#services digital operations in California

[eov-blogs]

A basic introduction to Next.js

What is Next.js? 

Next.js is a latest and popular React framework for building full-stack web applications. You use React Components to build user interfaces, and Next.js for additional features and optimizations. Next.js also abstract and automatically configures tooling needed for React, like bundling, compiling, and more. This allows you to focus on building your application instead of spending time with configuration.     

Whether you’re an individual developer or part of a larger team, Next.js can help you build interactive, dynamic, and fast React applications. 

What are the benefits of using Next.js over React?  

Faster Initial Page Loads: Next.js supports server-side rendering (SSR), which means that the initial HTML of your pages is rendered on the server before being sent to the client. This can significantly improve the performance of your pages, especially for SEO and for users with slow internet connections.

Static site generation: Next.js also supports static site generation (SSG), which means that you can pre-render your pages at build time. This can further improve the performance of your pages, as the client will not have to wait for the pages to be rendered on the server. 

Improved SEO: Because Next.js supports SSR and SSG, search engines can easily crawl and index your content, leading to better search engine rankings compared to client-side-rendered applications. SSR also makes your pages more SEO-friendly, as search engines can index the rendered HTML. This can help your pages rank higher in search results. 

Built-in routing: Next.js comes with a file-based routing system, which makes it easy to create complex and dynamic routes without the need for additional routing libraries. In React, you’d typically need a separate routing library like React Router. 

Automatic Code Splitting: Next.js automatically splits your JavaScript code into smaller chunks that are loaded only when needed. This reduces the initial load time and helps improve performance.  

API Routes: You can create API endpoints directly within your Next.js application using the /pages/api directory, simplifying serverless API development. 

Hot Module Replacement (HMR): Next.js supports HMR, which allows you to see changes in your code without a full-page refresh during development. 

Internationalization (i18n): Next.js offers built-in support for internationalization, making it easier to create multilingual websites. 

Image Optimization: It includes automatic image optimization, where images are optimized and served in various formats (e.g., WebP) for better performance. 

What are the additional Key Features of Next.js?  

Hot Module Replacement (HMR): Next.js supports HMR, allowing for instant code changes during development without a full-page refresh. This speeds up the development process and enhances the developer experience.

Production-Ready Optimizations: Next.js includes built-in optimizations for production deployments, such as automatic code splitting, asset optimization, and serverless deployments. This ensures that your application is production-ready with minimal effort. 

Data Fetching: Next.js provides multiple methods for data fetching, including getServerSideProps, getStaticProps, and getInitialProps, making it easy to fetch data on both the server and the client side. 

Internationalization: Next.js offers built-in support for internationalization, making it easier to create multilingual applications. 

Environment Variables: You can use environment variables in Next.js to manage configuration options securely and efficiently. 

CSS Support: Next.js allows you to use various CSS solutions, including CSS Modules, styled-components, and more. It also offers automatic CSS code splitting. 

Middleware Support: You can use middleware functions to customize the behavior of the server, making it versatile for handling various scenarios and authentication. 

Error Handling: Next.js provides robust error handling capabilities, including custom error pages and error boundary components to gracefully handle errors in your application. 

Community and Ecosystem: Next.js has a thriving community, a rich ecosystem of plugins and extensions, and is backed by Vercel, a cloud platform for deploying Next.js applications, which simplifies deployment and scaling. 

Automatic Static Optimization: Next.js automatically optimizes the delivery of static assets like images, fonts, and JavaScript files to improve performance. 

Conclusion 

Next.js is a React framework that offers advantages over plain React, including server-side rendering (SSR), static site generation (SSG), automatic code splitting, SEO-friendliness, and built-in features for routing, CSS, and API handling. It’s suitable for a wide range of applications, from static websites to dynamic web apps, eCommerce sites, content management systems, and more. Next.js simplifies development tasks, improves performance, and enhances SEO, making it a valuable tool in the React ecosystem. 

In our subsequent blogs, we will cover more on how we have sought help of Next.js to deliver software products to our clients. If you are looking for app development partners, feel free to contact our team now!

[mostlysignssomeportents]

When the app tries to make you robo-scab

When we talk about the abusive nature of gig work, there’s some obvious targets, like algorithmic wage discrimination, where two workers are paid different rates for the same job, in order to trick occasional gig-workers to give up their other sources of income and become entirely dependent on the app:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/12/algorithmic-wage-discrimination/#fishers-of-men

Then there’s the opacity — imagine if your boss refused to tell you how much you’ll get paid for a job until after you’ve completed it, claimed that this was done in order to “protect privacy” — and then threatened anyone who helped you figure out the true wage on offer:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/08/07/hr-4193/#boss-app

Opacity is wage theft’s handmaiden: every gig worker producing content for a social media algorithm is subject to having their reach — and hence their pay — cut based on the unaccountable, inscrutable decisions of a content moderation system:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/10/e2e/#the-censors-pen

Making content for an algorithm is like having a boss that docks every paycheck because you broke rules that you are not allowed to know, because if you knew the rules, you’d figure out how to cheat without your boss catching you. Content moderation is the last place where security through obscurity is considered good practice:

https://doctorow.medium.com/como-is-infosec-307f87004563

When workers seize the means of computation, amazing things happen. In Indonesia, gig workers create and trade tuyul apps that let them unilaterally modify the way that their bosses’ systems see them — everything from GPS spoofing to accessibility mods:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/07/08/tuyul-apps/#gojek

So the tech and labor story isn’t wholly grim: there are lots of ways that tech can enhance labor struggles, letting workers collaborate and coordinate. Without digital systems, we wouldn’t have the Hot Strike Summer:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/02/not-what-it-does/#who-it-does-it-to

As the historic writer/actor strike shows us, the resurgent labor movement and the senescent forces of crapulent capitalism are locked in a death-struggle over not just what digital tools do, but who they do it for and who they do it to:

https://locusmag.com/2022/01/cory-doctorow-science-fiction-is-a-luddite-literature/

When it comes to the epic fight over who technology acts for and against, we need a diversity of tactics, backstopped by tech operated by and for its users — and by laws that protect workers and the public. That dynamic is in sharp focus in UNITE Here Local 11’s strike against Orange County’s Laguna Cliffs Marriott Resort & Spa.

The UNITE Here strike turns on the usual issues like a living wage (hotel staff are paid so little they have to rent rooming-house beds by the shift, paying for the right to sleep in a room for a few hours at a time, without any permanent accommodation). They’re also seeking health-care and pensions, so they can be healthy at work and retire after long service. Finally, they’re seeking their employer’s support for LA’s Responsible Hotels Ordinance, which would levy a tax on hotel rooms to help pay for hotel workers’ housing costs (a hotel worker who can’t afford a bed is the equivalent of a fast food worker who has to apply for food stamps):

https://www.unitehere11.org/responsible-hotels-ordinance/

But the Marriott — which is owned by the University of California and managed by Aimbridge Hospitality — has refused to bargain, walking out negotiations.

But the employer didn’t walk out over wages, benefits or support for a housing subsidy. They walked out when workers demanded that the scabs that the company was trying to hire to break the strike be given full time, union jobs.

These aren’t just any scabs, either. They’re predominantly Black workers who rely on the $700m Instawork app for gigs. These workers are being dispatched to cross the picket line without any warning that they’re being contracted as strikebreakers. When workers refuse the cross the picket and join the strike, Instawork cancels all their shifts and permanently blocks them from new jobs.

This is a new, technologically supercharged form of illegal strikebreaking. It’s one thing for a single boss to punish a worker who refuses to scab, but Instawork acts as a plausible-deniability filter for all the major employers in the region. Like the landlord apps that allow landlords to illegally fix rents by coordinating hikes, Instawork lets bosses illegally collude to rig wages by coordinating a blocklist of workers who refuse to scab:

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/10/company-that-makes-rent-setting-software-for-landlords-sued-for-collusion/?comments=1

The racial dimension is really important here: the Marriott has a longstanding de facto policy of refusing to hire Black workers, and whenever they are confronted with this, they insist that there are no qualified Black workers in the labor pool. But as soon as the predominantly Latino workforce struck, Marriott discovered a vast Black workforce that it could coerce into scabbing, in collusion with Instawork.

Now, all of this isn’t just sleazy, it’s illegal, a violation of Section 7 of the NLRB Act. Historically, that wouldn’t have mattered, because a string of presidents, R and D, have appointed useless do-nothing ghouls to run the NLRB. But the Biden admin, pushed by the party’s left wing, made a string of historic, excellent appointments, including NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo, who has set her sights on punishing gig work companies for flouting labor law:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/01/10/see-you-in-the-funny-papers/#bidens-legacy

UNITE HERE 11 has brought a case to the NLRB, charging the Instawork, the UC system, Marriott, and Aimbridge with violating labor law by blackmailing gig workers into crossing the picket line. The union is also asking the NLRB to punish the companies for failing to protect workers from violent retaliation from the wealthy hotel guests who have punched them and screamed epithets at them. The hotel has refused to identify these thug guests so that the workers they assaulted can swear out complaints against them.

Writing about the strike for Jacobin, Alex N Press tells the story of Thomas Bradley, a Black worker who was struck off all Instawork shifts for refusing to cross the picket line and joining it instead:

https://jacobin.com/2023/07/southern-california-hotel-workers-strike-automated-management-unite-here

Bradley’s case is exhibit A in the UNITE HERE 11 case before the NLRB. He has a degree in culinary arts, but racial discrimination in the industry has kept him stuck in gig and temp jobs ever since he graduated, nearly a quarter century ago. Bradley lived out of his car, but that was repossessed while he slept in a hotel room that UNITE HERE 11 fundraised for him, leaving him homeless and bereft of all his worldly possessions.

