text:
JAOO! for YOW! Brisbane!

So this year I was lucky enough to get the chance to attend YOW Conference in Brisbane. As my first full two-day and first inter-state conference, as well as knowing the standard of speakers they have attending, my expectations were high but they’ve been unbelievably blown away.

Firstly, I’d like to give a big shout-out to everyone who spent time and effort making this happen. I’ve found this year that it’s no mean feat to put together a local presentation night, so to put together a multi-city, multi-day conference with 39(!!!) speakers from all over the world is a feat I’d expect of someone with time-turner and at least one decent superpower.

Update: Full disclosure, I did actually start writing this just after the conference, but life has caught up with me a little. Better late than never

Cloud Data Pipelines for Genomics from a Bioinformatician and a Developer

Lynn Langit and Dr Denis Bauer

Big data is something I’ve heard a lot more about in the past few, years but this amazing opening keynote (with two kick-ass ladies teaming up) was a great chance for me to see if in action.

I’ve always been a little interested in Biology and Genetics, so it was great to see two different areas of interest collide (although, massive props to the ladies who are able to master BOTH fields).

While most of the technical aspects went a little over my head (ok, a lot over my head), I was pleasantly surprised to understand the concept behind mapping genomes to determine different areas of similarities to help us further understand diseases such as ALS and cancer. The sheer amount of data that is needed to deal with is unfathomable and the system and architecture they’re using is utilising some of our best new technologies in the industry.

There was also a great spin to the entire talk, as although they weren’t able to use actual data (for obvious reasons), I had no trouble in following the genetic markers that are attributed to being a hipster (I should get mine checked, but i think I’m ok) and seeing the entire system in action.

They then moved on, because not only are they looking further into the genetic markers of ALS, but serverless technology is now being used to help increase the accuracy of CRISPR, so that hopefully one day we can work on eliminating debilitating genetic diseases such as HCM (Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy).

How Agile Screwed Up Product Ownership and 5 Things You Can Do to Fix it

Jeff Patton

I’ve briefly worked in (loosely) agile environments, and I’m always interested to see what others’ of this methodology. I’m actually yet to find anyone who can claim that they actually follow agile completely, but you’re also not really agile unless you change things where necessary. Jeff’s talk was incredible because he live sketched his talk, which was an entire new kind of entertaining.

We always seem to run into issues when blindly following instructions (I feel dystopian novels should have taught us otherwise) and a lot of the issues that seem to stem from Agile environments can often be attributed to this as well. Just because something works well for one team, doesn’t mean it will for another.

Stop treating the product owner like the customer

One big issue we have is treating the product owner like the customer, which is probably a concept most devs are familiar with. When working in customer service, “the customer is always right (even when they’re wrong)” is often a frustrating concept to deal with; and when working in development we sometimes have the same issues with a product owner (particularly when they’re not technical). How many times have you been given instructions or deadlines by someone who doesn’t understand the work that you do?

Don’t just assume that you’re working on something useful, meaningful or for the greater good

We also need to spend less time believing that we’re working for the good guys, or on something life-changing (yes, some people actually are). Just because you have an idea, doesn’t actually mean it’s a good one or worth spending time and money on. Having spent time working in an agency, I’m super familiar with this concept. The number of phone calls and emails we received from people who’d had an idea for an app that they needed help making; most of the time their idea was copying (eg. I want to re-make Groupon), no good, or they got upset when we told them it would cost money to make (“but it’s going to make so much money, can’t you do the work for free and we’ll pay you when it goes viral?!).

Lastly Jeff touched on some very important topics (and ones that are close to my heart) with the following points:

Stop spending so much time at the office

Stop hiding work from the team

Recently it’s surfaced how many companies have unhealthy environments and how many people in this industry inevitably burnout at some point (having burnt out twice before I even turned 24, this is something I think is a really important topic to address) and there are far too many people who think this is ok. Make sure that you’re spending time away from work (and that means properly away, not just working at home), whether it’s downtime by yourself or taking the chance to see your friends and family. And when you’re at work, don’t hide what you’re working on, make sure it’s visible. I’ve been in roles where co-workers didn’t really know what I was working on and had the impression that I was slacking off; little did they know I was working 10+ hour days and completing the job of several people. If the work isn’t visible, it also can’t be taken into account when scheduling work in and you’ll find yourself working 80 hours in a week.

