bet he steals from the bank when he’s playing Monopoly too. Deep mistrust smouldering in my bosom I returned to the task at hand.

I nosed, I scribbled, my brow furrowed, I nosed some more, scribbled some more, sipped a little, furrowed some more and scribbled a bit more for good measure. And then I proceeded to ignore all the advice I’ve just written above.

Straight away, I knew that it wasn’t a malt, and that it probably wasn’t under £50. Anyone who drinks as much bourbon as I do ought to know what distilled corn smells like. Which in Scotch terms more or less means either old, or North British. (Or both.)

But something about this one seemed to hint at a little more complexity. In the back of my mind, something niggled away, making me wondering whether Greg had also dispensed with the ‘single’ ruling. Which was when I stupidly decided to ignore most of the note I had just written, and start to play the man, not the ball. And in blind tasting that almost always ends in disaster.

My blended grain experience certainly isn’t vast. In fact, it’s Compass Box Hedonism, which I knew was not what I was tasting. But could I perhaps have its fancier ‘big brother’ Quindecimus in front of me?

Deciding for some reason that I was along the right lines on the blended grain front, I was torn between Quindecimus and The Exceptional Blended Grain, neither of which I had sampled previously. From what I had read, Quindecimus was the richer of the two, which tallied with what I had written. So, with great doubt and several second guesses, I presented Greg with my answer.

I was wrong.

In fact, what I had was the Cadenhead’s North British 1985 31 years old Single Sherry Butt at 54.6%. And believe you me, it holds that cask strength well - I’d never have guessed it was that high. The spirit also stands up remarkably well to the sherry - there’s not a hint of raisin, and the corn is really on song. Full note below:

Fruity. Some aspects of red berries, and some of orchard fruit (apples/pears). Plenty of sweetness; caramels and a good whack of vanilla. There’s a lightness of touch, but a great deal of depth too. Medium intensity of aroma, but very good complexity. Corn asserts itself. Slight meatiness in the background, with distinct, but not overpowering wood.

Alcohol clear, but completely controlled and kept in check by flavour on the palate. Flavours are more intense than aromas and crescendo significantly as you hold it in the mouth. Largely follow on from the nose, but bourbon-like aspects of caramel and dark sugars dominate particularly, wrapped in more of that red berry fruit. Possibly a touch of date.

More of that meatiness - not quite sulphur - on the finish, which is ever so slightly shorter than expected. Very well balanced and complex.

All in all, a delicious whisky, which I can’t thank Greg enough for. Particularly special, as it happened to be distilled in his birth month. He outfoxed me this time (though thank God I clocked it was Grain whisky - could have been a lot more embarrassing!) but you can be sure there’ll be a rematch.

In the meantime, two ‘morals of the story’ to take away from this. Firstly, when it comes to blind tasting, do as I say, not as I do! And secondly, if you play games with the big kids, be prepared for them to move the goalposts!

Cheers!

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The post Dillon vs Wells and a few thoughts on blind tasting appeared first on GreatDrams.

from GreatDrams http://ift.tt/2jtOYWs Greg

[entergamingxp]

XMG Apex 15 review: Ryzen 9 3950X in a laptop

The AMD Ryzen 3950X processor has 16 cores and 32 threads, clocking up to a maximum of 4.7GHz. It’s the flagship of AMD’s super-successful Ryzen 3000 series and a CPU that demolished Intel’s high-end desktop processor line-up. And now, as insane and impossible as it might sound, you can run it in a laptop – a 15-inch laptop, no less. So, let’s have a moment of hushed awe for the XMG Apex 15, which must surely be the most powerful notebook available right now on the market – certainly in CPU terms. Going into this one, I had a range of questions. How can this possibly work? Why doesn’t it just immediately overheat and shutdown?

Answers start to become clear when we consider the nature of the XMG Apex 15 beyond the CPU. Built by a firm that specialises in configurable notebooks, XMG – in common with other PC ’boutique’ sellers – uses barebone designs from an ODM (original design manufacturer) which are then customised. This particular chassis is remarkable in that its mainboard is based on AMD’s B450 chipset and retains the original AM4 socket, meaning that XMG can insert any desktop CPU in there you want when you order, and later on down the line, you can upgrade it yourself.

The firm was generous enough to supply a new Apex 15 for review kitted out with the Ryzen 9 3950X, 16GB of 3200MHz DDR4 and a Samsung 970 Evo Plus NVMe SSD. Beyond that, it’s simplicity itself to remove the lower cover where you have nigh-on instant access to the innards – and there we see just how upgradable this machine is. The memory isn’t soldered to the motherboard, you can swap in your own SODIMMs. Next to the NVMe drive is an empty slot for a second SSD, and there’s even space for another SATA drive.

What you can’t fail to notice is a ginormous copper cooling assembly, under which you’ll find CPU and GPU. It looks daunting, but simply removing a power cable for one of the integrated fans, removing its accompanying screws and then loosening the numbered screws in the centre sees this ginormous cooling assembly lift out easily enough. Under that (and a well-judged layer of Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut thermal grease) you’ll find pretty much the only non-upgradable component – the refreshed mobile version of the RTX 2070. Next to it resides the star of the show, the Ryzen 9 3950X, and it is indeed sitting in a normal AM4 socket. XMG also supplied us an OEM Ryzen 9 3900 for testing purposes. Put simply, accessing and upgrading this machine is a doddle – even swapping CPUs is easier than a desktop unit.

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Seeing is believing. Here’s the Digital Foundry video review for the Ryzen-powered XMG Apex 15.

Manufacturer information about the XMG Apex 15 is available here, with direct access to the various configuration options here.

In supplying the Ryzen 9 3900 for review, XMG also reveals how this technological miracle is achieved. The non-X 3900 is a 65W TDP part vs the standard 105W TFP in the desktop version. Compared to the full-fat model, you get the majority of the performance, but with a huge reduction in power draw. There is no such 65W model of the 3950X, however, so the BIOS of the notebook simply switches it into eco mode, enforcing a 65W limit. The real question is how much of the fully unlocked experience the laptop gives you – and the answers are surprising.

Of course, there are compromises in aiming to deliver proper desktop performance. First and foremost, it’s in terms of form factor. The XMG Apex 15 is indeed a 15-inch notebook in terms of its X and Y dimensions, but it’s significantly thicker and deeper than the usual notebook. What this does mean, however, is that you get full-size ports – including Ethernet – and they are situated to the left, the right and on the back of the unit. There, you get HDMI, USB-C (with video output support) and mini-Displayport. There’s also the power input there, with XMG supplying a 230W external PSU, and for the Ryzen 9 3950X in gaming, it actually maxes out its capabilities.

