ZTE unveils the Gigabit Phone, the world’s first 5G smartphone with 1Gbps download speeds – BGR

LG and Huawei both have exciting new flagship smartphones in store for us at this years Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona, Spain. In fact, the fresh new LG G6 might be the star of MWC 2017 this year, as you saw in our hands-on LG G6 preview. Nokia has a handful of buzzy new handsets to show off as well. Samsung wont take the wraps off of its new flagship phones at MWC this year, but the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ are due to be unveiled late next month and if rumors hold true, theyre going to blow us away.

Out of all of those exciting new devices headed to the market in the current months, not a single one can pull off the feat ZTE just achieved with the new ZTE Gigabit Phone that was just shown off at MWC 2017: 1Gbps download speeds.

Remember how all of the major wireless carriers forced us off of unlimited data plans back between 2009 and 2011, so that they could push us onto more expensive tiered data plans? Well guess what: unlimited data is back well, unlimited data is back, at least and as you might have guessed, its even more expensive than the pricier tiered plans carriersforced us onto in recent years.

Why the sudden interest in unlimited data plans again? The answer lies in a joke I tweeted the other day:

The timing is a bit ambitious give me a break, it was a Twitter joke but as they say, truth is often said in jest. Carriers are retraining their subscriber bases to embrace unlimited data plans. With 5G on the horizon, a 4GB, 6GB or even 10GB plan wont hold up very well when youre dealing with download speeds that approach 1Gbps.

And speaking of 1Gbps download speeds, ZTE on Sunday took the wraps off its first 5G-capable smartphone, the ZTE Gigabit Phone.

ZTE calls the Gigabit Phone a forward-looking smartphone, which essentiallytranslates to concept phone that will never actually be sold. The Gigabit Phone isnt intended for retail, however. Instead, its intended to showcase 5G and the lightning-fast upload and download speeds that will come along with it once 5G networks begin to roll out. Remember, this isnt the distant future were talking about here; Verizon will fire up its 5G networks in at least 11 different markets this year in a just-announced test program.

The ZTE Gigabit Phone is powered by theQualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipset, which featuresan integrated Snapdragon X16 LTE modem. The solution combines wireless carrier aggregation with44 MIMO antenna technology and 256-QAM modulation to achieve download speeds of up to 1Gbps. These arent theoretical speeds, mind you the phone is on display right now in Barcelona, where show goers can watch live demos of the Gigabit Phone handling gigabit downloads.

We are thrilled to introduce the worlds first smartphone with download speeds up to 1Gbps. With the new device, the way people stay connected will be changed forever, a ZTE spokesperson said. Focusing on 5G technologies will be one of the key priorities of ZTEs global development. ZTE will be very glad to leverage its technology strength and experience in 5G to cooperate with government and business partners to discuss and facilitate the upcoming 5G era.

The question of whether the ZTEGigabit Phone is a true 5G phone is a bit foggy. ZTE calls it pre 5G, featuring technologies that will help provide massive speed boost to bridge the gap during carriers transitions from 4G to 5G networks. Think of it as being akin to HSPA+, the 3G technology that AT&T and T-Mobile spent so much timemarketing as 4G.

Of course to the end user, the technology behind 1Gbps download speeds wont matter very much while he or she is live-streaming 360-degree panoramic video and enjoying near-instant access to cloud-based content.

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ZTE unveils the Gigabit Phone, the world's first 5G smartphone with 1Gbps download speeds - BGR

Report: Vive Users Are 95 Percent Male And Spend 5 Hours Per Week in VR – UploadVR

HTC has been conductingsurveys about VR in China and now the results are in.

The following data was sourced from 2,5000+ participants including 62 percent Vive users and 32 percent non-Vive users, according to the company. Keep in mind, therefore, that many of the findings will be Vive specific.

There are over a dozen reported findings here but lets focus on the most interestingfirst. The report can be accessed here. The first thing that should catch most peoples eye are the findings concerning VRs gender disparity. According to this study, 95 percent of Vive users and 87 percent of non-Vive VR users were male.

Both Vive and non-Vive user groups show male users to be the dominant number, with potential for female VR users remaininglargely untapped, the report states.

A second notable result from this survey has to do with how many hours VR users are spending inside their headsets. According to the survey, Vive users on the consumer level are spending around 5 hours in VR per week andthose on the enterprise level are spending around 12.

Consumers are apparently gobbling up content very quickly as well. According to the survey, 60 percent of Vive users download between eight and twenty four VR experiences every month.

What do you think of these figures? Do they surprise you? Let us know in the comments below!

Tagged with: data, gender, htc, results, survey, Time, Vive

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Report: Vive Users Are 95 Percent Male And Spend 5 Hours Per Week in VR - UploadVR

Is Your Hosting Provider Secure? 5 Things to Watch Out For – The Merkle

The internet faces a big challenge when it comes to security. The world wide web rests at the heart of nearly everything we do in the digital age, yet that has only served to encourage cyber criminals to find ways to exploit this and get their hands on the valuable data we give away online. By 2019 its predicted that the global cost of cyber attacks will be $2.1 trillion.

So, with the problem growing, its vital that you do all you can to protect yourself and your interests online. That means protecting the website you run for you and your business. This doesnt need to be a lonely battle, though. Your website is nothing if its not hosted, and the choosing the right hosting company can not only ensure that your website can be accessed by customers but that it is safe too.But how do you choose the right hosting company that can look after security and performance? Here are five things to watch out for:

Cyber criminals are likely to be keen to get their mitts on your data, and if they can do this by intercepting the files you upload to your hosting account, they will. Many people upload files to their hosting account with file transfer protocol (FTP). You could therefore look for a provider that uses a secure file transfer protocol (SFTP) to add a layer of protection to this practice.

A secure sockets layer or SSL is a type of technology that establishes an encrypted link between a server and a browser. Essentially, its a way of protecting the data that passes between the two, ensuring that it stays private. If your website is one that needs to capture customer data (for example, you may have an e-commerce element to your website), an SSL will help to keep information secure. If you are using an SSL certificate, youll see a locked padlock in the address bar and your address will start with https:// instead of http://.

If a disaster strikes, you need to be able to bounce back quickly. That means having all of your information backed up. Clearly, youll want to back all of your data up for yourself but your host can help with this too if they have their own backup procedure.

If you have an issue, you need to know youll be able to solve it. The best web hosting companies are on hand to step in the moment you need them. Firms such as WestHost offer round-the-clock support and employ a team of experts who bring the benefit of their wisdom to your web presence.

If your website was a physical building, you might pay for a security guard to patrol the premises and keep an eye out for anything that might be awry. SiteLock is the virtual equivalent of this providing daily scans of your site for security issues and things such as malware. If you find a hosting company that can add this for you, youll even be able to display the SiteLock Secure Seal on your website to offer peace of mind to visitors.

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Is Your Hosting Provider Secure? 5 Things to Watch Out For - The Merkle

Appealing Social Security Decisions Online – Danbury News Times

Was your Social Security claim denied by the Social Security Administration (SSA)? It is your right to appeal the decision, and now you have an even easier method of doing so. As of December 10, 2016, the SSA allows you to file an appeal online for both medical and non-medical issues to dispute adverse actions or denials of a claim. (Non-medical appeals cover issues such as disputes over Medicare premium rates and cases of overpayment.)

The online appeals process extends to recipients living outside the US. Prior to the online process, appeal options were limited and often impractical for those in other countries.

The SSA online appeal site walks you through the appeal process in a user-friendly fashion. The initial menu allows you to choose between medical decisions or non-medical decisions, as well as allowing you to resume a medical appeal that you had already started.

