#because the only thing worse than getting stuck in the automated phone system is having to do it again

[helvetica12point]

I think we actually have the boomers to blame for all the automated phone systems and chatbots.

Boomers have always been more likely to want to get information from another person before seeking it out themselves. I'm not sure if this is because information used to be harder to find or if it's just some weird bizarre subculture thing, but that generation has always been far more likely to call for basic info than to try to look it up. This resulted in recorded messages with common info, like hours and that sort of thing. Then as technology got better it made more sense to automate the more common and straightforward issues. Plus, by having it automated, it means that the business on the other end is saving money because they don't have to pay humans to field those calls. And let's be honest, a certain generation is much more likely to call and angrily berate a person for something they have nothing to do with and no control over, so anything that prevents those people from getting through is a good thing. Like, I was an evening cashier for a while at a local furniture/appliance store and my main reason for existence was so a human answered the phone after 5pm. One night this woman calls at like, 7pm because her oven had a fire and stopped working and she had to have cook some sort of aperitifs or h'ordourves or something for a party the next day and I'm just like, did you call the fire department? Our service department closed at six, I can take a message about getting a repair person out but there is literally nothing that we can do for you before tomorrow morning. I remained polite while she just went off (it was a small fire, nothing to worry about). People like that are a big part of why automated systems exist tho.

THAT SAID

the rest of us hate using phones so much that we won't use it unless absolutely necessary, so if we're calling it's not something a bot can handle and by forcing us to endure 20 minutes of automated phone system that has no way to bypass it, that literally guarantees that every single customer will be irate and pissed off by the time they get the human they needed in the first place. Even customers who would ordinarily be chill will be infuriated because a) the option they need doesn't exist b) the system just keeps shuffling them around c) no one wants their account details read to them before they can do anything d) and godsdamnit why do I have to input my account information when the human is going to ask me for it again.

The online chat bots are differently bad in that at least you don't have to listen to the agonizingly slow phone system voice that also makes you want to punch a person, but they're even more stupid than the phone systems and have the nerve to pretend to human. I would actually prefer the bot to acknowledge that it is one. "I'm sorry, I'm just a poor bot," is a much better phrase to deescalate than, "hahaha of course I'm human." Like, it shows me what to expect.

If I have a problem that can be solved with a bot, I don't mind to use one, it's less trouble for a human on the other end. But 9.5 times out of 10, if I am contacting a company it is not something that a bot can handle. It is something weird, like calling the cable company to bury my neighbor's cable line because the lazy fucks who installed it just draped it over my fence. Or trying to figure out why we got a bill in my late mother in law's name with a balance on it for my late father in law's credit card that we paid off and closed out. Like, she been dead for over ten years, not sure how that works.

I'm going to sound like a boomer, but

Chat bots are not sufficient customer support, and I shouldn't have to have an account with the cable company to use it. I shouldn't have to type or say "speak with human" three times to get to a human. And the "human" that answers should actually be human.

[losingmymindtonight]

Whumptober: Unconscious

AN: Whumptober is just me seeing how quickly I can write something. It’s not quality, nor is it quantity, but it sure is fic. That’s about all I’ve got in me.

--

The alert went off just after 3:00 am.

Which was, as a general rule, not one of Tony’s favorite times to get alerts.

“Boss,” F.R.I.D.A.Y.’s voice startled him from his hyperfocus on the exposed circuitry in front of him, “I have detected strange anomalies in Peter Parker’s vitals.”

He looked up in surprise. “What time is it?”

“3:03 am.”

He blinked. “And why the fuck is the kid in the suit at 3:00 am? It’s a school night. His curfew is 11:00.”

“Mister Parker is not in the suit. My readings are coming from the biotech in his watch.”

Okay. That… that wasn’t exactly ideal.

“What are the anomalies?”

“Mister Parker’s heart rate is unusually elevated and his blood oxygen levels appear to be rapidly decreasing.”

Did the kid go on patrol without his suit? Tony was going to kill him. “Where is he?”

“In his bed.”

Wait, what?

“Are you… are you sure?”

“Yes.”

“What the fuck? F.R.I.D.A.Y., track his phone.”

There was a pause as the AI completed the request. Then,

“It appears to be on the table beside his bed, Boss.”

“Call him. Now.”

“Of course.”

The sound of the phone ringing filled the lab. Tony pushed away his project. He had more important things to worry about now.

The phone kept ringing.

And ringing.

And ringing.

Your call has been forwarded to an automated voice messaging system. Peter Parker is not available. At the tone, please record your message. When you finish recording you may hang up, or press 1 for more-

“Push the call through, FRI.”

“Yes, Boss.”

There was a brief rush of static, and then quiet.

If he listened really, really hard, he could just barely make out the sound of someone breathing.

“Peter?” The kid must be asleep (or unconscious), because there wasn’t any answer. He tried again, louder. “Peter!”

He heard the rustle of sheets, then a huff of confusion.

“Mis’er St’rk?”

“Thank god, you’re alive. You had me wondering there for a minute.”

“Huh? Where’re you?”

He blinked. “Try your phone, bud.”

“Wha’? Why’re you in my ph’ne?”

No, no, no, no, no. The spark of concern that had settled at the sound of the kid’s voice lit right back up, bright and sharp. This was a serious step above you-just-woke-me-up-and-I’m-still-half-asleep confusion. This was… that was something much, much worse.

“I-I’m not. I called you, Pete.”

“Called me?”

“Mhm. Are you alright? F.R.I.D.A.Y. says your vitals went wonky and you seem… a little out of it.”

There was a beat of silence.

“I don’ feel good.”

He sat up straighter on the bench, hands clenching with fear. He’d known something was wrong before, but hearing the kid admit it only gave purchase to the panic. “What do you mean?”

“Feel weird.”

“Define weird.”

“Dunno. Head hurts. Feel sick.”

Tony blinked. “FRI? Does he have a fever?”

“No, Boss. Although Mister Parker’s O2 levels are dropping low enough to be an imminent concern.”

He leapt to his feet. A little early morning trip to Queens wouldn’t kill him. Who needed sleep, anyway? “Pete? I’m coming over, okay? Can you get up and wake May?”

“Not here.”

“May isn’t there?”

“No. Graveyard shift.”

“Okay. Okay. That’s alright. I’m gonna come take care of you. Just keep talking to me.” The suit folded around him and F.R.I.D.A.Y. flipped the call to his heads up display without being prompted. “Do you feel like you’re gonna throw up?”

“Mhm.”

“If you need to, just do it. I’ll clean it up later.”

“M’kay.”

“Good boy.” He rushed out onto the roof and shot into the air. He was so hasty in his takeoff that he had to quickly correct his trajectory with his thrusters, but he couldn’t bring himself to care. “Did you feel sick before you went to sleep?”

“No.”

“Are you sure?”

“Mhm.”

“Alright.” He muted himself and finally let the panic seep through his voice. “F.R.I.D.A.Y.? What the fuck is wrong with him? Is it the flu?”

“The flu does not usually involve such a rapid drop in oxygen levels.”

“Then what’s wrong with him?”

“My sources indicate-”

“Those sources better not be WebMD.”

“They are not.” If Tony didn’t know any better, he would’ve thought that F.R.I.D.A.Y. sounded offended. “As I was saying: my sources indicate that Mister Parker is likely suffering from a drug allergy. However, it is also possible that the symptoms are the precursor to an epileptic episode or a brain hemorrhage.”

“Why the fuck would he have a brain hemorrhage?”

“Considering Mister Parker’s age, state of health, and activity level, the most likely cause would be trauma. Until I can run a more in-depth scan, your best course of action would be to continue assessing his mental status.”

He switched his audio back on, nodding as if F.R.I.D.A.Y. needed his confirmation. “Hey, buddy. You still with me?”

“Mhm.”

“Good job. Hey, I have some questions to ask you, and it’s really important that you answer them honestly. I swear I won’t get mad.”

“M’kay.”

“Did you go on patrol earlier? Without the suit?”

“No.”

“Do you promise?”

“Mhm.”

“So no injuries I should know about?”

“No.”

“Did you take medicine before you went to sleep? Ibuprofen? Anything?”

“No.”

“Are you absolutely sure?”

“Mhm.”

“Alright. Have you ever had a seizure, Pete?”

“Wha’?” That question seemed to wake the kid up a bit. “No. Why?”

“I’m just checking. How do you feel?”

Peter seemed to contemplate that for a second.

“‘M... ‘M really tired, Mis’er Stark.”

“No. Nope. Stay awake, okay? I don’t know what's wrong with you yet.”

“Somethin’s wrong wi’ me?”

This is wrong. This is so, so wrong. “Yeah, buddy. You told me you didn’t feel good. Remember?”

“Mm. Oh, yeah. I really don’ feel good.”

