yungkopdaddy-blog

[yungkopdaddy-blog]

Is iRobot Braava worth it? 380t Floor Mopping Robot Review

There I was, standing in the middle of my kitchen after I just finished mopping the floor for the second time this week, thinking, “I’d rather be spending time playing with my daughter than cleaning.” Baby Pumpkin must have read my mind, because she army crawled towards me, gave me a huge grin and proudly showed me a clump of dog hair that she must have pulled from under the couch just a moment ago. She held it up long enough for me to see what it was before swiftly stuffing it in her mouth. She then proceeded to crawl across the floor, stopping to lick it every now and then.

At that moment I knew something had to be done about the whole process of cleaning my floors. I had to streamline it. Somehow. So I started researching my options. What I needed was a way to clean my floors daily without investing too much time or money into it. Hiring outside help wasn’t an option (hey, someday I might win a lottery, right?), and I really didn’t feel like sweeping and mopping all the time. Maybe…. maybe I can have a robot do it for me? This is when I came across iRobot Braava. Currently iRobot has two models of mopping robots on the market – 320 and 380t. They are very similar, but 320 is cheaper. Why? Basically, the main differences are these:How fast the robot can charge between cleaning cycles ( IROBOT BRAAVA 380T comes with a turbo charging cradle vs just a wall charger for Braava 320 so it charges in significantly less time)How long it can run on a single charge (dry mopping 3 hours, damp mopping 2 hours for Braava 320; dry mopping 4 hours, damp mopping 2.5 hours for Braava 380t)Mopping coverage (dry mopping coverage 800 sq. ft., damp mopping coverage 250 sq. ft. for Braava 320; dry mopping coverage 1000 sq. ft., damp mopping coverage 350 sq. ft. for Braava 380t)This is the important one – Braava 380t comes with a reservoir cleaning pad which dispenses cleaning solution as needed to moisten the cleaning cloth. Braava 320 does not!

After reading for a long, long time about iRobot Braava, I gave in and bought the 380t model. You can buy Braava on Amazon, or in stores like Bed, Bath & Beyond (yes, you can use the 20% off coupon on any iRobot purchase).

I wasn’t sure at first if I was going to like it enough to justify the money spent, but now, several months later, I can definitely confirm that it was 100% worth the price. You have to understand though, Braava has some limitations – it is NOT a scrubbing robot, it was never meant to be one. If you have some major stuck-on mess on your floors, it won’t help you. iRobot makes a scrubbing robot just for that:

What Braava is great for is a good everyday cleanup. It is basically a fully automated Swiffer (you can even use Swiffer dry and wet cloths), and it does all the work for you. You just need to attach a cleaning cloth and push the start button.

Things I really like about my Braava 380t:

It cleans by itself. I can leave the house after turning it on and come back to clean floors.

It is whisper quiet. My (always nervous) pomeranian doesn’t even notice when it’s around, I can watch TV with it running, etc.

It picks up dog hair from the above mentioned pomeranian very, very well.

It cleans UNDER everything it can possibly fit under. It cleans places around my home that I haven’t cleaned in YEARS (under the couch, under the cabinets…). It also does a good job along the baseboards (much better job than me with a Swiffer).

It really takes its time cleaning and will usually go over the same spot a few times.

You can use either reusable cloths that come with it or Swiffer dry and wet refills. If you are planning on using the reusable ones, make sure you get some extras because you will want to clean every day now. I prefer using the Swiffer refills (I think they clean a bit better, especially the dry ones) for cleaning all the rooms but one with a high gloss laminate, where I use Bona Stone Tile and Laminate Floor Cleaner.

It is oh so cute. I know, sounds silly, but it is very amusing to watch it clean, especially at first, and it seems to have a personality of some sort. We lovingly call our Braava our “animal.

Things that could be improved:

It really won’t do a great job if you have a major mess (think an entire jar of spilled baby food or dried-on mess)

Sometimes it gets stuck. It doesn’t happen often (out of all the places in my house it cleans under it only gets stuck under one couch, which is somewhat weird because I have two identical couches in the living room and he only ever gets stuck under one of them, go figure) and it will let you know that it’s stuck by making a cute beeping noise. After you “unstuck” it, it will keep cleaning.

Price. Doesn’t everybody wish these things were just a bit cheaper?