Before you begin the online appeal process, make sure that you have the necessary supporting documents (forms, medical reports, written statements, and legal documents) to process your appeal. Further information on required documents may be found on the SSA website.

Generally, supporting documents may be uploaded through the website, so make sure you have all of your documents in a suitable electronic form for uploading. However, SSA only accepts original or certified copies of some documents; those will need to be mailed into the SSA (or brought into the SSA office if you prefer but in that case why bother with an online appeal?).

SSA estimates that medical appeals should take from 40 to 60 minutes assuming a suitable Internet connection. Non-medical appeals should take less time, approximately 25 minutes.

The online site for non-medical appeals saves answers automatically as you proceed through the process, but you cannot exit the application and come back to complete it later. The medical appeal site also saves answers automatically, but it does allow you to take a break and return to an appeal that has been saved in progress.

The SSA will contact you if there are any questions or updates regarding your appeal. If you have a personal appointed representative for your SSA claim, make sure that his or her contact information is also included with your submitted information.

You can check the status of your appeal from the submissions page at any time. A simple click of a button will direct you to My Social Security, where you can log in to your personal page (or create one if you do not already have one established).

Keep in mind that the same time limits apply to online submissions as they do to other methods. Generally, you have sixty days from the date of receipt of the letter that informs you about the decision. The SSA assumes that you received the letter within five days of the date on the letter. If you received it later than five days beyond the letter date, keep that limitation in mind.

For any other questions regarding the general appeal process, refer to the Social Security Publication "Your Right To Question The Decision Made On Your Claim".

You still have the traditional options of appealing by phone or in person at your nearest Social Security Administration office, if you prefer. We hope you don't have to dispute a Social Security claim at all, but if you do, at least you have choices on the method to use.

Read our article on what you need to get the Social Security benefits you deserve to learn more about the four levels of appeal and the supporting documents you need to submit for your case to be re-evaluated.

Let the free MoneyTips Retirement Planner help you calculate when you can retire without jeopardizing your lifestyle.

Photo iStockphoto.com/shapecharge

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Appealing Social Security Decisions Online - Danbury News Times

9 best image optimization software for PC – Windows Report

For various PC problems, we recommend to use this tool.

This tool will repair most computer errors, protect you from file loss, malware, hardware failure and optimize your PC for maximum performance. Quickly fix PC issues and prevent others from happening with this software:

Image optimization is essential for both professional and home use. This is especially important if youre an online publisher or blogger. Most of the websites (focus on social networks) have limitations for image size. So, you have to optimize photos in order to use them online.

In addition, the large image files that you add from your gallery will increase website page size and thus, largely increase loading time. And we certainly dont want that. Because the common visitor wants that page to load in a blink. On the other hand, we neither want to trade so much of the image quality for improving the site speed. So, compromising between size and quality is the only viable option.

In that manner, weve prepared some fast, online and offline tools for image compression and optimization. All of them are free to use.

Compressor.io is a great online image/photo compressing tool. It lets you choose between two compressing modes: Lossless or Lossy. Lossless will optimize the size of your photos, while maintaining the image quality at the same. Lossy will compress the photo more but will reduce its quality. Lossless mode supports only JPEG and PNG formats, while Lossy works out with the following 4 formats:

The Compressor is simple to use. You select a preferredoptimizing mode, upload your image and it gets automatically optimized. A nice addition is a split screen preview that lets you see the exact difference in transition. A tool supports only one file per compression up to 10 MBs of size.

You can find Compressor.io here.

JPEG Optimizer is a simple and reliable online tool for both compressing and resizing images. It kind of lacks the advanced features, but it gets the basic job done. Furthermore, the files can be compressed from 1 up to 99 percent, but have in mind that photos will lose a lot of original quality.

The procedure is simple:

Optimizilla is a well-designed online tool for image optimizing. The interface is great and easy to use. It supports only 2 file formats: JPEG and PNG, but since these are the most common formats, you shouldnt have any major problems. Even though some other solutions support more formats, most of them dont have the drag-and-drop option. To optimize your photo using this tool, do as follows:

You can try out Optimizilla here.

Kraken.io utilizessimilarfeatures as most of other optimization tools. But it goes one step further. It has a premium version called KrakenPro. In addition, it supports cloud store input.

Same as Optimizilla, you can drag and drop files in the marked area. However, a free version is limited to 1 MB per file so this may be a deal-breaker for some users. In addition, there is no image preview on the site. Nonetheless, there are Lossy and Lossless compression modes and Expert mode for advanced tweaks. To optimize your photo with Kraken.io, do as follows:

You can try out Kraken.io here.

Resize Photos trades interface simplicity for an abundance of options. Yes, you can just select simple optimization and resize the selected image. But there is much more you can do. For start, you can modify output format. Once the photo is uploaded, there is a variation of difference features. Some of them are shadows, effects, and captions. It supports only one file per conversion which can be JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP, or PSD format, respectively.

To optimize your photo/image with Resize Photos, follow the instructions:

You can try optimizing with Resize Photos here.

Convert Image is a simple, but quite useful online compression tool. Its distinctive feature are multiple input-output files choices, with most of them unavailable with other online solutions. You can compress only one photo per conversion up to 24 MB. A tool offers tips about compression levels and preview image. That way youll get full insight in the image export quality. Though, switching between the output format is somehow complicated and confusing.

To compress photos/images with Convert Image, do as follows:

You can try Convert Image here.

TinyPNG is one of the simplest online optimization solutions that offers great compression without quality loss. It merely decreases the number of colors in the image without reducing its quality. However, you cant tweak anything compared to some other available solutions.

It supports only 2 main formats: JPEG and PNG. Per conversion, you can compress up to 20 files with 5 MB as a single file limit. After the conversion, the file-bundle is downloaded as a ZIP archive. Additionally, it offers premium service and WordPress and Photoshop plugins for a modest price. Finished photos can be directly downloaded or transferred to a Dropbox. To optimize photos/images with TinyPNG, do as follows:

To compress your photos using TinyPNG, go here.

We now move onto the free third-party applications. Youll need to download and install those, but theyll reward you with improved features and basic editing possibilities.

The first tool we are presenting you with is RIOT (Radical Image Optimization Tool). RIOT is, as its name speaks for itself, an image optimization tool with various features. The interface is intuitive and user-friendly, so even newbies will find it easy to use. The most noteworthy difference comparing to online tools are formats. RIOT supports all basic image/photo formats with the addition of PSD, RAW, HDR, and even a few unusual scientific formats.

Besides compression, you can use RIOT as a full optimization tool for all the operations needed (cropping, rotating, adjusting brightness or gamma). On the other hand, we are here for the automatic optimization feature. It works fast and your photos will be as good as they were before the size reduction. The automatic preview will let you see all the changes, with both dual or single view. Additionally, multiple compressions can be done parallelly, and you can choose the output size threshold. RIOT also comes as a plugin for GIMP, IrfanView or XnView.

If you are keen to move from browser to desktop, you can find RIOT,here.

File Optimizer is an all-around open source application. Its a file compression tool that can be used as an image optimizer. Dont let its multipurpose fool you: this application is agreat option for optimizing your images. And quite a simple one. The interface is simple, one may say a bit old-fashioned, but intuitive and well-designed. Youll fast get used to it. It supports 275 file formats, and is a leader in that category.

Optimizing photos, like the all other files, is fast and easy. You drag wanted images in the files grid, and simply select those you want to optimize. After that, just right-click the Optimize All Files option. Have in mind that the original files are moved to the Recycle Bin, in case you need them. Optimization mode is strictly lossless so the quality is unchanged. After the compression, the PNG files are shrunk almost to the half of the original size. The JPEG and GIF files compression stand around 15-20 percent of size decrease. Even RIOT is behind in that category.