Estimates or #NoEstimates?

Woody Zuill

As a freelancer, I’m often plagued by the law of estimates (especially when I don’t estimate properly), so the title alone of Woody’s talk sounded interesting to me. To top it off, his wife is also a children’s book illustrator and is responsible for all his slides. They weren’t in any way relevant to the slide content, but I love getting a good giggle out of imagery being used in presentations.

The first thing Woody did was get us to write a one word summary of an estimate on a sticky note and put it up on the wall. Not surprisingly, we all seemed to use similar words and themes with negative connotations (restrictions, limit, pain, guess), which is something that seems to be repeated at his talks all over the world. Apparently some people don’t listen to instructions though, when running this same exercise with a group of managers and execs, Woody found that most of them filled the post-it with text and didn’t listen to the** one word** limit.

“It ain’t so much the things we don’t know that get us into trouble, it’s the things we do know that just ain’t so” - Mark Twain, Artimus Ward, Will Rogers (or someone else)

Estimates are a useful tool (when used properly), unfortunately sometimes they’re not necessarily the right option or the solution to a problem. If working on your estimates aren’t solving your problem, maybe give something else a go.

The definition of insanity is trying the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.

Software Architecture for Developers

Simon Brown

Normally when people starting talking architecture, I get a little lost, I’m perfectly happy to leave that to someone else. Simon’s presentation was very well done however and I found myself able to follow and relate to the entire talk.

We need to make sure that we’re planning ahead instead of just running at a problem head-first; but at the same time we also need to stop spending so much time planning at the start before we get into anything. Small iterations are great for helping to work through a project and get a better idea of issues that may arise quickly. We can plan for how things will work but often it doesn’t happen that way.

Honestly, I can’t really summarise Simon’s presentation anymore than his slides did.

Quantifying the Influence of Beautiful Environments on Human Well-Being

Chanuki Illushka Seresinhe

We already know that there is a correlation between happiness and your surrounding, and there have been several scientific studies on how being around greenery helps you concentrate and stress less. Chanuki has been using machine learning, and crowd sourced data to actually work out what it is that we like to see in our surroundings.

We’ve been working off the assumption that green is good, but there are different levels of green. If there’s a small square of green grass in the middle of a dingy apartment complex, do we automatically feel relaxed simply because we can see green?

The levels she’s been able to analyse this data was incredible. And the different things we’re able to do with it are exciting. One day we may even be able to use a machine to design buildings and complexes and use the data to work out what people actually want, rather than have someone assume they know what we want.

Machines that Learn Through Action: The Future of AI

Julie Pitt

We’re starting to hear more and more about AI (much to the dismay of technophobes and conspiracy theorists), but the work still has a long way to go before we need to worry about a robot uprising.

While most of the math (and technology) went way over my head, Julie walked us through the process of teaching a robot how to perform a task that we perceive as simple, such as fetching a drink of water. To simply get the robot to work, you need to teach it about standing, balance, maneuvering and watching out for risks such as stairs, balcony edges and the dog.

The field of AI and Machine Learning is a very complex (and therefore often scary) one, but Julie did an amazing job at walking us all through the (very simplified) process of how you teach a machine how to move, make decisions and act. As a mathematically minded person, I also enjoyed that she was able to give us the formula for surprise (although I was completely lost).

Using EEG and Machine Learning to Perform Lie Detection

Jennifer Marsman

Turns out that Jennifer has an amazing job, and somehow managed to convince her boss that an EEG headset was a work related purchase. While using lie detectors isn’t massively reliable, the ability to correctly read the results can also skew the results. So what if you could teach a machine to recognise the different traits and work out if someone was telling the truth?