Fully unleashed, this thing is monstrous. Even at 65W, the Ryzen chips are drawing much more power than most laptop parts, so the cooling assembly is stressed heavily under load. At full throttle it’s very, very loud – there’s no doubt about it. XMG’s solution is simply to offer the user choice. In the custom control panel, there are four modes: power saving, quiet, entertainment and performance. Entertainment is the standard, while performance fully unlocks the processor (within the 65W limit, of course). I ran Cinebench R20 in both single thread and multi-core modes on both Ryzen 9 3900 and Ryzen 9 3950X and these are the results I got. In percentage terms, it does seem to be the case that the 3900 retains more of its performance the lower down the chain of modes you go, but then again, it is a chip specifically designed for the 65W power envelope.

And did we mention it does hardware-accelerated ray tracing too?

Power Saving Quiet Mode Entertainment Performance CineBench R20 3900 385/970 486/2628 490/5105 494/6474 Cinebench R20 3950X 267/1276 292/1971 454/4598 486/7501

I found the quiet mode to be perfectly serviceable for general PC tasks, but power-saving was not a particularly great experience at all. I also can’t recommend the unit for running from battery power – the CPU clocks down massively on all cores and becomes far less responsive. There’s only a 62WHr battery too, meaning that even with hobbled performance, you’ll be very lucky indeed to get an hour’s worth of use from the machine. This is unashamedly a desktop replacement though, and I consider the battery to be there simply to keep the machine active on the go before plugging it in somewhere else.

And when I say desktop replacement, I mean it. To get an idea of the basic power level of this machine, I switched into performance mode and ran Cinebench R20. I then stacked up the results with our desktop scores database and then added the Asus Zephyrus G14 laptop, based on the Ryzen 4000 ‘Renoir’ APU (which has eight cores and 16 threads with a 35W TDP). The results are phenomenal: both 3900 and 3950X in the laptop beat Renoir in single-core performance and deliver a 55 per cent/79 per cent improvement in multi-core output. What’s impressive here is that Renoir really is the state-of-the-art in mobile CPUs right now. The Apex 15 annihilates it.

But it’s the desktop comparisons that are fascinating. We’re not making life easier for the Apex 15 here – our library results are based on Ryzen chips that have no thermal limitations and run at full power. On top of that, they’re paired with faster memory with much lower latency. Even so, the 3950X delivers 81 per cent of the full chip’s performance level, and it’s seven per cent faster than a desktop 3900X. The 3900 non-X chip in the Apex 15 delivers 92 per cent of the 3900X’s desktop output.

The Apex 15 at the bottom, Dell XPS 15 in the middle and Asus Zephyrus G14 on top. The XMG is a bit of a unit in terms of thickness.

3950X Laptop 3900 Laptop 3900X Desktop 3950X Desktop 4900HS Laptop Cinebench R20 1T 486 494 514 514 477 Cinebench R20 MT 7501 6474 7032 9249 4192 Handbrake h.264 55.0fps 44.8fps 51.8fps 64.7fps 26.5fps Handbrake HEVC 20.4fps 17.6fps 20.3fps 25.6fps 9.5fps

The video encoding tests are also astonishing. We encode 4K video in Handbrake using demanding h.264 and HEVC settings, inflicting crippling workloads where all cores are maxed for an extended period of time. In h.264, the laptop 3950X delivers 85 per cent of the desktop verson’s output. The 3900 is about the same, with 86 performance of the 3900X’s throughput. You’ll note that the Ryzen 4000 results are once again annihilated by the Apex 15: prolonged all-core utilisation sees performance throttle back after a few minutes, massively reducing the average result. The Apex 15 simply doesn’t do this: it’s loud, it’s proud and it powers on through at maximum speed right through to completion.

Gaming offers an entirely different challenge, however, with CPU utilisation that rarely soaks all cores but does use them in most cases. Core clocks are just as important as core count – probably more so, in fact. You can get a much better idea of gaming performance from the video review embedded above, but the headline stats are pretty straightforward. In raw performance terms, the Ryzen 9 3900 and 3950X in the laptop are only separated by a few percentage points and by and large, it’s up there with a desktop Ryzen 5 3600X running with 3600MHz DDR4. By extention then, it’ll be very close to a full desktop Ryzen 7 3700X in gaming prowess. The takeaway is pretty straightforward – it is desktop-class CPU performance and you’re usually getting 90 per cent or more of the output of the same chip running in a desktop unit with faster memory. Comparisons against Ryzen 4000 Renoir are fascinating – we are clearly dealing with significantly higher performance here.

I tested by running my key benchmark games at 720p resolution, effectively removing the RTX 2070 from the equation as a limiting factor. However, the nature of the Apex 15’s GPU is worth some examination – principally because it’s the only element of the laptop you can’t upgrade. What you’re getting is the same silicon as the desktop version of the GPU, but it’s downclocked to fit within a tighter power budget. The end result is that in most scenarios, performance is essentially point-for-point identical to the desktop RTX 2060. I did find it to be five per cent faster than the 2060 in The Witcher 3, but otherwise, it’s on par. This makes the choice of a 1080p/144Hz screen more understandable, but I’d have preferred 1440p instead personally. One thing to bear in mind is that being an RTX 2070, you still get 8GB of GDDR6 memory – 2GB more than a desktop 2060. In the process, the biggest issue I have with the 2060 is eliminated.

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Essentially, what we have here is a desktop replacement that delivers unprecedented mobile power by effectively delivering a miniaturised desktop PC. Graphics aside, you can upgrade it like a desktop, there’s a ton of expandability in there and if you really push the spec with high-end processors and memory, you essentially have an eminently portable workstation that outperforms the vast majority of the modern desktop PCs out there. As the results came in on this machine, I continually marvelled at the performance. It’s utterly insane.

It’s almost like the anti-thesis of the Asus Zephyrus G14 I’ve been using as of late. In that case, Asus delivered an excellent 14-inch thin-and-light machine based on the ultra-efficient Ryzen 4000. The XMG Apex 15 lacks its refinement, its build quality and its form factor, but what you do get is a huge increase in processing power, hugely impressive expandability and an actual upgrade path to higher-end chips. I wish I’d had the time to try the Ryzen 5 3600 in this machine (the best-selling 65W processor around right now) but more than that, as it’s based on the B450 chipset, there’s a big chance that you’ll also be able to upgrade to the more performant, potentially more efficient Zen 3 chips coming later this year.