In conclusion, you have a compressing tool to that can shrink most of the files youll ever use. This can prove worthy if you want to unite all compressing functions in one application.

You can get File Optimizer for free here.

No matter what option you choose, optimizing your photos for online implementation is imperative. On the other hand, images you upload must maintain a certain quality and be a valid addition to your site. So, trying to balance between those two is the key.

What is your favorite image/photo optimization tool? Tell us your impressions and experience in the comments section.

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Hands on: D-Link Apple HomeKit Omna security camera – The Sydney Morning Herald

The first security camera to tie into Apple's smart home ecosystem, D-Link's Omna 180 Cam HD makes it easy to keep an eye on things while you're out and about.

The modern smart home isn't just about the ability to control your appliances from afar, it's also about letting your devices talk to each other and start making smart decisions on your behalf. This requires pledging your allegiance to a smart home ecosystem, to ensure your devices can interact and you're not constantly switching between apps and services to get things done.

Making that pledge is difficult when there are so many smart home ecosystems vying for control of your home, from Google Home and Amazon Alexa to Apple HomeKit, Samsung SmartThings and Belkin WeMo. Some ecosystems aim to be as device and platform agnostic as possible but, not surprisingly, Apple HomeKit is a non-starter unless you're an iCentric home.

She'll be apples

D-Link's $329.95 Omna 180 Cam HD requires an iGadget running iOS 10.1 to set up the camera, plus you'll need an iPad or Apple TV 4th generation lying around your home to act as a central gateway if you want to access the camera when you're away from home.

An iPad isn't the most reliable of choices for a central gateway you might not want to leave your iPad at home and, even if you do, who's to say that someone else in your home won't take it with them as they walk out the door. Alternatively your iPad might run flat while sitting home alone on the coffee table.

To be absolutely sure that your HomeKit camera will always be contactable remotely you'll want to invest in a $239 Apple TV 4th gen for your lounge room an older Apple TV won't do the job. This makes HomeKit an expensive proposition but, to be fair, it might not be a deal-breaker because if you're running an iCentric home then you probably already own the latest version of Apple's little streaming set-top box.

Get up and running

Assuming you own the right Apple gadgets, the Omna 180 Cam HD is quite easy to set up. You simply download D-Link's Onma app, grant it permission to access HomeKit data and then use the "Add Accessory" button to connect the app to the D-Link camera. This works by simply pointing your iGadget's camera at the code printed on the back of the camera, similar to the way you can scan the code on an iTunes gift card.

If you've never used HomeKit before you'll also need to grant Apple's Home app access to your iCloud account, at which point it should automatically find the Apple TV 4th gen in your lounge room and configure remote access. You can also give the camera a name and link it to a specific room in a specific house, to make it easyto manage all your devices.

Room with a view

After this quick set-up process you can easily call up the camera's live view of your lounge room via Apple's Home app or D-Link's Omna app. If your home is full of HomeKit-compatible gear then Apple's Home app is going to act as your central command centre, but D-Link's Omna app lets you tap into the camera's advanced features and configuration menus.

You can't control where the camera points, nor can you zoom in on objects, but the fisheye lens offers a 180-degree horizontal view which lets you see the entire room when the camera is up against a wall or sitting in a corner. Meanwhile the lens offers roughly a 90-degree vertical view, so you can see most of the floor and ceiling.

The tiny cylindrical camera stands about as tall as an iPhone 7 androughly two-thirds as wide. Unfortunately the camera doesn't support wall-mounting, instead it's designed to sit on a shelf or tabletop which might not suit every room. Also keep in mind that the camera needs AC power, with a 3-metre AC to micro-USB cable in the box.

Once you've found the right location to place the camera, it offers an 1080p widescreen view of the room with minimal distortion despite the fisheye lens. The picture looks excellent; the colours are a little cool, giving whites the slightest of blue tinges, but the picture is very sharp and there's minimal lag even when viewing from an iPhone over mobile broadband. Obviously you're at the mercy of your home broadband upload speeds.

The camera lens is optimised for indoor, low-light performance ensuring that you can always see plenty of detail in the room, even if there are brightly-lit windows in the background (the trade-off is that the view out of the window can be lost in a haze of white on a sunny day). It's also an infrared camera with a 5-metre range, so you can see what's happening even if it's pitch black in the room.

Strike up a conversation

While watching the live video feed you can listen to what's happening in the room or turn on your microphone to hold a two-way conversation with someone at home.

While this would let you negotiate with burglars ransacking your house, the two-way audio feature is more likely to be used to talk to loved ones while you're away from home.

You might use the camera to keep an eye on your children after school, or perhaps to monitor strangers you've welcomed into your home such as cleaners or tradespeople although you might become frustrated at the fact you can't easily mount the camera inconspicuously out of sight, hard-wired into the AC power.

At this point the camera becomes less about burglardetection and more about family safety/surveillance, which presents a whole lot of privacy implications that you'll need to discuss with everyone who lives in the house.

Keep a watchful eye

If you're concerned about uninvited guests you can set Apple's Home app to alert you to movement in the room, plus the motion detector can trigger other smarthome events.

D-Link's Omna app splits the camera's view of the room into a 4x4 grid and lets you nominate which areas to monitor. You can also adjust the overall sensitivity, to reduce false positives such as pets walking across the floor or objects moving outside the window. At its default 90% sensitivity, the camera will usually detect a shoe-sized object thrown across the room which passes through a single area on the grid.

When something moves you're immediately notified via a pop-up alert on your iPhone which takes you directly to a live feed in Apple's Home app. You can set the motion retrigger delay to between 30 seconds and five minutes, to ensure you're not constantly notified of the same ongoing event. Bumping the sensitivity up to 100% is unwise as it causes the motion detector to constantly trip even when nothing moves.

Switching to D-Link's Omna app offers a 20-second instant video replay, starting just before the incident, but to take advantage of this you need to slip a microSD card into the camera. It's not designed to keep hours of security footage, just to capture the highlights.

Unfortunately the camera doesn't automatically upload these video clips to the cloud, so if burglars make off with your camera you've also lost your video evidence. The upside of this is that you don't need to pay for a cloud subscription service, but it's a shame that can't tie it into existing cloud storage services like iCloud, Google Drive or Dropbox.

Unfortunately the camera is not smart enough to only send you pop-up notifications when you're away from home, or only during certain times of day, which could have made it a set and forget security device. In this department Apple drops the ball compared to some of the more mature and robust smart home ecosystems.

So what's the verdict?

D-Link's Omna 180 Cam HD has a lot to offer, with impressive picture quality and the ability to quickly alert you when something moves at home while you're out on the road. From a security perspective, its lack of cloud upload features is an Achilles Heel which some users might not be able to overlook.

Merits of the camera aside, it really comes down to whether you're prepared to pledge your allegiance to Apple's HomeKit smart home ecosystem. If you own iEverything then D-Link's Omna 180 Cam HD is a good fit, otherwise you should weigh it up against the competition before taking the plunge.

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Hands on: D-Link Apple HomeKit Omna security camera - The Sydney Morning Herald

IKEA’s growth means more jobs for Savannah distribution center – Savannah Morning News

Popular Scandinavian furniture retailer IKEA continues to expand its presence in the U.S. Southeast - a plan that bodes well for the Savannah area, even though its poplation isnt large enough to support a store of its own.

Since opening its massive distribution center at the Savannah River International Trade Park off Ga. 21 some 10 years ago, the Swedish company has opened new retail stores in Florida, Charlotte, Atlanta and Texas - most of them served through the port of Savannah. As business grew, so did the distribution center, which currently has 151 employees.

