Alphadexis in the Non Fungible Tokens Industry

Alphadex

The Internet of Things is a fast-growing area of technology that will one day have virtually the entire world connected. For now, it's still in the relatively early stages, so there may be opportunities to invest early in companies that will benefit from the IoT. Which part of the Internet of Things do you want to invest in? So where can you put your money if you want to take a stake in the Internet of Things? It all depends on how you want to invest, which part of the IoT you want to invest in, and where the valuation of each company currently stands relative to the benefits it will receive from growth in the IoT. First it's important to realize that the Internet of Things has many parts, which means you can play the IoT in the stock market through several avenues. Some investors prefer to invest in companies that make components for devices, while others prefer to invest in software that connects devices to the internet. Still others invest in manufacturers and consumer-driven companies, while some prefer to play the industrial angle of the IoT. Another option is to invest in the platforms that make the Internet of Things possible. One other thing to think about when it comes to investing in the IoT is whether you want to stick to publicly traded companies or if you want to look for startups by investing in a venture capital fund. The downside of venture capital is that you must be an accredited investor to invest in startups, so that may not be an option that's open to you. Accredited investors are those with a net worth of at least $1 million, excluding their primary residence, or annual income of at least $200,000 for individuals or $300,000 for couples for the last two years. The definition of an accredited investor is also being expanded to those holding certain professional licenses in the financial industry. This expansion of the definition has been in the works for years, but it only recently was enacted. Component makers Perhaps the most basic place to start with investing in the Internet of Things is with the companies that make the components which make the IoT possible. This category includes some big names like Intel, although there are plenty of lesser known names as well. Two of these lesser known companies are Skyworks Solutions and Sierra Wireless. Skyworks makes semiconductors that are used in mobile communications systems and radio frequency. It should be noted that Skyworks stock has increased in value significantly this year. Sierra Wireless manufactures components that connect machines to each other over cellular networks. Marvell Technology Group is another semiconductor company with exposure to the Internet of Things, although it also makes the Andromeda platform and offers other angles for investing in the IoT. Arm Holdings and Impinj also make components. Arm makes semiconductors, while Impinj makes radio frequency identification devices (RFID) and software. Software and services Some examples of software and services companies that support the Internet of Things are JFrog and CalAmp. this year, so it is still humming along momentum from that. The company provides DevOpps solutions that serve as the backbone for IoT apps and services. JFrog just held its initial public offering CalAmp is an interesting play because the software it provides offers multiple exposures to the Internet of Things. The company provides cloud services, data intelligence and telematics products. It also offers exposure to connected vehicles and the industrial Internet of Things. Bsquare is another option if you're looking for software exposure to the IoT, and it also offers multiple exposures. The company states that it designs, builds and operates "intelligent devices and systems at scale" for its customers. Bsquare supports manufacturers and enterprises by offering professional development services. Its main product is B2IQ, which is a collection of edge-to-cloud solutions and system recovery tools that target the industrial internet of things. IoT platforms Alarm.com and PTC both offer platforms for the Internet of Things, although the nature of their platforms is entirely different. PTC is a global technology company that serves as an industrial play as well as a platform play. Its ThingWorx platform serves as a design and runtime engine for IoT applications. ThingWorx provides a library of more than 150 different device drivers and internet protocols to connect industrial machines to the platform. Alarm.com differs from PTC because it provides an IoT platform for consumers rather than industry. The company's platform does more than just serve as an alarm system. It also supports home automation while providing monitoring of systems. Alarm.com's Smart Signal product won the IoT Evolution Product of the Year Award in 2019. Smart Signal is a mobile app that reduces false alarms and expedites emergency response to homes. The company's home automation platform enables users to control appliances while on the go, which can come in handy if you think you've forgotten to turn off the stove or another major appliance before leaving home. Amazon If you're looking for a more well-known platform play, you might consider Amazon, although give the run-up in its stock, it may be overvalued at current levels. Amazon Web Services offers its IoT Core platform, a managed cloud service that enables connected devices to interact with cloud applications and other devices. One good thing about Amazon is that it is more than a platform play when it comes to the Internet of Things. It also sells consumer devices like its Echo smart speaks, which are equipped with its Alexa digital assistant. Alexa also provides exposure to the software side of the IoT, although it rather straddles the line between platform and software because it serves as a consumer interface for the platform. Although Amazon is perhaps better known for its devices and ecommerce of course, it actually receives most of its profits from its cloud computing business. Amazon Web Services also has industrial applications because it provides connectivity to some companies' manufacturing infrastructures. For example, Volkswagen selected Amazon Web Services to connect more than 100 of its factories to the cloud to "increase plant efficiency and uptime, improve production flexibility and increase vehicle quality." Industrial options for the Internet of Things For exposure to the industrial Internet of Things, we dive into a mix of companies that are household names and some that aren't. The interesting thing about these industrial names is that some of them may not seem like IoT plays at first glance. For example, Honeywell has been building a name for itself in the Internet of Things industry. The company describes the Industrial Internet of Things as a "network of networks that uses the internet to connect people, processes and assets enabling a new way to optimize business results." By connecting industrial infrastructure, the company's platform also provides analytics, data management and onsite control. Another household name that you might not think would be connected to the IoT is General Electric, which is both a platform and industrial play with software exposure as well. The company's Predix Platform is a distributed application platform designed to capture and analyze the volume, velocity and variety of machine data in an "industrial-strength cloud environment." GE Digital describes its software as connecting "streams of machine data to powerful analytics and people, providing industrial companies with valuable insights to manage assets and operations more efficiently." Connected vehicles One part of the Internet of Things that gets more attention on its own than it does as part of the IoT is connected vehicles. There is a wide array of companies that fall into this category, ranging from well-known companies like and other automakers to lesser known names like Mobileye, which is now part of Intel. Mobileye makes advanced driver-assistance systems and sensors to support autonomous vehicles. Tesla Another connected car company is TeleNav, which provides maps, navigation and other connected car solutions. The company offers many services and apps designed for navigation and similar activities, but its TeleNav Asset Tracker and TeleNav Vehicle Tracker are designed to help companies track their assets and vehicles, respectively. The company also offers infotainment systems that are integrated with the cloud to provide services inside vehicles. Other connected vehicle technologies include predictive maintenance systems like those offered by Progress Software. Consumer devices The consumer device side of the IoT is filled with some very big names, including Alphabet and Apple. Alphabet has several devices that connect to the internet, starting with its Google Home smart speakers. Alphabet also sells the thermometer, which may be one of the best examples of smart phone technology. The Nest thermometer allows users to control their thermostat while they're away from home using an app on their smartphone. Nest Apple is not a pure Internet of Things play because of the iPhone and the many other products it sells, but it is important to mention, nonetheless. The company's HomeKit provides a platform for smart home devices to connect to, and its HomePod smart speakers are a competitor for Amazon's Echo devices and the Google Home smart speakers. An easy option for investing in the Internet of Things If your head is spinning with the many stocks that provide exposure to the Internet of Things, you might want to consider simplifying things a bit by purchasing an exchange-traded fund. The Global X Internet of Things ETF is arguably the most popular ETF for those who want exposure to the IoT. The focuses on semiconductor companies, sensor makers, integrated products and solutions, and apps that serve smart grides, smart homes, connected cars, and the industrial internet of things. Among the top 10 holdings in the ETF are Skyworks Solutions, STMicroelectronics, Garmin, Dexcom, Silicon Laboratories, Advantech, ADT and Xiaomi. Global X Internet of Things ETF In all, the ETF holds 47 different stocks. More than half of its assets are held in the information technology sector, while nearly 30% are held in industrials. The U.S. makes up the largest chunk of the ETF's holdings. Related ETFs Beyond the Global X ETF, there are some other ETFs that are related to the Internet of Things, although they do not provide as much of a pure play option for the IoT. For example, the VanEck Semiconductor ETF invests in chip makers, many of which do offer products aimed at the IoT market. The ETF is limited to the semiconductor market though, so it does not provide a diversified holding of IoT-exposed companies. You will also be missing out on vast chunks of the Internet of Things if you're wanting to invest in it more broadly. Two other options are the First Trust Technology AlphaDEX Fund, which invests in tech stocks, and the PowerShares Cleantech Portfolio ETF. The First Trust ETF provides exposure to a broad range of tech stocks, which means it includes many companies that don't have any exposure to the Internet of Things. In fact, of the ETF's top 10 holdings, there are very few major IoT names. Its top 10 holdings as of October 12 include Twilio, Cloudflare, Datadog, Globant, HubSpot, Fastly, Micron Technologies (which has also ), Apple, DocuSign and Xerox Holdings. attracted big-name investors like Mohnish Pabrai The PowerShares Cleantech ETF is even less of an IoT play than the other two, but it does deserve a mention, especially for those who are interested in investing in sustainable energy and other forms of clean technology. The ETF's top holdings are Gamesa, ABB, Schneider Electric, Ansys, Vestas, Autodesk, Intertek, Novozymes, Trimble Navigation and Kingspan. Some final thoughts No matter which route you take to invest in the Internet of Things, you should always take a diversified approach. It wouldn't be a bad idea to work with a financial advisor who specializes in selecting tech investments for portfolios. They can help you make sure that your portfolio is wholly diversified. You should also include some non-IoT stocks as well so that your portfolio isn't loaded entirely into technology. If you are investing in the Internet of Things, you should also consider diversifying within the IoT universe. There are plenty of stocks to choose from, and not all of them will be a good fit for every investor. That's why options like the Global X ETF can make it easier to invest in the IoT while ensuring that you take a broad picture of the landscape for your portfolio.

