#obviously the damage has already been done across multiple industries
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nb-marceline · 5 months ago
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cheapclothesdrying-blog · 5 years ago
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How To Make A Pulley Clothesline - Practically Functional
Unbiased Report Exposes the Unanswered Questions on Installation of Cheap Smart Drying Rigs
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seotipsandtricks-me · 6 years ago
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If you’re not familiar with chatbots already, the clue’s in the name. Chatbots, or conversational agents (or even dialog systems), are programs that mimic human interaction, encouraging visitors to a site to hold online conversations with them over a messenger service. They are fast becoming a crucial cog in businesses’ online marketing and customer service machines. In fact, following the industrial revolution’s disruption of manufacturing, the advent of consumer internet and then the dawn of social media and mobile phones, many hail conversational robots as the next obviously revolutionary tool to have a serious impact on business practices. Hence why big tech companies like Microsoft Google, and Facebook are making huge bets on chatbots. Chances are, then, that you’ve had a brush with a chatbot yourself. If you’ve bought anything online or submitted a minor customer service complaint, it’s highly likely that a chatbot was on the other end of the interaction. Chatbots are partly valuable for their standardised tone – sulky customer service representatives with poor language skills and a tendency to audibly lose their temper no longer need to enrage consumers, because chatbots are on hand to deal out consistently charming platitudes. That’s not to say there isn’t room for improvement – glitches in the technology can often lead to misunderstandings, nonsensical answers, and a failure to execute the task in hand. But the chatbot appeal comes largely from the fact that, as we become increasingly accustomed to using messaging apps for communicating with everyone about anything, the chatbot presents an opportunity to engage in dialogue (without waiting) with a ‘representative’ of the business. The implication is that our questions will be answered sooner and our problems will be solved faster. To the businesses’ great benefit, chatbots can be programmed to hold conversations simultaneously with numerous (and sometimes limitless) members or customers. Once the initial investment is done, the maintenance costs on chatbots are far thriftier than the restrictive activity of an expensive and potentially unreliable human-only support team. Chatbots also match the quirks of a new generation – the “millennials” for lack of a better term – and their deep-seated fear of making or receiving calls. An instant messaging-based conversation with a robot is a far more pleasing idea than a phone call with a stranger when 90% of your social interactions have been guided by a thumb swiping across a keyboard. In addition, chatbots enable the seamless use of multiple apps from one location. In these instances, there’s no need to close the text or voice conversation to follow a process like this: Pull up a map to a restaurant > look at the menu > make a reservation. The entire series of steps can be carried out from a single interface, making the experience quick and efficient as well as keeping the user engaged – unnecessary breaks in the experience or distracting changeovers are likely to increase drop off rate. Current productivity uses for chatbots can see them put to work as internal AI assistants, scheduling appointments and follow ups, filing expense reports and carrying out other basic administrative tasks. Large businesses are also finding use for chatbots when it comes to monitoring sick leave taken by employees, or keeping tabs on individual and team workloads, while presenting a user-friendly voice at the other end. But at this precise moment in time, chatbot technology is only really likely to revolutionise your business efficiency if you’re engaged in a considerable amount of customer service activity. Facebook, for example, is allowing businesses to interact with their consumers via the Messenger app. Banks are using chatbots to deal with fairly straightforward customer service issues like lost and stolen cards, and highly developed chatbots are available in the familiar shape of Virtual Assistants like Apple’s Siri, Microsoft’s Cortana and Amazon Echo’s Alexa. And with the Internet of Things projected to include over 50 billion connected devices by 2020, chatbots  will contribute to the functions of smart cars, voice navigation on wearables and other internet-enabled devices. If the frontline interaction and customer service benefits of chatbots suit your business best, you have a range of choice in terms of type and positioning: Query bots can answer questions about your services, opening hours, discounts and offers Shopping assistant bots can help consumers identify the item they’re looking for, or take them on a verbal tour of your business’s e-commerce stock Explainer bots can give users a richer and more detailed experience of online shopping by giving more information about how a product works and what it’s like to use it Post-purchase bots can deal with complaints, returns, exchanges and feedback. Despite their benign moniker, chatbots have their dangerous side, too. Last year, Microsoft launched an experimental chatbot called ‘Tay’ on Twitter, which was programmed to deal with a high volume of communications. Tay’s artificial intelligence learning was dependent on the material it consumed online, so trolls were easily able to train Tay to make offensive remarks, and it was hurriedly taken down. These gaffes are potentially much more damaging than an irritable and overtired call centre operator but more importantly just embody the philosophy of “garbage in, garbage out” and how much freedom AI should be allowed to develop, especially given Stephen Hawking’s and Elon Musk’s concern about the ‘Singularity’. Difficulties lie ahead in relation to privacy, too. The more customers share with chatbots, the more data the business has access to. Complicated debates surrounding data security and privacy rights will inevitably arise, and will prove unsurprisingly difficult to legislate. The ultimate goal however is to develop chatbots that can have natural conversations indistinguishable from genuine human interaction. Many experts are putting their faith in Natural Language Processing and Deep Learning techniques, although given the hype around AI is can be difficult to separate fact from fiction. Despite this, with many computer scientists journeying towards human-level machine intelligence aboard the S.S. Moore’s Law we should accept the rise of chatbots as a case of when, not if. It’s likely that plenty of time and money will invested in developing the technology but the chatbot’s place in the digital business technology hall of fame is dependent on significant developments, and without meaningful progress they may drift out of relevancy. For the time being, though, businesses seem keen to maintain loving relationships with their new partners in crime, and will continue to invest as the opportunities multiply. The post Could this be The One: does every business need a chatbot in its life? appeared first on FOUND.
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mbttechserv · 4 years ago
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5+ Wall Protection Methods
”I'll protect you. I'll stand by you if anything happens.”
― Fuyumi Soryo
Wall Protection is important. I think we can all agree about that. It looks good, is better for walls, reduces costs, and so on.
If you’d like to read more about that, here you go. If not, let’s just get to the point of this one.
How should someone protect their walls?
Well, there are actually a number of options. You can browse through them. Then decide what you want, based on your needs.
For smaller projects, you’ll probably need one (or max two). For bigger ones, you’d probably prefer a customized combination of multiple types. Since this is a multiple choice decision, I’ve decided to make another list.
So here’s a list of 5+ wall protection methods:
1 – Impact Protection
As is in the name, this is aimed at protection from impact.
But it’s not just designed to work against that. In fact, it also warns us about stick out corners, edges, exposed beams and vulnerable pipes.
We use them in many different commercial and industrial areas. Using this, you can protect products from damage and injury.
2 – HPL Protection
High Pressure Laminate, is often shortened to HPL. Contrary to its name, it doesn’t apply high pressure on anything itself.
