Tiktok Inc., and ByteDance LTD., v. Merrick B. Garland Update Court Filing, retrieved on May 7, 2024, is part of HackerNoon’s Legal PDF Series. You can jump to any part in this filing here. This part is 10 of 11. Ground 4: Unconstitutional Taking 110. The Act effects an unlawful taking of private property without just compensation, in violation of the Fifth Amendment’s Takings Clause. 111. The Takings Clause provides that “private property” shall not be “taken for public use, without just compensation.” U.S. Const. amend. V, cl. 5. The Act does just that by shutting down ByteDance’s U.S. businesses or, to the extent any qualified divestiture alternative is even feasible (it is not), compelling ByteDance to sell those businesses under fire-sale circumstances that guarantee inadequate compensation. 112. Petitioners have substantial property interests in, and associated with, their and their affiliates’ U.S. operations. These include not only ByteDance Ltd.’s interest in TikTok Inc. and other U.S. businesses, but also the platforms and applications themselves. See Kimball Laundry Co. v. United States, 338 U.S. 1, 11–13 (1949) (Takings Clause also protects losses to going-concern value of business). 113. If the Act’s prohibitions take effect, they will deprive Petitioners of property protected by the Takings Clause. Absent a qualified divestiture, the Act will shutter Petitioners’ businesses in the United States. And even if a qualified divestiture were feasible (it is not), any sale could be, at best, completed only at an enormous discount to the U.S. businesses’ current market value, given the forced sale conditions. See BFP v. Resol. Tr. Corp., 511 U.S. 531, 537 (1994) (“[M]arket value, as it is commonly understood, has no applicability in the forced-sale context; indeed, it is the very antithesis of forced-sale value.”). 114. Because the Act compels ByteDance “to relinquish specific, identifiable property” or forfeit “all economically beneficial uses,” the Act effects a per se taking. Horne v. Dep’t of Agric., 576 U.S. 350, 364–65 (2015); Lucas v. S.C. Coastal Council, 505 U.S. 1003, 1019 (1992). 115. Alternatively, the Act inflicts a regulatory taking. Even when a law does not compel the physical invasion of property or deprive the property of all economically viable use, it still effects a taking “if [it] goes too far.” Penn. Coal Co. v. Mahon, 260 U.S. 393, 415 (1922). In determining when a law “goes too far,” courts have typically looked to “several factors” identified in Penn Central Transportation Co. v. City of New York, 438 U.S. 104, 124 (1978), namely, (a) “[t]he economic impact of the regulation”; (b) “the extent to which the regulation has interfered with reasonable investment-backed expectations”; and (c) “the character of the governmental action.” The Act inflicts a regulatory taking under each of these three factors. 116. The Act does not compensate Petitioners (let alone provide just compensation) for the dispossession of their U.S. businesses. See United States v. Miller, 317 U.S. 369, 373 (1943). Prospective injunctive relief is accordingly warranted. See, e.g., Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer, 343 U.S. 579, 585 (1952). Continue Reading Here. About HackerNoon Legal PDF Series: We bring you the most important technical and insightful public domain court case filings.
This court case retrieved on May 7, 2024, from sf16-va.tiktokcdn.com is part of the public domain. The court-created documents are works of the federal government, and under copyright law, are automatically placed in the public domain and may be shared without legal restriction. Tiktok Inc., and ByteDance LTD., v. Merrick B. Garland Update Court Filing, retrieved on May 7, 2024, is part of HackerNoon’s Legal PDF Series. You can jump to any part in this filing here. This part is 10 of 11. Tiktok Inc., and ByteDance LTD., v. Merrick B. Garland Update Court Filing, retrieved on May 7, 2024, is part of HackerNoon’s Legal PDF Series . You can jump to any part in this filing here . This part is 10 of 11. HackerNoon’s Legal PDF Series here Ground 4: Unconstitutional Taking 110. The Act effects an unlawful taking of private property without just compensation, in violation of the Fifth Amendment’s Takings Clause. 111. The Takings Clause provides that “private property” shall not be “taken for public use, without just compensation.” U.S. Const. amend. V, cl. 5. The Act does just that by shutting down ByteDance’s U.S. businesses or, to the extent any qualified divestiture alternative is even feasible (it is not), compelling ByteDance to sell those businesses under fire-sale circumstances that guarantee inadequate compensation. 112. Petitioners have substantial property interests in, and associated with, their and their affiliates’ U.S. operations. These include not only ByteDance Ltd.’s interest in TikTok Inc. and other U.S. businesses, but also the platforms and applications themselves. See Kimball Laundry Co. v. United States, 338 U.S. 1, 11–13 (1949) (Takings Clause also protects losses to going-concern value of business). 113. If the Act’s prohibitions take effect, they will deprive Petitioners of property protected by the Takings Clause. Absent a qualified divestiture, the Act will shutter Petitioners’ businesses in the United States. And even if a qualified divestiture were feasible (it is not), any sale could be, at best, completed only at an enormous discount to the U.S. businesses’ current market value, given the forced sale conditions. See BFP v. Resol. Tr. Corp., 511 U.S. 531, 537 (1994) (“[M]arket value, as it is commonly understood, has no applicability in the forced-sale context; indeed, it is the very antithesis of forced-sale value.”). 114. Because the Act compels ByteDance “to relinquish specific, identifiable property” or forfeit “all economically beneficial uses,” the Act effects a per se taking. Horne v. Dep’t of Agric., 576 U.S. 350, 364–65 (2015); Lucas v. S.C. Coastal Council, 505 U.S. 1003, 1019 (1992). 115. Alternatively, the Act inflicts a regulatory taking. Even when a law does not compel the physical invasion of property or deprive the property of all economically viable use, it still effects a taking “if [it] goes too far.” Penn. Coal Co. v. Mahon, 260 U.S. 393, 415 (1922). In determining when a law “goes too far,” courts have typically looked to “several factors” identified in Penn Central Transportation Co. v. City of New York, 438 U.S. 104, 124 (1978), namely, (a) “[t]he economic impact of the regulation”; (b) “the extent to which the regulation has interfered with reasonable investment-backed expectations”; and (c) “the character of the governmental action.” The Act inflicts a regulatory taking under each of these three factors. 116. The Act does not compensate Petitioners (let alone provide just compensation) for the dispossession of their U.S. businesses. See United States v. Miller, 317 U.S. 369, 373 (1943). Prospective injunctive relief is accordingly warranted. See, e.g., Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer, 343 U.S. 579, 585 (1952). Continue Reading Here. Continue Reading Here . Here About HackerNoon Legal PDF Series: We bring you the most important technical and insightful public domain court case filings. This court case retrieved on May 7, 2024, from sf16-va.tiktokcdn.com is part of the public domain. The court-created documents are works of the federal government, and under copyright law, are automatically placed in the public domain and may be shared without legal restriction. About HackerNoon Legal PDF Series: We bring you the most important technical and insightful public domain court case filings. This court case retrieved on May 7, 2024, from sf16-va.tiktokcdn.com is part of the public domain. The court-created documents are works of the federal government, and under copyright law, are automatically placed in the public domain and may be shared without legal restriction. sf16-va.tiktokcdn.com

ByteDance's Fight Against Forced Sale Circumstances

The Noonification: HackerNoons Emoji Credibility Indicators are Live on GitHub and Figma! (4/16/2024)

Emoji Credibility Indicators by HackerNoon are now live on GitHub and Figma!!! Our open-source pixelated emoji pack was designed to communicate context about a story's content on HackerNoon and you can be amongst the first to try them! But before we tell you what you’ll get from this package, here’s a little refresher ⬇️ What are Emoji Credibility Indicators on HackerNoon Stories? Emoji Credibility Indicators provide essential context to the content within every HackerNoon story. Below the author’s profile on the story page, the “Credibility” section appears with a corresponding custom emoji and tooltip to indicate relevant information about the story to the reader. In the example above, you can see that David’s story contains two emoji credibility indicators: HODL, which indicates mentions of one or more cryptos that the author holds, and Associated Companies, which is used when the writer has or had any sort of business relationship with companies mentioned in the story. Learn more about Emoji Credibility Indicators here. Types of Emoji Credibility Indicators We have around 20 emoji credibility indicators for Context and Disclaimers, and Content Types, each with an attributed meaning and instructions on how to use them. So if you have a technological project, and want amazing pixelated emojis to represent/communicate credibility, this repo is for you! Read about all our emoji credibility indicators, what they mean, and how to use them here. Why Adding Context to Content Matters to the Future of Digital Text When lost in a good read, it may feel like there are only words, but the reality is, no text exists in a vacuum. All text has a setting. Too often on social media and the current internet, what surrounds the text is vanity metrics designed to keep you in the newsfeed, designed to re-affirm that what you’re doing is liked/upvoted/not-a-waste-of-time, instead of being designed to provide you with structured indications that define the context of the story. Read our help page fo more context about our emoji credibility indicators. What will you get from this open-source package? Pixelated Emojis, designed on a 24px grid.
Well crafted SVGs
Fully customizable
Ready-to-use for development via GitHub Repo and Figma! Sounds good? Try them out today and tell us about your experience here. Designing HackerNoon's Emoji Credibility Indicators: Get the developer’s perspective here. Emoji Credibility Indicators by HackerNoon are now live on GitHub and Figma!!! Emoji Credibility Indicators by HackerNoon are now live on GitHub and Figma !!! GitHub Figma Our open-source pixelated emoji pack was designed to communicate context about a story's content on HackerNoon and you can be amongst the first to try them! But before we tell you what you’ll get from this package, here’s a little refresher ⬇️ What are Emoji Credibility Indicators on HackerNoon Stories? Emoji Credibility Indicators provide essential context to the content within every HackerNoon story. Below the author’s profile on the story page, the “Credibility” section appears with a corresponding custom emoji and tooltip to indicate relevant information about the story to the reader. In the example above, you can see that David’s story contains two emoji credibility indicators: HODL, which indicates mentions of one or more cryptos that the author holds, and Associated Companies, which is used when the writer has or had any sort of business relationship with companies mentioned in the story. Learn more about Emoji Credibility Indicators here. Learn more about Emoji Credibility Indicators here . here Types of Emoji Credibility Indicators We have around 20 emoji credibility indicators for Context and Disclaimers, and Content Types, each with an attributed meaning and instructions on how to use them. So if you have a technological project, and want amazing pixelated emojis to represent/communicate credibility, this repo is for you! Read about all our emoji credibility indicators, what they mean, and how to use them here. Read about all our emoji credibility indicators, what they mean, and how to use them here . here Why Adding Context to Content Matters to the Future of Digital Text When lost in a good read, it may feel like there are only words, but the reality is, no text exists in a vacuum. All text has a setting. Too often on social media and the current internet, what surrounds the text is vanity metrics designed to keep you in the newsfeed, designed to re-affirm that what you’re doing is liked/upvoted/not-a-waste-of-time, instead of being designed to provide you with structured indications that define the context of the story. Read our help page fo more context about our emoji credibility indicators. Read our help page fo more context about our emoji credibility indicators. Read our help page fo more context about our emoji credibility indicators. What will you get from this open-source package? What will you get from this open-source package? Pixelated Emojis, designed on a 24px grid. Well crafted SVGs Fully customizable Ready-to-use for development via GitHub Repo and Figma! Pixelated Emojis, designed on a 24px grid. Well crafted SVGs Fully customizable Ready-to-use for development via GitHub Repo and Figma ! GitHub Repo Figma Sounds good? Try them out today and tell us about your experience here. Try them out today and tell us about your experience here . here Designing HackerNoon's Emoji Credibility Indicators: Get the developer’s perspective here. Designing HackerNoon's Emoji Credibility Indicators : Get the developer’s perspective here . Designing HackerNoon's Emoji Credibility Indicators here

HackerNoon's Emoji Credibility Indicators are Live on GitHub and Figma!

