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Introduction The line between the phrases “Taking your business online” and “Setting up a business on Facebook” is getting blurred. Source With more than of the world’s population (approximately 2.41 billion people) active every month on Facebook, there is no reason why your brand should not have a Facebook page of its own. To further support this claim, Americans alone spend approximately of their day on Facebook or other platforms that Facebook owns. 30% 20% So, sit back and think of the enormity of the market you would be able to reach with just a few clicks on the keyboard. But therein lie a few problems: How can you cater to the massive audience when queries start to arise? How can you leverage Facebook for marketing without denting your cash reserves? How can you ensure that all your fans and followers get a personalized experience when interacting with your brand? By now, you already know the answer from the title – get a ! Facebook Chatbot In this article, you will learn how a Messenger bot will help your business in 15 different ways, supported with rich examples, statistics, and use cases. 1. Lower Operational Costs Speaking from a pure business point of view, chatbots significantly lower your operational costs. When you use a Facebook chatbot, you get the following advantages: Hire fewer people Build smaller infrastructure Accelerate automation Acquire leads on auto-pilot According to the tech giant IBM, chatbots can help businesses cut down on service costs by In India, Kolkata Metro booked 11.5M+ tickets & saved , at the same time minimising Covid-19 spread with the help of chatbots. 30%. $3.2 Million This solution became a hot topic in a lot of news publications including the likes of the University of Berkeley. Here are some staggering statistics on how the bot helped Kolkata Metro: 11.25M+ travel tickets generated 125K requests handled per day 375K+ man-hours saved 90% improvement CSAT ratings $3.2M cost savings 2. Hyper-Personalization The difference between a brand and a business is one connects while the other only transacts. The key to a successful business model is to deliver an unparalleled experience to the audience regardless of the market size or audience base. Since each person is unique, brands need to personalize the experience at a microscopic level. Large businesses have a lot of capital to carry this out, but how can small businesses catch up? There are several chatbots for small businesses that help them stand tall among large competitors without shelling out many monetary resources. These allow smaller businesses to interact with customers in an imperceptible way, from a human-to-human conversation to a formal text-only conversation setup. conversational AI chatbots Facebook Chatbots have been picking up pace lately, so much so that even platforms like Spotify have begun to incorporate it into their marketing mix to recommend music and albums unique to each individual. 3. Provide 24x7 Customer Support Hiring a customer service representative is highly capital intensive. Add to that their limitation to work only about 8 hours a day, the cost keeps increasing. Moreover, like all humans, customer service reps are subjected to fatigue and mental stress upon working tirelessly for long hours. Facebook Chatbots leverage conversational marketing to provide users with unparalleled customer service with the same speed and efficiency throughout the day, every day, without breaking even for a second. To outperform its competitor Domino’s, took customer support using Messenger chatbots to another level by integrating the ability to order within the chatbot. Pizza Hut In another report, a media-based startup called Slush saw a 55% increase in the number of conversations after incorporating 24x7 chatbots into customer support requests. 4. Leverage the AIDA Model Funnels and KPIs are unique to each business. However, most sales and marketing funnels are based on the AIDA model. A Messenger chatbot can navigate the audience throughout the funnel and convert them, like Pizza Hut, or it can qualify them up to a certain stage, after which the executives can take over. AIDA stands for: A – Awareness/Attention I – Interest D – Decision A – Action Source Here's what each of those terms means for your brand when you are trying to drive sales: Awareness/Attention Awareness is when the customer is made aware of a particular product, service, or your company's offer. Interest This is when the leads start indicating that they are interested in a product. It could be through watching your videos, following on social media, or asking queries. Decision This is the stage where a lead decides to engage with the brand and make a purchase. However, they might still back out due to payment gateway issues or poor site load speed. Action The action is when the lead executes what the campaign intended them to do. It could be something as simple as visiting a site or opting for a free product trial. 5. Lead Customers Through Sales Funnels The key to closing more sales is to optimize your funnels continually. Navigating the customer from one stage to another through the sales funnel takes a lot of effort. To begin with, the customer first has to become aware of your brand and build interest before proceeding to take action. Automating even a small part of this process unloads a considerable burden, and the returns compound over time. A conversational marketing chatbot can effortlessly navigate your potential customers through the funnel and automate a huge part of your lead generation process. As a result, 8 out of 10 companies are willing to use chatbots, according to a report by . Business Insider 6. Qualify Leads Drawing the line between Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) and Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs) is critical to optimize a conversion funnel. MQLs are those leads that can be converted at any time in the present or future as long as the proper strategic steps are taken. However, once a Marketing Qualified Lead is converted into a Sales Qualified Lead, no time should be spent procrastinating further steps and should be tended to immediately. With that said, it is still essential to address an MQL as early as possible. According to Lead Connect, almost leads convert into customers of brands that reply the earliest. 8 out of 10 A Facebook Chatbot can effectively qualify an MQL into SQL without the need for human intervention. The conversion becomes even easier if or when the lead explicitly indicates an intent to convert or buy. Furthermore, conversational AI chatbots can naturally segue a marketing lead into a sales lead – the goal of many marketing campaigns. 7. Improves Conversion Rates According to a survey, half of all American teens use Facebook Messenger, and more than of Facebook users use the app. 60% With Facebook Messenger being so popular, it is an excellent way for brands to market themselves on it through conversational marketing. If done right, your conversion rates could even touch There are several reasons why a Facebook chatbot is so influential over targeted ads or other marketing techniques. 100%. The biggest reason is the degree of personalization it allows and at a level that is extremely close to the audience. It forms a one-to-one bridge between the brand and the customer, making them feel special and significant. Naturally, reciprocity kicks in, and the customers feel the need to buy from the business. 8. Helps with Conversational Marketing If the customer support does not sound natural, then there are high chances of losing the lead. In fact, only of customers feel confident about starting a live chat conversation with the support team. Hence, having an effective conversational marketing strategy is the way forward for small and medium businesses. 60% Using Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence, a Facebook chatbot can make conversational marketing a breeze for your business. Source Using chatbots, you can build meaningful relationships with potential customers and build a loyal community for your brand. Moreover, conversational marketing also lets you gather data on auto-pilot rather than constantly nudge the customers to fill out forms or take surveys. For example, when National Geographic launched the TV show titled 'Genius', it sought Facebook Messenger to attract an audience. Users who texted NatGeo on Messenger received piquant replies as though Albert Einstein himself replied 9. Helps Repurpose Old Content The internet is like a fast-moving river; new content comes in, and the old ones fade away quickly. Sometimes, the content fades away before it serves the intended purpose. Conversational AI chatbots can help resurrect your old content by displaying it to customers. Your old how-to video may be of help to a customer. So, when a customer query triggers content similar to your video content, the chatbot can send out a link to the video or the video itself. leveraged this aspect of chatbots for his cooking recipes and built his brand rapidly. Jamie Oliver 10. Improves Message Open Rates With the help of Facebook chatbots, one of the campaigns of a digital marketing and advertising agency, NP Digital (with millions of monthly website visitors) achieved a staggering message open rate. 88% That is particularly effective because of the first-mover's advantage. Many businesses have not incorporated Messenger chatbots into their funnel optimization efforts. As a result, their competitors can quickly get ahead of them in this space. For the same reason, a higher percentage of people would open messages sent from brands to their inboxes today than in the future. Below are a few ways of getting high open rates: Answers queries in the comments by sending messages on Messenger Send messages to people who trigger potential sales keywords on your Facebook posts Include light humor within your chatbot scripts 11. Helps with Driving Traffic to Blogs and Video Content A Facebook chatbot is an excellent way to drive traffic to blogs on your website or video content on your YouTube channel. For example, if a follower has a query about your brand or business, the chances are that you already addressed it in one of your blogs or YouTube videos. So, if they trigger keywords related to that content, the AI chatbot can point them towards the content rather than have a tiring conversation. That way, your old content comes back to life, and engagement increases. 12. Makes it Easier for Customers to Purchase The ease of use and the experience of interacting with the brand as a whole send out strong social signals to social media platforms and search engines, which in turn help to increase organic reach and word-of-mouth. Hence, optimizing the user experience and simplifying the buying processes are critical in optimizing the conversion funnel. For example, , a Denmark-based company that makes toys for children, deployed a Messenger bot in the United Kingdom, United States, France, Canada, Poland, and Germany to make it easy for customers to choose a gifting product. It first asks a series of questions starting with location, age of the child, and more, to gather data and gain insight into the customer. Then, the bot effectively segments the audience and provides personalized recommendations to the user. Lego 13. Speeds Up Business Automation We live in a world of rapid digital transformation and automation. The days of carrying out rudimentary and repetitive tasks by humans are coming to an end and for the better. Today, Machine Learning algorithms and Artificial Intelligence software systems embedded in SaaS products or hardware systems are speeding up automation across several industries, including FMCG, automobile, and more. That is particularly beneficial for small businesses or teams that do not have the workforce or capital like large corporations. The NBA team, Golden State Warriors, used a to communicate with their fans and keep them updated with information about the game like scores, highlights, and more. The result of this was staggering as more than 4 million messages were exchanged in just the first two months of the launch. Facebook chatbot 14. Faster Sales with Embedded Payment Gateway Source Facebook claimed the title of the in the second half of 2020, followed by YouTube and WhatsApp. world’s most used social media platform Hence, embedding the payment gateway within the Messenger bot and making the checkout process much more convenient, seamless, and hassle-free for the users helps businesses skyrocket their sales. The Messenger chatbot offers two types of payment: Native payment Messenger web-view payment You can choose the kind of payment methods you would want to provide to your followers. Some choose groups to prefer the native payment type for the added convenience, while others might opt for the second type if they are concerned about security. Lego and PVR Cinemas have made an example of this by tightly integrating payment gateway in the chatbot. 15. Saves Time and Improves Efficiency Your office might close in the evening, but social media and e-commerce never sleep. If a business needs to gain visibility and traction on social media, it cannot simply put outposts or drop links and expect to grow. Contributing to the community by interacting and responding to all queries as frequently and quickly as possible is a critical aspect. Unfortunately, it is not humanly possible for your company’s customer service representatives to tend to your customers' needs 24 hours a day, every day. To do so, you have two options: Hire more people Automate the process The first option is probably not the best way forward as it would dilute profits. On the other hand, the second option can get the job done at lightning-fast speeds and a fraction of the cost. Using a Facebook Chatbot, you can automate the process and potentially save thousands or even millions of dollars every year. The finance company , for example, saves over 360,000 hours every year using their bot. JPMorgan Chase & Co. Conclusion If you want your business to stay active 24x7x365 on social media and tend to the customers without spending large sums of money, then deploying a Facebook chatbot for is the way forward. conversational marketing

