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The worrying thing is they are succeeding Last night, I was talking to a friend who was trying to persuade me to switch my online shopping back to the local offline merchants. He feels that if we don’t, we will end up helping the Amazons and Flipkarts, which are non-Indian business entities, to put more and more small Indian businesses out of business. Once that happens, these big businesses will become monopolies or duopolies and we will be at their mercy, be it in terms of price or choice or availability of things or whatever. Oddly enough, I have been advocating a boycott of Amazon for the same reasons, as well as Amazon’s lack of ethics, which is . In fact, I have managed to avoid shopping online for long stretches of time. Sadly, to my own mortification, I eventually end up going back to the Amazon. There are two reasons why this keeps happening: convenience and price. another story The Convenience Factor The other day, my wife dropped her iPhone and shattered its protective tempered glass screen guard. Now, this isn’t expensive to replace, but it’s really inconvenient. I have to make an hour-long, hot and stressful expedition through clogged traffic to my city’s commercial zone, struggle to find parking, and finally locate a store that sells screen guards. Whereas on Amazon, it’s just a couple of clicks, and the screen guard will be delivered home in a couple of days. The battle was over even before it began. My orders from Amazon over the last year show me I mostly shop online when I need things of a specific dimension or meant for a specific purpose or available at a specific price. The Price Factor Despite my misgivings, I recently bought a smart TV from Amazon. If I had decided to buy the TV from local offline dealers, I would have had to buy a brand of TV that didn’t match my needs, and cost at least a couple of thousand bucks more. That was just a bit too much money for me to put where my mouth was. Here’s how Amazon persuaded me to shop with them. With internet costs dropping in India and data becoming more available, smart TVs are finally becoming practical here. But I didn’t want to invest too much as technology is changing fast. Most tech things including TVs go obsolete in no time, and I didn’t want to end with a white elephant on my hands. So I had zeroed in on a 32" smart TV from Xiaomi which had the right mix of features and price. Now Xiaomi has made a name for itself as India’s top-selling cellphone. Its strategy is to offer high-quality phones at affordable prices and make them only available via online channels (to cut out the middleman). So when Xiaomi offered a 32" smart Android TV for the then unheard price of ₹15000 ($210), I was definitely interested. This is where Amazon came in. They tied up with Xiaomi to be their exclusive partner for online sales of the latest 32" and 49" Mi TV models. Amazon took Xiaomi’s price-cutting strategy a step further, by again reducing the price. They did this by tying up with banks and their own payment wallet for additional discounts. I ended up getting that TV for around ₹13000 ($181). Of course, big-ticket purchases like this don’t happen too often, with an IFB washing machine from Flipkart a year ago being my last such purchase. But even in that case, I noticed that the price on Flipkart was lower than the manufacturer’s own price. In fact, I observed that during the installation, the IFB guy desperately tries to push accessories like stands, filter, and detergent. I’m guessing IFB is doing its best to make the sale viable as its margins must be suffering due to the online shopping. However, I know the Flipkarts and Amazons won’t sell stuff to me at a loss unless they stand to benefit in some way. I don’t know how exactly, though there are many theories floating around like this on Quora. What I do know for sure is the losers in this transaction are the other TV manufacturers. I (and my family) have previously bought TV brands like Philips, Sony, and Samsung from local retailers. But the price difference is now so huge that I didn’t even bother to go check out those TVs. At ₹13000 ($181), I can afford to upgrade my TV every two years, whereas this thought would not even cross my mind with a Sony or Samsung bought from a local merchant at prices that are 2–3 times as much. discussion The problem is if a majority of Indians start thinking like me, those retailers are going to go out of business and close down, leaving the market to Amazon. At which point, Amazon would be in a position of power. If not shopping, then what? India is still a developing country, and most Indians have fixed or limited budgets for shopping. But corporates believe they must grow every year, and not doing so is equivalent to death, and Amazon is no exception. Personally speaking, my spends on Amazon haven’t really grown in the last few years. My guess is there are many more customers like me. Now Amazon lives by data, and they would have noticed this trend. So they have started looking for other ways to increase my use of their services. In a way, it reminds me of the old days when Yahoo wanted to be a portal that would serve all my needs. The difference is where Yahoo failed miserably, Amazon is succeeding. Video & Film Take Amazon Prime. I initially signed up for the free delivery services. It was a bargain at just ₹500/year ($7) as I was buying a lot of low-value stuff from Amazon in its early days. However, once I realized it was affecting local merchants, I cut down on online shopping. And it didn’t make sense to renew the service last year. But Amazon persuaded me by sticking to the ₹500/year price tag and sweetening the deal by adding Amazon Prime Video for free. Netflix costs ₹500/month ($7) for video and film content. But that’s as much in a month as Amazon charges in a whole year for the entire Amazon Prime package. I must add that Netflix does offer a lot more variety than Amazon Prime Video, which is a dealbreaker for binge watchers. Music This year, Amazon Prime tightened its grip on me by adding Amazon Prime Music to the package. There is a catch though. I can’t use it as a single source for all my music because Amazon Prime Music does not have all my favorite songs. Its collection is limited to two million songs. This would not be an issue if Amazon allowed me to upload and store my own music online, but they stopped offering this earlier this year. service Amazon has another music service, Amazon Music Unlimited. It offers tens of million songs for a price, but that service isn’t available in India. Spotify, which has a free tier, offers 30 million songs, and is rumored to be opening up in India but that hasn’t happened either. Apple Music is accessible in India and has 50 million songs, but costs ₹120/month ($1.67). I gave Apple a pass, as I prefer one time payments to subscription services as they tend to add up. There were other factors that made me stick with Amazon Prime Music. One reason is music is just part of the Amazon Prime bundle. Secondly, I have set up Amazon’s own Echo smart speakers as my default music players at home. Apple Music is as of now, not allowed on the platform though I believe that’s changing as I type. Thirdly, Google Music has a free storage service, where I have uploaded around 10,000 songs. I can stream and listen to these any time I want, but unfortunately not through Amazon Music. Fourthly, I’m on the Jio mobile and have access to Jio Music, which is restricted to only those on the Jio network. Though the Jio Music app’s interface is clumsy, Jio has a vast collection. I find unexpected gems there that I don’t find elsewhere. Like yesterday, I had the urge to listen to Creedence Clearwater Revival’s ‘Have You Ever Seen The Rain.’ Amazon only had covers of the song, but Jio Music had the original (Creedence reappeared on Amazon the next day). Since I’m talking music, I must add that I did not include Indian music in the discussion. That’s because the local Indian music apps like Gaana, Saavn, and Wynk have huge collections. They also have an option for a free, ad-based service, which is more than sufficient for me. There are some problem areas. Like I can’t play Google Music on my Echo speakers. But this may not be an issue for long, in India, Alexa/Echo does allow me to choose between Amazon Music, Saavn and Gaana as the default music library for Alexa. So with Jio and Saavn merging, I assume I will be able to access Jio’s online collection within Amazon Music soon. Whether Jio Music will be free for long, and free of ads is an unasked question of mine that Jio seems to have answered (see below right). Books Somewhere along the way, Amazon started offering Prime members in India a large selection of Kindle e-books to read for free. There’s a lot of good stuff in there for adults and kids. I’m also using the Audible free trial to see if it’s worth signing up for the audio books service at ₹199/month (after the 3- month extended trial for Prime members). I get to listen to one book a month. And since I’ve always wanted to be a fly on the wall of the White House, I’m currently listening to Michelle Obama’s biography, recorded in her own voice. It would have cost me ₹888 ($12.52) if I were not on Prime. Made by Amazon With so much business happening on Amazon, it didn’t surprise me when Amazon decided to join the fun and make and sell products under its own brand name. I resisted buying those ‘Made by Amazon’ products for a year or so. But