#all of the world’s problems. are stored in the mobile device

[britomart]

phone is the main enemy. never forget this

[icyrambles]

i'm begging transformers writers to do something interesting with the fact that cybertronians are able to have altmodes that are just objects....

give me cybertronians whose altmodes are literally disability aids. like imagine the level of trust between two individuals; one who is disabled, maybe they their legs don't work or maybe their back struts have decayed to the point that they cannot be replace and having a cybertronian with a wheelchair or cane altmode assigned to them so that they can live a normal life without being shoved away to the fringes of society to rot. imagine having your conjunx endura or amica endure being the one to help you walk around or get to the store to buy groceries for the two of you, how much you trust them to keep you upright while they in turn trust you not to treat them like an object.

imagine cybertronians who can turn into listening devices or recorders to sit in on lectures or classrooms so that their friend with audial problems can listen back and get their notes in one time. imagine a cybertronian whose optics started to malfunction or whose just didn't work at all upon first coming into existance and having a friend or partner who can turn into a mobility cane to help them traverse the world. give me cybertronians who have really awful chronic joint pain because they've been alive so long that their parts can no longer be replaced who spend their time being taken care of because the world they live in deemed them existing enough to deserve being taken care of.

imagine cybertronians who've domesticated species of turbofoxes or other native wildlife and train them to be service animals, or herding animals, or hell just fucking pets.

imagine a version of prewar cybertron that integrated its disabled or otherwise unable to work citizens into their loving fold and simply accepted them for who they are.

i'm sick and tired of seeing the headcanons that cybertronians cannot be physically disabled or that the disabled don't exist on their planet because they're machines and can therefore just be fixed. that's boring, it's stupid and it's highly uncreative. transformers is a beautiful piece of media that should be able to incorporate as many people into it's worldbuilding as it can. i. want. more. disabled. cybertronians.

in fact i want more prewar worldbuilding in general. we know painfully little about what cybertron was like before the war and even my babygirl idw 2005 covers it to such a little extent that i'm going to spend the rest of this post complaining about it.

i want more cybertronians with hobbies not related to their altmodes. give me more examples of whirl's clockmaking or cyclonus' singing or swerve's bartending. i want cybertronians whose altmodes are science based spending their weekends hiking up in the mountains, simply taking in the beauty of their planets. i want cybertronians with racing altmodes sitting down and doing yoga in the part because they just need time to slow down. i want cybertronians with radio or communications altmodes/jobs who have hobbies like baking or reading or painting. the reason why so many of these characters feel so dry to me (i'm looking at you transformers prime) is because none of them have things to do outside of the war, not a single goddamn one.

i wanna know more about prewar culture too. i want to know all of the cities of cybertron and how their regional dialects formed. i want to know all the grammatical differences between conjugating a verb in kaonian and icaonian. or the way that northern area of tarn has a distinct accent from the southern. i want vosian accents to be described as elegent or rugged or cruel or how the way they form their glyphs has fundimentally changed the way their vocalizers produce sounds. give me radio stations that broadcast across cybertron with all the latest hits from popular singers. give me movies that get made in helex and then translated into iaconian and then further adapted for vosians.

i want a whole book full of the different ways to make things like energon candies or how to reduce different metals down to be consumed. give me a cybertronian, that before the war, was a cook and how they tried desperately to write down all the recipes in their brain module less that one recipe for sweet honey engex that their deceased conjunx taught them how to make be lost to the waves of forgotten history. give me a frantic archivist scrambling through the ruins of a kaonian library because they know its the only thing left of their family's once rich culture. give me a cybertronian whose job it is to help develop new structures, to design and instruct construction bots on where and when to build homes or libraries or restaurants.

i want a damn lore bible that goes into excruciating depths on how cybertron created and designed their cites, their roads, and their whole lives. i want that thing filled with the ways that families can be formed and how siblings and friends and conjunxes and amica come into existence and how all the cities of cybertron have slightly varied rituals for how those bonds are formed.

i'm so tired of the focus getting put on the war. i want to know the ways that this culture formed, how it grew, how it developed into the breeding ground for the unrest that led to the war. i don't care about megatron and optimus, i care about the cybertronians who came before them, who paved the streets that they walked on, who first spoke the languages that roll off their glossa and get inscribed onto their datapads. give a comic series or animated show that simply shows the day to day lives of various cybertronians before the planet went to hell. and if the writers are so damned insistant on retelling the same damn story again and again than fucking give me characters reminiscing or mourning the fall of their homes, their cultures, friends, family, lovers who all died. give me characters who tell their humans friends all about the sports they used to play, the movies or plays they used to attend, the boring homework they got assigned by their teacher or the bakery just down the street from their houses.

give me a cybertron that's bustling with life and culture. give a cybertron that feels alive

[willcodehtmlforfood]

The last section tho:

This challenge in narrowing down search results to chat responses in an AI interface has just been highlighted by Leipzig University; its research specifically looked at the quality of search results for product reviews and recommendations.

The paper, titled “Is Google Getting Worse? A Longitudinal Investigation of SEO Spam in Search Engines,” asks whether SPAM and SEO gamesmanship has a disproportionate impact on the quality of results filtering through.

“Many users of web search engines complain about the supposedly decreasing quality of search results… Evidence for this has always been anecdotal, yet it’s not unreasonable to think that popular online marketing strategies such as affiliate marketing incentivize the mass production of such content to maximize clicks.”

In short, the answer appears to be yes.

“Our findings suggest that all search engines have significant problems with highly optimized (affiliate) content… more than is representative for the entire web.”

This is not specific to Google, of course, and the researchers also examined Bing and DuckDuckGo over the course of twelve months. Ironically, given Google’s focus on integrating generative AI and search, the researchers warn that this is a “situation that will surely worsen in the wake of generative AI.”

We have all become conditioned to judging the likely independence of search results as set out in our browsers, and we have learned to scan such results as today’s shop window equivalents. But in a world when you ask a chatbot “where’s the best place to buy a Samsung TV,” or “what’s the best pizza restaurant in Denver,” the format of your results will be very different. We all need to remember, it’s not really a chat.

The AI update coming to Google Messages is part of a trend, of course, and you can expect multiple such AI add-ons to come thick and fast, especially with Google driving much of the momentum. This should be good news for Android users.

We have just seen an official Chrome announcement on the introduction of three new helpful AI releases making their way into beta. Automated tab management and theme creation sound good, but it’s the Help me Write feature within Chrome that’s likely to be the most useful, especially on an Android mobile device.

We have also seen GMail’s own Help Me Write feature adapted to combine AI and voice, as spotted by TheSPAndroid, “Gmail's ‘Help Me Write’ can help you draft emails with ease and definitely can save you some time. Currently the functionality is available on both web and apps, but you have to write the email prompt yourself using the keyboard. On the Gmail app for Android, Google is working on a feature which will let you draft emails with voice [prompts].”

And there was the earlier news that Android Auto will use AI to intelligently filter information in and out of the system, while you keep your hands on the steering wheel and your eyes on the road.

Many positives, clearly, but that core risk in narrowing search results isn’t the only word of warning here. Google Messages chats with Bard are not secured by end-to-end encryption, and Google (being Google) will store your data and use it to improve its algorithms. Just as with other such models, be careful what you ask.

No news yet on timing, but in all likelihood it isn’t far away. According to Bard, “Google has not yet announced an official release date for Bard in Google Messages, but it is expected to be available sometime in 2024.”

[nickgerlich]

Finding Resolve

We’ve all done it. We are all part of this new phenomenon, something that barely existed before this century, and only truly gained momentum in the last decade. The worst part is, most of us have forgotten exactly how much we are involved with it, because it is hard to remember what and how much these phenomena cost.

I am talking about the subscription economy, that magical place where software and streaming services are the product, and our monthly bill is usually on autopay. It ranges from SOAS (Software As A Service) providers like Adobe and Microsoft, to all the music, movies, and more that we stream into our homes, cars, and mobile devices.

And it is eating us alive.How many subscriptions do you have? Let’s start with your vehicle. Do you have satellite radio? That’s one. Do you subscribe to cloud-based software? That can be one or more. What about streaming tunes like Spotify or Apple Music? There you guy. The list is getting longer.