1​5 Reasons For Business To Get Facebook Chatbot

Issue #1 in the definitive developer’s guide for the journey from web2 to web3 Originally posted as part of JAAK’s developing blog series 👋 Welcome to the first in a series of blog posts that aims to get web developers building decentralised applications and smart contracts on Ethereum in the simplest way possible . We’ll work through an example project and look at how to build, test, secure and deploy decentralised applications backed by smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain. What’s the series about? In January 2017, on a routine web surf for the latest craze, I came across this weird thing called Ethereum. My mind could not understand much of what it read but my “cool shit” sense was ringing off the hook. By March 2017, I began to comprehend this mythical decentralised Nirvana and took a job at to work on . Two things have become apparent in the past six months: JAAK transitioning the music industry onto this new stack There are plenty of complex tutorials and bad advice out there There is a scarcity of quality web developers necessary to advance the ecosystem My motivation for writing this series is clear: decentralisation holds huge potential for the web and beyond. By lowering the barrier to entry, the ecosystem can be filled with developers, causing a proliferation of innovative ideas, rapid iteration of tools and high-quality products. A recent poll revealed a lack of tutorials is hindering web3 developers So who is it for? If you’re a web/JavaScript developer who has heard the hype of a decentralised future and wants to actively learn how to build on web3 architecture this is for you. Also, anyone who has been confused by existing tutorials or Truffle/Meteor boilerplates and is looking for a simpler entry point. Before diving in, let’s start with some definitions Most tutorials conflate a lot of disparate terms and try to teach prospective web3 developers the intricacies of crypto-economics alongside what likes for breakfast. This series won’t cover any of that. Vitalik It’s crucial to distinguish between levels of the stack to build up a clear idea of each part’s roles and mechanics. This way developers can avoid getting lost in the speculation and start to see where their applications can utilise this stack. Web3 Web3 generally refers to the next generation of the worldwide web. It has been adopted by the Ethereum ecosystem and co-opted to refer to a decentralised web. Put simply then, web3 is web2 without the centralised servers and data silos. If everything goes to plan, web3 will just become part of the web and web3 developers will become web developers again. In time, decentralised architecture will simply become an infrastructure choice, just like MongoDB vs Firebase or REST vs GraphQL is today — your EC2 instance might be replaced by Ethereum and your static assets could be stored on . Swarm The changeover will be gradual, on Web 2.0, we’ll increasingly see sites whose back-ends utilise Web 3.0-like components such as Bitcoin, BitTorrent, NameCoin. This trend will continue and the truly Web-3.0 platform Ethereum will likely be used by sites that wish to provide transactional evidence of their content e.g. voting sites and exchanges. http://gavwood.com/web3lt.html (23 April 2014) Dapp A dapp is a decentralised app. For us old school web developers this can be hard to grasp: . Instead, “backend” code runs on a decentralised peer-to-peer network of nodes and “frontend” code is served from a distributed CDN. there is no server Web2 → Web3 Blockchain You can think of a blockchain as an append-only database that, rather than being stored on a single server, is distributed amongst a network of nodes that each store the entire transaction history of the network. As the name suggests, a blockchain is an immutable record (chain) of data packets (blocks), which contain a set of operations that document some particular action associated with the blockchain (transactions). In the Bitcoin blockchain, these transactions are purely financial (X sent Y N Bitcoins). In the Ethereum blockchain, it is possible to execute a variety of transaction types through the use of programs containing rules for processing a transaction (Smart Contracts). wrote a great post about a that describes the raw mechanics. Lauri Hartikka minimal implementation of a blockchain Ethereum is a blockchain-based, distributed computing platform that provides scripting functionality through smart contracts. Dapps can utilise Ethereum and associated technologies and we’ll focus on it for this series. Ethereum However, note that it is not an essential requirement: BitTorrent, Popcorn Time and Tor are all examples of decentralised applications that do not use Ethereum. Smart Contract Smart contracts in the context of Ethereum are scripts that are executed on a global network of public nodes — the EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) — and can read/write transactions from/to the blockchain. Smart contracts can be thought of as decentralised computation for a dapp; serving a similar role to an HTTP API interacting with a datastore, just not on centralised servers. It is important to distinguish between dapps and smart contracts: indeed, interfacing with data and services via contracts can be a big part of a dapp but, just as you can have a static app, a dapp can have zero contract interfaces. State of web3 development The framework war raged for years in the JavaScript ecosystem and witnessed various attempts to conceal the nuances of web development. It has ended without a victorious framework — the truth is the prevalence and preference of modular libraries has won. In the beginnings of the Web3 Age, there has been a , . The temptation to lean on frameworks like Meteor and Truffle restricts the chance to learn about the primitives of web3 development and creates an unmaintainable project in the long-term. trend towards large monolithic frameworks In contrast, tools that automate complex, discrete and repetitive tasks related to working with dapps and smart contracts can promote good practice and lead to gentler learning curves. There is also an emerging danger that, in the pursuit of a “new Internet”, recent advancements and techniques get lost when discarding the bad parts of Web 2.0. Currently in the web3 ecosystem, a regression in library authoring and frontend architectural patterns can be observed far too often. Building a web3 project There are two pillars to a web3 project setup: (a dapp’s gateway to the Ethereum blockchain and smart contracts) and (your local Ethereum blockchain). Web3.js is the most advanced Ethereum JS library out there and TestRPC is currently the simplest way to get a local node running. Web3.js TestRPC This guide and accompanying code will utilise both Web3.js and TestRPC along with the simplest tools available to minimise cognitive load. We’ll start building out an example project in the coming posts but let loose with any questions or observations in the comments or chat with JAAK and other web3 developers on 💬. the META Network Slack channel Next time… We’ll cover how to design, write, secure and deploy smart contracts. Some further reading 📔 Good glossary to keep handy 🤑 Nice intro to crypto-economics 3️⃣ Three blockchain benefits 🏭 How does Ethereum work, anyway? Project Update An awesome by-product of projects run by people passionate about decentralised applications is the vast majority of the code is open source. This makes for a great opportunity to dig around in repos for inspiration and best practice — not to mention contributions! Here at JAAK we are building the and are currently , populating the network with data from our industry partners. Take a and jump into our to chat about anything you find! META Network and protocol piloting both in a private alpha look at our code Slack channel Find on and . us Twitter Facebook Originally published at blog.jaak.io on October 12, 2017.