Jennifer has been using her new toy to teach a machine to perform lie detection using data, and gauging peoples’ reactions when they were hearing the question, beginning to answer the question and when they had answered them. She managed to talk her husband into being her first guinea pig and also cornered her boss with a camera crew and her new project, but the work she’s doing is pretty impressive. We might not be able to get away with just using a thumbtack in our shoe for much longer.

Principles of Play and Programming

Linda Liukas

There are so many things I want to say about Linda’s talk, but I’m still having difficulty finding the words to describe it. Five minutes after getting out of her talk, two of us were on the phone to every bookstore in Brisbane and spent the lunch break traipsing around buying every copy we could find.

Programmer by nature, 3 years ago Linda decided to start writing children's’ books that introduced kids to coding. Not sure how it would go, she was fairly confident that the community of kids and parents she’d talked to in Finland would be meet the Kickstarter goal of $10,000 and she’d be able to publish her book. After 3 and half hours, she smashed the goal and managed to raise 3800% of her funding goal, contributing to 20% of Finland’s book exports that year.

Linda took us on a journey with Ruby, a smart (sometimes too smart for her own good), bright young girl as she explores the world and learns about programming and technology.

When working with children, or writing books for them, we often find that things are over-simplified. Linda has managed to capture the core concepts of programming, and explain them them to children in a way that makes them feel like they’re being treated like adults but they’re still able to understand. I spent a couple of years studying engineering, but in 5 minutes she managed to explain logic circuits in a way that none of my Electrical Engineering lecturers every could, and she did it with amazing drawings (because apparently she’s not enough of a superstar already, she can draw as well).

I convinced my family that a set of children’s books was an appropriate present for a 23 year old, and I took great delight in getting to adventure more into the world of computers with Ruby and Linda. Children have an unbelievable imagination, and the things they can do with it are hard to fathom. They’re the future of tech, and we need to make sure that they are prepared for. But just because they need to learn, doesn’t mean that they can’t have fun while they do it.

Introducing kids to code through hardware using C++

Sara Chipps

Sara pointed out, that most of us have jobs because of teenage girls. This demographic are the trendsetters and customers of all the big tech companies. It’s because of products like Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram that so many devs have jobs, and without the teenage girl demographic, the products would be severely lacking.

To help encourage these trendsetters to get more interested in tech, Sara developed and launched Jewelbots. These cool funky bracelets are customisable, so you can set it up to flash different colours when a friend comes within a certain distance as well as use it to send secret coded messages to each other.

I felt especially lucky to get to see Sara Chipps talk in Brisbane, because for the Brisbane conference only, we had a special guest. Sara was joined by 8 year old Clara who has been coding her Jewelbot in C++. It was amazing (and a little intimidating), to sit and watch an 8-year old give a great presentation AND live coding demonstration, without losing her patience when the jewelbot refused to connect (as we all would do in that situation).

It was great to see someone else recognise the importance of children in tech (they are our future), as well as encouraging more girls to get involved in coding. Sara also raised the other important point that kids remember, but we’ve forgotten:

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguisable from magic

Dynamic Reteaming: The Art & Wisdom of Changing Teams

Heidi Helfand

These days everything is happening so fast and changing so quickly, most of us don’t have the same job for very long (and even if you do, your team probably changes quite a bit around you). While it’s often hard to no longer be working with your friends, or being comfortable knowing your job inside out, this change can also be a great thing. It stops you from stagnating, and helps you move and grow in your career.

When we get comfortable in our job and our team, we often don’t extend ourselves and rely too much on the people around us. It’s in situations like this that we end up with lots of “people knowledge”, and although it’s great to know that you’re the expert in a particular area, that also means that the team is dependent on you being there. I’ve been in this situation before and had a co-worker point out that although I can’t get fired, I also can’t get promoted.

I’ve changed teams (and companies) quite a bit in the past few years, and have found that it’s a great way to learn new and different things in the industry. It’s because of this ever changing environment that I’ve learnt so many new things and expanded my skillset (and continue to do so). If I ever find myself working in a team again, I’m definitely going to suggest some of Heidi’s strategies.