The XMG Apex 15 is a remarkable machine then, but should you buy one? If you need a portable workstation with extreme CPU power, you’re going to struggle to find anything better. I can think of numerous times we’ve had to encode video or edit 4K content at events like E3 or Gamescom where this machine would have made our lives so much easier. In fact, this notebook is more powerful than half of our in-house 4K editing machines – it can outperform a Ryzen 9 3900X, after all. However, on the flipside, it can’t really be used as flexibly as a more conventional laptop: it really needs to be plugged in at all times. Gaming-wise, it’s generally excellent but the RTX 2070 may be more of a limiting factor than the CPU, so a Comet Lake system with an RTX 2080 Super would likely be a better fit for the gamer.

Ultimately, this is a machine I really enjoyed testing for all manner of reasons. I like it because it speaks to the diversity of the PC hardware market and the way that manufacturers aren’t afraid to push back the frontiers of what’s possible. I love the notion that someone, somewhere decided to take a look at AMD’s top-tier 16-core, 32-thread processor and dared to offer laptop support for it. Speaking to XMG over the last couple of months, I know there’s been a fair degree of BIOS refinements and software tweaks going on behind the scenes to get this right. XMG has never tackled anything like this before so it is a first-gen effort in some respects. Some of the changes (eg throttling back for entertainment mode) speak to the experimental nature of this machine, but the end product as it stands right now does work – just go in accepting that if you want Palpatine levels of ‘unlimited power’, there’s a price to pay in terms of thermals and acoustics. Beyond that though, the performance is mind-bending and this machine does actually work – and I’m still not entirely sure I quite believe it.

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/06/xmg-apex-15-review-ryzen-9-3950x-in-a-laptop/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=xmg-apex-15-review-ryzen-9-3950x-in-a-laptop

[topnepalinternational]

The trend of Web development in Nepal

Nepal is starting to catch up when it comes to several technological advancements that are otherwise a part of ordinary lives in most developed countries. One of our major exports and contribution to this is in the sector of IT and Software solutions. Amongst them, Software and Web development in Nepal are the major categories.

The latest trend of startups popping around in every corner of the street providing a vast array of digital and technological solutions to businesses is not going to stop anytime soon. While it was unheard of in the last 5 years, nowadays it is very common to hear Nepali start-ups and programmers generating revenues in the millions. If you have an idea or a solution, you will find no shortages of companies and individuals willing to help you realize those ideas.

In recent times, companies from abroad have started outsourcing their technical problems to countries like ours realizing the value of such a fresh and diversely talented market.

In today’s modern digital world, if you or your business is not available online, then you are severely missing out on various opportunities. You can use your website to connect with your clients, create awareness for your brand and overall increase the presence and reach your business can have.

If you are not yet convinced, then here are a few reasons to build a website for your business:-

To build an online presence

Digital marketing possibilities

Engage your customers and build customer relations

Reach a new range of potential customers to increase sales

Providing accessibility around the clock to customers

To build credibility.

To provide more information and guidance to customers before closing

Must consider tips to ensure a proper website design:-

Use minimal and simple design.

Ensure simple navigation between pages.

Provide helpful content and information

Ensure responsive design and mobile-first approach to website development.

Ensure faster website load times.

Make it easy for visitors to convert with a quick and simple check-out process.

Ensure proper SEO techniques are being implemented on your website.

How to start building a website for your business?

Getting started with professional looking and responsive websites does not need to be a difficult thing. There are various free and paid options for website building services that can accommodate your requirements. Various drag and drop website building services like Squarespace and Wix are easy to use and provide affordable hosting charges. If you are someone with basic web design knowledge, you can also use WordPress, which is free to get started.

However, if you require professional web solutions and want to optimize your site for search engines, then hiring a Web development agency is the path to choose. This might require a significant investment upfront but the outcome achieved as a direct result of their understanding and experience of the digital world is well worth the price.

For one, they know the latest web development trends and can help customize your business needs to provide a positive user experience. A web development agency can also create web page content that is optimized for the search engines.

WordPress CMS vs Laravel

We here at Top Nepal International are adept at providing website solutions in both WordPress and Laravel. Both of these can meet your requirements but how to choose one above the other?

Well, let’s explore further. WordPress is a content management system (CMS) created with the goal of building websites, whether using customizable themes or creating tailor-made solutions. Laravel, on the other hand, is a PHP framework used for creating web applications and other sorts of websites. They are both focused on the user and devoted to building websites that are easy to use and are also simple and easy to manage.

A simple difference between the two is that WordPress is a system and Laravel is a framework within PHP.

WordPress advantages include:

Search-engine friendly structure

Integrated link management

Clean permalink structure

Ability to assign multiple categories to posts

Automatic filters to format and style texts in posts

Ability to edit content both in a visual editor and an HTML-based text editor

Customizable features with the use of plugins

Easy integration of third-party services

Large supporting community worldwide

Laravel advantages include:

Developer friendly structure supported by excessive documentation

Implemented authentication system

Simple validation and authorization process for web apps

Easily manageable automated tasks

Consistency in database migrations

Fast and painless deployment of apps

Customizable features with the use of packages

Easy integration of third-party services

Large supporting community worldwide

In the end, this all boils down to the specifics of what you and your business needs. If you run a small business that requires minimal complexity and simple e-commerce features, WordPress might be the way to go. On the other hand, if your business needs a complex and robust web solution that can handle large-scale applications and processing, you should look into Laravel as the best choice for you.

For more info visit Web development Nepal.

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Buick Ignition Repair & Key Replacement Elizabeth NJ

Buick Ignition Repair & Key Replacement Elizabeth NJ - CALL (973)200-4870

http://www.elizabethkeyreplacement.com/buick.html

Instead of using the service of a towing-truck to tow your car to the dealer, we hire an emergency lock-man work truck who is ready to be on the way to you to help you out of your obstacle on-site. We taking pride in our specialist attendants and guarantee to restore your inner calmness by resolving your Buick key-lock challenges safely and regularly on site 24 hr. If you broke your Buick remote, cannot turn your ignition key, need your Buick engine control unit reformat or broke your Buick key in the ignition, Our Buick locksmiths in Elizabeth NJ are available to undertake your lock-out, locks, keys and ignition demands for any Buick model and year you may own, all you need to do is give us a call at (973)200-4870 to talk with one of our customer care office attendant to get an honest pricing appraisal and our beneficial virtuoso Buick lock-smith workmanship will drive to you within the least possible amount of time to get your transponder programmed, fob key placed or ignition repaired on-site morning noon and night.

