#and the very likely reality that their concerns will never be addressed given the server creator's long history of silence and ignorance

[hatteymcstache]

Another callout post in the air.

I've been told about this post going around when someone was asking me if I was okay; so I've given into a lot of thought and I'm here explain. again. I will not display this person's name because I know the toxic part of my community will go ballistic and I hate that so much. Please don't.

The callout post in question:

Firstly, those who have tried went from being calm to immediately hostile when I tried to explain myself in dms. And the very rare few who reached out to me apologized for jumping to conclusions. You on the other hand, never tried reaching out to me once. If it's a confrontation in the discord server, then I'm not active in it and most likely forget. If it's a personal dm, I didn't get anything recent from you at all.

1. I did not defend C0nji. yes I do look at the whole anti/proshipping issue on both sides, doesn't mean I condone malicious creepy intent and doxxing/death threats. I'm just saying this artist is not a despicable person as far as I know, nor did they go out of their way of legitimately hurting others. With that being said, their whole idea of 'fiction doesn't affect reality' is very shallow-minded and gross considering how much it has put minors in danger, and they should learn to think about it but that's their choice, and problem. I'm not here to babysit.

2. The same claim I already debunked many times but will say again: I carelessly copy pasted old info and had no idea that word was still there but I removed the term 'Asperger's' and have stopped using it since, I was made aware of this years ago already. At the time I wasn't aware that in a deep negative history, and I've been around a few autistic mutuals who used that term as a scientific term.

3. Another of the same claim: Yes I do see Chihiro as a boy (or sometimes non-binary) cause as a trans man, it brings me comfort to see guys in a skirt with confidence. I'm not the most feminine guy but i'd like to have the freedom to explore without being misgendered. And if people do not like trans Sakura that's understandable, I just want to shed some light where trans woman can look buff, especially those who are as athletic as Sakura. The trans post you showed is meant to be a body positive for pre-op and post-op trans folk but you decided to flip it around and call it something else.

4. Me being genuinely upset of people making claims towards me doesn't automatically mean I've brushed off every transfem's concerns. Some of them who came forward to me, the conversations went from civil to being aggressive because they wouldn't listen or even consider my explanation that my intentions weren't malicious at all. Then the only trans woman who was civil came to me with fair criticism, told me I should be more specific with my content warnings when it comes to drawing pre-op bodies cause it would cause dysphoria for certain trans people, especially to trans women. That was where I listened and assured to be more cautious with how I portray my work.

5. The rest about me woobifying Taka and Gundham which I've addressed many times; characters dressing up in oversized sweaters or acting childlike/naïve doesn't automatically make them incapable or infant. That is never what I intend. And Gundham 'not knowing what sex is'- yes I know he's a breeder, human intercourse is a similar but different thing. He's asking Mondo in his own way because he has lacked connection with people for a long time; that's how I'm portraying, this also has been implied many times in his free time events and with how he talks to people. This is something where I relate to Gundham cause all I had was my art and imagination as a kid, so learning to interact with others is overwhelming.

I also don't understand that apparently Gundham needing people like Taka and Mondo (as dad-like figures) is so terrible- I'll say this now that yes I do portray Gundham as someone who is headstrong but he can feel very lonesome, he just doesn't how to express it. It's okay to need someone who truly accepts you or is that so wrong? Also it was never portrayed that Gundham or Taka need to reply on someone 24/7. so I really don't understand that argument you're trying to make. To me, It just sounds like autistic people shouldn't rely or need anyone at all cause it's offensive. If that's not what you mean I'm sorry, but that's what I'm perceiving cause all your statements are vague.

I not only do research but have talked to autistic mutuals/followers when developing my character Timmy; a lot of the valid criticism comes from how I should write his symptoms, showing both his mature and child-like sides etc, they even share their own experiences so I can illustrate them in a realistic and positive light. The way he's portrayed and capable of many things has made him relatable to a lot of people, which is something I'm trying to strive for; especially when some autistic people (who shared their experiences in my dms) behave like Timmy get ridiculed for ''''acting like 9 year olds'''' in my comment section which is something I never condone in my community I even made a comic post regarding that ableism.

No one is ever obligated to agree with the way I portray my stories and opinions; if someone doesn't like what I'm doing they are free to unfollow, block me and look for any other artist that does a better job in their art. My biggest issue with callout posts like this, is that people have different opinions of what makes a character a good or bad rep. It's very subjective and it depends on every person. Half of them including you do not like my representation, meanwhile the other half does enjoy my work, even find comfort in it. I'm not here to please every single person who didn't get everything they need from my work, I'm one man.

But the most painful part is not debunking these claims over and over; it's when my followers believe them right away without even asking me if they were true. It always leaves me unsurprised but disappointed. And yeah I'm not a good person, yes people tend to get scared of me that's fair, but I'm not as despicable as so many of these callout posts claim. I have talked to certain followers who have the decency to ask me what's going on; followers who actually listened to my explanation, and I listened to them back when they have questions. You don't even have to agree or like me after my explanation, just have the courtesy to ask before jumping to conclusions.

So yeah, the callout post is vague, and blown a lot of things I drew out of proportion and turned them into malicious intent which was never my approach. I was going to personally dm you about this but you have lost it the moment you made an 'awareness' post instead that does more damage than good. Feel free to keep your post up, feel free to think what you will. I just want to say all this to people who are genuinely confused. Whatever you plan to do, go ahead. I'm exhausted and have more in life to worry about. Unless followers genuinely want to ask questions to know more, this will be last time I confront the same. claims.

[dimensionsblog]

Due to recent events, it's time I told my truth: So, we'll start from the beginning, when everyone knew me as the new affiliate on his cell phone playing Pokemon. At this point, I had been open about being transgender and bisexual. Right before I got the email saying I was affiliated, I met someone that went by the username AutumnLittleByte. This is where shit gets real. This is your one and only warning as I'm about to be fully honest about what happened. 2 weeks after meeting Autumn, she informed me to check my donations. Lo and behold, she sent me my first ever donation of $20, this was meant to go towards the PS4 or Steam games if I so chose. Whichever path I wanted to take to improve my streaming even further. In concept, this sounds like a kind and generous gesture, but in reality this was her way of "getting in". When I found out she'd given me this kind gift, I cried. I was honestly shocked someone would do that just to try to help. At the same time, she'd joined my old Discord. I'll get into why it's old later, trust. When she joined, she asked if she could add me as a friend so we could message each other. It seemed so harmless I immediately said yes. How was I to know any better? This was my first donation and my first real time properly using Discord. So what happened? Well, it started out harmless, as I said. She sent a picture of the shiny Mightyena she'd just captured on Pokemon X to me, helped me make a channel just to post shiny Pokemon in, and subsequently posted the same picture in there. Again, harmless at the time. Two weeks later, we'd been talking privately and learning more about each other. Apparently she was also transgender, but male-to-female. She claimed she was 19 and currently in her first year of college. Claim being the HUGE KEYWORD HERE. Seemed innocent enough, and she even sent a picture of hersrlf to confirm it. With no context she honestly looked 19. But did she act 19? Honestly, she was a bit immature. But I merely attributed it to how I am. I'm a bit immature and I won't lie about that. 2 more weeks of talking and she asked me out. Me. Me of all people. I was kind of floored as I had openly admitted I had a crush on another streamer, but it was just that, a crush. Nothing else came from it and that streamer and I remain friends. Especially in my heart, as she no longer streams or has been on Twitch in over 2 years. Now, being in this situation, getting to know this person and thinking what she claimed was the truth, she honestly seemed very sweet and I wanted to give her that chance. So I stupidly said yes. A few weeks into the new relationship and it seems to be going well. By this point, I had been gifted up to Stormblood on Final Fantasy XIV and was also gifted 6 months of subscription for the game. So that was extremely exciting and I chose to play and stream it quite often to hang out with my friends. Well, she started to get real jealous, real quick. It kind of worried me how quick. She basically didn't like my friend, who I previously stated I had a crush on, and claimed she knew 2 people that did not like her for manipulating others. Okay...? But where was the proof in that claim? I didn't really buy it either, but I let it slide. If we rewind just a bit, she'd done something that I was already weary of. So, my first game I ever streamed on the PC was Black Rock Shooter for the PSP, I did it using the PPSSPP emulator and my Xbox 360 USB controller. All seemed to go well and we had no problems. She even made me an overlay which my friends decided to have a little fun with after I set it up with my alerts. Well, Autumn upped the ante by continually donating with my friends, which started a donation war. Until she grew mad that she lost, stole money from her roommate, and called my friend a stupid slut on stream. All these donations, plus a very generous donation from my friend Chris later meant I could purchase Christmas presents for my family for the first time in a very long time. It felt nice to give back, but I also wanted to be a good boyfriend. How? By...spending $50 on Toothless from Build-A-Bear. He had chocolate scent. Toothless was apparently Autumn's favorite cartoon character and her favorite smell was chocolate. I had it sent to her and so in response, I got pictures when she received it and she actually gave me 2 $50 gift cards for my birthday and Christmas. Seems nice right? This is when things started getting noticeably bad. I was told I couldn't make any purchases without her permission. Nor could I spend any money on my mobile games. Nor could I get anything for XIV at all. And to me, that was a bit controlling and weird. But I let it slide. Remember? No one ever claimed to like me like she did before. So, I let her walk me through what she wanted it spent on. I got several Steam games I honestly wasn't interested in and....Minecraft. Yes, I had to spend $25 for the modded Minecraft. This way I could play with her on her server. This just seems controlling though? Some people are like that. Not in this case. I still haven't fully rewound so you guys would know more. I do this a lot so I can explain things. Let's head back to my birthday in 2017: The entire week, I had been told time and time again by my girlfriend that she had sent me a package for my birthday. She claimed it included a very personal letter, a ton of Reese's candies, and two large Treecko plushies she'd bought for me, as well as a Treecko poster. For those that know me well, Treecko is my all-time favorite Pokemon. Well, she promised and promised and promised it was coming, and so I was heartbroken on my own birthday to find out it never came. She claimed it was lost and sent me a tracking number. The tracking number didn't exist anywhere, I tried multiple places. So instead of getting angry, I knew I had problems with my bipolar depression at that point, I asked her what the letter was about. To try and get some insight as to why she nay not have sent it. She told me it said that she loved me. And that she was scared of how fast she'd fallen for me. And according to her, it detailed exactly how she fell and why she did. The last time anyone said that to me, I was being catfished for money. I was shocked and honestly I had some kind of feelings but I wasn't sure what they were. So I said it back to her, but I was honest and she claimed she was okay with that. Now we return to the gift cards and Minecraft time. Oh boy. You probably can already tell where this is going, but it's my truth and this is how I choose to tell it. Anyways, Autumn had become not only controlling, but very clingy at this point. I told her several times that I was going to sleep or taking a nap in the previous week and she'd begun to act like I was avoiding her or leaving her. It was this behavior that manipulated me to begin with. I did everything I could to reassure her that I wasn't leaving her and I cared about her very much. Well, one night she got very upset with me. This was because I refused to do 2 things: Let her control me on Minecraft so she could play with her apparent ex at the same time and flirt the whole time I was there doing basically nothing but continually mining for gems and dying to lava, and I also adamantly refused to take nudes and send them to her. She'd been trying to get me to do that for a solid 2 weeks and I simply wouldn't do it at all. And that pissed her off. She called me, on Discord, apparently crying. Telling me I made her feel like shit and it was my fault. I had to beg and plead for forgiveness, for her to take me back, because I was so manipulated at that point I thought she was as good as I was going to get. She finally caved after me breaking down on the phone with her. Her claim at the time was that she never had anyone fight for her like I did, and it made her like me more. Sure it did. Mhm. Anyways, we continued to have stupid little arguments since. Mainly involving me being forced into Minecraft with her and her ex once again, me trying to play XIV with my friends that she didn't like apparently before I was gifted the game and subscription, or especially me saying no to nudes. A week before our final fight, I was actually finally able to relax and spend some time with my friends that she didnt like, but we chose to do it off stream so she couldn't snoop. I even hid myself playing games on Discord so she wouldn't know at all. Both were concerned. I didn't seem happy, or myself. It kind of seemed like I was bending to her will and it scared them. Tbh it scared me too. I told them I was scared, and I didn't know if I could leave without more problems. More problems? What do you mean? Well, the night before, obviously Autumn and I had gotten into another fight. In that fight, Autumn let it slip that she wasn't transgender, and also wasn't 19. She lied about both things to get with me, she was really 16 and apparently gender fluid. Meaning she didn't mind being addressed as male or female. It scared me because I had just turned 24, I didn't want shit happening to me because she lied about her damn age. What was worse was that she actually sent nudes in the hopes I would send her some in return. Which is why we always fought. I deleted her pictures and when they weren't in our messages anymore on Discord she got pissed and cursed me out. She would attack all my insecurities and use my bipolar depression against me as if I was trash for having it. Then I would get the blame for her having to be mean and set me right when I didn't do anything to deserve that in the first place. I'm not into nudes, it's not shocking I don't want them. Both friends encouraged me to leave her, my mother even begged me to leave her and I just...I couldn't. I was stuck in this rut. She was underage and could use that against me. I wasn't going to do any better, I was going to feel like shit forever and never be happy again. I legitimately believed this. Well, everyone around me did what they could to help me try to be happy in this shitty situation. So a week after relaxing, I decided to stream XIV again, but I twisted it so I could include Autumn. She'd gotten a free trial, so this way we could play and enjoy ourselves....so I thought. Autumn was ADAMANT about barring my friend from even playing the game. No Discord chat or game for her, that's what she wanted. No, I want her to talk to me and I want to play this game with her. That popped into my head immediately, a clear light in a seemingly endless realm of darkness. So I did, I added her to the Discord chat and Autumn lost her shit. "Xion what did I just fucking tell you? I said don't add her to the call." Immediately came out of her mouth, she knew she'd been caught right then and there trying to bar me from my friends and manipulate me. There's still the clip of me being "dumped" by finally standing up for myself. Finally. And they were so concerned they did something wrong that when the breakup was finalized, they cheered. And did everything they could to keep me smiling and happy that entire stream. So why now? Why tell us all of this now? Because abuse of any kind, it's never okay. It's not okay to defend someone like that for supposedly changing as well, especially if they victim blame as I have seen. I lived through 3 months of pure hell, never again. You are not alone. If you are being abused, there's always a light in the deepest darkness. You can break free and be happy, I believe in you.

[less-than-hash]

Standards Transmission

I’m going to talk a little about bugs. Specifically about how we classify bugs, and the bugs we developers ship our games with.

I’m also going to talk a bit about how I think we, as developers, can mislead players and reviewers about the state of our game prior to launch.

I’m also going to try to convince you not to pre-order games.

Thoughts below the cut.

Games - especially the big, expensive ones - have grown significantly in complexity over the last two decades. If they’re not online, they’re open world. Sometimes they’re both. Fortunately, the proliferation of the internet combined with the tools provided by digital distribution platforms have made fixing issues post-launch significantly easier than back in the pre-PS3 days. 

Developers should be able to relax, knowing that not every little issue that ships with a game is part of that game forevermore. 

Relax a little, anyway.

