TimePlus

timeplus

The fight for privacy is reaching its peak. Social networks like Meta, X (formerly Twitter), and TikTok are under heavy fire. The companies have to prove they are not gathering their users’ personal information, sell the data to governments around the globe, and have no intent to harm their users’ privacy and security. People all around are getting tired of worrying about the safety of their private information and taking extreme measures to protect themselves online. Online Security. So Hot Right Now. Why? One of the most fascinating processes to watch has been the United States’ fight against TikTok. The platform that is used by 170 million Americans is going to be completely banned in the United States unless its parent company, ByteDance, sells it to an American entity. In her statement, Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell, the chair of the Senate Commerce Committee says “Congress is acting to prevent foreign adversaries from conducting espionage, surveillance, maligned operations, harming vulnerable Americans, our servicemen and women, and our U.S. government personnel”. Facebook is also in a risk zone. Cybercriminals there can take over poorly protected user accounts to spread links to fake AI applications, making the app even more unsafe, especially for vulnerable user groups. People are driven by the desire to protect themselves, their close ones, and their own data and private information. And some of us go to extreme ways to make sure it happens. Here are only a few things people do to protect themselves. Going Low Tech Not so long ago, phones had buttons. I know. Blows my mind too. What doesn’t blow it is when I see people still using them and shops still selling them. A lot of them are purchased by people who want to go off the grid, even if just for a little while. Not having any social media applications, constant push notifications, and messages with memes can, for example, save a huge amount of time. Plus, modern cool-looking, button-less phones are prone to being breached. Smishing attacks (hackers getting sensitive information via text messages), break-ins via Bluetooth, malware attacks, social engineering attacks, and so on. And people who do not want to suffer from such breaches go to extreme measures and are saying a definitive “No” to smart gadgets — phones, laptops, tablets. Rejecting the use of smart devices in the modern world is one of the toughest decisions one can take. Our lives, for better or worse, are tied to them to the extent that some people become addicted to their phones. When people start fearing for their privacy so much, they choose to toss their phones away. That is the exact time to stop and think — are we sure we are going the right way? Going low-tech is not an option for me, so I take extra care to set up two-factor authentication on my devices and make sure that sensitive data is secure or even encrypted if need be. This is true for both my personal and professional lives. A great practice for everyone who is not ready to say goodbye to their smart devices but still wants to retain their online privacy and security. Double-Checking Online Contacts In the world of global interactions, we all have online friends. People we connected with over our love for cooking, watching particular TV shows, or sharing an interest in crocheting or running. But are we sure those are all real people with good intentions? Being sure about the real personalities of people we meet online is impossible, so verifying people’s personalities is one of the best approaches to internet friendships. Here’s how to do it: Checking the consistency of communication patterns — this is one of the most popular and important tell-tales of a real person behind the profile picture. Constantly changing spelling, grammar, and communication style can actually be signs of fraud and risk. Setting up video calls — communicating with an online friend eye-to-eye with the help of video calls and building on that communication later on will not only help protect the data but will also serve as a catalyst for a relationship. Cross-platform verification — checking whether a person’s information, data, and photos on different platforms can help establish whether the connection is legitimate or fake and actually dangerous. Double-checking online contacts is a practice the SupportYourApp team implemented long ago. We make sure to not expose our information to unsuitable people and run background checks on our contacts and potential partners. Taking this extra step does take time and resources, but it also ensures that we are remaining breach- and leak-proof. Using Disposable Emails Those who have taken a “Which kind of onion are you” online test know the pain of having to enter an email address to find out whether they are a shallot. It is simply frustrating. On a more serious note, there are plenty of times when we need to enter our emails to download e-books, register on a website where we want to make a one-time purchase or keep on reading an interesting article. This makes internet users vulnerable to leaks and breaches, where their email addresses can get into the wrong hands. It is also a way to open ourselves up to one of the most annoying things on the internet — spam emails. This is where services like 10- and 15-minute-mail (not an ad) come into play. They allow users to get generic email addresses to enter whenever needed without exposing themselves to online danger. It is also a good way to spare one’s inbox from unnecessary messages — believe me, I get over 100 emails per day and these tools have been saving me from receiving thousands of spam emails over the years. A lot of people still do not recognize the importance of online security and privacy. But the further into the internet era we go, the more important these questions will become. While going off the grid and checking the legitimacy of absolutely every online connection may still be considered “going too far”, it is likely they will become standard practices for keeping our data safe. The fight for privacy is reaching its peak. Social networks like Meta, X (formerly Twitter), and TikTok are under heavy fire. The companies have to prove they are not gathering their users’ personal information, sell the data to governments around the globe, and have no intent to harm their users’ privacy and security. The fight for privacy is reaching its peak. Social networks like Meta, X (formerly Twitter), and TikTok are under heavy fire. The companies have to prove they are not gathering their users’ personal information, sell the data to governments around the globe, and have no intent to harm their users’ privacy and security. TikTok TikTok People all around are getting tired of worrying about the safety of their private information and taking extreme measures to protect themselves online. People all around are getting tired of worrying about the safety of their private information and taking extreme measures to protect themselves online. Online Security. So Hot Right Now. Why? One of the most fascinating processes to watch has been the United States’ fight against TikTok. The platform that is used by 170 million Americans is going to be completely banned in the United States unless its parent company, ByteDance, sells it to an American entity. In her statement, Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell, the chair of the Senate Commerce Committee says “Congress is acting to prevent foreign adversaries from conducting espionage, surveillance, maligned operations, harming vulnerable Americans, our servicemen and women, and our U.S. government personnel”. Facebook is also in a risk zone. Cybercriminals there can take over poorly protected user accounts to spread links to fake AI applications, making the app even more unsafe, especially for vulnerable user groups. People are driven by the desire to protect themselves, their close ones, and their own data and private information. And some of us go to extreme ways to make sure it happens. Here are only a few things people do to protect themselves. Going Low Tech Not so long ago, phones had buttons. I know. Blows my mind too. What doesn’t blow it is when I see people still using them and shops still selling them. A lot of them are purchased by people who want to go off the grid, even if just for a little while. Not having any social media applications, constant push notifications, and messages with memes can, for example, save a huge amount of time. Plus, modern cool-looking, button-less phones are prone to being breached. Smishing attacks (hackers getting sensitive information via text messages), break-ins via Bluetooth, malware attacks, social engineering attacks, and so on. And people who do not want to suffer from such breaches go to extreme measures and are saying a definitive “No” to smart gadgets — phones, laptops, tablets. Rejecting the use of smart devices in the modern world is one of the toughest decisions one can take. Our lives, for better or worse, are tied to them to the extent that some people become addicted to their phones. When people start fearing for their privacy so much, they choose to toss their phones away. That is the exact time to stop and think — are we sure we are going the right way? Going low-tech is not an option for me, so I take extra care to set up two-factor authentication on my devices and make sure that sensitive data is secure or even encrypted if need be. This is true for both my personal and professional lives. A great practice for everyone who is not ready to say goodbye to their smart devices but still wants to retain their online privacy and security. Double-Checking Online Contacts In the world of global interactions, we all have online friends. People we connected with over our love for cooking, watching particular TV shows, or sharing an interest in crocheting or running. But are we sure those are all real people with good intentions? Being sure about the real personalities of people we meet online is impossible, so verifying people’s personalities is one of the best approaches to internet friendships. Here’s how to do it: Checking the consistency of communication patterns — this is one of the most popular and important tell-tales of a real person behind the profile picture. Constantly changing spelling, grammar, and communication style can actually be signs of fraud and risk. Checking the consistency of communication patterns — this is one of the most popular and important tell-tales of a real person behind the profile picture. Constantly changing spelling, grammar, and communication style can actually be signs of fraud and risk. Setting up video calls — communicating with an online friend eye-to-eye with the help of video calls and building on that communication later on will not only help protect the data but will also serve as a catalyst for a relationship. Setting up video calls — communicating with an online friend eye-to-eye with the help of video calls and building on that communication later on will not only help protect the data but will also serve as a catalyst for a relationship. Cross-platform verification — checking whether a person’s information, data, and photos on different platforms can help establish whether the connection is legitimate or fake and actually dangerous. Cross-platform verification — checking whether a person’s information, data, and photos on different platforms can help establish whether the connection is legitimate or fake and actually dangerous. Cross-platform verification — checking whether a person’s information, data, and photos on different platforms can help establish whether the connection is legitimate or fake and actually dangerous. Double-checking online contacts is a practice the SupportYourApp team implemented long ago. We make sure to not expose our information to unsuitable people and run background checks on our contacts and potential partners. Taking this extra step does take time and resources, but it also ensures that we are remaining breach- and leak-proof. Using Disposable Emails Those who have taken a “Which kind of onion are you” online test know the pain of having to enter an email address to find out whether they are a shallot. It is simply frustrating. On a more serious note, there are plenty of times when we need to enter our emails to download e-books, register on a website where we want to make a one-time purchase or keep on reading an interesting article. This makes internet users vulnerable to leaks and breaches, where their email addresses can get into the wrong hands. It is also a way to open ourselves up to one of the most annoying things on the internet — spam emails. This is where services like 10- and 15-minute-mail (not an ad) come into play. They allow users to get generic email addresses to enter whenever needed without exposing themselves to online danger. It is also a good way to spare one’s inbox from unnecessary messages — believe me, I get over 100 emails per day and these tools have been saving me from receiving thousands of spam emails over the years. over 100 emails per day over 100 emails per day A lot of people still do not recognize the importance of online security and privacy. But the further into the internet era we go, the more important these questions will become. While going off the grid and checking the legitimacy of absolutely every online connection may still be considered “going too far”, it is likely they will become standard practices for keeping our data safe.