The Bait & Switch of Open Source

Katrina Owen

One of the things I found really interesting about Katrina, is how many things that have seemed to just happen to her. I’m still not entirely sure how she managed to accidentally move to Paris for 7 years, but the fact that she managed to accidentally build one of the biggest code learning platforms is pretty impressive.

While teaching, Katrina found a gap and started Exercism.io, and all of a sudden it went viral and she found that she had way too much on her hands.

While Katrina mostly talked about her journey and what we don’t think about in the world of open source, it was also good to remember that these same principles can easily relate to a lot of different areas of life. And if nothing else, I like listening to people who remind me that although code can be difficult at times…

Peopling is hard

How the Olympics Can Make You a Better Person

Sandy Mamoli

One of the things that led me to Sandy’s talk, was how you manage to move from a career as a professional athlete, to a programmer, and she did not disappoint.

Getting to the Olympics is obviously something that takes a lot of dedication, resilience and dedication, and thankfully that can then be useful in your life after the sport.

She also raised a good point to:

Be the worst player on the best team that will still accept you

If you’re the best player on your team, you have less of a chance to learn from those around you (although most of us learn no matter where we are). If you are the worst person on the team, there are so many more people around us who can teach us what they know, until eventually you’re the best person on the team (and then you find another team where you’re the worst player again).

This point also tied back into Heidi’s talk, in knowing when it’s time to leave. We don’t have to stay in the same team forever, and sometimes the change is what we need.

The week before I went to YOW, I also got the chance to talk about Failure and my experiences with it. So it was great to see Sandy (and a few others) talking about a topic that’s really important and something we need to reassess our point of view on.

All in all, Sandy’s talk gave us some excellent insights into surviving our careers and life, as well as a good chance to reminisce about some really bad hair choices with her photos. There were a few other points that I won’t repeat here (I’m trying to control my language on my blog), but I may include her slides below to share them.

I really can’t stress how important I think conferences are for our industry. It’s an amazing chance to meet new people and network, to hear from others in our industry and learn about the new things that people are doing.

YOW do an amazing job with their conferences, both in the calibre of speakers that they had, as well as their efforts in encouraging greater diversity in their events and the industry as whole. I had a great time at YOW and will definitely be going back.

Back to Article Feed


Content-Type: application/http; msgtype=response

WARC-Identified-Payload-Type: text/html

WARC-Type: response

text:
Monthly Archives: June 2016

Getting Back On Track After Vacation

These past two weeks, I have been with my family in Argentina. It has been an incredible trip with tons of love and laughter. I connect with my heart and soul here in a way that is indescribable. Feeling very … Continue reading

Posted in Eating Out, Healthful Food Choices, Nutrition, travel, vegan | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

warcinfo:
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2019-30
publisher: Common Crawl
description: Wide crawl of the web for July 2019
operator: Common Crawl Admin (info@commoncrawl.org)
hostname: ip-10-232-173-83.ec2.internal
software: Apache Nutch 1.15 (modified, https://github.com/commoncrawl/nutch/)
robots: checked via crawler-commons 1.1-SNAPSHOT (https://github.com/crawler-commons/crawler-commons)
format: WARC File Format 1.1
conformsTo: http://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/


text:
Helping Families and Friends Honor Their Loved One

James David Bailey, age 59

James David Bailey, 59, of Searcy passed away on July 9, 2019.  He was born in Forest, Mississippi to the late Curtis and Lucille Bailey on November 23, 1959.

He was a loving husband, brother and friend to everyone he met; and he was a lover of animals.  He worked for 8 years at Lowes; he enjoyed and worked as a landscaper and worked as a detonation expert for many years.  He was an honest, loving down home Naturalist that enjoyed spending time at home with his wife and animals.

He was preceded in death by his sister Judy Readyhough and brother Michael Bailey.

James leaves behind to cherish his loving memory his wife of 35 years, Tammy Bailey; his siblings Carolyn Winstead (Joe), Patricia Cash (Frankie) and Donald Bailey; a host of nieces and nephews and many friends.

