text:
Dumaguete Info Forums > Forum Information > Forum Announcements & User Feedback >
Question Disagree Post Rating?
Discussion in 'Forum Announcements & User Feedback' started by ShawnM, Mar 10, 2019.
Best Posts in Thread
ShawnM DI Forum Patron ★ No Ads ★ Highly Rated Poster Showcase Reviewer Blood Donor Veteran Air Force
Guam/Tanjay
+1,678 / 218
Blood Type:
Why isn't there a disagree choice other than abhorrent?
Disagree x 2
Dislike x 1
I was wondering about that too! x 1
ShawnM, Mar 10, 2019
Rye83 with pastrami Admin Secured Account Highly Rated Poster SC Connoisseur Veteran Army
+16,069 / 3,789
ShawnM said: ↑
Because . . . that's the way it is.
Rye83, Mar 11, 2019
SkipJack DI Senior Member
+1,159 / 79
Rye83 said: ↑
I have thought about this as well. This is my first time dealing with a forum of non-professionals. Even professional forums have downvotes. This encourages better behavior.
IMO it would be nice if there were down votes. Also a process for diminishing meaningless posts so that people reading a thread in the future do not have to read through a bunch of crap.
Is this software open source?
Would you be willing to accept changes?
SkipJack, Mar 11, 2019
SkipJack said: ↑
IMO it would be nice if there were down votes.
There were down votes before. It caused more problems than it fixed.
Edit: There is still a dislike and disagree rating. Look under the first post of any thread. Why is it like that? I can't recall.
For a bit of history on this topic on DI:
https://dumagueteinfo.com/board/thr...umans-have-ever-seen.24203/page-2#post-157106
https://dumagueteinfo.com/board/thr...on-to-be-made-easier.23290/page-2#post-159673
https://dumagueteinfo.com/board/threads/yada-yada-the-off-topic-arena.10520/page-62#post-163714
There are a LOT more posts about it. It has been discussed ad nauseam. As you can see from my posts I originally liked and defended the dislike/disagree buttons...but some members here keep beating me down about it until all the fight was beat out of me. I'm no masochist, I won't put myself through that again.
OK, no worries.
TheDude DI Forum Patron Highly Rated Poster
Every forum has a different culture. You can't make generalizations.
Reddit has down-votes and that does little to encourage good behavior. To enforce good behavior requires a lot of moderation work. The well forums that I know of with good behavior and up / down voting are heavily moderated. The voting may encourage better behavior for some, but it causes others to stir up problems from getting down-voted. The voting is more for surfacing quality than for behavior. This forum doesn't have enough activity to require a voting system.
It's Xenforo, which has a commercial license. The code-base is hell. You can create plug-ins for it though.
If I were to do a site like this myself and had a huge amount of time, I would create a wiki and generate a summary from popular threads. Then the wiki could accept edits, etc. This is sort of the model that StackOverflow works on. Everyone sees the forum (answers) component but the site is meant to be a wiki. The wiki features are just not as obvious.
TheDude, Mar 11, 2019
Thank you @Rye83 and @TheDude for the informative posts. I appreciate the effort you put into substantiating your thoughts. I wish everyone put forth this much effort.
@Rye83, after reading the referenced links, I agree with the removal of the down votes dislike and disagree options. The main issue being that they did not require an explanation. The forum is about discussion and discussion should be encouraged.
TheDude said: ↑
I agree with the SO concept. @Notmyrealname was trying to do this for healthcare in Dumaguete. I worry that that this site might lose it's free flowing entertainment if it were more wiki regimented. If the users stopped posting then there would be nothing.
This forum doesn't have enough activity to require a voting system.
I agree that this forum does not have enough activity to justify the development of a voting system.
I would also like a side conversation (or off-topic thread within a thread) option that throws an expandable smaller sub-thread/reply chain under posts so that users can stay in the same thread while going off-topic while not bothering other users.
Here are my thoughts if the forum had more activity:
To improve quality and enable community moderation a feature would be added that enabled a sub discussion regarding the quality of the post. This feature would be an expandable smaller sub-thread/reply chain under a post. A user who wished to leave a sub comment would be guided through a dialog that described the intent of the process. After leaving a sub comment the user could trigger a voting process that, depending on the outcome of the vote, would require the post to be modified or removed. Any post that was removed would be rolled up to one line and grayed. Because the post may have content that should be removed, only adults or specific users would be able to click on and see the content.
Users who were required to modify or whose posts were removed (diminished) would lose ranking and be reviewed for possible removal from the site.
This is an interesting idea and it's something which could be developed as an add-on. The team which runs the site behind the scenes is operating at 100% capacity at the minimum. This site is one piece among a portfolio of local focused sites which this team maintains and develops. @Rye83 is a volunteer moderator. It's his efforts which which keeps this forum orderly, so huge thanks to him. I have thrown my hand in helping with things here and there, but at present I'm just a forum contributor as you are.
If you were interested in becoming more involved, then I'm sure that could be accommodated.
You're idea sounds similar to that of Wikipedia likely uses for edits. The process is probably different, but close enough. I still don't think there is enough activity to justify this. There is a small number of contributors who generate a lot of posts. Much of the content is consumed by people passing by.
I believe the wiki concept could be implemented in a way which would encourage posting. People post here to provide helpful information and then discussion flows from there. People would be emboldened by seeing their contributions credited in a wiki format. The forum would still look and work the same. The wiki would largely be separate. Related entries could appear as a post somewhere in thread (as a sort of thread header perhaps.) Discussions regarding wiki contributions could then be handled by that software, which would likely already have those features.
Personally, I think doing anything with this forum which adds a sub-discussion workflow as you describe would require a large effort. I could easily see myself putting a solid week or two into it. Just getting my head wrapped around the flow of the software and setting up the development environment would likely require at least a week. Add another week or two for development. Testing, fixing bugs and dealing with feedback would take at least another week. These numbers are all optimistic guesses. If you haven't touched PHP, Javascript, HTML and CSS for a long time then you can at least double these numbers.
If I were to put that effort into the forum then I would also strongly consider moving the software to a different platform. The development team has already considered switching to the same open source software which came out of the development of Stack Overflow. Then I could possibly consider packaging my work as a paid add-on or as an open source offering which might lead to consulting work. Any of these possibilities could result in some compensation for all that effort.
I couldn't swing that effort with my current workload if you gave me a 5 year deadline. I imagine the development team is in the same boat.
Seems like a simple thing...
@Rye83 is a volunteer moderator. It's his efforts which which keeps this forum orderly, so huge thanks to him.
YAY! @Rye83 THANK YOU!
I still don't think there is enough activity to justify this.
This is just talk.
If I were to put that effort into the forum then I would also strongly consider moving the software to a different platform. The development team has already considered switching to the same open source software which came out of the development of Stack Overflow. Then I could possibly consider packaging my work as a paid add-on or as an open source offering which might lead to consulting work.
Agreed. StackOverflow is written in C# which I prefer. I am a big fan of Dapper which also came out of SO.
Right, can't be understated. @Rye83 is a skilled moderator. It's not easy and not well paid. But a skill none the less. My thanks as well. The previous admins can take credit as well, but the current regime has been the best.
The software I was referring to is Discourse. Back-end is Ruby and the front-end is a React, which is a JS framework from Facebook.
https://www.discourse.org/
The co-founder of StackOverflow picked this mix because he wanted for the code-base to be widely approachable. At the time, C# was MS and the parent company was heading into choppy waters. Today MS is a rising star with many great OS offerings. Good times.
I still think a wiki route would be interesting. There is currently nothing like this that I know of. I know there would be plenty of contributors. The DI team would be happy to host it and it would make sense if the content were created here. There would be the need of a @Rye83 level steady hand at the helm.
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text:
> We do, except the historical spelling
> for the divine name in English is "Jehovah".
Oh yes, of course.  The father of a boy named "Jonah" ought to
know that.  Whoops.
> > It seems to me that they are Atestantes de Jehova.
> Seems ok to you, that's fine, but somehow that sounds like
> "Testifiers for Jehovah" when I read it.
If you'd rather be a divine gonad than a testifier, that's your choice.  :-)
Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the name "witness" suggest
that you testify?  You could say about a muder "there were some
witnesses, but none will come forward to testify."  Could someone
be a Jehovah's Witness in this sence - that they have "witnessed"
Jehova, yet choose neither to follow him nor to bear witness about
him?  I don't think so, but I'll defer to your greater expertise
in this regard.
> > The verb "witness" can mean "to testify."
> yes, and, "Someone who testifies"
Jay, the verb "witness" can *not* mean "someone who testifies."  :-)
> Is there a significant difference between "a witness"
> and "a testifier"?
... or between "a witness" and  "a bearer of witness"?
I don't think so, except for a slight semantic difference which
would get lost in translation.
> The problem is that "attestante" isn't really used much
> as a common term by the source langs. <big snip...>
> Interlingua tries to stick pretty much with the habits
> of natural language speakers. Or so is its actual use
> today.
Well, a language cannot try to do anything.  Are you talking
about what the language creators try to do, or what the language
speakers try to do?  I would hope that a speaker would try to be
understood.  For example, while vacationing in Nashville, I might
say to someone "would you take my picture", but in Rome, I might
say "PHO-TO?"  I'm still speaking English, but I'm choosing words
which I suspect my audience will understand.
Actually, this is one sense in which Esperanto feels more natural
to me than Interlingua (and is part of the reason I'm so annoyed
by the Interlinguan mantra that "Interlingua is obviously more
natural.")  An Esperanto speaker can fall back on "common usage."
You can say "this is the way Esperanto speakers talk."  In Interlingua,
at least officially, you have to look outside of the language to
justify one form or another.  It's funny that you suggest (see below)
how to get a "feel" for Interlingua, if the language doesn't have
it's own feel and must constantly look outside itself to get one.
You're welcome to disagree with me about this.  Actually, I'm counting
on it.  I just think it's great that a former fundie, athiestic
Esperantist and an Interlinguan from the Watchtower can find so much
common ground - homo al homo.
In another note you wrote:
> You're a rotten tomato,
At least we understand each other.  :-)
Pobre tomate.  No es triste?  Il dezira dancar, pero no puede!
> you "rubblerouser" you!
Is this a slip or a pun?  Do I rouse rabble or rubble?
> Join one of the Interlingua lists and
> lurk for a bit and you'll soon get a
> better feel for the language.
Thanks, but InterlinguaUSA, Auxlang, and Bablo are as close as I
care to come for now - although the offer to get together in Vermont
this October still stands.
One last thing... I saw your bilingual Spanish/Interlingua note
on Interlingua USA and ran it through the translator.  With
all the flaws these translators have, it's amazing how well
they do work.  I could understand the Google translation
of the Spanish better than the Interlingua.

