#Build a Travel Mobile App

[websoptimization]

A Guide to Build a Travel Mobile App

[vijay01]

Travel App Development Solution offering convenience efficiency, and personalized experiences.travel app must corporate features that enhance user satisfaction and engagement the five best features to travelaApp development solution. Like . Personalized Itinerary Planning,Real-Time Notifications and Updates, In-App Booking and Reservations,Offline Access and Navigation, Currency Converter

[newagesysit]

Have a unique social networking app idea? We’ll help you transform your concept into a fully functional, engaging app. Book your free consultation: https://shorturl.at/LHWQw

[kingofbodyrolls]

Jimin fic recs 2024 🥳

It’s Jimin’s birthday, and of course I haven’t forgotten! And even though I’m not doing my monthly rec lists anymore, I’d still love and hope to make recs on each member’s birthday at least 🫶

Therefore, I want to share my ultimate favorite Jimin stories that I’ve read this past year (2023-2024)💜 Have I recommended these before? Yes. But I will not stop screaming about these stories because they are so fucking amazing!! I want to thank each and every writer on this list for creating such wonderful stories and art - you are truly amazing ��� All the fics on this list hold a dear place in my heart 🥹🥳

❗Most of these fics are smutty as hell or contains dark themes, so minors dni.❗ 

If you read anything on this list and you like it, please leave a comment to the writer or reblog the fic, it might seem like a tiny gesture, but it really means a lot for writers and I can guarantee it will put a smile on their faces💜 Let’s share and give lots of love!

Looking for more to read? Check ‘The Library’, last years Jimin recs or  last years recs 🙂

[index] → jan | feb (jhs) | mar (myg) | apr | may | jun | jul | aug | sep (jjk)(knj) | oct (💜) | nov | dec (kth)(ksj) |

Emoji meaning → angst = 🌩️, smut = 🥵, fluff = 🥰, comedy = 😂, yandere = 😈, thriller/dark = 👻, fantasy = 🪄. 

⭐The Airport Couple: P[ass]anger from Hell + Drabble @dovechim & @jimlingss [8K] // pjm x f.reader // e2l, frequent traveler jimin x tsa agent reader // 😂😂😂🥰

📝 as a TSA agent, you expect your job to be relatively easy, most passengers these days follow the rules to the T in order to avoid prolonging their custom checks. But not a certain Park Jimin, who seems to have a problem understanding what 100ml is, or the very simple fact that gadgets must be taken out of the bag, and bomb jokes are strictly off limits. Frequent traveller Park Jimin is your nemesis, but darn is he a cute one.

🗨️ this is just so fucking hilarious, don’t get me started. I laughed from beginning to end 😂 And it’s still as good as I remember, if not even better??? Like ✨ I’ve highlighted a few of my favorite parts from the fic. I don’t want to give too much away, but these lines are just so damn hilarious! Please go read it, it’s one of my faves.

⭐The Airport Couple: Park Jimin’s Cock[pit] @jimlingss & @dovechim [12K] // pjm x f.reader // pilot!au, bf2l, coworkers!au // 😂🥰🥵

📝talk about Angry Birds, and most people would immediately think of the mobile game app. But within your circle of friends, it stands for something else. It’s synonymous with Park Jimin, one of the most talented pilots from your batch who also just happens to have anger issues, or in other words, air rage. He is your best friend, but when you get teamed up with him as his co-pilot, you can only pray that things don’t go south… literally. 

🗨️ I remember reading this a few years ago, and I loved it then and I still do ✨ It is incredibly funny, has good banter and dialogue to match. The chemistry between reader and Jimin is just priceless, their friendship is just pure giggles 🥹 It’s also fluffy and will tug on your heartstrings in the best way possible. Just really, really good and definitely also one of my all-time favorites 💜

⭐Couchsurfer @heartbeatan [6K] // pjm x f.reader // s2l // 🥵🥰

📝 this was left intentionally blank 🫥

🗨️ omg this was so fucking good! First, really well written and the pacing was lovely, even though it’s short and one night they spend together 🥹 the build up of their tension and their chemistry was off the charts! So impeccably done! Fuck. I loved it ✨ it’s insane how good this story is and Jimin is just so sweet, romantic and nasty 🥵 I can’t tell you how turned on I got by the description of how Jimin handled OC, like damn 🥵 this is so fucking good, please don’t sleep on the this beauty 💖 Normally, I’m not one for one night stands, because I catch feelings for the characters, but this has a lovely ending that I loved - so fucking good! Lol. Can not stop screaming about this one. Please go read it, fuck. PLEASE 😌 ✨

⭐The Devil in His Details @johobi [9.2K] // pjm x f.reader // college!au // 🥵

📝 evil comes in many forms. In this instance, it’s a 5′8″ pretty-boy with an even prettier dick. And you’re the form you want him to come in.

🗨️ I am MIND BLOWN 🤯🥵 This is one of the dirtiest, filthiest fics I’ve EVER read. Like it’s in the top five, if not even top three! 🤤 It was fucking perfection, the writing, fucking amazing, the dynamic/tension between Jimin and OC—Fuck. GOLD. Abso-fucking-lutely one of the very best fanfics I’ve read ✨

⭐Go Go @inkjam-moon [9.2K]  // pjm x f.reader // best friend!au // 🥵🥰

📝 Jimin’s been your best friend since you were little; but coming from a rich family he’s paid for everything, and he doesn’t realize that it hurts you when you can’t pay him back for all the presents and vacations. When he becomes CEO of his own successful company, it gets worse because he promised to always take care of you, but when secrets come out on the night of your graduation from university, will Jimin be able to keep his promise?

🗨️ this was so fucking sweet 🥹 💜 their friendship is so precious, and the way that they ended up waiting so many fucking years before telling each other about their feelings for each other 🥹 almost pulled them apart 😭 really beautiful ✨

⭐Oui @pixieknj [2.1K]  // pjm x f.reader // established relationship // 🥵🥰🌩️

📝 almost getting caught with your boyfriend…

🗨️ this was so good! Short and sweet ✨

⭐Peaches and Cream @snackhobi [9.1k]  // pjm x f.reader // neighbor!au // 🥵

📝 you wouldn’t mind your cute neighbour being such a shameless fuckboy if a) the walls weren’t so thin and b) he didn’t seem intent on adding you as another notch in his bedpost. 

🗨️ I’LL NEVER BE ABLE TO LOOK AT PEACHES THE SAME WAY AGAIN 🥵 Thank you very much, this was so fucking hot I think I’m malfunctioning. And now, I’ve time I’ll eat a peach, or watch other people eat peaches— I’ll forever think of this story 🥵✨

⭐Our ‘Get Along’ Shirt @dreamyjoons [14.2k]  // pjm x f.reader // e2l // 🥵

📝 another day, another endless round of you and Jimin bickering. It’s never ending, all-consuming, and your friends have had enough. Namjoon decides to end it once and for all - with help from a shirt for squabbling toddlers.

🗨️ JFHKJSFKSDJDH— This was so fucking hilarious 😂 The sexual tension between them was SO HIGH 🥵 and when they finally snapped, oh dear God, it was so good! And the whole shit concept, so hilarious and their banter 😂 AND THE SWEAT??? I’m weak okay!! So freaking good, I loved it so much and Namjoon and the rest of the gang were just priceless. Jin at the end had me laughing so hard 🤭

⭐Just a Taste @yoonieper [14.2k]  // pjm x f.reader // vampire!au, established relationship // 🥵🌩️😂

📝 they said having a relationship with a human wasn’t a good idea, but Jimin liked you too much to ever let that get in the way. Your relationship was beautiful, yes you didn’t know that small important detail about him being a bloodthirsty vampire, but he had it under control. That’s at least what he thought, he never would have predicted a drought….

🗨️ FUCK 😭 This was so fucking good I don’t even know where to begin??? The story in itself was so extremely good, whaaat. And Jimin was so nice, and their love for each other, so fucking pure 💜 This was an emotional rollercoaster and I fucking loved everything about it 😭 and the smut, God, it was so good— I don’t know what to say 😭 And then at the ending, the angst, fuck, I was so afraid if it was going to end just like that, but I was so glad that they found each other again 😭 This is a new favorite of mine, so good, it was slightly sad at times, like angsty, but the love that the have for each other, FUCK. So so fucking incredible 😭 Don’t mind all the crying, it’s happy tears, I promise 💖 Also, it’s mostly told in Jimin’s POV, which I just freaking love and it makes the story so good!!!

⭐High on Love @peachypinkygloss [6.4k]  // pjm x f.reader // established relationship, racer!jimin // 🥵

📝 Jimin has once again won a race and he takes you out on a ride for the night, taking dangerous but very exciting risks. He should have expected that the rush of adrenaline in your body always turns you into a horny mess.

🗨️ I am just BLOWN AWAY by the fic– holy molly, was it dirty? Yes! Needy? Yes! Cute? Yes! Oh and the car racing, love, love, love! Like, everything in this. And the smut 🥵🥵🥵 I mean, it was so dirt and needy (yes I know I’m using the same words, lol), but FUCK. Incredible! Another ont to add to my faves ✨ And a big bonus for the phone messages, because that was fucking hot too!!! 🥵

⭐The Ten Days of Ex-Mas: pt1 + pt2 @kpopfanfictrash [44.6k]  // pjm x f.reader // holiday!au, second chance!au, hockey!au, exes to loves // 🥵🥰🌩️

📝 three months following the worst break-up of your life, you finally feel ready to start moving on. The world, it seems, has other ideas when you pick up the phone and find your ex-boyfriend calling. Jimin Park, star right winger of the NHL and (until recently), the love of your life, has a very large problem. Despite the courage he regularly shows on the ice, in his personal life, Jimin is kind of a coward. When you broke up this fall, he could barely admit it. Not to his neighbors. Not to his friends. Not even to his family, who are expecting him home for Christmas. In a desperate plea for more time, Jimin begs you to pretend you’re still dating – and to his surprise, you agree. Faced with a second chance, Jimin is determined not to squander it. If only fixing a relationship were as easy as falling in love.

