Spotify is a service that allows you to listen to music online. It provides you immediate access to its extensive online space of podcasts and music, letting you listen to and download whatever material you want, whenever you want. It’s legal and simple to use and a lot of businesses have started using it to advertise their products via Spotify reseller panel. Thousands of songs from a wide range of performers and genres are available, including but not limited to Hollywood songs, Bollywood songs, classical music, and techno music. Spotify also includes curated playlists and internet radio stations.

Podcasts are quite abundant, so there’s something for everyone, whether you enjoy real stories or tech debates. In reality, the firm is significantly investing in podcast material, having purchased Par cast, two podcasting networks. It even spent more than a hundred million dollars on a multi-year exclusive agreement with the Joe Rogan Experience. The best part is that Spotify is absolutely free to use. There is a Premium membership plan available, but you may also use the version where ads are supported for free. Depending on your personal choice, you can choose either. If you can afford to spend money then, use the premium version. 

Is it free?

Spotify’s basic version is entirely free. It provides unrestricted entry to the whole collection of podcasts and all sorts of music, but there are certain limitations. Frequent commercial breaks are the most annoying. If you’re listening to music at your party, these may truly ruin your mood. You may only skip a few songs, and the quality is worse at 160kbit/s.

Why should you upgrade to premium?

The Premium version is a fantastic way to avoid the annoying advertisements, but there is a lot of stuff on the premium version than you would think.

Here are some reasons why the Premium version may be worthwhile for you.

1. There are no ads to be found.
2. If you’re an audiophile, the increase from 160kbit/s to 320kbit/s on Spotify Premium might be worth your money.
3. Spotify Premium subscribers have the option of downloading music to listen to offline. However, if you decide to cancel your membership, you will not be able to listen to ad-free songs anymore.
4. Furthermore, on the mobile app, you have unlimited skips which can be really helpful since Spotify’s free edition shuffles all playlists. Although it only allows for six skips for one hour. This only happens on mobile applications, but it’s still aggravating and you can use Hulu for free.

Conclusion

You may, however, make your own playlists if you don’t like the ones that are created. It’s extremely simple to do so. Simply click the Create Playlist option in the sidebar on the desktop, or go to Your Library in the Spotify app to discover it there. Make sure you name your playlist appropriately because it will be used to make recommendations. For example, if you name a playlist 80s rock, you’ll get recommendations for songs by prominent 80s rock musicians.

Source: TG Daily – Important Things You Must Know About Spotify

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says incendiary balloons launched from Gaza sparked multiple fires in southern Israel.

IDF says the balloons were launched as a protest to the provocative flag march in Jerusalem.

The Palestinian news agency reports no casualties from the airstrikes.

According to a Hamas spokesman, “the Zionist bombing of the Gaza Strip is a failed attempt to stop our people’s solidarity and resistance with the Holy City.”

Hamas and other militant groups in Gaza did not immediately respond with rocket fire into Israel, however, the situation along the Israel-Gaza border remains extremely tense. The possibility of a serious escalation is not ruled out.

Source: TG Daily – The Israeli military launched airstrikes in Gaza in response to fire balloons

Russia and China have begun to draw up ambitious plans for missions that would directly compete with those of the United States and its partners.

They have teamed up for a robotic mission to an asteroid in 2024.

They are coordinating a series of lunar missions intended to build a permanent research base on the south pole of the moon by 2030.

The first of those missions, a Russian spacecraft with the revived Soviet-era name Luna, is scheduled to launch as soon as October, aiming to locate ice that could provide water to future human visits to the moon.

It will be the first of a new era of space competition that could be as intense as the first in the first two decades of the space race that followed the Soviet Union and the U.S.”

Source: TG Daily – Space Superpower Russia now turns to China for missions

When you have business goals, it can sometimes feel like they’re not as focused as you’d like them to be. Some of them may be simple things, and others could be lofty goals that you’re not really sure that you’ll ever achieve. But the biggest issue isn’t usually with the goals themselves. Instead, it’s with the fact that they’re often not aligned with each other as well as they could be. Because of that, they aren’t giving you the focus you need to start shaping your business’ reality. Here are some ways to work on fixing that.

Create Your Company’s Reality More Easily

You can create the reality you want for your company. Of course, there may be obstacles in the way. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be working toward the goals that really matter. When you continue to work toward the things that are important to you and your company, you’re much more likely to accomplish what matters. That could be growth and development, a strong customer base, a bigger product line, or really anything else at all. The key is to decide what you want, and then work on bringing all your business’ goals together, so you can intertwine them in a way that makes sense for making them into your reality.