Arrangements have been entrusted to A Natural State Funeral Service, 2620 West Main Street, Jacksonville, Arkansas. 501-982-3400

Share On FacebookShare on Facebook

  • Crystal Jett Posted July 11, 2019 10:10 AM

    Awesome guy,enjoyed working with him,would do anything for anyone James will be truly missed prayers for the family

  • Matt Cloyes Posted July 11, 2019 10:17 AM

    I worked with him for a while was a good guy sorry for the loss

  • Lourie Masner Posted July 11, 2019 10:22 AM

    Rest in Love James Bailey aka Turbo ,you will be greatly missed 💙 Prayers for all who were blessed to know you ?

  • Debbie Goddard Posted July 11, 2019 10:36 AM

    I always enjoyed being around Turbo. He was a great, loving person who everyone liked. He will be missed.

  • Robin Hudson Posted July 11, 2019 10:40 AM

    Was the best brother In law anyone could ever have. Enjoy Family and of course Bear in Heaven!

  • Gary. Lively Posted July 11, 2019 12:25 PM

    Great man ko mom

  • Johnny cox Posted July 11, 2019 12:52 PM

    Awesome man was great to work with

  • Steven Turnage Posted July 11, 2019 1:59 PM

    I loved working with him, he always working all the time ,but I was the last one too check him out ,he’s was buying mowing stuff and had so much kindness about him .I will miss him.

  • Clint Singer Posted July 11, 2019 9:20 PM

    Such a good guy and a hard worker. He’ll be missed.

  • Erek Balentine Posted July 11, 2019 10:00 PM

    Rest In Peace Bud!!! Your family is in our thoughts and prayers!!!

  • Kevin McArtor Posted July 12, 2019 2:41 PM

    James (Turbo) Bailey Was An Awesome Human Being,Husband,Friend,Co-Worker!! Loved His Family Life WWE And Western Sizzling…..Man He Will Be Truly Missed!! God Speed Turbo!!

Sign Guestbook

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Phone: (501) 982-3400
Fax: (501) 982-3410
2620 West Main Street
Jacksonville, Arkansas 72076


WARC-Identified-Payload-Type: application/xhtml+xml

text:
May 24, 2012

Too Big to Fail: Four Years Later, Things Are Riskier Than Ever

Posted in Banking, Ben Bernanke, Big Banks, Europe, Federal Reserve, Finance, greece, investment banking, investments tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , at 7:58 PM by Robert Barone

The turmoil in Europe, trading losses at JPMorgan (JPM), and recent revelations about naked short-selling by Goldman Sachs (GS) and Bank of America-Merrill Lynch (BAC) should be giving every American and every policy maker heartburn because each and every one of these issues has potential to cause systemic financial shocks. It all ultimately comes down to the continuing saga of “Too Big to Fail,” or TBTF. TBTF nearly brought the financial system down in ’08 and ’09. It was supposed to be fixed by the Dodd-Frank legislation. But today, the TBTF institutions are even bigger than they were in ’08.

European Worries

On a daily basis, reports indicate that instability is growing in the European Monetary Union’s (or EMU) banking system. There have been outright runs on Greek institutions and rumored runs on Spanish banks. In Greece, it’s been reported that some businesses will not accept euro notes (i.e., the paper currency) issued by the Greek central bank for fear that if Greece leaves the EMU, those notes will be turned into new drachmas, which will be worth only a fraction of what real euros are worth.

In the US, the paper currency is issued by a Federal Reserve Bank. There is a number on each bill (1 to 12) that shows which Federal Reserve Bank was the issuer. Like the US, each participating central bank in the EMU can issue currency; the first letter of the serial number is coded to indicate which bank issued it. Currency issued by the Greek central bank is coded with a “Y.” Some Greeks are demanding currency coded with an “X” ( i.e., Germany).

There are growing worries about European bank solvency, and Moody’s recently downgraded a significant number of the larger Spanish and Italian banks. If Greece leaves the EMU, contagion could result. If funding markets for European banks freeze (causing one or several institutions to be unable to meet their daily liquidity requirements), there is a high probability that any contagion would spread to US financial institutions.

