#Universal Testing Machine Price

[heicodynamics]

Every industry should and must have one quality testing machine to ensure the best products. One such machine is the UTM. A Universal Testing Machine (UTM) is a special tool used to test how strong materials are. It’s very important for making sure things are safe and work well. 

[hsmleindia]

Computerized Universal Testing Machine With Servo System

Universal Testing Machine made by HSMLE india Corporation with various models like single columns, double columns, floor model, table top, door frame type etc., is used to perform tension, compression, flexure/bending, shearing, peeling, tear, cyclic etc., test for metal and non-metal specimens. This Series Floor Model & Dual Column testing systems provide simplicity, performance and affordability for quality control (QC) labs and production testing. These models are robust, heavy-duty frames commonly used for testing high-strength metals and alloys, advanced composites, aerospace and automotive structures, bolts, fasteners, and plate steels. Frames are available in load capacities of 10Kn to 300Kn; and several variations are available to accommodate requirements for both extended travel and extra wide test space.

[twinsimming]

Energy Drinks by Twinsimming 🥤

This mod adds custom Energy Drinks to a new type of vending machine.

This is a script mod that can be placed in your Packages folder. It was built and tested on 1.69 but should work fine on 1.67.

Requirements

The Sims 3: Late Night

The Sims 3: Seasons

The Sims 3: Supernatural

The Sims 3: University Life

Overview

Soda-Lightful Vending Machine

Energy Drinks

Side Effects

Flavors

New Moodlets

Soda-Lightful Vending Machine

- Price: §1250 - Category: Large Appliances - Includes all 11 original swatches + 1 recolorable option (3 channels) - Poly Count: 2346 - Originally created for The Sims 4 by RAVASHEEN, converted to The Sims 3 by me

Like the vending machines that came with University Life, sims can Buy Energy Drink, Shake Machine, or Slam Machine.

Energy Drinks

Teen and older sims can purchase energy drinks from the Soda-Lightful Vending Machine for §5 each.

Energy drinks boost the Energy need, give sims the custom Energy Rush moodlet, and remove any moodlets related to low Energy (Tired, Sleepy, Exhausted, Buzz Crashed, etc.), similar to drinking coffee, but the effect lasts twice as long (6 hours instead of 3 hours).

Drinking multiple energy drinks in a row will boost how long the Energy Rush moodlet lasts, as well as increase the moodlet's value, up to 18 hours and +30 mood.

Once the Energy Rush moodlet expires, sims get the custom negative Energy Crash moodlet.

Side Effects

If your sim goes more than 24 hours without another energy drink, they'll start to suffer from caffeine withdrawal and gain the custom negative Craving Caffeine moodlet for the next 2 days. Drinking coffee, tea, barista bar beverages, or another energy drink will remove this moodlet.

Drinking more than 2 energy drinks at a time also carries the risk of a sim being electrocuted and dying.

Teens and Elders both have a 5% chance of being electrocuted, while YA have a 1% chance and Adults have a 3% chance.

Flavors

There are 8 different energy drinks to choose from. 6 provide flavor-related moodlets from the snow cone machine from Seasons and the bubble blower from Late Night. These moodlets last for 4 hours.

From left to right in the second preview photo:

Charged Cherry (Cheery Cherry)

Pineapple Power-Up (On a Beach)

Lightning Lemon (Laidback Lemon)

e-Lectric Lime (Lucky Lime)

Blue Raspberry Blitz (Raspberry Romance)

Gigawatt Grape (Gleeful Grape)

The Unidentified Fizzy Ooze energy drink replenishes Alien brain power, but makes non-Aliens nauseous.

The last energy drink is called Mystery Flavor and it works like the jelly bean bush from Supernatural; including carrying the risk of death, so proceed with caution.

New Moodlets

Energy Rush: Given when sims drink an energy drink, lasts 6 hours, +10, +20, or +30 mood

Energy Crash: Given when the Energy Rush moodlet expires, lasts 7 hours, -15 mood

Craving Caffeine: Given when sims go more than 24 hours without another caffeinated drink, lasts 2 days, -30 mood

Tuning

All of the tunable values can be found on the mod download page under the header “Tuning”.

Script Namespace

If you want to turn a different vending machine into an energy drink vending machine, open your desired object in s3pe and replace the current script name with the following:

Sims3.Gameplay.Objects.Twinsimming.EnergyDrinksMod.VendingMachine

Conflicts & Known Issues

This is a new scripted object, so there shouldn’t be any conflicts.

All of the drink cans are different colors when placed in the world and during the drinking animation, but they all have a red can icon when placed in a sim's inventory. I'm not sure how to fix this right now, but that should be the only issue of note.

Credits

EA/Maxis for The Sims 3 and The Sims 4, mesh by RAVASHEEN, Visual Studio 2019, ILSpy, s3pe, Notepad++, Sims4Studio, TSRW, Blender, Milkshape, Gimp, and Script Mod Template Creator.

Thank You

Thank you to RAVASHEEN and everyone in the Sims 3 Creators' Cave Discord!

If you like my work, please consider tipping me on Ko-fi 💙

Download @ ModTheSims

[pocket-watcher]

“It’s interesting, with a power set so vast you must have some weakness just as broad to balance you out.” The scientist said as they poked and prodded you.

You laughed nervously. “What? No. That’s ridiculous. I don’t have any weaknesses.”

And you believed that, of course. Fire resistance, high pain thresholds, and you no longer had your fear of heights! Turns out saving people 20 stories up really helps with exposure therapy!

“Biologically speaking, everything has a weakness. Predators have blind spots, they’re scared of noise, they can’t conceal their blood like prey can. So… what’s your weakness?” The scientist mused once more, not asking you specifically but more as if asking the universe.

You took a deep breath and tried not to panic. This was one of the top scientists in the country, here to help you, not to take you down.

“Are you okay?” They asked, innocently.

Too innocent.

They looked up as you looked down. Nose to nose.

Your head shot upwards to avoid their stare.

“Yeah! I-I’m fine. Just… you know…” You rocked your head slightly trying to think of another topic to talk about. “So… what do you think my weakness is?”

Their eyes lit up.

In a flash they rounded up a box and began showing your data.

Despite your enhanced intelligence your brain couldn’t keep up with the speed at which they spoke.

“-and if you look at this graph here, you’ll find what’s really interesting is the activity in your prefrontal cortex spikes! At the same time your right medial temporal lobe starts working overtime, like a forceful relaxant. It’s like somehow a specific combination of lights and patterns overrides your brain like a giant helping of melatonin!”

Um.

“What?”

They blinked at you. “Aha… got a little excited there. Maybe a demonstration would help?”

You began to agree as they span you into a seat and wheeled you through the lab.

Dear god these scientists were fearless, you thought.

When you came to a stop you were hooked up to several wires, a heart-rate monitor, some strange-looking device holding your head in place (and possibly scanning it too?) and your arms pinned down… not that those restraints could do much. You’d bench pressed a 747 before lunch.

“Okay. So, I want you to listen to the voice coming out of the speakers and to watch the screen. Okay?”

You nodded, still unsure, but that unsureness seemed to disappear instantly once the screen began flashing.

The colours were too fast for you to register. The voice was repeating words that both you couldn’t understand but also rewrote your brain.

