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Roundtable – Sports Talk
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by Vijaya Cherian
in Interviews
BroadcastPro ME and Avid brought together some key sports production and broadcast specialists from the GCC to discuss the challenges of broadcasting sports events in the region and how to provide a more enriching experience to viewers. Vijaya Cherian brings you details from the roundtable.
BroadcastPro ME and Avid brought together some key sports production and broadcast specialists from the GCC to discuss the challenges of broadcasting sports events in the region and how to provide a more enriching experience to viewers. Vijaya Cherian brings you details from the roundtable
In early summer, BroadcastPro Middle East worked with Avid to bring together key behind-the-scenes sports production and broadcast specialists to find out more about the state of the region's industry, identify the missing elements that could give sports a bigger boost in the region, and discuss how technology can help enhance existing services.
Joining us for the day were Ammar Hina, Senior Broadcast Services Manager, Pro League Committee; Duncan Walkinshaw, A/Director of Programmes, beIN Sports; Mario Bayarri, CEO, Mediapro Middle East; Karim Saade, Senior Director for Sports Products, Dawri Plus, Intigral; Tony Jabbour, Head of Engineering and Operation, 7 Production; Saad Jizawi, Managing Partner, Afkart.com; Hamad Abdelrazaq, Head of Broadcast Engineering, LIVE HD; AbdulKhaleq Al Khamis, Head of Sports Operations, DMI; Meshal Al Khahtani, TV presenter for Dubai Sports Channel; Samuel Westberg, Director of Sales, LiveLike; and Paul Thompson, Director Strategic Solutions and Guillaume Godet, Director of Sports Sales EMEA from Avid.
The team at the roundtable represented different parts of the sports broadcast chain. While some – like Hina from PLC, which stands for the UAE Pro League Committee and represents all professional football competitions on the UAE national level – are responsible for the production and content broadcast from PLC competitions as well as stadiums, others such as Mario Bayarri from Mediapro, Tony Jabbour from 7 Production and Hamad Abdelrazaq from LIVE represent entities responsible for producing content as per the demands of broadcasters such as DMI and beIN, also represented at the roundtable.
Then there are the likes of Afkart.com, which supply sports promo material while also undertaking the production and distribution of sports content for all of the major broadcasters in the region; and, of course, a special addition to the mix was Karim Saade from Intigral, who heads Dawri Plus, which has around 600,000 active users every month, and brought the much-needed OTT element to the roundtable. Rounding this off was Samuel Westberg from LiveLike, a VR platform company, who explained the magic that VR could bring to sports, and the team from Avid including Guillaume Godet, who leads sports development in Avid EMEA, and Paul Thompson, who moderated the discussion.
Thompson set the scene by raising two significant questions. One, are stadiums in the region geared for modern production needs; and two, are they capable of bringing fans to the venue to watch a game?
A number of attendees pointed out that most existing stadiums are in dire need of renovation to make them ready for future sports production; no other sporting event in the GCC is able to attract as many fans to the stadium as horse racing does.
On the first point, Hina explained that each season, the UAE has fourteen stadiums that can be used "and the main challenge for me and Abdelrazaq [LIVE] is to make them ready for production, because more than half of the stadiums need to be renovated so they are ready for good high-quality broadcast quality filming".
Abdelrazaq seconded that, explaining that the main problems are the TV compounds and the lack of connectivity within stadiums.
"We have to run the cables from the OB van to inside the stadium. At the moment, most people build a studio on the pitch, but it would be ideal to know the perfect location for the studio to acquire the best picture."
However, they were also quick to add that they strive to have as many cameras and technology as required to cover a game adequately by international standards.
On being asked by Avid who dictated production requirements, both said that a mix of people and partner broadcasters influence the decision, but they also agreed that the unified plan had a predominantly editorial approach.
Hina, previously a sports TV producer with Endemol and Abu Dhabi Sports Channels, gave a recent example of how the entities involved in production and broadcast of a competition pitch in and work together.
"Recently, we had the celebration match, which was the last match of the season. We had 19 cameras inside the stadium for the multilateral feed and 14 additional cameras for the unilateral coverage. Of this, six were for Dubai Sports Channel and eight from Abu Dhabi Sport. We also had a camera placed close to Burj Khalifa for Dubai Sports Channel, while Abu Dhabi Sports also got some good aerial shots. Essentially, we have mixed productions and different people but one objective, which is to get the best out of that event. We often change the camera plan without changing the running order."
Bayarri from Mediapro, however, interjected that the most important requirement for a good production is not necessarily the number of cameras and the technologies involved, but the creative element in the coverage and the ability of the director to tell a story well.
"Most of the discussions centre around the number of cameras and the technology used, but the truth is people are interested in the story to be told, not missing anything important and having someone showing the best of what is going on. How well you can tell the story around a match is what is relevant."
Duncan Walkinshaw, who was at Sky Sports for several years before joining beIN, stated that one of the best ways to ensure good coverage was to maintain a certain standard across all parts of the chain – stadium coverage, infrastructural support at the venue or even how broadcasters cover tournaments.
"How can we ensure a certain standardisation of coverage that is uniformly recognised globally so then people can follow that? It makes it easier for people who are setting up stadiums and for the broadcaster as well, because all of them then have the same expectations in terms of coverage and also how the stadiums are connected. It makes sense for the people who are in the league, and for the facilities companies working within the stadium, and for the rights holders who are going to broadcast it. These are driven by the dominant voice of the director or someone in a similar position, and this ensures standardisation in the general coverage."
Asked to clarify, Walkinshaw elaborated that there are certain expectations about the technology used to cover these events as well as the coverage itself. While some tournaments require a minimum of 13 cameras, others require 18 and a certain connectivity benchmark.
"There are standards we expect with regards to the number of cameras, the type of cameras used, the technology and how we bring the events at the stadiums to the world. If that standard is not met, we will have concerns."
A couple of experts expressed their distress at having to iron out concerns with a new stadium in the region, stating that it took two years to resolve some of the issues that had cropped up, including the rebuilding of cabling and patching to ensure the infrastructure met international standards for coverage. Another significant concern was power, which was not taken into consideration when building the stadium.
Thompson then moved the discussion to the fan experience, asking if it was as big in the region as in the US and other countries. Typically, stadiums in the GCC have not been able to attract fans. Fans either watch games at a coffee shop or at their homes, with most users also checking a second device for additional match input.
Hina commented at this point that they did do a couple of tests with the EVS C-Cast, which allows broadcasters to stream live content, such as clips or alternative angles, from their XT3 video servers to the audience's second screen or smart TV while watching the event on TV.
Abdelrazaq added that they conducted a demo twist with VIPs at two matches and received "amazing feedback". The process of making it available to the masses, however, was ridden with complications – connectivity was poor and there was a lot of scepticism about the ability to monetise the service.
Saade interjected at this stage:"Stadiums in the US are light years ahead of us in terms of technology and fan experience. We need to have the league, the telecom operator, as well as the broadcaster and the club work together to build an ecosystem to attract the entire family to an event at the stadium. The men, women and children will go to the stadium if you create an experience that attracts them from the time they leave the house to the time they return home."
He cited the example of San Francisco's Levi's Stadium, completed two years ago at a cost of $1.6bn.
"The experience you get from the moment you enter the parking, where an app guides you to an empty slot, to ordering your food and merchandise from the comfort of your seat, makes the stadium experience very appealing to fans. Of course, there is high-density Wi-Fi across the whole stadium plus there is integration with C-Cast, which brings together all of the broadcasting elements into a single user interface. You are treated to multi-camera angles and instant replays. In addition to this, you have integration with fantasy games and you can play as you are watching the match. It is a whole ecosystem where the league, the telco operator and the broadcasters have to take the decision to elevate the level of the fan experience in general. Revenue streams will follow suit."
Thompson queried if this was ideally something that one of the three above entities should begin to take the initiative to push. Hina responded that the Pro League Committee, responsible for all professional football competitions in the UAE, was already working actively to at least kick start some of these elements.
"PLC is now working towards improving the fan zones and signage boards, which is better than what we used to do before. It is, however, imperative that we also change the culture of the people to encourage them to go and see the match in the stadium rather than watching it at houses, the majlis or at cafés. This is the main challenge for us.
"From our side, we are already making greater efforts. We are working on developing the grass roots teams [11 years and below], plus the under-14s, under-15s, under-19s and under-21s. We have leagues for each category. Also, the UAE Olympics national team for the last six years has been doing very well and is one of the best teams we have in the region. This is proof of the work that the PLC does. But in the end, it takes time to change the mindset of our people."
Bayarri pointed out at this stage that the main driver to make the shift for people to come to the stadium will be the quality of the match and how it is shared with the audience.
"It is very similar to going to the cinema. You go to the cinema to watch the movie. If the movie is not good, you will not go. Of course, if the cinema has easy access, and provides additional services like good food and beverages, it will make me feel comfortable and I am likely to spend my money while I am there. It's also likely that I will come back to watch another movie at the same cinema. Having a good facility and viewing experience is good for the property, be it a cinema producer or a football league or club, but if the football match is not of interest, if there isn't an interesting story around that match, people will not come to the stadium. To increase attendance, the broadcaster is very important but also the quality of the teams, the quality of the stories and social media play an active role in bringing in the audiences."