With the announcement last year that the company would open a store in Jacksonville in the fall of 2017, it was almost a given that the Savannah workforce would continue to grow.

Earlier this month, the Georgia Department of Labor announced IKEA will hold a recruiting event in Savannah Monday in anticipation of hiring more than 20 full-time workers for the local distribution center.

But its not all about Jacksonville, said Joseph Roth, public affairs manager for IKEA.

Were doing well across the board, he said, adding that a second Dallas store will open about the same time Jacksonville does and a third Dallas store is expected in late 2018.

The volume through this DC continues to grow. I think its safe to say we would need to add co-workers whether or not we were looking at a new store in Jacksonville, Roth said.

While IKEA has no immediate plans to expand the size of its Savannah DC, the potential is there.

We planned this facility with expansion in mind, Roth said.

Efficiency as important as size

While it may look like a huge warehouse from the outside, a step inside tells a different story, said Savannah distribution center manager Joel Everett.

A well-run DC represents the heartbeat of the logistics industry and ours is no exception, Everett said Friday, adding that the need for speed and execution in moving product has turned the huge facility into the embodiment of high-tech efficiency.

The nearly 800,000-square-foot facility currently supplies 10 of IKEAs 43 U.S. stores, as well as a store in the Dominican Republic, handling an average of 50 container - or tractor-trailer - loads a day.

Product comes in from the ports in containers and goes out to our stores on trucks, Everett said. Our job is to make sure that happens as efficiently as possible.

In the 110-foot-tall area known simply as the silo, an innovative automated storage and retrieval system takes each incoming pallet, scans its label, weighs it, squares it on the conveyer belt and then moves it - via automated shuttle and crane - to its proper place among the long lines of racking stacked 18 bays high.

When its time to ship, the system remembers where that particular pallet is, retrieves it and brings it down for loading. The silo holds up to 82,000 pallets, with each of the 13 automated cranes capable of moving 37 to 40 pallets an hour.

Recruiting co-workers

IKEA, one of Fortunes 100 Best Companies to Work For in 2016, will be recruiting for the Savannah Distribution Center from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday at the Georgia Department of Labors Savannah Career Center, 5520 White Bluff Road. Due to OSHA regulations, applicants must be at least 18 years old.

While previous forklift experience is preferred, it is not necessary. Applicants must, however, be able to sit, stand, lift at least 70 pounds and walk throughout the 800,000-square-foot warehouse. Applicants must be able to speak and write English and work various shifts, including weekdays and weekends.

Potential employees are encouraged to dress appropriately for interviews. Those applicants selected will be subject to a criminal background check.

For more information on the available jobs, or to apply online, visit http://www.employgeorgia.com to create an account and upload - or prepare - a resume. Having an Employ Georgia account will expedite the interview process.

Originally posted here:

IKEA's growth means more jobs for Savannah distribution center - Savannah Morning News

Love in the times of a world war – The New Indian Express

Kangana Ranaut has always had an outspoken and bold image, while Shahid Kapoor has kept to himself. They will be seen in Vishal Bhardwajs Rangoon. Kangana plays a fiesty young actress in British-era 40s, Shahid plays an army officer. She has had a trail of successes with Queen and Tanu Weds Manu; he has hits such as Haider and Udta Punjab. They love to experiment with their roles.

My career has been a rollercoaster one from the beginning, and I have never been off balance. There was a lot of mud-slinging, but then exs will always bitch about you. I have a lot of dreams and goals. I want to do something different and good all the time.

No actor can be satisfied with his achievements. I cant just stop here and say I have got everything I have wanted. Theres a lot more to my life than three National Awards. I have to better, says Kangana.

Shahid says he is at a good stage of his career. The real journey is to bring credibility.

Popularity is something you have to look forward to; you cant run after it.

You need to be a good actor and participate in good cinema.

You need to be taken seriously; you cant be someone who is jumping around.

Theres no longevity in that. Earlier if you wanted to do a music video or photo shoot, you had to go and drop your pictures and give auditions. Today you can upload them on Instagram and be noticed.

Rangoon is Shahids third film with Bhardwaj. When I work with him, I am on my toes. Its been a 10-year journey with him. I met him for the first time for Kaminey, and when two heavy objects meet, there is a collision. Haider was an experimental film. Rangoon is a big film, he says.

The film is set during WW II, and has references to Adolf Hitler. Its a satire and Hitler has been shown in a funny way. Its more of a love story. Its a great script, says Kangana, who plays Julia in the movie. She says there was a lot of detailing in Rangoon.

Vishal has done a lot of research. He took care of all details and created a city dating back to the 40s and even took care of the skyline. I had a lot of discussions with him about my attire, hair, make-up and fabrics I would be wearing. I had to understand that world and the period it was set in.

It was different then. Our country was run by outsiders, and you had to keep that in mind. It is the love story of an actress, and I had to create that period in my mind, how they said their dialogues in those days.

This will be the first time Kangana will be seen doing stunts. I have a few stunt scenes as stunt actresses were popular then. I learnt horse riding. We talk about women empowerment now and appreciate such movies.

There were more women-oriented movies in those days. Women were shown beating up 10 goons. They were superwomen in movies then. Unfortunately in the 80s, the environment changed as money flowed in from the underworld and women were projected as sex objects in movies. Its changing now, she says.

Shahid says he is playing Nawab Malik, an Army officer in pre-independent India. He is a patriot and he has got job in the British Army. He is confused. Its a heroic and likeable character and he does things larger than life.

Explains Kangana: For me its important to understand the psyche of the character Ill be essaying. I dont do superficial roles. It takes me time to understand her physical appearance and dialect of the character. I can go to any lengths for my role, but Aamir (Khan) is a better example of that. Hats off to him for going to that extreme in Dangal.

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Love in the times of a world war - The New Indian Express

Appealing Social Security Decisions Online – CT Post

Was your Social Security claim denied by the Social Security Administration (SSA)? It is your right to appeal the decision, and now you have an even easier method of doing so. As of December 10, 2016, the SSA allows you to file an appeal online for both medical and non-medical issues to dispute adverse actions or denials of a claim. (Non-medical appeals cover issues such as disputes over Medicare premium rates and cases of overpayment.)

The online appeals process extends to recipients living outside the US. Prior to the online process, appeal options were limited and often impractical for those in other countries.

The SSA online appeal site walks you through the appeal process in a user-friendly fashion. The initial menu allows you to choose between medical decisions or non-medical decisions, as well as allowing you to resume a medical appeal that you had already started.

Before you begin the online appeal process, make sure that you have the necessary supporting documents (forms, medical reports, written statements, and legal documents) to process your appeal. Further information on required documents may be found on the SSA website.

Generally, supporting documents may be uploaded through the website, so make sure you have all of your documents in a suitable electronic form for uploading. However, SSA only accepts original or certified copies of some documents; those will need to be mailed into the SSA (or brought into the SSA office if you prefer but in that case why bother with an online appeal?).

SSA estimates that medical appeals should take from 40 to 60 minutes assuming a suitable Internet connection. Non-medical appeals should take less time, approximately 25 minutes.

The online site for non-medical appeals saves answers automatically as you proceed through the process, but you cannot exit the application and come back to complete it later. The medical appeal site also saves answers automatically, but it does allow you to take a break and return to an appeal that has been saved in progress.

The SSA will contact you if there are any questions or updates regarding your appeal. If you have a personal appointed representative for your SSA claim, make sure that his or her contact information is also included with your submitted information.

You can check the status of your appeal from the submissions page at any time. A simple click of a button will direct you to My Social Security, where you can log in to your personal page (or create one if you do not already have one established).

