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Facebook's CEO Promotes "Group Living Rooms": What's Zuckerberg Really After?
Zuckerberg is promoting private rooms. What's the real reason?
Touting Facebook's new social network redesign, Mark Zuckerberg talked up digital 'living rooms' where people can have more revealing, intimate conversations.
MarketWatch writer Quentin Fottrell is more than a bit suspicious, and so am I. Please consider Facebook wants you to have more meaningful conversations, but that means giving up more valuable data.
Standing in front of a giant screen with the words, "The future is private," Zuckerberg said. However, privacy advocates and communications experts are skeptical about the site's redesign. While they agree that it's in Facebook's best interests to improve privacy, they also say that users won't be distracted by Facebook's logo and see the platform as more integrated into their desktop, while online groups will encourage them to reveal even more personal beliefs and details from their lives.
"There's something more at work here," says Adam Levin, founder of Scottsdale, Ariz.-based CyberScout, a global data and identity protection company. "By creating groups we will be doing Facebook's work for it. The more people who come together to talk about their interests — whether they're political, financial or religious — the more data Facebook can collect. There's nothing more delicious for Facebook than having people come into groups and talk."
Digital Living Room
Digital Living Room Cameras
People may be more likely to reveal illnesses, mental-health issues or even quirky or embarrassing hobbies, she said. This could be anything from men who like Mattel Barbie dolls and My Little Pony to Donald Trump supporters living in liberal enclaves that would be otherwise reluctant to share their political views, Kovacs North said. "Anything you think is private is public, and anything you think is temporary is permanent. Facebook aggregates data for advertisers, but other people can simply take a screenshot," she added.
Zuckerberg disagrees of course.
I have little use for Facebook. I was very concerned about privacy issues long before Facebook privacy issues became the talk of the town, and rightly so.
As long as you are comfortable sharing your personal data with advertisers, whether or not Zuckerberg proclaims he won't, then who am I to disagree?
Otherwise Adam Levin hits the nail on the head:
"We're about to enter the most hotly contested presidential election in modern history. Imagine the data Facebook can acquire from group chats. They give Facebook an opportunity to virtually eavesdrop. Mark Zuckerberg wants you to think that it's all about you. And it is. But not exactly in the way that you think."