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text:
Q: C++14: deduced (auto) return types from constexpr with ternary expressions I am experimenting with constexpr functions in C++14. The following code, which computes the factorial works as expected:
template <typename T>
constexpr auto fact(T a) {
    if(a==1)
        return 1;
    return a*fact(a-1);
}

int main(void) {
    static_assert(fact(3)==6,  "fact doesn't work");
}

when it is compiled as follows with clang:
> clang++ --version
clang version 3.5.0 (tags/RELEASE_350/final)
Target: x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
Thread model: posix
> clang++ -std=c++14 constexpr.cpp

However, when I change the fact definition to use the ternary ? operator:
template <typename T>
constexpr auto fact(T a) {
    return a==1 ? 1 : a*fact(a-1);
}

I get the following compiler error:
> clang++ -std=c++14 constexpr.cpp
constexpr.cpp:12:31: fatal error: recursive template instantiation exceeded maximum depth of
      256
    return a==T(1) ? T(1) : a*fact(a-1);
        ... snip ...
constexpr.cpp:16:19: note: in instantiation of function template specialization 'fact<int>'
      requested here
    static_assert(fact(3)==6,  "fact doesn't work");

The problem is fixed if I explicitly state the return type T (instead of using auto to deduce the return type)
template <typename T>
constexpr T fact(T a) {
    return a==1 ? 1 : a*fact(a-1);
}

If I remove the template parameter, the pattern is repeated (the ternary version fails, and the if version works)
// this works just fine
constexpr auto fact(int a) {
    if(a==1)
        return 1;
    return a*fact(a-1);
}

whereas this fails
constexpr auto fact(int a) {
    return a==1 ? 1 : a*fact(a-1);
}

with the following error
> clang++ -std=c++14 constexpr.cpp
constexpr.cpp:16:25: error: function 'fact' with deduced return type cannot be used before it
      is defined
    return a==1 ? 1 : a*fact(a-1);
                        ^
constexpr.cpp:15:16: note: 'fact' declared here
constexpr auto fact(int a) {
               ^
constexpr.cpp:20:26: error: invalid operands to binary expression ('void' and 'int')
    static_assert(fact(3)==6,  "fact doesn't work");
                  ~~~~~~~^ ~
2 errors generated.

What is going on here?

A: The resulting type from evaluating a ternary expression is the common type of its second and third arguments.
By having the compiler deduce the return type, you force it to evaluate both of these arguments to the ternary expression. This means that the recursion doesn't end even when the terminating condition is reached, because when a==1, to figure out the return type of fact(0) the compiler must continue evaluating further recursive calls to fact, and endless recursion ensues.
By stating the return type, fact(0) does not need to be evaluated when a==1, and the recursion is able to terminate.

As for the case with the two return statements, the relevant standard clause is —
(from N4296) §7.1.6.4/9 [dcl.spec.auto]

If a function with a declared return type that contains a placeholder type has multiple return statements, the return type is deduced for each return statement. If the type deduced is not the same in each deduction, the program is ill-formed.

In your example, in the call to fact<int>(1), the return type deduced from the first return statement is int, so the return type of fact<int>(0) in the second return statement cannot be anything but int as well. This means the compiler does not need to evaluate the body of fact<int>(0) and the recursion can terminate.
Indeed, if you force evaluation of the call to fact in the second return statement as well, for instance by changing the first example so that T is a non-type template argument
template <unsigned T>
constexpr auto fact() {
    if(T==1)
        return 1;
    return T*fact<T-1>();
}

clang does fail with the error

fatal error: recursive template instantiation exceeded maximum depth of 256

Live demo

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
COVID-19 quarantine camps in Nepal – a dire and despondent state
Sagar Pokhrel1 Medical Officer
Yub Raj Sedhai2 Assistant Professor
Alok Atreya3 MD, Assistant Professor *
*A/Prof Alok Atreya
1 Balkot Primary Health Care Center, Arghakhanchi, Balkot, Nepal
2 Department of Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, USA
3 Department of Forensic Medicine, Lumbini Medical College Teaching Hospital, Palpa, Nepal
29 July 2020 Volume 20 Issue 3
ACCEPTED: 7 July 2020
Pokhrel S, Sedhai YR, Atreya A. COVID-19 quarantine camps in Nepal – a dire and despondent state . Rural and Remote Health 2020; 20: 6240. https://doi.org/10.22605/RRH6240
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence
Field report and Yub Raj Sedhai
Although their meanings are different, the terms quarantine and isolation are used interchangeably. Quarantine is a measure to separate and restrict movement of people who are potentially exposed to an infectious agent to ascertain if they become sick. Isolation is separation of infected people from uninfected ones. The motive behind quarantine and isolation is the same: to limit the spread of a contagious agent1. The Government of Nepal has made temporary quarantine shelters for people likely to have been exposed to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2).
The rectangular, landlocked country of Nepal shares it borders with China in the north and India in the east, west and south. Many Nepalese from rural parts of the country work in India as migrant workers. After lockdown was imposed in India and subsequently in Nepal on 24 March 2020 due to coronavirus disease (COVID-19), there was a mass exodus of Nepalese migrant workers from India to Nepal2. Considering the surge in India, the Government of Nepal adopted quarantine measures in Nepal. The schools, temples and public spaces in the bordering areas were converted into makeshift quarantine camps. Given the lack of planning, logistics and infrastructure, quarantine camps are in a dire and despondent state.
Quarantine camps are overpopulated to an extent that prevents safe distancing. Food, shelter, hygiene and sanitation are in a deplorable state. Trampoline sheets are used as makeshift beds. There are a limited number of latrines, with poor sewage management. This raises the possibility of other vector-borne zoonosis epidemics (such as malaria, dengue and visceral leishmaniasis), especially given the location of the camps in Nepal's southern belt, which are affected yearly by the monsoon season3. Furthermore, there is an utter lack of basic preventive measures such as mosquito nets. Each person is reimbursed a food allowance of 178 Nepalese rupees (US$1.50) per day, which is far below the local market threshold.
Social stigma surrounding COVID-19 is rising rapidly. Residents near the quarantine camps have raised concerns and protested against these establishments4. Individuals testing positive in the camp are stigmatized and bullied. Social discrimination and lack of mental health services have increased the incidence of conversion disorder, panic attacks and depression. Stigmatization is not limited to people who are COVID-19 positive – healthcare workers are often assaulted and abused5.
Recent news articles have reported suicide of COVID-19 positive patients and an alleged gang rape of a female in a quarantine camp in Nepal6-8. These dark and desperate acts are further examples of the state of physical mental and social wellbeing in Nepal's quarantine camps amidst a global crisis.
Dr Sagar Pokhrel, Balkot Primary Health Care Center, Arghakhanchi, Balkot, Nepal
Dr Yub Raj Sedhai, Department of Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, USA
Dr Alok Atreya, Assistant Professor, Department of Forensic Medicine, Lumbini Medical College Teaching Hospital, Palpa, Nepal
1 Brooks SK, Webster RK, Smith LE, Woodland L, Wessely S, Greenberg N, et al. The psychological impact of quarantine and how to reduce it: rapid review of the evidence. Lancet 2020; 395(10227): 912-920. DOI link, PMid:32112714
2 Shrestha R, Nepal S, Atreya A. Need for prioritizing health: an old war-cry reiterated by COVID-19. Journal of Lumbini Medical College 2020; 8(1). Available: web link (Accessed 23 June 2020).
3 Pandey BD, Nabeshima T, Pandey K, Rajendra SP, Shah Y, Adhikari BR, et al. First isolation of dengue virus from the 2010 epidemic in Nepal. Tropical Medicine and Health 2013; 2012-2017. DOI link, PMid:24155651
4 Nepal Monitor. Locals protest against setting up of isolation ward in settlement. 2020. Available: web link (Accessed 13 July 2020).
5 McKay D, Heisler M, Mishori R, Catton H, Kloiber O. Attacks against health-care personnel must stop, especially as the world fights COVID-19. Lancet 2020; 395: 1743-1745. DOI link
6 Dhakal K. Covid-19 detected in Arghakhanchi man who died by suicide in quarantine. Available: web link (Accessed 17 June 2020).
7 Himalayan Times. Yet another suicide case tests positive for coronavirus. Available: web link (Accessed 18 June 2020).
8 Chhatyal DB. Woman in quarantine in Kailali gang raped. Available: web link (Accessed 15 June 2020).
This PDF has been produced for your convenience. Always refer to the live site https://www.rrh.org.au/journal/article/6240 for the Version of Record.