Privacy And Security: How Far Are We Willing to Go to Retain Them?

Navigating Complex Search Tasks with AI Copilots: Opportunities

POOH. Not “poo” 💩 but “POOH” 🧸 as in Winnie The POOH. Launched in April of 2023, within a few weeks of launch but has since had a pull back. At first glance it looks like just another pump and dump meme coin. However, if you inspect closer it actually has a lot going for it compared to other ERC-20 memes such as PEPE. POOH was a meme coin that soared to over $80M market cap Here are the important things in a TLDR format and why I stay bullish: Technicals Branding aside, let’s look at the technical setup. https://etherscan.io/token/0xb69753c06bb5c366be51e73bfc0cc2e3dc07e371 POOH launched stealth. No big influencers pushing it or foundations behind it. About 2 ETH was locked in a Uniswap liquidity pool and the contract owner renounced their control. This means that no one controls that LP and can potentially rug. In addition, 95% of the POOH supply was added to the uniswap pool. The only way to get POOH would be to buy it on the market. 5% was given to centralized exchanges like Huobi, MEXC, and others at time of listing. 100% of max supply is in circulation. RugFreeCoins has audited the contract along with others. Read their report here. Most important is that the dev has locked the liquidity and renounced ownership forever.  This means POOH operates based alone on the market demand.  Given that most liquidity is in the Uniswap LP, the ETH liquidity of POOH deepens by 0.3% on each swap (uniswap fees going back to the locked pool). Branding Who hasn’t heard of Winnie the POOH? It’s a 95 year old global brand which entered public domain in 2022.  It’s the 4th highest grossing movie franchise ($48B+) of all time.  Plus it's a positive, nostalgic brand that adults, kids and normies love. POOH has been resilient despite crypto market downturns with 15k+ holders currently and about a $3M market cap.  When the bull run kicks into full swing, normies will buy POOH - not the newest dog or frog memecoin. $POOH DAO More than a meme, $POOH has decentralized and self-sustaining governance through a that actively votes on proposals. Plus, the POOH DAO has its own treasury of ETH. DAO run on Tally That means $POOH is more than a meme and actually votes on how to allocate the ETH for things like project development or marketing. How is it funded?  Enter $EEYOR $EEYOR Sometime after launching POOH the dev who controls the deployer .   The most intriguing thing is that 100% of $EEYOR at the time of creation was sent to the $POOH DAO. created $EEYOR EEYOR (unlike POOH) has a 5/5 tax and that tax is used to deepen ETH/EEYOR liquidity and allocate ETH back to the DAO from every buy/sell. POOH holders are incentivized to promote EEYOR because every buy/sell makes POOH stronger because it's backed with more ETH.  It’s a virtuous circle. POOH Crew NFTs & DAO POOH Crew NFTs have been launched through Nouns DAO and operate independently of the POOH and EEYOR coins.   1 POOH NFT is auctioned daily and 100% of the ETH proceeds from the sale of the NFTs go towards a DAO that is run by the NFT holders. https://nouns.build/dao/ethereum/0x3d9f8e430cd52dce044b9d88a3574551ece31d1b/132 This means that the POOH Universe has 2 DAO with ETH in it to grow the ecosystem - 1 from the POOH token holders and 1 from the POOH NFT owners.  Daily NFT auctions can be seen here. The POOH Crew NFTs also look really good.  They were likely professionally done by an NFT audience and would be a good pfp for any owner. One other thing to note is the $POOH Token DAO owns 10% of the POOH Crew NFT DAO which is shown in the graphic. Why So Bullish? The setup and structure of this ecosystem is professional.  It wasn’t randomly thrown together by an inexperienced team. It seems similar to the Frax Ecosystem, but I have not found any evidence yet that it is the same team. $POOH is a meme coin normies will love with a 0/0 tax and audited contract.  For true defi lovers it comes with real governance control over an ETH treasury. $EEYOR works well as a meme, but will also be highly promoted by the POOH holders due to its 5/5 tax and ability to grow ETH treasury.   The EEYOR liquidity will ramp quickly as well given the tax backs it. POOH Crew NFTs stand on their own and come with their own unique ETH treasury.  High quality PFP art work with ETH backing through Nouns DAO makes it a solid stand alone NFT project. In the bull run normies will buy POOH (something they know), not doggy inu or frogtoken 2.0. The POOH Universe Overall, there is no team or figure head and its all community run.  Code is law here and everything can be validated and verified based on the structure. Real whales look at on-chain activity and technical setup.   Most people will pass on POOH as another meme, but this has true potential to run in a bull due the foundation of how it's structured. It hit $80M a few months back and will likely go much once the bull run is in full effect. POOH DETAILS: / / Telegram Twitter Website

