#it's a fairly long game to stream-- I think it's estimated to take 40 hours to 100% it

[neunhofferart]

Alrightyy I'm finally feeling well enough to stream again!

This week I'm kicking things off with a traditional art stream, I'm starting a live playthrough of one of my favorite games (In Stars and Time!), and then I'm chilling out to draw some of my fictional crushes!

Hope y'all can make it!

Be sure to follow my channel for reminders!

[shirlleycoyle]

Experts Say the Internet Will Mostly Stay Online During Coronavirus Pandemic

As millions of Americans hunker down to slow the spread of COVID-19, U.S. broadband networks are seeing a significant spike in usage. While industry insiders say that the U.S. internet should be able to handle the strain overall, broadband availability, affordability, and slow speeds could still pose a serious problem for many housebound U.S. residents.

In a blog post, Cloudflare noted that Seattle, ground zero for the U.S. coronavirus spread, has seen internet usage spike by some 40 percent. Key internet exchanges in cities like Amsterdam, London, and Frankfurt have seen a 10 to 20 percent spike in traffic since around March 9.

ISPs use a number of modern network technologies to handle congestion in real time, often letting them intelligently and automatically “deprioritize” the traffic of heavy users in overloaded areas. Even then, the massive surge in usage will likely impact U.S. broadband speeds in the weeks and months to come, industry trackers say.

Broadband Now, a company that tracks U.S. broadband availability and speed, told Motherboard that six of the biggest U.S. cities by population have seen little to no change in median speed test results from the past 11 weeks. But four cities—Houston, New York City, San Diego, and San Jose — have started to see slower average speeds overall.

“It stands to reason that we may not yet be seeing the ‘peak’ of network demand, and that many more businesses, schools and universities may end up closing or shifting workers and students to remote situations in the coming weeks,” Broadband Now Editor and Chief Tyler Cooper told Motherboard.

U.S. wireless broadband provider Starry told Motherboard the company has seen traffic increase steadily over the last two weeks, nearly tripling during work hours. They’ve also seen a 15 to 20 percent bump in traffic during peak usage hours. But Starry SVP Virginia Lam Abrams claimed the surge isn’t anything the company’s network can’t handle.

“Because we are a broadband-only provider, our customers are one-hundred percent cord-cutters, so we’re accustomed to seeing heavy data usage,” Lam Abrams said. “Our subscribers skew towards heavy video streaming and gaming, and many were already accustomed to working from home for at least part of the week, so the increase in traffic was not unexpected and is in line with what we were anticipating.”

Other residential ISPs may not be so lucky. U.S. phone companies, for example, have neglected their networks for the better part of the last decade, refusing to upgrade or even repair slow and aging DSL lines in many areas despite billions in taxpayer subsidies. As a result, many of these lines may buckle under the demand of a full family’s internet usage.

ISPs like Verizon that have upgraded to fiber say they expect no major disruptions due to the additional load. Many major ISPs have suspended usage caps and overage fees in response to COVID-19, after critics complained that such restrictions don’t actually help manage congestion—and are little more than glorified price hikes on uncompetitive markets.

Starry’s claim to fame has long been the avoidance of such caps, something the company says shouldn’t be a problem in the days and weeks to come.

“Our network self-monitors to accommodate for increased demands,” Lam Abrams said. “The way we’ve built it creates elasticity for our network to be responsive in real time, which is why we are adamant about having no data caps. We also have built tremendous capacity in our network, so we have no concerns on that front.”

Not everybody was quite so optimistic. Stealth Communications has sold fiber broadband access to businesses in New York City for 25 years. CEO Shrihari Pandit told Motherboard that things could get rocky for residential users on lower quality connections.

“We anticipate the huge shift to working from home will quickly overwhelm the capacity of residential communications infrastructure,” Pandit predicted.

The upstream speeds of many U.S. cable and DSL connections are already fairly pathetic, Pandit said, making them “ill-suited to many business use cases like cloud, VoIP, webinars and video-conferencing.” Pandit added that cable systems share bandwidth via local nodes that could also face congestion on a neighborhood by neighborhood level.

“Most business ISPs are well-engineered to handle large volumes of traffic,” he added. “Residential ISPs on the other hand, will be hard-pressed to mitigate usage peaks.”

Blair Levin was a former FCC chief of staff and co-author of the agency’s 2010 “National Broadband Plan.” He told Motherboard that accurately predicting COVID-19’s impact on the internet is difficult because nothing on this scale has ever happened before.

“I don't think anyone knows,” Levin said. “First, the FCC has done such a poor job of collecting data that we don't know where we are on many points. Second, we really don't know how much bigger the bandwidth demands will be. So this situation will be a stress test and show us where we are strong and where we are weak.”