Keep in mind that the same time limits apply to online submissions as they do to other methods. Generally, you have sixty days from the date of receipt of the letter that informs you about the decision. The SSA assumes that you received the letter within five days of the date on the letter. If you received it later than five days beyond the letter date, keep that limitation in mind.

For any other questions regarding the general appeal process, refer to the Social Security Publication "Your Right To Question The Decision Made On Your Claim".

You still have the traditional options of appealing by phone or in person at your nearest Social Security Administration office, if you prefer. We hope you don't have to dispute a Social Security claim at all, but if you do, at least you have choices on the method to use.

Read our article on what you need to get the Social Security benefits you deserve to learn more about the four levels of appeal and the supporting documents you need to submit for your case to be re-evaluated.

Let the free MoneyTips Retirement Planner help you calculate when you can retire without jeopardizing your lifestyle.

Photo iStockphoto.com/shapecharge

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Appealing Social Security Decisions Online - CT Post

Swizz Beatz Dropped an Unreleased Jay Z, Nas, DMX, and Jadakiss Song Friday Night – Complex

Given the cultural impact of Takeover, Ether, and the reconciliation between Jay Z and Nas during the 2005 I Declare War concert, its pretty safe to assume moments involving the Jay andNas move the needle. The proverbial ante is upped when DMXwho shared a now-infamous battle with Jay Z and co-starred with Nas in Bellyis added to the mix. Such was the case Friday night, as Swizz Beatz dropped a previously unreleased collaboration between Jay Z, Nas, DMX, and Jadakiss during his live beat battle with Just Blaze.

For a bit of brief context, before he was making headlines of the more unfortunate variety, DMX had a run during the 90s of four consecutive albums debuting at the No. 1 spot. Jay Z truthfully boasted of having more No. 1 albums than Elvis Presley, and Newsweek confirmed the feat as Blueprint 3 gave Jay his eleventh top album. Nas and Jay are a handful of artists to earn the vaunted five-mic rating from The Source, and Jadakiss is closing in on 20 years in the game as a highly-respected MC.

Swizz hasnt revealed when the song was recorded, and between Nas reference to the synthetic drug bath salts and Jay Z referencing Coming to Americas fictional nation of Zamunda (Hov infamously dressed as Coming to Americas Prince Akeem for Halloween in 2015) its unclear when the track was crafted.

What is rather clear is the reaction to the track, as fans have already attempted to filter the audio and upload it to YouTube as a standalone single. You can stream the entire beat battle via Hot 97s YouTube channel.

Twitter lost its collective mind Friday night and early Saturday morning as both Just Blaze and Swizz Beatz began trending. Busta Rhymes, who was in attendance for the beat battle, had the classic crunch-face reaction upon hearing the track, and at least one viewer who shared the same feeling quickly turned Busta into a meme. Check out some of the more notable Twitter reactions below:

Just Blaze took to Twitter to suggest Timbaland and Pharrellbe featured during the next battle. Twitter might figuratively erupt if such a pairing were to happen. In the meantime, we can hope for an official release of the track between Jay Z, Nas, DMX, and Jadakiss.

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Swizz Beatz Dropped an Unreleased Jay Z, Nas, DMX, and Jadakiss Song Friday Night - Complex

The Mage’s Tale is a Breathtaking New Oculus Touch Dungeon Crawler RPG from inXile Entertainment – UploadVR

The world of roleplaying games (RPGs) is dominated by a few select developers near the top of the pile. Studios like Bioware, Bethesda, and Square Enix obviously come to mind as historical pioneers and juggernauts of massive, sprawling, roleplaying adventure titles, but all of those studios have embraced the modern era of RPG development.

inXile Entertainment on the other hand, along with Obsidian Entertainment and Larian Studios, are keeping old-school RPGs alive.

Less than a week ahead of the release of Torment: Tides of Numenera, themuch-awaited Kickstarter-funded spiritual successor to the legendary Planescape: Torment, inXile have announced a brand new game, this time designed specifically for virtual reality (VR). Even more specifically, designed just for the Oculus Rift with Touch.

Simply titled The Mages Tale, its an immersive, first-person dungeon crawler RPG that takes place in the same universe as The Bards Tale. Stylistically, it brings back Ultima, Wizardry, Might & Magic, and Elder Scrolls 1 & 2 vibes. We can only hope for something with that same level of quality and creativity. At least visually, we can clearly tell that its aiming to keep that breathtaking and beautiful style intact.

When I was a kid our dungeons consisted of playing Dungeons and Dragons on graph paper. From there I graduated to playing classic computer games in black and white like Wizardry, which inspired me to create a full color dungeon crawl with Bards Tale. The window for the players kept getting bigger, the graphics more advanced, and now with The Mages Tale, we are inside the dungeon, said Brian Fargo, dungeon crawler expert and CEO of inXile Entertainment in a prepared statement.

In The Mages Tale, players become conjurors in a quest to rescue your master from the evilGaufroi. There are 11 dungeons ranging from tombs to sewers, scattered with dangerous enemies and tricky puzzles. Youll be equipped with fireball spells, ice javelins, and more, all cast using the Oculus Touch motion controllers.

We dont have an exact release date or price yet, but The Mages Tale is expected to launch this year in 2017 for the Oculus Rift with Touch. UploadVR will be going hands-on with the game at GDC next week.

What has you most interested in this new game? Let us know in the comments below!

Tagged with: dungeon crawler, inxile entertainment, oculus touch, rift, rpg, the mage's tale

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The Mage's Tale is a Breathtaking New Oculus Touch Dungeon Crawler RPG from inXile Entertainment - UploadVR

Life Extension Science Live Forever and Don’t Pay Taxes – Nanalyze

They say there are only two things in life you cant avoid taxes and death. For our U.S. readers, you can actually avoid taxes by staying out of the country for 335 days or more. Its called a Foreign Earned Income Exclusionand it gives you about100K in tax-free income every single year. Youre welcome. As for death, we cant tell you how to avoid that yet but were going to let you know when that nut gets cracked becauselife extension science is the hip thing for billionaires to invest in at the moment.

In an article last year, we touched on the topic of aging which is an easier theme to discuss than death, but we didnt quite get into the bigger picture of extending life. There is actually a field on extending life called life extension science in which anti-aging is one of just many broad themes. Life extension sciencecomes in many names such as anti-aging medicine, experimental gerontology, biomedical gerontology, and indefinite life extension. Heres the textbook definition:

Life extension science is the study of reversing or slowing down the processes of aging to extend the average or maximum lifespan.

According to Zion Market Research, the global demand for the anti-aging marketwas valued at $140.3 billion in 2015, and is expected to reach $216.52 billion by 2021. Medical experts, however, declared that the use of these products has not proven to have any effect on the aging process, a reason medical practitioners do not want to equate life extension science to the anti-aging industry identified closely with cosmetics and dermatology.

There seem to be two major schools of thoughts on dealing with prolonging life expectancy: life prior to death and life after clinical death. Life prior to death seem to have the most investment support, probably because its easier to invest in andwrite a check yourself while youre still alive. There are many ways to approach life extension including the following:

Curing age-related diseases or attacking the root cause of aging seem to hold the most promise because of the recent advances in genetics. Curing cancer is still in the detection and diagnostic era with a real cure still years to go. There will likely never be a single cure for cancer, but many different advancements such as earlier detection which reduces the mortality rate by up to 90% for some cancers. In the future, your smart toilet will read your urine in the morning and detect the cancer while your smart smoothie maker will automatically mixin aproper prescription so that by the time you get to work fire up your virtual reality simulator, youll be cured.

Digging deeper into nanotechnology, cloning, genetic modification, and SENS, you will realize, it is all about attacking the challenge of aging at the molecular or cellular level. (The exception is cyborg technology where you replace partly or wholly the human body with robotic technology). Were going to just dive right into 7 companies that are attacking the root cause of aging.