Buick replacement keys in Elizabeth NJ

One of the core element of any Buick is it's key and lock infrastructure, which have to be re-keyed when misplaced or destructed. When this type of a pain crops up we, at Elizabeth Key Replacement, in Elizabeth NJ, are really skilled to undertake all models of vehicle key, ignition or lock complications onsite.

Buick transponder key is specially programmed to turn on an explicit car and our know how worker force can form Buick keyless entry device, transponder, passive anti theft or Tibbe keys, and moreover install, repair or replace any type of ignition, locks and keys on premises around the clock.

About Buick keys and locks instrument

Buick is a USA car manufacturer of high standard vehicles runs as a General-Motors partition and one of the United States of America's biggest vehicle producer of average vehicles world-wide. with an head-quarter in Detroit, Michigan, introduced to the world in 1903,  Buick primarily utilize the same sort of eletronic locks and key system on most of their designs since 1997.

On early generations, to make an additional key onboard, owner has to have at the minimum 1 programmed functional key, nevertheless to make a surplus key for current model, a unique key programmer and diagnostic devices is required.

Beginning at 2007,  Buick designs might utilize the Passive Entry Passive Start (PEPS) for it's a push start ignition or smart key as a optional or standard system.

Ignition lock repair

The Buick ignition switch utilize 3 positions that turn on different system when the driver turn the key. The ignition will turn on the electrical elements on the 1st phase, turn on the fuel injection on the 2nd phase and start the car engine on the 3rd phase.

A highly common thing we get asked over the phone for assitance with,  ignition  problems. Whilst our agent are generally ecstatic to tackle and diagnose your situation, it might be pretty hard to fulfill over the phone. In addition to carrying the right Buick diagnostic and lock bumping tools, an essential knowledge of how car ignition  function is fundamental, however prior to calling an ignnition key-smith please check following:

</p> <h5>dash board light are off</h5> <p> If you turn the ignition on but see no lights come on on the dash board which means that there is no electricity running from the battery. It may be A deflated battery or maybe even a failed electronic wiring connection or alternator could cause this. Turn on the headlights, if they wont light up, it's actually means the battery is dead which is a job for a  mechanic shop.

</p> <h5>Ignition key wont turn</h5> <p> Exceedingly all vehicle have a locking steering column that is being locked every time you take the ignition key out  at the end of each drive. Sometimes, the steering wheel is in a position that creates strain to the ignition , and wont let the key from turning (usually happens when parking on a hill) or if one of the front wheels is pressed against an object (e.g. curb stone).

* Before you start troubleshooting this issue, ensure that your car shifting gear is on park.

Grasp the  wheel and try to swing the  steering wheel  left and right and back and forth at the same time as mildly jiggling the ignition  key - this may help to release the steering lock.

The ignition cylinder is very important element of any car and containing so many small parts that might be tough to inspect by an inexperienced hands, so the only thing you advised to do experiencing ignition  issues is to assure you’re in fact trying to turn on your own car and ask a vehicle lock-man to come down to your place of choice to replace, rekey  reprogram the key or ignition which will priced as around $155–$340.

Transponder chipped key make

2 decades ago manufacturers of automobiles didn't utilize digital chips in their lock and key system. Car lockpicking and stealing was trivial and was a sizeable headache to insurance companies and drivers world wide.

The concept behind this is to acquire antitheft technology in which the motor vehicle accommodate car main computer and the key accommodate a small chip in general concealed in it's plastic cap.

The moment the owner enter the key into the ignition key hole, a radio frequency signal is committed to the car computer system. If the vehicle computer will not understand the code, the engine won't start up. This instrumentation actually means that in addition to the fact that the key must be physically shaped to sync the cylinder, it also has to be justly programmed to the immobiliser.

Buick smart-key

Buick smart key anable a car owner to lock and unlock the car door besides starting up the vehicle yet avoiding inserting a key, and beginning at 2007, many Buick models on the road come with some type of a proximity key instrument that accommodate a short-range remote transmitter.

With a keyless entry device, entry to your Buick is usually attained by transmitting a radio frequency signal from a remote transmitter to a vehicle computer on a coded channel when you merely walking by within 5 feet of the vehicle with the keyless device in the pocket or on a key ring.

This combination of audio and infrared signal and the Buick smart-key platform, furthermore enable push start ignition (also called Clutch starting or Push starting). Using this method you are capable of turning on a vehicle engine by clicking a push-buttons on the dash-board console alternatively to twisting a key in a crater hole.

Copy vs lost car keys

The actual process of cutting and programming a car key varies among different year and models of your Buick. For some vehicles, on board programming could be used to copy a chipped key. This process bypass the need for fancy key programmer and key codes when linking a new transponder key to the car. Vehicles who don't support Onboard key copy  arrangement should have another key coded employing a compatible key programmer that is available only to a legitimate locksmith or Buick dealer.

This coding machine costs a few thousands of dollars to purchase which is one of the main reasons making an electric vehicle key costs way more than it does to only cut an old fashioned mechanical key.

If you misplaced your last car key you will most likely need to tow your car to the dealership or call a locksmith to come down to your juncture to re-program the immobilized computer to utilize the new key and renounce the lost one. Lost key recovery require ownership documents such as title, insurance or registration and will costs $185–$250.

24hr motor vehicle lock-out

In the situation that you find yourself with the keys locked in the car, you definitely need to hire a swift and trustworthy company! Only our fast lockpicking personnel can fulfill the quest of unlocking your car trunk or door for majority of manufacturer of cars, year and model. Give us a call at our operator office to get principal lockman company in the city who is employing particular lock-picking equipage as well as the skill to eradicate harm to the car door frame, power windows or electrical locks technologies for your complete satisfaction.

Car locks modify

Elizabeth Key Replacement is satisfied to arrange all style of Buick re key services on-site to reinstate a misplaced, jammed or appropriated keys. Most newer car are decked with electric key lock instrumentation and the procedure enforced to get your lock refitted have to accommodate the convenient coder for the detailed car. Instead of ferrying your car to the dealer, just elevate the tele-phone and call our dispatch center in Elizabeth NJ and one of our car rekeying personnel will be with you as quick as possible with a unsteadfast service van containing recent ignition parts, key cutters, blank keys and programmers ready to overcome any type of emergency affairs.