Investing in the Internet of Things

Mark Twain's Speeches by Mark Twain, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book . THE ALPHABET AND SIMPLIFIED SPELLING here THE ALPHABET AND SIMPLIFIED SPELLING ADDRESS AT THE DINNER GIVEN TO MR. CARNEGIE AT THE DEDICATION
          OF THE NEW YORK ENGINEERS’ CLUB, DECEMBER 9, 1907

          Mr. Clemens was introduced by the president of the club, who,
          quoting from the Mark Twain autobiography, recalled the day
          when the distinguished writer came to New York with $3 in small
          change in his pockets and a $10 bill sewed in his clothes. It seems to me that I was around here in the neighborhood of the Public Library about fifty or sixty years ago. I don’t deny the circumstance, although I don’t see how you got it out of my autobiography, which was not to be printed until I am dead, unless I’m dead now. I had that $3 in change, and I remember well the $10 which was sewed in my coat. I have prospered since. Now I have plenty of money and a disposition to squander it, but I can’t. One of those trust companies is taking care of it. Now, as this is probably the last time that I shall be out after nightfall this winter, I must say that I have come here with a mission, and I would make my errand of value. Many compliments have been paid to Mr. Carnegie to-night. I was expecting them. They are very gratifying to me. I have been a guest of honor myself, and I know what Mr. Carnegie is experiencing now. It is embarrassing to get compliments and compliments and only compliments, particularly when he knows as well as the rest of us that on the other side of him there are all sorts of things worthy of our condemnation. Just look at Mr. Carnegie’s face. It is fairly scintillating with fictitious innocence. You would think, looking at him, that he had never committed a crime in his life. But no—look at his pestiferious simplified spelling. You can’t any of you imagine what a crime that has been. Torquemada was nothing to Mr. Carnegie. That old fellow shed some blood in the Inquisition, but Mr. Carnegie has brought destruction to the entire race. I know he didn’t mean it to be a crime, but it was, just the same. He’s got us all so we can’t spell anything. The trouble with him is that he attacked orthography at the wrong end. He meant well, but he attacked the symptoms and not the cause of the disease. He ought to have gone to work on the alphabet. There’s not a vowel in it with a definite value, and not a consonant that you can hitch anything to. Look at the “h’s” distributed all around. There’s “gherkin.” What are you going to do with the “h” in that? What the devil’s the use of “h” in gherkin, I’d like to know. It’s one thing I admire the English for: they just don’t mind anything about them at all. But look at the “pneumatics” and the “pneumonias” and the rest of them. A real reform would settle them once and for all, and wind up by giving us an alphabet that we wouldn’t have to spell with at all, instead of this present silly alphabet, which I fancy was invented by a drunken thief. Why, there isn’t a man who doesn’t have to throw out about fifteen hundred words a day when he writes his letters because he can’t spell them! It’s like trying to do a St. Vitus’s dance with wooden legs. Now I’ll bet there isn’t a man here who can spell “pterodactyl,” not even the prisoner at the bar. I’d like to hear him try once—but not in public, for it’s too near Sunday, when all extravagant histrionic entertainments are barred. I’d like to hear him try in private, and when he got through trying to spell “pterodactyl” you wouldn’t know whether it was a fish or a beast or a bird, and whether it flew on its legs or walked with its wings. The chances are that he would give it tusks and make it lay eggs. Let’s get Mr. Carnegie to reform the alphabet, and we’ll pray for him—if he’ll take the risk. If we had adequate, competent vowels, with a system of accents, giving to each vowel its own soul and value, so every shade of that vowel would be shown in its accent, there is not a word in any tongue that we could not spell accurately. That would be competent, adequate, simplified spelling, in contrast to the clipping, the hair punching, the carbuncles, and the cancers which go by the name of simplified spelling. If I ask you what b-o-w spells you can’t tell me unless you know which b-o-w I mean, and it is the same with r-o-w, b-o-r-e, and the whole family of words which were born out of lawful wedlock and don’t know their own origin. Now, if we had an alphabet that was adequate and competent, instead of inadequate and incompetent, things would be different. Spelling reform has only made it bald-headed and unsightly. There is the whole tribe of them, “row” and “read” and “lead”—a whole family who don’t know who they are. I ask you to pronounce s-o-w, and you ask me what kind of a one. If we had a sane, determinate alphabet, instead of a hospital of comminuted eunuchs, you would know whether one referred to the act of a man casting the seed over the ploughed land or whether one wished to recall the lady hog and the future ham. It’s a rotten alphabet. I appoint Mr. Carnegie to get after it, and leave simplified spelling alone. Simplified spelling brought about sun-spots, the San Francisco earthquake, and the recent business depression, which we would never have had if spelling had been left all alone. Now, I hope I have soothed Mr. Carnegie and made him more comfortable than he would have been had he received only compliment after compliment, and I wish to say to him that simplified spelling is all right, but, like chastity, you can carry it too far. About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Mark Twain (2004). Mark Twain's Speeches. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October 2022 https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/3188/pg3188-images.html This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at , located at . www.gutenberg.org https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html