HackerNoon এর ইমোজি বিশ্বাসযোগ্যতা সূচকগুলি GitHub এবং Figma-এ লাইভ!

Die Emoji-Glaubwürdigkeitsindikatoren von HackerNoon sind live auf GitHub und Figma!

¡Los indicadores de credibilidad Emoji de HackerNoon están disponibles en GitHub y Figma!

Les indicateurs de crédibilité Emoji de HackerNoon sont en direct sur GitHub et Figma !

हैकरनून के इमोजी विश्वसनीयता संकेतक गिटहब और फिग्मा पर लाइव हैं!

HackerNoon の絵文字信頼性インジケーターが GitHub と Figma で公開されました。

HackerNoon의 이모티콘 신뢰성 지표가 GitHub 및 Figma에 게시되었습니다!

Os indicadores de credibilidade de Emoji do HackerNoon estão disponíveis no GitHub e no Figma!

Индикаторы достоверности Emoji от HackerNoon доступны на GitHub и Figma!

HackerNoon'un Emoji Güvenilirlik Göstergeleri GitHub ve Figma'da Yayında!

Các chỉ số đáng tin cậy về biểu tượng cảm xúc của HackerNoon hiện có trên GitHub và Figma!

HackerNoon 的 Emoji 可信度指标已在 GitHub 和 Figma 上线！

This paper is available on arxiv under CC 4.0 license.
Authors:
(1) Andrey Zhmoginov, Google Research & {azhmogin,sandler,mxv}@google.com;
(2) Mark Sandler, Google Research & {azhmogin,sandler,mxv}@google.com;
(3) Max Vladymyrov, Google Research & {azhmogin,sandler,mxv}@google.com. Table of Links Abstract and Introduction
Problem Setup and Related Work
HyperTransformer
Experiments
Conclusion and References
A Example of a Self-Attention Mechanism For Supervised Learning
B Model Parameters
C Additional Supervised Experiments
D Dependence On Parameters and Ablation Studies
E Attention Maps of Learned Transformer Models
F Visualization of The Generated CNN Weights
G Additional Tables and Figures G ADDITIONAL TABLES AND FIGURES This paper is available on arxiv under CC 4.0 license. Authors: (1) Andrey Zhmoginov, Google Research & {azhmogin,sandler,mxv}@google.com; (2) Mark Sandler, Google Research & {azhmogin,sandler,mxv}@google.com; (3) Max Vladymyrov, Google Research & {azhmogin,sandler,mxv}@google.com. This paper is available on arxiv under CC 4.0 license. Authors: (1) Andrey Zhmoginov, Google Research & {azhmogin,sandler,mxv}@google.com; (2) Mark Sandler, Google Research & {azhmogin,sandler,mxv}@google.com; (3) Max Vladymyrov, Google Research & {azhmogin,sandler,mxv}@google.com. Table of Links Abstract and Introduction Problem Setup and Related Work HyperTransformer Experiments Conclusion and References A Example of a Self-Attention Mechanism For Supervised Learning B Model Parameters C Additional Supervised Experiments D Dependence On Parameters and Ablation Studies E Attention Maps of Learned Transformer Models F Visualization of The Generated CNN Weights G Additional Tables and Figures Abstract and Introduction Abstract and Introduction Problem Setup and Related Work Problem Setup and Related Work HyperTransformer HyperTransformer Experiments Experiments Conclusion and References Conclusion and References A Example of a Self-Attention Mechanism For Supervised Learning A Example of a Self-Attention Mechanism For Supervised Learning B Model Parameters B Model Parameters C Additional Supervised Experiments C Additional Supervised Experiments D Dependence On Parameters and Ablation Studies D Dependence On Parameters and Ablation Studies E Attention Maps of Learned Transformer Models E Attention Maps of Learned Transformer Models F Visualization of The Generated CNN Weights F Visualization of The Generated CNN Weights G Additional Tables and Figures G Additional Tables and Figures G ADDITIONAL TABLES AND FIGURES

HyperTransformer: G Additional Tables and Figures

There seems to be a misunderstanding as to how the US gov't is using anti-competition laws in the case against Apple. I'm no legal expert, but from what I've read, the core problem is Apple's various platforms allow 3rd parties but, through (limited API access, stopping legal and fair products from appearing in their stores, etc...), never actually allow for free and fair competition on said Platforms and as thus is liable to be sued. Market Manipulation Basically, you can summarize the lawsuit down to 2 points, Apple is using its platform to limit competition in unfair ways; if iOS and others were not open to 3rd parties, this really wouldn't be a problem Apple may not be the largest player per see, but its and of said power is an indication of behavior Market Power Abuse Monopolistic A good example here would be Amazon and Google. Amazon is not the only shopping website in the world (neither is Google for search), but they have a lot of . On their Platforms, they need to ensure that they don't unfairly promote their products at the expense of other competition. Basically, the competition must be fair when you have a platform (same thing with Microsoft, actually). Market Power : Gov't don't care if you're a Monopoly, what they care about is if you're actively abusing your enhanced Market Position to limit competition or promote your own products. Note necessarily : The US gov't doesn't necessarily use anti-trust laws for the sake of consumers they use it to guarantee competition and a fair playground/market place with the idea being that with more competition, customers get better deals and better products Another Note : The US gov't is not suing Apple for the Phones (they can't touch that since people are voting with their wallets there) they're suing Apple for their OS, and the rules being unfair on said OS Another Another Note Apple is abusing market power in a way that makes it difficult for it to compete on its platforms. Apple may have built the best sandbox but so long as they're allowing others to play in that sandbox they need to make sure the game is played fairly, this same rule applied to Microsoft during their anti-trust lawsuit case. Windows is Microsoft's baby, but if Microsoft unfairly promotes its products at the detriment of other competitors, then it;s an anti-trust lawsuit (as simple as that). TL;DR: Also published . here

Apple is Fighting the US Government, and the US Government is Right

The Noonification: Why Is Upwork Suspending Six-Figure Clients? (4/8/2024)

After more than ten years on Elance / oDesk / Upwork, I dare to say that I’ve seen and experienced it first-hand: all the good, the bad, and the ugly. I wrote about my fellow freelancers who have suffered blow by blow; the most notorious ones, the introduction of and . I could live with the fact that my words had fallen on deaf remote-work-community ears. I also didn’t use the opportunity to cherish my see-I-told-you-so moments when , got caught red-handed for to make freelancers spend their connects, and was exposed for the legal catch-22 called “ .” connects required for submitting proposals Draconian sections of Upwork’s Terms Upwork almost bled to death on the stock market posting fake jobs Conversion Fee I’ve always been objective and ready to be challenged and proved wrong for every single claim I made and every single word I wrote, but helplessly emotional when more than . Why? Because nobody cared. Because we’re fully aware of the bitter remote work reality that… 100K freelance accounts on Upwork got purged in just one week Little did I know that the suspension train goes both ways. Look, the clients get suspended, as well. But, there’s a huge difference. Upwork What I’d witnessed was in every freelancer’s best interest. I’m talking about fraudsters and “predators” which are a common problem not only on Upwork but on every freelance platform. What’s right is right in this case, and Upwork is fighting the right fight to make sure its platform is as safe and secure as possible by suspending these kinds of clients. However, what a fellow freelancer brought to my attention was something completely different and unheard of. Upwork “Whales” Are Supposed To Be A Protected Species, Are They Not? The so-called Upwork “whales” are every freelancer’s dream. I’m talking about six-figure spenders on Upwork. There are even seven-and-eight-figure whales, but they’re reserved for crème de la crème of the Upwork freelance elite. So, back to my freelance friend who has been swimming with the six-figure whales on Upwork successfully for quite some time. One day, he shared a screenshot with me that got him upset. He couldn’t submit a proposal and, thus, wasn’t able to work, because this client got suspended. At first, I didn’t understand what was all the fuss about. My friend told me that was unthinkable for more than one reason. First, nobody kills the goose that lays the golden eggs in their right business mind. Second, after spending so much money on Upwork and hundreds of projects under your client’s belt you know all the ins and outs of Upwork Terms, especially the no-no things that can get you in suspension trouble (temporary or permanent). Finally, not just Upwork, but every platform would think twice about suspending a long-term client with deep pockets. You can suspend a hundred freelancers without blinking an eye because there are thousands of newbies eager to take their place. But, killing a whale on Upwork can have serious business consequences. I did my best to sympathize with my brother in freelance arms, but my one swallow doesn't make a summer comforting line was hard to swallow for him. So, a few days later, he hit me with another screenshot: Then, that very week came the third in a row: I was about to unchain the situation DiCaprio-style, “you had my curiosity, now you have my attention,” but I think that Ian Fleming’s Goldfinger is a better choice: Mr Bond, they have a saying in Chicago: 'Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action'. The “enemy’s action” had more “casualties” to report the next week of our “investigation.” We even tried to find a pattern. My friend had a theory related to the latest price increase of Upwork Plus membership for freelancers. He thought that was the last straw that pushed some Upwork freelancers and clients to continue work outside the platform. They violated Upwork Terms, got caught, and suspensions followed. Yet, this didn’t make sense to me. Why would a freelance membership fee increase be a client’s problem and reason-for-treason? After two more pieces of evidence, I finally accepted that this wasn’t a coincidence. Eight “whales” times six-figure amounts they have spent, well, that’s a lot of money to “write off” just like that, even for Upwork. OK. I mean, it’s not OK. What’s going on, and why? New Clients on the Upwork Block Even if you aren’t as successful and diligent as my friend who cares deeply about “whales,” but you happen to be an enthusiastic freelancer on Upwork then you probably haven’t missed their CEO’s LinkedIn post about the impressive financial report for the previous year: This post goes on and on, but there’s one part that caught my eye: What’s 8 suspended against 31 new clients? Nothing. Right? I guess that “enterprise clients” stand for potential “whales.” Yet, it’s going to take some time to hit six or seven-figure spending targets for these new Upwork clients. Just like all freelancers are equal, but some freelancers are more equal than others ( ), all Upwork clients are equal, but some clients are more equal than others (“Client Spend” category filter ). JSS - Job Success Score for those who have an Upwork profile I forgot to mention one tiny detail. My friend and I were able to find eight six-figure suspended clients on Upwork in three weeks. So, the legit question remains: how many more clients have been suspended in the meantime (by the time you’re reading this story)? Honestly, Upwork's financial reports and suspended clients, no matter how much they spend, don’t affect my average resting heart rate, but the number of freelancers who are used to and supposed to work for these gone-with-the-wind clients certainly do. Based on my first-hand experience each of these whales has dozens of open active jobs at any given moment for a good price on average. So, eight suspended whales means hundreds of Upwork freelancers with no work. Where Have All The Good Upwork Clients Gone? All those clients haven’t left the remote work world just because Upwork suspended them. Some of them may even return because we can’t know for sure if these were temporary or permanent suspensions. Yet, some are gone for good. Where they’re going to hire and work next? That’s the million-dollar question, literally. I can’t believe that in October it’s going to be five years since I asked the question that’s still waiting to age well: Is Freelance Anarchy The Future of Freelancing? Let that story sink in, read it because it’s not what you think. Contrary to the unpopular belief and prejudice of Upwork Community moderators, I don’t want or cheer for Upwork to collapse on the stock market. I just want , to the good old days with no connects and (questionable) suspensions. Upwork to get back to its basics If there’s someone who can make freelancing great again it’s not this guy… …but Upwork itself. The day when I won’t have the “material” to write about Upwork, it’s going to be a good day for both clients and freelancers. Until that day, you still have to pay to play on Upwork, this way or another. FREE-lancing; that’s how the whole remote work thing started. Remember?