You felt your mouth hang open and your body go limp. You were vulnerable, incapacitated, all within a single minute of this scientist hooking you up to the machine.

“It’s just as I thought! How do you feel?” They asked, lifting your limp wrist and dropping it down before scribbling more notes.

You couldn’t have answered even if you wanted to.

They checked your pupils for responses and studied the data, whilst you sat there staring at the screen. Listening to the constant flow of unintelligible words.

“Okay! We should probably get you outta there, huh?” They said as they flipped the machine off.

It took you a while to fully come to your senses.

“…What was that?” You asked, incredulously.

“That was your weakness. Theorised, and now proven.”

You didn’t know what to do. You’d never been made to feel so small. So at the mercy of someone else.

“You had no right.”

You stopped. The safety of the world was at stake. If this information fell into the wrong hands…

“Woah there, we’re the only ones here! I won’t tell anyone. I promise…”

You felt an “if” coming.

“If you let me run more tests like that? We can work together, see if we can find a way for you to resist it.” The scientist smiled kindly.

You felt scared for the first time in a long time. Scared of what someone could make you do. How they could make you feel.

“Fine. If that’s the price to keep you from talking, we can run more tests.” You settled.

“Great! I promise you won’t regret it!” The scientist waved you out of the room. Once you were out of earshot they typed out a message:

It worked just as you said it would. I’ll start working on the conditioning pronto. You sure I shouldn’t have tried turning them now?

A phone pinged back a moment later:

No… slow and steady wins the race my friend. Great work.

Somewhere, a villain smiled at her phone, dreaming of a subservient hero.

[explodingquails]

BG3 Origin Characters and the Florence & the Machine Songs that remind me of them

I gave in and am sharing this list now. Potentially long post below.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Astarion

Between Two Lungs

And my running feet could fly Each breath screaming "We are all too young to die" ...

Gone are the days of begging, the days of theft No more gasping for a breath The air has filled me head-to-toe And I can see the ground far below I have this breath and I hold it tight And I keep it in my chest with all my might

Gale

Rabbit Heart (Raise it Up)

*for best listening experience please substitute Midas for Mystra in your head

The looking glass, so shiny and new How quickly the glamour fades I start spinning, slipping out of time Was that the wrong pill to take? ...

This is a gift, it comes with a price Who is the lamb and who is the knife? Midas is king and he holds me so tight And turns me to gold in the sunlight

Karlach

Seven Devils

Seven devils all around me Seven devils in my house See, they were there when I woke up this morning I'll be dead before the day is done ...

They can keep me out 'Til I tear the walls 'Til I save your heart And to take your soul And what has been done Cannot be undone

Lae'zel

Queen of Peace

*my favorite F&TM song ever for my favorite origin character :)

Like the stars chase the sun Over the glowing hill, I will conquer Blood is running deep Some things never sleep Suddenly I'm overcome Dissolving like the setting sun Like a boat into oblivion 'Cause you're driving me away Now you have me on the run The damage is already done Come on, is this what you want? 'Cause you're driving me away

Shadowheart

Which Witch

*this is just the universal song for religiously traumatized characters

And it's my whole heart Weighed and measured inside And it's an old scar Trying to bleach it out And it's my whole heart Deemed and delivered a crime I'm on trial, waiting 'til the beat comes out ...

And it's my whole heart While tried and tested, it's mine And it's my whole heart Trying to reach it out And it's my whole heart Burned but not buried this time I'm on trial, waiting 'til the beat comes out

Wyll

Shake it Out

And it's hard to dance with the devil on your back And given half the chance would I take any of it back? It's a fine romance, but it's left me so undone It's always darkest before the dawn And I'm damned if I do and I'm damned if I don't So here's to drinks in the dark at the end of my road And I'm ready to suffer and I'm ready to hope It's a shot in the dark aimed right at my throat 'Cause looking for heaven, found the devil in me Looking for heaven, for the devil in me  But what the hell, I'm gonna let it happen to me, yeah

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And that's all! I might do a second part for some none-origin characters if I find the inspiration. Thank you for bearing with me if you made it this far :)

[eraepoch]

[Full Text] Emerging Media Companies, Tracking Cookies, and Data Privacy -- An open letter to Critical Role, Dropout, and fellow audience members

Summary / TL;DR

Both Critical Role (CR) and Dropout have begun exclusively using links provided by third-party digital marketing solution companies in their email newsletters.

Every link in each of the newsletters (even the unsubscribe link) goes through a third-party domain which is flagged as a tracking server by the uBlock Origin browser extension.

Third-party tracking cookies are strictly unnecessary and come with a wide array of risks, including non-consensual targeted advertising, targeted misinformation, doxxing, and the potential for abuse by law enforcement.

You are potentially putting your privacy at risk every time you click on any of the links in either of these newsletters.

IMO these advertising companies (and perhaps CR/Dropout by proxy) are likely breaking the law in the EU and California by violating the GDPR and CCPA respectively.

Even if Critical Role and Dropout are not directly selling or exploiting your personal data, they are still profiting off of it by contracting with, and receiving services from, companies who almost certainly are. The value of your personal data is priced into the cost of these services.

They should stop, and can do so without any loss of web functionality.

1/7. What is happening?

Critical Role and Dropout have begun exclusively using links provided by third-party digital marketing solution companies in their email newsletters.

[ID:  A screenshot of the Dropout newsletter alongside the page’s HTML source which shows that the target destination for an anchor element in the email leads to d2xR2K04.na1.hubspotlinks.com. End ID.]

[ID: A screenshot of the CR newsletter alongside the page’s HTML source which shows that the target destination for an anchor element in the email leads to trk.klclick.com. End ID.]

The domains attached to these links are flagged as advertising trackers by the uBlock Origin browser extension.

[ID: Screenshot of a Firefox web browser. The page displays a large warning icon and reads “uBlock Origin has prevented the following page from loading [...] because of the following filter: `||hubspotlinks.com` found in Peter Lowe’s Ad and tracking server list. End ID.]

[ID: Screenshot of a Firefox web browser. The page displays a large warning icon and reads “uBlock Origin has prevented the following page from loading [...] because of the following filter: `||klclick1.com` found in Peter Lowe’s Ad and tracking server list. End ID.]

In both cases, every link in the newsletter goes through the flagged third-party domain, and the intended endpoint (Twitter, their store page, etc.) is completely obscured and inaccessible from within the email itself. Even the unsubscribe links feed through the tracking service.

You can test this yourself in your own email client by hovering your cursor over a link in the email without clicking it and watching to see what URL pops up. You may have noticed this yourself if you use uBlock Origin as an ad-blocker.

I don’t know for certain when this first started. It’s possible that this has been going on for a year or more at this point, or it may have started just a few months ago. Either way: it ought to stop.

2/7. What is a tracking cookie?

A tracking cookie is a unique, universally identifiable value placed on your machine by somebody with the intention of checking for that value later to identify you (or at least to identify your machine).

Tracking cookies are used by companies to create advertising behaviour profiles. These profiles are supposedly anonymous, but even if the marketing companies creating them are not lying about that (a tough sell for me personally, but your mileage may vary when it comes to corporations with 9-figure annual incomes), the data can often be de-anonymized.

