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monetizationpolicydotcom · 1 year ago

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Top 10 Best Phones for Business in 2023: A Comprehensive Guide

Introduction: In today's fast-paced business landscape, having the right smartphone can greatly enhance productivity, communication, and efficiency. With numerous options available, choosing the best phone for your business needs can be a daunting task. To make the decision easier, we've compiled a list of the top 10 best phones for business in 2023 that offer a perfect blend of performance, features, and user-friendliness, all while catering to SEO best practices.

Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max: The iPhone 13 Pro Max boasts impressive performance, a stunning Super Retina XDR display, and an advanced A15 Bionic chip. Its seamless integration with Apple's ecosystem makes it a favorite among business professionals. With its robust security features and extensive app selection, it's an ideal choice for those who prioritize productivity and style.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3: Combining the convenience of a smartphone with the utility of a tablet, the Galaxy Z Fold 3 offers multitasking prowess. Its foldable display provides ample screen real estate for managing multiple apps simultaneously, making it a unique choice for business users who require versatility.

Google Pixel 6 Pro: Renowned for its exceptional camera capabilities, the Pixel 6 Pro is a reliable choice for professionals who value high-quality video conferencing and photography. Its clean Android experience and prompt updates ensure a smooth and secure user experience.

OnePlus 9 Pro: The OnePlus 9 Pro appeals to business users seeking top-tier performance and a near-stock Android experience. With 5G capabilities and rapid charging technology, it's a reliable companion for those who are always on the move.

Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra: Packed with features, the Mi 11 Ultra offers a powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and a high-resolution display. Its impressive battery life and robust camera system make it a contender for business users with diverse needs.

Sony Xperia 1 III: The Xperia 1 III stands out with its 4K OLED display and unique photography features like the variable telephoto lens. For professionals in creative industries, this phone offers a visually stunning experience and innovative camera capabilities.

LG Wing: For the adventurous business user, the LG Wing's swiveling dual-screen design provides a fresh take on multitasking. It's a conversation starter that can enhance productivity through creative app usage across its two displays.

Microsoft Surface Duo 2: Designed with productivity in mind, the Surface Duo 2 features dual screens that can be used individually or together. It's particularly appealing to users who rely on Microsoft 365 applications for their daily tasks.

BlackBerry Key3: Catering to those who prioritize communication and security, the BlackBerry Key3 features a physical keyboard and enhanced privacy features. It's a nostalgic yet modern choice for professionals who value tactile typing.

ASUS ROG Phone 5 Pro: Even business professionals need to unwind, and the ASUS ROG Phone 5 Pro caters to this need with its gaming-focused features. Its high-performance specifications can handle demanding work tasks and provide entertainment during downtime.

Conclusion: Choosing the right phone for your business in 2023 involves considering factors such as performance, display quality, camera capabilities, multitasking features, and integration with essential productivity tools. By evaluating your specific needs and preferences, you can select a phone from this list that aligns perfectly with your professional requirements, helping you stay connected, productive, and ahead in the competitive business world of today.

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genericpuff · 1 year ago

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The Kiss Bet Episode 172 - Hot Pot and Venting About How I Want My 70 Cents Back

Okay, look, this isn't a post I was expecting to make today but it's something that just happened and I have to fucking talk about, so let me preface this with some context.

I had to buy coins recently and because I switched to using my iPad for reading comics on, I got a "new reader" type deal from Webtoons for a coin bundle that got me like 100 coins for $5; because technically it was a 'new account' as Webtoons operates their in-game currency model on apps, not on actual emails (meaning if you use the app on an Android phone and then switch to an Apple iOS device, they're technically two separate accounts which you sync the reading data between via the account info linked via the email, therefore they have two separate coin wallets).

So with more coins than I knew what to do with, I decided to start FastPassing The Kiss Bet again, which I had recently stopped FP'ing around the S3 mark, as it's recently devolved back into the "will they won't they" trope, but instead of between Sara-Lin and Joe, it's between Sara-Lin and Joe's younger brother (the "true endgame") Oliver.

Now I don't mind the ship in essence. Joe was definitely not gonna be endgame, it was always gonna be Oliver, anyone who's read any amount of romance before - especially high school romances - knows how this shit tends to go, and The Kiss Bet isn't exactly trying to be groundbreaking or subversive in any way, it knows exactly what it's about and what it's trying to accomplish.

But it's almost become a little too good at this. Because in playing the "will they won't they" game for so long with a character that we know is endgame, it's basically been weeks and weeks and weeks of-

youtube

That said, after I caught up on the recent FP episodes, it seemed like stuff was finally moving a little bit. We were finally meeting Oliver's mom and his stepdad who he has a fractured relationship with, Joe was finally getting with his true endgame girl, Vicky (who's totally not an exact genderbent version of Joe lmao) and Sara-Lin was finally realizing she had feelings for Oliver.

And then the newest episode came out, Episode 172 - Hot Pot and Venting.

CAUTION: FASTPASS SPOILERS FOR THE KISS BET OFFICIALLY BEGIN HERE!

Already I was a little petty over the title like "lmao ok clunky title but whatever". I swept it off as not a genuine criticism, just me being a nitpicking asshole over what's essentially Fluff: The Comic.

The episode cost 7 coins, which is about roughly 70 cents, albeit closer to a dollar for Canadian readers (here's something they don't tell you about Canada - our Monopoly game currency is just as fucked as it looks) and that's where I'm gonna get into my second disclaimer that I need to be perfectly clear about (and it'll be what we get more into later on in this post).