Why Is Upwork Suspending Six-Figure Clients?

কেন আপওয়ার্ক ছয়-চিত্রের ক্লায়েন্টকে সাসপেন্ড করছে?

Warum sperrt Upwork Kunden mit sechsstelligen Umsätzen?

¿Por qué Upwork suspende a los clientes de seis cifras?

Pourquoi Upwork suspend-il les clients à six chiffres ?

अपवर्क छह-आंकड़ा ग्राहकों को निलंबित क्यों कर रहा है?

Upwork が 6 桁のクライアントを停止しているのはなぜですか?

Upwork가 6자릿수 클라이언트를 일시 중지하는 이유는 무엇입니까?

Por que o Upwork está suspendendo clientes de seis dígitos?

Почему Upwork приостанавливает работу шестизначных клиентов?

Upwork Neden Altı Rakamlı Müşterileri Askıya Alıyor?

Tại sao Upwork đình chỉ các khách hàng sáu con số?

Upwork 为何暂停六位数客户？

As regular readers know, I recently . After all the interviews, the next part of that process was the offer  negotiation phase.  To be incredibly transparent, I hate that part of  the interview process like almost nothing else in my life. It’s gut-churning and mind-numbing and terror-inducing all at the same time. I  always feel like I’m doing it wrong, and at the end of the process, I’m  certain I’ve made horrible mistakes that will haunt me for the rest of  my career. changed companies In the 35+ years I’ve worked in tech, I’ve changed jobs several times, each time interviewing with several companies before making a  career move. After some back-of-the-napkin math, I realized I’ve  received dozens of offers over the course of my career. Anyone who’s worked in tech understands this is pretty typical, and not just in this current period of marketplace unrest, with the “great resignation/reshuffling/whatever”; weekly announcements of layoffs and companies getting acquired, spun off, or shut down like it was a game of  whack-a-mole where the moles were actually Russian nesting dolls. Moving around like that means I’ve negotiated my salary, benefits, days off, and so on a bunch of times. And you’d think that after so much  practice over so many years, it would feel like old hat. No big deal. A  walk in the park. Nothing could be further from the truth. There are, of course, plenty of resources to learn how to be a better negotiator and to take control (not to mention ownership) of one’s  career. I’m a big fan of Chris Voss’ book .” I’m an equally big fan of , who I’ve enjoyed hearing from on | | | | on Corey Quinn’s . “Never Split the Difference Josh Doody three separate appearances Screaming In the Cloud podcast But even with the information I gleaned from those (and other) resources, I’m still uncomfortable with the entire process. Negotiating  the purchase of a car or house is so much easier emotionally, because  objects aren’t tied to yourself worth the way a job offer objectifies  your value as a professional. This makes it more important than ever to take a principle we hold true in our data centers and apply it to our careers: Namely, if something isn’t a core competency for the business, don’t spend huge amounts of time, effort, or budget on building it internally. And it’s an  indisputable fact that – while salary negotiation is important to my  career – it’s utterly irrelevant to my day-to-day job. This is why, when my friend and former colleague Kymberlee Price (aka “KymPossible” on Bluesky, hence the title of this blog) offered to  help with the negotiation phase during my last job search, I jumped at  the chance. If you are currently in the negotiation phase of your own job, stop reading this and . If you are hunting for your next job and know that negotiations are on the horizon, write down her info and after you finish reading this. And if you aren’t looking for a new job  at this moment, I’d remind you that – in tech at least – your transition  to turning on that green “Open to Work” banner in LinkedIn can happen  at any time. So, grab and put it somewhere for safekeeping. contact her contact her her info If you’re thinking, “I’m just not comfortable with being super aggressive to my future employer”, you need to move over and make some room because I’m not either. In fact, almost every one of Kym’s clients says the same thing. And the truth is, nobody is saying you need to be.  In fact, aggressive is the very LAST thing that you need for effective  negotiations. Firm? Absolutely. Confident? 100%. But aggressive? Never. Like any great tech practitioner, helping people negotiate their salary is Kym’s SIDE HUSTLE. By day, she’s a kick-ass product security leader. Kym relies on data and analysis to identify how the offer on the  table stands up to industry standards, your current compensation, the  likely movement of the market in the next few years, and more. Kym’s  process takes the emotion completely out of the conversation. Her view  of “total compensation” goes way beyond what I’m used to considering.  Not only did she factor in the usual elements like stock options, bonuses, etc., but she also included out-of-pocket healthcare costs, 401k matching, PTO, and a projection of how the complete offer will “age” over five years, based on average raises, bonuses, etc. The approach is hard to argue against. It’s not a fierce contest of wills where one side insists they are “worth more,” and the other does  their best to convince them otherwise. It’s a frank and fact-based  discussion of how the company’s offer compares competitively to other  options available and proposes adjustments to close any gaps so you can  happily accept.  A company can still choose to say, “That’s not  something we can do.” However, this is a far cry from the standard pushback  of “We don’t believe we (or anyone else) should do this.” Which, I gotta  tell you, is a breath of fresh air. Now, all of this implies that you’re always going to get a lowball offer – which isn’t the case.  Kym tells me that when clients get a phenomenal offer straight out of  the gate, she provides them with a few key questions to ask the recruiter to  confirm it really is a great offer and ensure there aren’t any surprises  later. Sometimes, the base compensation is great, but you’re losing  $50-100k a year in benefits, retirement matching, etc. Maybe you’re okay  with that tradeoff, but you need to know about it upfront. As a Tech professional, I need to build and maintain my skills as a developer, sysadmin, and engineer. I need to stay up to date on the  latest tools, techniques, and technologies. But I don’t need to spend precious time learning the fine art of salary negotiation, even when I  will probably have to do it several more times before I retire. Not when there are amazing folks like Kymberlee Price around to do it and do it far better than I could ever imagine. Also published . here

Figuring Out Job Offer Negotiations: Lessons Learned from Kym Possible 

or a server with a with professional-grade or cards. are also available. Rent GPU servers with instant deployment custom configuration NVIDIA Tesla H100 / H100 80Gb RTX A5000 / A4000 GPU servers with game RTX4090 cards Sporting events today are rife with advertising, from commercials on screens to static company logos on stadium billboards. The airwaves span multiple countries with different brands and advertising laws. Thanks to breakthroughs in AI and AR technology, it is possible to customize the information on display for each audience directly during the live broadcast of a match. Advertising in sports arenas was initially static and intended for the people attending a particular event in a particular city. Later, LED screens appeared, which showed alternating adverts. The next evolution was to insert a green screen into the spots on the billboards for a fraction of a second, allowing the AI to define the space and insert a unique text. Nowadays, you can replace anything with anything. The challenge is to make sure that the replacement is done discreetly and realistically. The major players in this market use special cameras. From the photos, we can conclude that there are specialized sensors that discern positioning and alignment information. That is, popular solutions still have hardwired crutches. All this requires enormous computing power, as the inputs and the original broadcast are processed by specialized software online. That is, servers for computing are connected to the cameras and sensors. This equipment is expensive, the market is closed, and the technology is closed, too. This is where AI and cloud GPU servers come to the rescue. Expensive, static, and not for everyone HOSTKEY has a client, a startup called , which has developed its own technology for implementing virtual advertising and integrating digital content (like augmented reality) in a multi-regional mode. And their solution promises seamless (and boneless) integration of adverts directly into the video stream. PTF Lab Some time ago, they saw information about HOSTKEY in the Open Data Science (ODS) community and reached out to us when they needed cloud capacity, appreciating our service, pricing, and a flexible lineup of available options. The startup's goals are noble, understandable, and quite achievable: To get away from expensive proprietary equipment and complex setup, shifting the task of advertising placement and frame construction to artificial intelligence, which takes into account overlapping people and objects in the frame. By doing so, they can cover relatively small events (such as arena fights, etc.) and bring the technology to the masses. Ultimately, sports advertising should be made accessible and relatively inexpensive. Moreover, the startup has set an ambitious goal of surpassing the solutions offered by monopoly giants in terms of flexibility. For example, it can display "virtual adverts" during replays and use angles from any camera, not just from certain angles. How does it work? The video signal from a sporting event venue can be processed using computing power not only at the venue itself but also in the cloud. This allows for flexible load distribution and the choice of when to apply adverts: before or during broadcasting, taking into account different markets. Also, working with cloud services allows you to use advertising in locations where it is impossible to bring a server (and in principle, it is more convenient). Object segmentation is based on the neural network architecture from U-Net. Neural networks are responsible for the location of objects and for detecting and comparing key points. However, the task is non-trivial, so all the solutions and neural networks had to be reworked and trained for use. It is especially difficult in martial arts broadcasts, where literally everything is unpredictable from the point of view of the picture: light sources, shadows, camera angles, the grid overlapping sponsor logos, and the bodies of the fighters and referees. Neural networks are not used everywhere. Sometimes, to solve a problem, it is enough to show ingenuity and use simple algorithms. For example, tracking algorithms combine neural network methods and systems of linear and nonlinear equations. A significant part of the GPU is taken up by segmentation. The better the detection of people and objects in the frame and their separation by plans and type is implemented, the more natural and attractive the frame will look after the advertising overlay. A separate task is related to lighting and shadows, which must be taken into account in augmented reality when rendering a scene. The realism of shadows is a key element in assessing the "believability" of the picture. Traditionally, sports neural networks are trained on real broadcasts using human markings and synthetic models. Here, Blender comes to the rescue. The company builds 3D models of the ring, fighters, and referees and gets both rendered real footage from the right angles and the segmentation mask, or the position of objects and cameras needed for training. Markup of real data is time-consuming and expensive but of high quality for specific venues or types of competitions. Synthetic data with less realism provides more data for training. The main difficulty is that the venues can vary. In one case, it will be a boxing ring with ropes, and in another case, it will be an arena with mesh walls, each of which creates difficulties for segmentation. Camera tracking and advert position are determined by comparing the point cloud from the venue's 3D model with its actual position in the frame. This allows them to determine the position, even for manual cameras with chaotic movement. After reconstruction of the 3D frame from 2D (the determination of the required angle), the direct rendering of the advertisement in the 3D engine is performed and combined with the video broadcast frame. A 3D scene has to be built before we start work, and, in fact, we have a virtual copy of the venue in the frame, into which we fit real people and objects through render masks. It sounds complicated, but with the right power and optimized neural networks, it is possible to perform these somersaults instantly and seamlessly. Why does the project need GPU computing and server rentals? PTF Lab has its own servers (and the possibility of using them on-site at the competition venue was mentioned earlier), but it is more convenient to use remote resources, as the service provider's engineers are responsible for equipment availability, and the company allocates fewer resources to this. And the client votes with his wallet and cost-effective options are always preferable. Also, the capacity required by the company is constantly growing. If necessary, it can be easily scaled up just by renting more (up to and including changing the server configuration to suit the company's needs). In the future, a startup may need a lot of cloud capacity. It is easier to rent them than to buy and sell the physical servers when the demand for their services rises and falls. The leased servers and GPU capacity are now being used in the following areas: Training of neural networks on GPUs (segmentation of people and other objects in sports broadcasts; 3D virtual camera tracking). Data backup (video from events, datasets, etc.). The direct process of working with video-testing cloud production, when the company's software is deployed on remote servers and video signals flow through it: input - without graphics, output - one or more signals with graphics. In addition to our own computing power at HOSTKEY, the startup is currently leveraging the following GPU configurations: AMD Ryzen 9 5950X 3.4GHz (16 cores)/128Gb/1Tb NVMe SSD+12Tb HDD/2xRTX 3090+PSU] Xeon E3-1230 3.2GHz (4 cores)/16Gb/2x12Tb HDD/PSU] AMD Ryzen 9 5950X 3.4GHz (16 cores)/128Gb/1Tb NVMe SSD+12Tb HDD/2xRTX 3090+PSU+HDMI emulator] AMD Ryzen 9 5950X 3.4GHz (16 cores)/128Gb/1Tb NVMe SSD+12Tb HDD/2xRTX 3090+PSU] AMD EPYC 7402P 2.8GHz (24 cores)/384Gb/2x1.92Tb U3 NVMe SSD/4xRTX 4090+2xPSU] As you can see, most GPU solutions are rented based on the RTX4090/3090, but as the computing power requirements increase, the startup wishes to have the option for servers with more powerful, professional cards that offer better stability when running in continuous 24/7 operation. In the case of the 3090, renting the same A5000 might even be cheaper. PTF Lab is at the beginning of its journey, but its results are already promising, and we at HOSTKEY wish them success and growth, especially in terms of overcoming the monopoly of sports augmented reality. The witty David always defeats the clumsy proprietary Goliath. If you have any questions for our colleagues from PTF Lab, please feel free to ask them in the comments. or a server with a with professional-grade or cards. are also available. Rent GPU servers with instant deployment custom configuration NVIDIA Tesla H100 / H100 80Gb RTX A5000 / A4000 GPU servers with game RTX4090 cards

