Welcome back to ThinkTech. I'm Jay Fidel. This is ThinkTech Tech Talks. We're going to talk about the threats in our appliances and all our devices at home. This is not just a war on a kind of large scale or with drones and missiles. This is war in your refrigerator, is the problem. So many household devices are exposed and vulnerable. We don't realize it. We've been thinking about the internet of things for years, but with AI and with the recognition and processing of somebody from far away, it could affect your refrigerator. Not good. And for this discussion, Nathila Suresh of Cyback, who follows these things, I don't know if he gets any sleep at night, but he does follow these things. Welcome to the show. I really appreciate you being here. Sure thing, Jay. Lots of coffee all the time. That's what keeps me up. So talk to me about the internet of things and how the whole concept of it has changed and the scope of it has changed because we have many, many, many more things on the internet than we used to. Well that's what's fun. You know, we have all these wonderful gadgets and you can go to Costco and get everything from smart plugs to smart mirrors and they work really well. They can connect to the internet and they can help you look better. They can help you sleep better. They can automatically turn on and off the lights. I mean, I use smart plugs for Christmas lights all the time. So, you know, there's always something to be plugged in to the internet. But, you know, maybe 10, 15 years ago, our home networks would have perhaps your maybe at best a smart TV, like a Chromecast and maybe just some Netflix and, you know, a few laptops. But now there's everything from dozens of devices that are connected to the internet. And in fact, I was reading the advertiser. They had an article about how there was recent power outages on Hawaii Kai. And I guess a lot of really well off people have a lot of really a lot of connected devices and that article, the lady was complaining that her smart washer and her coffee machine and her sprinkler system and her lights and her internet, they were all out for this power outage. And it affected her ability to work and function even in her home. So that should tell you that we have this explosion of internet connected devices. So in 2024, which is, you know, just last month, there's an annual consumer electronic show in Las Vegas. And they had even more internet connected devices, these kind of smart devices.  And that's what kind of spawned this conversation, Jay, is that they found that the toothbrushes that are internet connected could even be potentially used in a distributed denial of service attack. What that means is that you get all the toothbrushes out there that are connected to the internet and inside of them is a tiny little chip. And that chip maybe 15 years ago would have been the size of maybe this coffee mug. But now it's the size of your small little pinkie nail. And that little computer inside could have vulnerabilities that are then exploited and a bad actor can point tens or hundreds if not thousands of these small internet connected devices and start taking down private and government networks. And that's where the problems begin. So all these wonderful devices do wonderful things and they're pushed out fast by the manufacturers, oftentimes with security being the last on the list. They need to get these products out. They need to get them for cheap and they need to get people to buy them. And unfortunately, when you do connect these devices to the internet, it's sometimes only after the fact that the manufacturers find out that these devices are vulnerable, that they're being exploited, that it's not just, you know, they're watching, you know, what your cat litter box is doing or how many times your cat uses it. They're trying to get inside those little tiny computers and then leverage that access to go attack everything from governments to big box stores and Amazon and all these other big retailers. And that's the real fear is how do you get a handle on that? And it's tough. Well, let's let I need to understand how the cat litter box or the toothbrush or the refrigerator can be weaponized. I mean, so what they know that I buy a quart of milk every week. So so what they know that I brush my teeth twice a day or my cat goes goes into the litter box five time. So what what that's information that's data. But how does that connect up with a with an attack on the community, on the government, on a business? How does that connect that? Yeah, that's a great question. So in 1969, we put a man on the moon. In order to do that, we needed to invent our first compact flight computer. And it had some ridiculously small specs, but it got us to land on the moon. Right now, the kind of computing power we have just in the palm of our hands is literally millions of times more powerful, faster, stronger, whatever. And surprisingly enough, the computers that are inside of those smart appliances are not too shabby either. You know, I would definitely put them as much stronger than the first computers that got us to the moon. Those are the attack surface that they're after. They're not really interested in finding out, you know, you're a smart salt shaker to see how many times you shook the salt or how many steps you took with your rubber slippers that have a chip embedded inside. Those little chips, those little tiny computers as being an internet connected device is essentially a computer connected to the internet. And if they can take that over, then, wow, they can do some damage. Now, I would not really condone getting rid of this technology. So let me just kind of make that really front and center. These things are wonderful. Smart devices, right?  These all help us become more fit, get our jobs done faster, take care of our pets better. They even have smart deodorants. So I can tell you when your deodorants running low, I mean, there's some really kind of cool appliances and tech that's coming out. The problem is that it's coming out so fast and there's so little attention to security that if we as consumers are not educated about them and know what to do, we could be in for trouble. And that's what I want to talk about. Yeah, but how does it reach us? Suppose Vladimir Putin instructed his people in the Internet Research Agency to somehow weaponize and access my toothbrush. How would he do that? Would he be able to sit in the Internet Research Agency in Moscow and actually manipulate my toothbrush? Sure. Now, you know, so there's two types of Internet things. So there's Internet and there's Internet connected devices that you and I use, you know, smart light bulbs, that kind of stuff. Ring doorbells, that's a real popular one. Then there is industrial control systems. These are ICS devices. So think of these as smart devices, but they're controlling real important stuff. And so, you know, maybe Putin might be more interested in in those devices first. Now, we're talking about Schneider Electric, which you've probably heard the name, but you're probably not sure what exactly they do or what they're known for. What they're known for is for those kind of valves that turn on and off things like water and fuel and liquids and gases, the pipes that run in the ground. Schneider Electric has a known vulnerability. And unfortunately, especially if, you know, they were installed and no one changed the username and password on them, that's first tip.  Those are like the big attack surfaces. So industrial controls devices, those are those are the primary target.  But in terms of your original question about how how would Putin leverage this? Well, he would look to see if there's any known vulnerabilities on a particular type of device. So think about this, you want to make a smart pillow. Well, you're really probably great at making pillows. But how do we get a chip inside of there? Are you going to design a chip from scratch or use one that's potentially ready to go allows you to get your smart pillow onto the market quickly.  And that piece of hardware that's actually inside of the pillow, that could be exploited or have a vulnerability that can then be later exploited by a bad actor. And this is the case with these toothbrushes, for example. So these smart toothbrushes have a have a chip inside. And this to the toothbrush maker, they, you know, they do their due diligence in terms of making a wonderful toothbrush.  How do you keep that safe? Kind of tough sometimes. So it's only sometimes after the fact that a manufacturer will get wind that, oh, no, all these toothbrushes we sent out, they have a vulnerability. Remember, I talked about changing that for that username and password. That's tip number one. You got to make sure that these devices don't just get plugged in and have a default username and password stuck on them. Download the app, connect to the device and make sure that you set a unique password that's actually access these smart devices. Second thing you're going to want to make sure to do is update these devices.  So firmware is software that's actually on the chip itself, right? So it's not, you know, running on the ether. It's actually on this program onto that device. And that firmware could be vulnerable. And many times the firmware doesn't get automatically updated. Sometimes you got to launch the app and there's a little checkbox that says, Hey, automatically update my devices. Hey, isn't that great? Now I know, for example, my my smart plugs that I use for the outdoor Christmas lights get thrown inside the Christmas box. And then they show up a year later, 12 months later. Well, hmm, do you think any software of vulnerabilities could have been discovered in those past 12 months? Sure enough. So this Christmas, when I plugged in my smart plugs, sure enough, it my app popped up and said, Hey, you need to update these plugs because they're vulnerable. Okay. Yes. Isn't that great? So a vulnerability was discovered, it was patched. And now these devices are safe. But there's still one more thing you got to remember. Let's pretend that a device does get infected or gets taken over. What if it starts snooping on traffic on your network, starts looking around, see what else you're doing? Imagine if you have a laptop that's connected to the same Wi-Fi as this smart device, this smart refrigerator, this smart TV. Could it perhaps pick up some of that traffic and do some sort of attacks based on that? Maybe get inside bank accounts or get inside insecure websites that you could have visited? It's possible. And so what you want to do is make sure that you put all your smart devices onto a guest network. So get them off of the network that you're using your important work related stuff for. Many of us still do some work from home. That network, where you're actually doing the real work, shouldn't be the same network that your ring doorbell, your fridge, your sprinkler system or any of these other smart devices are connected to. Because if the two can see each other, they could potentially get some of that data out of there. So we don't want that. So that's my third tip is make sure that you put it onto a separate network. So number one, change us names and passwords. Number two, make sure you update the software and firmware. Make sure that they're all kept up to date with any of the latest stuff that comes out from the manufacturer. And then number three, put on a separate guest network. You don't need to have the two on the same network as your important data. We don't want that to get hacked. Other than that, it's not really that much more you can do, but you can still get it. I'm beginning to get it. So if you have a refrigerator in your house, and it's an internet refrigerator and it's running on your your home network, which includes computers, something in that refrigerator system, some chip in that refrigerator or something riding on the chip. And I want to mention that in a minute, can can allow the hacker to come in and go through your network to other peripherals. So nobody cares about how many quits of milk you have in the refrigerator. But it's kind of a mirror. It's an access point that would allow Vladimir Putin to come in and sort of bounce around between the refrigerator and the router and look at your computer and then get data from there. It becomes part of the scam. I want to add a story that was on 60 minutes a few years ago about these guys in a utility company that used a lot of devices that included a lot of electronics. And they went to China. This is before we were so adversarial with China. They went to China and they asked them to produce a bunch of these because it was really cheap to do that in China. And they gave them designs and specs and the Chinese came back. Chinese company came back really quick. It's always really quick.  