I understand the principle of paying for art. I understand fully that many of these webtoons are being produced on tight deadlines by creators who often can only afford 1-2 assistants, if any at all. I understand and fully agree that creators deserve to be paid for their skills, time, and efforts, not just as creators working on the hellsite that is Webtoons, but as artists in general who deserve to make a living the same as anyone else. Anyone who follows my stuff here knows I'm an artist myself so I would never debate the ethical necessity of paying artists for their work.

However.

I can say that, and also agree with the people who have stated in discussion circles such as on /r/webtoons that a lot of the comics that have started charging 7 coins have been suspiciously delivering less comic since. And it's not even so much in the literal panel count, the liquid volume of these comics have remained the same, but the calorie count has dropped significantly. Food metaphors aside, what I mean is that despite many of these comics maintaining their 40-60 minimum panel count requirement, they have in fact reduced the actual amount of content that happens in them, and The Kiss Bet's newest episode is a stark example of what I mean.

I am going to start by posting only post three panels - three panels that literally sum up the entirety of Episode 172 and what it chooses to spend its time on.

That is it. That is literally all that's established in this episode. I'd tell you to go read it yourself, but honestly, this is genuinely one of those rare times I can honestly say that a 40+ panel episode is not worth 70 cents and you'd be better off, and that's saying a LOT when these episodes are only priced at the cost of a gumball. At least Lore Olympus has entertainment in how bad it is most of the time, Episode 172 of The Kiss Bet is just nothing. You will literally get more substance and flavor from an actual gumball.

Literally every other panel in this episode is either repeating the same dialogue (Sara-Lin saying the same thing multiple different times to express how Oliver is holding her hand or how his stepdad is a dick) and then Sara-Lin and Oliver staring at each other. Over. And over. Again.

I am not joking. I did not cut anything out in that sequence. That is where the episode ends. Complete nothingburger, seemingly cut off right as it was just getting started like Cait Corrain's career.

Out of the entire episode, there were 45 panels. So I can safely assume Ingrid's minimum panel requirement is at least 40 per episode, that's me assuming the best that she didn't exactly meet her panel minimum at 45 panels on the dot.

Out of those 45 panels, there were:

Two actual unique backgrounds that weren't gradients or just a single piece of furniture

4 separate panels of Sara-Lin freaking out over Oliver holding her hand and wondering if he even noticed

10 panels of Sara-Lin staring at Oliver either dumbfounded or asking him to repeat himself (or apologizing over nothing)

5 panels of the characters saying nothing

11 panels of Sara-Lin repeating information in different ways that could have been accomplished in half that time

Two separate occasions of Oliver getting Sara's attention from off-panel, literally formatted the exact same way both times (and both followed by reaction panels of Sara-Lin staring at him dumbfounded)

Way too many panels of Sara-Lin blushing in response to Oliver being an asshole tbh like literally this guy's a douchebag, Joe may have been the "out of her league" love interest but at least he was nice and didn't treat Sara-Lin like someone who just bought a Husky as a "starter pet" ???

Again, I don't usually like being a dick about the coin costs, and I definitely don't like being a hypocrite in telling people they should pay artists for their work while simultaneously posting their paywalled content like this, but I think there does come a point where it feels more irresponsible for people to not be aware of what they're about to pay for and how little they're going to be getting. This episode is literally one of the best - and worst - examples of how far the romance genre has fallen on the platform - when it's not being overtaken and oversaturated by problematic series that romanticize abuse and sexual assault, it's being dragged to death with the most boring executions of tropes that everyone has seen before and is only exciting for anyone who's never read a book or watched a romance movie, period.

And here's the thing where I do approach a bit more "hot take" territory, but every time I see this argument come up about episodes not being worth the coin cost, I see others who rightfully argue that 70 cents isn't that much to pay for what you're getting - weekly episodes of work that are usually always delivered on time, with more panels than you would ever typically see in a free to read comic.

But here's where I take issue with that argument, as much as the principle of it is sound, it misses the overall point: readers are paying for entertainment first and foremost, so can anyone who's actually paying for regular refills on their app currency step away from this and truly call it "entertainment"? Nothing was gained. The comic had 45 panels to say something, anything, and managed to not even squeak out so much of a word. Even the silent moments have no substance, they just reiterate information that we already know.

Do we really need another panel of Sara-Lin blushing at Oliver? We've known for weeks now that she has a crush on him. Do we really need another panel of Oliver getting Sara-Lin's attention? What is this actually showing of their chemistry? What is being shown here that hasn't been shown numerous times - with and without dialogue - for weeks now? What does the comic have to show for itself after four seasons?

Another point of the "it's just 70 cents, don't be an asshole" argument that people seem to miss is it's not 70 cents. It's $1. Because if you want to buy a single episode of the Kiss Bet, you can't just pay for the individual episode in isolation, you have to pay for the coins first, and $1 is the absolute bare minimum you have to pay to get 10 coins, which will only pay for one episode of a 7 coin series - of which there are many now, basically any series that's 40 panels or more will cost 7 coins and, shocker, those are the series that WT will tend to promote most, you'll rarely see the 5 coins series in the banner ads, and that's not even getting into how there are more and more series cropping up that have 5+ episodes behind FP rather than the traditional three.

So if you're someone who's (almost definitely) keeping up with more than one series? You can't just pay the $1, you have to pay at least $5 for 50 coins, and that will NOT go far anymore or cut as evenly as it used to when just about every series is now 7 coins. Webtoons knows fully well what kind of game they're playing by making the new coin cost an uneven number while still offering increments of 5/10 in their coin bundles. They undoubtedly want you to be left with an uneven number so that you'll be easily lured into buying more coins so you don't 'waste' the uneven amount you have left that isn't enough to buy the episodes for the series you want to read. Obviously this is more speculation and not fact, but it's a common business model and with the series that have adopted the 7 coin count model (rather than starting off with 7 coins outright) such as The Kiss Bet and Lore Olympus, it's becoming abundantly clear that either the creators or the platform itself is encouraging these series to meet their panel minimums with as little content as possible in order to get more money out of readers who are barely even being drip fed actual entertainment and narrative progression, let alone spoon fed.

