Portex

portex

Materials and equipment needed To build and test these test lungs, some equipment is essential. The following is a list of suggested gear: Compressed air source: oil free compressor, several cfm at > 50psi Recommended: Porter-Cable C2002 Pressure gauge: should read 0–50 cmH2O range with <1 cmH2O resolution, preferably with differential inputs, preferably digital Recommended: Risepro HT-1890 Flow meter: should read 0–60 lpm with < 1 lpm resolution, preferably digital Recommended: no recommendation yet Rigid vessel: one 14 gallon or three 5 or 6 gallon glass carboys (from home brewing store) (or) Flexible bag: anaesthesia bag, 2–3 liters (or other similar size bag) Recommended: Smiths Portex #370924 Plastic sheets (for springs): 12x12 inch, 1/8 thick, HDPE, polypropylene, or polycarbonate Recommended: McMaster 2898K11 https://www.mcmaster.com/2898k11 Tubing: 3/4 inch PVC pipe, schedule 40 (from hardware store) — By Alex Izvorski and Robert L. Read Teams building and testing ventilators for COVID-19 need to have “test lungs”. The term “test lung” sometimes means a physical air-tight container with sophisticated instrumentation added, but here we mean just the physical container without the instruments. A test lung is a simulator of a real pair of lungs, but made in such a way that it has standard and stable physical properties. In particular, it should press against air inside it when inflated, just like real lungs, which is called . It should oppose air from moving in or out too fast (just like real lungs which can’t fill or empty instantly) this is called . It is almost impossible to understand how an emergency pandemic ventilator designed to help humans breathe will behave without testing on test lungs. Engineers building prototypes need a way to test on their workbench, even if much more rigorous testing will eventually be needed before a ventilator is used on a patient. This article teaches how to model compliance and resistance, and will be useful if you need to understand those concepts, or if you actually need to test a pandemic ventilator. compliance resistance (A Commercial test lung with a resistance tube and barbed bleed adapter.) How Doctors Measure Pressure For respiration, only pressure differences matter. Breathing is driven not by atmospheric pressure, but by difference in pressure in the airway compared to atmospheric pressure. Although engineers normally use the SI unit of pressure, which is the Pascal, the medical profession usually measures pressure in terms of the height of a column of water it will raise — -hence, centimeters of water, denoted as cmH2O. 1 cmH2O is approximately equal to 98 Pa. It takes 70 cm H2O to make one psi. Breathing pressure differentials almost never go above one psi! To measure pressure inside an airway, you have to get a pressure meter probe or sensor sealed inside the airway. Adult airways use an international 22mm standard. A barbed bleed adapter is a convenient way to insert a pressure sensor into an airway. This is about the size of ¾” PVC tubing, which is widely available. (A smaller port in the airway makes taking a pressure measurement easier.) Compliance Typical healthy lungs have a compliance around 20–50 milliliters/cmH2O. In other words, pushing in 20–50 ml air would raise pressure by 1 cmH2O. (Different lungs or diseases have different compliance curves.) The compliance of real lungs is not completely constant. Just like a balloon getting tight as it gets full, the lungs require more pressure to push or pull another milliliter in as they get more full. That is why a plot of pressure vs. volume is a typical S-shaped curve. Some disease conditions make the lungs stiff (low compliance), or even loose (high compliance). Because applying too much pressure to a patient’s lungs or blowing too much air into them causes serious injury, ventilators have to be tested against realistic compliance and resistance. Resistance Typical healthy lungs also have a resistance around 3–7 cmH2O/(liters/second). Thus, pushing air in at a constant flow rate of 1 liter/second (60 liters per minute) would raise pressure by 3–7 cmH2O (in addition to the change due to compliance). A realistic test lung is simply a combination of an element with a known resistance and an element with a known compliance. Commercial Test Lungs Instrumented commercial test lungs are available, but may be quite expensive, and may not be easy to obtain in the current crisis. Some examples of instrumented test lungs are the Michigan Instruments Model 1600 Test Lung; the IngMar ASL 5000 Breathing Simulator; and the IMT SmartLung. Even uninstrumented simple plastic test lungs may be hard to obtain in some places during the pandemic. If you are working on a ventilator project and have one of these, great! If you don’t, this article is for you. Constructing Your Own Test Lungs Several ways of constructing test lungs with known resistance and compliance are described in the ISO 10651–5 standard for ventilators. It turns out that some of those don’t require any expensive or difficult to obtain materials or equipment. They work as well as the commercial test lungs, and are suitable for certifying designs. To calibrate your test lung, you will need a pressure meter or sensor and a way to take a measurement just inside the throat of the test lung, such as by using a CPAP bleed adapter or some other Y-connector or T-connector that you can seal around your pressure meter. Constructing Compliance from a Glass Vessel Compliance is measured in milliliters/cmH2O. This may be concisely written as just a C-value without the units, and those units are assumed. The typical adult range is around C20 (+-10), mainly depending on body size and physical condition. Compliance may decrease greatly with conditions that cause the lung tissue to stiffen (eg ARDS). Values used in the ISO standards (for adults) are: C50 — large adult C20 — normal C10 — unhealthy lungs : a rigid vessel such as a large glass carboy. The air inside the container acts as a stiff spring. Construction C50 = 72.5 liter (19 gallon) vessel C20 = 29 liter (7.5 gallon) vessel C10 = 14.5 liter (3.8 gallon) vessel (Inexpensive 41.6 liter or 11 gallon test lung, measured compliance C28) (Classic adult test lung from from Hill 1965; the 50 liter or 13 gallon glass demijohn inside a wicker basket on the right is the test lung, the device on the left is a pump) A glass container is probably necessary; most plastic or metal containers of this size may not be rigid enough, and as the walls flex, the C value would change in unpredictable ways. (If you really need to use a plastic container — try one half the size first). The test lung may be composed of several smaller containers linked together. If the containers are linked with valves, this allows easily changing compliance by opening or closing valves. In practice, connecting together two or three of the common 5 or 6 gallon carboys such as used in homebrewing or wine making is a good simulation of adult lungs in the C20-C50 range. (Typical brewing carboys) (Vessels of different sizes: 3 to 14 gallons) Optionally the vessel may be filled with copper mesh, about 1kg (2lb) for the largest size or half that for the smaller sizes. The copper mesh is intended to make the compression of air isothermal by adding a large thermal mass that rapidly equilibrates with the air. If the mesh is omitted, compression is adiabatic instead. The mesh mainly has an effect at very low respiratory rates (0–5 breaths/minute); it is generally not necessary if the test lung is used at normal respiratory rates (>5 breaths/minute). Safety Note These suggested vessels are not pressure rated and may fracture at high pressures. The pressure differences used in normal breathing almost never exceed 1 psi, or 70 cmH2O. Compared to bicycle tires or air-powered tools, this is a tiny pressure. There is never a reason to test higher pressures, which may be dangerous. Do not pressurize over 70cmH2O or 1 psi as such pressures may be both unsafe, and are not realistic for lungs. A pressure limiting valve (pop-off valve) set to 1–2 psi is . Use a basket or a cloth wrapping around the vessel to catch any fragments if it breaks, and . required wear eye protection Constructing Compliance with Plastic Sheets and Bags A 2–3 liter inflatable bag (anesthesia bag or similar) sandwiched between two thin flexible sheets of plastic. The sheets of plastic should be connected together on two opposite edges, forming flat springs. The resistance to air flowing in should come (as much as possible) from the bending of the plastic sheets, not from stretching the bag. The bag would typically inflate only to a thickness of 1–3 cm while in use (in other words it is still mostly flat). Adjust the thickness and length of the plastic to get the right C value (shorter lengths = lower C). A reasonable starting point is to use 12x12 inch, 1/8 inch thick plastic sheets made of HDPE, polypropylene or polycarbonate; but the resulting stiffness of the springs is very dependent on the exact thickness and material, so the dimensions would have to be tuned in each case. (IMT SmartLung — commercial version of a bag between flat plastic springs; adjustable length of spring changes C value. Price: $650) To calibrate, iInject of air using a syringe. Measure the pressure rise immediately after. 500ml C50 should be 10 cmH2O C20 should be 25 cmH2O C10 should be 50 cmH2O Extended calibration: inject air in 100ml increments between 0 and 1000ml; measure the pressure rise and draw a curve. An example calibration curve from the two carboy setup above: Constructing Resistance Because resistance is a function of flow, it is measured in pressure divided by flow, or cmH2O/(liter/second). This may be abbreviated with the letter R and a number without stating the units. The typical adult range is around R5 (+-2). Resistance may increase significantly with any conditions that produce impaired airflow, such as asthma. There are two kinds of resistances, linear (pressure proportional to flow rate) and “parabolic” (pressure proportional to square of flow rate). Linear resistances are harder to construct, so the equivalent parabolic resistances are described below. Values used in the ISO standards (for adults) are: R5 — normal R20 R50 — very high In order to construct a flow resistance that models these values, add a thin plate with a small hole to a standard breathing airway. The international standard for airway diameters is 22mm. (A commercial adapter offering three resistances by having thin plates with 3 different hole sizes.) : tube with inner diameter of approx 22mm and at least 40mm long, blocked by a thin plate with a hole that restricts flow. The hole should have the following diameters: Construction R5 = 7.7 mm R20 = 5.6 mm R50 = 3.9 mm In order to calibrate, connect the resistance to a source of pressurized air, with the other side open to the atmosphere. Adjust flow until it is a steady . Hand-held flow meters are relatively expensive but used in many industries, so you may be able to borrow one. If not, you may have to use a large plastic bag of a known capacity and time how long it takes to fill. Measure the pressure at the inlet to the tube (on the side of the plate the air is coming from). 1 liter per second Compared to the atmospheric pressure in the room, the pressures should be: R5 should be 5 cmH2O nominal (2.7 cmH2O for parabolic) R20 should be 20 cmH2O (17.6 cmH2O for parabolic) R50 should be 50 cmH2O (6.8 cmH2O for parabolic, measured at 0.25 liters per second) (note: the specs for parabolic resistance above come from an older standard, ASTM F920–93, table A2.2) In order to perform extended calibration adjust flow to 0.25, 0.5 and 1 liters per second, measure the pressure at each flow and draw a curve. The actual value is likely to be different due to small changes in geometry, etc. Adjust the hole size if needed, or simply use several different sizes with known measured R-values for testing. Other approaches When it comes to simulating lungs, the perhaps obvious DIY approach is to use some kind of expandable or inflatable bag, balloon or similar. This is then loaded in some way e.g. with elastic bands, weights, or by being put under water to make it harder to push air in. The problem with these approaches is that the pressure vs volume curves they have is completely different from the one that the standard test lungs (and real lungs) have. Most elastic bags are not nearly stiff enough; for example anaesthesia bags are much stiffer than balloons, but are still not stiff enough until over-inflated to 2x-5x their rated volume; and additionally, the stiffness changes a great deal once they stretch. Weights, water and similar static loads add a minimum pressure which is required to push any air in; they offset the pressure vs volume curve, rather than changing the slope. Springs, elastic bands and so forth do change the slope, but not in a consistent way — for most of these the slope gets much steeper as the volume gets higher. Trying to measure the R and C values, especially C, is meaningless because the shape of the curve is wrong. This may lead to very misleading conclusions when testing a ventilator prototype. Conclusion It is much more important to have a test lung which behaves in a realistic way, and for which the R and C values are known and within the expected range for real lungs, than it is to have specific R and C values or to use a commercial test lung. Even if a commercial test lung is not available, it is strongly recommended to use the of construction described here — even if the specific sizes or volumes are slightly different — for all but the simplest tests of ventilator function. types Public Invention is a US 501(c)3 public charity. Your supports are attempt to foster tested, reliable, and monitored open-source pandemic ventilators. Public Invention donation References International Standards Organisation. ISO 10651–5–2006 Lung ventilators for medical use — Particular requirements for basic safety and essential performance — Part 5: Gas-powered emergency resuscitators. https://www.iso.org/standard/35975.html Hill DW, Moore V. The action of adiabatic effects on the compliance of an artificial thorax. BJA: British Journal of Anaesthesia. 1965 Jan 1;37(1):19–22. https://academic.oup.com/bja/article/37/1/19/276686 Chatburn RL. Simulation studies for device evaluation. Respiratory care. 2014 Apr 1;59(4):e61–6. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/261515819_Simulation_Studies_for_Device_Evaluation Kenny JE. ICU Physiology in 1000 Words: Shorthand Equations for Respiratory System Power. Jonson B, Svantesson C. Elastic pressure–volume curves: what information do they convey?. Thorax. 1999 Jan 1;54(1):82–7.