We actually take the name, from the process used to make HPL. We apply a high amount of heat and pressure, in its manufacturing process. Hence, “high pressure” laminate. Could’ve been named “heat pressure” laminate. But it is, what is.
HPL is the direct descendant of the original plastic laminate. We consider it one of the most durable decorative surface materials.
To justify that:
-It’s available with special performance properties.
- It’s resistant to chemicals, fire, and wear&tear.
Talk about performance, eh? Amazing!
It’s quite suitable for high traffic settings. Places like hospitality, offices, healthcare, commercial interiors, and educational facilities.
3 – HDPE Protection
High Density PolyEthelene, is often shortened to HDPE. As the name suggest, it’s a high density polymer.
The density difference between HDPE and LDPE (Low Density PolyEthene) isn’t a lot. But HDPE has a thing called branching. We’re not gonna bore you with extra-scientific jargon. But of course, you can look it up if you want to.
Simply put, branching makes its molecules bond together more tightly. That slight difference makes it a lot stronger than regular LDPE, though.
HDPE Protection is therefore, great for your pipes. It works splendidly at erosion control. It confines the desired infill, and resists material that migrates downward because of hydraulic flows.
All thanks to a little concept called branching.
4 – Stainless Steel Protection
We see Stainless Steel as an ideal element, for modern construction. Stainless Steal Rails for instance, we use very commonly for building materials. They look elegant, classy, and professional.
You see them everywhere today. Many public buildings, and elegant houses, use these to add an element of elegance to the property. On that topic, we can bet you like how good they look. We know we do.
The great thing for us, is that it doesn’t corrode easily. For another thing, it can resist extreme temperatures. Those are two remarkable things, for us to consider. Hence, from wall guards, to floor mounted guards, to bollards… this material shines everywhere (literally too).
It has a broad range of application across many other industries too. But that would take us quite off topic.
But yeah, that’s why we use stainless steel for major construction projects.
5 – Column Protection
Column Protection is important, where columns/beams have high chances of getting hit. This is specially important for warehouses, and factories.
If we don’t add protection, the columns and beams would weaken too fast (That is of course, if they’re continuously being hit).
But column Protection surrounds a column, with a cushion of air. This way, any impact that it takes, gets absorbed. Plus, it reduces the risk of injuries as well.
So it’s become a standard for such places, to install protection on their columns and beams. Plus, there’s that aesthetic factor that comes with it, innit?
6 – Edge Protection
So far, we’ve discussed protections used in construction. This time, it’s about protection used during construction.
At any given construction site, you’d see a large number of workers. Especially during the building of tall buildings, there’s a big risk involved. The risk of things falling, and accidentally causing harm to the workers.
To prevent injuries, you’d see them wear hardhats. But their heads aren’t the only things that need safety. So to minimize (if not end) the chances of injury, we use Edge Protection.
There’s actually a number of types of Edge Protection itself. But we’ll get to that some other day.
7 – Other methods
Of course, there are other methods to protect walls. But obviously, we can’t fit everything into one article. Anyhow, some of the other things you can try can be:
- Wall guards
- Handrails
- HDPE wall guards
- Wall panels
- Bumper rails
- Safety paddings
- Resilient claddings
- Rubber paddings
- Wall cladding
- Magnetic laminates
- Décor laminates
- Veneer laminates
Where to get these services?
You now understand the different types of wall protection. If you’re still here, it’s either cause you went way too deep into an internet browsing venture to turn back now, or… you came here because you want these services.
If it’s the first one, it’s still all good. We’re not here to judge. Hope you enjoyed the article anyway. If it’s for the second one though…
All about Location, Location, Location
Globally, you’ll find numerous service providers for this. You can ask around, and discuss with experienced people. You’ll surely find reliable people for your tasks.
Wall Protection services in Dubai
If you’re somewhere in the Emirates (/UAE) or nearby however, Habibi you’re in luck! You needn’t go anywhere else.
Why? Cause MBT is located right here in Dubai. That’s right. We offer all kinds of wall protection services. Plus, we do have many other things going.
Why should you Work with MBT?
MBT has already worked with various reputable organizations. We've done many projects in the Emirates and Saudi Arabia. So, you know you can trust us with your work. No sweat.
MBT’s Ample Collection Of Past Projects
We welcome you to click here, to browse through our previous projects on wall protection and more.
We at MBT provide all sorts of wall protection solutions, and work with a number of reputable brands, like wilsonart, bioclad, fundermax, polyrey, stylam, surforma sonae, gentas, nystrom, wallgaurd, arfen , to name a few.
Reach Out to Us:
Modern Building Technologies, 
Building Blocks of Life 
Call Us: +97144416791 
Address: P.O. Box 478520, Dubai, United Arab Emirates 
Website: https://www.mbt-techserv.com/en
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ibilenews · 5 years ago
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5G network technology: Sifting myth from reality
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When Joseph Adegbolu’s mobile phone rang, he hastily picked it up without bothering to confirm the identity of the caller was on display. Upon engaging with the device, the voice at the other end was a familiar one- his mother.
Obviously distressed, she yelled: “Joseph, tell the telecommunication firm that erected that mast that is about 40 metres away from our house to come and remove it. We heard it’s killing people, and has killed many people in China.”
Joseph’s mom is but one of the millions across the globe that are terrified and influenced by some informed and less informed commentaries about the evil they say the Fifth Generation of cellular technology, otherwise known as 5G technology represents.
This high level of apprehension and uncertainty is daily sending jitters down spines in different parts of the globe, with numerous conspiracy theories flying everywhere. From China to the United Kingdom, the United States to Belgium, Canada to South Africa, the story has been the same.
It is this conspiracy theories that have led to the destruction of several 5G masts, especially in China, where the technology has been linked to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), which has killed over 190, 000 people across the globe.
The belief in several quarters has been that 5G technology comes with very hazardous electromagnetic radiation, which is extremely dangerous to human health, and which has resulted in the death of many people across the world.
These wild claims about 5G are not new. The technology has outsized political importance because it may provide countries with a competitive edge, with faster wireless speeds enabling more rapid development of driverless cars, and other innovations, especially as countries compete keenly in the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) era.
Internet trolls have remained on 5G and its political implications to sow fear, leading to protests in some countries, including the United States. Recently, Russians have been pushing claims that 5G signals were linked to brain cancer, infertility, autism, heart tumors, and Alzheimer’s disease, all of which lack scientific support.
Conversely, 5G is the next great leap in speed for wireless devices. This speed includes both the rate at which mobile users can download data to their devices, and the latency, or lag that they experience between sending and receiving information.