And then there's the waiting. The goddamn waiting. So many of these series guilty of siphoning their content off through a hose that they're deliberately standing on are designed intentionally with the most egregious cliffhangers in mind to keep their audience hooked so they'll undoubtedly FP next week. Do you know what that amount of waiting does to a comic? To its readers? First off, it artificially extends the actual pacing of the comic to make it feel longer than it is, when in reality, many of these plotlines are happening in a vacuum of very short bursts of time. Case in point, Lore Olympus is commonly confused for having a plotline that takes place over the course of months, when actually when laid end to end in order of cause and effect, many of its subplots - including the romance of Hades and Persephone - takes place over the course of days. This over-inflates the plotline's actual depth and, even worse so, it makes it harder for readers to keep up with information that's being delivered, as it often takes weeks for that information to actually go anywhere - so by the time it does, many readers have straight up forgotten about it.

It's absolutely not okay that so many of these kinds of series are normalizing literal slow burning for an audience who's paying to be entertained. It's not a "slow burn". It's just slow, and deliberately so. It's absolutely NOT FUN to follow a comic that does not go anywhere week after week. It's frustrating. And before long, it starts to feel like gambler's fallacy, where readers have to essentially gaslight themselves into paying into it more and more convinced that it has to pay off eventually, based on a promise that was never actually made, only assumed in good faith. And readers should not have to fill in the bulk of the content that isn't happening with their own imaginations, which is something that happens a LOT in these series that spend so much time on the characters just staring at each other and saying nothing. It's not 'plot' to just draw characters blushing and have your audience fill in the rest of it entirely on their own. This is certainly a technique in writing, but in the case of The Kiss Bet and other comics like it, it's much less of a valid technique and more just flat out manipulating your audience into falling so hard into the sunk cost fallacy trap that they don't notice they're being robbed blind by the plot that hasn't actually happened - and they've been paying for that financial and emotional robbery out of their own pockets and brains every step of the way.

Again, I do not care about the coin cost in and of itself, seventy cents IS still an incredibly cheap price for weekly updates of a series that has to put out so many panels each week. But as a reader and a customer, I should not be leaving these updates with less information than what I started with. And I'm someone who's incredibly old school by webcomic standards, there are comics that I follow that have updated 1-2 pages a week for over a decade that manage to do more with their limited pages than Lore Olympus and The Kiss Bet manage to do after entire hiatuses filled with pre-production time.

Why does this page of Alfie manage to move both the intrinsic plot of the titular character as well as the external plot that's going on around her in one page made up of 5 panels better than what The Kiss Bet can do in 45?

Why does this page of Tamberlane manage to convey more information about the world's lore and the people in it in a way that's emotionally driven and clearly affecting the characters without outright info-dumping than what Lore Olympus has managed to spit out onto its plate since S3 started over a year ago?

How does Tales from Alderwood manage to be more entertaining and convey more meaningful storytelling through its characters in a single page consisting of zero dialogue than what The Kiss Bet can convey in its silent panels of staring, blushing, and repetitive stuttering?

Why are the creators who are relying entirely on their own efforts, resources, and ability to generate income through community interaction and support putting out better work with less panels and on slower schedules for FREE than what we're seeing from professional creators on a professional publishing platform who are being paid to do this as their job?

There's this saying in the tattooing industry: good work isn't cheap and cheap work isn't good.

At this point, 70 cents is not a 'bargain' as many people like to argue in defense of the creators. And while I do want to have good faith in the creators who don't pull this shit, the creators who clearly go above and beyond to do what they do in the pursuit of storytelling and polishing their craft to be the best piece of work that it can be - the comics that are worth paying 70 cents and beyond for - are not the comics that Webtoons is promoting to people. The creators of the works that genuinely deserve more than 70 cents per update are being left to fend for themselves without support from the platform, while those that aren't worth the price of even a flavorless gumball are consistently winning the Wonka Golden Ticket lottery.

The cost of 70 cents is relative. For some works it's a genuine bargain. For others like the The Kiss Bet and Lore Olympus, 70 cents is not a "bargain", it's not a "good deal", it's exactly the value of what you're paying for - cheap work that isn't good.

#so yeah i'm done reading the kiss bet fr now #i figured if i had 100 more coins than i needed i may as well use them for something that i didn't need to start from scratch on #but i literally feel ripped off LMAO #webtoon critical #the kiss bet #lore olympus critical #anti lore olympus #lo critical #Youtube

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razzek · 9 months ago

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Top 5 MOST useful tools for blind people just starting out

Top 5 most fave tools for the blind overall

Top 5 least useful

Top 5 fucking weirdest and/or funniest

This is a big ask and I will do my best to answer, with the caveat that I am just a single blind person with memory issues who doesn't remember everything my blind friends have told me. XD I am counting other people as tools in this list because a person with eyes sometimes is a handy tool for us. XD

Top 5 MOST useful tools for blind people just starting out 1. White cane 2. Blindness skills training through centers, government programs like Vocational Rehabilitation, Orientation & Mobility specialists, and anywhere you can find it 3. Membership with the National Talking Book Library aka NLS in your state (US); I think the UK is RNIB and Canada has one, not sure about other countries 4. Supportive family and friends and other blind people if you can find them 5. Screen reader (NVDA is free for Windows, iPhone has VoiceOver, Android uses TalkBack)