Integrating Business Planning Can Help With Success

Among the ways to make your company more successful is to use integrated business planning. That gives you the opportunity to take each part of your company, and carefully combine them. Then you can see where there are overlaps, where there are gaps, and where there are issues that may need to be resolved. You may also find that some of your goals actually contradict other goals, and you don’t want that to cause you problems. You may need to either let go of a few goals or find ways to help them align with your other goals more clearly. Then you’ll have more success, and more peace of mind, too.

With integrated business planning, your company will quickly see where your goals lie and how close you are to them. Some may be closer than you think, while others could be farther away and something you’ll need to adjust for. There’s no reason to settle for anything less than what you want, though, as long as you have a plan to get there and can see how the goals for your business can merge into one reality you can be happy with. That may add to the benefits your employees and customers get from you, as well, which can continue to strengthen your bottom line.

Aligning Goals Helps You Move Forward

Moving your company forward is important, so it can continue to compete in the marketplace and attract more customers for what it has to offer. But if you’re not aligning your goals through integrated business planning, you may have trouble helping your company advance the way it should. That could be holding you back, since you may try to work on one goal, only to realize you’re neglecting others. A balance of moving forward on each goal you’ve set for your company needs to be reached, and the best way to do that is through the right type of integrative planning for your business’s needs.

Customers Look for Confident Companies

If you want to have more customers, integrated business planning can be a good way to work toward that, as well. Customers like to do business with companies that are confident, and that appear to be going places. If your company can offer that, it’s more likely that customers will be responsive. When you set strong business goals, and work to align them to your reality, customers recognize your dedication to building a quality business they can rely on. Not only can that help them feel better about doing business with you, but it can increase your customer base through word-of-mouth advertising, as well.

Make Sure You’re Focused on Quality and Value

As you think about your company’s goals, and how you want to use integrated business planning to align them into a reality, consider the quality you’re offering to customers and the value they’re getting from working with you. That way, you’re more likely to keep your customers happy as you move toward the goals you’ve set for your business. It’s not always easy to meet your goals, and you may not reach every one of them, but if you don’t set them your company doesn’t really have a direction to work toward. That can show in your customer service, your products or services, and a lack of advancement opportunities for employees. But with some consideration and planning, you can avoid all of that and make it easier for your company to succeed.

Source: TG Daily – Align Your Business Goals Into One Reality

Roblox Corp. shares fell more than 6% after hours Tuesday.

The videogame company reported key metrics from last month that included mixed results and forecasts.

Daily active users rose to 43 million in May, a 28% increase from May 2020 but a 1% decrease from the previous month.

Hours engaged climbed higher to 3.2 billion, up 9% year over year and up 1% from April.

For the second quarter ending at the end of this month, analysts expect earnings of 13 cents a share on revenue of $692.3 million, according to FactSet.

The company went public in March through a direct listing, has seen its shares rise 24.5% in the past three months through some volatility.

Source: TG Daily – Roblox shares plunge after the company releases May metrics

If we were to chat back in the 1990s and you were to ask me what Smart Glasses were, I’d guess they would have something to do with light (like they would dim in sunlight), with focus (so you’d only need one pair for both reading and distance) or both—making glasses Smart should have something to do with what glasses do.  But then Google came out with Google Glass, and not only did we get the name “Glasshole,” we started to think about Smart Glasses like they were a monitor, not better glasses.  

I think that was the same core evolutionary mistake that 3D glasses made.  They didn’t start by making glasses better even though the passive ones were pretty good dark glasses, and the active ones could have used the electronic shutter feature to dim light when out in the sun automatically.  I believe that if you want to make a “Smart” anything, you need to first focus on its core function and then add other features.  A Smart Car is still a car, a Smartphone is still a phone, and Smart Lights are still lights first.  But Smart Glasses, up until now, weren’t glasses at all in that they neither shaded your eyes from the sun nor addressed the typical problems that glasses address.  

A brand new company called Pixieray is about to change that and may very well be on the critical path to a product that will eventually evolve to replace the Smartphone, likely in the 2027-2030 timeframe.  

Let’s talk about how I get there.  

Pixieray 

Pixieray is a relatively new startup funded to $4.4M with independent investors, a VC, and some Angel investors.  They are at the seed round and expect to have a finished product in about two years; I think that isn’t very nice and believe they are more likely to have the final product in 2-4 years.  I think they can use the technology in 2 years, but I expect it will take them up to 2 more to clear regulatory hurdles for a device that you might wear while driving, affecting your eyesight.  

The initial glasses will do what Smart Glasses always should have done and replace your typical reading and driving glasses with glasses that fully take over-focusing at any distance.  These glasses will work similarly to how your camera works on your Smartphone but by putting the lens in front of your face, not a camera and display.  

While, initially, they won’t have a dark glasses function, the ability to auto darkening lenses electronically has been around for years (I have two pairs of glasses like this), and I think they’ll find it necessary to add that feature to appeal to the target market.  