🗨️ okay. Okay. Okay. *deep calm breaths* —THIS IS SO INCREDIBLY GOOD, I truly don’t know where to begin! The plot? The hurt/anger? Their chemistry? Their sexiness? Fuck, like everything in this is making it a beautiful masterpiece 💖 I really love how each of them thinks about what happened with their relationship, are working to get better, though Jimin should have been honest about his intentions for the trip, everything was just so fucking amazing 😭 I really loved the aspect of self reflection, seeking therapy, working through it and all that— really payed of for the characters! Loved it, it was so good 💜

⭐The Pitfalls of Silk + drabble @ctrlhope [20k]  // pjm x f.reader // s2l, hybrid!au, soulmate!au // 🥰🥵😈🪄

📝 the winter gods are out to get you. That could be the only possible explanation for the series of bad luck tumbling before you— tropical vacation cancelled, snow locking you inside. Hell, even your shovel broken in half has got to be the gods playing some sort of trick on you. Pulling you along, making decisions for you as they guide you along the red string of fate. Guide you towards the very spider that found his way into your basement. Allowing him to fall into your heart all the same. 

🗨️ I truly don’t know where to begin with this one— damn. It was so fucking amazing!! The world building and writing was perfect and the tension and how their relationship built over time too. Everything is just so exceptional!!! 👏 And the smut, holy shit— 🥵 I’m lost for words 😭 And their dialogues and thoughts, having both of the povs mixed together just made it so amazing 😭 I really loved it and this is another clear new one to add to my favorites 😭💖

⭐The Group Project @noona-la-la-la [8k]  // pjm x f.reader x kth // roommate!au + threesome // 🥵

📝 Jimin is jealous when his best friend and roommate, Taehyung, has a date with the girl Jimin has a crush on.

🗨️ fuck this was so GOOD!!!  Best friend Tae 💜 It was so freaking hot and sinful, like????? Jimin watching them, and then Tae just being best friend ever at the end 🥵 Also, the dialogues were so fucking good! I really loved everything in this 😭

⭐Just a Little Bit of Love (is all you really need) @gukyi [4.5k]  // pjm x f.reader // s2l, gymnastics/dancer!au // 🥰

📝 jimin’s something of a legend at gymnastics, but suddenly you walk in and turn his whole world upside down. quite literally, might i add. 

🗨️ this is so freaking cute and sweet 🤭🥹 It’s completely SFW, and so so good! 

⭐Cherry Blossoms @chateautae [12k]  // pjm x f.reader // magic!au, mentor!jimin // 🥰🥵🌩️🪄

📝 despising the lack of offensive capability to your lackluster powers, your father, the school’s chancellor, signs you up for lessons with the magic university’s top-rated guard, park jimin. known to be an intense, reserved man with ruthless skills in battle, you come to learn he not only goes hard in a fight, but goes hard in another ruthless form of art—fucking.

🗨️ omg 😭 perfection?? That is what this was! The story and plot is cool and cohesive, the dynamic between MC and Jimin, damn it was hot! She doesn’t really believe in herself, but he believes in her, and tries to get her to see her own potential 🥹🥹🥹🥹 Cute! But then it gets filthy! And hot! There’s rain!!!! There’s smut in the rain! What more can I ask for?? ✨ It was just amazing! I loved it! Also all the magic, MC’s ability and then Jimin’s magic! They’re almost a contrast to each other, which I also really like! This is hands down one of my all time favorites!!! 💜✨

⭐Blooming Days @bluekyun [15.3k] // pjm x f.reader // university!au, bf2l, pregnancy!au // 🥰🌩️🥵😂

📝 a typical night for you begins at the library in your favorite chair underneath the lamp in the corner, only to be picked up at 3am by your best friend, Jimin. Despite having slept over in his room several times before, this certain night in Sigma house leads to far more than you ever imagined. But what is to come of your friendship once you reveal those two little lines that will change your lives forever?

🗨️ ahhhh this was so cute, lovely, fluffy and funny! It was also sprinkled with a bit of angst that made me tear up and scared for a moment 🥺 but the ending was happy 🥰 I really loved it 💖

⭐Never Falling + Forever Falling + Free Falling @yoonia [21k + 30.5k + 22k] // pjm x f.reader // e2l, singer!Jimin, non-idol!au, workplace!au, assistant!reader // 🌩️🥵

📝 for Park Jimin, you are everything he will ever need—his assistant, his housekeeper, his task runner, his fairy godmother. For you, he is more than everything. You have dedicated your life for him and, before you even realised it, your heart belongs to him alone. The only problem is that he is never yours, and you are living in a world that your love for him is nothing more than a fairytale ending. As you are suddenly given a chance to wake up and face the real world, will you be ready to embrace it? Will he be ready to deal with the world without you in it?

🗨️ this has been on my trl for forever, and then, it was only a one-shot, so color me pleased and pleasantly surprised to find out that this is now a freaking trilogy 🤯✨ I loved everything in it, and it’s so fucking amazing— if you have not already read it, you are certainly missing out! This is definitely one of my all time favorites 💎

⭐Eldorado @smoochkooks [38k] // pjm x f.reader // gold diggers!au, e2l, slowburn, adventure!au // 🥰🌩️🥵

📝 not all that glitters is gold but you, qualified gold digger, carrying on your back immense experience acquired all around the globe, came to the city of el paso del conte with one goal in your mind: to hit the jackpot of the eldorado of Texas. and nothing, no tragedies and adversities will stop you from pursuing it. but in every fairytale-like, too-good-to-be-true story, there’s a catch. this time, it comes in the name of park jimin, annoyingly handsome archeologist, your sworn enemy and biggest rival. 

🗨️ this has been on my trl list for some many fucking years 😭 well, I finally got to read it! And it was amazing, it was so fucking funny! Filled with witty banter, jokes and stereotypical jokes 😂 World building was so good too! And the smut? Fire 🥵 I really loved it 💖

This is my little corner with my own fics— I don’t write that much anymore (I prefer to read), but it would mean a lot to me if you checked out my work or read it. You don’t have to, it’s up to you of course 🥰

⭐Coming Home (series; completed) [44k] // pjm x f. reader // childhood bf2l, trauma/healing  // 🌩️🥵🥰😂👻😈

📝 when your best friend, Park Jimin, who you’ve had a crush on since forever, suggests you stay at his house to heal and find yourself again after a series of traumatizing events had haunted you for years, you don’t hesitate to accept. Within those walls, a safe haven is woven, where wounds can heal and memories find release. As he nurtures your shattered spirit, an unexpected intimacy unfurls, leaving the fragile barrier between friendship and deeper emotions in question - can you keep your feelings hidden?

🗨️ this is actually the first story I posted on my blog, and the first fanfic I managed to finish writing in ten fucking years. It will forever have a special place in my heart, but please be aware of the very triggering themes in it, okay?

⭐The Winter Collection (series; completed) [16.8k] // pjm x f. reader // e2l // 🥵😂

📝 you don’t know how you ended up here. Stuck with your mortal enemy, Park Jimin, in you car – in a fucking snowstorm.

🗨️ this is a collection of one shots that is with the same couple in the same universe (which is a series 😝). It’s basically just a crack fic. 

⭐My Heart’s Home (series; completed) [237.6k] // pjm x f. reader // childhood bf2l, ranch!au, cowboy!au // 🌩️🥵🥰😂

📝 you’d never thought you’d step foot back at the ranch– a place you used to call home a long time ago. When you are forced to go back, reconcile with your sister and a certain childhood friend that you had long forgotten, will sparks reunite?

🗨️ this is a very, very, very long story lol 😂 It is en extreme emotional roller-coaster, but it’s really worth it. It’s also inspired by the amazing show McLeod’s Daughters 🥰

⭐Last Night in Magic Shop [12.5k] // pjm x f. reader // s2l, one night stand, vampire!au  // 🥵🪄

📝 you find yourself down at the local club, Magic Shop, because your best friend feels like your lovelife is dry as ice. You did not plan on meeting a handsome stranger, who moves his body like an angel, but speaks like the devil. Feeling like he might match your nasty needs, you take him home, enjoying an unforgettable night filled with pleasure.

🗨️ my first vampire story! It’s just a silly thing. 

⭐Whalien52 [10.6k]  // pjm x f. reader // kittygang!jimin, apocalyptic, survival, dystopian // 🌩️🥵👻

📝 you’ve been working for the New World Order as an assassin for years, guarding secrets without batting an eye or asking questions. But when a striking pink haired man shows up at the headquarters stealing information, he makes you question everything. With all of humanity at stake, what will you do? 

🗨️ this one is actually part of a Yoongi series, but this is a stand-alone one shot, but it’s within the same universe as ‘End of The World’.

I have a few more Jimin stories that I didn’t list here, but these are my faves. I have written for most of the other members too—you can check out my masterlist here [link] 💜

And as a something little extra, here’s a few fics that I haven’t had the time to read yet, but damn I’m buzzing to get to read them:

In Flagrante Delicto @hisunshiine

Off the Grid (series; completed) @xpeachesncream

Ho-Ho-Home (series; completed) @jjungkookislife

Fairytail @gukyi

Menace (series; completed) @eoieopda

The Misadventures List (series; ongoing/discontinued) @kimvvantae

All Fervent Manner @yoonia

Blue Kamikaze @gguksgalaxy

The Ocean @dovechim

Dreaded Neighbors (series; completed) @99liners

Happy birthday my soulmate, Park Jimin!!!! 🥳💜✨

[mostlysignssomeportents]

The reverse-centaur apocalypse is upon us

I'm coming to DEFCON! On Aug 9, I'm emceeing the EFF POKER TOURNAMENT (noon at the Horseshoe Poker Room), and appearing on the BRICKED AND ABANDONED panel (5PM, LVCC - L1 - HW1–11–01). On Aug 10, I'm giving a keynote called "DISENSHITTIFY OR DIE! How hackers can seize the means of computation and build a new, good internet that is hardened against our asshole bosses' insatiable horniness for enshittification" (noon, LVCC - L1 - HW1–11–01).

In thinking about the relationship between tech and labor, one of the most useful conceptual frameworks is "centaurs" vs "reverse-centaurs":

https://pluralistic.net/2022/04/17/revenge-of-the-chickenized-reverse-centaurs/

A centaur is someone whose work is supercharged by automation: you are a human head atop the tireless body of a machine that lets you get more done than you could ever do on your own.

A reverse-centaur is someone who is harnessed to the machine, reduced to a mere peripheral for a cruelly tireless robotic overlord that directs you to do the work that it can't, at a robotic pace, until your body and mind are smashed.

Bosses love being centaurs. While workplace monitoring is as old as Taylorism – the "scientific management" of the previous century that saw labcoated frauds dictating the fine movements of working people in a kabuki of "efficiency" – the lockdowns saw an explosion of bossware, the digital tools that let bosses monitor employees to a degree and at a scale that far outstrips the capacity of any unassisted human being.