text:
Editorial: It's not a skatepark, but we've got tennis and pickleball courts
"This is a huge win for our hard court sports facilities," said Parks Deputy Director Drew Halter, who added the facilities have been in disrepair for a decade.|
ARGUS-COURIER EDITORIAL
This year, for first time in nearly two decades, the tennis courts at Petaluma's Lucchesi Park will have fresh surfaces.
There will be pickleball courts, too.
And the refurbishing trend will bring new surfaces to tennis courts at Del Oro Park and McNear Park. Count 'em up – that's seven total tennis courts resurfaced, and one new pickleball court.
Cost: $440,000.
Source: Sonoma County Measure M funds, a dedicated sales tax meant for parks countywide that voters passed in November 2018.
Impact: "This is a huge win for our hard court sports facilities," said Parks Deputy Director Drew Halter, who added the facilities have been in disrepair for a decade.
Controversy: It ain't a skate park.
Neither is the impending baseball diamond at the Petaluma Community Sports Fields, a roughly $5 million project that's part of a long-planned sports complex and paid for through accumulated impact fees.
But we'll put that aside for now. As has already been mentioned in the preceding paragraphs, new and better recreational facilities cost money. They also take time.
We're excited to see Petaluma, which has been largely starved of stable funding since the Great Recession, making progress on major projects that promise to entertain thousands of Petalumans in the years to come.
Outdoor spaces, including tennis courts and pickleball courts, were oases in the depths of the coronavirus pandemic, which prohibited during long stretches much of the gathering typically associated with civic life.
And we're hopeful the pandemic has taught us not only the importance of investing in public spaces, but reveling in those spaces as well.
In a recent phone call with the Argus-Courier, Halter said he has seen an uptick in requests for classes and activities in Petaluma's parks. This coming weekend, Henry Kaku and other area martial arts instructors will host a free self-defense class for Asian business owners at Walnut Park, for example.
"People are getting creative with how we maximize our outdoor spaces," Halter said. "We'll have to take a close look at more outdoor spaces…It's an immediate need, and one that isn't going to go away."
We were pleased to hear that kind of strategic thinking from Halter, whose department has been criticized for its lack of a master plan. Residents who have banded together to push for a second skatepark have recently turned their attention to a push for a robust study of the parks department's approach to funding and recreational facilities. They've brought up concerns with transparency, equity and representation.
They have support from some Petaluma City Council member, as well, so it's likely something will get done on that front.
For our part, we encourage parks officials – and the parks commission – to engage in thoughtful work to chart the future of Petaluma's parks and open spaces in a way that serves all Petalumans.
But let's also not lose sight of the fact that the parks department is already serving many – and will serve many more in the coming months when the tennis courts, pickleball courts and baseball field are complete. That's not nothing.
Kudos to Petaluma Parks for the work to date to give Petalumans places to play. We'll give a hearty cheer to the new projects coming online this year, and we eagerly await what comes next.


My latest favourite Flickr user is the beautiful new mommy Stoopidgerl. Her amazing glittertastic resin pieces are among the best that I have seen anywhere online, and I new she would be perfect when I wanted to commission some coasters for my coffee table.
I don't think any photo I take could possibly do them justice, so here is the photo she took that I have stolen from her Flickr stream.
And here is a rather feeble photo I took today (the 8th) of them in action!
Following on from yesterdays post about how I discovered Etsy, I thought it would be fun to blog about my first Etsy purchase.
What was your first Etsy or Folksy purchase?
My internet got cut off! I've paid the bill now but I am rather behind. Luckily I carried on taking pictures but it will take me a few days to catch up with myself!
Do you know how I found out about Etsy? I saw an amazing bracelet in a magazine, by handmade jewellery lady, Lady Luck Rules OK. I loved her awesome, fun jewellery, and started religiously reading her blog. One day, and I can't for the life of me find the actual blog post to link to, she mentioned another seller, OneGoodBumbleBee. I clicked the link and was taken to her website, which sadly, seems to have ceased to be, despite the fact that she did the most awesome vintage paper packs I've ever seen. I'm not normally a random clicker, but I must have been bored that day because she had a link to Etsy on her page and I clicked it, and LO! I did discovered the wonder of the handmade crafting community!
I would love to hear how you came across Etsy, let me know in the comments!
I've purchased a lot of lovely things from LLROK over the last few years and I usually wear apiece every few days. Here is just a bit of my collection!
I realised today I have bee doing this project for 5 days and I realised that I haven't blogged something that I myself have actually created! Then I realised that I've been so busy this ear going back to work and blogging that I haven't actually sat down and made anything at all yet...not a good crafty start!
So today is a really short entry about something I have made with my son. I was reading this blogpost by nicsknots, whom I have mentioned in a previous post (and who, by the way, has forgiven me for stealing her mini-tote!) and saw what she said about being a crafty Mummy. I have the same problem. People assume that because I make jewellery and do craft fairs, that I am automatically a wonderful crafty Mummy whose house is filled with wooden blocks and art materials. Sadly, my house is filled with odd socks and giant plastic workbenches, garages and ride-on-diggers that made horrible noises. I do try though. This Christmas I wanted to give handmade presents, as we are completely skint. I bought some plain white mugs and some ceramic paint and the idea was for my little guy to paint the mugs. Not a good plan! Ceramic paint is not really toddler-friendly...it goes weird and sticky and doesn't suit being loaded onto a brush and sloshed around haphazardly. The resulting mugs are...drippy. I haven't baked them or given them out as presents yet because Ramsey has lost interest in 'PAINT CUP!' and doesn't want to finish them off. Plus the excess paint has gone really weird. I'll probably have to use them as planters...or possibly as additions to our own dwindling cup cupboard.
What are your favourite ceramic items on Etsy?
Today's handmade item of the day was another fabulous craft fair purchase. We adore handmade soaps, and every time I see them at a fair I simply cannot resist but this is by fair the softest, most beautifully scented soap I have ever used...I am dreading it running out!
Mmmm delicious! We have this soap in our kitchen, it's by Saffron Bar and it's her most popular fragrance...Black Raspberry and Vanilla. The scent stays on my hands for ages afterwards and really softens my knuckles...in fact I think I am going to order up a new bar or two to give as pressies because it's such a lovely fragrance. You can purchase some here.
I'm nervous tonight. I go back to work full time tomorrow, for a three month period. My fiancee is going to be staying at home and looking after our precious boy. He's always toyed with the idea of being a stay-at-home-dad, but I think he is going to find it harder than he thinks to keep the house clean, cook the dinner and look after the toddler. I'm giving it a week before he says "I can't believe you've been doing this for two years!"
Sorry about the glare, I have just hung it up in my kitchen, where it brings me happiness every time I glimse it in the corner of my eye. Handmade presents are the absolute best.