So it came back as designed, pursuant to the specs, except there was this little thing, a little kind of superchip writing on top of the circuit board that they had created for the utility. And the guys in the utility couldn't understand what it was there for. It's very hard to reverse engineer this sort of thing. The only thing they knew was that there was a little thing writing on the chip that that was manufactured for them, the circuit board that was manufactured. And so it was a mystery, but you know, it was nefarious. You know, there was a reason for it. And so to think of all the utility companies and all the industrial uses around the country that in days going by, maybe even now today, they send their requests and their specifications to other places who make their circuit boards and it comes back with a little, a little something, a little special rider on the top that nobody knows what that's for. And, you know, maybe it's nothing, but maybe it's something and nobody knows. That's what happened in the 60 minutes story. Yeah. And that was a few years ago. I mean, since then we've seen Android conducted devices, fire TV devices, where the advertising that's built into them is hijacked. And and those funds are going to who knows where we suspect. China, of course, but those ad dollars that should be going to those advertisers is not going there. So it's advertised redirection. One of the largest, in fact, the largest DVR camera manufacturer in the world, HikeVision, they are a China owned company. They have over 50 percent market share, hundreds of thousands, if not millions of these camera systems out in businesses all across the island. We see them all the time and is a known vulnerability. They are not allowed on military bases or any state facilities. They are banned because they have known backdoors for, you know, our our friends in China to be able to access them. So for that reason alone, it's it's a pretty scary proposition that we have a lot out of devices out there that are directly accessible to mad actors, have vulnerabilities that we know about, but it's very difficult to change infrastructure overnight. The other thing is you can't, you know, you can't assume that every single refrigerator is going to be involved in this scheme or every single device or every single television or what not. It's the hacker, whoever it might be, an individual or state hacker.  And and you cannot assume that it's everything. It's not everything. It's just the selected pieces before I go further. I just want to mention that the the other thing comes to mind is Marisk, Marisk, the shipping company. So we have the the Houthis in Yemen, throwing drones and missiles at shipping on the way in the Red Sea and the way to the Suez Canal. I don't think you really need that because the fact is that every one of those containers has is on the Internet. It's part of the Internet of Things so that Marisk or anyone else who has an interest in the destination of those containers knows where they are. And that is very valuable information so that if the bad actor wanted to say what container he should blow up, what container he's interested in, you know, doing bad acts about, he can find out because the chips are in every single container and they're there, you know, what do you call it? Geopolitical, their their geo chips identifying where it came from, its route where it's going to be offloaded, all that.  That's not your refrigerator now. That is something much more serious because in that container could be bloody anything and the destination of the container could be very important to World Trade, right? It's true. And, you know, you also bring up an interesting point is that the military here, their primary goal is to be mission ready. And any sort of disruptions in the supply chain for our military to be mission ready that could be perceived as a threat. So, yeah, it's an absolute, we live in an ecosystem. We benefit from the from the modern world. You know, we all love Amazon and having things here and in just a matter of days versus weeks and being able to watch it all the way across the board. But the truth is that leaves us very vulnerable to a lot of attacks and ways that, you know, our entire society can become disruptive. You know, there is a there is a movie on Netflix, which I won't repeat the name, it's pretty popular. But it's all about cyber attacks and what it would look like to have planes fall from the sky and the electrical grid, you know, collapse and have Teslas drive themselves into into each other to block the road so that people can't escape. It does sound a little bit like fantasy, it's kind of an exaggeration. But, you know, it does show the possibility of what the world could look like if we if there really was a coordinated high intensity cyber attack that would involve many nation states to that that would target the United States, for example. So this was that's that's the hypothetical, you know, what if scenario? You know, I don't think that we're running into a terminator scenario, but we are running into scenarios where there's a very real possibility of disruption to our critical infrastructure if we were to be on the wrong side of a political agenda. For example, you know, NBC recently reported about how CISA came out and stated that we do have, you know, Chinese bad actors inside of our critical infrastructure. And if they were to decide to disrupt our critical infrastructure, which includes energy and transportation and water and power, that kind of thing. Well, you know, if we were to aid, you know, Taiwan in an invasion attack or an invasion attempt, then they could potentially disrupt our critical infrastructure in that way. And this is a story we've seen played out in and the Ukraine and in other war zones. So, you know, I don't know what the future holds. All I know is that we are at risk. And, you know, I know where this is kind of really big, high level, 30,000 foot conversation. But, you know, back down to the to the sidewalk level, we can do our part to protect ourselves from making poor choices with these smart appliances. And I think we should use new technology to let's just be, you know, safe about it. Well, going back to that, so you say that just as the bad actors are not necessarily going to attack every refrigerator, that would be a waste and it would not be effective for their, you know, nefarious mission. But the fact is that if there was a war, called a cyber war, with these bad actors trying to slow down our our military, our industrial sector and our society in general, there would be a lot of things on the list. But some of them are, you know, critical things. And some of them are just morale things. But it seems to me that that if it's out there, and I think it is out there and you sort of store it up, you set it up for a doomsday moment where just as you say, you know, a fight around Taiwan and they want to demoralize and undermine the military and the whole country, they would go on all the levels. They would attack on all levels, including your refrigerator.   And your community begins to break down. Your morale breaks down. You can't do anything. You can't go to work, really. The traffic lights don't work. And so a bad actor could do something sinister with everything that we depend on, that we take for granted, including these internet of things, small things and sort of wreck us and divert our attention away, for example, from Taiwan. Well, you know what happened in the Ukraine, right? I mean, years, years and years ago, the critical infrastructure was remotely infected. So that means that telecommunications, energy and water and sewer that were all taken out, Russia was able to take those over before the physical invasion. And when the kinetic war began, they made sure to shut down those utilities and avoid bombing or destroying those critical infrastructures because they assumed that very quickly they would be able to take over the country and they wouldn't want to rebuild all that from scratch, right? Why destroy it? Connecticut through kinetic warfare, destroy it through cyber warfare, disable those services. And then once, once you're back in power, then turn it back on and we're good to go. So it's not just your home and trying to keep certain kinds of chips in your toothbrush or whatever out of your main internet network, which I really don't know how I would do that. On the other hand, I don't I don't know if I have a toothbrush like that or a refrigerator like that. I have to I have to examine the packing but cell phone, cell phones, cell phones, smart TVs, those count, too. Yeah, smart TVs have been broken into numerous times. So you'd have to be conscious of that. But every business would have to be conscious of that because just like I have a refrigerator at home, every business has a copy machine who knows what fax machine phones or kinds of communication systems, lighting systems, filing systems. The attack could be at that level, too. And of course, the military would be a perfect attack, wouldn't it? Because the military would have a secondary effect and, you know, where you have weapons involved, the weapons would be undermined. So this isn't a message about the internet of things, just for you and me at home. It's about everything in our civil society, isn't it? Yeah, the word you're looking for is micro segmentation. And that's super important. Colonial pipeline, right? They were able to hop networks from from a network where they were checking email to where they were controlling the fuel was for the fuel. We talked before we got on the Airbus Stuxnet. That's the same thing.  