To summarize

Elizabeth Key Replacement renders all sort motor vehicle keys, ignition and locks services onsite. We employ first class, experienced man-power that carry enormous experience with all car makers model and year and our establishment top priority is to extend drivers instant and devoted road side remedy to their difficulties guaranteeing quickest response time to get you back in their vehicle and place them back on the road speedily. . If you are in a search for Car key replacement service in Elizabeth New Jersey call (973)200-4870 for a reliable local automotive locksmith, who duplicate and replace trunk, door and ignition keys and remote fob made on the spot.

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Red vs. Blue America: How the Nation’s Real Estate Divide Could Determine the Midterm Elections

iStock; realtor.com

Just when it seems the country couldn’t get any more divided, along comes the most raucous, drag-down, incendiary midterm election cycle in at least a generation, maybe ever. Two political parties? At times it feels like two nations. We wanted to know: Where do these deep divisions come from? And how much of a role does something as fundamental as housing play in the great red versus blue debate?

A very big one, as it turns out.

Let others debate immigration policies, tax reform bills, and presidential temperaments. No, realtor.com® took a deep dive into the nation’s real estate—analyzing all aspects of housing and demographic data in the counties that President Donald Trump and Democratic contender Hillary Clinton each won in 2016—to shed a brighter light on just how we got here as a nation. And where we’re going next.

We found stark differences between America’s red and blue real estate—everything from the cost of homes, the number of places being built, even the credit scores it takes to buy a home.

“Not only are people living in different political realities, but they’re contending with very different housing realities and paying different amounts for it,” says Mark Muro, senior fellow in the metropolitan policy program at the Brookings Institution, a think tank based in Washington, DC.

Where voters live may be the most crucial factor in what side of the political equation they’re on. Trump won 2,625 counties in the 2016 election compared with Clinton’s 487.*  But Clinton won the expensive, diverse, and crowded big cities while Trump swept the inexpensive, more sparsely populated rural America. That’s why she won the popular vote by nearly 2.9 million ballots.

The suburbs remain the country’s battleground.

“You’re seeing the Democrats become more and more of an urban party and the Republicans become more of a rural or exurban party,” says Kyle Kondik, managing editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball, a newsletter from the University of Virginia Center for Politics. “As you get farther out from the city, it gets more Republican.”

At the same time, more liberal-leaning Americans are moving to red, Southern states such as Texas and the Carolinas, lured by their warmer weather, affordable housing, lower taxes, and good jobs. It’s why most demographers predict a major shift in the political breakdown of the U.S. in coming years.

To come up with our findings**, the data team at realtor.com looked at internal listings for prices, appreciation, home sizes, and the percentage of new construction in each county. We calculated buyers’ median down payment and credit scores through Optimal Blue, a digital mortgage trading platform. We used Nielsen for income and general housing demographic data. And we turned to the U.S. Census Bureau for population information.

We looked only at counties because we wanted to take a more granular look at the nation’s housing differences, something state data couldn’t provide.

So let’s go to the realtor.com electoral map!

2016 map

Tony Frenzel

Price alert: Which counties have the most expensive homes? Where are prices higher?

Tony Frenzel

Despite Trump making a name for himself with luxury real estate, the counties he carried had the nation’s cheapest housing—by a long shot. And the homes in red counties have appreciated less than those in blue counties since the presidential election.

It’s because Trump found his base in more rural, less wealthy parts of the nation. Clinton, meanwhile, won the country’s largest and priciest cities, including San Francisco, New York, and Boston, where land is at a premium.

The median home list price was $262,612 in September in counties that voted Republican in 2016. That’s 12.3% lower than the national median of $295,000 and 53.1% lower than the $402,200 median price in counties that went Democratic.

Clinton won 31 counties that are more expensive than Trump’s most expensive county.

The median list price in Trump counties was 53.1% lower than in Clinton counties.

“It’s about high-end versus low-end America to some extent,” says Muro, of Brookings Institution. “There really is an affordability advantage in heartland places where wages go farther.”

The nation’s most expensive county was rarefied vacation destination Nantucket, MA, a 14-mile-long island off the coast of Cape Cod, where the median list price was $2,495,050. Former Democratic presidential contender John Kerry recently sold the second home he shared with his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, for $17.5 million.

The cheapest county is deeply red Blackford, IN, over an hour and a half northeast of Indianapolis. The median list price in the agricultural area is just $55,050.

While the price disparity is jarring, the appreciation gap is closing. In the two-year run-up to the 2016 presidential election, homes in counties that voted for Clinton appreciated by 22.9% compared with 13.2% in Trump counties. However, in the two years since—from September 2016 to September 2018—home prices have accelerated at a breakneck pace all over the country as the national economy continues to improve, and the president’s tax reform legislation has gone into effect. Blue county appreciation was 15.2%, while red counties gained 13.9%.

The legislation “takes away some of the incentives for homeownership in higher-priced markets,” says Daren Blomquist, a senior vice president at real estate data firm ATTOM Data Solutions. It lowers the amount of mortgage interest that homeowners can deduct off their taxes and caps property tax deductions, mostly affecting pricier blue parts of the U.S. “The advantage [is expected to] be swinging back toward some of these lower-priced counties won by Trump.”

Rent vs. buy: Where do the most homeowners live? Where is homeownership higher?

Tony Frenzel

With prices so much lower in red counties, more folks can become homeowners without going broke. The homeownership rate is 71.3% in red counties and just 59.5% in blue counties. Now, that’s something to tweet about!

“Homeownership is more affordable in Trump counties, so even with a lower income you can have a higher homeownership rate and a larger home,” says Chief Economist Danielle Hale of realtor.com.

But it’s not just price tags determining those rates. Cities tend to be filled with younger residents, including all manner of millennials hoping to strike it big. They often can’t afford to buy in the nation’s top cities—let alone make rent without tripling or quadrupling up in tiny apartments. Instant ramen, anyone? 

Plus, there’s not the same stigma attached to renting in big cities, where homeownership isn’t always the norm. You can put down roots, have a great job, and not own a home. It’s a common way of life.

These are the kinds of differences that can affect how Americans see the world and measure their perceived successes and failures.

One big political difference between homeowners and renters is that about two-thirds of the former voted in the past presidential election, according to a recent study by Apartment List, a rental website. Only about half of renters did the same. And while homeowners are just slightly more likely to lean right, renters are significantly more likely to lean left.