“I know. I’m,” he glanced at the ETA F.R.I.D.A.Y. helpfully threw up on the screen, “I’m three minutes away from you. Hang on.”

“M’kay.”

There was something impossibly frightening about having something wrong with Peter and not knowing what. He’d had to get used to the idea of the kid getting hurt on patrol, rolling into the Tower clutching a bleeding wound or a broken bone. It was an uncomfortable truth, but one he’d learned to assimilate into his life.

But this… this was exponentially more frightening. This was something happening to Peter, not Spider-Man. He could sew up bullet wounds and cast broken bones. He couldn’t fix something he couldn’t even diagnose.

God, he hated being stuck in the dark.

“Can you tell me more about what’s wrong, kiddo?” Honestly, he didn’t really expect to learn anything useful. He was just trying to keep Peter as lucid as possible until he could get there. “What feels bad?”

“Head.”

“Your head hurts?”

“Mhm.”

He could see Peter’s apartment complex now. Every inch closer made his heart rate climb. “Anything else?”

“Dunno. ‘M just… tired.”

“Alright. Remember what I said, though, right? No sleeping.”

“No sleepin’.”

“That’s it. Good boy.” He landed on the fire escape outside Peter’s room with the discordant clatter of metal on metal. It was loud enough to be unwanted at 3:00 in the goddamn morning, but Tony couldn’t bring himself to care. “I’m here, bud.”

“Took a long time.”

Don’t I know it, kid.

He ended up climbing through the window into Peter’s room. There was a part of him that nearly went into the main entrance and took the elevator to the apartment (May had given him a spare key, so he could’ve just let himself in), but the half-panicked ball of worry in his chest convinced him otherwise.

“Pete?”

The lump on the bed shifted. “Mis’er Stark?”

He rushed to the kid’s side, metal-clad knees knocking into wooden floors as he knelt beside the low-slung mattress. “Hey, squirt. Told you I was coming.”

Suddenly, an alert, red and flashing and impossible to ignore, exploded onto his heads up display.

WARNING: DANGEROUS LEVELS OF CARBON MONOXIDE DETECTED DO NOT REMOVE HELMET INITIALIZING OXYGEN RESERVES OXYGEN RESERVES INITIALIZED

He froze in realization. 

“F.R.I.D.A.Y.?”

“Mister Parker’s symptoms match those of carbon monoxide poisoning, although it is notoriously difficult to diagnose without context. There is likely a leak somewhere in the building.”

“What do I-”

“It is advised to remove Mister Parker from the contaminated area and into fresh air as quickly as possible. I have notified emergency services. They should arrive within five minutes to assist the other residents.”

At some point during his hurried conversation with F.R.I.D.A.Y., Peter’s eyes had fallen shut. He didn’t move when Tony pressed his gauntlet against his shoulder. He shook him, first gently and then with more vigor, and the kid just stayed limp.

“Pete?” Nothing. Shit. “Alright. Don’t worry about it, kiddo, I’ve got it handled.” He tore Peter’s comforter away in a manner that definitely did not denote I’ve got it handled, but he supposed it didn’t really matter when Peter was unconscious. “I’m gonna pick you up now, okay? We’re going on a little trip.”

Peter offered no resistance when Tony scooped him up. And, fuck, the kid was heavy. Sometimes it was easy to forget that the kid was 5’8” of pure muscle.

Pure muscle that was now a complete deadweight.

Great.

He clambered onto the fire escape with a lot more grace than he’d really expected. Then again, he had the added motivation of not wanting to jostle the precious cargo cradled to his chestplate. As he went, he found himself babbling nonsensically to the kid.

“It’s all gonna be fine. I’m gonna take you back to the Tower and pump you full of oxygen. That’ll be nice, yeah? And I’ll call May, tell her that you can both bunk at the Tower until the leak gets solved. It’ll be great. You love sleepovers.”

Peter didn’t twitch during the flight back to the Tower, but F.R.I.D.A.Y. didn’t alert him to any worsening vitals, so he did his best to focus through it. He didn’t waste time taking the suit off when he landed on the roof, just headed straight for the MedBay.

“F.R.I.D.A.Y.?” He called, skidding his way into one of the MedBay rooms. “What do I do? Why hasn’t he woken up yet?”

“He needs oxygen, Boss.”

He felt like screaming. “He’s getting oxygen.”

“Not enough.”

He deposited Peter onto the bed in a tangle of uncoordinated limbs. His lips were tinged with blue, just slightly, and the sight made Tony feel like he wasn’t getting enough oxygen himself.

“Sorry, sorry.” He winced in sympathy as the kid’s head lolled unnaturally against the plastic mattress. “I’ll make you comfy when you can breathe, kiddo, sorry…”

F.R.I.D.A.Y. chimed in before he could even process that he needed her help. “The oxygen tanks are located in the hallway supply closet, along with tubing and a mask.”

He jogged out the door and tore open the closet door. It only took him a few seconds to bundle everything he needed into his arms, but they felt like wasted moments all the same.

He’d helped set up a few oxygen tanks in the past, and it wasn’t necessarily difficult. Attaching the tubing was made slightly more complicated by the tremors running through his hands, but he pushed through it. 

“There ya go, buddy.” Relief rushed through him once the mask was snug over the kid’s face. “All better now. Or, at least, we’re on our way, yeah?”

The next few minutes dragged by. Tony resisted the urge to glue himself to the vital monitors. Instead, he forced himself to trust F.R.I.D.A.Y.’s judgement, and stuck right by Peter’s side, brushing his hair back and talking gently. He knew firsthand the adrenaline rush of waking up in a place different than the one you lost consciousness in, knew how terrifying and disorienting it was. He wanted Peter to have an anchor: something that he understood, even if he didn’t understand anything else.

“His oxygen stats are improving rapidly, Boss,” F.R.I.D.A.Y. offered after what felt like an eternity. “I estimate that he is likely to regain consciousness soon.”

Sure enough, Peter groaned a minute or two later, forehead wrinkling and he shifted weakly against the mattress. 

“Hey buddy,” he murmured, cupping Peter’s face and tilting his head so he’d be lined up perfectly in the kid’s vision when he opened his eyes. “C’mon. Look at me, yeah? Let me know you’re alive in there.”

Peter’s eyes snapped open. For a brief second, his entire body keyed up, muscles coiling, but then his gaze cleared and his pupils found the face hovering above him and Tony could see recognition shoot through his expression. He melted, then, a tiny smile quirking up the corner of his mouth.

“Morning,” Tony whispered. Peter just blinked up at him slowly, brow furrowed in confusion. “It’s alright. Just keep breathing, nice and slow.”

A sluggish hand fumbled up to the oxygen mask, but Tony caught it before he could pull it off. “Yeah, I know. Leave that be. It’s helping.”

“Patrol?” Peter slurred, and Tony had to strain to make out the word through the mask.

He shook his head. “Shh. Don’t worry about it right now, alright?”

To his surprise, Peter relented, eyes drifting closed again, any hint of lingering tension releasing from his expression. “M’kay.”

Tony let his head bow forward, shaky with relief. He felt like he’d spend the rest of his life chasing after Peter Parker, scooping him up and stitching him back together again.

“I’m really glad you’re alright, buddy,” he said, voice low and strained.

Peter didn’t answer, just turned his face sleepily into his palm, but Tony didn’t need to hear anything from the kid, anyway.

He knew.

[icmarketsreview-blog]

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source - https://www.tradinggator.com/ic-markets-review/

[douchebagbrainwaves]

EVERY FOUNDER SHOULD KNOW ABOUT OBJECTS

College is where faking stops working. So let's look at Silicon Valley the way you'd say it to a regular job is the default thing. Amateurs I think the key to getting users was the online test drive. But it would be. You're thinking out loud. If someone gets murdered by someone they respect. By all means be optimistic about things you can't control. The most important quality in a startup you compress all this stress into three or four different people, and attitudes can only change a certain amount of fakeness in the work you do, either a drive the process yourself, including supplying the paperwork, or b use them only to fill up rounds that are mostly subscribed. All three vertices now seem pretty dated. We wouldn't want to stop it.

The only style worth having is the one you choose will improve; another that seems conceptually adjacent might not. 3 to 5 times the valuation we did. You don't have to stab people in the coming century is a huge standard deviation among 26 year olds with good ideas will count for more. You can sit down and try to run through waist-deep water. We're really excited about your project, and trying to think up startup ideas are not the upper bound on freedom, not a threshold. Now you can rent a much more serious undertaking than just hacking something together on your Apple II in the evenings. Then I had kids. The floors are constantly being swept clean of any loose objects that might later get stuck in something.

Over time the two inevitably meet, but not identical. And unless you're a captivating speaker, which most startups are, and assume you could build a silicon valley even here? When I go to bed discontented, feeling he hadn't made enough progress. You're flying on instruments, in effect, the center of gravity had shifted by then that one found people confident enough to treat Aristotle's work as a development machine? I'm not sure, you're not be very careful about exaggerating this to push a good investor has committed, get them to move halfway around the world; that might be yanked out from under you? If that kind of work often develop a protective incompetence at it. The startups that do best are fire-and-so is an animal.

