It is funny how time flies. It wasn’t long ago when the year just started and now it is almost another year-end once more. In as much as we are excited over what the new year brings, we can’t help but feel excited about the idea of being able to eat, rest and relax to our heart’s content. It is like our little reward for working hard the entire year. Now, there’s more. It’s not just the holidays that get us pumped up but the thought of receiving gifts. Like how we love to be on the receiving end, many of us apparently have to give out gifts too. Whether it is for your family, friends, or the obligatory exchanges of gifts during the endless parties that the holiday brings, you have no choice but to shop for one (or more) or end up being branded stingy or worst, the Grinch.

For the average Joe, we love a good bargain. Imagine all the money you can save on your Christmas shopping if you are able to buy in bulk and with big discounts. One of the most looked forward to shopping sprees before the year’s end is the Black Friday sale. Who isn’t excited about it? Just look at the long lines every single year. It simply does not get old and has become a tradition for some families. The discounts are outrageous and you can definitely save a lot of bucks by braving the malls at this time of the year and fall in one of those long lines lining outside the various malls and shops.

In keeping with American tradition it always fall on the Friday after Thanksgiving meaning this year it will fall on November 24.

With Black Friday taking place before Christmas, it's easy to see why it is so popular among shoppers, as it gives them a great excuse to sort out presents - at a fraction of the cost.

In previous years online retailer Amazon has remained a firm favourite thanks to its huge discounts on must-have items including PlayStations, Kindles and Fire Sticks.

(Via: http://www.devonlive.com/whats-on/shopping/black-friday-2017-best-deals-776075)

Many have dubbed the Black Friday sale the biggest shopping event of the year for a good reason. Some wait for it buying luxurious appliances like LED television because the discount is crazy. It is the perfect excuse to hoard as many staples and nice-to-haves are sold cheaply. If you still aren’t done with your Christmas list, this is the best time to finish it as you can find food deals for Christmas presents you are planning to give. With all the savings you can get, many people no longer mind falling in line for hours just as long as they can buy what they want without paying for the same price as they would when they buy it on ordinary days.

Walmart (WMT, -1.03%) has made the first of its Black Friday style deals available to shoppers online as the race to win the holiday season starts to intensify.

The world’s largest retailer, looking for a repeat of its strong 2016 holiday season when it bested rivals like Target (TGT, -8.50%), is offering a few deals on items such an Acer Aspire ES Laptop and the Xbox One S Console Bundle from Thursday through November 12, in the hopes of whetting shoppers’ appetites for the Black Friday shopping bonanza.

A full list of Walmart’s Black Friday deals that will only be available on Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday itself is available here.

Other retailers including Kohl’s (KSS, +0.33%) and Amazon.com (AMZN, -0.88%) have also begun giving shoppers a foretaste of the deals to be had starting on Thanksgiving Day. (Many such deals, include Walmart’s, will be available online all day on Nov. 23 but only in stores later on Turkey Day. In the case of Walmart, the deals will be in-store starting at 6 p.m., as was the case last year.) On Wednesday, Best Buy also announced an early start to its Black Friday deals.

(Via: http://fortune.com/2017/11/09/walmart-black-friday-4/)

If shoppers prepare for the biggest shopping spree they do each year, businesses are just as prepared. They ensure their shelves are stacked to the brim so that people will have a lot of options and stocks can meet the people’s demand. There may be horror stories about people getting hurt during Black Friday sales because of the crowd but if you have noticed, the crowd has actually lessened over the years perhaps because many have discovered the joys of online shopping and no longer want to subject themselves to the hassles of buying for things personally when they can get the same deals and get the items delivered onto their doorsteps. So, take advantage of its lessening popularity to tick off everything in your Christmas list and at the same time save a lot of money you can put to good use instead of paying for overpriced Christmas presents.

The blog post Black Friday Christmas Shopping Rules! Find more on: PopEgo.com Blog

Since all of us are created uniquely, we grow up to be a diverse group of people populating this planet. It is a wonder for somehow we actually manage to coexist but let us not forget it is not always peacefully. Until today, divisiveness is still a major issue and has caused wars that only left humanity scarred and hurt for a long time. While we battle the struggles we made so ourselves, there are vulnerable human beings that require special needs and attention that are oblivious to all the conflicts we are experiencing.

