He'll be speaking from Buenos Aires and we'll be talking about Millet, we'll be talking about his policies, we'll be talking about what he's already done, what the economist expects him to do. Ivan will be explaining all this, he's a good guy, he's quite articulate, good English, and it should be a fascinating show, so I hope you'll join us. Next Thursday, your Unbook show at 6 p.m. East Coast time.


I'll have a loud kisses back Hey there guys, this is my new place So yeah, um, this is the wall for now This may grow when I go keep going back and forth between my houses. Anyways, so tonight or this today I guess there's review would normally be a supernatural review But I couldn't find anyone to watch the newest episode, but of course the story episode So I decided to rent a movie from the video store. Yeah, no kidding. There is actually a video store here That is the oldest one possibly in BC. Anyway, the film I watched was Legends and I really wanted to see this film mainly because I like the idea of Tom Hardy playing two dualities And supposedly there was so much effort put into his two his different characters Is that whenever he would do a scene with as one of the craze He would then switch over to the other one But it'd take him two hours to switch it and I admit that would be a pisser for crew Either way this film was actually pretty It was different that was something I definitely commended it for for being a different sort of gangster film Usually we see the rise and fall and this film is similar in a sense But doesn't really talk about the criminal enterprise it talks about Reggie and his relationship with his girlfriend Francis and basically how Ron Screwed everything up. Now admittedly there are some moments in this film that are very disjointed At one point Reggie goes to jail for something and you don't know what it is and the other aspect of the film That is a little bit disjointed is the entire criminal enterprise We get literally a sentence of what they do and that's it You really don't know much of the criminal enterprise They do from what you see on this on the in the film aside from a few very criminal acts They don't really do anything like in those criminal acts are like the there's a few people who are killed and Decides that you really don't see these guys as gangsters And that's possibly one thing that I commend the film for is while it isn't going the route that we're normally seen with Gangster films it is Different and that's something that I liked about it admittedly the humor was very funny There was a lot of very good jokes that I cannot repeat because they are very offensive But they admittedly they were very good jokes and I did like the two different dualities of the characters And one thing that I found very interesting was that despite how violent and how Idiotic and how he basically ruined everything. I actually liked Tom Hardy's version of Ronald Cray and the reason why is because we were all the madness through all the stupidity He still had shining moments of a humanity And that was something that I don't know if it was a part of the actual character of the actual person But I did enjoy those aspects and I thought that was very interesting because I understood why Reggie didn't want to kill his brother despite the fact that he was destroying everything and to see this criminal enterprise rise and fall Theoretically because of the actions of these two brothers was very cool to watch and even Paul Bettany's in it for like 20 minutes And he was actually pretty funny too. However, there are like I said, this film is very disjointed. There is a moment where Dr. Who Chris Eccleston is in the movie the beginning and then he doesn't appear to the end and you really didn't get that It starts halfway through but you don't get that because it's just how the narration is going with Francis And I actually liked Emily Brown if that's an Emily Brown and then there's also a Kingsman kid I would look up his name right now and at ten tenon, but I don't have internet Which by the way, that's gonna be a very funny thing about this whole review system Anyways, so while legends does have its issues. I actually enjoyed it for being something different and I commend it for that So in the end my rating for legends is a five out of seven Yes, that's the picture of the box art because I can't download the photo which brings me to my issue I have shit internet It's awful I Didn't think of that when I got this amazing place And admittedly I'm gonna have to make do I go to the cafe every morning every day I finish work to Realign myself with the world and maybe that's what's gonna happen with these reviews I'm gonna do a review and I won't really be able to upload it until I go into the office the next morning, so Apologies in advance Anyway guys, I hope you enjoy this review and there will be more coming and eventually when I get to see Supernatural I'll let you know anyway. See you guys later


The most common problems students in Mongolia face when learning English. English language learners at high school and college levels in Mongolia face a variety of structural and cultural difficulties that often prevent them from moving beyond an intermediate or even low level in spoken and written English. This post will look at a few of the core issues and examine some of the ways to help improve the type of instruction provided in Mongolia that could prove beneficial for future language students. The issues facing students and teachers. First and foremost, teacher training in areas like lesson planning, teacher, student talk time, impromptu speaking and writing activities, and classroom management needs to be improved. This problem stems directly from the outdated and completely unsuitable Soviet style teaching methods still employed by many schools and universities through which students passively sit in silence and listen to the lecture provided by teachers. Also, at the core of what must be changed to see improvement across the country should be a comprehensive, multi-sectoral review and revision of existing standard English teaching curricula. To understand the current situation with Teflon Mongolia, however, it is necessary to understand how English language teaching was launched in the country. Brief History of English Teaching in Mongolia One of the first reforms made in the newly democratic Mongolian nation in the early 1990s was the official transition to English and away from Russian, as the primary foreign language taught in all secondary schools and institutions of higher learning. Unfortunately, this shift in foreign language instruction was conducted in a rushed manner, without a longer term planning perspective, and without the proper resources to ensure success. Basically, teachers of Russian were told by the Ministry of Education that they would now be required to either teach English in addition to Russian or to only teach English, and that through a short eight-week certification class, they could easily make this switch. This hasty and haphazard approach was not effective. Many of the teachers, some still teaching today, never mastered even the basics of spoken or written English, and the students were in even worse shape. Lessons consisted of rote memorization of vocabulary, often mispronounced through thick Russian accents, construction of sentences in the simple grammatical tenses, that is present simple, past simple, etc., basic and standard greetings with no room for any variation, and with little to no reading are actual creative conversation. Lack of Creative Thinking and Resources One of the core problems with Teflon instruction in Mongolia is the absence of interactive classrooms that promote student participation, creative thinking, and the expression of independent ideas. During the immediate post-Soviet era, there were also no standard Tefl texts in existence in the country. Not only were teachers unprepared, underdrained, and less than enthusiastic about teaching Tefl, they also had no resources available and little idea of how to teach a living language in a classroom, even if they had been motivated to do so. Things have improved over the last 20 odd years, largely down to the influx of foreign Tefl instructors during that interim, but there is still much room for improvement. The Problem of Self-Tought English In modern Mongolia many young people do speak and write in English, but that has little to do with the classroom learning provided in that language and more to do with the availability of English language content on the internet. The problem, however, with students learning English from movies, television programs, and social media content is that it is overwhelmingly informal and riddled with vulgarity and imperfection. This also puts the teachers in the awkward position of feeling less confident of their mastery of the language, based on their own limited formal education in English compared to their much younger students. In short, teacher training in Tefl must be improved. This can be facilitated by a focus on the Engage Study Activate, ESA, structure of a lesson through which a student group first has their interest in the topic of the lesson peaked by the teacher, then is taught the core material, that is grammar point, lesson vocabulary, usage, etc., in a straightforward manner, and is then allowed to make use of the material learned through pair activities, group activities, or independent student activities. The ESA method. The ESA model emphasizes a balance between student talk time and teacher talk time, with a focus on allowing students as much time as possible to express themselves verbally in English. It also involves advanced lesson planning so time is not wasted during lessons with the teacher, back turn to the students, writing on the board or overhead projector, and on having visual and eye catching, but easily understandable materials to appeal to students from a variety of different learning styles. ESA also strongly emphasizes effective communication between instructor and students, partially through building a friendly and comfortable rapport. None of these elements are formally taught in present-day Mongolian teachers' TEFL courses, and to make such a change, that would incorporate the ESA model for all language learners, would involve a frank and objective review of all current teacher training for TEFL conducted in Mongolia. TEFL Curriculum TEFL Curriculum in today's Mongolia is a hodgepodge of poorly written, produced texts for various levels, of which there are never enough, that are filled with high levels of amateurish mistakes. This means that there is no real and accepted, high-quality standard text for any of the levels of language learners in Mongolia, and no standardization across the different levels of TEFL learners in the country. A complete and objective effort to review all TEFL instruction texts needs to be undertaken, and this should be done over an extended length of time and in partnership with reputable international TEFL accreditation and or curriculum development experts and the local English language teachers Association of Mongolia. Hope for the future. However, all is not lost, and as Mongolia becomes more integrated into the regional East Asian, and global, economies people are waking up to the fact that the actual and functional mastery of English, rather than a passing score on a grade report, is what is needed for the nation to effectively participate on the international stage. The good news is that there are many native English language speakers in Mongolia who are informing the conversation on effective TEFL teaching and learning, either on a paid or volunteer basis. Also many teachers, especially younger ones, are demanding improved coursework and curricula development for themselves and their students. In short, despite some very serious and entrenched cultural roadblocks that are mainly holdovers from Soviet teaching and learning models, change has begun and will most likely continue apace with regard to improvement of TEFL instruction in Mongolia. Are you interested in improving English language standards across the world? Speak with an ITTT advisor today to put together your personal plan for teaching English abroad. Send us an email or call us toll free at 1-800-490-0531 to speak with an ITTT advisor today.


at 82 and still resides in the home where she's lived the majority of her life. Inside vivid photos capture her early career in wild times in Las Vegas, costumes, vintage posters, and other memorabilia from her films adorn the walls, with each item representing a glamorous moment from her life's work. While the interior is straight out of old Hollywood, the 5,400 square foot house has been renovated to include four spacious bedrooms and four luxury bathrooms. The two-story floor plan flows seamlessly between modern upgrades as well as vintage architecture. Outside the property sprawls over three acres of land. Mature oak and sycamore trees provide total privacy and seclusion, and a large pool shimmers in the California sun. According to sources, this home is probably now worth around $9 million. Fran Margaret, this Benedict Canyon Oasis is perfection.


