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Container Security Unveiled: Protecting Your Digital Cargo With a Touch of Humor 🛡️

কন্টেইনার নিরাপত্তা উন্মোচন করা হয়েছে: হাস্যরসের স্পর্শে আপনার ডিজিটাল কার্গোকে রক্ষা করা 🛡️

Containersicherheit enthüllt: Schützen Sie Ihre digitale Fracht mit einer Prise Humor 🛡️

Se revela la seguridad de los contenedores: proteja su carga digital con un toque de humor 🛡️

La sécurité des conteneurs dévoilée : protéger votre cargaison numérique avec une touche d'humour 🛡️

कंटेनर सुरक्षा का अनावरण: हास्य के स्पर्श के साथ आपके डिजिटल कार्गो की सुरक्षा 🛡️

コンテナセキュリティの公開: ユーモアを交えてデジタル貨物を保護 🛡️

컨테이너 보안 공개: 유머 감각으로 디지털 화물 보호 🛡️

Revelada a segurança do contêiner: protegendo sua carga digital com um toque de humor 🛡️

Представлена безопасность контейнеров: защита вашего цифрового груза с долей юмора 🛡️

Konteyner Güvenliği Açıklandı: Dijital Kargonuzu Mizah Dokunuşuyla Korumak 🛡️

Tiết lộ tính năng bảo mật container: Bảo vệ hàng hóa kỹ thuật số của bạn bằng một chút hài hước 🛡️

容器安全揭晓：以幽默的方式保护您的数字货物🛡️

Have you ever wondered how your face would look as a whimsical cartoon or how you could magically change your hair color in a photograph? The cutting-edge technology we're about to explore can make those dreams a reality and take your images to dazzling new heights! 🎨🚀 This most recent video is about a revolutionary AI architecture known as StyleGANEX. Developed by brilliant researchers and showcased at ICCV 2023, StyleGANEX is all about pushing boundaries and shattering limitations. No more settling for pixelated or low-res images! StyleGANEX elegantly tackles the challenges of flexible input sizes, allowing you to transform any image into a stunning work of art without compromising on quality. 🌈 And the best thing about it is that their code is fully open-source, and they have a demo available online (all links in the video description)! Obviously, the architecture is mostly based on StyleGAN, which has lots of pre-trained models you can play with, but all have this input image size issue we discussed, which ends up producing different encodings in the latent space too since they all follow the same convolutions. So, everything is of different sizes based on the image you want to process. Here, the researchers did a simple fix to this issue by implementing a dilated convolution to rescale the receptive fields of shallow layers in the StyleGAN generator architecture. But what does this mean? I'll guide you through the power of dilated convolutions, the wizardry that makes StyleGANEX an absolute game-changer in the world of AI image editing. And the best part? You don't need to be a tech expert to understand it all! 🧙🎓 Don't miss out – hit that play button and immerse yourself in the magic of StyleGANEX. And hey, if you're attending ICCV 2023 in Paris, we might cross paths! 🗼 https://youtu.be/Xj20I2zFYi0?embedable=true References: ►Read the full article: https://www.louisbouchard.ai/styleganex/ ►Demo: https://huggingface.co/spaces/PKUWilliamYang/StyleGANEX ►Paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.06146 ►Code: https://github.com/williamyang1991/StyleGANEX ►Project page: https://www.mmlab-ntu.com/project/styleganex/ ►Twitter: https://twitter.com/Whats_AI ►My Newsletter (A new AI application explained weekly to your emails!): https://www.louisbouchard.ai/newsletter/ ►Support me on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/whatsai ►Join Our AI Discord: https://discord.gg/learnaitogether

AI Image Magic: Creating HD Photos and Funny Cartoons With StyleGANEX

Art by Gal Yosef There is a saying: ”Money rules the world.” I believe it’s not the money itself but the decision-makers possessing it. Money has always been associated with accessible to a narrow swath of society. Power, Influence, Creative Self-Expression, and Unique Opportunities From the psychological perspective, it’s all about the feeling of , which roots in the natural human desire to be Unique and to be an Individual. To live life in your own way. To build the world that you choose. Exclusivity Why do we appreciate exclusivity? Ownership of items from luxury brands and unique art pieces supercharges our feeling of and . exclusivity individuality It inspires us to be creators ourselves - and there is nothing wrong with this desire. It’s a natural call for evolution and personal growth. In fact, there are a few people who are ready to take the responsibility of being creators and driving change in this world. Beginning from childhood, we wanted to be particular, to get recognition for our talents, and to be praised by adults. These instincts stay with us in adulthood, acquiring slightly different forms yet retaining the same meaning. There is nothing wrong with accepting yourself as a kid that wants to be creative and express himself via playing the game. We have never seen luxury brands in this way There are things you can’t buy, including a unique vision of the world and the ability to express it creatively. I had a chance to get acquainted with the self-taught prodigy who is becoming one the most influential digital artists of our time - Gal Yosef. His of luxury brands through vintage cartoon aesthetics has already attracted collaborations with celebrities like , , and rapper A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie. extraordinary artistic vision Justin Bieber Steve Aoki His art implies the , as well as the adult’s desire for ownership of luxurious items. Gal Yosef gives a second life to our favorite cartoon characters. In his art, they acquire the freedom of self-expression through wearing luxury clothing and accessories that fit their temper. honest acceptance of the kid in each adult World leaders in luxury fashion, sportswear, and sports cars, such as Dior, Nike, and Porsche have already partnered with Gal to develop a new look for their visual marketing. "Goofy" by Gal Yosef What if Disney characters were living an ultra-luxury life? What would vintage cartoon characters look like living a modern life? What if it was a wealthy life? Donald Duck, Goofy, Pink Panther, Snoopy, and others appear to us in dramatic lighting, wearing world-class brands like Louis Vuitton, Prada, Gucci, Hermes, and Dior. Each detail of their images speaks about class, exclusivity, and power. They are extravagant, brave, and free to live their life in a new way. Their lifestyle is no longer limited by Disney’s or Pixar’s storyline. Will probably Mickey Mouse want to drive Aston Martin? Or will Popeye the Sailor Man be once seen at a superyacht near the coast of Italy? Bugs Bunny is no longer fun and lovely. He is a powerful King of Carrots, surrounded by luxury. "King of Carrots. Gold Edition" by Gal Yosef via Instagram What if Hello Kitty was always dreaming about purchasing a luxury bag from Dior? "Hello Kitty" by Gal Yosef via Instagram What are Tweety’s plans for Friday’s luxury shopping? Will it be Birkin, Rolex or Audemars Piguet? "These days’ Tweety" by Gal Yosef Luxury brands can find a fresh marketing perspective in awakening the memories of customers’ childhood and nostalgia for the old good times. The aesthetics of vintage cartoons combined with the own incredible style of these can become an explosive mix. brands marketing It’s not the money that is responsible for your happiness, but you as a personality. However, seeing our then-time heroes enjoying their new luxurious life gives some sense of happiness, aesthetic satisfaction, sweet nostalgia, and definitely inspires us to take a fresh look at our own life. I appreciate the opportunity to hear the vision of Gal Yosef who is currently exhibiting his artworks at Eden Gallery - an international high-end art gallery with locations in New York, London, Miami, Mykonos, and Dubai. Disclaimer: All views in this article are my own and don’t imply sponsored endorsement. The use of all images is approved by the creator.

Ultra-Luxury Brands Through the Prism of Gal Yosef’s Cartoon Aesthetics

গ্যাল ইয়োসেফের কার্টুন নন্দনতত্ত্বের প্রিজমের মাধ্যমে আল্ট্রা-লাক্সারি ব্র্যান্ডগুলি

Ultra-Luxusmarken durch das Prisma der Cartoon-Ästhetik von Gal Yosef

Marcas de ultralujo a través del prisma de la estética de dibujos animados de Gal Yosef

Les marques ultra-luxe à travers le prisme de l'esthétique du dessin animé de Gal Yosef