TimeLine To Head-Mounted Displays

As I noted, I expect it will be around 2005 when they have the initial version of their product sorted and priced where most of the initial target audience could afford to buy them.  Then it will likely take another three years to think through how to safely add data to the mix so you can do things like heads-up navigation, facial recognition with names, alerts for danger, refine the overall design, and give them all-day battery life.  

Now, they’ll need a strong partner at this point, and there is some risk that the company that owns the current glasses market, Luxottica, may swoop in and buy them because, if successful, Smartglasses won’t just take out Smartphones. They’ll likely displace all but the inexpensive glasses lines over time.  Luxottica is under an anti-trust cloud that could slow their interest. Still, if they see Pixieray as a legitimate threat, they will try to buy them or shut them down, materially impacting this timeline. However, we should still see some form of Smart Glasses that replace regular glasses and form an AR display for, or replace, the Smartphone (we’ll likely see both efforts much like we have standalone and tethered VR and AR headsets today).  

Wrapping Up:

I, along with others, believe the likely replacement for the Smartphone will be some Smart Glasses.  To make these glasses work, they will need to embrace what glasses do first then add the electronic display functions we were introduced to with Google Glass.  By mid-decade, Pixieray, which appears to be the most exciting company in the lead at the moment, should be able to automate core glasses features like focus and lens darkening for sunlight. It will take another five years to reduce the product and add data though we could see initial, costly units that do both as early as 2026.  

Head-mounted displays have already shown up, but they have been less than the market disruptors we expected without the core glasses features, and most of these products aren’t attractive when worn.  It will take the better part of a decade to get Smartglasses to where they need to replace the Smartphone. Now it’s a race to see who gets there first. Pixieray may be in the lead, but the race is on, and the big players have yet to enter the field.  

Source: TG Daily – Pixieray: The Birth Of True Smart Glasses And The Timing For Smartphone Obsolescence

Group of Seven leaders and NATO nations jointly criticized core Chinese policy under President Xi Jinping.

NATO members vowed Monday to counter “systemic challenges to the rules-based international order.”

The one-two punch of public criticism smacks directly into Mr. Xi’s assertion that China won’t stand for lecturing by other nations.

China’s embassy in the U.K. issued a point-by-point denunciation of the G-7 statement as distorted and slanderous.

China frames criticism of its policies as U.S.-led Cold War thinking, with diplomats confidently asserting that the East is rising and the West is in decline.

Source: TG Daily – A turning point was marked by back-to-back rebukes of China

With the advancements in technology, marketing trends have changed quite a bit. Not only is it important for businesses to change their marketing strategies but implement them as well if they want to survive and earn profits in their respective industries. Although there are a lot of different businesses that hire companies such as smm reseller panel to help them advertise their brand through social media, there are still many companies who do not know and realize the importance of social media marketing. It is the most efficient way to get the word out about a new product, service, or piece of news, a tweet may become viral in minutes, spreading a message quicker than television or other traditional media. Furthermore, millions of individuals spend a significant amount of time on social media networks, so you know where to locate them if you “need” them. Moreover, marketers discovered that many people spend time in their automobiles traveling in the ancient days, therefore they conceived of billboards on the highways. People nowadays spend time on social media, therefore as a marketer, you must adopt this mindset as well. Here are some social media marketing tips for beginners:

1. Decide which social media platform to use

One of the most important tips for beginners is to first decide which social media platform they want to use. As a beginner to social media, you should focus on one or two platforms rather than trying to work on all of them at once. Many novices make this error, and as a result, they resign without gaining anything. Finding influencers and analyzing where they succeed is a good method to figure out which platform is ideal for your niche. For example, look up the leaders in your niche and see how many Facebook fans, Twitter followers, and other social media followers you have.

2. Make sure to post interesting content

This is the cornerstone of a successful social media marketing strategy. When it comes to posting material, we usually say that “content is king,” and this is certainly true in social media. You may receive more re-shares, and in certain cases, more customers and more visits to your website if you publish entertaining and valuable material. However, this point is quite subjective, it depends on what products and services your brand offer but normally, it includes a lot of different things such as images, videos, motivational quotes, funny stuff, and random stories.

3. Add social media buttons

You can allow your audience to share your posts. You may develop customized social share buttons for different audiences using web tools. It is essential to choose acceptable plugins, especially those that provide you greater flexibility in the types of social share buttons you may design for different platforms. For example, you may encourage your developers to use WordPress plugin tools to generate customized share buttons for your web or mobile audience and add them to all of your social network posts.