We saw that 10 years ago at Target when they had a temperature control system, right? Like a smart thermostat connected on the same network as a customer data network. And that meant that they could steal all the customer data as well as credit cards and birthdays and all kinds of PII that they shouldn't have been able to have access to. So by micro segmenting, so chopping up these little networks so that you have your important point of sale stuff on one network, perhaps your critical infrastructure types of things, such as your fuel control valves and all these other, you know, kind of smart appliances that you need in order to provide us with clean water and good running reliable electricity and put that on a separate network from the ones that are being used for like your data entry people and email and marketing and and, you know, all that other stuff that's needed for a business to operate. And we see this all the time with clients that have, you know, important customer information on the same network as the emails and all the day to day stuff. You got to start breaking that stuff apart. Yeah. And well, it troubles me is with AI you can have these sinister systems sort of segment out what they want to attack. So I only want to attack Samsung refrigerators. That's all. And if I have another kind of refrigerator, it doesn't go there. This is just like the Stuxnet thing, right? They only go to the Siemens centrifuges in a certain part of Iran. And they might have been going all over the world, but those were the centrifuges they attack. And likewise, you can have them attack, you know, on the right side of the street or the left side of the street or, you know, people whose name began with Ceres or Fidel. I mean, all they got to do is check back using AI and maybe this network or some other network to find out where the attack should be.    If your name is Ceres or Fidel, you're safe. But if it's not, everybody else gets killed. If you're a Republican or a Democrat, if you work for this company, if you have this particular kind of loyalty, you get killed, if not, you don't. I mean, this is possible under an AI weapon and the AI weapon, and this is my question to you, the AI weapon, would that run on our Internet, my Internet at home or my Internet in the office, or would it run on their Internet, their wireless, which is more powerful and which would give better AI access to make the decision about who that drone goes after? So LLM, that's the large language model. That's the term that's used to describe what AI is. And LLMs can be built by anyone on your laptop. And you can train it to do whatever you want. You can train it to help you make better recipes, or you can train it to do better math. You can train it to help you design aerospace, you know, flying machines, and you can train it to kill.  And so if the AI that it decides to check in with says, hey, you know, refrigerators, I want you to exploit this vulnerability in a coil that will cause it to catch fire and we're going to start fires in thousands of homes across the country because this vulnerability exists, then they can do that. So the AI isn't the nemesis. It's a hammer in the hands of one person. It's a constructive tool and in someone else, it's a murder weapon. So AI can benefit us in great ways. It's not going anywhere. So there's no, you know, this isn't a fad. AI is here to say it's been around a long time. It's just now hit final critical mass. So I wouldn't be afraid of AI. But what I would be afraid of is what people are going to do with AI. And what kind of I mean, if you're asking if AI can be responsible for genocide, yes, but you know what, so can people in history has shown that. Yeah, well, you leave me with the thought that the one thing that you really can worry about is cyber war on multiple levels on the individual, you know, person at home, on the company level, on the industrial level, on the military level, all happening at the same time. And of course, that sort of breaks down society and makes it impossible for you to respond to the attack or more difficult to respond. And I think, you know, just based on our discussions and what I've seen in the media is that's a possibility that there are state actors out there who are preparing that.  But this is something they could have up their sleeve. And as you mentioned earlier, maybe we have our sleeves, too, where we have we don't have kinetic war. We don't have bombs. We don't have missiles or exploding devices or even guns. We just bring the whole society down. We disable the society and then we walk in. That's what, to me, there's a fair chance about that. Don't you think? Anything is possible, Jay, you know, I don't want to say that that is absolutely can't happen. I'm saying it's not likely to happen.  I'm optimistic that, you know, as people, we want to do what's best for each other. But at the same time, you know, we we do live in a fairly safe time compared to human history. We've been at war for for as long as we can, as long as we can remember. In fact, it's kind of funny that I was listening to a podcast that we're talking about how, you know, we always seem to be at war or in conflict or we're always doing something where we're and we're doing bad things as human beings. But if we go back through history, we've always done these things. So we should consider this normal. Well, whatever happens, I I intend to brush my teeth later on and tomorrow using my electric toothbrush and and open my refrigerator without fear or concern. And even if there's a risk in there, I'm not going to I'm not going to be too concerned about it. Just connect it to your guest Wi-Fi and don't connect it to your main network. I'm on the I'm on the way to the best buy for a secondary network. Lots of choices out there. You know, all these devices, they all support guest networks, turn, set that up, connect your devices to that. Update your app. Make sure you update the firmware on it with, you know, with a good password. Keep that up to date. Separate app. I think we'll be OK. It's true that our world is changing as never before. And your world must be changing, too.  Am I right? You got it. You know, we're we're always on the hunt for the for the best way to keep clients protected. We want to create an environment where clients don't have to worry about getting hacked. And the only way to do that is to keep up with the arms race. That's what we're doing here every day. Yeah, like an alternative universe, except it may be the real one. Until the rest, I thank you very much for joining in today, very important discussion about how the Internet of Things is is part of the whole environment of hacking and and global players. Thank you so much. Thanks, Jay. Appreciate you having me on. Stay safe out there. Aloha.


What's up guys my guru Jaspy's doing a quick recap for 2023 tops Cosmic Chrome six box half case break Pick your team number two was done on fanatics live. Here's the list and Here's the recap So six boxes the second half of the last case or the for pick your team number one Ruchman some rookies Fractors parallels and that's kind of stuff Senga Nolan Sheeda There's a show hey to 99 gold Polanco Kirk cranky had an orange Bregman to 25 Just one 99 Oscar Colas to 99 Judge to 99 and a super fractor Nathaniel low For the Rangers a black auto of Jonathan India for the Reds a black lindor Mancini auto and the son of J-Rod so That does it for the recap guys. Thank you so much To everyone who got in thank you guys for watching and I'll see you guys in the next one. Bye guys


Hey there, and welcome to Learn WordPress. In this tutorial, you'll learn about things to consider when developing themes or plugins for a WordPress multisite network. You'll learn about useful multisite-specific functions and hooks, and what to consider when developing themes and plugins to work on a multisite network. You'll also learn where to find more information on developing for multisite. Before we get started, it's worth noting that there are a couple of different naming conventions used in the WordPress codebase when it comes to a multisite network. WordPress Multisite was originally known as WordPress MU or WordPress Multi-User, and many multisite-related functions and hooks still use the WP-MU prefix. Additionally, some functions are named based on the old terminology, which described multiple blogs on a site. This has since been updated to describe multiple sites on a network instead, but some old terminology still lives on in some function names. When you're developing a product to support a multisite network, there are some useful internal functions and hooks worth knowing about. The first is the isMultisite function. This function will return true if multisite is enabled, and is probably the most widely used function related to multisite. If you do a search through the WordPress codebase for all the users of the isMultisite function, you'll see that it's used in a number of places, to either perform specific tasks in the context of a multisite network, or to restrict functionality only to multisite networks. There are also some common functions that are useful when developing administration interfaces for the multisite network. IsSuperAdmin can be used to check if the currently logged in user is a network administrator on the network. IsNetworkAdmin is the multisite equivalent of the isAdmin function, and determines whether the current request is for the network administrative interface. NetworkAdminUrl is the multisite equivalent of the admin URL function, and allows you to create URLs relative to the admin area of the network. This is useful for redirecting to different areas of the network admin dashboard. When working with site content, there are some functions that are widely used. IsMainSite determines whether the current site is the main site of the network or not. Next, there is the GetSites function, which will return a list of sites matching requested arguments. Then there is the SwitchToBlog function, which allows you to switch to a different site on the network. RestoreCurrentBlog, which restores the current site after you've switched to a different site. And GetCurrentBlogId, which returns the ID of the current site. Using these functions, you can perform actions across the network. For example, let's say you wanted to create a function that updated an option on a specific site on the network. Here, you're using the SwitchToBlog function to switch to that site by its ID. Then using the UpdateOption function to update the option by name, passing in the value. And then finally restoring to the current site on the network. However, if you wanted to extend that to update the same option across all sites, you could use the GetSites function and loop through all the sites on the network. So we could start by removing the site ID parameter, then get a list of sites using the GetSites function, and then loop through all the sites in a forEach loop. We can move this code into the loop and update the site by the BlogId property on the site object. You could also use the UpdateBlogOption function to update an option on a specific site without having to switch to that site. So