Crossing Over to Web3 — An Introduction to Decentralised Development

Build a chat app using ASP.NET

The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book . LADY CARBURY AND MR. BROUNE here LADY CARBURY AND MR. BROUNE. When Sir Felix Carbury declared to his friends at the Beargarden that he intended to devote the next few months of his life to foreign travel, and that it was his purpose to take with him a Protestant divine,—as was much the habit with young men of rank and fortune some years since,—he was not altogether lying. There was indeed a sounder basis of truth than was usually to be found attached to his statements. That he should have intended to produce a false impression was a matter of course,—and nearly equally so that he should have made his attempt by asserting things which he must have known that no one would believe. He was going to Germany, and he was going in company with a clergyman, and it had been decided that he should remain there for the next twelve months. A representation had lately been made to the Bishop of London that the English Protestants settled in a certain commercial town in the north-eastern district of Prussia were without pastoral aid, and the bishop had stirred himself in the matter. A clergyman was found willing to expatriate himself, but the income suggested was very small. The Protestant English population of the commercial town in question, though pious, was not liberal. It had come to pass that the "Morning Breakfast Table" had interested itself in the matter, having appealed for subscriptions after a manner not unusual with that paper. The bishop and all those concerned in the matter had fully understood that if the "Morning Breakfast Table" could be got to take the matter up heartily, the thing would be done. The heartiness had been so complete that it had at last devolved upon Mr. Broune to appoint the clergyman; and, as with all the aid that could be found, the income was still small, the Rev. Septimus Blake,—a brand snatched from the burning of Rome,—had been induced to undertake the maintenance and total charge of Sir Felix Carbury for a consideration. Mr. Broune imparted to Mr. Blake all that there was to know about the baronet, giving much counsel as to the management of the young man, and specially enjoining on the clergyman that he should on no account give Sir Felix the means of returning home. It was evidently Mr. Broune's anxious wish that Sir Felix should see as much as possible of German life, at a comparatively moderate expenditure, and under circumstances that should be externally respectable if not absolutely those which a young gentleman might choose for his own comfort or profit;—but especially that those circumstances should not admit of the speedy return to England of the young gentleman himself. Lady Carbury had at first opposed the scheme. Terribly difficult as was to her the burden of maintaining her son, she could not endure the idea of driving him into exile. But Mr. Broune was very obstinate, very reasonable, and, as she thought, somewhat hard of heart. "What is to be the end of it then?" he said to her, almost in anger. For in those days the great editor, when in presence of Lady Carbury, differed very much from that Mr. Broune who used to squeeze her hand and look into her eyes. His manner with her had become so different that she regarded him as quite another person. She hardly dared to contradict him, and found herself almost compelled to tell him what she really felt and thought. "Do you mean to let him eat up everything you have to your last shilling, and then go to the workhouse with him?" "Oh, my friend, you know how I am struggling! Do not say such horrid things." "It is because I know how you are struggling that I find myself compelled to say anything on the subject. What hardship will there be in his living for twelve months with a clergyman in Prussia? What can he do better? What better chance can he have of being weaned from the life he is leading?" "If he could only be married!" "Married! Who is to marry him? Why should any girl with money throw herself away upon him?" "He is so handsome." "What has his beauty brought him to? Lady Carbury, you must let me tell you that all that is not only foolish but wrong. If you keep him here you will help to ruin him, and will certainly ruin yourself. He has agreed to go;—let him go." She was forced to yield. Indeed, as Sir Felix had himself assented, it was almost impossible that she should not do so. Perhaps Mr. Broune's greatest triumph was due to the talent and firmness with which he persuaded Sir Felix to start upon his travels. "Your mother," said Mr. Broune, "has made up her mind that she will not absolutely beggar your sister and herself in order that your indulgence may be prolonged for a few months. She cannot make you go to Germany of course. But she can turn you out of her house, and, unless you go, she will do so." "I don't think she ever said that, Mr. Broune." "No;—she has not said so. But I have said it for her in her presence; and she has acknowledged that it must necessarily be so. You may take my word as a gentleman that it will be so. If you take her advice £175 a year will be paid for your maintenance;—but if you remain in England not a shilling further will be paid." He had no money. His last sovereign was all but gone. Not a tradesman would give him credit for a coat or a pair of boots. The key of the door had been taken away from him. The very page treated him with contumely. His clothes were becoming rusty. There was no prospect of amusement for him during the coming autumn or winter. He did not anticipate much excitement in Eastern Prussia, but he thought that any change must be a change for the better. He assented, therefore, to the proposition made by Mr. Broune, was duly introduced to the Rev. Septimus Blake, and, as he spent his last sovereign on a last dinner at the Beargarden, explained his intentions for the immediate future to those friends at his club who would no doubt mourn his departure. Mr. Blake and Mr. Broune between them did not allow the grass to grow under their feet. Before the end of August Sir Felix, with Mr. and Mrs. Blake and the young Blakes, had embarked from Hull for Hamburgh,—having extracted at the very hour of parting a last five-pound note from his foolish mother. "It will be just enough to bring him home," said Mr. Broune with angry energy when he was told of this. But Lady Carbury, who knew her son well, assured him that Felix would be restrained in his expenditure by no such prudence as such a purpose would indicate. "It will be gone," she said, "long before they reach their destination." "Then why the deuce should you give it him?" said Mr. Broune. Mr. Broune's anxiety had been so intense that he had paid half a year's allowance in advance to Mr. Blake out of his own pocket. Indeed, he had paid various sums for Lady Carbury,—so that that unfortunate woman would often tell herself that she was becoming subject to the great editor, almost like a slave. He came to her, three or four times a week, at about nine o'clock in the evening, and gave her instructions as to all that she should do. "I wouldn't write another novel if I were you," he said. This was hard, as the writing of novels was her great ambition, and she had flattered herself that the one novel which she had written was good. Mr. Broune's own critic had declared it to be very good in glowing language. The "Evening Pulpit" had of course abused it,—because it is the nature of the "Evening Pulpit" to abuse. So she had argued with herself, telling herself that the praise was all true, whereas the censure had come from malice. After that article in the "Breakfast Table," it did seem hard that Mr. Broune should tell her to write no more novels. She looked up at him piteously but said nothing. "I don't think you'd find it answer. Of course you can do it as well as a great many others. But then that is saying so little!" "I thought I could make some money." "I don't think Mr. Leadham would hold out to you very high hopes;—I don't, indeed. I think I would turn to something else." "It is so very hard to get paid for what one does." To this Mr. Broune made no immediate answer; but, after sitting for a while, almost in silence, he took his leave. On that very morning Lady Carbury had parted from her son. She was soon about to part from her daughter, and she was very sad. She felt that she could hardly keep up that house in Welbeck Street for herself, even if her means permitted it. What should she do with herself? Whither should she take herself? Perhaps the bitterest drop in her cup had come from those words of Mr. Broune forbidding her to write more novels. After all, then, she was not a clever woman,—not more clever than other women around her! That very morning she had prided herself on her coming success as a novelist, basing all her hopes on that review in the "Breakfast Table." Now, with that reaction of spirits which is so common to all of us, she was more than equally despondent. He would not thus have crushed her without a reason. Though he was hard to her now,—he who used to be so soft,—he was very good. It did not occur to her to rebel against him. After what he had said, of course there would be no more praise in the "Breakfast Table,"—and, equally of course, no novel of hers could succeed without that. The more she thought of him, the more omnipotent he seemed to be. The more she thought of herself, the more absolutely prostrate she seemed to have fallen from those high hopes with which she had begun her literary career not much more than twelve months ago. On the next day he did not come to her at all, and she sat idle, wretched, and alone. She could not interest herself in Hetta's coming marriage, as that marriage was in direct opposition to one of her broken schemes. She had not ventured to confess so much to Mr. Broune, but she had in truth written the first pages of the first chapter of a second novel. It was impossible now that she should even look at what she had written. All this made her very sad. She spent the evening quite alone; for Hetta was staying down in Suffolk, with her cousin's friend, Mrs. Yeld, the bishop's wife; and as she thought of her life past and her life to come, she did, perhaps, with a broken light, see something of the error of her ways, and did, after a fashion, repent. It was all "leather or prunello," as she said to herself;—it was all vanity,—and vanity,—and vanity! What real enjoyment had she found in anything? She had only taught herself to believe that some day something would come which she would like;—but she had never as yet in truth found anything to like. It had all been in anticipation,—but now even her anticipations were at an end. Mr. Broune had sent her son away, had forbidden her to write any more novels,—and had been refused when he had asked her to marry him! The next day he came to her as usual, and found her still very wretched. "I shall give up this house," she said. "I can't afford to keep it; and in truth I shall not want it. I don't in the least know where to go, but I don't think that it much signifies. Any place will be the same to me now." "I don't see why you should say that." "What does it matter?" "You wouldn't think of going out of London." "Why not? I suppose I had better go wherever I can live cheapest." "I should be sorry that you should be settled where I could not see you," said Mr. Broune plaintively. "So shall I,—very. You have been more kind to me than anybody. But what am I to do? If I stay in London I can live only in some miserable lodgings. I know you will laugh at me, and tell me that I am wrong; but my idea is that I shall follow Felix wherever he goes, so that I may be near him and help him when he needs help. Hetta doesn't want me. There is nobody else that I can do any good to." "I want you," said Mr. Broune, very quietly. "Ah,—that is so kind of you. There is nothing makes one so good as goodness;—nothing binds your friend to you so firmly as the acceptance from him of friendly actions. You say you want me, because I have so sadly wanted you. When I go you will simply miss an almost daily trouble, but where shall I find a friend?" "When I said I wanted you, I meant more than that, Lady Carbury. Two or three months ago I asked you to be my wife. You declined, chiefly, if I understood you rightly, because of your son's position. That has been altered, and therefore I ask you again. I have quite convinced myself,—not without some doubts, for you shall know all; but, still, I have quite convinced myself,—that such a marriage will best contribute to my own happiness. I do not think, dearest, that it would mar yours." This was said with so quiet a voice and so placid a demeanour, that the words, though they were too plain to be misunderstood, hardly at first brought themselves home to her. Of course he had renewed his offer of marriage, but he had done so in a tone which almost made her feel that the proposition could not be an earnest one. It was not that she believed that he was joking with her or paying her a poor insipid compliment. When she thought about it at all, she knew that it could not be so. But the thing was so improbable! Her opinion of herself was so poor, she had become so sick of her own vanities and littlenesses and pretences, that she could not understand that such a man as this should in truth want to make her his wife. At this moment she thought less of herself and more of Mr. Broune than either perhaps deserved. She sat silent, quite unable to look him in the face, while he kept his place in his arm-chair, lounging back, with his eyes intent on her countenance. "Well," he said; "what do you think of it? I never loved you better than I did for refusing me before, because I thought that you did so because it was not right that I should be embarrassed by your son." "That was the reason," she said, almost in a whisper. "But I shall love you better still for accepting me now,—if you will accept me." The long vista of her past life appeared before her eyes. The ambition of her youth which had been taught to look only to a handsome maintenance, the cruelty of her husband which had driven her to run from him, the further cruelty of his forgiveness when she returned to him; the calumny which had made her miserable, though she had never confessed her misery; then her attempts at life in London, her literary successes and failures, and the wretchedness of her son's career;—there had never been happiness, or even comfort, in any of it. Even when her smiles had been sweetest her heart had been heaviest. Could it be that now at last real peace should be within her reach, and that tranquillity which comes from an anchor holding to a firm bottom? Then she remembered that first kiss,—or attempted kiss,—when, with a sort of pride in her own superiority, she had told herself that the man was a susceptible old goose. She certainly had not thought then that his susceptibility was of this nature. Nor could she quite understand now whether she had been right then, and that the man's feelings, and almost his nature, had since changed,—or whether he had really loved her from first to last. As he remained silent it was necessary that she should answer him. "You can hardly have thought of it enough," she said. "I have thought of it a good deal too. I have been thinking of it for six months at least." "There is so much against me." "What is there against you?" "They say bad things of me in India." "I know all about that," replied Mr. Broune. "And Felix!" "I think I may say that I know all about that also." "And then I have become so poor!" "I am not proposing to myself to marry you for your money. Luckily for me,—I hope luckily for both of us,—it is not necessary that I should do so." "And then I seem so to have fallen through in everything. I don't know what I've got to give to a man in return for all that you offer to give to me." "Yourself," he said, stretching out his right hand to her. And there he sat with it stretched out,—so that she found herself compelled to put her own into it, or to refuse to do so with very absolute words. Very slowly she put out her own, and gave it to him without looking at him. Then he drew her towards him, and in a moment she was kneeling at his feet, with her face buried on his knees. Considering their ages perhaps we must say that their attitude was awkward. They would certainly have thought so themselves had they imagined that any one could have seen them. But how many absurdities of the kind are not only held to be pleasant, but almost holy,—as long as they remain mysteries inspected by no profane eyes! It is not that Age is ashamed of feeling passion and acknowledging it,—but that the display of it is, without the graces of which Youth is proud, and which Age regrets. On that occasion there was very little more said between them. He had certainly been in earnest, and she had now accepted him. As he went down to his office he told himself now that he had done the best, not only for her but for himself also. And yet I think that she had won him more thoroughly by her former refusal than by any other virtue. She, as she sat alone, late into the night, became subject to a thorough reaction of spirit. That morning the world had been a perfect blank to her. There was no single object of interest before her. Now everything was rose-coloured. This man who had thus bound her to him, who had given her such assured proofs of his affection and truth, was one of the considerable ones of the world; a man than whom few,—so she now told herself,—were greater or more powerful. Was it not a career enough for any woman to be the wife of such a man, to receive his friends, and to shine with his reflected glory? Whether her hopes were realised, or,—as human hopes never are realised,—how far her content was assured, these pages cannot tell; but they must tell that, before the coming winter was over, Lady Carbury became the wife of Mr. Broune, and, in furtherance of her own resolve, took her husband's name. The house in Welbeck Street was kept, and Mrs. Broune's Tuesday evenings were much more regarded by the literary world than had been those of Lady Carbury. About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Anthony Trollope (2004). The Way We Live Now. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October 2022 https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/5231/pg5231-images.html This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at , located at . www.gutenberg.org https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html

LADY CARBURY AND MR. BROUNE

"THE WHEEL OF FORTUNE."