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text:
Section 1 - Chapter 1
Heading: How to Build AI That People Trust
Subheading: What is Quality Engineering/Recent Trends in QE
Why are trust and transparency a unique issue for AI?
Why trust matters in AI
How trusted does your AI need to be?
How trust in AI can be undermined
A framework for building trusted AI
Many assume that AI success hinges on getting the model to accurately interpret data. This is important, but accuracy is one element of a more nuanced challenge: Trust.
Take a hypothetical AI which looks at medical scans and identifies whether they contain signs of an early-stage tumour. The model is tested using medical data and shown to be 80% accurate in spotting early-stage tumours, 10% higher than a human specialist (figures for illustration only).
But the AI has learned based on making a complex correlation between the images in its training data and — whilst the data shows it is accurate - it is not entirely clear how it reached that decision.
Do we trust it? Is 80% accuracy enough? Should we believe the claim of 80% accuracy? Are we sure the scans were interpreted correctly? Are we sure the test data was right? If a specialist disagrees, should she go with the AI or her own diagnosis, neither of which is perfect?
What should she do about that instinctive feeling that something is wrong that she can't quite put her finger on?
These are complex questions. For many, the straightforward answer is 'if an AI is shown to perform better than a human, we should trust the AI'. But such relative concepts as 'better than' are hard to be sure of in the complex world of AI. This raises very difficult questions when it comes to trust. Lots of companies have implemented AI but have issues trusting the results.
"AI must be planned and designed for human trust and understanding."
AI is a technical concept, but trust is a human one
Trust is certainly undermined by low accuracy, but high accuracy alone does not guarantee trust. An AI can be 99% accurate, but so complex and confusing – or new – that no one trusts it. We need comprehensible evidence it works, and explainability of how and why it works before we can trust it.
Even with all that, trust may take time to earn. Would you get on the maiden flight of a plane piloted only by AI? If you were told it had been shown in trials to be safer than human pilots, would that be enough?
AI must be planned and designed for human trust and understanding. That means managing expectations around what AI can and can't do, and rolling out a complex technology in a way that aligns with how people learn.
This article will explain the importance of 'Trusted AI' and discuss how to develop it.
Most people are familiar with software in their everyday life and workplace, which operates based on rules. They may be complex rules, but they are (bugs aside) predictable. They have been explicitly programmed to follow a set of instructions that turn inputs into outputs.
AI works differently. It ingests data and learns how to interpret it by establishing connections between different data sets. So, an English-Spanish translation AI is not explicitly told word by word 'perro = dog', 'gato = cat', etc, alongside fixed grammar rules. It is fed texts which have been translated and told to learn what pattern links one to the other (with guidance from language and data experts).
This allows it to learn complex tasks such as translation or image recognition quickly. Many tasks performed with AI would not be possible with traditional software or would take decades of programming.
However, this approach brings unpredictability because the input data is complex and imperfect, not a set of binary options. To learn a language, an AI needs huge amounts of text and there is not time to manually check it all. Some translations may be poor, or contain mistakes, or deliberately misuse language. Even correct ones contain nuance, where experts disagree on the precise translation. A phrase can be translated in several ways, depending on the context. Anyone who has used a translation app will know they are good, but not perfect.
Translation is usually low stakes, and we can trust a language translation AI for many applications, even if we can see it makes some mistakes. But for AIs which diagnose disease, spot when a plane engine component needs replacing, or predict drug formulations, we need to be very confident that it has reached the right answer before we can trust it.
"Many tasks performed with AI would not be possible with traditional software."
Added to this complexity is that AI conclusions may be confusing, but still be correct. NASA used AI to design an antenna against a defined set of criteria. The result would never have occurred to a human, but it was better aligned to their needs than anything a human came up with. What does one do when an AI recommends something completely counter-intuitive? It could be a breakthrough (as in NASA's case), or it could be a spectacular oversight in the AI design or training. How do we know?
All of this raises questions of trust. If we know it is not 100% accurate, we need to reach a decision about how much we trust its recommendation. This comes down to multiple factors including how accurate we are told it is, how much we believe that claim, how much control we had over the inputs, how well we understand its decision-making, what supplementary information it has provided to back up its recommendations, its past record, the consequences of it being wrong, and the user's own knowledge of the problem.
Why trust matters: examples of good and bad AI
High-profile examples of AI failure have undermined trust. But this is not the full story, plenty of AIs are also having a hugely positive impact upon organizations. Let's look at two cases that got trust wrong and two that got it right.
What went well
AI drug design
Use AI to identify drug molecules for treating OCD Algorithms were used to sift through potential compounds for an OCD treatment, checking them against a huge database of parameters. There was a dedicated focus on high-quality data acquisition and checking, and tailoring algorithms to the specific task at hand. This was achieved through close collaboration between AI and drug chemistry experts, who checked inputs and outputs throughout to ensure results could be trusted. A drug molecule ready to go into clinical trials was developed in 12 months, where the industry average is 4.5 years.
Google's Bolo
reading-tutor
Develop a speech recognition app to help children in rural India with reading skills The 'tutor' app encourages, explains and corrects the child, as they read aloud. It applied existing speech recognition and text-to-speech technology to a specific application, which was developed with a clear purpose in mind and carefully tested in 200 Indian villages. The pilot was verified by ongoing research in the field, showing 64% of children showed significant improvements in reading proficiency. The app has since been rolled out widely.
An AI to predict premature births
Identify the link between non-invasive electro-hysterography readings and premature births. An initial project suggested up to 99% accuracy. The same datasets were used in both training and validation. So, it was trained to learn about a correlation, then tested with the same data to see if that correlation existed. Given the initial data set was quite small anyway, this gave it a very high accuracy. When other researchers reproduced the models, accuracy dropped to 50%. Trust in the original accuracy claims was destroyed at a stroke. A model that looked like it should go into clinical practice was shown to be one that definitely should not.
Amazon's AI
recruitment tool
Look at applicant CVs and predict the best candidates based on similarities with previous successful hires. Models were trained by observing patterns in resumes over ten years. Most came from men due to tech industry bias. Not understanding this, the system taught itself that male candidates were preferable and started rejecting applicants for being female. As a result, it could not be trusted to make unbiased decisions. The model was scrapped. Considerable negative coverage ensued.
The level of confidence in an AI output needed before the user will trust it depends on the seriousness of the consequences of failure. Users will trust a useful low-risk AI even if it is far from perfect, but high-risk AI decisions need much greater levels of confidence in order to create trust.
Examples of AI applications and the levels of trust required
Potential negative consequences
Level of confidence needed for trusted use
Disease diagnosis Preventable
death Higher
Drug design Missed opportunities,
expensive mistakes
Oil well drilling Major financial loss
Predicative maintenance Unnecessary downtime
Mortgage recommendation Harm to customer, legal challenges
Targeted adverts Missed sales opportunities
Translation Miscommunication
Film recommendation Occasionally frustrated customers
Photo tagging Wrong photo tagged
AI created artwork Probably none Lower
There are various stages where trust can be undermined in the AI development and deployment process. In this section, we discuss the main risk factors.
Bias in training data
Unconscious gender or racial bias has often hit the headlines, usually created by applying AI to process automation without understanding the limits of the data. Amazon's Rekognition for example misidentified women and people of colour, likely due to using smaller training data sets for these groups. Such stories undermine the credibility of commercially available technology.
The AI doesn't learn incorrectly, it learns to reflect bias in its training, which reflects a bias in the real world. Prejudice is the nasty face of this, but bias in data can also extend to misplaced assumptions by scientists, doctors recording incorrect diagnoses, and even people's choice of written or recorded language.
Badly curated data
Data can also be mislabelled, or poorly curated, so that the AI struggles to make sense of it. If data is not appropriately selected, then the model will not learn how to reach the right conclusions. And if conclusions seem suspect, people won't trust it (or worse, they will trust it and make bad decisions as a result).
"If data is not appropriately selected, then the model will not learn how to reach the right conclusions."
User interfaces and explainability
Trust is not just about how good the model is, but how easy it is to use and interact with and how clear the answers are represented to the user. If the user does not feel they can input the information they want, they are likely to be suspicious of the result. If the interface is overly complex or the results presented in a confusing way, or with no explanation as to how they were reached (even if they are correct), it will quickly be abandoned. Even something simple like a film recommendation is much more trustable if you can see what aspects of viewing history led to it.
"If users don't feel they can input the information they want, they are likely to be suspicious of the result."
Bias in the real world
Many AIs continue to learn post-deployment, but they are not necessarily well prepared for the complexities of real-world data. Famously, Microsoft's Tay, an artificially intelligent chatbot, was designed to learn from interactions it had with real people on Twitter. Some users decided to feed it offensive information, which it had not been designed to deal with appropriately. Within 24 hours Tay had to be deactivated and withdrawn for spreading deeply upsetting opinions.