If this happens, the data can be used to identify the associated user, potentially including their full name, email address, phone number, and physical address—all of which may then be associated with things like their shopping habits, hobbies, preferences, the identities of their friends and family, gender, political opinions, job history, credit score, sexuality, and even when they ovulate.

Now, it is important to note that not all cookies are tracking cookies. A cookie is just some data from a web page that persists on your machine and gets sent back to the server that put it there. Cookies in general are not necessarily malicious or harmful, and are often essential to certain web features functioning correctly (e.g. keeping the user logged in on their web browser after they close the tab). But the thing to keep in mind is that a domain has absolute control over the information that has been stored on your computer by that domain, so allowing cookies is a matter of trusting the specific domain that wants to put them there. You can look at the outgoing information being sent from your machine, but its purpose cannot be determined without knowing what is being done with it on the other side, and these marketing companies ought not to have the benefit of your doubt when they have already been flagged by privacy watchdogs.

3/7. What’s the harm?

Most urgently, as I touched on above: The main source of harm is from corporations profiting off of your private data without your informed consent. However, targeted advertising is actually the least potentially harmful outcome of tracking cookies.

1/6. Data brokers

A data broker is an individual or company that specializes in collecting personal data (such as personal income, ethnicity, political beliefs, geolocation data, etc.) and selling or licensing such information to third parties for a variety of uses, such as background checks conducted by employers and landlords, two universally benevolent groups of people.

There are varying regulations around the world limiting the collection of information on individuals, and the State of California passed a law attempting to address this problem in 2018, following in the footsteps of the EU’s GDPR, but in the jurisdiction of the United States there is no federal regulation protecting consumers from data brokers. In fact, due to the rising interest in federal regulation, data broker firms lobbied to the tune of $29 million in the year 2020 alone.

2/6. De-anonymization techniques

Data re-identification or de-anonymization is the practice of combining datasets (such as advertising profiles) and publicly available information (such as scraped data from social media profiles) in order to discover patterns that may reveal the identities of some or all members of a dataset otherwise intended to be anonymous.

Using the 1990 census, Professor Latanya Sweeney of the Practice of Government and Technology at the Harvard Kennedy School found that up to 87% of the U.S. population can be identified using a combination of their 5-digit zip code, gender, and date of birth. [Link to the paper.]

Individuals whose datasets are re-identified are at risk of having their private information sold to organizations without their knowledge or consent. Once an individual’s privacy has been breached as a result of re-identification, future breaches become much easier: as soon as a link is made between one piece of data and a person’s real identity, that person is no longer anonymous and is at far greater risk of having their data from other sources similarly compromised.

3/6. Doxxing

Once your data has been de-anonymized, you are significantly more vulnerable to all manner of malicious activity: from scam calls and emails to identity theft to doxxing. This is of particular concern for members of minority groups who may be targeted by hate-motivated attacks.

4/6. Potential for abuse by government and law enforcement

Excerpt from “How period tracking apps and data privacy fit into a post-Roe v. Wade climate” by Rina Torchinsky for NPR:

Millions of people use apps to help track their menstrual cycles. Flo, which bills itself as the most popular period and cycle tracking app, has amassed 43 million active users. Another app, Clue, claims 12 million monthly active users. The personal health data stored in these apps is among the most intimate types of information a person can share. And it can also be telling. The apps can show when their period stops and starts and when a pregnancy stops and starts. That has privacy experts on edge because this data—whether subpoenaed or sold to a third party—could be used to suggest that someone has had or is considering an abortion. ‘We're very concerned in a lot of advocacy spaces about what happens when private corporations or the government can gain access to deeply sensitive data about people’s lives and activities,’ says Lydia X. Z. Brown, a policy counsel with the Privacy and Data Project at the Center for Democracy and Technology. ‘Especially when that data could put people in vulnerable and marginalized communities at risk for actual harm.’

Obviously Critical Role and Dropout are not collecting any sort of data related to their users’ menstrual cycles, but the thing to keep in mind is that any data that is exposed to third parties can be sold and distributed without your knowledge or consent and then be used by disinterested—or outright malicious—actors to de-anonymize your data from other sources, included potentially highly compromising data such as that collected by these period-tracking apps. Data privacy violations have compounding dangers, and should be proactively addressed wherever possible. The more of your personal data exists in the hands of third parties, the more it is to be de-anonymized.

5/6. Targeted misinformation

Data brokers are often incredibly unscrupulous actors, and will sell your data to whomever can afford to buy it, no questions asked. The most high-profile case of the consequences of this is the Facebook—Cambridge Analytica data scandal, wherein the personal data of Facebook users were acquired by Cambridge Analytica Ltd. and compiled alongside information collected from other data brokers. By giving this third-party app permission to acquire their data back in 2015, Meta (then Facebook) also gave the app access to information on their users’ friend networks: this resulted in the data of some 87 million users being collected and exploited.

The data collected by Cambridge Analytica was widely used by political strategists to influence elections and, by and large, undermine democracy around the world: While its parent company SCL had been influencing elections in developing countries  for decades, Cambridge Analytica focused more on the United Kingdom and the United States. CEO Alexander Nix said the organization was involved in 44 American political races in 2014. In 2016, they worked for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign as well as for Leave.EU, one of the organisations campaigning for the United Kingdom to leave the European Union.

6/6. The Crux: Right to Privacy Violations

Even if all of the above were not concerns, every internet user should object to being arbitrarily tracked on the basis of their right to privacy. Companies should not be entitled to create and profit from personality profiles about you just because you purchased unrelated products or services from them. This right to user privacy is the central motivation behind laws like the EU’s GDPR and California’s CCPA (see Section 6).

4/7. Refuting Common Responses

1/3. “Why are you so upset? This isn’t a big deal.”

Commenter: Oh, if you’re just talking about third party cookies, that’s not a big deal … Adding a cookie to store that ‘this user clicked on a marketing email from critical role’ is hardly [worth worrying about].

Me: I don’t think you understand what tracking cookies are. They are the digital equivalent of you going to a drive through and someone from the restaurant running out of the store and sticking a GPS monitor onto your car.

Commenter: Kind of. It’s more like slapping a bumper sticker on that says, in restaurant-ese, ‘Hi I’m [name] and I went to [restaurant] once!’

This is actually an accurate correction. My metaphor was admittedly overly simplistic, but the correction specifies only so far as is comfortable for the commenter. If we want to construct a metaphor that is as accurate as possible, it would go something like this:

You drive into the McDonald’s parking lot. As you are pulling in, unbeknownst to you, a Strange Man pops out of a nearby bush (that McDonald’s has allowed him to place here deliberately for this express purpose), and sticks an invisible bumper sticker onto the back of your car. The bumper sticker is a tracker that tells the Strange Man which road you took to drive to McDonald’s, what kind of car you drive, and what (if anything) you ordered from McDonald’s while you were inside. It might also tell him where you parked in the parking lot, what music you were listening to in your car on the way in, which items you looked at on the menu and for how long, if you went to the washroom, which washroom you went into, how long you were in the washroom, and the exact location of every step you took inside the building.