Why I Stay Bullish on $POOH and the POOH Universe

This series of articles has been a lot of fun for me as I have learned about and explored new technology. It’s also fun to see what has been catching on since I first discovered it. My last article on was incredibly popular, much to my surprise, but it seems I wasn’t the only one interested in what the heck it was. Thanks to that article, I ran across the open-source Apache 2.0 licensed project, , sponsored by . It’s a SQL database that accommodates both historical and streaming data. Written in C++ and powered by , the focus is on simplicity and performance. With a single executable, installation is simple. Apache Paimon Proton Timeplus ClickHouse A trend I’ve seen is that more and more real-time analytics applications are being built, but you don’t want to build them twice. Once for streaming and once for the historical backfill. There would be definite advantages to having a single platform that could query in either batch or streaming mode or even a hybrid mode where you are joining historical data to a stream of incoming data. It appears that Proton was built to do just that. Proton Overview In a nutshell, we have a ClickHouse database, and Timeplus has added support for streaming services. That should get you a Flink-like query engine and Kafka-like streaming storage with that ClickHouse database. So, what does that look like? The dotted line is where Proton comes in. I suggest reading through the docs to get a good sense of what is possible. architecture To create a random stream of data and query it with Proton, we can do something like this: -- Create a stream with random data.
CREATE RANDOM STREAM devices(device string default 'device'||to_string(rand()%4), temperature float default rand()%1000/10);

-- Run the long-running stream query.
SELECT device, count(*), min(temperature), max(temperature) FROM devices GROUP BY device;

┌─device──┬─count()─┬─min(temperature)─┬─max(temperature)─┐
│ device0 │    2256 │                0 │             99.6 │
│ device1 │    2260 │              0.1 │             99.7 │
│ device3 │    2259 │              0.3 │             99.9 │
│ device2 │    2225 │              0.2 │             99.8 │
└─────────┴─────────┴──────────────────┴──────────────────┘ Proton Features Proton has many nifty features; one that struck me immediately was the ability to create a materialized view to save specific events in Proton. Borrowing from the documentation, let’s say you have a Kafka stream reporting web events, and you want to save the broken link reports so you can query them later, even with Kafka down or the events removed. It would look something like this: create materialized view mv_broken_links as
select raw:requestedUrl as url,raw:method as method, raw:ipAddress as ip, 
       raw:response.statusCode as statusCode, domain(raw:headers.referrer)
as referrer
from frontend_events where raw:response.statusCode<>'200'; Then, if you want to directly query the materialized view and make a bar chart from the data, it would look like this: -- streaming query
select * from mv_broken_links;

-- historical query
select method, count() as cnt, bar(cnt,0,40,5) as bar from table(mv_broken_links) 
group by method order by cnt desc;

┌─method─┬─cnt─┬─bar─┐
│ GET    │  25 │ ███ │
│ DELETE │  20 │ ██▌ │
│ HEAD   │  17 │ ██  │
│ POST   │  17 │ ██  │
│ PUT    │  17 │ ██  │
│ PATCH  │  17 │ ██  │
└────────┴─────┴─────┘ Some of this functionality reminds me of , a company I worked at a few years ago. Upsolver Drivers for other languages are available for Java, Go, and Python. Using Proton with something like would be a minimal footprint for streaming historical data. Redpanda There are a lot of other features available, but this isn’t meant to be a tutorial. I want to do a light explanation and draw attention to some features. The docs are concise and, overall, well written, certainly better than many open-source projects. Summary While I don’t personally need this kind of arrangement at the moment, I’ve certainly been at places and seen companies where this would be very, very cool to have. As cool as this guy? Probably not, but then again, nothing is :). Frivolity aside, the Proton team has done an excellent job documenting the project and making it as simple to install and use as possible. I love these single-binary projects that don’t need a vast Java ecosystem with tons of dependencies. Make no mistake, though, Timeplus has a commercial version that gives you more capability than the stock Proton release. However, they seem to be very supportive of Proton and welcoming of the community. Check out my other What the Heck is… articles at the links below: What The Heck Is DuckDB? What the Heck Is Malloy? What the Heck is PRQL? What the Heck is GlareDB? What the Heck is SeaTunnel? What the Heck is LanceDB? What the heck is SDF? What the Heck is Paimon?

What the Heck is Proton?

হেক প্রোটন কি?

Was zum Teufel ist Proton?

¿Qué diablos es el protón?

Qu'est-ce que c'est que Proton ?

आख़िर प्रोटोन क्या है?

プロトンって一体何なの？

양성자는 도대체 무엇입니까?

O que diabos é próton?

Что, черт возьми, такое Протон?

Proton nedir?

Proton là cái quái gì vậy?

质子到底是什么？

Endless interviews and negotiations. Answering basic and similar questions, and waiting for a callback that, hopefully, will become a satisfying end to the process. Sounds stressful, right? But some people almost seem to enjoy the process and, as a result, they job-hop to the point of having 11 workplaces in 10 years — I know someone like that. What is the reason behind this behavior, and what can companies do to counteract it? Why do people job-hop? Toxic management of professionals have experienced a toxic work environment. Among them, 44% blame leadership and management. 64% This toxicity can present in several ways: Lack of trust Micromanagement No respect for the work-life balance No room for mistakes Gaslighting and much more A search for a workplace that is not toxic and will support its team, no matter what, is one of the most popular reasons for job hopping. No career growth opportunities Businesses that do not offer this possibility are certain to face big professional churn. Businesses that provide a growth opportunity see more engagement than those that do not. This also means they see a higher level of retention and can prevent job hopping. 15% Lack of company loyalty Companies want their teams to be loyal to them. They want them to share their values, follow their mission, and stay with them no matter what. What businesses may not realize is that teams expect the same treatment. They want their place of work to be loyal to them, invest in their development, provide them with perks and advantages, and offer them the care they deserve. Lack of thereof can be a deciding answer to the “Should I stay or should I go?” question for about of workers. And that is not going to be a decision a business will like. 20% Which industries are the most vulnerable? IT, media and PR, non-profit organizations, education, and government are more prone to experiencing churn and are more likely to deal with job-hopping professionals. This is usually due to low pay (government and education) or the abundance of other roles in the industry (IT and media). Combined, the above-mentioned factors paint a depressing picture. Nevertheless, there are steps leaders can take to stop job-hopping and build a lasting and professional team. What can leaders and managers do about job-hopping? Through thirteen years as a CEO and a Managing Partner, I have developed five steps that have helped me deal with teammates. job-hopping Step 1: emotional connection matters In my opinion, this is a lesson every leader should learn. To build a personal and emotional connection with my teams, I like to make little notes on everyone I come in contact with. This way, when I have a chance to personally communicate with them, I can ask them about important things like their hobbies, goals and even pets. Seeing their faces light up when I mention something that matters to them makes my day every time. Plus, it helps me form strong bonds that prevent the SupportYourApp team members from job hopping. Step 2: out-of-workplace communication should be encouraged Not something a lot of professionals can afford — dedicating their personal time to communication with their colleagues. Nevertheless, setting up team-building events that take place in a cozy café or, even better, out in the open, is crucial. The bonds built during such events may last a lifetime. At , one of our favorite ways to spend time together is sport. Marathons, charity runs, yoga and meditation sessions, and so on. This is not only a good way for us to bond, but to take care of our well-being. SupportYourApp Step 3: there should be a possibility of professional development With only of professionals sure about their professional development at their current job, it is no wonder that we are facing job-hopping. After all, no opportunity for promotion or growth is people quit. 25% one of the most popular reasons There should always be room for people to grow. Teams should have a clear understanding of what steps they need to take to push their careers to new heights. Businesses should also provide their teams with several directions they can take their careers in. It will give a team member a reason to stay with their current company for a long time, and it will allow businesses to find new opportunities and directions. For example, 60% of SupportYourApp’s management team was promoted from the positions of customer support consultants. When our team was smaller, this number was as high as 95%. We are creating greenhouse conditions for internal professional growth so that everyone has a place to develop and fulfill their professional potential. Step 4: a team simply must be listened to Businesses often treat team satisfaction surveys as something that has to be sent out and then ignored. They think their teams treat it like an opportunity to complain about working hours or low pay. What we have found is that teams use satisfaction surveys to express gratitude and offer their advice to make their place of work better. They want to show they care, and this is a perfect way for them to do so. If a business wants to retain its team, every voice and every thought needs to be heard and considered. This is the only way to build a company where people will want to stay. Such surveys can help a business review insurance and vacation policies, implement new team activities like book and movie clubs, and even make necessary in-office adjustments. Why am I so sure about it? Because this is the practice SupportYourApp has been using for more than 13 years now. Step 5: it is important to be a leader, not a ‘pusher’ I will not tire of saying — the best way to manage people is to . Pushing one’s team to do something they may not want to do and refusing to respect their opinions is one of the signs of a toxic manager. It is almost sure to become a reason behind churn and job-hopping. lead by example Being a leader is all about inspiring people, motivating them, and creating an atmosphere where they will want to stay and thrive. The catch? There is no limit to how good a leader can be, so the process of becoming one is ever-ongoing. Which is one of the things I love about it.

