Simon Fuller, the man behind hit international reality shows (and also the Spice Girls), speaks to Mirror about his new venture.

It is a new pop group, actually. The idea of a group that had different members from different countries was something I have been thinking about for many years now, shares Simon Fuller, best known as the creator of the Idol series (American Idol, Indian Idol), a popular reality TV franchise. For Fuller, who was in Mumbai to scout talent for his new venture, reality TV shows is not the only feather in his cap. He is certified as the most successful British music manager of all time by Billboard magazine, and has managed superstars such as the Spice Girls (when they were at their peak), David and Victoria Beckham, Kelly Clarkson and the late Amy Winehouse.

The primary motivation was my interest in the notion of a global star. In my mind, I feel that the viewers will perceive it both as local and global. Local, because the artiste from their country will be interesting to watch, and global, because they will get to see all these other artistes, says Fuller about his new venture, which will see talents from 11 countries, including India, forming a group called Now United.

To bring together this group, they have already selected two people from each of the 11 countries. The selected participants will be taken to Los Angeles where the final 11 for the group will be chosen. The idea is that when they come together, everything that they do will be seen by everyone. Every dance class, recording session, hair and makeup session, media training class the whole journey will be filmed and will be open for everyone to see. You can learn everything that the real group learns; you can attend everything that they have attended, says Fuller. My thinking and the big idea is that everybody, even the viewers, is in the group. These 11 participants will become the voice that connects everyone out there, who, in turn, will also learn and participate in real time with them, he adds.

The man, who is known for his gamut of reality shows, had a different vision when he first started to conceptualise the show. His original idea of a reality show was about integrity, talent and making dreams come true. But nowadays, shows focus more on a contestants back story than his/her talent in some cases, the participants socio-economic status or personal situations are used to gain the audiences sympathy. I think the producers were forced to mix it up to make it more interesting. Thats not interesting to me. That was never the point in any of my shows, he remarks.

What sets Fullers new project apart from his earlier ones is that this will be showcased on an online platform, and not on telly. The site will also give others a chance to showcase their talents by uploading videos. The process for the project is an evolving one. The people wholl be following this platform can be part of this group as well. So, the group is always changing. This will not be a proper group which stays together forever. We can change it whenever we want to. Its almost like a football or cricket team. If someone really great comes up then well put them in the team and take someone out. Or we could swap a country and bring another one, says the 56-year-old entrepreneur.

Two girls have been chosen from India one from Rajasthan and another from Mumbai. The audition process was conducted through various local dance and music schools in different cities in the country.

Fuller plans to go live with the project in October. He cautiously adds that the project might start slowly, as theres no rush (because its not a televised series), and that people may join in late but they can always go back to the beginning to see how the journey began. My ultimate dream would be when we do an arena show to have the group on stage but everyone in the audience should also know the dance routines and songs. So, while the 11 kids will be on stage, when you look around, everyone else also is a part of the group, says Fuller.

See original here:

IN TRANSIT: The Idol Maker - Mumbai Mirror

The first major expansion for Stellaris, Utopia, is only a month away, and it may be the biggest and most transformative piece of DLC that Paradox Development Studio has ever released for any of its grand strategy games. Along with the accompanying 'Banks' patch (free to existing owners), were in for overhauls to the ethics, factions, and unrest systems, Tradition trees that allow us to further shape our empires over time, the chance to build space wonders (including entirely new planets), and late game 'ascension paths' that allow you to, for instance, turn all of your people into robots. Every Jim, Bob, and Xelgthrana is buzzing with gossip about these new features, so Ive broken them down belowalong with some speculation on how the galaxy will be affected.

What's new: Rather than deviating semi-randomly, different ethics (say, Militarism) will have an attraction value that determines how likely the people in your empire are to adopt them. The official ones you pick for your government will get a bonus to attraction, especially if you took the fanatical version. Factions will tend to organize around a specific ethic (such as a Human Supremacy faction for xenophobes), which will exert pressure based on their membership numbers to get you to pass policies they like. If a faction is unhappy with the government, its people will become unhappy, generating a new modifier called unrest (reducing resource output and potentially spawning rebellions) on the planets where they live.

Implications: The good news is, your governing ethics will be far less locked-in for the duration of a campaign than they used to be. The bad news is, all your people know this and will constantly be pestering you to represent their wishes, as pesky citizens who dont even know what its like to run a galactic empire are wont to do.

Whats new: Empires will now generate a new resource called Unity from building certain structures and taking certain actions. These can be spent on Traditions (costing less for smaller, more homogenous empires and those that maintain lower levels of internal unrest), which are similar to the social policy trees in Civilization 5. Each follows a common theme: Supremacy gives you more space ships and bigger laser beams to strap onto them. Prosperity helps you turn Space Resources and Space Labor into more sweet, sweet, space cash.

Implications: Increasing tradition cost from unhappy pops will help cohesive and pleasant empires who dont exploit or enslave their citizens better compete with ruthless, sprawling ones who think children should be factory workers and aliens should be appetizers. Speaking of alien rights...

Whats new: Its now possible to set specific rights within your empire for every type of alien you encounter on an individual basis, from Citizenship (full citizens, non-voting, slaves, or even forced expulsion), military service, immigration rights, and even how many children they can have. With the expansion, youll also be able to pick from four kinds of slavery (put strong species to work, conscript the scary ones into the army, and turn the pretty ones into Space Butlers), and five kinds of purges (including processing them for food, if your single-minded space locusts are understandably more concerned with devouring flesh than making friends).

Implications: Have you ever wondered what those little furry dudes who keep sending you diplomatic insults taste like? You probably have now.

Whats new: When you complete a Tradition tree, you will unlock one of eight Ascension Perk slots, which are a way of adding powerful, permanent bonuses to your empire. These can include huge boosts to naval capacity, the ability to terraform otherwise uninhabitable worlds, and unlocking massive space wonders (see below). Most significantly, however, you may choose (though are not obligated) to spend two of your perk slots on one of three Ascension Paths: Synthetic for Materialist empires (becoming cyborgs, then eventually uploading the minds of your people into machines), Psionic for Spiritualist empires (awakening the latent psychic potential of your race and interacting with a strange, otherworldly dimension called The Warp The Shroud), and Biological (manipulating the DNA of any race in your empire to add and remove traits), which is open to any ethos and particularly suitable for Hive Minds.

Implications: For those who want it, this represents a path to a sort of endgame destiny for your species. For those who dont well, well probably still have to find ways to deal with the implications of entirely cybernetic empires, gene-modders who want to assimilate our people into their hive mind, and the strange being in The Shroud calling itself The End of the Cycle that some of the spiritualists have been murmuring about.

Whats new: At species creation, you can forego selecting any ethos for your species and instead choose to be a Hive Mind, a psionically-linked meta-organism that acts as one consciousness. Since your entire race possesses but a single will, mechanics like happiness, unrest, and factions are disabled. The downside? Your pops cant survive in non-Hive Mind empires, and non-Hive Mind pops in your own (including on worlds youve conquered) will be automatically consumed (literally turned into food) by the swarm. This, understandably, gives you a diplomatic penalty to any non-Hive Mind empires you meet. In particular, watch out for anyone named Ender.

Implications: IF YOU WERE ONE OF US, WE WOULD NEED NOT EXPLAIN THE IMPLICATIONS TO YOU. THE SWARM IS ALL. YOU WILL BE CONSUMED. HEY, WHATS THAT ON YOUR PSEUDOPOD? HA-HA, GOTCHA. THERE WAS NOTHING. YOU HAVE BEEN DUPED BY THE SUPERIOR INTELLECT OF THE SWARM.

What's new: After acquiring the proper ascension perk, you will be able to build massive structures in space. These include orbital habitats to house your population around uninhabitable planets (such as gas giants), Dyson spheres that encircle a star and harness huge amounts of energy (though they render any planets in the system cold and dead), and a sensor array that will give you limited vision over the entire galaxy. Like wonders in other 4X games, these projects take huge amounts of time and resources, and other empires will be notified that you are building them (with the exception of orbital habitats, which are a smaller investment).

Implications: With the ability to harness the energy of entire stars, it may now be possible to run the Large Pixel Collider at full power. If this is the last you hear from us, just know that we went out doing what we love. Also, the machine consciousness is probably coming for you next. Run.

Continue reading here:

Everything new in Stellaris: Utopia, one of Paradox's biggest game updates ever - PC Gamer

Were used to watchingShark Tanks Robert Herjavec cutdeals with adult entrepreneurs on ABC. Now, the reality show staris turning his attention to school kids by partnering withPepsiCos Frito-Lay to launch a Dreamventioncontest.

Above: Dreamvention mascot with Frito-Lay chips

Image Credit: Brnice Magistretti/VentureBeat

Kids aged seven and up can submit their inventions by uploading an original drawing on the Dreamvention website the deadline for entry is April 24. The winner, who will be announced in December, will receive a cash prize of $250,000. In addition, product development firm Mako Design+ Invent will turn the winners idea into a prototype, thus paving the way for a lucky kid-trepreneur to start his or her own business.

The partnership officially kicked off last Monday at Google Garage, which hosted about two dozen Bay Area fifth graders for a morning Invent-athon. The studentsteamed up with Googlers to get their creative juices flowing and pitch ideas to an intrigued Herjavec. From a helium-filled backpack to a snowball gun, the ideas were as practical as they were imaginative.

I think once a mind has expanded, it can never go back to its original size, said Robert Herjavec, in an exclusive interview with VentureBeat. So I think the idea is to really let them expand their minds to show them anythings possible. And I have no doubt that some of these kids will achieve something great one day.

Above: Google Garage

Image Credit: Brnice Magistretti/VentureBeat

Above: Kids and Googlers brainstorming

Image Credit: Brnice Magistretti/VentureBeat

Above: One of the group tables

Image Credit: Brnice Magistretti/VentureBeat

Frito-Lay has also partnered with YoungMinds Inspired (YMI), a free educational outreach program. The 10 schools that submit the most inventive ideas will each be awarded $5,000 to help further in-class science programs.

Read more from the original source:

Shark Tank's Robert Herjavec coaches kids to fuel entrepreneurial spirit - VentureBeat

Curtis McDaniel, 22, from New Jersey, USA, was just 11-years-old when white speckles began to appear on his skin caused by vitiligo

A MAN who was bullied for his rare skin condition has defied those who tormented him by becoming a successful magazine model.

Curtis McDaniel, from New Jersey, USA, was just 11-years-old when white speckles began to appear on his skin caused by vitiligo an autoimmune disorder that stops cells from producing pigment.

