Rwy'n credu, maen nhw'n dweud, y ddisgrifes bwysig, ond yng Nghymru 14652 yn y neud Maen nhw Gordon MacDonald yn y Ffederaswn Llyfrgell, ond y Ffederaswn Llyfrgell yn y Ffederaswn Llyfrgell yn y Ffederaswn Llyfrgell. Mae'r ddisglwffyr yn digwydd i wneud oedd yn gweithio'r eich cyflawn. Rwy'n enghraiffti'n ddisgrifes bwysig i ddewidau i gael o'u cyfrifes fydd o'r ddisgrifes bwysig y ddybydd, dros cyfnod, mae unrhyw rhywbeth mlynedd yn reiki. Onw'n arlieu iawn. Diolch yn fawr, Presiding Officer, ac rydw i'n fawr i'r meidio o parlym yn du? Yn ddych chi'n gallu bywyd Therodau ysgolwchol Ffedderatio a'r Ynw'r Gallary, yn ddigadol, ac rwyf wedi cael ei ein cysylltiadau i stalkaethau ysgolwchol. Oedden nhw'n eu ffordd i'r Ffedderatio tekst aelom, pas ymlaen i'r the importance of convenience stores to our villages, towns and cities. This report highlights in its introduction that this is the richest ever picture of the economic and social value of local shops in Scotland. The report, produced by the SGF in conjunction with the Association of Convenience Stores, its sister organisation in England and Wales, found that for many rural communities, convenience stores often provided the only shopping option for the local community. In the urban areas, they serve as part of the mix of stores, serving the needs of those living and working in our communities. The report found that 75 per cent of the 5,602 convenience stores are run by small business owners and that the sector provided 44,332 jobs with their value to the economy in terms of gross added value at over £0.5 billion per annum. Scotland, with one convenience store for every 946 people, has more of these shops per head than any other part of the UK. We have read recently in the newspapers that some retailers are going through a difficult patch with at least one high-profile casualty announced in the last week. A PWC report for the first half of 2015 highlighted that five high-street stores were closing every week across some of Scotland's largest towns and cities. The figures highlight that stores owned by multiple retailers shut up shop with not enough new openings to stop a net reduction. PWC highlighted that store portfolios continue to be reviewed and streamlined in response to the relentless advance of online shopping. However, how is that affected convenience stores? While the report highlights that there are now more stores than 2014, with the net growth rate of over one new shop per week providing over 2,000 new jobs over the last year, overall sales are up 5 per cent year-on-year as a result of an increase in average spend, more couples with young children using the stores, and the frequency of visits by foot to the local community store increasing. The range of services are increasing, helping to drive that increase in footfall with many convenience stores offering mobile phone top-ups, bill payment services, free-to-use cash machines, community notice boards and cold food to go. While social media is helping them to take on the major supermarket change, with special offers and events advertised via Twitter and Facebook, the report found that another possible reason for positive figures was that 87 per cent of Scottish retailers engage in some form of community activity, with more than eight out of ten collecting money for a local or national charity, one in three providing funding or support to a community event and one in four providing sponsorship to local sports teams. It therefore comes as no surprise that of the 12 types of retail outlets present in our communities that convenience stores were voted second by consumers in a comres poll in 2015 as having the most positive impact on a local area. It is that involvement in the community and the range of services provided that helps to create customer loyalty. It is that customer loyalty that is encouraging a new generation of young entrepreneurs to invest in new store openings with a 33 per cent increase since 2014 of business people below the age of 30 opening and owning a convenience store. The report found that the sector is very entrepreneurial with 65 per cent being the first person in their family to own or run a convenience store in Scotland. That, however, does not mean that there are no issues that need to be addressed in order that this success continues. Small independent retailers are under immense pressure to maintain margins and profitability in order to have the funds to reinvest in their business. Many store owners have embraced new technology and installed LED lights, smart meters, chiller doors etc. in order to cut overheads and compete with the supermarkets. That drive to efficiency is being assisted by the Scottish Government's Environment Agency, Zero Waste Scotland, who have made available a fund of 100,000 to enable convenience store retailers to carry out energy-efficient refits. That has proved to be highly successful and many SGF members would be keen for that to continue. Then there are the issues outwith the retailer's control that impacts on the viability of their stores. Although the report found that 58 per cent of convenience store customers travel by foot, there are also 38 per cent who drive to their local store. Parking problems impact on local shops, whether it is a loss of passing trade or impulse buys, as evidenced in my constituency. In Sight Hill, there is an on-going issue where I understand that a lack of car parking provision by the university means that more and more parking in the adjacent local shopping and residential area is being used by students, resulting in a reduction of passing trade to local shops and difficulty for residents to park adjacent to their own homes. Then there are increased rents and non-domestic rates that are demanded of small retailers that do not reflect the difficult trading circumstances that many find themselves in. Retailers in my constituency inform me that the Scottish Government's small business bonus has been very welcome, giving 100 per cent relief to properties with a rateable value of up to £10,000, with a sliding scale of discount for properties with a rateable value of up to £18,000. Across Scotland, 92,000 small businesses, many of them local convenience stores have had their rates abolished or substantially reduced. As I stated in the first-ever parliamentary debate in August 2014 on the importance of convenience stores to our local economies, when I quoted the Carnegie trust, we recognise that, for many towns, the contribution of independent retailers is a crucial factor in the long-term sustainability, diversity and vibrancy of high streets. The Scottish local shop report confirms and justifies the views of the Carnegie trust that the long-term sustainability, diversity and vibrancy of high streets is down to local shops and the convenience store sector. I would urge MSPs to pop in to the committee room one on Thursday, where they can not only pick up a copy of the report but can discuss the findings with a number of retailers from across Scotland. I thank my colleague Gordon MacDonald for bringing this debate to the chamber and also welcome our visitors to the gallery. On 27 November last year, I had the pleasure to send off a charity conga around Hamden Park. Participating in this event were a number of local primary schools, including ASN schools. The purpose behind the conga was to raise funds to ensure that no child in these schools went without a happy Christmas. All the funding raised on that day, which totaled thousands of pounds, was being kept by the schools for their pupils. Those responsible for this fantastic event, besides Glasgow Recaring City and the schools, include Hamden for their generous use of the stadium. The Scottish Grocer's Federation, who made sure that every child was watered and fed, there may even have been some tea cakes and caramel wafers from a well-known company, whose name escapes me at the moment. The generosity from the Scottish Grocer's Federation is only one example of the community work that this sector does. The report provided an excellent breakdown of the sector's activities within the community. As Gordon MacDonald said, more than 80 per cent of independent retailers were involved in their community. Scotland has been second only to the south-west of England across the UK. That is to be congratulated. Community engagement is taking many forms. For example, collecting money for national local charities, local stores also provide funding or in-kind support to local events, provide sponsorship to local sports teams or other community activities and play an important role in community, council or local business association meetings and projects. I was amazed that some of the other statistics contained within the report the value of the convenience store sector worth a staggering £5 billion to the UK economy, equating to 6 per cent of the UK retail sector. 75 per cent are small business owners, many who will be benefiting. As Gordon already said from the small business bonus, 32 per cent of owners are women, not parity, but an encouraging number to grow from. 23 per cent of business owners have been in business for over 26 years and 36 per cent own their business and partnership with family members. Stability and longevity appear to be just two of the benefits of running a convenience store. We cannot forget that, when the word convenience is used, it is extremely appropriate. 78 per cent travel less than a mile to restore, 25 per cent use the store every day, and, as has already been mentioned, 58 per cent travel by foot to the store, so both convenient and environmentally friendly. In areas such as the Cathart constituency, the convenience store often stands alone as a sole source of shopping and parts of housing estates such as Casimal. In other areas such as Crawford and Shawnts, where they are playing a notable role in establishing a new business improvement district, they operate with other service providers, giving choice and diversity to residents. Indeed, such an important part are the local community. It was after consulting with local businesses in Mount Florida and Battlefield that I helped to establish a business forum in which numerous convenience stores located in the area have continued to play an important role. Many of us will remember Ronnie Barker's popular sitcom, Open All Hours, but that title, if thankfully not the attitude in what practices of that old skinflint art right, could not be more apt. Those stores are indeed open all hours. They are often open 24 hours, seven days a week, earning the accolade of being a crucial mainstay of the community. I congratulate the Scottish Grocer's Federation and their partners in compiling the report. They deserve to be recognised for the role they play as an important part of Scotland's economy and their resilience to a changing business environment, but they also deserve our recognition and our praise for the important role they play in communities across constituencies such as Cathart and for the many examples of support that they have given to our communities. At the outset, I congratulate Gordon MacDonald for securing this debate and for giving us all the opportunity to note the findings of the local shop report and to speak more generally about the retail and