With UNITE HERE 11’s help, Bradley’s secured a job at the downtown LA Westin Bonaventure Hotel & Suites, a hotel that has bargained with the workers. Bradley is using his newfound secure position to campaign among other Instawork workers to convince them not to cross picket lines. In these group chats, Jacobin saw workers worrying “that joining the strike would jeopardize their standing on the app.”

Today (July 30) at 1530h, I’m appearing on a panel at Midsummer Scream in Long Beach, CA, to discuss the wonderful, award-winning “Ghost Post” Haunted Mansion project I worked on for Disney Imagineering.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/30/computer-says-scab/#instawork

[Image ID: An old photo of strikers before a struck factory, with tear-gas plumes rising above them. The image has been modified to add a Marriott sign to the factory, and the menacing red eye of HAL9000 from Stanley Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey' to the sky over the factory. The workers have been colorized to a yellow-green shade and the factory has been colorized to a sepia tone.]

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

[beardedmrbean]

A UCLA student is suing two California doctors, alleging they inappropriately "fast-tracked" her for an "irreversibly damaging" gender transition, starting when she was 12 years old.

Kaya Clementine Breen, now 20, filed her suit Thursday accusing Dr. Johanna Olson-Kennedy, who runs the nation's largest transgender youth clinic at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, and numerous other defendants, of rushing her into transition to a male and overlooking her mental health struggles and history of sexual abuse.

"She needed psychotherapy," the suit reads in part. Instead, Breen was "fast-tracked onto the conveyor belt of irreversibly damaging" transgender medical procedures.

Breen began puberty blockers at age 12, started cross-sex hormones at 13 and underwent a double mastectomy at 14, according to the suit.

Olson-Kennedy diagnosed Breen with gender dysmorphia "mere minutes" into their first appointment and recommended puberty blockers at the same meeting, according to the suit, which accuses the doctor of concealing important information and even outright lying to Breen and her parents about the risks and necessity of treatments.

A spokesperson for Children’s Hospital Los Angeles told Fox News Digital on Monday that the Center for Transyouth Health and Development "has provided high quality, age-appropriate, medically necessary care for more than 30 years."

The spokesperson continued in an email that the center does not comment on pending litigation, nor does it comment on specific patients and their treatment.

Olson-Kennedy came under attack this fall after admitting to The New York Times that her team had not yet published research showing that puberty blockers did not lead to mental health improvements among young people to avoid the findings being "weaponized" by critics of transgender medical procedures.

Breen started seeing a therapist shortly before attending college and realized she "may not actually be ‘trans’ but rather had been suffering from PTSD and other issues related to her unresolved trauma," according to the suit.

She has since stopped taking testosterone and says her mental health has improved, but "her body has been irreversibly and profoundly damaged" to the point that she is "almost certainly infertile," the suit claims.

The Golden State has increasingly positioned itself as a sanctuary for transgender people, passing a shield law prohibiting police from cooperating with out-of-state prosecutions for people who seek transgender medical procedures and drugs in California, and banning school districts from notifying parents if their child identifies as a gender that's different from their school record.

Breen's lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages, was filed the day after the Supreme Court heard oral arguments over whether states can ban gender transition care for minors.

Also named in her suit are Dr. Scott Mosser and the Gender Confirmation Center of San Francisco. Olson-Kennedy recommended Breen get top-surgery from Mosser, and surgery was scheduled "after a perfunctory virtual meeting" with someone on Mosser's staff, the lawsuit says.

The day of the surgery, Mosser met with Breen and her mother for less than 30 minutes before he "rubber-stamped" the operation.

A spokesperson for the Gender Confirmation Center cited HIPAA when declining to comment on "protected health information or pending litigation," but told Fox News Digital in an email that there is "no such thing as a rubber-stamped patient interaction at the GCC."

The center referred Fox News Digital to an additional statement from Mosser reading in part, "Our robust processes and protocols are designed to ensure that patients navigating our services fully understand the implications of the gender-affirming procedures they may choose to undergo as part of their transition."

The statement continued, "We regularly hear from former patients sharing updates about the overwhelmingly positive impact these surgeries have had on their lives—messages that continue to arrive many years after their procedures."

[usafphantom2]

IMAGES: USAF Beale Air Base takes flight with silver TU-2S

Fernando Valduga By Fernando Valduga 02/18/2024 - 18:12in Military

The iconic U.S. Air Force (USAF) U-2 spy plane has many distinct features, such as its deep black paint. But this week, one of the Dragon Lady from Beale Air Base, California, is displaying a silver pattern.

The TU-2S '1078', the "T" meaning coach, is back in the skies after almost three years on the ground, or 1,030 days, undergoing a series of regular repairs and maintenance, according to Beale Air Base.

During its time in the 21-month repair area, the 1078 had its iconic black paint removed, exposing the silver panels of the fuselage.

Although the '1078' is back in the sky, it still needs to undergo a series of airworthiness tests before receiving a new layer of black paint.

Beale Air Base said the training aircraft is halfway through the reintroduction process before coaches and interns can use the spy jet again.

Beale, located in Yuba County, is the only United States Air Force Base operating the U-2 Dragon Lady and hosts the entire stock of U-2S and T-U2S.

On January 11 of this year, another TU-2S Dragon Lady (number 1065) of the U.S. Air Force made its final flight, being deactivated after 41 years of services provided in the training of pilots of the iconic jet.

Tags: Military AviationU-2 Dragon LadyUSAF - United States Air Force / U.S. Air Force

Sharing

tweet

Fernando Valduga

Fernando Valduga

Aviation photographer and pilot since 1992, he has participated in several events and air operations, such as Cruzex, AirVenture, Dayton Airshow and FIDAE. He has works published in specialized aviation magazines in Brazil and abroad. He uses Canon equipment during his photographic work in the world of aviation.

Related news

The Minister of Defense Procurement, James Cartlidge, analyzes the investment spent in RAF Valley and fast jet training. (Photo: Royal Air Force of the United Kingdom)

MILITARY

UK Ministry of Defense reviews its investment in advanced pilot training

18/02/2024 - 13:38

MILITARY

Airbus negotiates with Saudi Arabia request for in-flight refuelling aircraft

18/02/2024 - 12:09

MILITARY

Someday, Ukraine will be without Su-25 attack jets. That's why she wants the A-10 ex-USAF

18/02/2024 - 00:19

MILITARY

Philippines close to closing deal to buy 12 to 14 Gripen fighters

17/02/2024 - 16:30

MILITARY

India will spend $3.5 billion on planes to increase the surveillance capacity of the Indian Navy

17/02/2024 - 16:00

MILITARY

Ukraine claims to have shot down three Russian jets, two Su-34 and one Su-35

17/02/2024 - 12:10

homeMain PageEditorialsINFORMATIONeventsCooperateSpecialitiesadvertiseabout

Cavok Brazil - Digital Tchê Web Creation

Commercial

Executive

Helicopters

HISTORY

Military

Brazilian Air Force

Space

Specialities

Cavok Brazil - Digital Tchê Web Creation

[mariacallous]

For hackers seeking to maximize chaos, so-called denial-of-service attacks that knock targets offline with waves off junk traffic are typically more of a blunt cudgel than a weapon of mass destruction. But according to the US Department of Justice, a pair of Sudanese brothers allegedly behind the hacktivist group Anonymous Sudan launched a spree of those crude cyberattacks that was both powerful and cruel enough in its choice of victims—extending to dozens of hospitals in multiple countries, Israel’s missile alert system, and hundreds of other digital services—that one of them is now being charged not only with criminal hacking but also with the rare added allegation of seeking to cause physical injury and death.

On Wednesday the DOJ unsealed charges against brothers Ahmed and Alaa Omer, who allegedly launched a punishing bombardment of more than 35,000 distributed denial-of-service, or DDoS, attacks against hundreds of organizations, taking down websites and other networked systems as part of both their own ideologically motivated hacktivism, as a means of extortion, or on behalf of clients of a cyberattack-for-hire service they ran for profit. According to US prosecutors and the FBI, their victims included Microsoft's Azure cloud services, OpenAI's ChatGPT, video game and media companies, airports, and even the Pentagon, the FBI, and the Department of Justice itself.

“We declare cyber war on the United States,” Ahmed Omer posted in a message to Anonymous Sudan's Telegram channel in April of last year, according to the indictment. "The United States will be our primary target.”

Anonymous Sudan also targeted hospitals in the US, Denmark, Sweden, and India. In at least one case in February, prosecutors say, the attacks on Cedars-Sinai Health Systems in Los Angeles caused hours of downtime for health care services that diverted patients to other hospitals. In that Los Angeles incident, the Justice Department claims that one of the two hackers explicitly sought to cause potentially deadly harm.

“Bomb our hospitals in Gaza, we shut down yours too, eye for eye,” Ahmed Omer allegedly wrote on Telegram in the midst of the attack. As a result of those hospital attacks, prosecutors are bringing charges against Ahmed Ohmer that carry a potential life sentence, which prosecutors describe as the most severe criminal charges ever brought against a hacker accused of denial-of-service attacks.

In earlier cases, US authorities claim, the hackers used cyberattacks to disrupt Israel's Tzeva Adom or “Code Red” missile alert app, tearing the system offline in the midst of deadly rocket attacks by Hamas, including during Hamas's attacks on October 7th of last year.