Meanwhile, during my time in test it seemed that the console certification standards for games also relaxed significantly between the last generation and this. I suspect this, too, a reaction to the reality that games are easier to patch post-launch.

But if the developers relax their standards and console makers relax their standards, what incentive do the developers have to maintain any standards at all?

We've seen a number of utterly broken launches in recent years. SimCity's infamous release was over five years ago now. Fallout 76's was a few months ago. These games were rightly raked over their coals for their usability issues. But they're also outliers.

I'm more concerned about games like Skyrim, which largely gets a pass on its bugginess as the natural outcome of its scope and complexity, or, to bring it home, Deadfire, which shipped with no small number of bugs. Both games received largely positive critical response.

And here's the thing: when we send games out to reviewers, it's often with a statement along the lines of "this is not the shipping game; There Will be Bugs; we are working to address them."

But that's basically a lie.

By the time we send out a review copy, the build's essentially locked down. We're not changing anything unless the behavior being addressed is so reprehensible as to justify the risk of potentially destabilizing the game right before launch. You hit a lot of crashes or an incomplete critical path quest bug, there's a reasonable chance we'll be trying to address that.

Anything short of that? No chance in hell.

And there’s a lot of bugs short of completely game-breaking that can make playing a game an unpleasant or wildly unfair experience. 

When testers submit bugs, they (or a lead, or a producer - this varies wildly between studios) assign said bug a Severity. Studios also have very different standards from one another in how they assign said Severity, but it’ll generally look something like this:

A1 - Crash The game experiences a critical failure and the program ends. May take your computer or console with it. 

This can also include things like infinite loading screens, though those can also occur without the game technically crashing.

A2 - Absolute Critical Path Progression Break An issue prevents play from continuing along the primary critical path of the game. This can be an issue with content (level design or art, a system, or a quest or narrative failure) or programming, and may manifest as things like:

Not being able to connect to a necessary server

Not being able to enter play

Not being able to turn in or complete a quest

Not being able to transition into a new scene

Not being able to load a save file

Falling out of the world

Regardless of exactly what happens, the player is going to have to restart the game or reload a previous save in order to progress through the game’s primary experience.

A3 - Progression Break As above, but the player can work around it and continue play, or it impacts a sidequest or some otherwise non-critical content.

B1 - Major Breakage Some system doesn’t function in some significant way. It’s going to be highly visible and will impact most players. Perhaps health packs don’t actually heal, for example. Perhaps the UI falls apart if interacted with in a particular order. Perhaps subtitles don’t function in languages with non-Latin alphabets.

Perhaps the color green displays as yellow. Always.

At many studios, this’ll be classified as an A bug. I personally consider bugs like this unacceptable for ship.

B2 - Breakage Something specific isn’t functioning like it’s supposed to. It could be something wide-ranging like a system (arrows inflicting fire damage instead of physical for example) or art asset (empty barrels don’t have textures on the inside, and thus appear “invisible” from within). Or it could be something specific, like a winch that’s supposed to lower a dumbwaiter simply not working or a piece of art being upside down.

At this level, a bugged aspect of the game is clearly not functioning correctly to any player who understands how it should function, AND that failure of function negatively impacts play, BUT the game experience isn’t entirely destroyed.

C - Issue Nothing’s perfect. We tend to forgive a lot of little problems in the things we experience - when we notice them at all. C bugs might include minor narrative or art inconsistencies, minor framerate drops during a specific encounter, or a strange animation when switching between one weapon type and another. 

There can be a few other types of bugs that I’m not going to get into here, such as suggestions, subjective bugs, and the like. 

Along with Severity, Bugs tend to be measured along a few other axes called Priority, Reproducibility, and Likelihood. The first represents the import given an issue in comparison to other issues of the same type, the second the probability the issue will occur if the player performs the action that causes it, and the third the chance that any given player will perform the action that causes the issue. Generally, Priority is assigned based on the combination of the bug’s Severity, Reproducibility, and Likelihood. (Which is why a crash might not get fixed - it’s so rare an occurrence that it’s difficult to reproduce and investigate.) 

Here’s the thing: the closer that we get to shipping a game, the higher a bug needs to be up that Severity chart to land on a developer’s plate, much less actually get addressed. There comes a point in every project I’ve ever worked on, for example, where remaining C bugs cease to be something we intend to address (for ship). There’s simply not time to make everything entirely perfect, no matter how much we’d like to.

Here’s the other thing: Since any given change to the game has the potential to cause new issues, we developers have to weigh the importance of fixing an issue against the possibility of introducing a new one. Attempting to fix a B bug can result in a far more severe issue.

For example, if a conversation that includes a player dialog option seems to ignore that option, it may be because the alternative didn’t actually get made. Simply cutting that node could break the conversation and, by extension, the quest. Sometimes it’s possible that the entire conversation can be cut without breaking anything, and sometimes that happens. Other times we decide that it’s best to just leave the bug in there. A player experiencing the issue is better than possible alternatives.

A line I really loved in BioShock: Infinite that played between Booker and Liz on the boardwalk simply stopped firing shortly before release. It had been written, recorded by the voice actors, and implemented. It had functioned just fine up until it entirely stopped playing. Chances are, the fix would have been easy. But we didn’t know what the problem was, time was tight, and we determined that avoiding introducing new issues was far better than trying to rescue a line that players would never know they missed.

So the production realities of bugfixing combined with the timing of reviews means that once a developer has sent review copies out, or, for that matter, once they’ve launched an open beta, they’re very close to release. At that point, anything short of an A Severity bug will almost certainly not be addressed for launch. 

But that doesn’t stop us from telling reviewers (or Beta players) that “hey, we’re still polishing the game and fixing bugs.”

That misleading statement influences reviews. When I see bugs mentioned in reviews, which isn’t particularly often, it's generally with the caveat that "I was playing on an early build, and the developer has assured me that it will be fixing bugs towards launch."

Sure, many of these bugs will get resolved over the update cycle of a title. But they won't all be. And they definitely won't be at launch.

Because the current calculus is "how not-busted a product can we ship without it hurting our bottom line?"

I think that the industry could stand to have its bottom line hurt on occasion.

We need reviewers to call us out on our bugs. We need players to hold off on buying products - especially products from studios with a reputation for releasing buggy titles - until after they've hit market and been fairly evaluated. If a company is releasing software that's buggy as shit, don't financially support them.

I’ve almost started thinking of major bugs I encounter in games as insults. A publisher or producer determined that this bugged product was good enough for the likes of Alex.

And to be absolutely clear: this is not the fault of QA. QA, assuming they're not woefully understaffed (its own issue), will almost certainly have found, reproduced, and reported the defect you encountered. They're as frustrated that you experienced it as you are. Possibly more.

Nor does fault generally lie with the developer(s) who actually caused the bug. They would likely be all-too-happy (assuming they haven't been worked to the breaking point) to fix the thing that they broke. They got into this gig because they want to make fun, exciting experiences, and nothing's less fun than broken-ass shit.

The fault lies with the money people.

The managers and the publishers. The people who don’t care whether you deserve better because you've accepted everything they've served up so far. The same people who would rather have you spending money on loot crates than experiencing narrative content. Who would rather have you be someone else’s content (and them yours) than actually pay to make content for their players. 

And the same people who would rather fire hundreds of developers rather than take a cut in their own pay.

When you've decided that games have become unacceptably broken, they're the ones you have to convince.

You won’t do so by purchasing their games before anyone’s had a chance to play and evaluate them.

<#

[tertiaryembarrassment]

What She Needs (Pt.1) - Leah Clearwater x Fem!Reader

Okay so I know this is really cliché but can you please write sth about Leah where she thinks she'll never imprint BUT then she meets this girl and imprints on her. She doesn't really know how to handle it and questions herself like, what if she doesn't like me? Does she even like girls? And so on, but eventually they get together? 😊❤

Words: 2215

Strong language

“Honestly, I’m not even that hungry,” Leah protests, adjusting herself in the backseat of Paul’s truck, seeds of regret sowing themselves in the pits of her stomach. Paul sits at the wheel, arm hanging over the seat, free hand gripping Rachel’s headrest on his right. She swivels around to face her, eyes soft with something close enough to pity it made Leah’s stomach flip.

              “It’ll be fun! Everybody’s going. Lighten up,” she commands, smiling sweetly into the back seat.

Leah feels a glare brewing, but stifles it before it reaches the surface, knowing Rachel means well and preferring not to start an argument with Paul over his imprint’s cheerfulness. She replaces it with a forced, tight-lipped smile. “Whatever you say.”

The conversation dies here, replaced by a grin from Paul in Rachel’s direction, a squeeze on her knee, a giggle in return. Leah’s eyes jump to the window, trying to settle on something other than the pair of imprints affectionate displays. Anything else.

Before long, the truck putters to a stop in front of a retro-looking restaurant, clad in neon signs proclaiming it the ‘best diner in town’. Paul nods his chin somewhere in front, gesturing just out of her field of view. “Look, we’re the last ones. Everyone’s already here.”

Blowing out a long breath, Leah presses her forehead to the glass of the window, peering into the crowd of boys leaning on their various cars and trucks in the parking lot. Her friends, family, packmates. Her eyes land on Sam. Whatever he is, she thinks. Paul and Rachel swing their doors open and hop to onto the pavement, and she follows suit. Scanning the faces in the group, she nods at the realization that none of them have come alone – in fact, the group has nearly doubled in size, each of the shapeshifters clinging to their respective imprints, throwing arms over shoulders, entwining fingers, gentle hands placed on smalls of backs. Her next breath is forced out like a cough, lowering her eyes to scan the ground, a nervous hand awkwardly rubbing the back of her neck as she avoids eye contact with… well, anyone.

What did I expect? She scolds herself silently.

The boys take to slapping one another on the back, hollering out one another’s names at they notice each other in the crowd, as if they’re surprised to have bumped into one another here. As if we don’t spend all our time together, Leah thinks.

“Everything okay?” Leah raises her head at the voice, meeting the eye of the tall, muscular man who’d spoken, his arm settled around the thin frame of the pale, dark-haired girl beside him.

“Fine, Jake,” she starts, offering a forced smile before turning to the woman under his arm. “Hi, Renesmee.”

Resnesmee returns the smile, though Leah guesses the girl’s comes off far more genuine then her own. “Hi, Leah.”

“Everybody’s here? Can we go in now?” Comes the call from the middle of the crowd, Sam raising his head over the rest. All the wolves are large, even Leah grew a few inches when she first started phasing, but Sam is the biggest, and he knows it.

Paul answers him with a thumbs up. “We’re good.”

Leah turns and jogs towards the stairs leading up into the building, not quite fast enough to miss Jacob’s eyes narrow in concern. She curses their mental link silently, trying to banish the boys from her thoughts. Can’t even have my mind to myself, she thinks, hoping this time someone is listening.

The rest of the group swarms around her, heading for the doors. As she jostles shoulders with the others, she nods and smiles, meeting eyes with the wolves and their imprints. Sam and Emily, Paul and Rachel, Jared and Kim, Jake and Nessie. Quil, Seth, and Embry step in stride, too, the younger boys asking their friend where he’d left his imprint. He laughs, informing them she was still in school.

A long sigh, stifled only by the hand Leah places in front of her mouth, escapes. Even Quil, she thinks.

They file into the restaurant a moment later, all twelve of them filling the entry. Rows of booths line the front of the large room, red faux-leather seats shining in the light from the wall of windows they occupied. Opposite them, a long bar dotted with matching red stools overlooks the back wall, an open window into the kitchen shows a few workers cooking away in the kitchen, an older woman and a thick-set man. Behind the bar, a young woman, about Leah’s age, leans over a notepad and calls out to the group without looking up. “Sit anywhere! I’ll be with you in a second.”

The pack pours into two booths, two groups of six settling into each. Leah finds herself pressed all the way up against the wall next to Nessie and Jake - Paul, Rachel and Seth sitting across from her. The others fill up the booth behind them. At her back, Emily’s calling over her shoulder to address both tables. “The food here is really good! You’re all going to love it.”

Leah feels her eyes roll back into her head, fingers finding the laminated plastic edge of the menu on the table and picking at it, a distraction for her anxious energy. These pack outings had been Sam’s idea, of course, as a way to build up what he called a more ‘team-centric attitude’. While she had wanted to decline, she knew her own demeanor had been most of the reason for the idea in the first place – while most pack members considered themselves very close to one another, brothers, even, there were many factors that made Leah feel like she was standing on the outskirts of a club she never signed up for. The only woman to become a shifter in known Quileute history, Sam’s pouty, pathetic ex-girlfriend, the one incapable of finding an imprint.

Leah herself had come to terms with those realities on her own. Sam wasn’t right for her – he and Emily belonged together, anyway. And while the wolf pack was a bit of a boy’s club, she really did love the other members, as obnoxious as they often were. So what if she was the only girl? She could take any of them on, any day, and they knew it.

As for imprinting, Leah felt a heavy weight sitting on her chest. She’d given up on it a long time ago. For years, she’d waiting desperately for the wolf blood to save her from herself, from her lingering thoughts about Sam and her anger at Emily for accepting him so readily. When no one came, she resigned, maybe there was no one out there for her. She could find a way to be whole on her own. Still, sitting, surrounded by her friends and their soulmates, while she was too proud to admit it, the knowledge that she was whole on her own couldn’t banish the pit of loneliness sitting in her stomach.

Looking up from examining the menu, Leah met Paul’s eyes, looking at her sorrowfully from across the table. Moving her gaze to Seth, and then Jacob, their expressions jolt to life a moment too late. She’s seen the pity in their eyes – that’s the worst part. They all feel sorry.

“Can you all stay out of my fucking head for once?” She asserts, a firm first pounding the table.

The shifters blink and nod in apology, an awkward silence brewing. Nessie sits between them, but Jake leans forward to face Leah. “Sorry. Accident.”

Leah huffs, straightening her back, trying to look bigger, tougher, than she was feeling. In truth, her outburst was embarrassing, they always are, but she’d learned quickly that they wouldn’t listen to her if she wasn’t loud. Chewing on her lip, she turns her eyes to the menu, pretending not to mind the uncomfortable glances exchanged by her neighbours across the table.

A moment later, the girl from behind the counter is skipping towards them, pen and notepad in hand. Leah doesn’t tear her gaze from the menu, but her voice sounds like she’s smiling.

“Sorry about the wait, folks. I’m Y/N, I’ll be your server. Can I start everybody off with something to drink?” She taps her pen on the metal rungs of her notepad, flipping to an empty page as she waits expectantly for someone to order.

Jacob speaks first, then Rachel, both ordering a plain black tea. Leah lets her tongue roll out of her mouth, blegh. She’d never been one for tea.

“And for you?” she says.

It takes a moment for Leah to realize she’s next in line to order. Lost in thought, she’d forgotten to consider what she wanted before she turned her gaze to meet the waitress, meeting her eye for the first time since she’d walked in.

And there she was. Only her, looking down at Leah in a blue collared button up and a stained apron, soft hair pulled behind her in a loose ponytail, expectant smile tugging at her lips. Radiant, warm, suddenly, Leah understood everything the boys had explained to her about how it felt when you first saw them – your imprint – how she’s gravity, the only thing holding you to the earth, like you’ve had your eyes closed your whole life up to this point, like you were holding your breath and she’s finally let you exhale.