गैल योसेफ के कार्टून एस्थेटिक्स के प्रिज्म के माध्यम से अल्ट्रा-लक्जरी ब्रांड्स

ガル・ヨセフの漫画美学のプリズムを通して見る超高級ブランド

갈 요세프의 만화 미학의 프리즘을 통해 본 초호화 브랜드

Marcas ultra luxuosas através do prisma da estética cartoon de Gal Yosef

Gal Yosef'in Karikatür Estetiği Prizmasından Ultra Lüks Markalar

Các thương hiệu siêu sang qua lăng kính thẩm mỹ hoạt hình của Gal Yosef

从 Gal Yosef 的卡通美学角度看超豪华品牌

If you're wondering how the future of simulated reality might look, you should watch . This movie has one underrated character whose true meaning we don't even fully catch behind the pretty picture — the idealized and portable hologram Joi, with a custom avatar and options for changing her appearance in real time. In fact, Joi is an AI companion app that can be played in 3D with the help of additional devices, but the photorealistic 3D model makes her seem real. The only drawback is that Joi cannot be fully materialized in the real world. Blade Runner 2049 However, her hyperreality means she is much more than just a simulation — for the movie’s protagonist, she's a real person. She’s his girlfriend. And, watching her in the movie, we also ignore her artificiality. Joi might be the best example of what many people would like to be in immersive spaces — perfect, endowed with the ability to create, and hyperrealistic. Virtual spaces that imitate reality already exist, but there is still no unified solution for how to transfer your personality to them and maintain a high-quality representation. It takes time, costs a lot of money, and, as a result, is not available to the average user. But how do we get there? Yet, achieving hyperrealistic virtual experiences — especially hyperrealistic avatars — is within our grasp. We just need a better understanding of how our virtual and digital identities are connected to the concept of hyperreality, how to create hyper-realistic versions of ourselves for the digital space, and why solving the problem goes beyond the high-quality visualization of objects and spaces. What is Hyperreality? We consider as digital objects that are visibly indistinguishable from physical reality. But because of their digital nature, these objects also have properties and capabilities that may not exist in the physical world. This definition applies to avatars or other representations of people (like Joi from ), as well as to any photorealistic digital content — movie stunts, games, and special effects. Hyperreality is more than just augmented reality that deceives the senses because we don’t--or prefer not to--feel the difference. hyperreal things Blade Runner 2049 For a better explanation, let's place hyperreality on the spectrum between real and artificial. This spectrum also includes augmented and virtual reality, each providing a different experience of human perception. is a complete digital representation of an imaginary world that the user experiences as independent knowledge, an alternative to the real world. Virtual reality is a mixed reality with elements of either the digital world \or the real world. It is perceived by the user as an experience of interaction with the digital world for greater immersion and creating the effect of presence. Augmented reality is an experience of a digital (artificial) origin that imitates reality but is not perceived by the user as a game. On the contrary – it expands the perception of reality. Hyperreality Hyperreality is Real Life, but Better ​​I believe hyperreality will be a key aspect of certain experiences in the metaverse and in the future internet overall. I agree with Tom Graham, CEO and co-founder of Metaphysic, who because it allows more authentic and emotionally engaging experiences. This transition is necessary to open up a metaverse beyond gaming and entertainment, to include more ordinary daily affairs like visiting doctors or family gatherings. notes that people prefer hyperreality For as long as the web has existed, people have imagined what a true virtual reality would look like. Almost 25 years ago, for example, using the term MUD (multi-user dungeons), which today we call the metaverse: “MUDding is more than just a computer game; it is hyperreality in full force.” psychologist Sherry Turkle described the future of human identity in the internet world And when a person finds themselves in a virtual space, how do they perceive that world? Who or what are they? “They are as real as my real life,” responded one of Turkle’s research subjects. “I can now have a portfolio of lives in which my real life is but one; RL [real life] is just one more window, and it's not usually my best one.” Amazingly, people in the late 1990s described their sense of virtual space as similar to what we feel today. According to , people feel more included in the metaverse than in real life. The to fill in three core aspects of life: inspiration, individuality, and inclusion. a global study by Momentum Worldwide from July 2022 report also found that consumers look to the virtual experience Transferring a digital copy of yourself into the virtual world and having everyday human experiences is the next breakthrough to be made on the way to building the metaverse. In fact, many people believe that real-world experiences will eventually be replaced by virtual ones, and they are expecting a hyperreal future. In June 2022, and found that two-thirds are excited about transitioning everyday activities to the metaverse, especially when it comes to connecting with people, exploring virtual worlds, and collaborating with remote colleagues. McKinsey surveyed more than 3,400 consumers around the world However, any given environment will only feel hyper-real if it reflects the real world as much as possible. Not fictional and cartoonish, but . Like a work Zoom call but in a 3D office with colleagues, or like a festival with friends but in an immersive 3D space. We already have gaming environments where the user can become anyone from a princess to a monster; there is nothing technologically complicated about them. real People, Places, and Things The next challenge is learning how to recreate the real world and integrate ourselves into it. A major part of , of course, is our physical appearance. However, unlike with modern incarnations of social media, where users struggle over the need to look perfect or to look “real” (while, of course, still looking good), hyperreality should serve as a form of stress reduction. We should be able to modify our digital avatars without trying to make our literal selves seem perfect — whether you'd like to look like a celeb or stay yourself by preserving your personal features. ourselves Maintaining the very ability to do what we want with our avatar is another key — grow fangs or choose any hair color, put on clothes that we like, or even change our shape to a zoomorphic one. Ideally, in virtuality, it's just the way we like it. But our belongings also define us in real life, and they will in the metaverse, as well. So we will strive to transfer our belongings into the digital world – for example, our houses, cars, sneakers, or even favorite cups. Such services already exist. , a metaverse agency specializing in creating hyperrealistic customized house models, allows clients to add digital assets, their favorite furniture, or art to make their virtual home a unique place. Verse Estate Even better is if your avatars, belongings, and general digital identity are interoperable as you transition between worlds or environments. Some enabling technologies to do this already exist, including , which makes virtual identities interoperable with various platforms. Ready Player Me Between Static and Expressive Lies an Uncanny Valley Achieving true hyperreality will be difficult, though, even as some of the fundamental capabilities are shaping up to some degree. Solving all of its requirements and challenges — the technological ones as well as the business ones — is beyond the scope of any one company or field. The quest to perfect human graphics functions as a microcosm of the greater field. When of its metaverse platform , for example, not everyone was satisfied with the quality, detailing, and realism of Mark Zuckerberg’s cartoon avatar. In fact, most, if not all, current visualization attempts in the metaverse are far from hyperreal and cannot compare to those in, say, massively multiplayer online role-playing games. There’s a simple reason for this: We don't yet know how to render the myriad human emotions and expressions that should be available in lifelike virtual environments, where avatars are responding to unpredictable stimuli in real time. Meta announced the launch Horizon Worlds However, there a bunch of tools on the market for creating digital avatars – from the cartoonish like and the aforementioned Ready Player Me to the most hyper-realistic provided by character studios like and . These studios showcase the highest quality of hyperreal humans for the metaverse, leading with Unreal Engine’s , which can import face scans of real people and automatically generate a digital face. Although to fully reproduce someone's digital copy in 3D, you need to spend a lot of time playing with skin color, hair, and other details, even if you're a pro designer. are CloneX Reblika Hyperreal latest MetaHuman release I would compare these beautiful realistic digital humans to a very expensive car that is the best in its class but one you can only drive on holidays and on a straight, flat road. We won't be able to use the same tools and approach to create hyperrealistic digital humans for a fast-changing, dynamic environment as we do with static realism. It is still too heavy and complex to meet all the challenges of real-time rendering at scale within the metaverse. Just recently, though, Meta's Reality Labs its latest improvements in the Codec Avatars 2.0 project – prototype VR avatars using advanced machine learning techniques. The new avatars look , but they are not the result of the work of neural networks alone. For example, such quality still requires scanning with 3D cameras, which, for a number of reasons, are unlikely to reach mainstream adoption anytime soon. teased very hyperrealistic and are even able to express emotions Overall, the main hurdle is computation because the closer you get to hyperreality, the more power and time you need. For example, to gain a 1% increase in realism, you need to do five times the computation. So the real challenge for companies in the metaverse is to solve the uncanny valley of facial representation, which results in humans that look real, but also unnatural and creepy because something is just . off The uncanny valley effect is even more noticeable when we’re experiencing the metaverse via an immersive device like a VR headset. We can forgive some bugs in video game graphics on a flat screen but trust me, you don't want to witness someone’s leg separate from their body (unintentionally, at least) while using an XR headset or see facial movements that do not keep up with direct speech. Therefore, the technology — from the network to the device itself — must be highly optimized to allow rendering on the device in real time. We have to find a workable tradeoff between user habits, device capabilities, and maintaining a hyperrealistic immersion effect. Neural Rendering Shows Promise When speaking about lower-quality but faster technological solutions for creating realistic 3D characters, we should look at the neural radiance fields (NeRFs) method. The by researchers from Google Research and UC Berkeley in 2020 at the annual European Conference on Computer Vision. In 2022, a new wave of conversation about this technology appeared after – a neural rendering model that has the capability to turn multiple 2D images into 3D scenes without camera scanning. In contrast to classic polygonal modeling, neural rendering reproduces a 3D scene based solely on optics and linear algebra. , it can be used to “create avatars or scenes for virtual worlds, to capture video conference participants and their environments in 3D, or to reconstruct scenes for 3D digital maps.” NeRF methodology was first described Nvidia officially showcased its Instant NeRF According to Nvidia The main advantage of neural rendering is its scalability. So far, the model has taken a long time to learn, and its render speed remains the main gatekeeper to entering the market, but AI is much more flexible in terms of optimization. Neural networks just need more time and data to produce progressively better results. I think we'll soon observe the emergence of new ways to optimize and commoditize neural rendering so that everyone can take a few selfies on a smartphone and get their virtual 3D copy to participate in a hyper-real 3D space. It is more complex technologically, but I believe there will be a large market for future virtual worlds that are hyperrealistic, in addition to those that are cartoonish or game-like. And although we are talking about a future that isn't quite here yet, machine learning is once again proving itself in a new field. It could play a significant role in creating the hyperreal magic of the metaverse. If you want to explore the topic a little deeper, I made a list of interesting articles on digital identity creation, graphics evolution, neural rendering, and more: : For CGI geeks. A piece by Dan Sarto about how VFX expert Paul Lambert created the holographic Joi and other cyberpunk stuff and visuals for Blade Runner 2049. Double Negative Delivers the Joi of ‘Blade Runner 2049’ : A solid explanation of the digital face evolution. My article about how technology is changing our faces and why these transformations are needed today. For starters, the mystery of whether AI can create an image worthy of the trust of millions. Synthetic Faces are Building a New Market — and it’s Terribly Good : In-depth research done in 2021 focused on improving virtual characters' realistic expressions and non-verbal communication channels to create a more customized experience. Individual’s Social Perception of Virtual Avatars Embodied with Their Habitual Facial Expressions and Facial Appearance : This piece covers how William Wiebe rethinks avatars generated for the infrastructure of the metaverse, revealing its embedded preferences in the process. Blaine O'neill’s Minting Faces in Latent Spaces : A great article by my colleague and Reface co-founder Oles Petriv that explains the tech aspects of neural rendering on the path to instant creation of photorealistic 3D objects. Why Advances in Neural 3D Rendering Aren’t Reaching the Market This is more about solving AI and is almost off-topic, but while structuring my article, I enjoyed exploring DeepMind's proof-of-concept demonstration of deep reinforcement learning, addressing one of the key challenges in AI research. : Human-Centered Mechanism Design with Democratic AI

Hyperreal or Cartoonish: The Keys to Lifelike Identities in the Metaverse

হাইপাররিয়েল বা কার্টুনিশ: মেটাভার্সে লাইফলাইক আইডেন্টিটিসের চাবিকাঠি

Hyperreal oder Cartoonish: Die Schlüssel zu lebensechten Identitäten im Metaversum

Hiperreal o caricaturesco: las claves de las identidades realistas en el metaverso

Hyperréel ou caricatural : les clés des identités réalistes dans le métaverse

हाइपररियल या कार्टूनिश: मेटावर्स में आजीवन पहचान की कुंजी

超現実的または漫画的: メタバースにおけるリアルなアイデンティティの鍵

초현실적이거나 만화 같은: 메타버스에서 실제와 같은 정체성을 얻는 열쇠

Hiperreal ou caricatural: as chaves para identidades realistas no metaverso

Hipergerçek veya Karikatürize: Metaevrendeki Gerçekçi Kimliklerin Anahtarları

Hyperreal hoặc Cartoonish: Chìa khóa để nhận dạng sống động như thật trong Metaverse

