#Bug & Other Related Issues

[the-nature-of-the-art-beast]

Writer & Wannabe Voice Artist

I write and then I read the stuff I write. It’s all about me, baby!

[popculturebuffet]

The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck: The Master of the Mississippi! or “How Much Satisfaction Can There Be?”

Hello everybody. I’m back to the life of scrooge mcduck.. it’s been an eternity hasn’t it and that’s for a simple reason: I had other reviews to do, especially comissions, I kept pushing this back further and further as while I love this series i put my paid work ahead of any other projects, until Kev, i.e. the guy paying for most comissions out and out asked that this be done before I got to the rest of The Ride of the Three Caballeros. It’s also why I finally put a loose schedule in place, to keep projects from slipping so the MANY retrosectives and what not I have going can move along at a steady pace and I can slot in comissions easier, 5 bucks an issue or episode if your curious. So now things are a bit tider, i’ll try to have an installment of scrooge’s storied past up a week from now on, so keep an eye out for that, minus christmas week as I have something else planned Duck Comics wise. So with all that out of the way and any exposition able to be baked into the plot proper, we can FINALLY get back to the life and times of scrooge mcduck

PREVIOUSLY ON THE LIFE AND TIMES OF SCROOGE MCDUCK:

A Young Scrooge got his inspiration, his start and also scared the crap out of some asshole scooby do style. Also his sister Hortense was adorable. SO there’s that. But eventually with some inspriation from what he didn’t realize was a ghost, Scrooge decided to head to america to find his Uncle Pothole. So that’s where we left off, with Scrooge heading to

Since then as the scrapbook page explains, Scrooge has worked his way up the Missippi to Louieville, Kentucky... which is where Rosa lives, and it is not a concidence it’s set here as a result. But much like how the Marvel staff being in new york in the 60′s lead to that universe having it’s unique and vibrant New York setting that’s lasted to this day, sometimes a creator using where they live as the basis can lead to really great and intresting stuff and here he had a valid reason as Louieville was one of the main hubs on the Mississippi river and thus a massive boomtown. 

Not the kind of boom town I meant but I can never say no to boomtown. But yeah it’s not only a bustling hub usually anyway, but things are extra amped up given it’s Derby time. I mean the Kentucky Derby’s no steel ball run but what could be? So naturally the crowds are booming and scroogie is impressed. I mean he’s a 13 year old boy from a poor community in Scotland. This is huge to him. But he has no time to dawdle and asks the closest random gentleman where he could find his Uncle Angus, who was mentioned last time and is the one needed for this. The guy is genuinely helpful and points him to his uncle... but as I only noticed on this read through also uses a knife to swipe his bag by cutting the handle off. It’s part of why I admire this series so much: rosa snuck so many small background gags into the margins you can always find something new reading it or always get something fresh out of it.  We also meet Gyro’s grandpa Ratchet. 

I mean there’s no might about it. David Byrne is rich and he’s the delightful weirdo we all deserve and the autistic icon I needed. 

I have no context for this, I just figured searching David Byrne in Tumblr’s Gif Search would find something delightfully batshit in that way only hec an do and I was right. 

So as the tweenager enters the gambling establishment, we find Uncle Pothole, whose playing poker with local asshole and tophat enthusiast Porker Hogg...whose name keeps tripping me up as I write this as he’s not the only pig named porker I know of but is far less memorable than this one

He and Pothole are playing cards, and while Porker can go on for days he can’t go on for eight weeks.. or even two days really and prepares to finish it. He puts up his boat the Dilly Dollar, which Angus takes offence to since Porker sank his. Angus offers up the location of the Dreenan White, a legendary, and real legend at that, riverboat that sank. Since Angus was a Cabin Boy on the boat, he knows where it is. So the final hand is dealt and Angus wins with five aces, mostly because Porker’s ace ejector jammed. When Scrooge questions if this is dishonest, Angus explains their under riverboat captain rules which basically means you can cheat your ass off and it’s not only expected it’s an insult NOT to. So Angus takes Scrooge with him, seeing the boy as a good luck charm and finding out to his shock Scrooge is his nephew, but gladly takes his newly found relation under his wing as he relates to his coming to america to find his fortune, having done the same. 

Angus is the first of Scrooge’s many mentors and easily the best part of this chapter. He’s lively, intresting but a contrast to scrooge, someone whose not AFRAID to work but wouldn’t mind an easy victory or giving up the adventure game, as he ends up doing. He’s a lively, clever guy and very charming. I”ll get back to the mentor part of it in a bit, but needless to say in a chapter that i’ll admit, and get more into the why as we go, is not one of life and time’s better chapters, he’s a highlight.  So the two get to the Dilly Dollar while Hogg decides to follow to find where the Dreeynan Whyte is. As for why he hasn’t drudged it up Angus simply can’t as the Mighty Missisippi’ s too muddy for that, making another mark twain quoted joke about it. But Scrooge mentions the clarity pills from Ratchet, meaning he has a way to do so, and Angus is now elated and decides to head there to get his fortune, specifically near Monkey’s Elbow kentucky, which while relocated slightly to fit the story, is a very real town and an objectively great name for a town, much like Forty Fort, which is also a very real town name. Hogg overhears and after being literally booted out of the boat, as we’ll see literal asskicking is a McDuck family staple, goes to recruit some hired goons. 

Yes hired goons, as every good villian needs some hired goons. And these specific goons.. are a bit.. familiar. And you’ll find out who they are under the cut!

Yup it’s the Secret Origin of the Beagle Boys. And if your wondering “Wait are they immortal too?” well. their not these are their grandpas. Also Hogg’s whole complaint about “wearing them if there yellow” just.. bugs me. They .. they aren’t cowards.. Grandpappy’s just being smart and knows his sons are excessively dumb, as is family tradition. They have no issue with committing crimes, they just don’t want to be arrested by the first Navy boat that finds them. That’s just.. common logic. This is one of Life and Time’s weaker atrributes: Due to being built around barks stories, that means most of his foes here are the random greedy asshats of the week Scrooge faced who had some loophole to his fortune or the grandparents of said assholes. With the exception of hte Beagles, who show up a few times, Glomgold and Soapy Slick who wihle a minor vilian is at the center of one of the best chapters of the story, most of these guys are just forgettable hooligans. Not terrible, and the stories around them are good enough to make it enjoyable but nothing really distinct from what Scrooge normally faced outside of his origin story. Really Barks was simply stronger at STORIES than he was at creating villians: As Magica, The Beagle Boys, Gladstone, Rockerduck and Glomgold all show he wasn’t untalented at it, it’s just more often than not he fell back on some random asshole.

Instead of using a dedicated Rogue’s Gallery of intresting baddies, most writers of most comics just used villians of the week and maybe ONE OR TWO designated hitters. Batman’s Rogue’s gallery wasn’t big enough to form their own country at this point is what i’m saying, it just meant Rosa had to build more vilians of teh week. It dosen’t drag the story down entirely, as the story is about SCROOGE and his growth: sometimes the villians are just a secondary ingrident in a good story. But it’s still something very noticable and one of the weaker parts of the story, it’s just like I said, with the story being more on Scrooge and where a lot of his personality came from, it’s something I really didn’t notice before and really dosen’t bother me now I have. The villians are weak btu the hero is so intresting and grows so much it just dosen’t matter. Their there to provide Scrooge with opportunites to evolve, and the really good ones are saved for the best moments of that and for when a villian IS needed to change scooge as a person. So it all evens out. 

So naturally the next day when the McDucks head to get the pills, Hogg’s beat them to it, and when Ratchet refused to cut cards for his stock had them beat Ratchet while they were at it. Though oddly Angus assumes he’s just passed out while Scrooge is the one to recognize someone knocked him out. You’d think a well experienced guy like Angus would know that eh whatever. Point is Hogg is ahead and Angus dosen’t have a crew... though Scrooge and Ratchet naturally volunteer since both have skin in the game: Scrooge wanted a job with Pothole anyway and Ratchet is out a job and out his pills. Angus gladly takes them on.. but accidently sets the Dominos in place for one of Comics!Scrooge’s worst behaviors down the line. 

Yeahhh.... Pothole is partially responsible for Scrooge criminally underpaying his staff and family. That gag.. is easily one of , if not my least faviorite part about Rosa’s work. It’s a holdover from Carl Barks work naturally, and one that makes some sense: Rosa set his work shortly after barks, so some time in the 1950s, having barks works take place around when they were written. There isn’t a strict timeline of what happened which year outside of life and times, but Rosa’s works are delieberate period pieces. That’s not a bad thing and if he’s going to base most of his stuff around stuff Barks did, then it’s a good call to make.  The issue is the execution: While with Barks it was in part because there was less income inequality, it was also clearly a bit of satire, as Donald was the every man and companies could be unfair, cheap douchebags then as they are now. IT feels more like a joke on Scrooge. Donald still puts up with a lot of stuff, but he’s more liable to complain. In the Rosa stories.. it feels more like he just makes Donald the butt monkey and it dosen’t play well as.. Donald dosen’t want to be there. He has every RIGHT not to want to be there as he’s not being paid a decent wage, not being compensated in any other ways, and could be searching for a boss who actually pays him a living wage. Donald is more the victim in Rosa’s stories but he simply doesn’t realize this, or the fact it’s even worse since Donald is you know RAISING THREE CHILDREN AND SCROOGE KNOWS THIS BUT DOES NOT PITCH IN ONE EXTRA CENT.  So already without even adding the decades on, it hasn’t aged well.. but add in the modern day business where it’s a STRUGGLE to get states to raise minimum wages, the job market was hit horribly even BEFORE Corona came and made things worse, and companies horribly abuse their employees to ludcirous extremes such as time crunch in the video game industry, black friday in retail and of course the house of nightmares that is the amazon warehouse, and I say that being a frequent use of amazon.. just because I rely on a company dosen’t mean I have to LIKE doing so in any way shape or form. 

What i’m saying is Scrooge’s actions were already bad, making this joke fall flat, but it comes off as downright unfunny after all of that. Even given the times Scrooge was raised in it’s just not a funny gag that “oh ha ha a 70+ year old man ever learned right from wrong when it came to paying his family or workers”. It just paints scrooge in the worst light possible as man who never grew, in at least one aspect, from being a goddamn tweenager and is easily one of the weaker moments of an otherwise epic and well crafted saga, and as i’ve said of Rosa’s exemplary work as a whole. 

Anyways the race is on and with the DIlly Dollar gaining on Hogg’s Cotton reiver witch, Hogg has them ram into the boat and flip it over. And no i’m not descrbing a sex act. In a show of competence while Blackheart Beagle’s actions send them close to the falls too he just uses the dilly dollar as a ramp. We also get a really cool flipped over panel as our heroes are waterlogged. A snag boat shows up, I assume it removes snags and dangerous objects and complains about rescuing them. .even though CLEARLY they had some kind of accident. It’s.. never a good look to complain about having to save someone’s life or livelyhood unless that someone is Tucker Carlson. Then it’s ABSOLUTLEY okay to grumble a bit about having to do the right thing. 

So after a quick gag we’re introduced to a chekovs gun as a massive tree sprouts out of the river and spooks Scroogey.. and Angus who explains it’s a “sawyer”, something that happens when a dead tree falls in a river.. sinks in.. and then can rise right back up suddenly, violently and boat destroyingly. 

So our heroes head on and find the location and Angus dumbly assumes that Hogg, who had a clear start is just lost.. and not you know lurking in the bushes watiting to strike. And strike he does as he once again rams hard and long into the Dilly Dollar, leaving it on a sandy shore. Schwing. Our heroes are landlocked but Hogg, just to earn himself a dare to be stupid award, gives the Beagles their deed, and tells them theirs diving equipment. You can take a wild guess what happenes next. 

Angus understandably laughs at his misfortune because it’s funny.. and Hogg responds by dropping him down a well. Before Scrooge can raise a benefit concert to send his love down a well, Angus asks Scrooge to join him instead.. and soon we find out why as the Beagles only find a wrecked town. Turns out thats where Monkey’s Elbow WAS, and they build the new town near it.. with the farm Angus ended up at being where the wreck is now. 

Our heroes explore the wreck which honestly, looks really damn impressive, a muddy destroyed riverboat hauntingly beautifully lit by candle light, which Scrooge is holding naturally. I may of had my criticisms for Rosa this chapter, and I will again, but it’s moments like this that reinforce that the man is still one of the best comic book artists i’ve ever seen and knows how to beautifully meld his art with storytelling. 

Speaking of which our heroes find the safe with the money. Angus is ritch but Scrooge.. dosen’t get how he can be happy. Scroogie questions “How much satisfaction can there be in having your life’s fortune handed to you? “ It’s easily the best moment of the chapter.. while it’s only two panels before we get to Angus moving things right along... it really speaks to Scrooge’s character. Even as still a naive boy from Glasgow... his whole life has been hard work, effort working your way up. To just.. LUCK into fortune like this baffles him. To be satisfied with that and not seem to have any amibation to use it to go further, to make more of yourself. To be more. While he hasn’t quite got his love for adventure yet, we’ll get there next time, even now there’s a hunger inside him, a desire to not just get rich, that’s all fine and good.. btu to have EARNED IT. To truly feel like he made his way. 

And it perfeclty makes sense with his background: Scrooge was raised with nothing, and found out at the start of the story his family had lost everything, a once glorious clan reduced to a poor starving family on the edge of Glasgow. To him it can’t just be about getting Money.. he wants to bring his clan back. To make his family happy and proud. To make sure his father’s faith as the last of their line wasn’t misplaced. He has a lot of expectation on him and that’s bred his character. Angus.. just sorta left at a young age and has been incommuincado. He dosen’t really care about family or legacy.. not that I don’t think he would’ve sent some money back to buy the castle, I just think he was never that concerned with his family’s legacy like Scrooge despite coming from a similar cloth. He wanted the money, but Scrooge cares about the money.. and his family. It’s what anchors him. What keeps him from his worst impulses and keeps him grounded.. for now anyways but that’s a ways off. Point is it really speaks to Scrooge’s character. 