Top 5 most fave tools for the blind overall 1. White cane and/or guide dog 2. Text to speech, screen readers, audio books, audio described movies and tv 3. Accessible smart phones (often iPhone but Android is catching up) 4. Bump dots (stick-on tactile dots you put around your home) 5. Braille and refreshable braille displays/notetakers

Top 5 least useful 1. Sighted people inventing crap without talking to any blind people ("smart" canes, "smart" shoes, dangerous devices you hold in your only free hand that claim to tell you what's in front of you but actually don't, screen reader breaking "accessibility" overlays, etc...) 2. That ring which only shows one braille cell at a time (that's not how anyone reads) 3. Strangers giving/yelling vague directions ("It's right over there!", "Oh my god watch out for the stairs (that you are halfway down)!", giving directions to the guide dog who doesn't speak English or any language because they are a dog...) 4. Hot liquid measuring devices (always broken, the noise they make is so fucking loud it's caused me a lot more injury than just sticking my finger in the hot liquid, will wake up the neighbors) 5. All but one use case of AI claiming to be for the blind, at least as far as I've seen

Top 5 fucking weirdest and/or funniest 1. Ping pong balls (good for measuring hot liquids) 2. Funnels (really helpful for pouring liquids) 3. The lanyard strap that sticks to the back of your phone so you can wear it around your neck (looks silly, is incredibly useful) 4. White cane holster (yes it's a thing, I have at least three XD) 5. Things being organized Very Specifically (close your eyes and YOU try to find the remote after someone put it in a random place! XD)

#just blind things #blindness #actually blind #blind #vision impairment #visually impaired #that last list was really hard cuz even the strange seeming tools #I don't think of as strange since they're just part of my every day #and I don't have a sighted person around to ask if something is funny/weird to them XD #the organizational thing cracks me up though #I have ADHD so bad y'all but I am almost superhumanly organized by necessity #when the meds are working I'm like a god of organizing strategies o_o #will help you get organized for money XD

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iwonderwh0 · 1 year ago

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Emma won't appreciate liberation of androids.

She and her mom probably moved out of Detroit as soon as they could.

What's interesting is that, as far as we know, she was video-blogging before the incident. It's reasonable to assume that she had some auditory, maybe a humble one, but still. It's also probable that post incident her small channel was found by thousands if not hundreds of thousands people. She won't post for a while, maybe even consider deleting everything and never revisiting this part of her life again. She used to dream about getting popular online, but surely not like that, not after what happened. What do they even want from her, why do they keep subscribing, do they expect her to give them a press conference? She silences her notifications, but new comments are appearing every minute, and she only briefly scrolls through them without reading any specific one. In those comments people are mostly arguing with each other, forgetting about Emma's existence, talking about her in third person, as if she won't be able to see. Most people are using her name to prove a point, others are asking questions, some of them are sending prayers and condolences, which for some reason annoys Emma more than those with inappropriate questions.

Seeing Markus's face on every channel and social network makes her cry angry tears. She will probably say that she hates him, hates androids, but that wouldn't be entirely true. Truth is that she's scared of them. She hopes to avoid them, but no matter the effort they're present everywhere - if not physically then in form of never-ending steam of media: news, memes, viral videos, articles, blog posts... There are no place to hide, even in Canada. And what's the worst part is that a lot of people seem to love androids, some even go as far to claim that they're "better people". Sometimes she tries to argue with them from her anonymous account, but people are calling her names, accuse of being a bad person, "anti-android nazi". They think androids are so great. But she knows that couldn't be further away from what they really are, how they can turn against you and put a gun to your head after being your closest friends for years prior, as if none if it mattered. She used to be just like those who are now telling her off.

If only they knew her story, maybe they wouldn't be so quick to judge. Even though Emma decided to never open her old channel again, with each passing week she thinks about it. It's tempting to just talk about her story that everyone seemed to be so interested in a few months ago, but now seem to completely forgot. She has to remind them. They shouldn't forget.

So one day, after another frustrating argument under her fake account, with burning tears of anger forming at the corner of her eyes she opens her phone camera and sets it to the long-forgotten tripod. She stares at it for a few minutes, her heart loudly pulsing in her ears. She tooks a deep breath and presses the record button.

#dbh #dbh emma #dbh headcanons #detroit become human

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go-learn-esperanto · 1 year ago

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Also you mentioned a VPN, but are there any free ones? Specifically like a Firefox extension or something like that? I can't pay money for one, and i'm gonna switch to Firefox soon anyways (long story). Also ik I said this before but thx for the kitties :D

I'm not very knowledgeable on PC VPNs but I found this article linking some

What you've got to be aware is that if they're free they're always gonna have limitations.

For your phone I'm only knowledgeable on Android. Opera has a built in limited VPN. It works only on the Opera browser though.

However I've found an app that basically works as a VPN for your whole phone

It's limited in servers and I recommend you keep checking the VPN symbol from time to time as after a while it automatically turns off the VPN I think but it works for all apps that use your location which is really good.

I went looking and found this one that has a bunch more server options

It can have very long ads but that's the price for being free. Using it right now and it works 👍

I've now also tried this third option

At first it may appear like it has more options than the last one but don't be fooled! Most of the servers are premium. It does have better options if you want your location to be the US or Canada but that's mostly it. The Super Unlimited Proxy is better for European server options.

Well that's what I found for free! I hope it helps even if I know it's probable that you have an Apple device instead of Android because that's the US norm. —_—

#ask #Anonymous #VPN #Resources #Also no worries!#Don't be embarrassed by your ask #We all feel down sometimes and it wasn't something bad to vent #I don't feel burdened by your ask. I quite enjoy trying to help people.