Source: TG Daily – Social Media Marketing Guide for Beginners

Moving long distance is a big step. It is difficult to leave behind familiar haunts, people, and places that are a part of our lives. Among the many challenges of moving, one that even the best long distance movers can’t take care of for us is what to do about our pets. Pets are an integral part of our lives. Just like you wouldn’t consider leaving behind your children when you move, pets are just as important to many people. The best and safest option is to drive your pet in your own car. This is more important for dogs and cats so you can make frequent stops to let your pet stretch their legs, play around and walk. 

However if transporting your pets in your own vehicle is not an option for any reason, you might want to consider having them shipped. While it is not easy to ship animals across the country, it is doable and the most feasible option as long as you take the necessary measures to keep your pets safe and sound. Here are a few things to keep in mind when moving your pet long distance.  

• Take your pet to the vet before to make sure that your pet is in good physical health. You should also ensure that your pet’s immunization records and health certificates are up to date.
• Check any regulations and shipping requirements for your destination and get the necessary paperwork in order. 
• If you are choosing to ship your pet, you need to find an appropriate shipping container that meets the regulatory safety requirements and is comfortable for your pet. 
• Find and purchase some comfort items for your pet like food, water, or chew toys. 
• Fish are delicate and need extra care. You have to make sure to keep the same water bacteria colony so put fish in smaller easier to transport containers filled with water drained from the aquarium. Keep in mind though, that shipping fish is almost impossible.
• Snakes and other reptiles, amphibians, and insects are also difficult to relocate. In addition to moving the terrarium with the same care you would take for an aquarium, you also need to secure your pets in a way that eliminates the chances of your pet escaping. An escaped snake or spider may cause unnecessary panic and cause trouble.
• Birds and birdcages are easier to transport than snakes and fish. The obvious transport solution is to move your bird in its own cage if you are driving yourself. However, if you are shipping your bird via air, you need to get a commercial hard plastic kennel cab suitable for shipping. Regardless of whether you are using a cage or a kennel, you should use a lightweight cloth cover for the container as it will minimize the stress your bird is likely to feel. You should also include food and lay down the paper at the bottom. You will need to remove the water bowl so include some juicy fruit instead.

Written by Lara Harper

Source: TG Daily – Making a Long Distance Move with Pets

TikTok users are encouraged to post short videos. The majority of Musical.ly’s previous users just posted recordings of themselves lip-syncing to music videos. The more energetic and technically skilled individuals submitted unique content videos, and it was these people who were the platform’s influencers. Although you may produce and share 60-second Stories-style films, most TikTok videos are up to 15 seconds long. The original TikTok and Musical.ly both catered to the same demographic of teenagers and tweens. As a result, it’s no surprise that the merged TikTok caters to those aged 13 to 24. 

Tiktok is also being used by a lot of different businesses to help them advertise their brand. Some businesses even hire companies such as Tik Tok Reseller Panel to help them advertise their brand with the help of TikTok. TikTok can be used in many ways by a lot of different businesses including but not limited to, they can make their own YouTube channel and submit relevant content to it. They may collaborate with influencers to reach a larger audience with their content. They can pay to promote on TikTok; but, TikTok advertising is still in its infancy, and there is not currently a market for it as there is for YouTube. TikTok, on the other hand, may grow in popularity and recognition over time. Moreover, many businesses combine running their own channels with collaborating with influencers to reach a larger audience. You might implement some of the suggestions below on your own channels, or you could advise that your influencers create and distribute material like this.

Ways businesses can use tiktok for marketing success

1. Blending in

One of the most important tips for using tiktok for marketing success is to blend in. You should balance the types of content you publish on TikTok, as you do with any social marketing program. The majority of your videos should entertain or enlighten your viewers. If you use this method to establish an audience, you should be able to mix in a few more promotional videos. Because the average TikTok user ignores advertisements, you must first establish your trust before releasing overtly promotional content. Many businesses have discovered that uploading videos of individuals using their product is the greatest way to get over this aversion to advertising.

2. Start using hashtags

Sponsoring hashtags is one of TikTok’s ad kinds. TikTok’s hashtag challenges are quite popular. They’re a great approach for businesses to boost brand recognition and engagement. You create a challenge for individuals who upload videos of themselves completing it. A successful hashtag challenge encourages people to talk about your product offline and on other social media platforms.

3. Create interesting content

Videos on TikTok can last up to a minute. You don’t have much time to convey your point. And whatever you do, don’t just post obvious advertisements — even official TikTok commercials should be useful to your audience. You want your films to seem professional without seeming like they were produced by an advertising firm.