But soon the beagles find our heroes, and a fight breaks out.. and naturally even without years of experince yet, Scrooge is still a McDuck and while previously his fighting was based on ingunity.. this time the little runt’s just out for blood and suprises the beagles with a clump of mud and then beating the shit out of them. When one of them tries to respond by wacking him with a piece of wood... he instead breaks a collumn and with the dreenan unable to handle the mud without it... the place starts to collapse. However our heroes don’t make it out unschathed as the Beagles capture them and the gold... for some reason. Seriously Scrooge dosen’t fight back or anything nor does angus they just.. let hte beagles overpower them. WHen Scrooge fully fought the grown ass men just a few mintues ago. What the actual hell. 

But we do get another Badass Scrooge Moment, as once hteir on the ship, Scrooge mentions another treasure.. which baffles Angus despite you know.. the boy clearly playing at something. Yeah whlie I do like Angus.. he can be grating in parts and here he just comes off REALLY stupid. But after being tortured by running on a boat, with the beagles mistaking Angus’ genuine confusion for being a bastard man, which naturally their impressed by, Scrooge fessses up.. and you can see exactly’s coming.. the sawyer raises the boat into the air and harpoons it. The beagles try to play off the port authority but scrooge unmaks those “infamous beagle boys”.. and thus names one of his greatest threats. Blackheart vows revenge while our heroes go for a sasparillia..though Scrooge keeps the money.. as he says the memory of that adventure is worth more than anything. As for the Gold, the goverment took it back, but did give them a reward, and Angus only dosen’t give Scrooge a share because he’d have to refloat it, but offers him a job and the dollar in two years at a bargin price. Alls well that ends well. A truly poetic way to end the chapter and prepare scrogoe for the next... TO BE CONTINUED...

FINAL TH...

Yeah.. as you probably know this is NOT the end of the chapter. Instead we go on for a bit more. And a few more pages would’ve been fine, to help bridge the gap.. we see scrooge get the Dollar at a bargin price as his uncle promised, though the deal turns out to be a bit of a lemon as the riverboat industry has dried up. But then.. we get a couple page adventure with the beagle boys, where the beagles try to steal the goverment gold scrooge is transporting, Ratchet helps him escape, and we DO get the utterly badass image of scrooge driving the boat onto land and it exploding and causing a massive flood> While that is awesome.. the pacing just takes a huge hit and it’s easily why this chapter is one of my least faviorite. It probably would’ve been better if they just had a passage of time montage of events at the start of the next chapter and ended on that bit before.. but instead it just goes on a bit and really tries my patience every time as instead of moving on to a bold new adventure.. we just get some filler to help pad things out so Rosa can get it to the right page length. I don’t blame him, sometimes shit happens, but it dosen’t make it any more fun to read.  So the Dollar is scrapped and Scrooge is back at the bottom with barely a cent to his name. But he’s resolute: since the river boating days were winding down anyway he’s going west to become a cowboy, and heads off on the Wabash Cannonball as a fireman, i.e. the guy who stokes the engines, to make his way there. So we end our story for now and again.. this would’ve been much better condensed but whatever. We’re finally done. 

Final Thougts

As you could probably tell but I saved for here, and I outright even said this is one of my least faviorite chapters and one of the weakest if not the weakest. Part of it is the structure issue I mentioned, but the other part is it just.. isn’t as intresting at least to me personally. The rest of life and times have pretty unique stories that while not removed from genres Scrooge stories have covered, use the story of his rise to make them really pop as we slowly see how the iconic Scrooge we know became the legend and what shaped him that way. Here while we get bits of that, it’s mostly just a standard uncle scrooge story but with him as a kid. It’s not a BAD one, it dosen’t drag the whole of life and times down and it’s servicable but it just feels a bit more standard for Rosa’s work. Still enjoyable, but nothing really spectacular like the next two chapters. On it’s own or as one of the side stories it would’ve been fine but as part of this huge sprawling masterpiece, it’s just a bit underwhelming and just makes me eager to get to the next part every time rather than really suck me in as much as the others. Again the pacing dosen’t help with that and only makes it drag further. It just dosen’t have the weight the other ones do character wise and as such just makes me want to get to part 3 already, which naturally that story within a story dosen’t help with. Overall while not a bad comic, I don’t think any part of life and times is truly bad, it’s still not a GREAT comic like what’s to come or what came just before. 

NEXT TIME ON LIFE AND TIMES: Scrooge heads out to the wild wild west.. though instead of a giant mechanical spider he fights some cattle rustlers and meets Teddy Roosevelt HELL. YES. 

Until then, happy holidays and later days!

[blogging-phelddagrif]

A Definitive Guide to High End Matte Sleeves

Hello everyone! Sorry about the lack of content recently, but I thought I’d make it up with an extensive review of the best matte sleeves money can buy! The Professor has made quite a few products review, that I’d recommend you check out right here, but I though it would be nice to do a written rundown comparison of the 4 brands I feel are the best. For each of the brand I’ll be looking at a few criteria and note any positive or negative other aspects I can find. Hopefully this can be useful for anyone wondering which brand of sleeve to buy, and honestly doing this has been really helpful for myself since I wanted to know which sleeve was right for me. In any case, lets get right into it with the first sleeve!

Dragon Shield Matte

Dragon Shield has been around for a very long time as a sleeve provider, and has been my go-to sleeves for a few years now so I felt obligated to include them in this analysis. So lets start with the set criteria:

Aspect - The sleeve as a very pronounced matte texture with a front that sadly glares easily with light. The front is fairly clear though so the art/reading is not affected, unless you’re affected by the said glare. Even when double-sleeving the picture is very clear, which is nice. The back is not fully opaque, I have a very dark-colored sleeve and with the sunlight I can see the outline of my cards, so I’d be very cautious buying light-colored sleeves.

Fit - It’s honestly pretty loose-fitted, the sleeve is slightly longer than most brands and if you’re single-sleeving there will be some breathing room. It makes it good for double-sleeving, but even then there’s some room to give. Honestly you can easily triple-sleeve if you’re into that.

Shuffle Feel - Even though the matte texture is very pronounced, the shuffling has some resistance to it, which is odd. It’s nothing too intense, but it’s not something you’d expect from such a matte finish. At least this makes sure your EDH deck will not fall over when newly sleeved, but personally I feel like the resistance is a tad too much, and sleeves sometimes kind of catches corners

KMC Hypermatte

KMC is one of the other big names of sleeve makers, especially since they were the one that pioneered the matte style, so hopefully the quality is good. So lets look at the different elements:

Aspect - The matte finish texture is not quite as pronounced at Dragon Shield but it’s pretty nice. You don’t get as much of a glare from the light and the card is just as clear as DS, and just as clear when double-sleeved. To be noted that the sleeve is VERY straight, with the sides bending ever-so-slightly backwards, which will keep your deck extremely straight, if you’re into that. It’s fully opaque, only showing a very tiny amount of card edge when shun into direct sunlight, but not enough to mark cards or has a judge called on you, it’s safe (haven’t tried very light colors though so don’t quote me on that).

Fit - It’s really more well-fitted than Dragon Shield, and you can still double-sleeve very easily. I don’t recommend triple-sleeving them, though I honestly don’t recommend triple-sleeving in general but whatever floats your boat. The fit is perfect imo it really protects the whole card without having too much room left.

Shuffle Feel - It feels pretty smooth, there’s just little resistance but overall I’d call it a great feel. The only issue is that the ever-so-slightly backward bend of the sides tend to catch together while shuffling, which is not ideal, especially over time it might damage the sides, it’s hard to know what the effect is over time though so it might not be a big deal either way.

Ultra-Pro Eclipse

Ultra-Pro has long been know as the “cheap draft sleeves” but recently they’ve been trying to up their game to get into the high end draft scene. I’ve been excited to try them out since so far my experience with Ultra-Pro has been sub-par and hopefully this one is different!

Aspect - Not a huge fan of the matte texture, it’s very slight it’s kind of in between matte & regular. It’s double coated though with the inside being black so it’s COMPLETELY opaque, there’s absolutely 0% chances you can see though it and that’s real good; although, you won’t see your sleeve color by looking at the front, which can be a plus or minus depending on your preferences. I’m not sure what they use for the front but it doesn’t glare, like you can shine a light straight at it and you won’t get a reflection like the other sleeves, instead it just seems...misty? Also, when you double sleeve it really amps up the mistiness, it’s kind of weird, the cards look slightly foggy.

Fit - The fit is just as perfect as the KMC ones, just enough room for a good protection while not being too tight. It’s easy to double-sleeve and still retains a very nice fit. But again, if you double-sleeve you get a very slight misty/foggy aspect of the card. On a side not, the sleeve seems thinner than the other ones, but just so slightly, like it’s even hard to tell.

Shuffle Feel - I’ll be honest the shuffle feels really fucking great. I was a bit scared since the matte texture was not all there, but I think what they did to the front that gives that little misty look made so that the shuffle feel is incredible. You get basically no resistance, the cards don’t catch edges or anything, it’s just really really fucking smooth I love it I could shuffle these all day.

Ultimate Guard Katana

I’ve been using Ultimate Guard’s binders/deck boxes for a while now since I think they’re the best on the market, so I was pretty hyped to try out their sleeve to see if the quality is the same, and if they can keep up with the big names of the sleeve industry.

Aspect - The matte texture is almost exactly the same as the KMC ones, very nice finish as well as really clear view of the card from the front. Very little glare from the light, though Eclipse still takes the cake on that one. Just like KMC the back is fully opaque, I’d even say they are safer than KMC on that part. One difference from KMC to be noted is that the sides point ever-so-slightly forward instead of backwards. It won’t affect deck structure, but it might affect shuffle feel. But yeah, aspect-wise they’re very similar to KMC.

Fit - Just like the previous 2, the fit is perfect, just enough room to protect snuggly the card, while still being able to double-sleeve with ease. They seem to be a tiny bit thicker than KMC and about the same size as the Eclipse ones. I’ll be honest the double-sleeving feels maybe the most well-fit from the gang, but it’s a very little difference from the past 2, they mostly have the same fit.

Shuffle Feel - Oh this one feels pretty fucking good too. Kind of in between Eclipe & KMC, but closer to Eclipse. The shuffling is really smooth with little-to-no resistance, and since the side bends ever-so-slightly forward the cards edges don’t catch when shuffling. It might not be QUITE as cushion-y as the Eclipse but it’s a really good shuffle feel, I like it a lot.

Side-by-Side Comparison

Aspect - Katana > Hypermatte > Eclipse > Dragon Shield

Fit - Katana = Hypermatte = Eclipse > Dragon Shield

Shuffle Feel - Eclipse > Katana > Hypermatte > Dragon Shield

Price (not noted previously) - Eclipse (10$) = Hypermatte (10$) > Dragon Shield (11$) > Katana (12$)

Stress Test (not noted previously) - Eclipse = Katana (couldn’t break both of them, at all)> Hypermatte (broke with fair amount of pulling) > Dragon Shield (broke with very little pulling)

With all that being said, here is my final ranking:

Ultimate Guard Katana

Ultra-Pro Eclipse

KMC Hypermatte

Dragon Shield Matte

I’m going with Katana as the best one since it comes ahead in most category, except being 2$ more expensive/100 sleeves, and has a slightly less amazing shuffle feel than the Eclipse ones, but it’s still really fucking great. The Eclipse ones are honestly really good sleeves, the only downside is the slight foggy aspect they can have, ESPECIALLY if you double sleeve them. I’ll be honest, I mostly single-sleeve my decks and I have no problem with the Eclipse ones so far, but if I was double-sleeving, it might bug me a little bit. Hypermatte are great, but the fact that Katana just seem like a better version of them in every aspect just feels like...why should I buy them if I get the exact same thing from Katana, but just slightly better? And lastly Dragon Shield are kind of disappointing compared to the rest, the only reason I’d recommend going to Dragon Shield is if you want to triple-sleeve your deck, since they have the more room to give, but do you really want to do that?

I’ll have to see how they fare over time, but I’m most likely going to switch all my sleeves to Ultimate Guard Katana as time goes on. Unless the Eclipse ones prove to be more sturdy/resistant, then I might switch to them, but upon first examination and feel of the sleeves, Katana has the slight edge. Oh, and something to point out again, the Eclipse sleeves have their inside layer black, so if you don’t like seeing your sleeve color when looking at the front of your cards that could be a big plus.

So yeah, if you’re looking for the best sleeves either go with the Ultimate Guard Katana or the Ultra-Pro Eclipse, the differences they have are mostly preferential. I hope this guide was useful for anyone wondering what good matte sleeves to get. If I missed anything please let me know. If you enjoyed this guide also let me know, if I see that there’s demand for more of them I could do some more articles like these. And if there’s any other mtg-related content you’d like to see from me don’t hesitate to send me a message! :)

[taww]

Review: Wells Audio Commander Preamplifier & Innamorata II Amplifier

With everyone and their extended families wanting to be audio reviewers, we have been inundated with volumes of positive commentary. As a reviewer, you are dependent upon manufacturers to provide you with equipment to audition and write about. If a writer wants to be around after that initial written review, the pressure is great to submit something popular to the publisher, specifically, coverage that will keep the review sample spigot flowing. After all, what manufacturer seeking to gain a foothold in the industry is going to send their precious product to someone they think may disseminate component coverage less than favorable about them? That’s a question I need not answer on your behalf…

The days of writers like Pearson, Holt and Aczel are, unfortunately, gone. And while I may long to once again profit from their pearls of audio wisdom, only their memories exist. From my first published review in January of 1989, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wondered how Harry would describe a particular sonic quality, how Gordon might compare one component to another or in what manner, like Peter, I may employ my use of words so efficiently as say what others could not, but in half the space. What those great writers of the past had, which we see none of today, was the self-assuredness not to fear penning the critical review…after all, they were known as critics.