Armed with bossware, your boss becomes a centaur, able to monitor you down to your keystrokes, the movements of your eyes, even the ambient sound around you. It was this technology that transformed "work from home" into "live at work." But bossware doesn't just let your boss spy on you – it lets your boss control you. \

It turns you into a reverse-centaur.

"Data At Work" is a research project from Cracked Labs that dives deep into the use of surveillance and control technology in a variety of workplaces – including workers' own cars and homes:

https://crackedlabs.org/en/data-work

It consists of a series of papers that take deep dives into different vendors' bossware products, exploring how they are advertised, how they are used, and (crucially) how they make workers feel. There are also sections on how these interact with EU labor laws (the project is underwritten by the Austrian Arbeiterkammer), with the occasional aside about how weak US labor laws are.

The latest report in the series comes from Wolfie Christl, digging into Microsoft's "Dynamics 365," a suite of mobile apps designed to exert control over "field workers" – repair technicians, security guards, cleaners, and home help for ill, elderly and disabled people:

https://crackedlabs.org/dl/CrackedLabs_Christl_MobileWork.pdf

It's…not good. Microsoft advises its customers to use its products to track workers' location every "60 to 300 seconds." Workers are given tasks broken down into subtasks, each with its own expected time to completion. Workers are expected to use the app every time they arrive at a site, begin or complete a task or subtask, or start or end a break.

For bosses, all of this turns into a dashboard that shows how each worker is performing from instant to instant, whether they are meeting time targets, and whether they are spending more time on a task than the client's billing rate will pay for. Each work order has a clock showing elapsed seconds since it was issued.

For workers, the system generates new schedules with new work orders all day long, refreshing your work schedule as frequently as twice per hour. Bosses can flag workers as available for jobs that fall outside their territories and/or working hours, and the system will assign workers to jobs that require them to work in their off hours and travel long distances to do so.

Each task and subtask has a target time based on "AI" predictions. These are classic examples of Goodhart's Law: "any metric eventually becomes a target." The average time that workers take becomes the maximum time that a worker is allowed to take. Some jobs are easy, and can be completed in less time than assigned. When this happens, the average time to do a job shrinks, and the time allotted for normal (or difficult) jobs contracts.

Bosses get stack-ranks of workers showing which workers closed the most tickets, worked the fastest, spent the least time idle between jobs, and, of course, whether the client gave them five stars. Workers know it, creating an impossible bind: to do the job well, in a friendly fashion, the worker has to take time to talk with the client, understand their needs, and do the job. Anything less will generate unfavorable reports from clients. But doing this will blow through time quotas, which produces bad reports from the bossware. Heads you lose, tails the boss wins.

Predictably, Microsoft has shoveled "AI" into every corner of this product. Bosses don't just get charts showing them which workers are "underperforming" – they also get summaries of all the narrative aspects of the workers' reports (e.g. "My client was in severe pain so I took extra time to make her comfortable before leaving"), filled with the usual hallucinations and other botshit.

No boss could exert this kind of fine-grained, soul-destroying control over any workforce, much less a workforce that is out in the field all day, without Microsoft's automation tools. Armed with Dynamics 365, a boss becomes a true centaur, capable of superhuman feats of labor abuse.

And when workers are subjected to Dynamics 365, they become true reverse-centaurs, driven by "digital whips" to work at a pace that outstrips the long-term capacity of their minds and bodies to bear it. The enthnographic parts of the report veer between chilling and heartbreaking.

Microsoft strenuously objects to this characterization, insisting that their tool (which they advise bosses to use to check on workers' location every 60-300 seconds) is not a "surveillance" tool, it's a "coordination" tool. They say that all the AI in the tool is "Responsible AI," which is doubtless a great comfort to workers.

In Microsoft's (mild) defense, they are not unique. Other reports in the series show how retail workers and hotel housekeepers are subjected to "despot on demand" services provided by Oracle:

https://crackedlabs.org/en/data-work/publications/retail-hospitality

Call centers, are even worse. After all, most of this stuff started with call centers:

https://crackedlabs.org/en/data-work/publications/callcenter

I've written about Arise, a predatory "work from home" company that targets Black women to pay the company to work for it (they also have to pay if they quit!). Of course, they can be fired at will:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/07/29/impunity-corrodes/#arise-ye-prisoners

There's also a report about Celonis, a giant German company no one has ever heard of, which gathers a truly nightmarish quantity of information about white-collar workers' activities, subjecting them to AI phrenology to judge their "emotional quality" as well as other metrics:

https://crackedlabs.org/en/data-work/publications/processmining-algomanage

As Celonis shows, this stuff is coming for all of us. I've dubbed this process "the shitty technology adoption curve": the terrible things we do to prisoners, asylum seekers and people in mental institutions today gets repackaged tomorrow for students, parolees, Uber drivers and blue-collar workers. Then it works its way up the privilege gradient, until we're all being turned into reverse-centaurs under the "digital whip" of a centaur boss:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/11/25/the-peoples-amazon/#clippys-revenge

In mediating between asshole bosses and the workers they destroy, these bossware technologies do more than automate: they also insulate. Thanks to bossware, your boss doesn't have to look you in the eye (or come within range of your fists) to check in on you every 60 seconds and tell you that you've taken 11 seconds too long on a task. I recently learned a useful term for this: an "accountability sink," as described by Dan Davies in his new book, The Unaccountability Machine, which is high on my (very long) list of books to read:

https://profilebooks.com/work/the-unaccountability-machine/

Support me this summer on the Clarion Write-A-Thon and help raise money for the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Workshop!

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/08/02/despotism-on-demand/#virtual-whips

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

[emtheanxiousdragon]

Our Hæth: A Wanderhome ARG

Ok so if you are any sort of game designer, whether that be a programmer for a mobile app, an artist for an indie TTRPG, or a top-tier producer at a AAA-game studio, you should read Reality is Broken by Jane McGonigal, it inspires you to make games that don’t just form digital communities or entertain, but allow a deeper connection to your real life.

And one game that I think, with a twist, could really fit McGonigal’s idea is Wanderhome, the excellent pastoral RPG by tumblr’s very own @jdragsky . This game is beautiful, simple, and a tool for telling these lovely stories about anthropomorphic travelers exploring a recovering society and finding themselves along the way.

Now, let me introduce my idea, tentatively titled Our Hæth: A Wanderhome ARG.

You make a Wanderhome character, just like in a typical game. You also make a separate Wanderhome profile that represents yourself. (this can be your actual Wanderhome character if you want to take on an alternate persona). This secondary Wanderhome character doesn't actually travel the Hæth. They represent your journey in the real world. Your second character's playbook should fit yourself and what you hope to get from this experience. My secondary character will be a Peddler, because I want to grow my personal career.

Then you get connected to a Hæth. These are shared worlds/servers that begin like all Wanderhome games (at the start of Tillsoil very soon after the end of the war) and progress from there. You can start with other players or begin on your own and find others later.

When you wish to travel to a new area, instead of randomly deciding what it should be, you base it on your current location. It can be as simple as your bedroom or as grand as the Great Wall of China! I’ll show you what I mean with where I am now.

A beautiful pond, right? Let’s turn it into a spot in the Hæth! Our first nature is based on a literal take of the area. I’m by a pond, so the first nature will be Lake! The second nature is more metaphorical; based on what you know about your location, choose a nature that describes its personality. A lot goes on around this pond, so I’ll pick Carnival. The third nature should describe the place as it is when you arrive. The calm nature of the pond today means the third nature is Field. Build the location with the rules of each nature, combined with the traits of the season, and you’ve made a Place!

In Our Hæth, each location is permanently saved into the world you created it in. If other players want to visit this location rather than create a new one, they’ll replace the third nature and the seasonal traits and set off! They can see what you’ve written about the place and the adventures you’ve had here. If you know them in real life, you can share what the real-world inspiration is. If not, you can discuss as much about it as you feel comfortable sharing.

Once you're in a Place, great! Start playing Wanderhome. If you're alone, write down what your traveler does in this place. If you're with friends, get together in person and roleplay it out, or chat together over Discord or your online forum of choice. Their characters may travel with you for a while or your paths may diverge and reconnect later. Just remember what happens so you can share it as part of your character's story. When you make a Kith, go through the regular Kith creation process and add them to your Hæth. If other players visit this Place later, they may meet your kith and will want to know what happened.

The other big ARG element of this version of Wanderhome comes with using tokens. When your character does something to create a token, you need to do something to make a token in real life. Have a list of what different actions in Wanderhome mean for you in real life. For example, when my character Camper gives away something he holds dear, that means I have to complete some professional networking. Your token action should be challenging or good for you. Change your token action as your challenges and needs change. Make them fit your life and your goals.

Take a break to complete your token action, or write it down for after the session. You won't be able to spend your real-world token until you complete your task. Once that's done, the next time your character spends a token, you can spend one too! Your token rewards are something positive to reward yourself for putting in the effort and caring for yourself, your relationships, or the world. In my Hæth, when Camper keeps someone safe from the difficulties of the world, I get to take a nap rather than work!

The months can change in small groups when you agree to change them. In bigger groups, you may set a real-world date for the change in the months. Ask the month's question to yourself and your Wanderhome character. Consider your answer a "yes" regardless of which one of you says so. When the time comes for the seasons to change, set up a party with others in your Hæth or throw your own private celebration. Just as the holiday marks a moment of personal growth for your character, take a major step forward with your own goals. As Camper celebrates the new year, I'm going to start searching for a summer internship. I'll adapt my token actions and rewards as needed, and I'll continue playing.

So long as you have Wanderhome, you can play this game. You can keep track of your Hæth in a notebook, on a google doc, whatever. My perfect version of this project would be a little website where players can join different Hæths, watch their world grow on a virtual map, see all the information neatly organized online, and connect to a wide range of people in the Wanderhome community.

Thoughts?

[whimsyplays]

Reverse 1999: Gacha gaming, but with a story that is worth it.

I've been playing the mobile game Reverse 1999 by Bluepoch since it released globally in October of 2023. I had been seeing the ads via the app store for a while and the time traveling themed turned based JRPG caught my eye.

It is so much more than the ads could have prepared me for, but first, let's get down to the nitty gritty of genre:

Reverse 1999 is a gacha game. A gacha game is game that implements a gambling mechanic where you spend a special in-game currency to have a chance to get something that you want. That chance is not always guaranteed and you can spend real world currency to purchase more chances. This is, of course, what funds the often free to play games. It is gambling and should be done in moderation and with caution. Like with most of these kinds games, I would suggest not going in fully blind - look up guides and tier lists to see what is the best use of your resources.