“The actions taken by this group were callous and brazen,” Martin Estrada, a US attorney for the Central District of California and lead prosecutor in the case, told reporters in a conference call. “This group was motivated by their extremist ideology, essentially a Sudanese nationalist ideology.”

Despite publicizing its charges against the two men, Estrada declined to make clear the whereabouts of the two alleged hackers—though he noted that they are in custody. An FBI affidavit accompanying the indictment states that an FBI agent, Elliott Peterson, interviewed both of the Omer brothers and that Ahmed Omer admitted to being an Anonymous Sudan administrator.

Law enforcement agencies also appear to have carried out an operation to take down Anonymous Sudan's infrastructure in March of this year, which prevented the group from carrying out further attacks. The Telegram channel where the group boasted of its targeting and advertised its for-profit attack service went entirely silent around that time and has since ceased to exist. “Anonymous Sudan in name and in operation is effectively dead,” says Chad Seaman, a principal security researcher for tech firm Akamai and a member of Big Pipes, a working group focused on DDoS that closely tracked the group and collaborated with law enforcement in its investigation.

From mid-2023 until that takedown, Anonymous Sudan distinguished itself among self-proclaimed hacktivists with a series of shockingly large and high-profile DDoS attacks. In June of last year, for instance, it pummeled Microsoft's Azure cloud services for days, knocking it intermittently offline and demanding a million-dollar ransom to stop. It also repeatedly took down OpenAI's ChatGPT in December and wrote on Telegram that it was targeting the company due to the pro-Israeli posts of one of its employees.

Anonymous Sudan has at times, in fact, appeared to have formal or informal ties to anti-Israel forces: According to prosecutors, it launched disruptive cyberattacks that targeted Israel's Tzeva Adom missile alert system on October 7, 2023, in the midst of attacks by the militant wing of Hamas that killed nearly 1,200 Israelis. As Israel's ensuing bombardment and invasion of the Gaza strip killed tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians over the months that followed, Anonymous Sudan frequently described the motivation for its attacks in its Telegram posts as the defense of Palestinians.

In December of 2023, for instance, Anonymous Sudan took OpenAI's ChatGPT offline with a sustained series of DDoS attacks in response to the company's executive Tal Broda vocally supporting the Israel Defense Forces’ missile attacks in Gaza. “More! No mercy! IDF don't stop!” Broda had written on X over a photo of a devastated urban landscape in Gaza, and in another post denied the existence of Palestine.

“We will continue targeting ChatGPT until the genocide supporter, Tal Broda, is fired and ChatGPT stops having dehumanizing views of Palestinians," Anonymous Sudan responded in a Telegram post explaining its attacks on OpenAI.

Still, Anonymous Sudan's true goals haven't always seemed entirely ideological, Akamai's Seaman says. The group has also offered to sell access to its DDoS infrastructure to other hackers: Telegram posts from the group as recently as March offered the use of its DDoS service, known as Godzilla or Skynet, for $2,500 a month. That suggests that even its attacks that appeared to be politically motivated may have been intended, at least in part, as marketing for its moneymaking side, Seaman argues.

“They seem to have thought, ‘We can get involved, really put a hurting on people, and market this service at the same time,’” Seaman says. He notes that, in the group's anti-Israel, pro-Palestine focus following the October 7 attacks, “there’s definitely an ideological thread in there. But the way it weaved through the different victims is something that maybe only the perpetrators of the attack fully understand.”

At times, Anonymous Sudan also hit Ukrainian targets, seemingly partnering with pro-Russian hacker groups like Killnet. That led some in the cybersecurity community to suspect that Anonymous Sudan was, in fact, a Russia-linked operation using its Sudanese identity as a front, given Russia's history of using hacktivism as false flag. The charges against Ahmed and Alaa Omer suggest that the group was, instead, authentically Sudanese in origin. But aside from its name, the group doesn't appear to have any clear ties to the original Anonymous hacker collective, which has been largely inactive for the last decade.

Aside from its targeting and politics, the group has distinguished itself through a relatively novel and effective technical approach, Akamai's Seaman says: Its DDoS service was built by gaining access to hundreds or possibly even thousands of virtual private servers—often-powerful machines offered by cloud services companies—by renting them with fraudulent credentials. It then used those machines to launch so-called layer 7 attacks, overwhelming web servers with requests for websites, rather than the lower-level floods of raw internet data requests that DDoS hackers have tended to use in the past. Anonymous Sudan and the customers of its DDoS services would then target victims with vast numbers of those layer 7 requests in parallel, sometimes using techniques called “multiplexing” or “pipelining” to simultaneously create multiple bandwidth demands on servers until they dropped offline.

For at least nine months, the group's technical power and brazen, unpredictable targeting made it a top concern for the anti-DDoS community, Seaman says—and for its many victims. “There was a lot of uncertainty about this group, what they were capable of, what their motivations were, why they targeted people,” says Seaman. “When Anonymous Sudan went away, there was a spike in curiosity and definitely a sigh of relief.”

The Justice Department's decision to level a criminal charge against Ahmed Omer that could lead to a life sentence for a denial-of-service attack may seem haphazard, given that state-sponsored cyberattacks and ransomware have often caused far more serious damage to health care networks, says Josh Corman, a researcher at the Institute for Security and Technology who has long focused on health care-targeted hacking. Corman says he's nonetheless encouraged to see prosecutors recognize that even crude cyberattacks can have serious—and even lethal—effects on victims.

“Yes, denial-of-service attacks can degrade and deny patent care to cause loss of life,” says Corman. “While this is the first, and it may seem arbitrary until we get more details, it could be heartening to see that we understand the outsize consequences of these attacks.”

[coochiequeens]

By Reduxx Team November 6, 2023

Editor’s Note: Reduxx has submitted a detailed report on the subject of this article to CyberTip, a leading digital child protective authority which connects reports with local law enforcement. In accordance with our ethical standards, CyberTip was contacted PRIOR to the writing of this article.

A trans-identified male who promotes nudism has been reported to child protective authorities following a disturbing video beginning to circulate on social media showing him exposing his genitals and breasts in the presence of a small child.

The video first began to circulate on November 5. Reduxx is withholding the direct link to the video as the child’s face is not censored.

In the video, an adult post-operative transgender male is seen lounging nude in what appears to be a family residence. The man spreads his legs repeatedly, exposing his surgically-constructed vagina, while a young boy is sitting a few feet in front of him. He then stands to retrieve a trans-pride flag which he holds in front of his body.

Reduxx has identified the male in the video as Marie Willa Bobo-Smith, a nudist activist who resides in Fort Bragg, California.

Bobo-Smith, formerly known as Maurice Smith, has been a pro-nudist activist for a number of years, maintaining a strong presence in the nudist community since 2012.

Bobo-Smith prior to his transition.

Bobo-Smith has maintained a blog titled Simple Naturist for 13 years, regularly posting lengthy diatribes about his belief that public nudity should be made legal and protected by the law.

“As Americans, we live in an insane world, where you can legally carry and conceal a gun, but risk imprisonment should anyone see your genitals,” Bobo-Smith wrote in December of 2012. “We live in a world where children entertain fantasies of killing innocents in video games, but the sight of a nipple is unacceptable and psychologically damaging.”

Bobo-Smith began transitioning in 2018, beginning a hormone regimen. The next year, he launched a GoFundMe campaign requesting donations to help him afford the “gender confirmation surgery” he wanted to undergo with Dr. Marci Bowers in the Bay Area.

Bowers, a trans-identified male, is the current President of the World Professional Association of Transgender Health, and has become controversial for his role in promoting the medical transitioning of children.

An old Vimeo account belonging to Bobo-Smith pre-transition featured videos of the man doing a number of tasks while nude, including cooking, washing his dogs, and cleaning.

But in some of the videos he is in public, such as in one where he is naked while driving, and another while he is pumping gas at a service station.

In 2021, Bobo-Smith participated in a nudist rally in Fort Bragg, giving a speech at the event in which he condemned the stigma surrounding nudity and relating it to an experience he had walking topless following the hormone-induced growth of his breasts.

“Imagine: that as a transgender woman I am the living embodiment of a sexual double standard. Men can walk around top free and post photos of themselves on the internet and when a woman does it, she then becomes a slut, a whore and illegal,” he declared.

Bobo-Smith has been married since 1993, with his wife remaining with him throughout his transition. According to his social media history, he has children and grandchildren.

Over the years, Bobo-Smith has admitted to exposing his children to his genitalia, slamming critics of the practice as close-minded puritans. He insists there are no sinister motives to the practice, and advocates for nudism as a “lifestyle.”

In one post recently shared to his Instagram, Bobo-Smith uploaded a photo of a child’s doll representing a little girl with a penis. Bobo-Smith describes keeping a stuffed animals in his bedroom, along with a child’s doll intended to resemble a little girl with a penis.

“I got to have a great conversation with my grandson [name redacted] this morning. He’s six years old. He finally saw this naked doll sitting amongst our stuffed animals in mine and Marge’s bedroom,” Bobo-Smith describes. “When he saw it, he shockingly exclaimed ‘meemaw!'”

Bobo-Smith then describes a short exchange in which the child says “boys have penises,” to which he responds: “some boys have a penis and some boys have a vulva.”

On TikTok, Bobo-Smith has claimed he also has fostered children, with other “nudists” curiously asking him how he managed to get approval to become a foster parent despite his open nudism.

In the comments from a TikTok video uploaded in May, Bobo-Smith advised another nudist aspiring to be a foster parent that his nudism had been “addressed and resolved” at one point during the fostering process.

While Bobo-Smith has now deleted his TikTok account, Reduxx was able to archive multiple videos Bobo-Smith published following the initial outburst of concern prompted by the footage of him exposing himself to a child.