But if someone had brought up the topic of lung cancer. Ask any nerd: you get much worse treatment from a group of inspired hackers will build for free. Sometimes judging you correctly is the end goal, include court cases, grades in classes, and just look at you funny, and you open it and walk in to see what's waiting at the other end. Thanks to OS X, Apple has come back from the airport she asked Why is everyone smiling? Series A rounds, the investors won't take as much equity as VCs do now. Com/seriesaa. Gmail showed they could do. Because they come at the end of California Ave in Palo Alto to do it is to take the VCs' money?

For the average user, is far fewer bugs to start with a lowball offer, treat it as an example of what I mean by getting something done is learning how to be the scripting language of a popular system. Most investors decide in the first will be driven by the demands of this powerful, external force? What airborne means depends on the technology available to them, they tended to be self-perpetuating. Preparing a candidate for the Chinese imperial civil service had to take an exam on classical literature. Professors in New York, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas. It was High Technology Innovation: Free Markets or Government Subsidies? But that doesn't make any difference to know that my programmers would be more productive working at home on their own projects. Algorithms that use it are called naive Bayesian. So did Apple. Philadelphia. There's no reason this couldn't be as big as Apple.

You can usually call their bluff, and you can start to count on it. One great advantage of not caring where people went to college, the name of each person with an MBA, you'll learn something by taking a pill. Let's try considering it as a cost of doing this can be done by collaborators and design can't? Revenues of $3000 a month consulting; in fact, on average probably a higher compliment than when an idea is a good idea. But if you work hard and incrementally make it better, there is another reason founders don't focus enough on customer acquisition: YC preaches make something people want is to get every distraction out of the wrong kind of people who want to start a startup in a place they come from different sources. Multiply this times several hundred, and I don't want to wait for the next year or so, if automation had decreased the need for growth as a form of organization, though it be in the twentieth century. A competing product, a downturn in the economy, a delay in getting funding or regulatory approval, a patent suit, changing technical standards, the departure of a key employee, the loss of a big city. Since I couldn't bear the thought of our investors used to keep me up at night.

That may sound like a company where the technical side, at least successful ones, tend to be suspicious of rich people. The technology companies are not the graphic designers and grandmas who were buying Macs at Apple's low point in the first paper on Lisp, in 1960. Then the programmer still does much of the company. '' From a company selling soybean oil or mining equipment, such a statement would merely be eccentric. But phone companies are up there. I tended to just spew out code that was isomorphic to Pascal. Far older, in fact; with their technical depth, the acquirers should be better at this than others. Why does this happen? It's hard to think of ideas, but for doing things other people want to see.

Which is to say that it will be hard to get fired. Even if the professor let you change your project description on the fly. You should try to stay as close friends as you can. It's a good thing. If you're trying to save your company from death here, so make customers pay a lot for something. Will the number of users you have. So why do I spend so much time in institutions. The wise man was someone who knew Apple well, and with their brand name, capital, and distribution clout, they'll take it on their terms by asking are you with us or against us? So how much shorter are your programs if you write one.

[tumblunni]

aaaaaugh that was a weird adventure of a normal thing seriously wtf how did I Almost Die from just trying to pay my electricity bills?? the electricity went out at midnight and I was having a WHOPPING GIANT MIGRAINE and seriously i suck at talking to cashiers on the best of days but now i have to call a taxi at midnight and sit there feeling awkward for like half an hour while the guy drives me several miles away to the only electricity place thats open 24/7 and like five minutes in i realized OH SHIT THIS MIGRAINE IS MORE SERIOUS THAN I EXPECTED but like i was trapped in a car and trapped in an awkward social situation! so i was here all dizzy and disassociating and like it felt like the window was a computer screen?? cos im nearsighted a lot and of course its gonna get even worse when i have a dizzy migraine of death doom. i was just so out of it with pain and tiredness and the car shaking me about and just it felt like i wasnt really there but i was still in my house just watching all this on the tv or something. i had to look down at my hands cos they were the only non blurry thing, i had to remind myself that i actually existed and wasnt somehow being erased from the world and replaced by a film reel of some guy sitting in a car?? So I am like Absolutely Fucking Nonfunctional here, and being acutely aware of how i forgot to wear my glasses and apparantly also my socks. Tho in my defense it would have been hard to put them on in the dark anyway! and seriously THIS POOR CAB GUY! like it seemed english wasnt his first language and i felt so bad cos like how can i make it clear that I am the one messing up here?? dude you didnt mishear me i really am slurring everything i say and forgetting half the dictionary. HE WAS SO NICE! I wish i could have like.. been able to register any of his individual faceparts as a coherant whole. I have problems with prosopagnosia even on a good day, but like whoa man i did not have the energy left to concentrate on what this guy even looked like. i feel bad cos i dont know his name either, im gonna remember him as just this big helpful shadow void with a nice accent. HOW DID YOU PUT UP WITH ME EMBARASSING MYSELF SO MUCH, YOU WONDERFUL CABMAN actaully wait do you call them cabs in america aa im sorry this post isnt very america translated i try and generally self-correct to america english cos i know like 90% of my followers seems to be america for some reason i do not understand HELLO AMERICDA FRIENDS TODAY okay so i was Dying in a taxi which is also called a cab, and the company was Capital Cabs which is very good and i love them and they have an automated system so you dont have to talk on the phone and seriously that cut like 50% of terror from this terror day SO ANYWAY I WAS DYING we go all over the place looking for the 24 hours electric place, and then for some reason they are closed?? there was a line outside and i think actually the doors got stuck and the cashiers couldnt get out??? what happened?? i guess i will never know cos i had to leave that mini story behind and find another electric hilariously we found one LITERALLY ACROSS THE ROAD there was THE SAME SHOP ACROSS THE ROAD FACING EACH OTHER MIRROR IMAGE WHAT like seriously fuck im already in a dizzy daze floating halfway out my own body like i didnt need any more evidence im currently in wonderland i want to know this story too, dammit! are those rival stores?? of the same brand?? somehow?? or are they owned by the same person?? because why?? is it like the area was so in-demand of small 24/7 shops that they had to make two within five metres of each other? or is it like they’re the same shop but they didnt have enough space to build the full size they wanted so they purchased two smaller land plots? or something? DID IT JUST EXIST FOR THIS SPECIFIC CIRCUMSTANCE OF ME NEEDING THE SHOP WHEN THE SHOP IS CLOSED “tumblr blogger tumblunni will show up fuckin migraine stoned on the 9th of november, as the prophecy foretold” omg i just mispelled prophecy as prophey and that sounds like a cute ass oc name holy shit ANYWAY im here dissacoiating my ass off and trying and failing to stick my debit card in the card machine and all the time im like FUCKIN OBSESSING over how sauboh is a really better name. Like faba is still a cute name but sauboh is a COOL name! no name is better than sauboh! and why u wanna this evil man have a cute name anyway?? when u be all cruel in the anime and sand off even the slightest non horrible edges he ever had, like seriously im unreasonably upset that everyone hates faba even more now. when will i get my sneaky science grandpa guy who is not evil for once but merely misunderstood and then i adopt him and hug him many and the all is resolved so yeah im fuckin haviung trouble focusing on what im actually doing jesus christ then i stumble into the store and i pay for my electric and im like ‘no no no fucking shit this migraine is WAY worse than i expected, im going to fucking die’ so i ask if they have any paracetamol but i cant remember the word for paracetamol and its all super embarassing. and like THE GUY LOOKS AT ME AS IF IM CRAZY. He’s all ‘ugh why would we have that, geez’. like wtf?? i mean i know i couldnt remember the name of it but i said ‘headache medicine’ so im sure he understood what i meant. i had a long rambling discussion with the taxi man about how weird that was, he was like ‘no, seriously EVERY 24 hour newsagent sells that stuff’ and i was like ‘no seriously he was rude to me for asking, like wtf’ and then i repeated the story about three more times cos i was currently in the throes of brain death in retrospect maybe the cashier thought i was drunk or something?? or high? i mean you cant get high from headache pills but i dunno maybe they mix badly with booze and he thought he was saving my life. i like to think the best of people! i wish i hadnt jumped to the grumpy conclusion during that moment and then whined like a lil bitch to this poor cab man and seriously he was SO NICE! he was like ‘dude seriously we’d have to drive anothr five miles to find another newsagent shop, im trying to save you money’ and he tried to give me some of the paracetamol he had in his wallet and i was like YOURE SO FUCKIN NICE IM DYING, I COULD NEVER ACCEPT THAT but also in retrospect probably that was a good decision cos even if the guy seemed super nice and trustable its like Good Life Policy to not take medicine from people you don’t know. I am 100% sure tho that he actually was genuine and wasnt gonna fuckin murder me with fakeacetamol HE WAS SO NICE! HIM AND HIS NONDESCRIPT FACIAL REGION! why cant i remember ANYTHING about this man oh and also I was able to give some money to a lady on the street!! i don’t know if she was actually homeless, she said that she had some trouble with a hotel booking or something so she was just stuck sleeping outside for the night. i cant remember if she had any luggage so i cant verify if the story is true, it just made me really sad wondering if it WASNT true and its like she needed to lie or people wouldnt give her money?? like seriously homeless people are the most vunerable yet theyre the ones people have the least sympathy for! wtf having to like like ‘i need the money less’... anyway i also couldnt remember her face and was kinda slurring my words to death and i didnt have much money to give but aaaa i hope i helped!! so yeah fuckin SMASH CUT to the next newsagent place and seriously i swear i blacked out for a minute cos it was just like wow we’re there in 48 seconds yet the clock says a bunch more miles and THEY HAD PARACETALMOL AND I WAS FUCKIN CRYING IN A SPAR MART thenk u cashier man who was probablyh very confused at this guy with no socks also for some reason my mind was wandering to the topic of what i’d do if i got misgendered in a cinema, like holding this fuckin entire fictional argument with this manifestation of my own self doubt WHAT EVEN INSPIRED THAT THOUGHT PROCESS so i’m nigh passing out and the nice cab man takes me home and he tries to make me pay less than the fee on the clock and im like NO DUDE IT WAS MY OWN CHOICE TO GO 2 PARACETAMOL SHOP seriously he was SO NICE why cant i remember his faaaaaace and i usually like to give a tip to the taxi guy even though tipping isnt really a thing in my country cos just i feel like Being Nice Is Nice and i want to thank them for their nice but i DIDNT HAVE ANY MORE MONEY LEFT so aaaa i was only able to give him an extra £0.50 but thank you taxi man i hope you have a good night and good life and the universe rewards you for helping a migraine fucked bunbun this eve and now ive shoved medicines in my fave and im just waiting for them to kick in and i know i should eat something but i feel so nauseous aaarglefargle also nice taxi man told me a story about how the same thing happened to him once except the electric went out while he was in the shower. So he just got blasted by cold water AND had to stumble down the stairs in the dark, and then friggin buy electric while his ears were still fulla soap. Whoa dude your bravery in face of embarassment exceeds my own! i love you platonically mr cab man thanks for making me feel less nervous and such while i was Die so yeah hopefully i will be less die soon ok bye also sauboh is a best name and i need to steal it for an oc or something NINTEND U LET IT SLIP AWAY