And then there are all the streaming TV choices, which runs from services like YouTube TV to Netflix, Paramount+, Apple TV+, Peacock, Max, Hulu, Disney…I could go on. You may have cut the cable at home, but you tethered yourself in other ways to the extent that the net effect is little different.

Then there’s the gaming community, if that’s your thing. More dinero. Maybe you fell for the premium version of an app, like Accuweather. If you’re a regular Amazon shopper, you no doubt have Prime, which costs $139 a year, plus the vitamins and supplements I receive every month from them. Like listening to books? There’s Audible. Old newspapers? There’s Newspapers.com, one of my favorite sites to do research. Cloud storage? Good Lord, I have several, for my thousands of photos and documents.

So successful has the subscription model been that paywalls have appeared everywhere online, like the New York Times, Washington Post, and Atlantic Monthly, each of whom have amazing content, a feast for my eyes and brain. Alas, I have drawn the line, because I sense it has long spun out control. And if CNN goes ahead and paywalls its app and site, I guess I won’t be reading them anymore.

Because I, like many people, have subscription fatigue. I simply cannot begin to consume all of this media. Sadly, I cannot remember all of the services to which I subscribe, and if you aren’t there yet, I bet you will be soon enough. The only way to know for sure is to carefully track your credit card statements to look for monthly billing.

That, of course, is the problem, because we willingly provided our billing data so that we do not have to do this every month. As long as that credit card is valid, those providers will keep hitting your card every month. It is only when your card is about to expire that you get a notification. And if you were not careful and instead provided a bank routing and account number, they can keep sticking their hand into your pocket as long as you have that account.

Ironically, there are new subscription management software sites and apps that supposedly make it easy to track and opt-out of all the things, but they are subscription services themselves. That’s like replacing one drug with another. You’re still on the hook.

It all starts so easily, because many of the subscription services are technically just micro payments, only $5 or $10. We see that as pocket change. Other services offer annual payment options, which provide a slight discount for paying in full in advance. But many of the once-cheap micro payments have started to get expensive, like Netflix and Spotify (I am speaking from experience). They are no longer minor indulgences.

Were these tangible products we had to buy in a store, I bet we would all be a lot more careful. The friction of having to be somewhere to even just tap your credit card would probably be enough to cause us to think. But it is simply too easy in the digital world to keep subscribing, because once we get in that loop, there is never any friction.

We are all going to have to muster a lot more resolve to win this fight, as well as start keeping meticulous records. Otherwise, these things develop lives of their own, lives that will continue hitting credit cards even after our own lives are over. I’m pretty sure none of us will be consuming anything at that point, and there’s no use paying for it.

We don’t have to wait for New Years Day to make this resolution.

Dr “I Honestly Can’t Remember All Of Them” Gerlich

Audio Blog

[bestrummygameapp]

Ludo Game App Download - Hukum Ka Ikka: Your Ultimate Gaming Companion

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Key Features of the Hukum Ka Ikka Ludo Game App

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Compete Globally: Challenge players from around the world in real-time. Test your skills against different opponents and rise through the ranks to become a Ludo champion.

Sharpen Your Strategy: Ludo is a game of strategy and luck. Playing on the app allows you to improve your decision-making skills while having fun.

Join a Growing Community: The Hukum Ka Ikka Ludo Game App boasts a large and active community of players, making it easy to find matches and connect with other Ludo enthusiasts.

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[elizavetamironova1]

CTS B | Week 6 Critical Self-Reflectivity.

In the sixth week of training, our group visited Sim Lim Square to analyze design problems and find ways to improve solutions proposed by previous designeFrs. During this event, we identified one of the pronounced problems in navigating the mall. It consisted in the lack of development of information transfer technologies, such as interactive maps and logical location of stores, as well as in excessive design overload, where a person could quickly get confused.

During this lesson, it occurred to me that the mall did not provide equipment for convenient and understandable movement of people with disabilities (Figure 1).

As a designer, I can say that this problem goes far beyond a single shopping mall. In the digital world, we face similar challenges when creating interfaces. Designers often do not take into account the needs of users with various disabilities, such as visual, hearing, or motor impairments. This leads to the creation of digital products that are not truly inclusive and accessible to all users (Figure 2).

Therefore, after deep reflection and analysis of my professional activity, I came to realize that my previous projects in the field of web design do not fully meet modern accessibility standards for users with disabilities. This moment of self-criticism was an important incentive for me to rethink my design approaches and strive to create more versatile and accessible digital products in the future.

(240 words)

References:

1. University of Washington Web-Page, "Large-Scale Analysis Finds Many Mobile Apps Are Inaccessible", March 1, 2021. https://create.uw.edu/initiatives/large-scale-analysis-finds-many-mobile-apps-are-inaccessible/ (Accessed September 20)

2. WebAIM Web-Page, The WebAIM Million, "The 2024 report on the accessibility of the top 1,000,000 home pages", Mar 28, 2024. https://webaim.org/projects/million/. (Accessed September 20)

3. Pew Research Center Web-Site, "Americans with disabilities less likely than those without to own some digital devices", Andrew Perrin and Sara Atske, Sept 10, 2021. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/09/10/americans-with-disabilities-less-likely-than-those-without-to-own-some-digital-devices/ (Accessed September 22)

4. Click-Away Pound Web-Site, "The report of the Click-Away Pound Survey 2019", Rick Williams & Steve Brownlow, February 2020. https://clickawaypound.com (Accessed September 22)

[omamervt]

I still see bizarre critiques of Scarlet/Violet that betray a lack of understanding about the nature of gamedev so I wanna set a few things straight.

Now because this is the internet, I'm gonna get this out of the way. This is not a defense of GameFreak. They scaled too big considering they had a locked-in deadline beyond their control and a development pipeline that spreads decision-making way too thin between 3-4 separate entities. And this is certainly not a defense of The Pokemon Company International as a whole. They'd happily stop publishing games entirely if they thought they could sell plushies and figurines of brand-new Pokemon without them, and I frankly won't be shocked if they eventually try that.

Now first and foremost, as I'm sure many of you know, the Switch's hardware lags SO far behind its competitors. There are several reasons for this and I honestly can't fault Nintendo for some of them but that's the simple truth - from a modern standpoint, the hardware sucks. They basically just packed Wii-U hardware into a mobile device, and the Wii-U was just an Xbox 360 with a significantly worse video card.

But why is it that some games like Tears of the Kingdom run perfectly with no issues ever under any circumstances, and even other Pokemon games released the same year manage significantly better performance?

Well, long story short, those three games all decided to do the exact same thing, ran into the exact same problem, and came up with three different solutions.

Starting with Tears of the Kingdom, a massive open-world action RPG/Puzzle game, they saw the limits of the hardware, knew there was only so many assets (items, environment art, NPCs, enemies, etc) they could keep onscreen without compromising the beauty and immersion of the world, and decided they were only going to have a handful of enemies on screen at a time. Usually groups of 10 or less. There are a handful of challenges with significantly more enemies, and the game performs noticeably worse in those areas. They also had fixed spawn locations. Enemies would always appear in the exact same spot, every time you go to that area. If you've killed the enemies in that area already, they won't come back until the Blood Moon resets all encounters on the map. The reset happens periodically to prevent a memory overload from crashing the game.

In this way, Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom were very expertly designed around some luxuries that a Pokemon game doesn't have. Pokemon games need to be able to populate an area with Pokemon. Pokemon need to respawn in that area more than once every 3 hours. Once again, though, an elegant decision was reached. First, they split the map up into 5 Areas, each about as big as the main Wild Area in Pokemon Sword/Shield. Then, they tied Pokemon spawns to a random seed. You know how Minecraft uses "seeds" to generate a new world, and putting in a custom seed affects how the world is generated? Yeah, it's the same concept but with Pokemon spawns. Then, they created a 24-minute Day/Night cycle. Every 6 minutes, the time of day would change. At the end of a full cycle, the seed would be regenerated, giving you a new set of pokemon in the area. You could prevent the generation of a new seed by "Sleeping" at camp, which would return you to an earlier point in the day, potentially allowing one seed to last significantly longer, and thereby reduce the amount of data stored in short-term memory when the seed is regenerated. Returning to Jubilife Village would dump leftover data from the previous seed(s), and generate new seeds for all 5 areas. Because of the seed, the game only needed to generate new pokemon while the scene was loading, which, if you spend less than an hour in a specific area at a time, took significantly less effort. And by creating some, quite frankly, bland environments with LOTS of big clearings where most of the Pokemon appear, they were able to have loads of Pokemon on screen at a time. Also, because the Pokemon are fixed to the seed, the exact same pokemon will spawn in if you walk far enough away from them to make them despawn. Nothing is decided in the moment, so no room for hiccups!