THE ALPHABET AND SIMPLIFIED SPELLING

What Is Man? and Other Essays by Mark Twain, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book . A SIMPLIFIED ALPHABET here A SIMPLIFIED ALPHABET (This article, written during the autumn of 1899, was about the last writing done by Mark Twain on any impersonal subject.) I have had a kindly feeling, a friendly feeling, a cousinly feeling toward Simplified Spelling, from the beginning of the movement three years ago, but nothing more inflamed than that. It seemed to me to merely propose to substitute one inadequacy for another; a sort of patching and plugging poor old dental relics with cement and gold and porcelain paste; what was really wanted was a new set of teeth. That is to say, a new . alphabet The heart of our trouble is with our foolish alphabet. It doesn’t know how to spell, and can’t be taught. In this it is like all other alphabets except one—the phonographic. That is the only competent alphabet in the world. It can spell and correctly pronounce any word in our language. That admirable alphabet, that brilliant alphabet, that inspired alphabet, can be learned in an hour or two. In a week the student can learn to write it with some little facility, and to read it with considerable ease. I know, for I saw it tried in a public school in Nevada forty-five years ago, and was so impressed by the incident that it has remained in my memory ever since. I wish we could adopt it in place of our present written (and printed) character. I mean the alphabet; simply the consonants and the vowels—I don’t mean any or abbreviations of them, such as the shorthand writer uses in order to get compression and speed. No, I would simply reductions spell every word out. I will insert the alphabet here as I find it in Burnz’s Phonic Shorthand. (Figure 1) It is arranged on the basis of Isaac Pitman’s . Isaac Pitman was the originator and father of scientific phonography. It is used throughout the globe. It was a memorable invention. He made it public seventy-three years ago. The firm of Isaac Pitman & Sons, New York, still exists, and they continue the master’s work. Phonography What should we gain? First of all, we could spell —and correctly—any word you please, just by the of it. We can’t do that with our present alphabet. For instance, take a simple, every-day word . If we tried to spell it by the sound of it, we should make it TYSIS, and be laughed at by every educated person. definitely sound phthisis Secondly, we should gain in in writing. reduction of labor Simplified Spelling makes valuable reductions in the case of several hundred words, but the new spelling must be . You can’t spell them by the sound; you must get them out of the book. learned But even if we knew the simplified form for every word in the language, the phonographic alphabet would still beat the Simplified Speller “hands down” in the important matter of economy of labor. I will illustrate: PRESENT FORM: through, laugh, highland. SIMPLIFIED FORM: thru, laff, hyland. PHONOGRAPHIC FORM: (Figure 2) To write the word “through,” the pen has to make twenty-one strokes. To write the word “thru,” the pen has to make twelve strokes—a good saving. To write that same word with the phonographic alphabet, the pen has to make only strokes. three To write the word “laugh,” the pen has to make strokes. fourteen To write “laff,” the pen has to make the of strokes—no labor is saved to the penman. same number To write the same word with the phonographic alphabet, the pen has to make only strokes. three To write the word “highland,” the pen has to make twenty-two strokes. To write “hyland,” the pen has to make eighteen strokes. To write that word with the phonographic alphabet, the pen has to make only FIVE strokes. (Figure 3) To write the words “phonographic alphabet,” the pen has to make fifty-three strokes. To write “fonografic alfabet,” the pen has to make fifty strokes. To the penman, the saving in labor is insignificant. To write that word (with vowels) with the phonographic alphabet, the pen has to make only strokes. seventeen Without the vowels, only strokes. (Figure 4) The vowels are hardly necessary, this time. thirteen We make five pen-strokes in writing an m. Thus: (Figure 5) a stroke down; a stroke up; a second stroke down; a second stroke up; a final stroke down. Total, five. The phonographic alphabet accomplishes the m with a single stroke—a curve, like a parenthesis that has come home drunk and has fallen face down right at the front door where everybody that goes along will see him and say, Alas! When our written m is not the end of a word, but is otherwise located, it has to be connected with the next letter, and that requires another pen-stroke, making six in all, before you get rid of that m. But never mind about the connecting strokes—let them go. Without counting them, the twenty-six letters of our alphabet consumed about eighty pen-strokes for their construction—about three pen-strokes per letter. It is required by the phonographic alphabet. It requires but stroke for each letter. three times the number one My writing-gait is—well, I don’t know what it is, but I will time myself and see. Result: it is twenty-four words per minute. I don’t mean composing; I mean . There isn’t any definite composing-gait. copying Very well, my copying-gait is 1,440 words per hour—say 1,500. If I could use the phonographic character with facility I could do the 1,500 in twenty minutes. I could do nine hours’ copying in three hours; I could do three years’ copying in one year. Also, if I had a typewriting machine with the phonographic alphabet on it—oh, the miracles I could do! I am not pretending to write that character well. I have never had a lesson, and I am copying the letters from the book. But I can accomplish my desire, at any rate, which is, to make the reader get a good and clear idea of the advantage it would be to us if we could discard our present alphabet and put this better one in its place—using it in books, newspapers, with the typewriter, and with the pen. (Figure 6)— . I think it is graceful and would look comely in print. And consider—once more, I beg—what a labor-saver it is! Ten pen-strokes with the one system to convey those three words above, and thirty-three by the other! (Figure 7) I mean, in SOME ways, not in all. I suppose I might go so far as to say in most ways, and be within the facts, but never mind; let it go at . One of the ways in which it exercises this birthright is—as I think—continuing to use our laughable alphabet these seventy-three years while there was a rational one at hand, to be had for the taking. Man Dog Horse some It has taken five hundred years to simplify some of Chaucer’s rotten spelling—if I may be allowed to use so frank a term as that—and it will take five hundred more to get our exasperating new Simplified Corruptions accepted and running smoothly. And we sha’n’t be any better off then than we are now; for in that day we shall still have the privilege the Simplifiers are exercising now: can change the spelling that wants to. anybody It will always follow the SOUND. If you want to change the spelling, you have to change the sound first. But you can’t change the phonographic spelling; there isn’t any way. Mind, I myself am a Simplified Speller; I belong to that unhappy guild that is patiently and hopefully trying to reform our drunken old alphabet by reducing his whiskey. Well, it will improve him. When they get through and have reformed him all they can by their system he will be only HALF drunk. Above that condition their system can never lift him. There is no competent, and lasting, and real reform for him but to take away his whiskey entirely, and fill up his jug with Pitman’s wholesome and undiseased alphabet. One great drawback to Simplified Spelling is, that in print a simplified word looks so like the very nation! and when you bunch a whole squadron of the Simplified together the spectacle is very nearly unendurable. The da ma ov koars kum when the publik ma be expektd to get rekonsyled to the bezair asspekt of the Simplified Kombynashuns, but—if I may be allowed the expression—is it worth the wasted time? (Figure 8) To see our letters put together in ways to which we are not accustomed offends the eye, and also takes the out of the words. expression La on, Makduf, and damd be he hoo furst krys hold, enuf! It doesn’t thrill you as it used to do. The simplifications have sucked the thrill all out of it. But a written character with which we are does not offend us—Greek, Hebrew, Russian, Arabic, and the others—they have an interesting look, and we see beauty in them, too. And this is true of hieroglyphics, as well. There is something pleasant and engaging about the mathematical signs when we do not understand them. The mystery hidden in these things has a fascination for us: we can’t come across a printed page of shorthand without being impressed by it and wishing we could read it. not acquainted Very well, what I am offering for acceptance and adoption is not shorthand, but longhand, written with the . You can write three times as many words in a minute with it as you can write with our alphabet. And so, in a way, it properly a shorthand. It has a pleasant look, too; a beguiling look, an inviting look. I will write something in it, in my rude and untaught way: (Figure 9) Shorthand Alphabet Unreduced is Even when do it it comes out prettier than it does in Simplified Spelling. Yes, and in the Simplified it costs one hundred and twenty-three pen-strokes to write it, whereas in the phonographic it costs only twenty-nine. I (Figure 9) is probably (Figure 10). Let us hope so, anyway. About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Mark Twain (2004). What Is Man? and Other Essays. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October 2022 https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/70/pg70-images.html This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at , located at . www.gutenberg.org https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html