Caters News Agency

Soon, his face and body developed large white patches and bullies labelled him zebra and Michael Jackson while kids would run away from him crying.

But, when he was 17, the teen stopped seeing his condition, which affects one per cent of the worlds population, as a curse and a couple of years later he was scouted as a model after uploading a selfie.

Now Curtis is a part-time model and soon he will feature on MTVs True Life show, which he hopes to use as a platform to educate others about vitiligo.

Caters News Agency

Caters News Agency

Curtis, 22, said: I was the only person in my family to have vitiligo and took it pretty hard at school, I was bullied a lot by people for my skin.

They would call me burnt lips, Michael Jackson, zebra, giraffe and people thought I was contagious I had a lot.

Girls would ask if I was burned and would say Ew whenever they saw me.

I was a spectacle everywhere I went, I once had kids running out of a store crying when they saw me and was called a monster.

Vitiligo is a skin condition which causes patches of skin to lose their pigmentation it is causes by a lack of the pigment melanin in the skin.

One percentof the population suffers from it and it affects every ethnicity and gender equally.

The main symptom of vitiligo is flat, white spots or patches on your skin.

Initially, the vitiligo may start as a patch of skin that is paler than the rest. Gradually, the patch will become completely white.

Vitiligo does not cause discomfort to your skin, such as dryness, but patches may occasionally be itchy.

If you have vitiligo, the pale areas of your skin are more vulnerable tosunburn.

Treatment for vitiligo is based on improving your skins appearance, you cannot reverse the depigmentationandthe effects of treatment are not usually permanent.

For smaller patches of vitiligo you may be prescribed a steroid cream, thiscan sometimes stop the spread of the patches, and may restore some of your original skin colour.

Before I used to think my skin was a curse, but now I realise my skin is a gift, its allowing me to influence people.

Once I had this new outlook on my skin, I stopped getting so angry and started to smile more.

Before, I hated having my picture taken, so to me I never would have believed I could model.

Caters News Agency

Curtis suffered a deep depression for five years, while he struggled to understand why he had been affected by the condition.

He said: It took over my wrists, arms, then went under my nose, around my lips and my left eyelid too.

Whenever I saw a new white spot while looking in the mirror it would make me angry, once it started to affect my face I punched a mirror in anger.

I was in a bad place.

But, after returning to Christianity, Curtis mind-set changed, and he realised he should see his skin in a positive light.

Curtis said: Its all a process, confidence isnt something you just get, youve got to look at yourself in the mirror and change your mind-set.

Caters News Agency

Caters News Agency

Caters News Agency

Skin is so materialistic, you have to love who you are.

Now, Curtis models while studying and hopes that by proudly showing his skin he can inspire others with vitiligo to not hide away.

Since embracing his condition, Curtishas found people are more attracted to him for both his appearance and his personality.

Curtis said: Its pretty cool, people like the pattern of my skin and also the confidence I have too, I never could have imagined this would be my life now.

Whenever I model or speak I dont want people to see my skin but my heart, I want them to see my heart through my skin.

A lot of people have told me that when they first saw me they liked my skin but what was most attractive was reading about me as a person, thats what makes them fall in love with me.

See more here:

A man with vitiligo who was called 'zebra' by bullies has defied their cruel comments by becoming a model - The Sun

If one way to measure events is to see which side derived more mileage from it, you could perhaps judge the Delhi University affair by one fact. What was supposed to be a few people in a room talkinga seminar titled Cultures of Protest: Unveiling the State: Regions of Conflictended with a sight quite apt to that title. Over 5,000 students, many of them previously unaffiliated, marched in the streets to insist on the right to freedom of speech and thought in academic institutions.

That was in response to days of violence, both physical and onlineand a debate gone national, with politicians, ex-cricketers, film personalities and TV anchors logging in. A parallel argument over nationalism and free speech centred around another DU student, Gurmehar Kaur. In a little over a year since the JNU controversy, another campus in the national capital had turned into a battlezone, with antithetical ideologies locked in a slugfest. Counting the Rohith Vemula suicide in Hyderabad, the Draupadi episode in a Haryana campus and the faculty brouhaha at Ashoka, a pattern of crisis can be traced. The Indian university itself has come to resemble what the Ramjas seminars subtitle referred to as a Region of Conflict.

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It was to have been a quiet session organised by the Ramjas College Literary Society beginning on February 21, but the stones started raining down on the window-panes before anybody could speak. Supporters of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) massed outside were averse to Umar Khalid, former member of Democratic Students Union (DSU) at JNU, being invited as a speaker.

Khalid, who was arrested last year over a controversial programme on Afzal Gurus hanging and faces sedition charges, was to present a paper titled the The War in Adivasi Areas, based on his PhD project. He was finally told to stay awayin negotiations that delayed the event by two hours, the organisers got the go-ahead only on that condition. But the stone-pelting started anyway, as soon as the first speaker, documentary maker Sanjay Kak, began speaking. The seminar was called off and everyone escorted out.

The next day, when students and teachers from DU and outside, including many from the left-leaning student union AISA, congregated to protest against the violence, it became a free-for-all with ABVP supporters targeting not just them but also media persons. Many were injured, including Prasanta Chakravarty, an assistant professor of English in DU (see How DU was baptised in ABVP fire).

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Amid all the outrage over what was read as a bid to curb free speech, Gurmehar, an LSR student and daughter of an army captain killed in action in Kashmir, registered her protest by uploading her picture on Facebook, as part of the Save DU campaign. In the picture, she carried a placard which read: I am a student from Delhi University. I am not afraid of ABVP. I am not alone. Every student of India is with me. #StudentsAgainstABVP.

The image drew notice on social media and then a frame from a one-year-old video of hers too went viral. Pakistan did not kill my dad, war did, said the words on her placard, part of a series she held up in sequence. It elicited an avalance of sharp reactions. Who is polluting this young girls mind? tweeted Union MoS for Home Kiren Rijiju. BJP MP Pratap Simha compared her to Dawood Ibrahim, ex-cricketer Virender Sehwag mocked her words in a tweet and actor Randeep Hooda too joined in. The invective and abuse from trolls were harshershe even received an online rape threat.

This is all my 20 year self could take, Gurmehar tweeted, opting out of subsequent protests and left for her home in Punjab, while others defended her right to speak her mind and condemned the abuse. With Sikh bodies such as the SGPC too coming out in her support, BJP leaders took on a more guarded tone. Union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, in a remark mildly chastising of Rijiju, defended her right to free speech and thought as long as nationalism remained inviolate. As for Viru and Hooda, they had verbal rebuffs in store from lyricist Javed Akhtar, actor Atul Kulkarni and even Gautam Gambhir, Virus former partner on the cricket field.

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The debate on nationalism aside, the university as a special zone meant to cultivate free, novel thinking, unencumbered by popular notions, is itself at stake. Campus violence is nothing new in India: there have been protracted phases of convulsions over the decades, with neither left-wing nor Congress-backed student unions being squeaky-clean and blame-free. The difference in the present phase, though, perhaps is its nationwide span, and its direct and explicit bearing on free speech issues, as it manifested at DU, JNU and elsewhere.

The developments have prompted observers to wonder whether the space for dialogue had shrunk in recent times, especially since the NDA stormed to power at the Centre. The BJP feels severely empowered now and whats happening is like what Bush did in Iraqeither you are with me or with them, says Prof Bidyut Chakrabarty of DU, who believes the space for dialogue should never be forfeited, even though freedom of expression comes with constraints.

He says once student politics was evenly balanced among followers of Gandhism, Lohiaism, the mainstream Left and so on, and the leaders always kept the space for dialogue open. He traces the massive breakdown of today all the way back to the Naxalite movement. The transition from personal to political journey was destroyed by the Naxalite movement and this has evolved in national politics, he says.

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When dialogue was possible despite ideological rifts, there was less space for violence and negativism, says NCP leader and former JNUSU president D.P. Tripathi. But universities as an institution have started declining, and this he maps out in the gangsterism and money power present now. What the SFI did, now the TMC is doing in Bengal; its tit for tat. In a democratic culture, theres space for dialogue. Once there is violence, gangsterism gradually replaces politics.

Anand Kumar, another JNUSU former president who later taught at the same university, believes anti-dialogue violence is a disease thats now spreading in the name of nationalism. Many critics of the BJP government also see the Ramjas incident as a specific one, though part of the general trend, and link it to the UP electionpart of a strategy to polarise votes in the last leg. Historian Irfan Habib sees in the DU episode a mirror image of right-wing politics at the national level, which is imposing something on the whole country by hooliganism. That is not normal student politics, he adds. CPI(M) politburo member Prakash Karat cites a pattern evolving across central universities, be it DU, JNU, Hyderabad or Pondicherry, and talks of an RSS design.

Jay Prakash Majumdar, former Congressman and now a West Bengal BJP leader, begs to differ. In India, unless you have Left leanings, no one will call you an intellectual. I dont blame students for this; I blame ex-students who have become thinkers, professors and politicians. They are like Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde; they inculcate the idea that one day there will be a revolution. Thats why violence continues and the space for dialogue is shrinking.

View post:

When Words Beget Blows - Outlook India

If you have a new app or use case requiring scalable, on-demand or pay-as-you-go storage, one or more public cloud storage services will probably make your short list. It's likely your development team has at least dabbled with cloud storage, and you may be using cloud storage today to support secondary uses such as backup, archiving or analytics.

Every cloud storage option has its pros and cons. Depending on your specific needs, the size of your environment, and your budget, its essential to weigh all cloud and on-prem options. Download this comprehensive guide in which experts analyze and evaluate each cloud storage option available today so you can decide which cloud model public, private, or hybrid is right for you.

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While cloud storage has come a long way, its use for production apps remains relatively limited. Taneja Group surveyed enterprises and midsize businesses in 2014 and again in 2016, asking whether they are running any business-critical workloads (e.g., ERP, customer relationship management [CRM] or other line-of-business apps) in a public cloud (see "Deployments on the rise"). Less than half were running one or more critical apps in the cloud in 2014, and that percentage grew to just over 60% in 2016. Though cloud adoption for critical apps has increased significantly, many IT managers remain hesitant about committing production apps and data to public cloud storage providers.

Concerns about security and compliance are big obstacles to public cloud storage adoption, as IT managers balk at having critical data move and reside outside data center walls. Poor application performance, often stemming from unpredictable spikes in network latency, is another top-of-mind issue. And then there's the cost and difficulty of moving large volumes of data in and out of the cloud or within the cloud itself, say when pursuing a multicloud approach or switching providers. Another challenge is the need to reliably and efficiently back up cloud-based data, traditionally not well supported by most public cloud storage providers.

