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According to this article from 99design these are some of the trends in web design in 2020.

In 2020, website content will be more video with voice script and less text, heading towards precision over description. Overall, web design is going to be more simplistic to facilitate easier navigation. - Ananya Roy

These quote in specific got my attention due to recently i have seen through my research of web design already some websites that are interactive and have video on the main menu, which make its more attractive to go through and check all the website design.

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Locked up with ransomware….

Few days ago a friend of mine told me he was a victim of ciber scam 1 year ago, specifically ransomware, and thats why i would like to share this information.

Ransomware is malicious software that locks up your computer or files, making it impossible to access them.

Anyone can be a victim. Criminals have even targeted individual people, who have ended up paying a few hundred bucks to free up their photo albums.

If you’re a victim of ransomware, you will typically lose access to your files, and you may receive an automatic message from a criminal offering to give you an encryption key that will unlock your files for a fee.

The best things we can do in these situations are:

Back important files up. The best defense against ransomware is a good offense. If you back up your most important home files, then you may lose the hardware locked up by the ransomware, but you won’t have to pay money to a criminal to get back your data. Some good storage programs are google drive, iCloud, or OneDrive.

Hunt for a decryption solution. There are also free databases of publicly available information that can help you decrypt many popular strains of ransomware, so if you are up to hunting down this information, you may be able to simply unlock your files without paying a cent to anyone or losing your computer. The No More Ransom project offers an easy-to-use interface, where you can type in details of the ransom demand or other information to find out if a solution already exists.

You can report these scams to :

FBI via their Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3).

Also if there is no other solution and you decide to pay, you need to consider the future risks, as is an invitation to more ransomware in the future.

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What is otter?

Hi everybody, today I’m going to talk about the app Otter, this is an app that transcript speech into text.

These app took my attention due to the investment in these research has been from long time ago back in 1952 and the idea start with the speech recognition which has open many doors such as personal virtual assistants like alexa, siri; banks menus system, translate language apps, etc.

In the last 10 years many companies brought to the market apps for converting voice to text, due to all the facilities society lives with, specially smartphones some of these companies launch specific apps that allows makes things easily in long conferences, for deaf people, for people who find difficult to type in those small phone keyboards or touch screens, etc. It is important to mention that all the foundations in speech recognition are from many companies who invested all over the years improving this input.

Currently Otter and Google are the most famous companies that could develop speech into text more accurately compared to other companies.

The last launched apps in 2019 were happily accepted by the society, compared with previous years, despite the app is still not in all languages around the world, in English has been good reviews through the download portals. Nowadays the technology on these apps allow to work properly on noisy environments, with multiple people, different accents, different distances, paces, etc. Something that was very complex to do it in the past and took lots of research and investment is working for this speech into text apps nowadays. The best part is that most of these apps are free to use with some limitations, the revenue goes for companies when they acquire the premium version; that it is practically giving more time to transcript and keep it saved on the virtual cloud where users can have access any time they want with no need of bringing their notebook to check they personal written thoughts or notes.

Over the years this speech input has been developed and studied carefully, as it is not easy for a machine to adopt the different accents, velocity, proximity of the voice. Society is changing and adapting to these new features and all technology is made with the purpose of making easier our life.

If you are interested in checking more about the website this is the link:

https://otter.ai

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Technology and Food business

Hi everybody, in these post I would like to share some information about how technology has changed food business specifically restaurants in order to keep generating revenue.

Deliveroo is one of the websites, also app that is changing the way we eat by offering their service to delivery food for a small fee.

·      British company launched in February 2013 in London

·      The idea came from one of the co-funders for the need of get high quality food delivery at home or other place and not just junk food

·      Not all business are able to invest in having their own delivery service.

·      Provides a platform for any restaurant who wants to join for offering their food and hires riders who make the delivery.

·      Riders just need a mobile phone with Internet.

·      They use an algorithm called “Frank” that ensure the efficiency of delivery (such as limited radius and reduction of customer waiting time.)

