e Tips Mag

Artificial Intelligence: How to Fake Techspeak

2018-12-14T02:01:00.000+02:00

When faking this oh-so-essential component of tech know-how, there's only a relatively small chance of getting fired. Especially if you're not at work.

I hate looking up tech jargon. I hate even saying jargon. I'd rather be fake smart.

First of all, I can't figure out why everybody is still talking about Siri. Siri, Siri, Siri. Some people actually fall in love with her. Geez, I wish that know it all Drama Queen's bytes would all crap out at the same time.

Siri basics: Her databases are called "active ontologies." So she's permanently pregnant! She's hot to hang with "application programming interfaces," which feed her data – yum! The scariest Siri factoid is that she can talk to her sisters, all named Siri, which is just confusing. Siri to the 20th power can gather your 20-person family for a meal at Chili's. Just imagine, 20 Siris talking, gossiping, maybe helping you if they feel like it. Bottom Line: Beware! Tell all of your friends to be nice to Siri—her sisters may inherit the earth. But they'd need bodies first...Maybe Mattel can join with Apple to create a Siri Barbie! I bet you anything that's already in the works.

So, the main thing to know about Siri is that she can't be trusted.

Enough about that. Uh oh. I think she heard me. Now, let's use the Apple Watch and the Brain Computer as examples.

What's that? You've already ditched your fine-but-no-longer-cool toys? Well, that's just wasteful. They're not skinny enough, and they have to weigh less than a kilogram to entice you? Are you sure you're not talking about your girlfriends?

Even though it may be obsolete by now. It'll still be a hoot to trash the Apple Watch. Oops, I think "a hoot" is an obsolete saying now, too. Oh well, pressing on. What's that? I can't use British expressions on LinkedIn? Oh, bother. No, no, that's my expression; I just made it up.

What's that? You've already ditched these fine-but-no-longer-cool toys? Well, that's just wasteful. They're not skinny enough, and they have to weigh less than a kilogram to entice you? Are you sure you're not talking about your girlfriends?

OK, skinny-girlfriend-guy, what do you know about the Apple Watch? Nothing, you say? Perfect. So if you casually mention to skinny-girlfriend-guy that the Apple Watch's battery only lasts 24 hours, he'd say "How did you know that? You're amazing." And voila, I'm a tech genius.

For some reason, people love to talk about money. So, to sound like a techie and a money genius, just say in an excited voice, "The Apple Watch is only $400. What a deal." Say it again, like a pep squad: "The Apple Watch is only $400! What a deal! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaay, Apple Watch!" See, people respond to anything if you repeat it enough times, and they love cheerleaders.

The Apple Watch is more than just a Health-o-Meter. It's a fulfillment of Dick Locher's (creator of Dick Tracy) prophecy: the wrist phone. Maybe you've never heard of Dick Tracy. It doesn't matter, all you need to know is that zines beat tech by eight decades, give or take. Take that, tech!

Brain Computer, you are so 30th century. What are you doing here? This is a sacred gadget to techies, so be sincere when you say to them: "Are you sure you haven't been reading too much Sci-Fi?" A Brain Computer is a weird, creepy shower cap device that sucks info out of your brain into a laptop. Actually, just say, to anyone who asks: "Ohhhh, like Siri in reverse." Genius time!

And, that's all you need to know about tech.

By Ashley West

Blockchain for Businesses

2018-08-18T19:00:00.000+03:00

Blockchain is the big buzzword that's been going around the tech and business world this year. However, what exactly is it and should businesses really pay attention to it?

If there is one technology that’s gotten much hype in 2018, it’s definitely blockchain. For many, the first thing that springs to mind when the term blockchain is mentioned is cryptocurrency, more specifically bitcoin. This is no surprise as the bitcoin was one of the hottest topics of 2017, especially with its ballooning price (and subsequent crash). With the interest in bitcoin though, people have also started paying attention to the underlying technology and bitcoin was built on, blockchain.