How To Make Your Own Test Lungs for Testing Emergency Ventilators

Starting from , you can create a single that can build multiple helper images with compilers, , and tests and use files from above images to produce the Docker image. Docker 17.05+ Dockerfile tools final The “core principle” of Dockerfile Docker can build images by reading the instructions from a . A is a text file that contains a list of all the commands needed to build a new Docker image. The syntax of is pretty simple and the Docker team tries to keep it intact between Docker engine releases. Dockerfile Dockerfile Dockerfile The core principle is very simple: . 1 Dockerfile -> 1 Docker Image This principle works just fine for basic use cases, where you just need to demonstrate Docker capabilities or put some “static” content into a Docker image. Once you advance with Docker and would like to create secure and lean Docker images, a single is not enough. Dockerfile People who insist on following the above principle find themselves with slow Docker builds, huge Docker images (several GB size images), slow deployment time and lots of CVE violations embedded into these images. The Docker Build Container pattern Docker Pattern: The Build Container The basic idea behind pattern is simple: Build Container Create additional Docker images with required tools (compilers, linters, testing tools) and use these images to produce lean, secure and production ready Docker image. An example of the pattern for typical Node.js application: Build Container Derive a Node base image (for example ) and installed ( ) FROM node:6.10-alpine node npm Dockerfile.build Add package.json Install all node modules from and dependency devDependency Copy application code Run compilers, code coverage, linters, code analysis and testing tools Create the Docker image; derive same or other Node base image production FROM install node modules required for runtime ( ) npm install --only=production expose and define a default (command to run your application) PORT CMD Push the image to some Docker registry production This flow assumes that you are using two or more s and a shell script or flow tool to orchestrate all steps above. Dockerfile Example I use a fork of node.js application. Let’s Chat Builder Docker image with eslint, mocha and gulp FROM alpine:3.5# install nodeRUN apk add --no-cache nodejs# set working directoryWORKDIR /root/chat# copy project fileCOPY package.json .# install node packagesRUN npm set progress=false && \npm config set depth 0 && \npm install# copy app filesCOPY . .# run linter, setup and testsCMD npm run lint && npm run setup && npm run test Production Docker image with ‘production’ node modules only FROM alpine:3.5 # install nodeRUN apk add --no-cache nodejs tini# set working directoryWORKDIR /root/chat# copy project fileCOPY package.json .# install node packagesRUN npm set progress=false && \npm config set depth 0 && \npm install --only=production && \npm cache clean# copy app filesCOPY . .# Set tini as entrypointENTRYPOINT [“/sbin/tini”, “--”]# application server portEXPOSE 5000# default run commandCMD npm run start What is Docker multi-stage build? Docker 17.0.5 extends syntax to support new build, by extending two commands: and . Dockerfile multi-stage FROM COPY The build allows using multiple commands in the same Dockerfile. The last command produces the final Docker image, all other images are intermediate images (no final Docker image is produced, but ). multi-stage FROM FROM all layers are cached The syntax also supports keyword. Use keyword to give the current image a logical name and reference to it later by this name. FROM AS AS To copy files from intermediate images use , where number starts from (but better to use logical name through keyword). COPY --from=<image_AS_name|image_number> 0 AS Creating a multi-stage Dockerfile for Node.js application The below makes the pattern obsolete, allowing to achieve the same result with the single file. Dockerfile Build Container # ---- Base Node ----FROM alpine:3.5 AS base# install nodeRUN apk add --no-cache nodejs-npm tini# set working directoryWORKDIR /root/chat# Set tini as entrypointENTRYPOINT ["/sbin/tini", "--"]# copy project fileCOPY package.json . # ---- Dependencies ----FROM base AS dependencies# install node packagesRUN npm set progress=false && npm config set depth 0RUN npm install --only=production# copy production node_modules asideRUN cp -R node_modules prod_node_modules# install ALL node_modules, including 'devDependencies'RUN npm install # ---- Test ----# run linters, setup and testsFROM dependencies AS testCOPY . .RUN  npm run lint && npm run setup && npm run test # ---- Release ----FROM base AS release# copy production node_modulesCOPY --from=dependencies /root/chat/prod_node_modules ./node_modules# copy app sourcesCOPY . .# expose port and define CMDEXPOSE 5000CMD npm run start The above creates 3 intermediate Docker images and single Docker image (the final ). Dockerfile release FROM First image – is a base Node image with: , , (init app) and FROM alpine:3.5 AS base node npm tini package.json Second image – contains all node modules from and with additional copy of required for final image only FROM base AS dependencies dependencies devDependencies dependencies Third image – runs linters, setup and tests (with ); if this run command fail not final image is produced FROM dependencies AS test mocha The final image – is a base Node image with application code and all node modules from FROM base AS release dependencies Try Docker multi-stage build today In order to try Docker build, you need to get Docker 17.0.5, which is going to be released in May and currently available on the channel. multi-stage beta So, you have two options: Use channel to get Docker 17.0.5 beta Run container (docker-in-docker) dind Running Docker-in-Docker 17.0.5 (beta) Running Docker 17.0.5 (beta) in docker container ( is required): --privileged $ docker run -d --rm --privileged -p 23751:2375 --name dind \docker:17.05.0-ce-dind --storage-driver overlay2 Try build. Add to every Docker command, or set environment variable. mult-stage --host=:23751 DOCKER_HOST $ # using --host$ docker --host=:23751 build -t local/chat:multi-stage . $ # OR: setting DOCKER_HOST$ export DOCKER_HOST=localhost:23751$ docker build -t local/chat:multi-stage . Summary With Docker build feature, it’s possible to implement an advanced Docker image build pipeline using a single Dockerfile . multi-stage to Docker team for such a useful feature! Kudos Hope, you find this post useful. I look forward to your comments and any questions you have. Originally published at codefresh.io on April 24, 2017.