How can you overcome these kinds of issues and ensure your public cloud storage deployment will be successful, including for production workloads? We suggest using a three-step process to assess, compare and contrast providers' key capabilities, service-level agreements (SLAs) and track records so you can make a better informed decision (see: "Three-step approach to cloud storage adoption").

Let's examine specific security, compliance and performance capabilities as well as SLA commitments you should look for when evaluating public cloud storage providers.

Maintaining cloud data storage security is generally understood to operate under a shared responsibility model: The provider is responsible for security of the underlying infrastructure, and you are responsible for data placed on the cloud as well as devices or data you connect to the cloud.

All three major cloud storage infrastructure-as-a-service providers (Amazon Web Services [AWS], Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud) have made significant investments to protect their physical data center facilities and cloud infrastructure, placing a particular emphasis on securing their networks from attacks, intrusions and the like. Smaller and regional players tend also to focus on securing their cloud infrastructure. Still, take the time to review technical white papers and best practices to fully understand available security provisions.

Though you will be responsible for securing the data you connect or move to the cloud, public cloud storage providers offer tools and capabilities to assist. These generally fall into one of three categories of protection: data access, data in transit or data at rest.

Data access: Overall, providers allow you to protect and control access to user accounts, compute instances, APIs and data, just as you would in your own data center. This is accomplished through authentication credentials such as passwords, cryptographic keys, certificates or digital signatures. Specific data access capabilities and policies let you restrict and regulate access to particular storage buckets, objects or files. For example, within Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3), you can use Access Control Lists (ACLs) to grant groups of AWS users read or write access to specific buckets or objects and employ Bucket Policies to enable or disable permissions across some or all of the objects in a given bucket. Check each provider's credentials and policies to verify they satisfy your internal requirements. Though most make multifactor authentication optional, we recommend enabling it for account logins.

Data in transit:To protect data in transit, public cloud storage providers offer one or more forms of transport-level or client-side encryption. For example, Microsoft recommends using HTTPS to ensure secure transmission of data over the public internet to and from Azure Storage, and offers client-side encryption to encrypt data before it's transferred to Azure Storage. Similarly, Amazon provides SSL-encrypted endpoints to enable secure uploading and downloading of data between S3 and client endpoints, whether they reside within or outside of AWS. Verify that the encryption approach in each provider's service is rigorous enough to comply with relevant security or industry-level standards.

Data at rest:To secure data at rest, some public cloud storage providers automatically encrypt data when it's stored, while others offer a choice of having them encrypt the data or doing it yourself. Google Cloud Platform services, for instance, always encrypt customer content stored at rest. Google encrypts new data stored in persistent disks using the 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES-256) and offers you the choice of having Google supply and manage the encryption keys or doing it yourself. Microsoft Azure, on the other hand, enables you to encrypt data using client-side encryption (protecting it both in transit and at rest) or to rely on Storage Service Encryption (SSE) to automatically encrypt data as it is written to Azure Storage. Amazon's offering for encrypting data at rest in S3 is nearly identical to Microsoft Azure's.

Also, check for data access logging -- to enable a record of access requests to specific buckets or objects -- and data disposal (wiping) provisions, to ensure data's fully destroyed if you decide to move it to a new provider's service.

Your provider should offer resources and controls that allow you to comply with key security standards and industry regulations. For example, depending on your industry, business focus and IT requirements, you may look for help in complying with Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, Service Organization Controls 1 financial reporting, Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard or FedRAMP security controls for information stored and processed in the cloud. So be sure to check out the list of supported compliance standards, including third-party certifications and accreditations.

Unlike security and compliance, for which you can make an objective assessment, application performance is highly dependent on IT environment, including cloud infrastructure configuration, network connection speeds and the additional traffic running over that connection. If you're achieving an I/O latency of 5 to 10 milliseconds running with traditional storage on premises, or even better than that with flash storage, you will want to prequalify application performance before committing to a cloud provider. It's difficult to anticipate how well a latency-sensitive application will perform in a public cloud environment without actually testing it under the kinds of conditions you expect to see in production.

Speed of access is based, in part, on data location, meaning expect better performance if you colocate apps in the cloud. If you're planning to store primary data in the cloud but keep production workloads running on premises, evaluate the use of an on-premises cloud storage gateway -- such as Azure StorSimple or AWS Storage Gateway -- to cache frequently accessed data locally and (likely) compress or deduplicate it before it's sent to the cloud.

To further address the performance needs of I/O-intensive use cases and applications, major public cloud storage providers offer premium storage capabilities, along with instances that are optimized for such workloads. For example, Microsoft Azure offers Premium Storage, allowing virtual machine disks to store data on SSDs. This helps solve the latency issue by enabling I/O-hungry enterprise workloads such as CRM, messaging and other database apps to be moved to the cloud. As you might expect, these premium storage services come with a higher price tag than conventional cloud storage.

Bottom line on application performance: Try before you buy.

A cloud storage service-level agreement spells out guarantees for minimum uptime during monthly billing periods, along with the recourse you're entitled to if those commitments aren't met. Contrary to many customers' wishes, SLAs do not include objectives or commitments for other important aspects of the storage service, such as maximum latency, minimum I/O performance or worst-case data durability.

In the case of the "big three" providers' services, the monthly uptime percentage is calculated by subtracting from 100% the average percentage of service requests not fulfilled due to "errors," with the percentages calculated every five minutes (or one hour in the case of Microsoft Azure Storage) and averaged over the course of the month.

Typically, when the uptime percentage for a provider's single-region, standard storage service falls below 99.9% during the month, you will be entitled to a service credit. (Though it's not calculated this way for SLA purposes, 99.9% availability implies no more than 43 minutes of downtime in a 30-day month.) The provider will typically credit 10% of the current monthly charges for uptime levels between 99% and 99.9%, and 25% for uptime levels below 99% (Google Cloud Storage credits up to 50% if uptime falls below 95%). Microsoft Azure Storage considers storage transactions failures if they exceed a maximum processing time (based on request type), while Amazon S3 and Google Cloud Storage rely on internally generated error codes to measure failed storage requests. Note that the burden is on you as the customer to request a service credit in a timely manner if a monthly uptime guarantee isn't met.

Also, carefully evaluate the SLAs to determine whether they satisfy your availability requirements for both data and workloads. If a single-region service isn't likely to meet your needs, it may make sense to pay the premium for a multi-region service, in which copies of data are dispersed across multiple geographies. This approach increases data availability, but it won't protect you from instances of data corruption or accidental deletions, which are simply propagated across regions as data is replicated.

With these guidelines and caveats in mind, you can better assess whether public cloud storage makes sense for your particular use cases, data and applications. If public cloud storage providers' service-level commitments and capabilities fall short of meeting your requirements, consider developing a private cloud or taking advantage of managed cloud services.

Though public cloud storage may not be an ideal fit for your production data and workloads, you may find it fits the bill for some of your less demanding use cases.

Companies move toward public cloud storage

Evaluate all variables in the cloud storage equation

Public, private or hybrid? What's the right cloud storage for you?

See the rest here:

Overcome problems with public cloud storage providers - TechTarget

Smartphones put a world of information, games, videos, and music at your fingertips. That is, until you run out of data. It only takes a few minutes of throttled, agonizingly slow speeds to realize how much you rely on that cellular connectionand how important it is to stay within your data allowance. The solution: Cut back on the amount of data your phone chews through. Adjusting your settings to reduce data usage will come in handy for those with limited data plans or travelers who plan to spend time out of network.

We've collected some tips for staying on the right side of your data boundaries. Whether you have an Android or an iPhone, there are two sets of options you need to bear in mind: Those in your phone's main operating system settings, and those in the individual apps you've installed.

Android gives you a detailed look at your overall data usagejust tap Data usage in the Settings app (if you're not using stock Android, you should see something similar). There are a few helpful tools here: You can obviously see your current data stats, but if you tap on the graph, you can also set a level at which Android displays an alert about your usage. Check your monthly plan and configure the limit accordingly.

Tap the Mobile data usage entry further down to get a more detailed look at the data you've been using, as well as a list of the apps that have been the worst offenders for eating up your allowancethis will come in handy when we configure individual app settings later on.

You can also tap Data Saver to turn on this useful feature, built into the latest versions of Android. It limits the data apps can use in the background, which stops most apps from downloading or uploading data (think background email syncing and so on) when they're not actually openunless you're connected to Wi-Fi.

To manually set whether apps can or can't use data in the background, tap on the individual app entries in the Mobile data usage list.

Meanwhile to stop apps from updating when you're not on a Wi-Fi connection (some of those updates can be pretty hefty), go to the Play Store app, open the Settings option from the menu, and tap Auto-update apps.

Finally, tap the menu button on the Data usage screen (the three vertical dots in the corner) and then pick Mobile networks. Here you can switch off data roaming, where data is downloaded on cellular networks other than your registered one (usually when you're traveling). This can help avoid unwanted bills when you get back from vacation.

Over on iOS there are some comparable settings you can work through to take control of your iPhone or iPad's data usage. Get to know these options first and then move on to individual app settings later if you need to.

Tap Cellular Data (labelled Mobile Data in some parts of the world) in Settings to get at all the key configuration options. This screen also lists how much data individual apps are using, just like the Android equivalent does.

To prevent an app from using data when not on Wi-Fi, just toggle its switch to off. To shut down mobile data completely, toggle the top switch. The Cellular Data Options submenu, meanwhile, lets you turn off data roaming when you're not connected to your primary network (like those times when you're out of the country).

The newest versions of iOS have a Wi-Fi Assist feature, where your device will fall back to cellular networks if Wi-Fi reception is poor. It's designed to speed up browsing on patchy Wi-Fi networks, but it can chew through a lot of data. To prevent that, switch this option off underneath the apps list.

As on Android, you can tell iOS not to download app updates over cellular networks: Choose iTunes & App Store from the Settings app, then toggle the Use Cellular Data option to off.

Another option is to prevent apps from uploading and downloading data in the background while they're not in use. Tap General then Background App Refresh from Settings, and you can disable this for individual apps or stop it completely.

There are plenty of ways to configure Android or iOS to use less data, but some individual apps will have data usage settings of their own. We can't cover every app out there, but these tricks should rein in some of the most data-hungry ones.