What's up guys and welcome to Trendy Update, hapa SPM buzz. Now, TikToker by the name Oloibon, ame nda kwenye social media ka sema, single mothers are the best women to marry right now.  Lakin ni pali kwenye TikToker, Oloibon, ane za ku trend na komen section pali imewaka mojoko sababu, single mothers oku pali wana kubaliana na iye. Lakin ni pali kwenye oto ane za sema game hianzi 1-0, lazi ma hianze 0-0. Lakin ni ni kengali apia survey ame ilifanoa last year 2021 in Oktober, ina sema according to the survey, a Kenyan woman has 59.5% chance of being a single mother by the age of 45, either through premarito or by the ama through dissolution of union, ama divorce, ama separation. Nako yoni kuma nisha, 6 out of every 10 Kenyan women are likely to be single mothers by the age of 45. Siju imbona, you know the percentage is increasing day by day. Baba wa hawa, tuto wa kwa api, why is it increasing? Let us know on the comment section, lakin ni back to the TikToker. Ile video ya Oloibon, ane za ku ifanya pali.  Na onikipiti ya comments pali kwa TikToker Oloibon, shikoketa na muambia Oloibon, a kunye kwa yangu, yani kwa bili yangu. Mujuli na nasema marry me, ama single mother. Eish, Oloibon ame patam chumba pali TikToker. Mungine imesha kame muambia tokoni o Bihaf Bro, a kuna game 1-0. Obvious. Uiwa na onekana kubali ane na yo story, then na zipi ane na sema ama single mother, where do I drop my CV? Dekuna baros ma lava na sema ama living testimony 100% true. Then ka sej angesa na sema, sayi hakuna muwanam kameiva na hanam toi ala. Uwana ume piya hukutu mezalishana single moms are the best. Lakini mi miswali nige tagahuku Lisa, where are the fathers of these kids kwa sababu? Ojo muwanam kia kwa single mother bila baba, bila mpenzi wa yua. I would like to know, what is it contributing to the increasing of single mothers in the country? What is the problem? Nii ma dem Shida, nii ma Charlie Shida, to sayi de ane pali kwa comments section, na niki ma Lizia kwa commenta pali na ona ya Kevo Kainza na sema single mother to mefikiwa. He somehow speaks sense, but again, the choice is yours vijana. Na akuma Lizia ki mani, anase ma niga just wants to smash. Kama munyem toto alile mewa weweninani. Aya. Okay basi, ni ambi e pali down on the comments section, do you agree with what Oloibona said that single mothers are the best breed to marry right now? In the meantime, kipi 20 upgrades hapa SPM bars. kipi 20 upgrades hapa SPM bars.


The Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security Senator Abu Bakar Kiari expressed deep concern on Monday highlighting the lack of accurate data for farmers as the pivotal issue adversely affecting agricultural programs in Nigeria. During his presentation to the National Assembly Joint Committee on Agriculture, the minister underscored that the primary hurdle faced by the ministry is the absence of clean data for farmers. He also emphasized that corruption within the sector significantly undermines food security in the country. The age is, the card is, the what-have-you for the geographical information systems. Let us move away from doing that for properties. Let us do it for all sorts of farmers. So now we have a map, it may take a while, but let us start from somewhere. And without doing that, we will never get our inputs to the right person at the right time. And this is what I've been trying to do. I'm happy that you have raised the issue of delivery at the right time. Part of the 2023 supplementary is to make sure that our, because every time the year's budget is passed before it's released, farming, well-seasoned, asteptic, and delivery of farm inputs that usually come in late. So we're happy that in the 2023 supplementary budget that we have passed, as President has signed into law, we have provision for the provision of some of the well-seasoned inputs. He acknowledged the ministries on the funding and pledged the National Assembly's support to help meet the aspirations of Nigerians with the agricultural sector. Hello, hope you enjoyed the news. Please do subscribe to our YouTube channel and don't forget to hit the notification button so you get notified about fresh news updates.


panel discussion. I'll just quickly say a few words and get the panelists started with introduction. The way, so the broad topic here is, is it agility or is it fragility in disguise? I've been working with agile development for a while. I go around the world, help companies try to implement agile development and develop certain opinions and observations. Fred, please come on in and let's get you a chair. And so one of the things that's been really interesting to observe is agile used to be something that a few companies and organizations tried over the years. But now there is a mass adoption and and anything gets to that level. People are gonna try different things. One of the things I've observed over the years, I'm a programmer by trade and back in time I remember how we almost endlessly argued if objectoriedness is gonna work or not. And it took a long time for us to realize what it is and get better at it. And then as we did we kind of still are struggling to a certain extent but most of us have taken the time to learn, try, fail and then learn. In a way that I see that process goes through a similar transition where there are people who are successful then huge number of people come on in and then they try and then they fail, they succeed and then they learn from their experience over time. But what I noticed over several projects that I observed is that companies are trying to be agile and when I walk into companies they immediately tell me they're agile. But my concern really is not what they do but really what they get out of it. Are they succeeding with it? So that's kind of the stage for this particular panel. I'd like the panelists to take a few minutes, introduce themselves, who they are and while they're doing that I want you to be thinking about questions. I'm sure the panel is much rather here your questions than my canned questions. So I'll let the panelists introduce, come up with your first question as you do. I got a microphone for you when you're ready so please. So just talk about myself a little bit? Yes please. Okay. So I'm Dave Hoover. I live in Chicago, learned about extreme programming back in when Kent, probably a year after Kent Beck wrote the white book and then aspired to be a thought worker for a couple years and then finally slipped in the back door and got to work there for a couple years. After that I couldn't, I can't do the sort of travel rigmarole that they value and take advantage of so much. So I joined a small consultancy in Chicago. We grew that to about 50 people. The company was called up Tiva and then it was