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HomePosts tagged 'Memoir'
Running, Swimming: Me and Murakami
May 17, 2019 May 20, 2019 wadholloway Asia, Literature	Book Review, Memoir, Murakami, Rottnest Channel Swim, Swimming
This is a book about which many of you have expressed positive feelings, not just because Murakami is a great writer – though that is not so much in evidence here – but because his dedication to running strikes a chord. I'm not a runner and unlike Murakami, I enjoyed team sports, playing football, hockey, cricket, baseball and basketball in my last year at school (none of them well!), but I am (or was) a competitive swimmer, both at school and for more than twenty years from my late thirties.
If you have read his first two works (Wind/Pinball) you will probably be aware that in his twenties Murakami ran a jazz bar, until he had an epiphany at a baseball game and decided that he should be a writer. Shortly after, he decided that he should also be a runner.
I started running in the fall of 1982 and have been running since then for nearly twenty-three years. Over this period I've jogged almost every day, run in at least one marathon every year – twenty-three up till now – and participated in more long distance races all around the world than I care to count.
I resumed swimming because I was taking my kids to Nunawading pool for lessons and, well, because I still thought of myself as a swimmer despite 20 years out of the water. Started with 8 (50m) laps on Saturdays and it grew. I joined the Nunawading adult squad, under my old club mate and later Olympic coach Leigh Nugent, for 3 morning sessions of 3km each per week and was soon a member of Doncaster AUSSI masters club, training with them some evenings and competing at weekends.
Two or three years ago in a review WG, I think, was talking about elite sportsmen being winners, but by definition most of the people in any competition don't win. Of course they're often very good, but what motivates them, what motivates Murakami, what motivates me, is the race against an internal standard, to do the very best of which you are capable.
Marathon runners will understand what I mean. we don't really care whether we beat any other particular runner. World-class runners, of course, want to outdo their closest rivals, but for your average, everyday runner individual rivalry isn't a major issue.
I'm much more interested in whether I reach the goals that I set for myself.
Early on, while AUSSI sets a whole heap of tasks, like five 400m and five 800m butterfly swims per year, my personal objective was in the freestyle sprint, to get my 50m time below 30 sec. Sadly, my best recorded time is 30.01. If only the timekeepers had pressed their stopwatches 2 one hundredths of a second earlier, I would have been able to boast 29 point something.
… the hour or so I spend running, maintaining my own, silent, private time, is important to help me keep my mental well-being. When I'm running I don't have to talk to anybody and don't have to listen to anybody… I'm often asked what I think about as I run. Usually the people who ask this have never run long distances themselves. I always ponder the question. What exactly do I think about when I am running? I don't have a clue.
A 3km swim training set is about an hour too. This is what I think about "cold, god it's cold, and wet. 1." Over I go, heading the other way, "1, that was 1, 1, 1. 2" Over I go, heading the other way. "2 … 2, don't forget, 2" and so on to 20, 40, 100. If I think about anything else, then I do forget, and must try and recall which number I was chanting last.
As well as his philosophy of running, Murakami discusses in detail his preparation for and running of, three or four emblematic races, including a run early in his career, uphill! from Athens to Marathon.
Looking back at my running log, I think I've been able to prepare for the race [a Boston marathon] at a decent pace:
June 156 miles
July 186 miles
Aug. 217 miles
Sept 186 miles
The log forms a nice pyramid. The weekly distance averages out in June to thirty-six miles, then forty-three miles, then fifty, then back to forty-three.
The marathon of Australian swimming is the Rottnest Channel Crossing, from Cottesloe beach to Rottnest Island, a distance of 19.6 kms across the Fremantle shipping channel.
2015. Cottesloe, pre-dawn start
When I moved back to Perth in 2002 my swimming was already dropping back from the peaks I – like Murakami – had achieved in my mid 40s, and anyway trucking was cutting into my opportunities for training. I joined my local AUSSI club, and in 2005 did a Rotto swim in a 4 person relay. Lots of fun and a really luxurious cabin cruiser as our support boat, but I didn't have the money or the contacts to organize the support team for a solo. And it was another ten years, and I was well into my 60s, before the opportunity came up. O'Neal, one of my 2005 relay partners, offered to train with and coach me, O'Neal's husband Ben agreed to kayak alongside me – a decision he both regretted and repeated on two more occasions – a mate had a boat, I hired accommodation on the island for the weekend, we were all set. All I had to do was train.
I swam between and during trips (at Port Hedland), sets of three, five and seven thousand metres three, four times a week, building not in Murakami's smooth pyramid, but building nevertheless through ten, fifteen, twenty kilometres a week over the second half of 2014, peaking at twenty five in January then tapering to the swim in late Feb.
During January there were three 10 km races, completion (within four hours I think) of any one of which was required as a qualifying swim. I made a mess of the first, missing one of the bouys – I actually don't like ocean swimming very much, and my stroke is not suited to it. But I aced the second, on the shallow, muddy rowing course at Champion Lakes.
On the day I was up at 4.00, round to O'Neal's and down to Cottosloe. Launch kayak, grease swimmer (Gee's job, then she raced off to get the kids and her sister and catch the ferry to see me finish). At 6.00 we're off, high-stepping into the freezing water, dive, stumble, dive, settle into a stroke amidst the kicking of a hundred others, out to the first marker, look for Ben's bright blue wig (he feels like a git, but he has to be recognisable) we meet and settle down for the long haul. I am at the 10 km mark in a bit over 3 hours, aiming to finish in 7.
Then it all goes to shit. The boat skipper has aimed us straight at the island, but the current in the shipping channel is sweeping strongly out to sea. I spend an hour swimming back to the line, making almost no progress. I'm ill, I want to get out. What am I thinking? I'm thinking that if I stop moving my arms I will sink straight down. The support boat pulls alongside and they all shout at me to keep going. In the end O'Neal passes me a sea-sickness pill and I promise to do one more kilometre. They lie to me about which mark I'm up to. Slowly I come good. At ten hours and ten minutes I struggle up on to the beach. Gee and Psyche wrap me in towels and escort me to a shower and then to a gin and tonic. I think Psyche thought she was going to lose me. We party quietly into the night. Ben goes to bed early, his back agony after 10 hours of slow paddling.
And how was my time? Truth be told, not so great. At least, not as good as I'd secretly been hoping for. If possible, I was hoping to be able to wind up this book with a powerful statement like, "Thanks to all the great training I did I was able to post a great time at the New York City marathon [2005]. When I finished I was really moved."
2016. Rottnest Is. finish line
The following year O'Neal and I kept training, though without the same determination, and we did Rotto as a duo, following a perfect line and finishing in 7 hours 20 min. In 2017 I fronted up again solo, but hadn't put in the training. Again we got caught in the channel, and by the 17 km mark I wasn't going to make the cut-off and the officials called time. I love the idea of doing another but I haven't swum since.
If you haven't read this already don't be misled by my 'review'. In the course of this memoir of his life as a runner Murakami talks constantly about whole heaps of things. What I Talk About When I Talk About Running is an important insight into an important writer.
Haruki Murakami, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, Vintage, 2009. Translated by the author.
Liz Dexter's reviews (here) and (here)
Sue/Whispering Gums (here)
My Father was Busy
September 7, 2018 September 10, 2018 wadholloway Australian, Journal	Fathers and sons, Memoir
Photo 1951, DC Holloway (Box Brownie)
My father was busy and I'm still angry. Tedious I know, Milly and the kids make that clear! And let's not discuss how busy I was for them. Busy, Busy.
Mum was a 17 year old farm girl, a pupil teacher when Dad came to town, tall, ex-Melbourne High, ex-Navy, city boy, confident (and competent) teacher but pathologically un-social. His mother, a Luya from Brisbane, had pretensions of class. Her son spent his life in her shadow. He needed a wife he could train up, no challenges, a farm girl.
Granddad, mum's dad, made him get his truck licence so he could help with the harvest, driving the old ex-Army 7 ton Inter, overloaded with wheat to the top of the bin, to Boigbeat silo. He could never in his life call Granddad 'Dad' or even 'Fred'. I heard Granddad tell him off about it and he skulked back to his room, his books while his sons crammed into the ute, the cab of the truck, drove tractors, chased sheep, sewed up bagged wheat, grew into hybrid farm boys town boys that he only ever imperfectly understood.
In May the year after they met, Mum barely 18, they were in Healesville 250 miles from Sea Lake, waiting apparently for permission to marry. It's never discussed, would never have come up except Mum's younger brother, then still a baby, told me over a beer years later that guys in the Berriwillock pub still asked him why Mum and Dad ran away together. Dad said he was offered a married position at a school at the other end of the state. Mum says nothing.
I came along 10 months later.
It wouldn't be fair to say Dad wasn't involved. We always went for Sunday drives, often quite long ones, Wilsons Prom from Leongatha and a few years later when we still had the FJ, from Murrayville to Nhill after church, 80 miles of sand through the Big Desert. We got bogged 3 times and it took till after midnight to get home, the long way through Ouyen.
Dad and Mum were both strict and handy with a stick. I cried at the time but being belted never did me any harm. Dad took to me with a piece of dowell once for saying 'pooh' when Mum told me to do something and I went to school (his school) with blue stripes across the back of my legs. He said he wouldn't hit me after I started high school, but once when I was 12 or 13 his parents were staying and I woke them up fighting with B2 whose room I had been forced to share. He was furious, dragged me to his office – our house was in the school grounds – and began laying into me with the strap, hands and legs until he was worn out.
The big problem was I was bright, brighter than he was, and he didn't know how to deal with it, thought the solution, the least amount of effort for him, would be discipline and an average education. He taught me chess and I beat him, and his father, in primary school. That was the end of chess.
I had sport, I had scouts, I had books. I had a bike. We lived in country towns so as long as I was home for tea, out of sight, out of mind. In 1966 Mr Fast-Track needed to complete his BA to become an Inspector so we bought a 3 br brick house in a new development in Blackburn South (Melbourne). I fought to maintain my country freedoms, he was too preoccupied to fight back. But nights were out of the question. Even at 17 bedtime school nights was 9.00.
He got his promotion, we moved to Mudsville. My english teacher at Blackie South High – you notice that selective Melbourne High, his alma mater, was never considered, nor even mentioned – offered to board me but Mudsville High was good enough and I spent the last year and a half of my schooling with the mud-minds.
Dad was a shocking 1950s husband, made all the rules, was very Mr Bennet with Mum, and yes that rubbed off on me, would shrug off any attempt at affection. I thought after he retired, began doing housework and making speeches about how lucky he was to meet Mum etc, etc. that Mum, who like many fiftyish women grew into mature self-confidence, might have given him an ultimatum, but she says not.
I don't forget Dad dinking me to school on his bike when Mum was in Leongatha hospital having B3 and B4, or piggybacking me home at Murrayville when I was crook. B2 who had him in grade 6 says that when he played up Dad would take him into the office next door and give the desk a resounding 6 cuts with the strap. I don't forget the driving lessons he gave me in the bush when I was barely a teenager, or that when I came home drunk from a Saturday night dance in 6th form he just sent me to bed with some newspaper (he always waited up and would sometimes drive into town to search for me if I wasn't home by midnight), nor do I forget the huge financial strain of giving me a year, and potentially four years, in Trinity College.
I don't forget that I got my high school girlfriend pregnant, that I failed first year Engineering.
And no, I'm not bitter about his opposition to my politics, to the Moratorium, to my non-compliance with the Draft Laws. A bit annoyed that he advised the Federal Police who had warrants for my arrest where they could find me in Brisbane but Mum let me know and the Young Bride and I moved on to Nambour.
He always came across when I asked for money. His first thought when I told him and Mum that I was leaving Milly was for the kids, particularly Psyche who was in a more difficult position than the younger two. In later years, even before his retirement, he tried very hard but it was never enough.
(If you noticed the Journal No., I wrote this some time ago but held off publishing it, so it's out of sequence. Earlier Journal posts may be accessed from the Journals page above.)
Photo: Dad's car appears to be a 1930s (so, older than Mum) Chevrolet Series AD Universal (wiki)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Feria - Mobile design system for Sketch is developed around Sketch nested symbols to bring you a leading edge mobile Design System. Use it as boilerplate on every app to speed up your workflow by hundreds of hours, making you infinitely more efficient and consistent.
Let's talk about baking for a moment. With all the ingredients for pancakes, you could also choose to make cupcakes, a birthday cake or even a wedding cake.
The Atomic Design methodology is based on a "system" of building blocks that are basically everything that goes into making a page, design or visual. These tiny pieces can be mixed and matched however you like to design endless variations for your project the same way ingredients can be flexibly customized to create whatever you feel like baking. Simple, right?
Design Systems give you the power to handle design at scale. Crafted on atomic design methodology principles, they are a tool to simplify the ways your team designs and builds projects. Design Systems are atomic design methodology objectified.
Sketch is full of techniques and features to make building a design system infinitely simple. Actually, Sketch is the BEST way to take your design system to the next level.
For those of you interested in finding out more about how nested symbols and symbol overrides help you do this, we have a new blog post in progress that should be ready soon. Make sure you subscribe so we can send you this the second it's ready!
Feria Design System follows Atomic Design principles, we've made sure there are infinite ways to modify, customize and adapt your designs with this incredible design system.
In the same way that everything in nature is created from smaller building blocks, atomic design is made up of five levels.
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Because Symbols, Shared Styles and Text styles that go into Sketch can be seen as Atoms, Sketch is the perfect app for you to apply atomic design standards to your work.
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Q: Are the ladies real in Charming Brides? What are they like?
CharmingBrides: Yes, they all are real. CharmingBrides staff personally interviews every lady that wants to join our agency. We check her marital status and check her name in various black lists. We constantly check our database and remove the profiles of the ladies who are not interested and not available.
Allan Smith: Indeed the Ladies are real. I have met quite a few of them at the office on my many visits to Kharkov.
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CharmingBrides: It's a mistake to think that Ukrainian ladies prefer men much older than they. For Ukrainian ladies the normal age gap is not more than 15-17 years. Though it is very individual. Psychologists advise to people to find the partner from one mental group, from one generation.
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Q: What is the best way to write an introduction letter to a Russian woman?
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Q: How can I see lady's profile?
A: To have full access to all ladies' profiles you have to register at our website. Registration is free of charge and very simple, it won't take you more than 5 minutes.
A: Ladies who join our agency or who are already our members have full access to all men's profiles registered at our agency. So don't be surprised when a pretty lady will write you first. Note that if you attach a photo to your profile it will attract more girls' attention.
Q: How can I contact a lady?
A: When you have chosen a lady you like just click "E-mail" at the bottom of her profile and follow the tips, that's as easy as 1-2-3.
Q: How can I send a photo to the lady?
A: Just attach the photo to your letter with the help of button "Browse" under the letter body and choose an appropriate payment.
A: You may pay through PayPal system, if for some reason you can't use PayPal you may use Western Union to transfer money. Contact our manager for more information.
Q: How can I change the orders I've made?
A: If you'd like to remove an order from you basket before you paid, just put a tick in the column "Remove" near the product and click "Update".
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A: You are welcome to choose one of the services - "Phone conversation" or "Videochat" from the list of services, and our manager will help you to agree the time with the lady.
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I know a lot of you tech geeks like to tinker. Here's a $35 fully functional PC (Model B) that you can stash just about anywhere. I'm hoping someone puts one (or two) in a Riv. Possibilities are endless!
We have dudes at work in the lab experimenting with this all the time! Super cool stuff!
Arduino can be programmed to do things like activate circuits based from inputs based on C/C++ program language. It uses PWM outputs to control levels or flash rates. I could see a board like this thing doing some cool things in a car.
Kind of makes me want to pull out the old soldering iron!
Ive seen dudes with 3D printers using Arduinos to make flying drones and other cool things.
Cool stuff. So many cool hobbies to do but so little time.. fuggin work.. Gotta sell my time to have a place to sleep and food to eat. Gotta find a way out..
A lot of people are using Adruinos for stuff like LED text displays. Nothing high-def or anything but just your basic stuff like scrolling text. If anyone watches the Tested YouTube channel they mention them frequently and show different things being done with them. One guy had a Daft Punk helmet being controlled by one. It was sweet.
I've got 3 Arduino Minis in route. Thinking about starting a new hobby.
Dang, why 3? any plans for them? or just going to tinker?
Just tinkering at first, then may create my first custom GTO electron-mod.
I posted something in this topic on my local forum since there's lots of people that have ls1's and stuff so I was mostly looking for answers about exactly what their rpm signal looked like.
I've come up with a little project to hopefully improve upon my nitrous system. I have an idea that I feel aught to be doable but there's a few things I'm not familiar enough with. I'm gonna try to be as concise as I can.
I'm using a Harris Speed Works "the interface" controller to give me the fueling for nitrous through the maf signal. It works brilliantly but it's lacking one feature that I'd like to try to integrate and that is compensation for bottle pressure since it decreases during a run and makes me progressively richer and thus slower as I go down the strip.
One feature of this controller (that I do not use or ever plan to use for it's intended purpose is the rpm-based enrichment function which taps into your rpm lead and richens the result maf adjustment up to a preset amount. The manual for the controller says it will adjust up to 8000rpm and can be set as high as 15%. Based off my rough calculations, 15% is enough to give me bottle pressure fueling compensation for a range of about 150psi which would help with the degrading pressure issue while I'm spraying. More would be nice but that's enough for the trouble I think.
So the controller is looking for an LS1/2/3/6 rpm signal - I want to take a standard 0-5v nitrous pressure sender and digitally translate that into a made-up rpm signal. I'm figuring I'd need some kind of programmable micro-controller/programmable IC type deal to input the voltage curve and give me an rpm signal and then tune the ranges such that it works for my nitrous controller. I don't know exactly what my controller does as far as the relation between rpm and the preset fuel adjustment percentage but I could test and figure that out by plotting its output vs rpm after I have a way to do that.
So where I'm left with some questions is does anyone know exactly what the rpm lead for my nitrous controller is looking for from an electrical standpoint? In other words, I don't really know what an rpm or tach signal is in this case (it's meant for an LS1,LS2,etc btw). Secondly, I'm not as much of a geek as I wish I was - what can I use to do this whole digital I/O conversion?
If anyone has any other totally different ideas about how I could accomplish this blast away!
I'm not that familiar with what sorts of signals these controllers are able to output. I don't think the 0-5vdc input would be any trouble but can they put out the high frequency of an rpm signal? I vaguely remember when I was trying to research the construction of an LS1 rpm signal that it's around 9v-12v peak square wave frequency. Some guy on the internet says 60hz=1900rpm. Some other guy says 2pulses/rev (LS1). Either way I can figure that out but I don't actually know whether or not the controller is able to generate a 10v frequency like that to convince my nitrous-maf controller it's actually an LS1 rpm signal.
The Arduino Mini controller can accept up to a 12v input up to 40mA; output is 5v up to 40mA per pin. The idea here is to use a switching transistor or small relay for higher volt/current output.
I'll try to get something concrete on what the full range of the rpm signal I need to create is and go from there. But we do know I'll need a transistor for the output side (unless my nitrous controller is really forgiving about voltage). If I do run a transistor, I'd have to make sure it can cycle fast enough. I'm guessing any relay is out of the question speed-wise. I'm thinking if one output channel on the logic controller isn't enough, I could have multiple outputs/transistors alternate triggoring from the same input line which would give me 1x more total pulses each additional channel. obviously the processor is fast enough at 16mhz.
Every transistor I've seen has a switching spec in the MHz range, so I wouldn't worry about that. Solid state is fast, fast, fast. These are the devices in audio amps that create sine waves up to 100Hz without distortion.
The 16MHz is the processor speed. I haven't confirmed the output switching speed, but I think it would be plenty fast enough. I'll let you know if I find any more info. What kind of switching frequency are you looking for top end?
AA, what are you using the Arduino for?
I built a lane change feature for the GTO. A brief nudge of the turn signal stalk will cause a 3 flash burst in that direction. Haven't actually installed it on the car, but in bench testing it works. Programmable to 2, 3 or 4 flashes.
Next project will be an auto TC-off circuit, which will activate when the engine starts. A toggle switch would activate/deactivate. This one could be used in the Riv as well.
You can disable the TC light from the left side of dash. Just poke a finger in there and rotate the bulb.
All GTOs have TC. Honestly it's useful on the rain. You'd have to be absolutely insane to drive on snow without it. M6 even has a shift lockout to make you shift from 1st to 4th under 2500 RPM. Glad that's gone.
simple tune on my gto with a hptuner setup and my CAGS was gone. My Brother is a geek with the raspberry could the raspberry be programmed as a progressive controller for NO2 based on map psi and TPS signals?