She wants to tell her all of those things, she wants to be near her, to take her in her arms and share her world with her. As she looks into the eyes of the woman she just met, all she can do is stare, mouth agape, lips twitching in an effort to form words they seem to have forgotten.

“Coffee. She’ll have coffee. Black,” Seth interjects, and Y/N tears her gaze from Leah, nodding to Seth instead as the rest of the table orders. Leah doesn’t hear, simply tracing the woman’s outline in her mind, memorizing her, wondering how something so perfect could be right in front of her, wondering if she could ever find a way to speak to her. With a final nod and a smile, she’s moving on to the next table, and five surprised faces turn to Leah.

Seth speaks before anyone else can. “Did you just do what I think you did?” He asks, a wide grin spreading across his face.

Leah’s jaw still hangs open, seemingly having lost the ability to close it, let alone answer with coherent thoughts. She manages to nod her head up and down, still fixated on the girl at the other table.

“Oh my god,” Jacob smiles, “Leah imprinted!”

Rachel and Nessie gasp excitedly, unlike the boys, not having felt the shift without the wolf mental link. Rachel reaches across the table to grab Leah’s hand. “I’m so happy for you!”

Leah blinks, breaking herself from her stupor, turning to address Paul, and then Jacob, shifting worriedly from one boy to the other, brows knit in confusion. “What am I supposed to do?”

“Talk to her!” Paul encourages, waving a hand in her direction as she finishes with the other half of the pack and heads across the room towards the kitchen.

When she’s out of earshot, Embry addresses both tables of shifters. “Y’all feel that too?” A cheeky grin steals across his lips. “I think Leah’s got a crush.”

“Shut up, Call. I’ll kick your ass,” Leah spits a hushed whisper in his direction.

“Damn. I thought imprinting was supposed to make people nicer,” he laughs, leaning back in his booth.

“Give her a break, Embry.” Sam orders, twisting his body to meet Leah and offering a soft smile. “Congrats.”

His gesture is appreciated, a genuine happiness for her etched into his smile. Leah returns the look with a nod of understanding, and both wolves, as always, knows what the other is thinking. We’re good. Taking quick, shaky breaths, Leah twists back to address her table.

Seth leans over, touching his sister gently on the arm. “Talk to her! Say something!”

Leah looks to the front of the restaurant again, where the girl stands behind the counter, setting an empty pot under the coffeemaker, smoothing a flyaway out of her eyes, back into her ponytail. “What if she doesn’t want to talk to me? What if…” Leah hesitates, words lost. She’d never felt this way before; always trying to be everything for herself, the fact that someone else suddenly had so much power over her made her stomach flip. What if she didn’t like girls? What if she was already taken? Even worse – what if she didn’t want Leah, specifically?

“Hey,” Jacob says, leaning in again, “you’ll be what she needs. The imprint is never wrong.” He curls his fingers around Nessie’s hand, and Paul, his arm around Rachel, pulls her closer, pressing a kiss to the top of her dark hair.

Exhaling and biting her lip, Leah watches as the woman frees the pot, now full to the brim with fresh coffee, and fills the final mug on her tray. She balances it on one hand, making her way to the group, a friendly smile spreading across her face. Inhale. Exhale.

You’ll be what she needs.

[cobaltscoutj-blog]

An attempt to correct some.... misconceptions

In light of recent events, most notably, the Josh Burner vs Lily Orchard situation, people supporting either side have had their differing opinions. These range from claiming Lily is guilty of the crimes Josh has accused her of, therefore, she should be given a civil lawsuit, to Burner having no basis to sue. However, many have also demonstrated some misconception of the law. This is regarding American law, specifically, as nobody knows whether the supposed trial will happen in Canada or the US.

I’d like to start by saying I have no personal feelings or connections with Josh or Lily. I do enjoy content from both parties. Some have accused me of “white knighting” for Lily on a YouTube comment, but in reality, when I see a situation like this, I have to do my homework and make sure the facts aren’t twisted.

Regarding my thoughts about those two, Lily’s definitely an arrogant and pompous asshole, but she’s definitely not the spawn of Satan (She’s definitely not the worst person I’ve met, trust me), while Josh’s biggest mistake is his ineptitude in handling serious matters. Josh seems like a nice guy who’s dealing with certain problems in real life, but I’m not sure, I don’t know him personally. People have claimed Lily wrote a piece of child pornography, abused many people, or that she has “ulterior motives” for housing abuse victims in her server. That is a discussion for later, so this post addresses the allegations Josh has made on that Cease and Desist letter only. I’m not doing this cause I’m a “friend” of Lily or Josh, but if people are going to make claims, I’d like them to have the proper research and backing for it, rather than citing emotions, and believing any insult online is “slander.” It’s great to have an opinion on this matter, but it means more to have an informed opinion. I made sure to do my homework on the law, and conversed with a former Columbia University Law student regarding this topic.

Succinctly, Libel is written defamation of a private figure, while slander is oral defamation of a private figure. In order for statements to be defamatory, they need to be/demonstrate/result in:

1. Factually false statements.

2. Reckless disregard of the truth.

3. Provable damages to the figure. (Mainly, financially)

Josh will inevitably have a difficult time proving harassment or defamation to himself, because he is a public figure. Since Josh is a prominent member of the Brony analysis and YouTube community, he is a public figure on the internet. He regularly posts reviews, skits, commentaries, etc. All of this inherently subjects him, or anyone who uploads similar types of content to criticism (as long as it’s legal). By putting himself out there on YouTube, he has made himself a public figure within that sphere.

Break it down! http://gph.is/Z0CcZN

“Twisting words, and speaking lies about my conversations with Patchwork Heart”

I am not sure what to say for this one, since the call failed to record properly and there is no audio coming from Josh’s end. This one is honestly up in the air. Since the evidence of the call has been damaged, it’s really difficult to prove whether or not Lily has lied or twisted words about it. We can only go on the “he said, she said” basis, which the court will not accept.

 “Deliberately and maliciously placing calls reasonably expected to be private in a public sphere for the intent of defamation.”

Both Burner’s and Orchard’s territories (Texas, United States and Nova Scotia, Canada, respectively) have the “one party consent law.” This basically means that people can record their own conversations with other party, since the recorder is taking part of the conversation him/her/self. Either one recording the call is fair game. I’m not sure why Josh included “deliberately.” However, malice is almost irrelevant to Lily’s action of uploading the conversation. Malice regards libel or slander, while the uploaded conversation was just.... a discussion about what to do with Brony DnD. The video just had the conversation as it happened, and nothing that would damage Josh's reputation. If Josh was worried about defamation from the video, that would imply he did or said something he's not proud of that he doesn't want the audience to know, but a lot of what he said is just up to interpretation. Her uploading the video was meant for the audience to listen to what actually happened, and then letting them decide what to think of it (Whether or not Josh is a “pedo enabler” or a “liar.” But this isn’t the main topic). Defamation applies to recklessly false statements, but portraying the situation as it happened (uploading the actual conversation) is the complete opposite of defamation.

“Using your fanbase and friends to send repeated and unrelenting harassment and false-flag my videos or videos I worked in, especially the Brony D&D videos as shown below.”

Harassment is really difficult to prove for a public figure like Josh. I agree, it’s really scummy of Lily to send her fans and friends on a dislike spree of the Brony DND videos. However, since Josh is a public figure, visible to anyone who types in youtube.com, this one is really difficult to prove as harassment. Plus, he can shut off the ratings bar if the dislikes bother him a lot. Regarding the false-flag problem, it shouldn’t be an issue if the flagging has failed. The decision to remove a flagged video is ultimately made by YouTube, and not the people who flag it. Since the false-flagging has failed, I doubt that the court will tackle this. The false flagging was just petty on the fans’ part.

Josh is trying to prove harassment, but on YouTube, he is subject to any opinion made based on the facts. Anyone can disagree on opinions. It’s also fair game to make an interpretation about someone based on his actions. Although people may disagree, it’s still legal, as long as it’s not blatantly false.

Moving on.

“Repeating and relentless use of ad-hominem attacks against me in public settings.”

Ad hominem is a logical fallacy where one’s argument is loaded with personal insults. Josh also linked the reader to a post where Lily compares Josh to Captain America, when he mentions “Hail Hydra.”

As offensive as it may be, it’s not violating any rules and to suggest a comparison to a comic book character being a felony is ridiculous. I doubt this will go through.

“Stealing my ideas simply to spite me.”

While I do agree copying ideas proves someone is unoriginal, Josh and Lily didn’t copy each ideas word for word. The original creator (Jello Apocalypse) of the “Review in 10 words or less” concept made his regarding Disney movies. The two did copy the concept, but since they added their own wrinkles to it (Making it MLP-based), none of them can be guilty of plagiarism. While it is very petty and childish of her to one-up Josh, it’s still legal. Wanting to one-up someone on the internet is the equivalent of wanting more “Gold stars” than others as an elementary school student. I don’t think there are any laws saying “you aren’t allowed to one-up another person, since it’s out of spite.” I doubt this part goes through.

Now let’s go to where Josh claims Lily has made defamatory statements.

“I bullied Patchwork Heart into relenting about Brony D&D.”

As mentioned somewhere above, this call lacked anything coming from Josh’s end, so this claim is honestly up for grabs. Lily made this claim based upon what Patchwork Heart themselves said on a tumblr post (I can’t find it). Since the call regarding their conversation failed to record properly, Lily’s in reasonable territory to claim Josh did so, since there is nothing to prove that Josh DIDN’T bully Patch (I’m not saying he did. It would just be difficult to prove either side). All Lily could work with was Patch’s tumblr post, since they were the only ones with Josh in that call. Lily formed an opinion based on the limited knowledge she had to work with. Since it’s impossible to prove whether Josh did bully Patch or not, I don’t think this will hold up in court. The only way Lily could be guilty of defamation would be if the call between Josh and Patch was somehow corrected to play Josh’s audio, but there is no record of anything Josh may have said to Patch.

“I said ‘wildly racist’ things when you were working for me.”

Whether Josh had said these racist things, nobody except for Lily and Josh themselves know. This sounds like a personal problem they had with each other that could be corrected if they decided to compromise and discuss this. Unfortunately both are more concerned about a power struggle more than anything, making this an unrealistic solution. I’m not sure what to say about this. Moving on.

“I am a fake Marine.”

Lily had never actually claimed that. In her “Guard Break” video, here is what she said regarding Josh’s status as a Marine.

“Mr. Burner wasn’t actually in the military. He was in the Marine Corps’ band, the ceremonial ‘I’m helping’ of most military branches. And to presume some kind of genuine authority out of that is to claim that the children who participate in the royal Navy Seal Cadets have any genuine military experience.”

What Lily did in this statement was make a somewhat arguable opinion regarding a fact. The fact of the matter is that Josh was in the Marine Corps’ band. Lily’s opinion is that since playing in the band and actual combat are completely different, he shouldn’t try to act as if he has “military authority.” While this is offensive to many people (I can’t blame anyone for thinking that), it’s on legal territory since she isn’t calling Josh a fake marine. She acknowledges Josh was in the Marine’s band, and uses an (pretty bad, but still legal) analogy to describe what she thinks of it. Saying someone is a fake marine is different from what Lily said. Her claim is equivalent to saying Josh is a sorry excuse of a marine. Offensive? Yes. Illegal? No.

“I am a fake Christian.”

To be honest, as a Catholic, I and many others have no idea what Christianity is about. It’s generally common knowledge that Josh is a Christian and takes pride in that. It’s also known that he has conservative beliefs. What Lily essentially did was call him a hypocrite, since both have principles that inherently conflict. Others may disagree about Josh being a hypocrite. Calling someone a hypocrite for their beliefs is definitely offensive, but doing so is merely an opinion made based on the facts. I doubt attorneys will handle this aspect of the lawsuit, should it happen.

All of these claims made on Josh’s C&D Letter won’t realistically pass through the court or lawyers. Lily’s statements about Josh amount to opinions formed based on actions or facts about Josh. Josh, being a public figure like Lily or many other YouTubers, isn’t legally protected from such actions. Trying to file a harassment lawsuit as a public figure is extremely difficult to get through, since lawyers won’t take a case that’s as gray as this one. Furthermore, Josh’s subscriber and patron count have increased and will continue to do so. It’ll be difficult to prove damages if both increase, since they inevitably make more money for him. If the sub count or patron count had dropped, then he can realistically prove damages, but since the opposite happened, it’s almost impossible. Calling someone an enabler and a pedophile are different since pedophilia is clear cut, while enabling someone can be interpreted as such through many different actions, making it unclear.

HOWEVER

This does not mean I condone Lily’s actions. Nevertheless, she is not legally obligated to stop being an asshole to people. Just as she has her rights to criticize and insult others, she’s also fair game to receiving it as well. Nothing is stopping anyone from criticizing her or vice versa, JUST AS LONG as it isn’t blatantly false. If it’s an opinion formed based on the facts, it’s fair game. Still, there is one action mentioned on the C&D that puts her into dangerous territory...

“Threatening physical harm / to kill me / saying I should die.”

Her claiming she will put a gun to Josh’s head puts her on thin ice legally. Of course, she can possibly defend herself, saying it was a hyperbole. However, she really does need to back off the violent remarks. This is really the only claim I can find on the letter that a lawyer would actually consider. Anything regarding harm or death puts the person on a fine line between claiming it was a hyperbole and actually making realistic threats.

OVERALL

While I don’t justify any of Lily’s actions, Josh’s biggest mistake seems to be his lack of experience and ineptitude in handling these kinds of situations. A lot of what Lily did is morally wrong, but the law won’t stop her from doing so. Some of the claims are difficult to prove for either side, since the conversation failed to include everything mentioned. I don’t want this to appear as if I’m “white-knighting” Lily Orchard while “trying to find Josh guilty.” Neither side is entirely correct or wrong about it. Here is a suggestion I’d like to make. You both almost had the chance to end this within 10-30 minutes on a Discord conversation. You both almost had the chance to stop all the dislike sprees and drama. But you both valued the power struggle more than actually solving the problem. Lily’s suggestion of Josh pushing for the delisting of the Brony DND videos (while making them viewable by link) in exchange for her removing 4 videos that talk about Josh, honestly seems reasonable. Both sides get what they want. Both sides can walk away from each other. Both sides don’t have to talk to each other or think about each other. Her last email that resorted to calling Josh a child was unnecessary, but throughout the email exchange, I thought she was being somewhat... civilized. Josh didn’t have to act defensive and him focusing on the call being “on his terms” may have prolonged this whole debacle. I can’t blame him for thinking that way. Lily has been unforgiving to Josh, and he doesn’t want to appear to be a pushover. However, there are some times, when you need to swallow your pride and be willing to compromise. Lily didn’t need to write that final email insulting Josh, and Josh didn’t need to disregard the deal over a power struggle. It could’ve all just ended. Of course, Lily could have some “ulterior motives” behind discussing this with Josh, but for the sake of everything, take everything at face value and try to fix this together. If one of you goes back on your word, the (theoretical) conversation would be uploaded to hold either party accountable.