Amazon finally got me by aiming for my Achilles heel: they gave massive price cuts. So I ordered a 6-inch long lightning cable, aptly enough during a lightning sale, from Amazon (for ₹500 or $37). Sold under the Amazon Basics brand, the cable is Apple certified, and just the right size to carry with my portable charger. A year later, I picked up an Echo speaker, and another one this year to make a home speaker network. I got them both during the Great Indian sale when price drops make the deals irresistible. The fact that Alexa is listening to everything we speak at home is a worry, no doubt. But, like the proverbial ostrich, I bury my head in the sand because of the incredible convenience of pulling up any song I want, just by asking Alexa. Bill Payments Paying monthly bills is something that everyone does, and Amazon is trying to take its cut by offering me cashback for routing my payments through their wallet, Amazon Pay. The cashbacks are small amounts and can be used only for payments via Amazon pay but something is better than nothing. As of date, I have paid bills for my landline, mobile, internet cable, TV (DTH), and electricity. Besides if there are many bills, the cashbacks can add up to sizable savings every year. Travel I have also used my Amazon wallet to pay for bus trips and flight tickets. I got ₹1000 off on a ₹7000 flight ticket a couple of days ago, with half as an instant discount, and half as cashback to my Amazon Pay. Hard to pass that up. Insurance This is a new service that I noticed Amazon advertising in its wallet via a tie-up with a new online-only insurance company called Acko. Anyway, a couple of days ago, my car’s insurance came up for renewal. The insurer said it would cost me ₹9600 ($137) or so. Out of curiosity, I went to the ad in my Amazon app, clicked on it, filled in a few details about my car, asked for a comparative quote and was surprised to see it was just half (₹5000 or $71) what my current insurer was asking. I did a bit of research online to confirm it was a good deal and see reviews on Acko. It seems Acko can afford to offer this deal and still make a profit because they are an online entity with minimal infrastructure and staff. In fact, it was I who had to do all the paperwork for the policy by typing in the details online, and if I wanted a physical copy of the insurance policy to carry in my car, I would have to print it out myself. It was a convincing argument and I signed up. Similarity with India’s telecom price wars While Amazon has been waging price wars in online shopping, an equally bruising price battle has been happening among the cellular network providers of India. Jio, a new entrant launched by the powerful Reliance Group, shook up the artificially high priced rates of cartelized incumbents with drastic price cuts. Two years later, half the competition has shut shop, while the remaining ones have merged and consolidated leaving just three major players in the market. Airtel who was the largest player when Jio was launched, is now №2 behind the consolidated Vodafone-Idea group, with Jio being the third major player. Consumers have been the beneficiary of this price war. ₹300 used to get me 1Gb of 3G speed data, per month, with voice calls, messages and roaming fees all being extra, which would easily double the monthly bill. In fact, Indians used to save money by signaling via ‘missed calls.’ Now the same money will get you 1.5GB of 4G data every day (that’s not a typo), plus unlimited calls and messages to and from anywhere in India. Today, the ‘missed call’ phenomenon no longer exists. Amazon’s price cuts have had a less obvious effect, but overall, customers have benefited. Like I wouldn’t have considered Acko for my car’s insurance and saved myself ₹5000 ($71) if it hadn’t been backed by Amazon. When one door closes, another opens Amazon’s discounts and expansion into other activities are beginning to affect the competition. Offline stores are often empty, and though they are fighting back with discounts, they have overheads like rents and will find it hard to match Amazon. Even other online stores are feeling the heat. eBay India was swallowed up by Flipkart, which itself was taken over by Walmart. Let’s say the worst-case scenario of a majority of offline shops shutting down happens, and Amazon starts hiking prices massively. I believe that if that happens, the market forces will create alternatives. For example, I recently ordered a pack of three snap-on lenses for my phone from China, via Snapdeal, a competitor to Amazon. I didn’t really want the lens kit, but I just ordered it to test the service. The pros were prices were good, and quality and finish acceptable for that price. It cost just ₹250 for this 3-lens kit. The con was the delivery took two long months, as I was ordering directly from China, and it had to be literally shipped all the way to make the deal viable. Snapdeal has a returns policy with 100% refund, but I recall at some stage of the order seeing a disclaimer that this product was not eligible for returns. My conclusion is that even if I quit Amazon altogether at some point in time, I will still be able to get things at reasonable prices if I’m willing to compromise on delivery time. As for the returns policy, I don’t see that no-returns disclaimer anymore so I guess Snapdeal found a solution. Power Corrupts I don’t know what the future holds but I can’t help recall that old saying about power. Will Amazon help me save as much as it’s doing now, once most of its competition shuts down? Amazon treatment of its employees doesn’t make me feel too optimistic. If you missed that news, read about it and . There’s even a movement going on to your Amazon Prime account. here here cancel Wait and Watch Considering the similarities, India’s cellular network industry could be a forerunner of what will happen in online shopping. As of now, mobile data prices are down, calls and messages are free, and there are lots of freebies. For instance, besides the free Jio Music service, Jio offers a free Jio TV app which allows me to watch live TV like NBA matches for free on my smart TV. Likewise, the free Jio Cinema app has a good collection of movies. The question is will Jio’s added services be free forever. When I figure out the answer to that, I will probably also be able to predict what Amazon will do. With things being so uncertain with both Jio and Amazon, I think it makes sense not to cross any bridges till I reach them. If somewhere down the line, Jio Music is converted into a subscription service and priced at ₹120 (on par with Apple), I will most probably ditch Jio Music and stick with Amazon Prime Music. Alternatively, if Amazon Prime Music does the same, and Jio Music remains free, I will switch to Jio. Finally, if both services become paid, I will probably see where I can get the best deal amongst Amazon, Apple, and Jio. For instance, my kid uses Amazon Prime Music a lot, and if all three are priced at ₹120, I would get her Apple Music at a student discounted rate of 50% off. It all depends on the situation at that point in time. Doing my two bits I do my bit to support the local merchants by shopping offline wherever it’s practical. Like I buy all my provisions at the local supermarket. The price difference is not much and there are several positives. I get fresh locally grown food, and I don’t pollute the environment with Amazon’s packaging. I must admit it will be harder to do this if Amazon Pantry comes to my city. But for now, it hasn’t, so I lug my groceries home twice a week, and don’t feel guilty the way I do when an Amazon delivery guy buzzes me at my gate on a Sunday evening. I intend to continue shopping offline as much as possible unless the price difference is so large as to make it impractical to avoid online shopping. Why worry My friend who was trying to persuade me to go completely off Amazon does not agree with the above. He believes the local merchants are under immense pressure to survive and need all the help they can get from each and every one of us, right now. I admit to him it’s hard for me to give up thousands of rupees on principle. I know Amazon sees this as a honeymoon phase in India, and is using its money muscle to woo me with lots of mouthwatering goodies. It’s probably even losing good money on some of these offers. The way I see it, I might as well as take whatever I can, while I can. Because once the competition is killed off, Amazon will probably squeeze the market for all it’s worth and extract whatever it gave away with interest. Pragmatism rules However I tell my friend I admire his principled stand, and we cordially agree to disagree. As I’m about to bid him goodbye, I notice he’s on the Vodafone network, and a light goes off in my deal-seeking brain. My Amazon Prime is due to expire in a day or two, and Amazon is not offering me the 50% discount on the ₹1000 annual fee like it did the last two years. But Amazon wants new customers, and it’s tied up with Vodafone to offer the network’s postpaid users a free 1-year of Amazon Prime. I ask my friend if I can take up Amazon on that offer since he doesn’t plan to. He graciously agrees, unlocks his phone and hands it over. I go to the Vodafone app on his phone, locate the offer, apply for it, and soon get a request to sign on with my Amazon account to activate the one year trial of Amazon Prime. I sign in, and the deed is done. All good things will come to an end, and I might as well enjoy it while I can.