People with special needs are special. PERIOD. They are not like us who can cope with whatever problems we are facing for their bodies aren’t equipped to do just that. They lack various senses that are crucial for living normally. Not everyone, though, was born with their disabilities. Some acquired theirs through an unfortunate accident or something like that. Persons with disabilities need our understanding and perhaps we can extend our love and patience for them, which they so badly need. It’s not that they wished to be invalid or something since they also suffer from the many limitations their handicap has brought about.

The perseverance of navy serviceman and para-athlete Jason Chee inspires me (Against the odds, he triumphs; Oct 1).

His story is a reminder that anyone can acquire a disability in an accident, an illness or in old age. However, no disability can take away the intrinsic worth of a person nor stop him from maximising his potential.

It is heartening that the National Council of Social Service organised the "See the True Me" public education campaign to encourage the public to see persons with disabilities for who they are instead of the disability they have.

However, one of the reasons given by the Government to justify keeping the cut-off time of abortion at 24 weeks is to allow those mothers whose unborn children are found to have "structural abnormalities" to "consider the implications and make an informed decision as to whether to keep or abort the child".

(Via: http://www.straitstimes.com/forum/letters-in-print/lets-rally-to-support-those-with-special-needs)

We are all worthy of love no matter our disabilities. Do not just easily pass a judgment to the next person because you see him unable to rise on his own, walk on his own, eat on his own, or simply move and talk on his own. Be the bigger person and extend help in whatever way you can to make their lives more comfortable and convenient and extra brighter given that they have to endure a life more lonesome and less-fulfilling as ours.

Unfortunately, the world we live in is far from ideal, especially if, like me, you happen to have disabilities.
Unfortunately, we happen to live in a society that does not value such people. It discriminates against them, often with the connivance of politicians, and through the utilisation of gaps in the law, or through the failure to enforce what law exists. Try getting on a bus while using a wheelchair if you want an example of the latter.
With a few notable exceptions, for example those rare individuals with the potential to become elite Paralympic athletes, British society does not value differently-abled people, or the contributions that they make.
Britain is frequently in the habit of treating differently-abled people not as valued members of society, but instead as burdens or costs. No less an institution than the United Nations was moved to describe the situation facing them as “a catastrophe” in a recent report. 

(Via: http://gulftoday.ae/portal/e693697d-12ff-4cb8-b9aa-f9fc463d6e99.aspx)

All over the world, people with disabilities still have problems in getting accepted by society. While many institutions are advocating on their behalf, they still face the harsh criticisms of those who have little tolerance towards them and choose to ignore other people’s sensitivities and difficulties because they do not want to inconvenience themselves in offering support. If you know better, go the extra mile and offer help when needed because that is what we all need, someone to take the first step and show the world how life is so much better if we all help and love one another whether we are lacking in some things or not.

Special Needs Deserve Extra Help was first published on https://popego.com/

We live in an era where technology rules. It’s all around us and we can’t get away from it because that’s what everyone uses too. And remember what they say if you can’t beat it, join it. Technology is here to stay and there is no denying it. We may hype up its benefits but it has its limitations too and it somehow made our lives a little more complex whether you acknowledge it or not. These new innovations burst like a vacuum that draws people in. And with it came many other tech advancements that define the modern life that we know of today.

The use of social media became an obsession to many too and smart technology became available to everyone who can afford a smart device. The Internet of Things made everything so interconnected without us fully knowing or realizing it and it left everyone unable to keep their hands off their smartphones. There is an advantage here, though, if you are someone who is business-minded and can see potential rather than challenges. If there is one thing that is literally all over the web today, it has to do with content. Whatever your niche is, you can write up something about it and share it with your followers or consumers. Blogging is the most popular one of all as it allows the writer to connect with people on a more personal level yet at the same time provide the writer with a steady stream of income that was unheard of in the past. However, it is not always that easy to start a profitable blog. Here’s why.

The digital marketing landscape has evolved significantly over the last two decades. And between Google’s ever-changing algorithm and the deluge of misinformation floating through the digital marketing sphere, it’s easy to lose sight of basic practices we should be employing in our own SEO and content marketing strategies.

With every new algorithm update and technological shift in search, we become obsessed with how the field of SEO will enter a wholly new paradigm, and we shift our focus to reflect this. Yet as much as the medium may change, the core principles remain the same — and it’s time to get back to the basics.

We all understand the secrets and best practices of SEO, so why do we often fail to leverage these tactics? Let’s explore five common blogging mistakes you may be making right now.