instead of doing the switching, we can use UpdateBlogOption and we pass it in the site ID option name and value. In developing multi-site plugins, there is the isNetworkOnlyPlugin function. This is a plugin-specific function that checks for the network true value in the plugin header to see if this should be activated only as a network-wide plugin. This is useful if you want to restrict a plugin to only be activated on the network and not on individual sites. There are also a couple of useful hooks that you can use when developing for multi-site. The first is the NetworkAdminMenu hook, which allows you to add a menu item to the NetworkAdmin dashboard. The second is the NetworkAdminNotices hook, which allows you to add notices to the NetworkAdmin dashboard. This is the multi-site equivalent of the AdminNotices hook that is used for single-site notices. The SignUpBlogFormFolter is a filter that allows you to modify the SignUp form for new sites. You can use this to add additional fields to the SignUp form. Finally, WPInitializedSite is an action that is fired when a new site is created on the network. This is useful if you want to perform actions when a new site is created, for example if you wanted to assign a custom top-level domain to a new single site. When you are rendering any content in the scope of a site on the network, WordPress Core is clever enough to know that you are working inside the scope of that site. This means that any functions that you use to retrieve information, or any functions that you might use to add or update information, will get, add or update the correct tables for the site that you are currently working with. Additionally, if you use functions like RegisterPostType or RegisterTactonomy, these will also be registered for the current site only. Generally, themes and child themes work exactly the same on a multi-site network as they do on a single site. Once a theme or child theme is network activated, it can be activated on any single site on the network. All specific functionality that you may want to code in a functions.php file will work in the scope of the current theme. For example, if you wanted to display the site name in the footer of a theme, you could use the standard getBlogInfo function to retrieve the site name. So inside of our child themes functions.php, we can say getSiteName and then just return the name from the blogInfo. Then, anywhere where we want to get that name, for example in the footer pattern, we can simply use that function call and the site name will appear in the footer. If we test this on our sites, at the bottom of the BobPress site, we can see proudly powered by BobPress. At the bottom of the multi-press main site, we can see proudly powered by multi-press. However, let's say you wanted to include the main site name in the footer of the theme, regardless of which site was currently being viewed. You could use the switchToBlog function to switch to the main site, retrieve that site name, and then restore the current site to get the current site name. If we go back to our function, we can say current site name is going to be getBlogInfoName and then we could switch to blog and because we want to work with the main site, that'll be ID1. If we know that ID and then we can get the main site name using the same getBlogInfo call because we're now in the scope of the main site and then use restore current blog to restore back to the main site. And then we can do something like return site name and because that's part of the main site name network. And now that should appear in the footer of both sites. So let's test that. Let's check out the multi-press site. Proudly powered by multi-press, part of the multi-press network. And BobPress, proudly powered by BobPress, part of the multi-side network. Taking this one step further, perhaps you want to exclude the main site only from this custom functionality. You could use the isMainSite function to check whether the current site is the main site and if so, just return that site name. Back in our function, right at the top of the function, we could say if isMainSite then just return getBlogInfoName. Otherwise, if it's any other site on the network, build the custom name. And so if we test that on the multi-press site, the main site just says proudly powered by multi-press, but on the BobPress site, it includes the custom functionality. And all of this is possible just within one functions.php file inside of our child theme. As discussed, most plug-in functionality will work the same on a single site as well as multi-site. Functions like registerPostType or getPosts will function in the same way, just in the scope of the specific site in question. However, there are two things to consider when developing plugins for multi-site. Plugins will often have a settings page, which is usually accessible from the admin dashboard. This is fine for single site plugins, but on a multi-site network, you need to consider where the settings page should be located. Should it be in the network admin dashboard or on the individual site dashboard? If you need to have the settings page on the network admin dashboard, you need to use the network admin menu hook to add the menu item to the dashboard. If you need to have a settings page on the individual site dashboard, you use the regular admin menu hook to hook the menu item to the individual site dashboard. The other option to consider is whether or not your plugin uses any kind of custom tables or custom data. If you use something like WPDB prefix variable to prefix your table names, you'll end up with a table name that is prefixed with a site ID on a multi-site network. So if you need to have a custom table for this functionality on a per site basis, you need to plan for it. Let's look at an example. Here we have the plugin from the introduction to securely developing plugins tutorial. It has a form submissions table being created when the plugin is activated, which is used to store the form submissions. If you look at the code, you'll see that the table name is prefixed with the prefix property from the global WPDB object. In a single site install, this means that it will create one table using the prefix that is defined in the WPDB config file. In this example, that will be WP underscore form underscore submissions. However, on a multi-site network, depending on how the plugin is installed, it will create different tables. If the plugin is activated on a single site on the network, the table prefix will include the site ID. So for site ID 2, the table name will be WP2 form submissions. However, if the plugin is network activated, the activation process is running in the scope of the main site, and it creates the same table as if it's activated on a single site install. So for a network activation, the table name is WP form submissions. The problem comes in when you look at the code that stores the form submissions. Because this uses the same prefix property from the global WPDB object, when this code is run in the scope of the main site, it will look for the WP form submissions table to store the data. But for example, when it's run in the scope of site 2 on the network, it will look for WP2 form submissions in the database to store the data, which does not exist. To fix this, we need to update the plugin activation routine to take this into account. To start with, it's a good idea to move the table creation routine into a separate function, and then call this function from the activation hook. We'll take all of this code and create a new function, which just creates the table. In the notes in the doc for the register activation hook, you'll notice that the callback function accepts a network-wide parameter. This is a Boolean value that is passed to the activation hook callback, and indicates whether the plugin is being activated network-wide or not. You can then update the callback to first check if the site is a multi-site network, and if the plugin is being activated network-wide. So we'll pass in the network-wide parameter to receive either true or false. And then we'll check if is multi-site. In other words, this is a multi-site network, and whether this is being activated network-wide or not. If these two checks are true, fetch and loop through all the sites on the network, switch to each site in turn, and create the table for each site. So we can use the get-sites function that we used earlier to get all the sites on the network, set up a for-each loop to loop through the array of sites returned, and fetch each individual site as an object, then use the switch to blog function to switch to the site in question, and the property on the site object is blog ID to get the ID. Then we can run wp-learn-create-table to create the table in the context of the specific site in question, and then use the restore-current-blog function to restore back to the last blog. Alternatively, if the plugin is not being activated network-wide or not on a multi-site network, you can just create the table for the current single site. So here we'll do an else, and just call the create-table function. Place the site by activating this plugin on the network. You should see all the write tables being created. So let's network activate this plugin, and then if we refresh the database, there is wp-to-form-submissions, and there is the regular wp-form-submissions. But what happens when a new site is created? In this case, you'll need to use a hook-like wp-initialized site to create the table for any new sites on the network. So let's set up that functionality. We'll say add action, pass in the wp-initialized site hook, and then register our new site function, create the callback function. It receives a site object, and then we can use the switch-to-blog create table and restore-current-blog, the only difference being that the site ID is inside of the site object in this case as site ID. And the reason we need to do this is the user is probably registering the new site from the main site, so we need to make sure we switch to the new site ID that's just been created, create the table, and restore the blog. Test that out by creating a new site. It should create the new table for that site's form submissions in the database. So to do this, we need to make sure that we have allowed sites and user accounts to be registered, save those changes, and then if we log out and register on the network, and then say give me a site, we now have a new site created, and once the site has been activated, if we check the database, the table has been created for the new site. By making these changes, you allow your plugin to work on a multi-site network, both when it's activated for the first time on the network, taking into account any existing sites, but also future-proofing for any new sites. Besides the documentation on creating a network and things to consider before creating a network, there's not a lot of developer-focused documentation specific to developing for multi-site. However, it is possible to view a list of all multi-site-related functionality by browsing to the multi-site package URL section of the WordPress code reference. From there, you can filter by classes, functions, hooks, and class methods. Happy coding!