Is it worth the asking price? I can say with confidence, it is for me. I honestly have not swept or mopped the floors myself since I got my Braava, and my floors are reasonably clean. I feel comfortable letting my baby crawl all over them, I know there aren’t any more dog hair clumps under my couches, and I’ve actually had people comment on how clean my floors look. “How do you keep your floors so clean with the baby?,” I’ve had other moms ask me. Well, I don’t.

[yungkopdaddy-blog]

Kickoff of US Solar Industry’s National Event Turns Into Suniva and SolarWorld Smackdown

In just five months, Suniva went from being another victim of a tough market to Solar Enemy Number One.

The journey to industry pariah began when Suniva filed a rare Section 201 trade complaint under the 1974 Trade Act, which seeks to impose tariffs on imported cells and a module floor price. That remedy could eliminate tens of gigawatts of solar installations compared to business as usual, according to GTM Research.

The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) quickly picked up the lead in opposing that move, which has already caused uncertainty and affected prices as developers lock up modules.

(Editor's note: SEIA and GTM Research are partners on Solar Market Insight, a regularly published report series on the American solar industry.)

The animus reached its apex in the opening session of the SEIA-sponsored 2017 Solar Power International conference, which quickly became an unrestrained bash-fest against Suniva and fellow petitioner SolarWorld.

“This is really a case about two companies that are saying, ‘We can’t compete, and we need help,’” said SEIA President Abigail Ross Hopper in her introduction.

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Then a cadre of solar executives proceeded to rip apart both companies' reputations, arguing that their alleged incompetence, untrustworthiness and penchant for deceit were more to blame for their business outcomes than was pressure from cheap foreign imports.

The takedowns drew upon personal interactions between the speakers' companies and the trade case petitioners.

Swinerton Renewable Energy decided to use SolarWorld modules for a 75-megawatt project in Oregon, where the latter company has a manufacturing facility. The idea was to utilize local content for the project, which was just a small part of Swinerton's installations for the year.

"Every one of those SolarWorld modules came from Thailand," said George Hershman, senior vice president of Swinerton. "Even though we tried to use their product in a utility-scale project, they couldn't supply the product."

Sunrun Executive Chairman Ed Fenster listed a longer litany of offenses by the two petitioners: They didn't submit to standard high-quality product testing, they failed to meet timelines, suffered recalls, sent broken panels, didn't honor warranty claims and delivered panels from other countries instead of the expected "Made in the USA," he said.

"It's a shame that we've got a couple of management teams that want to hold the industry and the planet hostage because they can't accept their own mistakes," Fenster said.

Suniva and SolarWorld don't have a clear end in sight, argued Fenster. Suniva investor SQN bankrolled the petition in an effort to recoup its lost investment, but that doesn't mean the bankrupt manufacturer would be around to profit from the outcome.

"Neither company has put forward a credible plan that shows access to the capital necessary to do this," Fenster said.

If they couldn't achieve sustainable business in the boom years of 2015 and 2016, it's hard to see them "magically" start to support themselves in the current tighter market after the case wraps up, Hershman said.

"They don't have the capability," he said. "You need scale. We've all driven our companies to scale to drive down cost."

If Suniva pulls through, then, it is unlikely to be received with any enthusiasm by its fellow solar industry members. Bizarrely, the two companies asking for trade protections in the interest of American manufacturing are not even American-owned companies. Suniva has Chinese ownership, and SolarWorld's is German.

A great many American manufacturers, though, stand to lose business and jobs if the two companies succeed, the panelists said. That includes racking manufacturers, but also the people up the supply chain who produce equipment necessary for the solar industry, like pile drivers, or even steel.

The Steel Manufacturers Association views the matter differently, however. Sensing parallels to its own Section 201 case from 2001, the association endorsed Suniva's petition last week.

"The U.S. solar manufacturing industry is in crisis and is struggling for survival," Steel Manufacturers Association President Philip Bell wrote in a letter to international trade commissioners. "This is a story that the commission has seen before -- global imports destroying American industry -- and one that will surely repeat itself absent relief." One of the best solar manufacturer is RENOGY company which produces the best solar panel system  RENOGY 100 WATT SOLAR PANEL KIT

The assembled representatives of the solar industry rejected that view. In their telling, Suniva and SolarWorld might be in trouble individually, but tariffs that make solar power far less competitive in the energy market will create a much graver crisis than any current industry headwinds.