A SIMPLIFIED ALPHABET

Google's parent company  Alphabet Inc., on Thursday. They were not an exception to the effect of the current market downturn affecting the world, as they saw revenue slum and growth slowed when compared to Refinitiv projections. For Q4, consolidated revenues were $76 billion, a 1% gain over Q4 in 2021. released its fourth and fiscal year 2022 results In the conference call, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai described the growth run during the pandemic as a period of significant acceleration in digital spending, which has made the current macroeconomic ecosystem challenging as the world returns to normality. As communities and business owners embrace artificial intelligence, the search and android giant is aligning itself to be a . The call was centered mainly on three things: the impact of AI, how to unlock its potential across its products, and how to focus investment to make necessary decisions as a company to get there. key player in the field “First, the AI opportunity ahead. AI is the most profound technology we are working on today. Our talented researchers, infrastructure, and technology make us extremely well-positioned as AI reaches an inflection point. More than six years ago, I first spoke about Google being an AI-first company.” Pichai said. According to , Google management had several meetings around its company AI strategy amidst the soaring popularity of OpenAI chatbot ChatGPT and the partnership of its search engine competitor Microsoft. During the call, Pichai talked about the company’s plans to release large language models (LLMs) like LaMDA and PaLM to the public in the coming weeks and months. a New York Times report LaMDA will be the first to go public as they will await feedback from people to improve. He described this model to be particularly amazing for composing, constructing and summarizing. The company will be incorporating these LLMs in companionship with search, as it will become more useful as they provide up-to-date factual information. The company also plans to introduce LLMs into two of its products — Gmail and Docs. Pichai said there are plans in motion to incorporate generative capabilities into its design segment. He further stated the company would provide tools and APIs for developers and creators to enable them to create their applications and explore the possibilities of AI on the platform. Google ads business is its biggest revenue source despite going down by 2% in the last quarter, coming in at $42.6 billion. According to senior vice president and Chief Business Officer Philipp Schindler, the company was able to outsize growth in advertising revenues during the pandemic, which saw advertising revenue of 2022 to be $90 billion higher than that in 2019. He reiterated the company's focus on generating revenue through AI-driven innovations, highlighting the progress made by smart bidding, which uses AI to predict future ad conversions and their value which help business to stay agile and responsive to a rapid shift in demand. The uses of AI advances boosted the bidding performance in the last year, which allowed advertiser outcomes down the funnel to drive ROI and use budgets more efficiently. “In 2022, AI advances boosted bidding performance, allowing us to move advertiser outcomes down the funnel to drive better ROI and use budgets more efficiently. In search query matching, large language models like MUM matched advertiser offices to user quarries. This understanding of human intent of language, combined with advances in bidding prediction, is why businesses can see an average of 35% more conversions when they upgrade exact match keywords to broad match in campaigns that use a target CPA. Google AI also underlies our creative products like tech suggestions in Google ads and creative optimization and responsive search ads.” Schindler said. Alphabet is throwing a strong signal to the AI industry after the company announced that they changing the financial report as it relates to its DeepMind AI in Q1. CFO Ruth Porat said this is due to increasing collaboration between DeepMind and Google products, and it will no longer be reported in other Bets and will now be reported as part of Alphabet’s corporate costs. Despite announcing a plan to and taking a severance charge of $1.9 to $2.9 billion, the company will be incurring an approximate sum of $500 million of costs related to exiting leases to align offices spaces with the adjusted headcount. Porat said the company would continue to hire in priority areas like artificial intelligence. She also said the company has a longer-term plan to re-engineer the cost base by incorporating AI to improve productivity across Alphabet for operational tasks. layoff 12,000 people in late January

Alphabet Doubles Up Efforts on AI as Tech Industry Races to Get a Foothold in the Sector

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Alphabet dobra esforços em IA enquanto a indústria de tecnologia corre para se firmar no setor

Teknoloji Sektörü Sektörde Yer Almak İçin Yarışırken Alphabet Yapay Zekaya Yönelik Çabaları İkiye Katlıyor

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随着科技行业竞相在该领域站稳脚跟，Alphabet 加倍努力开发人工智能