grocery sector in Scotland. I also want to take the opportunity to commend the Association of Convenience Stores, the Scottish Grocer's Federation and the Scottish Retail Consortium for all the work that they have to do to keep us in Parliament informed about what is happening in their industries and the real economy. As the member's motion indicates, there are well over 40,000 jobs in the convenience stores in Scotland and many of those stores are family run businesses with routes in the community. The overwhelming majority are run by small business owners, suggesting that the sector is highly entrepreneurial. If we include independent shops operating on petrol four courts, then 75 per cent of the shops studied in this report are run by small businesses. Only 17 per cent of people say that they visit their local shops less than once a week. 25 per cent of people actually say that they visit their local shop every day. According to the report, 87 per cent of independent retailers were involved in the community in some way. I have personally taken the time to visit convenience stores and it is clear that local shops can be a real social hub in the community. It struck me that many of those stores will have regular customers, particularly older people, who could have been shopping in the same place for decades. Convenience stores can be more than just a place to exchange money for groceries but to exchange conversations and also meet people. It also struck me that, for some people, the regular trip that they make to pick up groceries or to get a newspaper could be the only time that they leave the house that day. Staff working at the till or stacking shelves could be the only people that they speak to all that day. Last week, I presented the Equal Opportunities Committee's report on age and social isolation. It is a report that I recommend that all members take the time to read, because it underlines the importance of social interaction and being part of a community, as so many of our convenience stores are. I also want to refer to some issues that are relevant to today's debate, which have been raised at the cross-party group on towns and town centres. The Scottish Government has indicated that it is now involved in a process of reviewing and, hopefully, refreshing the town centre action plan. I want to see a new, robust and comprehensive action plan brought forward at the earliest opportunity. The themes of the Scottish town centre review, which was led by Malcolm Fraser, are useful for anyone with an interest in turning around our town centres, regenerating our towns and supporting businesses who invest in our local economies. Those themes have to be developed and taken forward in the coming months. The town centre first, the public sector has taken a lead in promoting investment in town centres to drive up footfall and promote accessibility. Town centre living, making our town centres places to live again, not just places to work or to shop. Enterprise and communities have the community estate agency audit town centre assets and find better ways to use local properties and existing capacity. Digital towns support Wi-Fi and make sure that we have high-speed broadband in all our town centres. It would also be useful to know more about how the Scottish Government intends to proceed with the renewal of the town centre action plan. Retailers, large and small, will be interested in the end result and so will the communities that they serve. Let me conclude by saying that the local shop report has very clearly set out the importance of convenience stores to local communities and local economies. It is a further valuable resource for us in this Parliament to draw in as we consider the future of our town centres and the future of the retail sector in Scotland. I thank God MacDonald for bringing this debate to the chamber because I welcome the debate and as many of you will be aware that I represent the great town of Paisley. We have had many of the challenges that have been mentioned in the retail sector over the past 10 to 15 years. It tends to be that we are the one that the media will automatically take the picture of the high street to try to make their point on how things have changed so dramatically. However, it is the convenience stores that are still within my town centre as retail giants have moved out of town. They are still serving and working with the local community, and that is important because there is still a demographic of my constituents who do most of their shopping within the town centre. The elderly and those from poorer backgrounds have more difficulties shopping out of town. It is borne in the report when it states that convenience stores' customers, 78 per cent of them, travel less than a mile to use their local store. 58 per cent of the customers travel to their local store by foot compared to 38 per cent who drive, and 25 per cent of customers use their shop every day. That is mirrored in my constituency where there are small pockets of very successful local shops throughout our town. In order for town centres like Paisley to succeed, we must encourage those stores. We must ensure that they get the opportunity to develop further, because they are the ones that are still contributing to our local economy. I remember a number of years back when there was initial talk about the reform of welfare, and one of the things that he said with regard to Paisley town centre was that, from a retail perspective, welfare reform was going to cost Paisley town centre about a million pounds a year because, again, it was the old and the poorer individuals who were shopping in the town centre. All those things have to be taken into account. They are still the ones that are making sure that we have a local shop to go to. One of the issues that I found quite interesting was that the top three stores that they all want to have in areas especially food shops, which is like your traditional butcher and the like, we still locally have a number of them, and they were extremely busy during the festive period, but they tend to slow up. However, it still is the only type of product where you can get that product. That is where I say that those shops, independent grocers and independent stores, are the ones that are going to make our town centres thrive, because they are the ones that are offering that thing that is slightly different. They are offering a service that you can no longer get. They harp back to a time when everybody, the shopkeeper, knew your name and knew who most of his customer base was. That is something that we do not want to lose. Last week, I spoke about a book shop that used to be in Paisley town centre. We used to have an independent bookstore, three or four generations of the same family, owned that store. However, with the internet, with the chance of being able to buy a book, delivered straight to your door and with the chance of getting ebooks, they just could not compete. You lose something in your town centre when you lose those types of shops. The irony for me is that the rest of the top three that they want is banks and post offices, businesses whose business model has been changing over the recent years. I have constantly been speaking to the minister with regard to the major banks pulling out of certain areas, but they are part of the retail ecology of every high street and every town centre. They have to take on a responsibility because obviously all the shop and retailers need them as well. Small retailers, I believe, are the solution to our town centre problems. Once again, I thank Gordon MacDonald for bringing this debate to the chamber. I wish all the retailers all the best, but I encourage everyone when they are looking at shopping to try to shop locally in their own stores. I did it recently over Christmas in my own town for my Christmas presents. I think that we need to lead from the front. We need to make sure that we are supporting those traders as well, because it is all so easy for it to end up going the same way as that bookshop that I mentioned. It is no longer there, and you wonder what happened to it. I, too, wish to congratulate the Scottish Grocer's Federation on the launch of the first-ever local shop report, produced in conjunction with the Association of Convenience Stores. Here we must emphasise the word convenience. As ever, the rich amount of detailed information that they provide is incredibly useful for us MPs to know how the sector is doing, what challenges they face and what we can do to help. As we are all probably quoting the same statistics, because it is a large range of information in a targeted, concise report that is very welcome development, I am sure colleagues across the chamber have agreed that this report does paint a very positive picture of the independent convenience store sector, and those entrepreneurs deserve our praise. They also deserve our help, which is why we should examine, I think, the areas in the report where challenges remain, so we know how to help. The report highlights the welcome news that, as we all know, we have had these statistics, the highest concentration of convenience stores with 5602 in Scotland, and the figure of one shop for every 946 people, I think, is also an impressive proof of the breadth and commitment of the sector serving our communities. As we do not have to look very far to yet find further proof of their commitment, 29% of the Scottish shop owners are working more than 70 hours a week, and 22% take no holidays during the year. This is an incredibly strong work ethic, and it is something that it should be congratulated on. Although I think it is important that options for more flexible working are also available if desired. While longevity is itself impressive as the fact that 26% of shop owners in Scotland have been in the trade for over 25 years, it is imperative that we look forward to where economic growth and the jobs with it will come in the future. The answer, of course, is entrepreneurism. In this regard, the news from the SGF's report is again impressive. 