Wells Audio

Jeff Wells is a kindly gentleman that has been in the business of audio retailing for better than 16 years. Not a classically trained electrical engineer, Jeff has obviously picked up considerably knowledge during his years in the trade, either directly, or by osmosis. He also knows where to go for good advice as he has chosen Scott Franklin as a mentor. Scott is considered a bit of a tube guru, having credited to his name any number of well known and respected tube designs. I expect that the basic tube circuits in the Commander have the Franklin touch, with Jeff choosing the parts list and the overall appearance of the preamp and amp. One thing is for sure, you are not going to mistake the Wells Audio gear for anything else made today, or yesterday for that matter. Warranty for both products is three years, including parts and labor.

Commander Preamplifier (USD $3,999)

The first thing one observes when seeing the Commander for the first time is the large round viewing window smack dab in the middle of the face plate. Behind it is what many call “a magic eye” vacuum tube. It glows green and changes with the adjustment of the volume control (which I did via remote). I could not discern what value the magic eye might be of, but it looked pretty enough.

The young ones, persons not old enough to remember the turn of the century, call it “steampunk.” That’s exactly how I viewed the appearance and operation of the Commander preamp. At a time when smooth operation and silky feel to controls are the key descriptive terms being used with todays’ high-end audio electronics, along comes the Wells Commander preamp that seems to have no end to its unique appearance and odd noises that emanate from it. With every change of volume comes a “clickity” sound that I’ve never heard before as part of a high-end component. Initially I thought that I might have broken it, but everything seemed to continue working, so I didn’t worry about it. Furthermore, @miy-taww assured me that some units simply work that way. (Yup, this is the sound of an attenuator based on conventional mechanical relays. The exact nature of the clicking depends on how the control logic is implemented. @miy-taww)

As far as I know, the acrylic exterior of the Commander is a first. The black reflective surface shines like a polished black mirror, making picture taking a real task. I like the fact that acrylic resonates much less than the standard metal exterior plates found with most amps and preamps. On the other hand, acrylic affords the component no effective RFI/EMI shielding.

Commander Pros: Setting the preamp up was cake, basically plug and play…the remote even came with batteries in it. Another positive was the ability to use a set of balanced inputs in addition to the standard RCA inputs. The unit also had balanced output jacks, coming in handy for use with my balanced Pass XA30.5 power amplifier. 

The Commander is a solid imager with good depth of image, all placed upon a wide and panoramic stage. Tone quality, especially in the mids, is true and natural. And while this is a preamp utilizing tubes, tubes it does not sound like. The softish, melodramatic approach promoted by some tube products is completely missing here, as the Commander, instead of being soft, has an ability to capture, as well as anything I’ve heard, the transient speed of a plucked steel stringed guitar. This leading edge quality is also apparent in percussive strikes and snare hits, yes it can be an exciting experience listening with this preamp. Listening to rock and roll as well as jazz, on more than one occasion the transient speed of this unit compelled me to query if perhaps Wells alone had gotten this aspect to reproduction correct. 

Lastly, when one looks under the hood of the Commander, and then considers the price of it, in light of the unconventional use of parts and construction layout, the obvious question becomes, “How did they do this for the price charged?”  

Commander Cons: I enjoy using remote volume controls, however, this unit’s clunky nature and lack of responsiveness was a turn off to me. Sometimes, when moving the volume up, the actual output would first go down and them up. 

Musically, the frequency extremes were rather odd and not wholly to my liking. These two things, I think, are related: The speed and attack heard in the midrange also resulted in an upper octave that was in many cases more forward than I am attracted to while striking me as grainy. I described the highs with the Commander to one friend as “crunchy.” The bass, it seemed to me, was similarly flawed, but in different ways. Listening to recordings with a healthy amount of bass in them, it was all there, i.e., I felt that I could hear all of the bottom three octaves frequency wise. At the same time, however, the bass lacked deep down energy. 

Initially, I wondered if my choice of power cords was pushing the preamp in the directions just described. I tried cords from Audience, JPS, DH Labs and Twirling Gerbil. Though I heard changes in the performance, none of those cords locked in with the Commander. Finally, I went with the factory supplied cord, which performed as well as any of the above; forming the basis for the comments here and above. 

Lastly, while I had great success using the balanced jacks on the back of the preamp, the standard RCAs didn’t always work consistently. This needs to be looked into by Jeff and in my opinion, simplified internally. The some days the jacks would work, some days, not, drove me crazy.

Conclusion. In my opinion, the Commander preamplifier from Wells Audio is not a finished product, bugs need to be addressed. The potential to be a stunning performer is all there, particularly when the Scott Franklin influence is considered. I consider it a diamond in the rough. I look forward to observing the progress Wells Audio makes with this product. Presently, I cannot recommend it.

Innamorata II Power amplifier (USD $7,000)

Taking the same visual cues as the Commander preamplifier, the Innamorata II is a large, heavy power amp. Rated at 150 wpc into 8 Ohms, the amp is said to put out 210 wpc into 4 Ohms. The amp is a beautiful gloss black, with a single round meter located dead center on the faceplate. Centering the meter is a large gold bezel that you will love or hate, all depending on your fashion sense. Jeff told me of his plans to make the amps’ exterior parts completely out of acrylic materials, everything save the heatsinks. I think Wells may be on to something here as fabricating may be less expensive that way, the product will weight less and the appearance can be pretty stunning in any color you desire. Finally, even though the sibling preamplifier has balanced outputs, the power amplifier cannot accommodate balanced connectors (which struck me as odd).

Innamorata Pros: Lots of power delivered effortlessly. Power cords were not an issue with the amp. Regardless of what I used, this amp forged a straight line forward sounding good under all conditions. I ended up using the Twirling Gerbil amp cord, the combo performing in a positive manner that was in every instance musical. 

What I generally like about a well designed solid state power amp is its unflappable performance with a variety of loudspeaker loads. And so I can report that I listened to this amp with a variety of speaker loads, all the way from 4 Ohms, to a small monitor with a wandering load of 8 to 16 Ohms. As you know, all speakers present an amp with a variety of impedances depending on frequency. With many speakers, things can get a little hairy at resonance, the Innamorata stayed tight and fast in the bass, while never sounding washed out. Pace and bloom were actually strong parts of this design. You know an amp has something going for it when during listening sessions you keep asking yourself. “What’s it going to do with this album? I’ve got to hear it with this other album.” This amp had me anticipating what new positive twist it might put on a recording heard many, many times before. 

Another positive aspect of this amps’ performance was the natural and organic way it handled vocals. Voices at the front of the stage did not jump forward; instead they sounded real, and usually within an aura of natural ambiance. Backup as well as background vocals were similarly tangible and pleasant to listen to.

Innamorata Cons: My biggest complaint with amp is the fact that it quit working after the first listening session. I had been listening to it in one system and enjoyed the results obtained. I then wanted to insert the Wells amp in a second system. I have a tall four wheeled cart that allows me to pick up the amp, put it on the cart and then wheel it off without having to bend over. I moved the amp one day to see how it would perform in a new listening environment. When I sat it down in the new system the right channel refused to come up. I sent it back to Jeff. He told me that an internal cable had come loose and he merely had to put it right and all was well. Solder the connection and the problem does not arise. 

Musically, there’s not a lot to complain about. For more money there are better sounding solid state power amps. I take that position not because the Wells does much wrong, but because some amps are simply exceptional in one regard or another. Those exceptional amps may have slightly more air then the Wells, or a little more bloom upon the stage, but for the money, this is a good amplifier, though not in the same sonic class as the Pass XA30.5 that I compared it to.

Conclusion. I enjoyed using this power amplifier. A no-surprise design, it is quiet when you turn it on, and when you turn it off there are no driver threatening burps or releases of DC. In other words, don’t worry if the power is, for any reason, discontinued. It does concern me that the right channel went down during my auditioning period. A consumer electronics device that retails for $7,000.00 has an obligation to operate in a worry free manner. Audio components are meant to be enjoyed, as they are necessary to the playback of music in the home. A power amplifier situated in the home of an audiophile is not a tool in the manner of a tone generator or scope, it is something more, very much more. And, as the price of a component increases, the obligation of a manufacturer to produce a glitch free product increases in a linear fashion. That said, no one is perfect, making mistakes is human, and the error which lead to the failure of the right channel in this case was nothing other than a contact coming apart – nothing blew, no sparks, no fried resistors, and I have no doubt that that Jeff Wells remedied the situation so as to never have this happen again. 

I, therefore, must conclude that when a person lays down their hard earned dollars for a new Innamorata II, he or she will have an amplifier well worth the outlay, and one capable of bringing home the heart and soul of the music in a way that will bring years and years of musical satisfaction and pride. A power amplifier done well.

[thecoroutfitters]

Written by Guest Contributor on The Prepper Journal.

Editors Note: An article from Demi Rose to The Prepper Journal. As always, if you have information for Preppers that you would like to share and be entered into the Prepper Writing Contest with a chance to win one of three Amazon Gift Cards with the top prize being a $300 card to purchase your own prepping supplies!

Editor: This post may leave you with more questions than answers but that isn’t always a bad thing. When we are forced by circumstances to live off the grid sometimes we need to make some pretty edgy decisions in our preparedness. One recurring theme on The Prepper Journal has been stockpiling meds, with prescriptions meds being a sore subject due to the influence of our pseudo-socialized medical system now in the throws of either its death or its immortality. No matter the end game on that insurance companies and doctors, rightfully so, do not generally support prescriptions of more than 30-days duration. So now people are looking at alternatives and one that is getting a lot of attention is antibiotics for fish as a possible substitute since they can be close to those used in humans and they are NOT regulated, they can be bought on Amazon or at pet stores over the counter. 

Some doctors will prescribe antibiotics for survival storage, but not very many as their abuse can lead to their ineffectiveness, your immune system can work against you. So is has been rumored that many preppers explore fish antibiotics as an alternative. They’re commonly sold in human doses and available without a prescription.

Fish antibiotics such as Fish Mox Forte are used to treat bacterial infections in fish. The antibiotics that are used to treat fish are the same or similar as the antibiotics that are provided for human use from antibiotic manufacturing companies, depending on type of antibiotic and form.  Some consider their use a very bad idea. As a Prepper you should know the facts and make an informed decision.

Everything you’ve wanted to know about fish antibiotics for survival

In the event that there has been a bug out situation and someone needs emergency attention and medical help seems to be far away or nowhere to be found, then, is the next best thing to lay your hands on a bottle of fish antibiotics? Your guess will be as good as mine – do you administer them to enhance someones chance of survival from a wound or injury in the hope of giving them added time while you seek professional medical help? Will such a thing as professional medical help really exist in a true TEOTWAWKI situation?

The real question remains “are fish antibiotics reliable for human survival?” Below is an all-encompassing guide to everything you would want to know about fish antibiotics in the hope of helping you make an intelligent decision.

Many believe that fish antibiotics are a handy alternative for human antibiotics and as such are good “make up” components for your survival kit. So when I grab my crankbait fishing rod for my weekend angling, armed with my bug-out bag stocked up with fish antibiotics I am confident of a wonderful weekend with no worries. Most prepper blogs advice that one can stock up on these pills as they have an all-round semblance to the normally prescribed medicine in hospitals.

What are fish antibiotics?                 

Thomas labs explains that fish antibiotics are used to treat bacterial infections in fish. Most fish antibiotics we have (either in capsule or tablet form) possesses similar USP grades to those produced by pharmaceutical companies for human use; that means that antibiotics used for fish treatment are similar to those used for human bacterial treatment, not necessarily that we suffer the same infection but the active ingredient in fish antibiotics are almost the same in milligram with human antibiotics. However its use for human treatment is subject to confirmation by a certified medical personnel as this justifies the negation of the label ‘fish use only‘.

Fish antibiotics? Why human use?

As I said earlier, its human use does not negate the manufacturers caution on the pack which clearly states, “not for human use” and that only qualified medical personnel could mandate its use and answer the above authoritatively. But for the sake of the guide, a slight comparison to ascertain its similarity with those prescribed by the doctor for humans won’t hurt. What are the components of these fish antibiotics that are present also in human antibiotics, keeping in mind that animal doses might vary from human doses, so at least while comparing make sure you get the dosage correct.

Fish antibiotics:         Active ingredient:

Fish Amp forte.            Ampicillin 500mg

fish mox forte.             Amoxicillin 500mg

Fish pen forte.             Penicillin 500mg

Fish flox forte.            Ciprofloxacin 500mg

fin flex forte.              Cephalexin 500mg

These ingredients not only appear in human antibiotics, but most times have the exact same dosage. This strengthens the claim that fish antibiotics could be a worthy stand in, in case of an emergency. Nonetheless we should be careful that there is just one of these active ingredients and that it supports human survival to avoid other drug allergies, and adverse reactions.

Having known these, are there other things worth knowing?

For the fact that the topic in question is about a drug, one should be aptly informed before embarking on its use to avoid its abuse. As mentioned earlier drugs are composed of various ingredients which have different effects, so I think you will need to know if the fish antibiotics you are getting has just this one ingredient that is similar to the humans own or are there additives and fillers which might cause allergies as a result of a different effect? My advice would be stay with a drug that has just that one similar active ingredient.