The fifth Generation aims to deliver data rates that are 10 to 100 times faster than the current 4G network, and users should expect to see download speeds on the order of gigabits per second (Gb/s), much greater than the tens of megabits per second (Mb/s) speeds of 4G.
Benefits Associated With 5G Network Technology The 5G network technology has the potential to benefit everything from entertainment and gaming, to education and public safety. Over time, 5G is expected to deliver faster download speeds, real-time responses, and enhanced connectivity, giving businesses and consumers the potential to experience innovative technologies.
Apart from requiring high data rates, emerging technologies that interact with the user’s environment like augmented reality or self-driving cars will also require extremely low latency. For that reason, the goal of 5G is to achieve latencies below the 1-millisecond mark. Mobile devices will be able to send and receive information in less than one-thousandth of a second, appearing instantaneous to the user. To accomplish these speeds, the rollout of 5G requires new technology and infrastructure.
A lot of engineers believe that considering the power and control at the disposal of any country with the expertise to develop this network, the temptation to de-market it by other world powers is high. This may be one of the reasons why a network, which runs on a spectrum that is considered by experts as safe, is being linked to high radiation and COVID-19.
Meanwhile, scientists are working hard to ensure that these conspiracy theories are not allowed to stand as they can disrupt world development.
How Does The 5G Technology Work? According to t-mobile.com, 5G networks can be built in different ways from multiple bands of wavelength spectrum: low-band, mid-band, and high-band.
High-band millimetre wave frequencies have greater bandwidth available to carry more data in dense urban areas, but require cell sites to be close, and have limited penetration in buildings. Mid-band balances speed and range, providing broader coverage than high-band. And it is less impacted by buildings. However, much of its bandwidth is already in use, so there’s not a lot available for 5G growth. Low-band like the powerful 600MHz spectrum travels farther than other bands – over hundreds of square miles – and can pass through more obstacles, providing a better, more reliable signal both indoors and outdoors.
With 5G, higher amounts of data can be transmitted more efficiently than 4G LTE. That means stronger network reliability, faster downloads, and support for more connected devices than ever before. It is an advancement of 4G technology.
The International Telecommunications Union (ITU), the body in charge of global communication had planned that 2020 will be the year for the commercial launch of the technology after which its global standardisation would have been perfected.
Deployment Threatened By Conspiracy Theories While 5G has been projected to have the power to enable the new normal in terms of superhighway transmissions, some theories have enveloped the globe about the alleged hazardous nature of this technology, which some claim can be devastating to human health. Besides, there are claims that 5G is the cause of COVID-19, and that the lockdown in several parts of the world translates to a government cover-up.
It was also claimed that the coronavirus can communicate through the radio airwaves and that 5G can kill birds and destroy plants among others.
Specifically, these claims have been bouncing around the industry for years, even ahead of the 5G technology being validated in lab trials. This even dates back to the 1990s, when mobile phone usage was incredibly limited, with critics claiming the 2G airwaves could cause cancer.
Although these rumours have been thrashed in most parts of the world, the emergence of 5G seems to have reopened these health claims. Finding a source is very difficult, but a lot of posts on social media seem to fan the flames of these fanatics.
Telecoms.com noted that a picture of an engineer climbing a telecoms mast in a hazmat suit in the United Kingdom was used as justification for these claims, though it was clear that the individual was using hazardous chemicals to clean the equipment. These illusions of proof help to paint the picture, as the blind following the blind, tend to ignore the thousands of images of healthy engineers installing or repairing telecoms equipment without such protective equipment on.
The idea that the airwaves used in mobile communications can be detrimental to health is reinforced by the idea of ionising and non-ionising radiation. Telecoms equipment does emit radiation, but so do most electrical equipment. The point, which seems to get lost, is that Electromagnetic Radiation (EMR) is not powerful enough to cause damage to humans.
According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), there are two general kinds of electromagnetic radiation: ionising radiation and non-ionising radiation. Ionising radiation is powerful enough to knock electrons out of their orbit around an atom. This process is called ionisation and can be damaging to a body’s cells. Non-ionising radiation has enough energy to move atoms in a molecule around and cause them to vibrate, which makes the atom heat up, but not enough to remove the electrons from the atoms.
EPA stressed that the damage, which can be done to the human body generally depends on how far up the spectrum the airwaves being used are, or whether it is high or low-energy. A high-tension power line can create a much higher energy electromagnetic field that is still low in frequency. Therefore, there are safeguards around these sites, while medical equipment using x-rays makes use of much higher frequencies so it should also be regarded as dangerous.
However, numerous public health authorities such as the World Health Organisation (WHO), and the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP), the Germany-based scientific body in charge of setting limits on exposure to radiation, have both stated on different occasions that the airwaves used by mobile communications is not harmful to health.
Perhaps, one of the conspiracy theories, which has gained the most significant traction in recent days, is that which alleges that 5G acts as an accelerator for the dreaded coronavirus.
As with many conspiracy theories, it is very difficult to trace the pseudoscience back to its origin, and this claim is a perfect example. Pre-dating the coronavirus outbreak, the idea that 5G suppresses the immune system is a popular one for critics and has been given a new life in conjunction with the spread of COVID-19.
The theory states that radiation from mobile communications is influencing the human body on a molecular level (suggesting it is ionising radiation), but also inhibiting the immune system.
As emphasised by the Cornell Alliance for Science, there is no evidence linking 5G technology to the COVID-19. The outfit maintains that if a hotspot emerges in one area, which happens to have 5G antennae, it is coincidental.
The most absurd of these theories is the claim that the lockdown (at the behest of the government) to prevent the spread of the pandemic is a cover-up, which will allow the installation of 5G masts en masse without the general public being aware. This remains an interesting one, which even the most hardened conspiracy theorists are unable to come to terms with.
The antagonists claim that by doing it in secret, the general public will not be able to comment, object, or protest until it is too late.
A popular evangelical pastor in Lagos, also recently reinforced the claim that the Federal Government enforced the lockdown to install 5G fibre pipes, most especially in Lagos and Abuja. He went as far as convincing his followers that the technology has the imprimatur of the Anti-Christ, which will ensure that human is installed with microchips.
No Cause For Alarm Over 5G In Nigeria With a cocktail of controversies circulating daily and raising more questions about the technology in the country, the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ibrahim Pantami, recently called on Nigerians to discard any unverified information about 5G and COVID-19.
He also tasked them to remain calm in face of the coronavirus pandemic, as the government is working hard to control its spread, adding that the government does not take decisions based on speculations, but only on facts and figures, which must be based on inputs from experts within the field.
Pantami cautioned Nigerians against fretting as no license for 5G has been issued to anyone, no spectrum for 5G deployment has been given, while no approval has been given to any telecoms operator to deploy 5G in the country.
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), also advised Nigerians to disregard talks linking 5G with COVID-19.