65% of the first person in their family to own or run a convenience store in Scotland, and 57 new shops have opened in the past year, which hints at exactly the sort of startup drive that we need in this country. Furthermore, there is an encouragingly large representation of young people in the sector, with 16% of the managers aged 30 or under. This ability to drive economic growth is, of course, tied up with the embracing of technology. Scottish shops have already been active in this area, with 23% having a Facebook account and 20% having a Twitter account, and around a third offering contactless payments. As a businessman and frequent customer of local shops, I know that using technology to track customers and make their transactions easier is the key to competing with other, perhaps, larger shops, as is the personal service that these convenience stores give. As George Adam said, the gone of the days when people, sadly, used to know your name when you went into the shop, although it does happen in certain areas, appears to be a bright future ahead for convenience stores in Scotland, but we cannot be complacent about delivering this potential. I am sure that grocers do not need politicians to tell them which technologies to adopt to help their business, but it is important that we remain aware of any issues facing small business owners that may prevent them from making the most technological opportunities in this sector. Finally, I would like to offer another admirable feature of independent stores, which is the extensive contribution to the local communities. Again, as we have just heard, just over the last year, 87% of them in Scotland were involved in some form of local activities, such as charity or sports work. Time and time again, they have shown themselves worthy of our extensive praise and support, but the most important aspect is how this binds their relationship together with local customers. This, I think, after all is the key to cementing local stores' place in our communities and the continued health of the sector. As the SGF report shows, the sector is growing in Scotland because it is providing customers with the local service that they want. That, after all, is what it is all about. I thank God MacDonald for bringing this debate to Parliament today and congratulate the Scottish Grocers Federation for publishing the first Scottish local shop report. Without any doubt, small retailers and convenience shops contribute greatly to our economy. In Scotland, nearly 6,000 shops provide over 44,000 jobs. In addition, by using local services and suppliers, small retailers also reinvest back in their local economies. However, as God MacDonald has mentioned in his motion, independent convenience shops also play a vital role for communities across Scotland, with 87% of independent retailers engaging in community activity. Those activities are wide-ranging. As an example, since introduction of a five-pen single-use carrier bag charge, small shops have raised their significance sums for a charitable purpose. To make the benefits more lasting in the Scottish Grocers Federation, that also works with the Scottish Government and keeps Scotland beautiful to support smaller retailers in working together to make their nations more tangible. I believe that acknowledging the benefits of small retailers and convenience stores is very important. It highlights that small retailers and convenience stores are thriving as wex of our communities across Scotland and contribute towards sustainable economic growth. However, the statistics should not be neglected that Scotland's town and city centres are affected by a large number of shop vacancies. Towns and cities have difficulties to attract customers while competing with larger shopping centres on the periphery. In most statistics show that shop vacancies are falling and that restructuring changes are having an effect. I believe that further improving the attractiveness of our town centres is crucial for supporting local economies. However, creating a more vibrant and active town and city centre is not an easy task. It relies on the co-operation of a range of stakeholders, including local council and business owners, to avoid conflict. That demands a careful consideration of various interests. In that regard, I want to mention Cercody for All. Cercody for All is an excellent example of how to be involved and work with local small retailers and businesses, and how beneficial such a partnership can be for both customers and the local economy. Cercody for All was elected in 2010 by Business Improvement District in Cercody to deliver a business plan that, in its own words, aims to promote Cercody Town Centre as a place where people want to work, shop and spend their leisure time in a welcoming environment that is consumer-focused and investment-friendly. To reach its goal, Cercody for All will promote Cercody Town Centre through various events, including the Fife International Carnival, the Big Haggis Burns Night, the Lantern Pride and the Beach Island Games, as well as advertising in local newspapers and radio stations. Cercody for All also encourages small businesses and retailers to participate in the small business Saturday UK, which, in 2015, took place on 15 December. The Cercody campaign, which encourages people to shop local, was celebrated with street entertainers and many offers of promotion in participating businesses. Participants also received free social media coverage for a period of five weeks leading up to the event. Overall, 2015 has been a very successful year for Cercody for All. Besides being re-elected for another five-year term, Cercody for All also launched a six-month trial for reduced partner costs in Cercody's Town Centre. Once notably, Cercody was named the home of Britain's fastest-growing small business, and I believe that Cercody for All played a crucial role in its success. The latest experience study ranked Cercody number one in the UK, higher than cities such as Birmingham and Aberdeen. Cercody affects a greater trend of growth in the sector, as turnover in small retailers and convenience shops has grown significantly over the past 12 months. Today has been a great opportunity to discuss its positive developments. However, looking ahead, we also need to think about how we can sustain this trend and ensure that small retailers and convenience shops continue to thrive. Thank you so much. I now call on Lewis MacDonald, after which we will move to closing speech from the minister. Thank you very much, and I too congratulate Gordon MacDonald for bringing this debate and all those involved in the launch of the local shop report 2015. The independent retail sector is relatively strong in Scotland, the highest concentration of such stores in the UK, and, of course, as members have said, new businesses are opening all the time. Most local shops are standalone businesses, or family businesses, with many owners and family members working longer and taking little time off because of their commitment to the enterprise. Hard work alone, sadly, does not guarantee the success or even the survival of a business. Even long-established independent convenience stores have found the financial climate of recent years a challenge, and, of course, there are pressures and temptations that come from the growing competition of supermarket chains entering the convenience stores market. Take Kelly's of Cults in Aberdeen, a local shop complete with Bakery and Butcher's department, run by the same family from 1902 to 2015, but now leased to Sainsbury's. No doubt a rational business decision for the owners, but inevitably a loss of choice and variety for the customers. Sainsbury's, of course, is a good employer. It provides jobs, training and opportunities for its staff. It negotiates terms and conditions with the Shop Workers Union, as though it is something that other employers in the sector should also do, and it is a popular and successful retailer. However, what supermarket chains cannot provide is the diversity of products for which a local shop like Kelly's of Cults was rightly known. The business model of a company like Sainsbury's is to keep prices down by procuring produce from a single source and by definition that reduces diversity and therefore choice. It also has unintended consequences, for example when young seafood lost the smoked salmon contract with Sainsbury's. At a stroke, the fish process at Young's factory in Fraserborough lost its outlets right across the UK, and this month, as a consequence, over 150 workers in Fraserborough have lost their jobs. Local shops, by contrast, are more able and more willing to place orders with local suppliers, and that is one of the ways in which they can make a real contribution to their local economies. It is one of the things that is lost when local shops are taken over or driven out of the marketplace altogether. Another challenge facing new and existing businesses in the independent convenience store sector is from the illicit trade in alcohol and tobacco. Sellers of such contraband advertise their services and products through social media, making it difficult for the police and the HMRC to track them down. A recent sting operation in Aberdeen revealed just how easy it was to access those with hundreds of illegal cigarettes bought from two different sellers on the street in only a couple of hours. Nonetheless, there have been successes in tackling this trade, including the seizure of 5,000 illegal cigarettes and 3.5 kilograms of tobacco from addresses in Peterhead and Fraserborough in September of last year. Continued operations by the police, by trading standards and by HMRC will go a long way to tackling illicit sales and thereby to protecting legitimate business in local convenience stores from this unwanted and illegal competition. I was interested to note that the Scottish grossest federation called on the Scottish Government to give responsibility for tackling this illicit trade a more prominent role within the range of ministerial portfolios, and that might indeed provide a step in the right direction to show the seriousness with which this issue should be taken. I welcome this debate and this report, highlighting as they do the important role of local shops in both urban and rural communities, and I hope that enough people will continue to choose to support their local shop for that important role to continue for generations to come. Many thanks. I will now move to closing the speech for the minister. Fergus Ewing, minister, you have seven minutes, so thereby please. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Could I begin by congratulating Gordon MacDonald for bringing forward this important debate? He pointed out the huge importance of convenience stores to Scotland, and he set out his stall by summarising some of the salient facts that over 40,000 jobs are sustained by the sector, with half a billion pounds or more of turnover, and the enormous contribution that they make to the communities that they serve, not least in his constituency, particularly Pentland, to which he referred. I have had the pleasure of working with Gordon MacDonald and some of his constituents, and the Scottish Grocer's Federation Gordon has been a champion of this cause. He has pursued it. He has persevered in pursuing it. I note incidentally that the Scottish Grocer's Federation is 98 this year and will be celebrating its centenary in 2018, something to look forward to. The cross-party support for the sector is extremely encouraging. It has been a very positive debate, and I praise all the contributions from members to the debate today and the opportunity to discuss some of the enormous contribution that is made. Those truly are local businesses, perhaps more so than just about any other type of businesses, as their own local shop report 2015 exemplifies. Coming second only to the post office is the most community-based, the most local, making, as members have outlined, the greatest commitment to communities of perhaps all in the retail sector. That was the message that I took from the various contributions as we went on a virtual geographic tour of Scotland from Aberdeen, Cacoddy, Glasgow and Cascart. I am left with an indelible image of Mr James Dornan leading at the front of a charity, Conga, raising money for a children's charity, a sort of piper of Hamden, as he would describe himself. We know that Mr Adam Champions always say his native town of Paisley, and he always mentions Paisley. So I was surprised that it was a whole three seconds into his speech, Presiding Officer, before he actually mentioned the word Paisley, uncharacteristic forbearance there, Mr Adam, in your contribution this evening. But seriously, there are a number of issues that were raised, and I'd perhaps just like to highlight some of them.  