Open up the settings in the Facebook app, for example, and you can stop videos from autoplaying when you're not on Wi-Fi, cut down on the number of notifications you get, change the quality that photos and videos are uploaded at, and more. The settings menu layout varies between iOS and Android, but these options are easy to find.

Google Chrome for Android has a data saver tool all of its ownit preloads and compresses pages through Google's servers before sending a stripped-down version to your mobile. You can enable it from the main Settings menu inside the app.

Have a look at the apps on your own phone to see if any similar options are available, particularly for those apps that are appearing high up in your data usage tables. For example, think about music and podcast appsare they syncing playlists and downloading new content over cellular connections? The settings for many of these apps will let you restrict this activity so it only happens over Wi-Fi networks.

Preparation will also help you cut down on total data usage. We've already mentioned music playlists, which you can sync ahead of time while you're still on your home Wi-Fi, but you can do the same in Google Maps: Go to Offline areas from the main menu, and you'll be able to download parts of the map before leaving the house. This should save you from using as much data when you're on the road.

Finally, get connected to as many Wi-Fi spots as you can: at work, at your coffee shop, at your friends' houses (as long as they're not unsecured networks). Any time you're not relying on cellular networks alone, you can be saving on data.

Continued here:

Data limits are the worsthere's how to stay under yours - Popular Science

Truth be told, there is no shortage of network speed test apps, especially on Android. Theres the ever so used, and perhaps abused, Speedtest.net by Ookla and, more recently, Netflixs own Fast.com. Each of course advertises to be more truthful than the others, but OpenSignal thinks it can do one better. It has launched a new Meteor app for Android that not only gives you the tech details of your current connection speed but also tries to explain what those mean in practical use.

Speed test apps of all shapes and sizes usually simply spurt out MB/s and KB/s numbers but dont really say much beyond that. More importantly, they dont exactly explain what that means, in laymans terms, for the users app or browsing experience. OpenSignal promises to fill in that gap with Meteor by showing exactly how that great or poor connection will affect app performance.

For example, it will present users with a list of apps rating their performance depending on the current Internet connection, ranging from Poor to OK to Very Good to Awesome. Users can also drill down into each app to see exactly which features are being affected. For example, with a download speed of 4.5 Mbps (rated Very Good), playing 360p YouTube videos will be Awesome while 720p and 1080p are just OK. Uploading 720p or 1080p videos, however, will be Poor.

Meteor still does have the staples of a speed test app, like geeky Mbps figures, technical details, location history (if allowed), and, most importantly, a friendly monster mascot. It doesnt grade every Android app, mind, but has a long list that includes Chrome, Dropbox, Amazon, Facebook, Flipboard, Gmail, Google Maps, Instagram, Skype, Spotify Music, Street View, Twitter, Uber, Waze, WhatsApp, and YouTube. Its also open to suggestions for other apps.

Since 2010, OpenSignal has been publishing annual reports rating the quality and speed of mobile networks across the globe. It recently got involved in the rivalry between major US carriers when it put Verizon and T-Mobile on almost the same ranking, which, of course, neither company would agree to.

DOWNLOAD: Meteor by OpenSignal (Google Play Store)

Link:

Meteor is OpenSignal's own speed test app - SlashGear

moneytips.com , KSDK 9:35 AM. EST February 27, 2017

Was your Social Security claim denied by the Social Security Administration (SSA)? It is your right to appeal the decision, and now you have an even easier method of doing so. As of December 10, 2016, the SSA allows you to file an appeal online for both medical and non-medical issues to dispute adverse actions or denials of a claim. (Non-medical appeals cover issues such as disputes over Medicare premium rates and cases of overpayment.)

The online appeals process extends to recipients living outside the US. Prior to the online process, appeal options were limited and often impractical for those in other countries.

The SSA online appeal site walks you through the appeal process in a user-friendly fashion. The initial menu allows you to choose between medical decisions or non-medical decisions, as well as allowing you to resume a medical appeal that you had already started.

Before you begin the online appeal process, make sure that you have the necessary supporting documents (forms, medical reports, written statements, and legal documents) to process your appeal. Further information on required documents may be found on the SSA website.

Generally, supporting documents may be uploaded through the website, so make sure you have all of your documents in a suitable electronic form for uploading. However, SSA only accepts original or certified copies of some documents; those will need to be mailed into the SSA (or brought into the SSA office if you prefer but in that case why bother with an online appeal?).

SSA estimates that medical appeals should take from 40 to 60 minutes assuming a suitable Internet connection. Non-medical appeals should take less time, approximately 25 minutes.

The online site for non-medical appeals saves answers automatically as you proceed through the process, but you cannot exit the application and come back to complete it later. The medical appeal site also saves answers automatically, but it does allow you to take a break and return to an appeal that has been saved in progress.

The SSA will contact you if there are any questions or updates regarding your appeal. If you have a personal appointed representative for your SSA claim, make sure that his or her contact information is also included with your submitted information.

You can check the status of your appeal from the submissions page at any time. A simple click of a button will direct you to My Social Security, where you can log in to your personal page (or create one if you do not already have one established).

Keep in mind that the same time limits apply to online submissions as they do to other methods. Generally, you have sixty days from the date of receipt of the letter that informs you about the decision. The SSA assumes that you received the letter within five days of the date on the letter. If you received it later than five days beyond the letter date, keep that limitation in mind.

For any other questions regarding the general appeal process, refer to the Social Security Publication "Your Right To Question The Decision Made On Your Claim".

You still have the traditional options of appealing by phone or in person at your nearest Social Security Administration office, if you prefer. We hope you don't have to dispute a Social Security claim at all, but if you do, at least you have choices on the method to use.

Read our article on what you need to get the Social Security benefits you deserve to learn more about the four levels of appeal and the supporting documents you need to submit for your case to be re-evaluated.

This article was provided by our partners at moneytips.com.

To Read More From MoneyTips:

How Much Will Social Security Pay You?

Get A My Social Security Account

Is Everything On Your Credit Report Accurate? Check It Now For Free

Photo iStockphoto.com/shapecharge

( 2017 KSDK)

Read the original here:

How to file your social security appeal online - WZZM13.com

Was your Social Security claim denied by the Social Security Administration (SSA)? It is your right to appeal the decision, and now you have an even easier method of doing so. As of December 10, 2016, the SSA allows you to file an appeal online for both medical and non-medical issues to dispute adverse actions or denials of a claim. (Non-medical appeals cover issues such as disputes over Medicare premium rates and cases of overpayment.)

The online appeals process extends to recipients living outside the US. Prior to the online process, appeal options were limited and often impractical for those in other countries.

The SSA online appeal site walks you through the appeal process in a user-friendly fashion. The initial menu allows you to choose between medical decisions or non-medical decisions, as well as allowing you to resume a medical appeal that you had already started.

Before you begin the online appeal process, make sure that you have the necessary supporting documents (forms, medical reports, written statements, and legal documents) to process your appeal. Further information on required documents may be found on the SSA website.

Generally, supporting documents may be uploaded through the website, so make sure you have all of your documents in a suitable electronic form for uploading. However, SSA only accepts original or certified copies of some documents; those will need to be mailed into the SSA (or brought into the SSA office if you prefer but in that case why bother with an online appeal?).

SSA estimates that medical appeals should take from 40 to 60 minutes assuming a suitable Internet connection. Non-medical appeals should take less time, approximately 25 minutes.

The online site for non-medical appeals saves answers automatically as you proceed through the process, but you cannot exit the application and come back to complete it later. The medical appeal site also saves answers automatically, but it does allow you to take a break and return to an appeal that has been saved in progress.

The SSA will contact you if there are any questions or updates regarding your appeal. If you have a personal appointed representative for your SSA claim, make sure that his or her contact information is also included with your submitted information.

You can check the status of your appeal from the submissions page at any time. A simple click of a button will direct you to My Social Security, where you can log in to your personal page (or create one if you do not already have one established).

Keep in mind that the same time limits apply to online submissions as they do to other methods. Generally, you have sixty days from the date of receipt of the letter that informs you about the decision. The SSA assumes that you received the letter within five days of the date on the letter. If you received it later than five days beyond the letter date, keep that limitation in mind.

For any other questions regarding the general appeal process, refer to the Social Security Publication "Your Right To Question The Decision Made On Your Claim".

You still have the traditional options of appealing by phone or in person at your nearest Social Security Administration office, if you prefer. We hope you don't have to dispute a Social Security claim at all, but if you do, at least you have choices on the method to use.

Read our article on what you need to get the Social Security benefits you deserve to learn more about the four levels of appeal and the supporting documents you need to submit for your case to be re-evaluated.

Let the free MoneyTips Retirement Planner help you calculate when you can retire without jeopardizing your lifestyle.

This article was provided by our partners at moneytips.com. How Much Will Social Security Pay You? Get A My Social Security Account Is Everything On Your Credit Report Accurate? Check It Now For Free

See original here:

Appealing Social Security Decisions Online - CBN News

I'm a bit of a Canon fanboy from my time working at Best Buy and Circuit City, but when given the opportunity to review Nikon's latest DSLR, the D5600, I jumped at it.

While I actually own a Canon Rebel T5i, I was excited to learn what advances have been made in the years since. Although I love my camera, I don't always use it as often as I should due to occasional issues with transferring photos. It's what I filmed the video blogs on my YouTube channel on though, and I do love the quality I can get despite my noob status.

Of course the biggest upgrade from the D5500 is SnapBridge, which maintains a Bluetooth connection to an Android or iOS smartphone or tablet. NFC and WiFi connections are also possible (the latter is required to transfer photos to the smartphone). The idea intrigued me, though it's a bit buggier than I'd have liked.

Overall, the D5600 isa great camera, but I still found it easier to transfer photos through a direct cable connection. It's still a great start in the right direction, and I'm excited at the prospect of getting a hold of Canon's version.

The Nikon D5600 is a midrange DX-format camera with specs nearly identical to the D5500: a 24MP CMOS sensor,no optical low-pass filter (OLPF) and the brand's latest EXPEED 4 processor. It has an ISO range of 100-25600, 5 fps burst shooting, and advanced depth perception usinga 39-point auto-focus system, and can also record 1080p HD video at 60 fps.

Customization options run deep down to the point you can specify when sensor cleaning should take place (at startup, shutdown, both, or neither), and Nikon's Stepping Motor provides a smooth and nearly silent autofocus.

Photo Quality and SnapBridge

If you've spent any time on my blog (or with me in real life), you're aware I'm pretty lazy. It leaks into my work, and I'll often take a minimalist approach to things. It wasn't until late in 2015 that I was in the financial position to even buy a camera - until then my blog was built entirely from smartphone pics.