Positive impact:

·      Generating jobs. - for restaurants as they need to keep the efficiency and for riders as they are the ones who pick and deliver the product

·      Time saving for the customer.- The customer don’t need to spend time in getting ready to go to the place or cooking, the customer is optimising their time by doing other thing.

Negative impact:

·      Changing eating habits.- As there is too much advertising on the website and we change our minds according to what we see.

As a personal opinion I would like to say that the way this company operates is interesting due to uses daily life technology (smartphones) in order to create jobs and revenues, and mostly young people find it attractive to generate an extra income while doing some exercising. On the other hand the company took advantage that many people have smartphones and do not need to provide to people if they want to join their company.

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Hi everybody,

I would like to share this video with you, here it is explained what I was talking on my previous post of WordPress. if you still have doubts you can check it up.

On the video he explains:

What is WordPress and for what can be used?

Webhosting

Themes

Plugins

Etc.

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Features of WordPress....

Features of WordPress.

Hi everybody in my previous post I described what was WordPress, today I’m going to talk about some features, specifically Themes and Plugins.

Themes

These are specifically built for the web design, in other words, how it looks aesthetically. There are many free themes on the website that the user can download easily and also there are premium versions. The main difference is that the free version is usually limited in some features.

These ones are already designed with specific fonts, sizes, colours, etc., the only thing we need to do is a small configuration such as adding the content, images, etc.

One interesting thing is that all the themes can be modified in the CSS WordPress editor, so if you have some knowledge about how it works and you want to make a specific change, there is always this option.

Plugins

These are referring to bits of software that can be uploaded to expand and extend some functionalities of the site, and there are free and premium versions. On the Wordpress website there are more than 50.000 free plugins with different characteristics.

For example some plugins allows to re-post contents frequently and then the user can save time, generally speaking the plugins achieve a specific task that makes the management easier.

One thing to be careful when choosing the best one for you is that most of them do not come with tech support due to most of them are free, also there are some with much higher quality than others. So it’s always good to check what it can do and the reviews or qualifications before installed.

[taniatohi]

What is WordPress?

Hi everybody in this occasion I’m going to describe briefly what is WordPress.

This is a software app that allows to create and manage a website, there are many similar apps; usually called CMS “content management system”.

The reason why many people is using it, is because the working way is very simple and allows to create visually contents on the web without programming.

In my previous posts I was explained my journey through different coding languages such as HTML and CSS, but by using WordPress you do not need to learn this coding languages, due to it was designed in order to be use for any person interested in have a personal website.

Also is very popular for the creation of blogs, nevertheless is also used for online magazines, online newspapers.

What we need to do to start using it?

Firstly we need to install it in our computer or laptop like any app, also we need a server connected to internet and working 24 hours a day this is where our IP address will be linked due to we want to share it with the public. One of the best ways to do it is renting a hosting web, and then we don’t need to have it physically in our homes. Finally after covering all the requirements we can start using it.

I left here the link to the website if you are interested:

https://wordpress.org

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Understanding laptops

Hi everybody,

In this occasion I would like to share some information, if you are planning to buy a new laptop and you don’t know how to interpret the information giving in those small tags, this will be helpful.

Firstly we need to decide which operating system do we want, some examples are macOs, Windows, Chrome OS, etc.

Secondly some esthetical things such as the screen size (we need to think for what are we going to use it, editing, gaming, programming, etc.), usually screen sizes range from about 11 to 17 inches, the most common one is the 15”. Normally laptops screens are come in a range of resolutions, measured in pixels.

·      4K Ultra HD: 3840 x 2560 and 3840 x 2160 resolutions boast four times the pixels of Full HD, creating rich colours and images for viewing and editing incredibly lifelike images and graphics.

·      QHD (Quad HD) and QHD+: With 2560 x 1440 and 3200 x 1800 resolutions, respectively, the extremely high pixel density creates crisp detail and sharp text, ideal for professional photo and graphics work as well as high-def movies and games.