Head, Public Affairs at NCC, Dr. Henry Nkemadu, said: “First, there is no correlation between 5G technology and COVID-19. The 5G technology amounts to advancement in today’s 4G technology designed to transform the world positively.
“Second, there is no deployment of 5G in Nigeria at the moment. The NCC back in November 2019, approved a trial test for the technology for a period of three months, and that trial has been concluded and installation decommissioned. The trial among others was to study and observe any health or security challenges the network might present. Relevant stakeholders including members of the security agencies were invited to participate in the trial.”
Fifth Generation Technology And Health Concerns According to Professor Andrew Wood of the Australian Centre for Electromagnetic Bioeffects Research (ACEBR), a key contributor to the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP): “We believe the main biological effect of the electromagnetic radiation from mobile phones is a rise in temperature. There are also concerns that there could be more subtle effects, such as links between long-term exposure and certain types of cancer, but while there is some evidence from epidemiological and animal studies, these remain controversial.”
Wood, who noted that 5G mobile technology promises a 10-fold increase in data transmission rates compared to current 4G networks,underscored the commonly accepted electromagnetic radiation limit in the current international standards that apply to mobile technologies.
“As the frequency goes up, the depth of penetration into biological tissues goes down, so the skin and eyes, rather than the brain, become the main organs of health concerns. The major hurdle is that the power levels involved in mobile and wireless telecommunications are incredibly low, which, at most, facilitates temperature rise in tissues of a few tenths of a degree. Picking up unambiguous biological changes is therefore very difficult.
“However, it will be important to balance risk and reward. Wireless technologies bring enormous benefits, and being over-cautious would potentially deny these benefits to needy communities.”
From his perspective, a radiologist at the Alex Ekwueme Federal University Teaching Hospital, Abakaliki, Ebonyi State, Dave Okorafor, in a report said: “There are about seven different kinds of (natural but also artificially producible) radiations called electromagnetic radiations out of which three – gamma-ray, x-ray, and high-frequency ultraviolet ray – are capable of damaging human cells or the DNA in them. Gamma-ray, x-ray, and high-high frequency UV radiation are called ionizing radiations because they can change the structure of the smallest unit of matter found in living cells.
“By this mechanism, they can cause skin and other kinds of external and internal injuries to the human body. These bodily injuries usually manifest within days to months. The effects of these radiations can also lead to cancer when normal body cells run mad as a result of damage to or change in the DNA sequence (or gene) carrying information with which the body is supposed to produce proteins that should regulate the multiplication of the body cells.
“On the other hand, we also have four other electromagnetic radiations whose energies are not high and strong enough to cause the degree and kind of biological harm attributable to the three other radiations above.
“These weaker radiations are the visible light (with which we see in the day), infrared, microwave and radio wave. Microwave and radio waves are both called radiofrequency (RF) radiation. The radio wave is the weakest of the electromagnetic radiations because it has a lower frequency range and, as a result, a lower amount of energy. One unit of it is longer than all of the other radiations and, as such, it cannot easily pass through a lot of materials like metals. Microwave is a radiofrequency with a higher frequency and higher energy. Similar to the radio wave, it is also non-ionizing. This means that both radio waves and microwaves cannot cause cancer. Radio wave has been the electromagnetic radiation used for the conveyance of data in radio and TV broadcasting, wired and wireless telecommunications, WiFi, and Bluetooth communication, among others,” he added.
Years Of Research Established No Health Risks – GSMA The Global System for Mobile Telecommunications Association (GSMA), which regulates mobile usage and standards has also reassured the world of the safety of 5G technology.
Its chief regulatory officer, John Giusti, said: “Twenty years of research should reassure people that there are no established health risks from their mobile devices or 5G antennae.”
A White Paper from Deloitte disclosed actually how 5G is capable of enhancing the effectiveness of pandemic prevention, treatment and drive the digital transformation of healthcare systems in response to major public emergencies, such as the current COVID-19 pandemic.
The White Paper titled, “Combating COVID-19 with 5G: Opportunities to Improve Public Health Systems,” was produced in collaboration with Huawei.
Amongst its findings, the document noted that the effectiveness of communication and data exchange has been essential in screening for infected individuals and controlling the outbreak. This is by enabling thermal imaging, continuous remote monitoring, and diagnoses during patient transfer.
The research also highlighted the need to build and upgrade public health emergency response mechanisms, through which governments can make right decisions promptly, and allocate resources more effectively.
In this regard, 5G can also promote collaboration by enabling connectivity, maintaining effective communication among hospitals, and enable medical data and reference sharing between hospitals and scientific research institutions, especially “in the rapid increases in data volume and mounting demand for remote and HD video-based treatment” scenario.
Stakeholders Views In a public post, the Vice President, Corporate Communications and CSR, Airtel Nigeria, Emeka Oparah, also debunked claims linking coronavirus to 5G technology.
Oparah disclosed that there has been a strategic campaign against the 5G technology driven by business and diplomacy, propagated by an orchestrated campaign to discredit the innovation, “how it got twisted to establish a link to Coronavirus is perhaps the most important argument to debunk the fables.”
According to him, to understand 5G, it is important to first understand G. “G stands for generation. So, 5G means Fifth Generation Mobile Technology. Most mobile telecommunications operations are currently running on 4G (4th Generation LTE and high-speed mobile Internet). Before now, we have had 3G (voice and mobile data) and 2G (digital voice) and 1G (analog voice), of course. It must be admitted that the mobile telecommunications industry is probably one of the most innovative and fastest developing of all.”
A social entrepreneur and communications management specialist, Dr. Niyi Ibietan, said Monaco is the first principality, micro-state, and country to deploy fully functional 5G telecom services in the world, “which is situated between French Riviera in Western Europe, and the Mediterranean, Monaco is reputed as a wealthy country of about 40,000 residents but noted for $2.1m per capita income.
“At the moment, Monaco has recorded 66 cases of COVID-19, one death, and three recoveries. If 5G deployment correlates with COVID-19, Monaco ought to have disappeared from the face of the Earth.”
Indeed, on the BBC, scientists brand the so-called connection between 5G and Coronavirus as “complete rubbish.” According to them, the radio waves involved in 5G and other mobile phone technology sit on the low-frequency end of the electromagnetic spectrum, which is less powerful than visible light. Consequently, they are not strong enough to damage cells – unlike radiation at the higher frequency end of the spectrum which includes sun’s ray and medical x-rays.
A Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Bristol, Adam Finn, added: “It would also be impossible for 5G to transmit the virus. The present epidemic is caused by a virus that is passed from one infected person to another. We know this is true. We even have the virus growing in our lab, obtained from a person with the illness. Viruses and electromagnetic waves that make mobile phones and Internet connections work are different things. As different as chalk and cheese!”