Amazon wants to be a portal for all I need

Keeping the flag flying My workhorse computer, an ancient iMac (circa 2011) crashed a few days ago after a routine Mac OS update. Once upon a time, this would have been a catastrophe. But that was before the time of Time Machine. So I jumped through a few hoops till I managed to get the Disk Utility running on the Mac (restart while holding down R) and then plugged in my venerable Time Capsule (circa 2008). After a bit of wheezing and whirring, the Time Capsule connected to my Mac’s Time machine and informed me that I had last backed up my Mac a few months ago. However I seemed to have skipped backing up my iTunes library as my Time Capsule had run out of space on its 500GB disk. That isn’t really as bad as it sounds as my iMac too has only a 500GB disk. Backing up all those incremental Time Machine backups meant I had to choose to ditch something. So I had decided to let the music go, as I had already made a second backup a some time earlier on my portable 1TB WD disk. The full System Restore from my old Time Capsule took nearly 24 hours. that was fine as all my work files are in the cloud, and I could access them from any of my other devices. Once the Mac rebooted, I plugged in the WD disk and replaced the iTunes folder, only to find that 75% of my songs had disappeared. There was a time when I would have gone nuts. But these days, I tend to dismiss it with a carefree ‘I knew not where they had gone.’ Apple is good, but it does sneak in a low blow like this every now and then. Like yesterday, a friend bitterly complained that all the birthdays saved on his iOS calendar had disappeared. I consoled him by saying the same had happened to me some time ago. And the sky hadn’t really fallen on my head despite my suddenly disappearing off the list of prompt birthday greeters. ‘I live, I learn’ was what I think Alanis Morissette once said. Was that what her song was called? Out of habit, I fired up my iTunes, and searched for Alanis. But she was gone, probably having disappeared into a wrinkle of time in my warped Time Machine. Not that it mattered because as Bob Dylan predicted, ‘The Times They Are a-Changin,’ (though I doubt if old Bob would have foreseen being himself bestowed with a Nobel Prize). After all, we live in the era of YouTube. A quick search popped up the video of Alanis’ ‘You Learn.’ Who needs a music library anymore? Well, I do. Old habits die hard. After a lifetime of having Microsoft Word crash and lose all my unsaved data, I’m paranoid about auto-saving, and backing up, and backing up the backup, and I do it without even thinking about doing it. I mean YouTube could close down, and where would that leave me? Oh no, I have taken Alanis’ words to heart. I lived, I learned, and squirreled away my songs in other offline hideaways. Oh, alright, I’m taking a little creative license with that ‘my.’ But I hope the music industry isn’t really suing people anymore. Maybe the statute of limitations or whatever applies, as this song came out way back in 1995. Anyway, one quick search later, I found a 50Gb backup of my old clickwheel iPod (which incidentally also has the backup of this backup as it loyally carries out its duties as my car music player). I scrolled down to ‘Y’ and there it was. By now, I was bit surprised with my paranoia. Where else had I backed it up? I vaguely remember signing on for Google Play Music a couple of years ago when it offered to back up all my music. I think Google was trying to compete with Apple’s iTunes Match. Had I actually backed up my music in Google? I fired up my Chrome browser, signed in to my Google account, and navigated to play.google.com/music. The music player came on. I looked for the omnipresent Google Search field, and it was where it was supposed to be. One quick search later, and I had found Alanis. That was a bit surprising as I had discontinued my Google Play subscription. Anyway, I was curious to see if I could access my Google Music Library on my phone. I went to the Google Play app on my Android. Yes, I could access my songs. In fact, Google also let me play the YouTube video of the Alanis song from the music player. I guess that’s no big deal as Google owns YouTube. I do wonder why Google still gives me access to the 4348 songs I had uploaded to my Google Music Library. It could be because I do buy a song now and then from Google, which would make them see me as an active user. Or maybe Google has just forgotten about me and my piddly 4348 songs. Inside my Google Music Library; option to watch videos; and option to download purchased music But it turns out that all my paranoia was pointless. These days, you can get to legally listen to almost all music for free in India. That was one reason why I discontinued my Google Music subscription. My second reason was data prices have crashed in India, and it has now become a lot more affordable. My current 70-day mobile pack cost me ₹349 ($5) for which I get 1GB of 4G data everyday, plus unlimited free calls and messages. This means it’s now practical to stream music, even on my mobile. Spotify is not yet in India, but it’s easy to get around that with a VPN. Spotify keeps going on and off in India depending on how good your VPN is In case, the legality of VPNs bothers anyone, there are other perfectly legal options. YouTube has almost every song you want to listen. Jio, my mobile ISP, bundles a music app with my data pack that lets me listen to whatever I want for free. So does India’s top music app, Saavn. Apple Music also allows Indians full access to its library for ₹120 a month. That’s $1.87 a month, which is less than one-fifth of Apple Music’s monthly fee in the US. Jio Music, Saavn and Apple Music apps give you all the music you want to hear for free, or almost free. In short, I can now listen to Alanis or whoever I want, legally for free. YouTube, Jio, and Saavn and Apple Music and the rest pay the artists for using their music. They do this with money they earn from ads, or as a cut from my mobile data subscription pack, or some other business model. It’s a classic win-win situation. I guess I should be happy, and I am about the music part. I’m especially glad that the artists are getting paid, instead of having their music ripped off. I always used to feel guilty about that. After all, I knew I wouldn’t like anyone ripping off something that I created, for free. But somehow the I miss the fun of the old days. I think it was not so much the money, but more the thrill of overcoming the many obstacles to getting the music. There would be the challenge of slipping into dicey pirate sites and then escaping with my booty, while the site tried its best to slip some virus into my computer or steal my credit card data or entice me to part with my money via porn or gambling or whatever. Then there would be ISPs trying to block access to certain sites, which had to be circumvented by using anonymizers, and the puzzle of cracking some paid app needed to unzip the folders containing the music, and deciphering the weird instruction by the pirates that accompanied the music files. There was also the task of learning the skill of ripping music and sharing it. In those pre-iTunes days, there were no 99 cent songs but only expensive albums. Tapes were cheap but quality wasn’t as good as the music CDs or even the LP records. So if a group of broke kids badly wanted some music, the only possibility was to pool in funds, buy a music CD, rip off the music, and share it among the group members. The challenge in this case was to find the app that did the job best and figure out what combination of settings and music format worked best. All perfectly illegal, of course. But that’s just how it was. These days, you just fire up an app, and the music is served to you in an ideal format. So where’s the fun in that? Once a pirate, always a pirate. The other day, I ran across a of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah. It was one of those covers that I liked better than the original, which itself is a great song. There was a link under the video to purchase the song from iTunes. I tried it but all I got was a message saying the song wasn’t available in the US Store. I switched to the Indian Store to no avail. Well, you can’t say I didn’t try. cover version I could feel the smile breaking on my face as I looked up the best way to rip the song off YouTube. A few moments later, it was in my music library, and is now one of my most treasured songs. Hallelujah!

Old pirates die hard

If you somehow stumbled upon this guide instead of the similar ones ranked higher on google search, well, I think you’re going to get your time’s worth. If you’re like me, who mostly will be using on your PC and does not want to go through the hassle of logging every 2 weeks or so, this guide might just do it for you. Spotify I live in India, and there are already some great music streaming apps available such as Saavn, Gaana, Google Play Music, Apple Music, etc. But I have been a long time Spotify user (that is, before they started banning my accounts after 2 weeks) and the music collection, the playlist curation, and just the sheer volume of amazing content that is available on the platform makes me come back to it again and again. And so, after stumbling across the internet in search of a one stop solution for my problem, I decided to do some research and write one of my own. I want to start off by saying that you do a to use Spotify in restricted countries, whether it be always on, or during a login (which logs you out after 15–20 days or sometimes permanently bans your account). need VPN I’m not saying that other VPNs are bad or anything, a lot of my friends have been either using with a constant VPN or just re-logging every time they get logged out. However, I didn’t get a seamless experience with any of these methods. All the VPNs I tried (like running in a separate browser tab or even system wide VPN) gave me some or the other issue that ruined the experience. What you need : an AWS account (free tier will work just fine) ssh client (you can use the Ubuntu Bash for Windows) Let’s get started. Setup AWS EC2 Login to your AWS Console, Select and Launch a new Instance EC2 2. Select Amazon Linux AMI 3. Choose and Click on ‘Next : Configuration Instance Details’ t2.micro 4. Click ‘Next : Add Storage’ -> ‘Next : Add Tags’ -> ‘Next : Configure Security Group’ 5. Click on ‘ ’ and Select ‘ ’. Then, in the Rule Source Type, select ‘ ’ and set ‘ ’ to 8001. Your settings should look like this. Add Rule Custom UDP Rule Anywhere Port Range 6. Click ‘Review and Launch’ -> ‘Launch’. You will get a menu like this. 7. Select ‘Create a new Key pair’ from the first drop down box. Set ‘Key Pair Name’ : “SpotifyAWS” (you can name it anything you like) and Click ‘Download Key Pair’. You will have a ‘ ’ file downloaded. SpotifyAWS.pem 8. Click ‘ . When you go back to your EC2 Dashboard, you will have a running instance. Launch’ 9. Select that instance, and Click ‘ ’. You will get a popup window with instructions on how to connect to your instance. Connect Connect to your instance via Bash 1. Open bash, and cd to the directory where you have the .pem file we just downloaded. In my case, I have it on my Desktop. 2. Copy the ‘ command from the AWS window that we have opened. Example’ 3. Paste the command in bash, and append to that “ ” so you have a final command something like this. When you hit enter, type ‘ ’ and you might get an error like this. -D 8001 yes 4. Simply run the Command “ ” which in my case is “chmod 400 SpotifyAWS.pem” chmod 400 <path/to/your/.pem/file> 5. Again, run the ‘connect’ command, and you should be able to login to your EC2 instance. Works similarly on Ubuntu Bash on Windows 10 Change Spotify Settings Open the Spotify App, and Click on Settings. Set the Proxy Host : ‘127.0.0.1’, Port : ‘8001’ and Proxy Type : ‘Socks4’ Click ‘Update Proxy’ The last step is simply use any Browser VPN like HolaVPN or Zenmate and make a new Spotify Account (or you can try to login with your older account also) and you’re Done! Enjoy hassle free Spotify Access! Thanks for reading. Let me know if you faced any issues during the setup process or if you would like me write more such guides. Also, this article is written for educational purposes only. I do not mean to cause any harm to either Spotify or AWS. Adios :)