Having the D5600 available, I made a conscious effort to integrate it into my routine and try to use it for photo shoots. Here are a few pics I took on it from my recent run of product reviews. Keep in mind the pics are highly compressed before uploading on my website.

Now aside from the fact I'm not the greatest photographer, I did learn a few things while using the D5600 this month. One thing I already understood is better quality photos come with larger file sizes, so I was intrigued at how well the photos would transfer to my phone and how quickly said phone would fill up and freeze on me.

It turns out SnapBridge (which itself takes up less than 30MB) already compresses the files when transferring to your phone, although these settings can be adjusted to transfer the raw file. This made it easy to upgrade my Instagram images with professional-looking photos (although once I send this thing back to Nikon, I'm going back to the old way of doing things).

Initially setting up SnapBridge was easy enough, but the problem I had the first dozen times I tried to connect and download photos was a popup to login to the WiFi network on my Samsung Galaxy. This made it impossible to actually transfer the files manually (although it was able to transfer a handful of photos automatically the first night I used it).

I was also unable to pair the devices using NFC (which the Galaxy S7 is capable of, and I've used for a variety of wireless speakers and headphones so I know works on my specific phone). A cloud storage option (called ImageSpace) is available, but I knew the phone was a loaner and didn't implement it to avoid being spammed.

When it did work, SnapBridge was very handy to have, but I spent so much time trying to coax it to work that I soon found myself just plugging the USB cable into my desktop, where the photos would ultimately need to go for some adjustments and uploading onto my blog anyway. A wireless connection to my laptop/desktop would've been much more useful in the long run.

The feature that really made good use of the WiFi connection is another app called WirelessMobileUtility that lets you use your smartphone as a remote. I often find myself needing a remote and having to make do with other ways (i.e. turning the camera on manually, positioning myself, then trimming that off the beginning). Like SnapBridge, WirelessMobileUtility was great...when I could convince my phone to stay connected.

Although buggy, the few glimpses I got into a working connection between my phone and camera were enough to see how useful it could be.

I wasn't exactly happy withmenu navigation however.Taking a video on my Canon is a one-button affair, whereas on this Nikon D5600, I found myself jumping through hoops figuring out how to do it. With only a touchscreen to navigate through some options, I would've hoped for a better experience touching the screen, but far too often I took a pic when I was trying to select an option.

Nikon's D5600 has a lot of good things going for it - greatsensors and lenses, customization options, and wireless connectivity. However, it takes two separate apps to take full advantage of the WiFi connectivity, and both were plagued with connectivity issues.

Still a great camera, I'd expect more for $800, which is about what I spent on my Canon that included a case, SD cards, tripod, and a variety of lenses/filters. I don't know that I'd trade all that in for a spotty Internet connection.

With a fixed app, refreshed approach to menu navigation, lower price point, and 4K video, Nikon would have a hit on its hands. For now, we'll make due with what we have.

View post:

Nikon D5600 Review: Hoping to Make Photo Transfers a Snap - Huffington Post

If you've spied a number of shell-backed critters in recent days, best let NHM know via a photograph or two.

May flowers being successfully summoned by April showers is one of the most tried-and-truest of the old-timey sayings.

But where's that perfect phrase that summarizes how soggy February weather can invite bunches of sidewalk-crawly, garden-dwelling snails and slugs?

Some snappy writer needs to get to work on that saying, like, pronto. Because many Southern Californians have encountered a host of gastropods during all of these rainy January and February days of late.

Whether or not you call the shell-rocking wet-weather denizens of your yard "snails" or "gastropods" or some adorable pet name you invented, know this: The Natural History Museum wants to know about your snail- and slug-based sightings.

So we'll crawl no more, at a snail's pace, toward what this all means: SnailBlitz 2017! has begun. Your part, as a curious-about-the-world citizen scientist? Snap photos of your local snails and slugs and share them, either by emailing slime@nhm.org or uploading your pics at iNaturalist.

Tagging them on social media is cool, too. Just use the hashtag #SnailBlitz. "The goal is to reach 1,000 images by midnight on March 31!" says the Exposition Park science museum.

This isn't being done simply to cute-ify social media with snaps of wee slugs. Rather, the museum says that these photos help "...to accelarate our efforts to catalogue the biological diversity of terrestrial gastropods (land snails and slugs) around Southern California."

Also? There shall be prizes for some of the top photographs in different categories, including "Best snail/slug meme."

Best snail/slug meme. Welcome to 2017.

The Grand Prize is almost as awesome as traveling with your own personal shell: Lunch with Jann Vendetti, NHMLA Curator of Malacology, as well as one free annual family membership to the museum. (We mean, that's all extremely awesome, but, come on: Nothing beats your own personal back shell.)

There are other NHMLA-cool prizes, too.

Some "rare snails" were spotted by camera-wielding SoCalers in 2016, do note, and other nifty finds, too. Could you contribute the next photo that excites the snailologists of the world?

Okay, malacologist is the more accurate term, granted. But, still. You might just have a rare snail happily sliming about under your hydrangea bush and not even be aware.

Time to celebrate that lil' guy, and all of our local gastropods, by assuming the important role of citizen scientist.

Details? Slime this way, as slowly as you like, but keep in mind that the deadline for photos is March 31.

Published at 12:36 PM PST on Feb 21, 2017 | Updated at 12:46 PM PST on Feb 21, 2017

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SnailBlitz 2017: Citizen Scientists Wanted - NBC Southern California

You know that PewDiePie guy youve been hearing about lately? I have a funny story about him.

I made this YouTube video back in 2012, wherein a bunch of us mocked PewDiePie using a satirical version of The Fine Bros. React videos. I made the centerpiece the fact that, back then, PewDiePie tended to use the word rape quite a bit.

Please note, as many get wrong, I dont think he was making rape jokes at all; it was just yelling the word more than anything. The video blew up a little and prompted him to make a specific apology video to his viewers.

PewDiePie has since actually turned over a new leaf. He had a video called Old vs. New PewDiePie in which he watched his old content and appeared to be a little surprised at his original self. In fact, he contacted me and we had a very cool email exchange, in which he said that my video led to him thinking more about the things he said and re-examine the kind of jokes he was making.

Wow! My trolly little video where I made trouble for a really big YouTuber although not quite the biggest, back then had inadvertently caused some self-reflection and ultimately some good in the world. Not a bad deal!

Well, thats my story. It was a little short for a Polygon article, but alls well that ends well and there has never been, nor will there ever be, any new developments there. Im positive of this fact. Not even gonna Google it.

Now to read my favorite newspaper, The Wall Street Journal ...

Well, instead of just deleting the previous few paragraphs, what say we just go ahead and write a whole article about this?

I go by slowbeef, and Ive been doing Lets Plays and related content since about 2007. Im certainly not rich off of, or successful from my videos, but I run in those circles because Ive been doing it for so long in addition to my day job. Some people even consider me a progenitor of it. I talk to a lot of the A-Listers the people whose names you know rather often and I have some insight into that world. I have one foot in the door, and see a lot of what goes on behind the scenes.

PewDiePie isnt remotely the only e-celebrity to have this sort of scandal, though most controversies tend to be a bit smaller in scope.

Did you ever hear about the streamer who got drunk and told her fans that kids getting cancer was just natural selection? Or the two YouTubers who conveniently forgot to tell their fans they were getting paid for their Ryse gameplay? Or that guy who got caught masturbating on camera during his pre-show? This stuff happens with regularity.

Allow me to extrapolate on a meme those kids today are using: Dude, you had one job. And it looked like a really easy one. Lets Players, streamers or content creators, whatever you like, get to play video games and make jokes while doing so. It seems like a dream gig, so why even risk these sort of gaffes? Why do people risk their jobs for jokes or mistakes that seem easy to avoid?

Well, its complicated. But there are three reasons this keeps happening.

Lets play (ha) a game you cant win. In the comments below, tell me how to get your videos featured, get your subscribers to watch videos or get your related videos in the related videos sidebar as opposed to some other person on YouTube.

Im not joking, go down and do this right now. The rest of the story will be here when you get back.

I can bet that some of you got it right, but the problem is that your answer will become wrong in the next month or so. Content producers get frustrated with the system because the rules keep changing; it always seems like the site is keen to promote someone else, and it can feel impossible to keep up.

For example: subscriber burn, which is a nefarious little side effect of not uploading a new video for a couple of weeks. The term was popularized by the Game Theory channel in 2014; your subscribers stop getting notified of your videos if they stop watching or you stop uploading. Going on vacation? Lets hope you got a backlog, because youll see a big drop in views if you take a week or two off. And they might not come back.

Heres another fun one. If you manage your YouTube settings as a viewer, youll see the selected default option is occasionally notify me of videos and activities from my subscriptions. Occasionally. A lot of viewers dont know this, but YouTube doesnt default to always showing you new videos from their favorite channels.

Youll frequently see uploaders complain that users suddenly get unsubscribed, certain videos no longer appear, or you have to explicitly check a whole new notification setting for some reason. As of this writing, theres a little bell icon next to the subscribe button. The button itself isnt enough to see videos of people to subscribe to, you need to hit the bell and tell YouTube to always send you notifications, the notifications they default you to only sometimes getting.

If this doesnt make much sense to you, you see what we deal with. Its constantly changing. Now, imagine your business hinges on all these random changes.

Most uploaders begin to believe they have to flood the site with videos for a chance one goes viral or to reach subscribers who arent notified or to make up for losing them. And the numbers do go up when you start to do that, leaving many to believe its the only reliable way to keep relevant.

You need ad revenue if you want to make a living talking over video games, which means views and that means uploads. Or at the very least, you need brand deals which means you need clout, which means you need subscribers, which means views, which again means uploads. Most pros create at least one video a day, and its a punishing schedule. Some create as many as three videos a day.

Protip: You can oversaturate your audience, so dont read this as, its good to upload 10 videos a day.

None of this is good for your mental health if you want to do this job or even come up with a standard workflow, which creates the next big problem.

Theres an apparent double standard, right? Comedians tell AIDS jokes, Holocaust jokes, 9/11 jokes and much more. When a popular YouTuber does it, its suddenly being reported by the media (and, cough, other YouTubers). Didnt George Carlin once say no topic is off limits?

Yeah. But like most comedians, he also spent a lot of his time writing those jokes, refining them, trying them in smaller clubs before his big venues, commiserating with his peers, etc. A secret of successful comedians is you dont just spit out jokes that come to you. You develop bits, callbacks, sets, etc. There are legit reasons that Louis CK, Sarah Silverman, and Jim Jefferies get away with questionable jokes and JohnnySephiroth315 doesnt.