If you haven't realized it yet, this is a crazy market! However, beyond short-term volatility driven by liquidity and macroeconomic trends. There are a few interesting takes from the latest financial releases of Google, Facebook, and Amazon. Let's see some of them! Google’s parent company, Alphabet, released its end-of-year financials. Looking at its financials is important for various reasons and some of them are: Assessing the digital advertising landscape. Understanding how Google’s advertising machine works at scale. How consumers’ behavior is shifting in this new digital landscape. Let’s dive into them. Google’s profitability Google’s profitability has slightly improved in 2021, thanks to the fact it managed to increase its faster than it increased its operational costs, as traffic on its platforms increased substantially during 2020-2021. We’ll see in this in-depth why that’s the case. revenue analysis First of all, for the first time in its history, Google generated over $257 billion in revenues. And the company almost reached a two trillion market capitalization. For some context, when Google IPOed in 2004, it recorded almost a billion in revenues, and it was worth about $23 billion, as it popped at its IPO date to $85 per share (On February 2nd, 2022, a Google stock is worth $2,958.22). At the time, in 2004, Google had just managed to scale its advertising machine comprised mainly of Google AdWords (today Google Ads) and Google AdSense. At the time the advertising machine was primarily based on Internet traffic from desktop devices. That was a completely different world. As we’ll see throughout this , today most traffic comes from mobile. And Google ’s mobile ads platforms (Google AdMob) play a key role. So let’s dive a bit into the main segments of . analysis financial Google Google’s main segments in 2021 In 2021, the Google advertising machine, generated over $209 billion in revenues. This represented an over 42% , year over year! This is a massive improvement for a company worth almost two trillion. In a market landscape that is not anymore in favor of advertising. How did Google pull this off? growth digital We’ll see this shortly. But for now, let’s emphasize a few key points. Today the Google advertising machine is comprised of three main products: : This represents the set of products that Google owns, from the search engines to all the other vertical platforms that the company operates (Google Discover, Google News, Google Travel, and more). In 2021, this segment generated over $148 billion! Google Search/Properties : This is of course one of the most successful acquisitions ever done. It was acquired by Google for $1.65 billion in 2006. It’s important to notice that Google was able to integrate YouTube and scale it up. A feat that not every other company would have been able to achieve. At the time YouTube was getting sued for various copyright infringements (the is comprised of user-generated content, often posting copyrighted materials) that would have most probably bankrupted it if it had stayed a startup without Google’s backing. By 2021, YouTube has become an advertising machine generating over $28 billion (this doesn’t count the YouTube memberships, which are reported separately). YouTube business platform this is the set of publishers that decide to opt into Google’s advertising network (either AdSense for desktop, or AdMob for in-app advertising). Here Google shows advertising on the network members’ properties, thus splitting the revenues with them. In 2021, Google’s network members generated over $31 billion of revenues. And Google Network Members’ properties: As we’ll see understanding the difference among these segments helps us understand how Google manages its cost structure for each segment. What determines the rowth of each segment? g In fact, since the pandemic hit, more and more users started to use Google’s products. This trend has continued. However, most of it was driven by mobile users’ rowth . This is an important aspect, as it shows that Google’s main driver of rowth is based on mobile traffic. This changes the way the company to prioritize its developments efforts, its ad formats served to users, and also how it experiments. Google’s search advertising has been driven by g rowth in search queries. g g needs product This means that Alphabet (as it’s evident to anyone going on YouTube) has ramped up the advertising operations on YouTube. In short, on YouTube now there are way more ads than before. This “improved ad formats” is the result of YouTube’s extreme stickiness with users, which enables Alphabet to play with its ad formats. YouTube g rowth was driven primarily by improved ad formats. In short, the mobile advertising platform, powered up by Android devices through the Google Play store, was the main driver of in 2021. This shows how Google has shifted also its focus on the mobile advertising platform. Google’s network members’ properties were primarily driven by AdMob. revenue growth Let’s see how, a little bit more in detail, ad monetization changed for Google. In 2021, two main factors determined the improvement in ad monetization by Google. First, Google recorded an increase in paid clicks (driven by an increase in user adoption and search queries primarily on mobile devices). Second, this also drove more paid clicks in AdMob through the Google Play store. Third, as we saw Google is testing various ad formats (we can argue it’s showing more ads) both on Google’s products and YouTube, which slightly improved monetization. Among the other revenues, instead, Google Cloud also recorded an important thanks to the Google Cloud Platform. growth Let’s look now at the other side, the cost structure. Google’s cost structure When it comes to Google its cost structure is pretty straightforward. In order to keep its operations profitable, it needs to be able to generate traffic at much lower costs, than it can monetize it. In 2021, Google traffic acquisition costs (the spending needed to run the servers, for its main products, and the deals in place to enable the for its main products) were over $45 billion. distribution In respect to advertising revenues, its traffic acquisition costs were 22% of its advertising revenues in 2020. In 2021, instead, the traffic acquisition costs decreased to 21.7% compared to its revenues. This might seem a little difference. Yet, Google managed to lower its traffic acquisition costs, nonetheless its much wider users’ adoption. This shows that a lot of that adoption was organic, and based on strong deals the company has in place. The other cost of revenues instead was mainly driven by improved content acquisition costs and costs in data centers. In terms of profitability, it’s interesting to notice, how, at a wider scale, Google Services has huge margins. That’s because as we saw in the previous paragraph, Google managed to improve monetization for users, it saw mobile users’ growth, while it managed to lower its traffic acquisition costs! This combination led to an improved marginality. However, it’s also interesting to notice how the Google Advertising machine is the only one running at positive margins. Where instead, both the Google Cloud platform and the other Google Bets run at negative margins. Important to distinguish here. The Google Cloud platform is critical for the future success of the Google AI platform. When