Create lean Node.js image with Docker multi-stage build

Regardless of the modern console discussed, each of them has great games. They all have exclusives that make them worth it. However, sometimes there’s a craving to play older games. Sure, emulators and just booting up old consoles are simple answers. The problem is that a lot of people never had or didn’t keep their old consoles, and the other problem is that it might be difficult to find good ROMS. Porting older games might be the best solution for many people. So, here are the 5 games that deserve to be ported to modern consoles. Games That Should Be Ported Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks F-Zero GX Ultimate Spider-Man Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks It’s been quite a long time since we’ve seen a non-fighting game from the Mortal Kombat team. Shaolin Monks was released in 2006 and was a beat ‘em up game that centered around the Mortal Kombat universe and its characters. It follows Liu Kang and Kung Lao as they travel to Outworld to fight the sorcerer, Shang Tsung. Mortal Kombat had tried to do non-fighting game spin-offs before Shaolin Monks, but none of them panned out. However, they knocked it out of the park with this game, and even co-creator of the series, , seems to think so as well. Ed Boon Unfortunately, a sequel was never released, but there’s always hope that a port comes soon. 2. F-Zero GX F-Zero fans have been in a drought for years. The racing series starring Captain Falcon hasn’t had a new installment since 2004, with the release of the Japan-exclusive game, F-Zero Climax. The least they could do is port the best game of the series, F-Zero GX, to modern consoles. GX was released in 2003 for the GameCube, but it should have a modern release as well. F-Zero is known and beloved for being quite challenging, and GX kept that tradition alive. On top of that, all of the different modes, like its story mode, kept the gameplay fresh and fun. Recently, F-Zero X to the Nintendo Switch Online Service. So, it looks like that will have to hold over F-Zero fans for the time being. Nintendo added 3. Ultimate Spider-Man Spider-Man’s most recent video games have been hits; Marvel’s Spider-Man was released in 2018, and Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales quickly followed it in 2020. The series isn’t stopping there either, is set to release in 2023. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 While these games are great, sometimes it’s good to go back to the classics. Spider-Man has plenty of those, but there’s one that especially comes to mind: Ultimate Spider-Man. Released in 2005, players could play as the titular character, or they could play as the villain (and sometimes antihero) Venom. These two characters are connected through their past, and they continue to clash in the present. Its amazing comic-like art style and suspenseful story make it an easy choice when talking about games that should be ported. 4. Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door Like Spider-Man, Paper Mario continues to have new installments. However, while these installments aren’t bad, they just don’t reach the levels that their predecessors did. The peak of the series was with Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, and what a peak it was. The Thousand-Year Door has a great story with witty writing, lovable characters, and engaging gameplay that makes it hard to put down. The game is a junior role-playing game, and that might not be a lot of people’s cup of tea. However, playing as Mario, he meets new friends, gains new moves, and tries to open the Thousand-Year Door is an unbeatable experience. 5.  Marvel vs. Capcom 2 The video game community has wanted Marvel vs. Capcom 2 to be released on modern consoles for a while. In recent times, the community has been more vocal about this, with huge YouTuber starting the #freemvc2 trend. Maximilian Dood It’s easy to see why fans would love to play this fighting game again on their consoles. With the wild cast of playable characters plucked from Marvel and Capcom franchises, its fun, over-the-top gameplay, and its stunning, eye-catching art, Marvel vs. Capcom 2 is wrapped in perfection. While it remains to be seen if the game will be re-released anytime soon, it won’t be surprising to see it sell well when it eventually does because out of all the games that deserve to be ported, this game is at the top of the list. More in Gaming: The Future Of Web3 Gaming And How To Get Involved Elden Ring is Not Fast-Food Entertainment Valve Says NFT Activity in Games are "Super Sketchy" ...They're Kinda Right!