超现实或卡通化：元宇宙中栩栩如生的身份的关键

Rust plays a key role in my company's backend applications. It's widely recognized for its ability to create safe, fast, concurrent, modern, and efficient programs. We were early adopters of the Rust ecosystem. Since we don't do open-source, we needed a place to store our Rust packages (known as Crates) for reuse and manage dependencies. We couldn't use the public Crates.io registry offered by Rust, and there weren't any other options at the time. So, a coworker who also served as DevOps wrote a custom registry in the Go language. It wasn't a difficult task for him since it was technically straightforward - just an HTTP server with some API calls and an index stored in a GIT repository. He even added MongoDB for persistence, but in my opinion, it's not necessary. When Jfrog introduced Cargo registry support on Artifactory, we made the switch. It was a challenging and straightforward process at the same time due to two reasons: There was no option to migrate at either the application level (Artifactory) or registry level (Cargo). I wrote a script to go through all of our Rust repositories, modify the config in the code to point to the new registry, and run a "Cargo push". However, each repository had a different directory structure and configurations, making it a tricky process to parse. Alright, let's move on from the preludes. The focus of this article isn't migration, so let's get to the main point. One day, a developer showed me the following error in GitLab : CI $ cargo build
Updating `my-cargo-registry` index
error: failed to select a version for the requirement `my-lib-core = "^2.2.1"`
candidate versions found which didn't match: 2.2.0, 2.1.2, 2.1.1, ... At first glance, the error seemed obvious. So, I checked the Artifactory project and saw that the artifact with version 2.2.1 existed. It seemed like the issue was with the index. I located the Cargo index in the same Artifactory path and found that the record with the correct version was in place within the config.json file. "Let's push it to Artifactory again," I thought. Thank goodness the repo was still actively maintained. I made the changes at the CI level and verified that the file was updated on the remote. To double-check, I also clicked the "Recalculate Index" button on Artifactory, which has helped me in the past. Additionally, I compared the dates and checksums of this particular file for added assurance. Despite all these steps, the builds still failed. Alright, let's try the CI steps on a local machine. This is a standard diagnostic step for any engineer. To get a more precise result, I deleted all Cargo data from ~/.cargo and ran the "cargo clean" command at the project level, and... it worked locally. Great! I repeated the steps on the CI system, and... still no luck. Okay, let's delve deeper. The error message was not helpful, so I added "RUST_LOG=debug" in front of the command and changed the command to "cargo update". To my surprise, the log was the same (as mentioned earlier) without any extra information. It seems that the debug option isn't available for the "update" command. And then I remembered. I had fixed a similar problem with Cargo on this Gitlab CI before. It was related to the Cargo cache (sometimes, Cargo can act up and not see new crates if the cache is corrupted). One of the GitHub issues suggested deleting the ~/.cargo directory (which I did locally). However, there was also a CI cache on the Gitlab side, so I had to clear it and temporarily turn it off. Gitlab template with cache: .rust_build_cache:
  cache:
    key: "$CI_PROJECT_NAMESPACE-$CI_PROJECT_NAME"
    paths:
      - $CARGO_HOME/registry I also clicked the button on the Gitlab CI project page. Clear Runners Cache I tried running the CI job again and again... still had no success. I spent about an hour jumping from one browser tab to another, reading issues, experimenting locally, and feeling frustrated until I learned that you could set environment variables to override the registry in config files. These variables are called: CARGO_REGISTRY_NAME
CARGO_REGISTRIES_MY_CARGO_REGISTRY_INDEX And they were pointed to our old custom registry. I finally found the root cause of the problem. The CI was using old registry variables that pointed to our custom registry. I missed them at first because they were not in the file, but in the CI/CD settings under the project's variables web page. The developer had set them, so I wasn't aware that they could overwrite my changes. This was both obvious and frustrating to realize at the same time. gitlab-ci.yaml Straightforward moral of the story: always first check environment variables in CI settings. They can overwrite your configs and cause unexpected issues. Lead image source.

Debugging Rust Cargo Issues in Gitlab

Everyone has a favorite cartoon with which they grew up. Many of us carry on through our adult life holding a soft spot for the ones that made our childhood better. In this slogging thread, our pop culture community discussed which ones were the best. This Slogging thread by Sara Pinto, Mónica Freitas, Limarc Ambalina and Jack Boreham occurred in slogging's official #pop-culture channel, and has been edited for readability. Sara Pinto Dec 27, 2021, 4:43 PM What was best childhood cartoon for you? Sara Pinto Dec 27, 2021, 4:45 PM For me, it's The House of Mouse on Disney. Basically, a mashup of all the Disney cartoons. It brings me such good memories https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHaO2byF8jw&ab_channel=CanadaToonFan Sara Pinto Dec 27, 2021, 4:46 PM What about you? Limarc Ambalina Inception-Cafe Daniel Guzman Jack Boreham Mónica Freitas Allyson Blinkhorn Mónica Freitas Dec 28, 2021, 11:38 AM Sara Pinto There are tons. Here's my list: Sailor Moon, Yu-gi-oh, Pokemon, Tom & Jerry, Pink Panther, a few Disney shows like Hercules (I was a sucker for this one), etc. I can't possibly finish this list, ahaha. Cartoons were my favorite thing as a child. I wish I could go back just for those Saturdays mornings, where I'd wake up early so that I could watch them. 💚 1 Mónica Freitas Dec 28, 2021, 11:40 AM I leave you this amazing opening song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Spu0WMkgkvA 💚 1 Limarc Ambalina Dec 28, 2021, 11:40 AM Hercules was super underrated! Limarc Ambalina Dec 28, 2021, 11:41 AM So for my adolescent/teen years, I loved this one for some reason: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwFxGgs7T1k 🔥 1 💚 1 Limarc Ambalina Dec 28, 2021, 11:41 AM For kids, nothing beats Arthur.. this show stands the test of time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68cIv-rNE1g 💚 1 Sara Pinto Dec 28, 2021, 6:51 PM Mónica Freitas Limarc Ambalina I loved all of these!!! But Hercules does have a special place in my heart. The Disney series were the best, did you saw the other ones as well? Sara Pinto Dec 28, 2021, 6:53 PM Limarc Ambalina Both are great choices, but you got me binging videos of Arthur on Youtube! It brings such a wholesome feeling to watch these shows again Mónica Freitas Dec 29, 2021, 12:29 PM Sara Pinto, do you mean other Disney series? I saw them all. From Hannah Montana and the Wizards of Waverley Place to Brandy to American Dragon, Timon & Pumba and Brandy and Mr Whiskers. Mónica Freitas Dec 29, 2021, 12:30 PM Sara Pinto speaking on it, what's your favorite Disney series and movie? Sara Pinto Dec 29, 2021, 10:14 PM Mónica Freitas I meant Disney series from the movies, like Timon and Pumbaa. They also had a series on Aladdin and The Little Mermaid, as far as I remember. Did you watch them too? Sara Pinto Dec 29, 2021, 10:18 PM Mónica Freitas Oof, hard question. Do I really have to choose? Haha. I think I would have to go with Hercules or Tarzan, for movies. And for the series, it's a tight race between House of Mouse and those series from the movies, like the Hercules one you mentioned. Mónica Freitas Dec 30, 2021, 11:34 AM Sara Pinto Oh, I used to see the Aladdin one. The genie was THE character to watch. As for The Little Mermaid, I didn't know there was a series. 🔥 1 Mónica Freitas Dec 30, 2021, 11:38 AM Sara Pinto Nice choices. For me is Atlantis: The Lost Empire and Hercules. Honorable mentions to the Treasure Planet, Aladdin, Mulan, and The Emperor's New Groove. Just recently, I saw Rava, and it is incredible! Sara Pinto Dec 30, 2021, 1:06 PM Mónica Freitas Oh, Rava was a good one! I pay close attention to the actors who give voice to the characters, and I have to say that Awkwafina did not disappoint Sara Pinto Dec 30, 2021, 1:09 PM Mónica Freitas I found the intro to The Little Mermaid series! Check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5ZLRqVPupo&ab_channel=TheLittleMermaidHD Jack Boreham Dec 30, 2021, 3:35 PM Sara Pinto SPONGE BOB, or legend of the dragon. Have you guys seen it? Jack Boreham Dec 30, 2021, 3:37 PM https://youtu.be/igI5Q0K854k Sara Pinto Dec 30, 2021, 8:07 PM Jack Boreham I've never seen either, but Legend of the Dragon seems pretty cool. What's the story? Mónica Freitas Dec 31, 2021, 10:35 AM Sara Pinto oh yeah, her voice is instantly recognisable Mónica Freitas Dec 31, 2021, 10:35 AM Sara Pinto, I guess I missed it ahaha Jack Boreham Dec 31, 2021, 12:23 PM Sara Pinto, it's about a guy who gets dragon powers from a brand/bracelet. He then has to go collect other bracelets to save their world by stopping evil from getting their hands on them! Sara Pinto Jan 3, 2022, 2:01 PM Jack Boreham Oh, that's pretty cool! I wished that had passed during my childhood haha Limarc Ambalina Jan 7, 2022, 6:40 AM Sara Pinto I'm super super happy (and surprised) that Arthur made it out to Portugal!! 💚 1 Limarc Ambalina Jan 7, 2022, 6:42 AM We also can't not talk about Disney's Recess: The ultimate TV show about how kids spend their recess lol https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgBTaBQEFnw 🔥 1 Mónica Freitas Jan 7, 2022, 12:27 PM Limarc Ambalina how did we watch the same cartoons? ahaha Sara Pinto Jan 7, 2022, 1:45 PM Limarc Ambalina I have to say, great selection of cartoons haha