Right dosage

Dosages might be similar, but it is worth checking with a qualified Medical professional to be sure. If you must take or give fish antibiotics, make sure the dosage is right according to accepted medical guidelines. This can not be overstated.

Allergies

This is where the “Danger Alarms” may become deafening. Look out for allergies – if at all possible ensure your patient is not allergic to any of the components listed on the drug pack label or user manual. I say this as ones needs a conscious and coherent victim to assure you of their allergies. The circumstances of a misdiagnoses can be severe.

Storage is essential

Like all medications these drugs are to be stored in a cool environment, under the appropriate temperature and also check out for the expiration date and make sure you exhaust or replace as and when due.

Pricing fluctuations and availability

Price fluctuations and availability in the market or in stores are some of the challenges that one could encounter when going for antibiotics. These challenges are caused by demand for these drugs; you can imagine when humans start requesting fish antibiotics, there would definitely be an increased demand which has a direct effect on the price. Another case maybe that the pharmaceutical company may consider it pertinent to withdraw a particular brand of antibiotic from the market completely and replace it with a better and more effective one. Often times antibiotic removal is related to profits of the pharmaceutical manufacturers no matter the viability of the medication. For example, if an antibiotic is not selling well in the market there is a high probability that its production will be reduced or stopped entirely.

Where are my reliable and available sources?  

Aside from the fluctuation in the availability of these drugs, again probably caused by their increasing demand and to a lesser extent, manufacturers profit issues as earlier discussed above, I don’t have a recommended source.  Although Amazon would could guarantee an easy purchase of fish medications.

In conclusion, fish antibiotics in recent times have filled in seamlessly for its human equivalent. Consequently, it appears to be an essential for your survival kit, although like I mentioned in the guide, requires confirmation from some qualified medical personnel which of course is important to avoid drug abuse related issues. So, I will advise that you get one before buying a can of fish antibiotics.

About the Author

Demi is the Founder of outdoorsdoc.com. She loves to share everything about enjoying and surviving the outdoors. If you love the outdoors, you will find interesting and informational articles on her blog

Source Articles for her post:

http://www.happypreppers.com/fishantibiotics.html

https://www.antibioticsforsurvival.com/

http://thesurvivaldoctor.com/2015/07/21/fish-antibiotics-for-humans/

https://www.thebugoutbagguide.com/fish-antibiotics-for-humans/

 Follow The Prepper Journal on Facebook!

The post Fish Antibiotics as a Prepper Alternative? appeared first on The Prepper Journal.

from The Prepper Journal Don't forget to visit the store and pick up some gear at The COR Outfitters. How prepared are you for emergencies? #SurvivalFirestarter #SurvivalBugOutBackpack #PrepperSurvivalPack #SHTFGear #SHTFBag

[grobolom]

Five Offboarding Tips

Having left my position at Hearst, I was responsbile for tranferring almost two years' worth of knowledge to the tech leads that would replace me in a just a couple short weeks. This was a daunting task, but, while there were some hiccups, I think I was able to do so successfully. It required some forethought and a good place to store and share documentation, but at the end of the day just making sure to care about the process did the most good.

Now that I'm through the process, I'd like to give a few tips as to how you can ensure the same process at your company, be it when you yourself leave or when someone else is getting ready to. Some of these will be tips for outside the actual offboarding process, as ensuring good offboarding means setting up good practices even during less turbulent times.

Have a single docs location that everyone on the team has access to.

Schedule regular knowledge sharing sessions and deep-dives.

Set up a 'Q&A' section that everyone can post to.

Quickly schedule knowledge shares for missing gaps.

Assign an offboarding 'point person'.

1. Have a single docs location

Having a single point where the whole team goes to for documentation is crucial in any organization, not just for the offboarding process. However, it may not be obvious how critical this is until a high-quality contributor leaves. Whatever the situtation, make sure that during this time, you make sure all the documentation related to this person leaving is moved to a single source of truth, and that everyone on the team that is participating in the transition process can easily get to it.

Having this in place will guarantee that everyone stays focused on what is important - leaving behind a consise record of what is known, what is unknown, and where to go from here. Having multiple docs locations, or no clearly assigned spot, means someone may have to spend time reconstructing a web of relationships after the contributor leaves, which wastes time at best, or loses knowledge permanently at worst.

2. Schedule regular knowledge shares and deep-dives

This is another tip that can be implemented immediately, but one of the best ways you can ensure that losing someone doesn't crush your productiviy or kill a team is to regularly schedule knowledge sharing sessions. One of the ways I've seen this happen is to schedule a weekly 'developer chapter' meeting, where engineers are encouraged to talk about and give presentations on work they have done recently on their teams, or even things they have learned or worked on during their spare time.

Keeping well ahead of inevitable team changes is critical. One of the biggest benefits is that doing these sessions ahead of time means that the knowledge tends to be fresh. Scheduling these sessions only at the last minute means a contributor may be trying to remember design decisions or challenging problem solutions at a time when they are being bombarded with hundreds of other questions. It also means that the time spent offboarding can be left for the really tough questions - post-mortem-style questions like 'what would you have done differently on this project' or 'what are the likely upcoming technical hurdles' rather than minutia.

3. Set up a Q&A section in the offboarding docs

One of the better ways to guarantee good knowledge transfer is to ask questions, and keeping those questions public is the best way to keep the flow going. Answering questions in a 'Q&A' format is a good way to both sort through potential gaps in knowledge. It is also less intimidating for newer engineers or those less comfortable publicly asking for some of this information to contribute to the process in a meaningful way. You should periodically sort these questions into sections based on topic so that the end result isn't an unwieldy wall of text, but on the whole even a less sorted list can be helpful.

4. Immediately schedule knowledge shares for missing knowledge

It's most important to rapidly move the person leaving from doing work to moving knowledge to other people. One of the ways you can guarantee a big loss to your company is letting an engineer that is already leaving take all the knowledge they have accumulated, all the bugs they know exist and the tricks they have mastered to get around in your system, and leave without giving any of it away. While there may be important outstanding projects that need to be finished in the timeframe of this person moving on, a focus on getting down what can never be replaced is usually more important than knocking out a few extra tickets.

This is a tip that is also most likely to change as circumstances on the ground change. If there are major feature planning sessions or really important pieces of functionality that are due immediately, it may be more important for this person to finish these tasks than to immediately start writing notes and docs. That said, it's still often the right move to eat the producitivity hit and understand that some things will come in late. It also easier to account for a guaranteed miss on some deliverable than try to eke out a last few hours of work from someone whose productivity may already be on the downswing.

5. Assign a 'point person' for offboarding

The quickest way to get traction on any project is to assign someone to be the main shepherd of that work. Assigning a point person to be the go-to for the off-boarding process is useful for making sure nothing gets missed. It ensures that the teams remaining stay focused on their work and are minimally impacted by the transition process. It also means that the person being offboarded has a consistent line of communication to go through; any questions, issues that arise, or help this person needs to get things in order before leaving can be addressed to a single responsibly party.

Keeping these lines of communications clear is important from both sides. It may be that management has many questions for the person leaving, as do other team leads. Having a dozen interrupting meetings with a variety of concerned workers will make it difficult for the person to focus on sharing their knowledge in a consise and consistent way. They may be distracted and miss important information, or say something verbally that is not written down, but missed later because it was 'already said'.

These tips are only the starting point of making your offboarding process a clean and enjoyable one. They serve to help you keep your relationship with the former employee intact, as well as make sure the company continues chugging along without losing a ton of productive time whenever someone decides to leave. With the tech industry hitting an average attrition rate of 23%, it's important to plan for this inevitability. I hope this leaves you with a good starting point, and gives you some ideas on how to better your own processses.

[thegirlwiththedragonheart]

seethem-dancing replied to your post “Something that bugs me is when people tag anti posts in a general...”

That's one of the primary reasons I have most of the confession blogs blocked. Particularly Charmed Confessions which is notorious for not only directly violating tagging ethic by placing negative posts in character related tags. But ALSO - albeit not in every instance because only the first five tags show up in general tags (others being for blog organization) - publishing those posts in ACTORS' tags (lifting this already unsavory behavior to a new level of *cont*

reprehensible. Especially when a post features a blatantly inaccurate assessment of actor’s performance). I tend to promptly place such blogs on my block list as to not endorse the breach of etiquette. It’s a DELIBERATE&exceptionally unskillful baiting tactic to emotionally manipulate a reaction from people (which the users who anonymously submit posts to such blogs often take advantage of. As they know their factually incorrect statements will make their way into *cont*

character/couple appreciation tags and will be exposed to fans. Because it’s the ONLY way the logical fallacies of the submitter - who is used to their nonsense being rightfully regarded as irrelevant by intelligent people - will be acknowledged. Not because they actually have a valid point but because fans will be forced to stumble upon such posts&take action, be it refuting, ignoring or blocking. I.e the negative Chris confessions typically have the same *cont*

paraphrased sentiments, clearly submitted by the same person/people and barely get any reblogs or likes. Contrary to the positive Chris confessions that are being eagerly shared. Not just because his character was well received by the general audience - Drew’s departure as a regular after ONE season entailed a ratings drop as perceivable as Shannen’s departure and she was a LEAD for 3 full seasons; Chris&Piper have the highest number of fanfics dedicated to them *cont*

per FF.Net statistic; Drew is the only cast member to appear as a guest star in every season since his character was written off, see Charmed Wiki for verification; media outlets refer to Chris/Drew as “fan favourite” because online “Fandumb” and particularly the Phoebe-worshiping branch represent less than 1 percentage of viewing audience - but because positive confessions are appropriate for general character tags. Though a competent&responsible way of running a *cont*

confession blog is to have a separate tag for those posts and not place the general show/character/couple tags in the first five. Moreover, submitting negative confessions to a blog knowing they will appear in pro tags confirms that such users’ views can only be “relevant” when they’re inserted into places they don’t belong. I.e I don’t submit confessions about Phoebe manipulating&gas-lighting Chris, Leo&her sisters since S3 or *cont*

canonically engaging in predatory behaviors - and gas-lighting and/or mind-wiping her victims to make them forget about it - because I am aware that critique like this is not meant for pro-character tags. If I feel like discussing those issues I’ll make a properly tagged post on my blog about it).  

I'm not exactly a fan of the whole "sticking posts about a character into their actor's tag" thing, because, again, people tracking that tag want stuff about the actor, not the character. It's frustrating af to go into a tag to find stuff that shouldn't be in that tag. (I track Anna Milton on one of my roleplay blogs and I cannot tell you how sorely tempted I am to just blacklist Castiel or Destiel entirely, because of how many posts are mainly about that in Anna's tag.)

I mean, majority of confessions seem to be subjective, such as their favorite episodes, their thoughts on actors' performances, etc. I mean, my opinion on one of Holly's best scenes being when she breaks down at Prue's grave is just as subjective as me saying Prue telling Leo that they think they're the monsters or demons now is absolutely chilling.

The thing that probably bugs me the most is that, well, it's not that hard to tag it properly. Original posts only tag the first five tags, so it's not like it'd be super difficult to just tag anti [character] instead of [character] and then tag the character after the first five tags. I do it all the time on my blog, even if it's just a reblog. It's really annoying because it's not that hard to do, it only takes a few more seconds and it's showing basic fandom etiquette. I mean, I know people who include an anti tag, even if it's not an anti post, just to be sure that they don't upset fans of that character. Furthermore, it'd be more helpful to people who do have anti [character] blacklisted, because it's easier to them. It's just the fact that it's not that hard and an infinitely more respectful thing to do that frustrates the hell out of me.

[pocketwatchgames]

Patch 1.8: Season 6 & Precision Engineering

Patch 1.8: Season 6 & Precision Engineering

A new season starting with clean ranked leaderboards, a couple quality of life features and fixes regarding multiplayer games, and a few balance adjustments come with this patch. You'll also find some news about past/current/upcoming community events at the end of this announcement.

Ladder Reset

We have seen lots of familiar names in Season 5, but also some new players making it to the top of the ladder (in no particular order): NightSlayer, Kipo, Imari, Tatanka, Ploob, QQ, Trumpet, Melvinfro, Snake, The Gentleman, Arilou, mocaccino, Satoros, Tiki Gray, Pile, Big Pimpintosh, R22, Epicosity, James, and Meek have all made it past 1,000 points (hope I didn't miss anyone, you've been rushing past me way too fast).

Now we all go back to a fresh start. Have fun climbing the ladder, again, in Season 6, beginning now! (Or simply take a few steps and have a good time anywhere on that ladder.)

Balance Changes

These adjustments are mostly minor tweaks (Mole buff, Toad nerf, better counters against Barbed Wire), and a slightly bigger change to Mines, which are now faster to build, slower to sell, easier to reveal, and less efficient against units of higher tiers: That should shift their use towards offensive play, covering your retreat or protecting your siege and poke attacks.

Commander: Reveals cloaked enemies after standing still for 1.6s (from 2s)

Toad: 9 HP (from 8 HP), 1x speed (from 1.3x), 2 single target damage (from 4)

Mole: warren has 24 HP (from 18) and loses 2 HP (from 3) per Mole spawn; effectively increasing the durability of Mole warrens, and reducing the loss per Mole from 10 to 5 Food

Barbed Wire: 7 HP (from 14 HP), takes only 50% damage when touched; effectively making Wire more fragile against melee/aoe attacks and during construction

Mine: 5s build time (from 10s), 2s sell time during which the Mine is revealed/can be attacked; 8 single target damage (from 14), revealing that unit if it is cloaked/can cloak

Improvements and Fixes

Ranked matchmaking goes faster to full search range (14/14, which means any rank in any region) and restarts automatically every 2 minutes (with full search range) to prevent your lobby and search from timing out. (There has been a bug that prevented you from finding a match after searching for too long without restarting the search - should be better now!)