Malicious attacks
AI is susceptible to new malicious attacks in ways that are poorly understood by users. AIs, which appear to take human decisions, can be fooled in ways that humans cannot.
In a test case, an AI was trained to recognize images. By changing just one pixel in an image, researchers fooled the AI, causing it to wrongly label what it saw (sometimes very wide of the mark, one thought a stealth bomber was a dog). Tesla's self-driving image recognition systems have been tricked by placing stickers on roads and signs causing them to suddenly accelerate or change lanes.
Lack of AI transparency
Sitting above all these issues is a fear fed by AIs lack of transparency. Not only do the end-users not understand how AIs make their decisions, in many cases nor do their makers.
Apple's credit card, backed by Goldman Sachs, was investigated by regulators after customers complained that the card's lending algorithms discriminated against women. No-one from Apple or Goldman was able to justify the output or describe how the algorithm worked. The apparent correlation between gender and credit doesn't necessarily mean one is causing the other, but it creates suspicion that bias has crept in. Without transparency, it's impossible to know – and that makes it hard to trust.
"Not only do end-users not understand how AIs make their decisions, in many cases, neither do their makers."
Despite the risks discussed in this paper, AI delivers huge value when done well. And away from the negative headlines, it is often done very well.
The problems usually come when poor processes –and lack of experience – lead to poor choices: of the wrong algorithm, bad data, inadequate verification, poor interfaces, or lack of postdeployment support. These errors are often baked in from the outset with fundamental mistakes in initial scoping and design, caused by a lack of understanding about AI, and of the real-world problem it solves. These all undermine trust.
As AI plays an ever-increasingly important role in our lives, we need to design it to be trusted. This goes beyond data scientists designing an algorithm that learns about correlations and works on test data. AI must be designed as a whole product, with a set of support services around it, that allows the user to trust its outputs. Doing so needs a rigorous approach to AI development.
In this final section, we outline five key parameters for creating trusted AI.
1) Trusted AI is Assured
A data-driven decision is only as trusted as the data that underpins it.
The most obvious aspect of trusted AI is ensuring it does what it is supposed to. Because AI learns from data, that data must be reliable. You can train an AI to recognize cats and dogs by feeding it lots of labeled images of each. But if some cats are labeled as dogs, some are not labeled, or some show a completely different animal, the AI will learn incorrectly and make incorrect decisions. If all images of dogs are in the snow, the AI may learn to detect snow rather than dogs.
As soon as it makes mistakes, users will stop trusting it. This may not matter too much for classifying cats and dogs, but it matters a lot for classifying images of healthy vs precancerous cells.
Trusted AIs must use a well-designed model, and be trained and tested on data that is proven to be accurate, complete, from trusted sources, and free from bias. Capturing that data requires rigorous processes around data collection and curation. Those designing an assured AI model should examine AI inputs and ask:
Does this data accurately represent the system to be modeled?
Does the data contain confounding or irrelevant information?
How will I know that the data is of sufficient quality?
Is the underlying data biased and how can I tell?
Are my assumptions about data collection biased?
"Trusted AIs must use a well-designed model. They must be trained and tested on data that's proven to be accurate, complete, from trusted sources, and free from bias."
2) Trusted AI is explainable
A functioning model is not enough, users need to understand how it works. The AI earns trust by backing up its recommendations with transparent explanations and further detail.
If a bank turned you down for a mortgage, you'd expect to know why. Was it past or existing debt? Was it an error? Did they confuse you with someone else? Knowing the reason allows you to move forward in the most constructive manner. For the bank, it allows them to spot faults, retain customers, and improve processes.
It's the same for AI. A recommendation is much more useful if you understand how and why it was made. Explainability allows the user to see if the AI supports their own intuition (eg about a disease diagnosis or the best way to make a new material), or helps them question it. And it allows developers to spot errors in the AI's learning and remedy them.
A responsibly designed AI will have tools to analyze what data was used, its provenance, and how the model weighted different inputs, then report on that conclusion in clear language appropriate to the user's expertise.
Explainability may also involve some trade-off between raw predictive power and transparency of interpretation. If AI cannot fully explain its outcome, trust may still be built in some cases through rigorous validation to show it has a high success rate and by ensuring the user has the information they need to understand that validation.
Those designing AI to be explainable should ask:
What could be known in principle about the working of this AI?
Does the model need to be fully interpretable or are post hoc explanations sufficient?
Can the AI rationalize why it decided to offer the user this piece of clarifying information, rather than another?
How consistent is the given answer with previous examples?
Does too much transparency make the AI vulnerable to attack?
Does the information on offer meet the accountability needs of different users?
3) Trusted AI is human
A trusted AI is intuitive to use. Netflix would be less successful if users had to enter a complex set of parameters to get film recommendations. But instead, it automatically presents films you may like based on your history or search terms, in an easy to navigate interface, and sometimes even tells you why it recommended them (Because you watched…).
An intuitive interface, consistently good recommendations, and easy-to-understand decisions, all help the user come to trust it over time.
Intuitive doesn't always mean simple. A 'simple' smartphone app may use very intuitive guided decision-making. A drug property prediction platform can expect advanced chemistry knowledge from its user and display complex information in a manner appropriate for an expert to understand and interact with.
The complexity of these 'guided decisions' must be matched to the user's knowledge. Equally, the time it takes the user to fully trust the AI will be relative to the complexity and risk of failure.
Making AI usable for humans means understanding the end-user and how they interact and learn over time. Those designing AIs should ask:
What does each user need to understand about why the AI did what it did?
How should we communicate with users and collect feedback?
Why would users not trust this AI?
What reassurances are they likely to need?
What training and support are needed for different users?
Should the system allow users to ask for more details?
How can we retain confidence if the AI gets things wrong?
How do we make users feel the AI is accountable?
4) Trusted AI is legal and ethical
A trusted AI should reach decisions that are fair and impartial, with privacy and ethical concerns given equal weight to accuracy.
An AI may conclude that certain groups are more likely to re-offend or default on loans. Whilst this may be true at a group level (for broader socioeconomic reasons), it does not mean an individual from that group is more likely to do so. An AI using this as a decision making factor creates undue prejudice and opens its user up to legal challenges.
Those designing AI to be ethical and legally compliant should ask:
Why are we building this AI at all?
Are we aligned with prevailing ethical standards?
Is it fair and impartial?
Is it proportionate in its decisions?
How is it governed?
Are we honest about what we claim it can do?
Are we transparent about what it's doing, or is it doing something else behind the scenes?
"An AI may conclude that certain groups are more likely to re-offend or default on loans."
5) Trusted AI is performant
Finally, a trusted AI continues to work after deployment.
Too many AIs work well in a controlled environment but fall over once deployed, either because they are not ready for the complexities of real-world data, or because they have not been designed to integrate into the users working life (either technically or practically). Users will quickly lose trust in an AI they see making less and less reliable decisions.
A truly performant AI is futureproofed for throughput, accuracy, robustness, security, balancing raw predictive power with transparent interpretation, whilst remaining aligned to genuine business needs.
Those designing AI to perform in the real world should examine AI outputs and ask:
Does this AI actually solve the intended business problem?
Do we understand the needed levels of throughput and robustness?
Do we understand the required output quality?
What safety barriers are needed in case the AI makes a mistake?
How robust is my testing, validation, and verification policy?
Is the in-service AI protected against adversarial attacks?
Do we have a plan to continually assess and improve in-service performance?
Do we know when and how the in-service model could become invalid?
"Those designing AI to perform in the real world should examine AI outputs."
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About the authors of the report:
Antoine Aymer, Strategic Portfolio Director at Sogeti
John has made a career out of unpeeling the onion of creativity and innovation. He brings eclectic experience to the question of 'how' - teaching at Harvard Business School and the MIT Media Lab, producing feature films and theater, starting high-tech ventures and sharing the bandstand with Frank Zappa and the original Mothers of Invention.
John is a highly sought-after thought leader and self-styled 'innovation activist. His many published works reflect a diverse career and entrepreneurial mindset.
Albert Tort, another author from Sogeti Sogeti
John has made a career out of unpeeling the onion of creativity and innovation. He brings eclectic experience to the question of 'how' -
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teaching at Harvard Business School and the MIT Media Lab, producing feature films and theater, starting high-tech ventures and sharing the bandstand with Frank Zappa and the original Mothers of Invention.
Another author here! From Capgemini
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information :in our 2 player game, which is a fun game for those who like fighting games, the graphics are made like cartoon characters. the game can play against 1 person computer. after the game is installed, you can learn the keys to be used in the game from the main menu. in addition, the main menu used in the fight characters in the game available in our game first after learning the Keys during the game using combinations to reduce the energy of our opponent must make strokes. we can make a punch, a kick combo combos.