“People on the bird app formerly known as Twitter seem really shocked by a recent post of mine and asked ‘you mean your family and your friends have all seen you naked?’ Well, yeah. Everyone I know has seen me naked,” Bobo-Smith says. “I see nudity as normal and I do my utmost to show other people that nudity is a normal thing.”

[tandem-interactive]

Digital Marketing for Breweries

In Fort Lauderdale, our digital marketing agency acknowledges the power of digital strategies in driving business growth. For breweries, digital marketing opens doors to new customer bases and strengthens online presence. With breweries thriving nationwide, especially in beer-centric states like California, Colorado, and New York, leveraging digital platforms becomes essential for expansion. If your brewery operates in these regions, incorporating digital marketing into your plans is a savvy move. Discover more by clicking the link below.

[dollsonmain]

Washing my new pants and I've run into the same problem with EVERY pair of pants.

Too big in the waist, too tight in the hip.

-

I discovered that Walgreen's is currently mired in an anti-discrimination lawsuit (specifically in California) and I do tick a bunch of the "equal-opportunity" boxes.

female

disabled

veteran

over 40

It's possible corporate's application algo flagged me as a diversity hire.

I've also learned that many, many stores are being closed. There are two Walgreen's, here, and two CVS. There used to be a Rite Aid but it was replaced by the second Walgreen's. Apparently CVS and Rite Aid are closing a lot of locations, too.

Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a list online that I can look at to see if this store is being closed. That would be alright, really. I would have a few months of work and income, insurance for a little while, and then a totally neutral reason for no longer working there.

-

That's kind of weird to me that stores are closing because stocks went down after being high during the height of the pandemic. They're probably still making more money than they did pre-pandemic but it's less than they were making during, so the stores are less valuable and closing, taking all those jobs with them.

Stocks are fucking weird, man.

Looking at the job description and it's basically Do Everything.

Responsibilities

Models and delivers a distinctive and delightful customer experience.

Registers sales on assigned cash register, provides customers with courteous, fair, friendly, and efficient checkout service.

Customer Experience

Engages customers and patients by greeting them and offering assistance with products and services. Resolves customer issues and answers questions to ensure a positive customer experience.

Models and shares customer service best practices with all team members to deliver a distinctive and delightful customer experience, including interpersonal habits (e.g., greeting, eye contact, courtesy, etc.) and Walgreens service traits (e.g., offering help proactively, identifying needs, servicing until satisfied, etc.).

Operations

Provides customers with courteous, friendly, fast, and efficient service.

Recommends items for sale to customer and recommends trade-up and/or companion items.

Registers customer purchases on assigned cash register, collects cash and distributes change as requested; processes voids, returns, rain checks, refunds, and exchanges as needed.

Keeps counters and shelves clean and well merchandised, takes inventory, and maintains records. Checks in and prices merchandise as required or as directed by store manager or communicated by the shift leader.

Implements Company asset protection procedures to identify and minimize profit loss.

Ensures compliance with state and local laws regarding regulated products (e.g., alcoholic beverages and tobacco products).

Constructs and maintains displays, including promotional, seasonal, super structures, and sale merchandise. Completes resets and revisions as directed.

Assists with separation of food items (e.g., raw foods from pre-cooked) and product placement as specified by policies/procedures (e.g., raw and frozen meats on bottom shelves). For consumable items, assists in stock rotation, using the first in, first out method and restock outs.

Has working knowledge of store systems and store equipment.

Provides customer service in the photo area, including digital passport photo service, poster print and creative machine, suggestive sell of promotional photo products.

Assumes web pick-up responsibilities (monitors orders in Picture Care Plus, fills orders (pick items), delivers orders to customers as they arrive at store).

Assists with exterior and interior maintenance by ensuring clean, neat, orderly store condition and appearance.

Complies with all company policies and procedures; maintains respectful relationships with coworkers.

Completes special assignments and other tasks as assigned.

Training & Personal Development

Attends training and completes PPLs requested by Manager or assigned by corporate.

Basic Qualifications

Must be fluent in reading, writing, and speaking English. (Except in Puerto Rico)

Requires willingness to work flexible schedule, including evenings and weekend hours

Preferred Qualifications

Prefer six months of experience in a retail environment.

Prefer to have prior work experience with Walgreens.

Prefer to be fluent in reading, writing, and speaking English. (Except in Puerto Rico)

Requires willingness to work flexible schedule, including evenings and weekend hours.

The following information is applicable for San Francisco, CA applicants: Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

An Equal Opportunity Employer, including disability/veterans.

The actual compensation that you will be offered will depend on a variety of factors including geography, skills and abilities, education, experience and other relevant factors. This role will remain open until filled. To review benefits, please click here jobs.walgreens.com/benefits. If you are applying on a job board or unable to click on the link, please copy and paste this URL into your browser jobs.walgreens.com/benefits

[eov-blogs]

How mobile apps can help travel businesses increase bookings

In today’s fast-paced world, mobile apps have become indispensable tool for businesses across industries. The travel sector is no exception, as travel businesses increasingly leverage mobile apps to enhance customer experiences and drive bookings. With the right features and functionalities, a well-designed mobile app can be a game-changer, revolutionizing the way travel businesses interact with customers and ultimately leading to increased bookings. In this blog, we’ll explore how the right mobile app can help travel businesses soar to new heights by boosting their bookings.

Seamless Booking Process:

The primary function of a travel app is to allow customers to easily search, browse, and book travel services. By providing a streamlined and intuitive booking process, mobile apps can remove barriers that might otherwise discourage potential travelers from completing their bookings. With a user-friendly interface, intuitive navigation, and a hassle-free payment process, customers are more likely to convert their intentions into actual bookings.

Personalization and Recommendations:

Mobile apps enable travel businesses to gather data about their customers’ preferences, behavior, and past interactions. Leveraging this data, travel businesses can offer personalized recommendations and travel itineraries. By suggesting relevant destinations, accommodations, activities, and packages, the app creates a tailored experience that resonates with the individual traveler. This personal touch can significantly influence the decision-making process, leading to increased bookings.

Real-Time Updates:

Travel plans can be unpredictable, and customers appreciate being kept informed in real-time. Mobile apps can provide timely updates on flight status, hotel availability, weather conditions, and more. By keeping travelers informed about any changes or disruptions, travel businesses can build trust and reliability, ultimately enhancing the customer experience and boosting their confidence in making bookings through the app.

Loyalty Programs and Rewards:

Travel businesses can incentivize repeat bookings by integrating loyalty programs and rewards into their mobile apps. Offering discounts, special offers, and exclusive perks to loyal customers encourages them to choose your services over competitors. Such programs can foster a sense of belonging and appreciation, further increasing customer retention and driving more bookings.

User-Generated Content:

Positive reviews, ratings, and testimonials play a pivotal role in influencing potential travelers. A well-designed mobile app can enable customers to share their experiences and leave reviews directly from their devices. Travel businesses can showcase user-generated content to build trust and authenticity, helping to attract new customers and convert them into bookings.

Location-Based Services:

Geolocation technology in mobile apps allows travel businesses to offer location-based services. For instance, the app can suggest nearby attractions, restaurants, and activities based on the traveler’s current location. This feature enhances the overall travel experience and encourages users to explore more, ultimately leading to additional bookings.

Customer Support and Engagement:

A mobile app can serve as a direct communication channel between the travel business and its customers. With in-app chat, FAQs, and customer support features, travelers can easily find answers to their queries and concerns. Prompt and effective customer support not only enhances user satisfaction but also helps resolve issues that might otherwise hinder bookings.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the right mobile app can be a powerful tool for travel businesses looking to increase their bookings. By providing a seamless booking process, personalization, real-time updates, loyalty programs, user-generated content, location-based services, and robust customer support, travel businesses can enhance the overall customer experience. A well-designed mobile app doesn’t just serve as a booking platform; it becomes a travel companion that guides, assists, and enriches the traveler’s journey. Embracing mobile technology can give travel businesses a competitive edge in a rapidly evolving industry, ultimately leading to greater success and growth.

As a leading software development company, specialized in travel tech, we can certainly help you change the face of your online business game! Contact us now to know what we can do for your travel business!

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Podcasting "Let the Platforms Burn"

This week on my podcast, I read “Let the Platforms Burn,” a recent Medium column making the case that we should focus more on making it easier for people to leave platforms, rather than making the platforms less terrible places to be:

https://doctorow.medium.com/let-the-platforms-burn-6fb3e6c0d980

The platforms used to be source of online stability, and many argued that by consolidating the wide and wooly web into a few “curated” silos, the platforms were replacing chaos with good stewardship. If we wanted to make the internet hospitable to normies, we were told, we had to accept that Apple and Facebook’s tightly managed “simplicity” were the only way to get there.

But today, all the platforms are on fire, all the time. They are rocked by scandals every bit as awful as the failures of the smaller sites of yesteryear, but while harms of a Geocities or Livejournal moderation failure were confined to a small group of specialized users, failures in the big silos reach hundreds of millions or even billions of people.

What should we do about the rolling crisis of the platforms? The default response — beloved of Big Tech’s boosters and critics alike — is to impose rules on the platforms to make them more hospitable places for the billions they’ve engulfed. But I think that will fail. Instead, I think we should make the platforms less important places by freeing those billions.

That’s the argument of the column.

Think of California’s wildfires. While climate change has increased the intensity and frequency of our fires, climate (and neglect by PG&E) is merely part of the story. The other part of the story is fire-debt.