Hourly leaderboards don't get wiped completely when the next hour starts, only entries older than one hour disappear. (Thanks to pyro for significant help on this!) Also, the style of the "Me" filter changed, showing other players' rank in relation to yours.

Some players reported crashes in local FFA games due to a divide by zero error. I cannot reproduce that issue, but I changed something that will hopefully prevent this bug from occuring. (In case you've had that issue: please tell me whether it actually got better with this patch!)

Sometimes players started without a full deck in multiplayer games. This should no longer happen. It was a rare and irregular bug, though, so I cannot verify this is fixed 100% - please tell me if it still occurs!

Multiplayer on Mac has not been possible for a while due to some changes on the infrastructure TnT multiplayer is running on. but it's finally fixed!

PS4 crossplay is temporarily disabled while we figure out some issues on that platform.

Community Events

Running

The "Summer Open Lunch" of the (20)21 Duels just started. It's a competitive play-at-your-own-pace series of games against "bosses", each with their own special rules. See all details here ​ The TnT Dual Championship's grand finals will be streamed live, soon. This series of 2v2 matches has been interrupted due to the Mac multiplayer issue mentioned above, but now we are looking forward to see Premish vs MeekSlayer and Heartaru vs Satball in the semi-finals of the upper division, as well as SzenPaw (already qualified for finals) vs GEG (semi-), Gortoros or The Tatankas (quarter-finals) in the lower division - guess yourself who's in there or watch the finals to find out! ​ Tandordraco is now doing a show called TnTTalks on Twitch every other week, discussing various topics like tournaments, balance and meta with changing guests, showing highligths of recent games etc. - You can find it on Twitch or YouTube! ​ Kipo recently started a King of the Hill format: Players can claim a hill by winning a best of 5 match against a King of the Hill. There are four hills for different skill levels, and you can jump in or drop out at any time - just contact Kipo on the Pocketwatch Discord! ​

Past

The first season of the 2021 TnT Championship ended in March, with these medal-grabbers: Meek (1st), Melvinfro (2nd), and The Gentleman (3rd) in Premier Division; Tatanka (1st), Kerpa (2nd), and Epicosity (3rd) in Intermediate Division; Leon (1st), Tandordraco (2nd), and Cavernus (3rd) in Beginner Division. Congrats to you, and thanks to everyone taking part in the Championship, as player, organizer, caster or viewer on Twitch! ​ The idea of TnT Clan Wars may have started as a joke, but eventually they also became a cool new tournament ending earlier this year, with Lizard Wizard Magic beating the Toad Road Gang for first place, and the Badger Missionaries in third place. Congrats and thanks to everyone involved! ​ Enjoy and have a great feast! EELuminatus

[horatiosroom]

I’m going to enable asks on this blog again so that from now on any myspace questions you have can be answered here! 

It was also brought to my attention that some people might not be able to see those recent myspace au info posts (probably because i have c4rc4ss listed as a blog with sensitive content) so I’m going to paste the info here for you guys under the cut :^)

Anonymous said: omg i would love a visual novel of myspace au !!! (I would pay good money for it) but for now tho, did you take away anything from tlj to work into the au?? how is myspace 2.0 any different, if at all?

AAAAAAAAAAA YAY!!!!!!!!!! I’m hoping that once I hit my next goal on patreon then i’ll be able to dedicate more time to it~

Anywho, to take the story where I wanted it to go I stopped trying to fit concepts from the movies into it. At this point the only things connecting it to sw are the characters’ names and very VERY base personalities that were established in tfa, otherwise it’s become its own thing!

The au will explore the reasons for their weird experiments and the consequences that go along with them. For the au I don’t want to fetishize Hux experimenting on Kylo. As much as I’m into that in other iterations of the ship, their reasons for doing stuff like that here are related to complicated issues regarding intimacy.

I think the biggest change to the au is how Hux is presented. It would take a while for me to try to talk about how much of a characterization MESS he was initially so I’m not gonna get into that, haha. What I will say is that he has a consistent personality now. I’ll list some stuff that is integral to his character in the new version of the au:

Hux is still asexual. In this version he has had no experience with anyone and has difficulty initiating even simple types of affection (for example, he will touch Kylo’s lips with his fingers to ask for a kiss). He doesn’t have trouble touching people and isn’t shy, but touches with meaning are hard for him to figure out.

He has a tic disorder which manifests mostly as twitching and excessive blinking. He is self conscious of his disorder and thinks it makes him ugly.

His father and older brothers have an unhealthy view regarding Hux’s mental illnesses and tic disorder, treating him like an embarrassment and a freak. Hux has trouble accepting help from others because he is afraid that they want to “fix” him like his father and older brothers tried to do.

Hux’s interests can skew towards morbidity, but he has no desire to hurt anyone. He is afraid of the fact that blood and organs are more sensually appealing to him than any kind of sexual act. With good intentions, Kylo encourages Hux to explore these interests to make him more comfortable, but it results in some dangerous consequences.

He is fascinated by bugs. He collects specimens to inspect, display, and eat (if they’re edible).

Hux has a collection of items related to Kylo (strands of hair, beads from a broken kandi bracelet, slips of paper he doodled on and threw away, etc).

He often feels detached from reality, like he doesn’t even exist. This is why he feels more comfortable with bodies or specimens rather than people. Kylo is the only person who ever made him truly feel alive and happy and real.

He doesn’t intentionally self-harm, but Hux will scrape at his arms with his nails when he has a panic attack or dissociates.

Hux can be an asshole and will say rude things without thinking. He gets in trouble at school a lot for talking back to his teachers or making tactless jokes. His rudeness is more of a defense mechanism than a desire to actually be mean to people. He knows that others think he’s creepy or scary so to protect himself he just amps that up. One of the many reasons he likes Kylo is that Kylo ISN’T afraid of him and can see through the bullshit.

I could probably go on a lot longer about the other changes (remind me to talk in depth about Kylo!!), but I hope this gives a little more insight into MySpace 2.0 :^)

Anonymous said: Omg !! Tell us about Kylo in myspace 2.0 !!!

YES!!!!!!!!!!!! OKAY!!!!!

Kylo has the kind of personality that lets him befriend p much anybody, but those are only surface friendships. For all the thousands of myspace friends he has, he’s very lonely. He masks his depression and anger with an over-the-top persona which ends up hindering him further - not many people want to get to know who he really is underneath the impulsive melodramatic clown facade. He feels like people think of him as a joke and he doesn’t know how to change that because he put himself there in the first place.

With his parents divorced and Leia always busy, Kylo is desperate for attention which is one of the many reasons why the scene lifestyle appeals to him - he’s essentially a myspace celebrity and even though most of the people in the community are insincere, the attention he gets from all the drama makes him feel less empty.

Besides being starved for attention, Kylo is also starved for physical affection. This manifests in him going too far too fast and coming across as “slutty” even though ultimately he’s just looking for the comfort and security that physical closeness provide.

Kylo is nonjudgmental and appreciates people for their eccentricities or differences. He can see past things that other people might consider strange or off-putting. For example, Kylo doesn’t consider Hux’s tics to be unattractive - he likes how when Hux blinks a lot it draws attention to his pretty eyes and eyelashes.

When he has the time, Kylo helps his uncle Luke teach karate to younger kids.

Kylo doesn’t usually take the time to consider the consequences of his actions so he often finds himself in sticky situations.

He is more passionate about having fun and making others happy than about any particular hobby or field of study.

Kylo doesn’t realize this until later on, but what he likes most about Hux experimenting with him is that Hux will bandage him up and take care of him afterwards. He loves how meticulous and doting Hux is and tries to be on the receiving end of Hux’s care as much as possible.

Though unaware of his own true feelings a lot of the time, Kylo is very perceptive of others’ moods and is good at helping people feel better if they’re having a bad day.

[savetopnow]

2018-04-06 00 SEO now

SEO

Ahrefs Blog

7 Actionable Ways to Loot Your Competitors’ Backlinks

How many websites are mining cryptocurrency? We analyzed 175M+ domains to find out.

9 Actionable Ways To Find Anyone’s Email Address [Updated for 2018]

White Hat SEO: How to Play by the Rules and Win

How to Find and Fix Keyword Cannibalization Issues (in Seconds)

ClickZ

“Trading can be fun”: A look at TradeStation’s omnichannel rebrand

How should your business approach content creation?

Real-time advisor brands: Mobile customers usher in a new age of AI assistance

Augmented reality, outer space and emerging technology: How USA TODAY is revolutionizing journalism

Helping you choose the right SEO tool

Local SEO guide

Google’s Love/Hate Relationship With Being Human

Hacked Site Manual Action Report from Google? Try Bing To Find It

Peace Out To You, Sugar Rae!

Who Is Next In Local Listings Management?

A NodeJS Script for Accessing the Google Search Console API

Moz

How to Make Effective, High-Quality Marketing Reports & Dashboards

The Guide to Local Sponsorship Marketing - The 2018 Edition

How to Target Featured Snippet Opportunities - Whiteboard Friday

MozCon 2018: The Initial Agenda

Just How Much is Your Website Worth, Anyhow? An Easy Guide to Valuation

Reddit SEO

Does Moz`s 5- Day SEO Bootcamp worth it?

my backlinks are not getting indexed

I can't seen to find the answer to this question!

What methods should I employ to increase ranking and traffic of my product's website?

Seller and Product Ratings on Google

SEO Book Blog

Left is Right & Up is Down

Grist for the Machine

Virtual Real Estate

Rank Checker Update

DMOZ Shut Down

SEO by the Sea

Related Questions are Joined by ‘People Also Search For’ Refinements; Now Using a Question Graph

Google’s Mobile Location History

Does Google Use Latent Semantic Indexing?

Google Targeted Advertising, Part 1

Google Giving Less Weight to Reviews of Places You Stop Visiting?

Search Engine Journal

SEO for Rich Results: How to Find & Fix Structured Data Errors by @ab80

4 Pillars of a Successful Legal Content Strategy by @xandervalencia

A Winning Formula For B2B Content Creation by @alexanderkesler

Facebook Makes it Easier to Split Test Ads by @MattGSouthern

Bing Ads Introduces Price Extensions by @MattGSouthern

Search Engine Land

Final call to enter the 2018 Search Engine Land Awards

SearchCap: Bing Ads extensions, Apple hires Google exec & local image bug

In big win, Apple hires Google AI chief John Giannandrea away from Google

7 ways to turn a webinar into a stream of link-attracting content

Maya Angelou Google doodle features Oprah Winfrey, Laverne Cox & others reciting her poem, ‘Still I Rise’

Search Engine Roundtable

April 2018 Google Webmaster Report

Google SEO Snippets Video: Multiple Sitemap Files

SEO: Does Google Treat Content With Quotes Or Brackets Differently?

Google Uses Many Signals To Know What & If To Show Dates In Search Snippets

Bing Ads Price Extensions

Search Engine Watch

Technical SEO vs content marketing: Which should SEOs focus on?

A quick and easy guide to meta tags in SEO

Hyperlocal SEO: What is it, and how can you make sure you do it right?

AI and machine learning: What you do and don’t need to know for SEO

How to migrate your WordPress website domain name

Searchmetrics Blog

Unwrapping the Secrets of SEO: Google Mobile-First Rollout Creates Opportunity to Profit or Perish

Memo to Modern Marketer: Seven Tips to Successfully Tag-Teaming Your Search and Content Strategy

Universal Search 2018: 5 Facts for Online Marketers

Google Core Algorithm Update: The Phantom Comes Out of the Shadows

NCAA March Madness: Painting the Court With Numbers

Yoast

Yoast conference update: Where were we in March?

Caroline’s Corner: Finding inspiration for your next blog post

SEO basics: The difference between tags and categories

Yoast SEO 7.2: Fixes and improvements

Is Fact Check for Yoast SEO a joke?

[alexander7529jac]

Upright Vacuum Cleaner

In the event that you are the normal property holder, at that point claiming an upstanding vacuum bodes well. They are ground-breaking enough to deal with cover and many accompany connections to let you dust wood planks, furniture, racking, and so forth. A large number of the more up to date upstanding vacuums have movable settings so you can change from rugs to uncovered floors. Another element to consider are the bagless upstanding vacuums which wipe out the need to supplant the vacuum pack. 

You essentially take out the residue/trash gatherer receptacle and dump it in your trash bin. One basic objection among upstanding vacuum clients for quite a long time has been that the more obstructed and filled the pack got, the less incredible the pull became on the vacuum. With the new bagless vacuums you can empty the receptacle regularly and keep the intensity of your vacuum at top levels. Upstanding versus Canister vacuums? 

The overall guideline is on the off chance that you have half or more covers in your home, go with the upstanding vacuum cleaner for better results.Upright vacuums accompany a few essential alternatives like fog light, cover stature change, turn caster frameworks for unrivaled mobility, guard monitors along the front and side of the machine to help shield from hitting your furnishings or smashing into dividers, they have cleaning ways that go from 12" to 15" wide, they are self-moved, and furthermore have connections like a cleft device, upholstery device, tidying brush, and a hose or vacuum tube.

 A few models have "full sack pointers" that let you realized when to purge the residue pack and a few offer HEPA (High Efficiency Particulate Air) fixed framework channels to shield hypersensitivity victims from dust, dust vermin, and other pet allergens that get drew up off your floors. Numerous upstanding vacuums can be excessively hefty and difficult to move, however most we read about have self-moved frameworks that are just showing signs of improvement. Search for models that have on/off switches for the brush roller so you can do vacuuming on both uncovered floors and covers. The top brands for upstanding vacuums are Hoover, Eureka, Dyson, Sebo, Bissell, Miele, and Electrolux. 