The Best Childhood Cartoons

I am using Adobe Illustrator, and a graphic tablet with a pressure-sensitive pen, to make my . A free alternative for Illustrator is , a software that offers similar features and basically works the same way. cartoon avatars Gimp If you don’t have a pressure-sensitive pen, you can adjust the width of the strokes by creating a custom brush, which goes from thin to thick to thin again, or by adjusting it manually with the “Width tool”. (This method can be quite tedious though) "Having a graphic tablet helps a lot, and it doesn’t have to be a big investment"​ Wacom tablets are arguably the best, but they are really expensive. Fortunately, there are more and more alternatives, and with a little research, you can find a budget-friendly brand that essentially does the same. Why Illustrator and not Photoshop? When it comes to software I chose Illustrator because it works with vectors, meaning the finished cartoon caricatures will be crystal clear in any size. It also fits my style more, and the brush tool offers a really nice/adjustable smoothing for your lines. Photoshop seems more sensitive to me and is much harder to draw smooth lines, without any jitter. What brush do I use? The brush I use is really basic, it’s a round calligraphic brush with the size of 6px, and 5px pressure variation, and that’s it. How to make smooth lines? While yes it’s true that illustrator helps a great deal with smoothing out the lines, it’s also true if you turn the smoothing too high you won’t have as much control over your strokes as you wish, and if you turn it too low your lines will be too jittery. You should strive to draw your lines with the lowest smoothing assistance possible. It is really important, when going over the lines try drawing the strokes with a single, confident, fluid motion, rather than doing short strokes. This will make the lines have a nice flow, and make it look much cleaner. You might need a little practice but it’s worth it! How to color the artwork? When I’m happy with what I see I start coloring. It’s a good idea to separate the color layer from the stroke layer. I put the colors beneath the stroke layer, so the width of the stroke gives me a margin of error. In most cases I’m using the shape builder tool, to make shapes that match the strokes I made earlier. In what format should I save my artwork? When you are finished, saving it in PNG format is the best option. Not only does it offer higher quality it also leaves the parts you left blank transparent. This way you can have a transparent background and have an easier time when you place it somewhere. What can you do with your digitized art? You can make an interesting, and unique gift, and so much more! You can use a picture to and use these as a picture for social media, you can make your own T-shirt design, you can use it for posters, or print it on mugs, or make stickers or anything you can think of. cartoon yourself Previously published at https://avatoon.net/how-to-turn-your-photo-into-a-custom-digital-cartoon/

How To Create A Custom Digital Cartoon Character Drawing

With the world’s eyes set on automobile manufacturers like Elon Musk’s Tesla, it is easy to lose track of automation in other areas. Automated driving is set to revolutionize the way we move around within the next decade. This is . The new form of transport promises to cut down traffic accidents and the number of fatalities on the road. It will get us from A to B in a safer, and in all likelihood, more timely manner. certainly breaking news But not every sector or type of transport gets the same media attention. Many changes go by quietly, even though their impact is likely to be felt across the board. This is the case of automated cargo shipping, which promises to radically change the way we connect or trade with the rest of the world. Ever since the invention of the cargo container, trade links are defined by deep-sea port networks and intercontinental maritime routes. Automated shipping is probably one of the most prominent examples of AI technology put into practice. Trials to eliminate the need for a captain, or crew, have been well underway for the last five years. But, until now, no company dared to fully explore or implement its existing potential, which perhaps comes to down to strict safety measures and backlash from trade unions. In other words, its commercial or operational viability is still under question. . The IT giant recently announced that it will launch its flagship project, Mayflower Autonomous Ship (MAS) later this year, in September. The AI-equipped ship will “self-navigate” across the Atlantic, sailing from Plymouth, UK to Plymouth, Massachusetts in the US, recreating the original voyage, made by the Pilgrim Fathers in 1620. IBM decided to break the silence IBM is set to make waves with AI Captain IBM’s venture is not purely symbolic or a nice way of commemorating a historical event. MAS is fully equipped with cutting-edge technology, which has not been applied anywhere else before. The objective is actually to see if the ship is able to withstand some of the most challenging circumstances on the planet, with minimal human intervention. Although IBM has kept a low profile until now, the project has been in the development phase for more than two years. In the meantime, it has put together an international team, working in laboratories and research centers in Great Britain, Poland, and the US. The cherry on the cake is the AI Captain operating system, which comes with a number of state-of-the-art features, uniquely developed by IBM and its partner companies, such as NVIDIA. In fact, the team is comprised of experts from almost every single field we can imagine. One of the weirdest plans was to introduce engineers from the , which is also an AI operating system. Due to the success that the software had seen in the finance industry and the rate at which it learned the curves and tendencies of the market, it was believed that it could be a good fit to navigational engineering. But, in the end, it was still decided to go with a completely new system from scratch. Bitcoin Trading app What does this system contain? An Automatic Identification System (AIS), informed by over a million ultrasound nautical images. It also draws on IBM’s Operational Decision Manager (ODM), to develop hypothetical scenarios. What does it mean in practice? The AI Captain is constantly re-evaluating the situation at sea, being hooked to numerous sensors, radars or navigation systems. While it will take some time before it reaches commercial shipping, the AI Captain is fully compliant with International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea (COLREGs) or International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS). While the automated Mayflower is just a trial, IBM pointed to , which shows that the autonomous shipping market is projected to increase to almost $135 billion, by the end of the decade. There is a real prospect for growth and the technology is largely here already. Will we see fully automated ships before self-driving cars? Only time will show. a recent study by Allied Market Research What is the economic implication? AI always has something to do with economics, especially when it is trying to tackle such a large industry. The whole world floats (pun intended) on cargo ships and large freighters pretty much keeping the global economy alive. Many would say that this industry does not require any technological advancement considering just how much it is able to deal with right now, however AI has one very specific advantage that it could bring into this sector. Let's start with the obvious one. The salaries of the crew. Usually, a cargo ship would contain a couple dozen people operating it, not including the captain and the various officers helping him out. On average, a cargo ship crew would have around 30 people. According to data, the average salary of a cargo ship employee is . So, let's assume that there is 1 captain and 4 officers, the rest are regular workers. $40,000 times 25 that's already $1 million. Then the captain's salary which is around $80,000 per year, and the officers get somewhere around $55,000. In total, the cost of having a 30-man crew on a cargo ship is $1.3 million per year. That's not too much for one ship, but remember that most shipping companies have dozens of freighters. around $40,000 per year AI has the capacity of bringing that 30-man crew to just 3 or 5 thanks to most of the maintenance being undertaken by the software. This could drastically decrease the costs for shipping companies, thus allowing them to offer much smaller prices to manufacturers that are willing to export their product. Since the prices on shipping will decrease, it's safe to assume that the prices on goods themselves will decrease. This means that even though AI will take some jobs away in the shipping industry, it will generally open up a more affordable global market for the majority of the world population. Additional innovations after AI 2020 tech innovation will most likely revolve around two sectors, AI and medicine. With the COVID-19 pandemic growing as we speak more and more innovators are trying to come up with creative solutions every single day. Which is an implication of what desperate times can do to human ingenuity. When it comes to the cargo ship industry though, we've already seen AI being considered as a viable option, but there's more to come. Innovation always demands more, so we could start seeing shipping companies looking for additional ways to cut costs, and the only thing they can do this with is fuel. That's right, there's a possibility that one of the largest contributors of global pollution may soon completely switch over to electricity rather than oil or gas. There's even discussions if there could be a mass production of nuclear-powered cargo ships. But that's a debate for the future. What we need to focus on now is getting AI into this industry and having more affordable goods travel faster and more efficiently all over the world.