And welcome to Desk of Lady Eta. Hey everybody and welcome to a Sunday night Desk of Lady Eta broadcasting at Lady Eta Clock, which right now is 10-ish. It's me, Lady Eta, this in my desk, with me, Mr. Lady Eta on camera control. Hi. Hi. So we've got, you know, some stuff to show off this week. Do we have any news and updates? News and updates this week. We have our usual set of shows and don't forget on Wednesdays now we have discount codes on Ask an Engineer because we're able to do that now. And that's eight o'clock to nine o'clock Eastern time. We have show and tell this week. We have JPs, product pick of the week. We have known Pedro's 3D Hangouts and then Scott's offer two weeks for deep dives, but you'll also be able to tune into JPs workshop on Thursday. So that's this week and more. What are you working on this week? Okay. Well, let's, you wanna show the calculator first? Yeah. I mean, I'll explain this a little bit. Okay. So one of the cool things that's going on right now is Python is being used in schools. And schools, maybe this isn't the so cool part. There is standardized testing and all the standardized tests that use these calculators. People are familiar with these HP calculators, TI calculators, Casio has one, WeStock one from NumWorks and all of them, all of them are now adding Python because Python is the most popular programming languages for kids. And so this is the new TI-84 Python edition. And this will be in the US soon. We got one from the UK, a little ahead of time. And it has... It's in German too. It has a European version of it. And France has already like said, Python's the future. We're doing everything Python, Python, Python, Python. So the cool thing about this one is this has a fork of circuit Python. We didn't know about this. They didn't ask us. We didn't tell them to do it. But we heard about it and we're like, that's really cool. So I have a set of... It's like bonkers cables, like a link cable. I have a set of questions that I sent over to TI. They're gonna send it over to their developers who worked on this. We're gonna find out why they chose a fork of circuit Python, what all of the things it can do. And this is kind of an unboxing. So this video will get five million views. But for calculator folks is a big deal. And then for circuit Python folks, it's a big deal too.  Yeah, this is kind of cool. So yeah, you can connect to your computer and you can do stuff. But let's just try it out. So this is the calculator. This comes with a case under the protector. Can I remove it Phil, or should I keep it on? Yeah, this is the unboxing. So now it's okay. That's great. This is super cool. That's nice. All right. Okay, so you turn it on with this on button here comes up and it says, I get shortcut menu, catalog. Okay, let's just click two for continue. And then now you're in like the normal calculator mode. So I can do like eight plus five. So like it's a nice graphical color TFT. Did you have to use any specific calculator in MIT? I was in grade and high school, I was specifically prohibited by my dad for having a graphing calculator. Really? I was not allowed in my household. Yep. Wow. I could have a calculator, but not a graphing calculator. And then at MIT, because I never had a graphing calculator, I just never got one. I did have the TI, there's a really great scientific engineering calculator that I had MIT. And I went through like three of them because I used them constantly and they were really, I don't remember the exact number off the top of my head, but it was definitely a TI calculator. And they were like, it was the one that was sold at the coop. Yeah. It was just like a nice long, it was a single-digit calculator. You know what I mean? It's for Wolfram to do a internet connected calculator that just like, it's a cloud calculator that's tied into Wolfram. Yeah. Right? I'm surprised it hasn't happened. I just used the Wolfram app on Android or iOS. Yeah. That could be it. Yeah. It's kind of like, once you have internet, you're like, you might want to talk. Yeah, I may as well, but it's kind of cool now. Okay. So next step, let's go to Python mode, which I'm trying to remember how you get into it. Just graph. You have to say Python three times. Python, Python, Python. So there's like all this plotting stuff. Yeah. You showed me some graphing on this before. Yeah. Now, of course, I'm trying to remember how I did it. Oh my goodness, I don't remember. Yeah. Well, you got into the mode before. Yeah. How was that? Did you read the book? No, I didn't. I just like typed something in. Maybe it was catalog. I think you have to do like a function key to. Yeah, there's the function key. Unfortunately, there's so many buttons. Well, yeah, it's a calculator. Let's see. I don't know where I'm at. I feel a little silly because I totally don't remember how I did it. Hold on. Like I totally practiced doing everything else, right? Hang out with us as we explore calculators. Yeah, plotting data, creating a menu. As we plot. Screen display, using mode, mode, math, radian. Oh, it was under apps, I think. Does it have TikTok? Yeah. But how did I get into the apps? Control C. Using menu. You can access many functions on the home page by selecting from menu. So from menu, select map. I feel a little silly. Well, just the unboxing. Yeah, but like there's too many mode. Mode? No, this is. Is it a synth? Is it a mode? Program, program. All right, focus back in on the calculator because all right, look at us. Don't worry, we'll clear that up and edit. No, it's fine. All right, so if you have to hit program, which is program, which is right here, hit that.  So maybe that's what I did. And then you hit enter. Great, Python app. And now we are in the Python app. Python app. So in this, you can put over the right a little bit. Like that? Well, yeah, look over here. Move it over a little bit. Sorry, yeah, I forgot that there's an inset. Yeah, OK, so this is, you can actually, so this is, you can go to files. So there's three files that come with it by default. There's the hello world, which is kind of what you expect. And then you can go into alpha lock mode and you can say, let's type in. And then one other thing, if you just search for TI-84. Yeah. TI-84 and Adafruit. You'll see my blog post about this. So there's a blog post that details all of this stuff. And we found out a couple of weeks ago, we got a calculator from the UK. These will be for US students soon. And then we'll have an interview with the TI dev team soon. Yeah, so this is the file itself. So you can edit this file if you want. So let's say I want to. What's my name? Yeah, that's a good idea. She's asking what's my. And then you want to. What is name? What is name? No, no, no, I have to. Because it's like your. What is love on this planet? Hold on. Let's see. My name. And then. And you want to hit run. Run. What's my name? And then you say. Let's see. T. Texas. My name's Tex. Texas. OK. OK. So yeah, you can edit. I'll say the one thing.  Because it has alpha numeric. But you have to focus your eyes to look at only the green and blue text. Well, here's the thing. But you have to program it on the computer and then you can choose that one. Yeah, this is used. There's a hub module and a rover module. It uses the control robot and stuff. So we're going to find out from TI themselves why they chose a fork of circuit Python and more. So that's it. This is a world premiere. No one's ever shown this on live video ever. And I don't think anyone will either. Yeah, so there's graph. So this is the graphing app. So one thing I thought was kind of neat and I think this is what they were really aiming for is they have a graphics driver that they wrote and see for this chip. So when you want to plot, they have a TI plotting object module that you can use to create these very nice plots and does all the graphing for you. So that part I thought was kind of nice because it took advantage of what Python's really good for, which is you do the really high speed stuff and see and then the configuration and abstraction level is in Python. So this is the TI plot. Let's see. So let's go to let's enter clear. OK, so go to editor. So you can see it's like they basically made a plotter. And I think it's like plot lib ish. And you can see you can clear the plot and then you can create a grid and then axes. And do pretty complicated plotting. So I thought that was kind of neat. They still have TI basic on there, but if you're going to have people write code in basic, you might as well give them Python. So the only thing I don't know for sure is what is the chip set that is running on this? I'm assuming it's a TI processor, but what TI processor? So maybe I'll open this up later and we can take a look at the chip because they had to port Python. The underlying C they had to port to this chip set. Yeah, one of my questions was like, is there another chip on there? Or is it like a port to the chip or chip is it? I think it's I think it's core. I think it's I don't think it's communicating with a separate chip. I think it's running. I mean, like to handle this is like a 320 by 240 screen or something. Yeah, something like that. Maybe I could make it 2.8 inch or 3 inch screen. So yeah, it's a nice build. Yeah, we can crack it open. We'll do that later. Yeah, OK, let's get the interview questions first before we crack open their calculator on video. Yeah. All right, so. Put this away. All right, any questions about that? No. Well, sort of, why did your dad not want you to have calculator? He thought it was not good for learning math because it makes you shortcut.  Do you visualize it in your head? I do now visualize it in my head. Really? Yeah. So he was right? Yeah. All right. There you go. No, well, I mean, I don't know if I would necessarily like, you know, they're not necessary. I don't think graphing calculators are necessary. I do think that you want to use them as a way of verifying your visual imagery. The problem is that at some point you get to a state where you can't necessarily graph something.  This can't do 3D plotting. But you know, you have to think about three dimensions at some point. OK. OK. So we're working on keyboards. OK, so next up we get the macro pad, the RP2040 macro pad. So this is the, let's shine some light on this. We can turn the light on the overhead itself. Yeah, that does exactly the opposite. It makes you make it darker. Really? Yeah. Yeah, that's right.  It just sort of doesn't add. Yeah. So let me. Might be because the other hand, that's looking good. So you've got the RP2040, the USB-C, the OLED I changed out for one that has a FPC connector. So this connector, you flip it up and you can easily remove it. We got the reset button here and then the stomach QT over here, 12 buttons, three by four. I added a large buzzer. Although I don't know how useful it is. Kind of ways just like not place it. And then sockets for all the keys. For this version, I also, for the PCBs, I got a little mechanical support plate. So this is used, the switches are designed to use these mechanical support plates. So if you look, they have like a little lip here. You can kind of barely see it, but there's a little lip and you can tell that they're meant to snap into place. And once they snap in, they're nice. They're not like so tight, you can't remove them, but they're mechanically strong enough that you have to do a little bit of work to pop them out. I don't quite want to do it here, but you can pop them out. But then they, if you have a couple of them in a row, all of them together, even though they're not connected permanently to the bottom plate, they're strong enough that they don't, they're basically movable. Like you have enough of them that they, the friction fit of all of them together, pressing against the plate keeps them in place. And then there's a bottom plate as well. So this is also a PCB with the mounting holes that match up. And then this mounts to the bottom to create the three layer, Mechropad PCB. So this is like, you know, nice, safe bottom. And we can use some nice graphics here and like you can, you know, use screws to attach it through to the SMT Nets. And then you can put some bumpers on the bottom to make your Macro pads. So this one is running Arduino. So I always do bring up in Arduino first because I have more control over the code. And in this case, it was, you know, it's a handy thing to do because the OLEDs a little bit, has a little bit of weirdness to it that I was able to fix pretty easily in Arduino, but in circuit Python I have to do some core changes. So this, you know, you can see here, I have it printing out the key numbers if I press them all. It's three rows, four columns. No, three columns, four rows of keys. And then I have the encoder. And then up here, the rotary, I came out, this isn't soldered in. You can see the rotary knob changing numbers as I twist things and then there's a little I squared C scanner as well. So this is the Arduino code. So in Arduino, it's actually like, basically completely working. It's very fast, it's very easy to use. So I think in Arduino, well, I didn't know like that. In Arduino at least, it's totally done. So that's good. Kind of blown out this thing. I know, I don't know why. Well, I'm kind of fooled. I think you put the light on there before, whatever you did to make it. No, it's kind of. It's out of focus. Yeah, it just doesn't like what I'm doing here. It's like, it's too bright. So I'm gonna disconnect it. Okay, so that's our Arduino. It's like, why are you doing this to me? And then this is circuit Python. So like I mentioned, during the code, this one doesn't have the mechanical plate. So the switches that, you know, they can pop out a lot easier because they don't have that piece. Move it over the rail a little bit. Yeah, okay. So this one, I have a slightly different program so I can turn off all the LEDs. So for this one, I'm still working on the OLEDs. There's like this little line here on the right. That's because this OLED is actually not 128 by 64. The display is 128 by 64, but the chip is 132 by 64, which means that there's this like extra four, eight bytes of like dummy RAM memory that isn't being used. And so I just have to like, figure out what to do with the driver to make everything shift it over because when you get displays, it's not uncommon that the memory you have to address and the display are not aligned to zero, zero. Like the depending on how they lay it out, the display itself is inset into memory somehow. So again, Arduino is really easy. I, you know, I superclass it and then I just fixed that little offset thing but in circuit Python, like because this is in the core, I can't quite superclass it. So we have to add some keyword argument to help it know that this little chunk of memory should be skipped. But that said, you know, other than that, things are working and like the display, your stuff is going. So the last thing is the little buzzer. It does work, but I want to add a little RC filter to it to make it sound a little bit better. And audio playback for RP2040 isn't quite working. I mean, it kind of sort of works. Like it works enough for me to verify that like the speaker is connected correctly. But if I try to play an audio clip twice, it kind of like flips out a little bit. So it doesn't a hard fault, but we'll hopefully fix that in, in circuit Python 7.0 cause we're doing a lot of fixes and updates. So that's where the macro pads coming along. But I think I'm pretty much done. The hardware is all tested. So now it's just a matter of software fixes. And I just have like a little bit of like debugging here on the speaker to try to tune the RC filter to be really good. Because so far I haven't used this amplifier chip and piezo, the buzzer with a chip that does PWM audio. This doesn't have a DAC. It has a PWM output, but the PWM output's really fast. So you can actually get like not too shabby like audio, many audio clips playing from it, but you want to do a little bit of filtering first. So that's that. That's the macro pad. All right, any questions before we get into the great search? About the calculator, is the graphics library something that can be included in the circuit Python library? Would TI be able to do that? Or is it? Yeah, they'd have to add it. We don't have access to. All right, well, if they allow me follow up questions in my interview, I'll ask. I don't know if they're using the display IO underneath it, because again, there's no insight into the code, the code's a fork and it's not a published fork. But ideally, yeah, it would be cool to have that published because then it could be added to other people's projects so people can make their own DIY calculators. It would be really neat. That'd be super cool. Okay, let's head over to the great search. Okay, yep. The great search part to buy. Did you key an aid for it? Every single week, lady uses her powers of engineering for good and helps you find things on digikey.com. What are you searching for this week at Digikey? Okay, so let's go to the overhead and I'll show you this board design I'm working on. So this is a KB2040. So I designed this board, I think I showed off a couple of weeks ago. Finally got the PCBs in. So it's a USB-C RP2040 boards. This is the RP2040 and here's some power regulator stuff. And it's got cast-related pins and it's designed to be pro micro shape, which means that it can be used in keyboards. It's like it's specifically designed for use with keyboards that you would plug USB-C in and then it would generate the key commands while having LEDs or key matrix anodes and cathodes connected to this row of pins here. So the RP2040 we've chatted about in getting all the added peripherals that you need, the Q-Spy memory and the crystal and I got some tactile buttons. But one thing that was new on this board that I don't put on a lot of boards recently is a PTC fuse. So the pro micro has a resettable fuse on it and folks might be familiar with them because Arduino uses PTC fuses a lot, which is good because it helps protect the board and the computer. Now your USB hub and computer has PTC fuses inside of it.  A PTC fuse is thermally, it's basically a resistor that's very temperature dependent. So as more current goes through it, it heats up and the resistance goes way, way high, like so high that it basically opens up and basically the fuse is open, cutting off power until this cools down. So it's kind of nice because unlike a glass or wire fuse, you don't have to worry about replacing it. Automatically, self heals, you can get these in different currents and voltages and of course they're pick and place friendly. It's a very slim PTC fuse here. So we want one, this one is a pretty chunky, looks like it's maybe an 18 by 12, 18, 12 sized PTC fuse. We want one that's much smaller. We're gonna have one that's about this big. It's 0806, we just don't have as much space on this board because I have to maintain the physical size. So this part here, this is the PTC fuse. So it's an 0805. I was like, can I fit an 01206? And the answer is no, there was just really no space. No, it was just completely jam packed in there. So let's go to the layout first real fast and we'll take a look at the, this is it. So this is the PTC fuse. If I get info on it, it's just called fuse and it's 0805 sized. So let's go for an 0805 Imperial sized fuse and we'll see what the options are. In specific, this one's gonna be connected to USB. So let's do something that's USB friendly. Okay, so too much stuff open here. Okay, so hold on, let's go to Digikey and let's search for PTC. So it's a positive temperature coefficient fuse, buys, close, fuse. Okay, so there's actually a whole category which I've used multiple times before PTC fuses. So go there. Okay, so now we have to decide what we want as our options. So the first thing is, well, obviously let's pick active and let's also pick in stock only and let's exclude marketplace so we're only looking at stuff that shipping directly from Digikey and in stock. Next up, the voltage max. So the voltage max is exactly what you think. What's the maximum voltage that you could have as the power supply that you're limiting?  The larger the voltage, of course, the bigger the fuse. So if you're looking for price, you know, you might end up at a lower voltage, but since size is most important to us, we're probably gonna be limited to like that 06, sorry, that six volt or maybe even eight volt power maximum based on the size. So actually since our size is the most specific thing we have, let's go to surface mount and let's pick from the package size 0805, which is 2012 metric. So you can see these get very large and there's also through all size ones and there's whatever there's these like gigantic chunky square ones. So let's, let's apply. Okay, so now we're only gonna be looking at the 0805 ones. So the next thing is, right, so you can say we can pick the voltage max, but since all of them are above our maximum voltage which is USB, which is five volts, you know, we actually can leave this alone. So next question is the current hold and the current trip. And that's actually kind of the most important things you're gonna wanna think about. In general, the current trip is two times the current hold. Now, like I said, this is a temperature coefficient device, it's very temperature dependent. So you don't want it to add significantly different or poorly at like high or low temperatures. You want it to be somewhat consistent. So it's not like when it hits that number it'll immediately trip. There's gonna be some variation, right? So you wanna think of based on the usage current, how, you know, how much current is gonna be going through, is it continuous, is it spiking?  Now, technically for USB, 500 milliamps is considered the standard hold current. I will say though that you can get ones with higher or lower. So let's look at 500 milliamps to one amp. And that's what the hold, cause it's like that's our like consistent power draw. Why would you even need that much for a keyboard? Well, maybe you have a lot of Neopixels on it. You have an OLED screen, you have a buzzer, like a lot of things are adding up before you know it, you're at about 500 milliamps. But you don't want of course to have the fuse so low that people are tripping it just on usage cause it'll make the device seem really flaky. So then let's apply all. Okay, so next there's thickness which I don't really care about. There's the resistance post trip. There's, you know, the resistance, the current trip you can see there's, it's usually about two times whatever the hold is. And then current max is like how much you could force through it before it gets damaged. Time to trip is, you know, how long that the high current before it actually trips. Most of these are about, you'll see they're all pretty much about 0.1 to 0.3 seconds. They're not instantaneous, but they're also not super slow. Just make sure that it won't damage your board. Okay, and next up, and then of course if you need overvoltage protection, this doesn't do overvoltage protection, this does over current protection. If you need overvoltage, there are different input filter chips that you can do that, you know, they're safe for a very wide range of input voltages or negative voltages and they won't let current through unless it's like the right level. And sometimes they also have current limiting as well. So this is good for USB where you're never gonna have something over five volts coming to USB. So you don't have to worry about protecting against overvoltage is just over currents. All right, so next up, let's look. So yeah, so you've got 750 milliamps. We've got 500, we've got one amp. Really, it's up to you. I think I'm gonna go with the 500 milliamps. It's a safe amount, but that's also again the standard. So having this be compatible with the Pro Micro, if it's doing 500 hold, I should do 500 hold. So when you do that, there's about seven options remaining. So there's a couple of, what's really nice is yeah, these are generic so you can get them from Borns and from Littlefuse and from Belfuse. As you can tell by the stock numbers, Belfuse is super popular. You know, there's 135,000 of these in stock right now. This is a nice rendering. And you know, it says 20 weekly time, but there's 135,000 in stock. So like we're good to go. And these are only about 10 cents a piece. So I didn't want to pick up these. They're good, but then again, don't worry about it. There's always uses available in that package from other suppliers. So you know, if you're worried about like shortages or something, just make sure you have the part numbers written down for all the alternatives. But this one seems like it's gonna be fine for quite a while. That's the great search. So question that was in the chat. I guess this is someone asking an opinion. New USB-C up to 48 volts. Well, that requires power delivery, which we're not gonna do on this device at all. Not gonna do that. Yeah, folks want to tear down the calculator. Not gonna do that. Not tonight. Not tonight.  So here's the treat. In the chats, just tell me which one you like better. So we have an E and Trinkie that we're doing. And each Trinkie has its own little character. And so the obvious thing was like, well, it's E-ing, squid, octopus and everything. So we did that. This is the E-ing Trinkie character. But we don't have a panda.  And if they get in a fight, maybe they like to get bloodied or something like that. But here's the E-ing Trinkie panda. So we're gonna choose one of these. I mean, I guess it could morph into one and change back into it. But I don't know which one we're gonna do yet. But this is how it is. Maybe I'll put it up for vote or something like that. But I like both, but I don't know. Yeah. Panda or octopus or squid. So those are the two. Those are the two. And again, we're gonna have limited edition Trinkies and stuff like that. We're calling them NFTs, not forever Trinkies that are physical hardware. But anyways, so yeah, a couple of votes for panda. I think folks are saying panda. Panda, panda, panda, panda, panda. Folks are like a panda, yeah. All right, so so far. So far panda. In our focus group of 20. Yeah, you're right. There is red pandas too. So this one. Well, we have red mono, we have black, white and red E-inks. Squid. All right. This is catching up. Uh-oh, squids. Squids and octopus. Like, oh, now it's, now it's. That's neck and neck. Oh, now there's the. Squid. Yeah. All right, so that's the show tonight. Okay. All right, thanks everybody. We'll be this one or this one or both. We don't know which. Maybe one will eat the other. I don't know. Call them already. Okay. So we'll see everybody during the week. Thank you so much. That is your Descalade data for this week. Thanks everybody. Bye bye. Have a great week.