For Scarlet and Violet, GameFreak flew too close to the sun and got burned. Rather than use the smart system they came up with for Legends: Arceus, they wanted one big open world that'd be heavily populated with Pokemon, those pokemon would have minor interactions programmed in, and the player was given access to the whole map as soon as they finished the tutorial! And... oof, you can't put that on a seed anymore, it's too many moving parts over too big of an area! With virtually no areas to load into, you can't load the Pokemon from the next area all at once. You also don't have anywhere to hide a memory dump. The only two areas that aren't part of the same big open world are the city of Mesagoza, and Area Zero. So, pokemon spawn and despawn based purely on proximity to the player and the area the player is standing in. If the player leaves the pokemon's proximity, it's gone forever, and a brand-new pokemon is generated on the spot in its place. Even though it keeps the amount of assets on screen low, it's still a lot more ongoing work that the system has to do. And to trade off for that, they cut down on the amount of environment assets even further. EVERYWHERE in Paldea is a big open field. This game doesn't even have a proper forest, and no, Tagtree Thicket doesn't count. The trees are so sparse that you can't even properly call it a Thicket. It's an embarrassment to Thickets everywhere. And even with that compromise, there were STILL massive areas of the game that simply couldn't handle the amount of work that was needed to keep up with making these big, empty fields look populated.

Look, the point is, Scarlet and Violet don't suck because of corporate greed preventing them from getting a proper development cycle. Another year in the oven might have helped, but frankly it wouldn't have fixed this mess. The core issue at the heart of Scarlet and Violet is that GameFreak had a specific experience they wanted to deliver, they made massive compromises to deliver it, and in the end, those compromises weren't enough to provide a smooth experience. They should have split the map up the same way they did Legends: Arceus, with the school and Mesagoza as the hub area you'd return to after an expedition. It's perfectly set up for it, they just chose not to for some reason. If they had, they could have copied the setup they used to make Legends: Arceus work, and the game would have likely had significantly fewer performance issues.

But even so, I find it hard to fault them for trying. They did it because it's been clear this is the experience they've been building to ever since the series went 3D. Scarlet and Violet are the games they've wanted to make for a long time, and it's evident everywhere you look that a LOT of love went into building it. This game had possibly the best supporting cast of any Pokemon game ever, a story that focused on those characters rather than the world's lore, and an absolutely killer finale. Despite its technical flaws, it's a delight to play, and even after it's been out for months, I still can't put it down, and if the people making it didn't love what they were doing, I don't think that would be the case.

[semper-legens]

111. The Haunting Season

Owned: No, library Page count: 291 My summary: A wheelchair with its own life. A dead girl who is beautiful forever. A woman hidden away from the world. A stranger needing help who was dead the whole time. Spooky tales of winter hauntings from some of the best horror authors in the business. My rating: 4/5 My commentary:

This collection has been on the shelves at work for months. It looked interesting, and I've picked it up so many times and flicked through only to stick it back on the shelf. Well, no more. I've read it now, and overall I liked it! As with any short story collection, there's individual stories I liked better or worse than others, but all together it's a pretty solid collection, and certainly an enjoyable and engaging way to spend some time. As ever, I'm only going to talk about a few of the stories that particularly stood out to me under the cut. So here we go!

The first story in this collection is A Study in Black and White, based around a traveller who sees a mysterious old house with chess-themed topiaries in the garden and finds himself compelled to rent it. I felt like this story did a great job in showing the main character to be a total dick in ways that were fun and enjoyable. He's rude to people he thinks are below him (read: everyone), sees himself as being probably the only intelligent person in the world, refuses to believe that any of the supernatural stuff around him is actually happening, and is overall just an unpleasant little man. It's classic horror storytelling - set this guy up as a bastard and it's fun to watch him fall. The atmosphere of this story was very spooky too, something about the idea of a big old house where the house itself is alive and knows far more about what's going on here than you do just gets to me. And it was interesting that very little of the horror was explained, leaving the reader to draw their own conclusions.

One story that surprised me was The Eel Singers, which was Natasha Pulley's contribution and is set in the world of her novel, the Watchmaker of Filigree Street. It features the two main characters of that book, Thaniel and Mori, the latter being a precognitive who lives both in the past and future. Mori wants to visit a town where his precognition is nullified, meaning he'll be able to just relax and be himself for once without knowing what the future has in store for the both of them. But this town is not as it seems, and Thaniel and Mori find themselves caught up in it. I really like Thaniel and Mori from when I read Filigree Street, but even if I was approaching it as a beginner, I think that Pulley did a great job in explaining the quirks of this world and these characters to the layman. It never felt like endless recapping, just a nod here and there to acknowledge that these characters belong in their own world. The story itself was creepy in a fun way, with Thaniel and Mori being slowly taken over by the being that exists in this place, and barely escaping with their lives. It's tense as all hell!

The Chillingham Chair, by Laura Purcell, was another interesting one. Purcell seems to really like writing historical horror that's centred around an object - a corset, bone china, and now this wheelchair. The premise is that our main character is injured a few days before her sister's wedding to a man she had previously rejected, and has to use a wheelchair that once belonged to his father. But it seems to have a life of its own, and propels her to places she doesn't want to be. At first, you're led to believe that the chair (or rather, the ghost inhabiting it) wants to kill her, and I had some problems with that on the grounds that characterising and perfectly normal mobility device as being evil, or a hindrance to its user, wafted into the ableism zone. But then it turned out that, nope, the chair was trying to help. The fiancée killed his father and brother, blaming the latter for the former's death, and was going to kill the woman who rejected him so that her sister can inherit the whole fortune. It was a clever twist, I have a soft spot for supernatural horror where the supernatural entity is helpful or benign and it turns out the real monsters were human. Cheesy? Yes! But I like it.

Next, back to CHERUB again, and a more dangerous mission for James and Lauren.

[ravynfyre]

Hi firefighter friend. I was reading your old post about elevators in a fire emergency and was wondering why slides are not more available for staircases for these situations. They make slides for children to put on stairs in their homes.

Greetings!

The short answer is money and space.

The long answer is that slides just aren't practical or safe, cost too much for too little benefit, and would take up space that could otherwise be used to make money.

So those slides that people can buy to put on their home stairs for kids... they aren't designed for hundreds, or even just *dozens* of people using them all at once. They're made robust enough to handle a couple of kids playing now and then. To scale something like that up to handle many adults using it all at one time in an emergency would be prohibitively expensive. And having something like that break in the middle of an evacuation would be dangerous and would then be a waste of space that could otherwise be used to move people.

Which leads into the next problem... would the slide be installed all the time? or would it be stored until needed? If stored... where would it be stored, how would it be put into place quickly and safely, and whose responsibility would that be? What better use could the space where it is stored be put to? If it is left in place at all times, how do you keep people from hurting themselves by screwing around on it?

There is a particular average pitch of a staircase, and that is, quite frankly, a little steep for a slide in a commercial building. How do you engineer in a slide that is safe for that pitch, while maintaining a safe point to enter it and exit it at each floor? The City Museum in St. Louis, Missouri has a 10 story slide. (I recommend visiting the City Museum if ever you can. It's loads of fun for all ages). You can only get on that slide at one point - 10 stories up. You can only *exit* that slide at the end, on the ground. It is a spiral slide, and it isn't very fast at all. It would honestly be quicker to walk down the slide, but because it is a spiral slide, you can only have so many pounds per square foot of the slide, which means that it is only safe to have a very low number of folks on it at any one time. (I recommend checking out the Waterworld USA, Banzai Pipeline water slide disaster from 1997 to understand what I mean) There's really no in-between on designing something that is too fast for commercial staircases, and designing something that has unlimited entry and egress points. And people *will* be foolish on it if it is available at all times. That's just a pure liability nightmare waiting to happen.