Should I Stay or Should I Go: How to Deal With Job Hopping

The possibility of working remotely marked a new chapter in the lives of many. You don’t have to go to the office or be confined to a specific location anymore. All a remote professional needs is a laptop and smartphone, and the world is open for travel and work. Thousands have already tried workationing. But it can be challenging to be as effective as you are in the office when you’re on workation. So, here are five apps that help me stay as productive as possible while working and traveling. Evernote When working remotely, you may use notebooks, sticky notes, a whiteboard, and other tools, in addition to your laptop and smartphone, to keep track of important tasks. But the fewer belongings you take with you on workation, the better. Because, for one thing, they make your luggage heavier, and for another, you may lose them while you’re moving around. An app like is the most effective solution to this, as it lets you organize all your notes in one place and is available anywhere in the world with Internet access. You can take down ideas in the format of searchable notes, attach various types of media to them, and collect them in digital notebooks. Evernote iScanner Imagine that you need to scan a document (such as a contract or an ID) but can’t find a computer scanner in your hotel or even anywhere nearby. In such situations, the app comes in handy. With it, all you need to get a quality scan is your smartphone. The app removes any type of distortions, like folds or crumples, makes the document clearer, and even erases captured fingers. Besides, you can edit and sign your scans on the go, which saves you a lot of time. iScanner Any.do One of the cornerstones of a productive day is listing your tasks and prioritizing them. I recommend planning your day with the app. It allows you to create a to-do list and visualize your tasks. When you see that you’ve planned ten projects for the day but then only manage to accomplish three by lunch, this makes you rearrange your priorities for the rest of the day and reassess how you spend your time. Plus, moving cards from the ‘To-do’ section to ‘Done’ is so gratifying! Any.do Wifi Analyzer A quality internet connection is key for remote work. A poor connection may not only prevent you from taking an active part in a video call, it may not even let you work with your files in the cloud. To avoid such situations, I recommend using . It measures your real-time network speed and traffic in seconds. This app will help you check the quality of the connection before you choose a spot to work, giving you confidence in your accessibility and effectiveness during the day. Wifi Analyzer Yelp When you arrive at a new place, you may want to find good cafés and restaurants to work from. And, if something happens in the apartment you're renting, you also may need to contact some local businesses, such as plumbing or electrical services. To find the most trusted local services, use —an app with the necessary contacts and user reviews. Finding a great professional right away will save you time and leave you satisfied with the results of their work. Yelp I hope that these five apps that always make my workation a little easier and more enjoyable will come in handy to you as well. Of course, these are just a few of the many apps out there, and I could have mentioned apps for flight tickets, hotel bookings, sightseeing, and others, but that’s another story. And even though a workation is an opportunity to have a change of scenery, meet new people, and discover new places, work itself should always remain a priority.

5 Handy Apps for Boosting Productivity During a Workation

Screen recording software isn't a common category of programs, but it's good to have a tool on hand when you need to record a how-to tutorial or want to save a video call or game session for posterity. There are quite a few options available for Windows users, whether you're looking for something free with minimal features or if you want extra features like voiceover support. Read - 5 Reasons Why a Screen Recorder Is a Vital Tool For Business With the built-in 'Snipping Tool' and other programs that only work for a specific version of Windows, finding the right one that will work with your current computer is challenging. Then there's the question of whether it will install and run smoothly on your computer or if you'll need to jump through hoops to get everything running smoothly. Here are some of the best ones: 1. EaseUS RecExperts The EaseUS RecExperts is a screen recorder that can do the job right. With RecExperts, you can capture any region on the PC screen along with audio or webcam. It has an embedded video editor to edit your recorded videos with only one click. If you want to record games, this software will never lag while recording a game. It also provides unlimited time recording and many more advanced features. This screen recorder is easy to use because of its intuitive interface and friendly design. In addition, it comes with a built-in media player, so you can watch your recorded files directly through the program itself without installing any third-party player. One of the most-used features is the ability to edit while recording. You can use this feature for music videos, including a transitional scene in-between clips from different parts of a song. With this feature, there's no need for laborious editing afterward. You can record right through it! EaseUS RecExperts lets you: Capture the entire screen, just like the old-fashioned way. Select which area of the screen to record to use different recording areas. Record multiple monitors at the same time. Record video even if other programs are open on your computer. Stop recording automatically after a scheduled time or after recording a certain amount of data. Split recorded data into smaller files automatically so that they become easier to manage. Overall, RecExperts is one of the better live-stream recording options currently available. It's a well-designed application with several powerful features, including multiple recording options and a scheduler. Download: (Free & Paid) RecExperts 2  OBS Studio OBS Studio is a free screen recorder that can record your computer screen, webcam, and audio from your microphone. It can stream directly to Twitch or other sites like Hitbox, Youtube, DailyMotion, etc. A few of my favorite settings are the ability to put an image that only shows up while you are streaming or recording in the corner of the screen, a timer to have an alert pop up when you are recording, and an FPS display. - Also Read OBS for Dummies: How to Record Your Screen One great feature is the ability to set up hotkeys that you can use to turn the program on and off quickly, so you don't have to go back into the program every time you want to start or stop recording. As a software developer who creates tutorials, I'm always looking for ways to improve my workflow, and OBS Studio has been invaluable in this regard. The program lets me create scenes comprising multiple sources like window captures, images, webcams, etc. Unlike many other screen recorder programs, it performs remarkably well and has built-in audio mixing capabilities. The only downside I've found is that it can be challenging to get your mic audio and game audio balanced precisely to hear yourself without turning up the volume too high or turning down your game too low. Download: (Free) OBS Studio 3 Streamlabs If you are a streamer and want to increase your audience, consider looking into Streamlabs. Streamlabs can also detect any running games and use them as capture sources. Additionally, the instant replay source plays the most recently captured recordings. Streamlabs screen recorder can stream directly to Twitch or YouTube. It also allows you to stream directly to Facebook or Periscope if you prefer those platforms. You can add annotations with links to your other social media pages during your stream; they will appear in the video after the stream ends. Streamlab's built-in audio mixer can add music or sound effects to the stream. The mixer supports multiple sources, audio routing, and volume control. You can also add and remove audio tracks in real time during your stream. Streamlabs has built-in tools for overlays and alerts for donations, subscribers, and followers. If someone donates during your live stream, you can give them a shout-out on the video after the stream ends. If you have multiple programs on your computer that you want to access during a live stream, Streamlabs can overlay them into scenes. The app gives you access to several sources: it can overlay webcams, video files (such as those captured with screen recorders), text messages, and even games running on Windows or macOS. Streamlabs is one of the most popular screen recording apps; there's a good reason for that. It's a free app to achieve a high-quality video recording without relying on an outside source. Plenty of options to play around with and test, and its easy-to-use interface will make it an asset to any streamer's arsenal. 4 Xbox Game Bar With the Xbox Game Bar, gamers can record their gameplay and chat with other Game Bar users. The Xbox Game Bar is helpful for all kinds of gamers. Whether you're a casual gamer or a professional streamer, this app has something for you. Without third-party software, it can easily capture and share your best moments with your friends in real-time. You won't have to take the time to fiddle with an external program—you can start recording gameplay as soon as you launch the app. The Xbox Game Bar is a built-in Windows application and can be used independently of any game or application. You can open it by pressing the Win + G key combination, which can be changed to any keyboard key combination you like. The Game Bar can only record the current screen view, so you have to minimize any applications you do not want screen captured—or just put them in windowed mode instead of full-screen mode. The Xbox Game Bar is a capable recording software that meets most people's needs. However, it can only record some things, so it will only work for some. The simple and easy-to-use interface also makes it a plus. Download: Xbox Game Bar 5 Bandicam Bandicam is an easy-to-use program with many features built-in, allowing you to choose the best settings for your needs. It can capture your screen while showing a video feed from your webcam, or you can record video games and HDMI devices to create high-quality videos. Bandicam can also record games and HDMI devices using Direct X. The program is easy to use: Open it and click the record button to start recording. The interface is clean, with a timeline at the bottom of the screen that displays all of Bandicam's functions. You can set different hotkeys for most functions to streamline your workflow. Batch processing is one of Bandicam's best features. You can add multiple files or entire folders to be recorded at once, allowing you to save time by not having to open each file individually before starting recording. Another feature that saves time is a pre-recording buffer that records up to 5 seconds before you press the record button. The editing software that comes with this program, Bandicut, is excellent for more advanced users. It can split already recorded videos or merge parts of multiple videos into one. It also has essential functionality like trimming, rotating, and cropping videos. **Download: (Free) | ($39.95) Bandicam Bandicam Pro I hope you've found this article helpful in your search for the best screen recording programs for Windows. Which program is the best comes down to your personal preferences? Do you prefer something simple, like RecExperts? Or would you rather have something that offers more features, like OBS Studio? Please try out one of the screen recording programs listed above for a few minutes.