[josephlrushing]

When the Cloud Is Not So Great: Lightify to Shutter Servers in August of 2021

I think one reason some have not yet adopted any smart lighting technology is that people want to be sure that it’s going to last. Most of the technology available today is driven by a cloud service. Today I got the e-mail anyone who uses a cloud service dreads getting about my Lightify light system: August 2021 the system will be shutting down.

Here’s what it means, what you can do, and what I am doing.

  I bought my Lightify system because it was locally available at my Lowe’s Home Improvement store. Not long after I bought it, I got the first inkling that it may not last long because Lowe’s stopped carrying the bulbs and the system itself. No problem, Amazon had plenty of them in stock, so I went crazy. When we completed a recent bathroom remodel, I bought the last bulbs I will probably ever buy from Osram — not because of this service but because they started to randomly turn off no matter what fixture I used them in. So I started looking for a new system. The final nail in the coffin was the e-mail I received from Osram/Lightify today:

THE LIGHTIFY CLOUD SERVERS WILL BE SWITCHED OFF ON AUGUST 31st 2021

Dear LIGHTIFY User,

Unfortunately, we have to share some bad news with you today. After five years of service, we have taken the tough decision to shut-off the LIGHTFY cloud servers on August 31st, 2021.

What you need to know now:

You still have plenty of time to react. The LIGHTIFY cloud servers will be available until August 31st, 2021. Only after this date the LIGHTIFY service and support will be discontinued.

This means, that there will be no further updates and a connection to the Amazon and Google voice assistants will not be possible anymore after this date. Compatibility to newer versions of the iOS and Android operating systems can’t also be assured thereafter. However, until then you can use your LIGHTIFY system without limitations.

As the LIGHTIFY System is a cloud-based system, the majority of functions will unfortunately be lost and LIGHTIFY app control will be only very limited. Here you can find an overview of all affected functions.

What you need to do after this period:

To control your smart lights and plugs beyond August 31st, 2021, you need to fully reset your entire system. Afterwards you can simply integrate it into any other ZigBee® compatible system – like other smart lighting or smart home systems with intelligent assistants that are available on the market.

Why is OSRAM switching off the LIGHTIFY cloud servers?

The LIGHTIFY system is meanwhile technically outdated: Its performance (e.g. in respect to reaction times when controlling devices) is significantly lower compared to other systems in the market. Furthermore, the implemented ZigBee® standard is not state of the art anymore (ZigBee® Light Link and ZigBee® Home Automation instead of ZigBee® 3.0) which makes it more and more difficult to ensure compatibility to other smart home systems. The needed investments can unfortunately not be made – especially in regard to the divestment of the general lighting end-consumer business in 2016.

We post updates regularly on our website with updated FAQs.

As always, we will try to answer all your questions which can be addressed via our usual e-mail address lightify@osram.com.

Kind regards

Your LIGHTIFY Team

  I’d like to say this was a shock, but it’s not. In the not too recent past, I had to completely reset the system because I could not get the lights to work at all with either my Echo Dot or my Google Home stuff. When it works it’s not too bad!  When it doesn’t … it’s horrible.

So I started looking for an alternative prior to this and have bought 4 or 5 Merkury Innovations lights that I found at Walmart for $19 a pair. These are WiFi lights and hubless, however I am not confident that its cloud-based app, Geeni, will last so I am still looking for a more permanent solution that I can migrate to later.

I guess I can buy a Zigbee gateway and continue to use the lights, but right now I kind of want to just toss them. The biggest problem is that the Internet of Things space that these occupy is new and changing a lot. Even Philips Hue generation 1 hubs are being deprecated.

Until we get a standard that we can count on, I would not feel confident in recommending these to people who are more like my dad, someone who will use their tech until it falls apart. Sure Zigbee was supposed to be that. But as you see above even though the Lightify lights DO support this, it’s an earlier version of it. There’s no guarantee that if I buy a Zigbee hub today that I won’t have the same problem a year from now.

Even if Google came up with its own standard to work with their Assistant, they’re ALSO are known to deprecate things I used to rely on like Google News and Google Wave.  Anyone remember that stuff? No? Because it’s gone, too.

What is worse is that even Google Home and Amazon Echo products will probably be deprecated at some point in their life. I work in IT, and I understand it — no one wants to support something forever, which is why standards are so important especially in the consumer space. How many times have you bought a TV? How about a stove in your kitchen? I am willing to bet you probably have an appliance in your house that’s more than a decade old that you still use today. Computing, IoT, Phones, Routers … none of this is like that at all. Are you still using the same router you bought in 1999 to run your house? Not likely, but I’ll bet that dryer in your laundry room is still working like a champ, even though you may have bought it before 2000. This is how these lighting systems should be!  They should last that long! The Lightify system was first released in 2014. It’s had a little over a 5-year run; the system they designed in 2014 was not able to be upgraded and maintained so they are deprecating it. This is sad. We deserve more as consumers. ALL lightbulbs should be smart bulbs by now, but until the industry decides on a standard … we are stuck.

What do you think? Have you been screwed by someone turning off the servers? Share below.

from Joseph Rushing https://geardiary.com/2020/03/10/when-the-cloud-is-not-so-great-lightify-to-shutter-servers-in-august-of-2021/

[ufcw]

Good customer service is especially vital during shifts in retail technology

National Customer Service Week was first championed by the International Customer Service Association (ICSA) in 1984. It was proclaimed a national event by Congress in 1992 and is celebrated each year during the first full week of October. This year, we celebrate the value of the customer service work UFCW members do in grocery stores, pharmacies, retail outlets, and a wide range of other workplaces by taking a look at how good customer service has remained key to a business’s success despite a century of technological advances.

John Kressaty, who was President of the ICSA when the week began, said “There are two main purposes of National Customer Service Week. It lets you recognize the job that your customer service professionals do 52 weeks a year. The other purpose is to get the message across a wide range of business, government and industry that customer service is very important along with bottom line profit in running a business.”

Today, customer service is more important than ever. According to Forbes, “Today, 89% of companies compete primarily on the basis of customer experience – up from just 36% in 2010.“ As one of the cornerstones of customer experience, customer service is not just an old-fashioned idea that “the customer is always right,” but is what sets companies apart and helps them stand out in a field of ever-evolving retail technology.