Automation on the High Seas: AI-driven Cargo Ships Are Here to Stay

Reader, I have a confession. I’m really into bad 1980's cartoons. You know, the ones that are little more than animated toy commercials? I’ve learned so many life lessons from those hours in front of a flickering analog TV. Come to think of it, that explain a lot… does Anyway, the biggest takeaway though from all those cartoons is that open source is the way to go. For me, open source got me traveling the world, , and got me a job on the . Not to mention meeting a whole bunch of crazy and amazing people. So, you know, no big deal. landed a partnership with NASA cutting edge of AI But wait (I hear you cry), I don’t remember , and I must have missed the Muppet Babies very special episode about the subtleties of the . The Animated Adventures of Richard Stallman GPL v3.0 I’ll admit: It’s only when I look back that it all meshes together. Think I’m full of it? Just listen to your favorite Saturday morning cartoons themselves: Freedom is the Right of All Sentient Beings Humans (and Autobots) thrive on freedom. Having the freedom to try new foods, see new places, or find new ways to use my has made me who I am. I also love the freedom to experiment on my computer in new and interesting ways. coffee maker Any technology that stops you screwing up also stops you experimenting to the fullest. I the freedom to , even if I never use it. want rm -rf / After using open-source systems for so long, going back to Windows or macOS is jarring. I just don’t have the liberty to customize it the way I want. In the words of a great philosopher: “Freedom (to futz around with your desktop settings) is the right of all sentient beings” I’m sure Optimus Prime said something like that anyway. I want the freedom to completely reconfigure my workspace, with whatever look and feel works best for me. That might mean working in a bare-bones green on black terminal, spinning around a cubic desktop with , or using something that looks like it . And I can mix and match bits of them as I see fit. compiz crawled out of the age of 80s cartoons itself Like every classic cartoon baddie, wants to limit my freedom to do what I want. Freedom to change the position of my taskbar or swap out my wallpaper is barely freedom at all. For true customization I’d have to rip out the desktop shell and replace it with . Pretty, but not great for stability. Windows a third party alternative The is similar. I can choose between a light and dark theme, and I’m limited to the standard (Windows, Icons, Mouse, Pointer) interface. No tiling with or for me. Mac WIMP i3m PaperWM My current setup is a box with a stripped-down and PaperWM that I mostly use for running a terminal emulator and Firefox. It’s mostly keyboard-driven, uses arcane key bindings (thank you !), and is almost perfectly tailored for my needs. Going back to one of the standard operating systems feels like typing with boxing gloves on. Manjaro GNOME desktop Vim Don’t Need No Credit Card to Ride This Train This one’s a bit of a niche one, but they made a cartoon of Back to the Future. Because of course they did. In the words of the immortal Huey Lewis: Don’t need money, don’t take fame Don’t need no credit card to ride this train It’s strong and it’s sudden and it’s cruel sometimes But it might just save your life That’s the power of open source Close enough. Either way, back when I was a student surviving on ramen and meat pies (yup, I”m a ), I sure didn’t have any spare dosh to throw at the latest Windows upgrade or buying a Mac. I was stuck with what I had, or what I could download. Kiwi Then I saw a computer magazine with CD-ROMs stuck to the front, usually offering the latest demos, , and full versions of out-of-date software. But in this case, it had something called . For about 8 bucks, I could not only get a new OS, but one that came with an office suite, programming IDE, graphics editor, and more. And I could share it with my friends for free! shareware Knoppix Linux For a broke-ass student like myself, this was the way I could’ve got my grubby little mitts on all of these shiny goodies. Pirating really wasn’t a thing on a dial-up modem, and this was before torrenting. Let’s not even start on Limewire and warez BBSes… only I don’t want to brag, but my modem was 14.4kbps. That point four makes the difference all I Am what I Am Nope, not Descartes, but one of the other great philosophers: Popeye. Okay, so Popeye wasn’t technically an 80’s cartoon, but that’s when I watched it. And it took me until recently to realize that spinach giving you superpowers? . Reader, I feel as betrayed as you do. Total fiction Anyway, forgetting spinach for a second, like Popeye, open source is what it is. It does (more or less) what it claims to do. Don’t believe what it says on the tin? Take a look at the source code on GitHub or work with a company like to search vulnerabilities for you. FossID Closed source can be different. Just recently we’ve seen and . If such prominent products were open-source, these issues would be sniffed out quickly, or less likely to arise in the first place since they’d be doing everything in the open and more likely to be caught by the good guys. very Tiktok scraping clipboard data without consent Microsoft sending telemetry in breach of privacy rules I Have The Power Open source software can continuously improve, and it’s driven by the needs of the users themselves. Sure, you could say that Windows 10 is an improvement on Vista, but there are big downsides like ads clogging up your Start menu and that whole telemetry thing. Don’t like the direction your desktop environment is taking? If enough users feel the same way, get together, fork it, and take it in a new direction. The crew did just this with the codebase — they didn’t like the vision for Gnome 3.0, so they took the 2.0 code and built their own version out of that. MATE Desktop Gnome Imagine trying to do the same thing with Windows or macOS (yeah, Gnome and MATE are desktop environments rather than full-blown operating systems, but that’s the beauty of it. Because it’s an open ecosystem, things are more modular. One system can have multiple desktop environments built in many different ways.) Let Our Powers Combine In the words of : Margaret Mead “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” See? You came for the cartoons and stayed for inspirational quotes from a noted cultural anthropologist. You’re welcome! Margaret meant this in a more activist context, but the same holds true for open-source. Many of the world’s biggest software projects are open-source, and contributed to by millions of developers. Billions of people around the world use them every day, often without ever knowing: and : The server software that run most of the web Apache Nginx and : The operating systems that run Apache and Nginx GNU/Linux BSD : Yeah, you probably already know this one Android Chances are you’re reading this in Chrome or Firefox — two huge browsers that are both open source Your browser: And according to Intel, even your train or nuclear submarine may be running open source software — all because a bunch of coders who shared a dream came together: Live Long and Prosper Again, not an 80s cartoon, but I saw in the 80s and its message of peace and understanding inspires me to this day (well, if I’m being honest, Star Trek’s message as a whole, not just TAS) exactly Star Trek: The Animated Series The thing about a lot of closed-source software is that it live long, and this can lead to a downfall in . Hell, I use and is under active development one way or another. doesn’t your prosperity a text editor that was invented in 1976 still Just think about the most popular word processing in the world? What happens if the owner goes out of business? software I’m not talking about Microsoft Word or Google Docs. I’m talking about , the dominant word processor of the 1980s. WordStar Thousands of users, including (of Game of Thrones fame) were left in the cold when it was abandoned. Winter truly had come. They’d invested time and effort into learning this system, and now what? George R. R. Martin Over time, operating systems retire old functions, and old software “rots” (just look at anything not updated for , or ). y2k for the latest macOS Now the only way to run the once almighty WordStar is to . Quite the fall from grace. If you don’t, all of those .ws files you spent hours, days, and years on, are if not completely inaccessible, a total to work with. It’s ironic that now the only way to work with closed software like WordStar is via an open source system. install GNU/Linux and DOS emulator on top of that PITA Now, how would that look in the modern day? Microsoft is way bigger than just Word, so let’s look at a smaller company that makes productivity tools: What would happen if Adobe went under? You’d be stuck with your existing versions of Adobe software while the rest of the world marches on. After a while, operating systems will deprecate enough legacy code that old apps won’t run any more. I haven’t tried running Photoshop 1.0 on Windows 10, but I can’t imagine it would be pretty. Even sooner than that, Adobe’s license activation servers would go down. Since Adobe Creative Suite is Software as a Service (SaaS), it relies on these servers to verify you’re a paying customer. No server means no verification means you’ll either have features restricted or you’ll be locked out completely. What happens then to all your PSD and AI files? You might be able to do with them in or (hey, I didn’t choose the name), but there’s not 100% compatibility. something Inkscape GIMP If you want to keep moving forwards, you’ll need to learn a new piece of software and wave goodbye to quite lot of work. Goodbye muscle memory and interface familiarity! What happens if an open-source project goes under? If enough people care about it they can fork the code and keep it going themselves, just like MATE did. If not, you can always spin up a virtual machine running the old software and use it from there. Knowing is Half the Battle This is the quote that always springs to mind when I think of what open source has done for me personally. I got started with coding back in the bad old days of MS-DOS 5.0 and QBasic. I have fond memories of editing the physics in the to make the bananas fly where I wanted, and trying to build a Zork-like text adventure without initially realizing the sheer amount of object interactions I’d have to deal with. Gorillas game Gorillas (which my parents tried to convince me was Donkey Kong) came with , and the code was available to view and edit. But really it (and BASIC itself) are just toys. I properly got into programming with , and the open community has been so educational and helpful in building what I want, whether it’s , a terminal-based WeChat client, a tool to , or a . Qbasic Python an AI that writes crappy Star Trek translate and summarize long PowerPoints from a professor website to help hospitals get protective equipment more easily Because I was building on open code bases (or in some cases, just open APIs and SDKs), I could see the magic for myself. The more popular programming languages and frameworks have extensive documentation and YouTube tutorials created by the community that helped me get running quickly, and by sharing the code myself, others helped me test it, fix bugs, and make it even better. Save the Universe from the Monster Minds Finally, one more niche cartoon, : Thundering across the stars to save the universe from the Monster Minds. Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors Which is really just a cute way of saying bad AI. We’ve already seen what’s happening when not-so-good companies like TikTok and Microsoft screw users over with their closed-source software. But that pales into comparison with closed-source black-box artificial intelligences. Because of biased data used to train their models, , yet this technology is still used worldwide to incarcerate innocents. Kinda makes cartoon villains look tame in comparison. Detroit’s police department has a 96% failure rate on facial recognition I’m working at an open-source AI company, , that is committed to both open source and open governance. We want to build ethical AI to search the world’s information better. And we want the world to join in. Jina If you’re a coder who wants to get make a difference, and . check out our repo join us today

Open Source Explained by 1980s Cartoons

An artist who uploaded a parody cartoon to YouTube and received a strike against his channel following a Warner Bros. complaint has been denied the opportunity to fight his corner. MeatCanyon uploaded a cartoon featuring a creepy 'Bugs Bunny' and later appealed using a DMCA counternotice. YouTube, however, refused to pass the notice on and dismissed the claim. Earlier this week we on a dark parody cartoon depicting a washed-out Bugs Bunny as a sex pest. The controversial video was created by Hunter Hancock, the person behind the MeatCanyon channel. reported It was hit with a copyright complaint by Warner Bros. As a result, the MeatCanyon channel received a copyright strike and the cartoon was taken down. When a video is targeted by a copyright holder with a manual complaint (i.e one not actioned as a result of ContentID matching), users can generally refer to the DMCA for guidance. This means that if they believe their content was not infringing (under fair use guidelines, for example), they can submit a DMCA counternotice to YouTube explaining why the content should not have been taken down. This is exactly what Hancock did in response to the Warner complaint. “This is my own creation. I animated every frame, composed the music, recorded the audio and made the backgrounds,” he told YouTube in his counternotice shared with TorrentFreak. “This creation is under fair use,” he continued. “The characters have been stylized by myself to not reflect directly with the traditional characters. There is no branded logo to incite that this is a real video owned by Warner Brothers, but is in fact a parody video created by none other than by myself.” As required under the law, Hancock swore that he had a “good faith belief” that the material had been removed due to a mistake and also consented to the jurisdiction of his local federal court, in case Warner chose to sue him – something it must do within two weeks to prevent the content from being restored. Should that time pass with no lawsuit, then the content would’ve been put back up and the strike removed. In the event, however, none of those things happened. In short, YouTube declined to accept the apparently valid DMCA counternotice filed by Hancock and refused to pass it on to Warner. “Based on the information you provided, it appears that you do not have the necessary rights to post the content on YouTube. Therefore, we regretfully cannot honor your request. It has not been forwarded to the original claimant, and we will not be able to restore your video,” YouTube’s correspondence reads. While this response from YouTube runs counter to what most people would expect under the DMCA counter-claim process, it is not unprecedented. The EFF previously reported that agreements YouTube has with rightsholders may effectively deny access to the system. “In many instances, even if you successfully submit a DMCA counter-notice, the video will not be reinstated. These agreements are opaque, and scope of what’s allowed under them is unknown. They may be short-term, or long-term,” the EFF previously . explained In this case, the refusal of YouTube to allow a counter-claim represents a double-edged sword. While Hancock submitted the notice in good faith, genuinely believing he was in a good position to put his side of the argument by insisting he was protected under fair use doctrines, the reality of dealing with a lawsuit, should one be initiated, is a serious proposition and not to be underestimated. After being denied by YouTube and further consideration, he decided that fighting probably wasn’t the best option after all. “I am in no place to fight this in court due to financial reasons. It seems unnecessary to start a GoFund me or ask for help, because it’s between me and Warner Brothers,” he told TF. “It also made me think YouTube wanted the video off the platform. It is a very crude video so I can’t blame them for that, but it would’ve been nice to have been given more information on why this video was unacceptable to stay up on my page. It’s very disheartening.” While the decision by YouTube will be viewed by some as anti-consumer and a denial of due process, in this case the platform arguably did the animator a favor. Instead of expending resources he doesn’t have on a legal process that could go either way and could even prove financially ruinous, he can now concentrate on creating new content for fans. Some battles are worth fighting but it’s definitely worth weighing the costs first. Originally published as “ YouTube Refuses to Process DMCA Counternotice for ‘Creepy Bugs’ Cartoon ” with the Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC 3.0) license