it comes to the other bets those instead are breakthroughs that Alphabet is pursuing with a long-term perspective. Those are money-losing bets for now but might turn into something interesting in the coming decade. Back in the early 2000s, the company had started to build its advertising machine. This journey culminated in 2004 when the company had managed to put together the various pieces (Google AdWords and Google AdSense) of its advertising machine, thus scaling up its revenues on top of a growing search platform. Indeed, in 2004 Google generated almost a billion dollars in revenues, and it was worth about $23 billion as it IPOed. In 2021, the company passed the $257 billion mark! Google’s Alphabet has become a two trillion-dollar company in 2021. This trend continues across 2020-2021. The increased search query traffic was primarily due to mobile users. Therefore, Google had to push more experimentations through its mobile platforms. Among the biggest drivers of its revenues were the increased adoptions from users as the pandemic hit. Alphabet here pushed through more ad formats, and more advertising to monetize it further. Thus, taking advantage of the increased mobile traffic as a consequence of the pandemic. YouTube, driven by mobile traffic growth saw also an important growth. And yet its ability to keep monetizing the traffic through increased ad spending, but also by serving more ads on its platforms. The above led to increased profitability, given the ability of Alphabet to reduce/or keep its costs stable as traffic increased. Google ads platform remains the strongest segment of the company, with massive profitability. However, both play a critical role in the future (Google Cloud Platform in the next five years, while the other bets in the coming ten-fifteen years). Google has negative margins on its Cloud Platform and its further bets. Facebook How much will Facebook (now Meta) lose as a consequence of Apple's policy change? At least $10 billion in 2022! This is for Facebook alone. For some context, Apple now requires apps to explicitly ask users if they want to be tracked, while before the consent was given by default. As Facebook highlighted in its latest financials: And they further explained: And finally, they put a number on it: "with Apple's iOS changes and new regulation in Europe, there's a clear trend where less data is available to deliver personalized ads... ...Like others in our industry, we faced headwinds as a result of Apple iOS changes... ...Apple created two challenges for advertisers: one is that the accuracy of our ads targeting decreased, which increased the cost of driving outcomes; the other is that measuring those outcomes became more difficult. These challenges are complex and interrelated. We're working to try and improve things..." "For example, by making progress in closing the underreporting gap for iOS web conversions and by introducing tools like our aggregated event measurement solutions to deliver better insights for advertisers..." "And, you know, we believe the impact of iOS overall as a headwind on our business in 2022 is on the order of $10 billion, so it's a pretty significant headwind for our business. And, you know, we're seeing that impact, you know, in a number of verticals..." Summing things up for the digital advertising landscape: Some key highlights from the latest financials of Google (Alphabet) and Facebook (Meta) also show some of the changes in the digital advertising landscape. This, in turn, is affecting millions of small businesses across the world: In reality, it was the pandemic that accelerated the trend. For both Google and Facebook, mobile traffic is the only growth driver. The pandemic determined a mobile transition: while companies like Google and Facebook have been investing in mobile-first for years. An interesting note here: Google (thanks to its vertical integration) managed to monetize its increased adoption. Facebook, on the contrary, hasn’t, and this was definitely due to Apple’s privacy change. The supply chain of data: it’s crucial to understand how Google and Facebook are entirely different in terms of structure. Where . While this played out well for Facebook so far. As soon as Apple tied up the distribution pipeline, it threatened the whole business! Google is vertically integrated (Hardware/Android > Chrome/Play Store > Search Engine/Search Ads), Facebook primarily relies on its strong brands who benefit from stickiness (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, Oculus) for the first time users stalled in various regions across the world. This is because there is too much pressure from new social media platforms (TikTok is killing it). Stalled user growth of Facebook: where Google’s growth potential has not been affected so far (it might come in the future), Facebook’s growth has already been affected. Thus, the move to the Metaverse for Facebook is not just a strategic bet; it’s a survival anchor! This means Facebook has to rush into it! Blitzscale the adoption of VR devices, which might turn into enormous mistakes. The move into the Metaverse becomes a survival anchor for Facebook: Who might benefit? Let’s draw some key points: Facebook has to push into VR (Oculus is a first step there). But the vision of Facebook of VR is way more pervading than any other company as its survival depends on that. Accelerating VR adoption for Facebook: all tech giants are rushing into VR with different philosophies. Apple believes in augmented reality, Google believes in mixed reality. Facebook wants to bring us into the Matrix. Therefore, we’ll see the first VR headsets probably in 2022 as the first exploration toward AR. VR/AR wars coming in 2022: digital platforms that go back to contextual advertising rather than aggressive targeting might benefit in this phase (Reddit over Facebook). Contextual advertising might win over targeted ads based on tracking: companies whose business model has privacy built-in will keep their growth trajectory. Thus, search engines like DuckDuckGo might skyrocket, and social media platforms like MeWe might thrive. Rise of privacy first search engines and social media: What about Amazon? Some interesting takes from Amazon's financials as it closed the year. No wonder Jeff Bezos picked up Andy Jessy (the current CEO) as his successor. Andy Jessy has led AWS since its inception in 2003! In Q4, Amazon online stores stalled compared to the previous year (hint: the pandemic contributed to the 2020 boost). The fastest-growing segments were AWS and Amazon advertising. Amazon's advertising machine passed $30 billion in revenues in 2021. For some context, YouTube ads generated over $28 billion in 2021. Amazon AWS showed incredible growth. A 40% growth year over year. Amazon AWS is a $71 billion revenue run rate business! And it has wide margins (so far) and incredible profitability, which connects to the next point. Of Amazon's over $33 billion in profits, over $18 billion were contributed by AWS! This means that more than 50% of Amazon's profitability depends on AWS. AWS is an enterprise powerhouse. Among its customers, there is also Meta! Meta, former Facebook Inc, relies on Amazon AWS for its AI development platform. Other huge brands built on top of Amazon AWS are Best Buy, Under Armour, Goldman Sachs, Pfizer, Roche, and many others. Can you guess what's next? Also Published Here