Like Pandit, Levin predicted that some residential connections won’t be able to take the load of entire families working and learning from home. But he noted that an overall internet apocalypse isn’t likely to occur based on data from other countries already on lockdown.

“We haven't seen that happen in Italy or other countries who are ahead of us in terms of social distancing,” he said. “Increased traffic, yes, but the networks are built for peaks, not averages and so far the networks are doing ok in most of the world.”

That said, Levin was quick to note that affordability and availability will remain a problem for many families, given an estimated 42 million Americans lack access to any kind of broadband line (fixed or wireless) whatsoever. Many more Americans can’t afford a broadband connection thanks to limited U.S. broadband competition and the politicians lobbied to keep it that way.

Levin said there are other potential pitfalls that could stem from mass quarantines, including a spike in privacy violations and cybersecurity attacks due to sensitive business increasingly being conducted at home. VPNs can mitigate this risk for many, but they too create another layer of potential congestion among providers not prepared to handle the load.

“Bottom line, this is a stress test in which problems will occur but overall, the communications networks will fare far better handling the surge than the hospitals,” Levin said. “I hope that when this is done there is an honest study of what happened so that we have a better map of what is working and what isn't.”

Experts Say the Internet Will Mostly Stay Online During Coronavirus Pandemic syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/

[a-alex-hammer]

The Simple Math Behind Starting A Side Hustle

By: Tom Blake | This Online World

I talk about side hustles a lot.

As a college student, I have good reason to frequently mention this topic seeing as I believe starting a side hustle is absolutely vital for anyone in school.

Additionally, I think the world of online money making is generally interesting and fun, so I argue that starting a side hustle or developing new income streams is a worthwhile (and fun) endeavor for anyone to take part in.

That being said, I understand that it can be intimidating to take the first step.

I was in the conundrum-camp just 9 months ago when I decided to give starting my own blog a shot. I also had no idea what I was getting myself into when I decided to start my own drop shipping business or when I tried (and failed) at shipping POD items on Etsy.

After succeeding and failing at a variety of businesses and ventures, I’ve ultimately learned that it doesn’t really matter as long as you are persistent.

Get as many irons in the fire as you can…throw things against the wall and see what sticks. That’s the name of the game when it comes to side hustling.

I’m not saying to go guns-a-blazing and launch 6 different projects all at once, but don’t be afraid to dabble with different ideas.

Eventually, you will find what works best for your given skillet and desires. I’ve launched blogs or Amazon affiliate websites before, but this is the niche and platform that has worked for me (it took a few years to find…I launched my first website when I was 16).

Anyway, I was recently having a conversation with a friend where I encouraged them to start their own Etsy shop.

Inevitably, the conversation touched upon 2 questions:

How much money could they make by opening an Etsy shop?

Would the whole thing be worth it?

After giving those questions some thought, I wanted to break down the simple math behind starting a side hustle in this post because I don’t think it is as complicated as people might think.

This post will contain:

The simple math behind starting and benefiting from a side hustle.

What side hustles help protect us from.

Side hustling for income diversification?

Some quick suggestions on how to make more money and financial independence.

Let’s get to it!

The Simple Math Behind Starting a Side Hustle – $50/Month:

Before I get into the nitty-gritty details of this quick math, I want to outline what assumptions and tools I am using:

I am using this compound interest calculator from getsmarteraboutmoney.ca.

I am assuming a current initial investment amount of $0.

I am assuming all of the money from side hustling is added to an investment portfolio each month (or that you contribute an equivalent amount to your portfolio if side hustle money is for paying off bills).

I am assuming a 5% annual return rate. This is a conservative estimate and more than reasonable.

I am giving the portfolio 20 years to grow.

Now, let’s say you started a simple side hustle that started netting you $50 of income every single month.

This $50 might not seem like much, but then again, that’s $600 of extra income each year.

And when you plug in these numbers into the compound interest calculator…

Some pretty awesome returns come out!

It might sound absolutely crazy or even impossible, but if you invest $50 a month at a 5% annual rate of return, you will earn more than $8,000 in interest over 20 years.

Additionally, your investment portfolio as a whole would increase by more than $20,000; all from a simple $50 a month side hustle!

If you don’t believe the math, just check out the year-by-year breakdown:

The simple fact is that compound interest and time is the most powerful combination side hustlers have in their arsenal.

It doesn’t matter if you are trying to reach financial independence or if you just want to make more money: investing and a long time frame are a killer duo!

So, what are some viable side hustle ideas for making $50 a month?

There are some very simple ones:

The Simple Math Behind Starting a Side Hustle – Other Income Levels:

Alright, while making $50 a month from side hustling is a great start, it’s also reasonable to expect that you can make more money and increase your portfolio worth.