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canadaelectronics · 2 months ago

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Xiaomi Poco F6 Pro 5G 1TB 16GB (RAM) Black

Experience the Xiaomi Poco F6 Pro 5G in sleek Black, featuring a massive 1TB storage and 16GB RAM. This global version is powered by the cutting-edge Snapdragon® 8 Gen 2 processor, ensuring top-tier performance for gaming, multitasking, and more. With its stunning 6.67" WQHD+ Flow AMOLED display, enjoy vibrant visuals and smooth interactions at a refresh rate of up to 120Hz. The device also boasts a powerful 5000mAh battery with 120W HyperCharge, allowing you to recharge quickly and stay connected longer. Ideal for tech enthusiasts looking for high performance and ample storage, the Poco F6 Pro is available now!

#Poco F6 Pro #buy Poco F6 Pro #Poco F6 Pro 5g #Xiaomi Poco F6 Pro #Poco F6 Pro price #Poco F6 Pro in canada #android phone

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nochistudios · 2 years ago

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We’re excited to announce Untold Atlas is available for mobile phones (Android or iOS) in the App Store for US & Canadian players!

DOWNLOAD (US & Canada)

iOS: apps.apple.com/us/app/untold-atlas-anime-otome-sim/id6444777856

Android: play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.NochiStudios.UntoldAtlas

#indiedev #otome #datingsim #newgame #UntoldAtlas

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wanderingmind867 · 28 days ago

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I'm coming back to my Justice League of Canada ideas again. Because seriously, I have close to 70 or 80 ideas for this thing saved in my phone. So let's try and share more. I left off with a cliffhanger regarding Issue #42, so here's the beginning of the resolution of that storyline.

Issue #43: After Issue 42's dramatic conclusion, the comic goes on hiatus. Because there's three seperate solo comics I need to write in order to give people context: there's the miniseries about Jemm, Son of Saturn, some of the events of which I covered in my note on Jemm. But there's also William Nielsen's solo comic, the story of a normal human man discovering his life is a lie and then having to cope with really being a powerful android, and there's The Question series. Because we need to introduce Vic Sage to audiences too. So these three series (plus maybe a solo series for the phantom stranger or for the green lantern corps) are definitely necessary reading before reading Justice League Canada #43, hence the book going on a 7 month hiatus.

This hiatus would be addressed in other books, though. In the pages of The Protectors, Martian Manhunter admits to having an uneasy feeling regarding his old team's safety, while Doctor Fate warns him they can't meddle in the affairs of that other team. It's a conflict of gods, and we're not yet involved… Red Tornado and Captain Marvel/Shazam both admit to having concerns about their old team in the pages of the Justice Society and Squadron of Justice comics, too.

But now to the actual plot of the story: the Justice League has been missing for 7 months. People have been concerned, but nobody's been able to find anything out of place. It's just like they've all vanished into thin air. People just assume they're off on a mission though, so alarm bells haven't immediately started going off.

But this is when things get even more interesting. Enter our five protagonists: Jemm Bhokanius, the Son of Saturn and King of the Solar Federation. William Nielsen and Willow, an android and a mystical martial artist who refuses to disclose her past. Sam Heartsea, an old member of the team who was off on a leave of absence. And The Question, otherwise known as Vic Sage, a skilled investigative journalist and media personality on canadian news stations like the CBC.

All five of them are here for different reasons, though: Jemm came to earn earth's goodwill (so they'd join the solar federation) by serving on the Justice League for three years. William Nielsen was an android built to infiltrate the Justice League Canada. Although he turned on his creators, William realized the league is all that connects him to life. So he thought he might as well go see them. Willow and her child Sequoiah go with William, just because Willow sees a kindred spirit in William. Sam was coming back to the league after his months long hiatus meditating back in Newfoundland. And The Question was the only one of these five aware of the League vanishing, so he broke into their headquarters (disregarding government regulations), all so he could get answers.

But none of these five expected to see each other here. So they almost all end up fighting and turning on each other, before they eventually come to their senses and tell each other who they are. But then the real villian makes himself known: it's Chronos, that C-list villian of The Atom. But something seems different about him. Something…sinister. And before anyone knows what's going on, they all begin to disappear too. And this story will be continued over the course of the next few issues…

1. Jemm, Son of Saturn

2. The Question (Vic Sage)

3. William Nielsen

4. Willow/Mantis

5. The Admiral (Sam Heartsea)

Issue #44: Let me now explain what's going on. The C-List Supervillian known as Chronos has actually gotten himself possesed by the spirit of the Titan Kronos/Saturn, and Saturn's planning schemes of world domination. His big plan is to mess with the timestream. On other worlds or in other times he's tried other schemes (like the second titan war of of the Percy Jackson series), but he knows better now. He'll merely exile superheroes to the past or to his altered future. Meanwhile, he's going to go about recruiting an army of supervillians…

But now for the plot of this issue: We join William Nielsen and Willow, who's found themselves in a dystopian future world, oppressed by massive armies. While trying to fend for their lives, these two find a resistance movement, being partially led by Booster Gold. Turns out Chronos exiled him here too, and so he's been stuck leading rebellions in a dystopian future for the past few months. For once, Booster Gold's boasts about from the future have actually come true.

But now William, Willow and Booster are stuck trying to figure out how to escape from a life in this far future world. Since there's no clear way out, they just have to play along by trying to restore freedom to all the oppressed humans under Saturn's control in this future world. But this issue would leave them still trapped in the far future, since we'll need someone with powerful magics to get involved and free them later.

1. William Nielsen

2. Willow/Mantis

3. Booster Gold (Michael Jon Carter)

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mostlysignssomeportents · 1 year ago

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This day in history

Catch me in Miami! I'll be at Books and Books in Coral Gables on Jan 22 at 8PM.