“Homeowners may have different values and want different things than those who are renting,” says Muro.

Size matters: Which counties have the largest homes?

If you’re looking for way more space, move to Trump country. Homes in counties that he won clocked in at a median 2,014 square feet—about 82 more square feet than in Clinton counties.

That’s because residences tend to be much smaller in the top cities (interested in a nice 250-square-foot, micro-apartment, anyone?) than in the more sparsely populated country where land is cheaper and homes aren’t built right on top of one another.

“Red counties tend to have lower construction costs … allowing home buyers to purchase a larger home for a given budget,” says Robert Dietz, chief economist of the National Association of Home Builders. Plus, larger families often want more bedrooms and overall space. “Red counties tend to have more married couples with kids and fewer singles, thus leading to larger homes.”

Show us the money: Where do folks earn the most?

One of the biggest differences in the left versus right debate simply comes down to dollars and cents. Folks in blue counties have better job prospects and make more money, with a median household income of $67,407. That’s nearly 16.2% more than the $58,016 that households in red counties are earning. (Income disparity is less pronounced with individual voters, as opposed to counties.)

Blue counties have more high-tech centers offering well-paid gigs to those with the right skills, while red counties are more oriented toward lower-paying manufacturing, agricultural, and service jobs. And with factories continuing to close, move offshore, or replace workers with technology, many of those jobs are disappearing. Over the past few decades, it’s also become harder for small farmers to make ends meet.

Blue county households earned nearly 16.2% more than those in red counties.

“The blue counties have seen significant pay increases and are better positioned to deal with the future of a high-end, digital economy,” Muro says.

How voters and their local communities are doing economically can play a big part in which side of the political fence they’re on. Trump went after the blue-collar vote and since the election has been imposing tariffs on countries competing with core American industries. This is designed to give his base a financial boost.

In the past year, about 35.4% of Trump counties lost jobs compared with 19.2% of Clinton counties, according to an Associated Press analysis. The AP looked at monthly government jobs data from June 2017 through May 2018. Meanwhile, about 58.7% of the new jobs were created in blue counties. These sorts of differences in wealth and job prospects could lead voters to cast their ballots for very different candidates.

“That does reinforce the idea that we’re living in quite different realities,” Muro says.

Credit scores and down payments: Which counties have the highest?

When it comes to buying a home, it’s typically harder to do so in left-leaning urban areas of the country, where homes are more expensive and buyers need higher credit scores and down payments.

The median FICO score in Clinton counties was 731 compared with 709 in Trump counties. (We looked at Optimal Blue mortgage data from June, July, and August 2018 to come up with our findings.) Meanwhile, buyers plunked down a median 10.2% of the purchase price in blue parts of America and 5.4% in red swaths of the country.

The lower down payments are thanks to U.S. Department of Agriculture loans, some of which don’t even require putting any money down. Buyers can snag these loans with credit scores of 640 or even lower in some cases—provided they live in rural areas. This has helped those in Trump country become homeowners.

Buyers in red counties put down median down payments of 5.4% versus 10.2% of those in blue ones.

“Down payments and credit scores don’t have anything to do with Democrats and Republicans,” says Don Frommeyer, a mortgage lender at Marine Bank in Indianapolis. “If you’re in rural America, you don’t have to have [a very high] credit score and the down payment is going to be less.”

That’s certainly not the case in Manhattan, where buyers forked over a median 27.2% of the median $1,650,050 price of their New York City homes. That hurts.

Buyers in expensive cities may also opt for mortgages with higher credit and down payment requirements. Conventional loans are more popular in ultrapricey areas because they offer higher loan limits and lower-cost private mortgage insurance, which kicks in when buyers don’t put 20% down. Sellers in competitive markets are also more likely to prefer conventional loans because they have less stringent loan appraisal processes.

But conventional loans have higher minimum credit scores, typically 620 versus 500 for FHA loans. And they often require larger down payments.

Cities vs. rural America: Who lives in the most populated counties?

Clinton may have won a fraction of all counties, but the ones she took were vastly more populated. Blue counties had a median 104,202 residents as of July 1, 2017. That’s about 4.5 times higher than the median 22,828 people living in Trump counties.

This is noteworthy because residents who live in more populated areas are more likely to come into contact with a more diverse community, on everything from ethnicities to religious backgrounds. And that could affect their views on hot-button issues like immigration, abortion, and birthright citizenship.

“It could be that where and how you live really affects your views on people and how you vote,” says realtor.com’s Hale.

But it’s important to note that the population in Trump counties is growing—faster than in Clinton counties. It rose 0.8% in his counties, and 0.6% in blue counties, from 2016 to 2017. That’s likely because Trump counties tend to be more affordable—and usually warmer, too.

Just look at Texas. The Lone Star State saw the biggest increase in new residents, about 400,000, from 2016 to 2017.

“Millennials are flocking to Texas because they can buy a 2,000-, 3,000-square-foot home for under $300,000,” says demographer Ken Gronbach of KGC Direct.

So what does that mean for future elections?

“That’s the question: Will these areas become victims of their own success?” ATTOM’s Blomquist says. “They helped Trump win in 2016. But because they are attracting more jobs and more people, will they shift away from Trump politically and the Republicans in future elections?”

Construction alert: Where are builders putting up the most new homes?

Which counties see more building?

Tony Frenzel

It’s fitting that new residential construction would be much higher in the counties carried by a president who made his name as a builder.

About 21.7% of the realtor.com listings in his counties were for new homes, compared with just 15.7% in Clinton counties. In other words, 19 of the 20 counties with the most new construction were in Trump country. The Houston suburb of Waller County had the highest percentage of newly constructed homes listed on realtor.com. The median home price in the Republican county is $318,000.

Trump won 19 of the 20 counties with the most new construction.

The reasons are simple: There is simply more land available to build on in more rural areas; there are fewer building regulations, and it’s cheaper to put up new homes.  Plus, there’s demand in areas seeing more population growth as all of those new residents need places to live.

“People vote with their feet. They are going to markets with job growth and [where it’s] easier to build,” says Robert Dietz, chief economist of the National Association of Home Builders. These places “tend to be voting more conservative and have land-use rules that are less regulated and housing cost burdens that are lower.”

* Includes county equivalents in Louisiana, Maryland, and Virginia. These counts did not include Alaska or Washington, DC, which were included in the electoral tally.

** We calculated the county medians for all of these different metrics. Then we weighted each one based on the number of households or how many listings they had on realtor.com. This allowed us to create median scores for Trump and Clinton counties. The weighting was done to ensure that counties with the fewest residents didn’t disproportionately drag the numbers up or down.