5 Games That Should be Ported to Modern Consoles

Decoding the algorithms of company success has been a central focus of business research. If market success were exact and replicable, startups and tech giants could transform it from an anomaly into a consistent outcome. In the absence of a deterministic path, researchers have sought heuristics to enhance the likelihood of success. One such heuristic can be found in the different types of strategies a business should follow to achieve success. Michael Porter, the key reference in strategy, classifies strategies into Cost Leadership, Differentiation, and Focus. However, there is also a very popular theory developed by Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema, that identifies Customer Intimacy, Product Leadership, and Operational Excellence as the main paths to be followed. Except for a few details, a considerable level of correspondence can be found between these schools of thought. It is pretty reasonable to say that Cost Leadership corresponds to Operational Excellence, and Differentiation corresponds to Product Leadership. In Porter's framework, there is also the angle of Focus, but this alone is not a source of competitive advantage. In reality, Focus is a dimension that should be added to the Differentiation and Cost strategies to clarify that a broader or more focused market was chosen. Customer Intimacy Moreover, we have the kind of strategy that Treacy and Wiersema call Customer Intimacy. For them, Customer Intimacy holds a special place among all strategies. Customer Intimacy is all about understanding customers, tailoring offerings, and fostering strong relationships, with the end goal of maximizing customer lifetime value (LTV) in a practical, measurable way. Given these insights, it's no wonder the theory was adopted worldwide and is still widely used in companies and taught in business schools to this day. It is important to recognize that Treacy and Wiersema introduced valuable customer concepts ten years before the inaugural book on Net Promoter Score, at a time when customer lifetime value was an obscure concept lacking mature definitions in both the market and academia. We will examine each main pillar of the Customer Intimacy discipline to understand its overall framework and determine if it still makes sense to follow its rationale given the significant advancements in customer analysis. 1. Having a Deep Knowledge of the Customers Despite decades of theories and frameworks, such as Customer Intimacy and Net Promoter Score, most companies remain product-centric, often unable to identify specific customers behind each transaction. This limits their view to anonymous data points, making true customer-centricity a challenge. Gathering essential customer information across interactions provides valuable insights without needing exhaustive detail. Key practices, like integrating financial, product, and support data, can yield significant benefits. For those seeking deeper insights, social network data and advanced analytics are options, but this depth often depends more on resources and scalability than strictly on strategy. 2. Tailoring Products to Individual Needs Tech companies are increasingly focused on last-mile customization, using machine learning and algorithms to deliver tailored experiences at scale. For SaaS and consumer apps, investing in technologies that respond to user behavior is essential. Platforms like Netflix and e-commerce apps leverage predictive analytics and recommendation engines to keep experiences highly personalized. Balancing individual personalization with scalable product development requires prioritizing high-value customer needs without compromising the product’s direction. Some decisions must still be made at the product level to ensure customization aligns with the overall roadmap. This approach maximizes user value while keeping the platform's broader goals intact. 3. Building Strong and Lasting Relationships In today’s SaaS landscape, maintaining strong customer relationships extends well beyond the initial sale. Retention strategies use advanced analytics and machine learning to anticipate churn and identify at-risk users for proactive interventions. Personalization also includes engagement-driven communication, ensuring interactions stay relevant. CRM systems and data warehousing allow companies to keep a complete view of each customer’s journey, making each touchpoint more impactful. Maximizing LTV (Lifetime Value) is essential for tech companies focused on recurring revenue. By combining Customer Intimacy principles with real-time data, companies adapt to customer needs dynamically. This approach enables SaaS providers to deliver personalized experiences that retain high-value users, driving long-term growth in competitive markets. Enter Customer Centricity In many aspects, the retirement of Customer Intimacy implies the triumph of this idea. Analyzing its main pillars, we saw ideas that should be applied everywhere, not just to companies that have chosen this type of strategy. Using the same nomenclature proposed by the authors of the theory, we argue that the companies who opted for Operational Excellence and Product Leadership should have some activities that were proposed for the Customer Intimacy value discipline. Customer Intimacy did touch upon the idea of customer lifetime value (LTV), though it wasn’t central to the theory. At that time, this concept was still emerging. Today, we’ve moved beyond Customer Intimacy to the model of Customer Centricity, where strategies and actions are focused on identifying valuable clients and maximizing their long-term value. This shift allows us to approach customer relationships more analytically and profitably, leveraging data to drive growth. Not Just Semantics Without further thought, the idea that is being proposed here can look like just some semantic discussion without much importance, but this is not the case. In 1992, when this theory was proposed, we were in the early stages of personal computing. CRM systems were still in their infancy. Organizing and using client data was such a significant challenge that it was fair to say those companies had 'Customer Intimacy'. A few more sophisticated companies would know how much each client spent in a given year and create some internal procedures based on this information. Now, we have accessible computer systems and popular statistical models that allow small companies to go much farther than the most sophisticated companies of that time. Finally, there is another important reason for this change. Strategy authors all agree that companies shouldn't be stuck in the middle, they should choose one type of strategy. With Customer Intimacy as a distinct value discipline, companies may believe they don’t need to organize their strategy and operations around the value of their clients. But in reality, companies with any kind of strategy need to understand and try to maximize their client's value. Conclusion One option is to maintain the current framework — recognizing the higher standard for customer understanding across all companies — and reserve the category of Customer Intimacy for those that truly excel in this area. However, we believe this approach would cause more harm than good. While some companies might fit this classification, they would be so few that it wouldn't justify having a distinct category for them. Also, they would necessarily have a strategy that could be classified somewhere on the differentiation and cost spectrum. Adding a further dimension to the traditional cost and quality value spectrum increases complexity without substantial benefit. There are microeconomic reasons why companies should stick with just these two dimensions to identify their optimal strategy. As with everything a company does, the decision of which specific customer-centric activities to develop depends on its overall strategy and available resources. Careful analyses need to be conducted to determine which activities should be performed in a way that maximizes return for the business. Now, clients must be at the center of your strategy, with all customer-centered activities geared toward maximizing business return, regardless of your broader strategy or specific characteristics. Decoding the algorithms of company success has been a central focus of business research. If market success were exact and replicable, startups and tech giants could transform it from an anomaly into a consistent outcome. In the absence of a deterministic path, researchers have sought heuristics to enhance the likelihood of success. One such heuristic can be found in the different types of strategies a business should follow to achieve success. Michael Porter, the key reference in strategy , classifies strategies into Cost Leadership, Differentiation, and Focus. However, there is also a very popular theory developed by Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema, that identifies Customer Intimacy, Product Leadership, and Operational Excellence as the main paths to be followed. Michael Porter, the key reference in strategy theory developed by Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema , that identifies Customer Intimacy , Product Leadership , and Operational Excellence as the main paths to be followed. Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema Customer Intimacy Product Leadership Operational Excellence Except for a few details, a considerable level of correspondence can be found between these schools of thought. It is pretty reasonable to say that Cost Leadership corresponds to Operational Excellence, and Differentiation corresponds to Product Leadership. In Porter's framework, there is also the angle of Focus, but this alone is not a source of competitive advantage. In reality, Focus is a dimension that should be added to the Differentiation and Cost strategies to clarify that a broader or more focused market was chosen. Customer Intimacy Moreover, we have the kind of strategy that Treacy and Wiersema call Customer Intimacy. For them, Customer Intimacy holds a special place among all strategies. For them, Customer Intimacy holds a special place among all strategies. Customer Intimacy is all about understanding customers, tailoring offerings, and fostering strong relationships, with the end goal of maximizing customer lifetime value (LTV) in a practical, measurable way. Given these insights, it's no wonder the theory was adopted worldwide and is still widely used in companies and taught in business schools to this day . It is important to recognize that Treacy and Wiersema introduced valuable customer concepts ten years before the inaugural book on Net Promoter Score, at a time when customer lifetime value was an obscure concept lacking mature definitions in both the market and academia. used in companies and taught in business schools to this day It is important to recognize that Treacy and Wiersema introduced valuable customer concepts ten years before the inaugural book on Net Promoter Score, at a time when customer lifetime value was an obscure concept lacking mature definitions in both the market and academia. We will examine each main pillar of the Customer Intimacy discipline to understand its overall framework and determine if it still makes sense to follow its rationale given the significant advancements in customer analysis. 1. Having a Deep Knowledge of the Customers Despite decades of theories and frameworks, such as Customer Intimacy and Net Promoter Score, most companies remain product-centric, often unable to identify specific customers behind each transaction. This limits their view to anonymous data points, making true customer-centricity a challenge. Gathering essential customer information across interactions provides valuable insights without needing exhaustive detail. Key practices, like integrating financial, product, and support data, can yield significant benefits. For those seeking deeper insights, social network data and advanced analytics are options, but this depth often depends more on resources and scalability than strictly on strategy. Gathering essential customer information across interactions provides valuable insights without needing exhaustive detail. 2. Tailoring Products to Individual Needs Tech companies are increasingly focused on last-mile customization, using machine learning and algorithms to deliver tailored experiences at scale. For SaaS and consumer apps, investing in technologies that respond to user behavior is essential. Platforms like Netflix and e-commerce apps leverage predictive analytics and recommendation engines to keep experiences highly personalized. Balancing individual personalization with scalable product development requires prioritizing high-value customer needs without compromising the product’s direction. Some decisions must still be made at the product level to ensure customization aligns with the overall roadmap. This approach maximizes user value while keeping the platform's broader goals intact. Some decisions must still be made at the product level to ensure customization aligns with the overall roadmap. 3. Building Strong and Lasting Relationships In today’s SaaS landscape, maintaining strong customer relationships extends well beyond the initial sale. Retention strategies use advanced analytics and machine learning to anticipate churn and identify at-risk users for proactive interventions. Personalization also includes engagement-driven communication, ensuring interactions stay relevant. CRM systems and data warehousing allow companies to keep a complete view of each customer’s journey, making each touchpoint more impactful. Maximizing LTV (Lifetime Value) is essential for tech companies focused on recurring revenue. By combining Customer Intimacy principles with real-time data, companies adapt to customer needs dynamically. This approach enables SaaS providers to deliver personalized experiences that retain high-value users, driving long-term growth in competitive markets. Maximizing LTV (Lifetime Value) is essential for tech companies focused on recurring revenue. Enter Customer Centricity In many aspects, the retirement of Customer Intimacy implies the triumph of this idea. Analyzing its main pillars, we saw ideas that should be applied everywhere, not just to companies that have chosen this type of strategy. Using the same nomenclature proposed by the authors of the theory, we argue that the companies who opted for Operational Excellence and Product Leadership should have some activities that were proposed for the Customer Intimacy value discipline. Customer Intimacy did touch upon the idea of customer lifetime value (LTV), though it wasn’t central to the theory. At that time, this concept was still emerging. Today, we’ve moved beyond Customer Intimacy to the model of Customer Centricity, where strategies and actions are focused on identifying valuable clients and maximizing their long-term value. This shift allows us to approach customer relationships more analytically and profitably, leveraging data to drive growth. Customer Intimacy did touch upon the idea of customer lifetime value (LTV), though it wasn’t central to the theory. At that time, this concept was still emerging. Not Just Semantics Without further thought, the idea that is being proposed here can look like just some semantic discussion without much importance, but this is not the case. In 1992, when this theory was proposed, we were in the early stages of personal computing. CRM systems were still in their infancy. Organizing and using client data was such a significant challenge that it was fair to say those companies had 'Customer Intimacy'. A few more sophisticated companies would know how much each client spent in a given year and create some internal procedures based on this information. Now, we have accessible computer systems and popular statistical models that allow small companies to go much farther than the most sophisticated companies of that time. Finally, there is another important reason for this change. Strategy authors all agree that companies shouldn't be stuck in the middle, they should choose one type of strategy. Finally, there is another important reason for this change. Strategy authors all agree that companies shouldn't be stuck in the middle, they should choose one type of strategy. With Customer Intimacy as a distinct value discipline, companies may believe they don’t need to organize their strategy and operations around the value of their clients. But in reality, companies with any kind of strategy need to understand and try to maximize their client's value. Conclusion One option is to maintain the current framework — recognizing the higher standard for customer understanding across all companies — and reserve the category of Customer Intimacy for those that truly excel in this area. However, we believe this approach would cause more harm than good. While some companies might fit this classification, they would be so few that it wouldn't justify having a distinct category for them. Also, they would necessarily have a strategy that could be classified somewhere on the differentiation and cost spectrum. While some companies might fit this classification, they would be so few that it wouldn't justify having a distinct category for them. Also, they would necessarily have a strategy that could be classified somewhere on the differentiation and cost spectrum. Adding a further dimension to the traditional cost and quality value spectrum increases complexity without substantial benefit. There are microeconomic reasons why companies should stick with just these two dimensions to identify their optimal strategy. As with everything a company does, the decision of which specific customer-centric activities to develop depends on its overall strategy and available resources. As with everything a company does, the decision of which specific customer-centric activities to develop depends on its overall strategy and available resources. Careful analyses need to be conducted to determine which activities should be performed in a way that maximizes return for the business. Now, clients must be at the center of your strategy, with all customer-centered activities geared toward maximizing business return, regardless of your broader strategy or specific characteristics.