At the very least, the interrelationships between large US and European institutions will cause significant issues if a fat tail event occurs on the continent.

In fact, on March 21, Fed Chairman Bernanke warned Congress that the risks of impacts from such events on US banks and money market funds appeared to be significant.

Lack of Internal Controls at TBTF Institutions

On May 11, Jamie Dimon announced that JPMorgan had lost $2 billion or more in a failed “hedge” trade. Since then, the estimates of the loss have escalated; some think it could be as much as $5 billion – $7 billion. This shows that even the best-of-breed bankers, like Mr. Dimon, are unable to place sufficient internal controls over the riskiest of operations.

Over the past several years, we’ve seen such trading blow-ups at several of the TBTF institutions. The so-called “Volcker Rule,” a portion of the Dodd-Frank legislation that is supposedly effective this fall, should prevent “proprietary trading” at the TBTF institutions. But many think that such rules will be easy to get around; Mr. Dimon has indicated that this huge loss was due to a failed “hedge,” and not proprietary trading. JPMorgan had $182 billion in capital according to their March 31 filings, so the loss of a few billion isn’t going to put this institution in any danger or require any taxpayer assistance.

However, on the Monday after the JPMorgan announcement (May 14), President Obama appeared on ABC’s The View and commented that it was a good thing that JPMorgan had plenty of capital, noting that had this happened at a weaker bank, “[W]e could have had to step in.”

Think about this statement. The first reaction to stress in the financial system is for the government to step in! Compare that to the first Chrysler bailout in 1979. At that time, Lee Iacocca, Chrysler’s Chairman and CEO, had to beg Congress for nearly four months for a loan guarantee (not a direct loan) of $1.5 billion.

In fact, the day before Mr. Dimon announced JPMorgan’s large loss problem, the FDIC’s acting Chairman, Martin Gruenberg, announced plans and procedures for the FDIC to seize large financial institutions “when the next crisis brings a major financial firm to its knees.” Instead of getting rid of TBTF, it is now institutionalized. The FDIC’s announced plans are simply in accordance with Dodd-Frank.

During the week of May 14, the lawyers representing Goldman Sachs and Bank of America-Merrill Lynch in a lawsuit filed by filed an unredacted set of documents with the court (i.e., the whole document was submitted instead of only certain parts), thus putting them into the public domain.

Those documents revealed that these TBTF institutions knowingly ignored the laws and regulations against “naked” short-selling. When one sells “short,” one must first borrow the stock, or else there is nothing to prevent someone shorting (i.e., selling) so many shares as to significantly and negatively impact the market price for the stock (which is what a short-seller hopes for). “Naked” short-selling occurs when the stock is sold without borrowing it from another owner, and three business days later, the seller “fails” to deliver the stock.

Because of their size and power, the TBTF banks could depress the stock price of any company they choose. If one of their units puts a “sell” recommendation out and the trading department “naked” short-sells, then the “sell” recommendation becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. This, in fact, is what’s lawsuit has been about.

So let’s review:

1. Bernanke worries that European bank insolvencies or liquidity issues may have significant systemic impacts on US financial institutions – if anyone knows, he should know.2. JPMorgan’s losses elicited a response from the US president about the immediate active role of government with regard to issues at the TBTF banks.3. The FDIC announced its policies, plans, and procedures to seize TBTF institutions when the next financial crisis occurs.

4. It has come to light that some TBTF institutions have skirted laws and regulations.

If there were no TBTF institutions in the US, then little of the above would be of concern. Instead:

1. While the European contagion would still be a worry, it wouldn’t be as much of a worry regarding its risk to our entire financial system because no one institution alone would be a systemic risk.2. The government shouldn’t ever have to “step in” if a bank failed. Sure, there would be market reaction and shareholders and bondholders would have consequences, but as long as the failed institution couldn’t cause systemic issues, there would be no need for government (taxpayer) involvement.3. The expensive and extensive policies and processes now being set up at FDIC would be unnecessary.