He cautioned, therefore, that no extra element will make up for the content itself.
"I agree that VR and C-Cast can add value to a match, but they are primarily good for people outside the stadium. The only interest I would have to be in the stadium is to watch the match and see the goals as such in person. Being able to see the replay of the goal in my mobile device at the stadium would be great, and seeing it from a 360 immersive VR perspective is, for sure, an amazing experience. But when you have 60,000 people in a stadium and all of them want to see the replay at the same time, Wi-Fi access and connectivity must be really good. That kind of connectivity would cost a minimum of $1m. And that's then difficult to recoup from monetisation on its own. At the end, people go to watch the match; mobile technology and smart stadiums will enrich their visit, but will not be the reason for them to go to a stadium."
Westberg agreed that VR will not solve all problems and would mainly work as an experience outside the stadium.
"All of the discussions that we have been talking about are the marketing activations that we need to do for the whole process to be successful. A lot of the big broadcasters in Europe have had the exact same problem of cost control. They have started to think outside the traditional box to have the content adapted to the need of the viewers with investing less money but covering it the right way. That is the key to the success of it all.
"I had the chance to speak to the head of Fox Sports in the Netherlands, who I see as thinking outside the box. They only have around 17 million viewers there, so the means are much lower than other countries. Instead of having a lot of cameras and productions that might cost 100,000 euros for one production, they placed one camera between two coaches that actually enhances the experience at a low price instead of an extra Spidercam at $40,000 for one game that they can't really afford. So they keep thinking of how to lower the costs but improve the experience, and this has been key to their success. 18 to 20 cameras will not be important. How we can possibly provide the best experience to the viewer while keeping our costs down will be key."
Hina said this is what the PLC is attempting to achieve with a camera located at Burj Khalifa and an aerial camera, as well as providing additional coverage of the main multilateral feed and the teams' dressing rooms, as well as more engagement with the viewers. He justified the use of more cameras, stating that it helps to cover up half-empty stadiums and provide more reaction shots and so on, to create the feeling of a fuller stadium and keep the viewers with the small stories inside the pitch.
Saade interjected to say that viewers today are looking to control their viewing experience.
"Giving audience control is becoming an important aspect of the OTT experience. So even if you have 24 cameras, you want to give users the option to switch to the angle they want to watch and select whether to integrate social interfaces into their viewing experience."
Thompson questioned if it would be a good idea to let the audience play the role of director for themselves. While Abdelrazaq felt it would be okay to have the audience choose their angle, he was quick to agree that giving the viewer too much control could create unnecessary disputes between fans about a goal, for example.
Even from a technology point of view, it would be "tricky for the fan to do his own production", Westberg chipped in, touting VR as offering the best of both worlds.
"The kind of quality that you get from the director and head of productions, who do an amazing job at shooting sport events, will not be possible if you didn't give them control. What's good about VR though is that you get a mix of the traditional TV signal as well as the quality of the real experience, and you can let the fan choose his content but in a controlled way that ensures a good quality experience. If you start giving all the tools to the fan, he is going to get lost in it."
Bayarri agreed: "It should be controlled. The story needs to be told by the director and the experience should be guided by the director. The director has to make sure he gets the most out of what is happening on the pitch with the means he has to do this. What you can give to the fan is the option to replay a goal on a second screen after it has been scored, but fans on their own will never be able to tell the story better than a broadcasting director."
However, they also argued that different sports events require different strategies. For F1, Saade argued that a viewer might only want to follow a driver of his choice.
Walkinshaw countered: "Most people want the story told. You may be interested in a driver, but you are also interested in the bigger picture. Otherwise, you may miss an important crash. You don't want to specifically watch only one player throughout a game. You want to get as close to that experience as you would be in the arena.
"In most cases, people will watch the story if it's being told in the best way. You can have Top Gun and watch Tom Cruise all the way through, and there might be specific rushes of Tom Cruise you can watch later, but people will come mainly to watch the movie and hear the complete story. I am convinced that 25 to 30 cameras is totally unnecessary. You could get good coverage with 12 cameras and some reverse angles. I worked for Sky Sports for 19 years, and the quality of the director and the editorial telling for the story is what is key. The number of cameras is not important."
Tony Jabbour of 7 Production concurred: "Good operations and a good creative director can even do the job with six cameras. One good cameraman is better than three."
Thompson then moved on to graphics, asking if this perhaps would improve the sports experience.
This brought the panel to a discussion on augmented graphics and the importance of statistics, on-screen graphics and so on.
Jabbour pointed out that augmented reality is very attractive, while Bayarri reiterated that graphics complement the story but cannot replace the story per se.
Godet asked if the statistics of the team and players were not important to viewers as they watched the game, and if graphics could not perhaps be used extensively to display extra information on screen. He also pointed out that football offers the opportunity to have more interstitials, extensively used in the US. Bayarri agreed that graphics could be used to reinforce the story.
Jabbour stated that when a match is going on, people prefer to watch the match and the players in action. He suggested that statistics should come later on.
Hina pointed out that although they don't show statistics during the match action, as a new addition they work with commentators to fill the new FIFA cooling breaks to provide some stories from the playout server. These are mostly one-minute, well edited clips with graphic statistics about a player, reactions to and from him, etc. The director controls this because he has both the English- and Arabic-speaking commentators beside him, he argued.
Saade pointed out that the need for statistics again depends on the nature of a sport, adding that an important driver for statistics and the education of the audience towards statistics was fantasy games.
"Fantasy gaming drives the user to accept statistics as part of the homework that he needs to do, and has become an intricate part of sport. Today, North America has around 60 million fantasy gamers and it is a $6bn industry. When people begin to invest money in players, they want to have access to advanced statistics so they can make informed choices."
Khahtani, who works as a TV presenter with Dubai Sports Channel, pointed out that statistics are important, as his viewers often ask for numbers on social media. Godet also argued that statistics could be displayed without being too invasive, to which Bayarri responded that when and how one uses graphics is crucial.
"During the match, all of the attention should be on the match. Statistics should come later and can be part of the second screen," he pointed out.
The team then returned from a short break to explore the second screen experience and how graphics could enhance it, and if it makes a difference whether a production is centralised or undertaken remotely.
Bayarri commented that audiences want to see a match uninterrupted; providing additional information or features only makes sense as part of reinforcing the live broadcast.
"There is a difference between helping the audience to understand better what is going on at the pitch and creating additional content to be used or shared after the 90 minutes are over. Special stats, different viewing angles and enhanced graphics complement and enrich live broadcasting. Once the focus on the match is over, you want to create this additional content that allows people to know more about the players, the match and the surroundings of that match.
"Fantasy gaming is popular because it allows people to sense they are part of the game. After the final whistle of the match and the kick-off of the next one, there are seven days which need to be filled in with content as the audience wants to remain connected. We call this the 'second life' experience, as we should be able to allow them to get inside and behind the scenes of football."
Godet took this opportunity to share some of his experience gained over the last 35 years in the business. He explained that at a broadcast level, one can provide three or four levels of information. On the one hand, on-screen graphics provide additional dates, scores, faults or other editorial information. There are also broadcast studios that display considerable information in the background.
Then there is the story on the pitch, which is told through augmented reality. It is used by broadcasters perhaps to add distance to the goal or some kind of route map, a representation of where the team is or the players are, and so on.
"A third level now that is added on top of all this is virtual reality, where you are shooting whatever you have and then, instead of displaying this directly on the screen, you are encoding this in a certain way so it is displayed into an immersive device. The gear is actually transforming this for your eyes and would this be totally virtual or a mix between virtual and real? It's all kinds of things."
Godet pointed out that some broadcasters are now presenting 360-degree views while others are focusing on 2D shots with an augmented VIP event.
"This is all about virtual reality, which is an immersive experience."
Godet added that this concept was used 15 years ago, when he worked at a company that was into car design solutions.
"You could enter the room and all the walls had stereoscopic screens. In essence, we entered the car virtually and navigated inside to see if everything was well placed. It's the same concept, but it has been extended into broadcast. The next generation may no longer require glass or other devices.
When that becomes possible, virtual reality will be brought faster to the audience. Stereoscopic 3D was a disaster because people had to wear glasses."
He did, however, express scepticism about any of the present generation being willing to watch a match in this format for 90 minutes.
"But maybe the new generation will," he declared optimistically, touting Avid's capability to be part of any one of these domains with ease.
"Anything that we are doing here can be tied to advanced data like statistics from any vendor, and can be tied to any tracking system, like a GPS for camel racing or horse racing. All kinds of data can be added virtually or on screen and any of the social media content can also be displayed on any of these modes. The ad director of the programme can work with the editorial team to see how they can enhance the shows and monetise them," he explained.