All that being said, Reverse 1999 is very generous with its rewards and has many fun and engaging events that keep them coming. It's not challenging to play the game for free, as I have been doing, although with the quality game that I've been experiencing, I'm sorely tempted to purchase something just to show my support.

Now to the game itself:

The game is a turn based card battler - you control three to four characters in a battle and each has one of three cards that go into a hand; two normal abilities and an ultimate that they have to build up to. You can play manually or auto. What cards you have in your hand are luck of the draw (with some means of reshuffling or controling that, of course) which I know some people might take issue with, but I think is rather fun. The simple card based system opens it up to complexities and strategies which the characters you choose bring to the table - which means teambuilding is very important part of the game.

When playing manually, the card based combat is fun; its strategic and satisfying. Playing auto and it's convenient for getting through dailies quickly.

The best part of this game for me, however, is the story and the voice acting.

The game story reads as a visual novel set in a rich and thought provoking setting. I don't want to spoil anything, so I wont go into too much detail, but you are following the main character, Vertin, who is immune to the current vexation of the magical community; The Storm. The writing is great, the cast of characters memorable and well thought out. Even the event stories are amazing; voice acted, well themed, and with grand character arcs. They either scratch a great genre itch or leave you thinking - like most great pieces of media should.

All in all, so far Reverse 1999 is a 10/10 game for me - so long as they get rid of that stupid double banner they did with Centurion and Tooth Fairy. Come on, Bluepoch. You know what you're doing.

[valuehub]

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[theprojectreneblogger]

NEW Project Rene Leak (Formerly "The Sims 5") Screenshots and Information

The Original Post: Here

EDIT: I had to edit my post because there was some massive misinformation going around. Project Rene is NOT cancelled. This playtest is CURRENTLY ONGOING. The screenshots are from 9/27/24 on a LIVE SERVER. The only difference is that it is no longer going by the internal name of "The Sims 5". The game is still coming out. It is just not going to be called The Sims 5. Thank you.

Hello! I am back once again to post more coverage of the upcoming game from EA/Maxis currently titled "Project Rene". This game was FORMERLY known as The Sims 5, which we all know is cancelled now. To be clear, this game was previously advertised and flaunted as "The next generation of the Sims". Just yesterday, a small scale playtest was hosted containing a new section of the game containing a basic Live Mode. I have personally played the game for a couple of hours now and I will be sharing a lot of my findings.

NOTE: This is likely a "Part 1" of this full leak!! We are working on a full datamine as we speak to hopefully uncover some more hidden details, similarly to the previous Rene-lated posts from a few months ago.

You can find my previous post containing screenshots/videos from the FIRST build containing the full map + build mode here:

Throughout this post, I will try my best to keep my opinions out of the facts. My goal is to only provide accurate information without all the extra fluff.

What is Project Rene?

From the Google Play Store itself:

The Sims Labs: The Hub

Details

About this game

Explore a Parisian neighborhood full of unique activities and stylish rewards

Welcome to The Sims Labs: The Hub! Pick your Sim - each a unique character with their

own story - and join friends & other players to explore a vibrant Parisian neighborhood

together. Claim new outfits from the Thrift Shop by working at the local café or by

completing quests. Make your wishes come true at the plaza fountain, discover hidden

collectibles, meet the locals, and more.

The Sims Labs games are prototype experiences focused on testing small chunks of

larger game concepts. The features in this app do not necessarily represent the direction

or content of any upcoming Sims game.

Screenshot here: https://imgur.com/a/dWCvVvn

Google Play Store Images: https://imgur.com/a/HDIIFZC

The Bigger Picture (Based on previously generally known information about this game): To put it simply, Project Rene takes place in a Paris inspired world, is just one game part of a much larger container called "The Sims Hub". This is not anything leaked, and was actually shown off previously at the EA investor day not too long ago. (Screenshot here: https://imgur.com/a/AvmH1hx ) The Sims Hub contains The Sims 4, MySims, The Sims: Project Stories, and of course Project Rene. Project Rene is focused heavily on a collaborative multiplayer experience, where sims can travel to and interact in the same area. They can talk to each other, Work with each other, build friendships and relationships with other real players, and there is even a text/voice chat function. You can also build/buy together in a multiplayer session. There ARE still npc sims you can interact with, much like previous sims installments.

Let's get into it. This build was unfortunately only available on Mobile(Android), despite the first build having a full PC version (Containing Denuvo) as well. I cannot go into exactly what device I am using as it could potentially be used to identify myself, but let's just say it's a "mid-range" device released very recently. I am also running everything at Max settings.

The Gameplay:

The gameplay from this playtest is focused solely on a VERY small portion of the whole game. The elements such as build mode and owning your own apartments from the first playtest is completely absent from this build.

In this build, there is no Create a Sim. It was confirmed from a developer that it is coming in a future playtest. You are able to pick from 4 preset Sims (Shown below in the screenshots section). There are also no preset names for these Sims. There was one Sim I managed to glitch into that DID have a preset name "Rory". This character is not obtainable legitimately.

Once your Sim is picked, the game will immediately display some initial quests to get you started. These quests change daily. The main gameplay of this build has you working at a cafe with other players. Once you start working, NPC sims will start coming in and sitting down. Somebody has to take their order and it will display a bubble above their heads showing what item they want. Then, you or another player has to go and collect those items. They can choose from Coffee, Espresso, or Croissant. They cannot choose more than one item at this time (eg. Croissant + Coffee). This is the main way to earn money in this build, and it can get very repetitive and grindy after a while. Especially since the jobs don't give you that much simoleons. The other way to make simoleons is just by levelling up. You can earn XP from wishing at the fountain, talking to sims, or completing quests, or working at the cafe. There were only 5 levels to obtain during this test, each one giving Simoleons or a new name badge.

You can spend those hard earned simoleons at the Clothing shop. You cannot customize your outfit, and are forced to choose between 5 preset outfits (Shown in better detail in the screenshots section). I am NOT sure at the moment if these outfits are different depending on which character you chose during the introduction, and there is no way to reset your Sim at the moment to choose a different character, so this is all I can show at the moment.

Screenshots here:

Sims: https://imgur.com/a/xGQZADI

Outfits: https://imgur.com/a/CgNc7w5

Gameplay: https://imgur.com/a/jl73e7Y

Settings: https://imgur.com/a/G50Kqvo

Misc Loading Screen: https://imgur.com/a/dQuMFj5

First of all, the graphics genuinely do look like this. It's not your device, its not compression. It does have a weird blur over everything and looks very grainy. I won't pick at the graphics too hard because optimization is usually the last stage of game development and it's clear they opted for performance over visual clarity.

Also, apologies for the heavy censoring. With online games like this, every interaction is logged on the server. I wanted to hide as much information as possible. This is also why there are no videos.

Final Remarks:

Please feel free to ask me any questions about this playtest and I will answer to the best of my ability. I have access until tomorrow night, so I can fulfil any requests until then. After that, It's all just based on previous knowledge.

Thank you.

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[hunting-songs]

Character Info Sheet: @ hunting-songs !

Tagged By: Evily stolen from @gyofukuki ! Tagging: @bewitchingbaker @skarletchains @kylo-wrecked @muddsludge @kiigan @zealctry @YEONBAN @distortedkilling @lightfaithed @saiakv @uzumakiuser ...AND YOU !

name: センリツ, Senritsu. name meaning: Senritsu just translates to Melody. Her familyame Döne is the lowgerman word for Töne= Tunes /Sounds/ Noises. In the First High German consonant shift the d became a t. 'Pape Döne' is also the name of a very sly and musically inclined robber from a lowgerman fairytale who tricked the devil. alias: Melody, Melodia, Dönes (with the patronym 's'), pied piper.

ethnicity: A huge mystery. Hailing from traveling people / wandering Graverobbers makes pinning down a family- tree very hard. The Travling People she comes from are neither Sinti nor Lucht Siúil with specific social systems, but are gens- du-voyage that actually consists of different ethnic /cultural groups who come, stay and leave in the Traveling-group on their own whims. Although Senritsus father was specifically born in Lübeck (Hence his nickname Papa Döne later given to him between the traveling people) and lived in Ratzeburg before meeting her mother and leaving his carrier to join her and also Senritsus and all her siblings names are of japanese orgin but also have a english or greek aliases, so there could be said that about her ethnicity. Make of that what you want. In the HxH world the only specifically japanese people are her colleague Basho and Hanzo, so Senritsus ethnicity is in contrast undistinguishable.

ᴛʜʀᴇᴇ ʜᴇᴀᴅᴄᴀɴᴏɴs ʏᴏᴜ ʜᴀᴠᴇ ɴᴇᴠᴇʀ ᴛᴏʟᴅ ᴀɴʏᴏɴᴇ :

Senritsu is dyslexic. In the first twelve years of her life she had visited school through online-courses while her group of traveling people had been on the road, so there had never been a chance for a special pedagogue to make a diagnosis of her. Schoolwork in general and especially reading was a source of endless frustration for her and she developted with a lot of tears and sweat certaine tactics to avoid her struggles beeing find out: Whatever she is told, she will remember in detail, especially the "melody" of the words. She has a very big visual- Word-safe keenly memorized, although she obviously will be confused if words are written similar (same start, same middle but different ending). This also means that reading japanese kanji is an absolute nightmare for her. Years later as an Adult, Senritsu figured out her diagnosis and nowdays just uses an App on her Mobile Phone to recognize the letters to read them to her with a mechanic voice and when she writes letters, she has a programm on her laptop to dictate to which words will be translated into written words. She is also a big fan of audio-books.

Senritsus flute is made of bones. The group of wandering People Senritsu grew up between were using bones to build music- instruments. Originally that tradition came from the idea that when a person or animal dies scraps of their "aura "Beeing" (Senritsu figured that this tradition originally came from a nen-pratice) will sink into their bones, giving the instruments a certaine tune depending on the passed persons personality /animals abilities. What had been first a traditonal craft, became the groups main income beside some thiefery and robbery, when the group was discovered by the bodypart-collector-community and since than the group works on comissions for them to build artpieces for that collectors. The group nowdays only uses humanbones and are inofficially known as graverobbers. Only occaisonally they would nowdays use animalbones. Senritsus original flute made of bones is the master-piece she build to pass her masterexam as a conservator.