Source: TG Daily – Using TikTok for Marketing Success

With the advancements in technology, the trends in business have changed quite a bit. The trends in business have evolved with time, day by day, year by year. A lot of new businesses and industries have been opened thanks to different types of technology. One of the most important trends in business that has changed is marketing. The whole dynamic of marketing has changed and turned into digital marketing. Every other business now advertises their brands with the help of technology i.e. the internet. Social media has helped a lot of different businesses achieve their goals and objectives. Furthermore, a lot of businesses normally hire companies such as smm reseller panel to help them advertise their brand through different platforms of social media. However, a lot of different businesses make a lot of mistakes in marketing their brands. Therefore, here are 3 mistakes in social media marketing that may come back to haunt you, so you do not make any mistakes in the future:

1. Not allowing your audience to share your posts

Typically, business owners save their finest material for their websites. Informative blogs, for example, help people position themselves as experts in their fields. It also allows users to spend more time on these websites. Perhaps they would want to have a peek around to see what else is available. Unfortunately, you might have great material that everyone wants to share, but if visitors do not know how to share it, it will not get the attention it deserves. However, you can solve this mistake of yours in a lot of different ways including but not limited to using tools, so you can allow your audience to share your posts. You may develop customized social share buttons for different audiences using web tools. It is quite essential to choose acceptable plugins, especially the ones that provide you greater flexibility in the types of social share buttons you may design for different platforms. For example, you may encourage your developers to use WordPress plugin tools to generate customized share buttons for your web or mobile audience and add them to all of your social network posts.

2. Not tracking the marketing done

Digital marketing allows you to track exactly what your prospects do when they view your offer. You’re wasting money if you’re not testing many variations of the same ad or email and paying attention to which advertisements work and which don’t. To assist you, become familiar with the analytics tools provided by Google, social networking sites, and email marketing providers. Your marketing will improve the more you learn from your errors.

3. Not creating brand loyalty

Customers that keep coming back to buy from you are the lifeblood of your company. However, you can’t expect consumers to return until you keep in touch with them. Don’t focus all of your marketing efforts on gaining new consumers. Set aside money to promote to your existing clients as well.

Source: TG Daily – 3 Mistakes in Social Media Marketing That May Come Back to Haunt You

Beijing passed a new law designed to counter U.S. and EU sanctions on Chinese officials and major Chinese companies.

Those involved in designing or implementing the sanctions could find themselves or their family members denied visas to China. Their property in China may be seized, and any commercial transaction they attempt with a Chinese institution can be blocked.

Beijing passed the law on Thursday to counter the sanctions imposed by the United States and the European Union over the last three years. The law was passed in response to the U.N. sanctions imposed against Chinese officials, companies, and officials in the EU and China.

It’s unclear whether the law will apply to organizations with a foot in both China and the EU.

Source: TG Daily – China’s new anti-foreign sanctions law is causing a chill in the business community

Digital transformation has impacted industries across the board, from entertainment and retail to telecommunications and education. Another example is the multi-billion global financial services market, which is almost unrecognizable compared to how it once was. Tasks that were previously performed by humans can now be completed digitally, while technologies like blockchain, artificial intelligence, and machine learning are increasingly being incorporated into business models.

While we’ve seen rapid advancements in recent years, banks and other organizations will only continue to evolve — especially in light of the impact COVID-19 is sure to have on the industry going forward. Here, we highlight three technological solutions that are transforming global financial institutions.

Inpay

Today’s consumers want international payments to feel similar to transferring money locally. “In our view, customers are seeking a seamless and transparent experience,” reads McKinsey’s A vision for the future of cross-border payments. “If people value real-time payments experiences domestically, there is reason to believe they will value them in an international context as well.”  This includes “reliable payments delivery, access to preferred payments methods, and the ability to track exchange rates and schedule payments based on this info”. Therefore, financial institutions must offer cross-border payment services that meet these demands in order to retain customers and stay competitive.

These goals can be achieved by partnering with fintech, which aren’t burdened by legacy infrastructure costs and can concentrate exclusively on product and service delivery as a result. An excellent example of this is Danish fintech Inpay, ticking all the boxes with its cross-border payment products for financial institutions. International payments to over 100 countries are processed in just 30 minutes on average and can save financial institutions up to 80% on cross-border payment fees. As well as being low-cost, fast and secure, Inpay offers smooth and fully supported API integration under a single point of connection and can be seamlessly merged with existing UX/UI. Furthermore, international payment status can be tracked online using a customer web portal.

Salesforce Financial Services Cloud

Client and customer relationships are at the heart of the financial services industry, where forging deep, long-lasting relationships is vital. What’s more, requirements and expectations are different from what they once were. Thanks to factors like the rise of digital banks and the growing interest in data-driven open banking, customers desire convenience and personalization. “We believe that hyper-personalization is an imperative, not an option, in a digital economy,” Deloitte notes in its The future of retail banking paper. “The combination of smart devices, rapidly-evolving CX capabilities and real-time processing of big data, means that new opportunities arise for banks to meet customers’ needs on a highly-personalized and dynamic basis”.