YouTube Refuses to Process DMCA Counternotice for ‘Creepy Bugs’ Cartoon

A dark parody cartoon depicting a washed-out Bugs Bunny as a sex offender has been hit with a DMCA complaint by Warner Bros. MeatCanyon, a channel with more than 66 million views, has responded with a new animation in which characters mourn his passing, stating that since Warner claimed the content as its own, they have now confirmed that "Bugs was a struggling rapist all along." Despite racking up to close to 67 million views on its popular YouTube account, MeatCanyon’s cartoons are not yet mainstream fodder. Thanks to the actions of a copyright holder, however, more publicity is certainly on the horizon. Many of MeatCanyon’s cartoons are extremely dark, featuring a and as a previously-masked character in Scooby-Doo, to give just two examples. But when released a two-minute cartoon entitled ‘Wabbit Time’ recently, the end result was a copyright strike on its YouTube account. creepy Ronald McDonald Jimmy Fallon Patreon-funded MeatCanyon The is dark – super dark – and features a character that looks broadly like Bugs Bunny but is both predatory, washed-out, and a shadow of his usual self. parody cartoon With horrible teeth, drooping teats and a foul mouth, this is clearly not the Bugs everyone is used to, despite sharing the same name. Following his opening line (“What’s up Doc?” which is but not copyrighted) he attempts to do something awful to a man resembling Elmer Fudd, which reinforces the disconnect from the original ten times over. trademarked Reading between the lines, this was all too much for Warner Bros. As can be seen in the image below, the company filed a copyright complaint with YouTube and had the . video taken down “Warner brothers just copyright claimed my wabbit season vid….so it’s removed and now I have a strike on my channel….but why [YouTube?],” MeatCanyon wrote on Twitter before the weekend. With Warner claiming its rights had been infringed and YouTube effectively agreeing, it was the end of the road for the Wabbit Season video. “It is unfortunate that Youtube decided to side with Warner Brothers. Deleting my video, and giving my channel a strike. I worked very hard on that video and its honestly pretty sad to see it go. There was a lot of people who really enjoyed that video, and it at least makes me happy to know that so many people out there will miss it being on this channel,” MeatCanyon wrote. But the channel wasn’t done just yet. In a new cartoon uploaded yesterday titled ‘RIP Wabbit Season’, numerous grotesque characters mourn the ‘death’ of the sinister Bugs Bunny while raising a pretty dark question: Why would Warner claim a video depicting Bugs Bunny as a “struggling rapist” as their own? The truth, of course, is that Warner didn’t claim the video as its own but claimed copyright infringement instead. There’s little doubt that the cartoon is as a parody but that intent in itself doesn’t provide absolute protection under US law. intended Should MeatCanyon choose to take the matter further, the intricacies of fair use would need to be examined by a court, including (but not limited to) whether Wabbit Season represented a comedic commentary relating to the original work that necessarily required copying its elements. There’s also the matter of whether the new work has a detrimental effect on the market (or potential market) for the original work(s). No one could reasonably argue that MeatCanyon’s variant represents direct market competition for Warner’s version but the nature of the former could potentially cast the latter in a different light, at least in some eyes. These are complex and potentially massively expensive matters to definitively conclude (a reference list of ‘fair use’ case outcomes can be found ) so it seems likely that MeatCanyon will accept the strike and move on. TorrentFreak reached out to MeatCanyon for comment but at the time of publication, we were yet to hear back. here Originally published as “ YouTube Cartoon Featuring Creepy Bugs Bunny Copyright Claimed By Warner Bros ” with the Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC 3.0) license

YouTube Cartoon Featuring Creepy Bugs Bunny Copyright Claimed By Warner Bros.

[A Step by Step Guide] Create a Carpooling App with React Native - Part 1: Setting up the server

[A Step by Step Guide] Create a Carpooling App with React Native - Part 2: {Creating the Frontend}

Scrum is a method that has helped to split down large and inflexible product development processes and open them for feedback. It introduced faster evaluation cycles for product teams. However, every team can sometimes stray off the road, no matter how good it is in following the Scrum framework. In the end, we are all people with our biases and imperfections. Being unaware of our anti-patterns, can unleash a waterfall wolf hiding in sheep’s clothing. I drew 15 cartoons that mock false Scrum implementations. Through the cartoons, we recreate bumpy situations in a funny way. Becoming aware of imperfections in a team’s behavior is a key to understanding what we can improve. The Daily stand-up The key is in sharing the right information with your team. And yourself. I’m sure you will. You know those daily meetings that last longer than eternity. Here is a tip how to keep your stand-up within the 15 minutes time frame. We’ll untie him later. Sprint review When stakeholder is not happy. Turn the light switch off and there it is. Sprint retrospective When you have nothing to say. I was time pressured. When you don’t communicate openly on a daily basis with your team and save all your frustrations for the retrospective. Scrum master gets to be a boxing match judge. And then pour it all out. When someone asks why did the project fail. Sprint planning When product owner prepares your backlog. Everything that needs to be done, right? That’s one way to test it. When developers accurately estimate the size of the task. Luckily, we’re still alive. When stories expand across multiple sprints. Split or suffer Requirements When product owner writes requirements and pours her heart, soul and PhD dissertation in them. Dostoyevsky in Jira. Or product owner just ignores the writing and goes back to the traditional oral communication. Human species have survived long time with just verbal storytelling, right? Why don’t you remember? Interruptions But we’ve just had our Sprint planning! Just this one urgent thing. When something is urgent, but lacks material. Such a useful tool. Product hygiene When things become too cluttered it’s useful to turn on the Marie Kondo’s mindset and clear your product opus. It doesn’t spark joy. This is it for now. I you want to see more Productmare comics, see my first story “ ”. I was very inspired to hear that one team printed out comics from this post and put it on their wall as a reminder. Product nightmares in 15 comics Thank you for reading. I think that developing digital products deserves more funny cartoons, so this is my contribution. Help me in this mission, share some feedback and I would be very grateful for it. <a href="https://medium.com/media/3c851dac986ab6dbb2d1aaa91205a8eb/href">https://medium.com/media/3c851dac986ab6dbb2d1aaa91205a8eb/href</a>