Senritsus Father is a Serial-Killer. The man who would be renamed "Papa Döne" or just "Döne" by the Traveling-People, was said to have lost his mind after his oldest child left the group to study at a Music- Consortium. It was also the same time Senritsu had invented and was using her Prototyp Hatsu and tried to rob a (unknowing to her) Hunter, who in exchange for food and a bed to sleep in sat her down for a basic-Nentraining so she would not accidentally kill herself by beeing a emitter and therefor unkowingly very easy just throws her aura out in massive amounts. Her father, protective of his children as he was, asked to be teached too. Senritsu till today thinks that her father had been initated to Nen wrongly and that there had been "something broken in his mind" in the process, considering what happned afterwards. This is also the reason why she vehemently insists on not teaching other people Nen, because she is worried she would do something wrong and hurt them physically / mentally. Senritsus father was hanged when she was twelve and afterwards she left the Traveling people to study at the same Music-Consortium her eldest sister went to study at.

ᴛʜʀᴇᴇ ᴛʜɪɴɢs ʏᴏᴜʀ ᴄʜᴀʀᴀᴄᴛᴇʀ ʟɪᴋᴇs ᴅᴏɪɴɢ ɪɴ ᴛʜᴇɪʀ ғʀᴇᴇ ᴛɪᴍᴇ : In general Senritsus work as a Music-Hunter is her hobby and her greatest passion. However; for explicite examples:

Senritsu loves to dance, although since she was cursed she nolonger can dance tango with a partner (Due to the great heightdifference, even when she sidesteps that in dances like Waltz by beeing the one who leads) and usually will either dance flamenco on her own or join a ringdance with a group.

At every moment when she is not working (as in keeping an eye on someone / something) or is in a social interaction in which other people need her attention, she is listening to a audiobook. Senritsu had never been a good student in school thanked for her undiagnosed dyslexia but also because of her personality. What did not interested her, would not get a shimmer of her attention. Which also means that what interests her will get her full attention and passion and immense eagerness to learn. Accordingly she constantly will listen to audiobooks of themes that interest her: History, the biographys of certaine componists, scientific analysis of dances /art/ musical instruments/ cultural practices around dancing/music/craftmanship, travel-reports....

Senritsu loves camping and hiking. It is naturally part of her work, but she herself loves to prepare a trip and despite the fact that sleepign in a tent is not at all good for her back, she still loves spending free days away from big cities on a hike.

sɪx ᴘᴇᴏᴘʟᴇ ʏᴏᴜʀ ᴄʜᴀʀᴀᴄᴛᴇʀ ʟɪᴋᴇs / ʟᴏᴠᴇs : Senritsu easily loves people, in the manner that she easily gets fond of them and will look after them for as long as they are around her. And in this time, they will also very much count as close family to her with all the care and love that connection comes with. That is after all how her Group of Traveling Peple had worked: Everyone is welcomed to seek help, community and protection and when they leave, they are just as loved, but the Group still moves on. However, that also means, that as soon as Senritsu leaves she will count new people into that family of hers and leave the others behind (still loved, nontheless left behind). She is a wanderer after all and it is normal for her to say goodbye and let go. So in that manner, at the moment she would count as people she loves and considers family: Basho, Lin-Sen, Kurapika and Leorio. There are of course her four siblings, her mother and her baby-nieces (godchildren, for that matter. Although she sees her godmother duties fullfilled by having put up a bankbook for the twins)and the members of the Traveling people, that she would count as the people she loves. Although she had had no contact to them despite a letter once a year since she had left and years later became a Hunter.

ᴛᴡᴏ ᴛʜɪɴɢs ʏᴏᴜʀ ᴄʜᴀʀᴀᴄᴛᴇʀ ʀᴇɢʀᴇᴛs : Nothing. What happned, had happned. Nothing she thinks or feels about it will change that it had already happned and time can not be rewind, what counts is what she is doing with the situation she is in now. So Senritsu does not regret anything and will never regret anything.

ᴛᴡᴏ ᴘʜᴏʙɪᴀs ʏᴏᴜʀ ᴄʜᴀʀᴀᴄᴛᴇʀ ʜᴀs : Senritsu is afraid of heights, but that is something she had learned to live with. She still does not at all enjoys travelign per Airship or walking along bridges without a railing. Since what had happned to her fathere there is also another fear: that she might lose herself in her ambitions and hurt other people, and that she will not fully dive into her passions, regret holding back and lashes out on others out of frustration and pain. Accordingly Senritsu had decided to follow her passions wholly and usually keeps people on armlenght, so they would not be hurt by her putting her work before them.

[allaboutmarketing4you]

How Google Maps, Spotify, Shazam and More Work

"How does Google Maps use satellites, GPS and more to get you from point A to point B? What is the tech that powers Spotify’s recommendation algorithm?

From the unique tech that works in seconds to power tap-to-pay to how Shazam identifies 23,000 songs each minute, WSJ explores the engineering and science of technology that catches our eye.

Chapters:

0:00 Google Maps

9:07 LED wristbands

14:30 Spotify’s algorithm

21:30 Tap-to-Pay

28:18 Noise-canceling headphones

34:33 MSG Sphere

41:30 Shazam "

Source: The Wall Street Journal

#Tech#Algorithm#WSJ

Additional information:

" How Does Google Map Works?

Google Maps is a unique web-based mapping service brought to you by the tech giant, Google. It offers satellite imagery, aerial photography, street maps, 360° panoramic views of streets, real-time traffic conditions, and route planning for traveling by foot, car, bicycle, or public transportation.

A short history of Google maps:

Google Maps was first launched in February 2005, as a desktop web mapping service. It was developed by a team at Google led by Lars and Jens Rasmussen, with the goal of creating a more user-friendly and accurate alternative to existing mapping services. In 2007, Google released the first version of Google Maps for mobile, which was available for the Apple iPhone. This version of the app was a huge success and quickly became the most popular mapping app on the market. As time has passed, Google Maps has consistently developed and enhanced its capabilities, including the addition of new forms of map data like satellite and aerial imagery and integration with other Google platforms like Google Earth and Google Street View.

In 2013, Google released a new version of Google Maps for the web, which included a redesigned interface and new features like enhanced search and integration with Google+ for sharing and reviewing places.

Today, Google Maps is available on desktop computers and as a mobile app for Android and iOS devices. It is used by millions of people around the world to get directions, find places, and explore new areas.

How does google maps work?

Google Maps works by using satellite and aerial imagery to create detailed maps of the world. These maps are then made available to users through a web-based interface or a mobile app.

When you open Google Maps, you can search for a specific location or browse the map to explore an area. You can also use the app to get directions to a specific place or find points of interest, such as businesses, landmarks, and other points of interest. Google Maps uses a combination of GPS data, user input, and real-time traffic data to provide accurate and up-to-date information about locations and directions. The app also integrates with other Google services, such as Google Earth and Google Street View, to provide additional information and features.

Overall, Google Maps is a powerful tool that makes it easy to find and explore locations around the world. It’s available on desktop computers and as a mobile app for Android and iOS devices.

Google uses a variety of algorithms in the backend of Google Maps to provide accurate and up-to-date information about locations and directions. Some of the main algorithms used by Google Maps include:

Image recognition: Google Maps uses image recognition algorithms to extract useful information from the satellite and street view images used to create the map. These algorithms can recognize specific objects and features in the images, such as roads, buildings, and landmarks, and use this information to create a detailed map of the area.

Machine learning: Google Maps uses machine learning algorithms to analyze and interpret data from a variety of sources, including satellite imagery, street view images, and user data. These algorithms can identify patterns and trends in the data, allowing Google Maps to provide more accurate and up-to-date information about locations and directions.

Geospatial data analysis: Google Maps uses geospatial data analysis algorithms to analyze and interpret data about the earth’s surface and features. This includes techniques like geographic information systems (GIS) and geospatial data mining, which are used to extract useful information from large datasets of geospatial data.

Overall, these algorithms are an essential part of the backend of Google Maps, helping the service to provide accurate and up-to-date information to users around the world.

Google Maps uses a variety of algorithms to determine the shortest path between two points:

Here are some of the algorithms that may be used:

Dijkstra’s algorithm: This is a classic algorithm for finding the shortest path between two nodes in a graph. It works by starting at the source node and progressively exploring the graph, adding nodes to the shortest path as it goes.

A* search algorithm: This is another popular algorithm for finding the shortest path between two points. It works by combining the benefits of Dijkstra’s algorithm with a heuristic function that helps guide the search toward the destination node.

It’s worth noting that Google Maps may use a combination of these algorithms, as well as other specialized algorithms, to determine the shortest path between two points. The specific algorithms used may vary depending on the specifics of the route, such as the distance, the number of turns, and the type of terrain. "

Source: geeksforgeeks.org - -> You can read the full article at geeksforgeeks.org

#mktmarketing4you#corporatestrategy#marketing#M4Y#lovemarketing#IPAM#ipammarketingschool#ContingencyPlanning#virtual#volunteering#project#Management#Economy#ConsumptionBehavior#BrandManagement#ProductManagement#Logistics#Lifecycle

#Brand#Neuromarketing#McKinseyMatrix#Viralmarketing#Facebook#Marketingmetrics#icebergmodel#EdgarScheinsCultureModel#GuerrillaMarketing #STARMethod #7SFramework #gapanalysis #AIDAModel #SixLeadershipStyles #MintoPyramidPrinciple #StrategyDiamond #InternalRateofReturn #irr #BrandManagement #dripmodel #HoshinPlanning #XMatrix #backtobasics #BalancedScorecard #Product #ProductManagement #Logistics #Branding #freemium #businessmodel #business #4P #3C #BCG #SWOT #TOWS #EisenhowerMatrix #Study #marketingresearch #marketer #marketing manager #Painpoints #Pestel #ValueChain # VRIO #marketingmix

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[creativemarkethub]

Digital Product Ideas & Strategies for Online Success

Digital Product Ideas + How to Sell Them Online, Why Create Digital Products? How to Come Up with Product Ideas?

In today's digital age, creating and selling digital products has become a lucrative venture for many entrepreneurs and creators. From ebooks to online courses, there are endless possibilities when it comes to digital product ideas. Not only are digital products cost-effective to produce, but they also provide a passive income stream once they are created and marketed effectively. In this article, we will explore 24+ digital product ideas sorted by type, discuss how to sell them online, delve into the reasons for creating digital products, and provide tips on how to come up with product ideas.