#20yrsago Vote absentee, avoid Diebold machines http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2004/01/22/avoid_diebold_register_absentee.html

#20yrsago Air travel “security” as theater of the absurd https://web.archive.org/web/20040130200202/https://idlewords.com/2004/01/security_as_theater.htm

#20yrsago GOP electronically burgled Dems’ computers https://arstechnica.com/uncategorized/2004/01/3327-2/

#20yrsago Milne heirs don’t own Pooh https://web.archive.org/web/20040211100427/http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/art-main.html?2004-01/22/11.45.film

#20yrsago DVD cartel backs off, EFF wins, DVD keys aren’t “secret” https://www.eff.org/cases/dvdcca-v-bunner-and-dvdcca-v-pavlovich

#15yrsago Monty Python’s free web video increased DVD sales by 23,000 percent https://mashable.com/archive/youtube-boost-sales

#15yrsago National Film Board of Canada puts its archives online, free https://www.nfb.ca/explore-all-films/

#10yrsago Animal Planet’s “nature” shows: whistleblowers detail crimes, animal cruelty, fakery https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/01/animal-abuse-drugs-call-of-the-wildman-animal-planet/

#10yrsago Teach your rooted Android phones to lie to apps about whether it’s rooted https://lifehacker.com/rootcloak-hides-root-access-from-specific-applications-1505596942

#10yrsago Eyes on the Prize, famed civil rights documentary series, is back on DVD and Youtube https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/eyesontheprize/

#10yrsago One Soul: 18 interwoven lives in a graphic novel that pushes the boundaries https://memex.craphound.com/2014/01/22/one-soul-18-interwoven-lives-in-a-graphic-novel-that-pushes-the-boundaries/

#5yrsago Senator Mark Warner’s Stop STUPIDITY Act would protect federal employees’ pay during shutdowns https://www.scribd.com/document/398006535/Stop-the-Shutdowns-Transferring-Unnecessary-Pain-and-Inflicting-Damage-In-The-Coming-Years-Act

#5yrsago Republican Arizona lawmaker revives doomed “porn tax” to fund Trump’s doomed border-wall https://www.vice.com/en/article/gyapwj/arizona-porn-blocking-bill-trump-border-wall

#5yrsago An annotated bibliography of anarchism in science fiction https://www.anarchysf.com

#5yrsago The sad history of Livejournal as a lens for understanding the state of social media today https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/01/the-linux-of-social-media-how-livejournal-pioneered-then-lost-web-blogging/

#5yrsago Teen Vogue explainer: what are “resistance, rebellion, and revolution?” https://www.teenvogue.com/story/resistance-rebellion-revolution-explainer-interviews

#5yrsago English and Welsh Ramblers have seven years left to catalogue the nation’s footpaths, or they will be absorbed into private lands https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-the-uk/the-search-for-englands-forgotten-footpaths

#5yrsago A list of all the booze in Casablanca (surprisingly long!) https://www.wired.com/beyond-the-beyond/2019/01/booze-gin-joints-crazy-world/

#1yrago Walking the Plank https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/22/walking-the-plank/

I'm Kickstarting the audiobook for The Bezzle, the sequel to Red Team Blues, narrated by @wilwheaton! You can pre-order the audiobook and ebook, DRM free, as well as the hardcover, signed or unsigned. There's also bundles with Red Team Blues in ebook, audio or paperback.

#pluralistic

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pretty-idol-hell · 1 year ago

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I'm having a weird trouble and I found other people that have it too with idol land , the game just loads a white screen and nothing else it's just stays on that screen instead of the menu appearing it worked before but it doesn't now? Do you maybe know why this might happen? And also what's your favorite scr coord?

OoooooK. Okay this is gonna get long.

Can I answer the SCR question first, if you don't mind?

My favorite is OF COURSE...

Shion's original SCR! Baby Monster is my favorite brand and it has always matched my character perfectly.

But, barring that, my favorite would actually be...

The Triangle SCR! The colors are super cute and I just LOVE those big tails! This one has not been released in Idol Land and I wonder if it ever will be...

Third place is a tie...

Between Gaaruru's original SCR and her team SCR. I really like the wings on her team SCR, but it's the original that has the monster tail in the back right? Ahhh... The original was released on Idol Land a while back and it's one of the coords I regret not buying.

Honorable mention goes to:

Hibiki's! Hibiki was one of the last characters to get their SCR in season 3 so it was highly anticipated for me, especially since Hibiki was my favorite character at the time, and it did not disappoint. I'm glad they went with white (instead of blue like their regular CR or whatever). So regal! Again, another coord not released in Idol Land and I wonder if it ever will be... (even though they released a color variation for some reason.....)

Now, there are many Idol Time coords I would also add to this list... but they are technically Yume Rare and not SCR so I can keep it short! (Phew!)

Okay, so, about your trouble...

The white screen problem happens to me all the time. Maybe even once a week or so? When it does, all I do is force the app to close, reload, and then it works fine. By force the app to close, I mean like this:

If you are on Android you press the left button (sideways hamburger button?) with three lines to end up here, then either close Idol Land individually or just close all apps. I don't know what it would look like on iOS, unfortunately.

If that doesn't work for you, if it's OK with you, would you mind telling me what region you are playing from?

A while back we had a discussion on this blog about this problem, and the only people who could not clear the white screen were from South Korea and I think Turkey? Everyone else (USA, Canada, UK, Italy, Philippines...) had no problems. So there is a possibility there are some regions which have trouble accessing Idol Land. But if not, I don't know.

As a last resort (if you have already tried the force close a few times, restarted your phone, etc), you might try transferring your account (either to another device or after reinstalling), if you have a username and password saved from within the last 30 days.

(Another reminder to everyone, make another username and password! If you did around the time they updated it to 30 days, it's expired by now!)

Hope I could help you!