Many YouTubers do some of this work, mind, but they also have to prep footage, record it, process it, do editing, transcode it, upload it, schedule it... there are many steps to take before the audience sees the content. And this has to happen, for most, at least once a day. On a platform that changes its rules on the fly, all the time.

Come on, you say. How much work can it be to make a ten-minute video? Try it. Speak about a topic you care about, and then edit out all the pauses and awkward moments but keep your flow. Aim for five minutes, if you like. If you want it to look good, you might have had to do a couple of takes, re-read your outline (you wrote one, right?), mull over editing decisions and make sure the sound is just as good as the video.

Its different for everyone, but there is no process in which you can do this well that doesnt eat up a lot of time and energy. Its a grueling job, especially when positivity is so often tied to success.

There isnt much time to mull over a joke, consult with colleagues, rewrite it, see how smaller audiences take it, and then tailor accordingly. Again, many of us want to have new content every day. The chance youre going to misread your audience and be punished for it goes up with every video you release in this environment. Watch the video below, and imagine having to do this for every joke, on every video for every day of your life.

PewDiePies now infamous sketch? Bit? You know, where he pays a couple of Indian kids on Fiverr ... eh, Im sure youve heard of it. There really is a joke there somewhere at Fiverrs expense, and I think thats what he was going for.

The parts are there, loosely, if you cock your head and squint a bit. Theres an air of exploitation (on Fiverrs part, but also often claimed to be on PewDiePies part) but it was a rush job. Seinfeld, in contrast, maps out goofy jokes about Pop Tarts down to the syllable.

PewDiePie ends up looking like the villain because he uses the old South Park haha anti-Semitism! routine, but the whole joke is malformed. People are quick to dismiss it as merely an edgy throwaway when it couldve been meant as a commentary on paid online services. But who can blame them? As it stands, the joke is really hard to read. It doesnt land cleanly at all.

You can actually imagine, if you like, PewDiePie doing a stand-up set and having comedian friends tell him at the bar that man, youve been leaning on the Nazi stuff a bit lately. Or an audience groaning at a smaller venue, which signals to him its time to do a rewrite. Thats why there are workshops, writing sessions and smaller venues and drinks with fellow comedians. You have to fail often when the stakes are low to learn how to get the big wins. Its a process.

Online personalities cant really know that theyve lost the goodwill of the audience, or that the material will gain mainstream anger if theyre famous, until its too late. Theyre already forming tomorrows video without even seeing the storm thats coming.

Even worse is that there is this air of everyone gets sooo offended and, while thats a whole different conversation, some people use the reverse-outrage to mask the fact that they fucked up a joke and have to pay a price. Or they blame others for pointing it out.

Its one of the cons of being an entertainer. But it all adds up to a firestorm thats always a spark away, no matter where you fall on the ultimate outcome. Come to think of it where was Disney and Maker and YouTube in all this? What the hell are they doing to manage their most popular asset?

One time, a much more successful friend, someone with over 500,000 subscribers, was going to be interviewed by a major television network. He spoke with me about it beforehand.

I warned him off the situation; it sounded like he was going to be sandbagged. He was adamant about the opportunity, and I turned out to be wrong. It also turned out I was one of the only people who were trying to offer an opinion on it.

This guy had tons of views and made a bunch of money; didnt anyone at his Multi-Channel Network, or MCN, know or care that he was gonna do this interview? Did they offer advice or prep him for challenging questions? Was there a conversation about avoiding sound bites that can be taken out of context?

Nope.

MCNs are agencies that partner with you, Maker Studios was PewDiePies MCN, and if youre someone big enough to be worth their time youll get brand deals and opportunities to work with others and increase your audience and revenue. They handle a lot of the backend stuff that most people dont think about when it comes to big entertainers.

The chance youre going to misread your audience and be punished for it goes up with every video you release in this environment

But if someone asks why they should give an MCN 10 percent of their revenue and theyre not a managed partner that means youre in a special relationship because youre big enough for them to really care there may not be much of an answer.

My MCN is typically pretty nice and in touch, but Im not managed and if I decide to do an interview or write this article a PR person wont notice or care. Im completely on my own when it comes to thinking about how my audience views me, for better or worse. I dont have a manager to call for advice, guidance or media training.

Surprisingly, this is also true of some of the biggest names in the business. I dont want to make it sound like MCNs do nothing, they are valuable business partners that make it easier to pay the bills, but they definitely dont curate your content. They dont tell their big talent to lay off the political posting, or dial it back on the hard stuff for a bit. Its all business, no grooming or advice.

I dont think this is due to apathy or greed. Im not sure they know how to handle these things either. I mean, even if youve worked in Hollywood or television, here comes a bunch of kids who get tons of ad revenue for screaming over video games. And heres another batch who pantomime being cartoonishly scared of the games. And heres a channel that comments on their commentary! Its baffling to people who dont like or understand it, so I think most business people dont want to touch the golden goose for fear itll stop laying eggs. They just know people are paying attention, and thats worth money.

PewDiePie is a bit anomalous among even the A-Listers, and consider this: part of his contract was that he retained full editorial control (in retrospect: maybe not a win), and Disney agreed to those terms.

Disney.

Jesus, do these italics slant any farther over? Disney! There is almost no other company more protective of its intellectual property or image, and they let a guy in his twenties with one of the largest audiences in the world say and do whatever he wanted under their umbrella. If you combine that with a contract that likely gave Disney a lot of easy ways to drop him if things went south, and you have a creator who is in a bad situation without any guidance from people who can help manage the situation.

Thats huge, and its also telling. It feels like Disney was thinking, Were not exactly sure what you do, or how it makes money, but it does, so lets partner and leave shit alone and hope it keeps making us money. But when you get in trouble, well, bye.

I think most business people dont want to touch the golden goose for fear itll stop laying eggs

Theres always someone else with a funny screen name and a million subscribers who can reach the same audience. But youd think this whole situation couldve been avoided if there were somebody checking in when the first few issues with the content begun. This controversy didnt happen all at once, there were plenty of chances for someone to step in and try to cool things down or provide help or advice when the media got involved.

Yes, real celebrities do mess up. But there are publicists and agencies that try to prevent this from happening and then help with damage control. YouTubers start their careers doing everything solo, get into the Ill take care of it all myself mentality, and MCNs dont seem super equipped to deal with the downsides to some of that.

So you end up with very famous and very rich (and often, very young) personalities with no one to help manage genuine crises. Which means the bad decisions continue.

On the surface, humor seems easy and I think people make the mistake of thinking it just comes naturally. People think Lets Play is just I get paid to play video games and talk?!

But creativity takes time and reflection and refinement and work. Content creators are in this system where theyre incentivized to pump it out faster and faster, which means a lot of jokes come out half-baked and rushed. Short-term controversies cause everyone to rush to make their own reaction video, which is the YouTube version of the hot take, or thinkpiece.

Eager to compete with each other, you get misleading titles and custom thumbnails its kinda clickbaity, really. Hell, even PewDiePie uploads daily despite the fact that hes on top and every publication in the world wont stop telling me how much he makes.

I dont think this system will be improved any time soon, but I would like to end on a positive note. If there is someone whos making the stuff you enjoy (and maybe that still is PewDiePie), find ways to contribute. If they have alternate payment systems like merchandise or Patreon, consider it so they dont have to play the ad revenue works in volume game. Support the people you like and boost their signal. Get them out of the realm where they need to make a video a day.

YouTube has a speed and quantity problem, and it affects all aspects of the business. If you are a content creator, take a little time with controversial stuff. It really is fun to make things, but irreverent, boundary-breaking stuff is high-risk/high-reward. Dont just spit it out: run things by friends and people not in the business. Test the tone before you go live. Sleep on it. That way, you too can be a successful celebrity with a long, stalwart career like Mel Gibson or Michael Richards, only with video games involved, somehow.

Sorry to end this early, but I have a video to upload. Later!

Michael Sawyer goes by the alias "slowbeef" and has been doing Let's Plays since 2005, despite being incredibly unsuccessful at them. He is a self-described video game humorist and is officially way too old to being doing that. You can find him on Twitter, Twitch or YouTube.

See the rest here:

The three reasons YouTubers keep imploding, from a YouTuber - Polygon

Ryan Vayo couldnt say no.

Ryan Vayo couldnt say no.

The beautiful, gentlepitbull was jittery and scared.

Shed been shuttled from one shelter to another and she needed a home.

Badly.

Hazel found her home with Vayo, and her years suffering neglect and cruelty were finally over.

Her bowed legs and hacked ears speak of a horrific past, but Hazel bears no other remnants of it. She bows her head in the sun and slumps gratefully to the ground next to Vayo, closing her eyes with a sigh as she welcomes the attention of the visitor with a gentle nudge.

Vayo is on a mission to make this scenario happen everywhere dogs and cats rescued from inhumanity by humans who love them. Its all about finding the right match the pet that fits the profile.

Thats what MycomPETibility.com is all about.

The company, which began under a different name, was launched a year ago with tremendous results. Today, MycomPETibility.com has gone from a Southeastern Massachusetts reach to a nationwide one.

Carefully vetted animal shelters post their pets for adoption on the site.

As of today we have 350 registered shelters, and the bank of shelters weve been marketing to on the eastern seaboard covers 6,000, Vayo said. As of tomorrow, were adding 4,000 to that. Within two or three weeks the number of registered shelters will be over 500. We are shooting to have 1,000 registered during the first half of 2017.

MycomPetibility has already vetted 10,000 shelters and even has a user name for each one. All that needs to happen is that some of these need to begin posting pets.

In an effort to make things easier, we went through a research base and pre-approved 10,000 nationwide, he said. If youre pre-approved, you already have a user name, you just need to start uploading your animals.

Vayo could not contain his excitement Monday as he announced the good news the nationwide reach will mean more and more shelter pets will find loving homes, and that makes him feel wonderful.

What got him on this crusade wasnt just his understanding of the dire need these beautiful animals have for love and a roof; it was the return rate at shelters.

One of the saddest scenarios hes observed is seeing a soulful and kind dog returned to a shelter because it just wasnt the right fit for the prospective owner. Vayo knew he could solve this problem.

He founded MycomPETibility.com, which employs an algorithm that uses a combination of statistical analysis of shelter animals as well as weighted personality trait correlations generated by a team of trainers and behaviorists. Members fill out questionnaires, noting the breed, size restrictions, cost and activity level theyre looking for. That includes those all-important questions: Is the dog or cat good around children, or other dogs and cats?