Let’s take a look at a few more monthly earning thresholds!

Earning $100/Month from Side Hustling:

If you invested $100/month at a 5% annual rate of return, you would earn more than $16,5000 in interest in 20 years and reach $40,500 in portfolio value!

Some viable side hustles I would recommend to make $100 a month in additional income include:

Teaching English or other subjects online.

Offering local services in your city, like lawn care, shoveling snow, gardening help, etc.

Starting your own blog (it will take a few months to get running, granted, but if you check my recent income reports you’ll see it is possible to earn $100-$300 a month from blogging within a year).

Start writing on Medium (frequently…ideally several times a week until your income starts to pick up).

Earning $300/Month from Side Hustling:

If you invested $300/month at a 5% rate of annual return, you would earn almost $50,000 in interest over 20 years and see your portfolio grow to more than $120,000!

Granted, it might take some time for you to develop a side hustle to a $300/month point, but it is possible!

Realistically, these are some side hustle ideas I could see generating $300/month:

Earning $1,000/Month from Side Hustling:

Alright, while this might be getting to the daydreaming phase for a lot of side hustlers, I think this $1,000/month benchmark really shows the power of compound interest in full.

Personally, earning 165K in interest from side hustle work sounds like a dream come true. While I am still a long, long way off this mark, the numbers certainly serve as a nice goal to work towards!

However, I think it is fairly unreasonable to expect someone that someone with a 40 hour work week can earn an additional $1,000/month from gig jobs or anything that pays a lower hourly rate.

To earn $1,000/month as a side hustle, I imagine you would have to:

Get into some sort of consulting on the side (SEO, digital marketing, project management, etc.)

Offer copy-writing services or do landing page work for businesses (these can be some high paying contracts).

Find some other way to offer a business your services, since businesses are more likely to have the capital to pay monthly contracts worth $1,000 or more.

My business partner and I have had $1,000 contracts in the past for SEO and paid advertising work, and I have heard of copywriters earning some impressive amounts of cash.

Hell, even bloggers who dabble in sponsored posts can make a killing, so it is certainly possible to make the coveted $1,000/month mark with enough time and dedication.

But even if you can’t make $1,000 a month in extra income, you see the point: any additional income can be immensely powerful when invested.

Now, while making extra money is always welcome, I also want to touch on a few other benefits of side hustling because this concept is much more powerful than just increasing your net worth.

Other Factors Side Hustles Protect us From:

1 – Avoiding Debt or Paying Off Debt Faster:

Due to life events or circumstances, not everyone is able to invest the extra money they make. This is absolutely normal.

However, earning even a bit of additional income every single month from a passive income source or side hustle can be immensely valuable.

While in school, I sold textbooks, did freelance digital marketing, started a blog, and entered marketing competitions to help make money in college.

Ultimately, that money went a long way in helping with the cost of tuition/textbooks and general living expenses.

Even a humble $50/month side hustle can help prevent $600 worth of debt each year or cover an expense like a phone bill or part of the grocery bill.

And if you factor in the interest you end up paying on loans, each side hustle dollar that is spent on paying off debt or mitigating it in the first place is actually more valuable than the base dollar amount in a sense.

2 – Income Dips or Unemployment:

I work at a digital marketing company where the commission is a pretty important part of what I take home at the end of the month.

For anyone else in a commission-based job, seasonal work, or industry that fluctuates with pay-rates, you know that income dips are just a fact of life…not every month will be the same.

Additionally, depending on what country you live in, health care or certain worker compensation laws may or may not assist you in the event you have to take extended amounts of time off from work.

And, finally, depending on your industry and the job market in your country, there are varying amounts of risk when it comes to losing your job entirely.

While I am a firm believer that honest, hard-working people will always make it out okay at the end of the day, the simple fact is that one’s income can take a sudden and unexpected hit for a variety of reasons.

In the worst case scenario, having additional income streams in your life can be a saving grace.

This is essentially income diversification 101, and if you can successfully develop multiple income streams, you are accelerating your path towards financial independence while simultaneously reducing your risks.

Even if a side hustle only bring in a few hundred dollars every now and again, you can use this money to help build up an emergency fund that will buy you more time in the event your income dips.

In a way, having a firmly established side hustle is like a financial safety net. The more money your side hustle produces, the better and wider your safety net is!

3 – Stagnant Growth & Lack of Learning:

I once had an internship at an insurance company where I was a ‘Ratings Tester’.

In the job description, it said I would be helping the company improve upon their current insurance policy rating system, as well as devise some new components for how the company would develop new plans.