(Via: https://searchengineland.com/5-easy-miss-blog-mistakes-281795)

You can’t just easily take KEYWORD out of the equation since that is basically how people look up contents on the web. By using it right, you’d be able to hit your target better and reach out to the people who care about your content (and product and services) the most. Take advantage of keyword research to determine your audience and then share to them the type of content they want the most.

First of all, it’s very important to realize the fact that Google isn’t the only way to grow your traffic. Sure, Google search is a big part of that process – but it isn’t the only way to do it. It totally depends on you that whether you want to still rely on organic search or not. But make sure to be safe from another algorithm update. In the following post, we are going to dig wider and deeper for more Google-less traffic strategies.

Tactic #1: Content Swap

Recently, I published a guest post and somehow it did gain popularity which led to some new traffic and Twitter followers for me. The trick, again, is to guest post at the right place – Google PageRank or Domain Authority never remained my main concern. What I required was influential blogs with real readers who will read and engage with your content.
Now content swapping is all about swapping guest posts to build links. Although it may turn out as a tedious job but trust me when you use this as a tactic, you are in the driver’s seat. It is a safe bet to say that guest posting opportunities will come to you instead of you being forced to seek them out endlessly.

(Via: http://customerthink.com/stop-worrying-about-the-seo-rankings-start-thinking-outside-the-box/)

Do not simply obsess about Google, though, if you are a blogger. While it is the largest and most influential search engine in the land today, it is not the be all and end all of everything. You can maximize the use of your content by using social media and influencers who have lots of followers to create buzz to your page or site but there’s more that you can do without going far. You can likewise tap other search engines like Bing, which comprises roughly 36% of US searches. So, explore your options well and extend your reach as far as you can because you never know when you’ll be able to hit a goldmine. If you have the budget, various types of online advertising can only work for you just as long as you already have a plan in place so as not to waste your efforts.

The blog article Make Your Blogs SEO-Friendly is republished from Popego

We all like to unwind at times especially when we’ve had enough of the daily grind. Of course, you have to make sure first that it is your free time as well so as not to compromise your work and lose your bread and butter. Coming to events whether intimate or in public is a great way to de-stress. A must as we live in such complex and stressful times today. Most events require you to pay fees but some don’t, so feel free to choose which ones you like and can afford. Indoor ones are great for small groups while the outdoors or big arenas are the perfect venue for big concerts where you can contain a big crowd without a problem at all.

The problem with outdoor locations is the elements. Yes, we can’t always predict them nor control them. Fortunately, modern science allowed experts to somehow tell when Mother Nature will likely have a meltdown so the public can take the necessary preparations and protect themselves first. It is just a shame that some big events or concerts you have waited and anticipated for months will suddenly be put on hold because a storm or hurricane is brewing and organizers will decide to postpone the event but it is better than compromise the safety and security of the audience.

A concern over severe weather produced due to Hurricane Nate making landfall had regional events postponed until further notice Saturday morning.

District 5 Councilwoman Sherry Guidry had been promoting a new downtown beautification event she’d created heavily on social media in recent days. The event, titled ‘Tight & Right,” would have brung volunteers to downtown New Iberia, beginning on Anne Street near the Masonic Lodge, to pick up trash and clean the streets. 

On Friday night, Guidry was considering starting the event earlier than its scheduled 10:30 a.m. start to beat the weather. But, after speaking with parish president Larry Richard about weather concerns, she canceled the event Saturday. 

(Via: http://www.iberianet.com/news/local-events-postponed-due-to-hurricane-nate/article_e694566c-abb4-11e7-a93e-8b25124231e7.html)

It wasn’t long ago when a couple of hurricanes hit the nation in succession and a new one is coming our way once more. People who bought tickets to large-scale events held outdoors may sigh in exasperation but it is better to set aside any events than put their lives in danger. Getting hyped and enjoying yourself can wait just as long as you are sure nothing bad will happen to you by doing so. We’re not even considering here the threats beyond nature like the mass shooting that happened in Las Vegas quite recently.

A mobile sign on Saturday near the entrance  of what was to be the first day of Flambeau Fest at the Lamar-Dixon Expo Center flashed a mix of bad and good news: “Saturday only canceled,” the sign said. “Sunday will happen.”

Fans expecting to see Sam Hunt, Dustin Lynch, Chase Rice and other country music stars Saturday at Flambeau Fest were disappointed. But by mid-afternoon, the festival announced that Hunt will perform Sunday at 4:30 p.m., joining the second-day lineup that includes classic Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd, Hank Williams Jr. and the country and Southern-rock band Blackberry Smoke.