Thompson then queried if there was any meaning to the second screen experience and whether broadcasters will be able to benefit from the data they have. Saade defended the digital medium, stating that this is the only medium that can at present accurately profile viewers, follow their consumption patterns and how long they stay watching a game, and understand their likes and dislikes.
"One of the most important elements in broadcasting and delivery today is digital. Some networks in the region are available only through pay-TV or DTH and do not have an OTT platform. The first step is to ensure you have an OTT stream that is available on any device that the user uses. The second is to take advantage of the analytics you can gather from an OTT platform. This is what can prompt you to make better business decisions and track whether the user likes what you are giving him on the second screen. You have the opportunity to test whether your investment in a particular piece of content is worth it. If you've invested in a specific game or a feature like augmented reality, you can check how many users are actually watching that piece of video content or the augmented reality feature that you are providing and make an ROI calculation. This will influence your future decision on whether to continue such an investment. Traditional TV does not give you that level of visibility," he explained.
"The ability to do a user-revenue calculation, where you can check what kind of content he is consuming and how much that item costs you versus how much revenue you get out of that customer, is significant. In fact, you are able to better target your viewers in terms of the segments that you can target and in terms of the rate card you can charge advertisers for reaching those segments. This is very important and will lead the transition to OTT," he added.
Walkinshaw said that beIN chooses whether to introduce an app for a game based on whether it is likely to enhance the experience for the viewer and whether it truly merits that investment.
"There is just not the evidence there yet that these things are commercially valid, although the arguments for advertising on an OTT platform are much more compelling. There is so much more opportunity there for revenue, but it's also a decision on how much it can drive people, as today people still mostly buy for the linear experience."
He said most people would watch a big event like the European Championship or the Champions League on a big screen, while perhaps they would watch the smaller events on their tablet.
Bayarri said that for the big matches, people use their tabs for social media apps.
"The potential of digital is that it throws open the opportunity to interact and profile each customer, and this in turn enables you to provide customised advertising. The ability to know what your customer can buy, what kind of sports he likes and what features he uses the most are major drivers to the decision-making process."
This led to a question. Do broadcasters see OTT as a major marketing tool for linear or as a revenue generator in itself?
Saade commented that it is both.
"Linear is still king at home. Linear will still be the preferred way of consuming live sporting events at home. OTT will complement the linear offering by providing the analytics, engagement interfaces and tools necessary to complement your viewing experience."
Godet questioned if this would drive changes in MENA ad spending as it has in Europe, where the split between linear and OTT is now 50:50. Bayarri commented that pay-TV is still growing in the region and that he expects the linear numbers to rise in the coming years.
"There is, however, a transfer between linear and digital."
With regards to ad spend, he added that this is concentrated heavily on the FTA market still. Others, such as Abdelrazaq, commented that this is likely to move to a 50-50 ratio in the near future.
Walkinshaw maintained that beIN has always kept its product quality clean and maintained the integrity of the event, not filling it with pop-up ads.
Saade mentioned that this cannot be ruled out, given the recent trend among social platforms to secure broadcast rights, as Twitter recently did with the NFL. Walkinshaw agreed that this would indeed be the game-changer, when platforms like Google and Facebook vie for broadcast rights with traditional channels.
On being asked by Godet if that is a concern, Walkinshaw said that it is. He cautioned that traditional players are not adapting or changing in parallel to changing consumer habits. He expressed concern that it was impossible for someone who had the rights for an event for only three years to put a lot of investment into a product with such a short shelf life.
"The way we sleeve it and cover it hasn't changed from the way we consume it. This has to change. It is not sustainable to have an army of people go from event to event."
Saade pointed out that Facebook has a significant advantage, being able to sell all kinds of analytics about viewers and advertisers to broadcasters – their favourite players, their favourite games, the books they read, etc.
Sam from Livelike said the paradigm is similar to news, where news broadcasters break a story based on content shot on someone's mobile phone. In the meantime, they also break it on all the social media platforms, and get their journalists to go on-site and bring more meat to the story.
"This is how production value increases," he said.
Thompson queried if perhaps, in the brave new world where videos were taken by consumers and delivered by the Facebooks of this world, remote production is indeed a solution and a possibility.
He asked if remote production drives greater efficiency, and perhaps more revenue as well.
Bayarri commented that Mediapro already undertakes remote productions, because Mediapro itself is the end user and it needs to test the feasibility of remote production. He commented that it can be complicated, because while remote offers greater efficiencies, one has to be careful to provide the same quality, whether it is 4K or now 8K in some cases. It's not all about cost saving. The story must be told well, and it must provide good quality as well.
Abdelrazaq commented that when you reduce one element, you need to increase another.
"You may be able to reduce the technical elements required, but you would need to have more engineers and creative crew."
Bayarri asked that it be looked at in a positive light, where the cost saving from the technology was invested in creative human resources.
"This way, I can be assured I'm paying for quality."
Jabbour commented that his team at 7 Production successfully undertook remote coverage of a camel racing event in Qatar.
"We ran a direct fibre for 40km. It wasn't 100% remote because I had a cameraman to operate on-site, but everything was through fibre and a gallery far away was connected through GPS. It worked well and we didn't have any issues. We were using the LDX cameras, which were sending the feeds through direct fibre. It was a very successful project. People here are cagey about this and insist that the director needs to be there. I know of a company that accomplished a beautiful production for a ski event on the Alps with no one from the production team being there. It is feasible and can be done, but the end user in this region is not ready for this yet."
Hina, however, expressed concern that a director who does not understand a specific sport may not be able to approach the game with the same passion.
Walkinshaw said that we need to look at producing content for a new generation: "How we sleeve, how we change the traditional way of covering a sports event in terms of an anchor talking to two or three ex-players, etc., will change. Do we just keep adding more and more content? Do we remove studio discussions? These are just anecdotal discussions. They need to be backed up with research from different regions. It is not sustainable to make programmes as we have traditionally made them."
Thompson went on to the big question of how networks actually try to make the most of their rights.
Walkinshaw pointed out that one strategy beIN adopted during the Champions League was to simultaneously broadcast in English globally, with different sponsorships running from MENA to Australia to Asia and Canada.
"The studios were simultaneously broadcasting to the different regions. We had an American sponsorship for the American market, which was very different from what we had for the MENA or for Australia."
On a parallel note, Thompson questioned how stadium advertising worked. Bayarri gave an example of the Spanish league.
"In the Spanish league, the stadium pitch perimeter advertising is being overlaid by a different and customised advertising directly on the feed. In the most important matches, LaLiga is distributing five different feeds to five different regions with customised advertising on the perimeter for each one of the regions. This allows the commercial inventory to be multiplied, but it also opens the door for specific categories of brands that are not global to be exposed during the matches. Telcos are usually very local to each region, so this new technology allows them to contract their advertising to the real reach they want to achieve."
He also added that second screen content creation was not typically offered to linear producers. This is typically given to a new generation of production specialists who cover this specifically for OTT, he said.
In the UAE, Abdelrazaq pointed out that Etisalat provided a basic streaming of the sports, though no special production was involved. Jabbour commented that in Saudi Arabia feeds were taken from MBC, who does the production along with Al Alamaiya, and their role was limited to downlinking the signal and decoding it.
Saad of Afkaart.com, well-known for its production and distribution of sports content – documentaries as well as promos – commented that his company has always aimed to do something conceptually different.
"In the Middle East, they say we have all the tools but not conceptual and creative elements. We have all the quality and equipment, but you do need some creative people to bring some interesting things out for OTT."
With time running out, Thompson brought us to the final question of the day on what the world of tomorrow will look like for the people sitting around the table.
Saade envisions a world with a lot of interactivity and a user with the power to build his own experience, he said.
"More engagement, more interactivity, more content, more social…the whole shebang," he said.
Bayarri's parting comment was that professionals need to pitch production differently for sports to keep pace with increasingly changing consumer behaviour. Walkinshaw commented that he sees the viewer having more ownership of the products within broadcasting.
The Dubai TV team commented that change is fast coming and the team needs to be ready for a quick transition.
Jabbour pointed out that the future will be good because everything "will move to IP through internet or fibre", while Abdelrazaq sees "YouTube as the future".
Hina commented that his challenge is a lot more basic.
"Most of the people in this region are using 4:3 TV sets, while we are producing high-quality HD content with Dolby that many of them are unable to experience. The challenge is to migrate people to better quality sets while at the same time convincing people on the top that this investment is for the future."
Westberg commented that the future is all about optimisation and VR.
"The next big step is VR, where a lot of investments are being made, because VR is where you will have the most information about your clients' way of consuming and the possibility of inputting all of the third-party content you receive, allowing new sources of revenue. This and augmented reality is where we are headed," he concluded.
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Q: Bootstrap 4 responsive table width per column to have specific width I'm planning to create a table where some column needs to have a fixed width and not get auto adjusted.
I tried with this method but it's not working. It still seems to auto adjust width based on the text length.
How should I solve this?