Additionally, there's no may that someone in a mobility scooter or a wheelchair could just wheel their device onto the slide and survive - access ramps in construction are an extremely shallow pitch for a reason, and there is absolutely no way to build a slide shallow enough for a mobility device to use without taking up way too much of a building's footprint. So any sort of slide would require that someone help the person with such a device anyway. If the individual has some level of paralysis, they will need assisted all the way down - it will *have* to be designed with a point to enter or exit on *every* floor, which may be a point that stops the person's forward progress... which means that someone is going to have to go with them to keep them moving or transfer them onto the next part of the slide. And this whole process would be much slower than simply taking the elevator and keeping the person and their mobility device together.

Finally, no building designer is going to "waste" that much valuable commercial space on something that is *likely* to create lawsuits from people being dumb. It's just not financially feasible. Especially not when elevators already work "well enough" for such a task, and having an elevator go out of service in an emergency is actually incredibly rare. (MGM Grand, Grenfell Towers, World Trade Center for examples, and those events were so catastrophic that even stairways were compromised, as well)

Now, there *have* been some experiments done with high rise evacuation slides that deploy *outside* the building... They are called "evacuation chutes" and are usually made of rope or fabric woven into high tensile tubes of material. You enter the tube from the top, and then slide through it all the way to the ground. There's a lot of problems with these designs, though...

One would have to be deployed from *each floor* of the building as you can ONLY enter from the top. If there is fire exiting the building at a point further down the building along the same path as the chute would pass for your floor? Can't deploy it. You're screwed. If the building is big enough to support it, maybe you can have two for each floor on opposite sides of the building... but now you have to get everyone from some floors down via a single chute, rather than splitting between two.

Next, they are quicker than stairs, but to keep them safe, especially at higher floors, they are still not *fast*. The chutes are constructed like those fingertrap puzzles that hug your whole body tightly as you pass through it... rather like being eaten by a constrictor snake, in order to keep you for going too fast if you start high up. Wouldn't do much good to get you to the ground so quickly that you die from the impact of stopping at the bottom, after all.

They are also only really useful up to a certain height, based on the materials that they are made from. They can only *carry* a certain amount of weight at any one time, which limits how many people can be in the chute at any point in time... and the higher up they start, the more the chute itself weighs, which cuts into the amount of people that can use it at the same time. Even robustly built metal fire escapes have collapsed under the weight of too many people trying to evacuate at the same time... an evacuation chute wouldn't do anyone any good if a dozen people piled into it at the same time, one after another, and it ripped away from the building and collapsed because it couldn't handle the weight. Now *no one* has access.

It all basically boils down to cost versus effectiveness... Stairs work for the majority of people almost all of the time. If the stairs don't work, then the slide or chute that might have been there instead wouldn't work either. But there are too many things that could go wrong with slides or chutes just as a matter of course that you won't run into with stairs. It's like the mousetrap problem... hard to improve on such an efficient, CHEAP design, especially when the ones who *can't* use it are such a small percentage of the population.

No, I don't AGREE with that philosophy. There *should* be better ways to evacuate those who need assistance more quickly and safely than "hope someone can carry them down the stairs" or "wait for the knuckle-dragging hose-monkeys to get them". There just hasn't been a SAFE, efficient, and cost effective means of doing so invented yet. And, unfortunately, slides and chutes just really are *not* safe, or cost effective.

But this was a very interesting and intelligent question! Thank you for asking!

[govindhtech]

MediaTek Genio’s Wonder: Snorble Children’s Play’s Future!

Due to MediaTek Genio, the Snorble, a Smart Companion for Children, Has Come to Life

What precisely is Snorble, and why does its operation need cutting-edge artificial intelligence and other technological advancements?

Snorble is a revolutionary new intelligent companion toy, and it is driven by a chip manufactured by MediaTek Genio. This toy is at the leading edge because of the innovative method in which it interacts with children and adapts to meet the changing psychological and sleep needs of children as they get older.

The stuffed animal known as Snorble was designed to assist children in establishing not just a regular pattern of restful sleep but also other emotionally wholesome routines, such as positive thinking and mindfulness. It is designed to aid children in accomplishing their goals by hearing, comprehending, and responding to the things that they say to it.

Its face has a moving expression. The ability for parents to keep their Snorbles up to date as their children continue to mature and their needs alter is made possible by the availability of an app for use on smartphones.

In addition to the significant requirements for speech processing and AI processing that this toy has, the technology that powers it must prioritize the privacy and safety of its users. Given that it satisfies all of these characteristics, MediaTek Genio is a fantastic option for accomplishing this objective.

A New Intelligent Companion that Puts Children’s Safety First in the World of Technology has Just Been Released for Young People.

So that it can interact with children and grow with them, Snorble requires sensors that can understand what they are saying and connections that can make product updates easier. Snorble was designed from the bottom up to function without any cameras at all, as an alternative to relying on audio processing that takes place in the cloud or remotely. This action was taken in response to concerns about users’ privacy and safety. Notably, a Wi-Fi connection is not required in order to utilize Snorble on a daily basis like other apps and services.

This eliminates a possible entry point for hackers and boosts mobility (because you do not need a Wi-Fi connection, you are free to take it with you wherever you go since it does not require this). The fact that Snorble executes its processing locally on user devices rather than in the cloud is the primary factor that sets it apart from other voice assistants. When it comes to the specifics of the Snorble’s interaction with the children in their care, parents may have an increased sense of peace of mind as a result of the device’s in-built parental control features, which are included with the product.

The Challenges That Are Presented by Modern Technology

The developers of Snorble needed an ecosystem that could provide all of the following features and functions:

Platform, in both its physical and digital iterations (hardware and software).

Capacity of the central processing unit to manage voice processing for artificial intelligence

Edge AI is a kind of artificial intelligence in which all processing is performed on the device itself, as opposed to being performed on the cloud.

Audio features that are cutting edge, such as the New Language Process (NLP), which can comprehend speech without the need of a dictionary stored in the cloud.

The abbreviation OTA is short for “over the air.”

The MediaTek Genio 350 Is the Solution to This Problem

The CPU that is used in this gadget is the MediaTek Genio 350. This highly integrated System on a Chip (SoC) makes use of a smart Linux application to connect the microphone sensors and run complex artificial intelligence algorithms that are able to genuinely comprehend children and respond with what it is that they need.

In addition, the MediaTek 350 is capable of conducting Edge AI on the smartphone. This includes audio and NLP processing, which may assist with the recognition of words and sounds and even the separation of spoken sentences from a distance, all while decreasing background noise.

Even after a family has purchased a Snorble, the manufacturer has said that it would continue to improve the device by making available for download a variety of extra updates, apps, and features that will broaden the scope of what may be accomplished with the product.

Read more on Govindhtech.com

[hjremi]

under the cut is some random information i've collated about remi, feel free to read to learn more about him. will update as more information comes to light / i learn new things some of these do contain triggers, which are tagged below.

BASIC INFORMATION: NAME: remington clifford [ no korean name ] NICKNAME: remi BIRTHDATE: april 17, 2000 [ 23 years old ] ZODIAC: aries GENDER: nonbinary, he/him preferred SEXUALITY: bisexual OCCUPATION: freelance programmer LINKS: his full bio. please heed the tw. his pinterest. his tags. his playlist.