The story of Paragon is a sad one, a great game with a truly devoted fan base that was ruined. Not by failings with the game itself, yes it did have its imperfections, but the overall experience was superb, no, those failings came from corporate influences that had little to do with gameplay. Unfortunately this story isn't as unique as you may think. While we lament the loss of Paragon, so too do the fans of Gigantic, a game that came and went so quickly that many of us never knew it was there. But much like Paragon, there's a glimmer of hope peeking over the horizon. Gigantic has its own dedicated fans that refuse to let it die. Fans who have picked up the fallen torch and trudged forward against the odds with the flame held high. Enter Project Stamina. Before I get into explaining what Project Stamina is, I wanted to let you know that I did an interview with the producer and it will be his voice you sometimes hear clarifying things in this video. Project Stamina is a fan driven effort to use their own intellectual property to create a game heavily inspired by and pays direct tribute to Gigantic. If you have never played Gigantic, it's a hard game to explain as it really doesn't fall within the constraints of any one genre. As best I could tell it was MOBA style heroes in a third person environment with the goal of capturing points to some unhelpful NPCs and power up your core which was a living behemoth that fought alongside you. Project Stamina aims to revive this game using the same art style with their own heroes and many of the mechanics found in Gigantic. For instance, each hero has a resource called Stamina that can be used for movement and invincible dodges. Stamina is designed to create meaningful decision points throughout the game. You could use all of your stamina to get into a fight but then you're left without defensive options. Conversely, if you only ever use your stamina defensively, you'll never be able to win the game. Not everything from Gigantic will be brought forward by Project Stamina. As I mentioned, the game had its imperfections and the team plans to address them. For instance, armor values in Gigantic were linear. One armor reduced 1% of damage which forced Botica, the developers of Gigantic, to implement an armor cap. We're saying goodbye to Gigantic's linear armor proration which had one damage or one point of armor reducing 1% of damage and stop me if I'm getting too technical and gritty here. But we're using a diminishing returns curve like it's found in a lot of traditional MOBAs for our armor stat which gives us more freedom to tune different armor values without having to put in say an artificial cap on armor so that you don't reach 100% damage reduction and that was the thing in Gigantic for those who didn't spend countless hours in practice matches. This isn't the only change they plan to bring to the game. Project Stamina's game will introduce variable stats for each hero that will increase when you level. They also plan to polish up some of the mechanics introduced to Gigantic that were never fully fleshed out during the game's lifespan. So one of the things that we're adding is a stats per level system. So in addition to having like base health and armor where our characters have unique values that their stats increase as they level up. So this gives us more ability to tune for characters that are strong in the early game or the mid game or the late game based on how their stats are laid out. And we think that just putting a little bit more polish on the systems that Motiga had to stop working on so that they could work on things like Xbox and Windows exclusive compatibility all of a sudden rest in peace Motiga. Project Stamina is an LLC that currently consists of 23 members. I should also mention at this time that Project Stamina is not the name of the game. They haven't yet made that public but assure me that they have gone through all the proper legal channels to copyright the name that they have chosen. This highlights what impresses me the most about this project. They are extremely well organized. They're crossing all the T's and dotting all the I's. I asked several questions of them that, in all honesty, were designed to see if this was in any way a scam. I'm happy to say they exceeded my expectations. There is zero doubt in my mind that the team at Project Stamina are nothing less than a group of gigantic fans that are dedicated to bringing the joy of their favorite game back to the players. This is a company with a clear goal and well defined plan to reach that goal. They understand that they need to make a sustainable game that could grow with the community should they be successful. They aren't neglecting considerations like resourcing servers, system requirements and all the assorted back in management required for the game to succeed. The big question of course, when and where can you play it? They plan on their closed alpha in the near future. Short answer is pretty soon. The engine is already in a state that technically, like in terms of its technical capacities, we could call it an alpha. But based on feedback from our testers, there's a few more things that we want to see in the game. And our own benchmarks want a few more characters built. And we're just going to go ahead and do that, get a couple more pieces in line and with a little polish on them before we make the announcement of that date. But it is coming up really soon. So no set date, but it does sound like it will be soon. The current plan is to develop the game for PC. However, they will tailor the development to whatever platforms have a fan base that want to play the game anywhere, anywhere the players demonstrate they want to be is is our bottom line. We're running in Unreal 4 and my engineers tell me that system compatibility with what they have set up is as easy as a drop down menu and a checkbox. You say, I want to build for Xbox one. You hit that box, you hit compile, you have a working bill. The tricky part is platform certification. There is no way to not make that cost a lot of money because when I was working there, it costs like five to $10,000 just to get someone to look at your game and tell you whether or not your pause menu was laid out right to be allowed on the store. Oh, wow. Yeah. So yeah, platform certification is tough. And that's why a lot that's why a lot of platform exclusivity deals get signed is because it comes with flexibility on some of those standards. But our back end is built for built to be compatible with pretty much any modern console and should permit cross play between them. The question is mostly whether or not the consoles that we would like to be on have the players based to justify the cost of being there. Like I would love to be on all platforms, but I'm not going to spend $10,000 on certification so that 40 people can play it. It's not sustainable, making choices like that. And if they if if the platforms allow cross play, it'll work. It's entirely on the platform holder side. And that's kind of a we have to punch up out of our weight class at Sony at Microsoft to make them play nice to get nice together. But if they let us do it, we can do it. The same goes for their storefront. They have their own working launcher. However, they are willing to use Steam, Epic Store or whatever in order to meet the community's needs. If this project is something you feel you wish to support, there are several ways to do so. If you think you have a skill set that the team needs, you can apply for a position with the company. While most of their needs are filled, they still look through the applications in search of talent. In particular, they're currently in the market for a VFX artist. They also have a Patreon. If you want to support their efforts monetarily, Patriots are awarded the access to various articles written by the team and the ability to influence the development of certain elements of the game. If you are in a position to support them with money, then you can still cheer them on and help shape the game's direction about becoming part of their community on Facebook, Discord, Instagram, YouTube, Twitch or Twitter. All of them will be linked in the video description below. In fact, they will have a state of the game stream soon on Twitch, October 30th to be exact, so be sure to follow them and check it out. If you can't catch it live, it will also be uploaded on YouTube so you can watch it whenever you damn well please. You can also check out some videos from other YouTubers that are far more dialed into Gigantic than I, like Sappy Dude, The Dusty Gullet and Lord Squidious. Before I move on to my own thoughts of the game, let's check out a message from the game's producer. I mean, I could say I love you to my fans all night. It wouldn't get old. But I think the only thing that I haven't said already is a very specific thank you to the Motiga team. If any of you are out there, your work has inspired what is now two years and 20-some people of dedication and effort and creativity and none of this would have been possible had you not given everything to bring such an amazing game into the world. And it is it is our honor and our privilege to be able to follow in your footsteps and carry a torch that was lit by the spark of your inspiration. Projects like these shows a new trend in the gaming industry. For the longest time, we've been forced to be content with whatever Bullshit producers decide to feed us. And when we do find something we like, we have to stand by powerless as we watch corporate greed leave decision-making and ultimately destroy the beautiful games we love.   Man, go.