We last wrote about Human Longevity (HLI)in April of last year when they officially became a unicorn after taking in a $220 million Series B round bringing their total funding to $300 million. Last month they hired Cynthia Collins as their new Chief Executive Officer replacing Craig Venter, Ph.D., Co-founder and former CEO, who will remain at HLI as Executive Chairman and will continue to guide scientific vision and strategy. HLI unveiled their genome search engine last October 2016, in which they were exploringindividual human genomes in great detail. At that time, they had already sequenced 10,545 human genomesand went on to state:

The 10,545 human genomes are part of the HLIs database, which currently contains more than 30,000 high-quality genomic and phenotypic integrated health records. HLIs goal is to have one million integrated health records in the database by 2020.

With $300 million, theyre well on their way to building the worlds largest and most comprehensive database of whole genome, phenotype and clinical data.

Just last month, Google Alphabet took in a whopping $800 million investment into their life sciences branch Verily which makes us feel better about the fact that we havent heard squat lately from Calico. We first discussed theCalifornia Life Company (Calico) back in 2014 and since then this stealth mode startup has murmured very little about what they are doing with the staggering $1.5 billion in funding they have on hand. Since Larry Page of Google, its main advocate, is more driven by the technical challenge of solving the mysteries of ROI rather than aging, informing the public of Calicos progress isnt really on the top of his agenda.

One interesting anti-aginglife extension science company we covered before wasElysium Health. Unfortunately,the only news this startup is turning out lately isbad news. The only supplier of the two key ingredients (pterostilbene and nicotinamide riboside) in Elysiums anti-aging pill, Basis, just filed a lawsuit against Elysium this January 2017, for failing to make payments and for breach of royalties and trademark agreements. Added to this is a growing public criticism of Elysiums general marketing campaign which consumers believe ismisleading. Apparently, Basis which seem to be the only unique value proposition for Elysium is not the only company marketing pills containing the key ingredients pterostilbene and Nicotinamide Riboside (NR). ChromaDex, Elysiums only supplier of these ingredients, is also a supplier (probably the only supplier) of these same ingredients to dozens of other anti-aging brands under the trademark NIAGEN. Since they have 30 of the worlds top scientists on staff they should be able to think of a wayto clean this mess up.

Unity Biotechnology, Inc., a startup incorporated in 2009, is in the business of preventing, reversing, and halting the various diseases attributed to aging by working on senescent cells. Heres how they describe it:

Cellular senescence is a biological emergency brake cells use to stop dividing. Its an important anti-tumor mechanism, because it prevents cells from multiplying out of control. But after this brake has been pulled, senescent cells remain in the body, accumulating with age. And unlike normal cells, these cells secrete inflammatory molecules that harm neighboring cellsand tissues

And heres their pipeline:

The Company completed a Series B funding of $116 millionin October 2016 so they have plenty of funds to execute. Not surprisingly,Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPalis an investor alongside some big names like Fidelity, Jeff Bezos of Amazon, and Paul Allen of Microsoft.

SENS Research Foundation or Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence (SENS) Research Foundation is not actually a business startup but a 501(c)(3) public charity founded in 2009 by Aubrey de Grey. Peter Thielputs in $600,000 a year, while its founder and chief science officer, Aubrey de Grey, provides $5 million annually for this research foundation. SENS Foundations research emphasizes the use of regenerative medicine to age-related disease, with the intention of repairing damage to our bodys tissues, cells, and molecular processes.

Speaking of Peter Thiel, we all know whathes been up to and it makes some people question just how groundedthe man really is. Hes all over the news because of something thats downright uncomfortable for us to think about. Thats right, Peter Thiel is said to be thinking about getting blood transfusions from young men to help stop the effects of aging. Its a life extension science called parabiosis which is currently being investigated by at least two startups.

Mr. Thiel presently sits on the board of a startup called Alkahest which is studying the effects of parabiosis. $4.5 billion Spanish plasma company Grifols (NASDAQ:GRFS) owns 45% of the Company so theres a way for retail investors to get a bit of exposure. Theyre operating in stealth mode so not a lotof information available except for recent news that they appointed a Chief Medical Officer.

Alkahest isnt the only startupexploring parabiosis. According to an article by Vice Magazine, a Silicon Valley company called Ambrosia is working on human clinical trials. They charge $8,000 for the privilege of participating in the study and apparently at least 600 people signed up.Sounds like those young bloodshave something to offer us after all.

So there weve given you 7solid companies looking to extend your life span. Maybe you should slap some dollars in a robo-advisor like Betterment just in case you live to be 130 because soon thats going to happen. Of course this opens up a whole can of worms about sustainability of our planet. For those of you who are going to be nice and just die so the rest of us can live longer with more resources, we will still hook you up.

There are those who believe the possibility of life after you are clinically dead. These are advocates who put up companies that build facilities for cryonics and for uploading your mind into some machine. Mind uploading is an exciting space to explore because of the possible merging of current technologies such as brain activity mapping, AI, BCI, and machine learning. Still, there are companies catering to those who simply believe in being remembered and having a purpose even after death such as Bios for its environmentally friendly burial urns and Capsula Mundi for its burial pods. That whole mind uploading thing sounds amazing so we may have to cover that in a future article. Stay tuned and enjoy all those tax-free $$$.

Looking to buy shares in companies before they IPO?A company called Motif Investing lets you buy pre-IPO shares in companies that are led by JP Morgan. You can open an account with Motif with no deposit required so that you are ready to buy pre-IPO shares when they are offered.

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Life Extension Science Live Forever and Don't Pay Taxes - Nanalyze

If You Copy The Contents Of Your Brain To A Computer, Does It Become You Too? – Forbes


Forbes
If You Copy The Contents Of Your Brain To A Computer, Does It Become You Too?
Forbes
From this point of view, mind transfer is no different from continued existence. The state of consciousness identifiable as you now gives rise to a state identifiable as you tomorrow inside the computer. It's not the same state whether it is inside ...

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If You Copy The Contents Of Your Brain To A Computer, Does It Become You Too? - Forbes

DICE 2017: Squanchtendo Says ‘We Have a Long-Form’ VR Game in Development – UploadVR

At the D.I.C.E. 2017 Summit, developers, press, and entertainment industry veterans gathered from around the world this week to discuss cutting edge technology and design principles. One of the most applicable discussions thus far for our audience took place today as Geoff Keighley hosted a live interview session with both Tanya Watson and Justin Roiland of Squanchtendo. The duo discussed their views on the budding VR industry, what made their debut effort in Accounting(created in collaboration with Crows Crows Crows) so special, and most interestingly, what theyre working on next.

Tanya Watson brings years of AAA game industry experience, having worked at Epic Games, and Roiland, a self-described student of gaming his entire life, is the co-creator of Rick and Morty and possesses one of the most iconic comedic personalities in the entertainment scene today. Their combination led to the creation of Squanchtendo, a brand new game studio, last year.

During their talk, Watson and Roiland issued very slight and minor teases about their next project. According to Watson, We have a long-form game, a traditional game length game that I cant talk too much about that we are in development on for VR, she said. But we would also love to make more of those dense, short-form experiences like Accounting as continued experiments.

Judging by the hilarity and innovative interactivity of Accounting, were putting our money on this larger game retaining that same sense of humor. In last years interview, they also alluded to their next project being something of a comedic-action RPG, but thats all we really know. It certainly sounds like it will no only be quite robust, but also likely just as witty and clever as wed expect.

But that may not have always been the case.