5 Best Screen Recording Programs for Windows

VR/AR (virtual reality / augmented reality) technologies could help us in some ways. However, they also could pose a threat to humanity. is the environment that our brain was not designed for. Surrounding ourselves with VR/AR may lead to the degradation of what makes us human. It can turn us into irrational and immoral slaves incapable of setting and achieving long-term goals and moving our civilization into a bright future. Metaverse In this post, I'd like to focus on the potential dangers of VR/AR for humanity, if they are used inappropriately. Before introducing VR/AR technologies into our real life, it is important to conduct extensive research on the potential impact they could have on human values and behavior. “Technology and industry have distanced people from nature and magic and human values.” Laura Esquivel Let me start with my personal story of dealing with . To me, VR is not only about 3D world and VR headsets. As a teenager, I was addicted to Sony PlayStation games, specifically soccer simulator. I played for hours almost every day for several years. Eventually, I became a master. I could quite easily win almost every game and all the trophies. But it was not real. It mattered only to me and happened only in my mind and on the TV screen. You see, becoming a winner in a game is about pressing buttons at the right time. I identified myself with great players and big teams, but my body was still the same. I didn't really become much better at playing soccer myself. I realized that all I got is an illusion that I was sort of invincible, but in reality, I wasn't. Not even close. VR My addiction cost me a lot of time and caused some harm to my health. Plus, I kind of forgot who I was. That realization is what pushed me to spend as much time as I could with the real ball and players on the real field. Playing soccer in real life taught me a lot of lessons that I use in life. Now, 15 years later, I would like to take a look at my addiction and the potential impact that Metaverse could have on human behavior and our society from a scientific point of view. “Technology challenges us to assert our human values, which means that first of all, we have to figure out what they are.” Sherry Turkle VR/AR technologies and other can destroy your personality on different levels and make you act irrationally in the real world. ICT (information and communication technologies) Why is it important for us to be moral and rational in our world? Why is it important to preserve universal values? Well, basically, that is what makes us human. To me, being rational means being as close to our reality as possible. It is about acting according to the laws of our reality/universe. The more rational we are, the better choices we make, and the better results we get. Hence, the happier we are ) Universal values are moral principles (our behavioral «compass») shared by the majority of people. We need to act rationally and in accordance with our universal values to stay human. Losing your identity Forgetting who you really are It is really easy nowadays for people to create their online identities. You can modify your photos with the help of a graphics editor and create a user profile pretending to be something you are not. It is easy to change your appearance, but it is hard to change your values. People can forget who they really are this way and become something that other people force them to be. Borrowing identity/behavior or its elements People are not just trying to come up with their own fictitious appearance, but they can also borrow someone's identity/behavior or its elements. In 1961, it was shown by Albert Bandura that children mimic the behavior demonstrated to them. We can learn by imitating others’ behavior [1]. This phenomenon could be explained by the presence of mirror neurons in our brains. These neurons fire when we do certain actions, as well as when we see or hear someone else performing the same actions [2]. This way, a lot of people become full of behavioral patterns that are not always beneficial neither in terms of morality nor in terms of rationality. Think about all the patterns people could get from games, movies, anime etc. Plus, currently, our representations in Metaverse are quite odd (there are no legs etc.). These limitations may cause irrational behavior that people then demonstrate in real life. Also, we can get supernatural abilities in VR. Ultimately, we can get used to them so much that in the real world we forget that we don't have them and behave very irrationally in some situations. We are shaped by our environment. Is Metaverse the best environment for people with all its irrationality and absurdity? Not yet, in my opinion. Neurophysiological foundation. Brain Two brain operating modes Default/Passive mode The default system is the neuronal network that activates at rest, when we are self-absorbed and not engaged in solving the problems of the external world. This is when our brain organizes information and calculates various options to solve problems. This is when our brain is the most creative. Active mode. Responsive problem-solving network / central executive network This system activates when we consume information coming in from the outside. Both systems are antagonistic to each other. In other words, activation of the active mode leads to inhibition of the default mode. During the first 25 years of our life, neuronal networks responsible for the default mode are being formed. That's why it is of critical importance for us to not knock our default system out by keeping our central executive network active all day long (consuming tons of information via gadgets). The brain of teenagers stops forming if they spend 70% of their time in front of their gadgets [3, 4]. Three minds Theo Compernolle distinguishes 3 minds in his book called «BrainChains: Discover your brain, to unleash its full potential in a hyperconnected, multitasking world»: Reflex mind It is the oldest and fastest one. It is the feelings and impressions originating in our mind without effort. It can't act proactively or learn from the past. It is unconscious, autonomic, uncontrolled, and works based on reflexes. Reflecting mind It is slow, conscious, rational, controlled, and works based on logic. It requires a lot of energy and processes information sequentially dealing with one thought/task at a time. It allows us to think about things that don't exist. It allows us to fantasize and invent. It needs to rest and sleep. It can take over the reflex mind. Archiving mind This mind is sort of a «librarian» that receives millions of bites of information coming from the outside through sense organs and thoughts coming from our reflecting mind. It decides what to store in our long-term memory and what to reject. Archiving mind is task-negative, because it is active when there is no any cognitive task done by our mind. It is the most active when our reflecting mind is asleep or at rest [5]. I assume that the reflecting mind and reflex mind correspond to the aforementioned central executive network, and archiving mind corresponds to the default system. Cognitive biases Reflex mind and reflecting mind are what referred to as System 1 and System 2. System 1 is prone to systematic errors/deviations from rationality in judgments. Today we call them . However, in the past, a lot of them (if not all) served as an adaptive mechanism that enabled our ancestors to react instantly to threats and helped us to survive in the wild savanna. But in today's world, System 1 is what makes us irrational. And System 2 is what supposed to take control over System 1 and check its judgments [5, 6]. Daniel Khaneman cognitive biases Now, with the arrival of the Metaverse, we are entering the world of VR/AR. I suppose that in this new environment it is going to be harder for our System 2 to check the rationality of judgments generated by System 1, and I believe we will get a lot of new cognitive biases. This way, it should be even harder for us to understand who we are, what our values are, and where we are going as humanity. Degradation of society and human consciousness Our modern tech-driven world forces us to be hyperconnected and to do multiple tasks at once. This is something that the human brain was not designed for.  