For millennia, the original people of California practiced controlled burns of the forests they lived, hunted, and played in. These burns cleared out sick and dying trees, scoured the forest floor of tinder, and opened spaces in the canopy that gave rise to new growth. Forests need fire — literally: the California redwood can’t reproduce without it:

https://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/giant-sequoia-needs-fire-grow/15094/

But this ended centuries ago, when settlers stole the land and declared an end to “cultural burning” by the indigenous people they expropriated, imprisoned, and killed. They established permanent settlements within the fire zone, and embarked on a journey of escalating measures to keep that smouldering fire zone from igniting.

These heroic measures continue today, and they’ve set up a vicious cycle: fire suppression creates the illusion that it’s safe to live at the wildlife urban interface. Taken in by this illusion, more people move to the fire zone — and their presence creates political pressure for even more heroic measures.

The thing is, fire suppression doesn’t mean no fires — it means wildfires. The fire debt mounts and mounts, and without an orderly bankruptcy — controlled burns — we get chaotic defaults, the kind of fire that wipes out whole towns.

Eventually, we will have to change tacks: rather than making it safe to stay in the fire zone, we’re going to have to make it easy to leave, so that we can return to those controlled burns and pay down those fire-debts.

And that’s what we need to do with the platforms.

For most of the history of consumer tech and digital networks, fire was the norm. New platforms — PC companies, operating systems, online services — would spring up and grow with incredible speed, only to collapse, seemingly without warning.

To get to the bottom of this phenomenon, you need to understand two concepts: network effects and switching costs.

Network effects: A service enjoys network effects if it increases in value as more people use it. AOL Instant Messenger grows in usefulness every time someone signs up for it, and so does Facebook. The more users, the more reasons to join. The more people who join, the more people will join.

Switching costs: The things you have to give up when you leave a product or service. When you quit Audible, you have to throw away all your audiobooks (they will only play on Audible-approved players). When you leave Facebook, you have to say goodbye to all the friends, family, communities and customers that brought you there.

Tech has historically enjoyed enormous network effects, which propelled explosive growth. But it also enjoyed low switching costs, which underpinned implosive contraction. Because digital systems are universal (all computers can run all programs; all nodes on the network can connect to one another), it was historically very easy to switch from one service to another.

Someone building a new messenger service or social media platform could import your list of contacts, or even use bots to fetch the messages left for you on the old service and put them in the inbox on the new one, and then push your replies back to the people you left behind. Likewise, when Apple made its iWork office suite, it could reverse-engineer the Microsoft Office file formats so you could take all your data with you if you quit Windows and switched to MacOS:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/06/adversarial-interoperability-reviving-elegant-weapon-more-civilized-age-slay

This dynamic — network effects growth and low switching costs contraction — is why we think of tech as so dynamic. It’s companies like DEC were able to turn out minicomputers that shattered the dominance of mainframes. But it’s also why DEC was brought so low that a PC company, Compaq — was able to buy it for pennies on the dollar. Compaq — a company that built an empire by making interoperable IBM PC clones — was itself “disrupted” a few years later, and HP bought it for spare change found in the sofa cushions.

But HP didn’t fall to Compaq’s fate. It survived — as did IBM, Microsoft, Apple, Google and Facebook. Somehow, the cycle of “good fire” that kept any company from growing too powerful was interrupted.

Today’s tech giants run “walled gardens” that are actually walled prisons that entrap their billions of users by imposing high switching costs on them. How did that happen? How did tech become “five giant websites filled with screenshots from the other four?”

https://twitter.com/tveastman/status/1069674780826071040

The answer lies in the fact that tech was born as antitrust was dying. Reagan hit the campaign trail the same year the Apple ][+ hit shelves. With every presidency since, tech has grown more powerful and antitrust has grown weaker (the Biden administration has halted this decay, but it must repair 40 years’ worth of sabotage).

This allowed tech to “merge to monopoly.” Google built a single successful product — a search engine — and then conquered the web by buying other peoples’ companies, even as their own internal product development process produced a nearly unbroken string of flops. Apple buys 90 companies a year — Tim Cook brings home a new company more often than you bring home a bag of groceries:

https://www.theverge.com/2019/5/6/18531570/apple-company-purchases-startups-tim-cook-buy-rate

When Facebook was threatened by an upstart called Instagram, Mark Zuckerberg sent a middle-of-the-night email to his CFO defending his plan to pay $1b for the then-tiny company, insisting that the only way to secure eternal dominance was to eliminate competitors — by buying them out, not by being better than them. As Zuckerberg says, “It is better to buy than compete”:

https://www.theverge.com/2020/7/29/21345723/facebook-instagram-documents-emails-mark-zuckerberg-kevin-systrom-hearing

As tech consolidated into a cozy oligopoly whose execs hopped from one company to another, they rigged the game. They colluded on a criminal “no-poach” deal to suppress their workers’ wages:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-Tech_Employee_Antitrust_Litigation

And they colluded to illegally rig the ad-market:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jedi_Blue

This collusion is the inevitable result of market concentration. 100 squabbling tech companies will be at each others’ throats, unable to agree on catering for their annual meeting much less a common lobbying agenda. But boil those companies down to a bare handful and they’ll quickly converge on a single hymn and twine their voices in eerie harmony:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/16/compulsive-cheaters/#rigged

Eliminating antitrust enforcement — letting companies buy and merge with competitors, permitting predatory pricing and other exclusionary tactics — was the first step towards unsustainable fire suppression. But, as on the California wildland-urban interface, this measure quickly gave way to ever-more-extreme ones as the fire debt mounted.

The tech’s oligarchs have spent decades both suppressing laws that would limit their extractive profits (there’s a reason there’s no US federal privacy law!), and, crucially, getting new law made to limit anyone from “disrupting” them as they disrupted their forebears.

Today, a thicket of laws and rules — patent, copyright, anti-circumvention, tortious interference, trade secrecy, noncompete, etc — have been fashioned into a legal superweapon that tech companies can use to control the conduct of their competitors, critics and customers, and prevent them from making or using interoperable tools to reduce their switching costs and leave their walled gardens:

https://locusmag.com/2020/09/cory-doctorow-ip/

Today, these laws are being bolstered with new ones that make it even more difficult for users to leave the platforms. These new laws purport to protect users from each other, but they leave them even more at the platforms’ mercy.

So we get rules requiring platforms to spy on their users in the name of preventing harassment, rather than laws requiring platforms to stand up APIs that let users leave the platform and seek out a new online home that values their wellbeing:

https://cyber.fsi.stanford.edu/publication/lawful-awful-control-over-legal-speech-platforms-governments-and-internet-users

We get laws requiring platforms to “balance” the ideology of their content moderation:

https://www.texastribune.org/2022/09/16/texas-social-media-law/

But not laws that require platforms to make it easy to seek out a new server whose moderation policies are more hospitable to your ideas:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/07/right-or-left-you-should-be-worried-about-big-tech-censorship

The platforms insist — with some justification — that we can’t ask them to both control their users and give their users more freedom. If we want a platform to detect and block “bad content,” we can’t also require the platform to let third party interoperators plug into the system and exchange messages with it.

They’re right — but that doesn’t mean we should defend them. The problem with the platforms isn’t merely that they’re bad at defending their users’ interests. The problem is that they can’t defend those interests. Mark Zuckerberg isn’t merely monumentally, personally unsuited to serving as the unelected, unaacountable social media czar for billions of people in hundreds of countries, speaking thousands of languages. No one should have that job.

We don’t need a better Mark Zuckerberg. We need no Mark Zuckerbergs. We don’t need to perfect Zuck — we need to abolish Zuck.

Rather than pouring our resources into making life in the smoldering wildlife-urban interface safe, we should help people leave that combustible zone, with policies that make migration easy.

This month, we got an example of how just easy that migration could be. Meta launched Threads, a social media platform that used your list of Instagram followers and followees to get you set up. Those low switching costs made it easy for Instagram users to become Threads users — and the network effects meant it happened fast, with 30m signups in the first morning:

https://www.techdirt.com/2023/07/06/meta-launches-threads-and-its-important-for-reasons-that-most-people-wont-care-about/

Meta says it was able to do this because it owns both Insta and Threads. But Meta doesn’t own the list of accounts that you trust and value enough to follow, or the people who feel the same way about you. That’s yours. We could and should force Meta to let you have it.

But that’s not enough. Meta claims that it will someday integrate Threads into the Fediverse, the collection of services based on the ActivityPub standard, whose most popular app is Mastodon. On Mastodon, you not only get to export your list of followers and followees with one click, but you can import those followers and followees to a new server with one click.

Threads looks incredibly stupid, a “Twitter alternative you would order from Brookstone,” but there are already tens of millions of people establishing relationships with each other there:

https://jogblog.substack.com/p/facebooks-threads-is-so-depressing

When they get tired of “brand-safe vaporposting,” they’ll have to either give up those relationships, or resign themselves to being trapped inside another walled-garden-cum-prison operated by a mediocre tech warlord:

https://www.garbageday.email/p/the-algorithmic-anti-culture-of-scale

But what if, instead of trying to force Zuck to be a better emperor-for-life, we passed rules requiring him to let his subjects flee his tyrannical reign? We could require Threads to stand up a Fediverse gateway that let users leave the service and set up on any other Fediverse servers (we could apply this rule to all Fediverse servers, preventing petty dictators from tormenting their users, too):

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/04/platforms-decay-lets-put-users-first

Zuck founded an empire of oily rags, and so of course it’s always on fire. We can’t make it safe to stay, but we can make it easy to leave:

https://locusmag.com/2018/07/cory-doctorow-zucks-empire-of-oily-rags/

This is the thing platforms fear the most. Network effects work in both directions: if your service grows quickly because people value one another, then it will shrink quickly when the people your users care about leave. As @zephoria-blog​ recounts, this is what happened when Myspace imploded:

http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2022/12/05/what-if-failure-is-the-plan.html

When I started seeing the disappearance of emotionally sticky nodes, I reached out to members of the MySpace team to share my concerns and they told me that their numbers looked fine. Active uniques were high, the amount of time people spent on the site was continuing to grow, and new accounts were being created at a rate faster than accounts were being closed. I shook my head; I didn’t think that was enough. A few months later, the site started to unravel.