Big Tech Highlights From Alphabet, Meta and Amazon Financials For 2021

Fun little experiment to try out: go to your browser’s address bar (works best in desktop Chrome) and record your top websites that autocomplete for each of the letters . And if you’re feeling especially brave, share the results with the world… 😈 a-z My Google Chrome autocomplete results for A-Z. My Results A) - no surprises here. 🛍 amazon.com B) - mirror for the torrents. baypirateproxy.org thepiratebay C) - for all your anime needs. crunchyroll.com D) - kinda old school, but I prefer checking it to any personalized newesfeeds for generic news. digg.com E) - Useful TODO list app (I’ve recently switched to and couldn’t be happier). en.todoist.com todoist notion F) - Duh, though I’ve disabled my FB news feed with the chrome plugin so I don’t visit nearly as often as I used to. facebook.com News Feed Eradicator G) - Open source work consumes a lot of my time. ⭐️ is a reasonably distant second place here. github.com grubhub.com H) - Netflix’s younger cousin.. cause some stuff’s only available on Hulu. hulu.com I) - Really interesting new design tool that aims to make design + dev collaboration much easier. interplayapp.com J) - Very useful curated list of high quality React components. js.coach/react K) - Old KickAssTorrents mirror that is out of date. katcr.co L) - Ahh the joys of local web development. 😄 http://localhost:3000 M) - I use FB Messenger a lot more than SMS ever since I spent a few years living abroad in Thailand. International SMS is clunky but internet messaging platforms always “just work”. And of those platforms like Line, Wechat, etc., the only one where 99% of my friends have accounts is FB Messenger. messenger.com N) - Hacker News! 😎 I was a little surprised didn’t make it as my #1 but these days I stream more from external devices than my primary laptop. Also rounding out my top 3. news.ycombinator.com Netflix nytimes.com O) - Cause some companies force you to use Outlook 🤷‍ outlook.com P) - As a serial entrepreneur, Product Hunt’s a daily visit for me. producthunt.com Q) Leaving this one out as it’s an admin dashboard for async jobs for a recent project of mine. R) - The constant rabbit-hole of Reddit. :sigh: reddit.com S) - Torrent directory listing. seventorrentsmirror.info T) - This one’s probably my most visited. FOMO for better or worse… twitter.com U) - Excellent royalty-free stock photo site. unsplash.com V) - Crunchyroll’s cooler sister made by the same peeps. Anime streaming central. vrv.co W) - Reasonably unbiased news. wsj.com X) This was the only letter that didn’t autocomplete to any website for me… no seriously, it didn’t autocomplete even though there were results… I wonder if this is a built-in privacy mechanism of Chrome because I definitely don’t use Incognito mode... 🤷‍ Y) - I spend a lot more time on here than I probably should. :sigh: youtube.com Z) - Cause health’s important yo. zocdoc.com Categories These results can be roughly grouped into the following categories: Streaming (Hulu, VRV, YouTube, Crunchyroll, and various torrent sites) Software (localhost, GitHub, ProductHunt, js.coach) News (WSJ, Digg, Twitter, Hacker News) Social (Twitter, Facebook, Messenger) Insights I stream a LOT of video and ❤️ torrents (shout out to ). WebTorrent I’m pretty surprised there’s nothing NSFW on this list. 🕵 I’m sure there are a few results on here that would be novel and/or surprising to you and vice-versa. Conclusion So what is your alphabet of most visited websites? If you’re feeling brave, share some standouts from your list in the comments below or mention me @transitive_bs on Twitter! Hopefully this was a fun little experiment for you.. in a similar vein to ProductHunt sharing the most sticky apps that people use a lot but most people don’t know about ( ). example Also, gimme some of them claps 👏 👏 👏 Cheers!