In reality, I spent 4 months making fake people in an imaginary script-based world, assigning them wonky insurance policies, and trying to break the system. It was pure quality assurance work and brute-force bug testing at its finest.

Needless to say, I was miserable.

I also wasted an internship and didn’t learn anything useful besides the fact that I will never work in insurance as long as I live.

However, while I was forced to toil away at the world’s shittiest version of The Sims video game for 8 hours a day, at night, I did my own thing.

It was at this time I started doing freelance digital marketing, reading about passive income, and brainstorming money making ideas to try.

Spending time on the things I was actually interested in brought enjoyment into my life, taught me a variety of new skills, and helped keep me sane.

If you are ever caught in a period of time where you are not learning or have become stagnant, starting a side hustle is an immediate way to remedy the issue.

Even if you are currently employed at a job that isn’t unbearable, if you aren’t consistently learning new skills and honing your talents, you are losing a competitive advantage to the people who are putting in the extra work.

When in doubt, look to Elon.

Your side hustle can even accomplish more than simple income generation.

If the skills you learn from starting your own business or online venture complement the skills you need to do your job, you might even become a more valuable employee.

Or, in an even cooler scenario, the skills you develop from starting a side hustle might allow you to receive a promotion at work or suggest new ideas that benefit the company you work for.

For college students who still have to enter the job market, this concept is even more important.

Unless you are in engineering, some science, or a trade, I believe colleges are generally doing a poor job at teaching students any hard skills (or even how to think…but don’t get me started on this).

I’m finishing my degree in Psychology/Marketing, and if I hadn’t had internships or side hustles, I wouldn’t know a damn thing!

Starting your own business or trying to make more money in college will make you more prepared and qualified to enter the workforce, so make the most of of your college years and learn through trial by fire.

Final Thoughts on Side Hustle Math:

While starting your own business or attempting to make money online can seem daunting at first, I think it is important to remember a few important things:

It’s alright to start out small.

Your side hustle income doesn’t need to replace your full-time income.

Investing your additional income or paying off debt faster are some of the most important things you can do, financially speaking.

Even if your side hustle never amounts to more than a humble $50/month income boost, make it happen.

It is impossible to grow or develop new skills without putting in any effort, and you might be surprised at where you end up after putting in some time.

And one more thing…don’t forget to have fun!

If you want to take your side hustle money and go out for a nice dinner or buy someone a thoughtful gift, go for it.

I think it is easy to get lost in the calculators and long-term picture, and all too easy to forget that life isn’t just about reaching financial independence as fast as you can.

Sometimes, you just need to treat yourself or the important people in your life to new things and experiences.

I hope you have enjoyed this post, and thank you to everyone who stuck around to the very end.

Catch you all in the next post!

Republished with the permission of ThisOnlineWorld.com.

Source link

Source/Repost=> http://technewsdestination.com/the-simple-math-behind-starting-a-side-hustle/ ** Alex Hammer | Founder and CEO at Ecommerce ROI ** http://technewsdestination.com

[everybodymoveyourfeet-blog]

How to play Overwatch as a Pro

Earlier this month, TreeboyDave became the first person to ever hit level 6,000 in Overwatch, a rise to the peak of this 40-million-player heap that he estimates has taken him 9,000 hours. Regardless of this, he says he is not even near ready to hang up his keyboard.

TreeboyDave is currently flat 6,087, having gained over one thousand levelssince he broke the 5,000 threshold in February of this year. He's so far ahead of the pack that Blizzard hasn't even made an avatar border because of his degree tier--or for a handful of tiers under his present one, for that matter.

TreeboyDave did not move in with chart-topping expectations when he started playing Overwatch in 2016.

"I remember looking up the amount leaderboards close to the end of 2016 and being amazed when I had been at the top 20 for amounts in the planet, and much more surprised, as time moved on, to see my degree status rise towards number one," he told Kotaku in an email.

TreeboyDave is a streamer, but that's not his principal source of revenue. His audience of 13,451 followers is fairly modest by Twitch criteria, so he pays the invoices by cleaning up in a local restaurant. Even with the job, '' he says that he earns about 12 hours of Overwatch each day.

"I think that it's a mixture of only really enjoying what I do, and having a high tolerance for extended hours," he said of his packed schedule. "My job is satisfying for me, and my streaming and long gaming hours is great pleasure! It just helps to fulfill my life with interesting things, so that I do not have to have a rest."

In Overwatch, amounts are separate from competitive rankings. You get experience if your team wins or loses, though you gain more in case your team finishes up on the winner's podium and you also take home gold, silver, or bronze medals in classes like eliminations or healing. TreeboyDave prefers to concentrate on having as much fun as possible over doggedly chasing victory, positions, or some of that.