They make an enormous contribution to sustaining public services through the rates that they pay. When did we last hear a business getting recognition for contributing enormously to help to maintain our health and education, police and environmental services? They do that enormously. Of course, the smaller businesses value very highly the small business bonuses that we heard. In fact, it's nearer 100,000 businesses that now receive the small business bonus. My ambition, or one of them, Presiding Officer, is that the small business bonus becomes a sort of embedded part of policy, not something that is liable to be removed, but something that will continue as part of the system as long as we have the current rating system. In our party, we have made a commitment that we will retain the small business bonus if we are elected to the end of the next term, which, by my arrhythmic take, now takes us to 2021. That's important, because that sort of certainty in long-term planning is something that I think would really be appreciated by those smaller convenience stores, which, as was set out very clearly by Mr MacDonald, value the small business bonus that they obtain. I hope that those parties that do not presently support the small business bonus will join with us in recognising that that makes an enormous contribution. However, there are other contributions. For example, the employment of young people. In fact, I heard that it was from the convenience store in Mr MacDonald's constituency that I learned of the contribution to the employment of young people, the provision of what used to be called a Saturday job in the old days, that perhaps, if I may say so, you and I can remember particularly well of employment of young people to do a paper round, to do that kind of work. The salary is not high, but it inculcates the work ethic into young people. It provides them the opportunity to understand that to do work, you have to arrive at a certain time, finish at a certain time and do the job through. This work is provided to local children in a safe environment by these businesses. That's perhaps something that's easy to overlook. Problems such as parking, planning and regulation are ones that are really at the nub of the nitty-gritty experience of running a small business. The frustrations of those can be very irritating, as I well remember when I ran my own small business. I won't share with you the frustrating experience that I had in relation to planning, but perhaps in a different environment. We have to remember that when we are taking steps to encourage the responsible use of tobacco and alcohol and when we pass regulations we must bear in mind and we must consider carefully prior to making those regulations and implementing them what they mean in practice for the people who have to apply them. It's very easy to make a high-minded rhetorical speech about the value of doing those things, and rightly so. However, it's far more difficult when applying those regulations to make sure that they are set in a practical way that doesn't impose a non-duu burden that is consistent and proportionate as our better regulation policy sets out. The enormous contribution that is made to charity has been mentioned by almost every speaker in the debate, and that is something that we cherish. That perhaps means and explains why the convenience stores have been regarded in the independent report as the second most popular type of retail business in the country. In conclusion, as the minister who sought to build up a close relationship with the whole retail sector and to recognise the value that they play in employing in Scotland around a quarter of a million people, I have a particular affinity for those businesses that are very often family-run, small businesses that are rooted in Scotland, rooted in their community and the convenience stores that are open from eight to late, which means that they start work at six or seven a.m. and work as long hours, as anybody in this country, and therefore it's a great experience today to have the opportunity to thank all of those people and their staff for the enormous contribution that they make to their communities and to Scotland. Many thanks and thank you all for taking part in this important debate, and I now close this meeting of Parliament.


This 10th year of Daily Tech News show is made possible by its listeners. Thanks to all of you, including Ms. Music Teacher, James C. Smith, Miranda Janell, and our new patron, Stephen. On this episode of DTNS, how does the Epic vs. Google decision affect developers? Android faithful Swen Tweedow is here to tell us. Plus, Apple has to stop selling its watches and might get investigated for blocking Beeper. It's a bad week for Apple if it's only Monday. This is the Daily Tech News for Monday, December 18th, 2023 in Los Angeles. I'm Tom Merritt. I'm the show's producer, Roger Chang. And joining us, Android developer and host on Android faithful Swen Tweedow, welcome. Good to be here. Good to be representing Android from, like, the consumer and the Dev side, as usual. You're friendly and we're good with Android Dev. Yes. And we have some Android news and a lot of Apple news. So a lot of times when we do Apple news, people are like, what about the Android perspective? Well, here you go. It's good. We got it covered. Got you. All right. Let's start with the quick hits. Last month, the EU sent letters to multiple social media companies requesting details about their moderation practices. The first to receive a letter X is now the first to come under investigation, possibly not the last. European Commission says it will particularly focus on, quote, the dissemination of illegal content in the context of Hamas terrorist attacks against Israel, end quote. It will investigate X's community note system of moderation, the effect of blue check verification, advertising transparency, and whether researchers were able to get access to data. This is the EU's first investigation under the new digital services act. The investigation does not have a timeline or any deadlines. Knoxville, Tennessee has wrapped up the first phase of its rollout of fiber internet service with 50,000 customers now having access to fiber. The network is being built by the Knoxville utility board and rolling out wherever electric cables are installed. Gigabit service costs $65 a month. 2.5 gigabit service is $150 a month and 10 gig service is $300 a month all symmetrical. Knoxville follows Chattanooga Tennessee in installing community fiber in the state. And how much is a house there? Exactly. Okay. Apple is testing a new feature for app developers called contingent pricing. This lets a developer bundle subscriptions together. Developers could offer a discount when you subscribe to two or more of their own apps. But the program also lets different developers cooperate together to offer discounts in partnership. So if you were to subscribe to both their app services, they could both give you a discount. That doesn't fix the problem that most users absolutely abhor subscriptions, but that's a problem for another day. No, it doesn't. Adobe and product design company Figma have called off plans to merge after investigations by regulators in the EU and UK. Adobe will pay Figma a $1 billion termination fee. Regulators worried that Adobe would abuse its monopoly position in the market if allowed to acquire the fast growing Figma. The UK would have required Adobe to divest assets, source code, and engineers in order to approve the merger. And scientists from MIT and University of California campuses say they have worked with a company called AI Zip to create a process where a large AI model can create smaller, more specific models without needing human intervention. You do have to have a human start the process. I'm just going to go off and do these. But you just say make this model and it can make the model. Those kinds of models are called tiny MLs. They're designed for specific purposes like hearing aids, like working on the hearing aid because they're small. They can be on device or sensors like wildlife, checking, etc. All right, this is a big one. Apple says it will halt US online sales of the Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra II starting Thursday, December 21st at 3 p.m. Eastern Time. So that's the online sales. In-store sales will end on December 24th. And after that, the Apple Watch SE will be the only watch you can get directly from Apple. Third parties, Best Buy, Amazon, etc., can continue to sell any of the Apple Watches they have in stock as long as they can get them. But there'll be a point where Apple won't be able to ship any to them either. A medical technology company called Massimo has accused Apple of violating its patents related to the Oximeter, the blood oxygen sensors on the watch, and the International Trade Commission upheld a judge's ruling last January that Apple violated two patents of Massimo and sent that decision to the US president for review. It's a 60-day review standard procedure. If the president does not veto the decision, Apple will be prevented from importing any watches that use that sensor, so the two watches we mentioned, the Series 9 and the Ultra II, as of December 25th. These kinds of things happen regularly in the sense of people will go to the ITU, the ITU will rule in their favor, but they often happen around older products that really aren't selling that well anyway, or they get appealed fast and they get overturned, etc. The only one that we've seen recently go to the president was not vetoed, though, and I don't think Apple would be making these preparations if it wasn't thinking that it's going to have to comply with this ruling, at least temporarily. Gwen, what do you make of this? I mean, it's not great news for Apple, especially because it's their flagship series. I mean, it kind of just drives, you know, and I'm just a poor developer over here, but it is interesting kind of the state at which this is in and how we're seeing it. I mean, just don't try to buy any flagship Apple watches in those after Christmas sales, but I think it is interesting. It does seem to be, it does seem to fit the zeitgeist, at least as far as, again, just a developer can tell from kind of like where, you know, government and regulators are kind of feeling about, you know, big companies and things like other things that we might talk about later and kind of like having them, you know, anti-competitive, anti-competitive practices, monopolies and good old patent system, you know, adherence. I think it makes sense and I think it jives that, you know, things like this are just kind of normal these days and we're trying to kind of figure out, I guess it just seems like, I don't know, I don't want to say like a trend and that doesn't sound quite the right way, but it just seems that like regulators and and government folks are kind of looking to, I don't know, let big companies like Apple take their licks. So I don't, I mean, I would be surprised if they actually made the decision just from observation. Yeah, no, that's interesting. It's an interesting point because the ITU itself is fairly uncontroversial. It doesn't blow with the wind. So it just looks at the patent and says, yep, that's the patent or no, that's not the patent. And then the rules kick in from there. I think you're absolutely right that the president is certainly under the sway of the winds of a public opinion and the anti-company thing. So I would not expect them to veto it. I do think it's interesting that Apple is not doing work arounds for this already. They've had since January to prepare for that. And a lot of times that's the other thing you'll see. I've seen Samsung do it a couple of times where they start shipping a version that gets around the patent, especially if it's a software thing. In this case, you've got a little bit of a hardware redesign as well. So that makes it trickier. But I would expect Apple to do that. They say they're pursuing technical remedies to this. And Apple also has two patent lawsuits against Massimo. One filed in 2020, one filed in 2022 that are working their way through. So I expect that they will try to use that as leverage against Massimo to try to force a deal, although they've had that leverage and it hasn't worked up till now. And of course, Apple will appeal this and say, no, our implementation of this doesn't violate the patent. Look again. Yeah, that's the thing.  