text:
Small Business Running Your Office
Outsource your daily tasks and boost your productivity
nortonrsx / Getty Images
We publish unbiased reviews; our opinions are our own and are not influenced by payments from advertisers. Learn about our independent review process and partners in our advertiser disclosure.
Michael Kurko is a freelance writer who has worked with brands including Software Advice, Fit Small Business, and Fast Capital 360. He is an expert in small business marketing, finance, wealth management, and small business technology.
Virtual personal assistant services help business owners, executives, and entrepreneurs outsource time-consuming tasks, saving them time and money they can use to run their business.
Virtual assistants (VAs) can assist with simple tasks like scheduling appointments and handling simple correspondence to writing social media marketing campaigns and acting as a business's customer support. Best of all, because they can accomplish tasks handled by multiple employees without needing to be paid a salary or benefits, virtual assistants can save business owners up to 78% on operating costs each year.
We looked at over a dozen virtual personal assistant services and chose the best based on skills offered, price, ease of use, and more. Here are our top picks.
The Best Virtual Personal Assistant Services
Time etc: Best Overall
MyTasker: Runner-Up, Best Overall
BELAY: Best for Highly Qualified VAs
Fancy Hands: Best for Short Tasks
WoodBows: Best Service Guarantee
Uassist.ME: Best for Bilingual VAs
Prialto: Best for Executives
Time etc
Founded in 2007, Time etc's virtual assistant team is led by Penni Pike who served as the personal assistant to Virgin Group founder Richard Branson for 31 years. Today the company offers virtual assistants to over 10,000 companies. We chose it as the best overall because it offers dedicated VAs, unlimited tasks, and the ability to roll over unused hours.
Time etc claims that it offers only U.S.-based VAs with an average of 12 years experience and vetted using a 10-step selection process. Skills offered by VAs include administration and organization, writing, marketing and social media, researching, sales administration, and more.
Time etc users get access to a dedicated virtual assistant who gets to know their business inside and out as well as access to VAs with specific skillsets for no extra cost. There is no limit to how many tasks users can request from their VA and they can even invite friends and colleagues to use their account.
Time etc lets users request services online or via a mobile app, email, or by phone. Urgent task requests are available at no extra cost, and the company offers a 100% money-back guarantee, same-day turnaround, and the option to cancel services anytime.
Time etc offers virtual assistant packages priced by total monthly hours with no setup costs. The first task is free and any unused hours can be rolled over into the next month for up to 30 days.
10 hours: $270 per month ($27 per hour)
40 hours: $1,000 per month ($25 per hour)
Send unlimited tasks
Dedicated U.S. assistant
Add extra assistants (free)
Add extra users (free)
Unused hours rollover
MyTasker
India-based MyTasker was founded in 2012 to offer 24/7 virtual assistant services in any country and time zone. We chose it as our runner-up because it offers skilled VAs in a supervised environment, a generous free trial, and flexible pricing.
Rather than relying on a network of work-from-home virtual assistants, MyTasker employs over 100 VAs who work in one office with 24/7 security camera monitoring for additional accountability and security. VA skills include administrative assistance, accounting, writing and editing, web design and development, digital marketing, and IT support.
Unlike other services that offer dedicated virtual assistants to their clients, MyTasker assigns incoming requests to the most qualified VA available. This allows MyTasker to respond quickly to emergency requests. Clients do have the option to get a dedicated, full-time virtual assistant, however, who will also prepare a backup VA with well-documented notes and procedures.
MyTasker can assign an account manager to any user needing VAs with multiple skills. This point of contact will help brainstorm and scope the needs of each user and collaborate on implementation strategies.
MyTasker offers both monthly plans priced by total hours, pay-as-you-go pricing, and pricing for a dedicated, full-time virtual assistant. The company also offers a $1 trial with a relationship manager who will assess the user's needs and suggest the right plan. Discounts are available for paying for three months, six months, or one year at a time.
10 hours: $140 per month
100 hours: $900 per month
Full-Time Virtual Assistant
Available five days a week for any business hours
Originally founded in 2010 to help pastors and churches outsource their administrative work, BELAY has grown into a provider of virtual assistants for small and large businesses nationwide. We chose it as the best for highly qualified VAs because it offers its clients dedicated, U.S.-based, college-educated, career professionals.
BELAY claims that its services are ideal for executives, entrepreneurs, small businesses, attorneys, consultants, and more. The company uses a rigorous search process to find seasoned, remote professionals in the U.S. with proven experience in their careers, including virtual assistants, bookkeepers, website specialists, and social media strategists. BELAY mostly hires assistants with bachelor's degrees or higher and boasts an acceptance rate lower than Harvard's.
BELAY also uses a simple three-step process to onboard new clients. First, they meet with a team member to discuss their needs. Next, a client is assigned a Client Success Consultant who works with them step by step through the process. Finally, the consultant works with the client to find the right talent for their needs.
BELAY goes above and beyond some of the other services by supplying additional support and education for its clients. The company offers a number of webinars, e-books, downloads, courses, and more to help businesses learn how to use remote workers to help them grow.
BELAY only offers prices for clients who request and complete a full consultation. Third-party sources indicate that the company charges a one-time $495 setup fee with pricing for assistants ranging from $38 to $45 per hour with a minimum of 10 hours per week.
Founded in 2010, Fancy Hands offers U.S.-based virtual assistant services to clients and around the world. We chose it as the best for short tasks because it allows users to request quick or recurring tasks as well as a dedicated virtual assistant with budget-friendly pricing.
Fancy Hands offers two types of requests. A standard request is for a maximum of 20 minutes of work, is answered in less than 24 hours, and is best for research or tasks that involve a lot of back and forth. If a request takes longer than 20 minutes, the assistant will communicate with the client to discuss how many requests it will use up and request approval.
Live requests connect users with an assistant via text or webchat for requests up to a maximum of 10 minutes of work. Live requests are charged by the minute so a request that takes 12 minutes will count as two requests, leaving the user eight more minutes for their second request.
Users can also request recurring tasks that can be set to repeat daily, weekly, monthly, or on weekdays. Fancy Hands will also send an email one day prior giving users the option to skip or stop the request completely. Any unused requests are rolled over into the next month.
Like most virtual assistant services, Fancy Hands offers monthly pricing by the total amount of requests. Users can also request a dedicated VA billed by the minute that they can communicate using any tools they prefer (email, Slack, etc.).
Standard and Live Requests
Three requests: $17.99 per month ($6 per request)
Five requests: $29.99 per month ($6 per request)
15 requests: $74.99 per month ($5 per request)
30 requests: $149.99 per month ($5 per request)
Up to 20 minutes of work
Rollover requests
Referring new users get free months
Recurring requests
VIP customer service
WoodBows
The mission of WoodBows is to "free up as much time as possible for business owners, entrepreneurs, and executives." The company boasts over 1,000 clients and a 98.4% client retention rate. We chose it as the best service guarantee because it offers its customers a staggering 200% money-back guarantee.
WoodBows provides dedicated, English-speaking virtual assistants in the U.S., Philippines, and India. The company selects only the top 3% of the VA applicants it receives and only hires college-educated candidates with 10 or more years of experience in their fields. WoodBows virtual assistants are available for bookkeeping, accounting, real estate, software development, digital and social media marketing, customer support, writing, and graphic and web design.
Every WoodBows client is assigned a dedicated virtual assistant who can be reached by video, phone, or web chat any time of the day or night. Dedicated VAs are also responsible for managing other assistants with specific skills so clients don't have to worry about interviewing or selecting multiple assistants.
All VAs work from well-supervised offices and offer 24/7 support. Most importantly, if a client is not satisfied with their experience, WoodBows will refund 200% of the money the client spent during that month.
WoodBows offers pricing for both U.S.-based virtual assistants and VAs based in the Philippines and India.
Philippines/India-Based VAs
4 Hours Weekly Plan
$49.90 per week ($12.48 per hour)
Additional hours: $13.99 per hour
Four hours of task work
Dedicated, part-time virtual assistant
Dedicated, U.S.-based account manager
No contract; cancel anytime
Staff tracking system
Work in any time zone
Video chat/call with virtual team
10 Hours Weekly Plan
$99.90 per week ($9.99 per hour)
10 hours of task work
All 4 Hours Weekly Plan features
U.S.-Based VAs
$149.90 per week ($29.99 per hour)
Five Hours of Task Work
Dedicated, part-time U.S. virtual assistant
Uassist.ME
El Salvador-based Uassist.ME was founded in 2009 to offer bilingual English/Spanish virtual assistants who are highly skilled in secretarial and administrative duties. We chose it as the best for bilingual VAs because it specializes in fully bilingual, dedicated, college-graduated virtual assistants.
Uassist.ME offers virtual assistants in the areas of technology, real estate, consultancy, design, development, advertising, and more. In addition to being fully bilingual in Spanish and English, its VAs are college-educated and well-versed with U.S. culture, with most having either studied or lived in the U.S.
Users can choose between a full-time assistant and a full-time support team. While a full-time assistant is equivalent to a dedicated VA, a full-time support team offers a point of contact who distributes work between team members. A team lead or full-time assistant can be contacted via phone, email, Skype, WhatsApp, or any form of communication users prefer.
Uassist.ME has gone out of its way to assure U.S. clients of its service reliability since they are based offshore. All VAs work out of supervised offices with reliable VoIP for making calls and multiple dedicated internet connections with multiple backups.
Uassist.ME offers plans based on virtual assistants, design and development assistants, and industry-specific assistants (e-commerce, real estate, administration). All pricing plans include unlimited calls throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Virtual Assistant Plans
20-Hour Plan
Fully equipped workstation
Direct supervisor
U.S. phone number
Unlimited U.S. calls
Shared Assistant Plan
Dedicated U.S. phone number
Full-Time Assistant Plan
All Shared Assistant Plan features
Design and Development Plans
20-Hour Package
Back-up electricity
All 20-Hour Package features
Two to four hours per day
Backup assistant
Full-Time Package
Eight hours per day
Back office support
Bookkeeping, billing, invoicing
Prialto
Prialto is a U.S.-based virtual assistant company offering virtual assistants for executive teams. The company is headquartered in Portland, Oregon, with a global network of talent in Asia and Central America. We chose it as the best for executives because it focuses exclusively on providing virtual administrative assistants to executives, entrepreneurs, and businesses.
Prialto differs from the other providers we reviewed because it only offers VAs for executive teams, business owners, sales professionals, high-growth startups, service professionals, and real estate professionals. Rather than assigning a single virtual assistant, the company offers clients a team with a project manager, primary assistant, back-up assistant, and an internal manager.
Prialto trains its virtual assistants to be proficient in popular administrative tools and tasks. Once a client is onboarded, the company will work with users to get their assistant trained on any specific processes. Assistants can be reached via email, chat, or phone and are monitored and coached for quality as needed.
All of Prialto's virtual assistants work in offices secured with desktop monitoring, security cards, IP restrictions, video monitoring, and more. Additionally, all client processes are documented and a back-up is trained if a client's primary assistant is sick or on vacation.
Prialto offers simple pricing without any extra fees or hourly charges. Rates are $1,200 per month and include at least 55 hours per month of support (about 2.5 hours per day), no overage fees if a client is over by 10% to 15% on a day or in a month, an engagement manager, and a trained back-up VA.
What Is a Virtual Personal Assistant Service?
A virtual assistant service offers skilled remote assistants who can help business owners with a variety of tasks they would otherwise have to do themselves or pay an employee to do. This can be anything from responding to emails and customer service requests to updating a website or offering technical support.
Most services offer their clients either a dedicated virtual assistant and access to assistants with other skills as needed or a dedicated virtual assistant who can organize and outsource tasks outside of their skillset for the client.
How Do Virtual Personal Assistant Services Work?
Virtual personal assistant services start by setting up a meeting with a client to scope their needs. Then the service either assigns a dedicated assistant who matches those skills or an account manager who can delegate tasks to the right individuals.
Virtual assistant services make it easy for users to request tasks directly with their VA by email, phone, or chat. These services offer pricing plans based on the total number of hours users can request each month or week.
Virtual assistant services focus on offering educated and trained professionals who can handle nearly any task capably and professionally. Since many services are located outside of the U.S., they strive to provide English-speaking assistants who are available during U.S. business hours and often work in secure and supervised offices.
How Much Do Virtual Personal Assistant Services Cost?
Personal assistant services are offered in monthly plans priced by the total amount of requests, usually translated as hours, available to a client each month. Pricing ranges between $14 to $44 per hour with the smallest package available coming in at around 10 hours per month.
Higher-priced packages typically reflect additional available hours and sometimes include additional features, like a back-up assistant and an account manager. Assistants with other skillsets are often available for an additional hourly rate as needed.
Are Virtual Personal Assistant Services Worth the Cost?
Small business owners are often caught at that tipping point between having too much to do every day that distracts them from their business and not enough money to hire full-time employees to handle the overflow work instead.
A virtual assistant can bridge that gap by handling a variety of tasks as needed for a reasonable hourly rate, freeing up time for owners to focus on the work that helps their business grow. Even many large businesses employ VAs rather than taking on the expense of full-time salaried assistants.
How We Chose the Best Virtual Personal Assistant Services
We looked at over a dozen personal assistant services for this review. We made sure to choose providers with well-trained and educated assistants whether they were based in the U.S. or in another country. Reliability was also an important consideration, so providers that offered security, supervision, project managers, and backup assistants were also high on our list.
Finally, we wanted to find providers with affordable rates and multiple pricing plans that could meet the needs of both small and large businesses. The point of a virtual assistant is to save businesses time and money while helping them get more done. As a result, it didn't make sense to choose service with exorbitant fees beyond the budget of most small businesses.
The Balance requires writers to use primary sources to support their work. These include white papers, government data, original reporting, and interviews with industry experts. We also reference original research from other reputable publishers where appropriate. You can learn more about the standards we follow in producing accurate, unbiased content in our editorial policy .
Best of Budgets. "10 Virtual Assistant Statistics Every Freelancer Must Know in 2020." Accessed November 25, 2020.
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Rolex - New Cellini Collection: Time, Date and Dual Time
Rolex presented several new models at BaselWorld 2014, including the new Cellini collection consisting of 3 main lines - Time, Date and Dual Time - for a total of 12 models. The dial of the Cellini Time (ref. 50505) line features stylised, elongated Roman numerals and stretched applique hour markers. The Cellini Date (ref. 50515) adds a date function via a hand on a small sub-dial at 3 o'clock. The Cellini Dual Time (ref. 50525) indicates the time in two time zones simultaneously and feature a small day/night indicator in an aperture on the sub-dial for the second time zone.
Rolex presented several new models at BaselWorld 2014, including the new Cellini collection consisting of 3 main lines - Time, Date and Dual Time - for a total of 12 models.
Dedicated to Benvenuto Cellini, goldsmith and sculptor of the Italian Renaissance, the new collection is a celebration of classicism with sober lines and noble materials.
The round 39 mm cases are available exclusively in polished white or Everose gold cast by Rolex in its own foundry. The design is characterised by a double bezel, one domed and the second fluted. The fluting is also present on the case back, serving to screw it down. The case back is domed as seen in models of the past.
The dials are either black or white lacquered for the Time line or decorated with a black or silver-plated classic "rayon flammé de la gloire" guilloche motif for the Date and Dual Time lines.
The dial of the Cellini Time (ref. 50505) line features stylised, elongated Roman numerals and stretched applique hour markers, which are divided by a minute track that has been moved towards the centre of the dial, closer to the tips of the hands.
The Cellini Date (ref. 50515) adds a date function via a hand on a small sub-dial at 3 o'clock.
The Cellini Dual Time (ref. 50525) indicates the time in two time zones simultaneously and features a small day/night indicator in an aperture on the sub-dial for the second time zone.
All the new Cellini models are water resistant to 50 metres and feature a self-winding mechanical movement, certified as a chronometer and entirely manufactured by Rolex. Beating at 28,800 vibrations per hour, it offers a power reserve of approximately 48 hours.
Time and Watches | The watch blog: Rolex - New Cellini Collection: Time, Date and Dual Time
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ur_03CLilAw/UzLXMTTlTWI/AAAAAAAAEuQ/p1aghsx7Y8A/s1600/Rolex_Cellini_DualTime_side.jpg
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ur_03CLilAw/UzLXMTTlTWI/AAAAAAAAEuQ/p1aghsx7Y8A/s72-c/Rolex_Cellini_DualTime_side.jpg
https://www.timeandwatches.com/2014/03/rolex-new-cellini-collection-time-date.html