-J (Sorry for the long post, but it was necessary. Kudos for reading.)

[nervousavenueenthusiast]

Hidden Object Game Free For Mac

At GameHouse, you'll easily find a Hidden Object game worthy of your time. Dvd making for mac. These easy to play and entertaining games are an all-time favorite among players everywhere. From classic hidden object fun with games like Pure Hidden and the Vacation Adventures series to more adventurous games like Ghosts of the Past - Bones of Meadows Town and New. The Hidden Object Show for Mac OS v.1.69 Presenting the newest reality show to hit the casual market, The Hidden Object Show! On the set of an abandoned movie studio you’ll be tasked with finding a list of items. Challenge yourself to win great prizes in 11 different game modes.

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Enjoy playing interesting Free Hidden Object Games. Search different items at the screen using given names and object descriptions. The objects are somewhere in the game screen. Most of the games are unlimited online, free hidden object games with no download necessary. We are adding new game every day.

All product names, trademarks and registered trademarks are property of their respective owners. To use this option, you simply have to enter the address of the.PAC file in the URL box. Proxy for mac server. Systweak Blogs assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions in the contents on the Service. Use of these names, trademarks and brands does not imply endorsement.Disclaimer Last updated: January 30, 2019 The information contained on blogs.systweak.com website (the “Service”) is for general information purposes only. All company, product and service names used in this website are for identification purposes only.

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Hidden object games are a great opportunity to try your skills for concentration and focus. They are free; they are fun and very educational, and also appropriate for players of all ages. There's no need to download them, fell free to visit our web page unlimited times! Let the discovery begin!

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Hidden object games are a great opportunity to try your skills for concentration and focus. They are free; they are fun and very educational, and also appropriate for players of all ages. There's no need to download them, fell free to visit our web page unlimited times! Let the discovery begin! The curiosity and the intention to discover new things are so typical for the human nature. Actually people develop essentially on this way, learn most effectively about the things researching. That's why hidden object games are becoming favourite online games genre. They answer exactly on the people's basic need - to find the hidden answer. On this web page you could find a large list of hidden object games that can answer to your appetite for discovering and adventure. For reminding, the main task in these games is to find hidden objects or pictures on the screen. Yo'ure usually given a list of names, shapes or other object descriptions, so you should find out these items, if you want to go to the next level. Maybe it seams easy for you, you concern yourself as a person that has discerning eye but these games are not as easy as they look. Some details are hidden so good that you need hours an hours of detective work. Sometimes they are about finding differences in 2 almost identical pictures, but some hidden object games are about searching for very tiny clues that lead to solving a great mystery.

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[wikimakemoney]

Build vs. Buy: The AI martech conundrum

30-second summary:

All companies face the same dilemma around whether to build or buy a martech solution.

The key factors to determine the best option include: the problem, budget, and timeline.

Some of the risks of building your own software solutions boil down to opportunity cost, quality concerns, and technical debt, among others.

Buy if it enables you to start generating revenue sooner. Build it if it enables you to start generating revenue sooner if you have the resources to do it successfully.

Overall, working with an AI martech SaaS partner can be the best solution.

All companies face the same dilemma around whether to build or buy an AI martech solution. This is an important decision for businesses of all sizes due to resource constraints.

Making the wrong decision could have severe consequences to the long-term success—or even viability—of the business.

Here are the key factors to determine the best option:

The problem

The first step is to clearly define the problem you are attempting to solve. Is this a common problem, or a unique one facing your company specifically?

For example, developing ways to get smarter in acquiring new customers is a common problem, but most companies don’t currently leverage an AI intelligent machine to solve this problem.

The most common approach is to hire more user acquisition managers, consultants, and/or agencies, so more humans can analyze the data and optimize the campaigns. This can be an expensive, high risk proposition.

It’s always good to first look at how other companies are trying to solve the problem—are there any external third-party solutions you can leverage? If it’s a problem specific to your company, you may have trouble finding an existing workable solution.

Even if the problem is already well addressed, it’s possible your business needs fall closer to edge cases not encompassed by the products currently on the market, which could be an argument for the decision to build.

At most companies, building an AI martech solution isn’t a good option because they don’t have the dedicated resources available to build and support a complicated AI project of this magnitude. Most have a limited number of technical and data resources and need to focus on their own core products.

The budget

The next concern is budget. Do you have the necessary funds to see this project through to completion as well as extra resources in case you go over budget?

Most companies do not have a big budget to invest into building their in-house artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities. This is why it can often be easier to justify a monthly recurring payment or even an annual expense for a third-party SaaS product.

A good analogy to use is the decision to buy or rent a home. If you do not have the necessary funds to make a down payment on a house, then it becomes necessary to rent, even if the rental fee is equivalent to what the mortgage payment would be.

When deciding if you should build a solution to your problem, the budget must include the long-term technical debt (mortgage) associated with hosting and maintaining your solution, in addition to the up-front costs (down payment).

The timeline

The next consideration is the time horizon. Is your problem a threat to the survival of your company or just a nagging annoyance that could be improved? What is the impact to your company if this problem isn’t solved soon?

You must consider whether or not the problem will compromise the performance of the business. If you need a solution now, it can be an easy decision. Is there a solution in existence? If yes, buy it. If no, then, well… you’re going to have to build it as soon as possible.

There are risks awaiting you at every turn as you navigate this framework and ultimately make the final decision to build or buy. Let’s discuss some of these risks so you can make the most informed decision possible.

Risks of building an AI martech solution

The end goal in building an AI martech solution is to help your marketing team to make smarter data-driven decisions on the right optimization levers to pull to efficiently spend your budgets and resources to help accelerate growth. Some of the risks of building your own software solutions boil down to opportunity cost, quality concerns, and technical debt, among others. Here are the main ones to keep in mind:

Is marketing AI your core competency?

Most companies are not set up to have marketing AI as their core competency unless that is their main product focus. There are high costs to support AI—building teams of data scientists and machine learning engineers, building data infrastructures, and maintaining all of these resources.

The reality is that you need your internal resources to focus on developing and supporting the unique product capabilities that you offer.

Building an AI solution is a huge undertaking even with the right internal resources in place to support this project. Companies that build out of their circle of competence risk building inferior products compared to companies dedicated to solving the problem.

How often will it need to be updated?

The ability to dedicate resources to maintain and manage your AI project is very important because the machine learning needs oversight to ensure the right data is going in.

The algorithms need to be validated to confirm they are making the right decisions to help you acquire new customers cost effectively. This isn’t going to be something you build once and never touch (as if that ever happens). It’s going to need constant updating—further taking time away from your core product development.

Is it worth it? This is generally the big challenge with trying to prioritize in-house resources to maintain an AI project that isn’t the top priority for the business and getting in-house technical resources excited about maintaining it.

What is the opportunity cost?

The trade-off in any company is the opportunity cost of resources being deployed to support Project A compared to Project B while considering the timeframe of either project being deployed.

An example would be the costs in time and money of employees (data scientists, engineers, quality assurance, etc.) building and maintaining an AI project versus leveraging those resources to work on something else like improving your core product user experience (which is most likely the reason they joined your company).

Your decision to build may be to the detriment of other projects that will likely hurt morale and postpone any major technological breakthroughs with lost productivity.

Another cost to factor in is any delays in the deployment of an AI solution (including the necessary machine learning training) that would result in your marketing team not spending their budget as efficiently as possible.

Taking time to think considerably about how the pricing structure of an off-the-shelf solution compares to a custom solution when considering organizational growth will allow the most effective, responsible, and successful decision making.

Technical debt

This is a common concept in programming that reflects the extra development work that arises when code that is easy to implement in the short run is used instead of applying the best overall solution. Technical debt can be taken on intentionally when a quick fix is not the ideal solution but necessary

given the timeline and budget. Other times technical debt is the result of poor planning and architecture. The long-term costs associated with building and maintaining an AI solution internally can lead to expensive issues down the road with quality, performance, lost time, and money.

This is bad because technical debt is one of the largest and most impactful issues affecting software development today with companies under pressure to deliver projects on time.

No economies of scale

Are you disadvantaged when it comes to sourcing tools that contribute to the AI build?

Unanticipated expenses such as server fees and monthly database charges as well as hiring talent like data scientists and engineers could be a huge risk of building.

Companies that service many customers are able to distribute the costs of software operations and maintenance evenly across their clients. These economies of scale can allow them to charge less for a product or service than you would be able to achieve by building it yourself.

If a third party’s economies of scale and other factors put your build at a disadvantage you may strongly consider the option to buy, but not before evaluating the risks associated with buying. It’s important to look at the long-term ROI on this project that factors in the economies of scale.

Risks of buying an AI martech solution

Most AI solution partners will offer a free-trial or proof-of-concept (POC) period to give you the ability to evaluate their capabilities with your data.

Before moving forward with a trial, demo, or quote, review some of the surface-level risks of buying a software solution versus building one yourself (you need to do a thorough job on the due diligence process to mitigate these risks).

Weighing it all out

The overall goal is to minimize cost now and cost later. Therefore, the deciding factor is delivering something of value that your marketing team can leverage to start generating revenue from it.

Buy if it enables you to start generating revenue sooner. Build it if it enables you to start generating revenue sooner if you have the resources to do it successfully.

Overall, working with an AI martech SaaS solution can be the best solution for most companies to get farther faster.

Lomit Patel is the Vice President of Growth at IMVU. Prior to IMVU, Lomit managed growth at early-stage startups including Roku (IPO), TrustedID (acquired by Equifax), Texture (acquired. by Apple) and EarthLink. Lomit is a public speaker, author, advisor, and recognized as a Mobile Hero by Liftoff. Lomit’s new book Lean AI, which is part of Eric Ries’ best-selling “The Lean Startup” series, is now available at Amazon.

The post Build vs. Buy: The AI martech conundrum appeared first on ClickZ.

source http://wikimakemoney.com/2020/06/23/build-vs-buy-the-ai-martech-conundrum/

[terabitweb]

Original Post from Rapid7 Author: Joe Agnew

This is part three in a three-part series on medical device risk management, particularly as it pertains to vulnerability assessment. In part one, we discuss the processes and procedures to implement inside of a clinical environment to position the security team for success. Part two gets in the weeds and examines how to directly perform assessments on medical devices. In part three, we put it all together with an example of how an organization would implement these ideas with a based-in-reality medical device.

In our previous two posts, we have built out some theory on how to approach safely bringing medical devices into the vulnerability management life cycle. We have done this with an eye toward patient safety, up to the point where we’re proactively preparing for mistakes to be made. What would this process look like in practice?

A new initiative

Welcome to Mooseville Medical! A major metropolitan hospital system, Mooseville Medical has a primary level-one trauma center, several connected satellite clinics, and administrative personnel spread out wherever they fit. The bulk of the organization is focused on the main hospital, and taken as a unit, the environment is littered with everyday workstations, a modest data center, and—of course—medical devices.

We in the information security team have recently been told, somewhat ungracefully, that we need to examine “the cyber stuff” with regards to the organization’s medical devices. The lone piece of guidance we’ve been given is to (all together now) avoid patient harm.

There are a few things we know already as we begin to tackle this new initiative. First, the medical devices are segmented. We verified this with the biomedical team when implementing our vulnerability management program. Biomedical actually maintains a handy inventory of devices they have deployed. Several of those don’t even have a connected component and therefore have a dramatically reduced risk profile. With that said, there are a couple of systems—including a newer infusion pump with a management server—that are very much connected.

As we are not experts in any of these devices, our colleagues in biomedical prove to be an invaluable resource. After we describe our initiative (and they’ve calmed down when we tell them we’re not going to touch their production network), they’re enthusiastic that we’re showing an interest in their world. We’re looking for something that’s going to be a good first test bed: high-impact, network-connected, and readily available to play with. It doesn’t take long to circle in on the infusion pumps. There’s a ton of them deployed, they’re connected, and they cycle in and out of maintenance constantly, allowing us to steal one away for some experimentation.

They’re also kind enough to give us some operational data on the pump. It runs a proprietary operating system, with a few extra gigabytes of storage beyond what the OS needs for updates and configuration. It has modest memory and processing power. The management server runs Windows 2008 and communicates with the pump via a web server on port 8080. From a connection perspective, the pump has a standard ethernet port and a serial port that the biomedical team never touches. There are buttons on it for manual configuration of dosages, and a simple physical user interface for examining the current configuration of said dosages.

The biomedical team is also letting us play with it in their testing environment. It’s a modest setup; there’s a non-prod management server connected to a few pumps that are out of production for maintenance. It’s all connected via a consumer router.

Learn by doing

We should probably grab the documentation for the device and give it a read, but nuts to that. Learn by doing! Connecting to the router, we ping the pump and get a return. Cool, good to note. Telnet to 8080 succeeds, verifying that the device is currently in something resembling normal operation, at least according to the biomedical team. Throwing caution to the wind, we fire up Nmap and let a SYN scan fly against all TCP ports. The findings are … unexpected. Port 21 comes back alive, but everything else is dead—including 8080. Huh. Sure enough, Telnet to 8080 is no longer connecting.

The biomedical team is equally confused. After a power cycle, the device appears to be working normally again, and we take another swing. This time, we introduce a rate limit on Nmap. Other than being slower, though, the results are the same. Bouncing the pump again, we change Nmap from a SYN scan to a full TCP connect and suddenly, the world is illuminated. Ports 21, 22, 23, and 8080 are live. Service enumeration identifies no surprises on those ports—an FTP server, an SSH server, a Telnet server, and a web server. They’re all open source and all a tad on the old side, but versions are clear.

Here, we resist the urge to start really pounding the device. Old versions of four services, with two of them unencrypted remote access services, are bound to have at least some vulnerabilities we can take advantage of. However, the SYN scan issue is a concern, indicating that this device isn’t the most stable thing in the world when scanning. We put a pin in this information for now.

Unleash the vuln scanner

Nmap and Telnet are great first tools, but we want to see how this thing plays with our vulnerability scanner. We know our vuln scanner is multi-threaded, so it’s going to introduce an extra load element that Nmap didn’t have. Our usual default template checks to see first whether a device is alive via ICMP and some well-known TCP ports. Next, it does service discovery on well-known TCP and UDP ports, as well as performs some operating system detection. Finally, it launches vulnerability checks—10 at a time—matched against the discovered services and OS. Before launching, we make one critical change to the template: switching from a SYN scan to a full TCP connect. Look at us, learning.

The scan finishes and, at first blush, we get what we expect. The four services are discovered, the scanner basically has no idea on the OS beyond some generic unix fingerprint, and we get a handful of generic vulnerabilities. Included are some gross-but-probably-false positives on username/password combos on the Telnet service. We’re only human, though, and when the vuln scanner tells us that “root/root” is going to work, well, what do you think we’re going to do?

The attempt fails, but not for the reason we expect. The Telnet service is unresponsive, and further attempts on the other known ports shows that they’re all unresponsive. While muttering a few expletives, we power cycle the pump and head to the logs. It just looks like we lost connectivity in the middle of vulnerability checks. Iterating a few times, we see the same behavior, though in slightly different places in the logs each time.