Citing Hurricane Nate’s pending landfall on the central Gulf Coast, festival officials canceled day one of the event following consultations with the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness.

(Via: http://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/entertainment_life/article_db3fd666-a91f-11e7-bd93-3bcb8e8bc997.html)

The question is simple, would you feel at ease going to any event knowing that a brewing storm is on its way and you are not yet sure just how powerful it is and how well your home and family will fare in the midst of this uncertainty? No matter what event it is, it shouldn’t even be a question anymore as to why events have to be canceled. The public should just wait a little longer because they’d be able to go to that event when the sun is once shining once more and they no longer have to worry whether a sudden flooding will make their entire surrounding a vast open urban swimming pool or face some other similar threat.

The article Natural Calamities: Safety First Before Going To Events was originally published to PopEgo.com Blog

We live in an imperfect world. The planet may be full of amazing natural wonders and beautiful landscapes but we are also plagued by harsh and sometimes unforgiving natural disasters. These disasters vary depending on where you are in the world. For instance, volcanic eruptions are common in countries located within the Ring of Fire or the Circum-Pacific Belt. Then, there are also disasters where you can prepare for in advance like hurricanes while some you can’t like earthquakes leaving many injured and displaced in its wake.

A lot of ancient civilizations have been wiped out from the place of the planet because of catastrophic disasters that buried cities like Pompei. Modern technology has worked to our advantage, though, since there are now machines that tell us when and where a certain disaster will strike. And because of that, we are able to evacuate our homes when necessary rather than put our lives and that of our families at risk against the harsh elements.

The researchers used their data on the number of people living in different areas of the world, combined with the built environment around them, to calculate levels of exposure. Of the six hazards they looked at, earthquakes have the greatest potential impact–while in 1975 1.4 billion people were at risk, 2.7 billion were at risk in 2015. Floods happen the most frequently, but they impact Asia and Africa much more heavily, with Asia accounting for 76.9% of the exposed population of the world and Africa accounting for 12.2%. Japan is most at risk from tsunamis, while Indonesia is most vulnerable to volcanoes.

While the researchers said that these findings–which they presented at the 2017 Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction conference in Cancun, Mexico–aren’t directly tied to climate change policy, they point to vulnerabilities that are created by the way cities are designed and built. While they can’t yet point to what those are, the next step in the research is to create a detailed understanding of how city planning impacts each urban center’s vulnerability to disaster. “It’s less about the climate, more about mitigation measures,” says Pesaresi.

(Via: https://www.fastcodesign.com/90127905/the-ambitious-project-to-study-disasters-from-space)

Studying these disasters from space will give scientists a new perspective on these phenomena and give them a bird’s eye view, so they can come up with better disaster preparedness measures to help everyone in the planet survive one disaster at a time.

There are more weather disturbances now and natural disaster because of climate change. The build-up of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere also makes the world a hotter place as heat is trapped and hastens the melting of polar ice caps. When that happens, the sea level will rise and many island nations like the Maldives will probably be swallowed by the sea and disappear from the map forever.

In the last few decades, the risk has dramatically increased; the number of people living in seismic areas, for example, has increased by 93 percent in just 40 years.

The findings, compiled in the Atlas of the Human Planet 2017, reveal the global exposure to natural disasters has doubled since 1975, largely as a result of population growth and development.

In the analysis, the researchers accounted for six major natural hazards: earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, tropical cyclone storm surge, tropical cyclone wind, and floods.

They used satellite observation data over 40 years to measure for ‘exposure,’ or ‘the people and assets at risk of potential losses or that may suffer damage to a hazard impact.’

‘It covers several dimensions like the physical, the social, and the economic dimensions,’ the authors wrote.

(Via: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4539146/Risk-natural-disasters-doubled-1975-study-says.html)

We can’t deny that the world is changing for the worse and we only have ourselves to blame. Our abuse of the world’s natural resources and senseless use of material objects that end up as trash further pollutes the world and worsens these disasters. While individuals like Donald Trump believe otherwise about the reality of climate change, it does not change the fact that we are facing more catastrophic threats each year. The planet may suffer further when Trump opted out of the Paris Climate agreement, it is actually us who will take the bigger blow once Mother Nature strikes back with a full vengeance if the rest of humanity does not unite to save the planet while we still can.