4. Without the power that comes with being TBTF, the “naked” short-selling and other abuses would be much less effective or profitable.

5. The TBTF institutions are so complex that even the likes of a Jamie Dimon can’t provide effective internal controls and risk management. Smaller institutions that have such issues won’t cause systemic risk.

The lessons of the ’08-’09 near systemic meltdown were clear: TBTF is a huge policy issue. Unfortunately, after Dodd-Frank, not only are TBTF institutions bigger and systemically more risky, but we now have a government all too willing, and maybe even eager, to “step in.”

Robert Barone and Joshua Barone are Principals and Investment Advisor Representatives of Universal Value Advisors, LLC, Reno, NV, an SEC Registered Investment Advisor.  Statistics and other information have been compiled from various sources. Universal Value Advisors believes the facts and information to be accurate and credible but makes no guarantee to the complete accuracy of this information.
Universal Value Advisors, LLC is a registered investment adviser with the Securities and Exchange Commission of the United States. A more detailed description of the company, its management and practices are contained in its “Firm Brochure”, (Form ADV, Part 2A). A copy of this Brochure may be received by contacting the company at: 9222 Prototype Drive, Reno, NV 89521, Phone (775) 284-7778.

Robert Barone (Ph.D., Economics, Georgetown University) is a Principal of Universal Value Advisors (UVA), Reno, NV, an SEC Registered Investment Advisor. Dr. Barone is a former Director of the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco, and is currently a Director of Allied Mineral Products, Columbus, Ohio, AAA Northern California, Nevada, Utah Auto Club, and the associated AAA Insurance Company where he chairs the
Investment Committee.

Information cited has been compiled from various sources which UVA believes to be accurate and credible but makes no guarantee as to its accuracy. A more detailed description of the company, its management and practices is contained in its “Firm Brochure” (Form ADV, Part 2A) which may be obtained by contacting UVA at: 9222 Prototype Dr., Reno, NV 89521. Ph: (775) 284-7778.


text:
I'd like to use the Cerberus shell to input commands like taps, swipes, and text. I know how to do it using the command line and ADB shell, but I don't have USB debugging enabled on my Nexus6, so I'm trying to do it using Cerberus. I was under the impression that the same commands should work, but they don't seem to be.

I tried sending "input keyevent 26"; it sends, but nothing happens on my phone (the screen should turn on). I also tried "adb shell input keyevent 26", but it just says "error: device not found".

Am I doing something wrong? Or is this something the Cerberus shell can't do?

I've got a Nexus 6 with a broken screen: no display and no touchscreen. My goal is to run the app SMS Backup and Restore so I can backup my texts before sending in my phone to be replaced.

I don't seem to have USB debugging enabled (though I thought I did -- I reinstalled the OS a few months ago) -- when I type "adb devices," the result is blank.

I can use the ADB shell to input taps, swipes, and text/numbers to my Nexus4. I think I could blindly use the SMS Backup app by inputting the proper sequence of commands into the Cerberus shell. (Or, maybe even easier, just use the shell to get my phone to cast to my tv or Chromecast; then I could use a OTG mouse.)

  • ADB means Android debugging and you can debug the Android if only the USB debugging is enabled in the device. Since it is not, attempting any ADB command is futile. – Firelord Oct 6 '15 at 12:41

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy

Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.


text:
12Happy New Year! We are happy to be back at the nursery!  I hope that everyone had a great time being with their friends and families this season, but now that the holidays are over many of our indoor plants are looking a little less than festive.

But wait, don’t throw out those old poinsettias! Instead bring them to Andy’s to receive a free primrose! Just bring in any size poinsettia, in any condition, regardless of where it was purchased to get your absolutely free primrose! If you aren’t familiar with these wonderful plants, the primrose is a popular early winter houseplant that is both colorful and easy to care for. The only catch is that this offer won’t be around for long, we will only be accepting trade-ins until January 11 or while supplies last. We’ve enjoyed our time off these past weeks but now we’re back and packing the greenhouse with beautiful indoor color. Grab those poinsettias and come in soon!