Scrum gone wild in 15 cartoons

If you’ve taken an Uber lately, odds are you’ve seen one of those containers displaying assorted goods for purchase — gum, candy, cell phone accessories — in between the two front seats. , the startup behind this “in-car commerce platform,” says it has worked with more than 12,000 rideshare drivers to sell $2.4 million worth of merchandise over the last two years. Cargo Founder came up with the idea back in 2015. Since then, he quit his job, got accepted into and raised more than $6 million from investors. He broke down how he did it from the angel round and beyond when I spoke with him on the . An edited version of that conversation appears below. Jeff Cripe Techstars How I Raised It podcast How did you come up with the idea for Cargo? I think like a retailer. So when I looked at how big Uber and Lyft had gotten, the first thing I thought was: that’s a massive distribution opportunity, and vending machine business are typically pretty good businesses. The drivers are hungry for additional income. We sort of had built-in service personnel inside the vehicle — the drivers who could actually manage the inventory — if we could supply it to them cost efficiently. The mechanics were sort of all there. We tested the idea in New York City with a couple of acrylic boxes inside of Via cars. Something like 8.5 percent of people were actually purchasing things that we put inside the vehicle. If you’re a retail guy like me, 8.5 percent conversion is unbelievable! It was a really bootleg operation that was done with Square credit card readers, laminated signage that I made at Kinko’s and acrylic boxes I bought on Amazon filled with products I bought on Amazon. You got into Techstars. Was that New York or Boulder, or which program was it? We applied in February of 2016 and we were admitted in May of 2016, a couple months later. We applied to a couple different programs. I think we applied to New York, which was sort of like the general accelerator, the Minneapolis program, which was retail-focused, and the mobility program in Detroit. That was the one we really liked, even though it was a little bit newer and that’s ultimately the one that we were admitted to, so we went there. I quit my job the day I got into the accelerator and moved to Detroit two weeks later. I had a very supportive boss, so I didn’t leave him hanging and he was excited for us. I had an awesome time in Detroit. It really is an up-and-coming city. I would attribute a lot of our success to Techstars, in terms of helping us get some initial funding, really making us an investable company, pairing us up with — which has been our legal counsel since day one and helped us transform ourselves from an LLC to a C Corp. In a number of different ways, from team to product to council to administrative stuff, it made us an actual investable company. That’s where we got our legs and got the foundation. Cooley Did you raise an angel round while you were in the program or what was the next funding event? We did. When you go into Techstars — I don’t know if they still do it the same way today — but when we did it, they put in cash for a defined equity piece in the company. Then you have the option to take $100,000 convertible note on like a $3 million cap. So we took that note and we basically said, it’s a little dilutive, but the nice thing is that somebody just basically set a valuation for us. So we used that to raise another $130,000 on the same terms. We did that in the program just to have some operating capital. We didn’t really tap into it except for to pay rent while we were there, which was like 900 bucks a month because we chose to live in the suburbs. We really just kind of kept that in the bank. One of my personal KPIs, while going through the program, was to raise a seed round immediately afterwards. The program ended in September and we had been warned that if you’re going to try and raise capital, you’ve got to raise it before Thanksgiving, because afterwards it’s nearly impossible to get a deal done. I knew it normally takes three to six months to raise a round. So I started raising pretty much as soon as we got into the program, and that ended up working out pretty well for us. I became a much better fundraiser in the program. I think by the time Demo Day came around, we had $800,000 or $900,000 committed. By November 4, 2016, we closed our seed round, which was — including the $250,000 convertible note — $1.75 million. Let’s unpack that a little bit. Explain the day-to-day — what were you doing to find investors, get the introductions, generate interest. The first thing was preparing to be a better fundraiser and one of the things that really helped with that was Techstars and this video tutorial that we went through and then a roleplaying tutorial with David Cohen, the founder of Techstars. Without rehashing the entire two-and-a-half hour long session, the main principle was: when you are first raising a round of financing, you have no leverage to talk about pricing. So don’t talk about pricing. The big thing that we learned was, try to go out there and start with people who are pretty warm on you. Maybe it’s friends and family or maybe it’s investors who followed you for the past seven months who you’ve kept up to date with newsletters and other things. Go to them and say: Give me an amount that you’re willing to commit and tell me any conditions — do you want us to be located in a certain city? Do you need me to have a certain type of co-founder? Do the terms need to be a certain thing to de-risk that investment for them? look, you know how hard it is to get that initial commitment, but once you have a third to a fourth committed things start to pick up steam. So I’d really love for you to commit to this round. We don’t actually ask them to wire the capital or anything, but they’ve hard committed to that round, assuming that you satisfy the conditions that they’ve attached to their commitment, and you start building that portfolio of interest. By the time Demo Day rolled around, we had about $800,000 in these commitments and some people have certain conditions. But the interesting thing that happened was, as soon as we got to about $1.25 million in committed capital, we then found a lead that pushed us to $1.5 million. We now had momentum and we had pricing leverage and we were this interesting, hot company. Now, all of those conditions — — fell away because I had leverage. That’s when we finally started to talk about price. oh, you need to be in this city, you need to have this team member, you need to be doing X revenue by the end of the year If I can boil all that down, it would be: secure interest before you talk about price with investors. Once we learned that, I swear to God, my hit rate with investors went from one out of every 10 to — I had better than a coin toss of a chance of walking into a room and closing a deal. That’s really fantastic. Did any of those conditions stick around once you had that momentum? Investors like to tiptoe up to the line and say yes — or, let’s continue the conversation, which means no, by the way. They preserve optionality. I gave these guys an out. So we both knew that if we didn’t do everything they wanted, they could say, But they chose not to exercise that option. They wanted to be part of the deal because it was a hot deal. Hey Jeff, I know you did two out of these three things, but you didn’t do this thing, so I’m out now. In addition to measuring outcomes and exits, you want to be the first investor in Uber. You don’t want to be the Series E investor in Uber. There’s value in that. There’s a lot of psychology behind fundraising that was really helpful to learn. The first thing I did was learn how to fundraise, and that is something that can be learned and taught. The second thing was starting a pipeline. You need to identify a pipeline of investors that you can actually go out and either speak to because you have intros or seek intros to. So that’s what we did. I didn’t use Hubspot and Salesforce — we just used an Excel document, which had: the name of investor, whether they’re a VC or angel type of investor, where they’re located, what their minimum and maximum allocations are, where we are in the deal cycle with them and what is the likelihood that that translates into an investment. You assign it a probability and at the bottom of that, you know you need to raise $1.5 million. You basically have a pipeline of 50 investors. And you see if the number of meetings that you can potentially set up based on those probabilities will result in a $1.5 million raise or if you need to enlarge your pipeline or if you’ve got too much in your pipeline. Once we had the pipeline, that’s when we started going out and actually securing meetings. How did you determine the minimum and maximum allocation? Your pipeline approach and probability is very interesting, but how did you figure out that part? Just ask. Or spend a bunch of time on and look at what stage the firm usually participates. And usually firms self-identify — we’re a series seed, a venture firm, we don’t lead. If you’re talking to a big firm, you need to look at what that partner typically invests in. So it’s really about asking, because all of the partners have different levels that they can execute deals on. Crunchbase Do you recall how many total investors you’d talked to and how many ended up coming in on that round? Yeah, we probably met with 45 firms and I think we had seven on the cap table by the end of it. More said yes than that, but not everybody made it into the round, so we probably ended up converting 25 to 30 percent into participants. Fewer than that actually ended up on the cap table. Did you have a lead? We did have a lead, , a New York City fund that focuses almost exclusively on consumer. Rosecliff Ventures It sounds like it was oversubscribed — magic words for any round. How did you pick who to let in? How did you message to the ones that couldn’t make it in? We were pretty explicit when we started raising capital about which investors we wanted on our cap table: people with logistic experience, people who are really deep on consumer retail, and people who are really knowledgeable about mobility. , ’s investment arm, participated — really deep on mobility. in New York City participated. The founder of that fund and two or three of the partners there ran one of the largest distributors of Western food goods into China. When it comes to CPG logistics, these guys are top notch. Fontinalis Partners Bill Ford Bleu Capital Techstars Ventures participated. Our relationship really drove their investment since we had gone through Techstars and they’re just a really good generalist fund. And then Rosecliff, they’re all about consumers — they were into Allbirds, Juice Press — a bunch of really good consumer companies. So for a couple of them, they may not have fit the mold and it was pretty easy to explain [to them why they weren’t let into the funding round]. We spent a lot of time building relationships with VCs. You need to make sure that you’re comfortable and excited about everybody on your cap table. If we didn’t feel like it was the right fit, we probably made up an excuse, and then some of them it was just order. They came in at the end and we were already fully allocated. Is there anything you would do differently if you were doing this all over again? We got lucky with a few things. You have to have a co-founder. The data shows that you have to have a co-founder. Initially, I was trying to do it mostly alone. Eventually I wised up and found my co-founder. I resisted doing the newsletter for a while. But Techstars encouraged us to , and send it out monthly to investors. Honestly, probably 40 to 50 percent of the capital that we’ve raised has come as a result of those newsletters, because we’ve kept ourselves top of mind with investors. Our lead for both rounds came as a result of the newsletter. It’s not a fancy email. It’s a list in my Gmail. I would have started doing that more quickly. do a newsletter Nathan Beckord is the CEO of Foundersuite.com , a software platform that has helped users raise over $1 billion in seed and venture capital since 2016. This Q&A is based on episode of Foundersuite’s How I Raised It podcast , a behind-the-scenes look at how startup founders have raised capital.

Retail Meets Rideshare: How Cargo Spun “In-Car Commerce” Into an Over-Subscribed $6M Seed Round

Have you ever imagined yourself as a cartoon character? Well, now this is more than real. We are a team of 20 engineers and art designers who have developed a that morphs human faces with animated characters. machine learning technology The process starts by constructing a user’s 3D face model from just a single selfie shot. Importantly, our technology even works with older, regular smartphone cameras. With this single photo, our neural network builds a 3D mesh of the user’s head that looks like this: The neural network regresses a 3D model from a 2D photo Next, 3 other neural networks swing into action. The first draws eyebrows, the second detects and matches eye color, and the third detects and draws glasses if the user is wearing them. When these elements are ready, we morph the user with one of our cartoon characters. This takes a fraction of a second. Each neural network does its job to instantly personalize the character to the user As you can see outlined in the red boxes, we only morph the restricted area of the user’s face. We do this because . Here’s what would happen if we tried to make the characters more human-like: human beings and animals have very different face topologies Here’s how avatar would look like if we morphed larger areas Another interesting challenge was how to integrate eyewear into the animal characters. If you’ve ever tried to put sunglasses on a dog, you might understand this issue first hand. It wasn’t easy to integrate eyewear on an animal character that doesn’t have a human-like nose. Feeding AI with 3D faces It took us 3 years to collect a proprietary dataset of 15,000 face scans. We ensured our dataset captured a range of races, ages, and genders. We built a special equipment made of 24 cameras to collect dataset We used this data to train our neural networks. This is the backbone of our personalization and facial performance capture technologies. Our machine learning models can process 60 frames per second and recognizes an innumerable quantity of micro expression combinations in real-time. The AI based technology detects emotions in real-time using smartphone The neural network can even track tongue positioning in many directions. By comparison, other avatar apps do not have this functionality and simply have two states for tongue positioning. Many our users were asking to add this feature We integrated all of this technology into a mobile messaging app called . We launched it a couple of months ago to introduce our technological developments to the world. Now Chudo is growing 25x faster than early Snapchat. Chudo Accessibility is one of the reason why it’s growing so fast. Unlike other avatar apps that work only on expensive smartphones, our technology supports budget Android devices, old iPhones and even an iPod. We made our technology work on iPod Unreal characters, real money Most of the characters in are free. As an experiment, we started selling a few avatars to help pay the bills. Here’s the leaderboard of our top selling creatures: Chudo Use cases There are many industries where people would love to see themselves as fictional characters: Computer Gaming Cartoon Animation Toys Publishing Communication With Chudo, our team has begun taking over the communication industry. Do you know any other industries where this technology could be applied? Share your ideas here in comments or shoot me an email at gabrelyanov@chu.do.

How we used AI to hybridize humans with cartoon animals and made a business out of it.

A researcher reports that the than cloud infrastructure hardware and software. $180 billion cloud services market is now growing three times faster Geez! We are depending on cloud provider environments more and more, day after day, isn’t it? Well, if it serves the purpose then why not! The cloud is the new normal. There’s no escape, even if cost spirals out. How dependent are you on your cloud services? Share your experiences. We would love to hear. Originally published at blog.totalcloud.io on August 2, 2018.

The Cloud is the New Normal [cartoon]