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boldlykeenblizzard · 5 years ago
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market operations: Reduce market hours, cut futures & derivative segments: Rashesh Shah
Let us start by understanding how are you guys at Edelweiss doing.. I hope everything is safe. How are you guys operating? It is a large organisation. Fortunately, like everybody else, we started work from home a couple of weeks ago and made it very technology-enabled. So a large part of our colleagues are all working from home now. The markets are open, so the trading team and some of the critical operations related to that still have to be in the office. But a large part of our other colleagues are being able to work from home. Technology is a big enabler, and it has made things a lot more efficient. The first few days was not easy, but since last week it is almost like normal office work and we are doing meetings and video calls and all that. I think it was a good time to test your business continuity planning, so we kicked off the BCP. We have also divided the critical teams into A, B and C and made sure that the A team is in office, the B team is at a remote location and C team is working from home. Thus, we have enough redundancy for critical operations. What is important is the while activity comes down, critical operations have to go on. One of the other things we have done is, we have pre-paid our employees for March, basically pre-paid the payroll which usually happens on 28th. We are expedited it so that people have some leeway in managing their cash flow. Because how cash flow gets managed for individuals, for businesses and for organizations is going to be one of the biggest challenges.
Where do you stand on whether markets should remain open or not? We all know how difficult back operations guys are finding it. Some states have enforced complete lockdown. Volumes are low. Several markets across the world have taken the decision of electronic-only trade. But our regulators and exchanges have so far decided to continue the operations. Where do you stand on this particular issue? You have to keep the markets open, because closing the markets has a lot more other consequences, and it can increase volatility. One of the basic promise of the market is that whenever you are going to buy and sell at a price, liquidity should be available. So first thing is markets have to be open. One thing we can do is try and keep markets open for maybe one hour every day, so that there is not a lot of load and only essential buying and selling happens. Because this is not the time you want people to trade and speculate and do other things. I think F&O and the equity derivative segments can be curtailed and market hours can be curtailed, so that the load on the system is not there.
At the same time you do have a price print every day that the markets are open. If it goes on for another three-four weeks, then we should have a longer game plan on how to reduce the burden on the system as a whole.
The government is taking a lot of steps. Some of them are having consultations with the industry. You must have also interacted with the various sections of the government. How are you looking at the way our system is tackling this issue? I think India being a large country, very dense and with a democratic system and all, I am positive about the actions that the governments – state governments and central government – have taken. They have been very proactive. Some of the European governments were going slow, because they were worried about the economic impact. One of the good things the governments have done is not worry too much about the short-term economic impact, and have closed down borders, enforced curfews and all. So that is a good thing, because this is the only option you have to curtail this. This is a big humanitarian crisis, and we have to make sure that we first tackle the health crisis. It will obviously result in some economic pain, and that is inevitable all over the world. Recession and all is becoming more and more reality globally.
Once you curb the health crisis, then you can work on the economic crisis. I think the government has been very focused on how to manage the health issue and stop the spread of the virus. I do think the government, the Reserve Bank of India and others will come out with a package even to alleviate the economic crisis, because there is no point in just alleviating the health crisis, if the economic crisis goes on for a long term. Because that can result in unemployment, income loss and other pain.
I think it will follow, and I do think the government is working on it. They have been talking to a lot of people and they are trying to work out which areas, which sectors to address and what kind of stimulus or intervention to do. I do think it will come, because we will have to alleviate the economic pain also.
We understand that all these preparations are going on right now, and we are expecting that to cushion the blow to the economy. But where do you stand right now on your assessment of how bad could things get? A lot of your clients in the lending business are directly getting impacted? How are you assessing the damage so far, and what do you think can will help forbearance by lenders? What is your analysis of all that? The first and foremost impact is going to be on cash flows and liquidity. Because in last 8-10 days, we talked to a lot of our SME customers, everybody’s cash flows have been coming down. So that itself is the first area. We have to infuse liquidity, and make sure the cash flow cycle starts out, because once the cash flow cycle stops, it has a cascading effect on everybody else. After the cash flow issue is managed, we have to go towards NPAs and forbearance and all. Because, a lot of technical default can happen as people may not able to pay either because of liquidity or because of the cash flow crunch. We should have some forbearance, especially for a lot of businesses and all who need more time to play.
So I think they key requirements are NPA forbearance, ensuring cash flow, liquidity infusion and making sure that the cash flow cycle is not stalled at all. Thirdly, I think we need to ease compliance requirement, because this is also the end of the financial year. Thus, we need to extend the compliance requirements and give a lot more breathing space, because everybody is working on multiple fronts. Businesses are busy planning things, taking care of employees, taking care of customers . So, some kind of compliance forbearance and in filing things will also come. I think these are the three areas where I would expect help: on liquidity, on NPAs and on compliance.
The fear in the market is that now even retail borrowers will start coming under pressure, and possible defaults may happen. What are your thoughts on that section of the borrowers? Also on the real estate side, do you think there could be a lot more pain because they are completely starved of cash now and further defaults will start coming in on that side? On the first one, I think we have to be very careful on the retail side. The idea is not to spread panic, but as I said cash flows will get crunched. We do expect some intervention and the measures; going by what we have seen during other events. If it lasts for three-four weeks, it can be managed, because people have enough cushion, enough ability to manoeuvre and manage a cash flow disruption for three-four weeks. If it goes longer than that, then we will need a lot more other active interventions from the government and from RBI. That will be a function of what the government and RBI do to alleviate the cash flow and keep the cash flow going.
On the real estate side, if they have already gone through a huge stress test in last three years and there has been a big slowdown there. It is the same thing: if it lasts for next three-four weeks, there may be a little bit of slowdown, but if it goes on longer than that, then we will have to make sure that the projects keep going on and houses get built.
The good news is that people will not stop buying homes. In fact, if people have to stay at home more then they people will need more homes. So I do think home buying will not get impacted in the long term, especially if interest rates come down and the government and RBI do a big push to get people to spend.
Because demand contraction is what you do not want after this. As I said in the short term we have to manage liquidity, we have to manage NPA forbearance, we have to manage compliance requirement, but in the medium term, governments will have to stimulate the economy. We will have to make sure demand and consumption slowdown do not happen. I do hope it will not happen because India is still a growing country and we have a lot of young population and urbanisation and all is going on. If you look at China and other places, four, five, six weeks after this kind of measures, things have started to come back to some sort of normalcy. If you look at Korea, if you look at Singapore, a lot of things are coming back to normal. So given the strong measure our government has taken, I do feel by end of April we should see some normalcy come back.