Now, as soon as you leave the McDonald’s, the bumper sticker goes silent and stops being able to report information. But, let’s say next week you decide to go to the Grocery Store, and (again, unbeknownst to you), the Strange Man also has a deal with the Grocery Store. So as you’re driving into the grocery store’s parking lot, he pops out of another bush and goes to put another bumper sticker onto your car. But as he’s doing so, he notices the bumper sticker he’s already placed there a week ago that only he can see (unless you’ve done the car-equivalent of clearing your browser cache), and goes “ah, it’s Consumer #1287499290! I’ll make sure to file all of this new data under my records for Consumer #1287499290!”

You get out of your car and start to walk into the Grocery Store, but before you open the door, the Strange Man whispers to the Grocery Store: “Hey, I know you’re really trying to push your cereal right now, want me to make it more likely that this person buys some cereal from you?” and of course the Grocery Store agrees—this was the whole reason they let him set up that weird parking lot bush in the first place.

So the Strange Man runs around the store rearranging shelves. He doesn’t know your name (all the data he collects is strictly anonymous after all!) but he does know that you chose the cutesy toy for your happy meal at McDonald’s, so he changes all of the cereal packaging labels in the store to be pastel-coloured and covered in fluffy bears and unicorns. And maybe you were already going to the Grocery Store to buy cereal, and maybe you’re actually very happy to buy some cereal in a package that seems to cater specifically to your interests, but wouldn’t you feel at least a little violated if you found out that this whole process occurred without your knowledge? Especially if you felt like you could trust the people who owned the Grocery Store? They’re not really your friend or anything, but maybe you thought that they were compassionate and responsible members of the community, and part of the reason that you shopped at their store was to support that kind of business.

2/3. “Everyone does it, get over it.”

Commenter: [The marketing company working with CR] is an industry standard at this point, particularly for small businesses. Major partner of Shopify, a fairly big player. If you don't have a software development team, using industry standard solutions like these is the easy, safe option.

This sounds reasonable, but it actually makes it worse, not better, that Critical Role and Dropout are doing this. All this excuse tells me is that most businesses using Shopify (or at least the majority of those that use its recommended newsletter service) have a bush for the Strange Man set up in their parking lot.

Contracting with these businesses is certainly the easy option, but it is decidedly not the safe one.

3/3. “They need to do it for marketing reasons.”

Commenter 1: Email marketing tools like [this] use tracking to measure open and click rates. I get why you don’t want to be tracked, but it’s very hard to run a sizeable email newsletter without any user data.

Commenter 2: I work in digital marketing … every single email you get from a company has something similar to this. Guaranteed. This looks totally standard.

I am a web programmer by trade. It is my full time job. Tracking the metrics that Critical Role and Dropout are most likely interested in does not require embedding third-party tracking cookies in their fans’ web browsers. If you feel comfortable taking my word on that, feel free to skip the next section. If you’re skeptical (or if you just want to learn a little bit about how the internet works) please read on.

5/7. Tracking cookies are never necessary

We live in a technocracy. We live in a world in which technology design dictates the rules we live by. We don’t know these people, we didn’t vote for them in office, there was no debate about their design. But yet, the rules that they determine by the design decisions they make—many of them somewhat arbitrary—end up dictating how we will live our lives. —Latanya Sweeney

1/3. Definitions

A website is a combination of 2 computer programs. One of the two programs runs on your computer (laptop/desktop/phone/etc.) and the other runs on another computer somewhere in the world. The program running on your computer is the client program. The program running on the other computer is the server program.

A message sent from the client to the server is a request. A message sent from the server to the client is a response.

Cookies are bits of data that the server sends to the client in a response that the client then sends back to the server as an attachment to its subsequent requests.

A session is a series of sequential interactions between a client and server. When either of the two programs stops running (e.g. when you close a browser tab), the session is ended and any future interactions will take place in a new session.

A URL is a Uniform Resource Locator. You may also sometimes see the initialism URI—in which the ‘I’ stands for Identifier—but they effectively refer to the same thing, which is the place to find a specific thing on the internet. For our purposes, a “link” and a URL mean the same thing.

2/3. What do Critical Role and Dropout want?

These media companies (in my best estimation) are contracting with the digital advertising companies in order to get one or more of the following things:

Customer identity verification (between sessions)

Marketing campaign analytics

Customer preference profiles

Customer behaviour profiles

3/3. How can they get these things without tracking cookies?

Accounts. Dropout has an account system already. As Beacon is a thing now I have to assume Critical Role does as well, therefore this is literally already something they can do without any additional parties getting involved.

URL Query Parameters. So you want to know which of your social media feeds is driving the most traffic to your storefront. You could contract a third-party advertising company to do this for you, but as we have seen this might not be the ideal option. Instead, when posting your links to said feeds, attach a little bit of extra text to the end of the URL link so: becomes or or even These extra bits of information at the end of a URL are query parameters, and act as a way for the client to specify some instructions for the server when sending a request. In effect, a URL with query parameters allows the client to say to the server “I want this thing under these conditions”. The benefit of this approach is, of course, that you actually know precisely what information is being collected (the stuff in the parameters) and precisely what is being done with it, and you’ve avoided exposing any of your user data to third parties.

Internal data collection. Optionally associate a user’s email address with their preferences on the site. Prompt them to do this whenever they purchase anything or do any action that might benefit from having some saved preference, informing them explicitly when you do so and giving them the opportunity to opt-out.

Internal data collection. The same as above, but let the user know you are also tracking their movements while on your site. You can directly track user behaviour down to every single mouse movement if you really want to—again, no need to get an outside party involved to snoop on your fans. But you shouldn’t do that because it’s a little creepy!

At the end of the day, it will of course be more work to set up and maintain these things, and thus it will inevitably be more expensive—but that discrepancy in expense represents profit that these companies are currently making on the basis of violating their fans’ right to privacy.

6/7. Breaking the Law

The data subject shall have the right to object, on grounds relating to his or her particular situation, at any time to processing of personal data concerning him or her [...] The controller shall no longer process the personal data unless the controller demonstrates compelling legitimate grounds for the processing which override the interests, rights and freedoms of the data subject or for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims. Where personal data are processed for direct marketing purposes, the data subject shall have the right to object at any time to processing of personal data concerning him or her for such marketing, which includes profiling to the extent that it is related to such direct marketing. Where the data subject objects to processing for direct marketing purposes, the personal data shall no longer be processed for such purposes. At the latest at the time of the first communication with the data subject, the right referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2 shall be explicitly brought to the attention of the data subject and shall be presented clearly and separately from any other information. — General Data Protection Regulation, Art. 21

Nobody wants to break the law and be caught. I am not accusing anyone of anything and this is just my personal speculation on publicly-available information. I am not a lawyer; I merely make computer go beep-boop. If you have any factual corrections for this or any other section in this document please leave a comment and I will update the text with a revision note. Before I try my hand at the legal-adjacent stuff, allow me to wade in with the tech stuff.

Cookies are sometimes good and sometimes bad. Cookies from someone you trust are usually good. Cookies from someone you don’t know are occasionally bad. But you can take proactive measures against bad cookies. You should always default to denying any cookies that go beyond the “essential” or “functional” categorizations on any website of which you are remotely suspicious. Deny as many cookies as possible. Pay attention to what the cookie pop-ups actually say and don’t just click on the highlighted button: it is usually “Accept All”, which means that tracking and advertising cookies are fair game from the moment you click that button onward. It is illegal for companies to arbitrarily provide you a worse service for opting out of being tracked (at least it is in the EU and California).