It's Time to Retire the Customer Intimacy Value Discipline

While blockchains excel at computation and temporary data handling, they've historically struggled with managing large-scale data storage – a capability that traditional web servers have enjoyed for decades. Enter Bernie Blume and Xandeum, who are working to bridge this critical gap with an innovative solution that could catalyze what Blume calls blockchain's "Cambrian Explosion." In this exclusive interview, we explore how Xandeum's groundbreaking storage layer could revolutionize everything from DeFi to healthcare, potentially unleashing a new era of blockchain innovation. Ishan Pandey: Hi Bernie Blume, welcome to our 'Behind the Startup' series. Please tell us about yourself and the motivation behind building Xandeum? Bernie Blume: Hey, Ishan. I’ve been working on distributed systems and low-level, “close to the hardware” programming for decades, and through that background, I became a blockchain enthusiast in 2013. Over the years, I saw some parallels to Artificial Intelligence technology. AI had its first hype in the 80s, but couldn’t keep up with expectations, so many great minds left the field. It wasn’t until the 2000s, with the advent of Artificial Neural Networks, that AI finally experienced its Cambrian Explosion. I think someone needs to spark that Cambrian Explosion for blockchain as well, because, sadly, it hasn’t happened yet. And I didn’t see anyone working on it. So I started Xandeum. Ishan Pandey: Can you explain the core mission behind Xandeum and how it differs from other decentralized storage solutions on the market? Bernie Blume: The mission is to unleash the full potential of Web3. As of now, Web3 is stuck in a rut. Can you name a single successful web2 app that has been ported to web3 and is successful there? Everything has to be made “blockchain compatible” in web3, which, in essence, means removing the storage capabilities that every web2 server has had for ages. Today’s blockchains have their CPU (the EVM/SVM, etc.) as well as their RAM, which are the accounts. The Ethereum accounts or Solana accounts can only store limited amounts of data but are very close to the CPU and thus very fast. Centralized computers also have disks and file systems that make them versatile to serve all of today’s apps. The blockchain doesn’t have that disk equivalent today. That’s the missing link to get that blockchain Cambrian Explosion started. Ishan Pandey: In your view, how crucial are data ownership and privacy in the realm of data storage, especially in today's decentralized landscape? How does Xandeum ensure that users maintain full control over their data while protecting their privacy? Bernie Blume: Data ownership and privacy are absolutely crucial. Decentralization is key, and if you really get to the bottom of things, it’s the only reason blockchain technology exists. Decentralization is a huge step in the evolution of humanity. There have been trends, both on the micro and macro level, for eons, that humans strive to be more and more independent, and in control of their own destiny. That, in the grand scheme of things, is what blockchain, and specifically Web3, is all about. We must bring self-determination, self-custody, decentralization of control, and ownership, to the world of data as well, not just to coding. That’s what’s driving and keeping me up at night - building that storage layer for smart contracts, so that the story can go on. For Xandeum, it’s a huge distributed file system that lives on a set of pNodes, our (storage) provider nodes. These pNodes can be considered part of the smart contract chain, in our case Solana, since they are orchestrated and cryptographically supervised by our modified validator and RPC software. Data is paged into equal-sized pages, a concept borrowed from Unix memory management. The status of the pNodes is kept in the PNDB (pNode database) inside Solana accounts. The pages are encrypted and randomized so that no pNode operator has a chance to look into the data they are storing. The key to data ownership is in the Xandeum-enabled apps, which we call sedApps for storage-enabled dApps. These can request an app-specific level of redundancy, as well as control key management for the encryption. Only the user has the private key, just as with regular wallet accounts, and these are being used to optimally encrypt sensitive data. Ishan Pandey: What are the biggest challenges Xandeum has faced in developing its platform, and how have you addressed issues related to scalability and performance? Bernie Blume: The biggest challenge by far has been coming up with an architecture that can run  100% on the Solana chain. We started out with our architecture being our own L1, based on the Solana code base. We quickly figured out that being 100% Solana integrated would have tremendous advantages for us. We could then harness Solana’s momentum and developer base. However, it is not easy to design a solution that can utilize our storage layer on a mixed cluster of both vanilla Solana validators as well as Xandeum-aware validators. This was a big step for us. As for scalability and performance, as mentioned before, we address these by offloading the actual storage of data from validators to a separate but cryptographically connected network of storage provider nodes, dubbed pNodes. Ishan Pandey: As Web3 continues to grow, how do you see Xandeum playing a role in the broader adoption of decentralized technologies? What industries do you believe will benefit most from your solution? Bernie Blume: That is hard to say given the nature of our innovation, a scalable storage layer. When creating Ethereum, the first programmable blockchain, Vitalik Buterin was only speculating about possible use cases. We have a similar situation here, where suddenly smart contract blockchains become capable of storing vast amounts of data. I expect DeFi to profit from it, being able to store documents (like scanned credit reports) right in the smart contract. Insurance and medical applications need a lot of storage. But just porting all the variety of web2 apps, most of which use petabytes to store their customer data, will become possible. It will be that Cambrian Explosion that’s our north star. I can’t wait to see that happen; it’s going to be wonderful. Ishan Pandey: What is your vision for the future of decentralized data storage? How do you see Xandeum evolving in the next 3-5 years, both in terms of technology and market presence? Bernie Blume: The vision is that smart contracts can finally be like normal servers: Execute code (CPU), access “accounts” (RAM), and access storage (disk). Right now the whole company is focused on building the product, and once that important milestone is completed, the whole company will shift its focus in 2026. In 2025 we will focus on building and in 2026 we will focus on adoption. There will be Xandeum hackathons, grants, etc. to help spread the word among devs, i.e. among web3 entrepreneurs, that Xandeum will make their life so much easier, and make them aware they can build so much more versatile dapps, which we call sedApps – storage-enabled dApps. Looking into the next 3-5 years, I expect to see one of the fastest adoptions among devs that I have ever seen. Scalable, smart contract native storage is the missing link that will spark the Cambrian explosion in blockchain that AI saw with ANNs. That means we have all these sedApps, each paying Xandeum storage fees in addition to the regular Solana transaction fees. Ishan Pandey: What advice would you give to developers and startups looking to build decentralized applications or services in the current Web3 ecosystem? Bernie Blume: First imagine blockchain didn’t have today’s limitations; imagine you had all the power of traditional IT (including storage) at your disposal when designing your dApp. Then break it down to what can be done with today’s blockchain - you’ll find it’s quite a limited version of what you imagined in step 1. Then build your dApp on today’s blockchains but keep the timely advent of a scalable storage layer in mind. That way, you will put yourself in a pole position as soon as the race for building sedApps starts. Don’t forget to like and share the story! Vested Interest Disclosure: This author is an independent contributor publishing via our business blogging program. HackerNoon has reviewed the report for quality, but the claims herein belong to the author. #DYOR While blockchains excel at computation and temporary data handling, they've historically struggled with managing large-scale data storage – a capability that traditional web servers have enjoyed for decades. Enter Bernie Blume and Xandeum, who are working to bridge this critical gap with an innovative solution that could catalyze what Blume calls blockchain's "Cambrian Explosion." In this exclusive interview, we explore how Xandeum's groundbreaking storage layer could revolutionize everything from DeFi to healthcare, potentially unleashing a new era of blockchain innovation. Ishan Pandey: Hi Bernie Blume, welcome to our 'Behind the Startup' series. Please tell us about yourself and the motivation behind building Xandeum? Ishan Pandey: Hi Bernie Blume, welcome to our 'Behind the Startup' series. Please tell us about yourself and the motivation behind building Xandeum? Ishan Pandey: Hi Bernie Blume, welcome to our 'Behind the Startup' series. Please tell us about yourself and the motivation behind building Xandeum? Bernie Blume: Hey, Ishan. I’ve been working on distributed systems and low-level, “close to the hardware” programming for decades, and through that background, I became a blockchain enthusiast in 2013. Over the years, I saw some parallels to Artificial Intelligence technology. Bernie Blume: AI had its first hype in