The post Red vs. Blue America: How the Nation’s Real Estate Divide Could Determine the Midterm Elections appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com®.

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[davidoespailla]

Red vs. Blue America: How the Nation’s Real Estate Divide Could Determine the Midterm Elections

iStock; realtor.com

Just when it seems the country couldn’t get any more divided, along comes the most raucous, drag-down, incendiary midterm election cycle in at least a generation, maybe ever. Two political parties? At times it feels like two nations. We wanted to know: Where do these deep divisions come from? And how much of a role does something as fundamental as housing play in the great red versus blue debate?

A very big one, as it turns out.

Let others debate immigration policies, tax reform bills, and presidential temperaments. No, realtor.com® took a deep dive into the nation’s real estate—analyzing all aspects of housing and demographic data in the counties that President Donald Trump and Democratic contender Hillary Clinton each won in 2016—to shed a brighter light on just how we got here as a nation. And where we’re going next.

We found stark differences between America’s red and blue real estate—everything from the cost of homes, the number of places being built, even the credit scores it takes to buy a home.

“Not only are people living in different political realities, but they’re contending with very different housing realities and paying different amounts for it,” says Mark Muro, senior fellow in the metropolitan policy program at the Brookings Institution, a think tank based in Washington, DC.

Where voters live may be the most crucial factor in what side of the political equation they’re on. Trump won 2,625 counties in the 2016 election compared with Clinton’s 487.*  But Clinton won the expensive, diverse, and crowded big cities while Trump swept the inexpensive, more sparsely populated rural America. That’s why she won the popular vote by nearly 2.9 million ballots.

The suburbs remain the country’s battleground.

“You’re seeing the Democrats become more and more of an urban party and the Republicans become more of a rural or exurban party,” says Kyle Kondik, managing editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball, a newsletter from the University of Virginia Center for Politics. “As you get farther out from the city, it gets more Republican.”

At the same time, more liberal-leaning Americans are moving to red, Southern states such as Texas and the Carolinas, lured by their warmer weather, affordable housing, lower taxes, and good jobs. It’s why most demographers predict a major shift in the political breakdown of the U.S. in coming years.

To come up with our findings**, the data team at realtor.com looked at internal listings for prices, appreciation, home sizes, and the percentage of new construction in each county. We calculated buyers’ median down payment and credit scores through Optimal Blue, a digital mortgage trading platform. We used Nielsen for income and general housing demographic data. And we turned to the U.S. Census Bureau for population information.

We looked only at counties because we wanted to take a more granular look at the nation’s housing differences, something state data couldn’t provide.

So let’s go to the realtor.com electoral map!

2016 map

Tony Frenzel

Price alert: Which counties have the most expensive homes? Where are prices higher?

Tony Frenzel

Despite Trump making a name for himself with luxury real estate, the counties he carried had the nation’s cheapest housing—by a long shot. And the homes in red counties have appreciated less than those in blue counties since the presidential election.

It’s because Trump found his base in more rural, less wealthy parts of the nation. Clinton, meanwhile, won the country’s largest and priciest cities, including San Francisco, New York, and Boston, where land is at a premium.

The median home list price was $262,612 in September in counties that voted Republican in 2016. That’s 12.3% lower than the national median of $295,000 and 53.1% lower than the $402,200 median price in counties that went Democratic.

Clinton won 31 counties that are more expensive than Trump’s most expensive county.

The median list price in Trump counties was 53.1% lower than in Clinton counties.

“It’s about high-end versus low-end America to some extent,” says Muro, of Brookings Institution. “There really is an affordability advantage in heartland places where wages go farther.”

The nation’s most expensive county was rarefied vacation destination Nantucket, MA, a 14-mile-long island off the coast of Cape Cod, where the median list price was $2,495,050. Former Democratic presidential contender John Kerry recently sold the second home he shared with his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, for $17.5 million.

The cheapest county is deeply red Blackford, IN, over an hour and a half northeast of Indianapolis. The median list price in the agricultural area is just $55,050.

While the price disparity is jarring, the appreciation gap is closing. In the two-year run-up to the 2016 presidential election, homes in counties that voted for Clinton appreciated by 22.9% compared with 13.2% in Trump counties. However, in the two years since—from September 2016 to September 2018—home prices have accelerated at a breakneck pace all over the country as the national economy continues to improve, and the president’s tax reform legislation has gone into effect. Blue county appreciation was 15.2%, while red counties gained 13.9%.

The legislation “takes away some of the incentives for homeownership in higher-priced markets,” says Daren Blomquist, a senior vice president at real estate data firm ATTOM Data Solutions. It lowers the amount of mortgage interest that homeowners can deduct off their taxes and caps property tax deductions, mostly affecting pricier blue parts of the U.S. “The advantage [is expected to] be swinging back toward some of these lower-priced counties won by Trump.”

Rent vs. buy: Where do the most homeowners live? Where is homeownership higher?

Tony Frenzel

With prices so much lower in red counties, more folks can become homeowners without going broke. The homeownership rate is 71.3% in red counties and just 59.5% in blue counties. Now, that’s something to tweet about!

“Homeownership is more affordable in Trump counties, so even with a lower income you can have a higher homeownership rate and a larger home,” says Chief Economist Danielle Hale of realtor.com.

But it’s not just price tags determining those rates. Cities tend to be filled with younger residents, including all manner of millennials hoping to strike it big. They often can’t afford to buy in the nation’s top cities—let alone make rent without tripling or quadrupling up in tiny apartments. Instant ramen, anyone? 

Plus, there’s not the same stigma attached to renting in big cities, where homeownership isn’t always the norm. You can put down roots, have a great job, and not own a home. It’s a common way of life.

These are the kinds of differences that can affect how Americans see the world and measure their perceived successes and failures.

One big political difference between homeowners and renters is that about two-thirds of the former voted in the past presidential election, according to a recent study by Apartment List, a rental website. Only about half of renters did the same. And while homeowners are just slightly more likely to lean right, renters are significantly more likely to lean left.

“Homeowners may have different values and want different things than those who are renting,” says Muro.

Size matters: Which counties have the largest homes?

If you’re looking for way more space, move to Trump country. Homes in counties that he won clocked in at a median 2,014 square feet—about 82 more square feet than in Clinton counties.