Modern-day Disaster Preparedness was originally seen on https://popego.com

Computers rule the world. They run almost everything there is on the planet. From simple home appliances, entertainment showcases, smartphones and machinery in big industries, there is indeed a computing system in place that makes it work all the time. We are no longer new to technology since it is all around us now but there are newer technological innovations that an ordinary person isn’t yet ready for or one may find it hard to believe even exists.

Quantum computing is the stuff of legends. Computer programmers started coding in mediums of 1s and 0s since the birth of computers. Meanwhile, quantum computing offers computing speeds of up to hundreds of millions faster than most conventional computers these days and no longer limited to coding binary numbers. Unfortunately, this highly advanced computing technology also calls for a different breed of computer programmers knowing how baffling the technology itself is even to experts in the field.

Quantum computers finally seem to be coming of age with promises of “quantum supremacy” by the end of the year. But there’s a problem—very few people know how to work them.

The bold claim of achieving "quantum supremacy" came on the back of Google unveiling a new quantum chip design. The hyperbolic phrase essentially means building a quantum device that can perform a calculation impossible for any conventional computer.

In theory, quantum computers can crush conventional ones at important tasks like factoring large numbers. That’s because unlike normal computers, whose bits can either be represented as 0 or 1, a quantum bit—or “qubit”—can be simultaneously 0 and 1 thanks to a phenomenon known as superposition.

(Via: https://singularityhub.com/2017/05/09/quantum-computing-demands-a-whole-new-kind-of-programmer/)

Big companies like Google make a bold promise of introducing the first ever commercial service from a “universal” quantum computer this year after unveiling their new quantum chip design. Those are such big words, indeed, considering that the company lacks the programmers who can code at a quantum level. Even IBM intends on bringing the quantum technology to the cloud for free sooner rather than later. For computer programmers to be able to handle quantum technology with ease, they must first have a good grasp of quantum physics at the very least. It’s not something that they usually do when coding for conventional computers.

There are a number of quantum simulators available now that will help users get familiar with quantum computing, but it’s not the real thing and is likely to behave very differently.  MIT physicist, Isaac Chuang, said, “The real challenge is whether you can make your algorithm work on real hardware that has imperfections.” It will take time for any computer programmer to learn the skills needed for quantum computing, but until the systems have been developed, what will they learn on?

This is one of the reasons for the push in making quantum devices more accessible. D-wave made available their Qbsoly and Qmasm tools earlier this year in an attempt to get more people into the realms of quantum computing. If the tools are available, more people will be tempted to have a go and budding quantum computer scientists will be born.  And as Google’s researchers wrote in a statement, “If early quantum-computing devices can offer even a modest increase in computing speed or power, early adopters will reap the rewards.”

(Via: http://trendintech.com/2017/05/16/quantum-computers-sound-great-but-whos-going-to-program-them/)

While the obvious difference between a classic computer and a quantum one is that the former are binary while the latter work with “qubits”. All qubits of a quantum computer would often be in a “superposition of states” where all qubits of information can be in all potential combination of states at the same time for quantum computers to actually work. The quantum computer must be shielded from the external environment or else it ceases to function at all.

Coding at this level means to execute appropriate algorithms that should always be reversible. Unfortunately, not all coders code this way, and again, they should be knowledgeable enough in the field of quantum physics to be able to program quantum computers efficiently. Only then can quantum computing really be widely used when there are computer programmers who can handle what it takes to code at a quantum level.

The blog article Quantum Computing Asks For Another Kind Of Programming Read more on: PopEgo.com Blog

A big majority of the world’s population use some sort of technology or another in their daily life, whether for personal or office use. The Internet is now the favorite playground of many with the advent of smartphones because there are endless things you can do and explore. There is no more reason to get bored anymore. However, there are many dangers lurking on the web, and not just in the dark web, says Bill Werther of Loudouni.com. Moreover, people often abuse the perks of the web, making cyberbullying and online scams common complaints from online users these days.

It’s a different thing in China, though. While the Chinese have access to the web, the Chinese government enforce stringent cyber security laws that must be observed by virtually everyone on land. China takes all these new cyber threats seriously with the likes of cyber terrorism and cyber hacking that may not only endanger the lives of the Chinese people but even the security of the entire nation too. That’s why they have these cyber security laws that address these issues early on, so they don’t face a big cyber issue like the ones happening all over the globe nowadays.

China consistently ranks as the world’s worst abuser of internet freedom. A law on cyber security, which took effect on Thursday, is no doubt intended to tighten Beijing’s grip on the speech and thought of its citizens. As if this were not bad enough, the law will also serve as a barrier to global companies operating in China and impede Chinese companies’ ability to compete on the global stage.