·      Retina display: 2304 x 1440, 2560 x 1600 and 2880 x 1800 resolutions are found in Apple's 12", 13.3" and 15.6" laptop displays, respectively.

·      Full HD: 1920 x 1080 resolution allows you to watch Blu-ray movies and play video games without losing any level of detail.

·      HD+: 1600 x 900 resolution is great for casual gaming and watching DVD movies.

·      HD: 1366 x 768 resolution is standard on mainstream laptops. Good for Web-surfing, email and basic computing tasks.

The Processor is like your computer brain, the processor determines the complexity of software you can run, how many programs you can have open at the same time, and how fast those programs will run. Most laptops feature an Intel or AMD processor.

Intel's processors are at the heart of every modern MacBook and the majority of Windows laptops. Most prevalent are Intel's Core™ series of multicore processors:

·      Core X-Series: Intel's ultimate processor for gaming and virtual reality experiences. The Core X-series family offers up to 18 cores and 36 threads to power through the creation, editing and production of 4K or 360° videos, high-resolution photos and high-quality audio.

·      Core i7: It excels at serious multitasking and high-demand multimedia creation for projects in 3D or high definition.

·      Core i5: is powerful enough for most computing tasks, and multitasks.

·      Core i3: adequate for everyday email, internet and productivity tasks. Or common activities like listening to music.

AMD processors provide a range of advanced processors for virtually every task.

AMD Ryzen Mobile Processors with Radeon Vega Graphics: From work to play, these processors deliver multitasking performance, stunning visuals and healthy battery life while allowing for a sleek form factor. Options include:

·      Ryzen 7: The performance you need for intensive tasks, including editing videos, running demanding applications, and playing the latest games and e-sports with smooth frame rates.

·      Ryzen 5: All-around multimedia performance for streaming 4K videos, light video editing, and e-sport gaming.

·      Ryzen 3: Responsive and efficient to maximize battery life while providing performance for school and office tasks as well as entertainment.

AMD FX and A Series: These families of processor are designed to boost productivity, enhance multimedia and improve energy efficiency.

·       FX, A12 and A10: Advanced features combine powerful processing with power efficiency to provide a great PC experience, including smooth online gaming and enhanced HD streaming capabilities.

·       A9, A6 and E2: These processors prioritize value and are geared toward your everyday productivity tasks.

Random-access memory, or RAM, is important because it helps your processor tackle multiple tasks at once. A minimum of 2GB is required for basic computing, but 8GB or more is recommended if you're into graphics and advanced photo or video editing. Most laptops have 4GB–8GB pre-installed, and some have up to 64GB. If you think you might need more memory later, choose a model that let you expand the RAM.

Internal storage: Traditional hard disk drives offer larger storage capacities, but add to a laptop's weight and thickness while generating heat and noise. Alternatively, solid state drives (also known as SSDs or flash storage) are much lighter, faster, cooler and quieter than hard drives,but they're also much more expensive per GB, so typically provide less storage space.

[taniatohi]

If you are having problems with grids and flexbox, this video shows the main differences between both and some examples.

Hope it will be helpful!

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Using Alexa in Windows 10?

Alexa is the female voice assistant owned by Amazon who talks to you in a conversational manner and helps the user with many task; Amazon describes it as:

“The Alexa Voice Service (AVS) is Amazon’s intelligent voice recognition and natural language understanding service that allows you to voice-enable any connected device that has a microphone and speaker.”

It is well known that Apple has Siri, Google Home has the Google Assistant, Amazon has Alexa, and Microsoft has Cortana.

Microsoft now allows voice assistants like Amazon’s Alexa to activate on the lock screen of Windows 10, as cortana is no longer competition for voice digital assistants, Microsoft had to make some changes and alliances with Amazon.

In 2018 Amazon and Microsoft were already in a partnership, in fact they launch a demo in which Cortana and Alexa where working toguether, despite the investment they did, this year Microsoft decided Cortana is no longer competition and changed strategy by separating it into a different app in the Microsoft Store and away from the built-in search experience in the operating system.