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zerosecurity · 7 months ago

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TikTok Acknowledges Zero-Day Exploit Allowing Account Takeovers

Key Points

- TikTok has confirmed a security issue that has been exploited by threat actors to hijack high-profile accounts on the platform. - The attack involves a zero-click account takeover campaign where malware is propagated via direct messages, allowing attackers to compromise accounts without user interaction. - TikTok claims the attack only affected a "very small" number of users and has taken preventive measures to stop it from happening again. - The company is working with affected account holders to restore access but did not provide details about the nature of the attack or mitigation techniques.

Security Incidents and Concerns

TikTok has faced several security issues in the past, including vulnerabilities that could have allowed attackers to build a database of users and their phone numbers, as well as a one-click exploit affecting the Android app. Additionally, thousands of TikTok accounts in Turkey were compromised last year due to insecure SMS routing, enabling adversaries to intercept one-time passwords and gain account access. Bad actors have also leveraged TikTok's Invisible Challenge to deliver information-stealing malware, highlighting the app's potential as a vector for malware distribution. TikTok's Chinese roots have raised concerns about the app being used for data collection and propaganda dissemination, leading to calls for banning the app in various countries, including the United States.

Legal Challenges and Global Bans

In response to the potential ban in the U.S., TikTok has filed a lawsuit challenging the act, stating it's an "extraordinary intrusion on free speech rights" and that the U.S. has put forth only "speculative concerns" to justify the ban. Several nations, including India, Nepal, Senegal, Somalia, and Kyrgyzstan, have already imposed bans on TikTok, while others, such as the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, have barred the app's use on government devices. Read the full article

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caltropspress · 10 months ago

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RAPS + CRAFTS #21: Andrew Mbaruk

1. Introduce yourself. Past projects? Current projects?

I’m Andrew Mbaruk, a Black poet living in Vancouver, Canada. I make "literary lo-fi rock rap," drawing from my diverse reading of poetry and classic literature for the "literary" aspect; – it’s "lo-fi" due to the imperfect sound quality, "rock" as the music predominantly features electric guitars, and "rap" because, if I had to use just one genre to categorize it, it’d be rap–I’m obviously rapping in the songs.

On one of my songs I describe my style as “assistant-professorial and janitorial”--it’s a blend of literary, academic, and philosophical elements with a touch of real-life experiences, viewed through my postmodern/modernist collage aesthetic.

Some of my recent albums are Why I Am Not a Painter (a 2023 song anthology), Black Squirrel: A Memoir (an autobiographical album through Extraordinary Rap), and Oiseau=textual: the flying rap album (centered around birds). Collaborations include Affect Theory and the Text-to-Speech Grandiloquence with Rhys Langston, Papier-Mache Chalet with Th’ Mole, Ultraviolet Flamingo with Vellum Bristol or Jouquin Fox, and Hip-Hop, With a Twist of Lemon with Mantis the Miasma.

Currently, I’m working on a series of lo-fi rock rap albums, each titled Abolish Canada. Abolish Canada [1] and Abolish Canada [2] are already available on my Bandcamp page.

2. Where do you write? Do you have a routine time you write? Do you discipline yourself, or just let the words come when they will? Do you typically write on a daily basis?

I write whenever I’m awake and in the mood, which is often at home. This could be in the middle of the night or just as frequently in the afternoon. Currently, I find myself in the writing room...surrounded by books... On my desk are three old dictionaries and a book of selected poems by Wallace Stevens, alongside an energy drink can and crumpled papers... Scattered throughout the room are various poetry books, and books on theory and philosophy, from Marx and Hegel to Frank B. Wilderson III and David Marriott... These books are mostly on a couch doubling as a larger desk, and atop an old synthesizer from the 1980s... On the floor stand an electric guitar and amp, alongside pedals and tangled cords at my feet... Two walls are giant windows, one of which is usually open even in winter (I’m often smoking). I’m undisciplined, though I still write almost daily – though there’s the occasional lapse, like these past few days...

3. What’s your medium—pen and paper, laptop, on your phone? Or do you compose a verse in your head and keep it there until it’s time to record?

During 2017-2018, I primarily used pen and paper for my writing. But, since then, I’ve transitioned to typing most of my raps on a computer. Occasionally I’ll compose a verse while walking, relying on my Android. The inconvenience of keeping verses in my head until I can write them down...that’s a problem I face during work shifts – cleaning Vancouver’s streets, e.g....and one song I crafted mentally while washing dishes at a burger bar. Using a recording medium like paper or a word processor is best though – it allows me to carefully consider connections between different parts of a verse, because I have the entire composition visible on a page or on a screen.

4. Do you write in bars, or is it more disorganized than that?

I used to have a more disorganized writing style, especially in the first few years of this rapping project... Initially, I didn't even see my work as a part of rap. It was only when I started collaborating with other rappers and producers that I began to structure my writing in bars.

While there are still moments when I write in a more formless manner, I stick to a more regular form these days, lines that last four beats. Typically, I'll create four lines that rhyme (using slant rhymes) entirely parallel to each other:

(e.g., “abnegating dactylic hexameter his vacation, a trip with dead passengers the Latin pages of literate Sapphic verse as the painting's acrylic red flags ablur”),

followed by another set of four, or maybe a couplet or two

(in this case, “as heroin mixed with the China White terror, his literary dynamite exposing the Pindaric champion; explosions, the thin shards of glass in him”),

and then another quatrain or couplet, or sometimes a set of six or eight rhyming lines, or sometimes more...and so on.

I never thought I'd become so formal or strict in my approach. I've always been inclined towards poetry that adheres to (for example) Charles Olson’s "projective verse", but surprisingly, weirdly, this structured approach is working for me now.