How AI Is Fighting Monopolies in Sports Advertising With GPUs and Servers

কিভাবে AI GPU এবং সার্ভারের সাথে ক্রীড়া বিজ্ঞাপনে একচেটিয়া লড়াই করছে

Wie KI Monopole in der Sportwerbung mit GPUs und Servern bekämpft

Cómo la IA lucha contra los monopolios en la publicidad deportiva con GPU y servidores

Comment l'IA combat les monopoles dans la publicité sportive avec des GPU et des serveurs

एआई कैसे जीपीयू और सर्वर के साथ खेल विज्ञापन में एकाधिकार से लड़ रहा है

AI が GPU とサーバーを使用してスポーツ広告の独占とどのように戦うか

AI가 GPU와 서버를 사용해 스포츠 광고 독점에 맞서 싸우는 방법

Como a IA está combatendo os monopólios na publicidade esportiva com GPUs e servidores

Как ИИ борется с монополиями в спортивной рекламе с помощью графических процессоров и серверов

Yapay Zeka, GPU'lar ve Sunucularla Spor Reklamcılığında Tekellerle Nasıl Mücadele Ediyor?

AI đang chống lại sự độc quyền trong quảng cáo thể thao bằng GPU và máy chủ như thế nào

人工智能如何利用 GPU 和服务器对抗体育广告领域的垄断

Professionals outside the managed IT and trades tend to think about losses in terms of the cryptocurrency demands made by hackers. While extortion drives the criminal scheme, the total cost of a ransomware attack can be more crippling than the payoff alone. Once officials in local municipalities and state agencies understand the full impact of having their sensitive data and networks held hostage. As such, the need for proactive measures becomes a matter of urgency. cybersecurity ransomware attack Facts About Ransomware Attacks Government Officials Need to Know Ransomware attacks only garner news headlines when the wings of the government or high-profile corporations get ensnared. For example, when MGM Grand and Caesars by the Scattered Spiders hacker gang, news of the $15 million payoff went viral. And when DarkSide hackers put the Colonial Pipeline under siege, upwards of 5,500 miles of fuel distribution lines were crippled. The company’s inability to deliver gasoline caused massive fuel shortages across multiple states. Only after paying thieves did gasoline and diesel start flowing again. casinos were stung $5 million These highlight the fact hackers are willing to attack any network with impunity, even those of local and state governments: ransomware statistics The average cost of a 2023 ransomware attack has nearly doubled from 2022 to $1.54 million. Companies grind to a standstill for 22 days, on average, during a ransomware attack. Nearly a half-billion ransomware attacks were launched in 2022. U.S. organizations are the most heavily targeted, accounting for 47 percent of global attacks. But what did not necessarily make the splashiest of headlines was the long-term fallout from the digital hostage situations reported by the media. It’s not uncommon for organizations to experience a second attack after paying a crypto demand. Approximately 30 percent of private-sector companies that were overrun by cybercriminals suffered in the brand — some ended up filing for bankruptcy. diminished confidence The private sector, of course, is not the only target of ransomware attacks. Governments, too, make tempting targets, given that public IT infrastructure can be infamously behind the times. With citizens already critical of local, state, and federal government decisions and the use of taxpayer dollars, lost confidence is the last thing elected and non-elected officials need. Ransomware Attack Threats to Local & State Governments Decision-makers need to understand that hackers continue to target weak, almost defenseless networks and employees who lack cybersecurity awareness training. That’s largely why — the use of malware-laced electronic messages — remains hackers’ delivery method of choice. Whether a new hire in training clicks on the wrong link or an elected official gets conned into downloading a malicious file, the consequences are the same. These are ways one mistake can send a municipality into a tailspin. phishing Financial Impact on Taxpayers States such as Florida passed laws banning the practice of paying hacker ransom demands, and many others are mulling over whether to follow suit. With the average cost hovering around $1.54 million, not ponying up seems like the right decision in terms of protecting taxpayer money. That may not necessarily hold. For example, Costa Rican officials reportedly refused to pay Russian hackers $20 million last year. In a fit of retribution, the cybercriminals brought down wide-reaching agencies for months to the tune of . By contrast, the relatively small city of Lafayette, Colorado, doled out a $45,000 ransom payment to avoid government entities shutting down and potentially greater losses. $30 million in losses Impact of Data Security Loss on Citizens A breach of government data is tantamount to citizens being exposed. The information held by tax collectors, permitting departments, and local canvassing boards can be leveraged against residents. Names, birthdates, addresses, and Social Security numbers are routinely stolen from devices and sold on the dark web. This and other sensitive information have also been used to dox political opponents in recent years. Municipal Services Disruptions The greatest threat for politicians and term-appointed officials may be getting ousted by voters. But for residents, critical services can be shut down for significant amounts of time. For example, a recent cyberattack impacted multiple water utility operations in Pennsylvania that used Israeli-made computer systems, according to reports. The FBI and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency are investigating the attack that reportedly included anti-Israel messaging. “Our adversaries don’t care who runs critical infrastructure,” U.S. Rep. Christopher Deluzio . “If they can get in through the weakest link — and [if] that’s a small municipal authority or a private vendor — that’s what they’re going to target.” reportedly said These cyberattacks have also impacted other U.S. water authorities across the country. Although the nation-state hackers who orchestrated the infiltrations were not looking for a payoff, the recent incident highlights the vulnerability of essential services. Sophisticated cybercriminals can deploy similar tactics to shut down healthcare operations, voting systems, school computer networks, sewage treatment plants, and even the power grid. How to Fight Ransomware Attacks The importance of taking proactive measures to prevent ransomware attacks cannot be understated. The cost and upheaval for residents of local and state governments can have a devastating short-term and lasting effect. If there’s a silver lining to the fact hackers from halfway around the globe persistently try to harvest poorly defensed networks like low-hanging fruit, it’s that determined cybersecurity remains far less expensive than ransomware demands and losses. Governmental leaders have an opportunity to enlist the support of managed IT firms with cybersecurity expertise to implement best practices, consistent with recent mandates. federal data protection Cybersecurity Awareness Training An increased number of operations have begun offering cybersecurity awareness training to their entire staff in recent years. That effort has reduced the number of data breaches caused by to only a troubling 88 percent. That being said, cybersecurity awareness training gives frontline workers the skills and knowledge needed to identify phishing schemes, social engineering attacks, and other nefarious hacking methods. Not only does investing in awareness training help prevent ransomware attacks, but it also creates a cybersecurity culture. human error Multi-Factor Authentication Ranked among the most effective and simple security measures, multi-factor authentication requires network users to enter a code after inputting their username and password. By sending the code to a secondary resource, it prevents hackers from infiltrating governmental systems after learning someone’s login credentials. Zero Trust User Profiles The number of cyberattacks has increased almost exponentially in recent years because hackers are making bank. Decision-makers must proceed with the expectation that any system can be penetrated if a hacker has the time, tools, and skills. Zero trust policies reduce a hacker’s impact on services. These security measures can also prevent cybercriminals from reaching valuable and sensitive data. With zero trust, each legitimate user’s profile comes with data restrictions. Even if a hacker manages to gain access through an employee or official’s network credentials, the criminal also faces data access restrictions. Back Up Data Daily State legislatures appear to be moving forward with laws that ban local governments from paying ransom demands. Such laws make it imperative that every system’s data is backed up daily and taken offline. Without these sensitive and valuable digital assets, lengthy shutdowns and information recreation would result in massive losses. In cybersecurity circles, a successful ransomware attack is the sum of all fears. Once hackers seize control over municipal systems, they can put people in harm’s way by shutting down wide-reaching services. It’s mission-critical to have a risk assessment performed and use that information to harden governmental networks.

How Can State & Local Governments Fight Ransomware? 

কিভাবে রাজ্য এবং স্থানীয় সরকার Ransomware যুদ্ধ করতে পারে?

Wie können staatliche und lokale Regierungen Ransomware bekämpfen?

¿Cómo pueden los gobiernos estatales y locales luchar contra el ransomware?

Comment les États et les gouvernements locaux peuvent-ils lutter contre les ransomwares ?

राज्य और स्थानीय सरकारें रैनसमवेयर से कैसे लड़ सकती हैं?

州および地方自治体はランサムウェアとどのように戦うことができますか?

주 및 지방 정부는 어떻게 랜섬웨어에 맞서 싸울 수 있습니까?

Como os governos estaduais e locais podem combater o ransomware?

Как органы власти штата и местные органы власти могут бороться с программами-вымогателями?

Eyalet ve Yerel Yönetimler Fidye Yazılımlarıyla Nasıl Mücadele Edebilir?

Chính quyền tiểu bang và địa phương có thể chống lại ransomware như thế nào?