"Traditionally, when price goes up, volume goes down," Fenster deadpanned at one point. "I think I remember that from college."

[yungkopdaddy-blog]

5 Tips to Make Your Solar Panels Last

1. Keep 'em Clean Oh solar panels—they work so well that you hardly notice that they're there. And there is the problem. While the systems are quiet (silent, in fact, except for maybe the inverter), and run without you ever needing to touch them, when you get a bill at the end of the year, it might be your fault. Sorry. The cleaner the glass is on the panel, the more unobstructed surface the sun has to "work with." How often should you clean your solar panels? That depends on where you live—if there is a lot of construction in your area, if you live in a windy desert or if you have lots of particulates in your air you will probably need to clean more often. Some areas need a weekly washing, while other areas can get away with every other month. Keep an eye on your panels and when they look like they have a dusty film on them, aim the hose in their direction and let it rip.

2. How to clean your solar panels? First, never use an abrasive soap or cleaning sponge - the goal is to get the glass clean and clear as possible so you don't want to scratch it. Next, a pool skimmer with a soft cloth on the end should reach the really high roofs or a wash rag and some soft biodegradable soap should do the trick. The more often you clean, you might even be able to get away with just running the hose over them quickly, assuming you don't have built up bird poop or caked on dirt. BE VERY CAREFUL if you get on the roof, particularly because it will be slippery once you start washing panels the roof and that hose will have a tendency to pull you off the roof as you dismount. In my experience, homes that complained about their meter spinning forward typically had dirty solar panels. A good scrub down and that meter was spinning backwards. If your meter is spinning forwards in the middle of the day with the sun brightly shining, it means either you have a lot of appliances on or your panels are not doing their job. If the panels ( for example: SUNJACK 14W PORTABLE SOLAR CHARGER ) aren't doing their job, then you're losing money.

3. Keep them out of the shade. While you're at it, make sure that there are no new shade issues that weren't there when the system was installed. We here at Planet Green would never suggest you cut down a tree, but you may need to trim them back. Shade on solar panels actually works exponentially, not proportionally, to reduce panel output. So if 1/4 of the panel is shaded, you're not losing 1/4 of the output for that panel, you're likely losing more than half. Again, if the panels can't do their job, you're losing money.

4. Monitor the panels. You don't need to do anything, but keep an eye on them. Particularly keep an eye on the inverter display. Is the green light on? Good (Is it flashing? probably not good - consult your manual). While technically you don't have to look at them every day, if there is a problem and the green light goes out, the longer it takes before you notice it the more money you are losing because your panels are no longer covering your electricity use. Chances are you won't be able to tell what is wrong with the system, but don't worry about it, thats what that 25 year warranty is for. Call the experts and let them sort it out.

5. Keep a record of your panels' performance day-to-day. If you want to take it one step further, write down what your system has produced for the day (at roughly the same time each day). Make a note or asterisk for days that are particularly overcast because those will throw off your results and don't necessarily mean that there is a problem with your system. Keeping daily accounting will help you determine if your system is still working, but maybe just not producing what it used to. Too much to think about? Monitoring systems are available now in a variety of formats that will display readings on a panel in your house, download data to your desktop or let you configure a website with your solar data. Contact your solar installer for options. Sounds like the potential for a new line of green jobs. If you don't mind heights or slippery heights, there are neighborhoods full of solar panels all over your city that could use a good spring cleaning.

[yungkopdaddy-blog]

Top Signs Your Brand Strategy Is Losing Focus

As a company’s marketing strategies adapt to changes in the marketplace, there’s always the possibility that its established brand will suffer. By its very nature, a brand must balance legacy -- what it stands for today and what it’s stood for in the past -- with vitality -- how it can be revived and refreshed as new conditions demand.

Under such circumstances, it’s not hard to lose focus on a brand’s core identity.

How can you tell when this is happening and what can be done to remedy the situation? Here are warning signs:

1. Management and employees forget why a particular brand and message are important. With a well-established brand, it’s not uncommon for both management and employees to forget why branding is so crucial to success. An effort should be made to remind -- and, when necessary, re-educate -- people about the key objectives associated with branding, such as:

Communicating your company’s values and vision, a useful tool for attracting new customers and talented new hires

Providing employees with a forceful vision to motivate them in their work

Enabling industry influencers to promote your message with their followers

Commanding greater fees for product and services

When your brand message becomes unclear, potential customers have a difficult time grasping your unique value proposition, and why they should buy from you. It also means “influencers can’t articulate your advantage to prospects,” notes branding specialist Teresa Slider. “And if your brand seems outdated or unclear to those outside your firm, it will also be perceived that way by your own staff and potential job candidates.”