It is my opinion (and again, I am not a legal professional, just a web developer, so take this with a grain of salt) that the links included in the newsletter emails violate both of these laws. If a user of the email newsletter residing in California or the EU wishes to visit any of the links included in said email without being tracked, they have no way of doing so. None of the actual endpoints are available in the email, effectively forcing the user to go through the third-party domain and submit themselves to being tracked in order to utilize the service they have signed up for. Furthermore, it is impossible to unsubscribe directly from within the email without also submitting to the third-party tracking.

[ID: A screenshot of the unsubscribe button in the CR newsletter alongside the page HTML which shows that the target destination for the anchor element is a trk.klclick.com page. End ID.]

As a brief aside: Opening the links in a private/incognito window is a good idea, but will not completely prevent your actions from being tracked by the advertiser. My recommendation: install uBlock Origin to warn you of tracking domains (it is a completely free and open-source project available on most major web browsers), and do not click on any links in either of these newsletters until they change their practices.

Now, it may be the case that the newsletters are shipped differently to those residing in California or the EU (if you are from either of these regions please feel free to leave a comment on whether or not this is the case), but ask yourself: does that make this any better? Sure, maybe then Critical Role and Dropout (or rather, the advertising companies they contract with) aren’t technically breaking the law, but it shows that the only thing stopping them from exploiting your personal data is potential legal repercussions, rather than any sort of commitment to your right to privacy. But I expect that the emails are not, in fact, shipping any differently in jurisdictions with more advanced privacy legislation—it wouldn’t be the first time a major tech giant blatantly flaunted EU regulations.

Without an additional browser extension such as uBlock Origin, a user clicking on the links in these emails may not even be aware that they have interacted with the advertising agency at all, let alone what sort of information that agency now has pertaining to them, nor do they have any ability to opt out of this data collection.

For more information about your right to privacy—something that only those living in the EU or California currently have—you can read explanations of the legislations at the following links (take note that these links, and all of the links embedded in this paper, are anchored directly to the destinations they purport to be, and do not sneakily pass through an additional domain before redirecting you):

7/7. Conclusion

Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by neglect, ignorance or incompetence. —Hanlon’s Razor

The important thing to make clear here is this: Even if Critical Role and Dropout are not directly selling or exploiting your personal data, they are still profiting off of it by contracting with, and receiving services from, companies whom I believe are. You may not believe me.

I do not believe that the management teams at Critical Role and Dropout are evil or malicious. Ignorance seems to be the most likely cause of this situation. Someone at some marketing company told them that this type of thing was helpful, necessary, and an industry standard, and they had no reason to doubt that person’s word. Maybe that person had no reason to doubt the word of the person who told them. Maybe there are a few people in that chain, maybe quite a few. I do not expect everyone running a company to be an expert in this stuff (hell, I’m nowhere close to being an expert in this stuff myself—I only happened to notice this at all because of a browser extension I just happened to have installed to block ads), but what I do expect is that they change their behaviour when the potential harms of their actions have been pointed out to them, which is why I have taken the time to write this.

PS. To the employees of Critical Role and Dropout

It is my understanding that these corporations were both founded with the intention of being socially responsible alongside turning a profit. By using services like the ones described above, you are, however unintentionally, profiting off of the personal datasets of your fans that are being compiled and exploited without their informed consent. You cannot say, implicitly or explicitly, “We’re not like those other evil companies! We care about more than just extracting as much money from our customers as possible!” while at the same time utilizing these services, and it is my hope that after reading this you will make the responsible choice and stop doing so.

Thank you for reading,

era

Originally Published: 23 May 2024

Last Updated: 28 May 2024

[adventure-showdown]

What is your favourite Doctor Who story?

ROUND 1 MASTERPOST

synopses and propaganda under the cut

The Lodger

Synopsis

A mysterious force blocks the TARDIS — with Amy inside it — from landing, keeping it stuck in a materialisation loop. It's up to the Doctor to work out what that force is, lest Amy be lost forever along with his home/motor. As he investigates, the Doctor learns of a house on Aickman Road, with a staircase which people walk up but never come back down. To solve this mystery, the Doctor must pass himself off as a normal human and share a flat with Craig Owens.

Propaganda no propaganda submitted

The Rebel Flesh/The Almost People

Synopsis

The Eleventh Doctor, Amy Pond and Rory Williams visit an acid-mining factory. A solar storm hits the factory, turning the workers' gangers into self-aware individuals. The Doctor must mediate between the original workers and their rebellious gangers.

Propaganda no propaganda submitted

Let’s Kill Hitler

Synopsis

In the desperate search for Melody Pond, the TARDIS crash lands in Thirties Berlin, as the time-travelling drama returns for the second half of the series shown earlier in the year. The Doctor comes face to face with the greatest war criminal in the Universe. And Hitler. Old friendships are tested to their limits as the Doctor suffers the ultimate betrayal and learns a harsh lesson in the cruellest warfare of all. As precious time ebbs away, the Doctor must teach his adversaries that time travel has responsibilities. And he must succeed before an almighty price is paid.

Propaganda no propaganda submitted

Cold War

Synopsis

In 1983, the tensest point of the Cold War, a Soviet submarine discovers a strange creature frozen in the ice of the Arctic. When one of the Firebird's crew breaks it free, it starts attacking. As the crew strikes back, the Eleventh Doctor warns them that the attack could be considered a declaration of war on the entire Ice Warrior race...

Propaganda no propaganda submitted

Nightmare in Silver

Synopsis

The Eleventh Doctor takes his companion, Clara Oswald, and her wards, Angie and Artie, to the biggest amusement park in the galaxy, Hedgewick's World of Wonders. However, the theme park is empty, occupied only by a "punishment platoon" and a lone impresario with empty Cyberman shells as exhibits... or so it seems. When the Doctor decides to stay a while to investigate strange insect creatures that are roaming the park, he soon discovers that these insects are really machines seeking to convert the life forms on Hedgewick's World into the newest generation of the ever-upgrading menace...

Propaganda no propaganda submitted

[iwannakissasopwithcamel]

Das Gegenbeispiel - "What Not to Do"

Role: Scout Served With: University Militias First Flight: 1610 Strengths: Excellent Fighter Weaknesses: Requires a Cool Head Inspiration: De Bruyère C 1 (1917)

Description:

In a great many engineering institutions, a final test for prospective aircraft designers is to actually design and build an aeroplane, usually in conjunction with local artisan guilds training craftsmen. Many of these designs are fairly safe, but some are unique and a few groundbreaking.

But Vera Mauss of the University of Steinfurth has the dubious honour of making the most well known and influential. Attempting to impress her notoriously demanding professor, she delivered a machine that attempted to reinvent every aspect of aircraft design. The resultant machine flew for fifteen minutes before flipping and crashing hard.

Vera’s teachers began using the machine in their lessons as ‘The Counter-example’, an illustration of everything you aren’t supposed to do.