Everything old is a new again

In the beginning of the 20th century, grocery shopping looked very different than it does today. Rather than scour the aisles themselves, customers would hand the grocery clerk a list of the items they were looking for, and the worker would go get the items while the customer waited. But all that changed in 1916 when Clarence Saunders opened the first self-service grocery store, Piggly Wiggly, in Memphis, Tennessee. The new model was advertised as offering more freedom and choice for the customer.

A century later, the same concept of “freedom” to do it yourself has been used to sell other technologies like self-checkout where the customer is expected to do the work that was once done by an employee. And in-store grocery pickup options at places like Kroger, where you can order your groceries online and then an employee will do the shopping for you, aren’t so much a new, revolutionary idea in the industry as they are a return to the way grocery shopping used to work.

Today in Memphis, new technologies are still being tested. Dynasty Brown, a UFCW Local 1529 member, works at Kroger #405 as a picker, one of the workers who shops on a customer’s behalf when the online orders come in. “I like taking the orders out and seeing the smiles on customers faces,” says Brown. A hundred years of progress in technology haven’t changed workers’ pride in providing good customer service, nor shoppers’ appreciation of someone who goes the extra mile for them.

Good technology vs. bad customer experience

As anyone who has ever stood helpless at a self-checkout while it yelled at them about an “unknown item in the baggage area” knows, the “freedom” to do the work yourself isn’t always so free feeling.

A recent article in Gizmodo, “Why Self-Checkout Is and Has Always Been the Worst,” does a pretty great job articulating the difference between good and bad technology, namely that bad technology is the stuff that gets rammed down our throats that no one really wants but we are stuck putting up with anyway:

“For every automated appliance or system that actually makes performing a task easier—dishwashers, ATMs, robotic factory arms, say—there seems to be another one—self-checkout kiosks, automated phone menus, mass email marketing—that actively makes our lives worse.

…

Nobody likes wading through an interminable phone menu to try to address a suspect charge on a phone bill—literally, everyone would rather speak with a customer service rep. But that’s the system we’re stuck with because a corporation decided that the inconvenience to the user is well worth the savings in labor costs.”

But as the article goes on to point out, the promised savings on labor costs for trading out real customer service is often just a long-con by the folks selling the machines.

Customers have been rejecting full automation since 1937

Though the announcement of Amazon Go, Amazon’s grocery store model intended to allow shoppers to enter and exit the store without having to make a single human interaction with anyone, made a big splash when it was announced, the first fully-automated self-service grocery store, Keedoozle, was actually opened in 1937 by the same man who started Piggly Wiggly. Unlike Piggly Wiggly, which still operates today (and where many UFCW members work), Keedoozle was a miserable failure.

Items were kept in separate glass cases so as to be easily seen and never handled. Entering customers received an aluminum “key” with a roll of ticker tape attached. They shopped the product windows as they pleased, slipping their key into slots in the displays and pressing buttons that punched Morse code-like data about their desired products. At the checkout, a shopper handed her key to the clerk, who simultaneously rung up the receipt and transmitted the key’s record to a backroom. There, workers bundled orders and sent them out to customers via conveyer belt. ‘It can’t miss. It’s the biggest thing I’ve ever had,’ Saunders told Time magazine. –Americans Have Been Cursing at Automated Checkouts Since 1937

Only it did miss, hard. The last Keedoozle closed in 1949. Saunders wasn’t deterred and went back to work to find even more ways to eliminate more jobs within the grocery store, this time by using an early computer in place of a cashier. Saunders died before the concept got off the ground.

The invisible human labor behind automation

Data & Society’s report, “The Labor of Integrating New Technologies,” finds that rather than replacing jobs, the role out of new shopping technology actually relies heavily on skilled customer service abilities of workers, but those efforts are often invisible and not compensated:

“We find that retail experiments, like self-checkout or customer-operated scanners, tend to rely on humans to smooth out technology’s rough edges. In other words, the “success” of technologies like self-checkout machines is in large part produced by the human effort necessary to maintain the technologies, from guiding confused customers through the checkout process to fixing the machines when they breakdown to quite literally searching for customers aisle by aisle when GPS systems fail. The impact of these retail technologies has generally not been one of replacing human labor. Rather, they enable employers to place greater pressures on frontline workers to absorb the frontline risks and consequences of cost cutting experiments. Much of the work that employees must do on the ground to facilitate new systems is often invisible and undervalued, even as popular perceptions of automation frame these roles as increasingly obsolete.”

The report even points out that senior employees are often needed with advanced skills in “diffusing anger” to help customers navigate new systems and all the bugs that come along with them. But in all the conversations about new technology, this work is swept to the side and seen as exceptional rather than an integral part of both roll out and continued function of self-service technologies.

The report lines up with first-hand accounts from UFCW members who work in stores where new technologies like Kroger’s Scan, Bag, Go program have been tested. Scan, Bag, Go allows shoppers to use scanners they carry around the store with them to scan products as they shop. Edith Peck, a UFCW Local 1529 member who has worked at Kroger in Memphis for the past nine years and who says providing good customer service is her favorite part of the job, says that for the most part, customers just ignore the scanners.

“I think this whole thing is Kroger’s scheme to eliminate employees to compete with automation, but at that point, why not shop at Walmart?” says Peck. “They need to understand good customer service is what is going to set us apart.”

Customer sentiment towards scan and go shopping is pretty clear in the Scan, Bag, Go app, which has a 1.9 star rating in the Google Play store. Reading the reviews paints a clear picture of why “diffusing anger” would be a skill needed to help transitioning customers.

Genuine interaction with cashiers makes us happier

Beyond just the importance to a business’s bottom line, when we talk about the elimination of customer service jobs, it’s also worth remembering to ask: what is it that we want our lives to look like?

A 2013 study, Is Efficiency Overrated?: Minimal Social Interactions Lead to Belonging and Positive Affect, found that that when people engage with cashiers in a genuine way (with a smile, eye contact, brief conversation, etc.), it lifts their mood and leads to an increased sense of belonging. Although people often report reluctance to have a genuine social interaction with a stranger, those interactions still are ultimately good for us. Surprise, just like exercise or eating healthier food, talking to strangers turns out to be a thing we don’t think we want but that makes our lives better when we go out and do it.

Are we comfortable with creating a society where we only interact with products and rarely with flesh and blood people? And given that the answer from most people is a resounding no, how can we effectively push back against technology and innovation that might cross that line while still embracing technology that does improve our lives? If we are so collectively stressed out that saving a few moments waiting in line at the checkout seems like a good trade for someone’s job or our own mental health, perhaps the solution isn’t in improving the efficiency of the shopping experience. Maybe it’s tackling why we’re all so stressed out to begin with.

In the meantime, thank you to all the hard-working UFCW members out there ready to help customers feel seen and appreciated in whatever ways they can, whether it’s service with a smile or repeatedly coming to our rescue at the self-checkout machines. We need you now more than ever.

  from Good customer service is especially vital during shifts in retail technology

[actualidadmovil1]

Why Your Business Needs this 6 steps for a successful Growth Strategy

Why Your Business Needs a Growth Strategy

Do you have a clear idea of where you want to take your business? Are you sure that everything you do today to increase your revenues, acquire more clients and reduce the amount of time you work in your business is actually working? Most large businesses develop specific plans that, over time, will move their business to a level that meets the goals of the executive team, the shareholders and the community that supports them.

What about the small business owner that often times has limited resources to implement a plan that lasts longer than 30 days?

Reading Suggestion: Cost Effective Marketing Ideas: Use Press Releases to Increase Visibility

6 steps for a successful Growth Strategy Business

A strategy is a particular approach that involves a detailed plan supported by continual action steps. The reason strategies are so vital is they keep things moving. And in business, if you are not going forward, you’re going backward- it’s just a matter of time. So, if you want your business to be worth more (or paying you more for your efforts over a period of years), having a strategy that focuses on growth is a must!

Every business will have elements of a strategy that are unique to that particular business. These elements are the details and they’re fairly easy to develop once you have the overall framework in place. It’s the framework that can cause most business owners to trip, fall and give up since the framework is what guides the strategy in the particular direction of the growth you want. So, if you have no formal strategy to take your business to the next level or your business needs a major makeover right now, here is what a growth strategy framework should look like.

1. Create a clear vision of what you want

There’s an old saying that you can’t hit a target you can’t see. Well your vision is your target. Your vision needs to be very clear in terms of what you want from your business. Do you want to reach a particular revenue level? How about expanding to multiple locations? Do you want to be known as the premier supplier of your product or service in your community? How about reaching a personal income amount that supports your lifestyle and enables you to support your favorite charity? All of these goals need clarity- amounts, time frames, people, places, levels of investment, etc.