There are only a handful of things it could be. An individual vulnerability check could potentially crash a poorly built service, but is unlikely to knock the whole system over—and the logs aren’t stopping on a specific check, anyway. The most likely issue is that we hit it too hard. We drop the template down to running a single vulnerability check at a time (instead of 10) and let it fly again. Bingo! The device survives, and of course we find a few more generic vulnerabilities this time since our checks were able to complete. (Incidentally, the default Telnet password didn’t work. We’re pleased, but disappointed. You understand.)

After a little more experimenting, we find that the trouble starts at around seven simultaneous threads for vuln checking. We drop our template down to five for safety purposes. Having satisfied our need for a safe and stable scan template, it’s time to figure how secure this thing is. The couple of vulnerabilities that the vulnerability scanner found were fairly generic. We did get a few hits on the open source FTP and web server, but nothing remotely exploitable.

Finding the real vulnerabilities

Luckily, there’s a highly sophisticated research tool that reveals that there are indeed some device-specific vulnerabilities with this particular pump that our vulnerability scanner is not aware of. They’re fun vulnerabilities, too, and include:

A remote buffer overflow specific to the version we’re running. There’s no available exploit code, and we’re not exactly exploit writers, but the disclosure notes that full remote access is possible.

A hardcoded password. And this one works. Sigh.

No certificate validation, vulnerable to man-in-the-middle.

Passwords are stored in the clear on the device. Another sigh.

There’s good news with the bad news, though. Updated software for the pumps exists to address these. In addition, we’ve verified with biomedical and the device manual that FTP, SSH, and Telnet are not required for regular operations. Already we have some recommendations for the organization that can be safely implemented to lock these devices down better.

In addition to those recommendations, we make a few changes to the way we scan for vulnerabilities generally. Although we’re assured it’s unlikely, it’s still possible that a pump could drop into our main network instead of the medical device network, and our testing indicates that our default scan templates are not going to play nicely. However, the performance hit we’d take by slowing down our scans would be highly impactful, so we decide to break our vulnerability scanning into two steps—something we probably should have done already, anyway.

For step one, we implement a discovery scan. No vulnerability checks, we go relatively slow, and we do full TCP connects. We also build a dynamic asset group that’s explicitly designed to identify these pumps. Any assets that have those four services running and a generic unix OS get thrown into the asset group automatically and tagged with “Medical Device?” for further investigation. For now, all other assets get tossed into “safe to scan” asset groups, appropriate to their location and scan schedule. Then, our regular vulnerability scans operate off of the new safe asset groups, where we do what we’ve been doing. Just for fun, we run the new discovery scan across the environment to validate our assumptions that these devices aren’t on the primary network.

Welp.

It takes some figuring—we end up having to visit a specific floor of the hospital and take a look at a few patient rooms when they’re unoccupied—but we finally determine that the network ports are not properly labeled. There’s a primary network drop and a medical device network drop in these rooms, and the pumps are sometimes placed on the wrong drop. After interviewing some of the medical personnel, they note that, oh yeah, sometimes the pumps are “flaky” with the network software, but they all know how to operate them offline so they just roll with it. This ends up the worst of both worlds—the devices are exposed on the main network (and we’ve been scanning them and probably knocking them over!) and there’s no management or reporting of issues established from the medical personnel to the biomed team to help us discover this.

Recommendations

What did we learn and, just as importantly, recommend by going through this exercise?

The pumps we evaluated need to be updated and have non-critical services disabled (SSH, Telnet, FTP).

There are some people processes to fix. Biomedical is working in conjunction with the clinical staff to ensure odd behavior gets reported rather than ignored.

Medical devices get placed in the wrong place, and “defending” against that by intentionally treading lightly on the main network is super important.

Security is developing a notification process for known medical devices showing up in non-medical networks.

Patches aren’t getting pushed regularly. Many of the vulns found through either the scanner or our independent research were resolved by a software update. Since those software updates didn’t introduce functional changes, though, and there weren’t issues being reported by the clinical users, biomedical wasn’t aware of a need to push updates. For known medical devices, partner with the biomedical team to review security updates and the implications of applying the updates.

We need to get into the clinical environment more. Flaws in how pumps are deployed in some of the patient rooms directly led to risk to the patients, and there is likely much more to be learned by spending time assessing these rooms.

This process needs to be repeated with the other medical devices in Mooseville Medical. Significant risk was identified with the first one we examined. It’s likely this was only the tip of the iceberg.

Biomedical is on board to work with us, and more than a little startled at the first round of findings. Management is pleased (if concerned) with our first set of findings, and we’ve got defenders high and low to back up our continued work with medical devices. The work continues.

While this is a fictional example (obviously) I’d like to note that it is based in reality. In building it, I worked off of the profiles for existing infusion pumps and environments that I’ve worked in before. The vulnerabilities are all real and have all been observed in this type of device. I’ve embellished a little throughout the story to make it more interesting, but the scenario itself is realistic.

This series is intended to provide both guidance and ammunition for organizations interested in taking a serious look at their medical devices. It is critical that we understand the risk these devices bring with their utility and the risk we introduce by having them as part of a connected network. Heavy-handed approaches of “scan everything” without a deliberate approach will (and should) be met with the resistance. Coordinated, collaborative efforts ensure a better partnership and better security practices by everyone. It is important to realize that information security’s goal of serving and protecting can do more harm than good if not handled with care. In our zeal to protect patients, we can unintentionally become our own worst enemy. Let us not be the risk to the business—patient care is the business. Information security must respond accordingly.

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Go to Source Author: Joe Agnew Medical Device Security, Part 3: Putting Safe Scanning into Practice Original Post from Rapid7 Author: Joe Agnew This is part three in a three-part series on medical device risk management, particularly as it pertains to vulnerability assessment.

[thegloober]

Gartner picks digital ethics and privacy as a strategic trend for 2019

Analyst Gartner, best known for crunching device marketshare data; charting technology hype cycles; and churning out predictive listicles of emergent capabilities at software’s cutting edge has now put businesses on watch that as well as dabbling in the usual crop of nascent technologies organizations need to be thinking about wider impacts next year — on both individuals and society.

Call it a sign of the times but digital ethics and privacy has been named as one of Gartner’s top ten strategic technology trends for 2019. That, my friends, is progress of a sort. Albeit, it also underlines how low certain tech industry practices have sunk that ethics and privacy is suddenly making a cutting-edge trend agenda, a couple of decades into the mainstream consumer Internet.

The analyst’s top picks do include plenty of techie stuff too, of course. Yes blockchain is in there. Alongside the usual string of caveats that the “technologies and concepts are immature, poorly understood and unproven in mission-critical, at-scale business operations”.

So too, on the software development side, is AI-driven development — with the analyst sneaking a look beyond the immediate future to an un-date-stamped new age of the ‘non-techie techie’ (aka the “citizen application developer”) it sees coming down the pipe, when everyone will be a pro app dev thanks to AI-driven tools automatically generating the necessary models. But that’s definitely not happening in 2019.

See also: Augmented analytics eventually (em)powering “citizen data science”.

On the hardware front, Gartner uses the umbrella moniker of autonomous things to bundle the likes of drones, autonomous vehicles and robots in one big mechanical huddle — spying a trend of embodied AIs that “automate functions previously performed by humans” and work in swarming concert. Again, though, don’t expect too much of these bots quite yet — collectively, or, well, individually either.

It’s also bundling AR, VR and MR (aka the mixed reality of eyewear like Magic Leap One or Microsoft’s Hololens) into immersive experiences — in which “the spaces that surround us define ‘the computer’ rather than the individual devices. In effect, the environment is the computer” — so you can see what it’s spying there.

On the hardcore cutting edge of tech there’s quantum computing to continue to tantalize with its fantastically potent future potential. This tech, Gartner suggests, could be used to “model molecular interactions at atomic levels to accelerate time to market for new cancer-treating drugs” — albeit, once again, there’s absolutely no timeline suggested. And QC remains firmly lodged in an “emerging state”.

One nearer-term tech trend is dubbed the empowered edge, with Gartner noting that rising numbers of connected devices are driving processing back towards the end-user — to reduce latency and traffic. Distributed servers working as part of the cloud services mix is the idea, supported, over the longer term, by maturing 5G networks. Albeit, again, 5G hasn’t been deployed at any scale yet. Though some rollouts are scheduled for 2019.

Connected devices also feature in Gartner’s picks of smart spaces (aka sensor-laden places like smart cities, the ‘smart home’ or digital workplaces — where “people, processes, services and things” come together to create “a more immersive, interactive and automated experience”); and so-called digital twins; which isn’t as immediately bodysnatcherish as it first sounds, though does refer to “digital representation of a real-world entity or system” driven by an estimated 20BN connected sensors/endpoints which it reckons will be in the wild by 2020. 

But what really stands out in Gartner’s list of developing and/or barely emergent strategic tech trends is digital ethics and privacy — given the concept is not reliant on any particular technology underpinning it; yet is being (essentially) characterized as an emergent property of other already deployed (but unnamed) technologies. So is actually in play — in a way that others on the list aren’t yet (or aren’t at the same mass scale).

The analyst dubs digital ethics and privacy a “growing concern for individuals, organisations and governments”, writing: “People are increasingly concerned about how their personal information is being used by organisations in both the public and private sector, and the backlash will only increase for organisations that are not proactively addressing these concerns.”

Yes, people are increasingly concerned about privacy. Though ethics and privacy are hardly new concepts (or indeed new discussion topics). So the key point is really the strategic obfuscation of issues that people do in fact care an awful lot about, via the selective and non-transparent application of various behind-the-scenes technologies up to now — as engineers have gone about collecting and using people’s data without telling them how, why and what they’re actually doing with it.

Therefore, the key issue is about the abuse of trust that has been an inherent and seemingly foundational principle of the application of far too much cutting edge technology up to now. Especially, of course, in the adtech sphere.

And which, as Gartner now notes, is coming home to roost for the industry — via people’s “growing concern” about what’s being done to them via their data. (For “individuals, organisations and governments” you can really just substitute ‘society’ in general.)

Technology development done in a vacuum with little or no consideration for societal impacts is therefore itself the catalyst for the accelerated concern about digital ethics and privacy that Gartner is here identifying rising into strategic view.

It didn’t have to be that way though. Unlike ‘blockchain’ or ‘digital twins’, ethics and privacy are not at all new concepts. They’ve been discussion topics for philosophers and moralists for scores of generations and, literally, thousands of years. Which makes engineering without consideration of human and societal impacts a very spectacular and stupid failure indeed.

And now Gartner is having to lecture organizations on the importance of building trust. Which is kind of incredible to see, set alongside bleeding edge science like quantum computing. Yet here we seemingly are in kindergarten…

It writes: “Any discussion on privacy must be grounded in the broader topic of digital ethics and the trust of your customers, constituents and employees. While privacy and security are foundational components in building trust, trust is actually about more than just these components. Trust is the acceptance of the truth of a statement without evidence or investigation. Ultimately an organisation’s position on privacy must be driven by its broader position on ethics and trust. Shifting from privacy to ethics moves the conversation beyond ‘are we compliant’ toward ‘are we doing the right thing.”

The other unique thing about digital ethics and privacy is that it cuts right across all other technology areas in this trend list.

You can — and should — rightly ask what does blockchain mean for privacy? Or quantum computing for ethics? How could the empowered edge be used to enhance privacy? And how might smart spaces erode it? How can we ensure ethics get baked into AI-driven development from the get-go? How could augmented analytics help society as a whole — but which individuals might it harm? And so the questions go on.

Or at least they should go on. You should never stop asking questions where ethics and privacy are concerned. Not asking questions was the great strategic fuck-up condensed into Facebook’s ‘move fast and break things’ anti-humanitarian manifesto of yore. Y’know, the motto it had to ditch after it realized that breaking all the things didn’t scale.

Because apparently no one at the company had thought to ask how breaking everyone’s stuff would help it engender trust. And so claiming compliance without trust, as Facebook now finds itself trying to, really is the archetypal Sisyphean struggle.

Source: https://bloghyped.com/gartner-picks-digital-ethics-and-privacy-as-a-strategic-trend-for-2019/

[fmservers]

Gartner picks digital ethics and privacy as a strategic trend for 2019

Analyst Gartner, best known for crunching device marketshare data; charting technology hype cycles; and churning out predictive listicles of emergent capabilities at software’s cutting edge has now put businesses on watch that as well as dabbling in the usual crop of nascent technologies organizations need to be thinking about wider impacts next year — on both individuals and society.

Call it a sign of the times but digital ethics and privacy has been named as one of Gartner’s top ten strategic technology trends for 2019. That, my friends, is progress of a sort. Albeit, it also underlines how low certain tech industry practices have sunk that ethics and privacy is suddenly making a cutting-edge trend agenda, a couple of decades into the mainstream consumer Internet.

The analyst’s top picks do include plenty of techie stuff too, of course. Yes blockchain is in there. Alongside the usual string of caveats that the “technologies and concepts are immature, poorly understood and unproven in mission-critical, at-scale business operations”.

So too, on the software development side, is AI-driven development — with the analyst sneaking a look beyond the immediate future to an un-date-stamped new age of the ‘non-techie techie’ (aka the “citizen application developer”) it sees coming down the pipe, when everyone will be a pro app dev thanks to AI-driven tools automatically generating the necessary models. But that’s definitely not happening in 2019.

See also: Augmented analytics eventually (em)powering “citizen data science”.

On the hardware front, Gartner uses the umbrella moniker of autonomous things to bundle the likes of drones, autonomous vehicles and robots in one big mechanical huddle — spying a trend of embodied AIs that “automate functions previously performed by humans” and work in swarming concert. Again, though, don’t expect too much of these bots quite yet — collectively, or, well, individually either.

It’s also bundling AR, VR and MR (aka the mixed reality of eyewear like Magic Leap One or Microsoft’s Hololens) into immersive experiences — in which “the spaces that surround us define ‘the computer’ rather than the individual devices. In effect, the environment is the computer” — so you can see what it’s spying there.

On the hardcore cutting edge of tech there’s quantum computing to continue to tantalize with its fantastically potent future potential. This tech, Gartner suggests, could be used to “model molecular interactions at atomic levels to accelerate time to market for new cancer-treating drugs” — albeit, once again, there’s absolutely no timeline suggested. And QC remains firmly lodged in an “emerging state”.

One nearer-term tech trend is dubbed the empowered edge, with Gartner noting that rising numbers of connected devices are driving processing back towards the end-user — to reduce latency and traffic. Distributed servers working as part of the cloud services mix is the idea, supported, over the longer term, by maturing 5G networks. Albeit, again, 5G hasn’t been deployed at any scale yet. Though some rollouts are scheduled for 2019.

Connected devices also feature in Gartner’s picks of smart spaces (aka sensor-laden places like smart cities, the ‘smart home’ or digital workplaces — where “people, processes, services and things” come together to create “a more immersive, interactive and automated experience”); and so-called digital twins; which isn’t as immediately bodysnatcherish as it first sounds, though does refer to “digital representation of a real-world entity or system” driven by an estimated 20BN connected sensors/endpoints which it reckons will be in the wild by 2020. 