While some applicants want a specific breed, Vayo said some of the best matches only involve the qualities of the dog or cat. Keeping an open mind can lead to a match made in heaven, he said.

These are dogs and cats that have been abandoned, he said, and they are begging for love and a good home. The sadness and longing in their eyes tell the story of how anyone with a heart and a roof can save a life and bring so much joy to their own.

Many may know Vayo as the son of Rick Vayo of MEGRYCO, the company that owns the 36-unit Cranberry Court apartment complex at 12-18 Tremont St. in Kingston and transformed the former Plymouth Armory into an upscale condominium complex, and who is also involved in similar projects. The Vayos are all outspoken against animal cruelty, and Ryan said he grew up with rescue pets he adored.

Vayos company also has a nonprofit branch, The ComPETibility Fund, which raises money for philanthropic causes that benefit animals, like sponsoring an ex-military service dog.

For Vayo, every single dog and cat deserves to be adored and cherished; no one should be left out in the cold, or languishing at an animal shelter.

For more information, visit MycomPETibility.com. The site also offers training and care resources as well as information on how anyone can join him in the crusade, from helping a feral cat in the neighborhood to volunteering.

Adopt, dont shop, Vayo said.

Follow Emily Clark on Twitter @emilyOCM.

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PLYMOUTH BUSINESS EXPANSION: MycomPETibility.com goes nationwide - Wicked Local Kingston

Yes, after pulling herself out of her 1950s rutas a swimsuit model to become everything from a doctor, lawyer, computer scientist, astronaut and even the president of the United States, Barbie has now become a 3D-animatedhologram that canserve up the weather on command.

As first reported in Wired, The Hello Barbie Hologram debuted at the New York Toy Fair this week. And like the original Hello Barbie doll, her laser-beamed character combines motion-capture animation with peppy, Amazon Echo-like answers to your childs questions.

Need an alarm? Hello Barbie. Want a nightlight? Hello Barbie. Want to remind your child to brush their teeth? Hello Barbie Hologram does that, too.Just turn her on with the wake phrase Hello Barbie to get her to do your bidding.

In other words, the supposed symbol for girls who can do anything really can become anything, including a personified bot.

Isnt that a bitsexist? Some may balk at the suggestion a holographic female doll botserving up answers is somehow creating a gender imbalance. After all, you may say, its just a doll combined with some cool technology. But, from what we know so far, theres no hologram Ken version and robots and artificial intelligence programs are often designated as female, particularly if they fulfill a subservient role. Helping you mind your schedule and answering questions about the weather fall neatly into that category.

It also undermines Barbie as a real person.Shes a hologram assistant.

Youd think Mattel would be mindful here of how the latest version of Barbie may come across to impressionable young girls, given its many other missteps including and especially in its foray into tech. Wevewritten before about Barbies foibles as a hilariously bad computer engineer who seemed to break everything she touched and didnt know how to code.

Barbie has also been criticized for maintaining unrealistic bodily proportions and putting a heavy emphasis on her appearance throughout the years. Some might say the Hello Barbie Hologram contributes in this regard, as well, by allowing anyone to change the look of the hologram by voice command.

Mattel has tried to counter some of its past criticisms with its Imagine the Possibilities advertising campaign last year, which shows a bunch of little girls doing grown ups jobs. The final caption of the advertisement reads,Whena girl plays with Barbie, she imagineseverything she can become.

Tough to say whata Barbie hologram would help a little girl imagine becoming, but hopefully it does not further engender the stereotype that women are meant to be assistants to everyone else. Mattel may want to consider adding a Ken doll hologram or letting little girls learn how to program skills into the hologram in the future.

Theres also the question of privacy and security. Amazon Echo is always listening and, as it says in its FAQ, recordsa fraction of a second before you say the wake word Alexa. Is Barbie now doing the same, right in your childs bedroom? Mattel insists that, unlike Amazon, Barbie is not recording and uploading conversations to its servers. It also says Hello Barbie is heavily encrypted, meeting the Federal Trade Commissions requirements as outlined in the Childrens Online Privacy Protection Rule.

Hello Barbie Hologram is just a prototype for now, and its not clear when it might be available for consumers. We also dont know the cost of the doll yet, but it will likely fall on the pricier end, as these newer tech-focused toys tend to do. But, according to Mattel, it will likely be less than $300 when the hologram makes her debut.

View original post here:

Barbie becomes a hologram version of herself - TechCrunch

Signing with a publisher is the ultimate fairytale for every new writer. We slave away like modern-day Cinderellas on our manuscripts, not entirely sure of what our happy-ever-after will entail, but still we long for the day when we can squeeze our toes into that glass slipper.

However, a recent article by Donal Ryan on the harsh realities of being a published writer in Ireland has put paid to the fairytale notion of big advances and handsome royalties. Ryan revealed that for the first contract he signed he earned a sobering 40c per book, which left a lot of people asking, where does the rest of the cover price go?

Most people outside of the industry assume that once you have a contract and your book is in the shop window, youre on the pigs back, but this couldnt be further from the truth. Traditional publishing is a bit like fight club nobody really knows what goes on because nobody talks about it. So for new writers, it can be a bit of a blow to discover the truth.

In an Irish Times article, Ruth Hegarty, managing editor at the Royal Irish Academy and president of Publishing Ireland, stated that if you made between 1,000-2,000 a year, you were doing well. A survey of author earnings in Ireland also revealed that a quarter of authors earned just 500.

Honestly, if that had been my experience with my first book, I think I would have given up then and there; which makes me wonder how many other authors have walked away from writing? I would have seen it as a failure, but thats only because I had no idea what the average sales figures were.

When I began submitting my debut novel back in 2013, while quietly humming Some day my prince will come, my expectations of the publishing contract were embarrassingly Cinderella-like. I may not have been expecting a gilded carriage, but I assumed that they would take care of everything and more importantly, take care of me. This is why I am so glad that I didnt get that publishing deal, because I would have naively left everything in the hands of the publisher.

Becoming a self-published author has forced me to take sole responsibility of my writing career by learning everything I could about this industry from the ground up. If you want to be an author, you have to focus on the long game and Im not sure that traditional publishing can give authors that kind of luxury anymore.

Its clear that publishing houses are under pressure and are limiting their budgets for editorial and marketing. Authors are now required to do most of their own promotion, just like self-published authors have always done. Publishers save their money for their top 1 per cent of authors and there is little left in the kitty for newcomers.

There is still a lot of snobbery around self-publishing and while there are those who still view it as the poor relation, statistics show that the popularity of indie books is on the rise. A new report from Enders Analysis found that 40 of the 100 top-selling ebooks on Amazon US in March 2016 were self-published.

While self-publishing also has its fairytale stories, dont be fooled into thinking this is an easy route to fame and fortune. Contrary to popular belief, there is a lot more to self-publishing than merely uploading your book and hitting publish. Successful authors invest heavily in their books; hiring freelance editors, cover designers and proofreaders, just like a regular publisher. Along with creative freedom comes the responsibility of setting your sales price, garnering reviews, running promotions and building an author platform. Most successful self-publishers are professional authors who take their careers very seriously. Readers are exceptionally discerning and can separate the amateurs from the professional authors very quickly.

The publishing world is in flux. More and more, we are seeing traditionally published authors moving into self-publishing. Polly Courtney, author of Feral Youth, decided to ditch Harper Collins because of what she felt was their chick-lit marketing approach to her books. Claire Cook, author of Must Love Dogs, left her publisher and her agent once she realised she could earn more through self-publishing: 70 per cent royalties on ebook sales compared to the standard 25 per cent a traditional author receives is hard to ignore.

Conversely, many self-published authors have been picked up by traditional publishers after achieving success themselves. Names like Hugh Howey, author of the Silo series, and Andy Weir, author of The Martian, come to mind. If these names are not familiar to you, its largely due to the fact that indie titles receive little or no coverage in traditional media. This, despite the fact that indie authors sell copies in the millions online and enjoy a robust social media following. Recognition and validation from the traditional literary community is rare and as a self-published author in Ireland, I am at best ignored and at worst, not taken seriously.

There has always been a debate over whether authors are better off self-publishing or going the traditional route. However, publishing doesnt need to be an either/or decision anymore. We have now entered the age of the hybrid author; someone who is published both traditionally and self-published. Its clear that authors can earn far more lucrative royalties through self-publishing, but the exposure and distribution of print books that comes with a mainstream publishing deal drives your brand as an author. One feeds the other and not only that; it places you in a much better position to negotiate with publishers if you already have a good author platform.

Hybrid authors have the best of both worlds and to be honest, Im surprised that more Irish authors arent taking this route. Some books are more suited to self-publishing than others (as are authors) but at the very least, authors have the choice to pursue a more tailored approach to getting their book out there. Self-publishing has opened the door for a new kind of publisher/author relationship. American bestselling indie author Shannon Mayer recently signed a deal with Skyhorse Publishing that has allowed her to retain her ebook rights, while signing the print rights over to them. As she said herself in a recent podcast, its the holy grail of deals for authors.

I know all of this seems light years away from the world of Irish publishing, and while these kinds of deals might be the exception (Hugh Howey brokered a similar deal with Simon & Schuster) publishers need to start thinking outside of the box. This new kind of partnership is the way forward in my view, allowing publisher to collaborate with authors, rather than feeling as though you are handing over complete control of your work.

Traditional publishing is positively glacial in its approach to change. Digital publishing is a fast-paced environment and Amazon has responded to that. They have even created their own imprints for agented authors, showing that they can evolve and respond to the market. I believe its time for traditional publishers to do the same and put the author at the centre of the industry. Authors need a fair return for their work and it just doesnt seem right to me that they are at the bottom of the pecking order when it comes to earnings. And yet, that is how the publishing industry is structured. As an author, you are advised to submit primarily to literary agents, as most of the bigger publishers will not accept unsolicited material. However, landing an agent also means parting with another 15 per cent of your earnings, so even though you are the one who has written the book, everyone else seems to be benefiting. But thats how it works; the odds are skewed in their favour and as an author you just have to be glad you got published at all.

Being an author in Ireland seems to be more of a Grimm fairytale than a Cinderella story, but self-publishing has offered writers an alternative ending. While there are success stories, like newcomer Adam Croft who managed to pay off his mortgage in 20 weeks when sales of his crime series went a bit mad as he put it in a recent interview, most self-published authors have more modest sales. But at least they are no longer dependent on the gatekeepers or wondering how much longer their manuscript will wallow in the slush pile. Self-publishing has swung the pendulum back in favour of the author and for me that is a fairytale ending.