text:
template <class T> class CMatrix;
template <class T> class CTensor;

template <class T>
class CVector {
public:
  // constructor
  inline CVector();
  // constructor
  inline CVector(const int aSize);
  // copy constructor
  CVector(const CVector<T>& aCopyFrom);
  // constructor (from array)
  CVector(const T* aPointer, const int aSize);
  // constructor with implicit filling
  CVector(const int aSize, const T aFillValue);
  // destructor
  virtual ~CVector();

  // Changes the size of the vector (data is lost)
  void setSize(int aSize);
  // Fills the vector with the specified value (see also operator=)
  void fill(const T aValue);
  // Appends the values of another vector
  void append(CVector<T>& aVector);
  // Normalizes the length of the vector to 1
  void normalize();
  // Normalizes the component sum to 1
  void normalizeSum();
  // Reads values from a text file
  void readFromTXT(const char* aFilename);
  // Writes values to a text file
  void writeToTXT(char* aFilename);
  // Returns the sum of all values
  T sum();
  // Returns the minimum value
  T min();
  // Returns the maximum value
  T max();
  // Returns the Euclidean norm
  T norm();

  // Converts vector to homogeneous coordinates, i.e., all components are divided by last component
  CVector<T>& homogen();
  // Remove the last component
  inline void homogen_nD();
  // Computes the cross product between this vector and aVector
  void cross(CVector<T>& aVector);