Unfortunately, every year there’s a joker who tries to make it work anyway, and so many of them have piled up in the workshop that the University has started selling them off, often at such bargain prices that even starving students can potentially afford them. The fact they are likely to kill their operators in a flat spin is often left out.

Vera Mauss went on to design the Mauss X-65, often seen as the best fighter of the post-war era.

[bucky-bucky-bucky-bucky]

I cannot even describe how much I hate my school.

I hate their policies, their staff- I hate the institution as a whole.

Rant below:

It's a for profit (read: expensive) school that does not deliver anything that is up to par with the price.

The ultrasound lab is tiny, with only 6 ultrasound machines. Two machines are pretty good, one is fine, and the rest are fucking abysmal. They are what is referred to as "non diagnostic", meaning that you'd never use them to scan a patient. The image quality is so low it's like staring at TV static. But I was forced to take my competency (scanning test) on the worst machine in the lab. It was so awful that by the end, I felt like I couldn't see anything because I'd basically been staring at TV static for 45 minutes straight. My teacher even said that the machine sucks and that when you turn the gain (the brightness) up, it only makes the image more fuzzy. But yeah, I was forced to use it on my competency. And I was the only one who had to use that machine! I haven't gotten my grade back yet but I know it will be awful. And if I fail, I will have to do remediation with my teacher where we go over my images and he tells me what's wrong with them. I can already tell you what's wrong with them- the machine is a piece of shit. Also if I fail, I will have to retake it, but I am only allowed a grade of 75. I'm not the type of person to blame my short comings or failures on things outside of myself, but come on...

And when I spoke to my teacher about it after class (privately) he brushed me off. He told me he wouldn’t penalize me for the fuzzy, subpar, low quality images- but that was only half the point. I was trying to communicate to him that the issue was the machine quality + my eyes being completely fried by the tv static appearance + the horrible quality nearly threw me into a panic attack + I was the only one who had to use that machine. But he didn’t listen. And I know that he won’t take what I said (what little I was able to say before he interrupted) into account.

And the rules... oh my god. Your attendance and professionalism are rolled into one grade that is referred to as your "professionalism grade". You can get points deducted for missing class, being late, not having your textbooks, etc. And I have to laugh. Like, I went to an actual university before attending this two year program, and The fucking University of Texas as Austin did not deduct points if a student doesn't have a textbook one day. It's like we're in middle school.

Plus, this whole attendance / professionalism thing is bullshit. They said at the start of the program that if you have to miss class because of an extenuating circumstance, they will understand. But they do not understand. There is zero understanding. My classmate's brother was just murdered. Brutally murdered. She missed class yesterday to attend his memorial, and they gave her a zero for her professionalism. You're telling me that the murder of her brother isn't an extenuating circumstance?

The school as a whole has no empathy or understanding for their students.

One of my teachers also constantly eavesdrops and polices our conversations. Even when we're talking quietly in a small group during break time, she butts in. She makes judgmental comments and has to lecture us at least once a week about how we don't have it that bad. She's one of those "if it was bad for me, it should be bad for you" kind of teachers. She's always like "well when I was in school I was a full time student and working full time and doing clinical full time and I was a full time wife and a full time mother" and I just simply DO. NOT. CARE. She just wants to invalidate us and what we're going through. And she does it at every turn. She's actually done the whole "oh, let me play a song for you on the worlds tiniest violin" bit and she thinks it's sOoOoOo funny. She told a classmate of mine that he "isn't allowed" to say that he's tired when he only got 5 hours of sleep, because she "only ever gets about 2 hours of sleep"- and she says it like it's a flex. Maam, you're gonna be dead and buried at 50 if you dont sleep. Thats not something to brag about. And not sleeping is not going to help us succeed with our academics. This teacher has told us to not sleep and to skip meals in order to study- but doing those things will only make retaining the information harder.

Plus, the teachers know how fucking stressed we are and they don't care. They know the program is really hard in regard to subject matter, but they make it even worse because they are horrible when it comes to scheduling and communication. First semester, we were told we would never have a test the week before finals because it's not fair. But second and third semester, my teacher has casually added another test the week before finals as though it's not a big deal. They're constantly adding and changing test/ quiz dates- and it's never in out favor. Plus, our two teachers always make it so that we have tests / quizzes back to back. We have class Monday through Thursday, but they always choose to put their tests /quizzes on Monday and Tuesday.

Generally speaking, it feels like sabotage after sabotage after sabotage. It feels like they are setting us up to fail. I'm dreading my competency grade. I'm dreading the next two semesters. I'm so miserable.

[bumblebeeappletree]

Nick Newman helped design a modular construction system so anyone with just a mallet and a drill can build their own home. Since co-founding U-Build in 2020, he has built— and watched others build— furniture, garden sheds, tiny homes, and full-sized houses, so it makes sense he’d use the flat-pack box system to turn the company work van into his full-time home.

[Watch our first video featuring Nick's U-Build universal home-build system, a CNC-cut flat-pack design anybody can assemble to make a home: • U-Build hands-on:... ]

According to Newman, "the U-Build construction system is something like if IKEA and LEGO had a baby. So, it's these big boxes that can be assembled with a mallet and a screwdriver. Effectively, you start out with your individual panels, which are cut with precision using a CNC machine, and it's designed with this kind of locking system so you can basically put the pieces together: it would always be on the 'right' configuration." Watch it at 25:45.

[Video timeline]

— Nick Newman out in London on his electric campervan: 00:10

— Explaining EV's lack of congestion charge in London: 00:20

— Charging the van in central London: 00:50

— Thunderstorm: 2:20

— Stealth setup: 03:00

— EV van conversion into vanlife camper: 3:30

— Conversion with U-Build boxes ("building blocks") timelapse: 3:42

— Explanation of a U-Build minimum unit of construction, the box: 03:50

— Kirsten interviews Nick Newman: 04:20

— U-Build's modularity put to the test inside a van: 05:10

— Locking system for drawers (inspired by the ones on commercial aircraft): 06:30 and 14:50

— Festival build out of U-Build blocks: 07:15

— Sink: 0832

— Current van living interior: 11:30

— Adapting working straps to vanlife: 12:00

— Folding clothes: 13:05

— Hammock setup: 19:28

— At Stroud, Gloucestershire: 20:45

— U-Build's workshop under construction on an old empty factory: 21:30

— Describing U-Build as a self-build system: 25:45

— On using empty buildings: 22:10

— "People could stay in a house like this for really cheap": 22:15

— Warehouse spaces to solve housing emergencies? 22:30

— Out in Herefordshire: 36:28

— Student-built house with U-Build: 36:35

He started using the fully-electric Sprinter van as a temporary home while on overnight work trips. The U-Build system involves assembling CNC-cut, formaldehyde-free plywood boxes as building blocks which then bolt together to create a rigid frame for a structure.

The conversion cost him less than £2,000 (about $2,400, or €2,300). The system is entirely demountable, so the boxes can be reused over and over: it was easy for Newman to take the boxes he was working with daily and rearrange them in the van to build a bed, kitchen (U-Scrub), storage, and toilet (U-Poo).

Newman left a shared warehouse where he was paying £800 for a tiny, windowless bedroom for vanlife in central London, and because the van is electric, he doesn’t pay congestion charges (£15/day). He has tricked out the van to appear in drive mode so he can use the vehicle’s battery and air conditioning and heating while parked.