We need to rest for our archiving mind to organize information, and our reflecting mind can deal with one task/thought at a time to be efficient. In the XXI century, we constantly get bombarded with tons of information via technologies that we have surrounded ourselves with. Our obsession with digital technologies leads to our intelligence (as social, as ) degradation and results in us losing our ability to focus and even sleep (this is why you may think about using by the way) [5, 7]. emotional f.lux Excessive usage of digital technologies leads to the default system deactivation and the central executive network overactivation. As a result, our default system may not get enough time to even figure out who we are and form our value system. I believe that this is why yogis close their eyes and keep calm during meditations. This helps them to know themselves. Our default system is responsible for our ability to plan the future. Without it, we lose our motivation/desire to evolve and learn, and we can't set and achieve our long-term goals. Plus, our brain just tries to save energy by setting and achieving simpler goals. The default system also has social meaning. Throughout our evolution, it helped people to form social relationships. In today's tech-driven world, we spend less and less time with other people. This leads to the societal degradation of humanity. We start forgetting who we are. We get a sort of "digital autism" epidemic. It is characterized by poverty of speech and social isolation. People lose their ability and desire to connect and communicate with other people, they stop valuing humans and lose their ability to evolve and know themselves and others. At the same time, the overactivation of the central executive network results in our desire to get pleasure as easily and fast as possible. And if we can't achieve this, we may become aggressive and suicidal. Why would we try to achieve our long-term goals, if we can get the same satisfaction in VR without leaving our room? And setting long-term goals is what helps us to survive as a species because it helps to predict the future and act proactively [3]. may be another reason why we become unable to set and achieve long-term goals. We start answering simpler questions. Substitution bias Speaking of motivation, we need to remember the “Candle problem” experiment which showed that extrinsic motivators like money narrow our focus and inhibit our creativity and thinking. And in order to move our science and civilization forward into a bright future, we have to overcome a lot of problems, we need to be as creative as possible. We need to have intrinsic motivation based on our values [8]. We have already brought the world of money, crypto, and NFTs into VR. It would actually be interesting to do the opposite. We could try to build in VR the experimental world without any form of money (think about ). The Venus project VR and AR technologies were created by some people. How do we know what their real intentions are? We need to remember that VR/AR, just like any other technology, can serve as a weapon and a means of manipulation. It is far more dangerous than the real weapon, as it can impact our language, mentality, and culture. VR can be used to manipulate our consciousness and destroy whole nations. It can destroy what makes us human, our universal values [3]. Biochemical foundation. Addiction I believe you noticed that the Internet is quite addictive. With the introduction of cryptocurrency, Internet has become much more addictive. Being the next-generation Internet (Internet + VR/AR), Metaverse should be even more addictive. On a molecular level, our addiction is caused by molecules like . This molecule, produced in different parts of the brain, forces us to constantly seek/want new information. This is why social media news feeds are so addictive. Dopamine helps to keep us motivated in the learning process, which is critical for our survival. Other molecules called allow us to feel pleasure and be satisfied with results. These two systems complement each other. The first one is stronger than the second one. Usually, we are not satisfied with the results we get, so we keep searching anyway. dopamine opioids In today's tech-driven world, these systems get abused. It becomes harder and harder for people to resist the temptations (checking emails, twits, messages etc.). The same happens to people in the Metaverse which provides even more opportunities [9]. Ultimately, we can get exhausted and unable to set and achieve long-term goals . constantly seeking pleasure like rats Biomechanical catastrophe As far as I know, when it comes to movement, Metaverse solution is the omnidirectional treadmill that allows people to walk and run in any direction staying actually in the same place. To be fair, running and walking on them looks pretty unnatural. And natural movement is exactly what we need in order for our vertebral column to stay healthy. We need to let our column to move like a spring to feed the cells of . We need to walk at least 1 hour every day for our intervertebral discs to stay healthy. You can't walk this way in the room with VR headset, because the space is limited. You can try outside your house, but then there are some risks to get hit by a car or something. intervertebral discs No natural movement - no life. People use a lot of tools to transmit information: inkwell and feather pen, ball pen, keyboard, and stylus. VR requires us to use motion controllers now. There are different rhythms in our bodies. Superimposing rhythms (including the rhythm of the heart) with muscle efforts is beneficial in that case, if they are followed by periods of rest. In this case, muscle efforts strengthen the rhythm of the heart. This happens when we use a feather pen. Otherwise, a lot of our muscles get blocked, and our bodies get poisoned by metabolic waste. This happens when we use a ball pen. In this case, our diaphragm gets blocked, and other body rhythms superimpose with muscle efforts inappropriately as well. I believe the same happens when we use a stylus and motion controllers for VR. In terms of health, a feather pen is the most beneficial tool [10]. In search of harmony People are reflections of the environment they are in. And Metaverse can change our environment drastically. It is up to us to decide in which direction. We can either take into account the properties of our brain and use VR/AR to build an environment that will help the human mind to reach its full potential and develop our inner world and human values. For example, we could use VR/AR in education (think of , for example). Or, we could create such an environment that will turn humanity into unethical and immoral slaves of our technologies. virtual science simulations Some people use drugs and alcohol to escape reality. Why don't we bravely face our reality, acknowledge our problems, and do whatever we can to overcome them, rather than trying to escape them and hide in the Metaverse? When joining crypto or Metaverse projects, it is easy to ask questions like: How much money will we get? instead of Who do we become? and What kind of person this type of environment makes me? teaches people in his books that the most important is who we become. Jim Rohn It is time for people to ask the right questions: Do we become rats constantly searching for pleasure and repeating like a mantra «To the MOON!»? or Do we become determined people with beautiful dreams and a clear vision of our future? Hope that answering these questions will help us to do the right choice. Metaphorically speaking, VR/AR technologies should not become our «crutches». In this case, human values will «atrophy». VR/AR should become «ski poles» that will facilitate the growth of our morality and help us to move our civilization into a humane future. The headline image was composed by me with the help of the , , , , , and images. All other images sourced from Pixabay. choice blue ball red ball joystick VR headset soccer field The divider was created by me. Reference Bandura and Bobo Keysers C. Mirror neurons. Volume 19, ISSUE 21, PR971-R973, November 17, 2009 Nekrasov, A.S. & Nekrasova, N.A. & Nekrasov, S.I.. (2021). Impact of information technology on a person and his consciousness. Ekonomicheskie i sotsial’no-gumanitarnye issledovaniya. 130-135. 10.24151/2409-1073-2021-2-130-135. Raichle М.Е., MacLeod А.М., Snyder A.Z., Powers W.J., Gusnard D.A., Shulman G.L. A default mode of brain function. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2001. 98(2). P. 676—682. Theo Compernolle. BrainChains: Discover your brain, to unleash its full potential in a hyperconnected, multitasking world, 2014. Daniel Kahneman. Thinking, Fast and Slow, 2011 Small GW, Lee J, Kaufman A, Jalil J, Siddarth P, Gaddipati H, Moody TD, Bookheimer SY. Brain health consequences of digital technology use. Dialogues Clin Neurosci. 2020 Jun;22(2):179-187. doi: 10.31887/DCNS.2020.22.2/gsmall. PMID: 32699518; PMCID: PMC7366948. GLUCKSBERG S. The influence of strength of drive on functional fixedness and perceptual recognition. J Exp Psychol. 1962 Jan;63:36-41. doi: 10.1037/h0044683. PMID: 13899303. Why We're All Addicted to Texts, Twitter and Google Vladimir Bazarny. The Human Child: Psychophysiology of Development and Regress, Jun 16, 2020