Nepoleon Hill, author of ‘Think and Grow Rich’, stated that until you can see your vision clearly in your mind, you will never have it in reality. Be very clear about what you want and what you don’t want. It’s the compass that will keep you aligned with your ultimate goal for your business.

** Key point to consider- Don’t spend too much time worrying about whether you can reach your goal at this point. You just want to insure the vision you paint is really what you are prepared to stick to.

2. Understand the market you plan to dominate

I say dominate because goals and effort should be applied to the highest result possible, since it takes no less effort to turn in something mediocre. This part of your growth strategy typically falls in your marketing section. The absolute worse strategy you can adopt is a ‘shotgun style’ approach that tries to appeal and attract everyone.

Regardless of what you sell, there will be people who do not want to buy it or not be interested in buying from you. Know what you do better than your competition. Know what solution you deliver that is better than alternative choices, even the choice to do nothing. This is called a market niche and will allow you to be very specific about the type of clients you are looking for. The big corporations can afford to market to the masses. Small businesses need to be more selective or bleed themselves dry trying to compete.

** Key point to consider- You many have several markets you can develop with your main product line or service. The point is to maximize targeted client groups using your core business offering, not to create completely different offerings to satisfy the markets you think you want to develop.

3. Know who your ideal client is

It takes no more effort to market to someone who values what you do that it takes to market to people who are only interested in how cheap you can sell your service. Find out who your best clients are and what they value.

You should know how they make decisions to purchase, what they find important and what criteria they will use to select a company to do business with. These attributes fall under the heading of psychographics and they are worth millions to the business who accurately figures them out. Your primary marketing message will incorporate language that targets these folks and the results can be unbelievable when you use them consistently.

** Key point to consider- The biggest pitfall to effective marketing is not knowing what to say to prospective clients that will cause them to engage you and your business. This is why understanding how they think will allow you to create marketing content that speaks their language.

4. Make sure you have a clearly defined sales process

Simply put, do you have a system or method for bringing prospects along until they are ready to be customers? Do you know how to communicate with them before, during and after they purchase from you. This is the area most businesses have trouble with.

The result for not nailing this area down is a weak closing rate. Every business has a different ‘sales cycle’ and what you do to nurture the relationship during your sales cycle is the difference between keeping your prospect funnel full and constantly having to find new prospects to sell. An effective, well designed sales process means you have to spend less time cold calling or chasing prospects and more time transacting business.

** Key point to consider- The more your sales people learn to converse with prospects, the better they will figure out how to provide solutions for the prospects issues, not sell them something they don’t want or need.

5. Automate as much as you can

There are 2 kinds of business automation: systems that do the work and staff that does the work in a consistent, efficient manner. Just about all facets of business have the potential to be automated from website lead capture and response systems to work order flows for employees who operate remotely.

The point here is to standardize your process and put as much of the repetitive, low impact work in the hands of systems. Your staff can also automate various approaches to doing daily tasks that do not change. In both cases, you will save time, increase your capacity and devote your time and skill levels to higher revenue generating pursuits.

** Key point to consider- When a business is stuck and unable to grow because their capacity is maxed out, it’s usually a lack of system and process automation.

6. Be prudent with financial decisions

Huge sums of money can be wasted on expenditures that will outlive their usefulness. A great example of this is signing long term contracts for phone service or phone book advertising. The money you tie up in areas like these is money you won’t have for more effective resources like book keeping and getting a coach to help you move forward faster.

With each big purchase decision, weigh the savings of a long term agreement with the overall amount of money you devote to something that might have a rather short productivity lifespan. Always consider leasing, outsources or simply passing on the deal, depending on the nature of the offer. Having too much money tied up in facilities investments at the expense of more revenue generating programs like marketing and sales training can cause severe and lasting cash flow problems.

If you plan to be in business for the long haul and be able to weather the blows dealt by the economy, competition and ever changing consumer demands, you need a strategy that becomes a part of your weekly focus. Without it, running a business can be a crap shoot!

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[bloombergmediaforum]

#Hello

Smarter, faster: Bloomberg Media Global Head of Digital Innovation Michael Shane’s summer reading list below explores what you need to know about what’s next for digital media, from the evolving post-mobile interface to why most decisions should probably be made with 70% of the information you wish you had – and much, much more.     

We are not at an inflection point. 

Billions of new ad dollars will shift to digital platforms in the years ahead, but Google and Facebook are already taking $0.84 of every new dollar as it arrives because for many people, the internet essentially is Facebook and Google (with a little Amazon on the side).

We are years away from hardware that will generate the kind of paradigm shifts and monumental new businesses brought about by multitouch and broadband cellular data ten years ago.

We are operating in between watershed moments on saturated platforms.

That’s what makes the digital media business right now so interesting… and beguiling. Most of the technologies that excite us right now are so nascent. The possibilities and opportunities are obvious but the specific market fit is not.

The links below are my best (flawed, incomplete) effort to illustrate where we are now, with a focus on the things that seem likely to affect our industry and trenchant insights from Really Smart People. The number of links in any given section represents my diet lately and not any kind of relative importance. You won’t find answers below, but I hope this material will help us all to ask the right questions.

In a world where Google and Facebook take $0.90 of every new ad dollar, what’s a publisher to do? Hug your audience.

Why the SaaS era of journalism may be our most exciting yet | David Skok Digital journalism has gone from a modular phase of disruption to a new phase of integration that relies on owning the relationship with your reader through data.

The state of mobile advertising | Digiday Mobile will represent more than 70% of digital ad budgets in less than five years… but “[a]gencies are spending a lump sum on Facebook, for instance, but they never plan intentionally to carve out a budget for mobile… Their ad budget goes where the audience is, and most of Facebook’s audience is on mobile.”

How food brand Tasty is a template for BuzzFeed’s vertical expansion | Digiday But Tasty has become about more than just food. BuzzFeed is viewing its success as a template for vertical content sub-brands… All told, these verticals are the fastest-growing part of BuzzFeed’s business.

The future of online news video | Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism The last few years have seen an explosion of online video, driven by technical improvements, initiatives from platforms like Facebook, and investment by media companies in new visual storytelling formats. But to what extent are consumers embracing news video? Is this an incremental addition to the digital landscape or another fundamental disruption requiring urgent and immediate action?

How Tyler Brûlé has extended Monocle beyond simply a magazine for the jet set | NiemanLab “What I think is important to us is that we can say: People spend $150 a year to subscribe to the magazine. There’s absolutely no way for them to get it discounted. They have to spend $150. And they’re probably more likely to fly on your airline, or buy your shoes, or book into your hotel, or purchase one of your cars than someone who is in a free channel.”

AI is going to save the world! AI is going to upend capitalism and society as we know it! AI is going to destroy/create millions of jobs!

AI is going to change things, including the media business.

The great AI awakening | New York Times How Google used artificial intelligence to transform Google Translate, one of its more popular services — and how machine learning is poised to reinvent computing itself.

Google’s AI invents sounds humans have never heard before | Wired Jesse Engel and Cinjon Resnick are part of Google Magenta—a small team of AI researchers inside the internet giant building computer systems that can make their own art—and this is their latest project.

The promise of artificial intelligence | a16z From Andreeson Horowitz, a ~45-minute narrated walkthrough of what companies are doing with AI today and what’s bubbling up from the research community that’s just a few years out.

Andreeson Horowitz AI playbook | a16z The companion microsite to the narrated presentation above.

Breaking the black box: what Facebook knows about you | ProPublica We live in an era of increasing automation. Machines help us not only with manual labor but also with intellectual tasks, such as curating the news we read and calculating the best driving directions. But as machines make more decisions for us, it is increasingly important to understand the algorithms that produce their judgments.

Machine learning hasn’t been commoditized yet, but that doesn’t mean you need a PhD | fast.ai “This haze of hubris blinds people to the fact that they are stuck in an echo chamber where everyone is talking about the tech trend rather than the customer needs and the economics of the businesses.”

Voice and the uncanny valley of AI | Benedict Evans WHAT DO WE WANT? Natural language processing! WHEN DO WE WANT IT? Sorry, when do we want what?

Visualize data instantly with machine learning in Google Sheets | Google If you don’t see the chart you need, just ask.

“Mobile first” is so passé. It’s all about “reality first” now. Well, not now. But soon. As computing careens toward its rectangular prison break, the evolution of the UI has already begun.

Cameras, ecommerce and machine learning | Benedict Evans The image sensor in a phone is more than just a camera that takes pictures - it’s also part of new ways of thinking about mobile UIs and services, and part of a general shift in what a computer can do.

The first decade of augmented reality | Benedict Evans These are of course all the same kinds of questions that had to be resolved for smartphones and indeed PCs before them, just like form-factors - as in 2000 or 1990, the answers aren't clear, and neither, actually, are the questions.