LADY CARBURY AT HOME

The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book . MENTOR here MENTOR. Lady Carbury's desire for a union between Roger and her daughter was greatly increased by her solicitude in respect to her son. Since Roger's offer had first been made, Felix had gone on from bad to worse, till his condition had become one of hopeless embarrassment. If her daughter could but be settled in the world, Lady Carbury said to herself, she could then devote herself to the interests of her son. She had no very clear idea of what that devotion would be. But she did know that she had paid so much money for him, and would have so much more extracted from her, that it might well come to pass that she would be unable to keep a home for her daughter. In all these troubles she constantly appealed to Roger Carbury for advice,—which, however, she never followed. He recommended her to give up her house in town, to find a home for her daughter elsewhere, and also for Felix if he would consent to follow her. Should he not so consent, then let the young man bear the brunt of his own misdoings. Doubtless, when he could no longer get bread in London he would find her out. Roger was always severe when he spoke of the baronet,—or seemed to Lady Carbury to be severe. But, in truth, she did not ask for advice in order that she might follow it. She had plans in her head with which she knew that Roger would not sympathise. She still thought that Sir Felix might bloom and burst out into grandeur, wealth, and fashion, as the husband of a great heiress, and in spite of her son's vices, was proud of him in that anticipation. When he succeeded in obtaining from her money, as in the case of that £20,—when, with brazen-faced indifference to her remonstrances, he started off to his club at two in the morning, when with impudent drollery he almost boasted of the hopelessness of his debts, a sickness of heart would come upon her, and she would weep hysterically, and lie the whole night without sleeping. But could he marry Miss Melmotte, and thus conquer all his troubles by means of his own personal beauty,—then she would be proud of all that had passed. With such a condition of mind Roger Carbury could have no sympathy. To him it seemed that a gentleman was disgraced who owed money to a tradesman which he could not pay. And Lady Carbury's heart was high with other hopes,—in spite of her hysterics and her fears. The "Criminal Queens" might be a great literary success. She almost thought that it would be a success. Messrs. Leadham and Loiter, the publishers, were civil to her. Mr. Broune had promised. Mr. Booker had said that he would see what could be done. She had gathered from Mr. Alf's caustic and cautious words that the book would be noticed in the "Evening Pulpit." No;—she would not take dear Roger's advice as to leaving London. But she would continue to ask Roger's advice. Men like to have their advice asked. And, if possible, she would arrange the marriage. What country retirement could be so suitable for a Lady Carbury when she wished to retire for awhile,—as Carbury Manor, the seat of her own daughter? And then her mind would fly away into regions of bliss. If only by the end of this season Henrietta could be engaged to her cousin, Felix be the husband of the richest bride in Europe, and she be the acknowledged author of the cleverest book of the year, what a Paradise of triumph might still be open to her after all her troubles! Then the sanguine nature of the woman would bear her up almost to exultation, and for an hour she would be happy, in spite of everything. A few days after the ball Roger Carbury was up in town, and was closeted with her in her back drawing-room. The declared cause of his coming was the condition of the baronet's affairs and the indispensable necessity,—so Roger thought,—of taking some steps by which at any rate the young man's present expenses might be brought to an end. It was horrible to him that a man who had not a shilling in the world or any prospect of a shilling, who had nothing and never thought of earning anything, should have hunters! He was very much in earnest about it, and quite prepared to speak his mind to the young man himself,—if he could get hold of him. "Where is he now, Lady Carbury;—at this moment?" "I think he's out with the Baron." Being "out with the Baron" meant that the young man was hunting with the stag hounds some forty miles away from London. "How does he manage it? Whose horses does he ride? Who pays for them?" "Don't be angry with me, Roger. What can I do to prevent it?" "I think you should refuse to have anything to do with him while he continues in such courses." "My own son!" "Yes;—exactly. But what is to be the end of it? Is he to be allowed to ruin you, and Hetta? It can't go on long." "You wouldn't have me throw him over." "I think he is throwing you over. And then it is so thoroughly dishonest,—so ungentlemanlike! I don't understand how it goes on from day to day. I suppose you don't supply him with ready money." "He has had a little." Roger frowned angrily. "I can understand that you should provide him with bed and food, but not that you should pander to his vices by giving him money." This was very plain speaking, and Lady Carbury winced under it. "The kind of life that he is leading requires a large income of itself. I understand the thing, and know that with all I have in the world I could not do it myself." "You are so different." "I am older of course,—very much older. But he is not so young that he should not begin to comprehend. Has he any money beyond what you give him?" Then Lady Carbury revealed certain suspicions which she had begun to entertain during the last day or two. "I think he has been playing." "That is the way to lose money,—not to get it," said Roger. "I suppose somebody wins,—sometimes." "They who win are the sharpers. They who lose are the dupes. I would sooner that he were a fool than a knave." "O Roger, you are so severe!" "You say he plays. How would he pay, were he to lose?" "I know nothing about it. I don't even know that he does play; but I have reason to think that during the last week he has had money at his command. Indeed I have seen it. He comes home at all manner of hours and sleeps late. Yesterday I went into his room about ten and did not wake him. There were notes and gold lying on his table;—ever so much." "Why did you not take them?" "What; rob my own boy?" "When you tell me that you are absolutely in want of money to pay your own bills, and that he has not hesitated to take yours from you! Why does he not repay you what he has borrowed?" "Ah, indeed;—why not? He ought to if he has it. And there were papers there;—I. O. U.'s, signed by other men." "You looked at them." "I saw as much as that. It is not that I am curious, but one does feel about one's own son. I think he has bought another horse. A groom came here and said something about it to the servants." "Oh dear;—oh dear!" "If you could only induce him to stop the gambling! Of course it is very bad whether he wins or loses,—though I am sure that Felix would do nothing unfair. Nobody ever said that of him. If he has won money, it would be a great comfort if he would let me have some of it,—for, to tell the truth, I hardly know how to turn. I am sure nobody can say that I spend it on myself." Then Roger again repeated his advice. There could be no use in attempting to keep up the present kind of life in Welbeck Street. Welbeck Street might be very well without a penniless spendthrift such as Sir Felix, but must be ruinous under the present conditions. If Lady Carbury felt, as no doubt she did feel, bound to afford a home to her ruined son in spite of all his wickedness and folly, that home should be found far away from London. If he chose to remain in London, let him do so on his own resources. The young man should make up his mind to do something for himself. A career might possibly be opened for him in India. "If he be a man he would sooner break stones than live on you," said Roger. Yes, he would see his cousin to-morrow and speak to him;—that is if he could possibly find him. "Young men who gamble all night, and hunt all day are not easily found." But he would come at twelve as Felix generally breakfasted at that hour. Then he gave an assurance to Lady Carbury which to her was not the least comfortable part of the interview. In the event of her son not giving her the money which she at once required he, Roger, would lend her a hundred pounds till her half year's income should be due. After that his voice changed altogether, as he asked a question on another subject, "Can I see Henrietta to-morrow?" "Certainly;—why not? She is at home now, I think." "I will wait till to-morrow,—when I call to see Felix. I should like her to know that I am coming. Paul Montague was in town the other day. He was here, I suppose?" "Yes;—he called." "Was that all you saw of him?" "He was at the Melmottes' ball. Felix got a card for him;—and we were there. Has he gone down to Carbury?" "No;—not to Carbury. I think he had some business about his partners at Liverpool. There is another case of a young man without anything to do. Not that Paul is at all like Sir Felix." This he was induced to say by the spirit of honesty which was always strong within him. "Don't be too hard upon poor Felix," said Lady Carbury. Roger, as he took his leave, thought that it would be impossible to be too hard upon Sir Felix Carbury. The next morning Lady Carbury was in her son's bedroom before he was up, and with incredible weakness told him that his cousin Roger was coming to lecture him. "What the Devil's the use of it?" said Felix from beneath the bedclothes. "If you speak to me in that way, Felix, I must leave the room." "But what is the use of his coming to me? I know what he has got to say just as if it were said. It's all very well preaching sermons to good people, but nothing ever was got by preaching to people who ain't good." "Why shouldn't you be good?" "I shall do very well, mother, if that fellow will leave me alone. I can play my hand better than he can play it for me. If you'll go now I'll get up." She had intended to ask him for some of the money which she believed he still possessed, but her courage failed her. If she asked for his money, and took it, she would in some fashion recognise and tacitly approve his gambling. It was not yet eleven, and it was early for him to leave his bed; but he had resolved that he would get out of the house before that horrible bore should be upon him with his sermon. To do this he must be energetic. He was actually eating his breakfast at half-past eleven, and had already contrived in his mind how he would turn the wrong way as soon as he got into the street,—towards Marylebone Road, by which route Roger would certainly not come. He left the house at ten minutes before twelve, cunningly turned away, dodging round by the first corner,—and just as he had turned it encountered his cousin. Roger, anxious in regard to his errand, with time at his command, had come before the hour appointed and had strolled about, thinking not of Felix but of Felix's sister. The baronet felt that he had been caught,—caught unfairly, but by no means abandoned all hope of escape. "I was going to your mother's house on purpose to see you," said Roger. "Were you indeed? I am so sorry. I have an engagement out here with a fellow which I must keep. I could meet you at any other time, you know." "You can come back for ten minutes," said Roger, taking him by the arm. "Well;—not conveniently at this moment." "You must manage it. I am here at your mother's request, and can't afford to remain in town day after day looking for you. I go down to Carbury this afternoon. Your friend can wait. Come along." His firmness was too much for Felix, who lacked the courage to shake his cousin off violently, and to go his way. But as he returned he fortified himself with the remembrance of all the money in his pocket,—for he still had his winnings,—remembered too certain sweet words which had passed between him and Marie Melmotte since the ball, and resolved that he would not be "sat upon" by Roger Carbury. The time was coming,—he might almost say that the time had come,—in which he might defy Roger Carbury. Nevertheless, he dreaded the words which were now to be spoken to him with a craven fear. "Your mother tells me," said Roger, "that you still keep hunters." "I don't know what she calls hunters. I have one that I didn't part with when the others went." "You have only one horse?" "Well;—if you want to be exact, I have a hack as well as the horse I ride." "And another up here in town?" "Who told you that? No; I haven't. At least there is one staying at some stables which has been sent for me to look at." "Who pays for all these horses?" "At any rate I shall not ask you to pay for them." "No;—you would be afraid to do that. But you have no scruple in asking your mother, though you should force her to come to me or to other friends for assistance. You have squandered every shilling of your own, and now you are ruining her." "That isn't true. I have money of my own." "Where did you get it?" "This is all very well, Roger; but I don't know that you have any right to ask me these questions. I have money. If I buy a horse I can pay for it. If I keep one or two I can pay for them. Of course I owe a lot of money, but other people owe me money too. I'm all right, and you needn't frighten yourself." "Then why do you beg her last shilling from your mother, and when you have money not pay it back to her?" "She can have the twenty pounds, if you mean that." "I mean that, and a good deal more than that. I suppose you have been gambling." "I don't know that I am bound to answer your questions, and I won't do it. If you have nothing else to say, I'll go about my own business." "I have something else to say, and I mean to say it." Felix had walked towards the door, but Roger was before him, and now leaned his back against it. "I am not going to be kept here against my will," said Felix. "You have to listen to me, so you may as well sit still. Do you wish to be looked upon as a blackguard by all the world?" "Oh,—go on." "That is what it will be. You have spent every shilling of your own,—and because your mother is affectionate and weak, you are now spending all that she has, and are bringing her and your sister to beggary." "I don't ask them to pay anything for me." "Not when you borrow her money?" "There is the £20. Take it and give it her," said Felix, counting the notes out of the pocket-book. "When I asked her for it, I did not think she would make such a row about such a trifle." Roger took up the notes and thrust them into his pocket. "Now, have you done?" said Felix. "Not quite. Do you purpose that your mother should keep you and clothe you for the rest of your life?" "I hope to be able to keep her before long, and to do it much better than it has ever been done before. The truth is, Roger, you know nothing about it. If you'll leave me to myself, you'll find that I shall do very well." "I don't know any young man who ever did worse, or one who had less moral conception of what is right and wrong." "Very well. That's your idea. I differ from you. People can't all think alike, you know. Now, if you please, I'll go." Roger felt that he hadn't half said what he had to say, but he hardly knew how to get it said. And of what use could it be to talk to a young man who was altogether callous and without feeling? The remedy for the evil ought to be found in the mother's conduct rather than the son's. She, were she not foolishly weak, would make up her mind to divide herself utterly from her son, at any rate for a while, and to leave him to suffer utter penury. That would bring him round. And then when the agony of want had tamed him, he would be content to take bread and meat from her hand and would be humble. At present he had money in his pocket, and would eat and drink of the best, and be free from inconvenience for the moment. While this prosperity remained it would be impossible to touch him. "You will ruin your sister, and break your mother's heart," said Roger, firing a last harmless shot after the young reprobate. When Lady Carbury came into the room, which she did as soon as the front door was closed behind her son, she seemed to think that a great success had been achieved because the £20 had been recovered. "I knew he would give it me back, if he had it," she said. "Why did he not bring it to you of his own accord?" "I suppose he did not like to talk about it. Has he said that he got it by—playing?" "No,—he did not speak a word of truth while he was here. You may take it for granted that he did get it by gambling. How else should he have it? And you may take it for granted also that he will lose all that he has got. He talked in the wildest way,—saying that he would soon have a home for you and Hetta." "Did he;—dear boy!" "Had he any meaning?" "Oh; yes. And it is quite on the cards that it should be so. You have heard of Miss Melmotte." "I have heard of the great French swindler who has come over here, and who is buying his way into society." "Everybody visits them now, Roger." "More shame for everybody. Who knows anything about him,—except that he left Paris with the reputation of a specially prosperous rogue? But what of him?" "Some people think that Felix will marry his only child. Felix is handsome; isn't he? What young man is there nearly so handsome? They say she'll have half a million of money." "That's his game;—is it?" "Don't you think he is right?" "No; I think he's wrong. But we shall hardly agree with each other about that. Can I see Henrietta for a few minutes?" About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Anthony Trollope (2004). The Way We Live Now. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October 2022 https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/5231/pg5231-images.html This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at , located at . www.gutenberg.org https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html