Hi and welcome to another five minutes with Harold Feld, where we try to take insanely complicated boring stuff and make it slightly less boring because this stuff is important. I talked before about something I call virtual redlining, which is where if we're going to have these pay for prioritization fast lane things, we're going to find that the folks who make the content, the folks who make the services, what are usually called edge providers because they're not the ones who control the network, they're the ones that the ad-true stuff gets taken into the network. Folks like Netflix, Google, those kind of things. They're not going to want to pay to prioritize to everyone. They're going to choose which customers they want to pay in order to get the better service, the faster service, and which customers are just going to get the plain old ordinary service. The way I described it sounded like it was kind of one of these urban issues where we were talking mostly about minority communities and certain zip codes and how people are going to make all kinds of stereotypical assumptions, but it's not just limited to minority communities in urban areas. We're also talking about rural areas because people make the same kind of assumptions about rural areas also. It's already hard enough to get broadband in rural areas. Some of the broadband there is just not going to support this kind of prioritization. If you're stuck getting satellite, there's a built-in lag. You'll never get prioritization, which means services that are high-end services designed for these paid prioritization fast lanes are just not going to work for you in the same way. Even if you have regular broadband, odds are good that companies like Facebook, Google, or new high-end providers that are trying to bring this content and these services in are not going to pay to prioritize to rural areas because they're generally poorer and people just assume that they don't need the high-end stuff and they're not interested in the high-end stuff. So yeah, John Deere and the other companies that are working on precision agriculture, maybe they will prioritize, but if we're talking about educational things or just plain old entertainment like Netflix, they're not going to pay to prioritize to rural areas. What makes me say that? Well, already these companies don't pay to prioritize to rural areas in the ways that are legal. Right now, you can set something up called a content delivery network, CDN, which way in which companies like Netflix or Disney or other companies that have lots of content to move, move that content closer to the subscribers so that it gets there faster. Right now, they don't bother to do that for rural areas. You can get that in urban areas where there are more customers and it's worth it to pay the price to do that kind of a CDN, but even Netflix, which was trying to give away content on its CDN, only reached 86% of the country. They did not go into the rural areas. So when the question is, are people going to pay to prioritize to the rural areas? I'm betting not so much. So we're looking at a world where between urban and rural, your internet service is going to work different and even in cities. It's going to be different in my neighborhood than it is in your neighborhood. That's not a very good world to try to run a business or even to figure out whether everybody's got access to what they need.


We're back with the Breakfast in Plus TV Africa. We're just delving to your second conversation here. Now with the big question we're asking is will there be a repeat of 2012 where you had Ukupala, Nigeria, a social political movement that took to the streets and monitored a second to be very precise of January 2012 and response to the field subsidy removal by the federal government of President Goodluck Jonathan on Sunday the first of January 2012. Well the essence of that big question is that the Nigerian Labour Congress as the NLC and the Trade Union Congress, the TUC have threatened to embark on strike action or strike in June against the incoming administration of President-elect Bola Tunibu over the removal of field subsidy. Now the two Labour bodies however said that the only condition not to go on strike is the re-vitalisation of government refineries across the countries and then we have four of these refineries and allowances of modular refineries. Now according to the organized Labour, the failure to do this would bring its opposition to the subsidy removal and mobilise workers to protest against the decision. Now it's important to know that President Buhari had stated that subsidy on patrol would be removed before the end of its tenure on May the 29th of 2023 just in a few moments. Now the President of the National Union of Local Government Employees has said that the Union remains opposed to the removal of field subsidy. Now it feels like a lot of Union are in support of the NLC but it is also important to know that over 1.48 trillion era was reportedly spend on maintaining the countries for refineries between 2015 and 2020 and at the time Sarah had threatened the lawsuit against the President and his administration. The government was also reportedly to have spent 10.23 billion era in June 2020 on three refineries that produced zero crude and also in 2021 the government had approved 1.5 billion that's about 600 billion era to repair the Port Harcourt refinery. Now despite all of this funds the huge spending on the refineries we still have this refineries not working and while field scarcity continue to persist. So this morning we have a guest joining us a Meiji Asuguni who is a former I see that as department president of NLC and industrial relations expert this morning thank you so much for joining us all right then our correction is duly noted but I like to share your thoughts what do you think about this concerns of NLC revitalization of the refineries and also the fact that their plan to oppose the incoming government come June. Yes I think the capture is what the country is giving me the consigns. NLC does not oppose anybody but we oppose anti people's policy and therefore when a president elect has not resumed but had two Nigeria's one of the things he will be doing include removal of subsidy and he has not told Nigeria's how he will fill the refineries. I think that was why he's getting the this preparation in advance. NGC I believe and I know took that decision long ago at a point it was collectively taken with TUC that the only way to force the hand of government do what is right by putting the refineries to work is to reduce them from eating deep again for removal of subsidy because removal of subsidy game goes to who so now that they're paying it at least where it's reduced for common Nigerians but if you are removing it make the product available you cannot remove subsidy on the ground that we see a spotting finish product of PMs that would take the price higher than we are suffering now and I think that is why they are resisting it and every Nigerian will give them back up for that. But I mean we remember that in 2012 there was also you know a protest that was led by prominent Nigerians including you know this current president or this government was opposed to that removal of subsidy and then we're continuing the conversation so if you juxtapose how much we're spanning on subsidy removal I mean to maintain paying subsidy and removing it don't you think that there's a justification that subsidy should be removed the justification of removing subsidy is not even the issue now the issue now is why were they paying subsidy they were paying subsidy because the idea is that upgrade Nigeria spend more on food items and whatever that goes to Petro inflection or price high in Petro affect transportation, affect goods and services and then government decided in their wisdom then to pay subsidy for a while they begin to producing this local product. Unfortunately to today even the 2012 argument our syndrome was at a point became political but the consistency of NIC has been let the product available. They removed subsidy because subsidy is that government has failed to make the product work or run a refinery work and as such taking the product to outside the country to make it refined as added additional price to it and they are saying okay we will pay part of this price to them in Nigeria's be able to procure. Now you have not made the product available for us and you want to remove your responsibility so who are we going to run to? Consider the diesel. The diesel has been regulated completely that there is no more subsidy on diesel. How much are we going to diesel now? The minimum you can get diesel now is 800 naira per liter so that is the pure example of what we are going to PMS. Any kind of marry move their hand and see the door of business in this. Then average of players of that sector would take advantage and freeze the price at will be done to take the primary is just one and the location is in the surplus and you expect somebody in the front not to come and procure from Dan Gute and not say at a higher price and Dan Gute at that point will freeze price at his own way. Don't forget the man and said he's going to spot his product. So nobody we government will have little nothing to do by regulating price for him. So our work is government should not be associating self from his primary duties. Welfare of Nigerians include the cost of well-being. So the government must work. So I think that is the essence that government must pay attention to. There is no contest whether the free coming or the outgoing will be facing it or not. If you are doing what is right you will get the full cooperation of Labour and Nigerians. But if you start on your own vote then your party will be pleased with you. So I want to understand what the interest of Labour you know the Nigerian Labour Congress is here because if there was an opposition to the removal of fuel subsidy in 2012 now up until this moment they're still intention to oppose the removal of fuel subsidy. Now some of the consensus they have raised in recent time is the revitalization. I really don't know if you know the NLC is in sync with what's going on because if you look at the budgetary allocation or the expenditure that this government has been on up until the point where you have some civil society group threatening arrest between 2015 to about 2020 the Nigerian government had reportedly spent 1.48 trillion era on revitalizing our you know refineries. So what exactly is NLC talking about revitalization of you know the refineries because funds and locations have been giving to revitalizing our refineries. So do you think that you know NLC it's even in sync with what's going on? Completely undecided with the current cabinet. What I think we are getting is the agenda of government not not targeted to achieving results because when you when we talk about whether it is revitalized or rehabilitated we are looking at it to overhaul whatever time they use. What NLC is saying is up until now several years to today refineries have been meant to work. These are not refineries that they were not and up until now not under construction. We are working at the point so what happened how can government assist its own facility to be jeopardized only because few persons who want to be spotting this crude oil and make profit by returning half and then claiming the the full balance. We are saying that whether you spend one point or in a good if you move subsidy where will you generate the money to? If you will see it go to a few. We are not saying the movement of subsidy is a crime as a matter of fact it's overdue. It is even criminal from beginning to be assuming to be paying subsidy at the point we say they were not paying. So you don't know who is actually trading with our money. So when they call this value