There was a period of time where I was going away from comedy and thinking about making a VR experience that was more eerie said Roiland. Even going down that road it kept going back to comedy for me. Im so drawn to absurd comedy I realized pretty quickly we shouldnt try to do that.

Accounting was released and marketed as a Vive-exclusive title, although it seems to work just fine when played with an Oculus Rift and Touch controllers through Steam. Designing the game with Vive in mind wasnt meant to anger non-Vive owners, but rather was meant to make the game as good as it can possibly be.

There is something to love about every piece of VR hardware, explained Roiland. My thought is, How can I use these constraints as a benefit, what can I do with these limitations? All of this stuff is in my sketchbooks: game design, stories, charactersWe have pitches that work for seated gamepad, some are designed for roomscale, there are some experiences that you cant port over properly.

Elaborating on that point, Watson said, Designing bespoke for a platform is important and taking advantage of what makes the platform special. How do you put the player in the world? Thats been the thing weve been approaching for all of our pitches. Making it more than just a screen on your face.

There are no tentative release plans for Squanchtendos next project, but well keep you posted as we find out more information. In the meantime, you can check out Accounting for free on Steam right now. And keep an eye out for more details on Owlchemys upcoming Rick and Morty VR game(teased above), built with feedback and input from Justin Roiland himself.

Tagged with: accounting, DICE, Justin Roiland, squanchtendo, tanya watson

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‘Agents of SHIELD’ recap: ‘Self Control’ – EW.com

Last weeks cliffhanger promised a coming stand-off between Fitz, Simmons, and a group of LMDs that replaced their team. Before we check back in on that, though, this episode begins with a look at those S.H.I.E.L.D. agents in their suspended animation, and then at the Superior himself. Anton Ivanov survived his battle with Daisy, but just barely. Hes now laid out on an operating table, where AIDA is getting ready to fix him. Ever the Darwinian eugenicist, he makes her promise not to mess with his mind or upload him to the Framework like the others. She agrees, but the changes she has in mind sound even more extreme than that. She soon picks up a chainsaw and fires it up.

Now we get a look at S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters, where Fitz and Simmons are figuring out how to interact with their newly replaced teammates (including the repaired Director Mace). Mack LMD wants to bring all Inhuman S.H.I.E.L.D. assets to base, presumably to kill them. He also suggests splitting up, but Fitz and Simmons insist on sticking together.

In Coulsons office, he and the resuscitated May LMD are talking about snow, leading May to realize that even though theyre both LMDs, theyre substantively different. Whereas the May LMD was ignorant about her true nature and only realized it gradually, Coulson knows hes a robot, and hes fine with it. Proselytizing for the Framework, he tells May its a place where you can wipe away your big regrets. His, for instance, was committing to the spy game in the first place, instead of pursuing a more normal civilian life. May LMD seems to consider picking Andrew over Phil one of her big regrets, and Coulson LMD tells her that in the Framework, they can be together.

As they go to the lab together, Fitz and Simmons realize that Radcliffe must have used the Deathlok eyes in the May LMD to study everyones biological data, enabling him to prepare their LMD bodies ahead of time and then switch them out during last weeks operation. Unfortunately, as they talk, FitzSimmons head through another LMD detector, and it goes off. Each naturally suspects the other of being the robot, but Simmons is the one who draws a gun. She insists that Fitz cut his wrist (non-lethally) to prove hes not a robot. He does so, but he starts tearing up and worrying that he accidentally severed a key artery. This gets Simmons to lower her guard, and Fitz attacks, revealing himself as the LMD. So much for that you and me against the world vibe they had going.

Fitzs LMD transformation is confirmed in the next sequence, which finds Radcliffe waking up from the Framework and glimpsing the real Fitz strapped in beside him. Hes mad at AIDA for waiting more than 24 hours to wake him up, but she says she didnt. Seems the Framework has a bit of time distortion going on. Combined with the fact that its hard to separate from the real world, Framework trips pose a real danger of losing oneself doubly so because AIDA has specifically rejiggered the Framework to take its inhabitants through their greatest regret. Radcliffe is opposed, but he spends most of his time these days in the Framework anyway. In his absence, AIDA is slowly asserting more authority and vision. Their conversation ends with AIDA off-handedly revealing the other S.H.I.E.L.D. member not yet in their possession, and its Daisy, not Fitz.

NEXT: Ka-me-ha-me-ha

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'Agents of SHIELD' recap: 'Self Control' - EW.com

Breakdown In Immigration Screening: The Devil Is In The Details – Daily Caller

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As the activist and their judges in the 9thCircuit Court wrestle with President Donald J. Trump over immigration and executive orders, one of the most dangerous mistakesconsistently being repeated by politicians and academics is still being overlooked. Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) with real, recent operational experience are not consulted and detailed solutions are rarely considered.

Perhaps this is best exposedwhen considering the immigration screening issue. Call them immigrants, refugees or asylum seekers. it really doesnt matter because there is a breakdown of epic proportions when it comes to fingerprinting immigration applicants and collecting data of any type in their country of origin and uploading and running that data through the Department of Defense (DOD) secured data basis that contains information on an unknown number of dangerous people that have been caught and released in a war zone, or people that may be associated with them.

Currently in the United States there arehundreds ofongoing investigations of individuals that have come to the US (some as long as 10 years ago) that were originally caught by the DOD in the Middle East making bombs, planting IEDs etc. The DOD fingerprinted these individualsbut that information was neverput in databases that are shared with State Department or Border patrol. Because remote locationswhere immigrants are submitting their applications for admission into the US oftendo not offer the technologyto scan fingerprints or upload data, individuals are not fingerprinted in places like Djibouti whereindividuals from Somalia get screened when they seek to immigrate to the US.

Even in the places where immigrantsare fingerprinted, those prints are not uploaded to databases fora total and complete scanof their history. Even phone numbers are not beingrun properly through DODdatabases during this process they go unknown as well. Yet many immigrants are still put on a plane by our State Department and sent to the US.

When these immigrantsdoarrive in the USit is ensured that they are fingerprinted, but in most cases thoseprintsand other important dataare still not ranthrough the classified DOD databases.Yet the process continues and they are processed and cleared to enter into the US from whatever holding facility in which they arrive.

Interestingly, the one time when the DOD systems can be accessed isntuntil years laterwhen immigrants approach ICE to get benefits. That is apparently when information is finallyranthrough the DOD system.

Now, hundreds of cases are being investigated involving immigrants that have been residing inside the US for long periods of time (in some cases over 10 years) that areconnected to bombings and other crimes from war zones the Middle East. Their information had been collected by DOD operators in the field, and uploaded to DOD databases with no plan to share with other agencies.

There are more details to this story butit is problematic in that no one really knows exactly what is screened and at what point and it is a problem that has largely been overlooked, even by the current administration.If President Trumps administration concentrated on these types of details that subject matter experts working on the ground understand, these gaps could be closed and our immigration security could take a huge leap forward.

As a former FBI special agent, my investigative mind tells me these issues will continue to plague immigration screening because so much attention is being placed on executive orders and hiring more Customs Officers and not on these types of simple solutions.

The Devil is always in the details, thats why simple issues always cause such massive problems. Dont believe me? Just ask someone that is working at the ground level, like the policy makers should be doing!

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Breakdown In Immigration Screening: The Devil Is In The Details - Daily Caller

Qualcomm and Intel reveal LTE modems with 1Gbps download speeds – Android Authority (blog)

Even as wireless carriers and smartphone makers hype up their plans to offer 5G speeds sometime in the future, the current 4G LTE technology continues to get refined and improved. Today, ahead of the 2017 Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona, Spain, chip rivals Qualcomm and Intel have both announced new LTE modems with support for faster network speeds.