FUN FACTS: -owns a used pickup that he loves half to death, it's got a myriad of problems that require a lot of upkeep, but he wouldn't trade it for the world -owns a bunch of vectors because he thinks they're cute, also carries a tamagotchi around with him on his lanyard with his keys, he really just likes little robot pets -does not know how to swim ?? not sure why he's on an island in that case -most of the burns / scars he has are on his arms / chest, but he does have a scar on one cheek / side of his jaw / in his hairline on his left side [ which incidentally is the side his hearing is worse on ] -is ambidextrous but favours his right hand lately as his left experiences some mobility issues -is literally 5'4 bless his heart -plays a lot of video games, and has participated in esports tournaments before [ nothing recently due to a lack of anonymity for contestants ] -basically picture the type of kid who would've been at the big hero 6 school and that's basically remi -previously went to MIT before coming to korea, misses that more than anything else in america as he had resources to do a lot of the things he wanted to readily available to him. -builds computers in his spare time, usually as commissions or he sells them after the fact -double major in computer science and robotics with a minor in electrical engineering, is also taking korean language and ksl classes to help communicate easier, since english is his first language, does plan to take asl classes later on -his thesis is about a hearing device capable of translating sign language to speech with gesture recognition, as well as translating other spoken languages in real time and potentially even being able to translate lip reading into speech, if he can figure out how to make it happen. at his previous school, he was dabbling in mixed reality / augmented reality, but there aren't resources to do so here in hanjeong. -is super passionate about the environment and especially about renewable energy omg, he's currently trying to get the grocery store he lives in switch to solar panels, as he uses quite a bit of electricity. he would prefer to use marine/offshore energy, since they're on an island and all, but has been assured by multiple people that anything he attempts to set up would mysteriously be destroyed, so he has settled for solar power. it's incredibly difficult to set up with the trade restrictions when it comes to sourcing things he needs, however, causing a growing amount of tension. -he's very ambivalent about the whole supernatural thing. tbh whenever he first found out he thought they were joking, and even now he doesn't really bother himself with it all that much, seeing as he doesn't really encounter it that often in his day-to-day life. -is very staunchly anti-government and anti-police. thinks the idea of modern monarchies [ three in the same place, even ! because they can't pretend that the captain's descendants aren't a form of modern monarchy ] is possibly the most idiotic thing he's ever heard, and refuses to acknowledge any of them. whatever they're doing doesn't concern him, anyway. -really badly wants to go ghost hunting, but doesn't want to go by himself because that's boring. -is afab, has not had any gender-affirming surgeries, he doesn't ever really bring it up though bc honestly it's not relevant in most situations. he might refer to it offhand though, feel free to have your character react however. THE GOOD: clever. strong-willed. spontaneous. easy-going. THE BAD: irresponsible. absurdist. flippant. impulsive. THE UGLY: physically cannot stop getting in over his head.

[ancela-pen]

Thrill-Seeking Down Under: An Overview to Adventure Tourist in Australia

Australia is understood for its spectacular natural landscapes, diverse wildlife, and also unique outdoor adventures, making it a prominent destination for experience tourist. From surfing on some of the world's finest beaches to discovering the rugged wilderness and also diving in the Great Barrier Reef, Australia supplies a vast array of thrilling tasks for experience applicants.

Along with its all-natural beauty, Australia additionally boasts a solid tourism market with different solutions to make traveling much easier and more delightful. From airport taxi solutions to glass repair service and commercial kitchen area devices rentals, tourists can easily access the sources they require for a smooth as well as comfy trip.

However, with journey tourism likewise comes potential health threats. Travelers ought to recognize the need for preventative measures, such as flu injections, as well as the significance of correct sunlight protection as well as cosmetic products for outside tasks.

This guide will supply an overview of the very best outdoor journeys in Australia and the travel and tourism solutions offered to make the most of your journey. We will certainly likewise review important health and also health considerations as well as modern technology services for vacationers. By the end of this guide, you'll have all the details you need to plan an amazing and risk-free journey tourism trip to Australia.

Sports and also Outdoor Gear

Sports as well as outside equipment enthusiasts will certainly take pleasure in a lot of interesting tasks in Australia. From surfing on the magnificent beaches of the Gold Shore to kayaking in the serene waters of Tasmania, there's something for every person. In this article, we'll check out a few of Australia's a lot of exhilarating sporting activities and outside activities.

Surfing

Surfing is just one of Australia's most preferred water sports, thanks to the country's world-famous waves and long stretches of coastline. Whether a newbie or a skilled web surfer, you'll locate lots of possibilities to capture a wave in Australia. Several of the most effective areas to surf include the Gold Shore, Byron Bay, and Margaret River in Western Australia. If you're wanting to acquire or lease surfing gear, stores such as Mobility scooter Hut Brisbane offer a series of options for citizens and tourists.

Kayaking and Canoeing

For an extra tranquil water-based experience, kayaking and canoeing are wonderful alternatives. The rivers and lakes of Australia provide a few of the most stunning settings for paddling enthusiasts. The Noosa River on the Sunlight Shore, Lake Burley Lion in Canberra, as well as the Fitzroy River in Rockhampton are just a few terrific places for kayaking and also canoeing in Australia. You can lease kayaks as well as canoes at many locations, consisting of some exterior merchants such as Mobility scooter Hut Brisbane.

Scuba Diving and Snorkeling

Australia's Great Barrier Coral reef is among the world's most prominent scuba diving and also snorkeling locations. The reef's stunning coral reefs developments as well as diverse marine life make it a remarkable experience for everyone. Other popular diving destinations in Australia include Ningaloo Coral reef in Western Australia, Lord Howe Island in New South Wales, and the accident of the SS Yongala off the coast of Queensland. Site visitors can rent out scuba diving as well as snorkeling equipment from retailers, including Mobility scooter Hut Brisbane.

White-Water Rafting

White-water rafting is a thrilling option if you're looking for a much more adrenaline-fueled outside experience. The Tully River in Queensland and the Franklin River in Tasmania are two of Australia's best-known locations for white-water rafting. These rapids offer a series of problem levels for both novices as well as seasoned rafters. Many companies offer directed tours and devices services for those brand-new to the sport.

Mobility Scooter Rentals as well as Electric Mobility Scooter Tours in Brisbane

For those that prefer to remain on land, mobility scooter services as well as electrical scooter excursions are an excellent way to explore Brisbane and also its environments. As mentioned previously, Mobility scooter Hut Brisbane is among the location's best-known merchants of mobility scooters and also mobility scooter accessories. They use a range of scooters for acquisition and also service, including lightweight and also foldable designs that are easy to transport and also shop. Electric scooter scenic tours are an enjoyable as well as environmentally friendly means to see Brisbane's leading sights, such as the Story Bridge, South Bank Parklands, as well as the Botanic Gardens.

In conclusion, Australia is a paradise for sporting activities as well as outdoor gear lovers. Whether you prefer surfing, kayaking, scuba diving, white-water rafting, or checking out on an electrical mobility scooter, there's something for everyone. So, load your bags, grab your gear, and also head Down Under for the experience of a life time!

Traveling and Tourist Solutions

Australia's island of Tasmania is renowned for its all-natural beauty as well as diverse landscapes, making it a prominent location for tourists as well as travelers. For those wanting to discover this stunning region, a motorhome service can supply a comfortable and also adaptable means of transport. Nonetheless, to guarantee a successful and delightful journey, it is very important to think about a series of traveling and also tourist solutions that can assist make your experience unforgettable.

Most importantly, airport terminal taxi services are essential to any type of trip to Tasmania. With a number of flight terminals in the state, scheduling a reliable and also safe taxi service to carry you and also your household from the flight terminal to your motorhome rental tasmania location is crucial. Several reputable companies supply this solution, as well as reservation beforehand is constantly best to stay clear of any kind of delays or complication.

An additional vital service to consider is glass repair work as well as substitute. While motorhomes are designed to withstand the rigors of the road, the windscreen as well as home windows are prone to damage from rocks, particles, and other hazards. If you discover any chips, fractures, or damage to your car's glass, it is essential to have it repaired or replaced asap to guarantee the security of all guests. Many glass repair solutions in Tasmania, including mobile solutions, can come straight to your area.

Commercial kitchen area tools rentals might be necessary for those preparing to cook their meals while when driving. This solution enables you to rent out important home appliances such as stovetops, ovens, refrigerators, and more, ensuring you have all the necessary tools to prepare healthy as well as scrumptious dishes during your trips. Numerous companies in Tasmania use this service, and scheduling well beforehand is essential to guarantee availability.