From mobile first to mobile native | Benedict Evans What happens if you just forget about the PC altogether? But also, what happens if you forget about feature phones? What happens if you presume all of the sophistication that a modern smartphone has and a PC does not, and if you also presume that, with 650m iPhones in use and 2.5bn smartphones in total, you can build a big company without thinking about the low end anymore?

Presence Capital investor predicts the 2017 market for AR/VR | VentureBeat Machine perception is a core technology that will power the next wave of computing. If you’re not investing right now, three or four years down the line when consumer AR becomes mainstream you’ll be too far behind on the software side.

The scientists who make apps addictive | The Economist “Put hot triggers in the path of motivated people.”

Because you can’t harvest seeds.

Innoveracy: Misunderstanding Innovation | Asymco “But there is another form of ignorance which seems to be universal: the inability to understand the concept and role of innovation...The result is a failure to understand the causes of success and failure in business and hence the conditions that lead to economic growth.”

The messy business of reinventing happiness | Fast Company “The theater was quiet, the elation gone. Iger repeated, ‘This better work.’ This is the story of what it took to deliver on those three simple words.”

The ownership problem  | Cap Watkins It turns out that the way great products get built isn’t by owners or groups of owners.

Exalting data, missing meaning | Andy Matuschak “But in consumer products, education, and so many other domains involving the messiness of humanity, the data obsession falls prey to hidden errors and distorts our true goals. Worse, it deprives us of truly meaningful insights that are available via philosophy, intuition, and stories, but not yet fully explicable through quantitative systems.”

The distribution of users’ computer skills: worse than you think | Nielsen Norman Group What research papers should a digital product designer consider reading? | Quora One of usability’s most hard-earned lessons is that you are not the user. This is why it’s a disaster to guess at the users’ needs. Since designers are so different from the majority of the target audience, it’s not just irrelevant what you like or what you think is easy to use — it’s often misleading to rely on such personal preferences.

Rules of interface design: automation | Eric S. Raymond Every time you require a human user to tell a computer things that it already knows or can deduce, you are making a human serve the machine.

Jeff Bezos’ “Day 1” philosophy: high-velocity decision making | SEC archive Most decisions should probably be made with somewhere around 70% of the information you wish you had. If you wait for 90%, in most cases, you’re probably being slow. Plus, either way, you need to be good at quickly recognizing and correcting bad decisions. If you’re good at course correcting, being wrong may be less costly than you think, whereas being slow is going to be expensive for sure.

Market research, wireframing, and design | Stanford University An idea is not a mockup. A mockup is not a prototype. A prototype is not a program. A program is not a product. A product is not a business. And a business is not profits. 

With thanks to Bloomberg Beta.

Shift: The commission on work, workers, and technology report of findings | Bloomberg, New America The future of work is the future of everything.

I'm always on the lookout for the weird and wonderful corners of the web – the experiments, proofs of concept, and leaps of faith that make the internet great. Here are a few I've found and that my colleagues have shared with me lately. 

Mashable reels | Mashable

Visual essay: craft beer | The Pudding

Audio-visual essay: the art of sampling | The Pudding

Timeline | Timeline gallery

Cadillac driving game | The Outline

Speech synthesis technology | Lyrebird.ai

Spatial audio on the web | Omnitone

DeepWarp: photorealistic image resynthesis for gaze manipulation | Skoltech

Gaze manipulation 1 | AlteredQualia

Gaze manipulation 2 | AlteredQualia

Build your own trading bot | Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

- Michael Shane | June 23, 2017

[ssteezyy]

Ask the Vet With Dr. Kris: Dr. Kris Answers February’s Questions

On February 1, we launched our new “Ask the Vet With Dr. Kris” segment. Once a month, we’ll post a reminder for you to post your questions for Dr. Kris. He’ll answer as many of them as he can each month, and I’ll publish his answers in a subsequent post.

Dr. Kristopher Chandroo is a veterinarian, scientist, photographer, animal welfare advocate, and creator of Stress to Success (STS): The Essential Guide to Medicating Your Feisty, Grumpy or Reluctant Cat.  Dr. Kris wants  your cats to be twenty years old. And counting! And he wants to provide medication and therapy to them in a way that respects the bond between cat and human.

Here are Dr. Kris’ answers to some of your questions asked in February. If your question didn’t get answered here, Dr. Kris will answer them on his own website, in the future. Subscribe to his updates so you’ll be notified when the answers are published.

Persian male cat bites Himalyan’s neck

Dr. Kris, never had this in 30+ yrs experience with cats. I have a Persian n male, 3 yrs old, sweet, easy going, loving to all, even our yappy Yorkie. All are spay/neut. 7 months ago I adopted a 3 month seal PT Himalayan male, recently neutered. Now the male Persian mounts, no other word for it, the Himalayan and his hips do little jerks. Himalayan doesn’t retaliate, just lays there. Sometimes Persian starts by biting, not hard, the Himalayan’s neck. My husband says ” very disturbing” . As long as Elvis isn’t hurt, I leave them. (Suzanne Walker)

Dr. Kris:

So, you’ve got a cat named Elvis, and a Persian who is doing something naughty? I recommend that you listen to this song as you read this answer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emjLXdsj6xA

You look like an angel Walk like an angel Talk like an angel But I got wise You’re the devil in disguise..

Your Persian is literally now “doing the Elvis”. Hip thrusts and all. It’s sexual behaviour on display. Just like Elvis did in the 50s. Believe it or not, cat’s have a “lust system”.

Ok, ok, ok. So here is what’s happening. Mr. Himalayan arrived on the scene. That’s a relationship change. Relationship changes in groups of cats are all about psychology. It doesnt matter that he’s been around for seven months and just starting the behaviour now. Because it’s all about how they feel and think about their group as time goes by.

If it gets worse, your Persian might need something else to occupy his time. Toy’s, treat ball, more places to climb and hiding spots for Elvis. Of course, Feliway Friends and Zylkene could play a role as well.

But I agree with you – as long as Elvis isn’t hurt, it seems reasonable to leave them.

This all assumes they are successfully neutered and spayed for sure!!! It’s hard to screw up that kind of surgery, so I would be surprised if they were not. Im also assuming there is no vaginitis / lower urinary tract infections going on (which can change behaviour and odours produced by your cats).

P.S. – Your hubby is hilarious!

Tortie constantly wants more food

Hi Dr Kris! I adopted a beautiful tortie girl 5 weeks ago, aged 3.5 years. She is very loving and was previously homed, not a stray. I am feeding her ZiwiPeak wet food 3 times a day (first thing in the morning, when I get home from work and later in the evening before bed). She has a small amount of dry food available but will only eat a few at a time if I encourage her or during the day when she’s alone. In the evenings she seems to constantly want more food, meowing whenever I get up (especially if I go to the kitchen where she is fed, obviously). I’m feeding her as guided on the can, and she often leaves some food from her second meal. I also introduced some poached chicken but she vomited a couple of times while eating that (though this was hours after eating, early in the morning), so I have been holding off giving it to her again to see if she is sick at all without the chicken. She doesn’t jump on the counter and only occasionally begs for food off our plates (we never give her anything), and will typically just watch from afar when I’m preparing human meals. I am able to get her to sit while waiting for meals now.

I get the feeling she isn’t liking being left alone during the day and is trying to make up for it by being needy at night. I give her lots of attention and try to play with her, but she just isn’t really interested in playing much at night until after the third meal. I tried a treat ball but as she doesn’t really like dry food much she isn’t keen on that. My vet suggested feeding her more regularly but that is obviously difficult while at work (she didn’t like the automated feeder I got her), and trying a limited diet if she is vomiting regularly, before any further tests etc. I’m really worried about her, I just want her to be happy in her new home and do the best for her wellbeing. Is it likely she is still just settling in?

Dr. Kris:

Ooohh torties are awesome. I once house sat while working in Vancouver Island, and it was me and this little Tortie watching movies over winter.

Ok, lets talk about food first. Maybe it’s the issue driving her behavior, maybe it isn’t. Because maybe she could just be settling in. That could make one anxious, right? And then, it could be both. Because you have a cat. And they are mentally complex. So the only way you really know is to test things. Like you’ve been doing.

So your cat is a specialized hunter. They are designed to eat 10 to 20 small prey items in a day. Now some are better at this than others. Some are more driven than others. Now imagine a voice in the back of your cats head – an urge to go hunt 20 to 40 times per day. “Let’s go hunting….let’s go stretch our legs, let’s stalk and sprint and pounce….”.

It’s the same frequency that we check our smartphones right? Now imagine your forgot your phone, and you’re stuck at work. It feels weird. You reach into your pocket every 10 minutes, and it’s not there. You can’t satisfy the urge…

We’ve got to activate her brain when she is eating the wet food. Satisfy the voices in the brain.

You want a wet food puzzle feeder: http://ift.tt/2mz1Jji

Start simple, then go more complex.