州和地方政府如何打击勒索软件？

As I worked through the homework challenge round at one of the companies I interviewed at (a company that was very WordPress-centric), I found myself struggling with literally every step – trying to find shreds of information on how to do the most basic things. Things like building a simple local test environment. I found information telling me I could use – a local installation – vvv – wp-env Now, for a variety of reasons that aren’t important for this post, I settled on wp-env. But almost NOWHERE could I find explanations for where your directories are and how wp-env works. Nothing about the default directories, how to make basic modifications, the kinds of parameters wp-env could/would take, and so on. After a lot of digging and more than a little begging/bribing of some of my people resources, I collected the information I needed to finish the homework challenge (you can read the fruits of that labor ). here But I also realized that plenty of other folks might need lesson-behind-the-lesson, the how-to that allowed me to create the piece I was actually trying to write. So I thought I’d share some of my discoveries, in case your work has brought you to a similar point of frustration and lack of knowledge. Before I start, here are the assumptions making: I’M Because your setup might be (“might be?!?” How about “is almost certainly!”) different than mine, here’s what I’m working with. If your situation is different, adjust as needed: Ubuntu 23.10 (Mantic Minotaur) AMD Ryzen 7 with 16 cores 64Gb RAM Installing wp-env With that out of the way, to install wp-env itself, you need the following: docker (I found good instructions ) here node.js (instructions ) here and finally, wp-env, by running: npm -g i @wordpress/env The Most Important Thing Most people need more than one WordPress environment at the same time, and those environments have to remain completely separate. That should provide you with the context you need to understand the single most important thing I learned: Whatever directory you are in when you start wp-env, THAT is the directory wp-env is tied to. What I mean is: Let’s say you have that if you have two directories: /foo and /bar Today, you are in /foo and start wp-env you make a bunch of changes, install some plugins, etc. Tomorrow, you are in /bar and start wp-env You will think ALL YOUR CHANGES ARE GONE. They are not. Stop wp-env, change to the /foo directory, and start wp-env again. You’ll see all the changes from yesterday. You actually don’t even need to stop wp-env from the /bar directory. You can have both running at the same time. This is a feature, not a bug. Each directory in which you start wp-env has its own dedicated environment. It allows you to test and develop multiple environments without them stomping all over each other. The Other Most Important Thing Most people install wp-env to test out a plugin – one they want to try or one they’re building themselves – which should give you context for the next most important thing I can tell you: The directory you are in when you start wp-env (/foo or /bar or whatever) is treated like /wp-content/plugins/ . new-plugin-name The rest of the WordPress installation will be in your home directory under . ~/wp-env Quick-And-Dirty-wp-env With those two important things out of the way, you have most of the information you need to get started. You kick off wp-env by going into the directory you want to associate with this development environment (as explained earlier) and typing: wp-env start That’s it! Well, that’s it in terms of what you TYPE. But after that, you’ll probably see a message or two. Most of the time, it’s just telling you about a file or two it was expecting but couldn’t find (more on that later), etc. Nothing to worry about, really. Also, the first time you run wp-env on your machine EVER, you’ll see the messages about downloading the actual docker container that has the base WordPress image. But after all that, assuming you don’t run into any show-stopping issues, you’ll see a message telling you WordPress is now running on your machine at a particular port. If you browse to that address, you’ll see WordPress running. More to the point, you can log into the admin panel by going to (the address wp-env showed you)/wp-admin. You can log in with the username and the password . admin password Before you panic about how insecure that is, remember this is running exclusively on your system. OK, you can panic now and change that password!! Then, you can start playing around, developing your plugin, or doing whatever it is you need out of this test environment. Jane! Shut Off This Crazy Thing!! If you need to shut down your environment, run the command: wp-env stop Remember to be in the directory where you started, or you could end up shutting down the wrong environment! What the Docs Don’t Tell You (Or don’t tell you clearly enough. Or maybe it’s just me.) For the most part, running is all you need. wp-env start But occasionally, you’ll need to make other adjustments. One situation I ran into was that the default version of PHP (7.4) wasn’t compatible with the plugin I was developing. But it turns out you can start wp-env with all sorts of optional elements. Like specifying the PHP version you want: WP_ENV_PHP_VERSION=8.1 wp-env start The trick here is to indicate the MAJOR version of PHP. So you can’t specify 8.1.3. In reality, this relates to the various docker images available for WordPress (which you can find ). here By default, wp-env will start the website on port 8888. But if you need it to be on a different port, you can be specific. WP_ENV_PORT=3333 wp-env start But you don’t have to do everything on the command line. You can also put all the settings in a file named and save that into the same directory where you’d run in the first place. .wp-env.json wp-env That explains the startup error (really just error-ish) message you saw earlier. For more details, check out the “.wp-env.json” section of . this page Troubleshooting and Other Swearwords “Screws fall out all the time. The world is an imperfect place” – John Bender, “The Breakfast Club” Here are a few things you can do if things haven’t run the way you wanted or expected. You can see if the WordPress container is running at all by using the command . docker ps You can restart the WordPress environment and update everything to the latest version with the command wp-env start --update If you want to completely clean out the database(s), use the command . wp-env clean all And if you want to blow away the entire wp-env instance and start over, use wp-env destroy The Mostly Un-Necessary Summary Developing new features, plugins, or improvements in WordPress is challenging enough without also having to slog through figuring out how to even get a test environment established. Hopefully, this post has helped shorten your time to “Hello world” a little bit. Also published . here

Figuring Out wp-env: Your Guide to Setting Up a WordPress Test Environment

Let’s talk about how to add icons to a website from . Figma Checking the layouts created by layout artists and developers, I often encounter issues with adding icons to a website, which can result in an awkward appearance. Icons are sometimes added as PNG images or replaced with similar ones from Font Awesome. Trust me, navigating this situation can be quite challenging. HTML In this regard, I would like to make sense of it and share, in sufficient detail, how best to add icons to your website from the Figma layout. There are plenty of ways, and the choice of a specific method depends on the project itself and the designer who is responsible for the layout. This is what we are going to talk about! Method #1: Export the Icons to an SVG Format and Embed Them Either As Code, as an Image or as a CSS Property For this, we select the icon in Figma and click on export to SVG format, save it to our project, and paste it into our website: 
<img src="image/icons/icons-refresh.svg" alt="">


<svg width="23" height="23" viewBox="0 0 23 23" fill="none" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg">
	<path d="m 421.316,734.84 c -325.7222,0 -421.31990625,100.48 -421.31990625,379.19 v 346.8 c 0,278.74 95.59770625,379.22 421.31990625,379.22 H 1192.67 V 1630.99 H 421.316 c -142.597,0 -176.632,-42.15 -176.632,-170.16 v -74.55 H 1186.21 V 1190.21 H 244.684 v -77.78 c 0,-132.899 32.421,-168.539 176.632,-168.539 H 1192.67 V 734.84 H 421.316" fill="white"/>
</svg>


<span class="icons-refresh"></span>

<style>
    .icon-refresh {
        display: inline-block;
        position: relative;
        height: 16px;
        width: 16px;
        background-position: center;
        background-size: 100%;
        background-image: url('image/icons-refresh.svg');
        background-repeat: no-repeat;
    }
</style> This option is obvious, simple, and works well enough. However, there are 2 very unpleasant problems with this method is that if we use svg code, the code itself becomes quite large since the icon can be very complex in terms of colors and the number of vectors inside. The first problem is that if we connect the icon in this way, it becomes problematic for us to change its color through CSS or even JS. We will have to export a duplicate icon with a different color. As for the object tag, the link will not work properly at all if we wrap it in the tag. The second problem <a> There is another : we cannot set the icon size through the font-size property (i.e. we do not inherit the font size). Thus, you have to waste your time on setting width and height. small drawback Perhaps the only is that the option is quite simple and saves a little time for small projects. benefit Therefore, this option is suitable when there are not many icons in the layout (i.e. a maximum of 3-5 pieces) and their colors do not change anywhere (for example, on hover or in a layout theme). Method #2: Create 1 file with all the icons. This can also be referred to as Icon texture. This option also involves exporting icons to svg or png format but in one file, where all the icons will be of the same size. This is a rather old method, but you need to know about it. I know for sure that VKontakte used this method for a very long time. After the redesign, they abandoned this method in favor of SVG + JS. For example, social media icons: Writing the code for the and icons: Facebook Instagram <span class="icons icons_facebook"></span>
<span class="icons icons_instagram"></span>

<style>
    .icons {
        display: inline-block;
        position: relative;
        width: 42px;
        height: 42px;
        background-image: url('imgs/socials-pack.svg');
        background-size: 290px;
        background-repeat: no-repeat;
    }

    .icons_instagram {
        background-position: 240px 0;
    }
</style> Here, we also have 2 problems: , it can take a long time for us to prepare the CSS properties. First is that it is also very problematic to change colors. You will have to export as many duplicate icons as you need colors. The second problem However, there is 1 nice benefit. We get small HTML code since we use only one class to add an icon. The option should be used with caution, taking into account the specifics of the project; for example, if we want to make a plugin with emoticons for a chat). In other situations, you need to use other options. Method #3: Use a ready-made icon service. Here you need to ask your designer where the icons are taken from. Let’s make a brief excursion away from the main topic: you should always ask your designer about what icons you need, where the images come from, where to get the font, etc. It often happens that icons are taken from some service that allows you to add icons through styles or scripts. In Figma, designers often use the Iconify service. Also, some designers use icons that can be exported directly to the website, for example, EvaIcons. An example of exporting from Iconify: <script src="https://code.iconify.design/2/2.1.1/iconify.min.js"></script>
<span class="iconify" data-icon="ci:refresh-01"></span> Here I’m going to start with the pros: firstly, we can easily and quickly add all the icons to the website; secondly, it is easy to change the color of the icon by using the color property in CSS; thirdly, the size of the icon is inherited from the font and we can change it by using the font-size property; and in general, our html code looks neat, the icons occupy 1 line. Perhaps the only is that we connect a third-party service/library, which causes a lot of extra code. However, it’s the little things, especially if the project is on a deadline. This option should be used if there are more than 5 icons in the layout and their colors do not change anywhere. drawback Method #4: Turn all the icons into an icon font In this case, you’re out of luck since the designer used icons that cannot be exported directly to the website (what a bad man). What we do: we export all icons to svg format (it would be better if they were all black, written in the Latin script without any symbols or the word “icon”); we send them to the icomoon service (to save a lot of time). Your icons must be filled. The service does not work with strokes, and it will warn you if some icon is stroked; we generate an icon font and get a ready-made CSS file and a thumbnail with icons. Our code: <link rel="stylesheet" href="fonts/icomoon/style.css">

<i class="icons-refresh"></i>

<button class="button">Button with icon</button>

<style>
    .button:before {
        font-family: 'icomoon', sans-serif;
        content: '\e90a';
    }
</style> I would like to highlight the following pros: the ability to easily change the color by using the CSS  color property; the ability to set the size of the icon by using the font size (i.e. the icon inherits the font size); a small html code since we only use 1 small class to add the icon; simple icon support (to easily add and remove icons from our arsenal); we save space by having only those icons and code that we need (as opposed to using a ready-made solution, where there may be more than a hundred icons). The cons are: we spend a little more time preparing the icon font; it is important for us to ensure that the icons are filled rather than stroked. This option is suitable when there are a lot of icons in the layout and their colors can change. Conclusion My dear friends! Believe me, all this is enough for you to learn how to correctly add any icons to any website. After all, the html layout must match the layout in Figma, while maintaining performance and code quality.