Software is kind of easier the way. It still costs them money to do any software remedies, but the hardware is just as it is. And I think, I mean, to give Apple credit, they are at least saying that they will fully support any of these devices out in the wild. You won't have to worry about being left with a unsupported device. And I guess that does lead to it.  So I think between their market position and all that lovely capital they have to play legally, I feel like they, it kind of might behoove them to just kind of wait and see if they can get an appeal through. And I mean, I don't, I mean, to be fair, they don't really have a lot of competition in the smart, like any real competition in the smart watch space. People are, you know, if they can't buy their flagship Apple watches in Christmas sales, they'll just wait to, you know, whatever the next opportunity is. I think that they're in a good enough position to kind of wait and see how it goes. And hopefully they won't have to do the more expensive remedy of hardware and, you know, they like patents. We have big companies like patents. So it's just more whether it kind of ends up flipping on their side when the coin finally stops. Yeah, yeah. I mean, you'll probably be surprised. It'll be easier to get an Apple watch than you might think after the 25th because there are a lot of them in stock at Best Buy and Amazon. I'm sure those companies are stocking up right now. It'll be weird to not be able to go into an Apple store and buy one and have an Apple employee go like, why don't you head across the street to Best Buy? Maybe they probably have one on the shelf over there. And Larry in Atlanta asked a good question. Couldn't Apple just pay the royalties? Like why not just pay the royalties? Usually that's not just because they don't want to pay the money because this is costly to go through this fight, but because they don't want to encourage others to come at them either. So they want to make it as painful as possible for you to sue them. All right. On to our next governmental intervention in Apple's business. A group of two U.S. senators and two U.S. representatives, one from each of the major parties, have requested that the U.S. Department of Justice investigate Apple's attempts to block the Beeper and Beeper mini-services from interacting with Apple messages. If you've been following DTNS, you've been following this as well. Android Faithful has been covering it as well. Beeper has countered at least two efforts to block its service. They are trying to let an Android user use Beeper mini to get end-to-end encrypted messaging from Apple messages, originally without even needing an Apple ID. In the latest workaround, you do need to have an Apple ID, but you can still do it, except Apple seems to be blocking around 5% of the cases. And now at least Congress people feel like it will be a good notch in their corner to see it like they're fighting Apple, and they're asking the Department of Justice to investigate. That doesn't mean the Department of Justice will look at this and see that they have a case. Yeah, that's always the kind of thing I think that, in a sense, when you first hear that, you know, you know, like senators are taking interest or the government's taking interest, especially as someone who's probably on Beeper's side of the case. It kind of feels, there's a sense of confidence that does arise, but at the same time, it does more feel like a notch in the butt and like, oh, let's just hop in on this, again, anti-competitive, anti-trust campaign. And I always worry because of the, you know, there's not a lot of engineers in Congress. And so there is a lot of nuance to the story. And obviously, we've been covering it. I've been updating Beeper because I have a little bit of skin in the game. So I do think it's interesting. I don't, I honestly, to be a little bit skeptical or cynical, I do think the attention and the press is good. I don't know what, you know, what lawmakers can actually do in this case, because it's still, I think there's a lot of nuance to this. And we'll just kind of have to see how things shake out. But we did have Eric Mijakowski, co-founder of Beeper on the show like two weeks ago. And I will say at least that from a consumer perspective and a user perspective, and as someone who just has it installed, it does seem like it's an uphill battle, right?   But also that, you know, it's their protocols of proprietary technology. What right does anyone have to reverse engineer it?  And it's kind of weird. And I think it's always like, there's always two sides with technology, especially when technology comes to business. As a developer, I feel like oftentimes we tend to live in a little more idealistic space, especially those of us that work in areas where open source interoperability are kind of a thing. And you kind of get the sense that interoperability and providing more choices for users is an inherent good, is the inherently right thing to do. But that often runs counter to its dang business, you know, they have, you know, specific drives, they have their own specific strategies. And in our, you know, for better, for worse, capitalistic society, that's kind of just how it goes. And you can't necessarily blame a company for wanting to, you know, meet their financial responsibilities to stakeholders. So I think it's really interesting. And I think that if you want to look at it really, you know, positively, you know, the press is good, you know, having, you know, senators and people that ordinary mainstream folks that aren't kind of inundated in like, in the stuff that we are paying attention and draw attention to it is good. And I do believe that Beeper is fighting a good fight in that interoperability is probably a good thing. And just at least putting pressure on, but it does feel just like piggybacking on the cool thing. It's like, Oh, what are the cool kids like, you know, hopping on? Oh, well, you know, Beeper and picking on Apple. So yeah, yeah. I mean, I think Beeper's right, because I've heard Mijakowski say this, that, you know, their best bet is public pressure. Yeah. And so getting a couple senators and a couple representatives across party lines to come out on your side doesn't hurt in that effort. And that is kind of their best bet. When I look at it from Apple side, the only justification I can see for them blocking it is, and I don't think this is reasonable. I don't think it's their only motivation, but I think it would be reasonable to say, well, whatever Beeper has done, albeit in a good cause could be abused by somebody in a bad cause. It's a weakness in our system. We didn't design it to be interoperable. So if they found a way to do that, someone else could use that for bad. So we need to button it up. And that's fair. If it were interoperable by design, then you wouldn't have to worry about it, you know, as much and it wouldn't be a problem to button up security because everybody would be trying to make sure it was secure, including Beeper. So in this case, I feel like it is, Apple is keeping it not interoperable for reasons that I don't find terribly justifiable, because we've seen those emails where they're like, I don't know, but it seems like a really good advantage to have people locked out. We sell a few more iPhones that way. And to me, it's like, okay, but you would still sell, I don't know that, I just don't believe that's an appreciable amount of iPhones. And I think interoperability would actually probably have just as much effect of bringing Android people over to iOS once they were able to do regular messaging with iOS people versus feeling entrenched, like, oh, but if I go there, I could never escape. I do agree with that. And I think that in that's the case they keep making, right, that it's a security issue. And that it's for this, we're fighting for the users as opposed to fighting for our bottom line. And as you said, there is some merit in that as well, you know, that that's not a totally BS statement. But I do agree with you. And I think that at least, you know, just kind of pulling stuff out my butt and as my kind of observations again, as a cog in the wheel, or a cog in the machine, that generally interoperability isn't necessarily just a, you know, public good, but that it gives people freedom and kind of, and that freedom to basically try stuff out and see, you know, what product, what experience do I prefer, and still be able to again, communicate with other people is generally has been good for users. And I think unfortunately, without getting too much into it, is kind of where also the kind of negative, you know, the, the, the tendency for Apple to encourage like the negative campaign, you know, the negative, sorry, a perception of security of Android in general, or just, you know, let, you know, Android just inherently inferior and handling insecure kind of helps to drive the conversation the other way, because that interoperability, or the lack of interoperability is not a bog put a feature. You know, and so I think that, I think that kind of goes along with it. Like, yeah, I do agree interoperability generally, it's just better giving people freedom just gives them the choice, the freedom to choose. And if your product is better, isn't that the idea that they'll choose you instead? Yeah. And Europe's going to make you try to interoperate possibly, you're going to have to keep fighting that just feels easier to have some kind of interoperability, right? Like, I know, and I guess they, they finally agreed to implement RCS. So there's some amount of that. Yeah, we'll see how it goes. I mean, like, I think I definitely said, oh, did heck freeze over, but there's still some question about what that, that implementation will look like, whether it's performative or actual. But yeah, it actually reminds me of a story we covered a little bit ago. And I think this came out in Google V, was it Google, I think it was USB Google where they were going to make the Apple watch interoperable with Android. But and they, I think they got really close, it was like Project Fennel, and they got so close to releasing it.  