5. How long into writing a verse or a song do you know it’s not working out the way you had in mind? Do you trash the material forever, or do you keep the discarded material to be reworked later?

It’s different with every verse and song. Sometimes I’ll finish the entire thing and throw it out/delete it. Usually some part of the aborted material returns in a new form. I work in a "collage" style and see my rhymes as Deleuzian rhizomes, so I can easily connect my rhymes like Lego... It’s totally acceptable within my project to incorporate disparate fragments – unless the lyrics are focused by a constraint, as on my album about birds (Oiseau=textual: the flying rap album) or the one about the Iran-Contra scandal (The Iran-Contra Project).

6. Have you engaged with any other type of writing, whether presently or in the past? Fiction? Poetry? Playwriting? If so, how has that mode influenced your songwriting?

I’ve written poetry, fiction, a screenplay... The rapping basically grew out of my experiments with print poetry – I started making poems called "phonotexts," recorded poems, in 2014... I made a spoken word album called Phono=textual: a novel in mono... It took about three years for these "phonotexts" to become rap songs.

7. How much editing do you do after initially writing a verse/song? Do you labor over verses, working on them over a long period of time, or do you start and finish a piece in a quick burst?

I try to edit as I write, then I'll record the thing, sometimes using some instrumental that I'm not actually going to use – just to hear it, so I can edit it some more. Then I record the song immediately. It usually takes a few hours or an evening.

Sometimes I work on a song for a few days.

8. Do you write to a beat, or do you adjust and tweak lyrics to fit a beat?

I begin with the words and a rhythm usually... I write lyrics, then I make the drums, then I record the verse or verses, then finally I'll add guitars and synthesizer and whatnot.

9. What dictates the direction of your lyrics? Are you led by an idea or topic you have in mind beforehand? Is it stream-of-consciousness? Is what you come up with determined by the constraint of the rhymes?

I usually begin with one small idea, just a line or a few words, and I grow a verse or verses from the one idea through free association, playing with meaning and rhyme. I’m often propelled by chance, but just as often propelled by a thematic goal, and this can change midway through writing.

10. Do you like to experiment with different forms and rhyme schemes, or do you keep your bars free and flexible?

I’ve sneaked sonnets into my raps, and I’ve invented something called “rhyme chiasmus” (a rhyme scheme where two rhyming sounds are repeated in a chiastic pattern for many bars) but I’m usually freer.

11. What’s a verse you’re particularly proud of, one where you met the vision for what you desire to do with your lyrics?

The song "Electrons," track 01 of Abolish Canada [1]...though it goes on a bit too long I think, the bit right at the beginning is very good maybe. That song, and in fact the entirety of Abolish Canada [1]... That’s where I’ve most closely achieved much of what I intend with my words.

12. Can you pick a favorite bar of yours and describe the genesis of it?

My lines make their meaning through the relation to other lines. So, my favourite passage in my writing – "the human soul stuck in your body / fluent in post-structural ornithology” – is shaped by what surrounds it.

The song is called "Under the Oiseau=text." It’s about reading and about birds. And about reading birds as signs, an ancient practice.

I thought of these words because a bird, a pigeon, rose flapping before me as I walked along Commercial Drive in Vancouver. I decided to make an album about birds in that moment, and began writing "Under the Oiseau=text" as soon as I got home. Here’s the lyric in its context:

sans serif, these words upon my gravestone bearing the withered flower tossed - the Baudelairean inner albatross, the human soul stuck in your body fluent in post-structural ornithology . . . . . .his words draw you a map of the geographer perched upon a branch in the binoculars, this scholar of math as it pertains to flight, the neurographer mapping the brain with light

13. Do you feel strongly one way or another about punch-ins? Will you whittle a bar down in order to account for breath control, or are you comfortable punching-in so you don’t have to sacrifice any words?

I shorten lines and always try to do verses in a single take.

14. What non-hiphop material do you turn to for inspiration? What non-music has influenced your work recently?

Afropessimism, John Ashbery’s poetry, nature, the congressional report on the Iran-Contra scandal, and the letter N. Also, I collect and read dictionaries.

15. Writers are often saddled with self-doubt. Do you struggle to like your own shit, or does it all sound dope to you?

Some of my stuff I dig especially, other stuff I’m okay with, most of the stuff I don’t like no one can hear anywhere. Grand Lunatic I’m not crazy about, Andra Mbalimbali I’m not crazy about, Neuro=textual: a novel of ideas is not my favourite of my albums. From late in 2022 and throughout 2023, that stuff I like – though I’m on the fence about some projects like Black Squirrel and The Iran-Contra Project. The earlier stuff evinces potential realized by Oiseau=textual: the flying rap album and Abolish Canada [1]... That’s how I see things.

16. Who’s a rapper you listen to with such a distinguishable style that you need to resist the urge to imitate them?

Rappers who depend less on rhyme and just say really interesting shit, like AKAI SOLO or my friend Jouquin Fox, I can’t do that. I tried using a little less rhyme on The Iran-Contra Project, my concept album about Iran-Contra, and I’m sure I can’t do that. The constraint of rhyme is essential to my style.

17. Do you have an agenda as an artist? Are there overarching concerns you want to communicate to the listener?

Yes, I am trying to communicate many things to the listener. I am saying nothing specifically, and consequently saying many different things. (Any one of these different things I could write about at length, but it has been recommended to me that I just leave it at “I am saying nothing specifically, and consequently saying many different things” – nice and succinct.)

RAPS + CRAFTS is a series of questions posed to rappers about their craft and process. It is designed to give respect and credit to their engagement with the art of songwriting. The format is inspired, in part, by Rob McLennan’s 12 or 20 interview series.

Photo credit: unknown (hit me up)

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