The law explicitly criminalises any online information that the ruling Communist party regards as damaging “national honour”, “disturbing economic or social order” or contributing to the “overthrow of the socialist system”. It is ostensibly aimed at protecting the privacy of China’s 730m internet users. In reality it will enshrine the state’s right to snoop on anyone who logs on to the internet and will force all companies operating in the country to be complicit in this.

(Via: https://www.ft.com/content/60913b9e-46b9-11e7-8519-9f94ee97d996)

It no longer comes as a surprise how much cyber freedom China violates because this totalitarian country has been accused of many other human rights violations in the past and up until the present. Who says antivirus software and firewalls can only be installed on computers? China has their existing “Great Firewall of China” as well because that’s how much they censor online content. And you should not just shrug off these laws if you are a Chinese citizen because you risk being persecuted if you are found to have violated any of these law’s vague provisions.

And while Chinese officials say the new rules will help guard against cyberattacks and prevent terrorism, critics, many of them from businesses, have their concerns. Companies worry that parts of the new law, which takes effect on Thursday, will make their operations in China less secure or more expensive. In some cases, they argue, it could keep them out entirely.

The law will have a big impact on how business is done in China, said Michael Chang, an executive with the Finnish technology company Nokia and the vice president of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China. But, he said, “There’s unfortunately a lot of confusion.”

“Industry is not ready because the implementation rules are not clear,” Mr. Chang said, speaking at an event organized by the lobbying group to announce the results of its annual business confidence survey.

(Via: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/31/business/china-cybersecurity-law.html?_r=0)

While the country and its leaders often get away with many human rights violations and infringement, it’s a different thing when it comes to dealing with businesses and business owners especially those owned by foreign investors and have offices in other parts of the world. Technology is very much a crucial part of our daily life right now.

We not only use it for our personal life but for work and studies too. It’s the reason why these vague clauses in the Chinese cybersecurity law got business investors worried and wondering what these changes means to their businesses especially when it comes to data storage and transfers. And we are not just talking about computer use but even that of smartphones as well. Fines will be imposed on violators and there’s also the risk of turning off overseas businesses because of outrageous laws that aren’t exactly easy to follow that only a superpower like China has the audacity to implement.

The following blog article China Takes Cyber Security Seriously See more on: PopEgo.com Blog

As much as we love the Internet, there are some of those annoying little quirks that can get on our nerves when we feel we’ve had too much of it. Alongside those pop-up ads that are blocking your view and you aren’t always too keen to see, spam is another problem that seems to have no end. Who likes deleting these bothersome emails from who-knows-where right? Not only are they time-consuming to delete but they can pose a security risk as well to gullible users who don’t think twice before opening them and end up introducing a dangerous malware into their system.

Fortunately, you don’t get that much spam mail with a Gmail account. The site in itself exercises stringent security measures that protect its users from malicious contents. And Gmail recently takes their security measures to the next level in the wake of widespread ransomware attacks by including features that can detect phishing with an accuracy rate of almost 99.9%.

Google today said that its machine learning models can now detect spam and phishing messages with 99.9 percent accuracy.

While this still means that one out of a thousand messages gets through (so Barrister Jon Price still has a decent chance of getting to inform you of that random online lottery winning of £552,000,00 you weren’t expecting), the company argues that this is a pretty good number. And I guess that’s true, given that according to Google’s own data, 50-70 percent of messages that Gmail receives are spam. These detection models also integrate with the Google Safe Browsing tools for detecting links to malicious URLs.

To further improve its phishing-detection performance, Google also built a system that delays some Gmail messages for a little bit longer to perform more detailed phishing analysis. Because phishing attempts are more easily detected when you look at them in aggregate, Google will delay some of these suspicious messages to perform a deeper analysis as more data comes in over time and as its algorithms update in real time. This should only apply to about 0.05 percent of messages, though.

(Via: https://techcrunch.com/2017/05/31/google-says-its-machine-learning-tech-now-blocks-99-9-of-gmail-spam-and-phishing-messages/)

Gmail’s existing machine learning already takes care of spam protection but has now included phishing protection by conducting regular rigorous phishing analysis. They do this by delaying certain messages giving the technology enough time to perform the analysis and weed out spam emails.