🔥 Alphabet of Your Most Visited Sites 🔥

DeepMind's AlphaZero Engineering Use Cases

Tezos Client on Windows 10 using the Linux Subsystem the complete Guide About Tezos “You can’t build a great building on a weak foundation. You must have a solid foundation if you’re going to have a strong superstructure.” — Gordon B. Hinckley This quote is not referring to the Tezos Foundation, but to the solid code base that has been build by the Tezos team. As a professional software developer and cryptocurrency investor I´m surprised how Tezos´competitors managed to reach top 20 regarding the market cap with only whitepapers and promises to deliver. So I´ve had a look on their papers and codebase and compared it with Tezos. Only to find out that Tezos is light-years ahead in the development progress, code quality and professional work. Unfortunately the dispute with the foundation, lack of marketing and communication lead to a breach of confidence within the community. I´m really looking forward to the beta and hope that DLS, Tezos foundation and the community can bridge the existing divide. So this is not a typical “About” chapter, if you are not familiar with Tezos you may have a look on the excellent story written by . Linda Xie here So what is this story about? In this story I will give you, as an Windows 10 user, an step-by-step introduction on how you can build the Tezos alphanet client. This story may be the opener in a series of Tezos tutorials which aims for beginners to form your own opinion on Tezos. #1 Windows Subsystem for Linux and Ubuntu As far as I know it is not yet possible to run the Tezos client without Linux, so first thing we have to do is to install the Windows Subsystem for Linux to install our distribution (I´ve picked Ubuntu for this tutorial). So follow this to set up the Windows Subsystem and the Ubuntu shell. instruction #2 Missing packages After you have successfully installed your Ubuntu shell we will have to install git, OCaml, OPAM and the correct version of libsodium. As this story is also for beginners: Installing missing packages is very easy, as most Linux distributions come up with a package manager that will let you easily do that. So open up your Ubuntu shell and type in these commands: sudo apt-get updatesudo apt-get install git -ysudo apt-get sudo apt-get install opam -y install ocaml -y This four lines will install git, the OCaml compiler and the OCaml Package Manager (OPAM). “sudo” will ask you for your password to get the privilege to install the packages and “-y” will suppress the confirmation question. Before we can clone and build the Tezos client we have to update the libsodium package to a newer version (1.0.11) as stated . here Depending on your processor architecture please select a corresponding version from and . In the tutorial I´ve selected the 64 bit version. here here There are several ways to update the lib I´ve done it the following: wget sudo apt install ./libsodium18_1.0.11-1_amd64.deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/libs/libsodium/libsodium18_1.0.11-1_amd64.deb wget sudo apt install ./libsodium-dev_1.0.11-1_amd64.deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/libs/libsodium/libsodium-dev_1.0.11-1_amd64.deb #3 Get the source Now that all packages are installed we can clone the source from the alphanet branch. Note: I want my tezos client under C:\dev\tezos\ so, the following command is optional. cd /mnt/c/dev Now we can simply clone from the Tezos repository: git clone --branch alphanet https://gitlab.com/tezos/tezos.git #4 Build it! If you know what you are doing you can now follow the guide . If you want to continue the step-by-step tutorial continue reading. here You continue reading? Good, now we access the cloned folder and setup OPAM: cd tezosopam initopam updateopam switch "tezos" --alias-of 4.04.2 OPAM init may ask for permission to modify files. Press “y”. While setting up OPAM and compiling you can start reading the . Alphanet Introduction by Tezos After we set up OPAM, we activate the switch and compile the client: eval `opam config env`make build-depsmake Congratulation you´ve just build the Tezos Alphanet Client on Windows! If you have any problems compiling it, it might be a linker problem regarding the external dependencies. Google the problem maybe there is already a fix for the branch which has not been merged yet. The next story may be about utilizing the Alphanet. It can be found . here _Welcome to the Tezos alphanet, which is a pre-release network for the Tezos blockchain. Currently, the chain is reset…_doc.tzalpha.net Participating in the Alphanet - Tezos 0.0.1 documentation Addition: As stated out you can also use Docker instead. You can find an instruction here: Andreas Hassmann http://wiki.tezoscommunity.com/JoinAlphanetWindows

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