Platforms collapse “slowly, then all at once.” The only way to prevent sudden platform collapse syndrome is to block interoperability so users can’t escape the harms of your walled garden without giving up the benefits they give to each other.

We should stop trying to make the platforms good. We should make them gone. We should restore the “good fire” that ended with the growth of financialized Big Tech empires. We should aim for soft landings for users, and stop pretending that there’s any safe way to life in the fire zone.

We should let the platforms burn.

Here’s the podcast:

https://craphound.com/news/2023/07/16/let-the-platforms-burn-the-opposite-of-good-fires-is-wildfires/

And here’s a direct link to the MP3 (hosting courtesy of the @internetarchive​; they’ll host your stuff for free, forever):

https://archive.org/download/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_446/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_446_-_Let_the_Platforms_Burn.mp3

And here’s my podcast feed:

https://feeds.feedburner.com/doctorow_podcast

Tonight (July 18), I’m hosting the first Clarion Summer Write-In Series, an hour-long, free drop-in group writing and discussion session. It’s in support of the Clarion SF/F writing workshop’s fundraiser to offer tuition support to students:

https://mailchi.mp/theclarionfoundation/clarion-write-ins

[Image ID: A forest wildfire. Peeking through the darks in the stark image are hints of the green Matrix "waterfall" effect.]

Image: Cameron Strandberg (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fire-Forest.jpg

CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

[beardedmrbean]

An international operation against a large-scale scheme for financial crimes, money laundering and violations of international sanctions against Russia is taking place in Sofia at the moment. According to BNT, it is the company NEXO.

The ownership of the company is related to a former member of parliament and the son of a former social minister from the NDSV political party.

The suspicions are that the Bulgarians behind the large company acted according to the scheme of Ruja Ignatova and the OneCoin pyramid led by her. The Bulgarian woman known as the "Queen of Cryptocurrencies" is in the top 10 most wanted persons by the FBI. Europol and Interpol are also on her trail.

Prosecutors, investigators from the National Investigation and SANS employees, together with foreign agents, have begun searches of the Bulgarian offices of the company that trades cryptocurrencies worldwide.

The company's operations were carried out from the Bulgarian capital, and depositors were invited to invest in bitcoins and other types of cryptocurrencies, with promises of high returns.

The interest rates that investors would receive were many times higher than those of classic banking institutions and various brokerage houses. There are reports that the owners of the company, who are Bulgarians, have appropriated part of the assets amounting to several billion dollars.

The investigation into the activities of the crypto company in Bulgaria began a few months ago, after foreign services detected suspicious transactions, which were reported to be aimed at circumventing the sanctions imposed by the European Union, Great Britain and the United States against Russian banks, as well as companies and citizens of the Russian Federation.

Georgi Shulev – representing Nexo, son of former Deputy Prime Minister Lidiya Shuleva;

Antoni Trenchev – co-founder and director of several Nexo companies, former MP from the DBG, Reform Bloc;

Kosta Kantchev – director of Nexo Bank;

Kalin Metodiev – co-founder and financial director of Nexo;

Sokol Yankov – representing Nexo;

The company, which Sokol Yankov currently manages, said that Yankov left Nexo in 2019 and has had nothing to do with the investigated group of companies since then.

Georgi Shulev's office stated to BNT that he participated in the founding of Nexo in 2018. A year later, however, he left the Nexo group of companies and is suing the co-founders in Great Britain.

According to the Bulgarian National Television, Georgi Shulev is currently being questioned as a witness.

The former MP from the Bulgarian political entity "Reform Bloc", Antoni Trenchev, and his partner in the cryptocurrency trading company Nexo, Kosta Kantchev, fled to Dubai already in the fall of last year, BNT reported. This came after allegations of particularly large-scale fraud were brought against Nexo by the prosecutors of eight US states.

Regulators in California, Kentucky, New York, Maryland, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Washington and Vermont have announced that they are suing crypto platform Nexo over tens of thousands of cases of fraud totaling at least 0 million.

Nexo claims to manage billion in digital assets.

In recent months, the FBI has been investigating the activities of the Bulgarian crypto platform due to data on a hidden hole in the amount of over 4 billion dollars from investors, due to illegal financial activity - granting loans in exchange for collateral, as well as due to reports of abuse of the securities and goods of its customers.

The DFPI announcement revealed that Nexo offered annual interest rates of up to 36% on deposited crypto-assets to investors, significantly higher than rates on short-term investment-grade fixed income securities or bank savings accounts.

More details about the police operation read here.

[usafphantom2]

Raytheon guarantees request for prototype of new electronic war system

Fernando Valduga By Fernando Valduga 12/22/2023 - 16:00 in Military

The United States Navy granted Raytheon an $80 million contract in a selection to create an Advanced Electronic Warfare prototype, or ADVEW, for the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet.

This prototype will be considered as a replacement for the existing integrated defensive electronic countermeasure AN/ALQ-214 and the AN/ALR-67(V)3 radar alert receiver with a consolidated solution that will provide superior electronic warfare capabilities to the backbone of the embedded aerial wing of North American aircraft carriers.

"These advances are paving the way for the next generation of electronic warfare," said Bryan Rosselli, president of Products and Advanced Solutions at Raytheon. "We are completely replacing and consolidating legacy systems into a single solution that will provide a generational upgrade to electronic warfare capability throughout the life of the Super Hornet."

Raytheon's Advanced Electronic Warfare offering will provide significant performance upgrades, modernizing existing electronic warfare systems in fewer components and incorporating a government-defined open architecture. The development of this new solution will align and integrate with other combat-proven radio frequency sensors and effectors, used by the Super Hornet. The ADVEW solution will ensure that F/A-18E/F maintain their operational advantage in electronic warfare, while significantly improving the ability to survive against advanced and complex threats.

The development and testing of ADVEW will take place mainly in Goleta, California. During the prototype phase, the system will undergo a preliminary design review, a critical design review and flight tests over a period of 36 months.

Tags: Military AviationEW - ELECTRONIC WARF/A-18E/F Super HornetRaytheonUSN - United States Navy/U.S. Navy

Sharing

tweet

Fernando Valduga

Fernando Valduga

Aviation photographer and pilot since 1992, he has participated in several events and air operations, such as Cruzex, AirVenture, Dayton Airshow and FIDAE. He has works published in specialized aviation magazines in Brazil and abroad. He uses Canon equipment during his photographic work in the world of aviation.

Related news

MILITARY

Dutch government starts delivery process of 18 F-16 fighters to Ukraine

22/12/2023 - 19:58

ERJ-145 of the Hellenic Air Force. (Photo: Steve Lynes via Wikimedia Commons)

EMBRAER

Embraer and Greek Air Force sign services contract and continuous integrated support

22/12/2023 - 19:12

MILITARY

IMAGES: Russian Ministry of Defense receives additional Il-76MD-90A of serial production

22/12/2023 - 17:00

MILITARY

Civil Air Patrol expands its large fleet of Cessna aircraft

22/12/2023 - 15:00

MILITARY

Baykar's Bayraktar TB3 Turkish drone stands out in 32-hour endurance test

22/12/2023 - 14:00

MILITARY

VIDEO: Saab holds air-to-air photo shoot with Gripen E and Gripen C fighters flying in formation

22/12/2023 - 12:00

homeMain PageEditorialsINFORMATIONeventsCooperateSpecialitiesadvertiseabout

Cavok Brazil - Digital Tchê Web Creation

Commercial

Executive

Helicopters

HISTORY

Military

Brazilian Air Force

Space

Specialities

Cavok Brazil - Digital Tchê Web Creation

[mariacallous]

When Silicon Valley Bank collapsed on March 10, Garry Tan, president and CEO of startup incubator Y Combinator, called SVB’s failure “an extinction level event for startups” that “will set startups and innovation back by 10 years or more.” People have been quick to point out how quickly the cadre of small-government, libertarian tech bros has come calling for government intervention in the form of a bailout when it’s their money on the line.

Late yesterday, the US government announced that SVB depositors will regain access to all their money, thanks to the Federal Deposit Insurance Company's backstop funded by member banks. Yet the shock to the tech ecosystem and its elite may still bring down a reckoning for many who believe it’s got nothing to do with them.

SVB’s 40,000 customers are mostly tech companies—the bank provided services to around half of US startups—but those tech companies are tattooed into the fabric of daily lives across the US and beyond. The power of the West Coast tech industry means that most digital lives are rarely more than a single degree of separation away from a startup banking with SVB.

The bank's customers may now be getting their money back but the services SVB once provided are gone. That void and the shock of last week may cause—or force—startups and their investors to drastically change how they manage their money and businesses, with effects far beyond Silicon Valley.

Most immediately, the many startups who depended on SVB have workers far from the bank’s home turf. “These companies and people are not just in Silicon Valley,” says Sarah Kunst, managing director of Cleo Capital, a San Francisco firm that invests in early-stage startups.