Item Number SCP-906 Object Class Euclid Special Containment Procedures Subject is to be contained in a 3x3 meter squared, fully airtight, 12 centimeter thick titanium enclosure surrounded by acid resistant glass. Temperature must be kept under 5 degrees Celsius. Should temperature exceed this limit, all personnel are to be evacuated to a distance of at least 100 meters. Immediate area containing enclosure will then be locked down until temperature has been lowered. Holding cell is to be maintained on a bi-weekly basis and checked for sufficient corrosion or gaps. Any damage to the holding cell is to be repaired immediately. SCP-906 is to be monitored at all times from 4 digital cameras mounted on each corner of the enclosure. Any abnormal behavior reported from these cameras will result in immediate lockdown of area around containment cell. Access to SCP-906 is permitted only to supervised Class D personnel for feeding and or enclosure maintenance. SCP-906 is to be fed 80 kilograms of raw meat every 42 hours. Description SCP-906 is a writhing mass of dark brown, worm-like invertebrates. These organisms seem to interact in a uniform fashion, forming a colonial super-organism in a similar manner to army ants. For reasons currently unknown, SCP-906 will usually form its body into that of a very rough humanoid figure. SCP-906 is shown to be capable of crude bipedal movement when in this state. However, when traveling longer distances, it will deviate to a flattened mass with a greater efficiency of movement. SCP-906 is capable of secreting a viscous, highly corrosive, semi-translucent fluid similar in color to its skin. This substance is shown to have an acidic strength comparable to hydrofluoric acid, but it has a less pronounced effect on titanium, no effect on acid-resistant glass, and data expunged. This substance displayed the ability to destroy teeth, bones, hair, nails, clothing, jewelry, and some kinds of equipment in under an hour. SCP-906 is predatory and highly aggressive. When hungry, it will swarm over any living creature within its path and coat them in its acidic secretion, thereby breaking down the matter into a liquid slurry which it then consumes. Attempts to remove or disturb SCP-906 during its feeding have proved fruitless. When a designated prey is nearby, SCP-906 will alter its form into that of a flowing carpet and move across any surface in order to pursue its target until the prey is captured. Due to the small width of SCP-906 component organisms, two centimeters wide, barriers will only slow its advance. Obstacles that cannot simply be passed will be destroyed by the acidic substance SCP-906 secretes. SCP-906 has also displayed the ability to take alternate routes to reach its prey, such as drainage pipes and ventilation shafts. Through methods currently unknown, SCP-906 appears capable of mimicking animal-like sounds and parroting human speech in what is described as a raspy, coarse voice while in its humanoid form. SCP-906 appears to use this ability to lure prey into areas that are difficult to escape, such as deep pits or maze-like corridor networks. Eyewitness reports from containment breach 906-210-01A detail SCP-906 taunting prospective victims and even emitting a sound something like laughter before attacking its prey. This behavior suggests a kind of rudimentary sentience, but it is unknown how a creature comprising several thousand individual organisms is able to achieve this. SCP-906 specimens, when removed from the larger body, will attempt to move back towards the central mass and have been known to dissolve through any obstacles in their way. It should be noted that individual specimens do not show the same level of navigation skills as the full super-organism. Specimens of SCP-906 have the ability to reconstruct into multiple versions when damaged, in a similar manner to common earthworms, i.e., splitting one SCP-906 specimen resulted in each half growing into separate organisms. Despite this, SCP-906 specimens have been destroyed via means of incineration, freezing, and full-body disintegration. Should the need to destroy SCP-906 ever arise, use of flamethrowers or liquid nitrogen is permitted. However, SCP-906 specimens will split themselves and multiply over the course of several hours, should the larger mass be severely reduced. If SCP-906 is ever required to be terminated, all specimens must be eliminated to prevent SCP-906 reforming. In order to keep SCP-906 in a more controllable state, the enclosure it is housed in is to be kept at a temperature below 5°C at all times, as this is shown to reduce the movement, reaction time, reproduction abilities, and metabolism of SCP-906. Addendum 906-05-01. Testing of SCP-906 resulted in a Class D being targeted before a cow. A second test was then conducted in this manner, wherein a pig, sheep, dog, and horse were all placed alongside a Class D. SCP-906 once again targeted the Class D first. Second targeted animal was the pig, followed by the sheep, the horse, and finally, the dog. Addendum 906-05-02. During routine enclosure maintenance, SCP-906 reportedly spoke to a supervising staff member by saying his name several times. The reason it did this is unknown, and the staff member, one Dr. Anthony Richards, reports being quote, very disturbed, end quote, by the proceedings, and has expressed a desire to be kept away from SCP-906 in future. Lesson complete. If you missed the previous orientation, go watch SCP-905, Mr. Chameleon, right now. Or for the complete course, watch this playlist.