questionnaire is a topic covered in the Taber's Medical Dictionary.
Venes, Donald, editor. "Questionnaire." Taber's Medical Dictionary, 23rd ed., F.A. Davis Company, 2017. Taber's Online, www.tabers.com/tabersonline/view/Tabers-Dictionary/730926/all/questionnaire.
Questionnaire. In: Venes D, ed. Taber's Medical Dictionary. 23rd ed. F.A. Davis Company; 2017. https://www.tabers.com/tabersonline/view/Tabers-Dictionary/730926/all/questionnaire. Accessed April 24, 2019.
Questionnaire [Internet]. In: Venes D, editors. Taber's Medical Dictionary. F.A. Davis Company; 2017. [cited 2019 April 24]. Available from: https://www.tabers.com/tabersonline/view/Tabers-Dictionary/730926/all/questionnaire.


The search for the best interior design firm to help you with improving your home can lead you in many directions. You could live in a very large city, and as a result of that, there could be many different possibilities. The only way that you will know if you are working with the right company is if you are able to look at reviews. These reviews will show you which companies are actually providing the best benefits for people that would like to use these services. Here is a quick overview of what you can expect from our company in terms of interior design possibilities.
Our company is able to do many different things in terms of completely redesigning the inside of your house. They will look at the available space, consider where loadbearing walls are, and where they are not, so they can consider as many possibilities as they can. They will present these ideas to you in a schematic which can be printed out or digitally displayed. This will give you a rough idea on how much it will cost, and how long it will take, in order to make these changes.
How Long Will It Take To Complete These Changes?
It's only going to take a few weeks to get the many different designs, and then choose one that looks the most promising. We will make sure that you are completely satisfied with the different ideas that we present, and will complete everything in a timely manner. You will know exactly how much it will cost which will include the fees for the services that will be provided, and also how much it will be for the contractors that will do much of the work. It is this combination of our design techniques, and the labor of these professionals, that will help you make these changes to your home.
How Soon Can These Changes Be Made?
These changes can easily be made by any date that is good for you. Of course, it depends on our schedule. If we already have multiple projects planned in the next few weeks, it could take some time before we will be able to help you with your home. During this time you are waiting, you can make further considerations on what it is that you would like to do, perhaps making changes along the way. We will accommodate those changes, and show you how everything will look, so that we can begin to complete the project that you ultimately approved.
Even if you have never worked with in interior design company before, we will make this very easy for you. It's only going to take us a week or two to complete most projects. It could take an even shorter period of time if it is something simple such as a bathroom or living room remodel. If you are doing something extensive such as completely remodeling your kitchen, or multiple rooms in your home, a couple weeks will be necessary most of the time. Give our company a call to find out how we can help you change interior layout of your household.