A considerable lot of us have known about Kirby vacuums (offered entryway to entryway), however they will in general be overrated and surveys are blended so we left them off our rundown underneath. Concerning Oreck, they are vigorously promoted on TV and infomercials and do perform well in master testing situations, however when contrasted with equivalent models from Dyson or Miele they are excessively costly.

 We read customer audits  and took a gander at master assessments in the Wall Street Journal andThe Dyson DC25 Animal ($475) gets the best generally appraisals from specialists and shoppers the same for its mind blowing pull capacity. There are no sacks to purchase or channels to supplant since this model is bagless. The lifetime guarantee on the HEPA channel give you the most significant levels of filtration for cleaner ousted air. The residue canister is anything but difficult to purge and included highlights like the low arrive at cover instrument, smaller than expected turbine head, and rug care pack make the Dyson Animal vacuum a universally handy purchase. 

Creature proprietors have the best comments about the Dyson vacuum saying the little turbine head "cleans creature hide and hair from steps, couches, and vehicles" like no other. The low arrive at floor instrument is extraordinary for getting under beds and bigger furniture pieces. The pull power is the thing that separates this Dyson from different vacuums and it tidies up earth, pieces, spills and pet hair without any problem. 

Numerous buyers state this will be "the last vacuum they actually purchase" which is solid applause for any vacuum. In spite of the fact that it is more costly than the normal upstanding vacuum, proprietors state it merits the extra expense as it gets residue and soil much better leaving your home clean and residue free. The Sebo Automatic X4 Extra Upright Vacuum Cleaners ($750) is unquestionably an extravagance vacuum cleaner that is ideal for those with sensitivity issues to dust and residue parasites. The Sebo is a top dealer on Allergy related sites for its capacity to ease sensitivity victims manifestations in their homes. 

The X4 has a medical clinic grade HEPA Filter that channels out 99.9% of all particles down to .3 microns. The belts are ensured for the life of the machine (at the cost they ought to be). Despite the fact that the Sebo is costly when contrasted with different vacuums, numerous individuals who have hypersensitivity issues state the bit of brain with this machine merits the expense. On the off chance that you don't experience the ill effects of hypersensitivities, at that point go with the Dyson above or the Eureka for a superior worth.

 My girl has dust bug sensitivities and my better half has awful residue hypersensitivities, so we bought the Sebo some time back and are content with the outcomes up until this point. Less residue implies a more joyful family. I wish they would change the plan since it's not exceptionally engaging in current homes. One analyst said all that needed to be said that it looks like something "from the 1979 plan bin".The Eureka 4870GZ Boss Smart-Vac Upright Vacuum ($120) is the good old sacked vacuum cleaner, yet commentators rate this model amazingly high in different territories. 

It accompanies a genuine HEPA filtration framework (incredible for hypersensitivity victims), a widetrack cleaning way, a force paw step brush (comes in truly helpful), and parcel of on board instruments for cleaning those difficult to arrive at territories. Proprietors state the attractions power on this sub $150 vacuum is second to none in this value classification. Clients likewise notice that the on/off brush roller switch permits them to go from floor coverings to hardwoods easily. 

Numerous vacuums that don't have an off catch for the brush roller make it almost difficult to tidy up scraps and residue balls on hardwoods or flooring since they drive the molecule away from the pull. The Eureka does some amazing things here and shoppers state you don't have to have a canister vacuum on the off chance that you own the Eureka setting aside significantly more cash. There is somewhat gathering required and you should discover trade packs for this model. One downside is that the Boss doesn't have a self-drive framework making it a touch hard to maneuver.

The Hoover U5140-900 Tempo Widepath Bagged Upright Vacuum ($60) despite the fact that not bagless, is as yet viewed as a great modest vacuum that has a 15-inch cleaning width, allergen filtration framework, a registration pointer, a locally available tidying brush, furniture spout, cleft device, and an incredible 12-amp engine. Innumerable surveys state this "vacuum is astonishing for the cash". 

The Hoover Tempo performs well and has been suggested by Consumer Reports as a "great worth". Clients state its shockingly light and has solid attractions. You might have the option to discover vacuums with more force or better residue assortment, however at $60 you can't go wrong.More and more upstanding vacuums are being made without those massive vacuum packs. 

Specialists state the individuals who experience the ill effects of hypersensitivities should avoid vacuums without packs (bagless), however a few sensitivity victims we realize say the bagless models give them bit of brain that they can really observe the residue and allergens being gathered in the straightforward residue container.

 The decision is still out, however apparently bagless vacuums are the method of things to come and finding and finding packs that actually fit more established stowed vacuums may turn out to be excessively troublesome and power all vacuum proprietors to go bagless.

[codeavailfan]

programming assignment help

Programming Assignment Help 

In the event that you are chipping away at Registration in your higher examinations, you should realize the challenges related with the subject. Regardless of what you attempted to get a dynamic thought, you'll most likely experience issues when drafting an undertaking. With many understudies looking for program help, the interest for help doled out an online program is expanding. However, finding the correct individuals to help your enlisted task is a troublesome assignment since coding specialists are an uncommon race. 

All things considered, not more! This gives you a multitude of master coders, prepared to convey critical program task help. 

We have been serving understudies in their need for longer than 10 years at this point. At whatever point understudies look for help enlisting schoolwork, we are their decision. We are here to help understudies at whatever point they require quick enrollment help on the web. We have space explicit specialists on board to nail errands delicately. Utilize our specialists and atta boys scored this term. Peruse on to discover why it is our best choice you can pick. 

Separate arrangement of Assigned Registered Assistance 

We have a modest bunch of exceptionally qualified program undertakings aides who put forth fair attempts to draft your paper brilliantly. Contingent upon our specialists and get flawless assistance with enrollment assignments. 

Let our specialists dole out the best program to end every one of your errands addresses. You should simply pick our live visit choice and look for help from software engineering schoolwork or program task help. Offer your information and profit of the numerous administrations being offered, whenever you need help with your enrolled undertakings. 

Customized Help on Homework on Computer Science 

Committed PC and programming task assists specialists with chipping away at the designs. The journalists are notable for various programming sorts and assist you with beating all the impediments. They work with illustrations planning programming and movements to draft faultless schoolwork. So how about we help you with your coding undertakings and put astounding answers for your educators. 

We likewise have supportive specialists in enlisting schoolwork that works in systems administration. They can give the best translation of distributed computing, information base stockpiling the board, PC network planner, etc. 

Come to us with your "Would you be able to do my enrolled assignments for me?" and illuminate programs on Web Development, Cloud Computing, Software Development and so on. 

Snap Away Registration Tasks as it were 

We will assist you with programming task by distinguishing the fundamental thoughts, deciding the paper's prerequisites to make it immaculate, and so on. Our authors are code-insane people, and they know everything about programming dialects. They are specialists in various coding dialects, for example, Java, C++, and Python. Exploit our modest, alloted supportive projects and score the ensured top evaluations. 

There are proficient web designers in our administration that causes you draft task of an extraordinary program. The journalists showed their aptitude and accommodation with different web improvement apparatuses. Get best online programming assignment help now.

Their assist will with being perfect to enlist schoolwork this term. Send your programming undertakings to us and get the assistance of an incorporated group of expert coders. 

Aside from coding, we furnish PC task help with other enlisted highlights, beginning from information bases to man-made brainpower. You can likewise come to us with themes, for example, Algorithmic Mathematics speculations and information structure. We have individuals who are mindful of various parts of projects. Their ability will overpower and blame the paper. 

Amaze for Professors with top of the line arrangements today. Exploit our particular help with programming task. Send us those solicitations "Make my enrolled task" when immaculate task arrangements get back at level costs. 

Test Question and Reconciliation of Registration Task 

COMMONS20245 Introduction to Registration 

& Question: 

Evaluation Task 

You need to compose a Java reassure application that computes and characterizes BMI (Body Mass Index) for people. The quantity of people (N) is set at 10, so it ought to be proclaimed last N= 10 in your program. 

BMI is determined utilizing the accompanying condition: 

BMI = weight/(tallness * stature) 

Where the weight is in kilograms and the tallness in meters. 

The World Leadership Registration Assignment Helps Your Disposition 

At the point when you pick us, you pick the absolute most astounding mentalities as partners for undertakings. Firmly weaved groups, made out of chosen software engineers and coders, progress in the direction of building up the most ideal answer for every one of your enlisted errands. 

Be C, C++, C#, R, Java, Python, HTML, JavaScript, PHP; Our coding shepherds will convey exact and without bug coding task help to all requests. With intensive information and unwritten program composing abilities, our mentors will create compelling and easy to understand codes. Conveyed with pulled flowcharts well, all arrangements are: 

Clear and stable 

Open and productive 

No bug and sound coherently 

Effectively Variable 

Inhabitants here are coded exceptionally talented in all motorcades and enlisted grade school subordinates. They have the essential aptitudes and experience to complete pro projects in any language, regardless of whether: 

Fundamental Languages 

Organized Languages 

Procedural Languages 

Things Oriented Languages 

Practical Languages 

It is an assurance that you will never get extensive online program help anyplace else on the Web or the Dark Web. 

The rising project is an order. As machines become all the more impressive and incredible, their guidelines extended. All coding is a fantasy to outfit the potential and use them to accomplish astonishing mechanical accomplishments, creating codes that machines would now be able to do to learn and ship as people. Software engineers here are visionaries about a similar dream that coding is an enthusiasm and fixation. 

Our web based programming help without a model will assist you with giving a program arrangement on: 

Sort and Search Problems 

Hierarchical Operations 

Information Structure Operations on Binary Trees, Linked Lists, Stacks and Queues 

Hashing 

Reusing and Manipulation Strings 

Dynamic Registration 

Numeric and Maths Operations and some more. 

Developing writing computer programs is a control. As machines become all the more remarkable and incredible, grow their arrangements of directions. Each coding is a fantasy about saddling the potential and utilizing them to accomplish astounding innovative accomplishments, creating codes that machines would now be able to do to learn and act as people. Developers here are dreams about that equivalent dream that coding is an energy and fixation. 

Our web based programming help without a model will assist you with giving a program arrangement on: 

Sort and Search Problems 

Association Operations 

Information Structure Operations on Binary Trees, Linked Lists, Stacks and Queues 

Hashing 

Reusing and Manipulation Strings 

Dynamic Registration 

Numeric and Maths Operations and some more. 

So dispose all things considered and designation the entirety of your enrolled errands to our mentors. Let us deal with your issues as you center around the most significant thing, i.e., learn. 

All arrangements are organized and indent to expand code clarity and openness. Our occupants offer suppositions at all basic focuses and convey flowcharts and calculations to each program. So when you look for coding task help from us, you just gain proficiency with your errands, you get familiar with the exchange of producing extraordinary codes. 

All our skill comes to you at probably the most magnificent costs ever. It's simply one more assistance that offers such comparative quality at such amazing costs. So pay us for your enrolled assignments and get your cabinet loaded up with grants and accomplishments. 

What's straightaway, there's a progression of incredible individuals hanging tight for you when you choose to pay us for your enrolled assignments. Exploit the most broad coding task help on the Web by us and go while in transit to turning into an effective coder today. 

A wealth of advantages with our web based programming assignment help 

Is it true that you are burnt out on battling with complex programming assignments? Take a pee pill and use program task help at one here as it were. Instead of giving the help of specialists, we additionally give you different grounds to declare us. Look and plan for your closest companion to accomplish for us. 

Speedy conveyance of requests 

You can likewise offer for the injury of missing cutoff times relying upon us. Our specialists welcome the significance of presenting the work before the cutoff time. In this manner, they made legit endeavors to complete the paper even before the guaranteed date. No other enrolled undertakings composing administrations can convey the work as fast as possible. 

Full consistence with the prerequisites 

Your educators can never take grades from your paper by conveying postcard issues. We follow all headings easily and make the best undertaking. You can set a model in your group by submitting perfect paper and scoring the best grades this term. 

Appreciate a quick reaction from client care 

Try not to spare a moment to call us at whatever point an inquiry comes in your psyche. You don't need to sit tight for the ideal time. We have a group of committed client assistance chiefs who consistently resolve the issue with brisk measures. You can call us, email us or even pick our live talk choice. 

100% inventiveness on paper 

We are alluded to as the best site that allocates programs for our zero copyright infringement ensures. We have a thorough enemy of copyright infringement strategy that our scholars follow while dealing with scholastic papers. Our essayists utilize valid locators to erase the parts that may have literary theft follows. We additionally give reports as verification of our realness. 

So at whatever point you need any assistance with your enlisted task, pick our specialists immediately. Visit the site, share your subtleties, dispatch in the request structure and find exact arrangements here. 

Get Premium Services with our Free Enrunding Homework 

Try not to trouble yourself to search for enrolled errands when we're here to relieve your budgetary weight. On the off chance that you need pressing system task help, ask you 'on the off chance that you c

[bloggertutor]

KadenceWP Products and Membership Honest Value and Detailed Review

KadenceWP Quick Introduction

Before proceeding to complex thing let us just know more about kadencewp.com. They are reside in the beautiful city of Missoula, Montana. As a independent WordPress Theme and Plugin brand their reputation is going toward light of candle. They have few trending themes and plugins in which Kadence theme is most creative and Kadence block is most used block add-on plugin.

KadenceWP Products

As I already mentioned they have both theme and plugins. I am going to give you brief intro about their products which will include feature and pricing.