After uploading a number of horror stories to various places around the internet, I was overwhelmed by the sheer volume of supportive emails and messages I received.  How did I know that this newfound acknowledgment of my writing would lead to a series of horrific and abhorrent events? For over a year I received numerous messages and emails, most very positive and enjoyable, yet every few days I would also find a strange, disconnected, and fragmented piece of correspondence sitting in my inbox. Each email would consist of one random word as its subject heading, with a message itself comprised of a single phrase, normally only two words long. The email address would change each time, but it was clear from the nature of the content that the author was the same. At first, I dismissed them as the idle product of a bored worker on the internet, attempting to amuse themselves with the thought of myself reading garbled, puzzling, yet worryingly cryptic messages. As the days wore on, however, and the emails became gradually more twisted and prophetic, I began to suspect that they were of a far more sinister origin. I had posted and contributed to many websites and forums over the years, and it was not unusual to wake up each morning to 20 or 30 new emails in my inbox. I often spent my lunch break answering them, and I genuinely enjoyed the correspondence. However, the day after posting a story called The Passenger, I followed my usual routine of logging into my email account at noon, only to find one message which stood out most uncomfortably from the others. The subject heading was suffer, and the email itself contained just two words, baby cries. I sent the message to my trash folder and thought nothing more of it. It had been a long day, and as I had been writing from dawn to dusk, I was tiring rapidly, feeling suitably ready for a good, long overdue sleep. It was around 11.30 p.m., just as I started to drift into a dream that I heard a noise. It was not out of place, nor did it cause any real concern to me, coming as it did from my neighbor's house through the wall. It was the type of common sound any resident is familiar with. I smirked to myself thinking baby cries, and drifted back to sleep, sure that the child's mother or father would soon be there to comfort it, as they always were. I woke again, glancing at my mobile phone which cast an unearthly green glow around the room. Seeing that it was after three in the morning, I became agitated knowing that I had a long day out of me. Rest does not come easily on those nights when we know we must rise early. The mere thought of the necessity of a good night's sleep before the next day's work precludes any notion of sleep itself. Lying there, I listened in the darkness to the infant next door, breaking its heart, inconsolable and distraught. Surely the parents had not let it scream for all those hours, lying there alone in blackness of night unattended. After trying to block out the child's cries for what seemed like hours, I admitted defeat and moved to the spare room that my family and friends only stayed in, on the rare occasions when they visited. At 7.30 am, my phone alarm sounded, and after fighting the reality of another day, I reluctantly left my bed, walking slowly to the kitchen to make some coffee. From the window, I looked out onto the street below. What I saw horrified me. A police car and two ambulances parked outside of my neighbor's home. Even through my groggy, pre-caffeinated mind, the memory of that helpless child crawling in the night sprung to the floor. Immediately I stopped what I was doing, threw on some clothes and ran outside. I was not the only person watching, as the usual nosy residents stood at their doors, with some even out on the street, still wearing their dressing gowns idly gossiping, whipping up any number of scandalous rumors. Asking several onlookers what had happened, I was told a variety of accounts, from a child being abducted to someone having a seizure during the night.  Three police officers exited the house somberly, as a collective gasp seeped out from the mouths of the crowd of onlookers. Quickly behind, two men in sterile white clothing carried a stretcher, and on it, a body bag containing the now-deceased remains of one of my former neighbors. A few cries rang out from across the street. Those who knew them wept, while those who did not, gossiped. Then another silence, followed by another stretcher, and another body bag. This time no one uttered a sound. The street was void of noise. A tangible tension spread through the air, a hanging sense of dread as all of us waited, hoping beyond hope, for no more death. Heartbreak, the last stretcher, supporting a small and insignificant shroud, was carried out solemnly into the morning air, and placed carefully into the back of an ambulance. Tears were wept, and answers were demanded from the police. But I could not cope with the sight. I could not bear it. The sound of that poor infant screaming through the night, screaming for its very life, rang out in my ears. The sound of a child, now forever silenced. The memory was deafening. How was I supposed to know? The child had cried before as many do. I didn't know. I didn't know. I walked, dazed, back through my garden and into the now hollow sanctuary of my house. I'm not ashamed to say that I cried. Knowing that maybe if I had just paid attention or shown more concern than simply getting to sleep, that if I had noticed something was amiss, I could have called the police and then perhaps they would still be alive. Several hours later, two police officers arrived at my door to ask if I had seen or heard anything unusual from the night before. They said that they were not at liberty to tell me what had happened, but that any information I could give them would help immensely with their investigation. When I told them about the email I had received, they looked at each other with an obvious sense of skepticism. When I showed it to them, they asked if they could have my login details in an attempt to trace where the email came from. Of course I gave it to them and then they left after saying that they would be in touch. As soon as they were gone, I returned to the computer screen to switch it off. I recoiled in horror at the sight of another cryptic email sitting in my inbox. The subject heading said, Fan, and the email again contained only two short words. Two words which drove fear through every part of my being. It simply read, You told, I was utterly unprepared for the events which followed.