In addition to these sensible travel services, it's additionally important to take into consideration brand name marketing for tourist business. If you're a firm providing motorhome services in Tasmania, it is necessary to establish an advertising and marketing technique to assist your brand stand out. By partnering with a marketing agency that concentrates on tourism, you can establish a distinct as well as compelling brand message that resonates with your target market.

This can include creating a solid on the internet existence, developing appealing social media sites web content, as well as using rewards as well as discounts to new consumers.

Finally, for those seeking to add exhilaration to their motorhome adventure, mobility scooter rentals and electric mobility scooter excursions in Brisbane are terrific alternatives. With a wide variety of rental options, you can discover the city and also its surroundings on your own terms without needing a car or various other automobile. Numerous scooter rental business provide directed scenic tours and also various other special plans, making checking out the city's top destinations as well as hidden treasures very easy.

To conclude, a motorhome leasing is an outstanding way to check out the all-natural beauty and also varied landscapes of Tasmania. To make certain a successful and delightful trip, it is very important to consider various traveling and tourism solutions, including airport terminal taxi solutions, glass repair work as well as replacement, business cooking area devices services, and also brand marketing for tourist companies. With these solutions in mind and also the included enjoyment of scooter leasings as well as electric scooter excursions in Brisbane, your motorhome journey will certainly be remarkable.

Health and also Health

Keeping health as well as wellness is important to taking pleasure in life fully, especially when taking a trip. Whether you're a seasoned vacationer or intending your first trip, it is necessary to protect your health and stay healthy and balanced while on the move. In this short article, we'll check out some necessary health and also wellness tips to keep in mind when traveling.

Flu Vaccine Recommendations for Travelers

Flu, typically known as the flu, is a contagious breathing ailment that can cause mild to severe signs. When taking a trip, you might be revealed to various pressures of the influenza infection that your body may not be unsusceptible to. The best means to secure on your own from the flu is by obtaining vaccinated before you take a trip. The influenza injection is suggested for all vacationers aged six months as well as older. The flu vaccine is readily available in Australia from numerous healthcare providers, consisting of general practitioners, drug stores, and traveling centers. Getting the influenza vaccine at the very least two weeks prior to your journey is important to enable your body time to construct resistance.

Sunlight Protection as well as Cosmetic Products for Outdoor Activities

Australia's cozy and warm environment makes it an optimal destination for outdoor tasks such as walking, swimming, and the coastline. However, direct exposure to the sun's unsafe ultraviolet (UV) rays can create skin damages as well as sunburn and increase your danger of establishing skin cancer cells. To secure your skin, it is very important to utilize a high-SPF sunscreen to safeguard your skin, put on safety clothing, and also seek shade throughout peak sun hrs. Some aesthetic items, such as tinted moisturizers and structures, also contain SPF to offer extra sunlight security. Load these items, together with a wide-brimmed hat and sunglasses, for your outdoor adventures in Australia.

Mental Health and also Wellness

Traveling can be amazing and invigorating, however it can additionally be stressful as well as overwhelming. Caring for your mental health and wellness as well as health while traveling is essential. Some methods to advertise psychological wellness while on the move consist of practicing mindfulness, obtaining enough rest, remaining energetic, and seeking support from enjoyed ones. It can likewise be helpful to prepare some downtime during your journeys to rest as well as recharge.

Healthy Eating and Hydration

Keeping a healthy and balanced diet plan and staying moisturized are important for general wellness and health when traveling. In Australia, numerous scrumptious and healthy food choices are offered, such as fresh fish and shellfish, salads, and also fruits. Consuming lots of water is also crucial, especially in outside tasks or hot weather. See to it to carry a refillable canteen as well as fill it up routinely throughout your journeys.

To conclude, handling your wellness and health is essential for a pleasurable and also successful traveling experience. Whether you're obtaining a flu vaccines australia prior to your trip, exercising sunlight safety and security, prioritizing mental health, or remaining moisturized and nourished, these pointers can help ensure you remain healthy and well during your trips. So, pack your bags and prepare yourself for a healthy as well as pleased journey in Australia!

Computer as well as Technology Solutions

As we depend an increasing number of on innovation, it's important to have access to dependable computer and modern technology services. This is specifically real for travelers that rely on their tools for interaction, navigation, as well as enjoyment. In this post, we'll discover several of Australia's computer system and also technology solutions, including malware elimination, computer system repair service, as well as disk drive information healing.

Malware Removal

Malware, or destructive software, can create a great deal of damages to your computer system, consisting of stealing individual information, corrupting documents, and also slowing down your system. It's important to have an expert eliminate any kind of malware from your device asap to stop additional damages. Several computer system repair shops in Australia use malware removal solutions, including ones that provide especially to vacationers. If you're traveling to Brisbane, you can locate trusted solutions like hard disk drive data recuperation Brisbane and also malware elimination solutions at locations like Compensation Now and Computer Troubleshooters.

Computer Repair

Unfortunately, even the most trustworthy tools can break down or malfunction. Whether it's a broken display, a dead battery, or a hardware issue, it is essential to have accessibility to quality computer system repair solutions when you get on the roadway. Numerous computer system service center in Australia use same-day or next-day fixing solutions, so you can go back to utilizing your tool asap. If you're in Sydney, places like Sydney CBD Repair Work Centre and also Gadget Expert use quality computer system fixing solutions, including Apple items.

Hard Drive Data Recovery

Losing essential information from your hard disk drive can be a headache, specifically if you don't have a backup. Luckily, services are available that can recover information from damaged or damaged hard disk drives. This is specifically important for travelers with crucial documents or pictures reduced their gadgets. In Brisbane, services like Ontrack and Payam Data Healing provide hard drive data recovery brisbane services for people and companies.

In addition to these certain solutions, many computer and technology stores in Australia provide numerous other solutions, consisting of computer and also accessory sales, IT consulting, and also networking services. If you're traveling for company or require to remain connected while when driving, investigating the various options offered in your location city deserves researching.

When choosing a computer system and also modern technology provider, it's important to research as well as choose a reliable, reputable carrier with good evaluations and a performance history of quality service. You may likewise want to take into consideration elements such as rates, area, as well as hrs of procedure, particularly if you get on a tight routine.

In conclusion, computer and modern technology solutions are essential for travelers that depend on their tools for work, interaction, as well as home entertainment. Whether you require malware removal, computer repair work, or hard disk drive information healing, trusted companies in Australia can meet your requirements. So, before you hit the trail, understand where to turn if you require aid with your tool.

Verdict:

To conclude, Australia offers lots of one-of-a-kind opportunities for adventure as well as travel, from browsing as well as kayaking to diving and also snorkeling, white-water rafting, and also mobility scooter services and electric mobility scooter scenic tours in Brisbane. It's necessary to have accessibility to reliable computer system and modern technology solutions while traveling, consisting of malware elimination, computer system repair service, as well as hard disk drive data recuperation.

If you're preparing a trip to Australia, research the various journey tourism options available and strategy accordingly. Whether you're looking for adrenaline-pumping activities or simply intend to explore the natural elegance of this vast as well as varied nation, Australia has something for everyone.

Pertaining to computer system as well as technology solutions, it's essential to choose a reputable, reputable provider with great evaluations as well as a performance history of quality service. Think about elements such as pricing, place, and hours of procedure, particularly if you get on a tight routine.

On the whole, traveling to Australia offers a special opportunity to experience some of the globe's most breathtaking landscapes as well as exhilarating journeys. With the right planning and also prep work, you can take advantage of your trip and also create memories that will last a life time.

[actualmythicalcreature]

Using this as a friendly reminder that there are a great number of wheelchair users who are "ambulatory wheelchair users" - this means they are only capable of walking very short distances before they need to sit again. Large stores, or even smaller stores that have parking farther away from the building or limited parking options, or stores that are busy and require you to stand in a que for longer than a minute - are all completely inaccessible to ambulatory wheelchair users, without their chair. There is no one using a wheelchair regularly or long term who does so just for fun. They are a mobility device for people with limited mobility - they are not expressly for people with "No" mobility.