The U-Build (and Studio Bark) team recently bought an abandoned warehouse in Stroud (Gloucestershire) for less than the price of a tiny studio in London. While they decide what to do with the space, they have installed U-Build dwellings (built in a half day) to use as bedrooms and private offices. It’s the same model as the SHED Project, where they worked with a London-based guardian company to provide quick-build homes from U-Build kits to provide housing for those in need in exchange for building surveillance.

https://u-build.org/

https://www.instagram.com/ubuild/

Nick's YouTube channel: / @electric.vanlife

Here's our story covered by Autoevolution: https://www.autoevolution.com/news/th...

On *faircompanies: https://faircompanies.com/videos/u-bu...

[heicodynamics]

Universal Testing Machines (UTMs) are essential tools in material testing, providing valuable insights into the mechanical properties of various materials. At Heico Dynamics, we specialize in high-quality UTMs designed for precision and reliability. Whether you���re testing metals, polymers, composites, or other materials, following the correct steps is crucial for accurate results.

[hsmleindia]

SERVO COMPUTERISED UNIVERSAL TESTING MACHINE

The base has a hydraulic cylinder center at its center and two main screws at both ends. The middle cross head is mounted on screws through the main nuts. The middle cross head can be moved up or down through chain transmission and geared motor to adjust the initial tensile/compression clearance. Inside the base of the machine, a hydraulic cylinder is tested in which a piston is placed on the piston, rests an assembly of upper, lower cross head, and two columns. The individually lapped cylinder piston assembly ensures smooth axial force with minimum friction. Hydraulic circuit – it consists of a hydraulic power pact which has a directly driven radial plunger pump that gives a continuous nonpulsating flow of oil pressure up to 250 bar a pressure compensated needle type flow control valve is obtained with help of valves. Optionally this can be controlled from an electronic system.

testing machine, universal testing machine, computerized universal testing machine, universal testing machine with servo, servo computerized universal testing machine, universal testing machine with hydraulic, universal testing machine with servo system

[actionarcadesaus]

Buy Pinball Machine in Melbourne: A Guide to Owning Your Dream Game

Are you a fan of classic arcade games and looking to buy pinball machine in Melbourne? Whether you’re a collector, a hobbyist, or someone wanting to bring a slice of arcade nostalgia into your home, purchasing a pinball machine is an exciting investment. Melbourne offers several options for new and vintage pinball machines, making it easier to find the perfect fit for your space and budget.

Why Buy a Pinball Machine?

Owning a pinball machine brings entertainment, a unique sense of nostalgia, and even a collector's value. Here are some reasons why purchasing one could be a great choice:

Timeless Entertainment: Pinball games have a universal appeal and provide endless hours of fun for players of all ages.

Great for Social Events: They are a fantastic addition to parties, gatherings, or game rooms, providing an interactive experience for your guests.

Collector’s Item: Certain pinball machines, especially vintage or limited-edition models, can appreciate in value over time, making them not just fun but also a potential investment.

Where to Buy a Pinball Machine in Melbourne

If you’re in Melbourne, there are several reputable places to buy pinball machines:

Specialist Arcade Stores: Several stores in Melbourne cater specifically to pinball and arcade enthusiasts. These stores typically offer a wide selection of both new and restored vintage pinball machines.

Online Marketplaces: Websites like Gumtree or Facebook Marketplace can be treasure troves for finding second-hand pinball machines from private sellers. Be sure to research and verify the seller before making any purchase.

Pinball Expos and Conventions: Events such as PinFest Australia, often held in Melbourne or nearby cities, bring together pinball enthusiasts and sellers. These events are a great opportunity to test out various machines and find unique models.

Local Dealers: Some Melbourne-based companies specialize in sourcing and refurbishing pinball machines, offering everything from maintenance services to delivery and installation. These dealers often provide warranties, ensuring you have support after your purchase.

New vs. Used Pinball Machines: What’s the Difference?

When buying a pinball machine in Melbourne, you’ll encounter two main categories: new and used (or restored). Here’s a quick breakdown of the pros and cons of each:

New Machines: If you’re looking for the latest technology, new pinball machines offer advanced features, modern designs, and higher reliability. They also often come with manufacturer warranties and after-sales support. However, they can be quite expensive, with prices ranging from several thousand to tens of thousands of dollars.

Used Machines: Vintage or used pinball machines have a charm that modern machines often lack. Many buyers appreciate the craftsmanship and history behind these older models. However, used machines may require more maintenance and repairs, and finding replacement parts can sometimes be a challenge. Be sure to purchase from a reputable source that offers refurbishment and warranty options.

Factors to Consider When Buying a Pinball Machine

Space: Before purchasing, ensure you have enough room to accommodate the machine. Pinball machines are typically large, requiring not just floor space but also enough room for players to move comfortably.

Budget: Pinball machines range in price depending on their age, condition, and rarity. Set a budget that includes not only the cost of the machine but potential repairs or maintenance.

Theme: From movie-based themes like Star Wars to classic machines like Addams Family, choose a pinball machine that resonates with your personal taste and fits into your décor.

Maintenance: Pinball machines are mechanical devices that require regular upkeep. Ensure that you are either prepared to maintain the machine yourself or have access to local repair services in Melbourne.

Conclusion

Buying a pinball machine in Melbourne is more than just purchasing a game—it's an investment in nostalgia, entertainment, and even collectible value. Whether you’re opting for a new machine or a vintage classic, Melbourne’s pinball community offers numerous options to explore. Make sure you do your research, assess your space, and consider your budget to find the perfect machine that will keep you and your guests entertained for years to come.

[data-analytics-consulting]

The Evolution of Investment Research: How Technology is Transforming the Industry 

Monte Carlo simulation helps financial advisors estimate the future without neglecting uncertain variables. Meanwhile, hypothesis testing shows investors whether an idea will lead to a favorable outcome or make half their capital resources disappear. Today, machines have streamlined these methods in investment research (IR) and market forecasting, rendering time-consuming number crunching obsolete. This post will explain how technology-led transformation has accelerated the evolution of the investment research industry. 

A Brief About Conventional Investment Research Workflows 

Financial analysts and investment researchers used to collect, analyze, and depict data insights concerning market movements or company profiles after mentally taxing activities. Consider how they had no choice but to spend hours examining financial statements. Otherwise, creating reliable market reports and understanding macroeconomic forces would be impossible. 

Conventional IR reporting techniques were more time-consuming than modern investment research. After all, outdated risk calculation approaches often relied on published, on-paper resources for data availability. As a result, everyone used to focus on a few analysts’ expertise, while others tried superstitions and poor decision-making to test their luck at trading or fundraising. 

Later, mathematicians’ wisdom of statistical theories and probabilistic scenario assessments helped investment researchers. Once computers became universally available, fintech robo advisors and predictive tools began to take over the finance world. 

The Evolution of Modern Investment Research: Technological Transformation 

Example 1 – Big Data and Advanced Analytics 

The increased flow of data from disparate sources empowers today’s investment researchers to offer detailed reports describing a brand’s controversy-related exposure and media impact. During secondary data capture, IR professionals can also mine news publications, industry magazines, and consumer forums 24/7. 