G'day, welcome to Buddhist philosophy if you haven't been here before my name is tech and I'm just letting you know that I'm filming on Wajik country, which is where I live and work and I've just been for a run, which is hence my gear And I went to the post office on my way home Picked up this box, which I'll be ready to open now so I'm sitting in my garden bird song in the air and Let's open this box, which as you can see It's from Viberg. So let's have a go Made in Canada. I'm assuming this is a shipping box And inside is the Viberg black box Let's get this out tightly inside Viberg box model sizing etc tissue paper two pairs of laces a very thin I Think this is leather and a round cotton lace a Cleaning cloth a Viberg product care guide and the boots in their boot bags What's this? Another care guide interesting one for each boot I suppose and So let's open this up in the boot bag They come in plastic Thick plastic. This is not only cheap plastic, mind you and Here is the Viberg service boot in the 20 30 last last in oiled husk Colata on a Ridgeway Soul So on first glance The stitching is immaculate Brogue cap toe With really quite immaculate stitching.  I Took a minute just thinking whether I should say that it was stitched down because it looks So blended in there That is almost like a Goodyear welt. I Cannot see anything wrong with that stitching Let's try the other boot and again the first thing that strikes me is this is pretty stiff leather and The sole is pretty stiff. I can't bend it Once again the stitch town stitching is perfection really Very fine double stitching on the back stay Really fine double stitching on the quarters there with a little box detail and Really fine stitching across the toe cap. I believe that's a real toe cap. In other words a piece of leather over leather I really like the Ridgeway sole for feel And for grip and yet from the side Looks fairly sleek. I am already thinking in my mind that The breaking is going to be very interesting with this very thick leather and this Unbendable sole Ungusseted tongue which surprises me a little bit. I thought they'd at least be a semi-gusset up here But we shall see one two three four five six seven eight nine nine busy Brass eyelets. I'm going to put a few shots on foot and See how they feel Okay, so I've shallered and shaved and I'm at work downtown in my office and I'm going to try on These new Vibeau boots. I decided to go with the very skinny Flat wax cotton laces. You know the skinniest flat cotton laces that I've ever seen And Fits in quite well Now where's the end of the lace Here we are Strangely The laces are actually quite short After all my experience with Pacific Northwest Boot laces which are quite long They're quite fiddly to tie and I might actually Decide to Change these to the round Cotton laces that was a bit messy The fit is excellent These are vibergs seven and a half their standard width is an e-width And it's a UK seven and a half sizing system, which means it's equivalent to a US eight and a half Which is my true to size so seven and a half UK is my true to size These by the way are my whites MP boots that I wore to work And I might do a little comparison in a minute, but as for fit 7.5 viberg true to size When I would usually wear eight us, which is a seven UK so I'd recommend going true to size in viberg, but Taking one number down to go down to a UK sizing It's really good Very stiff though Let's take some shots walking Very comfortable indeed They are tight. They're snug. So they're gonna definitely need a little breaking in the soul is Stiff and As you can see the leather itself is quite a stiff leather so They're gonna need breaking in as you saw earlier. I was wearing my whites MP boots To work when I was carrying the viberg 2030 service boots So it hadn't occurred to me and I don't usually do it and unboxing But I thought it might be useful to compare the two. So let me have a look at the two right foot I think apart from the obvious Design differences the round-the-toe last for example of the MP Versus a more almond shaped toe of the 2030 last on the viberg. I think the main difference is that in the whites you can see that a work boot company has decided to make a dressier casual shoe that can still be worn for work as tough as anything they build for work But with a Dressier more casual design so all the elements and the Procedures that they put into building a work boot are in this MP boot So if you take a look at the stitch down for example, it's You know, there is no courtesy drawn towards fashion. These are very big hand stitched stitches The design is is a little Chunky as well Whereas for the viberg you can see a work boot company because the The history of viberg as a work boot maker I think still lives in this but they've decided to go on a much dressier route So that the stitching is much more refined the Construction is still exactly the same as for what they used to produce for their work boots. It's just as heavy There's just as much leather and whatever else is in there that Causes that sturdiness, but quite clearly you have a Decision to go refined Versus a decision to use work boot skills to create a casual boot both are Exceptionally good. I Know that whites MPs are perfect for my feet and these actually feel really good as well So keep tuned. I'll put in a longer term review Or at least an interim review of what I think of these viberg service boots And then I'll do a longer term review a bit later And maybe at some stage I'll do a real head to head comparison of these two service boots I thought you might be interested in taking a look at the Vibeau website because their spring summer 2023 collection has just come up and As you can see, it's it's I think just come on this week And if we take a look at what's available there's a series of I mean, I guess there are slippers and slides and that sort of thing, but I'm really interested in the boots and There's a couple of new Uppers in the service boots in the 2040 Last is the chestnut brown Phoenix and there's the T morrow TPR horse butt There's a 2030 brogue cap toe in a T morrow TPR horse butt and another 20 30 in the chestnut brown Phoenix If you look at their service boot collection You'll see a whole series of articles about their service boots and showcasing their 2030 last for example, and then the 310 last with a chunkier round toe You know with a very pronounced toe spring the 2040 service boot Which is their more vintage version quite similar to the 2030, but it has a wider forefoot little bit more of a toe spring I think and then the 1035 which is the roundest toe of the service boots follows the 2030, but with a rounded toe And they talk about chrome excel and so on so go on and take a look at the viberg website. There are some Delightful mouth watering boots in here. So that's my unboxing of the viberg service boots in the 2030 last in Husk oiled Kulata, and I'll give you a Better longer review of how I feel wearing them in a few weeks And then my longer term review and the details of the boot Until then guys take care Don't forget to click on like and subscribe and I'll see you soon


That was a fantastic pitch. Technology wouldn't be possible without people. And that's why every year, 30 million people, plus, begin their journey to tech every year, as designers, developers, and the likes. 80% of people that do so start out by joining a tech community. And they remain there for most of their career. Now, for reference, tech communities are groups of people, rights that are banded together by common career interests.  And a lot of them are located in what we call high-growth and emerging markets. Committees are structured in very different formats. You have training institutions, developer groups, tech hubs, Slack and Discord groups, learning groups. It takes a village. And these communities do amazing work in driving inclusion, creating an environment where people learn, can exchange opportunities, and get mentored, and get training. However, they have a lot of last mile problems that they don't have the unit economics or capacity to solve. For example, having sustainable incomes, solving last mile problems for their members, scaling their community operations. And that's where we came in. We started by mapping out the most the typical journey of somebody in tech over their career. We said, over the 10 years of your career, what are the key things that you need? And we verticalized it into three key things. In your career, you need three key things, which is work, access to financial resources, and a host of other benefits. So this is where Propel comes in. We built a platform that communities used to grow to support their members, to earn sustainable income, and also to scale to serve more people. And what we've done so far, we started this a year ago. And in the last one year, we built an ecosystem of almost half a million people spread across 200 communities across the world, 22 countries, with a really good male to female gender distribution. We've worked with communities in our ecosystem include GDG, which is the largest Google developer community in the world, Women Who Code as well, the largest female development community in the world. We have three communities, React communities. These are some of the hundreds of communities in our ecosystem. But now, where does the enterprise software part of it come in? How can companies benefit? What we do is we help companies activate these tech communities on demand to drive a couple of their people, products, or business goals through what we call our community as a service platform. A few examples is user acquisition, helping companies acquire users from within communities, developer relations, hiring talent, better testing products, pipelining talent, organizing hackathons, product marketing, employer branding. In summary, helping companies leverage the power of groups of people or specialized groups of communities to drive their business goals across board. We've done this for a couple of companies, 100 plus companies across Europe, including, of course, big names like Mercedes, Farfetch, Siemens, Porsche, Startup, SkillOps, and corporates alike. And why communities, as some of you might ask, firstly, communities have access to a continuous stream of talent. This gives companies that work with us access to an unlimited group of talented people with multiple skill sets across different verticals. Secondly, communities are super responsive, meaning that they respond to tech trends greater than what traditional institutions would do like. So in the last year, a lot of communities have been responding to trends around AI and Web3 much faster than is attainable on the open market. And then, finally, by powering communities and making them sustainable, Propel is building what we call self-sustaining talent pipelines to meet the global demand for tech talent. The most important thing for us is really around the impact we make with our work with communities. We kicked off just over two years ago. And in the last two years, we've built a massive ecosystem already, connecting thousands of people to opportunities, jobs, facilitating thousands of interactions between companies and communities. And the first community we onboarded, they are now three times their size. We're not here to raise funds. We've raised over 3 million euros already, but we're here to connect to companies that are thinking about how to leverage communities at large and at scale to drive their business goals. So feel free to check us out or meet me after the presentation and we'll talk. Thank you very much for your time. All right.