                a
                b
                c
                d
                e

                a. Width with 20
                b. Smaller width column
                c. Should be small but I'm adding the maximum text here just to test if w-20 is working.
                d. Biggest width but not working!
                e. Another small column

A: Those class do not exist in bootstrap, you only have them for 25%,50%,75% and 100%. you need to create them:

.w-20 {
  width: 20%;
}

.w-10 {
  width: 10%
}

.w-40 {
  width: 40%;
}

table {
  table-layout:fixed;/* will switch the table-layout algorythm */
}
<link href="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/twitter-bootstrap/4.0.0-beta.2/css/bootstrap.css" rel="stylesheet" />

        a
        b
        c
        d
        e

        a. Width with 20
        b. Smaller width column
        c. Should be small but I'm adding the maximum text here just to test if w-20 is working.
        d. Biggest width but not working!
        e. Another small column

See

https://v4-alpha.getbootstrap.com/utilities/sizing/
Sizing
Easily make an element as wide or as tall (relative to its parent) with our width and height utilities. Includes support for 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% by default.

and

https://www.w3.org/wiki/CSS/Properties/table-layout
table-layout
The table-layout property controls the algorithm used to lay out the table cells, rows, and columns.

A: use custom classes when you want fixed width.
Use class

.w-20{ width: 200px !important; }

A: To support in each and every browser, prefer using the following:
.w-20 {
  -webkit-box-flex: 0;
  -ms-flex: 0 0 20% !important;
  flex: 0 0 20% !important;
  max-width: 20%;
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Once again, as usual, Hito Technical Industries has been participating as an exhibitor at the prestigious ceramic fair of Tecnargilla. The mentioned event is the world's most important exhibition in terms of ceramics and brick supplies dedicated to technologies for ceramic tiles, sanitaryware and tableware held every two years in the city of Rimini (Italy). This fair gathers the main companies of the Machinery and Raw Materials Area within the global tile sector.
In this edition, we reconfirm that Tecnargilla is the most popular exhibition in terms of international operator visitors. In the last edition there were more than 600 exhibitors coming from 30 different countries and nearly 20.000 foreign buyers from 35.000 visitors. On our part, we had the pleasure of receiving a good number of visitors from many different countries such as Turkey, Russia, Germany, Brazil, Morocco, Egypt, Thailand, China, India, Japan or Poland among others.
In addition, we have also reaffirmed our leading position in terms of grinding media based of alumina due to our high level of specialization/innovation in every single product. That is why, without neglecting our "core business" (with the supply of our always prestigious alumina spheres destined to ceramic milling), we also have showed to the audience our great portfolio of products and their wide variety of applications (nanobeads for nano milling in high speed mills, chemical ball as support for catalysts, anti-wear pieces, microspheres, …).
Finally, from Hito Technical Industries we would like to thank you so much to the great diversity of clients, collaborators, and visitors who decided to come to our stand and we hope to meet them again in upcoming editions.
-Details and characteristics showed in this web, may be subject to alteration by the manufacturer without notice.
 CERAMITEC 2018  CEVISAMA 2019 – HITO TECHNICAL INDUSTRIES, S.L.


There's a lot of hatred in the UK that we all have to pay a 'licence' fee to watch TV.
Some people say that it gives quality and independence to the Corporation.
Recent scandals like the Jonathan Ross affair have seen the BBC 'fined' for improper output and the bad behaviour of their 'staff' like Ross.
But the fine is ultimately paid by the licence payer!
Well nearly all. The BBC has other income. Some of it from advertising.
Channel 'Dave' for instance, a BBC related project carries adverts. So does the BBC website, including the much trumpeted News website…..
If you don't live in the UK, that is !!!
Check the two screen-shots I've taken. Both are of the 'Entertainment' page this morning taken at the same moment.
The left one is without ads as seen in the UK. It's taken using a clean internet feed and viewed with Firefox 3.
The right one has ads. It's taken using a proxy feed and viewed in Internet Explorer 8 for convenience.


text:
Туже́рино — деревня в Струго-Красненском районе Псковской области России. Входит в состав сельского поселения «Марьинская волость».

География
Находится на северо-востоке региона, в центральной части района, в лесной местности около руч.
Крутик (Чернец) и вблизи оз. Тужеринское (Шутово).

Уличная сеть не развита.

История
Первое упоминание — 1498 год. В списках селений Щирского погоста Шелонской пятины упоминалась деревня Тужерино.

В 1786 г. сельцо Тужилина Лужского уезда, что была деревня, принадлежало прапорщице Ирине Ивановне Вельяшевой.

В 1840-50 гг владелец усадища Тужерино - помещик Назимов.

До прихода советской власти — помещичье имение.

В 1941—1944 гг. деревня находилась под фашистской оккупацией войсками Гитлеровской Германии.

В ночь со 2 на 3 декабря 1943 года часть жителей деревни вместе с частью жителей соседней деревни Перехожа были сожжены эстонскими карателями в помещении почты деревни Леоново.

3 декабря 1943 года деревня была сожжена.

После войны деревня была отстроена, но не пережила развала СССР - на карте 2001 года помечена, как не жилая.

Согласно Закону Псковской области от 28 февраля 2005 года деревня Тужерино вошла в состав образованного муниципального образования «Марьинская волость».

Население
В 1911 г. число жителей в деревне, относившихся к Щирскому приходу - 117 человек.

Инфраструктура
В 1930-41, 1944-50 годах действовал колхоз «Красное Тужерино». С 1950 года — бригада Тужерино колхоза «Пламя».

Дачи.

Транспорт
Деревня доступна по просёлочным дорогам и дороге местного значения из деревни Перехожа.

Примечания

Ссылки
 Тужерино на Викимапии

Литература
Туже́рино// Ефимов А. Н., Фёдоров А. И. Статистическо-географический словарь Струго-Красненского района Псковской области // Авт.-сост.: А. Н. Ефимов, А. И. Фёдоров. — Струги Красные, 2015. — 440 с.: ил. (с дополнениями). С. 396.
Населённые пункты Струго-Красненского района

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
17-Year-Olds Can Preregister to Vote in NJ
Are You Registered to Vote in NJ?
Candidates Responses
Election 2017: Volunteer Opportunities in New Jersey's 7th Congressional District
How to Change Your Party Affiliation in NJ
How to Register to Vote in NJ
How to Vote by Mail in NJ
Lance Has Failed Our Students on Gun Violence
New Jersey's 7th Congressional District
Pledge to Vote on November 6th!
Primary Candidates for New Jersey's 7th Congressional District Election in 2018
David Pringle
Goutam Jois
Linda Weber
Peter Jacob
Scott Salmon
Tom Malinowski
Check Your Registration
Change Party Affiliation
17-Year-Old Preregister
About NJ's 7th District
2018 Candidate for Congress
in the 7th Congressional District (CD7) in New Jersey
Peter Jacob is a Licensed Social Worker in New Jersey. Peter served as a community organizer at the Elizabeth Coalition to House the Homeless addressing homelessness in Union County and as a Program Manager at SERV Behaviour Health. Peter also serves as VP of Sales at his family's small business. Most recently, Peter is notable for having been the Democratic Party nominee for the U.S. Congress CD-7 receiving 43% of the vote in the 2016 General Election. Peter was endorsed by Our Revolution in 2016, and in 2017 si endorsed by the progressive organizations Justice Democrats and Brand New Congress.
It is guaranteed in our Declaration of Independence that all people have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. None of this is possible, especially life, without adequate healthcare. more…
Wealth and income inequality is the greatest moral issue of our time. The gap between the wealthiest Americans and everyone else has not been this high since right before the Great Depression. more…
The scientific community agrees that climate change is not only real, but already causing incredible devastation across the globe. The great challenge for our generation is to reverse and repair the damage that has already been done to the environment. more…
Big Money In Politics
American democracy and the belief that we have a government of, by, and for the people has always been a pillar of freedom for the global community. more…
Our nation has made incredible progress throughout our history to overcome discrimination and create a more equitable society. But, we still have more work to ensure all Americans are guaranteed the same rights and opportunities regardless of gender, race, class, ethnicity, religion, and sexual orientation. more…
NJ7 Forward Endorses Tom Malinowski for Congress in NJ-7
Tom Malinowski will be a powerful advocate for our district and our values in Congress.…
On the Record: 7th Congressional District Democratic candidates
Michael Aron sits down with the three Democrats hoping to oust incumbent Rep. Leonard Lance.…
Editorial: Prayers, Condolences Not Enough to Stem Gun Violence
NJ7 Forward is a grassroots coalition dedicated to protecting and representing the interests of the citizens throughout the 7th Congressional District.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Madhura Bhave, Andy Wilkinson discuss in detail the Actuator, focusing on the new features including the new endpoint infrastructure that introduces support for Jersey and Web Flux.
Madhura Bhave is Software Engineer, Pivotal. Andy Wilkinson is Spring Developer, Pivotal.