  // Gives full access to the vector's values
  inline T& operator()(const int aIndex) const;
  inline T& operator[](const int aIndex) const;
  // Fills the vector with the specified value (equivalent to fill)
  inline CVector<T>& operator=(const T aValue);
  // Copies a vector into this vector (size might change)
  CVector<T>& operator=(const CVector<T>& aCopyFrom);
  // Copies values from a matrix to the vector (size might change)
  CVector<T>& operator=(const CMatrix<T>& aCopyFrom);
  // Copies values from a tensor to the vector (size might change)
  CVector<T>& operator=(const CTensor<T>& aCopyFrom);
  // Adds another vector
  CVector<T>& operator+=(const CVector<T>& aVector);
  // Substracts another vector
  CVector<T>& operator-=(const CVector<T>& aVector);
  // Multiplies the vector with a scalar
  CVector<T>& operator*=(const T aValue);
  // Scalar product
  T operator*=(const CVector<T>& aVector);
  // Checks (non-)equivalence to another vector
  bool operator==(const CVector<T>& aVector);
  inline bool operator!=(const CVector<T>& aVector);

  // Gives access to the vector's size
  inline int size() const;
  // Gives access to the internal data representation
  inline T* data() const {return mData;}
protected:
  int mSize;
  T* mData;
};

// Adds two vectors
template <class T> CVector<T> operator+(const CVector<T>& vec1, const CVector<T>& vec2);
// Substracts two vectors
template <class T> CVector<T> operator-(const CVector<T>& vec1, const CVector<T>& vec2);
// Multiplies vector with a scalar
template <class T> CVector<T> operator*(const CVector<T>& aVector, const T aValue);
template <class T> CVector<T> operator*(const T aValue, const CVector<T>& aVector);
// Computes the scalar product of two vectors
template <class T> T operator*(const CVector<T>& vec1, const CVector<T>& vec2);
// Computes cross product of two vectors
template <class T> CVector<T> operator/(const CVector<T>& vec1, const CVector<T>& vec2);
// Sends the vector to an output stream
template <class T> std::ostream& operator<<(std::ostream& aStream, const CVector<T>& aVector);

// Exceptions thrown by CVector--------------------------------------------

// Thrown if one tries to access an element of a vector which is out of
// the vector's bounds
struct EVectorRangeOverflow {
  EVectorRangeOverflow(const int aIndex) {
    using namespace std;
    cerr << "Exception EVectorRangeOverflow: Index = " << aIndex << endl;
  }
};

struct EVectorIncompatibleSize {
  EVectorIncompatibleSize(int aSize1, int aSize2) {
    using namespace std;
    cerr << "Exception EVectorIncompatibleSize: " << aSize1 << " <> " << aSize2 << endl;
  }
};

// I M P L E M E N T A T I O N --------------------------------------------
//
// You might wonder why there is implementation code in a header file.
// The reason is that not all C++ compilers yet manage separate compilation
// of templates. Inline functions cannot be compiled separately anyway.
// So in this case the whole implementation code is added to the header
// file.
// Users of CVector should ignore everything that's beyond this line.
// ------------------------------------------------------------------------

// P U B L I C ------------------------------------------------------------
// constructor
template <class T>
inline CVector<T>::CVector() : mSize(0) {
  mData = new T[0];
}

// constructor
template <class T>
inline CVector<T>::CVector(const int aSize)
  : mSize(aSize) {
  mData = new T[aSize];
}

// copy constructor
template <class T>
CVector<T>::CVector(const CVector<T>& aCopyFrom)
  : mSize(aCopyFrom.mSize) {
  mData = new T[mSize];
  for (int i = 0; i < mSize; i++)
    mData[i] = aCopyFrom.mData[i];
}

// constructor (from array)
template <class T>
CVector<T>::CVector(const T* aPointer, const int aSize)
  : mSize(aSize) {
  mData = new T[mSize];
  for (int i = 0; i < mSize; i++)
    mData[i] = aPointer[i];
}

// constructor with implicit filling
template <class T>
CVector<T>::CVector(const int aSize, const T aFillValue)
  : mSize(aSize) {
  mData = new T[aSize];
  fill(aFillValue);
}

// destructor
template <class T>
CVector<T>::~CVector() {
  delete[] mData;
}

// setSize
template <class T>
void CVector<T>::setSize(int aSize) {
  if (mData != 0) delete[] mData;
  mData = new T[aSize];
  mSize = aSize;
}

// fill
template <class T>
void CVector<T>::fill(const T aValue) {
  for (register int i = 0; i < mSize; i++)
    mData[i] = aValue;
}

// append
template <class T>
void CVector<T>::append(CVector<T>& aVector) {
  T* aNewData = new T[mSize+aVector.size()];
  for (int i = 0; i < mSize; i++)
    aNewData[i] = mData[i];
  for (int i = 0; i < aVector.size(); i++)
    aNewData[i+mSize] = aVector(i);
  mSize += aVector.size();
  delete[] mData;
  mData = aNewData;
}

// normalize
template <class T>
void CVector<T>::normalize() {
  T aSum = 0;
  for (register int i = 0; i < mSize; i++)
    aSum += mData[i]*mData[i];
  if (aSum == 0) return;
  aSum = 1.0/sqrt(aSum);
  for (register int i = 0; i < mSize; i++)
    mData[i] *= aSum;
}

// normalizeSum
template <class T>
void CVector<T>::normalizeSum() {
  T aSum = 0;
  for (register int i = 0; i < mSize; i++)
    aSum += mData[i];
  if (aSum == 0) return;
  aSum = 1.0/aSum;
  for (register int i = 0; i < mSize; i++)
    mData[i] *= aSum;
}

// readFromTXT
template<class T>
void CVector<T>::readFromTXT(const char* aFilename) {
  std::ifstream aStream(aFilename);
  mSize = 0;
  float aDummy;
  while (!aStream.eof()) {
    aStream >> aDummy;
    mSize++;
  }
  aStream.close();
  std::ifstream aStream2(aFilename);
  delete mData;
  mData = new T[mSize];
  for (int i = 0; i < mSize; i++)
    aStream2 >> mData[i];
}

// writeToTXT
template<class T>
void CVector<T>::writeToTXT(char* aFilename) {
  std::ofstream aStream(aFilename);
  for (int i = 0; i < mSize; i++)
    aStream << mData[i] << std::endl;
}

// sum
template <class T>
T CVector<T>::sum() {
  T val = mData[0];
  for (int i = 1; i < mSize; i++)
    val += mData[i];
  return val;
}

// min
template <class T>
T CVector<T>::min() {
  T bestValue = mData[0];
  for (int i = 1; i < mSize; i++)
    if (mData[i] < bestValue) bestValue = mData[i];
  return bestValue;
}

// max
template <class T>
T CVector<T>::max() {
  T bestValue = mData[0];
  for (int i = 1; i < mSize; i++)
    if (mData[i] > bestValue) bestValue = mData[i];
  return bestValue;
}

// norm
template <class T>
T CVector<T>::norm() {
  T aSum = 0.0;
  for (int i = 0; i < mSize; i++)
    aSum += mData[i]*mData[i];
  return sqrt(aSum);
}

// homogen
template <class T>
CVector<T>& CVector<T>::homogen() {
  if (mSize > 1 && mData[mSize-1] != 0) {
    T invVal = 1.0/mData[mSize-1];
  	for (int i = 0; i < mSize; i++)
      mData[i] *= invVal;
  }
  return (*this);
}

// homogen_nD
template <class T>
inline void CVector<T>::homogen_nD() {
  mSize--;
}

// cross
template <class T>
void CVector<T>::cross(CVector<T>& aVector) {
  T aHelp0 = aVector(2)*mData[1] - aVector(1)*mData[2];
  T aHelp1 = aVector(0)*mData[2] - aVector(2)*mData[0];
  T aHelp2 = aVector(1)*mData[0] - aVector(0)*mData[1];
  mData[0] = aHelp0;
  mData[1] = aHelp1;
  mData[2] = aHelp2;
}

// operator()
template <class T>
inline T& CVector<T>::operator()(const int aIndex) const {
  #ifdef _DEBUG
    if (aIndex >= mSize || aIndex < 0)
      throw EVectorRangeOverflow(aIndex);
  #endif
  return mData[aIndex];
}

// operator[]
template <class T>
inline T& CVector<T>::operator[](const int aIndex) const {
  return operator()(aIndex);
}