Evie Gaughan is a Galway author and her debut novel, The Heirloom, is set in her hometown. Her second novel, The Mysterious Bakery On Rue De Paris is not, but both are available on Amazon and Kennys Bookshop eviegaughan.wordpress.com

Excerpt from:

'Being an Irish author is more of a Grimm fairytale than a Cinderella story' - Irish Times

MEDIA RELEASE

Its time to get tech-savvy with The Mind Lab by Unitec!

Auckland, New Zealand 16 February 2017: Are you a parent or grandparent struggling to keep up with your kids when it comes to technology, or maybe an education professional looking to test out technologies set to transform the classroom?

If the answer is yes, then The Mind Lab by Unitecs new Tech Toolbox is for you.

The Mind Lab is expanding in 2017 by introducing a new Auckland-based programme designed with parents, grandparents, early childhood educators and friends of The Mind Lab in mind.

Tech Toolbox, which launches in Auckland on 22 February, is a 10-week course that has been specifically created to help adults who dont want to be left behind by technological advancements or their tech-savvy kids!

Fee McLeod, General Manager, The Mind Lab by Unitec says the programme is an exciting opportunity for adults from all walks of life to show millennials they can keep up with 21st century technologies.

The hands-on programme will immerse attendees in the digital and new creative technologies that are soon to shape our world, she says.

Each week provides the opportunity to master a different creative technology, including building a robot, website, electronic car, and creating, editing and uploading videos.

By the end of the programme, participants may even be able to teach millennials a thing or two!

No experience is necessary for the programme, and attendees are welcome to bring a friend, colleague, family member or teen over the age of 13 each week for free.

Tech Toolbox will join The Mind Lab by Unitecs other tech education programmes, including school visits, holiday programmes, and teacher professional development through a postgraduate programme.

By learning key skills such as problem solving and collaboration, and participating in the sharing of knowledge and experience, attendees will leave with a broad, practical knowledge of what the future holds, says Fee.

Damon Kahi, National Technologist at The Mind Lab by Unitec, says that technology is progressing at such a rapid rate that the saying blink and you miss it has never been more true.

Tech Toolbox is an amazing opportunity for those that have blinked and missed out on the tech evolution. The course gives them the chance to explore, discover, and learn about new technology that is becoming part of our everyday lives, he says.

The Mind Lab by Unitec has become the largest education facility in New Zealand in three years of operation. It has four multi-disciplinary, specialist labs in Auckland, Wellington, Gisborne and Christchurch. These labs offer integrated workshops across a broad spectrum of creative and scientific technologies including; coding, 3D modelling and printing, robotics, game development, electronics, film effects and animation.

Over the next five years The Mind Lab has the goal of teaching 10,000 teachers and over 180,000 school students.

The Mind Lab by Unitec's Tech Toolbox is a new 10-week programme designed with parents, grandparents, early childhood educators and friends of The Mind Lab by Unitec in mind. It offers a hands-on experience with the latest creative technologies to keep up with todays tech-savvy millennials. Attendees can bring a friend over the age of 13 each week for free. The cost of the programme is $850 + GST for 10 weeks. The first intake will be in February 2017, with subsequent intakes in May, July, and October.

To find out more visit http://www.themindlab.com/tech-toolbox or watch a video here

ENDS

Scoop Media

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It's time to get tech-savvy with The Mind Lab by Unitec! - Scoop.co.nz

Heard of blogging, how about vlogging?

There are the obvious political reasons and some forward fake news videos to reinforce their own biases, but do you realize the money that is being made by these viral posts that get everyone in a frenzy? How? Why, glad you asked.

You did didn't you? 🙂

The first one to benefit is the outlet that enables the video maker to post their creation. They sell ads on those pages, improve their traffic reports and thereby enhance their ability to sell more adds. Some create their own site and put adds on their site as well as affiliate links. (Links that pay for the traffic they send to someone else.)

Then there are those who link the video or pass it along on their social networking site (think FaceBook). Some of those benefit directly but most probably only benefit by the increase in traffic to and from their sites or again, to reinforce their own beliefs.

But if you are not necessarily politically bent, why would you want to produce and post a video on YoutTube? Some might just enjoy making and producing help videos or travel videos but if you start putting a bunch out, you probably have something a bit more lucrative in mind..

When you get to a certain number of views, referrals, etc. YouTube will consider adding you to the contributors that THEY pay for uploading videos. There are MILLIONAIRES out there who have done just that. Sound easy? Doing them at your pace could be somewhat easy, but to make big money, you have to produce hundreds if not thousands AND you have to get views.

So why make outrageous, unsubstantiated, false news? Because there are millions of us out there who will believe it and pass it on. You can almost hear the coins dropping. Search for youtube millionaires 2016 for a current idea.

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Fake news, who benefits? - Shelbyville Times-Gazette (blog)

The Goods and Services Tax (GST) is one of the best possible tax system and will immensely benefit the trade and industry, said S. Kannan, Commissioner of Central Excise and Service Tax, Salem and Coimbatore.

The Union Government is committed to replace all the indirect taxes levied on goods and services by the Centre and State Governments and implement the GST by July this year.

With GST, it is anticipated that the tax base will be comprehensive and virtually all goods and services will be taxable, with minimum exemption, Mr. Kannan said while speaking at the inaugural session of the day-long seminar on GST demystified: issues and implications brought up by the Salem chapter of the Madras Management Association (MMA) and Neethi Associates in the city on Wednesday.

The programme has been arranged keeping in mind the proposed tax reforms and create awareness on the GST overview readiness and pitfalls.

He said that GST will be a game changing reform for the Indian economy by creating a common Indian market and by reducing the cascading effect of tax on the cost of goods and services.

It will impact the tax structure, tax incidence, tax computation, tax payment, compliance, credit utilization and reporting, leading to a complete overhaul of the current indirect systems.

The GST will play a major role in the progress of trade and industry and the Department of Central Excise and Service Tax is going all out to explain its salient features and benefits to the trading community and industrialists by organising out-reach programmes.

The Centre has attached much importance in disseminating the information on GST to its stake holders, he said.

Referring to the steps initiated by the Centre for the successful implementation of the GST, Mr. Kannan said that more than 60,000 staff of the Central Excise and Service Tax Department have already been imparted specialised training so far across the country.

The GST Council accounted for the Finance Ministers of all the states and it has already framed very effective rules after detailed deliberations at intense sessions.

The GST will be extremely IT driven and the government has created a separate GST network for uploading all the details.

The government departments are fairly getting ready for its implementation, he said and called upon the trade and industrial houses too to follow suit.

Urging the trade and industrial houses to extend total cooperation for the successful implementation of GST, Mr. Kannan said that the government has directed the concerned departments to be friendly and guide the stake holders properly.

S. Mohan, Chairman, Salem chapter of the MMA, presided over the inaugural.

S. Gnanakumar, Joint Commissioner, Commercial Taxes-enforcement; N. Sivanesan, president, Federation of All Trade and Industries Association of Erode district; K.V. Ganesan, chairman, MMA Namakkal chapter; K. Mariappan, president, The Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Salem; and Senthil Kumar, president, Salem Flat Promoters Association; spoke.

S. Arokiaraj, Joint Commissioner of Central Excise; C. Thiyagarajan, Deputy Commissioner, Central Excise; and Sangeeta Nehru, Deputy Commissioner, Central Excise; presided over the special sessions that followed.

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GST beneficial for traders, says official - The Hindu

The first time I heard about Issa Rae was when I found her largely successful YouTube series The Misadventures of [an] Awkward Black Girl and it took me all of five seconds to become hooked on her and her craft. My friends and I would spend hours watching and then re-watching every single episode Issa would upload to her YouTube channel. We were excited to finally have a show about a black girl who was not a slave, the token black best friend, or that followed the stereotypical angry black girl agenda. Here we were, young girls of color, simply excited over having true representation.

Issa Rae has come a long way since the uploading of the first episode of The Misadventures of [an] Awkward Black Girl. For starters, her YouTube channel currently has over twenty-six million views and more than two-hundred thousand subscribers. Issa Raes success doesnt stop at YouTube however; and she now has a hit show called Insecure on HBO, along with countless writing and producing credits, and a 2016 Golden Globe nomination. Even throughout all of her prosperity, Issa has never turned her back on her YouTube family and has just recently premiered a new digital series on her channel called Giants (executive produced by Jussie Smollett, written and directed by James Bland).

From watching the trailer, I quickly gathered that Giants was going to focus around three black millennials who are simply trying to make their dreams a reality, despite everything life throws at them. Even though the trailer is appealing, and I have a strong love for Issa, I was still a little bit skeptical to give Giants a try. Mainly because the trailer made me a little worried that the show was going to be overly heavy, filled with too many triggering issues that I already have to deal with in the real world.

However, after watching all the currently aired episodes I can honestly say Im happy I gave the show a chance. The first episode waste no time in pulling you in and by the end of the most recent episode you will find yourself naturally craving more.

Malachi acts as the anchor of the show, holding those around him down, while he is desperately looking for a way to keep himself afloat. Even though the show is only a few episodes in you can tell that there is something bothering him deeply, and as more episodes come out I look forward to finding out what that might be. The other two characters that the show follows are Ade and Journee. Ade I think is a character many people will be able to relate too. I feel as if though hes currently standing at a few crossroads in his life that we will all eventually have to face on our own. Ade is also someone who you will find yourself rooting for the very moment he becomes a part of the story-line. Then there is Journee, and when I think about her the saying the funniest people are often the saddest comes to mind. She is definitely is one of the comedic reliefs of the show, however, she is also dealing with a very deep depression. Journee is the character who I am most looking forward to following and see how she develops as someone dealing with mental health issues.

No matter your preferred genre, Giants is a show that will give you everything and more. There is excitement, action, mystery, comedy, and romance. Yes, Giants does deal with many hard-hitting issues that black people are faced with. However, while watching this show, those issues are portrayed in a way that doesnt seem triggering but instead intriguing. You will find yourself getting lost in these characters, their world, and the hurdles they are trying to jump over.

New episodes of Giants are uploaded to Issa Raes YouTube channel every Wednesday and trust me; this is a show you dont want to miss. The first episode is linked below, be sure to watch it, and I promise by the end of it you too will be a believer in Giants.

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Issa Rae New Series Giants Is A Must Watch - CampusLATELY (blog)