Many individuals, especially rookies, once they will store their particular internet domain names, imagine to sign up in a product with the group that registered their very own area subject. That will be godaddy, google or a selection of other website url title registering companies. That is certainly really unlucky, since the businesses have a tendency generally satisfy the requirements of the online entrepreneur. Individuals bill just don't the functionality you will have to market your company. This is definitely what occurs – the domain subject signing up corporations may make you a package of your low-level method. Mainly because the clients which will be applying the domains are typically newbies, they will are not aware of all of the of the options that can conveniently be bought elsewhere. They will believe that simply since the corporation they will are coping with can save domains, they need to possess the greatest as well.
To make a prolonged account short, folks that subscribe to the that's presented once they will register their very own domains are quite often disappointed following they receive began using their new web based business. Even nevertheless they will got what appeared as being a low cost, they'll discover afterward, once they will assess this to gives, it truly isn't such a great deal. Nevertheless that is just area of the issue. Because they turn to be increasingly even more a part of working all their brand-new online business, that they discover now there might end up being some type of unique computer software that they would want to run on-line. Possibly it is a shopping wagon software or simply just a cms. At this time you could be thinking this may not be for you personally mainly because you happen to be uninterested in retailing with other people. You just desire with respect to your unique personal business. That is definitely ACCEPTABLE, an individual promote making use of the reseller's profile. You can quickly apply it your self.
Technology-not just for the modern domain that you just lately registered after which in turn, next, ought to you credit more fields, you will be able to machine people as well — without having to pay any more cash just for. My spouse and i purchased a reseller's bank account in eBay about 12 months 3 years ago. It has the complete presented, trustworthy, and also the product and support is fantastic. My spouse and i spend $139 each year and that i just presently have got about ninety five domain titles located. Complete the math — that computes to many small for the bucks each year pertaining to which features everything I need. I imagine that is a great excellent deal. If you will not need to get a reseller's bill, you are able to manage even less expensive. I've one other account I actually purchased by eBay that just features just a single blog, on the other hand it costs only seventy five cents per month. This seventy-five cent profile supports PHP, mySQL, features limitless space and band width, limitless email options and nearly any other thing you can think about. Since the popularity and strength from the Internet grows, the same is true the internet community of websites that showcase companies, entertainment, commerce, and social locations. For individuals that like to identify an on line business throughout the development of your website, a variety of choices ought to be one that is able to give your website every single chance with respect to success not really nominal staying the choice of an Bowmanville Compact Business Website creation that might properly program your internet site. Nonetheless finding a suited provider from one of this 1000's that provide the system could come to be a minimal like hunting a hook inside a haystack.
A listing, even so, can provide a beginning stage for the search. To be able to put your site you contain to carry out thus by means of a provider – a company or individual that offers access to the internet via a server. Even though complex appearing, an online hardware is simply higher-powered pc which will has open communication to produce and acquire information throughout the network of computer devices that encompass the web. An internet host then provides websites "space" inside their very own machine — that they give a regular every month or perhaps every year "rental" payment. If a web page has got certain space upon the internet machine they're perceived as via the internet. An online site owner, in order to discover the machine that just about all strongly suits their demands and obtain on the net, must search one of many organizations offering corporations. A submission site gives a detailed listing of corporations and people that provide businesses.
A database can place host businesses, the help they offer, and also the prices just where they supply all of them. Most significantly, however, a directory site gives you call details with regards to companies which can be in which will the proper research starts. You are able to undoubtedly limit your lifestyle pertaining to a organization by applying a list. You contain to 1st figure away how much space your web site will want on the web storage space — with respect to the size the data and graphics that the web page can retail store and the level of traffic it receives. It truly is feasible tell a good deal in ok bye to a variety by way of a website directory such simply because the space it might provide you with your site, the protection measures it may offer, the cost it expenses, and that is deal with for customer support. It looks in which misunderstanding by what means. Various web-site homeowners believe is just the server wherever the website is saved with respect to access by online consumers. An internet coordinator Delivers this particular company, although is in essence something professional exactly who produces a range of services accessible to move your internet site from aspire to reality. is about much not simply your webpage. An outstanding company will certainly maintain new technology, monitor internet site uptime, boost existing equipment and supply the instruments you own to kick off your webpage. A few hold out and watch any time the is sensible an net coordinate can offer style services, yet a web designer can't often provide top quality. When the inspiration of is work with a remarkable degree of solutions afterward your common look in web site design system just like a separate reason for firm might need to be challenged. If the answer can easily offer the next possibly a further designer is really an unnecessary stage. Up-to-date computer software technology.


text:
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Private Cloud 101: Move at the Speed of Business
With the cloud transforming application development and deployment—enabling organizations to improve flexibility, automate processes, and decrease time to market—some big questions remain. One of the most important issues an organization must address is how it can best employ the smarter tools and limitless scale that the cloud offers. One way that enterprises take advantage of the benefits of the cloud is by deploying their own private cloud, which is a computing model that fosters agility while allowing organizations to maintain control of their infrastructure, while better securing their applications and their data.
The advantages of a private cloud
Some of the key advantages of deploying of a private cloud include infrastructure self-service, scalability, and multi-tenancy. Let's take a quick look at each one before diving deeper into how a private cloud works—and what else it can do for your business.
The concept of self-service is one of the key drivers of private cloud adoption. Self-service enables organizations to deploy applications using infrastructure that is available now, without requiring installation of additional physical hardware. Instead, the team can request resources and have them provisioned immediately without manual intervention.
Another core feature of private cloud infrastructures is increased scalability. This means that the application can be designed so that when it needs additional resources, such as compute or storage, those resources are immediately—and often automatically—available to increase the capacity of the application.
Finally, multi-tenancy means that the application can behave as if it is the sole tenant on the resources it uses. Put another way, there is no need to coordinate resource changes with other application development teams. Access to these resources enables application development teams to iterate and make changes independently of each other—and independently of the infrastructure team.
Application provisioning: data center vs. private cloud
The concept of self-service provisioning at the heart of the private cloud means that infrastructure resources are available on-demand because they are abstracted or virtualized. When development teams can provision their own compute, storage, and networking through GUIs and APIs, those teams can innovate and develop faster, independent of the pace of physical infrastructure provisioning. By abstracting the virtual resources away from the physical resources, automation tools empower development teams to become more agile.
Deployment in the data center
Contrast this approach to the typical time- and labor-intensive deployment process in traditional data centers (as depicted in Figure 1). An application owner takes the requirements and works with an IT analyst to modify an existing application or introduce a new one. After the development and testing is complete, an analyst prepares a set of changes for introduction into the infrastructure. Most changes will involve shared resources, such as shared servers, OS instances, application instances, firewalls, and storage. To mitigate unintended impacts of the changes, a Change Advisory Board (CAB) exists to manage and approve all changes to the infrastructure. Once approved, an operations team makes the changes.
However, many IT operations have hundreds or thousands of simultaneous pending change requests that the CAB must manage, ensuring that no ill effects take place. To illustrate, suppose that a set of firewalls are approaching end of life and therefore need to be replaced with newer models before support ends. At the same time, another group is changing an application to a different set of protocols because an outside vendor is removing support for the existing protocols, requiring a set of firewall configuration changes. Simultaneously, a business customer is changing IP addresses, necessitating a set of firewall configuration changes. For safety, these three changes (replace firewalls, application protocol change, change customer IP addresses) should not be implemented simultaneously. The CAB is responsible for coordinating changes like these, ensuring that the changes are safe and effective. While working to ensure the security of the organization, the CAB can also be a bottleneck to promoting changes.
Figure 1: Typical data center deployment process
Deployment in the private cloud
Private cloud environments can improve this change process by virtualizing compute, network, and storage. Once all the components are virtual, making changes requires only updating the virtual component—not the physical components. Since the components are virtualized and therefore separate, one application can be changed or added without affecting other applications. Provisioning components no longer requires physical intervention; only the virtual resources need to be changed. Automation tools can even allow development teams to provision their own resources without the involvement of the infrastructure team.
Self-service provisioning
Self-service (or soft) provisioning enables application instances—as well as all the security and application delivery services provided by an Application Delivery Controller (ADC)—to be created and deleted without intervention from the infrastructure team (as shown in figure 2). Since each team can operate independently, there is no need to coordinate changes through a CAB. Instead, policies drive deployment practices where teams obtain their own virtual infrastructure from operations—and then deploy at their own speed.
To further automate the process of self-service provisioning, the entire collection of resources—including compute, network, storage, and ADC settings—can be specified as a template in a text file that can be stored in a source code repository. A template contains the definitions for a collection of resources and their configurations, known as a stack. This "infrastructure as code" approach ensures that any deployment can be easily repeated. Using templates not only speeds deployments and reduces errors, it also simplifies testing, since the stack can be assessed as a unit in a test environment.
Figure 2: Private cloud deployment process
The next step in boosting automation focuses on elasticity: automatic soft provisioning of resources without any human intervention. If the application is scalable across multiple instances, the instance count can be scaled up and down automatically with load (see figure 3 below). Elasticity takes soft provisioning to a level where resources can be provisioned and removed automatically using APIs. Just as elastic material stretches and contracts to meet the needs of the person wearing it, elastic resources expand and contract to meet the needs of the application. This flexibility boosts your operational efficiency, allowing you to ensure that your applications are always performing at peak levels without having to overprovision them.
Figure 3: Private cloud elasticity
Flexible multi-tenancy
Recall that an advantage of a private cloud is the ability to make changes quickly and independently of other teams. Traditional data center environments have many component and resource interdependencies. However, in a private cloud it is possible for all the resources to be dedicated to one application, which means that application team can take complete control without fear of impacting other applications.
Virtualized compute, network, storage, and ADC resources make this possible. The cloud environment creates the illusion that resources are immediately available and dedicated to the application. There is no need for a CAB and no need to coordinate configurations with other teams and applications. Multi-tenancy allows each application team to manage its own application and resources at the speed appropriate for the business, decoupled from the speed and initiatives of other application teams.
The role of the ADC in a private cloud
The ADC is a key component of any stack, because deploying an application introduces several concerns not necessarily addressed by the application developers. These cross-discipline questions include:
Which TLS protocol suite is appropriate for the end users and the expected security posture?
How will DDoS attacks be identified and mitigated?
Which load balancing strategy is optimal?
How will client-side malware be managed?
What is the best way to prevent SQL injection and cross-site scripting attacks?
How will users be identified and authenticated?
Answers to these questions often require a domain expertise outside of the team developing application code. Through templates, an ADC resource definition can be created by domain experts—such as members of the traditional IT NetOps team who can leverage their ADC expertise—leaving the application developers free to concentrate on building their apps. Once created, the templates can be used by each application development team to deploy a stack as part of each application.
What's the right kind of private cloud for my organization?
There is a range of private cloud environments, from pure open source all the way to proprietary systems. Which one is the right choice for your organization depends on several factors, including budget, internal expertise in managing a private cloud environment, integration concerns, maintenance issues, and comfort level with change.
The pure open source offerings, as the name suggests, can be deployed with literally no upfront acquisition license costs, other than hardware and labor costs (time). OpenStack is a leading open source private cloud environment that can be downloaded and installed for free. The challenge, of course, is that the group installing and maintaining it must acquire and maintain expertise in OpenStack, which has matured rapidly but is still complex to deploy. This will be true for any pure open source offering: your organization must become experts in the technology to use it most effectively.
To reduce the burden of maintaining in-house expertise (and the risks of not having that expertise), some firms offer support for open source projects. These commercial offerings have a financial cost, which may be offset by the vendor ensuring integration, testing, and validation issues have been addressed and that there is someone to contact in case of a problem.
Alternatively, several firms offer proprietary private cloud platforms. These deliver fully integrated and tested stacks with dedicated support, but they typically cost more than OpenStack–supported solutions. However, if your organization already is familiar with the vendor's technology and interface, using one of these proprietary offerings can lessen the learning curve.
And finally, some vendors offer hosted services, allowing an organization take advantage of the open source private cloud (or of proprietary offerings) without needing hardware or data center space. These offerings usually have the highest price tag, but require the fewest in-house resources.
In addition to finding a private cloud solution that has the right features, organizations should look for a solution with the appropriate level of support. Where your organization lies on the continuum of cost and internal expertise can guide you in choosing the offering that best meets your needs.
Figure 4: Private cloud offerings
A private cloud enables development teams to iterate independently of the speed of provisioning infrastructure and better respond to business requirements. Dependencies across teams can be reduced through multi-tenancy and soft provisioning of virtual resources. Templates allow an entire application stack—including compute, network, storage, and ADC—to be deployed as a complete and repeatable package. In short, a private cloud empowers organizational teams to move at the speed of business.
There is a spectrum of private cloud offerings across a range of costs and levels of internal expertise required. Whatever cloud you deploy, equipping it with the appropriate services and finding the right balance of cost and expertise should be one of your top priorities.
Read more about how a private cloud architecture can help your organization gain agility and efficiency while maintaining control over your infrastructure at Cloud Solutions | Private Cloud.
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text:
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using TampaIoT.TankBot.Core.Models;