Ebooks

1. Recipe ebooks featuring unique and healthy dishes.

2. How-to guides on various DIY projects.

3. Self-help ebooks focusing on personal development and motivation.

4. Travel guides for specific destinations or travel hacks.

Online Courses

5. Language learning courses for beginners.

6. Photography masterclasses for aspiring photographers.

7. Social media marketing courses for small business owners.

8. Fitness and nutrition programs for different fitness levels.

Templates and Printables

9. Budgeting templates for financial planning.

10. Social media post templates for content creators.

11. Printable planners and organizers for productivity.

12. Resume templates for jobseekers.

Graphic Design Assets

13. Customizable logo templates for startups and small businesses.

14. Stock photos and illustrations for bloggers and website owners.

15. Infographic templates for data visualization.

16. Social media graphics for Instagram and Facebook posts.

Software and Apps

17. Productivity apps for task management and time tracking.

18. Photo editing software for amateur photographers.

19. Mobile games for entertainment and relaxation.

20. E-commerce platforms for online sellers.

Audio and Video Content

21. Podcast episodes on niche topics.

22. Meditation and relaxation audio tracks.

23. Workout videos for home fitness enthusiasts.

24. Voice-over services for video creators.

Selling digital products online can be done through various platforms such as e-commerce websites, digital marketplaces, or through your own website. Utilize social media and email marketing to promote your products and reach a wider audience. Offer discounts and promotions to attract new customers and retain existing ones. Collaborate with influencers or affiliates to expand your reach and drive more sales.

Creating digital products offers numerous benefits, including scalability, flexibility, and the potential for passive income. Unlike physical products, digital products can be created once and sold multiple times without the need for inventory or shipping costs. Additionally, digital products can reach a global audience, allowing creators to tap into international markets and grow their brand presence.

Coming up with digital product ideas can be challenging, but conducting market research, identifying your target audience, and understanding their needs and preferences can help you brainstorm innovative and valuable products. Stay updated on industry trends and consumer behavior to stay ahead of the competition and meet market demands effectively.

In conclusion, digital products present a lucrative opportunity for creators and entrepreneurs to monetize their skills and knowledge. By exploring diverse digital product ideas, implementing effective marketing strategies, and continuously innovating, you can build a successful digital product business and generate sustainable income in the digital landscape.

[prometteursolutions]

Unlocking the Cost of Your Hotel Booking Website: A Deep Dive

In the ever-evolving travel landscape, a robust hotel booking website is no longer a luxury, but a necessity. 

Whether you're venturing into the online hotel booking space or seeking to expand your existing business, understanding the cost involved in building a user-friendly and functional website is crucial. 

This blog delves into the key factors influencing the cost of your hotel booking website, empowering you to make informed decisions.

Website Design and Development

Complexity: A basic website with essential functionalities like search, booking, and payment options will have a lower cost compared to a feature-rich platform offering interactive experiences and personalized recommendations.

Customization: Opting for a pre-designed template can be more budget-friendly, while custom website design allows for a unique brand identity and caters to specific needs, impacting the cost.

Development Team: Hiring an in-house development team can incur significant salaries, benefits, and infrastructure costs. Partnering with a reputable hotel website design company with expertise in this domain can offer a cost-effective alternative.

Additional Features:

Advanced Search and Filter Options: Allowing users to filter by location, amenities, price range, and guest reviews adds value but increases development complexity and cost.

Multilingual Support: Catering to a global audience by offering multilingual support necessitates additional development effort and ongoing translation costs.

Integration with Third-Party Platforms: Integrating with payment gateways, channel management systems, and loyalty programs can enhance functionality but involve additional costs for development and potential ongoing fees.

Maintenance and Ongoing Costs

Content Management System (CMS): A user-friendly CMS empowers you to manage website content and updates independently, reducing reliance on developers and potentially lowering costs.

Hosting and Security: Choosing reliable hosting and robust security measures ensures website uptime and data protection, incurring fixed monthly or annual costs.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Implementing SEO strategies improves website visibility in search engine results, potentially requiring ongoing investment in content creation, technical SEO optimization, and potentially, marketing campaigns.

Determining the Right Budget

The cost of your hotel booking website can vary significantly based on your specific requirements, desired features, and chosen development approach. It's essential to prioritize features based on your target audience, business goals, and budget constraints.

Ready to unlock the potential of your hotel booking website? 

Contact a hotel website development expert today to discuss your vision and receive a personalized cost estimate tailored to your unique needs. Prometteur Solutions is top mobile and web app development company in India and USA.

Remember, a well-designed and developed website can be an investment that drives significant returns in the long run, attracting new customers and boosting your online presence in the competitive hospitality industry.

[mariacallous]

In 2019, a government contractor and technologist named Mike Yeagley began making the rounds in Washington, DC. He had a blunt warning for anyone in the country’s national security establishment who would listen: The US government had a Grindr problem.

A popular dating and hookup app, Grindr relied on the GPS capabilities of modern smartphones to connect potential partners in the same city, neighborhood, or even building. The app can show how far away a potential partner is in real time, down to the foot.

In its 10 years of operation, Grindr had amassed millions of users and become a central cog in gay culture around the globe.

But to Yeagley, Grindr was something else: one of the tens of thousands of carelessly designed mobile phone apps that leaked massive amounts of data into the opaque world of online advertisers. That data, Yeagley knew, was easily accessible by anyone with a little technical know-how. So Yeagley—a technology consultant then in his late forties who had worked in and around government projects nearly his entire career—made a PowerPoint presentation and went out to demonstrate precisely how that data was a serious national security risk.

As he would explain in a succession of bland government conference rooms, Yeagley was able to access the geolocation data on Grindr users through a hidden but ubiquitous entry point: the digital advertising exchanges that serve up the little digital banner ads along the top of Grindr and nearly every other ad-supported mobile app and website. This was possible because of the way online ad space is sold, through near-instantaneous auctions in a process called real-time bidding. Those auctions were rife with surveillance potential. You know that ad that seems to follow you around the internet? It’s tracking you in more ways than one. In some cases, it’s making your precise location available in near-real time to both advertisers and people like Mike Yeagley, who specialized in obtaining unique data sets for government agencies.

Working with Grindr data, Yeagley began drawing geofences—creating virtual boundaries in geographical data sets—around buildings belonging to government agencies that do national security work. That allowed Yeagley to see what phones were in certain buildings at certain times, and where they went afterwards. He was looking for phones belonging to Grindr users who spent their daytime hours at government office buildings. If the device spent most workdays at the Pentagon, the FBI headquarters, or the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency building at Fort Belvoir, for example, there was a good chance its owner worked for one of those agencies. Then he started looking at the movement of those phones through the Grindr data. When they weren’t at their offices, where did they go? A small number of them had lingered at highway rest stops in the DC area at the same time and in proximity to other Grindr users—sometimes during the workday and sometimes while in transit between government facilities. For other Grindr users, he could infer where they lived, see where they traveled, even guess at whom they were dating.

Intelligence agencies have a long and unfortunate history of trying to root out LGBTQ Americans from their workforce, but this wasn’t Yeagley’s intent. He didn’t want anyone to get in trouble. No disciplinary actions were taken against any employee of the federal government based on Yeagley’s presentation. His aim was to show that buried in the seemingly innocuous technical data that comes off every cell phone in the world is a rich story—one that people might prefer to keep quiet. Or at the very least, not broadcast to the whole world. And that each of these intelligence and national security agencies had employees who were recklessly, if obliviously, broadcasting intimate details of their lives to anyone who knew where to look.

As Yeagley showed, all that information was available for sale, for cheap. And it wasn’t just Grindr, but rather any app that had access to a user’s precise location—other dating apps, weather apps, games. Yeagley chose Grindr because it happened to generate a particularly rich set of data and its user base might be uniquely vulnerable. A Chinese company had obtained a majority stake in Grindr beginning in 2016—amping up fears among Yeagley and others in Washington that the data could be misused by a geopolitical foe. (Until 1995, gay men and women were banned from having security clearances owing in part to a belief among government counterintelligence agents that their identities might make them vulnerable to being leveraged by an adversary—a belief that persists today.)

But Yeagley’s point in these sessions wasn’t just to argue that advertising data presented a threat to the security of the United States and the privacy of its citizens. It was to demonstrate that these sources also presented an enormous opportunity in the right hands, used for the right purpose. When speaking to a bunch of intelligence agencies, there’s no way to get their attention quite like showing them a tool capable of revealing when their agents are visiting highway rest stops.

Mike Yeagley saw both the promise and the pitfalls of advertising data because he’d played a key role in bringing advertising data into government in the first place. His 2019 road show was an attempt to spread awareness across the diverse and often siloed workforces in US intelligence. But by then, a few select corners of the intel world were already very familiar with his work, and were actively making use of it.

Yeagley had spent years working as a technology “scout”—looking for capabilities or data sets that existed in the private sector and helping to bring them into government. He’d helped pioneer a technique that some of its practitioners would jokingly come to call “ADINT”—a play on the intelligence community’s jargon for different sources of intelligence, like the SIGINT (signals intelligence) that became synonymous with the rise of codebreaking and tapped phone lines in the 20th century, and the OSINT (open source intelligence) of the internet era, of which ADINT was a form. More often, though, ADINT was known in government circles as adtech data.

Adtech uses the basic lifeblood of digital commerce—the trail of data that comes off nearly all mobile phones—to deliver valuable intelligence information. Edward Snowden’s 2013 leaks showed that, for a time, spy agencies could get data from digital advertisers by tapping fiber-optic cables or internet choke points. But in the post-Snowden world, more and more traffic like that was being encrypted; no longer could the National Security Agency pull data from advertisers by eavesdropping. So it was a revelation—especially given the public outcry over Snowden’s leaks—that agencies could just buy some of the data they needed straight from commercial entities. One technology consultant who works on projects for the US government explained it this way to me: “The advertising technology ecosystem is the largest information-gathering enterprise ever conceived by man. And it wasn’t built by the government.”

Everyone who possesses an iPhone or Android phone has been given an “anonymized” advertising ID by Apple or Google. That number is used to track our real-world movement, our internet browsing behavior, the apps we put on our phone, and much more. Billions of dollars have been poured into this system by America’s largest corporations. Faced with a commercially available repository of data this rich and detailed, the world’s governments have increasingly opened up their wallets to buy up this information on everyone, rather than hacking it or getting it through secret court orders.