How to access Spotify without 3rd Party VPNs

In 2023, the average person spent over three hours a day watching digital videos, according to a Statista study. Recognizing this trend, newly launched AI platform Savantz AI offers a new way for educational and training videos to make creations faster, easier, and more impactful. Savantz AI, founded by Dr. Dorine Rivers, leverages AI technology to streamline the video production process. Dr. Rivers, a serial entrepreneur, developed this platform after facing high costs and long production times with traditional video creation methods. Savantz AI allows users to convert text and slides into custom-made videos in minutes, offering a more efficient and cost-effective solution for educators and businesses. The Impact of AI on Learning AI's potential to revolutionize education is significant. A McKinsey report highlights that AI can personalize learning, making education more accessible and effective for students of all ages. By tailoring educational content to individual learners, AI creates a more engaging and interactive experience. Research supports the shift toward video-based learning. The Journal of Educational Psychology found that students retain more information and perform better when taught through multimedia methods compared to traditional text-based instruction. Video learning simplifies complex concepts, making them easier to understand and more enjoyable to learn. Dr. Rivers emphasizes the cost and time savings of using AI for video creation. Traditional video production is not only expensive but also time-consuming. By automating this process, Savantz AI provides a cost-effective solution that benefits a wide range of users, from corporate trainers to classroom teachers. "Traditional training videos can often be monotonous and forgettable," says Dr. Rivers. "With Savantz AI, we're enabling users to create dynamic and captivating videos that make information easier to digest and retain. Whether it's a compliance training or a history lesson, our platform brings the content to life." AI's impact on learning extends beyond video creation. AI-powered platforms can analyze how students interact with content, providing insights into their learning behaviors and preferences. This data can be used to further customize and improve educational materials. For instance, adaptive learning technologies adjust the difficulty of tasks based on the learner's performance, ensuring that each student progresses at their own pace. The World Economic Forum predicts that AI will play a crucial role in addressing educational challenges and improving learning outcomes globally. Platforms like Savantz AI exemplify how technology can enhance educational practices by making video creation more accessible and effective. With its user-friendly interface and advanced AI capabilities, the platform hopes to set a new standard in educational video production. By making video creation more accessible and effective, Savantz AI is poised to play a crucial role in the future of education and training. In 2023, the average person spent over three hours a day watching digital videos, according to a Statista study. Recognizing this trend, newly launched AI platform Savantz AI offers a new way for educational and training videos to make creations faster, easier, and more impactful. Savantz AI Savantz AI, founded by Dr. Dorine Rivers, leverages AI technology to streamline the video production process. Dr. Rivers, a serial entrepreneur, developed this platform after facing high costs and long production times with traditional video creation methods. Savantz AI allows users to convert text and slides into custom-made videos in minutes, offering a more efficient and cost-effective solution for educators and businesses. The Impact of AI on Learning The Impact of AI on Learning AI's potential to revolutionize education is significant. A McKinsey report highlights that AI can personalize learning, making education more accessible and effective for students of all ages. By tailoring educational content to individual learners, AI creates a more engaging and interactive experience. Research supports the shift toward video-based learning. The Journal of Educational Psychology found that students retain more information and perform better when taught through multimedia methods compared to traditional text-based instruction. Video learning simplifies complex concepts, making them easier to understand and more enjoyable to learn. Dr. Rivers emphasizes the cost and time savings of using AI for video creation. Traditional video production is not only expensive but also time-consuming. By automating this process, Savantz AI provides a cost-effective solution that benefits a wide range of users, from corporate trainers to classroom teachers. "Traditional training videos can often be monotonous and forgettable," says Dr. Rivers. "With Savantz AI, we're enabling users to create dynamic and captivating videos that make information easier to digest and retain. Whether it's a compliance training or a history lesson, our platform brings the content to life." "Traditional training videos can often be monotonous and forgettable," says Dr. Rivers. "With Savantz AI, we're enabling users to create dynamic and captivating videos that make information easier to digest and retain. Whether it's a compliance training or a history lesson, our platform brings the content to life." AI's impact on learning extends beyond video creation. AI-powered platforms can analyze how students interact with content, providing insights into their learning behaviors and preferences. This data can be used to further customize and improve educational materials. For instance, adaptive learning technologies adjust the difficulty of tasks based on the learner's performance, ensuring that each student progresses at their own pace. The World Economic Forum predicts that AI will play a crucial role in addressing educational challenges and improving learning outcomes globally. Platforms like Savantz AI exemplify how technology can enhance educational practices by making video creation more accessible and effective. With its user-friendly interface and advanced AI capabilities, the platform hopes to set a new standard in educational video production. By making video creation more accessible and effective, Savantz AI is poised to play a crucial role in the future of education and training.

Can AI change the way we learn? Savantz AI launches to make education entertaining

ALBERTA, Calgary, September 25th, 2024/Chainwire/--The EOS Network announces the successful completion of its landmark upgrade to Spring 1.0. This upgrade has introduced the Savanna consensus algorithm, marking a new era in performance, reliability and speed on the network. By enhancing transaction finality to 1 second, EOS has achieved a more than 100-fold improvement over previous iterations. This rapid advancement in speed, security, and scalability sets the stage for future cryptographic breakthroughs. This upgrade reflects the shared vision and dedication of EOS's global decentralized community, underscoring its commitment to pioneering blockchain innovation. Bart Wyatt, CTO of the EOS Network Foundation, articulated the significance of this strategic development: "With the Spring 1.0 upgrade and the introduction of the Savanna consensus algorithm, we’re achieving something rare in the blockchain world: changing our core consensus algorithm. Very few Layer 1 blockchains have ever done this. I can think of only a handful—Ethereum being the most well known. In doing so, we’re standing on hallowed ground. By bringing EOS to an industry-leading 1-second finality, we’ve taken a massive leap forward, placing EOS at the forefront of blockchain innovation. This isn’t just a technical achievement—it’s about the EOS community taking full ownership.” EOS Network has completed the transition to Antelope Spring 1.0, providing a non-contentious upgrade path. This process demonstrated the collaborative effort within the EOS community, involving extensive beta testing and a distributed activation, carried out by global block producers (BPs). The Savanna consensus algorithm revolutionizes blockchain efficiency. By integrating advanced cryptographic techniques such as aggregate BLS signatures, Savanna ensures rapid, irreversible transactions, boosting both network security, scalability and unlocking new use cases in the blockchain industry. Yves La Rose, CEO of the EOS Network Foundation: "Spring 1.0 marks a pivotal moment for the blockchain industry, introducing the Savanna consensus algorithm with 1-second Instant Finality via cutting-edge BLS cryptographic advancements. This upgrade offers unmatched transaction speed, reliability, and security, laying the foundation for next-generation decentralized applications to flourish. Achieving this was a collaborative feat involving internal teams and external partners, positioning EOS as one of the most technically advanced platforms”. “As a transformative phase, Spring 1.0 enables new growth opportunities and adoption within the ecosystem. It unlocks unprecedented value for developers and anyone invested in the long-term potential of blockchain innovation. With proven technology and robust infrastructure, the future presents limitless possibilities as EOS propels the industry forward" As EOS Network forges ahead with Spring 1.0, it strengthens the foundation for continued innovation and community development. This significant leap in technology unlocks a vast array of new use cases, enhancing the EOS ecosystem. Follow EOS Network on Twitter or Telegram to stay up to date with the latest enhancements, updates and upgrades to the network. EOS Network Foundation The EOS Network Foundation (ENF) was forged through a vision for a prosperous and decentralized future. Through our key stakeholder engagement, community programs, ecosystem funding, and support of an open technology ecosystem, the ENF is transforming Web3.all Founded in 2021, the ENF is the hub for EOS Network, a leading open source platform with a suite of stable frameworks, tools, and libraries for blockchain deployments. Together, we are bringing innovations that our community builds and are committed to a stronger future for all. Contact Chief Communications Officer Zack Gall EOS Network Foundation zack@eosn.foundation This story was distributed as a release by Chainwire under HackerNoon’s Business Blogging Program. Learn more about the program here ALBERTA, Calgary, September 25th, 2024/Chainwire/--The EOS Network announces the successful completion of its landmark upgrade to Spring 1.0. This upgrade has introduced the Savanna consensus algorithm, marking a new era in performance, reliability and speed on the network. By enhancing transaction finality to 1 second, EOS has achieved a more than 100-fold improvement over previous iterations. This rapid advancement in speed, security, and scalability sets the stage for future cryptographic breakthroughs. This upgrade reflects the shared vision and dedication of EOS's global decentralized community, underscoring its commitment to pioneering blockchain innovation. Bart Wyatt, CTO of the EOS Network Foundation, articulated the significance of this strategic development: "With the Spring 1.0 upgrade and the introduction of the Savanna consensus algorithm, we’re achieving something rare in the blockchain world: changing our core consensus algorithm. Very few Layer 1 blockchains have ever done this. I can think of only a handful—Ethereum being the most well known. In doing so, we’re standing on hallowed ground. By bringing EOS to an industry-leading 1-second finality, we’ve taken a massive leap forward, placing EOS at the forefront of blockchain innovation. This isn’t just a technical achievement—it’s about the EOS community taking full ownership.” EOS Network has completed the transition to Antelope Spring 1.0, providing a non-contentious upgrade path. This process demonstrated the collaborative effort within the EOS community, involving extensive beta testing and a distributed activation, carried out by global block producers (BPs). The Savanna consensus algorithm revolutionizes blockchain efficiency. By integrating advanced cryptographic techniques such as aggregate BLS signatures, Savanna ensures rapid, irreversible transactions, boosting both network security, scalability and unlocking new use cases in the blockchain industry. Yves La Rose, CEO of the EOS Network Foundation: "Spring 1.0 marks a pivotal moment for the blockchain industry, introducing the Savanna consensus algorithm with 1-second Instant Finality via cutting-edge BLS cryptographic advancements. This upgrade offers unmatched transaction speed, reliability, and security, laying the foundation for next-generation decentralized applications to flourish. Achieving this was a collaborative feat involving internal teams and external partners, positioning EOS as one of the most technically advanced platforms”. Yves La Rose, CEO of the EOS Network Foundation: "Spring 1.0 marks a pivotal moment for the blockchain industry, introducing the Savanna consensus algorithm with 1-second Instant Finality via cutting-edge BLS cryptographic advancements. This upgrade offers unmatched transaction speed, reliability, and security, laying the foundation for next-generation decentralized applications to flourish. Achieving this was a collaborative feat involving internal teams and external partners, positioning EOS as one of the most technically advanced platforms”. “As a transformative phase, Spring 1.0 enables new growth opportunities and adoption within the ecosystem. It unlocks unprecedented value for developers and anyone invested in the long-term potential of blockchain innovation. With proven technology and robust infrastructure, the future presents limitless possibilities as EOS propels the industry forward" “As a transformative phase, Spring 1.0 enables new growth opportunities and adoption within the ecosystem. It unlocks unprecedented value for developers and anyone invested in the long-term potential of blockchain innovation. With proven technology and robust infrastructure, the future presents limitless possibilities as EOS propels the industry forward" As EOS Network forges ahead with Spring 1.0, it strengthens the foundation for continued innovation and community development. This significant leap in technology unlocks a vast array of new use cases, enhancing the EOS ecosystem. Follow EOS Network on Twitter or Telegram to stay up to date with the latest enhancements, updates and upgrades to the network. Twitter Twitter Telegram Telegram EOS Network Foundation The EOS Network Foundation (ENF) was forged through a vision for a prosperous and decentralized future. Through our key stakeholder engagement, community programs, ecosystem funding, and support of an open technology ecosystem, the ENF is transforming Web3.all Founded in 2021, the ENF is the hub for EOS Network, a leading open source platform with a suite of stable frameworks, tools, and libraries for blockchain deployments. Together, we are bringing innovations that our community builds and are committed to a stronger future for all. Contact Chief Communications Officer Zack Gall EOS Network Foundation zack@eosn.foundation This story was distributed as a release by Chainwire under HackerNoon’s Business Blogging Program. Learn more about the program here This story was distributed as a release by Chainwire under HackerNoon’s Business Blogging Program. Learn more about the program here here here