Lady Carbury's desire for a union between Roger and her daughter

THREE EDITORS

Storytelling can be the most powerful way for a chief executive to sketch a vision and align people behind it. — Sangeeth Varghese, founder of LeadCap, a leadership organization in India, and author of Decide to Lead Most mission statements. They suck the way walking in wet socks does or knowing it’s been more than a decade later, and George R. R. Martin’s is still in drafts. The Winds of Winter It sucks. For instance, : OpenAI’s mission statement Our mission is to ensure that artificial general intelligence—AI systems that are generally smarter than humans—benefits all of humanity. It’s vague, convoluted, and unconvincing. Most bad mission statements are like this. They often use big words to show off a big purpose but fail to find resonance with the audience. Now contrast these with mission statements by brands who get it right. Salesforce We build bridges between companies and customers. Nike To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world. Grammarly To improve lives by improving communication Rather than directing attention to WHY the company does or builds something, these statements focus on the challenge they help solve — “bring inspiration,” “improve lives,” and “build proverbial bridges.” But why even bother writing a mission statement, you may ask? Who’s even reading them? I don’t know Apple’s mission statement, but I still buy and use their products. What difference does it make? And yet, a mission statement is an absolute necessity. That’s because it serves the same purpose as the North Star did for sailors out on voyages with clunky compasses. Telling the right business story A company’s mission statement defines the compelling reason for its existence. When organizations stay faithful to the mission — to their founding story — they don’t get sidetracked by rapidly changing markets and lose track to jump on fads. But on the off chance they do, they can always find their North Star for guidance and hurry back. This is why telling the is more important than telling the . right business story business story right A relatable and memorable business story will have a positive influence at every organizational level, inspiring the right strategic actions and attracting the right talent. And if someone’s cracked the code on how to tell the right business story, it’s l. Simon Sinek with his Golden Circle mode People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it. 📌 He does a better job at explaining his discovery than I can ever do. So take a pause here (if you want!) and . watch him blow your mind The Golden Circle by Simon Sinek is a simple mental model for thinking about the way companies communicate value to their customers. Here’s a visualization of the same. Sinek talks about how most founders communicate value by starting with they do instead of they do it. When, in fact, WHAT WHY “people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.” When you start with you can appeal to the part of the human brain responsible for making decisions WHY, For perspective, here’s how Grammarly communicates from the inside out: “To improve lives by improving communication.” Why: “At Grammarly, we strive to help people achieve more through effective communication, whenever and wherever they write in English.” How: “Our AI-enabled English communication assistance technology scales to work seamlessly across platforms and devices, including on more than 500,000 applications and websites.” What: There have been many such examples of excellent storytelling: Apple, Airbnb, Patagonia, Google, and Microsoft. But arguably, no one comes close to what Amazon and Jeff Bezos have established with his Day 1 philosophy. It’s always Day 1 at Amazon. Back in 1997, when Amazon.com went public with an IPO price of $18, Jeff Bezos wrote a for the first time — spotlighting Amazon’s core values and a clear roadmap for the future. letter to shareholders “ To our shareholders: Amazon.com passed many milestones in 1997: by year-end, we had served more than 1.5 million customers, yielding 838% revenue growth to $147.8 million, and extended our market leadership despite aggressive competitive entry. But this is Day 1 for the Internet and, if we execute well, for Amazon.com. Today, online commerce saves customers money and precious time. Tomorrow, through personalization, online commerce will accelerate the very process of discovery. .” Amazon.com uses the Internet to create real value for its customers and, by doing so, hopes to create an enduring franchise, even in established and large markets Other than his impressive attention to the growing competition and Amazon’s limitations — what stood out in the letter was his “Day 1” approach to work: To bring the same enthusiasm and energy to work as a new organization on its first day. It informs every aspect of business Amazon does, from embracing external trends to hiring talent. And cemented by its culture of customer obsession. Amazon’s Day 1 philosophy is instantly memorable that way. It’s 2023, and Amazon is still at “Day 1”, as Jeff Bezos explains why in his : 2016 letter to shareholders **“**Jeff, what does Day 2 look like? Bezos: That’s a question I just got at our most recent all-hands meeting. I’ve been reminding people that it’s Day 1 for a couple of decades. I work in an Amazon building named Day 1, and when I moved buildings, I took the name with me. I spend time thinking about this topic. .” Day 2 is stasis. Followed by irrelevance. Followed by an excruciating, painful decline. Followed by death. And that is why it is always Day 1 Your business story doesn’t need to be as inspiring as Amazon’s or Apple’s. But it should inspire the stakeholders, the people who put their time and trust in you. Because, in the end — the way you tell your business story is how people remember the work you do.

Mission Statements, Business Storytelling and Jeff Bezos’s Day 1 Philosophy

Astounding Stories of Super-Science August 1931: VOL. VII, NO. 2 - The Readers' Corner

In this article, I will show you how I converted my manual hand crank desk into an automated IoT connected desk. I’ll be talking about how to size and pick motors, and how to connect your custom IoT devices to Google using Heroku as a public interface. In short, there are two sides of this tech project: the first is to get from Google to Heroku using voice commands, and the second is to get from Heroku to the desk using MQTT. MQTT is the protocol of IoT, and I’ll explain some of the reasons why it is a good solution for IoT as well as some hurdles that it will help you overcome. First and foremost, I’m doing this just for fun! I’m completely open to suggestions and I’m more than happy to learn something new from you, so feel free to leave me any suggestions. Hopefully you’ll find something entertaining in this article and that motivates you to get out there and build something! With that being said, let’s get started! > The original hand crank for the desk Hardware The first, and arguably the most difficult, part was to modify the desk. In its past life, the desk had a removable hand crank that sat at the edge of the desk. Initially I thought about attaching something to the hand crank port so that the desk would remain unaltered. I purchased various gears to figure out how to attach the motor to the desk, but to no avail. Then I had an idea: There is a rod that runs the length of the desk that connects the two legs of the desk so they can be raised and lowered at the same time. If I fastened a gear that fit around the rod, then I would be able to use a belt to connect the rod to a motor. I would also still be able to add a motor to the desk without altering the desk all that much. Torque Matters I ordered the necessary gears and belt, and then searched Amazon for "High Torque Motor". Lo and behold, I found a multitude of motors that matched my specific needs — or so I thought. I bought a small "high torque" motor and waited nearly a month for the gears to ship from China. I was so excited when they arrived! I couldn’t wait for the weekend to put it all together and finally have my motorized desk. Things did not go according to plan. I spent the day cutting a hole in a metal shield on the desk to run the belt through. At the time, I only had manual tools, so it took longer than I’m willing to admit. As it got closer to the end of the day, I finally finished putting everything together and was ready to try out the desk. I plugged in the motor, turned the voltage up on my bench power supply, and… nothing happened. A few moments later, the motor started spinning and grinding the teeth off the belt I purchased. I learned two important lessons from this: First of all, the belt was obviously not up to the challenge and a "high torque" motor doesn’t mean "I can lift anything in the world". Secondly, look at how small that motor is compared to my fingers. It’s tiny! > The photo on the left is the motor and the belt. Top right is the gear attached to the desk (you’ll see later more of what is going on here). Bottom right is the motor in position on the desk. An appropriate motor I needed to do some math to calculate how much torque was required to lift the desk so I could select the right motor. Off to Google for this one! I was surprised to discover how simple it was to calculate the torque necessary. T = F * r Or torque is a function of force multiplied by the lever arm length. Well, I had a lever arm (the hand crank) now I just needed a way to measure the force necessary to easily turn the lever arm. I loaded up my desk, tied a milk jug to the handle, and gradually added water to it until the lever arm spun. Then, I rotated the handle to the top with the filled milk jug and made sure that the weight could easily turn the handle. I discovered that the lever arm was 11cm and the force required was 4 lbs. I used to figure out that I needed a motor capable of providing at least 19.95 kg/cm of torque. Let the shopping begin! this calculator I decided to make irreversible changes to the desk. I also knew that the rod that ran through the middle of the desk was hollow. I searched for a double shaft motor so I could cut the rod into pieces and reassemble it with the motor in the middle. I bought two 20 kg/cm motors to ensure I had plenty of torque necessary to lift the desk. Another beautiful Saturday rolled around and I hacked my desk to pieces. I split the rod in four places and filed down the shafts of the motors so they could be used to connect the rod back together again. I cut more holes in the metal shield for the two new motors to fit in. There was no belt this time, and the motors connected directly to the rod so these holes were quite large. As the evening approached I put all the pieces back together and loaded my desk with my office equipment. > The top two photos are the motors completely installed in the desk. The bottom photo is the rod that runs the length of the desk with the motors integrated with it. I wired up the motors and connected them to my bench power supply. Then, I turned it on and… THE DESK MOVED! I was more confident this time since I sized the motors appropriately. I had also doubled up on the motors just to be sure, but seeing it move was an awesome feeling. Let me tell you though, the desk was slow. Like really slow. I took a video to show one of my friends that it worked and had to use the time lapse feature of my iPhone so he didn’t have to watch a five-minute video of my desk going from a sitting to a standing position. It was slow enough that I could start the desk movement, go grab a cup of coffee, come back, and still have to wait a minute before it reached the standing position. RPM Matters, Final Version Finally, what I learned boils down to two things: RPM and torque. I had nailed down the torque and now I just needed to find a motor with high enough RPM’s while maintaining the torque necessary to lift the desk. This wasn’t too hard to do, but I couldn’t find a double shaft motor like I had used previously so I had to find a that could convert the motor into a double shaft motor. 90 degree 1:1 gear box Long story short, after another month of waiting for the perfect gear box to show up from China, and another Saturday, I had the desk moving at the speed I wanted! > My latest high torque motor on the left. Installed on the right. A little more hardware and a lot more software I wasn’t satisfied with a huge bench power supply on my desk at all times just to adjust the height of my desk. I was also swapping the power leads of the supply in order to reverse the direction of the desk. Not a big deal but the goal of the desk project was to use up and down buttons as well as several presets to tell the desk to adjust to my preferred height. Bluetooth My first foray was to add Bluetooth to the desk. After all, it seems that nearly every device has Bluetooth these days. The phone also seems like a great interface for controlling something like this. I purchased a motor controller board, a Nordic NRF52 dev board (eventually I switch the Bluetooth board to an ESP32), some distance measuring sensors, and began mucking around with some control firmware. I’ll post links at the end of the article for all the software and firmware that I wrote for this project. Feel free to comment on that code as well since I’m in no way a firmware engineer and would love some pointers! As a quick introduction, the ESP32 is written in C++ using Arduino libraries to communicate with the BLE Terminal app on the phone. Setting up and configuring BLE is pretty complicated. Initially, you need to create all the characteristics for the values you’d like to control over BLE. Think of a characteristic like a single variable in your code. BLE wraps this variable in a bunch of handlers to retrieve and set the value of this variable. Then, your characteristics are packaged up in a service with a custom UUID that you provide to make your service unique and identifiable from the app. Finally, you must add this service to the advertisement payload in order for your service to be discoverable by other devices. When a remote device connects to your service and sends data via a characteristic, the desk will recognize that a user wants the desk to adjust to another preset height and will begin its work. In order to adjust the height, the desk has an TFMini-S LiDAR sensor mounted to the bottom to determine the current height. This sensor is funny because it is named LiDAR but doesn’t actually use a laser. It uses an LED and optics to determine the time-of-flight of the IR light. Anyway, the sensor determines the current height of the desk. Then, the control board determines the difference between the current height and the requested height, and activates the motor to spin in the necessary direction. Some of the code highlights are below but you can read the entire file . here {
   Serial.begin( );
   Serial2.begin(TFMINIS_BAUDRATE);
   EEPROM.begin( ); tfminis.begin(&Serial2);
   tfminis.setFrameRate( );

   ledcSetup(UP_PWM_CHANNEL, PWM_FREQUENCY, PWM_RESOLUTION);
   ledcAttachPin(UP_PWM_PIN, UP_PWM_CHANNEL);

   ledcSetup(DOWN_PWM_CHANNEL, PWM_FREQUENCY, PWM_RESOLUTION);
   ledcAttachPin(DOWN_PWM_PIN, DOWN_PWM_CHANNEL);

   state_machine = StateMachine();
   state_machine->begin(*t_desk_height, UP_PWM_CHANNEL, DOWN_PWM_CHANNEL);

   BLEDevice::init( );
  ...