Primrose Care

Primroses are ideal houseplants for winter and early spring color. Known for their bright, vibrant hues,  the name primrose actually means “first rose” because of it’s early bloom. They enjoy bright areas out of direct sunlight, moist conditions with good drainage. Keep as cool as possible and do not allow to dry out.


WARC-Truncated: length

text:
What is SEM and how does Ad Rank Work?

Business Marketing Tyler Rice

by Tyler Rice
business clock icon
Date Created | Dec. 19, 2017

SEM is known as Search Engine Marketing. While it can sometimes include the process of SEO, it is commonly referred to as the practice of using Paid Search.

This is also known as pay-per-click advertising. While there are many platforms for pay-per-click advertising, the most commonly used one is Google AdWords.

This topic is covered in other training programs but let’s touch upon the basics since it is relevant to the world of search engine optimization.

SEM Search Engine Marketing

Pay-per-click advertising works by allowing a business to bid for ad placements on search engines, affiliate sites, or social media platforms.

SEM Marketing Channels

For search engine advertising, this is done by placing a bid on keywords to be featured in the sponsored results of a search query.

Google AdWords Ad Rank Factors

The determining factor of placement among the sponsored results is called the Ad Rank. The Ad Rank is made up of many factors including the bid amount, quality, and format impact.

Ad Rank Factors

You might think that a search engine would just want to give the best ad placements to the highest bidder. But this goes against what search engines are all about.

Remember, the main goal of a search engine is to provide the best result for the consumer with their search.

For example, let’s look at the search query, “jewelry for sale in Seattle.” Imagine having two local businesses competing for that phrase. Let’s see how their Ad Rank pans out while evaluating the other factors.

Let’s say Business A sets a maximum bid at five dollars while Business B bids at three dollars.

Ad Rank Score

Google AdWords Quality Score

Next, let’s factor in the quality of each ad.

The quality score is determined by relevancy, click-through rate, and the landing page experience.

Let’s imagine that the quality score for Business A is lower due to a high bounce rate. Last, we factor in the impact of ad extensions and the format of each ad.

Business A has only one extension while Business B has multiple extensions including location, phone number, and sitelinks.

Even though Business A had a higher bid, after evaluating the other key factors, we see that business B received a higher Ad Rank score and will be placed in a better position on the search engine results.

With a low enough Ad Rank, an ad will not be shown for selected keywords. If the Ad Rank is sufficient, it could be placed in a lower position or even at the bottom of the search engine results.

If you are interested in help with optimizing your ads for a high Ad Rank, check out this PPC Advertising option.

Let’s look at how sponsored ads are placed with the organic results.

For example, if we search for “social media services,” we can see the paid advertisements listed in red above the organic results listed in blue.

Paid Search Results

While there are not always paid advertisements on a given search query, we can see that the phrase “social media services” is either the same or similar to keywords targeted by the companies with ads shown.

Click-Through-Rates vs. Organic Search Results

 So, what is the click-through rates of paid advertisements as opposed to organic search results? To find these metrics, we reached out to the marketing company Conductor to include data from a 2017 study on Web Channel Distribution.

They analyzed data from 30 websites in 6 different industries to find their results. The data spans over the course of one year and includes over 310 million website visits.

Conductor Research

They found that 64% of website visits were obtained through organic search results with only 6% of the traffic attributed to paid advertisements. The remaining website traffic consisted of direct searches, referrals, and social media.

Even with these numbers, companies tend to spend much more money on paid advertisements rather than optimizing web pages for better placement.

This presents a terrific opportunity for anyone looking to enter the field of SEO and provides phenomenal value for any company looking to employ a trained individual with these skills.

Need Help Starting a Google AdWords Campaign?

Let’s talk and see how we can increase your business ROI.

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Is Your Business Being Found Online?

Laptop Metrics Colorado

Free Digital Marketing Report ($150 Value)

marketing module lineWant to know how your business stacks up against the competition?

Need Marketing Help?

If you want assistance with marketing strategies to grow your business, then let’s talk.

Share This