WordPress Themes by KadenceWP

They have 4 Free and Paid Multipurpose Themes with excellent and clean design and they have few things common like all of them have 3 bar Header and Footer builder and All of them are optimized for speed sop you are not going to face speed issue in any of their theme.

Features included in all of their themes

1. Responsive Design

All kadencewp themes will adapt to fit any screen size, from desktops to mobile phones. This feature in every theme is very important since it affects SEO and User Engagement.

3. Highly Customizable

They have very easy and extensively Customizable theme. You can customize your site to have your unique style.

5. Five Star Support

For when you need support, they are here with superior support and expert advice that goes the extra distance.

2. Translation Ready

All their themes support multilingual plugins like WMPL, Polylang etc. There is native support for RTL languages and everything can be translated. So you can use them in any language website

4. Highly Optimized for Speed

They have themes that are optimized for speed with clean coding practices and support for top speed techniques.

6. Major plugins Compatibility

We code our themes to WordPress standards to allow you to work with your favourite plugins.

1. Kadence Theme by KadenceWP (New and Trending)

Do you know which theme I am using on bloggertutor? Guess what?

Yes, It is Kadence theme by kadenceWP that I am using on bloggertutor.com and you can see the clean and responsive look of this theme. It's the first free theme known to me with all these features. Even most of the premium theme is lacking these features. And the most interesting thing is they are improving and adding more and more new feature that they think their users are going to need.

Full Details

Download Free

According to theme this new generation theme and you can build effective and clean websites with a fast easy to use theme built for the next generation of WordPress.

2. Ascend WordPress Theme by Kadencewp

Honestly I can't say this as multipurpose but yes it is very lightweight, clean with a completely customizable header including a very stylish vertical menu and a stunning transparent header that changes as you scroll.

Honestly, I have never used this theme personally but I have seen demos and features on paper. According to that this is not a fancy theme but yes it is very classic for personal blog.

3. Pinnacle WordPress Theme by Kadencewp

This particular theme is uniquely designed to display beautiful large images with a modern design. Content is displayed with subtle bubble style backgrounds with a slightly off white background adding contrast. This theme loves to show off images

Full Detail

Free Download

Live Demo

If you are working on Fashion Niche or Recipe Niche where you love sharing the image on your blog then this theme is going to give the next level of experience. Because this theme mainly focused on Image showcase.

4. Virtue WordPress Theme by KadenceWP

As you can see in the picture this is a multipurpose theme with page builder compatibility to make it more flexible in page design. You can use this theme on your e-commerce store, on blog website or on course website etc.

It comes packed with tons of options from header styles to clean layouts. This versatile theme gives you powerful control over your site.

Full Detail

Free Download

Live Demo

Extra ->Virtue Bold WordPress Child Theme

As the name suggests it a premium child theme built on the power of Virtue Theme but accomplishes its own bold style. Its sharp layout features make for a clean look that is both elegant and unique.

Full Detail

Free Download

Live Demo

WordPress Plugins by KadenceWP

KadenceWP have Approx 18 Free and Premium plugin included the best Selling Kadence Block Pro.

1. Kadence Blocks

They have Free and Paid version of Kadence block addon for Gutenberg to extend the functionality and features of normal block editor r block editor. This is a powerful page builder too and can be even used for complex page design.

View Details

If you like to create compelling content with Gutenberg editor you are going to love this plugin.

2. Kadence Woo Extras

It's a WooCommerce extension that extends the overall look and functionality. It has eleven premium extensions that make woocommerce better. Some main features are Advanced Reviews, Variation Swatches, Checkout Customizer, Cart notices and so much more.

Official Site

3. Kadence Slider

Every Elegant website need a slider and your this requirement is completed by kadenceWP team with their Kadence Slider plugin. They claim it as a fast and powerful slider with individual layer control.

4. Kadence AMP

AMP version of the website is not only fast but has a great impact on SEO. Kadence Team has it's lightweight and fast AMP plugin with Clean look to handle all your AMP audience. You can add Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) for WordPress and it also works with WooCommerce Products.

5. WooCommerce Email Designer

You know that WordPress Emails are too old looking and simple but If you need all your email to be Customized with your brand theme and color, Kadence WooCommerce Email Designer is for you. It can also design the default WooCommerce email templates and text.

6. Kadence WooCommerce Elementor

Every WooCommmerce Store has same look and Feel. An experienced developer can simply distinguish between Standard Ecom store and Woo Store. To give your Store Unique look, Kadence WooCommerce Elementor combines with Elementor page builder to build custom layouts for your products in WooCommerce using the amazing Elementor page building experience. Plus customize archive and checkout pages.

7. Kadence WooCommerce SiteOrigin Builder

If you are looking for a Woocommerce addon for SiteOrigin Page builder to build custom layouts for your store in WooCommerce product, archive and checkout pages this plugin is for you.

8. Kadence Galleries

Creating Galleries can impress your visitor and increase engagement on your site. You can easily create galleries and albums using kadence gallery plugin. You can also display captions, titles and categories with each image. Easily set up a category filter and choose from many layout styles

9. Kadence Related Content

Related content makes your visitor feel connected as you show them their interest in wise related posts. Select, order and define the exact content that you want to entice your readers with to further investigate or connect with your site using Kadence Related Plugin.

11. Kadence Simple Share

I believe that audience is money and hence link products to your blog posts and show in a carousel to upsell and further engage your readers.

12. Kadence Reading Time

Everyone have lack of time, so before reading a post they want to know ho much time it is going to take. Let’s you easily add an estimated reading time to your WordPress posts.

13. Kadence Page Transitions

As you know, First Impression last impression so create and add an elegant animation transitions to page navigation to make it more impressive .

14. Kadence Custom Fonts

Honestly, I believe in using as less as possible font to make it fast and clean. But if you need to add different fonts in different part of your website you can go with Kadence Custom Font. It helps you to easily add custom fonts to your site and assign them through the theme options panel.

15. Kadence reCAPTCHA

Bots and Spams are most dangerous enemy of a blog or website. To prevent spam, Add reCAPTCHA to comments, login, contact forms using Kadence reCaptcha.

16. Kadence Widget Dock

This is a powerful tool for e-commerce and affiliate website. You can use it to create a clean and elegant way to place content or marketing offers in front of your users in a non-intrusive manner.

17. Kadence Fullpane Vertical Slider

Parallax effect is in trending in the field of the website designing. For the same purpose The beautiful full-page slider that flows naturally with native scroll and allows for any type of content. Build inside SiteOrigin page builder!

18. Kadence Pricing Table

Last but not least, Pricing tables are something that should be clean and awesome. Create beautiful pricing tables that stand out and increase your sales using kadnce pricing tale plugin.

Support and Update Quality

I will tell you about their all products later with pricing and feature but let us talk about the most important thing in WordPress development which is update and support quality of themes and plugins.

I am a Lifetime Member of kadencewp community and I can say with confidence that you will be surprised from their Support and Update. They reply emails very frequently and their plugins and themes are getting regular updates.

The most impressive thing about kadencewp brand is they have a separate developer for their different products, So when you email them regarding the issue of any products you will get a response from their corresponding developer to make support quality way better than others. I love this idea 💡.

They have a Community forum too share bugs and request features and they replly you there within 24hr. Also if you are using any of their free products, you are going to get support from them which makes feel very professional and helpful for users.

To Reach with kadencewp Support Team you can leave a mail at support@kadencewp.com or at info@kadencewp.com. If you want to join their social page visit here Facebook page.

Kadence Membership

These days purchasing WordPress themes and plugins from any brand is normal but if you need multiple product from same vendor and you don't want to pay them again and again, the membership role comes into play.

For same reason, So that Their users don't need to pay for each product every time, Kadence have Yearly and Lifetime Membership Plan.

Kadencewp Yearly and Lifetime Membership Plan

These plans have Identical authority, which means you can access all Products of kadencewp from both of membership plans.The only difference between Yearly and Lifetime membership is duration.

Is Membership of KadneceWP Worth?

The answer is yes because they have plenty of premium quality useful themes and plugins which you can use on the unlimited website after purchasing their membership plan.

Read More https://bloggertutor.com/kadencewp-products-and-membership/?feed_id=703&_unique_id=5f2c1aa879432 #wordpress #plugins #theme #tools#kadence #kadence_lifetime #kadence_membership #kadencewp

[charlieharry1]

An a to z Guide To Digital Marketing

Computerized promoting can some of the time be jumbled with language and shortened forms so to get you out, we've  Digital Marketing Agencies in Southampton ordered a start to finish Guide to Digital Marketing terms.

Regardless of whether you're totally new to the universe of Digital Marketing, or you simply need a fast invigorate; we have you secured with the meanings of the most well known trendy expressions beneath.

Presently, this is a stout perused, so don't hesitate to add to our start to finish Guide to Digital Marketing to your bookmarks to plunge all through, and allude back to, when required!…

A

Advertisement Copy

The content showed to a client who sees an advert, typically either a paid inquiry or social advertisement.

Advertisement Extensions

Extra snippets of data which can be added to paid inquiry advertisements to help make promotions progressively instructive for clients. Advertisement Extensions incorporate sitelinks, snap to call, surveys, area and so forth.

Read Also:-  “Domain name scam”, what is it, and how it works?

Alt Text

Alt text, or elective content, is added to the code of a site to depict the appearance/capacity of pictures on a page. The Alt text gives picture setting and depictions to web search tool crawlers, empowering them to file and picture effectively. They additionally help outwardly debilitated clients, who are perused the alt text to assist them with understanding the page content.

Alt Tag

A HTML quality of the IMG tag. The content gets showed in the event that the picture can't be stacked.

AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages)

Quickened Mobile Pages (AMP) is an open-source coding standard for distributers. The focus on AMP is for distributers to have the option to stack destinations rapidly on portable since versatile responsive could be cumbersome and moderate since work area assets are overwhelming.

Stay Text

The noticeable content that is contained in a connection.

B

Backlink

A connection starting with one site then onto the next. Backlinks are seen by Google as 'votes of trust' thus picking up backlinks to your site from others assists with improving the authority of your site.

Backlink Audit

The errand completed to discover backlinks that contender destinations have accomplished with the goal that we can hail up chances to get more backlinks to our customer's site.

Blackhat SEO

The name for all SEO rehearses that are known for being manipulative or untrustworthy, and over the long haul can hurt your site, or even get it restricted from web crawlers.

Bot

A bot, at times known as a 'crawler' or 'bug', visits sites to creep the substance, with the end goal for it to be positioned and remembered for list items.

Bob Rate

The level of site guests that leave quickly without clicking or communicating with any bit of the page. Normal ricochet rates will in general be between 40-60%, in any case, the lower the better.

C

Sanctioned

Code that is added to a website page to show whether a bit of substance is unique or copied from elsewhere. Content taken from different spots should point the sanctioned to the first source URL. Canonicals can be utilized to keep away from copy content issues inside a site.

Transformation Rate

The level of site guests that do changes (total a predefined objective). For instance, on the off chance that you had 10 site guests and 3 finished your objective, the transformation rate would be 30%.

Transformation Value

How much a transformation is worth or the money related estimation of items purchased.

Transformations

At the point when a client makes the ideal move or finishes a predetermined objective on your site. A transformation can be a wide range of things from purchasing an item to joining to an email list.

Cost

The sum spent on paid promoting efforts.

Cost per Acquisition (CPA)

Otherwise called Cost per Conversion, CPA is a paid publicizing metric. It gauges what amount has been spent to procure another lead/client or transformation. It is determined utilizing the accompanying recipe:

CPA = Amount Spent (Cost)/Number of Conversions

Cost per Click (CPC)

The normal sum a tick to your site (from a paid advertisement) has cost. It is determined utilizing the accompanying recipe:

Cost per Click = Amount Spent/Clicks

Active clicking factor (CTR)

The level of clients who navigated to the site, in the wake of being served a promotion. It is determined utilizing the accompanying equation:

Active visitor clicking percentage = Clicks/Impressions x 100

D

Catalog

Sites that rundown organizations either in a specific area or with comparable subjects. Indexes can be useful for SEO reasons for building backlinks to your site.

Area Authority (DA)

A web crawler positioning score, running from 1-100, created by Moz that predicts how well a site will rank on internet searcher result pages. Area Authority is determined by assessing variables, for example, connecting root areas and the quantity of all out connections – it is a decent pointer of how definitive your site is considered by a web index.

Space Name

Your one of a kind location on the web. for example.

Copy Content

Content that shows up in more than one spot (i.e: at various web addresses). On the off chance that there are different bits of the equivalent or "obviously comparative" content in more than one spot on the web, web crawlers think that its hard to choose which adaptation is increasingly pertinent to the pursuit inquiry. Google likewise reports pages with minimal substance (slender substance) as copy pages.

E

Outer Link

A connection on a website page that focuses to a page on an alternate webpage. i.e: If another site connects to you, this is an outer connect to your site.

F

Included Snippets

An extraordinary sort of natural query output showed at the head of the outcomes page when Google discovers content that explicitly addresses a client's inquiry. The included scrap square shows an outline of the appropriate response, separated from a site page, just as a connection in a stressed design.

Follow/NoFollow Links

Followed joins, now and again alluded to as 'Dofollow' joins, permit web crawlers to tail them and arrive at the webpage being connected to, likewise passing on interface value.

G

Google Ads/AdWords

A web based publicizing stage created by Google, where sponsors can pay to show advertisements to clients scanning for their items or administrations. It's the device we use to make, oversee and upgrade PPC crusades.

Google Analytics

An instrument we use to gather and investigate information about traffic going to a site including the quantity of guests, pages visited, exchanges did and so forth.