Metaverse + Realverse: In Search Of Harmony

If you're looking to increase your website's metrics, growth marketing is the process for you. Growth marketing teams are responsible for determining areas to test and improve upon, developing and designing experiments to optimize the identified processes, conducting experiments to test hypothesized improvements, analyzing results, and conducting further experimentation as needed. In this blog post, we'll go over some of the most common strategies used in growth marketing so that you can apply them to your own business and see an increase in your desired metric! 1. Video Marketing Video is quickly becoming one of the most valuable assets for a business's marketing strategy. According to research by the Aberdeen Group, businesses that use video grow 49% more in annual revenue than those without it. And, according to a report by Wordstream, 64% of consumers are more likely to buy a product after watching a video about it. There are plenty of reasons why video is such an effective marketing tool. First, video is highly engaging. It's estimated that the average person spends 100 minutes watching online videos every day. And, with social media, it's easier than ever to share videos and reach a wide audience. Second, video is a great way to tell a story. A well-crafted video can introduce your brand, highlight your products or services, and give your customers a glimpse into your company culture. Finally, video is versatile. It can be used for a variety of purposes, such as product demonstrations, customer testimonials, event coverage, and more. It's not hard to see why video is becoming so popular. It's an engaging, visual medium that can convey a lot of information in a short amount of time. Plus, it's easy to share and view on social media, which makes it a great way to reach out to potential customers. In other words, if you want to promote your product among potential customers, using videos is the way to go. Plus, who doesn't love watching a video? 2. Blogging According to recent research, marketers receive more than 60% more leads when they blog, and those who produce quality content are more likely to see a positive ROI. To ensure that your business is getting the most out of its content marketing strategy, consider these tips: Write for your audience first Keep it short and sweet Be visual Promote your content Measure your results By following these tips, you can create content that not only resonates with your audience but also drives results. A business blog is the colonization of your personality onto the internet, where visitors can stumble upon it and be led back to your site. This increase in web traffic builds authority for your brand as well as sales. 3. Search Engine Optimisation Most people consult the internet before buying anything these days, and if your brand does not appear in search results, you're losing potential customers. This is why a good SEO strategy is essential for any website. As an online store owner, you need to optimize your website for search engines like Google so that it can rank higher in search engine results. Here are a few things you can do to improve your SEO. Use keywords throughout your website. When people search the internet, they use keywords or phrases that describe what they're looking for. If you want your website to show up in their search results, you need to use those same keywords on your site. Use them in your titles, in your content, and in your tags. Make sure your site is easy to navigate. If people can't find their way around your site, they're not going to stick around for long. Make sure all of your pages are organized and easy to find. Use clear, descriptive titles and lay out your content in an easy-to-read way. Promote your site on social media. Social media is a great way to get the word out about your website. Share your content on Twitter, Facebook, and other social networking sites. Use hashtags and keywords to help people find your site. Use Google Analytics to track your progress. Google Analytics is a free service that lets you track how people are finding your site and how they're interacting with it. This information can be extremely helpful in fine-tuning your SEO strategy. Keep your content fresh. If you want people to keep coming back to your site, you need to give them a reason. Regularly update your content and add new, relevant information. This will help your site stay current and improve your chances of being found in search results. 4. Social Media Marketing Strategies Social media has taken over our lives, so it only makes sense that utilizing social media is an effective marketing strategy to employ if you want to grow your customer base and increase sales. While it may seem like a daunting task to add social media to your marketing mix, don't worry - we're here to help! In this article, we'll share some tips on how you can use social media to grow your business. Use social media to create valuable content. One of the best ways to use social media for growth marketing is to create valuable content that your audience will appreciate. This could include blog posts, infographics, images, videos, or anything else that provides value and is relevant to your niche. Not only will this help you attract new readers and followers, but it will also keep them coming back for more. And if they see that you're consistently providing valuable content, they're more likely to share it with their own followers, which can help you reach an even larger audience. Use social media to connect with influencers. Another great way to use social media for growth marketing is to connect with influencers in your industry. These are people who have a large following and are respected in their field. If you can form a relationship with an influencer, they may be willing to promote your content to their followers, which can help you reach a larger audience and grow your business. Use social media to run ads. Another effective way to use social media for growth marketing is to run ads. This can be a great way to reach a larger audience and get your content seen by people who are interested in what you have to offer. Just be sure to create targeted ads that are relevant to your audience, or else you'll simply be wasting your money. Use social media to build relationships. Finally, don't forget that social media is all about building relationships. If you can connect with your audience and form a connection, they're more likely to be interested in what you have to offer and become loyal customers. So take the time to interact with your followers, answer their questions, and provide value whenever you can 5. Hosting Webinars Hosting webinars is a form of growth marketing that involves providing online seminars to engage with a target audience and promote your company. It's making progress in the crowded market by climbing up the ranks. To start webinar marketing, you first need to determine your audience. Once you know who you want to reach, you can begin creating content that will be of value to them. Additionally, it's important to promote your webinar in the right places. You'll want to use social media, email marketing, and other channels to get the word out. Finally, make sure you deliver a great presentation that will leave your audience wanting more. Webinar marketing can be a great way to reach new customers and promote your business. By following the tips above, you can ensure that your webinars are successful. By hosting webinars, companies are able to increase sales by handling objections in person and boosting traffic, which leads to more customers. 6. Event Marketing It is the use of in-person interactions, like speeches, discussions, and shows to market a company's products or services. Event marketing is a key strategy for B2B businesses: 97% of marketers believe trade shows and other events have a major impact on business outcomes, and companies allocate more than 20% of their total marketing budgets to event spending. You may accomplish this by organizing seminars, conferences, VIP dinners, exhibits, demonstrations, trade shows, and more to raise brand recognition, establish your presence in the sector, and generate leads that can be converted into paying clients. Organizing and executing a successful event marketing campaign requires careful planning and execution. But when done correctly, event marketing can be an extremely effective way to generate leads, build relationships, and grow your business. 7. Cross-channel Marketing Cross-channel marketing entails connecting with consumers through various communication channels, such as SMS, email, notifications, in-app messages, social media platforms, and all other channels. To connect with your target audience, you need to understand their preferences and how they communicate on different platforms. Once you have this information, you can use it in your campaigns through cross-channel marketing. This strategy is beneficial as it increases leads and conversions rapidly. Cross-channel marketing should be used in conjunction with other marketing strategies to create a holistic and well-rounded approach. It should also be personalized to target each individual consumer. This way, you can connect with them on a deeper level, which will result in more sales and conversions. When used correctly, cross-channel marketing can be an extremely powerful tool. If you're not using this strategy in your marketing campaigns, you're missing out on a huge opportunity to reach and connect with your target audience. In order to properly utilize cross-channel marketing, businesses need to focus on creating quality content. This content should be useful, relevant, and engaging. It should also be distributed across all channels evenly. This way, each channel can complement the others and create a unified message. If you're not sure where to start with your cross-channel marketing strategy, consider working with a professional agency. They can help you create quality content, distribute it across channels, and track your results. This way, you can focus on running your business while they handle the marketing. 8. Disruptive Marketing Disruptive marketing breaks from traditional methods and involves thinking outside the box to come up with new innovative ways to market your product or service. By trying out various techniques, you can stand out from your competitors and give your audience something fresh. You can succeed by targeting unsolved issues, coming up with a new look or fad, and making the most of social media networks and cutting-edge technologies. You can also capitalize on current events to make your marketing more relevant. Some examples of disruptive marketing techniques are: Offering a new solution to an unsolved problem Creating a new fad or trend Taking advantage of social media networks Utilizing cutting-edge technologies Capitalizing on current events With disruptive marketing, the sky is the limit – so get creative and think outside the box! Try out some of these techniques to make your marketing more innovative and effective. The sky's the limit when it comes to disruptive marketing techniques. So get creative and think outside the box! Try out some of these techniques to make your marketing more innovative and effective. 9. A/B Testing A/B testing is an important component of a solid growth marketing approach since it is a method that makes use of data to run continuous experiments. A/B testing involves creating two alternative versions of a format and comparing them head-to-head to determine which performs best with the audience. Some common applications of A/B testing include: Webpage design elements like headline, copy, and call-to-action buttons Subject lines and email content Advertisements A/B testing is a powerful tool that can help companies make informed decisions about how to best reach their target audiences. However, it is important to note that A/B testing should not be used as a replacement for good marketing practices. Instead, it should be seen as a supplement that can help fine-tune campaigns and optimize results. A/B aids you in determining which campaigns, designs, colors, layouts, text, headlines, and call-to-actions have an influence on your audience. Not only does it improve outcomes, conversions, and ROIs but it also allows you to be more creative and innovative while lowering risks, frequent A/B testing is a must. Conclusion Though it may take time, growth is a gradual process that always rewards your patience in the end. Holistic growth marketing strategies take into account all aspects of a business and every stage of the customer journey to ensure maximum success. By constantly producing positive results, improving growth, and preparing for future unforeseen obstacles, these types of strategies set businesses up for long-term success. The following growth marketing tactics are tried methods that may be used to any firm. Every company, however, is unique, with its own objectives and demands. As a result, the most important part of growth marketing is to be creative and constantly experiment until you find what works best for your business. Feel free to share your experiences in the comments below.