that they have spent this value of money investigate and you'll be sure that not all the money were used for subsidy. And you are telling you the total consumption we are currently consuming and not what is reflected with NLPC. So different figures they don't know what they're doing. So I'm thinking that I'm actually honestly if we want to be very honest with this conversation you want to agree with me that this is this is I mean we resisted Nigerians resisted including the NLPC resisted this particular move in 2012 and some people think that if we had gone ahead with it probably would have actually headed somewhere. But if the NLPC is saying that the reason they would not go and back on that strike if there's revitalization of government refineries was saying that funds have been allocated to revitalize. But these refineries are not revitalized. So exactly what are we saying is NLPC asking the right question and they're demanding should NLPC not be asking where are the funds. The money is that we have allocated to refine you know to revitalize if refineries where are there. How come these refineries have not been you know revitalized. We talk about the time turn around maintenance where is it going. Is NLPC really really pressing the actual issues or they're just you know trying to say hey we want to revitalize not looking at the critical issue itself. Because there's every other time there's plans for revitalization there's turn around maintenance conversation and we're also talking about funds that are released to the effects. Yet the refineries are not working. NLPC has have they really been asking or fighting the actual cost for Nigerians. Talking about having the refineries working and filling the process to the latter. In fact you have just supported the cost of NLPC. Now government are told us repeatedly of fund release for the revitalization and to ensure that these refineries work. Over time this statement has not reflected the actual and that is why NLPC say until we see it work we are not going to entertain any requests of government with regards to refineries in Cuba because that tells you fund has been allocated not just we're not talking about millions of dollars we're talking about billions of dollars have been spent on refineries. Today it's not working. That tells you and I that a corruption is different. So if we don't actually hold the hand of government the way they're holding it now it will not work. Remember of society we rather give them more money. Corruption the way that they channel it. But when has government told us about the workers in this refineries? We have workers the size of workers the number of workers has not reduced to today to they are paying them for work. The government is not working and we're paying staff that government has put in place to today the sector is still free with workers and they are government. We have to go right we will continue this conversation soon because it's very important and would like to you know see we'll have you converse or have this conversation with us. All right then Amici is a former deputy president of the NLC an industrial relations expert he joined us this morning via phone to talk about the consents of you know the NLC. NLC is saying that hey we will embark on strike come June resisting any plan to remove subsidy but again we're saying is NLC asking the actual question if you're asking for revitalization the plans and funds have been approved over time for revitalization should I want to see not be asking what is going on with the funds that have been released for revitalization and how come the refineries are not functioning despite you know those funds that have been allocated and on this premise we're saying we want a functional refinery up until that point we will not because if you say you're asking for revitalization I'm sure there are paperwork and funds to that effect but yet we don't have a functional refinery but that's where we you know take a break when we return we'll be joining the newsroom fourth and news brief at nine o'clock it's important that you follow us on Facebook Twitter and Instagram and do you be part of a conversation via all the social media platforms on youtube or at plus tv africa and plus tv africa lifestyle my name is messia book will have a great morning


Thank you very much Michael for your introduction and for sponsoring the lunch and for the three million dollars Very gratefully received. It doesn't sound like enough really, but Get it Andrew to chase that up after lunch I'd like to begin by acknowledging the traditional custodians of the land on which we meet this afternoon the Ngunnawal people and I extend my respects to their elders past and present and also acknowledge the ongoing contribution they make to the life of our city and our region Professor Michael freighter Andrew Barr deputy chief minister Brennan Smith Michelle Melvin Chris folks business council members distinguished guests Thank you very much for the opportunity to address you today and share with you the ACT Government's outlook on the territory. It's such an important time for our city and our economy I'll take some time to reflect on the current state of play as we move towards a crucial few months Before I speak in detail about key priorities for the ACT government I'll also be announcing today two important initiatives as part of our plans to focus on Canberra's strengths and Continue to improve livability in our city and diversification across the economy As you would expect my team and I have planned for various scenarios from the much anticipated federal budget and Prepared ourselves to act where intervention is warranted But the point I'd like to make clear today is that we won't be hitting the panic button the ACT government's long-term commitments to economic reform and fairness across the community will continue There are some very exciting initiatives taking shape which reflect this fact and Demonstrate that we are already seeing the emergence of a stronger more diverse economy As I speak about these and the government's commitment to stay the course on our own commitments I hope you here at the very least an echo of your own ambitions for the future of our city Today marks exactly two months to the handing down of the next federal budget and possibly less time To the release of the government's commission of audit Obviously the ACT government awaits both documents with interest and I expect that each of you are doing the same It would be very easy to join the voices of doom and gloom and the associated speculation that comes with that But instead I think we should deal with the facts that we know and then focus on the vision and the Opportunities that will present themselves over the next few years So to some facts it's six months since the federal election and the start of a series of cuts to Commonwealth agencies It's two years since the federal spending contraction began in earnest and it's six years since the global financial crisis First sent tremors through our economy Throughout this period the fundamentals of the ACT economy have remained strong Forecast economic growth for 2013-14 is unchanged from last June at 1.75 percent Retailed trade figures are positive with growth of 3.4 percent in the year to January 2014 Population growth remains steady and Employment growth in our economy is slow, but steady The combined efforts of public and private sectors have driven growth in investment Exports and jobs and shown an economic resilience, which not everyone thought we had The fact that unemployment remains at 3.8 percent the lowest in the country is helping keep other Economic vitals such as housing and retail activity in shape Just as importantly is maintaining levels of confidence and cohesiveness in our community stimulus and job creation Protecting the livelihoods of working can variance remains a core priority of our government through 2014 The question becomes what is the best way for the territory government to support local jobs? Pumping vast amount of money direct into the economy is neither within our means or our economic philosophy We've worked hard to earn our economic credentials a strong budget position and a triple-a credit rating And we use these advantages strategically We've created capacity for government to invest in productive infrastructure Which attracts private sector buy-in and delivers a long-term dividend to our economy The 480 million dollar Canberra Airport project is a great example It drew a high level of private investment. It's helped create an attractive commercial precinct It delivers major capability boost for tourism across the capital region The infrastructure is ready for direct international flights and it directly connects to the Majura Parkway Which itself is estimated to deliver a one billion dollar dividend in the long term We've also been able to act to pump prime the vital construction sector through the stimulus package announced last week This package was a direct response to the advocacy of our local industry groups for changes in particular around lease variation and extension of time charges The package also offers a boost for housing affordability through the accelerated development in Moncreef And we want to see industry continue to innovate in the construction of quality affordable housing The government's land release program now includes a pipeline of more than five hundred million dollars in Landscape and civil works across the Greenfield and infill estates in the ACT Now as the government painstakingly frames the 2014-15 budget bid by bid line by line We're maintaining the strict discipline and budget strategy these times demand The snapshot I've provided before sums up why we're better prepared for the coming challenges as a government as a business community and Across the economy and certainly better than we've been in the past But it's vital that government maintains a level perspective the ACT budget as 9% of our economy can respond to federal belt tightening but not to savage austerity Our exposure is easy to see the Commonwealth ACT workforce is three times the size of our own and we cannot absorb large redundancies Our GST revenue continues to decline relative to the services It's supposed to pay for and further cuts to that will hurt Direct funding for vital reforms and community services if cut would undermine hard one gains for our schools and for some of our most vulnerable citizens For our part we're resolute in delivering on promises that we've made to our community Including our commitments under national reforms our frontline health workforce and health infrastructure will grow our Disability sector will be supported to transition to NDIS Our school resourcing will increase with all schools across Canberra resource to the Gonski resourcing standard And we will continue the delivery of our ambitious plan to stop rising obesity rates I led a delegation of key business representatives to meet with the assistant infrastructure and regional development minister Jamie Briggs last month Minister Briggs is aware that our employment and growth are our top priorities And it's important that government and business remain united on this front Our early discussions have been very productive and he's shown encouraging interest in working with us to progress plans for the widely supported convention facilities We will continue regular meetings with minister Briggs and have agreed to meet again once the federal budget is handed down in May While I put great value on a good working relationship with the federal government I think in this room. It's important to acknowledge that there's a limit to what support we can expect to receive That's why we aren't waiting around for bad news to come to us We acted early on economic stimulus and we're pressing ahead with perhaps