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ainvestops · 5 years ago
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market operations: Reduce market hours, cut futures & derivative segments: Rashesh Shah
Let us start by understanding how are you guys at Edelweiss doing.. I hope everything is safe. How are you guys operating? It is a large organisation. Fortunately, like everybody else, we started work from home a couple of weeks ago and made it very technology-enabled. So a large part of our colleagues are all working from home now. The markets are open, so the trading team and some of the critical operations related to that still have to be in the office. But a large part of our other colleagues are being able to work from home. Technology is a big enabler, and it has made things a lot more efficient. The first few days was not easy, but since last week it is almost like normal office work and we are doing meetings and video calls and all that. I think it was a good time to test your business continuity planning, so we kicked off the BCP. We have also divided the critical teams into A, B and C and made sure that the A team is in office, the B team is at a remote location and C team is working from home. Thus, we have enough redundancy for critical operations. What is important is the while activity comes down, critical operations have to go on. One of the other things we have done is, we have pre-paid our employees for March, basically pre-paid the payroll which usually happens on 28th. We are expedited it so that people have some leeway in managing their cash flow. Because how cash flow gets managed for individuals, for businesses and for organizations is going to be one of the biggest challenges.
Where do you stand on whether markets should remain open or not? We all know how difficult back operations guys are finding it. Some states have enforced complete lockdown. Volumes are low. Several markets across the world have taken the decision of electronic-only trade. But our regulators and exchanges have so far decided to continue the operations. Where do you stand on this particular issue? You have to keep the markets open, because closing the markets has a lot more other consequences, and it can increase volatility. One of the basic promise of the market is that whenever you are going to buy and sell at a price, liquidity should be available. So first thing is markets have to be open. One thing we can do is try and keep markets open for maybe one hour every day, so that there is not a lot of load and only essential buying and selling happens. Because this is not the time you want people to trade and speculate and do other things. I think F&O and the equity derivative segments can be curtailed and market hours can be curtailed, so that the load on the system is not there.
At the same time you do have a price print every day that the markets are open. If it goes on for another three-four weeks, then we should have a longer game plan on how to reduce the burden on the system as a whole.
The government is taking a lot of steps. Some of them are having consultations with the industry. You must have also interacted with the various sections of the government. How are you looking at the way our system is tackling this issue? I think India being a large country, very dense and with a democratic system and all, I am positive about the actions that the governments – state governments and central government – have taken. They have been very proactive. Some of the European governments were going slow, because they were worried about the economic impact. One of the good things the governments have done is not worry too much about the short-term economic impact, and have closed down borders, enforced curfews and all. So that is a good thing, because this is the only option you have to curtail this. This is a big humanitarian crisis, and we have to make sure that we first tackle the health crisis. It will obviously result in some economic pain, and that is inevitable all over the world. Recession and all is becoming more and more reality globally.
Once you curb the health crisis, then you can work on the economic crisis. I think the government has been very focused on how to manage the health issue and stop the spread of the virus. I do think the government, the Reserve Bank of India and others will come out with a package even to alleviate the economic crisis, because there is no point in just alleviating the health crisis, if the economic crisis goes on for a long term. Because that can result in unemployment, income loss and other pain.
I think it will follow, and I do think the government is working on it. They have been talking to a lot of people and they are trying to work out which areas, which sectors to address and what kind of stimulus or intervention to do. I do think it will come, because we will have to alleviate the economic pain also.
We understand that all these preparations are going on right now, and we are expecting that to cushion the blow to the economy. But where do you stand right now on your assessment of how bad could things get? A lot of your clients in the lending business are directly getting impacted? How are you assessing the damage so far, and what do you think can will help forbearance by lenders? What is your analysis of all that? The first and foremost impact is going to be on cash flows and liquidity. Because in last 8-10 days, we talked to a lot of our SME customers, everybody’s cash flows have been coming down. So that itself is the first area. We have to infuse liquidity, and make sure the cash flow cycle starts out, because once the cash flow cycle stops, it has a cascading effect on everybody else. After the cash flow issue is managed, we have to go towards NPAs and forbearance and all. Because, a lot of technical default can happen as people may not able to pay either because of liquidity or because of the cash flow crunch. We should have some forbearance, especially for a lot of businesses and all who need more time to play.
So I think they key requirements are NPA forbearance, ensuring cash flow, liquidity infusion and making sure that the cash flow cycle is not stalled at all. Thirdly, I think we need to ease compliance requirement, because this is also the end of the financial year. Thus, we need to extend the compliance requirements and give a lot more breathing space, because everybody is working on multiple fronts. Businesses are busy planning things, taking care of employees, taking care of customers . So, some kind of compliance forbearance and in filing things will also come. I think these are the three areas where I would expect help: on liquidity, on NPAs and on compliance.
The fear in the market is that now even retail borrowers will start coming under pressure, and possible defaults may happen. What are your thoughts on that section of the borrowers? Also on the real estate side, do you think there could be a lot more pain because they are completely starved of cash now and further defaults will start coming in on that side? On the first one, I think we have to be very careful on the retail side. The idea is not to spread panic, but as I said cash flows will get crunched. We do expect some intervention and the measures; going by what we have seen during other events. If it lasts for three-four weeks, it can be managed, because people have enough cushion, enough ability to manoeuvre and manage a cash flow disruption for three-four weeks. If it goes longer than that, then we will need a lot more other active interventions from the government and from RBI. That will be a function of what the government and RBI do to alleviate the cash flow and keep the cash flow going.
On the real estate side, if they have already gone through a huge stress test in last three years and there has been a big slowdown there. It is the same thing: if it lasts for next three-four weeks, there may be a little bit of slowdown, but if it goes on longer than that, then we will have to make sure that the projects keep going on and houses get built.
The good news is that people will not stop buying homes. In fact, if people have to stay at home more then they people will need more homes. So I do think home buying will not get impacted in the long term, especially if interest rates come down and the government and RBI do a big push to get people to spend.
Because demand contraction is what you do not want after this. As I said in the short term we have to manage liquidity, we have to manage NPA forbearance, we have to manage compliance requirement, but in the medium term, governments will have to stimulate the economy. We will have to make sure demand and consumption slowdown do not happen. I do hope it will not happen because India is still a growing country and we have a lot of young population and urbanisation and all is going on. If you look at China and other places, four, five, six weeks after this kind of measures, things have started to come back to some sort of normalcy. If you look at Korea, if you look at Singapore, a lot of things are coming back to normal. So given the strong measure our government has taken, I do feel by end of April we should see some normalcy come back.
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chescagregorio · 5 years ago
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Analyze about Equifax
What's wrong with just using credit monitoring you might ask? These services do not prevent thieves from using your identity to open new lines of credit and damaging your good name for years to come. The most you can expect is credit monitoring services to alert you soon after an identity thief steals your identity.