Salesforce Financial Services Cloud (FSC) is a useful solution for financial institutions seeking to deliver this hyper-personalization. The dedicated customer relationship management (CRM) service consolidates data to provide a full customer view and help drive loyalty. Financial institutions gain access to customer profiles with insights enabling employees to identify new opportunities and convert more leads. These details mean organizations are better placed to meet their customers’ financial needs and build loyal, trusted relationships. 

“Banks that make customers feel like most of their financial wellbeing needs are supported — often banks that get an assist from experts in customer behavior — will be well-rewarded in increased share of wallet, engagement, NPS scores, and revenue,” Gallup concludes in a survey on the topic. “And, in a tightly regulated industry, being the bank that makes customers feel cared for can be a lucrative competitive advantage.”

SAP S/4HANA

Virtually all industries can benefit from enterprise resource planning (ERP) software (the integrated management of main business processes), including financial institutions embracing digital transformation. “This isn’t just a matter of cosmetics. You’ll need to change your back-end operations to support it,” warns PwC. “And you’ll need to think differently about how to solve problems. Technology isn’t a silver bullet.” Whether it’s operations, finance and risk management, retail banking and loan management, or upscaling the payment methods and communications, there are plenty of areas where financial institutions need to be able to actively respond to change.

SAP S/4HANA is an all-in-one solution that can bring about such transformations, with embedded AI and machine learning to provide banking firms with industry best practices. This can integrate data into core business processes such as risk analysis and mitigation. For example, fraud and risk are significantly reduced thanks to real-time, automated processes like consistent risk profiling, flagging abnormalities, and trend, pattern and customer behavior analysis. SAP S/4HANA also has multi-bank connectivity, offering seamless integration to boost the customer-bank relationship. According to the company, its technology on average leads to 30% fewer processing errors and a 45% increase in revenue growth with information as a key strategic asset.

Written by Adam Eaton

Source: TG Daily – 3 Solutions Transforming Global Financial Institutions

Back when Louis Gerstner took over IBM, there was a bit of a scandal.  An analyst, it was not me (I was working for IBM at the time), asked him, after seeing a pitch saying IBM’s then technology was so powerful it would pay for itself in months, why, if it was so good, IBM did not use it?  Gerstner replied, “would you rather I used this technology for our customers or us?”  This answer was a false dilemma because there was no reason that the technology could not be used both internally and externally.  I thought this was a unique position, but I often am amazed that tech companies, in general, do not deploy their technology internally aggressively at all, which suggests they don’t believe in their marketing.  

I mean, if the technology at retail prices were so effective at paying for itself, wouldn’t that same technology at cost be far more attractive?  NVIDIA is the only company that seems to use its technology in presentations and practice aggressively.  Like with their AI workstation technology, they first seem to develop it for themselves and then sell it.  This use of their technology is their superpower because people know that NVIDIA is the first customer for a new product they develop, and they take pride in using what they developed.

I think this should be identified as a best practice and that one of the first things we should ask any technology vendor is how widely they use their technology.  This suggested response is because if it doesn’t make financial sense for them to deploy it at cost, it will likely never make sense for us to deploy it at all. 

Eating Your Dogfood

There is a concept in our industry called “eating your own dogfood” that applies here because it refers to vendors using what they create.  But that process can also have problems if the product isn’t competitive.  Over the years, I’ve watched companies like Oracle (their un-competitive office suite), Sun Microsystems (Sun Ray One), and Microsoft (Zune) try to force the adoption of non-competitive products, and not only did these efforts not help sales, except Zune, they did a lot of damage to the related firms.  

My example at IBM was on PROFS, a horrible product that was supposed to compete with Microsoft Office, even the executive responsible for the offering had never used it. Still, it passed off the use to his secretary.  It wasn’t until a top IBM saleswoman, who I later worked with, when he asked why it wasn’t selling, took him to use the product that he concluded it was crap.  

What makes NVIDIA somewhat unique is that they develop technology for themselves that they eventually sell externally. They use their technology aggressively in their presentations to the press and customers.  They don’t just do demos; in a way, their entire pitch is a demo, and you’d think they were from Missouri rather than California because they aggressively prefer show over tell.  

In NVIDIA, the product users are also often the ones involved in its creation, so there doesn’t seem to be the problem of forcing an uncompetitive product down the throats of employees.  NVIDIA’s process assures the quality of the result, but their use validates and builds in a vital marketing element while also making NVIDIA more effective and productive.  

Wrapping Up:  Best Practice

One final story before I leave you is GM, where the then CEO looked out his executive window and noticed that the parking lot was full of Toyotas.  He proclaimed that employees were mandated to drive GM cars.  At the time, GM finance had too much say, and the company was building mostly cheap crap and this did partially resulted in better cars over time because no one wants to drive crap.  However, the fix would have been quick if that executive had first asked why GM employees hated GM cars and fixed the problem of a too powerful and relatively clueless fiancé organization, resulting in positive change sooner.  