namespace TampaIoT.TankBot.Core.Interfaces
{
    public interface INetworkChannel : IChannel
    {
        event EventHandler<NetworkMessage> NetworkMessageReceived;
        Task SendAsync(NetworkMessage msg);
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Crypto CEO is now one of the richest people in the world
Changpeng Zhao, millionaire thanks to cryptocurrencies 0:50
Hong Kong (CNN Business) — A crypto CEO has become one of the richest people on Earth.
Changpeng "CZ" Zhao, who runs cryptocurrency exchange Binance, has joined the ranks of the world's top billionaires, with an estimated net worth of at least $ 96 billion, according to new calculations from the Billionaires Index of Billionaires. Bloomberg published on Monday.
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao in Singapore on November 19, 2021.
Zhao's projected fortune now rivals that of Oracle (ORCL) founder Larry Ellison and surpasses that of Mukesh Ambani, the Indian tycoon whose fortune has also skyrocketed in the past two years.
Bet on cryptocurrencies
The rise of the Chinese-Canadian entrepreneur is emblematic of rapid wealth creation in the fast-paced world of digital currencies.
Last year, other crypto founders also enjoyed huge gains as the value of virtual currencies increased. Thus, ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin and Coinbase founder Brain Armstrong became billionaires.
Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO of FTX, another Binance-backed cryptocurrency exchange, highlighted Tuesday the "unprecedented wealth creation that has occurred in the industry in recent years."
"I think a lot of people are trying to figure out what to do (with it)," Friedman, who is a young billionaire, said during a virtual discussion on stage at the Asian Financial Forum in Hong Kong.
In a Twitter post on Monday, Zhao also appeared to acknowledge the distinction.
"Don't worry about the rankings. Focus on how many people you can help," he wrote.
Who is Changpeng "CZ" Zhao?
Zhao launched Binance in 2017, gradually making it one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world.
According to a company blog post, the executive grew up in an immigrant family in Canada and previously worked at McDonald's to help support his home.
After studying computer science at McGill University, he worked on trading software for the Tokyo Stock Exchange and Bloomberg.
"He then found out about bitcoin in 2013 during a game of poker, after which he decided to bet on crypto by dedicating his life to it," according to Binance. "He even sold his apartment to buy bitcoins."
Like other exchanges, Binance has faced significant regulatory hurdles around the world in recent months, including a ban in the UK and other restrictions in countries like Canada.
Zhao has publicly addressed the setbacks, writing in an open letter last year that "clear regulations are critical for continued growth."
"More regulations are, in fact, positive signs that an industry is maturing," he added. "Because this lays the foundation for a broader population to feel safe participating in cryptocurrencies."
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text:
On Air Personalities
Author archives: Hot97
Beenie Man Responds To Ex's Claims That He's A Dead-beat Dad!
Beenie Man issues a stinging response to his ex-lover, Carlene Smith, after he was accused of being a dead-beat father by fans when the form...
Underaged Girl From R. Kelly's Sex Tape Finally Comes Forward To Testify!
After the then-underage girl refused to testify in a 2008 trial, Kelly was acquitted. She's now in her 30s and talking to federal investigat...
Cardi B Adds Flavor To Reebok Ad With Her Signature Style!
Cardi B went to the nail salon for her new short film with Reebok. Set in a "regular shmegular" beauty parlor, the sneaker brand alludes to ...
Blaxx - Formula (Rum and Soca) (2019 Soca)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPyRBy6U1m8
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text:
The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That!
Bounce/Timmy Tippy Toe
Bounce - Nick and Sally are wondering why their ball is so bouncy. Fish tells them it's because it's made from rubber, and rubber comes from trees. Cat doesn't believe him so it's time to ask the expert, Dr. Twiggles! It turns out Fish is right! And Dr. Twiggles shows them all just how rubber is made, and all the wonderful things rubber can make! Timmy Tippy Toe - Nick and Sally are playing on a climbing frame but just can't manage to get to the top. Cat tries to show them how it's done but he can't do it either! Time to go see Timmy Tippy Toe, the Klipspringer who is an expert climber! Timmy teaches them to use their hands and their feet, and now they can reach the top of their own 'mountain'!
Tuesday, January 21 at 11:30 am on Main
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In Texas, at what point during a pregnancy does the doctor perform the mandatory drug test?
« What Is the Canadian Government Doing to Prevent Drug Use?
Question by hvnlyblnde: In Texas, at what point during a pregnancy does the doctor perform the mandatory drug test?
I quit smoking weed when I found out I was pregnant, but I know drug tests are mandatory here and a failure is required to be reported to CPS, who show up at the hospital when the baby is born and revoke custody pending 3 months rehab. I haven't touched weed since the day I found out, but my doctor takes a urine sample every time, and I'm worried about the first and possibly second visits to him where I submitted urine. I think they do the drug test later in the pregnancy and the last tests were just UA's but I would like to be sure.
I am not sure how Texas works…never heard of it and lived in Texas myself. In all honesty you should never be consuming drugs whether you are pregnant or not.