So let's pull it back a little bit. And I guess, I mean, to me, that's, that's the different case that again, the different product and probably you could argue just it's still a different, you know, there's a lot that's different between like a service and a protocol versus a product. But I, it just, you know, especially as someone with an Android chip on their shoulder, it just feels like that, well, that kind of jives with how I think Apple approaches things. And it makes me a little more sympathetic to Eric and Beeper's mission. So well, folks, this is just one of the stories out there today. We always have tons of stories to talk about. And we love to hear what you would like to hear us talk about on the show, because we're trying to in 30 minutes, give you the most important stuff. So let us know, go to our subreddit, you can submit stories and vote on them at daily tech news show dot Reddit.com. Last week, a jury found Google at fault on 11 antitrust claims related to Epic and keeping Epic from using an independent way of charging and offering apps outside of the Google Play Store. Keep in mind, of course, that Google is going to appeal that ruling. So it's we're not all said and done. But we were curious to talk about what this ruling might mean for Google and Android developers. When does anything change for you yet? You know, how are you looking at this decision? I mean, not yet, but it is something of a lot of interest when, you know, in the case where we would actually be open to it kind of so it has a lot. There's a lot of things that have to happen in different ways. I guess, depending on how things go and how this gets resolved, you know, assuming that Google isn't able to appeal this and then keep, you know, Google Play Store to be like the really the one store to rule them all. And there's like a number of different things. So basically like this, this kind of jives a little bit with some other things that Google has had ruled not in their favor.  Is it Google?  And, um, I think assistant and a few other of these, like, you know, the Google specials that have become increasingly, increasingly proprietary and a lot of kind of like adjacent cases have kind of opened this up. Like I think in India, for example, GMS is going to be less restrictive. You can like, you know, it offers, I think, I might be getting this wrong, but I think it's, it's opening up, for example, the default search engine. So there's a lot of other pieces that fall into this, but even just having and making it viable to have other stores will have a huge impact. Kind of like one example I had from my days working at Trello was for some time, we had, you know, the Google Play, you know, store instance of our app, but we also supported for some time the Amazon App Store. But because the Amazon App Store was its own thing and it did not actually, you know, I assume did not, I know, jive with Google mobile services and you couldn't use again this kind of like Google, you know, Google bundle of SDKs that had things like maps and other, you know, very useful kind of almost table stakes level, you know, services, because you couldn't include that a lot of times when you would have a, an app in the Amazon App Store, you would need to basically block functionality. You would need to either gracefully or ungracefully, you know, try to like omit things from your app. And it ended up being an inferior experience. And not only that, not only was that app more, you know, an inferior experience on the Amazon Store, it also was just more load for us to, you know, update, making sure that it actually ran.   And that's like kind of like the actual, you know, pragmatic, you know, or end result of having this much power and having so much proprietary and so much locked into the Play Store. So I would like to see that if this does not get appealed and things open up, that this kind of forces their hand into making other app stores not just available, but more viable as experiences. And that's like true competition by being able to have your app in other stores. And I mean, like between that and then also kind of like our experiences as Android devs and the big kind of cloudy nebulous that is the Chinese market in terms of Android, and even just being able to have like full experiences and something that kind of kind of, I kept thinking about also is that the Play Store itself is not a devs best friend.  I like the idea of like openness and interoperability. And I think to give the Android original, the Android OG engineering team credit, they wanted to create an open platform.  And that's kind of actually what Google Play Store has felt like as a developer. So a lot of times, you know, in terms of the platform itself, the engineers that we talked to, DevRel, like our day to day life experience as Android developers, it's very open, it's very family, like there's a lot of like kind of give and take.  So a lot of times in Play Store, you might get caught by, you know, a review policy where you know, oh, by the way, your, your account is suspended and there's not a lot you can do about it. And there's very little human intervention. It's actually frightening. I think in the last five years, I've had tons of like other dev friends in our community kind of come across and say, Hey, does anyone have a friend in the Play Store division? Like we need help.  That's like Facebook, YouTube, et cetera. If you get if you get suspended there, good luck trying to find a person. And I think, you know, it's it's weird because it is the business side of it.  The current requirement is that all new personal developer accounts in order for you to release your first app, you have to have a, you have to have 20 beta testers beta test your app for two weeks. And the reaction that I got to that to most of my deaf friends was like, well, that's basically killing indie doubts. And I know that sounds really it's that that's the kind of policy that tends to come out of Play Store a lot. Like there's pressure on them to, you know, increase security and privacy to reduce malware and bad actors. And so there's a lot of pressure on them, especially now as a 10, you know, almost 15 year old, you know, entity to grow up to, hey, like, you know, Apple doesn't have these problems. They have a walled garden. So it's starting to kind of the feeling is that we need to shift to be more adult, to being more secure. And so in my opinion, a lot of these policies are coming out of that. But again, this is a policy that hurts personal debt. It is really hard to find as a personal death, like one person, 20 people to test your app for two weeks.  It's like, like there's no there's no security gate. But there's a huge like speed bump. And you're driving a very low slung 1985 Toyota. And you're not sure if you're going to make it over the speed bump or not. Yeah. Everybody else's in Land Rover's as they fly by you. Yeah, there's nothing we can do because really Google Play Store, if you want to make money as an Android dev, that's, that's where you're going to be. And that's where again, and that's if you want, you'd use Google Maps, you have to be on Google Play services. So what I would like to see is that this to not be appeal and for there to be an actual examination of what all this means and to actually, I don't know, for if anything for Google to just be straight on, okay, here's where the platform ends. And here's where the business begins. And, you know, I mean, and for it to be, I don't know, just give developers an actual choice, because these are not choices. Like, these are not choices. I think you pointed out very, very correctly. And folks should pay attention to this that it's not just whether there is a decision, whether it's by regulation or this court case, that that Google has to allow third party app stores. It's also can apps use Google mobile services, can actually use Google Play services. And if so, with what restrictions versus somebody in the Play Store, that that's more important than just letting there be a third party app store. It's absolutely. And that was always the thing that I think I remember the week I remember the week that Google Maps became a proprietary SDK, rather than an open API. And that even that felt very on Android like and that, you know, and again, like, yeah, they can say that they're they're competing and they can say that other, you know, that there's no, you know, monopoly of the Play Store. But let's face facts, if you are, you know, some kind of service, like a ride share, if you're, you know, any kind of any kind of apps that need location, Google Maps is the thing. Like, like to be fair, most other solutions are, you know, not bad, but it's what people rely on is what people are used to. And it's, it's not, yeah, it's, it's, it's not a decision. So I would love to see, and I do, there are hints that some of these proprietary APIs are getting loosened. Part of it is kind of a fragmentation thing. It makes it easier. But I would like to see some of these proprietary services and things that, again, while not to the letter restrictive, but practically restrictive to devs be kind of set free again. Yeah, yeah. Google Maps. Whether and whether they, they win or lose the case, there is going to be pressure for them to change behavior. So something is probably going to change. We just have to wait and find out what it is. One great place to find out what is happening in this sort of situation is Android Faithful. When I know you're doing that and a lots of other stuff, where can folks go to find out what you're doing? Well, you can find us actually here on DTNS. So we stream Android Faithful rather every Tuesday night at 5 p.m. Pacific and 8 p.m. Eastern. And we are your weekly source for the latest news hardware and apps in the wide wonderful of Android. We talk about Beeper. We talk about all of these various cases that Google is going through and how it affects us as Android Faithful. And you can find us here on Twitch and on YouTube live. Yeah, twitch.tv slash good day internet youtube.com slash daily tech news show and androidfaithful.com. I'm so bad. I'm a terrible host, but androidfaithful.com and you can find us on your favorite pod catcher. Indeed. Just put it in that little search box. If you're a patron of Daily Tech News Show, stick around for the extended show, Good Day Internet. 2023 was kind of the year of the foldable. We've had went on talking about that before, but it's not all Samsung. We're going to talk about who else is doing foldables well. Maybe some names you haven't heard of and what to expect from the form factor in 2024. You can also catch the show live Monday through Friday, 4 p.m. Eastern 2100 UTC. Find out more Daily Tech News Show dot com slash live back tomorrow. Talk to you then. This show is part of the Frog Pants Network. Get more at frogpants.com.