// operator=
template <class T>
inline CVector<T>& CVector<T>::operator=(const T aValue) {
  fill(aValue);
  return *this;
}

template <class T>
CVector<T>& CVector<T>::operator=(const CVector<T>& aCopyFrom) {
  if (this != &aCopyFrom) {
    if (mSize != aCopyFrom.size()) {
      delete[] mData;
      mSize = aCopyFrom.size();
      mData = new T[mSize];
    }
    for (register int i = 0; i < mSize; i++)
      mData[i] = aCopyFrom.mData[i];
  }
  return *this;
}

template <class T>
CVector<T>& CVector<T>::operator=(const CMatrix<T>& aCopyFrom) {
  if (mSize != aCopyFrom.size()) {
    delete[] mData;
    mSize = aCopyFrom.size();
    mData = new T[mSize];
  }
  for (register int i = 0; i < mSize; i++)
    mData[i] = aCopyFrom.data()[i];
  return *this;
}

template <class T>
CVector<T>& CVector<T>::operator=(const CTensor<T>& aCopyFrom) {
  if (mSize != aCopyFrom.size()) {
    delete[] mData;
    mSize = aCopyFrom.size();
    mData = new T[mSize];
  }
  for (register int i = 0; i < mSize; i++)
    mData[i] = aCopyFrom.data()[i];
  return *this;
}

// operator +=
template <class T>
CVector<T>& CVector<T>::operator+=(const CVector<T>& aVector) {
  #ifdef _DEBUG
  if (mSize != aVector.size()) throw EVectorIncompatibleSize(mSize,aVector.size());
  #endif
  for (int i = 0; i < mSize; i++)
    mData[i] += aVector(i);
  return *this;
}

// operator -=
template <class T>
CVector<T>& CVector<T>::operator-=(const CVector<T>& aVector) {
  #ifdef _DEBUG
  if (mSize != aVector.size()) throw EVectorIncompatibleSize(mSize,aVector.size());
  #endif
  for (int i = 0; i < mSize; i++)
    mData[i] -= aVector(i);
  return *this;
}

// operator *=
template <class T>
CVector<T>& CVector<T>::operator*=(const T aValue) {
  for (int i = 0; i < mSize; i++)
    mData[i] *= aValue;
  return *this;
}

template <class T>
T CVector<T>::operator*=(const CVector<T>& aVector) {
  #ifdef _DEBUG
  if (mSize != aVector.size()) throw EVectorIncompatibleSize(mSize,aVector.size());
  #endif
  T aSum = 0.0;
  for (int i = 0; i < mSize; i++)
    aSum += mData[i]*aVector(i);
  return aSum;
}

// operator ==
template <class T>
bool CVector<T>::operator==(const CVector<T>& aVector) {
  if (mSize != aVector.size()) return false;
  int i = 0;
  while (i < mSize && aVector(i) == mData[i])
    i++;
  return (i == mSize);
}

// operator !=
template <class T>
inline bool CVector<T>::operator!=(const CVector<T>& aVector) {
  return !((*this)==aVector);
}

// size
template <class T>
inline int CVector<T>::size() const {
  return mSize;
}

// N O N - M E M B E R   F U N C T I O N S -------------------------------------

// operator +
template <class T>
CVector<T> operator+(const CVector<T>& vec1, const CVector<T>& vec2) {
  #ifdef _DEBUG
  if (vec1.size() != vec2.size()) throw EVectorIncompatibleSize(vec1.size(),vec2.size());
  #endif
  CVector<T> result(vec1.size());
  for (int i = 0; i < vec1.size(); i++)
    result(i) = vec1[i]+vec2[i];
  return result;
}

// operator -
template <class T>
CVector<T> operator-(const CVector<T>& vec1, const CVector<T>& vec2) {
  #ifdef _DEBUG
  if (vec1.size() != vec2.size()) throw EVectorIncompatibleSize(vec1.size(),vec2.size());
  #endif
  CVector<T> result(vec1.size());
  for (int i = 0; i < vec1.size(); i++)
    result(i) = vec1(i)-vec2(i);
  return result;
}

// operator *
template <class T>
CVector<T> operator*(const T aValue, const CVector<T>& aVector) {
  CVector<T> result(aVector.size());
  for (int i = 0; i < aVector.size(); i++)
    result(i) = aValue*aVector(i);
  return result;
}

template <class T>
CVector<T> operator*(const CVector<T>& aVector, const T aValue) {
  return operator*(aValue,aVector);
}

template <class T>
T operator*(const CVector<T>& vec1, const CVector<T>& vec2) {
  #ifdef _DEBUG
  if (vec1.size() != vec2.size()) throw EVectorIncompatibleSize(vec1.size(),vec2.size());
  #endif
  T aSum = 0.0;
  for (int i = 0; i < vec1.size(); i++)
    aSum += vec1(i)*vec2(i);
  return aSum;
}

// operator /
template <class T>
CVector<T> operator/(const CVector<T>& vec1, const CVector<T>& vec2) {
  CVector<T> result(3);
  result[0]=vec1[1]*vec2[2] - vec1[2]*vec2[1];
  result[1]=vec1[2]*vec2[0] - vec1[0]*vec2[2];
  result[2]=vec1[0]*vec2[1] - vec1[1]*vec2[0];
  return result;
}

// operator <<
template <class T>
std::ostream& operator<<(std::ostream& aStream, const CVector<T>& aVector) {
  for (int i = 0; i < aVector.size(); i++)
    aStream << aVector(i) << '|';
  aStream << std::endl;
  return aStream;
}

#endif

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
using System;
using Foundation;
using RebuyFormsRating.Common.Services;
using RebuyFormsRating.IOS;
using UIKit;
using Xamarin.Forms;

[assembly: Dependency(typeof(RatingService))]
namespace RebuyFormsRating.IOS
{
    public class RatingService : IRatingService
    {
        public void OpenStore(string appStoreId)
        {
            if (string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(appStoreId)) {
                return;
            }

            UIApplication.SharedApplication.OpenUrl(new NSUrl("itms-apps://itunes.apple.com/app/id" + appStoreId));
        }
    }
}