Here’s how it works. Imagine a woman named Marcela. She has a Google Pixel phone with the Weather Channel app installed. As she heads out the door to go on a jog, she sees overcast skies. So Marcela opens the app to check if the forecast calls for rain.

By clicking on the Weather Channel’s blue icon, Marcela triggers a frenzy of digital activity aimed at serving her a personalized ad. It begins with an entity called an advertising exchange, basically a massive marketplace where billions of mobile devices and computers notify a centralized server whenever they have an open ad space.

In less than the blink of an eye, the Weather Channel app shares a ream of data with this ad exchange, including the IP address of Marcela’s phone, the version of Android it's running, her carrier, plus an array of technical data about how the phone is configured, down to what resolution the screen resolution is set to. Most valuable of all, the app shares the precise GPS coordinates of Marcela’s phone and the pseudonymized advertising ID number that Google has assigned to her, called an AAID. (On Apple devices, it’s called an IDFA.)

To the layperson, an advertising ID is a string of gibberish, something like bdca712j-fb3c-33ad-2324-0794d394m912. To advertisers, it’s a gold mine. They know that bdca712j-fb3c-33ad-2324-0794d394m912 owns a Google Pixel device with the Nike Run Club app. They know that bdca712j-fb3c-33ad-2324-0794d394m912 often frequents Runnersworld.com. And they know that bdca712j-fb3c-33ad-2324-0794d394m912 has been lusting after a pair of new Vaporfly racing shoes. They know this because Nike, Runnersworld.com, and Google are all plugged into the same advertising ecosystem, all aimed at understanding what consumers are interested in.

Advertisers use that information as they shape and deploy their ads. Say both Nike and Brooks, another running shoe brand, are trying to reach female running aficionados in a certain income bracket or in certain zip codes. Based on the huge amounts of data they can pull from the ether, they might build an “audience”—essentially a huge list of ad IDs of customers known or suspected to be in the market for running shoes. Then in an instantaneous, automated, real-time auction, advertisers tell a digital ad exchange how much they’re willing to pay to reach those consumers every time they load an app or a web page.

There are some limits and safeguards on all this data. Technically, a user can reset their assigned advertising ID number (though few people do so—or even know they have one). And users do have some control over what they share, via their app settings. If consumers don’t allow the app they’re using to access GPS, the ad exchange can’t pull the phone’s GPS location, for example. (Or at least they aren’t supposed to. Not all apps follow the rules, and they are sometimes not properly vetted once they are in app stores.)

Moreover, ad exchange bidding platforms do minimal due diligence on the hundreds or even thousands of entities that have a presence on their servers. So even the losing bidders still have access to all the consumer data that came off the phone during the bid request. An entire business model has been built on this: siphoning data off the real-time bidding networks, packaging it up, and reselling it to help businesses understand consumer behavior.

Geolocation is the single most valuable piece of commercial data to come off those devices. Understanding the movement of phones is now a multibillion-dollar industry. It can be used to deliver targeted advertising based on location for, say, a restaurant chain that wants to deliver targeted ads to people nearby. It can be used to measure consumer behavior and the effectiveness of advertising. How many people saw an ad and later visited a store? And the analytics can be used for planning and investment decisions. Where is the best location to put a new store? Will there be enough foot traffic to sustain such a business? Is the number of people visiting a certain retailer going up or down this month, and what does that mean for the retailer’s stock price?

But this kind of data is good for something else. It has remarkable surveillance potential. Why? Because what we do in the world with our devices cannot truly be anonymized. The fact that advertisers know Marcela as bdca712j-fb3c-33ad-2324-0794d394m912 as they’re watching her move around the online and offline worlds offers her almost no privacy protection. Taken together, her habits and routines are unique to her. Our real-world movement is highly specific and personal to all of us. For many years, I lived in a small 13-unit walk-up in Washington, DC. I was the only person waking up every morning at that address and going to The Wall Street Journal’s offices. Even if I was just an anonymized number, my behavior was as unique as a fingerprint even in a sea of hundreds of millions of others. There was no way to anonymize my identity in a data set like geolocation. Where a phone spends most of its evenings is a good proxy for where its owner lives. Advertisers know this.

Governments know this too. And Yeagley was part of a team that would try to find out how they could exploit it.

In 2015, a company called PlaceIQ hired Yeagley. PlaceIQ was an early mover in the location data market. Back in the mid-2000s, its founder, Duncan McCall, had participated in an overland driving race from London to Gambia across the land-mine-strewn Western Sahara. He had eschewed the usual practice of hiring an expensive Bedouin guide to help ensure safe passage through the area. Instead, he found online a GPS route that someone else had posted from a few days earlier on a message board. McCall was able to download the route, load it into his own GPS device, and follow the same safe path. On that drive through the Western Sahara, McCall recalled dreaming up the idea for what would become PlaceIQ to capture all of the geospatial data that consumers were emitting and generate insights. At first the company used data from the photo-sharing website Flickr, but eventually PlaceIQ started tapping mobile ad exchanges. It would be the start of a new business model—one that would prove highly successful.

Yeagley was hired after PlaceIQ got an investment from the CIA’s venture capital arm, In-Q-Tel. Just as it had poured money into numerous social media monitoring services, geospatial data had also attracted In-Q-Tel’s interest. The CIA was interested in software that could analyze and understand the geographic movement of people and things. It wanted to be able to decipher when, say, two people were trying to conceal that they were traveling together. The CIA had planned to use the software with its own proprietary data, but government agencies of all kinds eventually became interested in the kind of raw data that commercial entities like PlaceIQ had—it was available through a straightforward commercial transaction and came with fewer restrictions on use inside government than secret intercepts.

While working there, Yeagley realized that the data itself might be valuable to the government, too. PlaceIQ was fine selling software to the government but was not prepared to sell its data to the feds. So Yeagley approached a different company called PlanetRisk—one of the hundreds and hundreds of tiny startups with ties to the US government dotted around office parks in Northern Virginia. In theory, a government defense contractor offered a more secure environment than a civilian company like PlaceIQ to do the kind of work he had in mind.

PlanetRisk straddled the corporate world and the government contracting space—building products that were aimed at helping customers understand the relative dangers of various spots around the world. For example, a company that wanted to establish a store or an office somewhere in the world might turn to PlanetRisk to analyze data on crime, civil unrest, and extreme weather as they vary geographically.

PlanetRisk hired Yeagley in 2016 as vice president of global defense—essentially a sales and business development job. The aim was for him to develop his adtech technology inside the contractor, which might try to sell it to various government agencies. Yeagley brought with him some government funding from his relationships around town in the defense and intelligence research communities.

PlanetRisk’s earliest sales demo was about Syria: quantifying the crush of refugees flowing out of Syria after years of civil war and the advancing ISIS forces. From a commercial data broker called UberMedia, PlanetRisk had obtained location data on Aleppo—the besieged Syrian city that had been at the center of some of the fiercest fighting between government forces and US-backed rebels. It was an experiment in understanding what was possible. Could you even obtain location information on mobile phones in Syria? Surely a war zone was no hot spot for mobile advertising.

But to the company’s surprise, the answer was yes. There were 168,786 mobile devices present in the city of Aleppo in UberMedia’s data set, which measured mobile phone movements during the month of December 2015. And from that data, they could see the movement of refugees around the world.

The discovery that there was extensive data in Syria was a watershed. No longer was advertising merely a way to sell products; it was a way to peer into the habits and routines of billions. “Mobile devices are the lifeline for everyone, even refugees,” Yeagley said.

PlanetRisk had sampled data from a range of location brokers—Cuebiq, X-Mode, SafeGraph, PlaceIQ, and Gravy Analytics—before settling on UberMedia. (The company has no relation to the rideshare app Uber.) UberMedia was started by the veteran advertising and technology executive Bill Gross, who had helped invent keyword-targeted ads—the kinds of ads that appear on Google when you search a specific term. UberMedia had started out as an advertising company that helped brands reach customers on Twitter. But over time, like many other companies in this space, UberMedia realized that it could do more than just target consumers with advertising. With access to several ad exchanges, it could save bid requests that contained geolocation information, and then it could sell that data. Now, this was technically against the rules of most ad exchanges, but there was little way to police the practice. At its peak, UberMedia was collecting about 200,000 bid requests per second on mobile devices around the world.

Just as UberMedia was operating in a bit of a gray zone, PlanetRisk had likewise not been entirely forthright with UberMedia. To get the Aleppo data, Yeagley told UberMedia that he needed the data as part of PlanetRisk’s work with a humanitarian organization—when in fact the client was a defense contractor doing research work funded by the Pentagon. (UberMedia’s CEO would later learn the truth about what Mike Yeagley wanted the data for. And others in the company had their own suspicions. “Humanitarian purposes” was a line met with a wink and nod around the company among employees who knew or suspected what was going on with Yeagley’s data contracts.) Either way, UberMedia wasn’t vetting its customers closely. It appeared to be more eager to make a sale than it was concerned about the privacy implications of selling the movement patterns of millions of people.

When it came time to produce a demo of PlanetRisk’s commercial phone-tracking product, Yeagley’s 10-year-old daughter helped him come up with a name. They called the program Locomotive—a portmanteau of location and motive. The total cost to build out a small demo was about $600,000, put up entirely by a couple of Pentagon research funding arms. As the PlanetRisk team put Locomotive through the paces and dug into the data, they found one interesting story after another.

In one instance they could see a device moving back and forth between Syria and the West—a potential concern given ISIS’s interest in recruiting Westerners, training them, and sending them back to carry out terrorist attacks. But as the PlanetRisk team took a closer look, the pattern of the device’s behavior indicated that it likely belonged to a humanitarian aid worker. They could track that person’s device to UN facilities and a refugee camp, unlikely locales for Islamic State fighters to hang out.

They realized they could track world leaders through Locomotive, too. After acquiring a data set on Russia, the team realized they could track phones in the Russian president Vladimir Putin’s entourage. The phones moved everywhere that Putin did. They concluded the devices in question did not actually belong to Putin himself; Russian state security and counterintelligence were better than that. Instead, they believed the devices belonged to the drivers, the security personnel, the political aides, and other support staff around the Russian president; those people’s phones were trackable in the advertising data. As a result, PlanetRisk knew where Putin was going and who was in his entourage.