EOS Network significantly Upgrades With 1-Second Transaction Finality

የEOS አውታረመረብ ከ1-ሰከንድ የግብይት ማጠቃለያ ጋር በእጅጉ ያሻሽላል

EOS Şəbəkəsi 1 saniyəlik əməliyyatın sonluğu ilə əhəmiyyətli dərəcədə təkmilləşir

EOS-Netzwerk wird mit 1-Sekunden-Transaktionsfinalität erheblich aufgerüstet

La red EOS se actualiza significativamente con una finalización de transacciones de 1 segundo

EOS ネットワークが 1 秒のトランザクション ファイナリティで大幅にアップグレード

EOS ქსელი მნიშვნელოვნად განახლდება 1 წამის ტრანზაქციის დასრულებით

„EOS“ tinklas gerokai patobulintas, o operacijos baigtis per 1 sekundę

Ny Tambajotra EOS dia manavao be miaraka amin'ny 1-Second Transaction Finality

A rede EOS é significativamente atualizada com a finalidade de transação de 1 segundo

Shabakadda EOS waxay si weyn u cusboonaysiisay 1-labaad ee ugu dambeeyay ee wax kala iibsiga

EOS Network yi Ndlandlamuxa swinene Hi 1-Second Transaction Finality

EOS نیٹ ورک 1 سیکنڈ ٹرانزیکشن فائنل کے ساتھ نمایاں طور پر اپ گریڈ کرتا ہے۔

Quality of work is a key factor in the perceived extrinsic and intrinsic volumes of time decayed on any work. We expect that for any work to be high quality*, it necessarily has required that a substantial amount of time of practice, thought, craftsmanship, ideation, redefinitions, reorder, mending, disposing and attention to be expended. Truthfully, we cannot be naïve to believe otherwise for most cases, even when there are chances for deviations - possibly savants. Doing great work takes time mostly on two definitions. Time to learn to do great work
Time to do great work My argument surrounds the practices of artificial, mindful allocation of time (in all the ways that matter) for the purpose of good work. But as most things, we are presented with constraints. How to remove these constraints are largely the big question right after the individual acknowledges that good work is done with time. How can the individual make time? For the creative mind, it is easy to fall into situations where you're handling multiple projects (of interest, and of profession) at the same time. Even with clear definitions of what things amongst these are priorities, and which ones aren't, yet, we believe this chasm of interests and projects can be managed. This can be true, but it would not be the best of argument to say the quality of attention put in is just as the same as if a priority was made and kept. An equation for doing good work can be simple, and told as : “Pick a best interest, and do nothing but it for as long as it remains a true, winning interest” This allows you to feed your value life source with works borne of the strongest sentiments, empathy and attention to detail. There is no good work without attention, and sometimes passion, but these are tended, not merely shuffled and teased. Good work requires an underlying need for good work. Good work is of a conscious attempt. “You have to say no to a lot of good things in order to be able to say yes to a lot of great things.” — Steve Jobs I understand having a chaotic mind. This is what happens when your heart is filled with passion for things it does not yet know, things it wants to understand. It would be betrayal to yourself to abolish these passions and let them whither, but I’ll argue its even less fulfilling to end your days without a magnus opus at the foot of your enterprise. Cheers! Eaelll. Quality of work is a key factor in the perceived extrinsic and intrinsic volumes of time decayed on any work. We expect that for any work to be high quality*, it necessarily has required that a substantial amount of time of practice, thought, craftsmanship, ideation, redefinitions, reorder, mending, disposing and attention to be expended. Truthfully, we cannot be naïve to believe otherwise for most cases, even when there are chances for deviations - possibly savants. Doing great work takes time mostly on two definitions . Doing great work takes time mostly on two definitions Time to learn to do great work Time to do great work Time to learn to do great work Time to do great work My argument surrounds the practices of artificial, mindful allocation of time (in all the ways that matter) for the purpose of good work. But as most things, we are presented with constraints. How to remove these constraints are largely the big question right after the individual acknowledges that good work is done with time. How can the individual make time? For the creative mind, it is easy to fall into situations where you're handling multiple projects (of interest, and of profession) at the same time. Even with clear definitions of what things amongst these are priorities, and which ones aren't, yet, we believe this chasm of interests and projects can be managed. This can be true, but it would not be the best of argument to say the quality of attention put in is just as the same as if a priority was made and kept. An equation for doing good work can be simple, and told as : “Pick a best interest, and do nothing but it for as long as it remains a true, winning interest” This allows you to feed your value life source with works borne of the strongest sentiments, empathy and attention to detail. There is no good work without attention, and sometimes passion, but these are tended, not merely shuffled and teased. Good work requires an underlying need for good work. Good work is of a conscious attempt. “You have to say no to a lot of good things in order to be able to say yes to a lot of great things.” — Steve Jobs “You have to say no to a lot of good things in order to be able to say yes to a lot of great things.” — Steve Jobs Steve Jobs I understand having a chaotic mind. This is what happens when your heart is filled with passion for things it does not yet know, things it wants to understand. It would be betrayal to yourself to abolish these passions and let them whither, but I’ll argue its even less fulfilling to end your days without a magnus opus at the foot of your enterprise. Cheers! Eaelll.