198 QUESTION OF GUARDIANSHIP. [Vili. Alice, who with the aid of the child's great uncles, the lords Philip and John of Ibelin, was guardian, seems to have avoided too close alliance with the new troops of Crusaders. Cyprus was, however, a regular station for the pilgrim fleets, and as regularly an object" of attack whenever the Sultans saw an opportunity of unresisted devastation. The little interest of the history runs rapidly on to the Crusade of the Emperor Frederick II, which brought about many other critical conjunctures in the history of Christendom. This particular portion of the history is of no small legal as well as historical interest. The kings of Jerusalem being men of action, practising little self-restraint and never taking care of themselves, generally died young, and left the fate of their kingdom in suspense on the life of their young children. Hence constant minorities, and the need of provisions for guardianship, a need which, as yet, had scarcely begun to be felt in the kingdoms of Europe. The practice therefore of the kingdom of Jerusalem in the matter of regency became a stock of legal cases, which, if not cited as occasion arose in corresponding circumstances in the West, afford to us at least a number of parallels. The earlier practice had been to give the wardship of the person of the heir to the nearest relation incapable of inheriting; that of the kingdom to the presumptive heir1. But the rule laid down in the Assizes, which is really perhaps a generalisation from the earlier cases rather than a deliberate constitution, was that the mother of the heir should be his guardian ; in case of her death, the next relation on the side on which the kingdom moved, that is, the heirpresumptive ; in case no such person could be found, it was 1 Assizes, i. 261. If a vassal die the custody of the ward is not to be in the heir, but in the nearest kinsman on the side on which the fief cannot fall. Cf. Glanville, vii. c. 11 ; Etablissemens, i. c. 117. If he is a sovereign or suzerain, his men shall have care of his body and fortresses, the heir to guard the heritage (i. 435). See Itinerar. R. R. p. xcvii.


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St. Mary Medical Center is one of few medical facilities in Northwest Indiana offering Cyrotherapy to prostate cancer patients. The procedure, performed under general anesthesia in an outpatient setting, freezes tissue in the prostate and a small margin of surrounding tissue to offer men the possibility of being cured with fewer side effects than other treatment.
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99Vidas is a "beat 'em up" set in a contemporary world that pays tribute to both the new and the classic in gaming industry. Brought to you in all pixelated, 16 bit-esque glory, chockfull of references to not only gaming, but all 80's and 90's pop culture.
The Main Game can be played either solo or with up to a total of 4 Players, both Local and Online.
It consists of 6 Stages, with additional 2 in the form of Bonus Stages, each of which culminates in a unique Boss Battle.
The In-Game dialogs and even the Ending reacts to the amount of players in the game, as well as which characters are in said party, meaning that playing the game with different amount and combinations of characters may trigger unique dialog lines and change the Ending for each playthrough.
The game controls consist of the directionals and 4 Action buttons - Punch (Quick/Weak Attack), Kick (Slow/Strong Attack), Jump and Super (Magic, which spends MP) - which can be combined with the D-Pad to produce combos and Special Attacks.
The Player acquires Experience Points (XP), by defeating enemies and collecting items over the course of the game, which can then be used to purchase Combo and Skill Upgrades in the Upgrade Shops located in-between stages.
Defeating Enemies also net the user Magic Points (MP) which increase the MP meter that once filled grants the player up to 2 different kinds of Super Attacks that damage all enemies on screen.
New gamplay mechanics are introduced over the course of the game, including unique mechanics for the Bosses, to keep the experience from feeling stale.


The human being is a discoverer always looking for something new. Outdoor offers everyone the chance to realize themselves. But what longings, desires and thoughts does the modern outdoor enthusiast have and what does outdoor mean for the different target groups? On behalf of OutDoor by ISPO, the renowned Cologne market research institute rheingold looked for answers. Recommendations for brand manufacturers and retailers can be derived from the results. Benefit from these findings.
The human being is a discoverer always looking for something new.
What are the motifs and characteristics of the outdoor movement?
How is outdoor structured and where can the links between mindsets and segments be found?
What role do clothes, devices and equipment play in outdoor experiences?
What role do brands and retailers play in relation to outdoor in different segments?
How can outdoor be authentically transferred into everyday life and play a stronger role?
What barriers must be overcome to make outdoor desirable for new target groups?
What visionary roles can retail still play as a "hotspot" for outdoor experiences?
Register now and download the results of the rheingold study free of charge.


text:
Harry Heckel
Writer/Game Designer
Captain Heckel
← Nominated for an Award and some Updates
Award Received! Thank you, Becka! →
Chapter 13A – Freedom Squad Defiance
Posted by Harry Heckel
Protector was asleep. More importantly, he was alive.
Rigel knew that Dr. Lord was going to stay at his bedside, and that whatever the Ace of Spades had done, Alex's mind was doing its best to heal. She wanted to try and go into his head, but she convinced herself that she needed to trust that the best thing for him was to let him heal.
Whatever the Ace had tried to do, it had failed.
There were other matters that Cori needed to address. She was determined that she was going to redo the code on the Freedom Squad servers and create the world's greatest firewall. The Ace of Spades wasn't going to get into their systems again. Afterwards, she was going to check every log file imaginable and determine how the Ace had accessed their systems. She sat at a keyboard with her hands folded under her chin as she watched code flash by on the monitor. The keyboard beeped as it tried to keep up with the speed of her telekinetic typing.
Daniel Hunter came up behind her. She mentally sensed him before she saw him. He seemed a little shaken by the attack, but he was otherwise okay. Like everyone else, he was more concerned with Protector. Though, at this point, she knew that he was worried about her. He had been a team leader in the past, and he had been the one who had supported her when she decided to join Freedom Squad.
Daniel put a hand on her shoulder. In a gentle voice, he said, "I can do that."
"No," she said. "This is my responsibility. The mayor even told me to do it. There was an error with our security system before the cameras showed Protector convulsing. I should have taken care of this. Someone's been accessing our systems. I'll let you follow up and check the log after I'm done. If there's another crisis, I'll even let you take over, but for right now, I'm going to catch the person who's been causing all the trouble."
"You know who's responsible?"
"Yes," she said. The screen went black, and an Ace of Spades displayed in the center of the screen. "Him."
"Cori, the Ace of Spades doesn't exist," said Daniel.
Rigel nearly knocked her chair over as she stood up. "What did you say?"
"The Ace of Spades doesn't exist. He can't have done this," repeated Daniel.
His brown eyes, usually so intelligent, so sharp, seemed to have slightly unfocused as he spoke.
"One more time… please," she said.
"The Ace of Spades doesn't exist."
Now she was sure about his eyes.
"Oh, Daniel…" she said as she took her gloves off, and before he could react, she placed her head against his shoulder, just as when she had hugged him as a little girl. She felt Daniel shift his weight in confusion as he started to put his arms around her, unsure of how to react.
"I'm sorry," she breathed as she reached her bare hand up to touch his cheek.
Physical contact made her psychic connections much stronger. He was open to her, not thinking of her as a threat, which made what she needed to do easier.
She went into his mind, searching until she found the mental construct that the Ace had left behind, a mental construct that prevented Daniel Hunter aka Poltergeist from believing in the Ace of Spades. Unlike what had been done to Psionicist, this remnant was much easier to remove, more of a suggestion than full-blown mind control.
"Go to sleep, Daniel, just in case I missed something. When you wake up, just know that I removed a suggestion from the Ace of Spades, get mad at me if you want, and then you can help fix the computers if you'd like."
Rigel caught him and helped him into one of the chairs. "I don't like this at all. The Ace is making me do what he does."
With a faint crackling sound and a burst of blue, Ion was standing beside her. "What happened?"
Telepathically, she said, "I've got to turn off our security. We are being monitored."
Ion shrugged and extended his arms. Rigel felt her hairs stand on end, and she heard a distinct popping noise before the lights went out. An arc of electricity suddenly jumped from Ion's left hand to his right and back again, providing a small amount of illumination.
"Localized EMP," said Ion, "I've been working on it for a while. Like it?"
"Good, but I can't fix our computers with my workstation off."
"I didn't do any permanent damage. I promise. Listen, I don't think I know exactly what's going on, but I'm betting the Ace of Spades is the one who nearly killed Alex."
"Yes," said Rigel.
"And we've got Defiance to deal with, plus there are a whole lot of others out there. However, I have an idea of how to catch Defiance."
"Before you say no," said Ion, "it was really Nightstar's idea but we both agreed on it."
"JR, just tell me."
"We hire the Destroyers to come to Megalopolis."
Rigel's mouth dropped open. The Destroyers were one of the most dangerous teams of super-villains on the planet. The Hornet, Neutron, Chillfrost, Pulsar and Screamer were powerful enough as individuals, but when Future Soldier coordinated and planned their attacks, they were nearly unstoppable. They often found employment from master villains and served as their lieutenants.
The lights began to flicker back on.
Ion stopped arcing the electricity between his hands. "I know, but who would be better at luring Defiance out into the open. Protector always tells the new recruits to seize the initiative. We could have the initiative, and it wasn't exactly Nightstar's idea. Think about it. Defiance went to jail for attacking those cosplayers who were dressed as the Destroyers."
Rigel considered what he was saying. She didn't like the plan, but no one would expect Freedom Squad to hire the Destroyers. Of course, she'd have to find the Destroyers, have the resources to hire them, and lure Defiance out of hiding. Freedom Squad would need to be able to take down Defiance and crew plus the Destroyers.
"We don't have enough people to do it. It's too dangerous," she said. "But… I think you could be on to something. We still need to bolster our ranks though."
Ion noticed Daniel Hunter sleeping in the chair. "What happened to Poltergeist?" he asked.
Cori sighed. Rather than explaining, she mentally showed Ion how she had gone into Daniel's mind, and removed the Ace of Spades' psychic construct.
"Are you planning to go poking around in all of our minds?" Ion asked.
"No!" she said. "No," she repeated more softly. "I would never do that, JR. And if you think I am, stop me."
Rigel looked him in the eye. "Seriously."
"Sorry, Cori. I shouldn't have said anything. It just…"
"Disturbed you? It disturbs me. And I can't tell you how angry I am that the Ace of Spades is using his powers, powers like mine to alter people. And with what he's done to our computers, I don't even want to talk about it. He could be listening anywhere, or he could have spies among us, spies that don't even know they are spies."
"How exactly are you still sane?" Ion asked Rigel.
"I have several university professors who might argue with you about my sanity. More importantly, security systems should be back online," said Cori.
Posted on November 22, 2013, in Freedom Squad, HeroNet Files, NaNoWriMo and tagged Defiance, Freedom Squad, Harry Heckel, HeroNet, HeroNet Files, Ion, Megalopolis, Nanowrimo, Nanowrimo Novel, Rigel, superhero, Superhero Nanowrimo, Superhero team. Bookmark the permalink.	Leave a comment.
The Darker Lord
Goodbye 2017!
My Favorite Song from Kindergarten
Sitting down to write
Crimson Hawks
Freedom Squad
HeroNet Files
Mummy: The Curse
Nebula Awards
New Author
Painting Table
SFWA
A Quiet Pint – Home of Bishop O'Connell
Blue Oranda Publishing
Broken Binding – A blog from writer and friend John Rossomango
Dave Taylor Miniatures
Jack Heckel
Rasheen's Music
Watchtower Mansion – Writer Wayland Smith's blog where he talks superheroics and writing