One form of proactive defense? Notifying webmasters and email senders when they haven’t taken steps to secure and authenticate their sites and activity, or when something happens on their site that they may not know about. “It’s a rising trend for bad actors to not just create their own websites for the sole purpose of hosting malware and phishing, but to compromise others, and then leverage that hacked site to host their own content” says Safe Browsing’s Miller. Doing so lets bad actors leverage another party’s solid reputation. Google’s feedback can make webmasters and email senders aware that they’ve been compromised and that they’re unintentionally engaging in abusive behavior.

It also wouldn’t be a Google effort without a little machine learning thrown in. Somanchi says that upwards of 95 percent of all spam and phishing identification comes from machine learning. And in the past couple of years, these Gmail mechanisms have evolved to incorporate both traditional supervised learning, in which algorithms are trained on large data sets, with newer unsupervised learning techniques, in which algorithms learn through inference about how to tell legitimate inputs from malicious ones. “Whereas regular computers are making very hard black or white decisions, deep learning opens up the possibility to be more subjective and get closer to approximating, essentially, would humans fall for this?” Risher says.

(Via: https://www.wired.com/2017/05/inside-googles-global-campaign-shut-phishing/)

While many are thrilled for the new Gmail security upgrade, others are concerned about the unwarranted access to their sensitive information contained in many of their emails. However, Gmail guarantees that a user’s private data remains safe and sound during this analysis because they mainly observe aggregate data and identify attacker’s methods and no other human can view these sensitive details that the machine analyzes. Gmail uses anti-phishing defenses and Safe Browsing systems to determine the patterns of these attacks and put a stop to them as soon as possible. Rest assured that Gmail will take care of those spams for you and save you the trouble from having to delete it yourself.

Google Says No More Spam is available on PopEgo.com

When people talk about America, they often picture it out as the land of greener pastures. And in part, it has been the main motivation for people to go see this part of the world. Many people dream of coming to and living in America because it is the land of milk and honey where you get paid in dollars but they tend to forget that while you earn in dollars, you spend dollars too. If you look at the current American demographics today, a big number of the population are comprised of foreign immigrants who found a new home in the land of Uncle Sam.

Most immigrants actually settle down in big cities where there are plenty of job opportunities for smart and skilled workers like them. However, to really experience authentic American living, go visit or live in small US towns where everybody knows everybody, residents leave their doors unlocked, and crimes are generally low. These small towns show you what the real US of A is all about and shows you a glimpse of American history and culture that is now mostly lost in big and crowded cities.

The Trump administration’s proposed 2018 budget calls for deep cuts in non-defense discretionary spending, including a 21 percent reduction for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.  And the town of Goldendale, Washington, population 3,400, is one of many rural communities that could see those budget cuts at USDA and other federal agencies, such as the Environmental Protection Agency, the Interior Department and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, play out at the local level.

These agencies are deeply involved in rural life and economics in America, managing vast federal lands across the West, as well as rivers and streams, mining and energy development, air quality, fire suppression and hydropower.

Goldendale is on the high, dry prairie east of the Cascade Mountains, surrounded by farms and ranches. Like many small towns, the downtown is struggling, with boarded-up storefronts sporting “For Lease” signs next to long-established shops and restaurants.

(Via: https://www.marketplace.org/2017/05/23/economy/rural-america-weighs-economic-realities-federal-budget-cuts)

It is never easy living in the heart of America. True-blooded Americans face the harsh realities of fewer opportunities and lacking federal support, a common sentiment felt by those living in small American towns. Add to that the challenges posed by climate change on crop production or poultry farms; it can take its toll on an ordinary small-town farmer.

While completely abandoned towns like Okaton may be unusual, it exemplifies a much larger pattern of rural flight. As young people flock to cities to pursue jobs and education, the demographics of rural America have become older and whiter. According to The Atlantic, rural areas lost an average of 33,000 people a year between 2010 and 2014. In 2016, just 19% of Americans lived in rural areas, compared to 44% in 1930. One of the reasons for the draining of rural areas is the migration of jobs to more densely populated cities. As the American economy has shifted from agricultural to industrial to technical, automation has replaced many of the jobs that rural areas have traditionally been dependent on. For example, in 1900, 40% of Americans worked in agriculture, and today fewer than 2% do. 

As jobs became automated and fewer people were needed to run farms, rural men and women moved to cities, where opportunities for education, higher pay, and better jobs were abundant. They never came back. 