Y Combinator cofounder Paul Graham said yesterday that the incubator’s companies banking with SVB have more than a quarter of a million employers, around a third of whom are based outside California. If they and other SVB customers suffer cash crunches or cut back expansion plans, rent payments in many parts of the world may be delayed and staff may no longer buy coffees and lunches at the corner deli. Cautious about the future, businesses may withhold new hires, and staff who remain may respond in kind, cutting local spending or delaying home purchases or renovation work.

The second- and third-order impacts of startups hitting financial trouble or just slowing down could be more pernicious. “When you say: ‘Oh, I don’t care about Silicon Valley,’ yes, that might sound fine. But the reality is very few of us are Luddites,” Kunst says. “Imagine you wake up and go to unlock your door, and because they’re a tech company banking with SVB who can no longer make payroll, your app isn’t working and you’re struggling to unlock your door.” Perhaps you try a rideshare company or want to hop on a pay-by-the-hour electric scooter, but can’t because their payment system is provided by an SVB client who now can’t operate.

Some people affected by the bank’s collapse will be in much more precarious situations than some of the monied investors and tech insiders tweeting through the crisis. California lawmaker Scott Wiener, a member of the state’s senate, tweeted over the weekend that an unnamed payroll processing company based in San Francisco whose customers employ “tens of thousands” of workers had banked with SVB. The average salary of those workers is around $48,000, he said, and they work in businesses including pizza places, taco joints, and bike shops. “It’s not just a tech thing,” he said.

The collapse of SVB could become a painful lesson in how the sector dubbed “tech” is much broader than many realize. “Every tech company is a normal business that has suppliers who provide things,” says Dom Hallas, executive director of the Coalition for a Digital Economy, which represents startups in the UK, “They’re not all whizzy companies with names that have no vowels in them.”

On March 12, SVB’s UK subsidiary was bought by HSBC, another banking group, in a private sale brokered by the government.

SVB’s failure will also have longer-term impacts beyond the next few weeks and months. The collapse of the leading specialist in providing financial services to tech companies could make it harder for the next generation of startups to find what they need to build their business. And after witnessing the herd-like, Twitter-fueled rush to pull money out of SVB, other banks may be cautious toward tech out of fear of experiencing the same problems SVB faced.

There is also concern that as in past financial crises, problems at one bank help expose or even trigger more at others. An SVB executive reached by WIRED yesterday, speaking anonymously because they were not authorized to speak for the company, acknowledged failures at the bank but urged lawmakers to take a wider view of the situation. “An institution like ours is integral to the tech economy,” the executive says. “The biggest message is for our politicians to realize this could be a contagion if it trickles to regional banks. It’s small tech. It’s not big tech that are our clients.”

Startups need bank accounts and other services to secure investment from venture capitalists and put it to work. New financial friction for the sector could become a brake on future tech development. Government funding of technologies such as GPS has helped the tech sector, but “the vast majority of consumer technology funding isn’t coming from governments and universities in America,” says Kunst of Cleo Capital. “It’s coming from the private sector, and the private sector is going to be hamstrung in the ability to raise and deploy that money.”

The tech sector is known for its boundless—sometimes irrational—optimism, and some caught in the crisis hope that good may come from it. Kunst hopes other banks will step in to pick up SVB’s customers and become more engaged with the startup scene. “I think you’re going to see more and more bigger banks of all sizes getting excited about having tech customers,” she says, giving startups more options than they had before. To get to that point, however, we have to get through the next few days and weeks—which could be trickier than expected.

[hightechlogistics]

Now is the time to understand why it is highly beneficial for any business to get 3PL fulfillment companies

Logistics is one of the most complex tasks that can be solved when carrying out business processes. Like warehousing and timely product delivery, logistics involves the use of skills, time, and capital. This is where Third-Party Logistics (3PL) fulfilment services come of age, providing the perfect solution to small and big firms.

1. Conduct Core Business Analysis

If you manage your logistics in-house you are likely to be pulled away from important business areas like product production, sales promotion as well as customer care. Flexible with outsourcing logistics to the 3pl fulfillment companies, you will be able to explore for growth strategies for your business.

2. Cost Efficiency

Procuring buildings to use as warehouses, recruiting employees, and maintaining vehicles can be costly, especially if they are kept exclusively for the company’s use. The fact that 3PL providers use their resources, equipment, people, and vehicles, a company can save a lot of money on infrastructure costs as well as operational costs.

3. Scalability and Flexibility

Business requirements are not static; during festive seasons or when offering promotions among other reasons there will be a need to restock or order many products. 3PL services ensure that the operation is adjusted to meet the need without incurring costs in acquiring assets in readiness for busy times.

4. Improved Customer Experience

On-time delivery and order accuracy are critical success factors that define customer satisfaction and loyalty Successful 3PL ecommerce fulfillment embraces and incorporates innovative technology resources and strategic facilities to ensure timely and accurate order shipments and the smooth processing of returns.

5. Access to Advanced Technology

Most outsourcing companies have integrated forms of inventory tracking, order tracking, and analysis. This technology will help to increase productivity and also provide you with a measure of your supply chain performance.

6. Expertise in Logistics

How can one deal with the mere intricacies of shipping procedures, border policies, and more? Integration of expertise is essential here. 3PL services California comes with this kind of experience to facilitate a seamless process at every stage.

Nowadays, in a rapidly growing digital market, outsourcing third-party logistics fulfilment providers is critical. It lets you optimize your operations, minimize expenditure, and supply clients with the highest level of satisfaction.

For original post visit: https://marketresearchtab.com/now-is-the-time-to-understand-why-it-is-highly-beneficial-for-any-business-to-get-3pl-fulfillment-companies/

[credenceresearchdotblog]

The Enterprise Information Archiving Market is projected to grow from USD 7625 million in 2024 to an estimated USD 22213 million by 2032, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14.3% from 2024 to 2032.In the age of digital transformation, the need for robust data management and compliance solutions has propelled the Enterprise Information Archiving (EIA) market into prominence. EIA encompasses solutions designed to archive unstructured and structured data, such as emails, instant messages, social media content, and files, to ensure regulatory compliance, streamline IT operations, and reduce storage costs. With the exponential growth in data volume and the increasingly stringent regulatory landscape, the EIA market is witnessing significant growth across industries.

Browse the full report https://www.credenceresearch.com/report/enterprise-information-archiving-market

Market Dynamics

Drivers of Growth

Regulatory Compliance and Legal Mandates Governments and regulatory bodies worldwide have introduced stringent data retention and protection laws. Regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), and Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) mandate organizations to retain and safeguard their data for specific durations. Non-compliance can lead to hefty fines and reputational damage, making EIA solutions indispensable.

Exponential Data Growth The rapid digitization of businesses has led to a surge in data generation. From emails to social media interactions, organizations generate terabytes of data daily. EIA solutions help manage this deluge effectively, ensuring data is stored securely and can be accessed when required.

Cloud Adoption The shift toward cloud-based solutions is a significant trend in the EIA market. Cloud-based archiving solutions offer scalability, cost-effectiveness, and accessibility, making them a preferred choice for enterprises. They enable organizations to store large volumes of data without investing heavily in on-premise infrastructure.

Challenges

Integration Complexity Many organizations operate with legacy systems, making it challenging to integrate modern EIA solutions seamlessly. Ensuring compatibility and avoiding data silos are critical issues that vendors must address.

Data Security Concerns While archiving solutions aim to enhance data security, the risk of data breaches and cyberattacks remains a concern, particularly for cloud-based solutions. Vendors must invest in robust encryption and security measures to gain customer trust.

High Implementation Costs For small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the initial investment in EIA solutions can be prohibitive. Vendors need to offer flexible pricing models to cater to this segment.

Future Trends

AI and Machine Learning Integration Advanced analytics powered by AI and ML will revolutionize data archiving. Predictive analytics, automated categorization, and intelligent search capabilities will enable organizations to derive actionable insights from archived data.

Focus on Data Privacy As data privacy becomes a top priority, EIA vendors will increasingly integrate features that ensure compliance with evolving regulations. Features like automated data anonymization and role-based access control are expected to gain prominence.

Expansion of Archiving Scope Beyond traditional data types, organizations are looking to archive emerging formats such as video, voice recordings, and Internet of Things (IoT) data. This expansion presents both opportunities and challenges for vendors.

Key Player Analysis:

Barracuda Networks, Inc.

Commvault

Dell Inc.

Google LLC

International Business Machines Corporation

Microsoft

Mimecast Services Limited

Proofpoint

Smarsh Inc.

Veritas Technologies LLC

Segmentation:

By Solution:

Enterprise Information Archiving Software

On-Premises

Cloud

Services

Professional Services

Consulting services

Archiving services

Support and Maintenance services

Disaster and backup services

Managed Services

By Enterprise Size:

Large Enterprises

Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs)

By Industry:

BFSI

Retail

IT & Telecom

Manufacturing

Healthcare

Government & legal

Healthcare and pharmacy

Education

Real estate

Others

By Application:

Email archiving

File archiving

Social media archiving

E-discovery and litigation

Company compliances

Monitoring and data loss prevention

AI and analytics

By Region

North America

U.S.

Canada

Mexico

Europe

Germany

France

U.K.