text:
Dan Abrams to Host and Executive Produce New A&E Network Show Court Cam
Filed under: Blog — Tags: A&E Networks, ABC News, Court Cam, Dan Abrams, Live PD — Editorial Staff @ 9:11 pm
A&E Network announced a new collaboration with ABC Chief Legal Analyst and Live PD host Dan Abrams. Following the success of Live PD and The Law&Crime Network, A&E has teamed up with Abrams and his production company, Law&Crime Productions, to produce Court Cam a behind the scenes look into some of the most wild, unruly, and dramatic moments in courts across the country. Watch the promo on TheWrap.com and elsewhere.
Dan will sit down with the witnesses, judges, and victims in these cases in order to tell their stories and perspectives of the emotional outbursts and chaotic moments. A&E Network's executive VP and head of programming, Elaine Frontain Bryant, described Dan is the perfect person for these stories, "Not only is he a trusted voice to our audience and all Live PD viewers, but his legal expertise makes him the perfect host to provide viewers with an all-access look into unbelievable moments in America's courtrooms."
Despite his legal expertise and decades of experience in covering the courts, some of these moments shocked Dan, "I have covered trials for my entire career, and even I was stunned by many of these remarkable courtroom moments… then getting to talk to the people involved from heroes to victims was as enlightening as it was humbling."
The first season of the show will feature 8 x 30 minute episodes, jam-packed filled with tense court battles and decorum shattering moments. "Court Cam" premieres on A&E with back-to-back episodes on Thursday, December 5 at 9PM ET/PT.
Dan Abrams: Megyn Kelly Alleged 'Multiple Incidents' of Harassment by Roger Ailes
Filed under: Blog,Public Appearances — Tags: ABC News, Dan Abrams, Fox News, Good Morning America, Mediaite, Megyn Kelly, Roger Ailes — Editorial Staff @ 8:26 pm
Dan Abrams reported this morning, Wednesday, July 20th on Good Morning America, that Fox News' Megyn Kelly told investigators of "multiple incidents" of alleged harassment by network Chairman and CEO Roger Ailes. Dan was told by a source close to the investigation that multiple Fox News female talent have spoken to investigators about potential harassment by Ailes. In addition to his reporting for ABC News, Dan specified to Mediaite.com that Kelly apparently told investigators about a series of incidents from a decade ago. Read the full story here.
Dan on Replacing Justice Scalia on Supreme Court
Filed under: Public Appearances — Tags: ABC News, Antonin Scalia, Good Morning America, Obama, President Obama, Supreme Court — Editorial Staff @ 5:08 pm
Dan appeared on Good Morning America, Sunday, February 14th to discuss exactly how hard it's going to be f or President Obama to get a Supreme Court nominee confirmed in an election year. Dan commented that this time "the rules are different," not just because of the campaign, but because of Antonin Scalia's legacy. He added that it will be "nearly impossible for President Obama to get through the Senate almost anyone who's been on his shortlist." Watch the full segment here.
Kelly Rutherford Granted Temporary Sole Custody of Children
Filed under: Public Appearances — Tags: ABC News, Good Morning America, Kelly Rutherford — Editorial Staff @ 4:24 pm
Dan was on Good Morning America, Tuesday, May 26th to discuss actress, Kelly Rutherford's latest legal victory. On Friday, a California judge awarded her sole and legal temporary custody of her 8 and 5-year-old children, whom, since 2012, have been living with their father in France when his U.S visa was revoked. The "Gossip Girl" star is now traveling to Monaco this week to get her kids back. Her attorney told ABC News she's grateful for the decision rendered by the California court sand look forward to reuniting with her children. Dan commented, "I think there is a series of violations here that finally led the California court to say, wait a second, how about the fact that both parents should be able to see the kids? … I'm sure the father will appeal. It will continue. She doesn't have the kids yet. He first has to get served with the California order. They have to inform him. Then they have the Monaco court. She's going over there. That doesn't mean she'll physically take custody…The kids are ordered to come back to Los Angeles by June 15th for this hearing. Question will be, does he fight it?" Watch the full clip here.
Dan on This Week: May 19, 2015
Filed under: Public Appearances — Tags: ABC News, Amtrak Crash, This Week, This Week With George Stephanopoulos — Editorial Staff @ 9:39 pm
Dan joined George Stephanopoulos on This Week, Sunday, May 19th to discuss the potential legal implications for the Amtrak train crash that occurred in Philadelphia. Dan commented, "There's the possible criminal and there's civil. Let's start with criminal, which is could the engineer be charged with a crime? Theoretically, yes, but they would have to have found that he did something specifically wrong, meaning the crash itself doesn't necessarily mean a crime was committed. There has to have been recklessness or intentional conduct or something that he did that would mean that there could be a crime. They're going to look at that. Number two is civil, which is all these people that were injured are now going to sue. But what's interesting is that in 1997, there was a law passed that basically said there's a cap of $200 million total for every — for all the victims together in a train accident." Watch the full episode here.
Dan on Latest in Boston Bombing Trial
Filed under: Public Appearances — Tags: ABC News, Boston Bomber, Tsarnaev — Editorial Staff @ 8:55 pm
Dan discussed the latest on the Boston bomber trial for ABC News. During the most recent part of the trial Tsarnaev appears to cry, which is the first time people are reporting seeing any emotion from the accused. Will this have any effect? Says Dan, "As a practical matter when the goal is to just get one juror to say I'm not going to impose the death penalty, any bit of humanity that you can instill in him is of some doubt." Watch the full clip here.
Dan on This Week: May 3, 2015
Filed under: Public Appearances — Tags: ABC News, Freddie Gray, This Week With George Stephanopoulos — Editorial Staff @ 5:02 pm
Dan appeared on This Week With George Stephanopoulos, on Sunday, May 3rd to discuss the latest from Baltimore and the Freddie Gray case. Watch the full episode here
Dan on Baltimore Prosecutor
Filed under: Public Appearances — Tags: ABC News, Freddie Gray, Good Morning America, Marilyn Mosby — Editorial Staff @ 7:21 pm
Mediaite founder and ABC News Chief Legal Analyst Dan Abrams was on Good Morning America Saturday to weigh in on the charges brought against six Baltimore police officers by Maryland State Attorney Marilyn Mosby in the death of Freddie Gray. Asked if he thinks the charges will "stick," Abrams said he had his doubts.
"I think some of the lesser convictions will likely stick in certain cases, but I think most of the more serious charges, it's going to be really tough to get convictions on a lot of these charges," he said. "I think it is fair to say that this prosecutor, as a legal matter, has overreached."
Abrams explained that two of the officers charged with manslaughter only came on the scene later and perhaps did not do enough to save Gray's life. "That may be wrong," he said, "but getting a jury to convict them of manslaughter for simply not helping enough is going to be very, very tough. And I think that once this case moves along, you're going to see either the charges reduced or in the end a jury simply not convicting on the more serious charges."
On the "conflicts of interest" issue raised over Mosby's ties to one of the Gray family's attorneys, Abrams said he doesn't think there is a "serious claim" there for her to recuse herself. "But the rush to judgment is going to be at the heart of the defense," he added, "that not enough time was taken to allow the prosecutor to fairly and objectively evaluate the evidence."
"I think there are going to be some very powerful defenses here," Abrams predicted.
For the full clip, click here.
Article via Medaite.com
Dan on Freddie Gray
Filed under: Public Appearances — Tags: ABC News, Baltimore, Freddie Gray, Good Morning America — Editorial Staff @ 10:47 pm
Dan was on Good Morning America, Friday May 1st to discuss the latest on goings in Baltimore with the Freddie Gray case. In the most recent update, police are handing over the results of their investigation of Freddie Gray's death to prosecutors and revealing the van he was in made an extra stop that had not been previously reported. The driver of the van didn't tell police and somehow hid it or forgot it. It is still unknown how Freddie got the head injury that snapped his neck. Dan commented, "What happened inside the van is the key question. The police have handed over their file to prosecutors. To the state's attorney's office. That doesn't mean they'll accept it as gospel … They'll evaluate, does this story add up? Do they believe the police? Then comes the crucial question, let's assume they believe there was some wrong doing, to the point where they think it was even criminal, do we believe it was intentional or do we believe it was negligent?" Watch the full clip here.
Dan on Kelly Rutherford Legal Battle for Kids
Filed under: Public Appearances — Tags: ABC News, Good Morning America, Kelly Rutherford, State Department — Editorial Staff @ 3:44 pm
Dan was on Good Morning America, Tuesday, April 14th to discuss actress Kelly Rutherford's passionate fight to get her children back. Rutherford has been embroiled in a 6 year custody battle that she says has "spiraled out of control" when a California judge sent her children to live in France with her German ex-husband who was refused reentry to the United States. Dan recently wrote an article on this on going legal battle and suggested the State Department get involved and now, based on the most recent court ruling, it may need to happen. Rutherford was denied a request asking a federal court to bring her children back to the United States despite the fact the children are American citizens and there is no allegation that Rutherford is an unfit parent. Dan commented, "…Make this political. Have the State Department get involved have some leading political figures make compelling arguments that this is ridiculous." Watch the full segment here.


text:
Il Ponte Spring sale opens from May 17
Il Ponte Auction House will conduct its Spring Jewellery Sale on May 17 and 18, characterised by a significant number of lots, all of private provenance, and many belonging to important Italian families.
"The sale," as emphasised by the head of the department Luca Ghirondi, "also has an historic and artistic importance due to the numerous antique jewels made for famous aristocratic families, including important Tiaras that tell the story and craftsmanship of times past."
Among the jewels belonging to some of the most important Italian aristocratic families (Doria, Guerrieri Gonzaga ...) worthy of mention are a lot acquired from the inheritance of the famous italian movie director Luchino Visconti, a jewel formerly owned by Princess Petronilla Poniatowsky Constance, daughter of the last king of Poland as well as a beautiful brooch that belonged to Maria Cristina di Savoia.
Many are the jewels made by Italian goldsmiths who, with their creations, represent the excellence of Italian craftsmanship -- the Venetians Missiaglia, the Romans Cazzaniga, Moroni and Ansuini, the Milanese Calderoni, Confalonieri, Cusi, Scavia, Villa and many more.
The auction will also feature some novelties -- jewels by Ghiso, Italian goldsmith active in Paris who exported to New York and Buenos Aires where he lived and jewellery of recent production designed by Princess Lucia Odescalchi, much appreciated by the Roman nobility and beyond.
Numerous lots on sale have the added value of the brand of the best known Italian (Bulgari, Buccellati, Damiani, Frascarolo, Pomellato ..) and international jewellers (Boucheron, Cartier, Mauboussin, Van Cleef & Arpels, Tiffany, Stern, Faberge, René Boivin, Lacloche Frères and David Webb).
Also on sale are many sapphires of different origins (Burma, Kashmir, Ceylon) and also natural pearls of rare size, such as the huge Melo-Melo pearl equal in size to the other three white pearls hanging on the same necklace, two diamonds weighing 10 and 15 carats, cabochon rubies with beautiful mounts, a "trombino" by Bulgari and a beautiful Déco bracelet signed Cartier, also with rubies, says Ghirondi.
The final part of the sale will offer a number of lots that belonged to Mariuccia Mandelli, aka Krizia, which give an idea of how a jewel can become a strong element of identity, creative personality and appearance.