There were other oddities. In one data set, they found one phone kept transiting between the United States and North Korea. The device would attend a Korean church in the United States on Sundays. Its owner appeared to work at a GE factory, a prominent American corporation with significant intellectual property and technology that a regime like Pyongyang would be interested in. Why was it traveling back and forth between the United States and North Korea, not exactly known as a tourist destination? PlanetRisk considered raising the issue with either the US intelligence agencies or the company but ultimately decided there wasn’t much they could do. And they didn’t necessarily want their phone-tracking tool to be widely known. They never got to the bottom of it.

Most alarmingly, PlanetRisk began seeing evidence of the US military’s own missions in the Locomotive data. Phones would appear at American military installations such as Fort Bragg in North Carolina and MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida—home of some of the most skilled US special operators with the Joint Special Operations Command and other US Special Operations Command units. They would then transit through third-party countries like Turkey and Canada before eventually arriving in northern Syria, where they were clustering at the abandoned Lafarge cement factory outside the town of Kobane.

It dawned on the PlanetRisk team that these were US special operators converging at an unannounced military facility. Months later, their suspicions would be publicly confirmed; eventually the US government would acknowledge the facility was a forward operating base for personnel deployed in the anti-ISIS campaign.

Even worse, through Locomotive, they were getting data in pretty close to real time. UberMedia’s data was usually updated every 24 hours or so. But sometimes, they saw movement that had occurred as recently as 15 or 30 minutes earlier. Here were some of the best-trained special operations units in the world, operating at an unannounced base. Yet their precise, shifting coordinates were showing up in UberMedia’s advertising data. While Locomotive was a closely held project meant for government use, UberMedia’s data was available for purchase by anyone who could come up with a plausible excuse. It wouldn’t be difficult for the Chinese or Russian government to get this kind of data by setting up a shell company with a cover story, just as Mike Yeagley had done.

Initially, PlanetRisk was sampling data country by country, but it didn’t take long for the team to wonder what it would cost to buy the entire world. The sales rep at UberMedia provided the answer: For a few hundred thousand dollars a month, the company would provide a global feed of every phone on earth that the company could collect on. The economics were impressive. For the military and intelligence community, a few hundred thousand a month was essentially a rounding error—in 2020, the intelligence budget was $62.7 billion. Here was a powerful intelligence tool for peanuts.

Locomotive, the first version of which was coded in 2016, blew away Pentagon brass. One government official demanded midway through the demo that the rest of it be conducted inside a SCIF, a secure government facility where classified information could be discussed. The official didn’t understand how or what PlanetRisk was doing but assumed it must be a secret. A PlanetRisk employee at the briefing was mystified. “We were like, well, this is just stuff we’ve seen commercially,” they recall. “We just licensed the data.” After all, how could marketing data be classified?

Government officials were so enthralled by the capability that PlanetRisk was asked to keep Locomotive quiet. It wouldn’t be classified, but the company would be asked to tightly control word of the capability to give the military time to take advantage of public ignorance of this kind of data and turn it into an operational surveillance program.

And the same executive remembered leaving another meeting with a different government official. They were on the elevator together when one official asked, could you figure out who is cheating on their spouse?

Yeah, I guess you could, the PlanetRisk executive answered.

But Mike Yeagley wouldn’t last at PlanetRisk.

As the company looked to turn Locomotive from a demo into a live product, Yeagley started to believe that his employer was taking the wrong approach. It was looking to build a data visualization platform for the government. Yet again, Yeagley thought it would be better to provide the raw data to the government and let them visualize it in any way they choose. Rather than make money off of the number of users inside government that buy a software license, Mike Yeagley wanted to just sell the government the data for a flat fee.

So Yeagley and PlanetRisk parted ways. He took his business relationship with UberMedia with him. PlanetRisk moved on to other lines of work and was eventually sold off in pieces to other defense contractors. Yeagley would land at a company called Aelius Exploitation Technologies, where he would go about trying to turn Locomotive into an actual government program for the Joint Special Operations Command—the terrorist-hunting elite special operations force that killed Osama bin Laden and Ayman Al Zarqawi and spent the past few years dismantling ISIS.

Locomotive was renamed VISR, which stood for Virtual Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance. It would be used as part of an interagency program and would be shared widely inside the US intelligence community as a tool to generate leads.

By the time Yeagley went out to warn various security agencies about Grindr in 2019, VISR had been used domestically, too—at least for a short period of time when the FBI wanted to test its usefulness in domestic criminal cases. (In 2018, the FBI backed out of the program.) The Defense Intelligence Agency, another agency that had access to the VISR data, has also acknowledged that it used the tool on five separate occasions to look inside the United States as part of intelligence-related investigations.

But VISR, by now, is only one product among others that sell adtech data to intelligence agencies. The Department of Homeland Security has been a particularly enthusiastic adopter of this kind of data. Three of its components—US Customs and Border Protection, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the US Secret Service —have bought more than 200 licenses from commercial ad tech vendors since 2019. They would use this data for finding border tunnels, tracking down unauthorized immigrants, and trying to solve domestic crimes. In 2023, a government inspector general chastised DHS over the use of adtech, saying that the department did not have adequate privacy safeguards in place and recommending that the data stop being used until policies were drawn. The DHS told the inspector general that they would continue to use the data. Adtech “is an important mission contributor to the ICE investigative process as, in combination with other information and investigative methods, it can fill knowledge gaps and produce investigative leads that might otherwise remain hidden,” the agency wrote in response.

Other governments’ intelligence agencies have access to this data as well. Several Israeli companies—Insanet, Patternz, and Rayzone—have built similar tools to VISR and sell it to national security and public safety entities around the world, according to reports. Rayzone has even developed the capability to deliver malware through targeted ads, according to Haaretz.

Which is to say, none of this is an abstract concern—even if you’re just a private citizen. I’m here to tell you if you’ve ever been on a dating app that wanted your location or if you ever granted a weather app permission to know where you are 24/7, there is a good chance a detailed log of your precise movement patterns has been vacuumed up and saved in some data bank somewhere that tens of thousands of total strangers have access to. That includes intelligence agencies. It includes foreign governments. It includes private investigators. It even includes nosy journalists. (In 2021, a small conservative Catholic blog named The Pillar reported that Jeffrey Burrill, the secretary general of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, was a regular user of Grindr. The publication reported that Burrill “visited gay bars and private residences while using a location-based hookup app” and described its source as “commercially available records of app signal data obtained by The Pillar.”)

If you cheated on your spouse in the past few years and you were careless about your location data settings, there is a good chance there is evidence of that in data that is available for purchase. If you checked yourself into an inpatient drug rehab, that data is probably sitting in a data bank somewhere. If you told your boss you took a sick day and interviewed at a rival company, that could be in there. If you threw a brick through a storefront window during the George Floyd protests, well, your cell phone might link you to that bit of vandalism. And if you once had a few pints before causing a car crash and drove off without calling the police, data telling that story likely still exists somewhere.

We all have a vague sense that our cell phone carriers have this data about us. But law enforcement generally needs to go get a court order to get that. And it takes evidence of a crime to get such an order. This is a different kind of privacy nightmare.

I once met a disgruntled former employee of a company that competed against UberMedia and PlaceIQ. He had absconded with several gigabytes of data from his former company. It was only a small sampling of data, but it represented the comprehensive movements of tens of thousands of people for a few weeks. Lots of those people could be traced back to a residential address with a great deal of confidence. He offered me the data so I could see how invasive and powerful it was.

What can I do with this—hypothetically? I asked. In theory, could you help me draw geofences around mental hospitals? Abortion clinics? Could you look at phones that checked into a motel midday and stayed for less than two hours?

Easily, he answered.

I never went down that road.

[i-shen-blog]

Is blogging still relevant in the age of TikToks and Instagram?

Today, we will be analyzing if blogging is still relevant in the age of TikToks and Instagram and also discuss the reason behind the facts after investigating.

Blog

Blogging started to become a commonplace business digital tactic ten years ago. Before then, blogs about politics, travel, food, and technology were mushrooming everywhere and serving as trustworthy resources for guidance and specialized knowledge. It turned out to be a potent approach to show up in search results and in front of a crowd that was already interested. Additionally, it was a very efficient tool for businesses to demonstrate their expertise and to share expert opinions.

Instagram

Instagram started to be used alongside blogs. Most bloggers did want to use it as a way to promote blogs, like on Twitter. But with Instagram not allowing clickable links in captions, that never seemed to happen successfully. You can use the phrase ‘link is in the bio’ but it’s just not the same as clicking a link there and then.

Now Instagram has turned into something that feels like an unstoppable force and now we hear of Instagrammers, Influencers and content creators more than words like bloggers, vloggers or YouTubers. Instagram feeds are no longer snapshots of peoples Sunday roast, but highly curated images, many have images that look like they are straight out of a magazine. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, I am often guilty of getting lost in a beautiful Instagram feed.

TikTok

In 2019, TikTok was the most downloaded app from Apple’s iOS app store? TikTok seems to have come out of nowhere and is everywhere. It has even infiltrated Instagram – every other food post I see is of a ‘TikTok recipe’ such as baked oats or feta pasta. Not to mention Instagram Reels – which seem to be a rip off of TikTok. Growth is hard on Instagram, but the way in which TikTok works means that anyone can go viral, even if you don’t have thousands of followers.

Why has these newer platforms become popular? is Blogging dead?

Joining Instagram and TikTok is simple. You simply sign up and you are ready to start publishing. You don’t need to mess around with a DNS server, buy a domain, pay a host then install WordPress. You don’t need to find a theme and fidget with widgets. Now, it’s a lot more mobile-based. We want to quickly scroll, consume and move onto the next thing. This is why Instagram is the go-to for looking at beautiful photos and TikTok is the best place to get short, entertaining videos.

Nothing has changed since then.

Despite the overwhelming presence of newer social media platforms, blogging is still a powerful tool for marketing. It's actually turbocharged. According to a recent Data Box survey titled "The Shift in Your Content Marketing Mix: 25 Marketers On What's Changed in 2 Years," 68% of marketers now regard blogging to be more successful than it was two years prior as blogging is about building relationships.

It’s about playing the long game.

To conclude, if you Take time to write your posts. Talk to your customers and build conversations. The everyday consumer is smart and has a limited amount of time. They make informed choices, not only about what they want to buy, but what they want to read. It’s only by offering your reader something truly valuable, that you’ll get the conversation started.

Your blog should always aim to answer the questions your audience has. How consumers find your content will undoubtedly evolve, but what they’re looking for probably won’t. We still need the same information we did 5 years ago, but we’re just using different methods to find it. Creating high-quality, original content will go a long way to getting results from blogging.