Alternative data tools have helped finance stakeholders improve creditworthiness checks, fraud detection, and business merger dealmaking in investment banking services. For example, big data aids investment researchers in inspecting an organization’s historical media coverage. Doing so lets them alert ethical investors about foreign or less famous corporations’ legal and greenwashing conflicts. 

All disruptive technologies, like data mining, machine learning, and natural language processing (NLP), simplify finding peculiar dataset patterns or insights often hidden due to human capabilities’ limitations. For example, sentiment analysis can reveal where stock prices will head by extracting relevant insights from news articles, social media trends, and multimedia datasets. 

Example 2 – Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning 

AI and machine learning algorithms can handle extensive data volumes to predict outcomes. With structured and unstructured data sorting features, these technologies also increase the scope of investment research. 

As a result, experts witness enhanced performance across algorithmic trading platforms. They use AI models to recommend the sell, hold, and buy decisions. In other words, algorithmic tools for investment research and decisions let investors eliminate human biases.  So, creating a bias-free trading strategy becomes feasible. 

Machine learning algorithms have predicted stock prices, market movements, and macroeconomic challenges. Additionally, they learn from experiences based on historical market intelligence and consider other market dynamics to adjust investment recommendations. 

Conclusion 

The evolution of the investment research industry depends on new tools and strategies for better efficiency, accuracy, and accessibility. For instance, big data analytics, algorithm-powered trading, cloud integration, predictive financial modeling, and blockchains can help advisors deliver holistic reporting innovations. Therefore, stakeholders must monitor how fintech’s breakthroughs impact modern investment research practices and integrate them for data-driven portfolio management. 

[pandeypankaj]

I need to learn data science from scratch, where do I start?

Get Started with Your Data Science Journey: Step-by-Step Guide

1. Foundational Knowledge

Mathematics

 Linear algebra: Study matrices, vectors, and associated operations.

 Statistics: Study probability distributions, hypothesis testing, and regression.

 Calculus: Study derivatives and integrals.

 Programming

 Python: Learn the basics of Python programming, including data structures, control flow, functions, etc.

 Libraries: Study important data science libraries like NumPy, Pandas, Matplotlib, Seaborn.

2. Online Courses and Tutorials

Coursera: Do all the courses by Andrew Ng, Jeremy Howard, and other top instructors.

edX: Courses from top universities like MIT and Harvard. DataCamp: Interactive platform with hands-on exercises. Kaggle: Learn through competitions and datasets. 

Lejhro Bootcamp:Lejhro Bootcamp is designed to equip you with the essential skills and knowledge to excel in the field of data science. Through a combination of hands-on projects, expert instruction, and industry-relevant coursework,

3. Practical projects

 Choose a topic: Predicting house prices or analyzing customer churn can be a very exciting project to work on. 

Gather data: Download relevant data from public sources or create it. 

Clean and preprocess: Deal with missing values, outliers, and inconsistencies. 

Explore and analyze: Apply some visualization techniques to understand this data.

Model Building: Choose a suitable algorithm (for example, linear regression, decision trees, neural networks) and train it.

Evaluate Model Performance: Make an evaluation based on its accuracy and improvise.

4. Continuous Learning

Keep yourself updated: The latest data science blogs, articles, and conferences would give you an overview of what is currently happening.

Join communities: A number of online forums or groups exist where one can share issues and get to know other data scientists.

Experimenting/Exploring: Various techniques and tools will add to your knowledge 

Recommended Resources

Books: "Python for Data Analysis" by Wes McKinney, "Hands-On Machine Learning with Scikit-Learn, Keras & TensorFlow" by Aurélien Géron

Online communities: Kaggle, Stack Overflow, Data Science Central

Remember

Practice makes perfect: The more you practice, the better you will become.

Start small: It's not necessary to be scared to start small and build bigger projects later.

Ask questions: Never hesitate to ask for any kind of help.

Enjoy the process: Data Science is such a rewarding field; have fun while you learn!

[diagnostic-car-scanners]

Mastering EV Maintenance with Cutting-Edge EV Scanners

Mastering EV Maintenance with Cutting-Edge EV Scanners

As electric vehicles (EVs) rapidly gain traction in the automotive market, the need for specialized tools to maintain and repair these advanced machines has never been more critical. One such essential tool is the EV scanner. In this blog, we will explore what an EV scanner is, why it’s indispensable for EV owners and technicians, and how to choose the right one for your needs.

Why EV Scanners are Crucial for Electric Vehicles

Electric vehicles operate on complex electrical systems that require precise diagnostics to ensure optimal performance and safety. Here’s why an EV scanner is essential:

Battery Health Monitoring: The battery is the heart of an EV. An EV scanner provides detailed insights into the battery’s health, state of charge (SOC), and overall performance. This helps in preventing unexpected failures and prolonging the battery’s lifespan.

System Diagnostics: EV scanners can diagnose issues in various systems unique to electric vehicles, such as the electric motor, inverter, and charging system. This ensures that any potential problems are identified early, preventing costly repairs.

Efficient Troubleshooting: With an EV scanner, technicians can quickly pinpoint the root cause of an issue, reducing the time spent on diagnostics and ensuring a quicker repair turnaround.

DaTo Electric Vehicle Scanner: A Comprehensive Solution

The DaTo Electric Vehicle Scanner is a cutting-edge tool designed to meet the demands of modern electric vehicles. It not only integrates battery pack detection, providing detailed status information and fault detection, but also offers comprehensive diagnostics for the entire vehicle system.

Some of the key features include:

Full Vehicle System Detection: In addition to battery diagnostics, the EV scanner supports the detection of issues across the entire vehicle, ensuring a thorough assessment of all systems.

Advanced Diagnostic Functions: The scanner supports essential functions like code reading, code clearing, reading data streams, action tests, and special diagnostic functions, making it a versatile tool for both professional technicians and DIY enthusiasts.

How to Choose the Right EV Scanner

When selecting an EV scanner, consider the following factors:

Compatibility: Ensure the scanner supports the specific make and model of your electric vehicle. Some scanners are universal, while others are tailored for particular brands.

Features: Look for a diagnostic scanner that offers comprehensive diagnostic capabilities, including battery analysis, motor diagnostics, and system-wide scanning. Advanced features like live data streaming and firmware updates can also be beneficial.

Ease of Use: A user-friendly interface and clear display are crucial, especially if you’re a DIY enthusiast. Some scanners also offer mobile app integration for added convenience.

Brand Reputation: Choose a scanner from a reputable brand known for its reliability and accuracy in diagnostics. Brands like DaTo, Launch, Autel, and Thinkcar are well-regarded in the industry.

Price: While the appeal of a budget option can be strong, it's essential to prioritize quality for long-term reliability. Investing in a high-quality EV scanner can save you money in the long run by preventing misdiagnoses and unnecessary repairs.

Conclusion

As the EV market continues to grow, the importance of having the right diagnostic tools cannot be overstated. The EV Diagnostic Car Scanner is not just a tool; it’s an investment in the longevity and efficiency of your electric vehicle. Whether you’re an EV owner or a professional technician, having a reliable EV scanner on hand ensures that you can quickly diagnose and address any issues that arise, keeping your vehicle running smoothly and safely.