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Asavin is an expert in business technology and innovation for SMEs.
19 January, 2023 6 min read Leave a comment
You might not realise it, but artificial intelligence (AI) is here, and you're probably already using it.
In many cases, we already take AI for granted, whether talking to Alexa or Siri, having a conversation with a chatbot, or having product recommendations driven to us by some of the world's most popular e-commerce platforms.
If you're running a digital business in a Software as a Service (SaaS) world, you can derive value from AI—but you might not know it yet.
In this article, two businesses reveal where they are in their AI journeys and what it means for their products and services.
Here's what we cover:
AI can differentiate you from the competition
Find a problem that needs an AI solution
Selling and funding a SaaS AI product
How to bring in people for growth
Digital businesses can take advantage of AI
Huge opportunities for AI in the future
Forecast is a SaaS business that sells project and resource management software—a market saturated with companies such as Trello, Asana, and Basecamp.
Transparency Market Research says the global online project management software market expects to attain a value of $6.08bn (£5.05bn) by 2025.
Forecast differentiates itself through a resource management platform that uses AI to help project team members understand their work, with a machine learning algorithm generating precise estimations around time, budget and profit.
There's an obvious demand for its AI-based software, as Forecast can claim significant growth in the past few years, beginning as a Danish startup founded in 2016 by a team of computer scientists and growing to become an 80-strong business with offices in Copenhagen, London and New York that has attracted around $40m (£33m) of funding.
Forecast also made the Deloitte Fast 50 as one of the top 50 fastest-growing technology companies in the UK, based on revenue growth over the past four years.
The success of Forecast shows there's a hunger for AI-based software that can take away the pain of spreadsheets for complex processes.
Before CEO Dennis Kayser co-founded Forecast, he worked on e-commerce projects for a global technology provider.
He discovered a problem that needed solving after experiencing chaotic projects that never came in on time or within budget.
His teams were always using spreadsheets for delivery, which, although widely used for resource and project management, quickly turned into unwieldy mishmashes of data.
Dennis investigated project and resource management systems but couldn't find a solution aimed at the mid-market business segment that met his needs.
So he sought to tackle the problem himself.
He says: "We wanted to build a holistic finance, resource and project management system with a best-in-class user interface and experience.
"We also wanted customers to be able to connect their existing systems, such as Salesforce, HubSpot, Sage and others, and through that data, use AI and machine learning."
The founders of Forecast originally intended to bootstrap the business, but as interest grew in what they were doing, the complexity of the questions that needed answering grew.
They realised they needed external financing to accelerate development. And after a short period where the product was available for free, they started monetising it.
"There's that classic fallacy when you're technical that if you build something, people will find it by accident, they'll love it, and come in droves," Dennis explains. "But you must consider the commercial and marketing aspects of pushing the product early on.
"The founders will always be the best sellers of the product because they know the problem in depth. We talked to each and every one of our first customers to try and understand their problems and how to solve them."
With $40m of funding, Dennis and his fellow founders have been very successful in attracting capital from investors.
But it's not an easy process, especially with the economic climate as it is now.
"The market can be a little strange sometimes," says Dennis. "It's not always a great idea to build something completely novel.
"An investor should know at least one aspect of your business, such as your target market or product.
"I would always try to get warm introductions through your network or people you know within the industry instead of doing cold outreach to investors.
"They get many of those, and you'll be a needle in a haystack."
To scale, Forecast needed to bring in more people, especially as it wanted to accelerate and grow in the US market.
Dennis says:, "At the start, we had bookkeepers and a handful of different systems. We matured from there. We first brought in a finance director to create more structure, and now we have a CFO with a fully fledged finance team."
Simone Goodman came in as the CFO to support the growth of Forecast into the US market.
At the Series A stage, a startup probably won't have a fully formed leadership team. Over the past 12 months, that's what Dennis has been working on and developing.
He says: "We're very optimistic about what comes next. We recently hired a VP of sales and marketing working out of New York, which is super exciting. We'll also be building a New York-based Centre of Excellence."
Suppose you're in a SaaS leadership role. In that case, you should understand that constant change is the reality and that you must navigate that situation with people to ensure everybody has a good experience, whether they choose to stay or leave.
To some extent, you need to be doing things that some people in the business will have never seen or experienced.
Right at the beginning, Forecast's founders were content with bringing in technology that worked best at the time. However, as the business matured, any tech that didn't fit with how Forecast grew would have to be replaced.
For example, with financial accounting, Forecast started with a small Danish system, moving on to QuickBooks and other systems in different regions—it started to get complicated, and that's when it turned to Sage Intacct.
Simone says: "At the same time as bringing people in, you take a critical look at the tech you have in place and whether it's fit for purpose, today and tomorrow.
"Does it play harmoniously with your systems, and can it scale with your business? If not, rip it out and replace it."
Even if your business isn't developing an AI product, that doesn't need to stop you from taking advantage of using AI.
Pete Hanlon is group chief technology officer (CTO) at Moneypenny, an outsourced communications provider.
Since he arrived at the company in 2019, Pete has driven Moneypenny's digital transformation, moving the business to the cloud. He's overseen the development of a cloud platform that brands use to offer services such as energy switching.
The company is exploring how to embrace AI across customer service, telephone services and the use of live chat.
In addition, Pete believes deep learning, particularly Natural Language Processing (NLP), is an exciting space and many opportunities exist to use the emerging technology. This includes its live chat functionality, where human operators can surface information they can incorporate into their responses.
Pete advises digital businesses that want to use AI to use third-party services instead of embarking on the journey of developing their own platform.
He says: "You could spend months building a scalable infrastructure that could never turn into a real product. Instead, leverage a SaaS platform. Don't build it yourself. Let others build the technology for you who know what they're doing."
It's important for somebody in a CTO/chief information officer (CIO) position to understand the perspective of a CFO looking at areas such as performance metrics and return on investment (ROI).
Pete elaborates: "You should be able to explain to a CFO how the technology in question will impact the businesses. Consider capital and operational expenditure. It's important to frame what you're doing.
"You need to take your tech hat off, put your business hat on, and make sure you're resonating with the CFO—if they understand the technical roadmap and why we're doing what we're doing. They need to if they're going to be open to investment."
Tech leaders such as Microsoft, Apple, Amazon and Google have made highly publicised investments in AI while OpenAI's ChatGPT has opened the eyes of many people to the potential of machine learning.
"Coronavirus quickly revealed that our current systems are not as resilient as we thought they were," says Martin Nuska, a research manager at global market intelligence firm IDC.
"We have seen digital transformation become urgent, with disrupted supply chains, a shortage of workforce and skills, and a critical need for fast and accurate data to support decision-making processes.
"Artificial intelligence proved to be a solution to many real-life problems, which did not go unnoticed among businesses."
Dennis Kayser says AI technology has matured incredibly in the six years since Forecast was founded and advises digital businesses wanting to use AI to utilise existing technologies rather than start from scratch.
He says: "The advantage of starting now versus some years ago is that you can leverage third parties and not build stuff yourself."
In certain cases, computers can perform tasks better than humans. However, Dennis believes that we're more likely to see AI automating general business workflows and removing mundane manual work.
He adds: "It's about letting technology do what it does best, so humans can do what they do best. With problem solving, humans are still better than any computer, which will continue for the foreseeable future."
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Looking for a low cost break that won't bust your budget? Want to be free to do your own thing? Then camping can be the perfect break for you to experience an enjoyable break in Dorset.
Camping can be a fantastically exciting way to holiday and is a firm favourite with families and children, giving you the freedom to explore all that the county has to offer.
What could be more fun than packing up the car and hitting the trail to delightful Dorset! We've got a whole host of fantastic camping parks in locations that are out of this world Whether you are staying for the duration of your holiday or just passing through, almost all of Dorset's camping parks offer pitches at more than reasonable prices.
Spending your nights under canvas is a fabulous way of experiencing the natural wonders of Dorset, and it will make your break away one to remember.
Whether you want to pitch up at a countryside campsite surrounded by rolling hills and wondrous walking routes to explore or a coastal camping park with stunning views of our world famous coastline, we've got lots of choice for you.
All of our camping parks have the necessary facilities that will make your stay a comfortable one, whatever the weather!
You don't have to have all the mod-cons to have a perfect holiday in Dorset. Some of our most popular campsites offer just the basics – toilet and shower blocks and dish washing facilities.
Get out your camping stove and cook up a delicious dinner before toasting marshmallows over the stove or telling stories round the campfire.
Some of our basic campsites are set in lovely rural areas with wonderful dark skies – amazing for star gazing!
If you are looking for a campsite or holiday park with lots of facilities and entertainment, Dorset has some great choices for you.
As well as all the usual facilities, you'll find laundry rooms, children's play areas, campsite shops, cafes, restaurants or bars, clubhouses and some even have indoor or outdoor swimming pools! Everything you could possibly want for a fantastic camping holiday with a touch of luxury.
And if glamping is what you want, why not try out a yurt, tipi, romany caravan, shepherd's hut or tree house?
With this much choice, we're confident that you will be able to find the perfect location for your camping trip to Dorset.
We'd really appreciate it if you could please take the time to mention the Visit Dorset website when booking your break.
See you soon happy campers!!
St Leonards Farm is a quiet family run park ideally situated near the sandy beaches of Bournemouth, the historic harbour town of Poole and the New Forest making it a great base from which to explore the local area.
Picturesque site with direct access to woods and heath, ideal for walking enthusiasts and a good location for touring the Dorset countryside.
East Creech Farm campsite is a grassy 5 acre site with 80 pitches. Wonderful views towards Poole Harbour and Brownsea sheltered to the south by the Purbeck Hills.