   BLEServer *p_server = BLEDevice::createServer();
   BLEService *p_service = p_server->createService(BLEUUID(SERVICE_UUID), ); BLECharacteristic *p_set_height_to_preset_characteristic = p_service->createCharacteristic(...);
   p_set_height_to_preset_characteristic->setCallbacks( SetHeightToPresetCallbacks()); BLECharacteristic *p_move_desk_up_characteristic = p_service->createCharacteristic(...);
   p_move_desk_up_characteristic->setCallbacks( MoveDeskUpCallbacks()); BLECharacteristic *p_move_desk_down_characteristic = p_service->createCharacteristic(...);
   p_move_desk_down_characteristic->setCallbacks( MoveDeskDownCallbacks()); BLECharacteristic *p_get_height_1_characteristic = p_service->createCharacteristic(...);
   p_get_height_1_characteristic->setValue(state_machine->getHeightPreset1(), );
   BLECharacteristic *p_save_current_height_as_height_1_characteristic = p_service->createCharacteristic(...);
   p_save_current_height_as_height_1_characteristic->setCallbacks( SaveCurrentHeightAsHeight1Callbacks()); ... ... p_service->start();

   BLEAdvertising *p_advertising = p_server->getAdvertising();
   p_advertising->start();

   xTaskCreate(
       updateDeskHeight, , , , , );
} void setup () 115200 3 // used for saving the height presets between reboots 0 new "ESP32_Desk" 20 /* ------------------- SET HEIGHT TO PRESET CHARACTERISTIC -------------------------------------- */ new /* ------------------- MOVE DESK UP CHARACTERISTIC ---------------------------------------------- */ new /* ------------------- MOVE DESK UP CHARACTERISTIC ---------------------------------------------- */ new /* ------------------- GET/SET HEIGHT 1 CHARACTERISTIC ------------------------------------------ */ 1 new /* ------------------- GET/SET HEIGHT 2 CHARACTERISTIC ------------------------------------------ */ /* ------------------- GET/SET HEIGHT 3 CHARACTERISTIC ------------------------------------------ */ /* ------------------- END CHARACTERISTIC DEFINITIONS ------------------------------------------ */ // Function that should be called "Update Desk Height" // Name of the task (for debugging) 1024 // Stack size NULL // Parameter to pass 5 // Task priority NULL // Task handle There is a lot more going on in the main file but this code has enough context for us to see what is happening. You’ll notice that we are creating and configuring all the BLE callbacks for all the characteristics, including moving the desk manually, setting/retrieving the preset values, and most importantly, adjusting the desk to a specific preset. The image below shows me interacting with that characteristic to adjust the desk height. The last piece of the puzzle is the state machine, which knows the current height of the desk, the requested height of the desk from the user, and works to align those two pieces of data. So I finally had the desk doing everything I wanted. I could save heights into presets and recall those heights to move the desk into my favorite positions. I was using a app on my phone and computer so I could send the raw messages to my desk in order to control its position. This worked but I knew that the battle with BLE was just beginning. In order to have a seamless interface with my desk I would also need to learn how to write an iOS app so I didn’t have to remember the HEX codes to send to my desk to save a preset and recall a position. BLE Terminal > The raw bluetooth interface… all that was left at this point was to learn how to program an iOS app… Then my wife said something that would change everything… “What if you could control it with your voice?” In addition to being way cooler, and adding to our growing list of Google Assistant devices in our house, I wouldn’t have to write an iOS app to control it. I also wouldn’t have to take my phone out of my pocket to set the desk height. The little wins! This article is getting a little long, so I’ll split this into a second article where I discuss adding > Google Smart Home IoT here

How I Converted My Manual Hand Crank Desk Into An IoT Desk (Part 1)

What Crypto insiders are reading on Asia. Subscribe now 🌟 Top News , through a partnership with the Taiwanese phone maker. . CryptoKitties to roll out a mobile app on HTC’s flagship phone, the U12+ http://bit.ly/2zzd9v0 Be sure to check out our podcast with Benny Giang, co-founder of Cryptokitties, on their go to market experience in Asia. Authorities in . India are likely to choose against a sweeping cryptocurrency ban and treat them as commodities http://bit.ly/2usbFN9 The In China. dilemma of consortium blockchain projects http://bit.ly/2um7aDY Chinese police cracks down on . $1.5 billion cryptocurrency World Cup gambling ring http://bit.ly/2utDiWc Korea Blockchain Association indirectly admitted that its in-house inspection of 12 cryptocurrency exchanges’ safety and security may have loopholes. http://bit.ly/2uqlJXe 💼 Business and Regulation News automakers and component companies have decided to implement a vendor management system on blockchain technology, potentially porting some 2 bn transactions a year to the new platform. In the biggest open ledger initiatives in India to date, http://bit.ly/2zyh4rP Members of South Korea’s on it during the National Assembly, from July 13 to 26. political parties will present their draft bills on Cryptocurrency and Blockchain http://bit.ly/2zzcolM The vs the Yuan that accounts for less than 1% of global volume. Japanese Yen accounts for more than 44 percent of global volume https://bloom.bg/2utDKDS 💰 Coin and Exchange News Managing Director James Mendes to join Block.one as Chief People Officer. Citibank Human Resources http://bit.ly/2uzibCb which will bring the Bitcoin Cash community support to LendChain. LendChain invested in BITMAIN’s BCH Angel Fund, http://bit.ly/2NaZqfI Forbe’s “top 10 new blockchain companies to watch for In 2018” . includes FCoin http://bit.ly/2zyfVRh 🌹🌹🌹 What did you guys think of our thus far with co-founder and Fortune Cat, , from Cryptokitties? And be sure to check out our latest collaboration with TechBuzz China on , with commentary directly from and . Global Coin podcast Benny Giang their 12th podcast episode Bitmain Jimmy Song Tim Swanson Check our past 5 weekly pieces on , , , , and Takeaways on Asia Crypto from Techcrunch Zug Cryptokitties Binance Bitmain China’s Crypto winners Podcast guests (yes, we have more than 1!) to be revealed today! Wait for it…

CryptoKitties debut app on HTC; India likely treat crypto as commodities; World Cup $1.5

Building technology to drive sales Company websites have traditionally been viewed as marketing portals. They are places to define the brand, have clear messaging, and capture leads. They can also help build a community and promote engaging content. However, as web technology has grown, we’ve seen a shift for the website to play a much larger role. In addition to all of the traditional marketing content, sites now include account creation, on-boarding and other product flows. So the question many start-ups ask is: Which team should own the website? Should it fall under the marketing team? Or should the engineering team be responsible for its delivery? From an engineering perspective, CTOs often shy away from any website involvement. They fear that marketing will eat into their product development time. While on the other hand, engineering teams can become possessive with the company website, making it difficult for marketing to accomplish their goals. From a marketing perspective, most marketers would love to have engineering resources. Content driven sites like have shown that marketing content which includes interactive features such as calculators, comparison tools and other software widgets, really help engage readers and drastically SEO. This is pretty cool stuff! Nerdwallet To put it simply, websites have become a difficult balance between marketing, product and engineering. Fuzzy’s Approach At Fuzzy we want to have the and marketing flow into product features seamlessly. I’ve seen companies whose product looks nothing like what’s on their marketing website, this results in a horrible user experience. A lot of B2B businesses can get away with this, but as a B2C company we wanted to have a clean and consistent experience. website At their core, websites are pieces of software At their core, websites are pieces of software, so it made sense to us to have the engineering team create a platform that would empower marketing to accomplish their goals. This means that the engineering team would own the website, so it was essential that we chose technology that engineers would enjoy working with to develop features into the site. The original Fuzzy website was built with WordPress — an engineer’s worst nightmare. WordPress purposely restricts the technical work you can do, but it is great for marketing teams that want to be able to draft and publish content and blog posts. Plus, all of our existing content and blog posts were already in WordPress. So we wanted to come up with a platform that harnessed the existing features of WordPress that we liked and expand the site’s capabilities with some Fuzzy engineering. The Tech What most developers don’t know is that WordPress is completely open-source and ships with a . WordPress is really just a clunky PHP application on top of a MySQL database. So if you’re willing to write some PHP, you can really get WP to do whatever you want. REST API Since we have zero desire to be PHP developers and most of the rest of our stack is Javascript, we decided to write a stand-alone front-end for our website. We would restrict our usage of WordPress to just being a content management system, and use its API to display the content with our React chops. React This way we wouldn’t disrupt the current workflow of the marketing team, and they could continue to develop their content in WordPress (using all of its publishing and drafting features). It also set us up to call our internal Fuzzy API when developing features like the sign up flow (and whatever other product features we will want on the site moving forward). Framework is a relatively strict framework when it comes to getting and displaying data, so we followed most of the typical conventions there. Conveniently, it also has a really nice server-side rendering feature that comes in handy when you want to return a completely rendered HTML page (rather than render in the browser). We wanted all of our content pages to be rendered server-side for SEO purposes. Accomplishing this takes a few different pieces. First we start with the basic React ES6class for the page: React with Redux You’ll notice the array appended to our ES6 class in order to make the server-side requests to the WordPress API while the page is rendering. The parameter is gathered from the URL. From there, we use standard AJAX to run the following request to WordPress: need pageName GET: <wordpress_url>/wp-json/wp/v2/posts?slug=${pageName} The content page from WP is then set in our Redux reducer and shows up in our content as React then takes care of the rendering from there. That’s pretty much it! this.props.page. Fuzzy Components Using React as a front-end also allowed us to develop our own widgets that our marketing team can use on our website. For example, let’s take a look at our LeadCaptureWidget: <FuzzyLeadCapture buttonText="Sign up" label="Join the Fuzzy Community" /> It then renders on the website to look like: So we’ve given marketers the power to use components developed by our engineers! Rendering The easiest place to render Fuzzy Components is after the markup has been rendered into the DOM. In React, this is in the lifecycle function. For the FuzzyLeadCapture component: componentDidMount The code above accomplishes 4 discrete tasks: Finding the FuzzyLeadCapture elements Reading their label and buttonText attributes Creating the React FuzzyLeadCapture element Inserting the React element into the DOM. As you can see we’re just parsing the rendered DOM and replacing the existing FuzzyLeadCapture elements with our FuzzyLeadCapture React components. Some developers might say it’s a bit of a hack, but it gets the job done. That’s just about it! You can imagine how we can extend this concept and create more interactive components for the marketing team. We plan on building calculators, comparison charts, and other interactive tools to add to our marketing content. Thanks for reading and please check out our . website