the most ambitious tax reform agenda in Australia Too often this reform program is dumbed down in a tabloid discussion about rates But I believe there is broad support across our business community We are already heading towards a 9% improvement in the efficiency of our tax base by 2016-17 in other words This means a yield of 57 million dollars for our economy which is no longer absorbed by administration and compliance Sales activity in the commercial sector has increased following the decision to drop commercial conveyance duty to 5.5% for properties valued at 1.65 million or greater now amongst the lowest rates in the country and Our support for small business through the reduction of payroll tax is also delivering important support both to individual businesses and To the government's drive for diversification Australia's experience has shown that early movers on economic reform reap the rewards and whilst we may be the smallest government in Australia We don't lack ideas nor courage nor the willingness to cast aside Misperceptions of others and lead the way on big changes which will have long-term payoffs for our community It is our fundamental belief in the potential of the ACT and broader regional economies which drives our ambitious agenda But a great economy demands a great beating heart, which is why I'm pleased today to release the The final version of the city plan which has been released publicly in its draft form before Which really shows a step forward in the transformation of Canberra's city centre and you'll find that on your tables They've used of 15,000 canberrans have been combined with the work of expert planners to set the direction for what will be a transformation in civic People told us they wanted to see greater pedestrian and public transport focus in the city They want less through traffic more appeal and a stronger identity Flattering as it is to hear things like Braden's looking more like Melbourne all the time or even my Sydney friends would like this place We're not here to seek comparisons Canberrans want a city centre which says Canberra and they overwhelmingly and the overwhelming sentiment is they want it sooner rather than later The city plan creates a blueprint for this transformation to happen a framework for extensive residential growth in civic Plans to progress major infrastructure projects and a permanent bridging of the divide between the city and the lake The government will be announcing in the near future the fast-tracking of some of the next stages of the city to Lake Project and I look forward to selling the project in China next month as part of the prime minister and minister for trades Delegation and the deputy chief minister will be doing the same in Singapore and in Hong Kong in June The city plan is there to guide decision-making for the public and private sectors and encourage the next phase of our city centre growth a Process already well underway It will steer the city centre towards the commercial and cultural hub Which both our city and regional communities have said it ought to be Under the plan which was funded by the Commonwealth government the ACT is investing progress to progress key projects Such as the Parkway Split Boulevard conference centre and the redevelopment of the ABC flats Perhaps the defining feature of the city plan is the introduction of light rail as a spine of our future public transport Network and catalyst for an economic resurgence along Northbourne Avenue Let's be clear transport pressures in the civic to gungal and corridor are not a future prediction They're here now with five times the territory's average population growth Combined with car dependency at around 90% This corridor is a major pressure point on the transport system and the economy with projected costs running into the hundreds of millions of dollars Capital Metro is not only a transport building a transport solution It's a city building project a major capital investment which delivers against other key priorities. I'm like laying out today Okay, it's a catalyst for economic growth and development with a major uplift effect across the car along the corridor a Centrepiece of the transformation of the city centre a high quality connection with the new Dixon development announced last week by the Treasurer a driver of commercial growth in the gungal and town centre a More active healthy and affordable transport option for Canberra's a template for the transport system of the future and A project which will pick up some of the spare capacity Created by the completion of other major infrastructure projects And these are the reasons why we choose to invest now with the long-term firmly in our minds The government's capital Metro agency will be far more visible in the city this year as it ramps up its work program of planning and consultation The city plan also reflects broader elements of the government's productivity and public health agenda in our support for active living And if I could just paint this picture and I was hoping you were all going to have sugary dessert But unfortunately it's a healthy option, so I can't use the joke that I plan to say here But as you're about to tuck into dessert, but I'm pleased it is healthy if we again look at some of the facts in Canberra, we have one of the most overweight Metropolitan populations in Australia, which is in turn one of the most overweight countries in the world Despite the highly educated nature of our community and the abundant access to quality food We camberans are well on track for as many of us as 80% of us to be overweight or obese by 2025 now there's a target we don't want to achieve If these trends go unchecked or unchallenged our public health costs will threaten the sustainability of every other part of the budget and Completely undermine the gains. We're working so hard to achieve elsewhere. I Do want to make it clear that our goal, which is simply to stop the growing levels of obesity at the current rate 63% of adults being overweight or obese It's not about nannying people or restricting their fun or individual freedoms It's a call to action similar to the campaigns run over previous decades in relation to smoking a call to action across the government Business and community sectors to be part of the solution on obesity It goes to the very heart of livability and productivity in our city These are assets. We're very proud to lead the way on as attested by the recent my city survey And we need to keep working to improve them Interestingly some developers are already at the forefront of designing facilities which encourage active transport outdoor Recreation and connections to public infrastructure, which do the same A city centre which has reached its potential particularly as the economic heart of the region is also going to support further diversification We believe in the ability of this economy to compete and succeed not only in construction and property development But in other high skilled high wage industries of the future Many of you are familiar with the government's diversification agenda Which is led by the deputy chief minister, which is heavily focused on growing the economy through human capital As with our microeconomic reform this program is yielding results Sustained growth in higher education exports our IT industry maturing and attracting global attention regional tourism continuing to grow Global markets are vindicating our decisions to invest in sectors where our economy has distinct advantages These success stories are all contributing to the headline economic indicators I've mentioned and we want to see them do more Our tertiary institutions are at the heart of our growth as a knowledge-based economy Canberra's place in the global education market and its recognition as a study destination Affirming up and we are very deliberately building on the research base which drives innovation attracts talent Supports business formation and generates growth more than 10,000 international students are spending more than $440 million in our economy each year and the education sector now generates 11% of our tourist activity Our direct links in Asia are strengthening and this is an agenda I will be pushing strongly during my trip to China with the Prime Minister next month Let's remember that world-class education sector is also home our canberra is also home to world-class research Organisations such as the CSIRO, NICTA, Geoscience Australia and the John Curtin School of Medical Research Looked at it in its whole this sector includes 45,000 people in this region and contributes two billion dollars to our economy No other jurisdiction has an education industry so significant to its makeup Which is why the ACT must continue to assert itself as Australia's learning capital On top of direct investments in our institutions We are working at a strategic level to identify the future opportunities in this sector and promote it to the world Most notably through our study Canberra program One of the true signs of innovation is in the commercialization of some of the talent and ideas which are so present in Canberra today The Canberra Business Council is an active partner in helping us to nurture technological innovation and this work is added to by Invest Canberra and the new private sector investment framework Together, let's dispel the idea that a government town can't compete globally at the cutting edge of innovation and digital technology The government's determination to do this is the reason we have developed a strategy to create a truly digital city This strategy is set out in the digital Canberra action plan, which I'm also releasing today Backed by a four point four million dollar investment The plan shows our vision to develop and promote Canberra as a modern dynamic digital city It provides the roadmap of how we're going to accelerate business engagement with the digital economy and help business access new customers and markets And it puts new impetus behind the government's commitment to lead by example Using technology to be a more open government making it easier for people to access our services Innovating in how we engage with the community and cutting red tape for local business In other words, we are a government moving towards digital by default and we are enabling the most tech-savvy community in Australia to do the same Today, I'm pleased to announce that five priority projects to kick off the action plan The role the first one is the roll out of free Wi-Fi in Canberra will start to come online in civic from the second half of this year Free Wi-Fi will then roll out in other town centres and commercial precincts to deliver the benefits of greater connectivity Across the ACT Once complete the Territories Network will be the largest free outdoor public network in Australia While not a service for business directly It will create yet another incentive to be active online and engage with the fast-growing digital media channels The second project will relates to Garema Place and we will see Garema Place become the centre of Digital innovation in Canberra through the creation of a dedicated digital space and digital screen The space will create a new forum for the meeting of creative minds and creative digital ideas in the city It will be a very visible reminder of Canberra's excellence in the digital world and another illustration of contemporary urban development in the heart of the city Connected to the Garema Place digital space We're looking to create a digital and innovation hub as a service centre for digital government and the digital economy This hub would help concentrate the development and incubation of digital ideas Building both the culture and the capability of the sector through practical support to connect innovators with applications in government and industry The third area is digital