This is a document known as a Bill Lading. A Bill Lading (B/L) is a receipt for cargo transportation. So when a cargo is moved from port to port, there is acknowledgement and signing of the B/L to transfer the responsibility of the cargo to the next person. The bill of lading doesn’t travel with the actual cargo. So for example, the cargo could be travelling by sea from port to port, but the bill of lading as a document would be sent by airplane and courier to the next port. This is to ensure if the cargo is lost at sea, the bill of lading is not lost and can be evidence of the worth of goods lost. In this day and age, you would imagine this would be an electronic process by now, but it is not, it is still old school paper and snail mail, making it slow, expensive and unreliable. Currently the average cost of sending a Bill of lading from one port to the next is about a $100 USD. And there are over 50 million Bill of ladings created each year, making the industry worth over $5 billion of courier costs each year. The average length of time is 5–10 days, depending on how far the ports are. What is even more expensive is if the cargo reaches the port before the bill of lading for unforeseen circumstances. The cargo then has to be detained at the port for very high fees. CargoX’s aims to transform the global shipping industry by securing Bill of Lading documents using blockchain technology. They will provide a way for importers and exporters to exchange these documents digitally, securely, and with no possibility of fraud in a neutral environment — extremely quickly and much more affordably than currently. Their cost will only be 10% of the current cost, literally 1000x faster, and as a blockchain technology, they will be the safest most untamperable open ledger of Bill Lading in the world. There is no other solution that can compare with theirs. And right now, they are the only blockchain project in the whole world addressing this issue. This is game changing technology. As you can imagine, there are many parties involved in the shipping transportation route. There is the producer, the logistics company, the carrier, the importer, release agent and more. Traditionally, the hardcopy of the Bill of Lading would have to be transported between all of these agents before the cargo reached port. You can understand now why sometimes the Bill of Lading reaches port after the cargo. CargoX introduces a new system known as Smart Bill of Ladings. This is an electronic copy of the Bill of Ladings that is created and managed with smart contracts, aka blockchain technology. The legal owner of the group can create a smart Bill of Lading in 20 seconds and it immediately becomes available for all parties to see and access. Because it is blockchain and decentralised, the information cannot be changed or hacked, meaning it is completely fraud-proof and secure. This is a simple table comparing paper Bill of Ladings with Smart Bills of Lading. The cost of creating a Bill of Ladings can be as low as 10% that of paper. There is no sending costs or risk of lost/ damage as opposed to paper where the average cost is $100 with associated risks. There is no transition time with Smart Bill of Ladings as opposed to paper which takes 5–10 days to reach port. And there is no paper storage needed. Furthermore, Smart Bill of Ladings, can be incorporated with other supply chain solutions e.g. sensors to provide up-to-date information about the condition of transportation e.g. location, temperature of the containers etc…something which you would never get with Paper Bill of Ladings. So there is really no reason for a shipping company not to use Smart Bill of Ladings. Potentially, this is a project that can combine with other projects e.g. VeChain or WaltonChain to form a partnership or even develop their own hardware sensors. Either way there is a lot of room for growth for this project. If you’ve been in blockchain for a while, you would be aware that there are a lot of supply chain projects arising, starting with retail industry e.g. VeChain and Waltonchain, to food industry e.g. Wabi, Te-Food, Ambrosus etc.. and now the shipping industry as well. This is because with these fields, you don’t need super high transction speeds, what you need is a technology that provides a very open and secure ledger for a very affordable price and that’s exactly what blockchain offers. So moving forward, I think blockchain will transform the entire supply chain industry and all of these projects in the space right now, have early movers advantage and are potentially very good investments. Definitely worth knowing about. CargoX has their own Dapp, that is a program with a very clean and easy to use interface that companies can install and use. There is also a very clear guide on their website, teaching how to use the App step-by-step. Furthermore, the CargoX technology can be installed as an API instead of an app. An API is an app for an app. So e.g. your Uber App on your phone would have several different features, e.g. a GPS, a payment gateway etc.. these different features are APIs, whereas the Uber App is an App. CargoX will provide both an App option, but for companies that don’t want another App to use, they can simply integrate the technology into their existing business software as an API, so e.g. a simple drop down menu on the current program they are using. There are some aspects of the technical bluepaper that is still confidential at this point. It may be due to patents or other reasons. So for that reason, so we can’ dive into the tech too much. But their tech is quite intuitive to blockchain so I would imagine that it is achieveable. In fact their Smart Bill of Lading which is the core technology of the project has already been developed and is in pilot test now with a couple of companies. The main product launch is expected in Q3 2018, so very soon. Token Use The entire system is run on CXO tokens to ensure token use and demand. But instead of torturing their customers to need to set up and exchange account, learn how to buy cryptocurrency etc.. they have developed a transparent process for topping off customers CXO credits balance when they pay their invoices with SEPA/ SWIFT bank transfer. The cost of each CargoX Smart Bill of Lading is exactly USD $10 and that will be converted to CXO tokens. CargoX will also have a treasury wallet to serve as buffer for the fiat-CXO conversion. Pegging the price to USD and having a buffer are great features to further promote mass adoption, because it removes the risk and concern enterprises have about the volatility of cryptocurrency. Remember we pointed out earlier that in a single transportation there are many parties involved? Only the initial owner who creates the smart Bill of Lading pays the $10. Every other party gets to use the technology for free. So for most of the parties, it’s using a great technology for free. Before you get concern, that the token is being under utilised compared to other blockchain projects, consider the cost. $10 sounds very little compared to the $35–100 transaction fees paper Bill of Ladings would cost, but with the exception of Bitcoin and Ethereum, other blockchain projects charge very little for a transaction. Stellar Lumens for example, charges 1 cent for 60,000 transactions. So in blockchain terms, $10 for one transaction could be seen as very high. It won’t affect the use of the project, because this fee is still the cheapest in the market, but it will guarantee demand. Other uses of the tokens besides Smart Bill Ladings creation include, other services e.g. arbitration if there is a dispute, payment for other services provided by their partners, payment for sea freight on selected web logistics portals with discounts of up to 30% for using their token to pay. If token use isn’t enough, one more thing in the token economics that token investors are going to love, is the token burn. CargoX has a crazy token burn rate. After the $10 is used to purchase the Smart Bill of Lading and converted into cryptocurrency, 70% of that, so $7 worth of token will be burnt and permanently removed. This is a very high rate of burn and will significantly affect inflation. Which means, all other factors even, the earlier an investor gets into the project, the better, because with every burn the price of the tokens will get inflated more and more permanently, and 70% is again a very significant amount. CargoX will set the CXO token burn percentage yearly, so it won’t always be 70% but for the first year it will be 70%. The parent company behind CargoX is a Slovenian container booking platform known as 45HC. They specialise in helping small to medium enterprises get their goods from China to Europe at competitive prices, and they are currently the fastest container booking platform on the web. 45HC is also in an alliance with INTTRA, who is the largest neutral electronic transaction platform and information provider for the ocean shipping industry. They initiate over 700,000 container orders weekly and represent approximately 25% of global ocean container trade. So whilst 45HC may not be Maersk the world’s largest shipping company, they certainly are a significant player in the field. The thing about CargoX as a project is that CargoX is a not a logistic company like Maersk or INNTRA. They are specific to streamlining Bill of Ladings, which is a problem every logistic company in transportation faces. Meaning every logistic company e.g. Maersk, INNTRA, 45HC etc.. can use their technology. They are aiming to be another company in the transportation industry, they are aiming to be a game changing technology that every company in the space can use. Although they haven’t lauched their working product yet, they already have 2 partners currently, Milsped a leading transportation company and MakerDao a respected team in the Ethereum developer community. Partners are enterprises that will be using their service. They are currently offering early partner advantage such as 1000 free Bill of Ladings, possibility of tailor made features and prioritisation etc… The project also has supporters, who are considering signing on with them. For them, CargoX offers them free consultation and an insider glimpse into an actual testing and working of the blockchain technology. Supporters will also get priority onboarding if they decide to start using CargoX smart Bill of Lading. They have quite a few supporters already, including significant names like Samera and Co, Republic of Solvenia (Ministry of Infrastructure) — potential government partnership!, MANA and TPG. A lot of the bigger companies will probably require working testimonies before they jump on to a new technology, so I suspect, once CargoX launched it’s live product in Q3 and start getting a few more partners, the Slovenian government and big companies will probably jump on then and that’s when the project will really gain a lot of tractions. If you go on their website and check out their blog, the team has been very active in building partnerships and promoting their product. They recently presented at EurTradeNet 2018, Transport logistic China, collaborative innovation Days 2018 — organised by ALICE (Alliance for logistics Innovation through Collaboration in Europe) and more. The thing I want to point out from here is that all their marketing has been targeted at real world logistic seminars and events. None of it has been at Blockchain events like concensus. That is why this project is so unknown to crypto investors at this point. But I believe one day soon, once they have a working product and attract big partnerships e.g. Slovenian government, this will all change, and the crypto world will be blown away by this hidden gem. At that point, it will probably rise very quickly and steeply. This is a project that has very good fundamentals but is currently very undervalued. Team This is the team behind the project. It’s a good team with a lot of experence and success, and well balanced in both the business and technical aspects. Their CEO and founder is Stefan Kukman who is also the CEO of 45HC. He previously worked with one of the largest logistics providers Kuehne-Nagel and has a very strong background in product promotion and market research. Their COO is Igor Jakomin who has more than 20 years of experience in transport, logistics and shipping industry. He was the previous State secretary at the Ministry of transport of the Republic of Slovenia, an experienced lectured and assistant professors at various universities with a PHD in transport and logistics and also previous managing director of Samer Global logistics, and Supervisory Board member of Port of Koper and BTC terminal. And you can go through the rest of the resumes in your own time, but it’s a heavy weight team that inspires confidence. Roadmap They have 2 versions of a roadmap. The first one on the left is the one on their website which is actually outdated and ended 3 months ago. They need to update it. A longer pitched roadmap is found in their technological paper and that runs to the end of Q4 of 2019. We are at the beginning of that roadmap, right after releasing Smart Bill of Lading MVP (minimal viable product) and awaiting the launch of the Dapp and first customers. Other longer term feature they are hoping to include next year involve extending the protocol to accommodate insurance, quality control, integration with Internet of things (IOT) vendors (mostly like the sensors in the containers we were talking about before) and more. So once again, a lot of room for this project to grow. Conclusion Finally, I wanted to round off this article with a look at the token price, because I feel it’s in quite an unusal position. If you see from the chart, since being launched in late Jan, the token price has taken a real beating. At its peak right after it hit the exchanges, it peaked at $0.23 and currently it is sitting at $0.038. It’s dropped by 85%. This isn’t because of the project, this is because of the general market crash. The thing with the crypto market, is this thing called Bitcoin Dominence. Bitcoin is the biggest coin on the market by far. And when the market is good and people are more risk taking, they will invest in altcoins like CargoX. But when the market is bad and people want to be safe, they will take money out of altcoins like CargoX and put it back in Bitcoin. So in bear markets like the past few months, we see a general rise in Bitcoin dominance and all altcoins suffer, the smaller the altcoin, the more it hurts, because people will have less confidence in them. The thing about CargoX is even at ICO stage, it was very low capped at $7million, (normal ICO is $30–40 million). So even at launch it was in marketcap, which normally would have made it a great investment opportunity, but it ended up instead being unintentionally punished for that and got pushed down even further as investors moved to Bitcoin. That’s what I think happened at least. And now, I think we are at an interesting spot where the market is possibly close to it’s lowest (I hope), but also the project already has an minimum working product and are about to launch their life product. They have partners in pilot testing and are soon to have real customers/ partners, including big enterprises and the Solvenian government expressing interest in the project. Once the product goes life in the next quarter, token burn will start, and inflation will being. They are also focusing heavily now on transportation partnerships and haven’t started marketing to the crypto community yet, but I see that changing in the next 6 months. And finally, with every market crash, when the market picks up, investors are abit wiser and more investors start looking for projects with good fundamentals rather than FOMO as they have been doing, and you can see this with recent conferences and forums. Crypto investors are not asking “when moon” or “when lambo” so much, they are starting to ask about the technology, the token economics etc.. even within 1 year, you can see the overall maturity and education of investors rising significantly. To an investor looking at projects with good fundamentals, CargoX potentially comes across with alot of potential. This is a project worth keeping an eye on. These are my thoughts on CargoX. None of this is professional advice, it is all my personal opinion and thoughts. Always do you own research and make your own decisions. Let us know what you think of CargoX in the comments below, and your comments will also help others form their opinion of this project. If you found this post helpful, give it that clap so that others can find it too. Have a great start to your weekend wherever you are, and Il catch you again very soon!

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