H

Header Tags (h1, h2, h3 and so forth)

Header labels are utilized to arrange text headings on a website page. They are the titles and subcategories of a website page and help demonstrate to perusers and web crawlers what the page is about.

They utilize a falling arrangement where a page ought to have only one H1 (principle title) however underneath can be different H2s (captions) and each H2 can have H3s underneath (sub-captions).

HTML

Represents Hypertext Markup Language. HTML is a lot of codes that advise an internet browser how to show a site page.

I

Picture Alt Tags

An alt tag, otherwise called "alt trait" and "alt portrayal," is a HTML ascribe applied to picture labels to give a book choice to web indexes.'

Impressions

A term utilized in PPC publicizing that speaks to how frequently an advertisement was appeared to clients.

Inbound Link

A backlink highlighting your site.

Ordering

Ordering is the way toward including site pages into Google search – Google bots will creep your site and list your pages.

Inner Link

A connection on a page that focuses to another page on a similar site. e.g: a connection from an item page on your site to your 'Conveyance' page would be an inner connection.

K

Catchphrase Density

A number portraying how regularly a particular expression show up in a bit of text. To compute it isolate the occasions your watchword shows up in a bit of text by the absolute number of words this bit of text has, and afterward increase the outcome by 100.

Catchphrases (fat-head and long-tail)

Significant words or search terms that you need to enhance and rank your site to show up for in indexed lists.

Fat-head catchphrases are commonly a couple of words long, they are wide watchwords which will in general carry the most traffic to your site. Be that as it may, as there will be many individuals focusing on these watchwords, rivalry can be furious.

Long-tail catchphrases contain at least 3 words and in spite of the fact that the traffic volumes are commonly much lower they will in general proselyte better as they are normally increasingly explicit inquiry questions.

Catchphrase Ranking

The position your site shows up in indexed lists for a given catchphrase.

Watchword Research

Watchword research is done to find a scope of catchphrases that have great inquiry volumes and will carry traffic to your site. You would then be able to focus on these catchphrases by streamlining your site duplicate to remember them for applicable spots.

Catchphrase Stuffing

The act of taking a word or an expression and rehashing it time and again in a bit of duplicate.

L

Idle Semantic Indexing (LSI)

LSI watchwords are catchphrases that are like your principle one – catchphrases that are generally found along your primary catchphrase in the characteristic language. LSI is a method of checking whether the content is certifiable or simply loaded down with arbitrary watchwords only for improving rankings.

Third party referencing

Third party referencing is the act of picking up backlinks to your webpage from different sites. They're otherwise called 'outer connections' or 'inbound connections'.

Connecting Domains

The all out number of various sites (areas) connecting back to you.

Every area could be connecting to you from various pages on their site, which means the quantity of inbound connections is higher than the quantity of connecting areas.

Connection Equity/Link Juice

An internet searcher positioning element  Digital Marketing Agency in Southampton dependent on the possibility that specific connections pass worth and authority starting with one page then onto the next. The worth went from the connecting page relies upon its power and pertinence

M

Metadata

Metadata is the thing that shows up on web index results pages when a site comes up for specific questions and is comprised of meta titles

Follow US:-  Facebook,  Twitter,  LinkedIn , YouTube

[t-baba]

Safari to get WebExtensions (and more from WWDC)

#446 — June 24, 2020

Read on the Web

Frontend Focus

Safari 14 Beta Release Notes — Revealed at this week’s WWDC, Safari 14 will ship alongside iOS 14 & macOS 11 later this year. Here are the headlines:

Adds support for WebP images and HDR video playback;

Support for HTTP/3;

Ditches Flash;

Will support both the :is() and :where() pseudo-selectors;

…and adds Web Extensions support to the macOS version (more below).

Apple

Welcoming Safari to the WebExtensions Community — Yup, Safari is adopting a Web-based API for browser extensions similar to Firefox’s WebExtensions API making it easy to build once and port to multiple browsers (including Chrome). Here's Apple's intro video on how to get started.

Mozilla Hacks

New Course: React Native — Leverage your JavaScript and React skills for mobile iOS and Android platforms using React Native – ship your very own native mobile applications.

Frontend Masters sponsor

Prefetching? At This Age? — An excellent trip down the rabbit hole of caching, CDNs, what issues can occur when both clients and CDNs are caching content, and how the Age HTTP header helps. Plus a Chromium bug, just for good measure.

Tim Kadlec

An Overview of Scroll Technologies — There are a number of scroll related technologies out there (parallax, scroll snap, etc), so this article’s aim is to provide an overview of them and tools to help choose the one that’s right for you.

Zach Saucier

▶  New Features and Improvements for Safari and WebKit — More from Apple! Following the main WWDC 2020 Keynote, Apple are sharing a number of sessions throughout the week covering extensions, privacy, APIs, CSS and JS, web inspector changes and more. Worth bookmarking and coming back to at the weekend once all sessions are live.

Apple

⚡️ Quick bits:

If you use Google Analytics, be prepared to see the Safari stats tumble, as Safari is going to start blocking Google Analytics entirely.

It has been five years since the first line of code for AMP was written.

Chrome is working on an experimental implementation of upload streams so you can start uploading data to a server before you necessarily have all of it to hand.

Work continues on Mozilla's paid VPN, (a U.S. only beta is available now).

Version 69 of Opera has Twitter (and other social media services) 'built-in', accessible via the sidebar.

💻 Jobs

Frontend Developer at X-Team (Remote) — Join X-Team and work on projects for companies like Riot Games, FOX, Coinbase, and more. Work from anywhere.

X-Team

Find a Job Through Vettery — Vettery specializes in tech roles and is completely free for job seekers. Create a profile to get started.

Vettery

ℹ️ Interested in running a job listing in Frontend Focus? There's more info here.

📙 News, Tutorials & Opinion

Is WebP Really Better Than JPEG? — According to Google, WebP is 25-34% smaller than JPEG at equivalent quality. But how much of it is really true? To find out, Johannes ran a few tests.

Johannes Siipola

Using Custom Property 'Stacks' to Tame the Cascade — A look at using CSS Custom Properties to manage/control both cascade and inheritance.

Miriam Suzanne

After Three Years of Work, Chrome Killed My Extension and Won’t Tell Me Why — This is a story worth checking out if your work ends up on the Chrome Webstore in any way (such as if you’re distributing a browser extension): “Complaining on the internet should not be a support channel. Developers should not have to rely on the internet attention lottery. The Chrome Webstore has been around 10 years and needs to get its act together.”

LipSurf

New: Learn How Intercom Reduced Test Times by 85% 🚀 — Read our case study on how Intercom reduced test times while deploying ~150 times per day across multiple apps.

Buildkite sponsor

Let Them Paste Passwords — Some sites prevent pasted passwords (which can even break some password managers). The UK’s cyber security officials stress that this a security anti-pattern. Today I also learnt that “Sociotechnical Security Researcher” is an actual job title – cool!

National Cyber Security Centre (UK)

The Return of the 90s Web — Max asks if we’re ready to revisit some of the ideas of the early web (no-code tools, personal sites, etc), adding that certain trends suggest that we might just have come full circle.

Max Böck

How to File A Good Browser Bug

Robert Nyman, Pete LePage

🔧 Code, Tools and Resources

knopf.css: A Modern, Modular, and Extensible Button System — A CSS library to easily build a diverse set of button styles that can be adapted to your brand via CSS variables. Includes a playground for fiddling with the variety of modifiers.

team.video

keen-slider: An Agnostic Touch Slider — Think ‘carousels’ but comfortable and smooth when using touch. They work with the mouse and touchpads as well, of course, and there are no dependencies. Live examples here.

Eric Beyer

Tailwind CSS Cheat Sheet — This clear, scannable resource has been around for a while, however it remains up-to-date with the latest version of Tailwind (plus we’ve not shared it here before).

Jay Elaraj

Octopus.do: A Visual Sitemap Builder — An online tool that allows you to build a website’s sitemap (e.g. for prototyping structure) or you can import an existing sitemap.xml from a URL and work with that.

octopus.do

🕰 Tzdb: A Simplified and Grouped List of Time Zones and Offsets — The official IANA time zone list has over 500 entries but you can simplify this substantially, as done here.

Vincent Voyer

No More Rework, Bug-Free Code on the First Commit. DeepCode

DeepCode.AI Powered Analysis sponsor

Create HTML5 Boilerplate: Quick Start for HTML5 Boilerplate — Similar in concept to create-react-app, but for kickstarting projects based on the popular HTML5 Boilerplate project.

H5BP

web-vitals-reporter: A Tiny Utility to Simplify Web Vitals Reporting — Makes it easy to collect data from Google’s new Web Vitals API.

Treo

A Photocopied Magazine Effect in CSS

Lynn Fisher codepen

by via Frontend Focus https://ift.tt/2YrN5MO

[thefilmfatale]

HONEYMOON (2014)

Horror has always been a unique genre in how it enables the exploration of complicated, real life issues in a hyperbolic manner that’s strangely cathartic. Horror’s over-the-top nature lets audiences tap into (and consequently release) deep-seated emotions from that safe distance on the other side of a screen--a cinematic therapist’s office, if you will. Got mommy issues? Watch Carrie and channel her rage as she lashes out at her overbearing mother and bullying classmates. Worried about the challenges of coming-of-age? The French film Raw tackles that subject with delicious creativity. Pregnant and paranoid? A little Rosemary’s Baby will be sure to shock the pre-partum anxiety out of your system. Are you a teenage girl who’s confused and disturbed by the changes your body’s going through as you grow into adolescence? Ginger Snaps or The Witch can be perfect allegories for those experiences. 

Horror is a fantastic avenue for telling very interesting, realistic human stories in a fashion that both challenges our imaginations and provokes our baser instincts. The 2014 film Honeymoon does just that, tapping into a very real experience that most couples face, but couching it in an engrossing, thoroughly entertaining horror context that becomes the perfect backdrop for hashing out these issues. 

The film, starring Game of Thrones’ Rose Leslie and Penny Dreadful’s Harry Treadaway, is about young newlyweds Paul and Bea who embark on their honeymoon in a secluded lake house in an unknown sleepy town. After a few days of blissful lovemaking in their quaint cabin, their post-marital ecstasy is interrupted when one evening, Paul wakes up in the middle of the night to find that Bea has mysteriously disappeared. He scours the dense forest around the cabin for her and finds her frozen, naked, in the middle of the woods. In the morning, Bea explains that she was merely sleepwalking, but Paul isn’t buying it. Confused, Paul racks his brain for explanations, though he can’t help but immediately suspect Bea of indiscretion after an odd exchange with Bea’s childhood friend Will, who lives in town and whom they ran into earlier during the day. What ensues next is a series of paranoia-inducing overtures leading up to a shocking revelation.

Initially, The Honeymoon flirts with a couple’s fear of being in a committed relationship. Do you ever really know a person, even after you’ve been together for years and have married them? Once you’re married, there is a sense of being trapped, and what if you’re trapped with someone who turns out to be a complete stranger? These are the thoughts that race through Paul’s head in the beginning of the movie, and invariably it’s something that any couple watching the movie will default to out of familiarity. But then the story quickly becomes stranger and stranger, with Bea acting less and less herself, much to Paul’s frustration. He tries to pry information out of her, but she seems hellbent on evading his questions, feigning sickness or collapsing into a wordless stupor. Eventually, Paul uncovers the shocking truth, and the film concludes with a satisfying ending that manages to be equally subtle and utterly frightening.  

So my boyfriend and I watched this movie together and we couldn’t help but chuckle at how prescient it was. Like most couples we’ll have the occasional disagreement, and the way it usually goes is something happens - whether it’s a flippant comment, curious remark or simple misunderstanding - after which I become quiet and moody. He’ll notice and ask me what’s wrong. He calls it “Blair Witching” - where I basically stalk off, avoid eye contact and get suspiciously quiet and distant. When he probes, I tell him I’m fine, nothing’s wrong, that I’m just tired - something benign and non-confrontational that will buy me some time before I eventually have to divulge what’s bothering me. That painful, exasperating dance of freezing your significant other out, them asking what’s wrong and not getting an honest response...it puts a real strain on the relationship and can lead to some serious resentment. Not being able to communicate and feeling distant from your lover is an incredibly lonely feeling, and enough of those interactions can quickly snowball into anger and frustration. Honeymoon taps into that tension, that exhausting back-and-forth where significant others try desperately to figure each other out.

While Honeymoon brilliantly winks at this as a common quandary in relationships, it doesn’t do so in a heavy-handed manner. In fact, it makes no direct mention of it at all. Honeymoon plays on tried and true horror movie techniques to tell a relatable story with a scary twist. The scares are definitely there, and the story pays off if the audience remains patient and engrosses themselves in the couple’s tribulations. Honeymoon serves as a great metaphor for the communication challenges couples face, but it’s also a very well-executed horror movie that taps into those subconscious fears and relationship anxieties. The film’s pacing was on point, giving viewers enough of a sense of normalcy at the beginning of the film before slowly transitioning to the horrifying events that follow. This resulted in an almost organic development of events that wasn’t jarring at all or designed for shock and awe. I’m a fan of horror movies that patiently let the story develop and rewarding those audience members who go through the necessary motions, instead of the usual style of introducing a Big Bad early on and then amping up the violence or gruesomeness from there. Honeymoon doesn’t do that; in fact, the “Big Bad” barely makes an appearance, making it seem like psychological terror between the couple. It had a claustrophobic, almost theatrical quality reminiscent of Bug, which I really liked. 

All in all, Honeymoon is a cleverly written horror movie that plays on very real anxieties in a creative way. It takes smart risks, and ends on such a satisfying note! The film is available on Netflix, so go and see it with your significant other and give each other a big hug when it’s over.