It is not only a best practice for vendors to aggressively use their products and showcase that use but for buyers to aggressively look into the use, internally, of the vendor’s offering.  Suppose the vendor could but doesn’t use their offerings. In that case, I suggest that the vendor is lying to you about the offering’s strength, if a vendor’s employees who get employee discounts don’t use the vendor’s products, avoid them, and if your people refuse to use your products because they suck, then prioritizing fixing the “suck” part should result in a far more viable offering.  

Of the vendors I watch, NVIDIA does this the most aggressively and sets a standard that more of the rest should more aggressively emulate if they want similar success.  

Source: TG Daily – What NVIDIA Does That Uniquely Advances Their Agenda

The world’s most powerful banking committee is proposing a ‘new conservative prudential treatment’ for crypto-assets that would force banks to put aside enough capital to cover potential losses.

That would be the highest capital requirement of any asset, illustrating that cryptocurrencies and related investments are seen as far more risky and volatile than conventional stocks or bonds.

“Crypto-assets have given rise to a range of concerns including consumer protection, money laundering, and terrorist financing,” the committee said.

Most regulated banks currently have limited exposure to cryptocurrencies, but the committee warned that they could “present risks for banks as exposures increase, including fraud and legal and reputation risks. The committee also said that the growth of crypto assets could raise financial instability concerns and increase risks faced by banks.

Source: TG Daily – Banking regulators want the toughest rules for cryptocurrencies

If you take a moment to observe what’s going on online, you’ll realize that an internet revolution is upon us. The goal is to decentralize the internet for reasons which are not far-fetched. Today’s internet as we know it is one that heavily intrudes on our privacy even though many do not yet fully understand how. 

In addition to privacy concerns, it would seem that more and more people now want to own and be able to control a piece of the internet in ways they have never been able to do all these years. When you add periodic network shutdowns to the exclusivity of internet control, you’ll probably understand more about why many people want a change.

But this change will neither be easy nor quick to achieve. One thing remains certain: many developers, inventors, makers, and startups are beginning to take on the biggest internet providers out there. One step at a time, the likes of Dfinity and ThreeFold are spearheading what obviously is a revolution of the internet. Let’s see what has happened out there so far. 

What ThreeFold Brings to the Table 

A casual glance at their website shows that an essential part of ThreeFold’s mission is to provide a decentralized internet for everyone, by everyone, and available everywhere. To achieve this, they developed a peer-to-peer internet system through which they hope to change the structure of today’s internet.

ThreeFold’s new internet system is based on 3Nodes. A 3Node is a hardware device through which an individual can connect to the internet through the ThreeFold Grid. This grid is an interconnection of several 3Nodes from various parts of the world. So, in connecting to the grid, the owner of the 3Node has access to the internet without necessarily going through the big tech companies and their data centres. 

In simpler terms, if you own a 3Node, you basically own a piece of the internet because you have complete control of your data and internet capacity. You decide if, when and who accesses your data. This gives access to a secure, end-to-end encrypted internet connection and potentially unlimited cloud storage.

From what we can observe, it appears ThreeFold is the world’s largest storage and peer-to-peer internet network system; offering a massive storage capacity of 80 petabytes (i.e., 80,000,000 gigabytes) and 16,000 live CPU cores. 

Another thing you’d notice pretty fast is that ThreeFold’s founder, Kristof de Spiegeleer, and his team, seem to have keen interest in programmes and projects geared towards sustaining the planet.  This goes without saying that their approach to solving the internet needs of the world tilts towards providing a sustainable and eco-friendly internet framework. 

Their unconventional approach allows them to save about 90% more energy and consume 90% less energy than what one would expect from large corporations providing the Internet. Consequently, this approach helps them produce less carbon footprint which saves the planet from harmful technological activities.

Still curious, we learn that ThreeFold has an open-source operating system called Zero-OS and a token known as ThreeFold Token (TFT) which may be bought or earned through farming on the ThreeFold network.

Dfinity’s Internet Computer Joins the Party

Dfinity is another project heavily committed to the internet decentralization movement. It is a Switzerland-based non-profit organization that has been around for a while now. The organization offers the public a platform to freely create and design applications on the net in their own way.    

Somehow, Dfinity compares to large corporations like Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, and Google in the sense that they are pretty big and are growing very fast. However, they differ in the way they handle internet data. First of all, they have their data centres distributed all over the world. This is in sharp contrast to the big names which concentrate all their data centres in a few chosen locations in first world nations. 