business capacity building workshops delivered in partnership with the Canberra Business Council and Individual vendors which will respond to research the government carried out last year around the digital capabilities and needs of our business Community we will invest $80,000 to give our business community the practical assistance To make the most of the digital economy and achieve the growth it can help deliver in further support for businesses which choose to upskill grants totaling $225,000 for science technology engineering and mathematics internships will offer the private sector ACT government support in training of their staff Finally the innovation pitch panel, which I know Members of the business council have put to me as an idea over the years will create a forum for local innovations Aimed directly at the ACT government. We know that some of the best ideas come from outside government And we want to make sure there are no barriers to us being early adopters of Local digital innovations, which may save money or improve services to our community As with higher education a globally competitive digital economy in Canberra is no longer just an aspiration Even for businesses one or two levels removed from the IT sector the evidence clearly shows that those with a strong digital presence Are far more likely to be growing and recruiting. I Believe the same lessons applied to government and we will continue to increase our own capabilities Now as I look ahead I see a city with the fundamentals for an exceptional decade If our centenary year was a test of community spirit and culture this year will be a test of economic metal Today I've set out to make it clear that in our mind our economic program is Inseparable from the broader agendas of livability productivity urban renewal and good public health I believe it's our investments and advantages in these areas in precisely these areas Which put us in good stead to respond to economic challenges and overcome them as leaders in this city Meeting this potential is a responsibility. We all share. Thank you very much Thank you very much chief minister and Chief minister has indicated that she's very happy to take some questions from our guests here today So, let's let's do that So the short David, thank you for the question The proposal that's being put to the government to both Andrew and I has emerged from some of our local innovators Looking at the opportunities that arise from some vacancy in Garima place And this is sort of aligned nicely with our work on the city plan and looking at how to create a really strong heart For the center of Canberra so a bit of it's about the opportunity that currently exists at the moment And the other side of the proposal fits in well with kind of the focus on you know, those highly skilled innovators that are working across Canberra pulling them together and being a very physical and to the community Investration of what's happening already, but in a much more concentrated way So it's looking at working with local property owners To to fill some space that brings together those very smart bright minds that allows I think Other particularly young people students to come and be a part of that And then have that connected with the digital space through the screen having you know Curated program on the screen that shows you know, someone's making an app in in this building and then Demonstrating it on the screen. So it's a very exciting proposal. It's not fully finalized yet, but as part of The work we've been doing with this sector. I think that you know, we need to start actually doing it We've talked a lot about it. We've had roundtables. We've had people pitching ideas We found some money across government to support it now It's about rolling it out and showing that it can be done and then seeing what happens out of that I think part of it is no one knows exactly where that might end but It's a very exciting proposal that that sort of builds on the strengths we have In place already with a tiny bit of government support short-term government support Well, I think the most important thing we can do is lead by example so the government I mean That's why I raised it today in a business speech because I think it is very easy to relegate the obesity epidemic to a health problem that none of us really need to worry about but When we look at the impact that already 63% of our adult population in the ACT is overweight or obese and we look at the impact That's already having on our budget if we just look at it at a purely fiscal sense You know less about you know the the health of individuals It's already a very difficult problem to manage so my view we've put out a very What people say is a very aspirational document, which is just to stop the growing obesity epidemic at where it is today at our levels before we start looking at how we we change the targets and We've outlined some strategies in that the probably the most important one is is continued education Getting people to understand the extent of the problem We're also doing some work about what community attitudes is to how we tackle this The obesity problem because I think one of the issues which was successful It's the smoking campaign was actually getting people to understand the problem and then encouraging them to change their lifestyle And we're making some changes it by leading I think we're making some changes in schools Which you may have heard about with stopping the selling of sugary drinks for example And again this just sends the message that something's got to change, but it's very hard for governments You know we'll be told that we're you know restricting individual freedoms the nanny state gone mad You know know the the food and drink industry is very very powerful and It's it's hard to find the balance of actually getting people to understand What the problem is and then getting people to change their behaviours, but I think a doctor said to me once if Everyone comes to me and says you know I need a magic pill for To to help me And he said you know I tell them that it's a healthy food and exercise That's it. There's no there's nothing more to tell you but we've just got to keep sending that message out But from a livability point of view a productivity point of view a financial point of view if we hit that target of 80 percent of adults overweight or obese 30 to 40 percent of our children entering primary school reaching the same target There won't be anything else the ACT government does but fund the health system and the health consequences of that so it's just really something that we have to embed in all of our Government work and I think people look to the government to lead on these matters no matter if they are hard to Hard to to you know encourage people to to join us, but it's a work in progress You Was the chief ministers director I expect them to play role in everything on every project across the town Look the question is good, and it goes to how does government administration effectively Progress the government's priorities, and we've made it clear what our what our priorities are. I think I've outlined The general areas today although spoken specifically about a couple of projects There is work underway at the moment as we move to a point of six minister That looks at our administration arrangements to make sure that they are Better tailored to meeting the priorities of the government and the commitments. We've made I think it is a challenge for the central agency which is You know there's two ways you can go it either becomes a doer or a Coordinator and it's sort of been a bit of both over the the term of my time in the assembly And I don't think there's a perfect solution in a in a city-state arrangement for what you expect I mean at the Commonwealth PM and C can play that very high-level strategic policy Role and it's a fairly streamlined department or it has been until recently. I think it's got more staff now and You know that's a challenge for chief ministers and Treasury director who needs to sort of be across a whole range of levels They need to be across the national agenda, but they also need to be focusing on the things that matter to our local community So these these matters are under consideration is is what I'd say, but of the key priority projects for the government their things that Well chief ministers and Treasury reports to both Andrew and I All projects that we are running through that central directorate in some way or another But you know I'm sure if there are ideas in the room about how to improve all that now's the time to To put your views forward and lobby because there will be some changes and there'll be some changes mid-year With the appointment of the six minister All right, thanks everybody for those great questions So that ends our formal proceedings for lunch today if you're very welcome to stay and Enjoy your cheese platters and can you join in me in warmly thanking the chief minister for her great presentation today? extremely fortunate indeed to have the great demonstration of a progressive leader and a progressive government and Indeed, we you know, we thank all of the support team economic development directorate and indeed Other teams who are working hard to make this happen constructive and positive outcomes for our private sector And we must take the chief minister up on her offer to provide more ideas on how we can be even more Progressive and really put our stamp and our mark on this great nation I'd like to very very warmly thank the University of New South Wales for Hosting us here today. Of course, they're Canberra campus And thank you again to our members and guests for your support of these important conversations And we'll see you at the next event. Thank you


What's up guys, welcome to today's video. On the video today, I'm going to share with you how to cut a side fringe using a few simple steps. Step one, create a triangle section. Step two, you're going to take diagonal forward sections from the parting down to the hairline, and you're going to keep your fingers parallel to that to cut your guide. Now that's going to become your stationary guide, and you're going to continue working diagonal forward partings all the way across till you get to the hairline. Now we're going to move to the left hand side, and all you're going to do on this side is connect the point and create a short to long line, keeping your fingers parallel to the parting. Alright, so once you're done with both sides, you're going to let the hair down. We were using our Velcro clips. These are brand new on shopfse.com. They don't add any creases to the hair when you're sectioning off dry hair. It also is great for sectioning men's hair and short hair. We're just going to keep working the brush back and forth. This is our Ergo Diamond Head Paddle Brush also available on our shop, and we're just going to work that hair back and forth. The thing I love most about this brush is it's a mini paddle brush. I love a paddle brush so much, but sometimes you just need a little bit smaller feel, a little more control, so we use this brush to work our way back and forth. A little bit of lifting, just add a little bit of volume and movement, and then I go in with the Dyson Corral Iron, and I'm going to iron the hair the exact same way that I cut it, so bringing it across the forehead and then just giving it a slight bevel with the iron. I'm just going to continue through, do that to style it up. Alright, so take a look at that side fringe, just really, really nice soft feel to the angle. This is a great technique with all different hair types. If you guys like this video and you love free education, make sure you check out free saloneducation.com. We have thousands of online videos. We also have a free app, so go check it out. Thank you so much for watching.