Here I left the link if you want to watch the video where the two voice assistants are working together:

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxwjnuhNVIY)

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Block Level Elements and Generic ones…

I was starting with CSS programming, but i had to come back to the basis of HTML, in this occasion I would like to talk about the Block Level Elements and some generic elements.

These elements came in the last 10 years, these ones are used to group content elements together, in order to make the design easier in CSS, once you have all your elements grouped in different elements will be easier to design the website.

<Header>

Its a child of body, and is the main bar menu of every page (usually at the top).

<Nav>

Are for the navigation elements (links to other section of the website) and could be inside <header>

<Section>

Usually each one has its own heading and can have an article inside

<Article>

Is used for any Section, always inside body, and its for specific content of the same topic.

<Aside>

Refers to a sidebar.

<Div>

This one belongs to generic grouping elements; it’s only used when it’s no better alternative like the ones above.

Class

Could be inside any element, and its used to find something, for example:

<p class=”author”> By Me </p>

Main

Represents the main section of content for the page

By using these elements we can give a better design structure in CSS, and there are 4 ways to select, and once we select the element we want to give design we type the specifications

1.- Element (equally 1 point)

for example “h1 {Specifications of the heading 1}”

2.- Class (equally 10 points)

its indicated by a dot “.page {Specifications of the page }”

3.- ID (equally 100 points)

Its used for side bar, content, intro, etc and you need to add the symbol “#sidebar {Specifications of the side bar}”

4.-Position in document

Are used for links or elements inside elements for example: p a {color: red} “These means that all links in paragraphs will be color red”

…and once we select the element we want to give design we type the specifications like the colour font, typography, size, etc.

Also the last typed element will rule in the code unless is more specific, this is called cascading. This is why some selectors worth more points than others.

Thanks again!!

[taniatohi]

Popular Programming Languages

Nowadays there are many programming languages, and many times we need more tan one in our work, but how to know the differences?

Many famous companies uses more than one programming languages for its applications, backends, frontends, etc.

Learning a new programming language involves money and time most of the time. So here are some of the most popular ones:

Java (by Oracle Corporation)

This is one of the most common nowadays and high demand, this programming language is complex to learn, but you can use in web, mobile and desktop platforms. Java is also recognized for its portability across platforms from mainframe data centers to Smart phones.

Some of the companies who use java are: Amazon, Netflix, LinkedIn, Cannon, Intel, etc.

Swift (by Apple)

This programming language was developed for Linux and Mac applications. Swift is easy to learn compared to others, because it takes less coding.

Swift is used in popular iOS apps like WordPress, Mozilla Firefox, SoundCloud and also in the famous game Flappy Bird.

C# (by Microsoft)

This programming language it is best suited for applications on Windows, Android and IOS. The root of this is C++. Also is the most powerful programming language for .NET framework. 

Some of the companies who uses this one are: HP, Microsoft, Accenture.

JavaScript and TypeScript (by Brendan Eich and Microsoft)

JavaScript is an objected-oriented programming language mostly used to create interactive effects inside web browsers and TypesScript is a superset of JavaScript that can add optional static typing language.

Google, Youtube, Microsoft, Facebook, Amazon uses this programming languagein their frontend.

Python (Guido van Rossum)

Is an easy language for beginners to learn because of its readability. It is a free, open-source programming language with extensive support modules and community development, easy integration with web services, user-friendly data structures, and GUI-based desktop applications.

Facebook, Citibank, Toyota, etc., uses this technology.

If you want to know what is the average salary for programmers this year (2019) in these programming languages you can check this website: (https://www.techrepublic.com/article/the-programming-languages-and-skills-that-pay-the-best-in-2019/)

Thanks!!