4 Ways to Add Icons from Figma to Your Website

In the rapidly rising crypto world, exciting developments are on the horizon. BlockDAG's recent $2 million presale success marks a significant milestone in the crypto field, accompanied by the expected rise of Solana price and the eco-friendly initiatives of the eTukTuk presale. As investors eagerly anticipate Solana's potential 340% price increase by 2025, projects like BlockDAG and eTukTuk offer substantial returns and positive impact opportunities. Discover cryptocurrency's dynamic landscape and the top crypto buy in 2024. Will Solana Price Surge 340% by 2025? Solana's price is about to rise considerably, which has excited most investors. Crypto experts state that Solana could increase by more than 340% by 2025. That's a significant number, but only some are convinced. Some think it's too optimistic to expect Solana to go up that much. The cryptocurrency market is known for being unpredictable, so it's hard to say for sure what will happen. Yet, several investors are hopeful while looking for the next ample opportunity to generate money. eTukTuk Presale’s Eco-friendly Vision Worth Millions The eco-friendly project eTukTuk has raised over $1 million in its ongoing presale with its innovative electric vehicle initiative. As presales are facing a rise each day, eTukTuk (TUK) aims to revolutionize transportation in developing countries by harnessing the benefits of blockchain technology. The presale is divided into several stages, with the price of TUK tokens increasing gradually as more amounts are collected. Currently, TUK tokens are at $0.026, with millions of TUK tokens already staked. BlockDAG’s $2 Million Rise With a Vision of $600 Million by 2024 BlockDAG's impressive $2 million raise in batch 2 of the presale, achieved within a concise timeframe, has moved it into the spotlight of the cryptocurrency investment field. The ability to secure substantial funding and set a six-month timeline for its mainnet launch sets it apart from projects that typically take years to reach such milestones. Investors are attracted to BlockDAG's rapid Rise and its proven success, viewing it as a solid contender in the upcoming ever-evolving crypto landscape. The projected $600 million valuation by 2024 reflects investors' confidence in BlockDAG's innovative potential and market appeal. With its strong base and upcoming mainnet release, BlockDAG represents the innovation and flexibility characterizing successful cryptocurrency projects. As it gains speed and backing from investors, BlockDAG is ready to reshape industry norms and establish a notable position as the top crypto to buy in the ever-changing realm of blockchain technology. BlockDAG is the best choice for high returns because of its massive 5000% return. Takeaway Now you know which one is the top crypto to buy in 2024. Let’s see if Solana sees the 340% price rise while eTukTuk slowly enters the game. However, BlockDAG raised $2 million in batch 2 and is ready to move into batch 3 soon with a sure shot at success. Invest in BlockDAG Presale: | | | Website Presale Telegram Discord This story was distributed as a release by BTCWire under HackerNoon’s Business Blogging Program. Learn more about the program here: https://business.hackernoon.com/

BlockDAG's Meteoric Presale: $2M Milestone; Quick Look at Solana Breakout And eTukTuk Fights Climate

BlockDAG এর মেটেরিক প্রিসেল: $2M মাইলস্টোন; সোলানা ব্রেকআউট এবং eTukTuk ফাইটস ক্লাইমেটে দ্রুত তাকান

BlockDAGs Meteoric-Vorverkauf: Meilenstein von 2 Millionen US-Dollar; Kurzer Blick auf Solana Breakout und eTukTuk kämpft gegen das Klima

Preventa meteórica de BlockDAG: hito de 2 millones de dólares; Un vistazo rápido a Solana Breakout y eTukTuk luchan contra el clima

Prévente météorique de BlockDAG : jalon de 2 millions de dollars ; Aperçu rapide de Solana Breakout et eTukTuk lutte contre le climat

ब्लॉकडीएजी की उल्कापिंड पूर्व बिक्री: $2 मिलियन मील का पत्थर; सोलाना ब्रेकआउट और eTukTuk फ़ाइट्स क्लाइमेट पर त्वरित नज़र डालें

BlockDAG の流星のプレセール: 200 万ドルのマイルストーン。ソラナのブレイクアウトとeTukTukによる気候変動の概要

BlockDAG의 Meteoric Presale: $2M 마일스톤; Solana Breakout 및 eTukTuk의 기후 변화에 대한 간략한 살펴보기

Pré-venda meteórica do BlockDAG: marco de US$ 2 milhões; Uma rápida olhada no rompimento de Solana e no eTukTuk luta contra o clima

Предпродажа Meteoric от BlockDAG: рубеж в 2 миллиона долларов; Быстрый взгляд на прорыв Соланы и eTukTuk борется с климатом

BlockDAG'ın Meteorik Ön Satışı: 2 Milyon Dolarlık Dönüm Noktası; Solana Patlamasına ve eTukTuk'un İklimle Mücadelesine Hızlı Bakış

Đợt bán trước Meteoric của BlockDAG: Cột mốc 2 triệu USD; Nhìn nhanh về sự đột phá của Solana và eTukTuk chống lại khí hậu

BlockDAG 预售火热：200 万美元里程碑；快速了解 Solana 突破和 eTukTuk 对抗气候变化

We’re almost six months into the grand experiment that is TikTok’s native shopping feature, and if you ask them, the platform is re-inventing e-commerce. According to reports, TikTok sold $7 million in gross merchandise volume in a single day, more than 5 million new users made a purchase during Black Friday and Cyber Monday in November, and they believe they’ll generate as much as $17.5 billion this year in the United States. The way they tell it, TikTok is the channel that has finally cracked the code for live-stream e-commerce in the United States. There’s only one problem: have you noticed that shoppable commerce has made TikTok a whole lot less interesting and fun? Despite clear best practices for live-stream hosts, many TikTok creators have, in a race for riches, taken to peddling low-quality beauty products, cheap electronics, and fast fashion, to the point where creators have over-indexed. No longer is my TikTok feed interesting, creative, and engaging: instead, it’s full of people telling me I “just to try this product.” have It’s a failure that’s tough to figure out as TikTok has earned praise for the strength of its “for you” algorithm. In years of personal use, I never felt my algorithm was off-kilter until management had an incentive to push TikTok Shop in front of as many eyeballs as possible. The pressure to perform as an e-commerce channel is evident in its performance: the numbers don’t lie. When TikTok Shop Partner and social commerce expert Ethan Kramer selling more than $102,000 in a single live sale, he pulled back the curtain on some numbers that don’t tell such a peachy story below the surface. posted about his success His single-stream effort involved 9 hours of continuous content during which time he converted a whopping 2.8 million viewers into a mere 1,300 buyers: a conversion rate of 0.00046%, a fraction of the typical e-commerce shop conversion of 2-4%. And that was done with the assistance of TikTok, who promoted the feed and picked up the tab on the discounts the seller ran during the sale. Despite some flashy numbers and the fact that TikTok thinks it will double the size of the live-shop e-commerce market in the United States this year, it just isn’t working that well. And the reason is simple: users come to TikTok for entertainment, not to shop. State of Mind Is a Key Driver of E-Commerce Success “Mood to buy” describes the psychological state of a consumer that makes them more inclined to make a purchase, like when shoppers are more likely to make a purchase because they’re in a positive mood, have a specific need, or are motivated by an external factor. Much of advertising and marketing strategy is built to address these underlying motivators and drive the consumer to take an action or make a purchase. An important contributor to “mood to buy” is the shopping environment, whether that’s online or offline. In an offline shopping environment, there have been countless dollars and hours spent considering how store layout, music, and lighting can move a person to make a purchasing decision. The same is true online, especially in the area of user experience design. Countless millions are spent each year optimizing websites for fractions-of-a-percent improvements in conversion, testing well beyond copy, down to how weather intersects with the shape, size, or placement of a button. Given how things are shaking out with the TikTok Shop experience, including how it and the performance metrics look, it seems end-users may be signaling that they’re on TikTok to hang out, not buy workout supplements or fast fashion. feels This could be the single thing that proves insurmountable for TikTok in their American e-commerce effort, and it’s easy to imagine this becoming the latest in a long series of high-profile failures in the area of shoppable video, following in the footsteps of Amazon and Meta. Amazon and Meta’s challenges in this area are many, including a general lack of consumer awareness and their deep-rooted associations with traditional e-commerce experiences. Changing consumer shopping habits within the context of their own apps and websites is a challenging task, especially when you consider Meta’s position in no-commerce social. Andrew Conti, Founder & CEO of Reactive Live Shopping, which is a , has a clear read on big tech’s struggle: “Socials primarily drive engagement for those platforms; increasing comments, likes, and follows for the influencer and, frustratingly, isn’t focused on sales for the brand.” platform-agnostic livestream e-commerce platform Conti continued, “In a performance, the same line that makes a crowd erupt with laughter will cause crickets if used at the wrong moment. We’re seeing this with social commerce, where the same content will perform dramatically better on a merchant’s site than on socials. What’s the difference? We believe it's context and timing.” This is an insight that has been universally true throughout the history of commerce: just ask producers of winter jackets how their sales numbers look on an August afternoon in Manhattan. But in this modern environment of optimization, that context seems to have been lost. In other words, the narrative that live-stream e-commerce is struggling is misinformed. Where There’s Smoke, There’s Fire: Hope for Live-Streaming E-Commerce This provides hope for livestream e-commerce, though it does change the shape of the conversation. Conti’s platform is finding wins in fashion and beauty, areas where TikTok and Meta have struggled to find traction. There has been great success in collectibles and trading cards, too. Drip Shop, a , has “grown double-digits last year, with sports cards growing by over four times” according to Co-Founder and CEO Javaughn Lawrence. And Drip Shop is not alone. livestream e-commerce app that focuses on sports and trading card games I spoke with the leaders of several competitors who focus on trading cards, all of whom shared some growth stories that may surprise given Fanatics (owner of trading card producer Topps) launched their own live-stream shopping platform. Consensus is the entrant of a well-funded industry leader has exposed many new customers to the concept, validated the vertical, and the rising tide has lifted all ships. One of the largest contributors to the success of live-stream e-commerce in trading cards is the personal touch. Live streams often involve hosts who are passionate about the product and don’t just limit the conversation to the cardboard in front of them: they talk sports and generally, well, socialize. In an online environment where attention is impossible to capture for any meaningful amount of time, engagement and attention-share on these streams are through the roof. And that’s because there’s clearly an appetite for this shopping experience. The livestream e-commerce experience is far more natural than many other e-commerce user experiences, as evidenced by the decades of success of QVC. Live stream commerce has a clear place in your list of DTC e-commerce strategies, especially if you consider the fact that the content produced during such an effort can be repurposed to feed your social media content outside of the sale as well. What has become clear in 2024 is that the problem is not the format or the message, it’s the “when.” And as the livestream platforms come to accept that they cannot force the elusive “mood to buy,” the tide will continue to rise.