This means it is exceedingly likely that you will see someone, at some point, get up from a wheelchair to walk a short distance, load their chair into a vehicle, or stand up to reach a high shelf. This does not mean they are lying about their need for a wheelchair. It is startlingly common for ambulatory wheelchair users to be harassed, judged, shamed or humiliated for getting in and out of a chair that they require to function. This happens to the extent that there are many people who could and should be using a mobility device, who choose to instead just not go out into the world (or worse: go out without one and cause themselves pain and further injury) because they think people will judge them for not being "disabled enough" to "deserve" their mobility aid.

Don't be part of this problem.

It is wild what kind of shit people will report to you in a security uniform. "Hey, that guy in the wheelchair? He doesn't need it, he was walking outside earlier" like ??? Okay?? First off you don't know his medical status, second what the fuck am I supposed to do with that information? Take it away from him?? It's still his fucking wheelchair, he brought it from home

[ooofaitooo]

Apple & Android Are Both Good, Let's Compare..

If you ask almost everyone they will either be on Team Android or Team Apple (iPhone) I didn’t think we be in a world where we are comparing phones, Not to sound like a boomer but if it makes calls, connects to the internet, and texts then it’s doing its job, of course, both Operating Systems get compared a lot so I guess I will be doing this in this article, the cons, and pros of both system, let’s start with Apple IOS.

IOS Cons:​

Locked Up System Compared to its counterpart Android, iPhones cannot download apps from the browser as easily, of course, you can download IPAs but I also found that to be hard to find on the web, I was looking at how to downgrade my Snapchat app version on IOS and even that was a struggle to find. So if you can go by the app store then this won’t be a big issue for you, Downgrading apps from the phone itself is not possible either unless Jailbroken.

This also means while not impossible if you got the right apps, Media files can be hard to transfer between things as easily.

No In-Browser Notification System Another huge issue that Apple has lacked and as an Apple user it annoys me, Apple has not adopted background push notifications for web apps, What it feels to me is that Apple is trying to push people to make IOS apps so they benefit from it financially, This costs developers money, energy and unnecessary time.

This is why TO having an app is a long way off if it does happen because you can add this site to your home screen and it acts the same as an app, Apple’s limitations are their problem.

From my personal experience, these are my two complaints about Apple’s ego system.

IOS Pros​

Apple Ego-System With the home-pod, air-pods, Ipad, Apple Watch, and everything else Apple has on offer you can rest assured that you are being looked after if you are looking for a company to have your Watch, Phone, and speaker with, you be fully tied within Apple!

User Friendly: If you want to get to something then Apple makes their entire UI easy to use so you can have fun watching those cat videos without any complicated drama, You can say Apple is the Managed VPS of the mobile space, They lock up their system because they rather manage the OS then you modify anything.

Great Sound Quality: I’ve owned a few phones in the past and nothing has EVER, I mean EVER sounded as good as Apple, I’m sure there are some better Android phones out there audio-wise now but you can’t deny Apple does do wonders with music quality and the reason why I’m an Apple Music Subscriber.

Especially now they’ve added lossless audio in their app, That just makes things even better audio-wise.

iMessage I’ve considered going back to Android a few times but what stops me is iMessage, iMessage has many effects you can choose from and lets you know when the message has been delivered to that contact that also has an iPhone and iMessage turned on.

Battery Life

From my experience since when I switched to Apple back in 2017 is the battery life has never failed me once! Apple has some of the best batteries in their devices and I can get through an entire day without having to worry if my phone is going to go flat.

With some Samsung phones I’ve owned I ended up having battery issues.

ANDROID​

Android Cons​

Viruses: Yes, Android is an Open Source Project unlike the IOS system, This has its advantages and disadvantages, One disadvantage is wayyyy more acceptable to viruses, A Virus can only make its way into a system that allows certain files to be modified or written to, Which is why we don’t hear IOS having that many viruses or mostly none!

Prone To Bricking: Especially if you are going down the path of Rooting or modifying the firmware on your device (sometimes a dodgy update) this can lead to your device being soft-bricked (it won’t boot past the logo screen) or Hard Bricked! (won’t turn on at all) Apple has a recovery mode and other measures to prevent this from happening.

No iMessage Depending on which way you look at this depends, But I see it as a con, iMessage is an amazing built-in texting app that Apple has out of the box and it helps a lot and is one of the best texting experiences I’ve ever seen, Hopefully, one day Android devices will have this.

Android Pros​

More Flexible

Android is much more flexible than IOS, You can easily download music from a website, download apps and movies directly from your device’s browser, With Apple, this is a lot harder and not as easy sometimes impossible, Android is open source and has always focused on this.

Android has a huge win for this one.

Open Source Android being open source means you can install other firmware onto your device and do so much more than you can do on IOS, With some risks involved If you know what you’re doing and only download what is made for your device this can be a fun thing to do.

Longer Life Span:

Apple has been known for no longer releasing updates after a while for certain devices, Being recently the iPhone 6 no longer receiving any updates, With old Android phones you can keep them alive for another 6-7 years long after the manufacturer has stopped releasing updates Since other developers will take over and you can just install their ROMs (firmware)

So as you can see no Mobile OS is worse than the other, It really comes down to you and what you want out of a phone, Both systems have their ups and downs, If you love customizing every aspect of your phone and love to be flexible then get an Android, if you want things simple and/or love the Apple ego-system then get an iPhone like me!

obviously, I own a tech website so I am a tech expert but I just want things to be kept simple on my mobile phone, besides love Apple’s ego system.

I also got an Apple to watch it feels very premium and I also like that, I also don’t hate Android they are both good for different purposes, At the end of the day if it can text, connect to the internet and do all the basic stuff a modern smartphone should, Then is it worth fighting over what’s better?

[sonora-de-crear]

SEO Basics for Beginners: How to Drive Organic Traffic to Your Website

In today’s digital-first world, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is one of the most effective ways to drive organic traffic to your website. By optimizing your site for search engines, you increase its visibility, making it easier for potential customers to find you. Whether you're starting a blog, running an e-commerce store, or managing a corporate website, understanding SEO basics is crucial to growing your online presence. This tutorial will walk you through the fundamental concepts and strategies to get you started.

What Is SEO?

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, the practice of improving your website to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs). When people search for something related to your business on platforms like Google or Bing, SEO helps ensure your website appears in the results.

The goal of SEO is to attract quality traffic—visitors genuinely interested in what your site offers. Unlike paid ads, organic traffic is free, but it requires consistent effort and strategy.

Why Is SEO Important?

Increased Visibility: Higher rankings in SERPs mean more eyes on your content.

Credibility and Trust: Websites that rank high are perceived as more trustworthy.

Cost-Effective Marketing: Unlike paid ads, organic traffic continues to flow as long as your content stays relevant.

Long-Term Results: SEO provides sustainable growth over time.

Key Components of SEO

To excel in SEO, you need to understand its three main pillars:

1. On-Page SEO

This refers to optimizing elements within your website to improve its ranking.

Keyword Research: Identify the terms your audience is searching for. Use tools like Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, or SEMrush to find relevant keywords with a good balance of search volume and competition.

Quality Content: Write engaging, original, and informative content tailored to your audience. Use your target keywords naturally within the text.

Meta Tags: Optimize your title tags, meta descriptions, and headers. These elements provide a snapshot of your content to search engines and users.

Example: A title tag could be "SEO Basics for Beginners | Learn How to Boost Your Traffic."

URL Structure: Keep URLs short and descriptive. For example, use yourwebsite.com/seo-basics instead of yourwebsite.com/page12345.

Internal Linking: Link to other relevant pages on your site to help search engines understand your site’s structure.

2. Off-Page SEO

Off-page SEO involves activities outside your website to boost its authority.

Backlinks: Gain links from other reputable websites. Backlinks act as "votes of confidence" for your content.

To build backlinks:

Write guest posts for other blogs.

Create shareable infographics or valuable resources.

Network with other content creators in your niche.

Social Media Promotion: Share your content on social platforms to increase its reach.

Online Directories: List your business in directories like Google My Business, Yelp, or niche-specific directories.

3. Technical SEO

This ensures that search engines can crawl and index your site efficiently.

Site Speed: Use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights to analyze and improve your website's loading time.

Mobile-Friendliness: Ensure your site is responsive and functions well on all devices.