Self-reflection, taking into account many factors is important to continue to produce improvement and awareness about what is going well and what you would like to change about who you are and what you do. In my most recent role as a national leader within a global organisation I had many responsibilities and tasks assigned to my role. I was also in the fortunate position to have a degree of flexibility and freedom in my direction and subsequently, that of my team.
Last year there was a leadership change within my team, which had its pros and cons. However, I did find that I had less opportunity to genuinely contribute my ideas and felt significantly less valued and comfortable in my role as a result. My point is not to judge the leadership decisions, more of how this made me react internally and the choices I made during this period.
I found great value in self-reflection (in some cases my unconscious thoughts influenced my conscious choices) and specifically spent time focusing on how efficient and effective I was being.
Were the changes impacting my team? Had my demeanor changed? Was I still as effective and efficient in my role as a leader as in the past?
Questions such as this at face value may have been instigated from self-doubt, however I found power in being able to analyse my routines, creativeness and methods of working. As someone who has focused quite a deal of time on this topic having coached and supported many leaders in similar situations, I knew this could be the make or break for my tenure, depending on the outcomes of my decisions. The journey I went on and related learning may be of value to you.
So, what did I do? I researched the specific contexts of effectiveness, efficiency and related themes. Not so that I could define the words for the sake of it, more so as I wanted to ensure I was not assuming too much, which could skew my choices.
Was my focus on the right things – the ability to avoid wasting time and effort? Stripping back on the many tasks and focusing on the core few reaped the rewards for me that I know would add most benefit, no matter the situation.This required a level of focus and self-awareness that I had not used before. I also had to 'let go' or at least flex many existing thoughts and beliefs.
We often become set in our ways, accept the norms and standards that have been established for months or even years.This is very prominent in work cultures and leadership.
A willingness to firstly see these inefficient processes and desire to drive change are two different behaviours, but both are required. Knowing something and doing something are not the same thing. I knew it was imperative at that time to be as effective as possible in my decision-making and actions.
The decisions revolved around all aspects of my life, not just work. Choices that impacted my wife, three daughters, work team, myself, friendship group and future direction were all balanced in my decision-making. I found that taking a step back and analysing my current situation allowed me to improve my future situation, as well as provide greater comfort in the moment.
It was efficient thinking – organised, less random and controlled thinking that provided the platform to make the next choice. I was not wasting time and effort at work or at home on those things that mattered less. Without going through this process my mind was jumbled, confused and I had much less ability to think clearly and take action forward. At best I was static – at worst, going backwards. A focus on efficiency allowed me to target, challenge myself on specific needs and take forward steps.
In many ways I am teaching myself to live more in the moment and practice a new concept for me – Mindfulness.
Being mindful and the related concepts has become more prominent in recent years. Mindfulness has links to psychology, Buddhism, meditation and other spiritual themes but is popular now because it has a place in our modern, busy world.
Being more present or in the moment allows us to make choices that somehow seem more appropriate and relevant. This framework of thinking then allowed me to more easily work towards analysing effectiveness, again measured in all aspects of my life. I needed to understand whether there was an intended or expected effect and whether I was prepared for action. The answer: No, not in all things, but I can say that the clarity and direction gave me pause for thought and my choices and decisions did change as a result.
It is now only as I reflect on this period earlier in the year do I realise the benefit of 'breaking down' thought processes into a structured arrangement led to the right decisions, often only proven in time.
Post-script: after 25 years of working for many large national and global organisations I left work earlier this year to focus full-time on my external consultancy, training and coaching business. I had been developing the brand and strategy for the 18 months prior. However the thought-process and my focus on what is most effective and efficient for me to be spending my time on, allowed me to leave a legacy with my previous employer and team whilst making the choice to work full-time on CoachStation. It is going very well and I have rarely been happier and more confident for our future!
This entry was posted in Effectiveness, Leadership, Self-Awareness and tagged CoachStation, Effective Leadership, Efficiency, Emotional Intelligence, Job Satisfaction, Leadership Development, Personal Development, Steve Riddle. Bookmark the permalink.
CoachStation" was in fact a good read and thus I actually was really joyful to locate the article.


Here you will find information about all the groups that are affiliated with our local village and church.
Every Tuesday between 10:00 and 11:30am, we run a friendly local coffee morning at Holy Trinity, Paulton. It's open to all and is non-religious. We always get a good selection of people and it becomes an important point in the week to catch up with each other and organise further village social events.
We have quality filter coffee and tea available as well as a good selection of cakes or biscuits. Donations from this have helped fund improvements to our Church back room.
TGIF (Thank God It's Friday) is a toddler and parents play session that runs every Friday in the back room. It is aimed at families with children aged 0-3. We always welcome new members and it is a great way for children to socialise and parents to chat with other parents from the village.
You will need to supervise your child and a small donation of 50p per session is taken to cover the activities and refreshments. It runs every Friday 10:00-11:30am.
Messy church is all about crafting and fun. We meet on the second Saturday of every month between 3:30 and 5:00pm.
Read all about it on our dedicated page.
If you are interested in helping out, please talk to Chris.
Paulton Church choir regularly meet to discuss church music and rehearse. They are led by Kevin Burnett, our very talented organist. They can be booked for any family church services.
Paulton Church has a keen band of bell ringers. They are often to be seen at village events like Village Day and can be hired for weddings and other church events. They meet regularly and are always happy to welcome new members. If you are interested, please talk to our churchwardens.
This is a true whole village event that is a lot of fun. Every year, the Paulton Memorial Park hosts a selection of stalls, vintage cars and performances from local bands and youth groups. Well worth coming along to if you live in Paulton. If you live further afield, there is parking available in the park. If you would like to book a stall, please talk to George.
Yourpaulton's facebook page is primarily an information giving space, aiming to inform YOU of events in YOUR village, Paulton. It also brings items of news which concern the entire village.
The team have many contacts and much information about Your Village, Paulton, so if you want to know anything you can message privately through the Facebook page and the they will do their best to help.
Paulton Parish Council website has lots of information about the local public services and events in Paulton.