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Formatting Elements

Hi everybody, one of my previous post was about the basis of HTML, today, I’m going to continue with a little bit more, in my previous post this was the code that I write, in order to run our first web page

<!DOCTYPE html>

<html>

       <head>

                <title>My first page </title>

       </head>

       <body>

                <h1> This is a heading</h1>

                <h2> There are 6 levels of headings</h2>

                <h3> Each one has a different font size</h3>

                <p> This is a paragraph </p>

       </body>

</html>

One thing that I noticed when I was practicing with the code is that inside <p> if you want to leave a line break you should type:

<br> This works when you want to start in a new line and not in a new paragraph, also this one doesn’t need to close as I mentioned before like </br> as it is a void element.

<strong> this element change the importance of the text, or in other words this element makes bold the text you choose:

          <p><strong>Hello!!</strong> This is a paragraph </p>

<em> Is for emphasis, or in other words it is used for make the text in italics:

           <p><em>Hello!!</em> This is a paragraph </p>

<blockquote> this element as the name said is for quoting and usually is used with the <p> element

<blockquote><p> Both are used in order to keep the text in a different  paragraph and differentiate from another paragraphs</p></blockquote>

There are many other elements in order to give format to our web page such as:

<b> - Bold text

<i> - Italic text

<mark> - Marked text

<small> - Small text

<del> - Deleted text

<ins> - Inserted text

<sub> - Subscript text

<sup> - Superscript text

If you want to practice by yourself you can visit: https://www.w3schools.com/html/html_formatting.asp

This website has some examples of the formatting elements and also you can practice in their online editor

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Evolution of music industry through Digital Media

Hi everybody,

In this occasion I’m going to talk about music, one of my favorite topics!

The music industry has changed year by year, from Vinyls, Cds, cassettes to “Digital Streaming”. In the past we use to go to a specific music shop in order to get the new album of your favorite artist, since few years we can just go online make a click and the music starts download in your device.

•In 2018, according to research conducted by the IFPI, digital streaming platforms have reached an astounding 41.1% growth, making it the largest revenue source within the music business to date.

Music Industries had to adapt to these changes and nowadays there are plenty of sites where we can listen to music, I would say that the most popular ones are:

·      Spotify

·      Pandora,

·      Google Play Music

But, what happens with Youtube…?

Nowadays is possible for everybody to share content online thanks to these kind of streaming platforms, in the past just very famous artist could share their work to the world, but nowadays even your nephew of 4 years old can do it without help.

I personally think that by having this apps on our smartphones is fantastic, we can go wherever we want to, and the music is with us all the time, its much handier tan bringing 3 cds of your favourite singer and a walkman. Music Industries create revenue by the use of advertisements on this apps, by making choose the user listen the music for free with adds or pay an amount of money every month with no adds and customization of your favourite lists and other options on the menu, usually divided by different memberships (standard, premium, etc).

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Remote Work

Hi all,

In this occasion I’m going to talk about Remote Work, this is also called telework, which is described as any type of work that doesn’t have to be performed in a traditional company office. Remote workers can do their jobs anywhere in the world, including their home, a co-working space, etc., where they have access to high-speed Internet, and by the use of technology.

Thanks to the new innovations and all the communications apps or devices this is getting trendy in some countries.

Since I remember both of my parents every time they have to work they use to go to an office or other specific place, maybe in the other side of the city getting stressed cause of the traffic or because they woke up late, etc., but now thanks to all the innovations in technology that can be avoid, it is possible to stand up from your bed, open your computer and start working with no pants or proper office clothes, sounds like a dream for some people; but not everything is just easy.

Doing a remote work is not for everybody you have to be very self driven, and you have to be disciplined and sometimes we have to create rigid routines in order to achieve the objectives.

There are many jobs that can be done from home such as:

·     Virtual assistant,

·     Web developer/designer,

·     Tech support specialist,

·     Social media manager,

·     Graphic designer.