But what really stands out in Gartner’s list of developing and/or barely emergent strategic tech trends is digital ethics and privacy — given the concept is not reliant on any particular technology underpinning it; yet is being (essentially) characterized as an emergent property of other already deployed (but unnamed) technologies. So is actually in play — in a way that others on the list aren’t yet (or aren’t at the same mass scale).

The analyst dubs digital ethics and privacy a “growing concern for individuals, organisations and governments”, writing: “People are increasingly concerned about how their personal information is being used by organisations in both the public and private sector, and the backlash will only increase for organisations that are not proactively addressing these concerns.”

Sure, people are increasingly concerned about privacy. Though ethics and privacy are hardly new concepts (or indeed new discussion topics). So the key point is really the strategic obfuscation of issues that people do in fact care an awful lot about, via the selective and non-transparent application of various behind-the-scenes technologies up to now — as engineers have gone about collecting and using people’s data without telling them how, why and what they’re actually doing with it.

Therefore, the key issue is about the abuse of trust that has been an inherent and seemingly foundational principle of the application of far too much cutting edge technology til now. Especially, of course, in the adtech sphere.

And which, as Gartner now notes, is coming home to roost for the industry — via people’s “growing concern” about what’s being done to them via their data. (For “individuals, organisations and governments” you can really just substitute ‘society’ in general.)

Technology development done in a vacuum with little or no consideration for societal impacts is therefore itself the catalyst for the accelerated concern about digital ethics and privacy that Gartner is here identifying rising into strategic view.

It didn’t have to be that way though. Unlike ‘blockchain’ or ‘digital twins’, ethics and privacy are not at all new concepts. They’ve been discussion topics for philosophers and moralists for scores of generations and, literally, thousands of years. Which makes engineering without consideration of human and societal impacts a very spectacular and stupid failure indeed.

And now Gartner is having to lecture organizations on the importance of building trust. Which is kind of incredible to see, set alongside bleeding edge science like quantum computing. Yet here we are seemingly in kindergarten…

It writes: “Any discussion on privacy must be grounded in the broader topic of digital ethics and the trust of your customers, constituents and employees. While privacy and security are foundational components in building trust, trust is actually about more than just these components. Trust is the acceptance of the truth of a statement without evidence or investigation. Ultimately an organisation’s position on privacy must be driven by its broader position on ethics and trust. Shifting from privacy to ethics moves the conversation beyond ‘are we compliant’ toward ‘are we doing the right thing.”

The other unique thing about digital ethics and privacy is that it cuts right across all other technology areas in this trend list.

You can — and should — rightly ask what does blockchain mean for privacy? Or quantum computing for ethics? How could the empowered edge be used to enhance privacy? And how might smart spaces erode it? How can we ensure ethics get baked into AI-driven development from the get-go? How could augmented analytics help society as a whole — but which individuals might it harm? And so the questions go on.

Or at least they should go on. You should never stop asking questions where ethics and privacy are concerned. Not asking questions was the great strategic fuck-up condensed into Facebook’s ‘move fast and break things’ anti-humanitarian manifesto of yore. Y’know, the motto it had to ditch after it realized that breaking all the things didn’t scale.

Because apparently no one at the company had thought to ask how breaking everyone’s stuff would help it engender trust. And so claiming compliance without trust, as Facebook now is, really is the archetypal Sisyphean struggle.

Via Natasha Lomas https://techcrunch.com

[joshuamshea84]

How to Stay Safe When You Travel as a Female

Updated: 8/21/2018 | August 21st, 2018

Kristin Addis from Be My Travel Muse is our go to solo female travel expert and writes a guest column featuring tips and advice. It’s an important topic I can’t adequately cover, so I brought in an expert to share her advice. This month her column is on safety tips since it’s been a common question among women travelers.

One of the chief concerns for most would-be solo travelers is safety. Can I stay safe on my own? How can I convince my friends and family that I’ll be okay? The good news is: yes, you will be safe on the road. It’s easier than you think because you already have the skills you need — the same methods you use to stay safe at home are relevant abroad as well.

Most people are scared before taking off on their first solo adventure (or in my case, 30th solo adventure). It’s easy to be nervous before heading somewhere new. There are a lot of unknown factors (will you make friends? will you be safe?) that you’ll turn over and over in your brain.

But it’s all in your head. Your brain is creating worst-case scenarios that aren’t likely to happen. I’ve found that following a few simple rules is enough to keep me (and you) safe on the road.

Safety Tip #1: Trust your gut instincts

There’s much to be said about the power of intuition. If something or someone gives you an uneasy vibe, there’s no shame in walking away or saying no. If your gut is telling you that something doesn’t feel right, listen to it. This sense naturally becomes more heightened over time as a solo traveler.

Some people thought I was crazy and even stupid to hitchhike through China, but after years on the road, I trusted my intuition enough to sound the alarm bells if something didn’t feel right. There were times, such as late at night in Rome when I’ve been offered a ride and immediately said no because I knew something was off. It’s surprising how much listening to that little voice in the back of your mind can steer you in the right direction.

Safety Tip #2: Don’t be afraid to say no

Don’t be afraid that you will disappoint people by only saying yes when it feels right. Your solo journey is about you and nobody else.

Sometimes in bars and hostels, the group mentality to keep drinking and the pressure to partake in yet another round of shots is present on a daily basis.

Getting too intoxicated can lead to serious problems. Keep it to a few drinks at most if you’re alone without anyone to look out for you. I can’t tell you how long my list is of friends who have been robbed in alleyways in Spain or mugged in an otherwise safe Berlin because they became too intoxicated. It can happen easily, especially when in party areas or with party people. For this and other personal reasons, I have quit drinking alcohol completely, at home and on the road, and that not only has kept me safer but also led me to meeting people on my travels who are interested in things other than partying, and that’s led to more enriching experiences overall.

Safety Tip #3: Keep a dummy wallet and whistle

In order to keep your most important valuables safe, some travelers suggest using a dummy wallet, which is a fake wallet that contains some canceled credit cards and a little bit of cash. It’s enough to make a would-be thief think he’s getting something worthwhile while keeping your real valuables well hidden (like under the insole of your shoe).

Another important tool is something that makes noise. A whistle has come in handy more than once for me, especially when I remembered the tale of another solo female traveler who once used it to ward off rabid monkeys in Indonesia. I did the very same several months later when, in a split second, I remembered to use my whistle as an angry monkey was lunging toward me. It goes to show that you never know how useful something so small can be.

Safety Tip #4: Get advice from locals

Make full use of the platforms available online to understand what to look out for in the area you are traveling to, especially if it’s your very first time traveling solo in the area. There are many online communities such as TripAdvisor, Lonely Planet, and Facebook groups where updates are shared by locals, expats, and experts. I find asking safety questions on these platforms is sometimes more reliable than some travel information websites as they are much more current, though it wouldn’t hurt to research common scams and dangers in your destination on them. For Americans, that would be the Bureau of Consular Affairs.

Ask employees at your hotel or guesthouse which scams to look out for. Find out not only what you should see during your visit but also which areas to avoid. Nobody knows this better than the people who live there year-round. Finally, a reputable walking tour at the beginning of your trip in a new city is not only a great way to have a proper introduction to the area, but also an opportunity to ask questions get more safety tips from your local guide.

Safety Tip #5: Dress appropriately

Dress like a local in order to blend in. By standing out, you risk more than just annoying catcalls. It’s a sad reality, but in some countries, women can’t dress as they please and need to cover up.

In traditionally Muslim countries, for example, wearing shorts and tank tops is not advisable and can be perceived as offensive. It’s best to at least cover the shoulders and the knees. Do some research on what’s appropriate to wear before packing.

That seems obvious, but it’s still all too common to see topless girls on the beaches in Thailand, or super short shorts and crop tops in Malaysia and Indonesia. In order to be respected, it’s important to respect the locals’ customs and modesty levels.

Safety Tip #6: Don’t walk alone at night

In some countries, it’s perfectly safe to walk alone at night. In others, it could be dangerous. Going out at night in groups or asking to be accompanied by someone else at your guesthouse or hotel is always smart.

Unfortunately I learned this the hard way after someone grabbed me in the dark as I walked along a dirt path in Nepal. The local police and my guesthouse owner were both bewildered, saying that kind of thing never happens there. Well, it turns out that it does, and I made sure never to be alone at night thereafter in Nepal, and now I make sure to not walk alone late at night.

Safety Tip #7: Make copies of your important documents

Although we always hope nothing will happen, it’s important to be prepared for a worst case scenario. Make copies of your important documents, including your passport, identity card, and insurance cards, and keep them in all of the bags you carry. Keep electronic copies as well, should the worst occur and you lose the paper copy along with the physical document. Take photos of all of your important documents and store them on your phone and laptop, in addition to uploading them to a secure cloud server.

I also recommend taking photos of electronics you are traveling with and uploading them to a cloud server. This will help prove you owned the item in case you need to make a travel insurance claim.

Safety Tip #8: Know the local emergency numbers

Look up the local emergency number online before you depart or ask the staff at the front desk wherever you’re staying. There are also apps, like TripWhistle, that provide emergency numbers from all over the world. Of course, the best-case scenario is that you never have to use it, but it’s always smart to be prepared in case you do need it.

Safety Tip #9: Let friends know where you are

Make sure someone (a friend, family member, or fellow traveler) knows your itinerary and where you should be at any given time. Try not to go off the grid completely or for long periods of time, especially if you have worried parents back home. If you do change your plans — because it’s bound to happen sometime — don’t forget to let someone know. Internet cafes are generally easy to find, and many countries have inexpensive SIM cards ($20 or less) that will help you keep in touch if you have an unlocked phone. Besides, if you’re on the move, having Internet access for booking travel arrangements and finding directions is often a godsend.

*** In closing, traveling solo is marvelous. It allows you to make all of your own travel decisions, promotes personal growth and independence, and can even be a bit safer since you can take in more of your surroundings than if a friend were around distracting you. Solo traveling helps to sharpen intuition and, despite typical worries, is often no more dangerous than your hometown.

The same common sense you use at home is relevant abroad. It’s not rocket science, and as long as you’re smart about it and follow these simple tips, you’re in for a positive adventure.

Kristin Addis is a solo female travel expert who inspires women to travel the world in an authentic and adventurous way. A former investment banker who sold all of her belongings and left California in 2012, Kristin has solo traveled the world for over four years, covering every continent (except for Antarctica, but it’s on her list). There’s almost nothing she won’t try and almost nowhere she won’t explore. You can find more of her musings at Be My Travel Muse or on Instagram and Facebook.

Conquering Mountains: The Guide to Solo Female Travel

For a complete A-to-Z guide on solo female travel, check out Kristin’s new book, Conquering Mountains. Besides discussing many of the practical tips of preparing and planning your trip, the book addresses the fears, safety, and emotional concerns women have about traveling alone. It features over 20 interviews with other female travel writers and travelers. Click here to learn more about the book, how it can help you, and you can start reading it today!

The post How to Stay Safe When You Travel as a Female appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

from Traveling News https://www.nomadicmatt.com/travel-blogs/female-travel-safety/

[theladyjstyle]

Updated: 8/21/2018 | August 21st, 2018

Kristin Addis from Be My Travel Muse is our go to solo female travel expert and writes a guest column featuring tips and advice. It’s an important topic I can’t adequately cover, so I brought in an expert to share her advice. This month her column is on safety tips since it’s been a common question among women travelers.

One of the chief concerns for most would-be solo travelers is safety. Can I stay safe on my own? How can I convince my friends and family that I’ll be okay? The good news is: yes, you will be safe on the road. It’s easier than you think because you already have the skills you need — the same methods you use to stay safe at home are relevant abroad as well.

Most people are scared before taking off on their first solo adventure (or in my case, 30th solo adventure). It’s easy to be nervous before heading somewhere new. There are a lot of unknown factors (will you make friends? will you be safe?) that you’ll turn over and over in your brain.

But it’s all in your head. Your brain is creating worst-case scenarios that aren’t likely to happen. I’ve found that following a few simple rules is enough to keep me (and you) safe on the road.

Safety Tip #1: Trust your gut instincts

There’s much to be said about the power of intuition. If something or someone gives you an uneasy vibe, there’s no shame in walking away or saying no. If your gut is telling you that something doesn’t feel right, listen to it. This sense naturally becomes more heightened over time as a solo traveler.

Some people thought I was crazy and even stupid to hitchhike through China, but after years on the road, I trusted my intuition enough to sound the alarm bells if something didn’t feel right. There were times, such as late at night in Rome when I’ve been offered a ride and immediately said no because I knew something was off. It’s surprising how much listening to that little voice in the back of your mind can steer you in the right direction.

Safety Tip #2: Don’t be afraid to say no

Don’t be afraid that you will disappoint people by only saying yes when it feels right. Your solo journey is about you and nobody else.

Sometimes in bars and hostels, the group mentality to keep drinking and the pressure to partake in yet another round of shots is present on a daily basis.

Getting too intoxicated can lead to serious problems. Keep it to a few drinks at most if you’re alone without anyone to look out for you. I can’t tell you how long my list is of friends who have been robbed in alleyways in Spain or mugged in an otherwise safe Berlin because they became too intoxicated. It can happen easily, especially when in party areas or with party people. For this and other personal reasons, I have quit drinking alcohol completely, at home and on the road, and that not only has kept me safer but also led me to meeting people on my travels who are interested in things other than partying, and that’s led to more enriching experiences overall.

Safety Tip #3: Keep a dummy wallet and whistle

In order to keep your most important valuables safe, some travelers suggest using a dummy wallet, which is a fake wallet that contains some canceled credit cards and a little bit of cash. It’s enough to make a would-be thief think he’s getting something worthwhile while keeping your real valuables well hidden (like under the insole of your shoe).

Another important tool is something that makes noise. A whistle has come in handy more than once for me, especially when I remembered the tale of another solo female traveler who once used it to ward off rabid monkeys in Indonesia. I did the very same several months later when, in a split second, I remembered to use my whistle as an angry monkey was lunging toward me. It goes to show that you never know how useful something so small can be.

Safety Tip #4: Get advice from locals

Make full use of the platforms available online to understand what to look out for in the area you are traveling to, especially if it’s your very first time traveling solo in the area. There are many online communities such as TripAdvisor, Lonely Planet, and Facebook groups where updates are shared by locals, expats, and experts. I find asking safety questions on these platforms is sometimes more reliable than some travel information websites as they are much more current, though it wouldn’t hurt to research common scams and dangers in your destination on them. For Americans, that would be the Bureau of Consular Affairs.

Ask employees at your hotel or guesthouse which scams to look out for. Find out not only what you should see during your visit but also which areas to avoid. Nobody knows this better than the people who live there year-round. Finally, a reputable walking tour at the beginning of your trip in a new city is not only a great way to have a proper introduction to the area, but also an opportunity to ask questions get more safety tips from your local guide.

Safety Tip #5: Dress appropriately

Dress like a local in order to blend in. By standing out, you risk more than just annoying catcalls. It’s a sad reality, but in some countries, women can’t dress as they please and need to cover up.

In traditionally Muslim countries, for example, wearing shorts and tank tops is not advisable and can be perceived as offensive. It’s best to at least cover the shoulders and the knees. Do some research on what’s appropriate to wear before packing.