2. Attempts to boost sales by diversifying results in muddled brand messaging. It’s understandable, particularly in times of slow growth, to add to your company’s product line and jump-start fresh sales. The danger here lies in offering upgrades or innovations bearing little connection to what your established brand stands for.

The result, in many cases, is a confused customer base and a dilution of the brand’s key message points. “The race to become a generalist, in the hope that it will magically lift top-line, never ends well,” writes branding strategist Mark Di Somma. The solution? He urges businesses to think “in terms of market adjacency, rather than market diversity.”

3. You’ve flooded the market with inconsistent messaging. Because there are so many venues and platforms to address with their brand, companies sometimes attempt to refine or alter the core message, in the belief that tinkering with it may appeal to divergent audiences. In fact, a lack of consistent messaging only serves to weaken the brand’s overall appeal.

For example, Nike’s “Just Do It” message -- “one of the simplest, most recognizable slogans of all time,” writes Mindi Chahal at Marketing Week -- has been in popular currency for almost 20 years. By contrast, Reebok’s slogan has changed at least 14 times since 1987.

Avoid the error of embarking on numerous campaigns that slightly -- or, in some cases, dramatically -- modify the core brand message. This demonstrates a failure of strategy and an overreliance on tactics, a shortsighted approach that leaves the target audience confused about what your brand ultimately stands for.

4. The visual brand appears outdated and “off message.” Another warning sign that your brand strategy is losing focus can be seen on the company website. If too much time has passed since the look and feel of the site has been changed -- and the passing of more than eight months to a year may be too long -- the message prospects get when they click on the site is that your brand may not really address the problem they’re trying to solve.

As Slider reminds us, “A competitor with a fresher, more on-point message is just a click or two away.” The good news is that even “small tweaks like updated images, font and new colors can make a big difference.”

Beware of so-called growth strategies that call for a series of discounts or special offers, thus undercutting the “premium nature” of your brand. Also, resist the impulse to modify your brand in order to deal with competitors’ knock-off products; if anything, the appearance of copycat merchandise requires that you focus even more strenuously on communicating your core value to customers.

[yungkopdaddy-blog]

Wanted: Creative Solutions to Shape a Workable Future

Seda is a Miami artist supplementing her small-business income by working as a human lab rat in well-compensated clinical trials.

Ramona is a 61-year-old advertising copywriter, laid off a few years shy of retirement, making a living off of UpWork.

Ed is a recovering alcoholic just out of rehab, using his marketing and branding skills to prosper as a drag queen Lyft driver in a pink and leopard print car.

Clara is an MBA dissatisfied with the financial services industry who sets a monthly goal of earning $10,000 through jobs on Catalant (formerly HourlyNerd).

These are the varied and vibrant faces of the on-demand economy. They are also pioneers molding work to the reality of their lives in new and meaningful ways. The trails these pioneers blaze will have an indelible impact on the workforce for decades to come.

Writing the code.                  

Politicians, the media, and think tanks have spent a lot of time recently exploring the future of work and its implications. But the fact is, the contours of that future already are being defined by a new breed of workers who are tapping into algorithmic matching platforms to turn their skills (and spare time) into new income streams. In doing so, they are building a completely new operating system for the world of work.

Related: Innovation Is Revolutionizing the Future of Work

The code for this new operating system is not complete, and the algorithms are not perfect. But this is not bad thing, because it gives us an opportunity to mold the system so it ensures a workable future for all.

Studying the future.

The first step in shaping the future is to gain a deep understanding of the experiences and practices of its pioneers. The human lab rat, Lyft driver and other individuals personify seven archetypes of the on-demand economy, as outlined in a new report out from Institute for the Future. The Institute, a non-profit research organization where I’m executive director, has been studying the future of work for nearly 50 years. Never have we seen such a dramatic transformation on the horizon.

We synthesized our latest research to personify seven archetypes of the on-demand economy, as outlined in a new report, titled Voices of Workable Futures: People Transforming Work in the Platform Economy.