You can taste the despair in towns like Okaton, the slow death creeping in through the weeds in the sidewalk and the fallen chips of paint. For many of these towns, the only hope of survival is the intelligent promotion of self-employment through technology. However, when surveyed about their county’s economic strife, most residents of Jones County hoped for a return to the past, for a return of the railroad or lumber companies that once ushered in prosperity. However, just like rural dwellers who moved to cities, those jobs will never come back.

(Via: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/confessions-of-a-coastal-elite-small-town-exodus_us_593049f3e4b09e93d7964853)

Many of these small towns now look like ghost towns because most of the residents have long since packed their bags and abandoned their homes in search of their fortune in bigger cities where education and employment opportunities are plenty. Indeed, there are pros and cons to living in a small American town like just about anything else there is.

But despite its flaws, you can’t deny the beauty and allure of living in a world not yet tainted by modern living. It would even be better if dilapidated and faded store signs get a new lease on life but really, small towns have a unique appeal that not generally appeals to the masses but it gives us a grasp of what life used to be in America when it was less crowded and things were much simpler.

Challenges of Living in Small American Towns Find more on: https://PopEgo.com

Computers are continually evolving. The technology of today may be rendered obsolete a few years from now. That’s how fast computing advances take place. The dream of experts is to make artificial intelligence a reality for all of us and they are almost there now but first, computer makers should be able to make their hardware artificial intelligence-friendly. Advanced computer chips are the technology we need to make this happen.

CPUs or central processing units not only power your PC but even make online services work as they should be. But if big companies dream of tapping into artificial intelligence that requires deep neural networks, they would need additional processors aside from their existing CPUs because CPU power alone is not enough to analyze huge data as well as perform language translation and face and object identification in photos.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and robots are both hot topics for Computex 2017 and will become focuses for the IT industry for the next several years. Taiwan's PC and server supply chains are expected to greatly benefit from the business opportunity because of the technology's heavy reliance on PC calculation.

Quanta Computer chairman Barry Lam recently pointed out that AI is a new milestone for technology development. For devices such as smartphones and smart TVs, what the IT industry did was made them smarter, but AI is different. The technology can learn, correct its mistakes and choose a better solution for problems and in the next several years, it will create many applications and commercial values for the market.

Lam said that AI can be applied onto many different kinds of applications including medical care, autonomous driving, automation and smart city management. Currently, players such as Google, Microsoft and Facebook are all aggressively investing resources on related development. Consumers will be able to use their AI services with cheap prices and these AI and big data's analysis will help society to advance and create business opportunities for industries.

Quanta and Nvidia are also forming partnerships to develop AI super computers because of GPU's calculation performance. Technologies such as face recognition, autonomous driving and robots can all be supported by GPU compute.

(Via: http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20170529PD200.html)

The public now enjoys the benefits of cloud computing but the artificial intelligence market requires so much more than what the current chip technology can offer. The technology asks for the network to work in two stages: the training stage and the execution stage. The former is when the neural network is trained by the company to do a specific task and the latter is when you ask the neural network to do something for you. The thing is that the chips chosen by companies like Google have a big impact on the industry itself and to other companies that are in the business of making chips like Intel.

Apple is reportedly working on a chip called the Apple Neural Engine, which would be dedicated to carrying out artificial intelligence (AI) processing on its mobile devices.
The addition of this type of capability would catalyse the use of AI on mobile devices. Although it is already being used extensively to power digital assistants like Siri and Google Assistant, these technologies rely on computer servers to process data sent to them rather than the processing happening on the mobile device itself.

Augmented reality and digital assistants are not the only applications of AI that will become important on mobile devices. Once the capability is made available to all mobile application developers, it will bring new types of capabilities to mobile devices.

Health applications, for example, will be able to tell when body readings from sensors on the phone or associated wearable devices are abnormal and need acting on. But the uses are potentially limitless and will bring about a new phase in how we rely on applications and our mobile devices in everyday life. And they will work, even when the device is not connected to the internet.

(Via: https://phys.org/news/2017-05-apple-mobile-ai-chip-intelligence.html)

And big companies like Apple aren’t just limiting their technological forays into computing systems but even to their mobile devices as well. Digital assistants and augmented reality will soon be a reality in mobile gadgets as mobile applications are further developed to support artificial intelligence without compromising user security.

Many industry insiders are looking forward to this development considering how much we rely on our smartphones in our day-to-day. While many are undoubtedly a fan, many are also worried about the implications of such advanced technologies in the hands of an ordinary person. But until then, we can only wait and see how the technology unfolds and impact our lives.

The following article Increased Hardware Demand Because Of AI is available on https://popego.com/