November 24, 2016

The Qualcomm Snapdragon X20 LTE chipset is the 7th such product from the company to support LTE networks, and the second that uses itsGigabit LTE technology. According to Qualcomm, the modem can support download speeds up to1.2Gbps. It can achieve these kinds of speeds through the use of carrier aggregation, which allows a device with the modem to access as many as12 unique streams of data, each with speeds of up to100Mbps. Upload speeds with the Snapdragon X20, while not as fast as its download rates, are still pretty solid at up to 150Mbps.

Sounds good, doesnt it? However, there are a few things to keep in mind. The biggest one is that theSnapdragon X20 LTE chipset has just started sampling to phone makers, and they are not expected to be put inside new handsets until mid-2018. Another thing to keep in mind is that current LTE networks will likely not be able to handle 1.2Gbps speeds in the real world.

Intel is not sitting down and letting its big competitor have all the LTE fun today. The company also announced its new smartphone modem, the Intel XMM 7560, which is its 5th such product to support LTE networks. TheXMM 7560 is supposed to handle download speeds exceeding 1Gbps and upload speeds up to225Mbps. Like Qualcomms new modem, theIntel XMM 7560 also uses carrier aggregation to achieve these new speed records.

As with Qualcomms solution, the claimed speeds on Intels chips sound good but likely wont be able to be reproduced in the real world on current LTE networks. Intel says theXMM 7560 will start sampling to smartphone makers sometime in the first half of 2017. Once again, that means we wont likely see any devices with Intels hardware inside until sometime in 2018.

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Qualcomm and Intel reveal LTE modems with 1Gbps download speeds - Android Authority (blog)

The Rules To Getting Clients Online (Part 2) – Above the Law

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the first three rules to getting clients online. Here are a few more to help you get started.

Dont Flaunt Pointless Awards

I think I found a good lawyer to help us with our case that will shape the outcome of our lives. I hope hes Martindale Hubbell A/V rated, said no one ever. There are ratings that are important to the public, like having that big A in your window from the health department if you sell food. People know what that is. It also has a logical rating scale. Telling your potential clients that on a scale of 0 to best, you are AV means nothing. Lawyers are the only ones who know what an AV rating is, and not all of them. In fact, the same can be said for a lot of lawyer awards.

Im not saying dont mention your awards. Im saying dont mention them in a way that assumes your client base understands what it means and dont assume they appreciate the significance of the award. Dont just put in your bio A/V rated lawyer. That means nothing. Say received highest ranking for ethical and professional standards by one of the nations most prestigious attorney ranking systems or something.

Be Wary of False Awards

I routinely get letters in the mail from some form of national lawyer association telling me that out of the 1.2 million lawyers in the United States, I am in the top 30 of something and I just need to pay $5,000 to be listed in their magazine and website. I was flattered the first time I got one of those letters that a 4th year lawyer would be recognized in such a way. Then, I took 30 seconds to Google that organization and found out that it was a total scam. If I had paid the $5,000 to get that award and listed that on my website, imagine if a client saw that award and decided to google it. That would do more harm than good.

Claim Your Online Presence

Ive talked about having a robust social media presence too many times to count. For those of you with no social media presence at all, dont worry. You dont need to worry about investing lots of attorney time into all the snapchats and the twitters. You should, however, claim your Twitter, Facebook Business page, Avvo, and Yelp profiles. If your website says you are the best, but when I google you, I cant find any other information about you, Im going to be suspicious. Thats just how people shop around these days. They expect to find things about you online. Would you buy a TV on Amazon if it said it was the best, but had no reviews, while virtually every other TV has lots of reviews? That would make you suspicious that its maybe not the best TV like it claims. Fill out your basic contact info and upload a picture. Clients are much more likely to trust you enough to reach out to you if they know what you look like.

How often should you update your social media? As often as you can, but even if you dont update it, at least claim your pages. I would personally rather hire a lawyer with zero tweets than 45,000 tweets because I would need someone who could focus for most of the day and not chat online with their friends for an hour a day on Twitter.

Conclusion

Remember to always focus on your audience. How are they going to find you? What are they going to think when they do find you? Are they going to be impressed or bored and skeptical? Target your efforts to keep the audience in mind and youll do fine.

Jeff Bennion is a solo practitioner at theLaw Office of Jeff Bennion. He serves as a member of the Board of Directors of San Diegos plaintiffs trial lawyers association,Consumer Attorneys of San Diego. He is also the Education Chair and Executive Committee member of the State Bar of CaliforniasLaw Practice Management and Technologysection. He is a member of the Advisory Council and instructor at UCSDsLitigation Technology Managementprogram. His opinions are his own. Follow him on Twitterhereor on Facebookhere, or contact him by email atjeff@trial.technology.

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The Rules To Getting Clients Online (Part 2) - Above the Law

Optus Switches On 1Gbps 4.5G Network In Sydney – Lifehacker Australia

Macquarie Park in Sydney is the first suburb getting access to Optus' new 4.5G network that is capable of 1.03Gbps maximum theoretical download speeds. Here's everything you need to know.

Telstra was the first to launch a 4.5G network, dubbed 4GX, and now Optus is following suit. After testing out 4.5G technology and achieving 1.03Gbps speeds in tests, the first suburb to get a taste of the Optus 4.5G network is Macquarie Park, where the telco's headquarter is based.

According to Optus, there are 95,000 residents and 400 businesses in Macquarie Park that will be able to take advantage of the 4.5G network.

The network uses 4CC/5CC carrier aggregation, 4x4 MIMO and 256QAM technology. Huawei has helped Optus develop the 4.5G technology that is being rolled out.

Bear in mind that 1Gbps is the theoretical maximum; in reality, individual connected devices will only get a fraction of the speed. Factors that will determine speed include the device you're using and how many people are on the network;

Another thing to consider is only newer devices that support 4.5G will be able to enjoy a significant speed boost. Commercial devices that can support 1Gbps on the 4.5G network aren't even available yet; Optus said they will become available later this year. However, Optus network managing director Dennis Wong said that those who don't have 4.5G ready devices will still experience benefits:

Putting this new technology in Macquarie Park is not just about speed. Having this new technology in existing networks actually brings up capacity and performance by two to four times.

Even if you don't have the latest device, you can still enjoy capacity and performance Now we have an ecosystem, the kind of speed and bandwidth for innovators and partners to come and try to develop new technologies and services for our customers.

The plan is to rollout 4.5G in selected capital cities in the next 12 months; 4.5G is expected to reach over 70% of the Optus network in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide. There are currently 5600 4G mobile sites across Australia.

All this is part of Optus' strategy to eventually move onto a 5G network by 2020. The 3.5GHz spectrum has been harmonised as a 5G band and Optus has 90MHz of this. The company is continuing to look at using and acquiring spectrum.

Optus will also be starting trials of its massive MIMO 128T128R base station antenna technology which will significantly bolster speeds and provide around eight times more capacity, according to the telco.

Last month, Telstra announced it was now capable of delivering 1Gpbs download and 150Mbps upload speeds over its 4G LTE network. It teamed up with Netgear to launch a new mobile router, the Nighthawk M1, to let customers tap into those speeds.

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How much can a family living in a four-bedroom house save by using the Tesla Powerwall and good ol' solar power? The figure has come in at $2110.46 a year for the Pfitzner family. Here are the details.

As we've opined in the past, burritos are the perfect fast food. They're even more perfect than pizza (case in point. you can't wrap a pizza in foil and stick it in your jacket pocket.) This infographic from Fairmont Hotels breaks down everything you need to know about seven popular burrito styles - from their storied history to the ingredients you need to make your own.

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Optus Switches On 1Gbps 4.5G Network In Sydney - Lifehacker Australia