Americans Are Starting to Figure Out Livestream Commerce, and It Is Good

A recent addition to ’s toolkit has caused quite a stir among its myriad of users and for a good reason. If there ever was an easy way to improve collaboration between designers and developers, Figma’s Dev Mode could be it. Figma What we get in the Dev Mode is a handy - albeit still a bit raw - tool for navigating and inspecting designs. Its main goal is to help designers and their arch nemeses developers translate designs into code. To understand the perks of this new feature, let’s take a step back and examine the reasons that led to the necessity of bridging the dreaded gap between developers and designers. Why Do Designers and Developers Need Figma’s Dev Mode? Frictions between developers and designers rarely - if ever - result in a coherent usable product. And those frictions are more common than people are willing to admit. No wonder there are tons of articles written on the issue of bridging this gap and restoring peace between the two parties. So what are the main roadblocks that keep the developers and designers from collaborating efficiently? Image-based prototypes. Granted, there are few other ways a designer can communicate their vision of an interface to a developer. Still, image-based designs are not exactly known for their fidelity and functionality. Moreover, they are often hard to interpret or even to navigate through. Undisclosed decisions. Designers usually have solid reasons for wanting a component - or an entire product - to look the way it does. The bad thing is that they usually neglect to communicate this to the development team. So don’t get frustrated if your design choices are viewed more as guidelines and not laws. Lack of source of truth. Since developers and designers speak different languages, think in alien terms, and rely on their truths, it’s hard to connect. Want to create a proper product? Then you need a system that you can all use as the one source of truth. Figma’s Dev Mode seems to promise a solution to these issues, and perhaps others that are not as obvious. I will now take a closer look at what the new and much-talked-about mode has in store for the perpetually-conflicting teams. Why Designers Will Love Figma’s Dev Mode I won't be going into too much detail theory-wise, as the Dev Mode is very reminiscent of the Inspector panel. Instead, I’ll focus on a more practical approach. So, how can you improve your handoff to designers without becoming a dev yourself? The feature I enjoy the most is the tool. With it, you’ll be able to see how the chosen element has evolved. You’ll find the same one in the Abstract. There are two options for viewing the changes - the standard side-by-side view and the overlay option that makes it possible to see those changes that are not quite as obvious. Track All the Changes To do that, select any component and click . Then select the object you want to view the changes made to. This tool is very similar to that of Abstract and will be beneficial to both dev and designer teams as they’ll be able to preview changes right in the current file. Compare with Previous Version Another thing I enjoy a lot is the feature. Once a certain design is done, select the artboard and click the upper toolbar button. This will highlight the frame, which in turn will signal to the dev that the frame is - you guessed it - ready for development. You no longer need to leave any comments, which in and of itself is a great timesaver. Ready for Dev While creating a component, you can in the Description window in Component Configuration, both for other designers and for developers. Once in the Dev Mode, the latter will see the guidelines in the right-hand panel of the Component submenu. write guidelines The Open in allows you to open a certain component and alter its properties (the pursuit of perfection never ends, right?) Your fiddling won’t alter the whole design and cause the dev team to riot. The feature allows devs to check all the properties assigned to a component and to - what’s more - play with each of them to check all the edge cases. Playground feature Open in Playground In case you need to communicate an important piece of information regarding a certain component, you can now do it with the . Find it in the toolbar above, type in the vital information, and rest assured - it won’t be missed by the dev. This is much more useful than regular comments and allows designers to provide guidelines directly for the layout design. Annotation feature Why Devs Will Love  Figma’s Dev Mode Since the Dev Mode is aimed at a faster and easier transition of design into code, developers might also benefit considerably from this new feature. Let’s look at what handy tools and perks Dev Mode has brought them. Devs can - pixels and Rems - with ease. The latter comes in handy if you want to create a scalable component. switch between measurement units In case you need , Figma now gives you direct access to it. By selecting the whole layout, devs will be able to see all the possible exportable assets. The only thing left to do is to click a button and select the format. to export an asset from a project Last but not least, . This means that each Jira ticket can be connected to the designs. The dev team will have access to the designs swiftly and easily. the Dev Mode allows you to connect to Jira And there you have it! Granted, Figma’s Dev Mode is too much of a raw product to be the cure-all for bridging the gap between devs and designers, but at least it is an impressive and much-praised step in the right direction. If your main goal as a designer is to improve your handoff flow with the development team, Dev Mode is a worthy addition to Figma as your go-to tool. If you are a developer, then you’ll appreciate a more coherent prototype from the designers. Whichever side you are on, Figma’s Dev Mode still seems like a worthy investment. That’s right, . As of January 31, 2024, this mode is now secured behind a paywall. Still, since it saves you time (and time is and will always be a valuable resource). Money shouldn’t be an issue, right? investment

Dev Mode in Figma: A Game-Changer in Design-Developer Relations

How to Improve Code and Avoid Fights on Review

কীভাবে কোডের উন্নতি করবেন এবং পর্যালোচনায় মারামারি এড়ান

So verbessern Sie Code und vermeiden Streitigkeiten bei der Überprüfung

Cómo mejorar el código y evitar peleas en la revisión

Comment améliorer le code et éviter les bagarres lors de la révision

कोड कैसे सुधारें और समीक्षा पर झगड़ों से कैसे बचें

コードを改善し、レビューでの争いを回避する方法

코드를 개선하고 검토 시 싸움을 피하는 방법

Como melhorar o código e evitar brigas na revisão

Как улучшить код и избежать драк при проверке

Kodu Geliştirme ve İnceleme Sırasında Kavgaları Önleme

Cách cải thiện mã và tránh xung đột khi đánh giá

如何改进代码并避免审查中的争论

A few months ago, I sold my side project for a six-figure sum. What started as a hobby became a fully functional SaaS platform called with more than 40 customers, 20k users, and a peak of $11k monthly revenue. MealPro App Reflecting on it all, there are four things I think we did particularly well and four things I would do differently, which I'll share in this article. But before we dive in, let me give a bit of background. What Is MealPro App? MealPro App started as a white-label meal planning app and morphed into an (almost) all-in-one membership platform for food content creators (e.g., food bloggers). As a content creator, you can sign up, add your branding and your content (e.g., recipes), and launch a membership site/app to your audience – all without writing a line of code. You can share recipes, meal plans, shopping lists, and “how to” content with your members. As well as taking payments, creating sales pages, and much more. Where Did the Idea Come From? I stumbled upon the idea when a food blogger asked me to build them a custom meal planning app, based on a I'd written. guest blog post One thing led to another, and before I knew it, we were building a SaaS platform (not a custom app) with two paying customers already signed up. To learn more, see . how I pre-sold the idea and grew to 10 customers in one year What Went Well? Compared to other projects I’ve worked on, there are four things I believe we did particularly well here. These are: We Solved a Real Problem As mentioned, this wasn’t some hare-brained idea I dreamt up. Rather, it was born out of over many months combined with my experiences in this space. conversations with would-be customers This meant everything we did from day one was done to solve a problem. No guesswork and de-risking the entire venture. I believe this is the most important factor in the success of MealPro App – execution feels easy when you know which direction to go in! We Sold First, Then Built Even when I thought we were on to something, I resisted the urge to start building. Instead, I tackled the next hardest part: could I reach customers, and would they buy it? So, I created a landing page with the help of two freelancers from and an ad campaign targeting Facebook and Instagram users similar to people I'd spoken to. Upwork I emailed everyone who signed up (about 100 people) to ask questions and then pitched them a 50% off early-bird offer. To my surprise, two people paid for the early-bird offer meaning we had two customers before we'd even built anything. Note: if this part hadn't worked out, I probably wouldn’t have built the MealPro App. We Built With Customers Thanks to the points above, we had pages of interview notes and two paying customers before we wrote a line of code. So, from day one, we were able to base every feature, screen, and marketing asset on a customer problem or opportunity. This approach continued throughout my time with the MealPro App, and when in doubt, we were able to lean on our customers to carry out research, for example, by posting in their Facebook group, running a survey with their email list, and more. The result was an ever-growing list (over 50 pages) of notes and verbatim quotes from conversations with customers and end-users. These were condensed down into a shorter list of customer problems – everything from frustrations with their overall business and life to issues with our product – which was further condensed down into a list of actionable items to be worked on (i.e., a backlog). This removed guesswork from the design process resulting in – so I’m told – an “amazing” product and customers who felt listened to. We Had a Solid Team I started the MealPro App as a side project alongside my day job (a mix of freelance and consulting stuff). So, for my own sanity, I tried to find people to help build it. Fortunately, I was able to hire a small but capable team, for example, Ken (developer) and Anna (designer) turned loose problem statements, mock-ups, and ideas into working software. Then there was Justin (copywriter), Adil (designer), and others, who churned out landing pages, webinars, and other marketing assets. And the list goes on. Short of working with the same people for my next project, one takeaway here is I hired people – i.e., I didn't overcomplicate it. how I found people through Upwork or referrals. After exchanging a few messages, I'd ask people to work on a small, paid task. If it went well, and there was more work to do, then we continued. If it didn't work out, we'd part ways after the initial task. Also, where possible, I hired experts. By paying a bit more, I was able to spend less time training and reviewing work, giving me the headspace to work on my other projects. What Would I Do Differently? With the power of hindsight, there are a few things that I would have done differently. These include: Do More Marketing Despite the early successes of building a waitlist and pre-selling the idea, I basically stopped marketing for nearly 12 months once we’d started building. I suppose this made sense given my other commitments, but it still feels like a missed opportunity to test marketing ideas and grow early on (though it did grow a bit). For example, I could have continued to run the Facebook ads we used to build the waitlist, which was converting well and didn't take up much of my time. My takeaway here is to prioritize sales and marketing as much as building. I like of one-week marketing and one-week coding, so I might try that next time. at least Jon Yongfook's approach Do More of What Works When we did eventually start marketing again, I tried to do WAY too much – Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, search, email, inbound, outbound, paid, organic, and more. 🤯 Unsurprisingly, the results weren't great. It was a stop-start with no consistency, and any content I was putting out was average at best. Then I was given a sage piece of advice: "Do more of what works." So, I looked at where our first customers came from and focused there. These were organic search (SEO) and referrals, plus the newsletter was performing OK. And I pretty much parked social media at this point, posting messages like, "We don't post here often. Find us at ", instead. www.mealproapp.com The results? Consistency improved. We averaged one newsletter a week and two blog posts per month. I also did a couple of guest blog posts and podcasts and set up an affiliate program. Website traffic doubled to over 1.2k organic monthly visitors in year three, the newsletter was getting 40%+ open rates, and customers steadily rolled in. Remember, It's a Business Something I never thought I say about bootstrapping is that it's surprisingly easy to ignore the money. What I mean is, that start-up costs were pretty low, and I was making decent money from my day job, so I didn’t track spending. Then, the MealPro App started to grow... More customers meant more requests and a more complex product (see next point), which, in turn, meant higher costs. It was also starting to take up more of my time. So, after nearly two years, money was starting to become an issue. Thankfully, this problem was also solvable. Going into the third year, we began testing pricing models, landing on a subscription plus usage fee as this matched how our customers charged their users (i.e., customers only paid more when they earned more). I also got more comfortable selling paid customizations to customers (in reality, this was just accelerating planned work, so it worked well for both parties). Combined with more customers (thanks to our marketing efforts), this led to an increase in revenue of nearly 300% in 10 months, and for the first time, it was profitable. Next time, I’ll track spending from day one, even for hobby projects – if nothing else, it's good accounting practice as we had to reconcile the books anyway. Had I done this with the MealPro App, I suspect we would have increased prices sooner, but who knows! Focus on One Platform We built MealPro as a web app (accessed via a web browser), which worked swimmingly – easy to build, test, and deploy. Then, through a series of conversations with customers, we decided to build a mobile app version too. Little did I know how much extra work this would add. It effectively doubled our development workload as we were now supporting two products: a web app and a mobile app. Plus, customers needed A LOT more support because most had never been released to the app stores. Knowing what I know now, I would have stuck with the web app for longer and just improved that. After all, most customers didn't really need a mobile app; they needed to keep their users engaged and grow their membership/business. Also, since we built the mobile app, there have been improvements with Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) — like — which means they now provide a viable alternative to a native mobile app. This is something I’d explore next time too. Apple supporting push notifications In Conclusion What started as a fun side project turned into much more than that, including a small but successful exit. We did a lot of things right, like patiently listening to customers, and there were a few missteps along the way, usually when trying to do too much on a shoestring budget. But overall, it taught me about what’s important when trying to grow a new product/business, which I’ll take into future endeavors. I hope this has been insightful for you too, or at least mildly entertaining! Frequently Asked Questions A couple of questions I’ve been asked are: Why Did I Decide to Sell? I sold because it felt right. Financially, it was probably a dumb decision – I'm sure I could have made more money by holding on to it. But other factors were at play, like becoming a dad, which meant that it seemed like the right decision overall (and still does). How Did I Sell It? I listed it for sale on though ended up selling it to the developer who helped build it. I still used Acquire.com to manage the transaction (e.g., legal docs and payment). Acquire.com Still Got Questions? Leave a comment, or shoot me a message on . LinkedIn