·     Website tester, etc

(Image taken from https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2019/0308/1035080-fancy-working-remotely-from-home/)

As a personal opinion, I think that digital media are leading new ways of working that have a great potential in the market but we need to be careful of scams, this is one of the risk we take by hiring this services as a customers. On the other hand by working remotely we can save some money such as transportation, lunch at work, time in traffic, clothing, etc.

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Starting with HTML

Hi all,

After finishing to study the basis of HTML(the Hypertext Markup Language)and practiced it, I could say that I have a better understanding about how websites are constructed, but what is HTML? According to W3C (https://www.w3.org/standards/webdesign/htmlcss.html)

Is the language for describing the structure of Web pages.  Through this language you can start building a web page with the information you want, giving little bit of format such as headings, text, lists, paragraphs, hyperlinks, images, etc.

One thing you should have in mind is that for starting you must type <!DOCTYPE html>, by typing this you are showing the program that is a html document that you are running. The basic structure for running the page looks like this:

<!DOCTYPE html>

<html>

        <head>

                 <title>My first page </title>

        </head>

        <body>

                 <h1> This is a heading</h1>

                 <h2> There are 6 levels of headings</h2>

                 <h3> Each one has a different font size</h3>

                 <p> This is a paragraph </p>

        </body>

</html>

One thing you should have in mind is that for closing every section you should type the same as opening but adding /

<title>My first page </title>

Otherwise our code will be messy and out of order.

Another thing that I find useful is adding a comment without affecting your code; in order to do it we need to type:

<!--this is a comment that doesn’t appear when you run the code-->

If you are more interested in learning the basis of this language I leave here a website that explains it easy:

https://www.w3.org/MarkUp/Guide/

Good luck! And don’t forget to practice!

[taniatohi]

Robots, Artificial Life and Technology Imagined by the Ancients

I was listening to the podcast “Robots, Artificial Life and Technology, Imagined by the Ancients by Adrienne Mayor” were the speaker explains about her work. When I read the title I never imagine she based her research on mythology, she mostly talks about her book Gods and Robots, were she analyses some popular myths. (You can find this podcast at:https://soundcloud.com/bridging-the-gaps/adrienne-mayor-on-bridging-the-gaps#t=0:00)

Adrienne Mayor is a folklorist and historian of ancient science who investigates natural knowledge contained in pre-scientific myths and oral traditions. Her research looks at ancient "folk science" precursors, alternatives, and parallels to modern scientific methods. She works at The Research Scholar, Classics and History and Philosophy of Science Department at Stanford University.

She got my attention when she said that in the past when society did not have an explanation for something or it was something out of their knowledge, but they strongly believe it was possible, use to end up in Mythology terms, Legends and Literature

She believes that genuine knowledge is based on observation and for this reason through her research she mentions that the first robot walking on earth according to Mythology was Talos, a bronze giant machine created by Hephaestus, the Greek god of invention.  This giant Automata was created with the purpose of protect the Island from foreign ships, and its only weakness was a single artery, which connected its head to the toe. The author also mentions that by removing the bolt in its ankle this giant will die.

The speech go through Medea, Jason and the Argonauts, and many machines such as mechanical birds and wings, torture devices, 4 wheel cars, and how are described as being built with the same materials and methods that human artisans used to make tools and statues. Also she mentions a problem that its still nowadays: when something goes wrong with a robot ¿who is the responsible?...¿the maker?...¿the designer…?,...¿the robot itself?. The robotic ethics its something there is not too much information about in the past and in the present its still something to think about, and I believe that the first thing society should ask themselves is if the robot, invention or any technological device ¿are going to be beneficial to society? Or ¿it will harm society?

What I most like about this interview and by making some research by my own about the author and by reading some mythology to give me an insight about what she was explaining is how she explains that there were artificial intelligence in the past (more than 2,500 years ago), even if its not explained scientifically on myths or even when they couldn’t make prototypes in computer, on these stories there is proofs that these inventions were possible and made me think how things are getting easier nowadays and how our love for Artificial Intelligence have been growing since then, also how science fiction leads to Technological developments.