Italy

Spain

Rest of Europe

Asia Pacific

China

Japan

India

South Korea

South-east Asia

Rest of Asia Pacific

Latin America

Brazil

Argentina

Rest of Latin America

Middle East & Africa

GCC Countries

South Africa

Rest of the Middle East and Africa

Contact:

Credence Research

Please contact us at +91 6232 49 3207

Email: sales@credenceresearch.com

Website: www.credenceresearch.com

[jcmarchi]

Junyoung Lee, President of Technology & Yanolja Group CTO, Co-CEO at Yanolja Cloud – Interview Series

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/junyoung-lee-president-of-technology-yanolja-group-cto-co-ceo-at-yanolja-cloud-interview-series/

Junyoung Lee, President of Technology & Yanolja Group CTO, Co-CEO at Yanolja Cloud – Interview Series

Junyoung Lee is the President of Technology and Group Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Yanolja, as well as the co-CEO of Yanolja Cloud. With a career spanning over two decades, he is a highly respected leader in the technology and software engineering space.

Since joining Yanolja in May 2022, Junyoung has played a pivotal role in driving the company’s digital transformation and global technology strategy. Initially serving as Executive Vice President of Engineering, he was instrumental in advancing Yanolja’s technological innovation. In April 2023, he was appointed co-CEO of Yanolja Cloud, where he leads the development of cutting-edge SaaS solutions for the travel and hospitality industry. In April 2024, he took on the role of President of Technology and Group CTO, further reinforcing Yanolja’s position as a global tech leader.

Prior to Yanolja, Junyoung had a distinguished career at Google, where he served as a Software Engineering Director for nearly 20 years. He was the first employee at Google Korea, establishing its R&D team and spearheading the company’s engineering development programs.

Yanolja is Korea’s leading online travel agency (OTA) which offers all travel and experience related services to make travel comfortable and enjoyable for everyone. Yanolja Cloud is a hospitality solutions company specializing in user-friendly and integrated cloud-based technologies tailored for the hospitality sector, targeting customers worldwide.

You’ve had an incredible journey from Google to Yanolja, including a role in setting up Google Korea. What motivated you to transition from a tech giant to a rapidly growing company like Yanolja?

My journey began as the first Korean native speaker hired at Google HQ in California, where I later helped set up Google Korea. Over two decades at Google, I witnessed how data and technology can transform lives and drive meaningful innovation. Yet, as impactful as these advancements were, the travel industry had lagged behind in adopting cutting-edge technology.

When I met Sujin Lee, Yanolja’s founder, his vision of addressing the inefficiencies and challenges in travel struck a chord. Travel involves dreaming, planning, booking, and sharing—processes that generate immense amounts of data. However, this data has remained largely underutilized. Yanolja’s commitment to leveraging AI and advanced data platforms to improve these experiences was inspiring. It was a unique opportunity to join a company at the forefront of transforming an entire industry.

Yanolja’s bold vision, powered by AI and our proprietary data lake, allows us to refine and augment data to create Vertical AI solutions tailored for the travel and hospitality sectors. This approach not only enhances operational efficiency but also redefines customer experiences, positioning Yanolja as a global leader in travel tech.

As a leader in the AI space, what lessons from Google and your previous roles have been most impactful in shaping your approach to driving AI innovation at Yanolja?

Two key lessons have shaped my approach. First, technology needs to be human-centered. The pace of innovation often outstrips people’s ability to adapt, so intuitive design is critical for broader adoption. Second, data is the foundation of AI. If data is incomplete or flawed, AI outcomes can be inaccurate or even harmful, much like a child acting on misleading experiences.

At Yanolja, we prioritize data integrity across the entire travel value chain. By ensuring that the data flowing through our systems is accurate, we deliver secure, transparent solutions for both our B2B partners and end customers. This is where Yanolja’s Vertical AI approach becomes critical—we specialize in AI solutions tailored for the travel industry, driving measurable results that directly enhance profitability and customer satisfaction.

How has your experience working across different countries and tech ecosystems (South Korea, Silicon Valley) influenced your leadership style and vision for technology?

At Google in Silicon Valley, I collaborated with teams from around the world on global services, which taught me the importance of aligning diverse teams toward a common goal. At Yanolja, I now lead R&D teams across Korea, India, Israel, and Europe, uniting them as “One Yanolja Team” to drive innovation and execute projects collaboratively.

My Silicon Valley experience reinforced the need to balance short-term business priorities with long-term technological investments. While immediate solutions address pressing challenges, sustainable innovation requires foundational work. At Yanolja, we integrate data and AI to tackle today’s business needs while building a platform for future leadership in the travel tech industry.

How is Yanolja leveraging AI to transform the travel and hospitality industry, particularly in areas like operational efficiency and customer experience?

The travel industry has long been slow to embrace technological change. Many operations in hospitality and booking are still manual or inefficient, limiting both productivity and potential growth. At Yanolja, we’ve introduced AI-driven solutions to address these gaps.

For example, our Dynamic Pricing solution uses AI and machine learning (ML) to automate real-time price adjustments, directly impacting hotel revenues by replacing manual processes with smarter, data-driven decisions. Similarly, our AI-powered travel planning services offer personalized itineraries and optimized travel routes, enhancing customer experiences.

Beyond these examples, Yanolja applies AI across customer service, marketing, workflow optimization, and product development. Our Vertical AI solutions are tailored to meet the unique needs of travel businesses, enabling us to lead the industry’s transformation by creating innovative, efficient, and customer-centric systems.

Yanolja operates in over 200 countries. What challenges and opportunities come with scaling AI solutions for such a diverse global audience?

Scaling AI solutions globally requires understanding diverse market needs while leveraging shared insights. For example, our Dynamic Pricing AI adapts seamlessly to markets like South Africa, India, and Korea using a single model that identifies universal pricing patterns from our data lake.

One significant challenge is overcoming language barriers. To address this, we’ve developed AI-powered tools like context-aware image translations, enabling non-Korean speakers to access localized content in English, Japanese and Chinese. Today, Yanolja supports over 60 languages, reflecting our commitment to inclusivity and global accessibility.

Yanolja offers an integrated suite of solutions like cloud PMS, booking engines, and payment systems. Can you share insights into how these systems use AI to enhance productivity and personalization?

We’ve integrated AI into our cloud-based hotel management system (PMS) to streamline operations. For instance, our AI interface allows hotel managers to query tasks like room assignments or operational reports conversationally, simplifying complex processes.

Additionally, AI-powered customer service tools help us automate the classification and prioritization of inquiries, reducing response times by 40%. These innovations, combined with our Vertical AI solutions, ensure operational efficiency and personalization for all stakeholders.

How does Yanolja’s proprietary Data Lake help unlock new AI applications, and what role does data quality play in the success of your solutions?

AI continues to unlock the potential of underutilized data, transforming online travel agencies (OTAs) into hyper-personalized travel agents and enhancing customer experiences. Yanolja’s focus on Vertical AI ensures our solutions deliver measurable impact, setting us apart as leaders in the evolving travel ecosystem.

As we look ahead, we envision AI not just optimizing travel bookings or itineraries but enabling fully integrated, seamless travel experiences. AI-driven insights will empower businesses to predict and meet customer needs more effectively, ensuring every aspect of a traveler’s journey is personalized and optimized. To achieve this, Yanolja is building a travel data platform tailored for the industry, incorporating connectivity, a single source of truth via a data lake, and AI/ML-based data technologies—all of which are critical to maintaining data quality and unlocking new applications.

What trends do you see shaping the future of AI in the travel industry, and how is Yanolja positioning itself to lead in this space?

AI is poised to revolutionize the travel industry by unlocking the vast potential of underutilized data. Over the next decade, we will see a shift from simple booking platforms to highly sophisticated, AI-driven agents that provide hyper-personalized travel experiences. These AI agents will not only help travelers plan but will also assist in real-time decision-making during their journey.

At Yanolja, we are at the forefront of this transformation by focusing on Vertical AI—creating specialized applications that address the unique challenges of the travel industry. Our data-driven solutions are already helping businesses optimize operations, personalize services, and ultimately enhance customer satisfaction.

The future will also see greater integration of AI across the entire travel journey, from the moment a customer dreams about their trip to when they share their experience post-trip. We are positioning ourselves to lead this change by investing heavily in AI capabilities that will continue to disrupt and redefine how the travel industry operates.

As someone who built and managed teams at Google Korea and now Yanolja, what advice do you have for fostering innovation and collaboration in tech teams?

First and foremost, it’s important to have a clear and sustainable vision and mission for what we aim to achieve with technology. Each person brings unique strengths to the table. However, no matter how talented a group of people is, if they are not aligned in their direction, they risk falling behind in the rapidly changing external environment of the AI era. I believe that what’s needed today is not one genius who can’t collaborate, but a team of 10 individuals with exceptional teamwork. It’s about taking 10 pieces of wood—each different in shape, size, and color—and turning them into a unique masterpiece. The ultimate goal is to create something that improves the lives of people around the world. This, I believe, is the role of tech teams in the AI era.

Where do you see Yanolja in the next 5–10 years, particularly in its quest to become a global leader in travel technology?

Leaving a well-established company in Silicon Valley to join Yanolja was driven by my goal to disrupt the travel industry globally as a tech company, leveraging data. That process is already underway, and the pace is accelerating. At the core of this transformation is AI. Innovation through technology is reshaping the world, and as a tech executive, it is my role and responsibility to ensure that AI-driven solutions create services that meet customer needs and ultimately drive Yanolja’s success.

Looking ahead, Yanolja aims to be the foundation for global travel innovation, leveraging our Vertical AI capabilities to build a unified, efficient travel ecosystem. Over the next decade, we envision our AI-driven solutions not only enhancing operational efficiencies but also creating entirely new ways for businesses and consumers to experience travel, disrupting the industry in ways we’ve only just begun to explore.

Thank you for the great interview, readers who wish to learn more should visit Yanolja or Yanolja Cloud.