Growth Marketing Hacks: 9 Effective Strategies to Increase Your Metrics

Whoever came up with the famous saying that you can choose from two of three options – fast, cheap or good – was probably not an observability engineer. But, he or she may as well have been, because when it comes to observability, deciding whether you want fast, affordable or in-depth insights has traditionally been one of the first tasks of engineering teams. Historically, the monitoring architectures and tools that we depended on didn't allow us to have it all, at least not in the context of distributed, cloud-native apps. Fortunately, that has changed. It turns out that, by rethinking the fundamentals of your approach to monitoring, you can have it all – when it comes to observability at least. You can get deep insights quickly, without paying through the nose for your monitoring workflow. Sounds too good to be true? Well, keep reading for a look at how to square the circle surrounding cost and depth (and speed, too) in regard to cloud-native observability. When engineers had it all: Traditional approaches to observability The engineers of generations past didn't have to choose between cost, depth or speed when it came to observability. They got to have it all without even trying. This is because they were working with centralized, monolithic apps. In that context, it didn't cost much time or money to collect monitoring data in quantities sufficient to enable fully informed management decisions. In most cases, you simply integrated a lightweight monitoring SDK into your monolith and let it collect basic metrics and log data. The design was simple, the process was simple and the costs were low. This approach worked perfectly well in a world dominated by monoliths and single-node application deployments. No one questioned it, because there was no reason to question it. How things fell apart: The dawn of cloud-native observability The problem that many engineering teams have run into over the past decade or so is that, when you take a conventional, monolith-friendly monitoring architecture and try to graft it onto a distributed, cloud-native app, you can no longer have it all. You can't necessarily monitor quickly because integrating an SDK into all your microservices takes time. Plus, you have loads more data to collect, since you're not just dealing with some basic metrics from a single app. Instead, you’ve got a whole host of logs and metrics (and don't forget your traces!) from a bunch of microservices. It's also very hard to collect all of this cost-effectively. You can run into steep egress bills just to move the data into a place where you can analyze it, and then you have to pay storage fees on top of that. Glacier-tier storage may be cheap, but it adds up when you have reams and reams of monitoring data that you need to retain for years. Now, one way to speed up cloud-native observability, and reduce costs, would be to collect only some data that your tools select at random, instead of trying to collect and analyze every single log, metric and trace available to you. But then you'd be sampling – and , because data sampling means you may miss important information due to incomplete data collection and analysis. no one wants to be a data sampler So, if you depend on a traditional observability strategy for distributed apps, you end up facing, what I like to call, the cost-depth trade-off. You can observe quickly and cheaply. Or you can observe in-depth, but at a high cost in terms of time and effort. You can't have it all. Escaping the cost-depth trade off Fortunately, things don't have to be this way. If you step back and rethink your approach to observability, you realize that you can have both cheap and in-depth observations. Here's the trick: Instead of trying to collect and analyze every bit of data available or sample it randomly, you sample it intelligently by identifying the most interesting data right at the source, then select only that data to send to your observability platform. You also translate the data into granular, actionable metrics, so that it's primed to be analyzed as soon as it hits your observability portal. Still too good to be true, right? The thing is that an instrumentation-based approach for monitoring will essentially mean that if we’re trying to measure key things about your code, you will need to “wrap” parts of it with external code segments that will manage the logic of the monitoring tool. Make the logic too complex, and . Generally speaking, the more you analyze the data coming from your application before just sending it out, the larger the overall impact of the generated overhead on your application. you pay with an overhead That’s why conventional monitoring tools turn to simple logic like sample it all, or sample it randomly. Without diving too deep into details, that limitation can be lifted by new emerging technologies like . eBPF The result is much less data for you to transfer, analyze and store. But at the same time, because you're focusing on relevant data, you don't have to lie awake at night wondering if the data you've selected will reliably yield the in-depth insights you need. Keep the needles outside the haystack If you like analogies, here's one that sums up the observability strategy we're talking about here: It's akin to sorting through each bundle of dried grass as you build a haystack, checking to see if there's a needle inside. That way, you catch the needles early on, without having to wait until you have a whole haystack in place to sort through it and try to pull out the needle. The needles are easy to find because they never get buried inside the haystack in the first place. In fact, you have no haystack to deal with at all, because you can discard the hay you don't care about before it turns into a costly mess of a haystack. The future of cloud-native observability I think that this approach to observability – which is the one that inspired the design of – is key for any team that wants to maintain reliable visibility into its systems without paying a fortune in monitoring and data storage costs. The volume and complexity of cloud-native log, metric, and tracing data will only increase, making conventional monitoring and observability strategies less and less viable for cloud-native environments. groundcover If you want to have it all – and you can. Adopt an observability architecture that lets you hone in on relevant data right at the source, and you’re golden.

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