the 80s, but couldn’t keep up with expectations, so many great minds left the field. It wasn’t until the 2000s, with the advent of Artificial Neural Networks, that AI finally experienced its Cambrian Explosion. I think someone needs to spark that Cambrian Explosion for blockchain as well, because, sadly, it hasn’t happened yet. And I didn’t see anyone working on it. So I started Xandeum. Ishan Pandey: Can you explain the core mission behind Xandeum and how it differs from other decentralized storage solutions on the market? Ishan Pandey: Can you explain the core mission behind Xandeum and how it differs from other decentralized storage solutions on the market? Ishan Pandey: Can you explain the core mission behind Xandeum and how it differs from other decentralized storage solutions on the market? Bernie Blume: The mission is to unleash the full potential of Web3. As of now, Web3 is stuck in a rut. Can you name a single successful web2 app that has been ported to web3 and is successful there? Everything has to be made “blockchain compatible” in web3, which, in essence, means removing the storage capabilities that every web2 server has had for ages. Bernie Blume: Today’s blockchains have their CPU (the EVM/SVM, etc.) as well as their RAM, which are the accounts. The Ethereum accounts or Solana accounts can only store limited amounts of data but are very close to the CPU and thus very fast. Centralized computers also have disks and file systems that make them versatile to serve all of today’s apps. The blockchain doesn’t have that disk equivalent today. That’s the missing link to get that blockchain Cambrian Explosion started. Ishan Pandey: In your view, how crucial are data ownership and privacy in the realm of data storage, especially in today's decentralized landscape? How does Xandeum ensure that users maintain full control over their data while protecting their privacy? Ishan Pandey: In your view, how crucial are data ownership and privacy in the realm of data storage, especially in today's decentralized landscape? How does Xandeum ensure that users maintain full control over their data while protecting their privacy? Ishan Pandey: In your view, how crucial are data ownership and privacy in the realm of data storage, especially in today's decentralized landscape? How does Xandeum ensure that users maintain full control over their data while protecting their privacy? Bernie Blume: Data ownership and privacy are absolutely crucial. Decentralization is key, and if you really get to the bottom of things, it’s the only reason blockchain technology exists. Decentralization is a huge step in the evolution of humanity. There have been trends, both on the micro and macro level, for eons, that humans strive to be more and more independent, and in control of their own destiny. That, in the grand scheme of things, is what blockchain, and specifically Web3, is all about. We must bring self-determination, self-custody, decentralization of control, and ownership, to the world of data as well, not just to coding. Bernie Blume: only data That’s what’s driving and keeping me up at night - building that storage layer for smart contracts, so that the story can go on. For Xandeum, it’s a huge distributed file system that lives on a set of pNodes, our (storage) provider nodes. These pNodes can be considered part of the smart contract chain, in our case Solana, since they are orchestrated and cryptographically supervised by our modified validator and RPC software. Data is paged into equal-sized pages, a concept borrowed from Unix memory management. The status of the pNodes is kept in the PNDB (pNode database) inside Solana accounts. The pages are encrypted and randomized so that no pNode operator has a chance to look into the data they are storing. The key to data ownership is in the Xandeum-enabled apps, which we call sedApps for storage-enabled dApps. These can request an app-specific level of redundancy, as well as control key management for the encryption. Only the user has the private key, just as with regular wallet accounts, and these are being used to optimally encrypt sensitive data. Ishan Pandey: What are the biggest challenges Xandeum has faced in developing its platform, and how have you addressed issues related to scalability and performance? Ishan Pandey: What are the biggest challenges Xandeum has faced in developing its platform, and how have you addressed issues related to scalability and performance? Ishan Pandey: What are the biggest challenges Xandeum has faced in developing its platform, and how have you addressed issues related to scalability and performance? Bernie Blume: The biggest challenge by far has been coming up with an architecture that can run  100% on the Solana chain. We started out with our architecture being our own L1, based on the Solana code base. We quickly figured out that being 100% Solana integrated would have tremendous advantages for us. We could then harness Solana’s momentum and developer base. However, it is not easy to design a solution that can utilize our storage layer on a mixed cluster of both vanilla Solana validators as well as Xandeum-aware validators. Bernie Blume: This was a big step for us. As for scalability and performance, as mentioned before, we address these by offloading the actual storage of data from validators to a separate but cryptographically connected network of storage provider nodes, dubbed pNodes. Ishan Pandey: As Web3 continues to grow, how do you see Xandeum playing a role in the broader adoption of decentralized technologies? What industries do you believe will benefit most from your solution? Ishan Pandey: As Web3 continues to grow, how do you see Xandeum playing a role in the broader adoption of decentralized technologies? What industries do you believe will benefit most from your solution? Ishan Pandey: As Web3 continues to grow, how do you see Xandeum playing a role in the broader adoption of decentralized technologies? What industries do you believe will benefit most from your solution? Bernie Blume: That is hard to say given the nature of our innovation, a scalable storage layer. When creating Ethereum, the first programmable blockchain, Vitalik Buterin was only speculating about possible use cases. We have a similar situation here, where suddenly smart contract blockchains become capable of storing vast amounts of data. I expect DeFi to profit from it, being able to store documents (like scanned credit reports) right in the smart contract. Insurance and medical applications need a lot of storage. Bernie Blume: But just porting all the variety of web2 apps, most of which use petabytes to store their customer data, will become possible. It will be that Cambrian Explosion that’s our north star. I can’t wait to see that happen; it’s going to be wonderful. Ishan Pandey: What is your vision for the future of decentralized data storage? How do you see Xandeum evolving in the next 3-5 years, both in terms of technology and market presence? Ishan Pandey: What is your vision for the future of decentralized data storage? How do you see Xandeum evolving in the next 3-5 years, both in terms of technology and market presence? Ishan Pandey: What is your vision for the future of decentralized data storage? How do you see Xandeum evolving in the next 3-5 years, both in terms of technology and market presence? Bernie Blume: The vision is that smart contracts can finally be like normal servers: Execute code (CPU), access “accounts” (RAM), and access storage (disk). Right now the whole company is focused on building the product, and once that important milestone is completed, the whole company will shift its focus in 2026. In 2025 we will focus on building and in 2026 we will focus on adoption. There will be Xandeum hackathons, grants, etc. to help spread the word among devs, i.e. among web3 entrepreneurs, that Xandeum will make their life so much easier, and make them aware they can build so much more versatile dapps, which we call sedApps – storage-enabled dApps. Bernie Blume: and Looking into the next 3-5 years, I expect to see one of the fastest adoptions among devs that I have ever seen. Scalable, smart contract native storage is the missing link that will spark the Cambrian explosion in blockchain that AI saw with ANNs. That means we have all these sedApps, each paying Xandeum storage fees in addition to the regular Solana transaction fees. Ishan Pandey: What advice would you give to developers and startups looking to build decentralized applications or services in the current Web3 ecosystem? Ishan Pandey: What advice would you give to developers and startups looking to build decentralized applications or services in the current Web3 ecosystem? Bernie Blume: First imagine blockchain didn’t have today’s limitations; imagine you had all the power of traditional IT (including storage) at your disposal when designing your dApp. Then break it down to what can be done with today’s blockchain - you’ll find it’s quite a limited version of what you imagined in step 1. Then build your dApp on today’s blockchains but keep the timely advent of a scalable storage layer in mind. That way, you will put yourself in a pole position as soon as the race for building sedApps starts. Bernie Blume: Don’t forget to like and share the story! Vested Interest Disclosure: This author is an independent contributor publishing via our business blogging program. HackerNoon has reviewed the report for quality, but the claims herein belong to the author. #DYOR Vested Interest Disclosure: This author is an independent contributor publishing via our business blogging program . HackerNoon has reviewed the report for quality, but the claims herein belong to the author. #DYOR Vested Interest Disclosure: business blogging program business blogging program