That seems obvious, but it’s still all too common to see topless girls on the beaches in Thailand, or super short shorts and crop tops in Malaysia and Indonesia. In order to be respected, it’s important to respect the locals’ customs and modesty levels.

Safety Tip #6: Don’t walk alone at night

In some countries, it’s perfectly safe to walk alone at night. In others, it could be dangerous. Going out at night in groups or asking to be accompanied by someone else at your guesthouse or hotel is always smart.

Unfortunately I learned this the hard way after someone grabbed me in the dark as I walked along a dirt path in Nepal. The local police and my guesthouse owner were both bewildered, saying that kind of thing never happens there. Well, it turns out that it does, and I made sure never to be alone at night thereafter in Nepal, and now I make sure to not walk alone late at night.

Safety Tip #7: Make copies of your important documents

Although we always hope nothing will happen, it’s important to be prepared for a worst case scenario. Make copies of your important documents, including your passport, identity card, and insurance cards, and keep them in all of the bags you carry. Keep electronic copies as well, should the worst occur and you lose the paper copy along with the physical document. Take photos of all of your important documents and store them on your phone and laptop, in addition to uploading them to a secure cloud server.

I also recommend taking photos of electronics you are traveling with and uploading them to a cloud server. This will help prove you owned the item in case you need to make a travel insurance claim.

Safety Tip #8: Know the local emergency numbers

Look up the local emergency number online before you depart or ask the staff at the front desk wherever you’re staying. There are also apps, like TripWhistle, that provide emergency numbers from all over the world. Of course, the best-case scenario is that you never have to use it, but it’s always smart to be prepared in case you do need it.

Safety Tip #9: Let friends know where you are

Make sure someone (a friend, family member, or fellow traveler) knows your itinerary and where you should be at any given time. Try not to go off the grid completely or for long periods of time, especially if you have worried parents back home. If you do change your plans — because it’s bound to happen sometime — don’t forget to let someone know. Internet cafes are generally easy to find, and many countries have inexpensive SIM cards ($20 or less) that will help you keep in touch if you have an unlocked phone. Besides, if you’re on the move, having Internet access for booking travel arrangements and finding directions is often a godsend.

*** In closing, traveling solo is marvelous. It allows you to make all of your own travel decisions, promotes personal growth and independence, and can even be a bit safer since you can take in more of your surroundings than if a friend were around distracting you. Solo traveling helps to sharpen intuition and, despite typical worries, is often no more dangerous than your hometown.

The same common sense you use at home is relevant abroad. It’s not rocket science, and as long as you’re smart about it and follow these simple tips, you’re in for a positive adventure.

Kristin Addis is a solo female travel expert who inspires women to travel the world in an authentic and adventurous way. A former investment banker who sold all of her belongings and left California in 2012, Kristin has solo traveled the world for over four years, covering every continent (except for Antarctica, but it’s on her list). There’s almost nothing she won’t try and almost nowhere she won’t explore. You can find more of her musings at Be My Travel Muse or on Instagram and Facebook.

Conquering Mountains: The Guide to Solo Female Travel

For a complete A-to-Z guide on solo female travel, check out Kristin’s new book, Conquering Mountains. Besides discussing many of the practical tips of preparing and planning your trip, the book addresses the fears, safety, and emotional concerns women have about traveling alone. It features over 20 interviews with other female travel writers and travelers. Click here to learn more about the book, how it can help you, and you can start reading it today!

The post How to Stay Safe When You Travel as a Female appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

How to Stay Safe When You Travel as a Female https://ift.tt/2N7PLae

[vidovicart]

How to Stay Safe When You Travel as a Female

Updated: 8/21/2018 | August 21st, 2018

Kristin Addis from Be My Travel Muse is our go to solo female travel expert and writes a guest column featuring tips and advice. It’s an important topic I can’t adequately cover, so I brought in an expert to share her advice. This month her column is on safety tips since it’s been a common question among women travelers.

One of the chief concerns for most would-be solo travelers is safety. Can I stay safe on my own? How can I convince my friends and family that I’ll be okay? The good news is: yes, you will be safe on the road. It’s easier than you think because you already have the skills you need — the same methods you use to stay safe at home are relevant abroad as well.

Most people are scared before taking off on their first solo adventure (or in my case, 30th solo adventure). It’s easy to be nervous before heading somewhere new. There are a lot of unknown factors (will you make friends? will you be safe?) that you’ll turn over and over in your brain.

But it’s all in your head. Your brain is creating worst-case scenarios that aren’t likely to happen. I’ve found that following a few simple rules is enough to keep me (and you) safe on the road.

Safety Tip #1: Trust your gut instincts

There’s much to be said about the power of intuition. If something or someone gives you an uneasy vibe, there’s no shame in walking away or saying no. If your gut is telling you that something doesn’t feel right, listen to it. This sense naturally becomes more heightened over time as a solo traveler.

Some people thought I was crazy and even stupid to hitchhike through China, but after years on the road, I trusted my intuition enough to sound the alarm bells if something didn’t feel right. There were times, such as late at night in Rome when I’ve been offered a ride and immediately said no because I knew something was off. It’s surprising how much listening to that little voice in the back of your mind can steer you in the right direction.

Safety Tip #2: Don’t be afraid to say no

Don’t be afraid that you will disappoint people by only saying yes when it feels right. Your solo journey is about you and nobody else.

Sometimes in bars and hostels, the group mentality to keep drinking and the pressure to partake in yet another round of shots is present on a daily basis.

Getting too intoxicated can lead to serious problems. Keep it to a few drinks at most if you’re alone without anyone to look out for you. I can’t tell you how long my list is of friends who have been robbed in alleyways in Spain or mugged in an otherwise safe Berlin because they became too intoxicated. It can happen easily, especially when in party areas or with party people. For this and other personal reasons, I have quit drinking alcohol completely, at home and on the road, and that not only has kept me safer but also led me to meeting people on my travels who are interested in things other than partying, and that’s led to more enriching experiences overall.

Safety Tip #3: Keep a dummy wallet and whistle

In order to keep your most important valuables safe, some travelers suggest using a dummy wallet, which is a fake wallet that contains some canceled credit cards and a little bit of cash. It’s enough to make a would-be thief think he’s getting something worthwhile while keeping your real valuables well hidden (like under the insole of your shoe).

Another important tool is something that makes noise. A whistle has come in handy more than once for me, especially when I remembered the tale of another solo female traveler who once used it to ward off rabid monkeys in Indonesia. I did the very same several months later when, in a split second, I remembered to use my whistle as an angry monkey was lunging toward me. It goes to show that you never know how useful something so small can be.

Safety Tip #4: Get advice from locals

Make full use of the platforms available online to understand what to look out for in the area you are traveling to, especially if it’s your very first time traveling solo in the area. There are many online communities such as TripAdvisor, Lonely Planet, and Facebook groups where updates are shared by locals, expats, and experts. I find asking safety questions on these platforms is sometimes more reliable than some travel information websites as they are much more current, though it wouldn’t hurt to research common scams and dangers in your destination on them. For Americans, that would be the Bureau of Consular Affairs.

Ask employees at your hotel or guesthouse which scams to look out for. Find out not only what you should see during your visit but also which areas to avoid. Nobody knows this better than the people who live there year-round. Finally, a reputable walking tour at the beginning of your trip in a new city is not only a great way to have a proper introduction to the area, but also an opportunity to ask questions get more safety tips from your local guide.

Safety Tip #5: Dress appropriately

Dress like a local in order to blend in. By standing out, you risk more than just annoying catcalls. It’s a sad reality, but in some countries, women can’t dress as they please and need to cover up.

In traditionally Muslim countries, for example, wearing shorts and tank tops is not advisable and can be perceived as offensive. It’s best to at least cover the shoulders and the knees. Do some research on what’s appropriate to wear before packing.

That seems obvious, but it’s still all too common to see topless girls on the beaches in Thailand, or super short shorts and crop tops in Malaysia and Indonesia. In order to be respected, it’s important to respect the locals’ customs and modesty levels.

Safety Tip #6: Don’t walk alone at night

In some countries, it’s perfectly safe to walk alone at night. In others, it could be dangerous. Going out at night in groups or asking to be accompanied by someone else at your guesthouse or hotel is always smart.

Unfortunately I learned this the hard way after someone grabbed me in the dark as I walked along a dirt path in Nepal. The local police and my guesthouse owner were both bewildered, saying that kind of thing never happens there. Well, it turns out that it does, and I made sure never to be alone at night thereafter in Nepal, and now I make sure to not walk alone late at night.

Safety Tip #7: Make copies of your important documents

Although we always hope nothing will happen, it’s important to be prepared for a worst case scenario. Make copies of your important documents, including your passport, identity card, and insurance cards, and keep them in all of the bags you carry. Keep electronic copies as well, should the worst occur and you lose the paper copy along with the physical document. Take photos of all of your important documents and store them on your phone and laptop, in addition to uploading them to a secure cloud server.

I also recommend taking photos of electronics you are traveling with and uploading them to a cloud server. This will help prove you owned the item in case you need to make a travel insurance claim.

Safety Tip #8: Know the local emergency numbers

Look up the local emergency number online before you depart or ask the staff at the front desk wherever you’re staying. There are also apps, like TripWhistle, that provide emergency numbers from all over the world. Of course, the best-case scenario is that you never have to use it, but it’s always smart to be prepared in case you do need it.

Safety Tip #9: Let friends know where you are

Make sure someone (a friend, family member, or fellow traveler) knows your itinerary and where you should be at any given time. Try not to go off the grid completely or for long periods of time, especially if you have worried parents back home. If you do change your plans — because it’s bound to happen sometime — don’t forget to let someone know. Internet cafes are generally easy to find, and many countries have inexpensive SIM cards ($20 or less) that will help you keep in touch if you have an unlocked phone. Besides, if you’re on the move, having Internet access for booking travel arrangements and finding directions is often a godsend.

*** In closing, traveling solo is marvelous. It allows you to make all of your own travel decisions, promotes personal growth and independence, and can even be a bit safer since you can take in more of your surroundings than if a friend were around distracting you. Solo traveling helps to sharpen intuition and, despite typical worries, is often no more dangerous than your hometown.

The same common sense you use at home is relevant abroad. It’s not rocket science, and as long as you’re smart about it and follow these simple tips, you’re in for a positive adventure.

Kristin Addis is a solo female travel expert who inspires women to travel the world in an authentic and adventurous way. A former investment banker who sold all of her belongings and left California in 2012, Kristin has solo traveled the world for over four years, covering every continent (except for Antarctica, but it’s on her list). There’s almost nothing she won’t try and almost nowhere she won’t explore. You can find more of her musings at Be My Travel Muse or on Instagram and Facebook.

Conquering Mountains: The Guide to Solo Female Travel

For a complete A-to-Z guide on solo female travel, check out Kristin’s new book, Conquering Mountains. Besides discussing many of the practical tips of preparing and planning your trip, the book addresses the fears, safety, and emotional concerns women have about traveling alone. It features over 20 interviews with other female travel writers and travelers. Click here to learn more about the book, how it can help you, and you can start reading it today!

The post How to Stay Safe When You Travel as a Female appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

[tamboradventure]

How to Stay Safe When You Travel as a Female

Updated: 8/21/2018 | August 21st, 2018

Kristin Addis from Be My Travel Muse is our go to solo female travel expert and writes a guest column featuring tips and advice. It’s an important topic I can’t adequately cover, so I brought in an expert to share her advice. This month her column is on safety tips since it’s been a common question among women travelers.

One of the chief concerns for most would-be solo travelers is safety. Can I stay safe on my own? How can I convince my friends and family that I’ll be okay? The good news is: yes, you will be safe on the road. It’s easier than you think because you already have the skills you need — the same methods you use to stay safe at home are relevant abroad as well.

Most people are scared before taking off on their first solo adventure (or in my case, 30th solo adventure). It’s easy to be nervous before heading somewhere new. There are a lot of unknown factors (will you make friends? will you be safe?) that you’ll turn over and over in your brain.

But it’s all in your head. Your brain is creating worst-case scenarios that aren’t likely to happen. I’ve found that following a few simple rules is enough to keep me (and you) safe on the road.

Safety Tip #1: Trust your gut instincts

There’s much to be said about the power of intuition. If something or someone gives you an uneasy vibe, there’s no shame in walking away or saying no. If your gut is telling you that something doesn’t feel right, listen to it. This sense naturally becomes more heightened over time as a solo traveler.

Some people thought I was crazy and even stupid to hitchhike through China, but after years on the road, I trusted my intuition enough to sound the alarm bells if something didn’t feel right. There were times, such as late at night in Rome when I’ve been offered a ride and immediately said no because I knew something was off. It’s surprising how much listening to that little voice in the back of your mind can steer you in the right direction.

Safety Tip #2: Don’t be afraid to say no

Don’t be afraid that you will disappoint people by only saying yes when it feels right. Your solo journey is about you and nobody else.

Sometimes in bars and hostels, the group mentality to keep drinking and the pressure to partake in yet another round of shots is present on a daily basis.

Getting too intoxicated can lead to serious problems. Keep it to a few drinks at most if you’re alone without anyone to look out for you. I can’t tell you how long my list is of friends who have been robbed in alleyways in Spain or mugged in an otherwise safe Berlin because they became too intoxicated. It can happen easily, especially when in party areas or with party people. For this and other personal reasons, I have quit drinking alcohol completely, at home and on the road, and that not only has kept me safer but also led me to meeting people on my travels who are interested in things other than partying, and that’s led to more enriching experiences overall.

Safety Tip #3: Keep a dummy wallet and whistle

In order to keep your most important valuables safe, some travelers suggest using a dummy wallet, which is a fake wallet that contains some canceled credit cards and a little bit of cash. It’s enough to make a would-be thief think he’s getting something worthwhile while keeping your real valuables well hidden (like under the insole of your shoe).

Another important tool is something that makes noise. A whistle has come in handy more than once for me, especially when I remembered the tale of another solo female traveler who once used it to ward off rabid monkeys in Indonesia. I did the very same several months later when, in a split second, I remembered to use my whistle as an angry monkey was lunging toward me. It goes to show that you never know how useful something so small can be.

Safety Tip #4: Get advice from locals

Make full use of the platforms available online to understand what to look out for in the area you are traveling to, especially if it’s your very first time traveling solo in the area. There are many online communities such as TripAdvisor, Lonely Planet, and Facebook groups where updates are shared by locals, expats, and experts. I find asking safety questions on these platforms is sometimes more reliable than some travel information websites as they are much more current, though it wouldn’t hurt to research common scams and dangers in your destination on them. For Americans, that would be the Bureau of Consular Affairs.

Ask employees at your hotel or guesthouse which scams to look out for. Find out not only what you should see during your visit but also which areas to avoid. Nobody knows this better than the people who live there year-round. Finally, a reputable walking tour at the beginning of your trip in a new city is not only a great way to have a proper introduction to the area, but also an opportunity to ask questions get more safety tips from your local guide.

Safety Tip #5: Dress appropriately

Dress like a local in order to blend in. By standing out, you risk more than just annoying catcalls. It’s a sad reality, but in some countries, women can’t dress as they please and need to cover up.