They gave more life to this massive decentralization project of theirs though a digital token developed on the Ethereum blockchain technology called Internet Computer (ICP). The ICP is of course decentralized, and compatible with many other blockchain platforms and operating systems. Little wonder it hit over $45 billion in value just a few days after its launch. 

So here’s a quick insight into the Internet Computer as Dfinity created it. They obviously created their internet by assembling various subnetworks around the world. These subnetworks are made up of data centres owned by various institutions, foundations, establishments and people. Again, each data centre is made up of nodes which can be independently owned too. 

Much of ICP’s success especially when it launched can be attributed to its focus on tackling specific customer-related problems in the IT industry and the popularity Dfinity already enjoys. That said, they identified some problems in the IT industry such as central ownership of the internet by a few corporations, cyber insecurity etc.

How much success they achieve when it comes to tackling the problems they’ve chosen to battle is what we probably don’t know yet. But then, they’ve positioned themselves as an easily accessible platform that serves as a backend host to the worldwide web. You could literally write your code “directly” on the internet without having to go through the mega tech giants like Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook etc. And with Dfinity saying its ICP is faster than both Bitcoin and Ethereum, we may be in for a surprise!

Dfinity vs ThreeFold: How they Compare

ThreeFold and Dfinity may be brothers in arms in the internet decentralization revolution but it appears they’re challenging today’s internet from slightly different angles. For instance, Dfinity basically distributed their data centres to every part of the world; which, for some reason, the tech giants who control the bulk of today’s internet did not do. On the other hand, ThreeFold does not even use data centres. 

The following illustration will explain this better. Imagine a hypothetical life-saving plant was sent to all Americans but got stored and consistently grown only in  the states of Washington, Arkansas and New York. Now to gain access to this vital plant, citizens from all other American states would order them from the three states mentioned above. This means, these states would naturally have access to the data of the people making these orders such as their names, location, gender, purchase frequency, preferred specimens etc. As you can imagine, this data can be sold or used without their consent. 

Now a revolutionist finds a way to have these plants distributed, grown and stored in every state in America. Each city in each state would be able to contribute to the general supply of that plant. But then another revolutionist decides to create a solution that allows anyone, anywhere in America, to be able to own and grow this plant from the comfort of their home having full access to it anytime without needing to go through those three states where the plant was previously exclusively grown. 

This is internet decentralization crudely explained. Dfinity is the revolutionist that took the plants to certain major centres in every location in America. ThreeFold is that revolutionist who made it possible for individuals to be able to privately grow that plant from the comfort of their homes in every part of America. America, in this illustration, represents the world and the vital plant represents the internet. 

They also differ in the aspect of coding languages they support and all that. At a glance, the ThreeFold grid appears to offer a more holistic environment for developers. For instance, at the time of writing, only Motoko and Rust are compatible with Dfinity while any Linux IT can run on ThreeFold. Infact, for Dapps to run on Dfinity, they must be built from scratch using Dfinity’s SDK. For ThreeFold, however, Dapps would simply just run naturally without needing to be built again. 

Conclusion

Overall, the agitation for a decentralized internet system couldn’t have come at a better time than now. This movement opens up a future where everyone can enjoy fast and efficient internet with complete autonomy and privacy. Like it is with most technological advancements, there’s every possibility that these new internet systems could evolve so fast that they replace the current internet structure as we know it. Fingers crossed!

Source: TG Daily – Dfinity, Threefold, are Leading an Internet Decentralization Revolution

Chinese police have arrested more than 1,000 people who are suspected of using cryptocurrency to launder money from telephone and internet scams.

This is the fifth round of a nationwide crackdown on money-laundering activities related to telecom fraud in China, dubbed “Operation Card Breaking’s”.

So far, as a part of Operation Card Breaking, the police have eliminated more than 311,000 criminal organizations.

Nearly 13 percent of gambling sites support the use of virtual currencies, and it has made it more difficult for the police to track the money through the traditional banking system, according to the Chinese Payment & Clearing Association. The association says that nearly 13 percent of online gambling sites use virtual currencies making it more difficult to track the money.

Source: TG Daily – Over 1,100 people have been arrested in China in a crypto-related money-laundering investigation

JBS USA Holdings Inc. paid an $11 million ransom to cybercriminals who last week knocked out plants that process roughly one-fifth of the nation’s meat supply.

The ransom payment, in bitcoin, was made to shield JBS meat plants from further disruption.

JBS is the world’s largest meat company by sales, processing beef, poultry, and pork from Australia to South America and Europe.

In the U.S., the company is the biggest beef processor and a top supplier of chicken and pork. Its subsidiary, Pilgrim’s Pride Corp., also hit by the attack, is the second-largest poultry processor, after Tyson Foods Inc.

The payment was made after the majority of JBS plants were up and running again.

Source: TG Daily – Meat supplier JBS paid the equivalent of million to end ransomware attack