Engineering Driven Marketing @ Fuzzy

I’ll try to keep this short and simple : This post will go over an implementation of asynchronous server side rendering in a React application. I’ll be using React-Router, Mobx and Koa. The application code is over-simplified and meant to be minimal — it’s just a demonstration. Why is this a thing ? React and React-Router come with out-of-the-box server side rendering. Unfortunately — they do not support asynchronous rendering. That means your routes will be handled on the server and your views will be rendered, but if you need to load any data that isn’t on the server (e.g. from a database), that data won’t be available at the time the server does the rendering. When is this needed ? Whenever your application needs some dynamic content (e.g. data from an API) before the pages initially loads. In our example — we’ll have a page that shows information about a comic book character. That information comes from Wikipedia’s API. If that page was shared on Facebook, the Facebook crawler would expect the data about that character to be in the initial response that it gets from the server. If the dynamic data is only rendered on the client side — it would be missing from our Facebook post. Synchronous Rendering ;) Let’s dive in You can find all this code in . I’ll include some code snippets but I recommend using the links to the repository to get a better view. https://github.com/avnersorek/react-async-server-side-rendering Our example application will have two views — the root view (‘/’) which shows a list of comic book characters created by Stan Lee, and another view (‘/characters/:id’) that shows the Wikipedia abstract of a single character. Let’s follow along on what happens when we make a request for a specific character : First stop : React-Router The first place we hit in our flow is . We call which is just React-Router’s method wrapped in a promise (callbacks are 2014). We let React-Router do it’s magic — it will find the components that need to be rendered according to the route. We’ll get back a object, which has the info on what’s about to be rendered. src/app.server.js#renderApp matchRoutes — match so props Setting up the app on the server The props object go to the method. Let’s break that down : initAndRender function* initAndRender(props) {const appStore = yield initStore(props);const initialState = serializeStore(appStore);const app = shared.injectStores(<RouterContext {...props} />, appStore);const componentHTML = renderToString(app);return renderIndex(componentHTML, initialState);} initStore(props) function* initStore(props) {const appStore = new AppStore(); yield props.components.filter(Boolean).map(component => component.wrappedComponent || component).filter(component => component.preServerRender).map(component => component.preServerRender(appStore, props.params)); return appStore;} This is called with since — as the name of this post implies — it will be an asynchronous action. This will create a new object — the store is empty at this stage. Then we’ll go over the components in the props object. These are the components that React-Router found that need to be rendered ( ). We’ll be calling the static method on each component ( ). This is the place for each component to say what it needs before it’s rendered on the server. Let’s look at it on the : yield AppStore They are the classes of the components and not instances preServerRender This is something I made up — not a built in React Component life-cycle method Character component static preServerRender(appStore, params) {return appStore.loadCharacter(params.pageId);} So the Character component will need our to load a character before it renders. We also get the route params, so we know which character ID to use. This method needs to return a Promise, so we’ll know when it’s finished loading the resource. Behind the scenes, this will preform a GET request to Wikipedia’s API. appStore Synchronous from here on That’s it ! That was the whole asynchronous stuff. I’ll cover the rest pretty quick, but it’s ‘standard’ React server side rendering : const initialState = serializeStore(appStore); Will serialize the state. In order for our client-side application to start with the state our server finished with, it needs to be serialized into JSON and planted in the response the server sends. That . Next we render the views : happens here const app = shared.injectStores(<RouterContext {...props} />, appStore);const componentHTML = renderToString(app); Sending the state to the client-side application is not enough. We also want our initial views (HTML) to be rendered according to this state. is just some code shared between the client and the server, utilizing Mobx’s Providers to inject the appStore into our Component instances. is just React-DOM doing it’s thing. s_hared.injectStores_ renderToString return renderIndex(componentHTML, initialState); Now we take our rendered views (HTML) and serialized state (JSON), and . If you have a bigger index.html file, I’d recommend using ejs or jade for this part. inject those into our index.html Don’t forget the client After our initial render, the client-side application takes over. We’ll need to initialize our on the client with the initial state — : appStore this happens in src/app.client.js const initialState = global.window.__INITIAL_STATE__;const appStore = new AppStore(initialState); React will know to take it from there (That’s actually amazing). You’ll even get a warning in your console if the state and HTML you got from the server don’t align. Client from here on The rest of the interaction our user does with the app, will be done on the client-side. The React life-cycle hook to get the next characters : Character component will use the componentDidMount componentDidMount() {const { appStore, params } = this.props;appStore.loadCharacter(params.pageId);} This happens in parallel to the renders, so don’t forget to . support loading states in your components That’s it. I didn’t really go very deep into things, I tried to keep this post short. So if you have any questions please post them here as comments. Thanks ! Edit : Component.render This will work for nested routes, but not for components nested inside components. That’s because those only come into play in when is called. That can be handled by rendering twice as described in react-async-render .

Asynchronous Server side rendering with React

The recent revelation of the purchasing the sensitive internet data of Americans did not feel like a bombshell despite its potential to shake public trust in government surveillance practices. National Security Agency (NSA) No front-page headlines blared with outrage; no politicians clamored for accountability. It seemed as though the acceptance of ubiquitous surveillance had dulled our collective sense of shock. Let’s talk about this shocking revelation and its profound implications for our data security. The NSA's Purchasing of Browser Data: A Breach of Legal Protocol In the digital age, where our every click and keystroke can be tracked, privacy often feels like a distant memory. But what if the very guardians of our freedoms were covertly peering into our online lives without the necessary checks and balances? Recently, a revelation shook the foundations of trust in government surveillance. But the surprising aspect is there wasn't a bombshell or a breaking news alert. Rather, it was a quiet unveiling of documents that painted a stark picture of the NSA's covert activities. Senator Ron Wyden disclosed that the National Security Agency has been purchasing Americans' web browsing data from commercial data brokers without warrants. This means that government agencies regularly spy on Americans by acquiring confidential information, bypassing the court orders intended to safeguard individual privacy rights. What makes this revelation particularly damning is the hypocrisy it exposes. The United States has always been a symbol of freedom and democracy and was criticizing other states for surveillance practices. Yet, behind closed doors, it appears that the U.S. government was engaging in similar activities, albeit with a veneer of legality. But perhaps what's most troubling is the nonchalance with which this revelation was met. It underscores a dangerous complacency, a tacit acceptance of surveillance as the new normal. A Senator’s Call for Action Wyden fought for almost 3 years to publicly release the fact that the NSA is buying Americans’ internet records. He has even succeeded in obtaining public confirmation of that fact after  placing a hold on the nomination of Lt. General Timothy Haugh to serve as NSA director. Following Senator Wyden's previous efforts that compelled the FBI to admit its purchase of sensitive data, he is now urging all intelligence agencies to halt buying personal data acquired illegally by data brokers. Expressing concern, Wyden emphasized that the government should not support an industry that blatantly violates Americans' privacy, branding such actions as both unethical and illegal. He addressed a letter to Avril Haines, Director of National Intelligence, urging for the adoption of policies aligning with the legal standards set by the FTC for data sales. Questioning the Legality of Data Acquisition NSA officials briefed Senator Wyden, revealing that the agency not only purchases data on Americans within the US but also acquires their Internet metadata. Senator Wyden expressed concern about the implications of this revelation. He explained that accessing such data could expose personal and sensitive information, such as individuals' online activities, including visits to websites offering mental health support, resources for survivors of abuse, or providers of reproductive health services like birth control or abortion medication. The Role of Intelligence Agencies in Data Broker Violations Wyden highlighted the possibility that intelligence agencies might inadvertently aid data brokers in violating FTC regulations, which mandate clear disclosures and informed consent from users before their data is sold. Despite his seven-year investigation into data brokers, Wyden noted the absence of any company providing such warnings to users prior to data collection. Wyden referred to the case of X-Mode, a data broker recently scrutinized by the FTC for its questionable practices. This case appeared after the company admitted to selling sensitive location data without user consent, even after consent revocation. He described the FTC's order as establishing "new rules," although it primarily serves as a form of common law through settlements, indicating unacceptable practices under the FTC Act. X-Mode's violations of the FTC Act encompassed various infractions, including unfairly selling sensitive data, disregarding consumers' privacy choices, and deceptively collecting and using location data without consent verification. However, the FTC did not provide clarification on whether the order extends to data purchases by intelligence agencies. It's also important to mention that the FTC order includes exemptions for data collected outside the US for security or national security purposes by federal agencies or entities. Wyden Calls for Compliance with FTC Regulations Senator Wyden urged the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) to instruct US intelligence agencies to cease purchasing Americans' private data obtained unlawfully, as per the new rules outlined by the FTC quite recently. The FTC's recent ruling stipulated that Americans must be informed and give consent for their data to be sold to "government contractors for national security purposes." Also, to address this issue, Wyden called for intelligence agencies to conduct a thorough inventory and promptly erase any illegally obtained data on Americans without proper authorization. He argued that failing to do so allows agencies like the NSA and FBI to bypass constitutional protections like the Fourth Amendment effectively. Wyden's Recommendations to Ensure Compliance In addition to urging compliance with the FTC's regulations, Wyden proposed three actions for intelligence agency elements to ensure adherence to the latest rulings: Conduct Inventory of Purchased Personal Data Intelligence agencies should compile an inventory of the personal data purchased about Americans, encompassing aspects like location and internet metadata. This recommendation aligns with the suggestion made by the Office of the DNI's Senior Advisory Group Panel on Commercially Available Information in its January 2022 report. Assess Data Sources Against FTC Standards Each data source identified in the inventory should be evaluated to determine whether it meets the standards outlined by the FTC for legal personal data sales. This aligns with the Senior Advisory Group's recommendation to identify and safeguard sensitive Commercially Available Information that raises privacy and civil liberties concerns. Purge Non-Compliant Data If the data purchases do not meet the FTC's legal standards, intelligence agencies should promptly purge the data. Any specific need to retain such data should be communicated to Congress, and the details of retained data should be made known to the American public to the greatest extent possible. Wyden's call for intelligence agencies to inventory and purge unlawfully collected data signifies a crucial step toward accountability and rectification. By holding agencies accountable for their actions, we can mitigate the adverse impacts of unwarranted surveillance on individuals' rights. Responses to Waden on Shady Data Broker Dealings In reply to Wyden's letter, Ronald Moultrie, the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence & Security, assured that the Department of Defense (DoD) strictly follows rigorous standards for privacy and civil liberties when obtaining Americans' location data. He stated that there is no existing legal obligation for the DoD to acquire court orders for commercially available information accessible to foreign adversaries, US companies, and private individuals. In another response to Wyden, General Paul Nakasone, the leader of the NSA, said that the agency takes measures to limit the collection of data on US individuals and only acquires essential information relevant to its missions. This includes some commercially available data on Americans involved in international communications, crucial for safeguarding the US Defense Industrial Base and supporting military weapons systems. But Wyden is still not convinced. He’s still concerned about the widespread unethical practice of data brokers selling Americans' information without their consent, emphasizing the urgent need for regulation. No reason can be enough to justify the support of intelligence agencies for companies engaged in intrusive surveillance, as identified by the FTC. Though Moultrie indicated that the DNI determines which information sources are suitable for intelligence activities, Wyden is more concerned about secret data acquisition. Americans must be told and allowed to opt out of such secretive data collection. The lack of transparency from intelligence agencies surrounding data purchases is raising many red flags. Final Words It has been all over the internet for the last few years that the NSA has bought the browsing data of Americans. But quite recently, all these speculations have turned into reality as Senator Wyden has finally succeeded in getting the truth out of the NSA after 3 years of consistent efforts. Now, Wyden is demanding intelligence agencies remove all the sensitive data that should not be attained by anyone without a warrant. Additionally, Wyden pointed out that, according to the FTC's order, Americans should be informed and consent to their data being sold to government contractors for national security purposes. This requirement aims to safeguard individuals' privacy rights amidst concerns about data exploitation. While the FTC has taken action against a handful of data brokers, the questionable practice of selling data without obtaining Americans' consent is a widespread issue requiring regulation. Instead of being customers in this questionable market, intelligence agencies ought to cease funding companies accused of engaging in intrusive and unregulated surveillance of Americans.