If it is any teacher's past experience, anyone who has a freeze on their credit file will need to briefly unfreeze the file at Equifax before signing up for the service when it is offered. Since a law mandated that freezes across the land take effect, all three departments made it significantly easier to set up and lift safety freezes.
Probably too easy, actually. Especially for people who froze before Equifax renewed its freezing portal. Those people were given a numeric PIN to lift, thaw, or remove a freeze, but Equifax no longer allows these users to do these things online with their PIN alone.
This PIN currently plays no role in any freezing or thawing process. To create an account on the MyEquifax portal, simply provide your name, address, Social Security number, date of birth, any telephone number (all data points exposed in the Equifax violation and in any case widely available for sale on cybercrime) and answer 4 multiple-guessing questions whose answers are often available in public records or social media.
So this is one more reason why you should freeze your credit: If you don't sign up for MyEquifax, someone can do it for you.
What else can you do in the meantime? Be wary of any phone calls or emails that you have not signed up to invoke this data breach and ask you to provide personal and / or financial information.
And if you haven't done so already, get a free copy of your credit report from annualcreditreport.com; By law, all Americans are entitled to a free report from each of the major agencies annually. You can opt for one report or all three at once. Either way, be sure to read the report (s) closely and dispute anything that seems incorrect.
For a long time, my opinion is that the three big departments are massively stifling innovation and offering consumers so little choice or saying in the business that is being done behind their hard work, integrity and honesty. The real question is, if someone or something eventually serves to disintermediate the big three and open the door to competition, what would be the net effect for consumers?
Obviously, there's no way of knowing for sure, but a company that really offered to pay consumers anywhere close to what their data is really worth would probably erase these digital dinosaurs from the face of the earth.
That is, if the banks could board. After all, banks and their various fingers are what drive the credit industry. And these giants do not move very quickly. They are extremely difficult to activate the simplest changes. And they are not known for quickly warming up to a whole new model of doing business (ie huge cost investments).
My hometown, Senator Mark Warner (D-Va.), Seems to suggest that the $ 650 million deal was about half of what it should be.
“Americans don't choose to have companies like Equifax collects their data - by the nature of their business models, credit bureaus collect your personal information, whether you want it or not. In view of this, the penalties for not guaranteeing such data should be appropriately accented. While I am happy to see that customers who have been harmed as a result of Equifax's blind security practices will receive some compensation, we need structural reforms and greater oversight by credit reporting agencies to ensure that this never happens again. ”
Click here: Equifax Data Breach
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ellahmacdermott · 6 years ago
Text
Grim Stories of Ethical, Privacy Abuses Emerge About Coinbase’s New Partners
When Coinbase acquired Neutrino for an unspecified amount in February 2019, the news looked like business as usual: A cryptocurrency juggernaut had made another acquisition. But the company in question, specifically the ties it has to the unethical practices of one of its predecessors, suggests that the monolithic Coinbase may be joining the oligarchic ranks of its privacy-hostile, too-big-for-consumer-comfort counterparts in legacy tech.
The Ties That Damn
On its website, Italian blockchain analysis company Neutrino proudly advertises that its proprietary software offers all-in-one “solutions for law enforcement” and “financial services.” Its two flagships, XFlow nSpect and XFlow nSight, are billed as “comprehensive solution[s] for monitoring[,] analyzing and tracking cryptocurrency flows across multiple blockchains.” nSight was built to help exchanges and financial service companies like Coinbase to stay regulatorily compliant. nSpect, on the other hand, was built for “criminal investigations and intelligence gathering” and is specifically marketed toward law enforcement.
Continuing on with their work at Coinbase, the Neutrino team, a three-man show consisting of CEO Giancarlo Russo, CRO Marco Valleri and CTO Alberto Ornaghi, are no strangers to building complex computer monitoring software for law agencies.
In another life, they did it as Hacking Team, the notorious Italian software services firm whose dubious business practices made them an antagonist of the wider tech and privacy community. Hacking Team got their start when Valleri and Ornaghi (under the aliases NaGa and ALoR) sold man-in-the-middle attack software to the police force of Milan, Italy, in 2003. These two founders would later be joined by Russo, who acted as COO of the company.
Throughout its history, Hacking Team sold its services to oppressive regimes in Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Sudan, Kazakhstan, Bahrain and Turkey, among others. These services centered around Hacking Team’s proprietary Remote Control System (RCS) software, a Trojan horse malware that gives users the ability to remotely access files, record keystrokes, take photos and read emails from any infected device.
Email leaks reported by The Intercept trace the team’s cyber footprints to human rights abuses around the world. Hacking Team’s RCS technology was used by the Ethiopian government (which ranks as one of the most oppressive in Africa, with a penchant for silencing free speech) to surveil and interfere with the operations of Ethiopian Satellite Television and Radio, a news outlet run by Ethiopian expats. The technology helped the Turkish government to spy on an American, and it was also sold to the Sudanese National Intelligence and Security Service in 2012 for a whopping €960,000 (around $1,210,000 at the time), though the team shuttered Sudan’s access to their software in 2014 when the government’s clumsy implementation of the software showed that they weren’t “enough prepared for the product usage,” Hacking Team emails reveal. It also played its part in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Saudi Arabia and the assault and arrest of UAE activist Ahmed Mansoor.
Reporters Without Borders labeled Hacking Team as one of five “Enemies of the Internet” in 2013 for its role in humanitarian abuses against journalists.
During the 2012 uprisings in Morocco that were inspired by the Arab Spring movement, RCS, under the control of the Moroccan government, singled out Mamfakinch.com, an outlet that published journalists who were vocal critics of the regime. The leaked emails prove that Hacking Team had been selling its software to Morocco since 2010. This would culminate in Mamfakinch’s hardware being infected by a Trojan horse virus, which originally masqueraded as a news tip.
“Mamfakinch.com came as the first citizen media portal to document protests, providing tools like mapping of protests and also articles. At the time it started, I was not a member. I was asked to join later by one of the co-founders,” Zineb, a pro-democracy activist who was involved with Mamfakinch, told Bitcoin Magazine.
The outlet employed the help of the Citizen Lab to dismantle the virus and trace it back to its Hacking Team source, though most of the damage had already been done by the time they consulted this help.
“Moroccan activists suffer tremendously from what government surveillance provides them with, and former ones like myself have seen what that can be like. From physical threats to family threats, and even worse threats to fellow activists who were part of the human rights and digital rights effort in Morocco,” she said.
Hacking Team repeatedly refused to disclose its clients, and the internal emails betray that, more often than not, when their ties to human rights abuses and oppressive regimes were unearthed by international media, they always tried to mitigate the scrutiny and severity of the ensuing bad press.