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About Masterpiece Multimedia ® and our
Film, Video & Audio Transfer Services
Masterpiece Multimedia has serviced more than 11,000 families and businesses for 18 years as the Malvern region's premier multimedia company. Our store in Havertown has added convenience to our Lower Merion, Haverford and Philadelphia customers. Our newly added Limerick PA anex allows for our cutomers from the Limerick, Royersford, Pottstown and surrounding areas the convenience of drop off. Customers have benefited from our expertise in multimedia conversion services, multimedia transfer services, video production, video editing and multimedia duplication services, including high and low volume CD and DVD duplication, disc printing, packaging and fulfillment services. While much of our business is walk-in, mail order is very safe. We have a great working relationship with UPS who never leaves any packages outside when we are closed due to the important nature of what we receive from our customers..
Masterpiece Multimedia, located in Malvern, Havertown & Limerick, Pa., offers clients world-class service with a community feel. We take pride in our work, customer service and ability to guide clients through their multimedia projects.
Masterpiece Multimedia was founded by Mike Baskin in 2001. Mike has a degree in television and radio production from Ithaca College, with a concentration in video. Mike's passion for video and TV production began in high school, where he produced, directed and edited numerous sporting events broadcasted on the TETV public access station.
Starting out in the basement of his family home, Mike quickly grew his business through his expertise in digital photography, video production and video editing. He soon established a retail store in Malvern in 2002.
In 2011, Masterpiece Multimedia began to adapt to changes in the video field. As high-definition cameras, HDTV and Blu-ray began to be more common in the home, equipment was upgraded to handle customers' needs in HD.
In July 2013, our retail store opened in Bala Cynwyd. In February of 2018 our Limerick store opened.
In 2017, we developed our own brand of Flash Drives called MM-Bytes. In 2019 we will launch our own online file storage platform.
Masterpiece Multimedia specialties include transferring and converting old media into new media; Media dating back to the early 1900's all the way through modern day media. We have built a business around the needs of our customers. We consider ourselves experts in this field and work with customers to deliver to their standards and expectations. All of our services are customizable and do not follow a single equation.
Movie Film: 8mm Film, Super 8 Film, Super 8-Sound, 16mm Film and 16mm Sound
Audio: LP/Vinyl Record Album (45, 33⅓, 78), Audio Cassette, Microcassette, Minicassette, 8-Track Cartridges, Reel-to-Reel, CD Ripping, to and from MP3, WAV, AC3, M4A and WMA
Video: VHS, S-VHS, VHS-C, Hi8 (NTSC and PAL), Digital 8, Betamax, Betacam, Betacam SP, Betacam SX, Digital Beta, U-matic ¾, DVC Pro, HDV, MiniDV, Full Size DV, DV Cam
Digital Files: We can work with over 70 different file types and codecs. Standards are .MOV, .MP4, .AVI, .MPEG, .WMV, .M2T. We can transfer from or to any of these and more. We can also edit from these and more.
Still Film and Photographs: 35 mm Slides, Black and White Photos, Color Photos, Digital Photos
Digital Discs: CD, DVD, Blu-ray, SD Cards, Micro SD, Sony Cards and a variety of other Media Cards. We can duplicate these in-house and print on discs in-house.
Masterpiece Multimedia has a contract with the Tredyffrin/Easttown School District. Our video production services include broadcasting school board meetings, student sporting events, artistic productions and graduation on Public Access TV. This is part of a co-curricular student education program.
After graduating from Ithaca College, Michael produced national traffic reports for Navtec and XM radio. While producing, he began freelancing as a videographer. Through the early stages of customer retention, Mike realized there was a wide gap in the needs of customers and began to build his own business relating to media services. The idea turned into Masterpiece Multimedia.
Michael has also been a long time volunteer with Berwyn Fire Company where he has served as a board member, EMT, Fire Police Officer and many other positions. He currently is the Captain of Emergency Medical Services. In his spare time, he enjoys spending time with his family and dog, seeing live concerts and cruise vacations.
After Graduating from Pope John Paul II High School in 2012, Brendan went off to Cabrini University to study Communications mainly focusing in Video Production and Radio. While at Cabrini Brendan was part of the campus news station LOQation News, where he was a Graphics Supervisor and a Video Package Producer. Brendan also spent time on the schools radio station, Cavalier Radio 89.1 WYBF-FM. On the station Brendan had a weekly two hour radio show as well as serving as the stations Production Manager.
After Graduation from Cabrini in 2016, Brendan worked as a Picture Day Photographer, as well as a part time News Producer for an online radio station (iradiophilly.com) before joining the Masterpiece Multimedia team. In his free time, Brendan likes to make short videos with his friends, watch movies, as well as going to live concerts in the Philadelphia area.


Is 61850 the best Illinois zip code for your business?
Now you can skip hours of internet research and jump straight to getting answers with our meaningful at-a-glance Demographics Spreadsheet Report. With the most current & most popular demographic data, it's the perfect starting point for your research about 61850 and the rest of Illinois.
All 61850 population data above are from the US Census Bureau.
The population data for 61850 are from the Census' American Community Survey 2017 5-year estimates. The demographic data for 61773, 62015, 62321, and 62560 are the most current, comparable demographics available from the US Census Bureau, are from the American Community Survey 2017 5-year estimates, and were downloaded on December 2017. Check out our FAQ section for more details.
With 462 people, 61850 is the 1061st most populated zip code in the state of Illinois out of 1,382 zip codes. But watch out, 61850, because 61773 with 460 people and 62015 with 461 people are right behind you.
The largest 61850 racial/ethnic groups are White (98.3%) followed by Two or More (1.3%) and Black (0.4%).
In 2017, the median household income of 61850 residents was $51,964. 61850 households made slightly more than 62321 households ($51,961) and 62560 households ($51,917) . However, 7.6% of 61850 residents live in poverty.
The median age for 61850 residents is 44.7 years young.
Looking for 61850, IL Starter Report PDF? Click Here.


"Newly formed startup company Outlaaw has recently launched its first product on the crowdfunding site Kickstarter.com. "The Stand" is a sound-enhancing iPhone dock designed from a solid block of cylindrical aluminum."
This is a Kickstarter project and it is just over halfway funded. I'm hoping they get the money for this as it really is a cool little accessory. The only problem with things like this, for me, is that with an iPhone 5 coming out this year, I don't want to get stuck with a $50.00 USD piece of aluminum that is incompatible. What are your thoughts?


The 2017 Geelong Cup is a Group 3 race that takes place at Geelong Racecourse in Melbourne on the fourth Wednesday of October each year.
Run over a distance of 2,400 metres, the Geelong Cup is run as part of the Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival.
The Geelong Cup is run under open handicap conditions and is worth [cf "prize_money"] in prize money. Horses that win the Geelong Cup are granted automatic entry into the prestigious Melbourne Cup.
The Geelong Cup was first run in 1872 when it was won by a horse named Flying Scud. The race is an excellent form guide for the Melbourne Cup, with many horses successfully completing the Geelong Cup and Melbourne Cup double. Horses that have achieved this include Media Puzzle (2002), Americain (2010) and Dunaden (2011).
Horses that perform well in races such as the Group 2 Herbert Power Stakes and the Group 1 Caulfield Cup often go on to run in the Geelong Cup, however, the field is predominantly made up of Melbourne Cup hopefuls.
The Geelong Cup is often targeted by foreign horses, either as a means of gaining entry to the Melbourne Cup or in order to get a preparatory race in on Australian soil.
The Geelong Cup was inaugurated in 1872 and has a very long and strong racing history. The Geelong Cup holds an important place in Victorian racing, and will no doubt continue to do so long into the future.
Notable Geelong Cup winners include Karasi (2001), On A Jeune (2005), Bauer (2008) and Leica Ding (2009).
The Geelong Cup field usually draws a fairly talented field of stayers. As a Group 3 race not far out of Melbourne, the Geelong Cup field tends to be fairly heavy with upper tier types. However, you can occasionally get some local runners in the Geelong Cup field, although in recent years they haven't performed too well.
The 2017 Geelong Cup field will be published below.
The Geelong Cup nominations usually draw a variety of types from all around. An eclectic mixture of local horses, Melbourne and interstate horses and foreign raiders tend to enter the Geelong Cup nominations. You'll notice that quite a large number of Geelong Cup nominations have Melbourne Cup aspirations, and are seeking ballot exemption via win in this race.
The 2017 Geelong Cup nominations will be published below.
Below you will find a list of Geelong Cup results and winning times since the year 2000.


Home / Blog / Garvey Park Ascot: The perfect location for Stand up Paddle Boarding!
Garvey Park Ascot: The perfect location for Stand up Paddle Boarding!
Garvey Park in Ascot, WA is a hidden treasure on the banks of the Swan River and home to the Ascot Kayak club, the largest Kayak club in Australia! The combination of Stand Up Paddle Boarding and Kayaking is a perfect synergy as the two passions for the love of being on the water come together and SUP Tonic Australia is privileged to be sharing this sensational location.
The park offers everything from the well-equipped childrens' playground, plenty of parking, abundant birdlife for the avid bird watcher, BBQ's, cycle paths and is on route along the fun Swan River Ramble where families can search for "Eric" and unlock information with their QR reader about that stop!
Garvey Park also offers views of the tiny Ron Courtney Island that sits in between Ascot and Ashfield Flats and was once attached to Garvey Park up until 1969. The island provides a fun course to paddle around on a SUP or Kayak and is a point of interest for folk who take a lunch cruise to the Upper Swan Valley on the graceful Captain Cook's "River Lady".
There is a lot to do here at the beautiful Garvey Park and if you're looking for something a little bit different consider hiring a stand up paddle board or book your SUP party and we will make your time on the water is one to remember! We can cater to almost any requirement including parties for all occasions, group lessons or corporate bookings.
If you haven't yet discovered this hidden treasure pop on down or make a plan to visit soon and be pleasantly surprised at what you will find at the end of Fauntleroy Avenue, Ascot!


Working together makes things a lot of easier. Perhaps, that is what the Polish designers, Pawel Sokol and Hanka Bajer of Polish Exit Interior Design Studio try to achieve. Designing a contemporary dwelling can be so challenging, but they successfully made one that is so appealing aesthetically. The idea behind this Eko Park 3 apartment is to create spaces with many functionalities as well as a space to display modern collection of spaces and furniture. Completed with wooden furniture, made of white lacquered oak, this apartment offers the feeling of pristine, warm environment and brightens up the spaces.
Peaking about the highlights of the apartment, the Polish duo decided to put them in the living spaces. They are including the kitchen, living room and dining room. The bedroom comes in a package along with the wardrobe and bathroom. They are connected with glass walls. In the meantime, great decoration can be found at the bathroom. It comes with bianco statuario wall as well as Zeppelin lamp from Flos installed right above the bathtub from Victor and Rolf. So, what do you think about this apartment? Which part of it that you find so interesting so that you can imitate for your home decoration?