NSA Finally Admits The Purchase Of Americans’ Sensitive Data

NSA অবশেষে আমেরিকানদের সংবেদনশীল ডেটা ক্রয় স্বীকার করে

Die NSA gibt schließlich den Kauf sensibler Daten von Amerikanern zu

La NSA finalmente admite la compra de datos confidenciales de estadounidenses

La NSA admet enfin l’achat de données sensibles par les Américains

एनएसए ने अंततः अमेरिकियों के संवेदनशील डेटा की खरीद को स्वीकार कर लिया

NSA、ついにアメリカ人の機密データの購入を認める

NSA, 마침내 미국인의 민감한 데이터 구매를 인정

NSA finalmente admite a compra de dados confidenciais dos americanos

АНБ наконец признало покупку конфиденциальных данных американцев

NSA Sonunda Amerikalıların Hassas Verilerinin Satın Alındığını Kabul Etti

NSA cuối cùng thừa nhận việc mua dữ liệu nhạy cảm của người Mỹ

美国国家安全局最终承认购买美国人的敏感数据

STASIS, a trailblazer in the digital currency and stablecoin realm, has recently unveiled an innovative instant purchase feature for EURS, effectively bridging the 16 trillion euro market with cutting-edge blockchain technology. This development represents a pivotal moment in cryptocurrency accessibility and efficiency. Now, accessing crypto and DeFi is quicker than ever, with STASIS’ services requiring only a minute and a few simple clicks to get onboard. You can purchase up to 1000 EURS monthly with minimal effort! To get started, follow these simple steps: Enter your email on our registration page. Register your phone number. Link your wallet to our Web app. That's all! Your account is ready in just a minute! In-Depth Insights Users can now acquire up to 1000 EURS monthly in a remarkably short time. The process has been streamlined to a few clicks, involving simple steps such as email entry, phone number registration, and wallet connection via the Webapp. This feature is designed to cater to both seasoned crypto enthusiasts and newcomers, ensuring a hassle-free experience. Understanding the importance of cost-effectiveness in transactions, STASIS has dramatically reduced the commission fees. Now, all operations, including purchases and sales across all blockchains, are subject to a flat rate of 5 euros, making it more economical for users to engage in crypto trading and investments. The focus on user experience is evident in the quick and intuitive account setup process. New users can have their accounts operational within a minute, significantly improving traditional, more complex crypto platforms. To aid users in navigating the new feature, we made demonstrating the ease and speed of the onboarding process. a short video STASIS Future Plans "We are excited to push the boundaries of what's possible in the crypto world with our new instant purchase feature. We aim to make financial transactions not just faster but also less frictional, more accessible, and cost-effective for everyone. This is just the beginning of our journey towards making the digital economy more inclusive and user-friendly," shared the STASIS CMO Alex. Looking ahead, STASIS plans to continue innovating and expanding its services, focusing on enhancing user experience and integrating more features that align with the evolving needs of the digital finance community. Feel free to ask more about Stasis and EURS via the links below: I I I X LinkedIn Discord Telegram

STASIS Introduces Game-Changing Instant Purchase for EURS

STASIS EURS-এর জন্য গেম-চেঞ্জিং তাত্ক্ষণিক কেনাকাটার প্রবর্তন করেছে

STASIS führt bahnbrechenden Sofortkauf für EURS ein

STASIS presenta una innovadora compra instantánea de EURS

STASIS présente l'achat instantané révolutionnaire pour EURS

STASIS ने EURS के लिए गेम-चेंजिंग इंस्टेंट खरीदारी की शुरुआत की

STASIS が EURS の革新的な即時購入を導入

STASIS, 획기적인 EURS 즉시 구매 기능 출시

STASIS apresenta compra instantânea revolucionária para EURS

STASIS представляет революционную мгновенную покупку за евро

STASIS, EURS için Oyunun Kurallarını Değiştiren Anında Satın Alma Özelliğini Tanıtıyor

STASIS giới thiệu tính năng mua tức thì mang tính thay đổi trò chơi bằng EURS

STASIS 推出改变游戏规则的欧元即时购买

Twitter v. Elon Musk Court Filing by Potter Anderson & Corroon LLP, July 12, 2022 is part of . You can jump to any part in this filing . This is part 2 of 31. HackerNoon’s Legal PDF Series here THE PARTIES 12. Plaintiff Twitter, Inc. is a Delaware corporation headquartered in San Francisco, California that owns and operates a global platform for real-time self-expression and conversation. 13. Defendant Elon R. Musk is a sophisticated entrepreneur who owns approximately 9.6% of Twitter’s stock. He is the CEO of Tesla and leads SpaceX, among other entities he founded or co-founded. Musk is referred to in the merger agreement as Equity Investor, and is the President, Secretary, Treasurer, and sole shareholder of both Parent and Acquisition Sub. Musk signed the merger agreement on behalf of both Parent and Acquisition Sub, and agreed to be a party to the agreement in his individual capacity as Equity Investor with respect to several “Specified Provisions.” Ex. 1, Preamble. 14. Defendant X Holdings I, Inc., or Parent, is a Delaware corporation formed on April 19, 2022 solely for the purpose of engaging in, and arranging financing for, the transactions contemplated by the merger agreement. 15. Defendant X Holdings II, Inc., or Acquisition Sub, is a Delaware corporation and a wholly owned subsidiary of Parent. Acquisition Sub was formed on April 19, 2022 solely for the purpose of engaging in, and arranging financing for, the transactions contemplated by the merger agreement. Continue reading here

'Buying Twitter is an accelerant to creating X, the everything app', says Elon Musk

"Comprar Twitter es un acelerador para crear X, la aplicación de todo", dice Elon Musk

"L'achat de Twitter est un accélérateur pour créer X, l'application de tout", déclare Elon Musk

एलोन मस्क कहते हैं, 'ट्विटर खरीदना एक्स, द एवरीथिंग ऐप बनाने का एक त्वरक है'

「Twitterを購入することは、すべてのアプリであるXを作成するための促進剤です」とイーロン・マスクは言います

'Comprar o Twitter é um acelerador para criar o X, o aplicativo de tudo', diz Elon Musk

'Mua Twitter là một công cụ tăng tốc để tạo ra X, ứng dụng mọi thứ', Elon Musk nói

埃隆·马斯克说：“购买 Twitter 是创造 X 的催化剂，它是万能的应用程序”

For the past few weeks, the tech space has been buzzing about the latest news - the by billionaire Elon Musk. The Tesla founder has been one of the most popular people on Twitter for years, and he finally made the move to purchase the social media platform outrightly. acquisition of Twitter In the wave of Musk’s Twitter acquisition, there have been questions about what this could mean for the platform going forward. In the crypto space, Dogecoin (DOGE) enthusiasts have also been asking what the acquisition could mean for their favorite asset. Elon Musk’s Takeover Spikes Dogecoin As many expected, the price of DOGE immediately shot up after Elon musk’s purchase of Twitter was confirmed. In the days since the billionaire made his Twitter purchase, the dog-themed meme coin immediately saw a spike in its price. Dogecoin’s price jumped as high as $0.1428, marking a 12 percent rise in its price in 24 hours. The jump is understandable. Dogecoin has always thrived off developments coming from its biggest supporters, and there is no supporter quite as big as Musk right now. The billionaire has tweeted his support for DOGE several times, and he was one of the biggest influences behind the coin’s astronomical rise in 2021 that saw its price jump as high as $0.74. With the news that Musk would buy Twitter being confirmed, it was evident that . Opportunistic investors saw that as a way of making money, and several of them immediately ran to the asset to make purchases. DOGE’s price would soar However, things have since died down, and the price of DOGE has returned to the $0.12 region it was before Musk’s Twitter deal was confirmed. Regardless, investors are still wondering what this deal could mean for Twitter and DOGE in particular. It is worth noting that are still quite positive.  Investors and analysts remain confident that the asset’s value will rise over time, especially when the market flips bullish. Dogecoin price predictions Musk’s Unwavering Crypto Belief It goes to say that Musk remains optimistic about cryptocurrencies being the payment channel of the future. The billionaire has shown support for crypto on multiple occasions, and from Bitcoin Treasuries shows that Tesla still holds $1.68 billion in Bitcoin. data Ever since he made his Twitter acquisition, Musk has been talking a big game about his vision for the company and the platform itself. The billionaire isn’t done laying his vision out, but there have been speculations about what it could mean for crypto. One aspect where Musk is looking to change Twitter is in terms of monetization. The billionaire believes that there are ways for Twitter to monetize tweets, and he that the platform could open a payment option that supports Dogecoin. recently suggested Such a move wouldn’t necessarily be surprising. Musk himself has been vocal about his belief that Dogecoin could be an even more superior payment option than Bitcoin. Earlier this year, Tesla Dogecoin as a payment method for merchandise at its official online store. At the same time, Musk that the company could begin accepting the meme coin as a payment method for charging vehicles at supercharging stations across the country. began accepting has said If Musk believes that Dogecoin is a top-tier payment channel, then he could decide to use Twitter as the perfect testing ground for the asset. Depending on how he decided to monetize tweets and open Twitter up for more profitability, we could see the social media platform herald a new age of payments using the dog-themed meme coin. For now, the question will be whether or not people will want to pay for Twitter. The social media channel has been able to rise among the ranks of other social platforms primarily because it is free - anyone can open a Twitter account and begin using the platform without having to pay a cent. Will people be willing to change that? Fixing Dogecoin Is Still A Priority Despite the buzz that Musk’s Twitter acquisition has caused, it is worth noting that nothing is set in stone yet. For one, Musk is now expected to be feeling the pressure of running the social media platform that he has spent the better part of the past year criticizing. If he’s unable to show that Twitter can indeed be better while still maintaining its profitability, then his gambles would most likely have been for nothing. $44 billion Right now, there’s little to show that the billionaire is prioritizing Dogecoin in his plans. At the same time, there’s also a lot of work to be done with DOGE itself. Most prominent is the coin’s tokenomics. Dogecoin is still not a deflationary token, meaning that it might not necessarily work like Bitcoin when it comes to operating as an investment that can help holders to hedge against inflation. So, even if it does get adopted as a payment method by Twitter and a bunch of other companies, there’s still a lot to be desired when it comes to functionality. Recently, we saw a of the Dogecoin Foundation that seeks to address some of these issues and get them some more clarity. The reconstitution had a simple goal - to move Dogecoin from being a “meme coin” to becoming an asset with greater functionality and usefulness. reconstitution As explained at the time, the Dogecoin Foundation’s new focus is to protect the Dogecoin brand and community while maintaining the functionality of the asset’s blockchain. There have already been talks about building a staking system for Dogecoin as well as bringing more uses to the asset. All of these are sure to improve its appeal to investors and bolster its price going forward.

What Elon Musk's Twitter Purchase Means For DOGE

Lo que significa la compra de Twitter de Elon Musk para DOGE

Ce que l'achat d'Elon Musk sur Twitter signifie pour DOGE

DOGE के लिए एलोन मस्क की ट्विटर खरीदारी का क्या मतलब है

イーロン・マスクの Twitter 買収が DOGE にとって何を意味するか

O que a compra do Twitter de Elon Musk significa para o DOGE

Mua hàng trên Twitter của Elon Musk có ý nghĩa gì đối với DOGE

埃隆马斯克的 Twitter 购买对 DOGE 意味着什么

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