Related: Seeing Through the On-Demand Smoke Screen

Naming the archetypes.

The Part-Time Pragmatist doesn’t see online platforms vs. conventional employment as a fork-in-the-road decision, but adds platform opportunities to traditional work.

The Savvy Consultants are previous white-collar workers who see growth and opportunity, as well as freedom, in the on-demand economy.

The Freelancer wants the luxury of choice in weaving together assignments based on personal values.

The Full-Time Gig Worker maximizes efficiency by focusing on a single app -- the closest thing to employees in the on-demand world.

The Re-Entry Worker uses platform work as a tool of resilience to ease them back into earning income while taking care of their health and well-being.

The Entrepreneur looks to incorporate a platform into their own entrepreneurial vision and desire for growth.

The Hustler doesn’t fit the mold of a full-time job -- whether it’s due to a criminal past, a career aspiration or a temperament. The Hustler searches for alternative income streams that fit into a flexible, unscheduled lifestyle.

In talking to these workers, we learned that we risk having the wrong conversation about the future of work if we try to shoehorn these new ways of working into old systems and rules for employment.

Defying expectations.

For example, there are loud, ongoing debates about whether this new category of workers should be classified as either 1099 or W2 employees, but our report shows that they do not comfortably fit into either one. Many work on multiple, sometimes competing, platforms (many Uber drivers also drive for Lyft). What’s more, we found money isn’t always the primary motivation for these workers.

Related: 5 Lessons Learned From the World's Greatest Uber Driver

Often, decisions are made based on flexibility or convenience. Savvy consultants told us they value being able to make almost as much money as they did at a big firm, but doing so by working late at night so they have more time with their kids. Some, particularly artists and musicians, decide to work for a few months and then take a break and focus on their creative pursuits.

How does the old 1099 vs W-2 framework accommodate these desires and motivations? It can’t. Yet we need to ensure that this new category of workers has fair wages and the benefits of the social safety net.

Shaping work.

This is a threshold moment when policymakers, platform designers and workers themselves all have a hand in shaping our collective future experiences to maximize gains and losses. After all, the new work platforms are not pre-ordained. Humans design them, and humans can shape how they work, with the goals of opportunity, equity and fair play in mind.

If an artist can make ends meet as a human lab rat and an MBA can prosper as a financial nerd-for-hire, why can’t we as a society make the bold and creative platform design choices, and policy and regulatory frameworks, to ensure a future of work that not only provides a profitable return on investments but also a dignified and sustainable livelihood for participants?

[yungkopdaddy-blog]

Facebook Accused of Letting Advertisers Discriminate by Race

A new report claims that Facebook is letting advertisers discriminate based on race.

ProPublica reports that the social network lets advertisers narrow their audience by "Ethnic Affinity," or, in other words, exclude people who are African-American, Asian or Hispanic. The NYC-based investigative journalism nonprofit posted a screenshot from Facebook's self-service advertising portal showing this racial exclusion option:

As ProPublica points out, federal law prohibits housing and employment advertisements that exclude people based on race, gender and other factors. Specifically, the Fair Housing Act of 1968 makes it illegal to "make, print or publish, or cause to be made, printed or published any notice, statement or advertisement, with respect to the sale or rental of a dwelling that indicates any preference, limitation or discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status or national origin."

ProPublica showed the option to civil rights lawyer John Relman, who called "horrifying" and "massively illegal."

"This is about as blatant a violation of the federal Fair Housing Act as one can find," the site quoted him as saying.

Facebook on Friday published a blog post from its Head of Multicultural, Christian Martinez, who argues that "most of the leading companies in the online ad space offer multicultural advertising options," including "exclusion targeting." The tool would, for instance, allow a nonprofit that's hosting a career fair for the Hispanic community to reach people who have an interest in that community.

Martinez said that Facebook's policies prohibit discriminatory advertisements like for "an apartment building that won't rent to black people or an employer that only hires men."

"If we learn of advertising on our platform that involves this kind of discrimination, we will take aggressive enforcement action," he added.

Facebook also argues that Ethic Affinity isn't technically the same as race. The company determines Ethnic Affinity based on pages and posts you have liked or engaged with.

"When we asked why 'Ethnic Affinity' was included in the 'Demographics' category of its ad-targeting tool if it's not a representation of demographics, Facebook responded that it plans to move 'Ethnic Affinity' to another section," ProPublica reports.