That’s because residences tend to be much smaller in the top cities (interested in a nice 250-square-foot, micro-apartment, anyone?) than in the more sparsely populated country where land is cheaper and homes aren’t built right on top of one another.

“Red counties tend to have lower construction costs … allowing home buyers to purchase a larger home for a given budget,” says Robert Dietz, chief economist of the National Association of Home Builders. Plus, larger families often want more bedrooms and overall space. “Red counties tend to have more married couples with kids and fewer singles, thus leading to larger homes.”

Show us the money: Where do folks earn the most?

One of the biggest differences in the left versus right debate simply comes down to dollars and cents. Folks in blue counties have better job prospects and make more money, with a median household income of $67,407. That’s nearly 16.2% more than the $58,016 that households in red counties are earning. (Income disparity is less pronounced with individual voters, as opposed to counties.)

Blue counties have more high-tech centers offering well-paid gigs to those with the right skills, while red counties are more oriented toward lower-paying manufacturing, agricultural, and service jobs. And with factories continuing to close, move offshore, or replace workers with technology, many of those jobs are disappearing. Over the past few decades, it’s also become harder for small farmers to make ends meet.

Blue county households earned nearly 16.2% more than those in red counties.

“The blue counties have seen significant pay increases and are better positioned to deal with the future of a high-end, digital economy,” Muro says.

How voters and their local communities are doing economically can play a big part in which side of the political fence they’re on. Trump went after the blue-collar vote and since the election has been imposing tariffs on countries competing with core American industries. This is designed to give his base a financial boost.

In the past year, about 35.4% of Trump counties lost jobs compared with 19.2% of Clinton counties, according to an Associated Press analysis. The AP looked at monthly government jobs data from June 2017 through May 2018. Meanwhile, about 58.7% of the new jobs were created in blue counties. These sorts of differences in wealth and job prospects could lead voters to cast their ballots for very different candidates.

“That does reinforce the idea that we’re living in quite different realities,” Muro says.

Credit scores and down payments: Which counties have the highest?

When it comes to buying a home, it’s typically harder to do so in left-leaning urban areas of the country, where homes are more expensive and buyers need higher credit scores and down payments.

The median FICO score in Clinton counties was 731 compared with 709 in Trump counties. (We looked at Optimal Blue mortgage data from June, July, and August 2018 to come up with our findings.) Meanwhile, buyers plunked down a median 10.2% of the purchase price in blue parts of America and 5.4% in red swaths of the country.

The lower down payments are thanks to U.S. Department of Agriculture loans, some of which don’t even require putting any money down. Buyers can snag these loans with credit scores of 640 or even lower in some cases—provided they live in rural areas. This has helped those in Trump country become homeowners.

Buyers in red counties put down median down payments of 5.4% versus 10.2% of those in blue ones.

“Down payments and credit scores don’t have anything to do with Democrats and Republicans,” says Don Frommeyer, a mortgage lender at Marine Bank in Indianapolis. “If you’re in rural America, you don’t have to have [a very high] credit score and the down payment is going to be less.”

That’s certainly not the case in Manhattan, where buyers forked over a median 27.2% of the median $1,650,050 price of their New York City homes. That hurts.

Buyers in expensive cities may also opt for mortgages with higher credit and down payment requirements. Conventional loans are more popular in ultrapricey areas because they offer higher loan limits and lower-cost private mortgage insurance, which kicks in when buyers don’t put 20% down. Sellers in competitive markets are also more likely to prefer conventional loans because they have less stringent loan appraisal processes.

But conventional loans have higher minimum credit scores, typically 620 versus 500 for FHA loans. And they often require larger down payments.

Cities vs. rural America: Who lives in the most populated counties?

Clinton may have won a fraction of all counties, but the ones she took were vastly more populated. Blue counties had a median 104,202 residents as of July 1, 2017. That’s about 4.5 times higher than the median 22,828 people living in Trump counties.

This is noteworthy because residents who live in more populated areas are more likely to come into contact with a more diverse community, on everything from ethnicities to religious backgrounds. And that could affect their views on hot-button issues like immigration, abortion, and birthright citizenship.

“It could be that where and how you live really affects your views on people and how you vote,” says realtor.com’s Hale.

But it’s important to note that the population in Trump counties is growing—faster than in Clinton counties. It rose 0.8% in his counties, and 0.6% in blue counties, from 2016 to 2017. That’s likely because Trump counties tend to be more affordable—and usually warmer, too.

Just look at Texas. The Lone Star State saw the biggest increase in new residents, about 400,000, from 2016 to 2017.

“Millennials are flocking to Texas because they can buy a 2,000-, 3,000-square-foot home for under $300,000,” says demographer Ken Gronbach of KGC Direct.

So what does that mean for future elections?

“That’s the question: Will these areas become victims of their own success?” ATTOM’s Blomquist says. “They helped Trump win in 2016. But because they are attracting more jobs and more people, will they shift away from Trump politically and the Republicans in future elections?”

Construction alert: Where are builders putting up the most new homes?

Which counties see more building?

Tony Frenzel

It’s fitting that new residential construction would be much higher in the counties carried by a president who made his name as a builder.

About 21.7% of the realtor.com listings in his counties were for new homes, compared with just 15.7% in Clinton counties. In other words, 19 of the 20 counties with the most new construction were in Trump country. The Houston suburb of Waller County had the highest percentage of newly constructed homes listed on realtor.com. The median home price in the Republican county is $318,000.

Trump won 19 of the 20 counties with the most new construction.

The reasons are simple: There is simply more land available to build on in more rural areas; there are fewer building regulations, and it’s cheaper to put up new homes.  Plus, there’s demand in areas seeing more population growth as all of those new residents need places to live.

“People vote with their feet. They are going to markets with job growth and [where it’s] easier to build,” says Robert Dietz, chief economist of the National Association of Home Builders. These places “tend to be voting more conservative and have land-use rules that are less regulated and housing cost burdens that are lower.”

* Includes county equivalents in Louisiana, Maryland, and Virginia. These counts did not include Alaska or Washington, DC, which were included in the electoral tally.

** We calculated the county medians for all of these different metrics. Then we weighted each one based on the number of households or how many listings they had on realtor.com. This allowed us to create median scores for Trump and Clinton counties. The weighting was done to ensure that counties with the fewest residents didn’t disproportionately drag the numbers up or down.

The post Red vs. Blue America: How the Nation’s Real Estate Divide Could Determine the Midterm Elections appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com®.

Red vs. Blue America: How the Nation’s Real Estate Divide Could Determine the Midterm Elections