This time of year, the holidays, I always see my friends and their friends on the internet talking about how they dread this time of year because it's so stressful. Specifically because of their families and what they have to endure. The anxiety and the depression and the guilt and the just plain hurt that they feel is really crushing and it's the worst time of year for them. This is a message for those people. I want to say to you don't go this year. Just don't go. It's not specifically about this year. It is about this year but not only about this year. I wanted to record this last year but I didn't sit down and get my act together and do it. Unfortunately those individuals who suffer the most from the family abuse during the holidays are also the ones who would suffer the most guilt from not going. I want to tell you don't feel the guilt. The abuse comes from your family but the guilt is coming from you and you need to turn it off and feel better about yourself and the first step toward that is to just not go. The reason I'm recording this is because I think there are people who just need to hear somebody say it. Those of you out there who know somebody who needs to hear it, who you've tried to talk to about it before, send them the link to this video and let me say it. I really do think it would help to hear a stranger say it on the internet. Just don't go. Show some love for yourself this year.  They're not just being themselves and you happen to be in the way. They look forward to this every year. They clap their hands together and say oh boy I'm gonna get to do it to her again this year and when you're not in the room they punch each other in the shoulder and say boy we really got her that time you need to believe me because it's specifically about you and hurting you. The one most effective thing that you can do to disappoint them is to simply remove yourself. It will do wonders for you and it will disappoint them and they don't like that. Just contact the family member who hosts these holiday events or someone close to them either call them or send them a lengthy email or whatever and just tell them that you're not coming and tell them why.  They are abusive to me every year it's always been that way and I'm finally putting my foot down standing up for myself and I won't be there. Those members of your family who really love you and understand you will support you in this. They will understand. They will say good for you and the ones who say good for you you should invite them to come see you this year and the family members who say oh but you can't do that. This is family you can't do that. They are not being considered of you and you need to take note of that because in addition to the most abusive members of your family all the other members of your family have not been standing up for you all this time. They have not been helping when they could have been and they should have been and you don't need to go spend holidays with somebody else with some friends family or whatever. I've done that before and that's really uncomfortable. That's actually worse. So spending some alone time on the holidays is not a bad thing. I mean wouldn't you rather be alone for a little while rather than wishing you were alone. The friends and family who really love you and understand you will support you on this. So do it this year and if you can't take this advice from a friend or from a relative then take it from me a stranger who is saying it out loud on YouTube. Have a happy holiday and do something for yourself this year okay.


Awesome. Welcome to another 12pm tutorial. This tutorial will teach you how to access the Tor Relay network in an area where Tor has been blocked by connecting to a Tor Bridge Relay. Tor Bridge Relays, also referred to simply as bridges, are relays that are not publicly listed in the Tor network. This makes them ideal for reconnecting to the Tor network if it has been blocked in your area. Now that you know what the Bridge Relays are, let me show you how to use them. First, make sure you have the Tor software installed on your computer. Having access to a Bridge Relay without the Tor software isn't going to help anybody. If you need to know how to download and install Tor, you can view my how to use Tor tutorial at bit.ly-9u-d3-n9. Once you have the software, you can go to www.torproject.org-slash-bridges to read about using Bridge Relays to access Tor. Let's go there now. Go ahead and take a moment to read over the information on this page. Once you're ready to move on with the tutorial, minimize your browser and start the Tor software. Go to Settings. Click the Network tab. Now check the box that says My ISP blocks connections to the Tor network. A dialog box called Add a Bridge will appear. This box is where you will type in bridges and where you will see all the bridges you have added. It is always better to have more bridges because the more you have, the less chance you will be disconnected from the Tor service if one of the bridges is blocked. The simplest way to get a Tor Bridge is to click the button Find Bridges Now. Another simple way to get a Tor Bridge is to open up your browser and go to bridges.torproject.org. The bridges listed here will change every couple of days in order to allow access to the Tor network after these get blocked. The last way to get a list of Tor Bridges is to open a Gmail account and use it to send an email to bridges.torproject.org with Get Bridges in the Subject line. It is important to remember that Tor will only send bridge relays to people who send this request from Gmail. This is Tor's way of minimizing the number of relays that get blocked by securing the information behind Gmail's standard HTTPS encryption. Check your inbox a few minutes after the email is sent and you will have received an email from Tor with a number of bridge relays. Copy and paste each of these relays into the Add a Bridge dialog box and click the green plus sign to add the bridge to the rest of the list. Tor will automatically use these relays to access Tor so long as you have a check mark next to MyISP blocks connections to the Tor network. Once you're done adding relays, click OK. Now you know how to use bridge relays to access Tor.