Live from the Hilton at Bonnet Creek, Orlando, Florida, extracting the signal from the noise, it's theCUBE covering Vision 2015. Brought to you by IBM. And now your hosts, Dave Vellante and Jeff Frick. Welcome back to IBM Vision, everybody. Day two, this is theCUBE, I'm Dave Vellante with Jeff Frick. theCUBE is our mobile studio, we go out to the events, we extract the signal from the noise. We've been going wall-to-wall coverage here at IBM Vision. It's a conference around performance management, decision management, sales performance optimization, governance, risk and compliance. So the Cognos crowd, a lot of CFOs here, a lot of thought leaders talking about the new age of analytics as brought to this world of governance, risk, compliance, performance management. And Jeff, what's different really now in looking at the state of the business is this whole notion of overlaying Watson analytics on top of this business. This is a business that's been around for decades and one that's been considered sort of stodgy and focused on reporting and risk and compliance. And now IBM's positioning Watson analytics is opening up this whole new world of opportunity. We heard this morning from speakers talking about Twitter data. I tweeted out, I wonder, I love the IBM Twitter relationship. I wonder how many CFOs in the audience agree with me. I got some tweets back. I'm sure many do. I'm not sure. I asked how many organizations actually capture Twitter handles in their CRM and secondly, how many actually do anything with it. We know from our own experience that it's very early days around that but we also know that the potential is enormous. It was really, Mark Jeffries does a great job at these events. He was on theCUBE yesterday as the host and number of interesting speakers. I thought the other thing, Jeff, and I'll turn it over to you to get your thoughts. I thought IBM did today what they didn't do yesterday which is we really sort of showcase some of the UI and the ease of use in the power of Watson analytics and kind of padded themselves in the back. I would like to see even more of that and I also thought the customer panel was very, very good. How people are using Cognos and how people are using the solutions that IBM is putting forth. There were good stories there and then of course Jordan Ellenberg finished the morning with a really awesome keynote. He's coming on a little later on. He's a math geek and we're going to be interviewing him. So what were your thoughts? Yeah, I love having the, you can never have too many customers, right? That's always the theme of theCUBE and all the shows we go to. A lot of practitioners want to know how their peers are putting these things to work. I love the story about one of the panelists. Again, my CEO walked in and said, what are you working on? And he was able to basically show him the power of Watson analytics by taking a tab or excuse me, a table, dumping it in and really asking the CEO, what do you want to know? What questions do you want to know? And starting to go down, there's an iterative approach to extract more information from that data set. I thought that was good. Of course, Dr. Ellenberg's terrific. Can't wait to get him on. I just love the whole conversation, Dave, about computer science versus math and statistics. Because there is no answer in real math and statistics, right? It's confidence level, it's probability. You know, it's approaching an answer but there is no answer versus computer science which traditionally there is an answer. Zero or one, right? And how do these things come together? And how do we use that? Plus he has the great story about where we're two bombers getting shot up over Germany then add a human element and bring all those pieces together to get closer to what is a better answer if not necessarily always the right answer. So we're going to be exploring and unpacking some of these issues today. How are decisions made in organizations? How are analytics supercharging this business of governance, risk, compliance, sales performance management, decision management, decision optimization? How is Watson analytics? How is IBM approaching that? How does it affect how companies and organizations are achieving their business outcomes? And we're going to have a little fun as well on theCUBE. So keep it right there everybody. Jeff Frick and I will be back with our next guest. Right after this is theCUBE, we're live from IBM Vision in Orlando. We'll be right back.


We present the point cloud slicing, PCS, algorithm, which is used to post-process point cloud data, PCD, from terrestrial laser scanning, TLS. This tool was tested for use in forest inventory applications in urban heterogeneous forests. It is based on a voxel data structure derived from TLS-PCD. Tree parameters such as diameter at breast height, DBH, tree height, basal area, and volume were retrieved using the methodology. Our results show that TLS-derived metrics explain 91.17 percent, root mean square error equals 9.1739 centimeters, P less than 0.001, of the variation in DBH at the individual tree level. Although the scanner generates a high-density PCD, only 57.27 percent, root mean square error equals 0.7543 m, P less than 0.001, accuracy was achieved for predicting tree heights in these very heterogeneous stands. Additionally, we developed a voxel-based TLS volume estimation method. Our results show that PCD generated from TLS single-location scans only captures 18 percent of the total tree volume. This article was authored by Elmonica Moscol and Guangjiang. We are article.tv, links in the description below.


Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they made a difference in the world. Marines don't have that problem. These words hold just as true today as they did when President Reagan first spoke them. When America calls, you answer. You always have and you always will. From the wheat fields of Bella Woods, to the dense jungles of South Vietnam, to the deserts of Syria, and to the mountains of Afghanistan, you've gone where our country needed you most. And often, for the first to do so. These last few months serve as a stark reminder of the cost of answering that call. On August 26, 13 brave servicemen and women made the ultimate sacrifice. Their efforts helped save 124,000 evacuees seeking a better life. 10 of the fallen came from right here. Standing in front of the 2nd Battalion 1st Marines, I can't help but recognize the emotional and physical toll you and your families bear when America calls. And yet, you still prevail. Guided by the Commandant's Force Design 2030, I know the Marine Corps of tomorrow will continue to play an instrumental role in preserving freedom across the globe. Future force development requires the Corps to be agile, tenacious, and adopt to a rapidly changing environment. You are our hybrid warriors of land, of sea, and the air. Returning from my recent trip to the end of Pacific Region, I personally witnessed the evolution and the adoptability of the Marine Corps to answer today's call, while being trained and postured to answer tomorrow's call. From the F-35Bs in Japan to the Marine Corps infantry on the Korean Peninsula, I saw how Marines are transforming the Corps to deter, and if need be, defeat future threats. Throughout your history, you've identified and embraced the changes required to maintain a competitive advantage against our adversaries.  Keep transforming our culture to ensure this is a Marine Corps that we can all thrive in. Keep working alongside Marines from other nations, multiplying our capability and preparing for uncertain futures. Your professionalism and commitment is the glue that binds us with our partners. Your redness and grit deters those threatening freedom and stability. I am honored to serve our brave men and women of the United States Marine Corps. From your Secretary of the Navy, happy 246th birthday, Semper Fidelis.


Welcome to Road Gear Reviews, my name is Kaylee from the Freedom Theory and today I'm doing a review of the new air portable ice maker. Stay tuned. Many RV freezers do not have an ice maker and it can be a little bit cumbersome to get ice on the road especially when you have to buy a 10 pound bag or you have to wait an extremely long time for ice to actually be made in your valuable freezer space. Some really nice features of this ice maker is throughout the day it can make 28 pounds of ice which is an unreasonable amount of ice I think for two people. But if you do have a party or something like that this is a really great investment if you don't have an ice maker in your home. The other really impressive thing about this ice maker is it can make ice in 6 minutes. Now it does depend on the temperature inside of your RV but personally I have found it to be true that it takes about 6 to 7 minutes for ice to come out of this ice maker and once it does produce some ice that's enough for one drink. So it is very very fast and when I do wake up in the morning I turn this on first thing so that I can put ice in my water bottle and have nice refreshing water throughout the day. The controls on this ice maker are very simple and easy to use. There is an on and off button and then you can choose between small, medium, and large ice. I personally only use the large ice button as the small ice is very very tiny and I guess if you like crunchy ice that would be a really great option. The medium is a little bit bigger than the small of course but the large I think is the most substantial size of ice and works really well for me so I just always leave it on the large setting. It is really easy to fill.  You could even if you don't have ice in there just pour it directly over the ice tray and it has a max fill line in there and your ice will come out in 6 minutes and dump into that tray automatically. On the side if you do wish to take the water out maybe before travel there is a little valve on the side of it so you can easily get that water out and into the sink without it being a really cumbersome process. I'm going to have a link to this in the description and again the discount code is going to be in the top of the description as well as listed here at the bottom of the screen. On their website they have all their specifications, the dimensions, how much it weighs, so if there's a specific that you're looking for on there I'm going to have that link down below so you can hop over to their website and read more about it. We really really love this ice maker and love how quickly it makes the ice. Always having cold drinks on hand especially when we have guests over or it's a hot day being down here in Louisiana and it also is a really sleek design and we feel it fits really well in our decor and doesn't look too crazy sitting on our counter space. So that was a review of the new airportable ice maker I hope you enjoyed the video if you did please give it a big thumbs up and if you haven't already definitely subscribe for weekly reviews be sure to check out the links down below as well as the discount code and until next time we will see you on the road.