The "Good Work" Theory

"ভাল কাজ" তত্ত্ব

Die Theorie der „guten Arbeit“

La teoría del "buen trabajo"

La théorie du « bon travail »

"अच्छा काम" सिद्धांत

「良い仕事」理論

"좋은 일" 이론

A teoria do "bom trabalho"

Теория «хорошей работы»

"İyi Çalışma" Teorisi

Lý thuyết "Công việc tốt"

“良好工作”理论

Thermodynamic Limits on Oxygenic Photosynthesis Around M-dwarf Stars: Abstract and Introduction

COPA v. Wright, Court Filing, retrieved on January 29, 2024, is part of HackerNoon’s Legal PDF Series. You can jump to any part of this filing here. This part is 39 of 42. 37. The Tulip Trust Deed (Particulars of Claim at [66A] {A/2/10}) ({ID_001186}) / {L8/20/1}) The Fifth Pleaded Example 728. In the Kleiman Litigation, Dr Wright proffered a Deed of Trust document as evidence of the existence of a trust called the Tulip Trust. Dr Wright has claimed that the Tulip Trust held Bitcoin and/or an encrypted file with keys to that Bitcoin. The Deed of Trust document that was adduced by Dr Wright was dated 23 October 2012. (a) COPA’s Reasons for Alleging Forgery 729. The date of 23 October 2012 was false. Computer forensic analysis of this document shows that it was backdated and that it was not created until at least 22 May 2015 (over two years after the death of David Kleiman on 26 April 2013). This document was therefore forged. As to the basis on which the Claimant alleges forgery, the Claimant relies on the above matters and the fact that this Deed of Trust document was found to be backdated in the Order of Justice Reinhart dated 27 August 2019. 730. A copy of this document is at C00000560 {L8/17/1}, which was included in the Extended Disclosure served on 7 March 2023. The Re-Re-Amended Defence was served on 20 April 2023. (b) Dr Wright’s Explanations and COPA’s Rebuttal 731. The document appears as a Deed of Trust between two Seychelles companies, Wright International Investments (“WIIL”) and Tulip Trading Ltd (“TTL”) with a date of 23 October 2012. 732. In Wright11 Appendix C, Dr Wright addressed this 23 October 2012 Deed of Trust document by reference to one particular version of it. There are a number of copies disclosed which are all identical in substance: 732.1. (C00000560) / {L8/17/1} – (includes the Kleiman case reference at the top). 732.2. (ID_001186) / {L8/20/1}; 732.3. (ID_003790) / {L8/28/1}; 732.4. (ID_003982) / {L8/14/1}; and 732.5. (ID_003329) / L15/86/1} – this is the version Dr Wright refers to in Wright11. 733. Mr Madden addresses the identical nature of the above documents in PM48, {H/304/8}. In PM48, Mr Madden notes that the documents analysed indicate that WIIL was purchased as an aged shelf company in 2014, not being active prior to that date: PM48 at [29] {H/304/9}. Mr Madden also notes the effect of similar analysis in respect of other similar documents relating to TTL (PM4 [119-127], {H/29/38}). 734. In his Defence (after various amendments), Dr Wright states that, pursuant to an order of the US Court in the Kleiman proceedings, he disclosed a copy of a Deed of Trust document between two Seychelles companies, WIIL and TTL, with a date of 23 October 2012 (Defence [85A(1)] {A/3/26}. Dr Wright claims that: “The date 23 October 2012 is not a false date as the Deed of Trust was executed on 23 October 2012” (Defence [85A(5)] {A/3/27}. 735. In Wright11, Dr Wright gives the following account. He says that he set up the trust structure with the intention that he did not have any rights to see documents until 2020 (Wright11 Appendix C, [6.6] {CSW/3/14}). Dr Wright says that Dianne Pinder of Lloyds solicitors in Brisbane Australia drafted a deed of trust to replace a former trust structure that had been set up in such a way that he did not have a right to see documents until 2020 (Wright11 Appendix C, [6.6] {CSW/3/14}). Dr Wright says that, as he was not a party to the Tulip Trust Deed, he can only comment on what appears on the face of the documents, and that the version at {ID_003329} is not the trust deed for the Tulip Trust (Wright11 Appendix C, [6.11] {CSW/3/15}). The position stated in Wright11 therefore appears to be that, whilst a trust was settled on 23 October 2012 which was called the Tulip Trust, the disclosed versions set out above do not represent the deed of that trust or record its terms. 736. Dr Wright further states in Wright11 that he thinks that the version at {ID_003329} has been doctored by someone, as some of the parties acting for Savannah Ltd as noted in the document held no authority with the company, which he did not find out until after 2022 (Wright11 Appendix C, [6.12] {CSW/3/15}). 737. In his oral evidence at trial, Dr Wright at first accepted that he had sworn in the Kleiman proceedings that the Tulip Trust Deed put to him in those proceedings (which was the version at {L8/17/1}) was an authentic document {Day4/107:4} to {Day4/109:5}. However, he then went on to say that it does not record the terms of the trust. He said that this particular Tulip Trust Deed is not a real document and that it is not part of the trust. Dr Wright claimed that he told the Judge in Kleiman that it was a real document but that he did not know any different to say otherwise at that time: {Day4/109:2} to {Day4/112:2}. He claimed that he had subsequently spoken to some of the individuals whose signatures appear on this Tulip Trust Deed and they told him that they did not sign it: {Day4/113:6}. 738. Dr Wright claimed that this particular version of the Tulip Trust Deed was formed by someone merging documents together: {Day4/114:5}. Dr Wright said that it was a fake document used by Ira Kleiman, and that there had never been any agreement made between Wright International and Tulip Trading: {Day4/115:10} to {Day4/115/20}. 739. COPA submitted that Dr Wright’s explanation should be rejected for the following reasons: 739.1. On Dr Wright’s own admission, the Tulip Trust Deed is not a genuine document on the basis that (on his account) (i) there never has been any agreement between WIIL and TTL at all; (ii) the signatures are said not to be genuine; and (iii) the terms do not reflect what he understood to be the terms of the Tulip Trust Deed actually executed on 23 October 2012. It is, however, remarkable that he failed to mention this in his Re-Amended Defence. 739.2. There is no evidence of any of other version of the Tulip Trust Deed dated to 23 October 2012 with different terms. Dr Wright has not brought any of those who are said to deny signing this deed to Court as witnesses, nor has he called anyone as a witness to say what the “real” terms of the Tulip Trust are. 739.3. WIIL is purportedly a party to the Tulip Trust Deed, but that company was only first purchased as an off the shelf company by Dr Wright in October 2014. Mr Madden's findings in Appendix PM48 to the effect that alteration of documents supports that proposition {H/304/9} were not challenged in cross-examination. 739.4. Paragraph 3 of this Tulip Trust Deed {L8/17/2} refers to bitcoin having been transferred into TTL on 10 June 2011, although that company likewise was not purchased until October 2014 (as explained in relation to {ID_001421} and {ID_001930} in COPA’s original Forgeries Schedule at {A/2/91} and {A/2/101}. 739.5. There is nothing in the terms of this trust (as recorded in this Deed) to say that trust documents cannot be shown to Dr Wright. He claimed that he did not know the terms of the document, but also that those terms precluded him from talking directly to any of the individuals involved. He then said that he had spoken to them and found out that the signatures on the document were not genuine. Dr Wright's evidence about this document, and the Tulip Trust more generally, has been confused and internally inconsistent. In particular, he has invented the excuse of having been precluded from seeing the document to explain away his having sworn to its authenticity in the Kleiman proceedings and made a sworn declaration based on its terms, but then having denied its authenticity in the Granath proceedings. See generally: {Day3/105:2} to {Day3/119:5}. (c) Conclusions 740. I found Dr Wright’s contorted explanations to be wholly unconvincing and false, including his final excuse that this document was ‘doctored by someone’. 741. There is strong evidence that (and I so find) both Tulip Trading Limited and Wright International Investments Ltd were acquired by Dr Wright in 2014 as aged shelf companies, and that the ‘Tulip Trust’ itself was a fabrication designed to shield Dr Wright’s assets against possible bankruptcy. Dr Wright’s explanations of the terms of the Trust were inconsistent and did not ring true. He has never explained the plain inconsistency between his assertion that the Trust put his assets (including his IP in various documents) beyond reach, yet his continued ability apparently to reference and use all such documents to yield the large number of ‘White Papers’ which are said to have given rise to all the claimed patent filings for nChain. Continue Reading Here. About HackerNoon Legal PDF Series: We bring you the most important technical and insightful public domain court case filings.