In June of 2014, a U.N. panel inquired into Hacking Team’s business with Sudan for violating sanctions regarding weapons exports to the country. The U.N. considered Hacking Team’s software a weapon of sorts, something that Russo refutes in internal emails while also emphasizing that the team wants to keep its name clear from any records regarding the investigation.
“It looks like their focus is to trace every single armament,” wrote Russo. “We absolutely need to avoid being mentioned in these documents.”
Why Coinbase (and We) Should Care
The U.N. investigative panel would mark the beginning of Hacking Team’s unraveling. By March 2016, the Italian government revoked Hacking Team’s export license after an Italian PhD student was murdered in Cairo, Egypt. Hacking Team’s software was allegedly involved in the crime. With the company’s revenue streams severely restricted, Hacking Team was on its last financial leg.
Conveniently, Neutrino was founded the same year that Italian officials revoked Hacking Team’s export license, “very obviously around the time that they would have been desperate for money and needing to start fresh somehow,” Janine, a member of crypto podcast Block Digest who initially raised the alarm about Hacking Team and Neutrino’s ties, told Bitcoin Magazine.
Bitcoin Magazine spoke to Janine to learn more about the possible ramifications of this acquisition. In addition to her work at Block Digest, Janine has been a consistent and reliable whistleblower for industry developments that could indicate privacy threats. In the past, she also helped dissect community concerns surrounding the privacy implications of Bitfury’s Peach Lightning suite.
As with the Bitfury situation, Janine has covered every angle of Neutrino and Hacking Team’s shared past on Twitter, and she helped Block Digest produce a two-hour segment on the subject, as well.
Hacking Team has been listed as an "Enemy of the Internet" by @RSF_inter because they "sell products that are used by authoritarian governments to commit violations of human rights and freedom of information." https://t.co/9xDnfJotYo
— Janine (@J9Roem) February 20, 2019
Since Neutrino was acquired by Coinbase, the team is more than financially secure. Furthermore, as part of the deal, it will continue to act autonomously out of Coinbase’s London office. The exchange framed the buyout as a means to outfit itself with the proper tools to remain KYC- and AML-compliant with regulators. Janine points out that the company will likely make use of XFlow nSight to this end, though she’s also worried that Neutrino’s technology will come with more serious privacy trade-offs than nSight’s base functionality.
“The chain analysis stuff is not really that interesting to me; it is how much access Coinbase will give to Neutrino,” she told Bitcoin Magazine.
More specifically, she expressed concern about Money Module, a Hacking Team software that allows the user to access devices and private keys. Janine is also suspicious of the backdoors that Hacking Team coded into their software: “They likely had access to whatever data these government clients were collecting from their targets.”
If Coinbase forks over too much data to Neutrino for transaction analysis, and if a backdoor to the software exists in tandem with Money Module, this could spell disaster for user privacy and private key security.
That this backdoor may exist alongside a vehicle for stealing user funds is disturbing — even more disturbing, Janine and other critics have suggested, is Coinbase’s ability to overlook the history of unethical business practices of Neutrino’s team.
When Bitcoin Magazine reached out to Coinbase to ask about the acquisition and how it plans to use Neutrino, the exchange sent back a general statement, indicating that they are aware of and don’t condone Hacking Team’s practices. But this past behavior is not enough for Coinbase to distance themselves from a team whose expertise is in line with its vision:
We are aware that Neutrino’s co-founders previously worked at Hacking Team, which we reviewed as part of our security, technical and hiring diligence. Coinbase does not condone nor will it defend the actions of Hacking Team. Increasingly, third-party blockchain analysis companies are requesting customer data from cryptocurrency companies that they serve. It was important for Coinbase to bring this function in-house to fully control and protect our customers’ data and Neutrino’s technology was the best we encountered in the space to achieve this goal.
Zineb, who is also a crypto enthusiast, told us that it’s disheartening to see the same privacy-compromising and autocratic software eke its way into the cryptocurrency space. You expect this from the legacy tech industry, she expressed, but you don’t expect it in an industry whose tenets rest on privacy, freedom and censorship resistance.
“To have Coinbase acquire anything run by anyone ever associated with Hacking Team is alarming,” she said. “Perhaps Coinbase is clueless as to WHY it’s important to protect [these virtues], but I’m not. When banks freeze or easily hand over private financial information of dissidents in autocratic countries, that’s when a system like [Bitcoin] is needed.
“They say this is to protect user data. But how can they possibly trust that those who engaged in such appalling actions would somehow have Coinbase user data privacy’s best interest at heart? I can’t say much for others but I can only speak for myself: I won’t be using any of their tools in the future, and shame on them for allowing the Hacking Team people to continue to thrive."
This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine.
from InvestmentOpportunityInCryptocurrencies via Ella Macdermott on Inoreader https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/grim-stories-of-ethical-privacy-abuses-emerge-about-coinbases-new-partners/
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inhumansforever · 8 years ago
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At the moment I was thinking that by supporting any MCU property(not just the Inhumans) that I am hurting the longevity of the X-Men. Marvel's own titles seem to be more of a danger to my favorite franchise so I just don't buy outside of the line anymore. Obviously other people feel the same way. How do you think Marvel could stop fans feeling this way or is the damage already done? Until Marvel sent the Inhumans now the X-Men lite direction I really liked them as their own thing.
The X-Men, and there longevity, are both in very good shape.  It’s as healthy and resilient a franchise as one is likely to find in the frequently just-keeping-afloat comic book industry.  Whatever ideas some at Marvel had to see if the Inhumans could siphon off some of the X-Men’s popularity has long since past.  The X-Men are doing quite well, with a substantial number of titles on the stands, and multiple movies and TV shows in pre- and post production.  
you can rest assured that picking up a copy of The Royals, or for that matter, Squirrel Girl, or any of the books published by DC, Image, Dark Horse or many of the other publishers and it will not hurt the X-books in the slightest.  
The current Inhuman books are very much divorced from anything X-Men, they’re very much back to doing ‘their own thing.’  And in my opinion they have been terrific.  Check out an issue of Black Bolt... it’s amazing.  Were you to purchase it, doing so will not effect the X-Books whatsoever.  
As for the MCU properties, the movies and TV shows, just watch or go see what ever you feel like, whatever you might enjoy.  The success of a movie like Guardians of The Galaxy II actually assists the the prospects of X-Men movies in that it shows that superhero movies can make a lot of money.  The super hero movie/Tv show is not going anywhere anytime soon.  And they feed off of one another with the success of one helping to green light the production of others (across studies).  
On the off-chance that ABC’s Inhumans does really well, it’ll actually bode well for the the X-Men tv show, ‘Gifted,’ or any other X-Men based televisions program... simply by showing that small screen superhero fare is a viable option for successful programming.   
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