Secure Website (HTTPS): Use an SSL certificate to secure your site. Search engines prioritize secure sites.

XML Sitemap: Create and submit an XML sitemap to search engines to help them index your pages.

Fix Broken Links: Regularly check for and fix broken links to improve user experience and SEO.

Step-by-Step Guide to Start Driving Organic Traffic

Step 1: Understand Your Audience

Before optimizing your website, know who your audience is. What are they searching for? What problems do they need solutions for? Build a list of potential keywords based on these insights.

Step 2: Perform Keyword Research

Use tools like Ubersuggest, Ahrefs, or SEMrush to identify keywords.

Focus on long-tail keywords—phrases with 3-5 words that are specific and less competitive. For example, "how to do SEO for beginners" is more targeted than "SEO."

Step 3: Create High-Quality Content

Content is king in SEO. Write blog posts, tutorials, guides, or case studies that offer value. Ensure your content is:

Relevant

Well-researched

Easy to read (use short paragraphs, bullet points, and subheadings)

Step 4: Optimize On-Page Elements

Include your target keywords in the title, headings, and body of your content.

Add alt text to images to help search engines understand their content.

Use internal links to guide users to related content.

Step 5: Build Backlinks

Reach out to industry influencers or collaborate with other websites to earn backlinks. Quality matters more than quantity—10 links from high-authority sites are better than 100 from low-quality sites.

Step 6: Ensure Technical Excellence

Audit your website regularly using tools like Google Search Console or Screaming Frog. Fix issues like broken links, duplicate content, and slow loading times.

Step 7: Monitor and Adjust

SEO isn’t a one-time activity. Use analytics tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console to track your performance. Monitor metrics like:

Organic traffic

Bounce rate

Average session duration

Keyword rankings

Adjust your strategy based on these insights.

Common SEO Mistakes to Avoid

Keyword Stuffing: Overusing keywords can lead to penalties from search engines.

Ignoring Mobile Users: With most searches happening on mobile devices, a mobile-friendly design is essential.

Publishing Low-Quality Content: Focus on value, not just volume.

Neglecting Technical SEO: Even the best content can fail if your site has technical issues.

Not Tracking Results: Always analyze and refine your strategy based on data.

Final Thoughts

Driving organic traffic through SEO takes time and patience, but the results are worth it. By mastering the basics of keyword research, on-page optimization, content creation, and link building, you can establish a strong foundation for your website’s growth.

SEO isn’t just about ranking on Google; it’s about creating a better user experience and providing valuable information to your audience. Start with these steps, and over time, you’ll see your efforts pay off in the form of increased visibility, traffic, and success.

[tafkarfanfic]

That transition to electric light and autos was slower than previous poster states, but as the transformation rolled on it accelerated, and that’s what we are experiencing now.

My mom was born in 1947. Her earliest memories were of going to the Haymarket in Boston with her mom to get groceries. A few of the farmers still came with a horse and cart. That was probably 1949 or 1950.

I think the transition moved faster in some ways in Europe, just because so many horses were killed in World War I. If all your horses had been requisitioned by the army and slaughtered on the battlefield, why not move on to a motorcar for that empty barn?

People were not all using candles in 1890. Candles had been phasing out for decades by then. Gas lighting started in the late 1700s. There are still old Victorians in San Francisco that survived the 1906 earthquake with functional gas lighting; my friends live in one. I used to live in a house that still had live gas lines that led to where the light fixtures used to be. (They’d run electric lines along them. The insulation was rolled-up newspapers from the 1800s. Old houses have problems.) If a house was built between 1850 and 1890 in an urban area of the US, it was probably outfitted for gas lighting.

But electric lighting was also happening as early as the 1840s, mostly outdoors. Joseph Swan, working for Thomas Edison, invented the commercial incandescent light bulb in 1870, and then electrified the part of New York that housed the wealthiest and most influential people. Once they had electric everyone wanted it. By the mid-1890s it was common for a house to be built with knob and tube electricity in urban areas of the US. This synced with a population explosion in cities like Boston, New York and San Francisco (so a lot of older homes still have this kind of wiring which is…not great!) And that’s why you had a drastic sudden switch to electrically wired houses in the 1890s - the technology advanced in sync with an enormous building boom. In the UK it was a lot slower (mostly post-WWI, I think).

The transition to the internet has taken longer than people think. I was online in 1988 and I have friends who were online even earlier. We didn’t have the Web yet; everything was text (including ASCII art). Think of this as the “early incandescent bulb” era.

(Please note that none of the below applies to France, which had Minitel from the early 1980s. If you don’t know what Minitel was I beg you to look it up; it’s really interesting.)

The first inflection point was the web browser, which made things easier to navigate. You typed in an address, you pointed and clicked. This is like the incandescent bulb. But it took a while before it got there.

The second inflection point was the iPhone.

Before that, mobile phones existed that had Internet access, but it was really rudimentary and mostly good for email. I remember the day the iPhone launched (June 29, 2007) because I stood in line all night in front of the Apple Store in Santa Monica to get one. Not for me, for my boss. I couldn’t afford one. Much like Edison, Steve Jobs got this device in the hands of wealthy and influential people, who created the demand for him.

What no one remembers now is how difficult it was to connect your phone and your computer up until then. Apple made it easy. They made it easy to email photos and to send them to your laptop. (If you had a Mac.) And that big screen made it possible to browse the Web like you would on a laptop. And you could just use your finger rather than having to use arrow keys or a tiny trackball to move from link to link. This may not sound like an innovation, but it was. Especially if your job meant you had to look at websites while on the go.

Everyone had to have a phone with a big screen after that, and BlackBerry, which had been dominant because it made email easy, got crushed really fast.

It also rapidly led to the always-on work thing we are in now. I worked for a startup in 2007, and when we left the office that was it. We weren’t expected to keep an eye on our work when we left the office, because our jobs were on the Web, and how would we access that unless we were on a laptop or computer? (I mean, the answer to that was we routinely worked 12-14 hour days in the office, but when we left we were GONE.)

Anyway. Transition starts slow and then moves really fast. In the past 15 years we just went through a fast bit.

we were the liminal kids. alive before the internet, just long enough we remember when things really were different.

when i work in preschools, the hand signal kids make for phone is a flat palm, their fingers like brackets. i still make the pinky-and-thumb octave stretch when i "pick up" to respond to them.

the symbol to save a file is a floppy disc. the other day while cleaning out my parents' house, i found a collection of over a hundred CDs, my mom's handwriting on each of them. first day of kindergarten. playlist for beach trip '94. i don't have a device that can play any of these anymore - none of my electronics are compatible. there are pieces of my childhood buried under these, and i cannot access them. but they do exist, which feels special.

my siblings and i recently spent hours digitizing our family's photos as a present for my mom's birthday. there's a year where the pictures just. stop. cameras on phones got to be too good. it didn't make sense to keep getting them developed. and there are a quite a few years that are lost to us. when we were younger, mementos were lost to floods. and again, while i was in middle school, google drive wasn't "a thing". somewhere out there, there are lost memories on dead laptops. which is to say - i lost it to the flood twice, kind of.

when i teach undergrad, i always feel kind of slapped-in-the-face. they're over 18, and they don't remember a classroom without laptops. i remember when my school put in the first smartboard, and how it was a huge privilege. i used the word walkman once, and had to explain myself. we are only separated by a decade. it feels like we are separated by so much more than that.

and something about ... being half-in half-out of the world after. it marks you. i don't know why. but "real adults" see us as lost children, even though many of us are old enough to have a mortgage. my little sister grew up with more access to the internet than i did - and she's only got 4 years of difference. i know how to write cursive, and i actually think it's good practice for kids to learn too - it helps their motor development. but i also know they have to be able to touch-type way faster than was ever required from me.

in between, i guess. i still like to hand-write most things, even though typing is way faster and more accessible for me. i still wear a pj shirt from when i was like 18. i don't really understand how to operate my parents' smart tv. the other day when i got seriously injured, i used hey siri to call my brother. but if you asked me - honestly, i prefer calling to texting. a life in anachronisms. in being a little out-of-phase. never quite in synchronicity.