This court case retrieved on January 29, 2024, judiciary.uk is part of the public domain. The court-created documents are works of the federal government, and under copyright law, are automatically placed in the public domain and may be shared without legal restriction. COPA v. Wright, Court Filing, retrieved on January 29, 2024, is part of HackerNoon’s Legal PDF Series. You can jump to any part of this filing here. This part is 39 of 42. COPA v. Wright, Court Filing, retrieved on January 29, 2024, is part of HackerNoon’s Legal PDF Series . You can jump to any part of this filing here . This part is 39 of 42. HackerNoon’s Legal PDF Series HackerNoon’s Legal PDF Series here here 37. The Tulip Trust Deed (Particulars of Claim at [66A] {A/2/10}) ({ID_001186}) / {L8/20/1}) The Fifth Pleaded Example 728. In the Kleiman Litigation, Dr Wright proffered a Deed of Trust document as evidence of the existence of a trust called the Tulip Trust. Dr Wright has claimed that the Tulip Trust held Bitcoin and/or an encrypted file with keys to that Bitcoin. The Deed of Trust document that was adduced by Dr Wright was dated 23 October 2012. Kleiman (a) COPA’s Reasons for Alleging Forgery (a) COPA’s Reasons for Alleging Forgery 729. The date of 23 October 2012 was false. Computer forensic analysis of this document shows that it was backdated and that it was not created until at least 22 May 2015 (over two years after the death of David Kleiman on 26 April 2013). This document was therefore forged. As to the basis on which the Claimant alleges forgery, the Claimant relies on the above matters and the fact that this Deed of Trust document was found to be backdated in the Order of Justice Reinhart dated 27 August 2019. 730. A copy of this document is at C00000560 {L8/17/1}, which was included in the Extended Disclosure served on 7 March 2023. The Re-Re-Amended Defence was served on 20 April 2023. (b) Dr Wright’s Explanations and COPA’s Rebuttal (b) Dr Wright’s Explanations and COPA’s Rebuttal 731. The document appears as a Deed of Trust between two Seychelles companies, Wright International Investments (“ WIIL ”) and Tulip Trading Ltd (“ TTL ”) with a date of 23 October 2012. WIIL TTL 732. In Wright11 Appendix C, Dr Wright addressed this 23 October 2012 Deed of Trust document by reference to one particular version of it. There are a number of copies disclosed which are all identical in substance: 732.1. (C00000560) / {L8/17/1} – (includes the Kleiman case reference at the top). 732.2. (ID_001186) / {L8/20/1}; 732.3. (ID_003790) / {L8/28/1}; 732.4. (ID_003982) / {L8/14/1}; and 732.5. (ID_003329) / L15/86/1} – this is the version Dr Wright refers to in Wright11. 733. Mr Madden addresses the identical nature of the above documents in PM48, {H/304/8}. In PM48, Mr Madden notes that the documents analysed indicate that WIIL was purchased as an aged shelf company in 2014, not being active prior to that date: PM48 at [29] {H/304/9}. Mr Madden also notes the effect of similar analysis in respect of other similar documents relating to TTL (PM4 [119-127], {H/29/38}). 734. In his Defence (after various amendments), Dr Wright states that, pursuant to an order of the US Court in the Kleiman proceedings, he disclosed a copy of a Deed of Trust document between two Seychelles companies, WIIL and TTL, with a date of 23 October 2012 (Defence [85A(1)] {A/3/26}. Dr Wright claims that: “The date 23 October 2012 is not a false date as the Deed of Trust was executed on 23 October 2012” (Defence [85A(5)] {A/3/27}. “The date 23 October 2012 is not a false date as the Deed of Trust was executed on 23 October 2012” 735. In Wright11, Dr Wright gives the following account. He says that he set up the trust structure with the intention that he did not have any rights to see documents until 2020 (Wright11 Appendix C, [6.6] {CSW/3/14}). Dr Wright says that Dianne Pinder of Lloyds solicitors in Brisbane Australia drafted a deed of trust to replace a former trust structure that had been set up in such a way that he did not have a right to see documents until 2020 (Wright11 Appendix C, [6.6] {CSW/3/14}). Dr Wright says that, as he was not a party to the Tulip Trust Deed, he can only comment on what appears on the face of the documents, and that the version at {ID_003329} is not the trust deed for the Tulip Trust (Wright11 Appendix C, [6.11] {CSW/3/15}). The position stated in Wright11 therefore appears to be that, whilst a trust was settled on 23 October 2012 which was called the Tulip Trust, the disclosed versions set out above do not represent the deed of that trust or record its terms. 736. Dr Wright further states in Wright11 that he thinks that the version at {ID_003329} has been doctored by someone, as some of the parties acting for Savannah Ltd as noted in the document held no authority with the company, which he did not find out until after 2022 (Wright11 Appendix C, [6.12] {CSW/3/15}). 737. In his oral evidence at trial, Dr Wright at first accepted that he had sworn in the Kleiman proceedings that the Tulip Trust Deed put to him in those proceedings (which was the version at {L8/17/1}) was an authentic document {Day4/107:4} to {Day4/109:5}. However, he then went on to say that it does not record the terms of the trust. He said that this particular Tulip Trust Deed is not a real document and that it is not part of the trust. Dr Wright claimed that he told the Judge in Kleiman that it was a real document but that he did not know any different to say otherwise at that time: {Day4/109:2} to {Day4/112:2}. He claimed that he had subsequently spoken to some of the individuals whose signatures appear on this Tulip Trust Deed and they told him that they did not sign it: {Day4/113:6}. 738. Dr Wright claimed that this particular version of the Tulip Trust Deed was formed by someone merging documents together: {Day4/114:5}. Dr Wright said that it was a fake document used by Ira Kleiman, and that there had never been any agreement made between Wright International and Tulip Trading: {Day4/115:10} to {Day4/115/20}. 739. COPA submitted that Dr Wright’s explanation should be rejected for the following reasons: 739.1. On Dr Wright’s own admission, the Tulip Trust Deed is not a genuine document on the basis that (on his account) (i) there never has been any agreement between WIIL and TTL at all; (ii) the signatures are said not to be genuine; and (iii) the terms do not reflect what he understood to be the terms of the Tulip Trust Deed actually executed on 23 October 2012. It is, however, remarkable that he failed to mention this in his Re-Amended Defence. 739.2. There is no evidence of any of other version of the Tulip Trust Deed dated to 23 October 2012 with different terms. Dr Wright has not brought any of those who are said to deny signing this deed to Court as witnesses, nor has he called anyone as a witness to say what the “real” terms of the Tulip Trust are. 739.3. WIIL is purportedly a party to the Tulip Trust Deed, but that company was only first purchased as an off the shelf company by Dr Wright in October 2014. Mr Madden's findings in Appendix PM48 to the effect that alteration of documents supports that proposition {H/304/9} were not challenged in cross-examination. 739.4. Paragraph 3 of this Tulip Trust Deed {L8/17/2} refers to bitcoin having been transferred into TTL on 10 June 2011, although that company likewise was not purchased until October 2014 (as explained in relation to {ID_001421} and {ID_001930} in COPA’s original Forgeries Schedule at {A/2/91} and {A/2/101}. 739.5. There is nothing in the terms of this trust (as recorded in this Deed) to say that trust documents cannot be shown to Dr Wright. He claimed that he did not know the terms of the document, but also that those terms precluded him from talking directly to any of the individuals involved. He then said that he had spoken to them and found out that the signatures on the document were not genuine. Dr Wright's evidence about this document, and the Tulip Trust more generally, has been confused and internally inconsistent. In particular, he has invented the excuse of having been precluded from seeing the document to explain away his having sworn to its authenticity in the Kleiman proceedings and made a sworn declaration based on its terms, but then having denied its authenticity in the Granath proceedings. See generally: {Day3/105:2} to {Day3/119:5}. Kleiman Granath (c) Conclusions (c) Conclusions 740. I found Dr Wright’s contorted explanations to be wholly unconvincing and false, including his final excuse that this document was ‘doctored by someone’. 741. There is strong evidence that (and I so find) both Tulip Trading Limited and Wright International Investments Ltd were acquired by Dr Wright in 2014 as aged shelf companies, and that the ‘Tulip Trust’ itself was a fabrication designed to shield Dr Wright’s assets against possible bankruptcy. Dr Wright’s explanations of the terms of the Trust were inconsistent and did not ring true. He has never explained the plain inconsistency between his assertion that the Trust put his assets (including his IP in various documents) beyond reach, yet his continued ability apparently to reference and use all such documents to yield the large number of ‘White Papers’ which are said to have given rise to all the claimed patent filings for nChain. Continue Reading Here. Continue Reading Here . Here About HackerNoon Legal PDF Series: We bring you the most important technical and insightful public domain court case filings. This court case retrieved on January 29, 2024, judiciary.uk is part of the public domain. The court-created documents are works of the federal government, and under copyright law, are automatically placed in the public domain and may be shared without legal restriction. About HackerNoon Legal PDF Series: We bring you the most important technical and insightful public domain court case filings. This court case retrieved on January 29, 2024, judiciary.uk is part of the public domain. The court-created documents are works of the federal government, and under copyright law, are automatically placed in the public domain and may be shared without legal restriction. judiciary.uk judiciary.uk