How Xandeum is Revolutionizing Blockchain Storage

Cómo Xandeum está revolucionando el almacenamiento en blockchain

Como Xandeum está a revolucionar o almacenamento Blockchain

כיצד Xandeum מחולל מהפכה באחסון בלוקצ'יין

ज़ैन्डियम किस तरह ब्लॉकचेन स्टोरेज में क्रांति ला रहा है

Xandeum がブロックチェーン ストレージに革命を起こす方法

របៀបដែល Xandeum កំពុងធ្វើបដិវត្តការផ្ទុក Blockchain

ວິທີການ Xandeum ແມ່ນການປະຕິວັດການເກັບຮັກສາ Blockchain

Kamoo Xandeum e Fetošago Polokelo ya Blockchain

Como o Xandeum está revolucionando o armazenamento em blockchain

Cum revoluționează Xandeum stocarea blockchain

Xandeum Blockchain ගබඩාව විප්ලවීය කරන ආකාරය

Як Xandeum революціонізує блокчейн-сховище

Explanation of ERC-6900: Modular Smart Contract Accounts and Plugins

Diagramming Tools: When Should You Use No Code, DSL, or Code?

AIR-Bench: A New Benchmark for Large Audio-Language Models

With the recent launch of the iPhone 16 I thought it would be great to try and find workarounds to the AI feature gaps that iOS has, especially for people switching from an Android device. Here’s how to set up an iPhone and get some of the most popular smarts from a Pixel phone: Circle to Search, Google Lens, Gemini and even Work profiles. Circle to Search on any screen Pixel devices come with out-of-the-box integration with Google services like Gmail, Google Maps, Gemini, etc. Fortunately, all of these services and apps are also available for iOS, and while Apple only allows switching defaults for the web browser and mail apps, you can pretty easily ignore Apple’s stock apps. But what about deeper integrated features like Circle to Search? Being able to search the content of your screen, regardless of the app that you are seeing, is extremely powerful. You can use it to select any text you see –even inside an image–, or to look for a place that you like on social media, or to search for and buy the clothes that someone is wearing on a video, etc. There are infinite use cases. The workaround to get this on iOS has three components: the iPhone’s Action button, the regular Google search app –which comes bundled with Google Lens–, and one of the most useful features on iOS, the Shortcuts app. Emulating Circle to Search is as simple as installing the Google app, and then creating a shortcut that automates the following flow: take a screenshot and pass it to Google Lens. If you prefer to import this shortcut, you can simply tap this link directly from your iPhone. All you have to do in order to easily trigger the shortcut is to assign it to the Action button: With iOS 18, shortcuts can also be added to the customizable Control Center, so Circle to Search is available even on iPhones without the Action button. Visual Intelligence powered by Google Lens One of the most surprising announcements from Apple’s iPhone 16 event was Visual Intelligence: a multimodal AI feature that can help users get answers in a visual way. In the demo, Visual Intelligence was used to get information about a restaurant and to figure out the breed of a dog. The AI model processed both voice and image input and provided answers instantaneously. Unfortunately, Visual Intelligence won’t be available for a while. Apple will not be ready to release its Apple Intelligence features until later this fall –even though it was one of the biggest highlights of the iPhone 16 launch–. The good news is that all of the scenarios demoed during the official presentation can already be solved using Google Lens. Triggering this variant of Visual Intelligence powered by Google Lens is as easy as enabling the Back Tap Accessibility action. This lets you run a shortcut when you double-tap or triple-tap the back of your iPhone. To get started, create a new shortcut that simply launches Google Lens. Then, navigate to the Touch Accessibility settings menu, enable Back Tap, and select your Google Lens shortcut. You can see detailed instructions here. With this easy access to Google Lens, you can get answers to pretty much any question. You can use it to identify animals or plants, find local information, scan QR codes, translate text in real-time, solve math problems, and much more. No need to wait for Apple Intelligence. Chat with Gemini Having a conversation with LLMs like ChatGPT or Gemini has become a very common thing these days. It’s a convenient way of learning something quickly and in a very intuitive way. Gemini is easily accessible on Pixel phones, and Apple promises that the iPhone 16 will get Apple Intelligence with ChatGPT integration –Apple’s response to the LLM craze– at some point in early 2025. But like with the Visual Intelligence workaround above, there is no need to wait for Apple Intelligence to enjoy some good AI conversations. First, create a new shortcut on the Shortcuts app and search for the “Open URLs” action. Then, type exactly “googleapp://robin” as the URL to open, which will launch the Google search app directly with Gemini enabled. You can rename your shortcut as “Gemini” and set it to trigger from a Triple Back Tap, a Control Center shortcut, a Home Screen icon, or even from your Action button if you use Gemini more often than Circle to Search. Work profiles (sort of) I recently wrote about the top 3 improvements that I would bring to a future iPhone. Some of those improvements might never see the light of day, but that shouldn’t stop you from properly separating your work from your personal life. On Android, profiles allow users to install the same app twice. This helps keep work content separate from personal content. That means different widgets, different notifications, different placement of the app icon, etc. Since iOS doesn’t allow installing the same app again, the best way to replicate this behavior on iPhone is by using different apps for personal and work accounts. For example, Gmail for your personal email account and Apple Mail for your work account. Same with Google Calendar and Apple Calendar. Once both apps are set up with their respective accounts, set work apps and their widgets on their own Home Screen page. Then, create a new Focus –let’s call it “Out of office”– that silences notifications from the work apps, and hides the Home Screen with all the work content. Similar to a work profile on Android, you can manually enable the “Out of office” focus on your iPhone to stop seeing any work-related content. You can combine this with a “Work” focus that shows specific work-related widgets on the Lock Screen and automatically gets enabled during working hours: If you only want to disable the “work profile” and hide work-related content during your scheduled vacations, you can create an automation that gets your calendar events, and only enables the “Out of office” focus if it detects an event with the title “Vacation”. What you’ll still miss Even with the workarounds above, there are many more smart features on Android that cannot be ported to iPhone. For example, one of the most treasured features from Pixel phones is having Google Assistant screen phone calls from unknown callers, or filter spam messages automatically. Nonetheless, the tactics mentioned here show that it’s increasingly easy to use the same services on your smartphone, regardless of the brand that you choose to buy. The key is to avoid getting locked in a specific ecosystem –like I did three years ago–, or to break free if you are already trapped. It’s never too late! Did you like this article? Subscribe to get new posts by email. With the recent launch of the iPhone 16 I thought it would be great to try and find workarounds to the AI feature gaps that iOS has, especially for people switching from an Android device. Here’s how to set up an iPhone and get some of the most popular smarts from a Pixel phone: Circle to Search, Google Lens, Gemini and even Work profiles. Circle to Search on any screen Circle to Search on any screen Pixel devices come with out-of-the-box integration with Google services like Gmail, Google Maps, Gemini, etc. Fortunately, all of these services and apps are also available for iOS, and while Apple only allows switching defaults for the web browser and mail apps, you can pretty easily ignore Apple’s stock apps. But what about deeper integrated features like Circle to Search? Being able to search the content of your screen, regardless of the app that you are seeing, is extremely powerful. You can use it to select any text you see –even inside an image–, or to look for a place that you like on social media, or to search for and buy the clothes that someone is wearing on a video, etc. There are infinite use cases. The workaround to get this on iOS has three components: the iPhone’s Action button, the regular Google search app –which comes bundled with Google Lens–, and one of the most useful features on iOS, the Shortcuts app. Google search app Emulating Circle to Search is as simple as installing the Google app, and then creating a shortcut that automates the following flow: take a screenshot and pass it to Google Lens. If you prefer to import this shortcut, you can simply tap this link directly from your iPhone. All you have to do in order to easily trigger the shortcut is to assign it to the Action button: this link With iOS 18, shortcuts can also be added to the customizable Control Center, so Circle to Search is available even on iPhones without the Action button. Visual Intelligence powered by Google Lens Visual Intelligence powered by Google Lens One of the most surprising announcements from Apple’s iPhone 16 event was Visual Intelligence: a multimodal AI feature that can help users get answers in a visual way. In the demo, Visual Intelligence was used to get information about a restaurant and to figure out the breed of a dog. The AI model processed both voice and image input and provided answers instantaneously. Unfortunately, Visual Intelligence won’t be available for a while. Apple will not be ready to release its Apple Intelligence features until later this fall –even though it was one of the biggest highlights of the iPhone 16 launch–. The good news is that all of the scenarios demoed during the official presentation can already be solved using Google Lens. Triggering this variant of Visual Intelligence powered by Google Lens is as easy as enabling the Back Tap Accessibility action. This lets you run a shortcut when you double-tap or triple-tap the back of your iPhone. To get started, create a new shortcut that simply launches Google Lens. Then, navigate to the Touch Accessibility settings menu, enable Back Tap, and select your Google Lens shortcut. You can see detailed instructions here . detailed instructions here With this easy access to Google Lens, you can get answers to pretty much any question. You can use it to identify animals or plants, find local information, scan QR codes, translate text in real-time, solve math problems, and much more. No need to wait for Apple Intelligence. Chat with Gemini Chat with Gemini Having a conversation with LLMs like ChatGPT or Gemini has become a very common thing these days. It’s a convenient way of learning something quickly and in a very intuitive way. Gemini is easily accessible on Pixel phones, and Apple promises that the iPhone 16 will get Apple Intelligence with ChatGPT integration –Apple’s response to the LLM craze– at some point in early 2025. But like with the Visual Intelligence workaround above, there is no need to wait for Apple Intelligence to enjoy some good AI conversations. First, create a new shortcut on the Shortcuts app and search for the “Open URLs” action. Then, type exactly “ googleapp://robin ” as the URL to open, which will launch the Google search app directly with Gemini enabled. googleapp://robin You can rename your shortcut as “Gemini” and set it to trigger from a Triple Back Tap, a Control Center shortcut, a Home Screen icon, or even from your Action button if you use Gemini more often than Circle to Search. Work profiles (sort of) Work profiles (sort of) I recently wrote about the top 3 improvements that I would bring to a future iPhone . Some of those improvements might never see the light of day, but that shouldn’t stop you from properly separating your work from your personal life. top 3 improvements that I would bring to a future iPhone On Android, profiles allow users to install the same app twice. This helps keep work content separate from personal content. That means different widgets, different notifications, different placement of the app icon, etc. Since iOS doesn’t allow installing the same app again, the best way to replicate this behavior on iPhone is by using different apps for personal and work accounts. For example, Gmail for your personal email account and Apple Mail for your work account. Same with Google Calendar and Apple Calendar. Once both apps are set up with their respective accounts, set work apps and their widgets on their own Home Screen page. Then, create a new Focus –let’s call it “Out of office”– that silences notifications from the work apps, and hides the Home Screen with all the work content. Similar to a work profile on Android, you can manually enable the “Out of office” focus on your iPhone to stop seeing any work-related content. You can combine this with a “Work” focus that shows specific work-related widgets on the Lock Screen and automatically gets enabled during working hours: If you only want to disable the “work profile” and hide work-related content during your scheduled vacations, you can create an automation that gets your calendar events, and only enables the “Out of office” focus if it detects an event with the title “Vacation”. What you’ll still miss What you’ll still miss Even with the workarounds above, there are many more smart features on Android that cannot be ported to iPhone. For example, one of the most treasured features from Pixel phones is having Google Assistant screen phone calls from unknown callers, or filter spam messages automatically. Nonetheless, the tactics mentioned here show that it’s increasingly easy to use the same services on your smartphone, regardless of the brand that you choose to buy. The key is to avoid getting locked in a specific ecosystem – like I did three years ago –, or to break free if you are already trapped. It’s never too late! like I did three years ago Did you like this article? Subscribe to get new posts by email. Did you like this article? Subscribe to get new posts by email. Subscribe

How to Use Pixel AI Features on iOS

15+ Awesome Stuff to Build and Sell With JavaScript (and Friends)

Stories, News & Mentions about PORTEX

Portex’s Stories on HackerNoon