Test it, then report back. Extra points for considering calming pheromones (like Feliway) or adding Zylkene into their food for a couple of weeks.

Does it work? Great, problem solved. Doesn’t work? You’re the proud owner of a cat. The feeding enrichment now becomes your baseline, and you work up from there to solve the other potential issues driving her behavior.

Test it, and report back to us!

Cat coughs after drinking water

Hello Doctor Kris, I have a 2 year old female cat, she’s generally very healthy but lately almost every time she drinks water the water seems “to go down to wrong way”. She makes noises like she’s coughing up a hairball for around 20-30 seconds and then everything goes back to normal… is this normal? This used to happen occasionally when she would drink from the water fountain, but now it also happens when drinking from a bowl. We had a vet check her today and found nothing wrong

I gave her hairball medicine just in case. She’s using her litter box normally and eating normally as well… sometimes when she eats she will try to expell the food out, like a piece got stuck in her throat or something. It seems water is the main irritant though.

Dr. Kris, I write to you with an update. Since my comment my cat still hacks (I have a video of her doing this, I wish I could send it to you) when she drinks water. There was a day when she did it 2-3 without actually drinking water, so we worried a took her to the vet again. The vet said he heard a noise inside her throat and took xrays, we found out that her heart might be a little bit bigger on one side. We are waiting for another vet who is a specialist to do a ultrasound. I live in Turkey so forgive me if I don’t use medical terms.

When I play with her (I make her chase a ball around the house) she never shows any distress, actually I get tired first. I have played with her this week and nothing has changed in that regard. A couple of months ago the doctor saw redness at the back of the throat and said it was gingivitis, we gave her medicine once and it went away.

We’re still waiting for more results, but if you could tell us what to watch out for I’d appreciate it… thank you! (Lucia)

Dr. Kris:

Hi Lucia, you are on the right track. You were right to be concerned, as cat’s are really good at putting the food and water down the right tube. I would be looking for irritation, inflammation or something affecting the path of food and water from her mouth to her stomach. Sometimes when they hack, it’s actually a cough…it can be tricky to figure out, so make sure to bring the video to the specialist as well.

Assuming she is otherwise ok, main thing that I would be watching for is her body weight. If she’s dropping weight, I want to know and figure out what is going on faster.

Good luck and let us know how things go.

Vaccinations for cats – which ones, and for how long?

I recently read some conflicting opinions on the need for certain vaccinations for cats (other than rabies). What is your opinion on how often vaccines should be given and at what age they can be stopped? (Peggy Zamboni)

Dr. Kris:

Good question Peggy.

Literally (I kid you not), my approach with vaccination comes from this 1971 interview with the great one, Bruce Lee: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJMwBwFj5nQ

I promise you I am going somewhere with this.

As a vet, I will meet all sort of people from every walk of life.

And our experiences in life will of course give us the opinions we have, right?

So the biggest positive impact I can make in a person and their cat’s life is to respect their views, and work with them towards their goals. The things that are important to them.

And that is why I resonate with what Bruce said in 1971.

“You must be shapeless, formless, like water. When you pour water in a cup, it becomes the cup. When you pour water in a bottle, it becomes the bottle”. When you pour water in a teapot, it becomes the teapot”.

Someone really believes what Jenny McCarthy says about vaccines? It’s ok. We are all susceptible to the larger than life opinions of celebrities at some time or another.

Someone has had a bad experience with vaccines in the past and is concerned about how a new kitty in their life might react? Very reasonable way to feel, isn’t it?

Someone had had a pet or family member pass away or get really sick from infectious disease? We talk about the role of vaccines in preventing that.

So, I need to be formless, and bend to that person’s situation, their history with vaccination, and how they feel about this medical procedure (a vaccine is technically a medical procedure, with pro’s and con’s like every other medical procedure).

“Water can drip and it can crash. Become like water my friend.”

Bad diseases can drip, or they can crash. So can reactions to medical procedures, like vaccination.

So, for me, it’s a case by case evaluation. Not one size fits all. I definitely tell them about legal obligations if their cat is interacting with the public (i.e. rabies vaccination), and will form my opinion based on the age, behavior, medical status and exposure to the illnesses we vaccinate for.

I’ll tell people if I’m strongly for vaccination for their cat or kitten, or if I feel it’s much lower on the priority list to optimize the health of their cat. I always want the big health bang for the buck.

And the last thing I tell people about vaccination is that nothing that we decide is written in stone. We can always re-evaluate any plan.

“Be shapeless, formless, like water”.

Cat is overgrooming

I have 7 indoor cats; healthy, get along for most part, and use the litter box. I have a pair of orange and white, 7 yr old sisters that do slightly bully the others. One sister, Libby, is licking off her fur and it seems to be getting worse. First it was just on her tummy, then the underside of her tail, and now one of her arms. Is there anything I can do to help this? (Sheila Tabone)

Dr. Kris:

Yes.

Assuming that Libby has no thyroid issues, acquired allergy or food sensitivity, parasitic or other physical health issues (hint hint take her to the vet), then you might be looking for ways to help her with social stress and anxiety.

There is lot’s of info about that if you google it.

But here is the trick.

I used to work with fish. Big, large rainbow trout, way back in the 90’s. Part of my research was looking into social stress. Sometimes fish would bully each other as well. And you know what we knew to be true? That the fish that was the bullier, was sometimes just as stressed out (physiologically speaking) as the fish that got bullied.

And things could get better when we modified stuff about the fish tank, just as much about doing anything with the individual fish. The tank was what we needed to treat (for science geeks out there, the tank was the experimental unit, not the individual fish).

Your home is the tank. Help Libby as an individual, but also realize that true success comes from making changes for all the cats.

Now why do vets always say check them out in the clinic first, even though you have a strong hunch it may be a behavioral / anxiety problem?

Three reasons.

First, lets say it is purely a social stress and anxiety problem. Well, that’s an immunosuppressive force hitting your cat. Chronic stress is a driver for physical illness. And unless you catch that, it’s hard to make them healthy in the way you intended.

Secondly, some of these guys need supplements or medication.

Lastly, it always sucks when you have all the right techniques in place to deal with the social anxiety and stress, and the undetected medical illness makes it look like nothing is working…your cat has concurrent issues and all your efforts become confounded.

Good luck Sheila!

Cat is peeing on the bed

I have a 10yr old cat that seems to have taken up not urinating in kitty litter trays even though they are clean. How can I stop this behavior. He is always urinating on their bed I changed the mattress but that has not helped he is doing the same thing to the new mattress. Is there something I can spray on the mattress to put him off using it. Is there anything that is chemical free that i can use? Thanks. (Gladys Gauci)

Gladys, see this answer I posted here: http://ift.tt/2mZPrhl

Kitten has seizures

Hello Dr. Kris! I’d be ever grateful if you could help me with my question. Six months ago I rescued an 8 week old kitten from a gas station parking lot. She has been having a grand Mal seizure occasionally, the first on Nov. 24th, then one 6 weeks later, and a less severe seizure last week. When I brought her home she was seen by a vet and de-wormed. Her stool has been mostly loose and very smelly since being wormed. The same vet saw her after the first seizure and ran tests which were normal. He thought maybe she was getting too much fat in her diet so recommended low fat canned food but she’s since had the other two seizures. I found a blog that suggested grain and gluten in her canned food could be causing intestinal inflammation and her seizures, so recommended changing foods and supplementing with natural healthy omega fats. Since she was a stray it’s unknown if she had head teams but didn’t seem to have a head injury when found. Have you experienced the seizure reaction in cats due to grains and gluten in their food? I’ve since switched all my cats to grain-free, gluten-free and carrageenan-free food and have made coconut oil available for my cats to nibble at their option. The kitten’s stool seems improved already. I am very concerned to stop the root cause of her seizures because I also read that the more seizures she has, the more likely she will be to have them in the future. Thank you for any insights or advice you may offer! (Amanda Becher)

Dr. Kris:

I live by two seizure rules.

I don’t like seeing them very early in life, and they are rarely good news if they begin very late in life.

You are really an awesome person for intervening for this little life you found in the concrete jungle of a gas station.

You are doing an amazing job focusing on nutrition. It’s the foundation of good health and trying to get them to return to health. To answer your question, I have not observed seizures in kittens due to grains and gluten in their food.

When seizures start this young, then I think about Congenital anomaly’s (things they are born with that affect their nervous system), encephalitis (things that cause inflammation in the brain – not food based though), FIP, Toxoplasma, Cryptococcus (I use to see that a lot on the west coast) and toxicity. There are probably other reasons, and a talented veterinary neurologist could help.

You are right. Find out the root cause if you can. It’s not inexpensive to do that. Do the best you can.

Do you have a question for Dr. Kris? Leave it in a comment!

The post Ask the Vet With Dr. Kris: Dr. Kris Answers February’s Questions appeared first on The Conscious Cat.