Forensic Analysis Exposes Flaws in Craig Wright's Tulip Trust Deed

Authors:
(1) Joseph Latessa, Department of Computer Science Wayne State University, Detroit MI USA (jlatessa@wayne.edu);
(2) Aadi Huria, Senior, Salem High School Canton, MI USA (huria.aadi@gmail.com);
(3) Deepak Raju, Senior, Salem High School, Canton MI USA (Deepak.Raju294@outlook.com). Table of Links Abstract and Introduction Related Work Project Prerequisites Project Implementation Insight and Reflections Conclusions, Acknowledgement and References 6 CONCLUSION For motivated independent study students, learning software engineering concepts such as version control and continuous integration will benefit them in their future studies. As demonstrated here, this content is accessible to students even at an early point in their computer science education. A special honors project or a supplemental one-credit-hour tools and techniques course taken as a corequisite to the traditional introduction to programming track could be a next step to further develop, scale, and generalize the material and unique format devised and embarked upon for this project. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We would like to acknowledge Loren Schwiebert at Wayne State University for his assistance, feedback, and advice throughout the development and implementation of this project. We would also like to acknowledge the JETSCAPE Collaboration [1] and GOMC [2] for providing the source repositories and applications on which our automated tests were developed. We also acknowledge LinkChecker [12], GitHub Actions HTML5 Validator [10], and svenkreiss/html5validator [11] as the marketplace and opensource utilities discussed and applied as part of this project. REFERENCES [1] JETSCAPE Website: https://jetscape.org. [2] GOMC - GPU-Optimized Monte Carlo Website: https://gomc-wsu.org. [3] Chib, Siddhartha, and Edward Greenberg. “Understanding the MetropolisHastings Algorithm.” The American Statistician, vol. 49, no. 4, 1995, pp. 327– 35. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/2684568. Accessed 17 Aug. 2023. [4] Richard Glassey. 2019. Adopting Git/Github within Teaching: A Survey of Tool Support. In Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Global Computing Education (CompEd '19). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 143–149. https://doi.org/10.1145/3300115.3309518 [5] Yu-Cheng Tu, Valerio Terragni, Ewan Tempero, Asma Shakil, Andrew Meads, Nasser Giacaman, Allan Fowler, and Kelly Blincoe. 2022. GitHub in the Classroom: Lessons Learnt. In Proceedings of the 24th Australasian Computing Education Conference (ACE '22). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 163–172. https://doi.org/10.1145/3511861.3511879 [6] Lassi Haaranen and Teemu Lehtinen. 2015. Teaching Git on the Side: Version Control System as a Course Platform. In Proceedings of the 2015 ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education (ITiCSE '15). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 87–92. https://doi.org/10.1145/2729094.2742608 [7] David S. Janzen and Hossein Saiedian. 2006. Test-driven learning: intrinsic integration of testing into the CS/SE curriculum. SIGCSE Bull. 38, 1 (March 2006), 254–258. https://doi.org/10.1145/1124706.1121419 [8] B. P. Eddy et al., "A Pilot Study on Introducing Continuous Integration and Delivery into Undergraduate Software Engineering Courses," 2017 IEEE 30th Conference on Software Engineering Education and Training (CSEE&T), Savannah, GA, USA, 2017, pp. 47-56, doi: 10.1109/CSEET.2017.18. [9] Alex Radermacher and Gursimran Walia. 2013. Gaps between industry expectations and the abilities of graduates. In Proceeding of the 44th ACM technical symposium on Computer science education (SIGCSE '13). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 525–530. https://doi.org/10.1145/2445196.2445351 [10] HTML5 Validator - GitHub Marketplace: https://github.com/marketplace/actions/html5-validator. [11] GitHub - svenkreiss/html5validator: Command line tool to validate HTML5 files. Great for continuous integration.: 2022. https://github.com/svenkreiss/html5validator. [12] LinkChecker: 2022. https://pypi.org/project/LinkChecker/. This paper is available on arxiv under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED license. Authors: (1) Joseph Latessa, Department of Computer Science Wayne State University, Detroit MI USA (jlatessa@wayne.edu); (2) Aadi Huria, Senior, Salem High School Canton, MI USA (huria.aadi@gmail.com); (3) Deepak Raju, Senior, Salem High School, Canton MI USA (Deepak.Raju294@outlook.com). Authors: Authors: (1) Joseph Latessa, Department of Computer Science Wayne State University, Detroit MI USA (jlatessa@wayne.edu); (2) Aadi Huria, Senior, Salem High School Canton, MI USA (huria.aadi@gmail.com); (3) Deepak Raju, Senior, Salem High School, Canton MI USA (Deepak.Raju294@outlook.com). Table of Links Abstract and Introduction Abstract and Introduction Related Work Related Work Project Prerequisites Project Prerequisites Project Implementation Project Implementation Insight and Reflections Insight and Reflections Conclusions, Acknowledgement and References Conclusions, Acknowledgement and References 6 CONCLUSION For motivated independent study students, learning software engineering concepts such as version control and continuous integration will benefit them in their future studies. As demonstrated here, this content is accessible to students even at an early point in their computer science education. A special honors project or a supplemental one-credit-hour tools and techniques course taken as a corequisite to the traditional introduction to programming track could be a next step to further develop, scale, and generalize the material and unique format devised and embarked upon for this project. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We would like to acknowledge Loren Schwiebert at Wayne State University for his assistance, feedback, and advice throughout the development and implementation of this project. We would also like to acknowledge the JETSCAPE Collaboration [1] and GOMC [2] for providing the source repositories and applications on which our automated tests were developed. We also acknowledge LinkChecker [12], GitHub Actions HTML5 Validator [10], and svenkreiss/html5validator [11] as the marketplace and opensource utilities discussed and applied as part of this project. REFERENCES [1] JETSCAPE Website: https://jetscape.org. [2] GOMC - GPU-Optimized Monte Carlo Website: https://gomc-wsu.org. [3] Chib, Siddhartha, and Edward Greenberg. “Understanding the MetropolisHastings Algorithm.” The American Statistician, vol. 49, no. 4, 1995, pp. 327– 35. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/2684568. Accessed 17 Aug. 2023. [4] Richard Glassey. 2019. Adopting Git/Github within Teaching: A Survey of Tool Support. In Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Global Computing Education (CompEd '19). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 143–149. https://doi.org/10.1145/3300115.3309518 [5] Yu-Cheng Tu, Valerio Terragni, Ewan Tempero, Asma Shakil, Andrew Meads, Nasser Giacaman, Allan Fowler, and Kelly Blincoe. 2022. GitHub in the Classroom: Lessons Learnt. In Proceedings of the 24th Australasian Computing Education Conference (ACE '22). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 163–172. https://doi.org/10.1145/3511861.3511879 [6] Lassi Haaranen and Teemu Lehtinen. 2015. Teaching Git on the Side: Version Control System as a Course Platform. In Proceedings of the 2015 ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education (ITiCSE '15). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 87–92. https://doi.org/10.1145/2729094.2742608 [7] David S. Janzen and Hossein Saiedian. 2006. Test-driven learning: intrinsic integration of testing into the CS/SE curriculum. SIGCSE Bull. 38, 1 (March 2006), 254–258. https://doi.org/10.1145/1124706.1121419 [8] B. P. Eddy et al., "A Pilot Study on Introducing Continuous Integration and Delivery into Undergraduate Software Engineering Courses," 2017 IEEE 30th Conference on Software Engineering Education and Training (CSEE&T), Savannah, GA, USA, 2017, pp. 47-56, doi: 10.1109/CSEET.2017.18. [9] Alex Radermacher and Gursimran Walia. 2013. Gaps between industry expectations and the abilities of graduates. In Proceeding of the 44th ACM technical symposium on Computer science education (SIGCSE '13). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 525–530. https://doi.org/10.1145/2445196.2445351 [10] HTML5 Validator - GitHub Marketplace: https://github.com/marketplace/actions/html5-validator. [11] GitHub - svenkreiss/html5validator: Command line tool to validate HTML5 files. Great for continuous integration.: 2022. https://github.com/svenkreiss/html5validator. [12] LinkChecker: 2022. https://pypi.org/project/LinkChecker/. This paper is available on arxiv under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED license. This paper is available on arxiv under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED license. available on arxiv

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