text:
Q: Big O almost surely I came across the following: Let $Z_n$ be some sequence of random variables defined on a probability space $(\Omega, F, P)$ and suppose $$P(Z_n > n^{-1/2}(x+12*log(n))) \leq \exp(-x/6) $$ for all $x>0$. The author then claims that this implies  $Z_n \overset{a.s}{=}O(n^{-1/2} \hspace{1mm} log(n))$.
First, what does it mean precisely that $Z_n\overset{a.s}{=}O(n^{-1/2} \hspace{1mm} log(n))$? For a given $\omega\in\Omega$ , it would mean that there exist some constant $C$ and $n_0$ such that if $n>n_0$ we have $\frac{Z_n(\omega)}{n^{-1/2}log(n)}\leq C$. I was thinking that since these constants $C$ may be different for different $\omega$, we define $Z_n\overset{a.s}{=}O(n^{-1/2} \hspace{1mm} log(n))$ as $$P(\limsup_{n \to \infty} \frac{Z_n}{n^{-1/2}log(n)}< \infty)=1$$
But then I don't know how to proceed to show the claim made above, assuming that my definition makes sense to begin with.

A: I don't know the notation they used and never encountered it. There should be at least some definition of $Z_n \stackrel{a.s.}{=}O(a_n)$ given in the book.
However, I can show that $Z_n$ is bounded in probability by $n^{-1/2}\log(n)$, i.e. $Z_n=O_p(n^{-1/2}\log(n))$, provided the results leading to your exponential inequality can also be applied for $-Z_n$, i.e. you have in fact $P(|Z_n| > n^{-1/2}(x+12\log(n))) \leq 2 \exp(-x/6)$.

Given
\begin{align}\label{1}
P(|Z_n| > n^{-1/2}(x+12\log(n))) \leq 2\exp(-x/6),
\end{align}
We have to show that for all $\epsilon>0$ there exists a constant $M_{\epsilon}$ such that $$P(|Z_n/(n^{-1/2}\log(n))|> M_{\epsilon}) < \epsilon$$
for all sufficiently large $n$.
Chose some $\epsilon>0$. There then exists a corresponding $0<x_\epsilon<\infty$ such that
\begin{align}
P(|Z_n|>n^{−1/2}(x_\epsilon+12\log(n)) &\leq \exp(-x_\epsilon/6)<\epsilon\\
\Rightarrow P(|Z_n|>n^{−1/2}(x_\epsilon+12\log(n)) & < \epsilon\\
\Rightarrow P(\left|Z_n/(n^{-1/2}\log(n))\right|>(x_\epsilon/\log(n)+12)& < \epsilon.
\end{align}
Now, observe that as $n\to \infty$, the right hand side in the probability term  $(x_\epsilon/\log(n)+12)$ is a strictly decreasing sequence and converges from above to the value 12, hence there clearly exists a constant $M_\epsilon$ such that $M_\epsilon \geq (x_\epsilon/\log(n)+12)$ for all sufficiently large $n$.
We hence have
$$P(\left|Z_n/(n^{-1/2}\log(n))\right|>M_\epsilon) \leq P(\left|Z_n/(n^{-1/2}\log(n))\right|>x_\epsilon/\log(n)+12) < \epsilon.$$
since $\epsilon$ was arbitrary the assertion follows immediately.

A: I would define the a.s. order $a_n\stackrel{a.s.}{=}O(b_n)$ as $P(a_n=O(b_n))=1$, equivalently
$$P\left[\limsup_{n\to\infty}\left|\frac{a_n}{b_n}\right|<\infty\right]=1,$$
equivalently, for almost every $\omega$ there exist finite $M_{\omega}$ and $N_{\omega}$ such that $|a_n/b_n|<M_{\omega}$ for all $n>N_\omega$.
To prove the claim, given that you don't specify anything about the structure of the sequence over $n$ (eg, not independent), we probably need to use something like the Borel-Cantelli lemma to go from probability statements for a single $n$ to statements for the whole sequence.  [There aren't that many other ways to do it, and if it is something else it will take more work than I have time for right now]
We'll need to replace $x$ by an increasing sequence $x_n$. An obvious sequence to try is $x_n=\log n$, which puts us right at the boundary of $O(n^{-1/2}\log n)$. I'm going to write $g_n(x) = n^{-1/2}(x+12\log n)$ because it's less annoying.
Substituting in, we get
$$P(Z_n>g(x_n))<\exp(-x_n/6)=\exp(-(\log n)/6)=n^{-1/6}$$
That's not very helpful: the sum of those exceedance probabilities is infinite. But we could try $A\log n$ for some fixed $A$
$$P(Z_n>g(x_n))<\exp(-x_n/6)=\exp(-(A\log n)/6)=n^{-A/6}$$
If $A=12$, the exceedance probability is $n^{-2}$ and
$$\sum_n P(Z_n>g(x_n))<\sum_n n^{-2}<\infty$$
so $P(Z_n>g(x_n)\textrm{ i.o.})=0$ by the Borel-Cantelli lemma.  Does that help?
$$P(Z_n>g(x_n))= P(Z_n> n^{-1/2}(x_n+12\log n))=P(Z_n> n^{-1/2}(12\log n+12\log n))$$
And if
$$P(Z_n> n^{-1/2}(24\log n)\textrm{ i.o.})=0$$
then
$$P\left( Z_n=O(24n^{-1/2}\log n)  \right)=1$$
and we are done.
Well, almost done. You'd normally want a matching lower bound for order notation, so

*

*$Z_n$ are non-negative

*An equivalent bound applies to $-Z_n$

*The author is using $O()$ notation in a non-symmetric way

*or something is wrong.


The stages of formation into Franciscan consecrated life begin after acceptance through the normal admissions procedures. The four stages are as follows: Initial vocation discernment with an accent on call; Postulancy, with an accent on conversion; Novitiate, with accent on contemplation; Post-novitiate, with an accent on lifelong commitment. At each successive stage of initial formation, all are called to deepen their love of God, the Church, the Order, and their home jurisdiction. This takes place in the constant pursuit of evangelical perfection. For priesthood or permanent diaconate candidates, initial formation extends to their ordination. For Brothers initial formation extends to solemn vows.
The first year is called postulancy. Our postulants from all four provinces in the United States, come to the same program in Chicago. As a postulant, you are not yet a member of the order, hence you do not wear the habit. You do however, live the life much like a friar would.
Afternoon: Various projects, choir practice, liturgy planning, etc.
Day/Evening: House cleaning stations followed by personal time.
10:30 AM: Brunch followed by Free time unless an occasional community event is planned.
During the period of the postulancy, conscious adhesion to the Franciscan life requires a deeper study of the human dimension of vocation, of the knowledge of faith and of the knowledge religious life and the Franciscan charism. Given the multicultural reality of the Order, it would be helpful to begin learning one of the languages of the Order, apart from one's own, with preference given to Spanish or Italian. These are further described as follows.
4. The moral dimension of the human person and the moral Christian law.
5. Presentation of the richness of the Franciscan charism and its different expressions.
I hope this brief outline of the first year is helpful. Although one should have done their best to maturely discern if God has called them to enter postulancy, it is helpful to recall the wisdom a priest friend of mine shared about his first day at a diocesan seminary. The new students were told: "You are all called to be here, but you are not all called to stay!" If your year of postulancy helps you become a better person, and helps you realize you are not called to be a Franciscan, that is a year well spent! Read more about the Novitiate year here. Read more about post novitiate here. Read our detailed "Franciscan Discipleship" guide to formation here.
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