In traditionally Muslim countries, for example, wearing shorts and tank tops is not advisable and can be perceived as offensive. It’s best to at least cover the shoulders and the knees. Do some research on what’s appropriate to wear before packing.

That seems obvious, but it’s still all too common to see topless girls on the beaches in Thailand, or super short shorts and crop tops in Malaysia and Indonesia. In order to be respected, it’s important to respect the locals’ customs and modesty levels.

Safety Tip #6: Don’t walk alone at night

In some countries, it’s perfectly safe to walk alone at night. In others, it could be dangerous. Going out at night in groups or asking to be accompanied by someone else at your guesthouse or hotel is always smart.

Unfortunately I learned this the hard way after someone grabbed me in the dark as I walked along a dirt path in Nepal. The local police and my guesthouse owner were both bewildered, saying that kind of thing never happens there. Well, it turns out that it does, and I made sure never to be alone at night thereafter in Nepal, and now I make sure to not walk alone late at night.

Safety Tip #7: Make copies of your important documents

Although we always hope nothing will happen, it’s important to be prepared for a worst case scenario. Make copies of your important documents, including your passport, identity card, and insurance cards, and keep them in all of the bags you carry. Keep electronic copies as well, should the worst occur and you lose the paper copy along with the physical document. Take photos of all of your important documents and store them on your phone and laptop, in addition to uploading them to a secure cloud server.

I also recommend taking photos of electronics you are traveling with and uploading them to a cloud server. This will help prove you owned the item in case you need to make a travel insurance claim.

Safety Tip #8: Know the local emergency numbers

Look up the local emergency number online before you depart or ask the staff at the front desk wherever you’re staying. There are also apps, like TripWhistle, that provide emergency numbers from all over the world. Of course, the best-case scenario is that you never have to use it, but it’s always smart to be prepared in case you do need it.

Safety Tip #9: Let friends know where you are

Make sure someone (a friend, family member, or fellow traveler) knows your itinerary and where you should be at any given time. Try not to go off the grid completely or for long periods of time, especially if you have worried parents back home. If you do change your plans — because it’s bound to happen sometime — don’t forget to let someone know. Internet cafes are generally easy to find, and many countries have inexpensive SIM cards ($20 or less) that will help you keep in touch if you have an unlocked phone. Besides, if you’re on the move, having Internet access for booking travel arrangements and finding directions is often a godsend.

*** In closing, traveling solo is marvelous. It allows you to make all of your own travel decisions, promotes personal growth and independence, and can even be a bit safer since you can take in more of your surroundings than if a friend were around distracting you. Solo traveling helps to sharpen intuition and, despite typical worries, is often no more dangerous than your hometown.

The same common sense you use at home is relevant abroad. It’s not rocket science, and as long as you’re smart about it and follow these simple tips, you’re in for a positive adventure.

Kristin Addis is a solo female travel expert who inspires women to travel the world in an authentic and adventurous way. A former investment banker who sold all of her belongings and left California in 2012, Kristin has solo traveled the world for over four years, covering every continent (except for Antarctica, but it’s on her list). There’s almost nothing she won’t try and almost nowhere she won’t explore. You can find more of her musings at Be My Travel Muse or on Instagram and Facebook.

Conquering Mountains: The Guide to Solo Female Travel

For a complete A-to-Z guide on solo female travel, check out Kristin’s new book, Conquering Mountains. Besides discussing many of the practical tips of preparing and planning your trip, the book addresses the fears, safety, and emotional concerns women have about traveling alone. It features over 20 interviews with other female travel writers and travelers. Click here to learn more about the book, how it can help you, and you can start reading it today!

The post How to Stay Safe When You Travel as a Female appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

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The Future of Android Phones

The age of the Android phone is fast dawning ... and a lot of the applications are freely offered, lastly some decent ammo to wipe the complacent smile on the face of his iFriends. Android phones have feature-rich applications that are not included in various other smart phones, and prepare to tackle the marketplace. The best part of Android is that you have a variety of alternatives with you, and not just several of them. An interesting attribute of the Android phones that supply several degrees of volume for the numerous features of the phone. The system, developed by Google Android, is a manufacturer of smart phones to help take on Apple's iPhone. The Android is viewed as solid competition from Apple therefore many cell phone business are able to supply mobile phones like the people in the marketplace to your current phone. Update something more intelligent and also skilled. What do you require from your phone. It's an excellent inquiry to think about when it pertains to smart phone customers is for an upgrade. Originally, the sole objective of owning a smart phone was. Because the mobile phone trip, individuals started to intend to take Photos, sms message, pay attention to music and also Web gain access to. You can do all this and also a lot more if you select a mobile phone. Currently you could play Games on their cellphone, weather condition as well as a collection of activities, and make phone calls. Prior to selecting among the Android phones it must be considered exactly what basically you are looking out in a phone. If you are considering purchasing a brand-new phone, below are a few of the very best options to Android phones. Finest Android phones are as good as the various other Smartphones on the marketplace. The reason is that numerous mobile phone makers have adopted the Android operating system on their phones. It is feasible not observed, but the reality is that Google's Android phones are throughout the cell phone market. As one of the best phones offered with Android, the HTC Hero has actually made a great deal of buzz. This access is created the price mindful purchaser who desires all mobile the rewards an Android phone do not pay bucks more. One more option for cellphones running the Android software application is BETouch Acer E400. The firm Acer mount its own user interface connected to the system as well as mounted GPS Android, 600 MHz cpu as well as Wi-Fi. A Android phones on the marketplace initially is the LG MaxGW620 InTouch. This phone is powererd from Android 2. It is a service, while Android kicks SUCCESS mobile in the teeth, &, a division of the open mobile marketing if a feasible service since it could not anticipate Google stores Gettig in a search application in all places and also from any phone. One of them is the Google industry where thousands of applications for mobile running the os Android than T-Mobile G1 and the myTouch T-Mobile with Google. Android users are waiting months after the initial announcement to get Pandora Mobile Application for Android. In fact, many individuals whine that there is definitely no competitors for Android phones in the mobile Market. A crucial aspect of owning a smart phone is Android Marketplace mobile applications, with hundreds of requests to pick. If you are a parent, and also are concerned as well as monitor the activities of your youngsters, to safeguard cell phones and also other sexting Mobi risks stealth, after that parental control software is for you. The launch of Android, the Google mobile os in basically all areas of the marketplace as "newbie is released as much as as well as consisting of the super-power Smart devices. Given that Android has raised, has the Google mobile os utilized in essentially all market segments appear, including high newbies as well as the end Phones. Take a look at it, the Android phones could currently be bought virtually everywhere. As Android, the mobile operating system designed by Google appeared in practically every conceivable niche, from "Rookie" to and also including the super-smart phones. The Rough Overview Slick bag Phone discloses the tricks of this operating system back and forth, consisting of versions from Motorola, HTC, Samsung and also numerous others. It is only by tradition, Android phone makes Skype immediate messaging, voice and also video clip calls globally via Skype. I like all the features of Android, however UMA only covers, specifically when I obtain home, I leave the frequency with which T-Mobile does not permeate the walls of the structure might have. Micromax Firmware In addition to technical issues, Google has numerous areas that prior to any type of severe threat to address, as a substitute for a weight providing songs Android iTunes smartphone battle. However, given that the reach of Google Android as a free open-source operating system that reduces the worth of purchases Hand Objective. I've never ever utilized an Android phone, and I have actually heard bad aspects of it, like Google makes use of the information for advertising and marketing, yet I think it's an action towards a global system for open-source smartphone. The suggestion that Google will experience the exact same phenomenon in the shop request U.S. bucks absurd. The apple iphone uses a lot of Google applications and also search in Google there is no difference in their pursuit of your browsing practices. The only way to compete with Apple continuouslies transform the phone ... to come instead of an inaccurate variation of the apple iphone is slightly up in the very same household (the Android and also it is in essence), Google, that should feature an attribute that every person that enough to leave their iPhone for. Apple essentially skimming the high-margin clients with valuable, Blackberry is still popular in the culture (and blackberry market more servers, the genuine interest) and also Android, will take control of the remainder of the smart device market at $49 - remember that Google obtains absolutely nothing for all offered Android currently and Apple earns $200 - $300 for each and every apple iphone offered without iTunes ... that's the difference. Their phones are feature-rich applications that are not consisted of in other mobile phones with Android, however additionally applications, the Android to take cellphones market.

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Business Coach UK

Doing things right with your own internet marketing of enjoyment networking

Be your very own company, be genuine, as well as reveal the world you recognize how you can offer online far better compared to anything else. Building a advertising network that you control uses the exact same abilities you have always utilized to market practically anything. But online, it is simpler due to the fact that you have the time to create your sales pitch exactly the means you desire it.

Today's world of sales is extremely different compared to from 10 and even 5 years back. A growing number of people are using the net every single day. The web is the most reliable way to distribute human understanding in effect, to the whole world at present. It will probably continue in this way for at least 30 years.

The element to think about currently nevertheless, is the human one. Lots of people take their modern technology for approved, or they hold it so dear to themselves that it is more crucial than the family residence pet dog. Values have transformed a lot given that the millennia started that individuals are becoming an increasing number of cybernetic day by day without also recognizing it.

That is something significant, because with the computer system ending up being a center for job, research as well as social life, the Castle from ancient Greece has currently expanded across the world and also could reach into the schools of thought that permeate the ambience of every cyber coffee shop and also office.

Home-business networking online with your own sales program and structure need not take countless dollars in personal financial investments, or lengthy years of university research at Yale or Harvard. Although it does help, it's not needed. Just what is essential however, is just the human element of a globe that seems bent on mechanistic fact.

Sales has to do with the human aspect. Selling online methods marketing to humans who find themselves affixed to a mechanical world with a cybernetic interface. And that suggests reminding people that they are human. Home entertainment has to do with humans, concerning a human fact, and one that requires a specific quantity of fun and interruption.

Networking on the internet ways being actual, being truthful concerning just what you sell as well as actually showing that you can sell. The skills that we use to make a excellent sale are still the exact same human skills as with typical one-on-one sales, and now we have an advantage, the electron.

Time to think, time to focus and the time to construct a discussion online, certainly a little perseverance on your part as a sales specialist is a world of distinction, the electron has permanently transformed impressions.

We as a mankind prepare ahead together in one area "the internet," and also worlds exist to enhance the lifestyle. That is the work of the show business, to improve just how we live our lives to the fullest feasible possibility. Offering catharsis is very important to our brand-new cybernetic globe order.

Marketing cathartic experiences with on-line business networking in the show business is marketing more than a commodity, it's offering a fundamental human need, and it's offering "an experience."

Be genuine

Long ago in the days of traditional door to door networking sales experts, selling a item resembled having an exceptional impression, developing rapport, being familiar with the client's requirements, having a discussion, making pals and afterwards laying the sales pitch down. That hasn't transformed with on the internet sales because individuals are still people.

Constructing a network has always had the same guidelines. So exactly what has altered? That instead of going in person with individuals at the door action we are now approaching them for the very first time with a media of which many are not yet acquainted. The web connects with images, sounds and also movement, just like in the real world, yet the motion, the feeling of odor as well as preference are currently virtual experiences.

It's just like having a digital exterior indication inside a virtual freeway of streaming electrons or a electronically relocating poster board inside a coffee shop. By simply clicking on them you most likely to the ideal electronic address. Internet marketing organisation affiliates that work for the entertainment industry have to build promotions that really make customers wish to check out the entertainment website.

With a little sincerity, knowing your product and showing that you understand how to be innovative in the marketing industry, you will certainly be genuine, and also have your own company with your very own hours. Working for on your own on the planet of the online world is the only method to be really successful today.

With your personal service, one that you rely on, one that offers a item you count on as well as one that supplies the appropriate encouraging motivation to succeed, there is just space for real and truthful company experts.

The Skills to Offer

The ability to offer is one that is very subjective and also not every person yet comprehends how a individual could in fact learn how to offer something. It is feasible to learn to offer something equally as it's feasible to discover how to check out as well as create or any other capacity.

Offering online is an ability that can be found out equally as conveniently as out in the in person world. Particularly for those that are already professionals in the area. Some people are simply normally curious about one thing while other people in an additional. Nobody was simply born understanding how you can read, yet below, you as well as many others are, reading this message.

It takes years prior to kids can check out, so, why would points be various for any individual trying anything else for the initial time? It is no various, but sales on the net is exactly like sales in the real life, and if you understand how to do that, you understand how it works online.

Basically the factor is to ask yourself, are you good at offering as well as do you wish to be also much better? Certainly you intend to be even much better than you currently are and also the net supplies that possibility.

It will take a mindset that could not in any way be endangered with points that are not equal to or over your personal individual goals. It will take the kind of self-discipline that you only become aware of in tales of fantastic actions. But most importantly, it will take the kind of sustaining self-discipline that it requires to dominate your personal self.

Time to Think

The greatest benefit to selling online is the moment one consecrates to the eternal circulation of human creative thought. You have time to research your target public, produce withstanding and valiant discussions that have actually never ever been seen previously anywhere and also most importantly, time to be consistent.

The target public is not just mosting likely to bulge of the timber job, they are there though. People are beginning ahead together in a brand-new globalized civilization and we go to the actual head of those curious about business, trade and leading home entertainment.

We market exactly what individuals desire. Finding them is as very easy as installing join the freeway of streaming electrons as well as in virtual reality cafés that they might chance onto while surfing the silver string of silicon webs.

Mainly, chat rooms and also e-mails do most of the benefit affiliate marketing experts, a lot more so for those building a home network, yet nothing could as compare to the power of having a static site on your own server and a subdirectory for blogging.

Sales is gifted with the meaningful patterns of human speech as well as has actually been responsible for the advancement of brand-new etymological patterns unlike anything else in our history. Imaginative people have imaginative ways of dealing with markets, and also on the web absolutely nothing can have a lot more possible than network building contractors that appreciate a good discussion.

Time to assume is really that, time to discuss suggestions as well as principles that straight could not also appear to be related to enjoyment, but related to connection, empathy and also feeling. Blog writing is a means of creating intriguing conversations in forum style, that people might discuss their very own interests.

Interest is the extremely blood of a sale. When we see a enthusiastic person speaking about their enthusiasm, we also become passionate. But it should be for real. Nobody wishes to buy a vacuum cleaner from a individual that sees the vacuum cleaner as a domestic tool for the dissatisfied domestic servants of the world.

People wish to buy vacuum cleaners from individuals who see the vacuum as a transformation to our way of life in the world! But truly see! Not imitating they see. Really seeing!

Naturally many people probably have not gotten a hoover sales individual at their door in over a decade, the metaphor is ideal. If you genuinely rely on exactly what you offer, if you absolutely know that it is meeting of some outstanding role in society, you will sell it well.

This is why blogging markets so well for online networkers. Interest markets, and also it is discovered by the search engines more often than websites that don't evolve. Chatroom as well as blog sites do even more help internet marketing than fixed sites do, which is simply human.

Just a professional sales individual could manage it. Learn the location, research study and you will certainly quickly discover that your marketing firm can be genuine, also in an ocean of electrons.

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