How I Grew My Side Project to 20k Users Then Sold It for Six Figures

কিভাবে আমি আমার সাইড প্রজেক্টকে 20k ব্যবহারকারীদের কাছে বাড়িয়েছি তারপর এটি ছয় অঙ্কের জন্য বিক্রি করেছি

Wie ich mein Nebenprojekt auf 20.000 Benutzer vergrößerte und es dann für einen sechsstelligen Betrag verkaufte

Cómo hice crecer mi proyecto paralelo a 20.000 usuarios y luego lo vendí por seis cifras

Comment j'ai développé mon projet parallèle à 20 000 utilisateurs, puis je l'ai vendu pour six chiffres

कैसे मैंने अपना साइड प्रोजेक्ट 20 हजार उपयोगकर्ताओं तक बढ़ाया और फिर इसे छह अंकों में बेच दिया

私の副業プロジェクトを 20,000 人のユーザーに成長させ、その後 6 桁で販売した方法

내 사이드 프로젝트를 20,000명의 사용자로 성장시킨 후 6자리 숫자에 판매한 방법

Como aumentei meu projeto paralelo para 20 mil usuários e depois o vendi por seis dígitos

Как я увеличил свой побочный проект до 20 тысяч пользователей, а затем продал его за шестизначную сумму

Yan Projemi 20 Bin Kullanıcıya Nasıl Büyüttüm, Sonra Altı Rakama Sattım

Cách tôi phát triển dự án phụ của mình tới 20 nghìn người dùng rồi bán nó với giá sáu con số

我如何将我的副项目发展到拥有 2 万用户，然后以六位数的价格出售

Authors: (1) Yuwen Lu, he contributed equally to this work, University of Notre Dame, USA; (2) Chao Zhang, he contributed equally to this work and work done as a visiting researcher at the University of Notre Dame; (3) Yuewen Yang, Work done as a visiting researcher at the University of Notre Dame; (4) Yaxin Yao, Virginia Tech, USA; (5) Toby Jia-Jun Li, University of Notre Dame, USA. Table of Links Introduction Background and Related Work Co-Design Workshops Technology Probe Study Results Scaling Up: A Research Agenda Limitations and Future Work Conclusions and References Appendix 5 RESULTS 5.1 Probe Engagement The engagement validates the feasibility of our probe (engineering goal). In total, 48,368 (mean=3224.53, std=2836.14, min=352, max=9112) action logging entries and 115 (mean=7.67, std=4.84, min=1, max=17) diary note entries were created. The participants visited a total of 13,611 (mean=907.4, std=819.88, min=58, max=3220) distinct web pages on their browsers instrumented with Dark Pita, where our probe was triggered 4,834 (mean=322.27, std=316.65, min=28, max=1188) times. 10 participants (66.7%) visited all three types of online services, 4 participants (26.7%) visited video streaming platforms and social media platforms, and 1 participant only visited video streaming platforms over the course of the study. The participants set up UI enhancements for dark pattern instances 280 (mean=18.67, std=8.93, min=1, max=34) times. During the two weeks, these UI enhancements were triggered 14,355 times (mean=957, std=1178.48, min=2, max=4621) in total. For each UI enhancement, the average number of times that it was triggered was 463.06. 2 UI enhancements (i.e., counterfactual thinking (Appendix A.4) for the discount price on Amazon and reflection for the remaining time on Netflix) were not successfully used due to technical problems caused by website updates on Amazon and Netflix. Fig. 6 shows the daily engagement of participants with our probe. Overall, the logs indicate that most participants were actively engaged with our probe. They visited example websites that contain instances of dark patterns, modified the interfaces of these websites with UI enhancements to mitigate the impact of dark patterns, and submitted diary entries. 5.2 Key Insights Our findings from the entry, mid-study, and exit interviews with 15 participants, together with their 115 diary entries, provide key insights (KIs) for understanding the reactions and needs of end users on awareness of and action for dark patterns (social science goal) and demonstrate the usefulness of our end-user-empowerment intervention approach (engineering goal). The users found the information presented about dark patterns on the awareness panel to be educational. PB12 found that attribute tags are “great information” and helped him better understand the design rationale of designers hidden behind dark patterns. PB16 added that Dark Pita made him know “what are the certain things that kind of triggered me into going down a hole”. Equipped with such knowledge, the participants developed new perspectives on online services. PB3, PB6, PB6, and PB12 mentioned Dark Pita helped them more explicitly see a large number of dark pattern instances on Twitter, which reduced their level of trust in the platform. PB6 became more critical of disguised ads on some platforms, and PB10 behaved more cautiously to avoid dark patterns. By seeing the dislike count on YouTube again (enabled by a UI enhancement of Dark Pita) (Appendix A.4), PB7 was able to gain a more comprehensive view of the videos they watch. This finding showed that improved awareness through information disclosure on dark patterns can change users’ perception of digital platforms, extending previous survey results of end users’ mistrust [35]. KI1: Providing information about specific instances of dark patterns allows users to gain transferable knowledge. Importantly, users were able to transfer their newly learned knowledge of dark patterns to other platforms Dark Pita did not yet support. For example, PB12 would investigate “how the similar designs (of dark patterns) might be applied to other interfaces that I use”. PB2, PB5, PB9, and PB12 started to think about dark patterns in mobile apps and desired to use Dark Pita on phones. The probe even inspired PB9 to ponder “textual” dark patterns (e.g., misleading and manipulative language on interfaces). To summarize, these findings demonstrated that providing information about dark patterns can not only raise users’ awareness, but also inspire them to transfer the learned knowledge to dark patterns on other platforms. In our deployment study, 7 participants (46.7%) explicitly mentioned the feeling of empowerment of being able to change interfaces, as they were no longer just passive consumers of decisions made by designers. PB3 mentioned that “the most empowering was being able to highlight algorithm-recommended content on Twitter... it provided a level of consciousness (during browsing)”. Previous work on dark patterns in HCI and CSCW has primarily regarded end users as passive receivers of these deceptive practices [11, 35]. These findings show the benefit of our end-user-empowerment approach, treating users as engaged actors in mitigating dark patterns. KI2: The capability to modify existing interfaces boosts the user perception of empowerment and autonomy. Notably, participants emphasized the importance of having this support from a third-party tool. PB5, PB6, and PB12 mentioned that some platforms also allow users to make interface changes; for example, on Facebook, users can remove disguised ads and select why they are not interested. While this allows the user to hide the ad, it serves the company’s business interest; some users realized this and chose not to use it. PB12 mentioned that users and companies have contradictory goals: users want to see fewer targeted ads, while the company wants to make ads more personalized to generate more revenue. On the contrary, a third-party tool like Dark Pita presents no conflict of interest with users, leading to enhanced user trust. Users have diverse goals online: for example, PB10 wants to reduce their time on Twitter, while PB3 and PB5 do not mind spending more time on Twitter browsing. This is in line with our workshop finding on users’ perceptions of dark patterns (WF2). In the deployment study, these differences in goals shaped users’ choices of UI enhancements. KI3: The dynamic goals and usage contexts of users when using online services determine their desired UI enhancements. Even a single user’s goals can change with different usage scenarios, which in turn modifies their choice of UI enhancements. For instance, PB2, PB3, and PB14 separately reported that they did not mind the “video autoplay on hover” feature on YouTube homepage but disabled it on individual video-watching pages. This was because the feature was helpful for previewing content on the homepage, but distracting and time-wasting when watching individual videos. PB14 also turns the focus mode on YouTube on and off between “when I want to focus... and when I just want to have fun or just relax... I think they get changed based on what I wanted to do at the time.” Users’ goals often reflect and shape their personal relationship with a service platform. During our study, the ability to modify dark patterns reminded users of their long-term goals against impulsive behaviors. In the exit interview, PB12 mentioned that seeing so many dark patterns explicitly marked on Twitter made him want to use the platform less. They described the feeling as “someone nagging you should stop doing this”. Although sometimes annoying, they still found it helpful for their long-term goal of reducing Twitter usage. This is also related to studies on self-control such as [6, 49]. Previous discussions mostly view the “darkness” level of deceptive patterns as an objective attribute [38]; however, this insight extends such narrative by showing the personal and dynamic nature of such “darkness”. End users’ goals and usage contexts are dynamic and individualized. Therefore, a one-size-fits-all approach or a designer- or policymaker-initiated approach cannot fully accommodate them. By offering users the choice of multiple UI enhancements, our approach enables them to customize their intervention for a dark pattern based on individual contextual preferences. 5.3 Design Implications Our findings offer design implications (DI) for future techniques, strategies, and interfaces of end-user-empowerment interventions for dark patterns (design goal). Visually non-intrusive UI enhancements that do not interfere with users’ normal browsing experiences were greatly appreciated during our study. For example, PB15 shared that the highlighted disguised ads with thick red borders (Appendix A.4) became annoying, so he chose to directly hide the ads (Appendix A.4) instead. On the contrary, blocking the previews of recommended videos (Appendix A.4) is a “gentle” method to remove distracting content while avoiding users’ fear of missing out on information [75]. DI5: Design non-intrusive and less-interrupting UI enhancements. Users prefer non-intrusive and less-interrupting UI enhancements. Participants expected future interventions to give them more fine-grained control over dark patterns. For example, PB13 wanted to “control the quantity” of promoted content on Twitter and leave approximately one-third on their feed instead of removing all of them. Similarly, PB2 envisioned a filter to “control content” based on personal interests, i.e., automatically identifying information potentially beneficial to her and removing the rest. DI6: Provide fine-grained control over modification of dark patterns. In addition to the “design transparency” of dark patterns, our participants also wanted transparency in the design of UI enhancements. They expected to see the intentions and mechanisms of these UI enhancements, so they could understand how these work against dark patterns and select the ones that fit their needs. For example, PB5 and PB15 suggested providing explanations on how Dark Pita calculates the time or money spent on reflection (Appendix A.4). PB15 also mentioned that they wanted a global control panel and dashboard for all active UI enhancements so that they could quickly get explanations of them, view their status, and change their configurations. DI7: Improve transparency and provide global control for the UI enhancements. UI enhancements usually involve a certain degree of persuasive design or nudge techniques themselves, which is similar to dark patterns. Based on what we have learned from our studies, it is important to align the goals of the user and the goals of the intervention tools (KI2 and KI3) to protect the welfare of users (e.g. privacy data) [82]. In addition, according to Hansen and Jespersen’s framework [46], the dividing line between manipulative and beneficial nudges is transparency (i.e., if the user can perceive the intentions and means behind the nudge) (DI7). Such potential alignments should be clearly explained to users to help them make informed decisions about adopting UI enhancements. With carefully set boundary between UI enhancements and dark patterns through goal alignment and transparency, we can meaningfully prevent further manipulation against end users’ will. DI8: Contemplate with the boundary between UI enhancements and dark patterns. This paper is under CC 4.0 license. available on arxiv

Redefining Web Interactions in the Fight Against Dark Patterns

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