It's DDK, and I'm back today with another video. Huge house you put your name in. If you're not subscribed, go and subscribe, but give me a thumbs up and do not skip those ads if you want us to get to this bag. In today's video, guess what? We will be doing our first order on an app called Curry. Curry, Curry, Curry. And guess what, baby? I've been waiting a long time to do this app called Curry. Before we even get to the video, I wanna say huge, huge shout out to my God Craig over there at Curry because he reached out to me, threw a video and got me in. So we're about to go ahead and get these ends. Let's go. Now, for this order, we are gonna pick up 1,875 pounds. We're gonna drive 6.5 miles and we're gonna receive a payment of $50.07. Enough money to pay the rent. Hey, again, I told you guys before, look, I don't know what I'm doing, baby, but we're gonna keep on pursuing. Hey, and if you hate it, I don't know what you're doing. Let's go. And just like that, we are here at the pickup location. We are actually at the towel shop, baby. I ain't know where we's going. The towel shop, baby. Hopefully got the drone ready so we can keep it steady, double back after they let me. You know what I'm all, trying to get this money, understand me. Understand me. And just so you guys know, I am like 16 minutes early. So I came at 7.44, I said 80 clock. How you doing, sir? I'm gonna have a pickup for Ali. I'm not sure how to pronounce the last name. A-L-J-A-N-N-A-B-I, the last name. Well, it's the order number. Okay, it's my first. Ali is the guy that sets them up. Purchase order 2204-6204. 6204. That one there. This one? These two are together. That's the whole different service. Okay, it's this one. Let me take a picture of that. We gotta hit it with the photo guys. Just man. Let's go. I already had to move them up, baby. Move them up? I don't know. Just like that, we are here at the drop off location for those who hate. We trying to be great and we trying to escape. You know what I'm talking about? Don't get me doggie doggie. I don't want no problem. Hey doggie. It's two of them joints big too. Definitely not small. How are you? How are you doing? I'm here with your towel shop order. Towel shop order? Oh, can you come around the back? Okay. I'll open the gate. Okay, so how do I get back there? I'm gonna go down this row or? I would say the best way would be, I mean you can either go around right around here or right around there. This turns a little steeper sometimes. Okay. Into our driveway. So probably go this way. I think that's what I would do. Okay, go there. Okay. Do I have a gate? No. All right, thank you. No, thank you. Good luck with that. Thank you very much, sir. I'm gonna need it, huh? Yeah.  Yeah, there you go. Yeah. Thank you too. All right, so you got a good one. It was real, baby, y'all. Hey, y'all just saw we just got busy with our first order on Curry. And hey, I'm gonna tell you guys the truth. Do I think that order was worth it? Honestly, no, it was not worth it. But I'm gonna say this. It was a great learning experience and we would not know if we liked the orders or not unless you try, baby. I do feel like that the payouts would have been better for that order but the drive to mile ratio, the drive ratio was absolutely amazing, baby. Six miles for $51. And it really only took us like 10 minutes to unload that joint and she was telling some customers to help me unload it, baby. Now, we're gonna get into first, how do you sign up for Curry? Cause I know you wanna know, baby. Everybody wanna know how you sign up. This is how you sign up.  Once you get in there, you're gonna type in Curry. C-U-R-R-I, not Y, but C-U-R-R-I. C-U-R-R-I.  Now, with signing up, they're only gonna ask you like five questions. That's gonna be the end, baby. You're not gonna hear from them for a while, from my experience.  So then you're gonna do the background check. Then you're gonna have to wait again. After you wait again, then they gonna let you get in.  Now, I do wanna say this. You guys need to be patient with Curry because there was a lot of people trying to get in there and I run into people all the time that are trying to get in the app. But it could be just because of our area. So they are expanding every single day.  So now let's get into it. Curry has multiple different types of orders. They actually have three different types. Number one is a rush order. A rush order is urgent and immediate pickup. And I do think that when you have those rush orders, you're gonna get paid way more for instance that. You see that right there, baby? $200 for 107 miles. Hey, I could have went wow, but guess what? I was actually dealing with that Dolly order. There was a scam, baby. If you haven't watched that video, go watch that video. Now, the second type of delivery is a scheduled delivery.  So why don't you pick that joint up? You need to jump it right off and don't play no game. And last but not least, you have a same day delivery. It is to be picked up at the time booked by the customer and to be delivered within a window of time. So you can pick that joint up at seven, eight, nine o'clock. You can ride around and get it. And maybe you have to drop it off by five. And you can drop it off by five. You can go out there and get busy with other apps. You can go back, drop that joint off and get that cake. Now we're gonna get into the driver's expectation. We must say expectation for those who ain't, baby. You must set the expectation, baby. Now, number one is recommended to wear closed-toe shoes or work boots, work pants, polos, buttoned-down work shirts or work appropriate T-shirts, baby. So what they mean is you cannot go pick up a big order from the towel shop and be in there with thrown-toe shadows on the delivery stuff. Why don't you do that? Now, what is gonna happen when that towel falls on your toe? What's gonna happen? You have to go to the hospital. Number two, query will notify you when a delivery becomes available in your area. Number three, before claiming a delivery, make sure your vehicle is properly equipped and has a full tank of gas.  So you riding around and stuff that's flying all around in the back. Hey, get it together. We trying to get to the channel. Now that we got that situated, you don't have thrown-toe shoes on, you have all equipment you need and you have a full tank of gas in your new E-class. We now have to go to the pick up. Most orders can be picked up at a location's wheel call. Hey, if you see a doctor, pull right there, baby.  Pull through the door so you can get that door. Give them your order number and double check driver notes to confirm the items. Make sure you have the right items. Be professional. Customer reviews can impact your driver's core. Make sure you are professional. Hey, don't be already being rude, having attitude and all that stuff. I know it's hot and all that.  Also, organize and secure your payloads to get your pockets on slow. Make sure you strap the stuff in if you have to strap it in. And if you have to put it in the car, make sure it is in a secure location. Hey, make sure everything's right. And last but not least, you are gonna upload clear pictures of the delivery to the Curry app. Make sure the pictures are clear, baby. You wanna cover yourself at all times while you're on the grind. Now, we left the pickup already. A contact and phone number can usually be found in the drop-off notes. So, they're gonna get you with the phone number in case you gotta give them a call. Oh, you do gotta give them a call. Call the drop-off contact before you arrive for a smooth delivery, which I should have done, but I did not.  I should have read this before I went and did that. Then, you are gonna upload clear photos of the items and its surroundings.  But make sure you can see everything around it so they cannot say it did not receive their order. Always capture the name and signature of the individual you leave the items with.  If the customer is not available for a signature, contact their Curry team. So, you can get that green, baby. Do not drop the stuff and just leave it and don't let nobody know. Make sure you contact them if you have any issues. Now, we are gonna get into something very important that people always ask me about all these different apps I do. What about the payout? Hey, if you need to take notes, it's about to be fast. We're about to get this cast. The payout, Curry uses an algorithm based on mileage, vehicle type, and a variety of other factors to calculate a pay. Now, listen very closely. Delivery payments are automatically scheduled for 11 a.m. PST, the following business day. So, if you did an order on Monday, the next day at 11 PST, you will receive your payment, baby. Now, this is really about to blow your mind. They also have a instant payout available if you have added a debit card on your profile. So, if you put your debit card in there, hey, instant payout, why are we doing that money right in there, baby? And they also have a feature where you can see the status of your earnest. All you gotta do is click earnest in the app, and they're gonna tell you everything you need to know so you can go out there and scope. And that is everything you need to know to sign up for Curry. Getting so much money, your vision blurry, baby. I'm talking about money so tall, you can't see nothing but money. You think like, can I see? Can I see that money? Hey, that money's stacked up so high. We going to the sky, baby. But I hope you guys enjoyed this video. And before we go, I wanted you guys to know this. I told you guys earlier in the video that the order I just did was not worth it. But I also, at the same time, showed you that again, baby, 107 miles for $200. Come up below and let me know if you do that order because I definitely would do it, baby. We ain't even a question about it. If I did not have the other order, I would have took it and ran to get them bands, baby. But I hope you guys enjoyed this video. Again, if you're not subscribed, go and subscribe button. Give me a thumbs up and do not skip those ads. And like it tomorrow so you can get to this bad. Why we can get to this bad? Because 2023 is big bag season. We hope you won't get my reason. I'll see you guys on next one.  You already know the DDK and I'm on my way.


With the price of rent increasing in Boston rapidly people are desperate to find roommates to split the cost of rent with When desperate times call for desperate measures though people bring in more roommates in the apartment can hold often leading to overcrowding Yeah, so I live in a five bedroom apartment and couldn't honestly get really crowded sometimes with things like hanging out my jacket on the rack Like sometimes there's not enough space or even like in the fridge. There's not enough space sometimes on the shelves Even though getting a studio with a roommate was a good idea when it comes to cost It still is like very overwhelming and overcrowded inside the building It's supposed to be meant for one person and to have two people in our stuff is crammed And it definitely can be overwhelming at some times the average price of rent in the United States is $1,245 the average price of rent in Boston, Massachusetts though is $3,450 the difference in those numbers is truly shocking especially to students who are notoriously known for being on a very tight budget There was a recent survey about the most expensive cities to live in in the United States And I think Boston was in the top five New York. I think it's still number one San Francisco was up there, Los Angeles Houston, Texas randomly, but yeah, Boston is up there in the top five Apartment hunting season is already underway for Boston University students are going to secure housing for next year Reporting from my very own Boston apartment bedroom, Chloe Botanic for BUTV news