In fact, blockchain was a priority topic at Davos and a World Economic Forum survey suggested that 10 percent of global GDP will be stored on blockchain by 2027. Plenty of governments have also published reports on the potential implications of blockchain, and in the past two years there have been more than half a million new publications on the technology.

So as it stands, with so much interest in the technology, we just had to take a look at it and see how much implications it would have for businesses now and in the long-term.

A Brief Look at what is Blockchain

But first, what exactly is blockchain? It isn’t a single technology by itself but an architecture. In very simple terms, blockchain is a ledger system that uses an open, distributed record to keep track of transactions. In this case transactions can be anything from cryptocurrencies, medical information, voting or home records, and more.

These transactions get packaged into blocks, and each block gets verified by other users in the system by completing a math problem. Once a block gets verified, it cannot be altered and gets added to a chain of other permanent, previously verified blocks. The records held within these blocks form a blockchain, and the blockchain's users all keep track of this record. A very simplistic view or explanation would be it’s basically a giant, shared ledger. In practice, it's much more than that.

A more detailed explanation on how the technology works is as such. The Harvard Business Review laid out five principles that all blockchains have in common:

01. All Blockchains Use a Distributed Database

Blockchain is based on a distributed, peer-to-peer topology where data can be stored globally on thousands of servers. It’s decentralized where the database is not stored on a single server but can be on up to thousands of servers globally. As such every user in a blockchain can access the complete database, including its past transaction history. This transparency allows users to verify any information they need and to complete transactions directly, without any intermediaries.

02. Any Transactions or Communications Get Conducted Between Peers

In a blockchain each user stores records and sends information directly to all other parties. As a result of this, intermediaries and central storage institutions, like banks, are unnecessary. Users, also known as nodes, have all the information they need to vet other users.

03. Each User Associated With a Blockchain Can Remain Anonymous

As a protection for users’ identification, each user has their own unique 30-plus-character alphanumeric address instead of a name. Users can then choose to share their identity or remain anonymous with their blockchain address. These alphanumeric addresses are also used to verify transactions. How this verification works is as such.

When someone wants to make a transaction, and therefore add new record or “block” to the ledger, they first need to solve what is essentially a math problem.

Many of you might have heard the term mining when it comes to cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and it’s this mining process that solves the math problem by suing computers’ computing power to “mine” for the answer, which is then vetted by the network of users.

If the answer is correct, the new block is added to the ledger. A token, also known as a coin, is generated when this occurs and this acts like a receipt to prove that it happened.

04. As Blockchain Uses a Digital Ledger, The Entire Transactional Process Can Be Automated Using Algorithms

What this means is that a lot of complex transaction processes are cut out and handled by the blockchain. For example, in the case of house purchase, in real life, there are plenty of other costs that are involved in a purchase of a house like legal fees, registration fees etc. Add to that the people involved in processing, providing access and administration from one person to another, its more than just putting your name on the title ownership of a house.

Blockchain makes most of this complexity disappear. It allows you to record property data and even build in digital rules — called smart contracts — that, once fulfilled, allow the system to automatically transfer a property title or money for purchase.

05. Once a Record Gets Created, It Cannot Change

This is one of the most important aspects of blockchain, the permanence of a transaction. When miners verify a transaction, that record is shared with every other party in the blockchain as part of the decentralized ledger. Part of each verified transaction is also used to generate the math puzzle for the next block in the chain. This means each transaction gets linked to the ones that came before it and all those transactions get stored across multiple computers with no single point of failure.

What Sort of Benefits Does Blockchain Bring to Businesses?

The explanation before is as simple as one can explain about the basics of blockchain. There is no doubt that blockchain in general can be quite complicated on a technical basis, however, businesses do not necessarily need to understand it’s technical complexities as much as they need to understand what blockchain can do for their businesses.

The benefits can be broken down into about three parts; Increased Security, Smart Contracts and, increased Speed and Efficiency. Let’s look at each benefit one by one.

01. INCREASED SECURITY
The biggest benefit of a blockchain is its ultra-secure network. Data transmitted using blockchain is inherently encrypted, so it’s much more secure than your standard username-password security system. The real security benefits however, come from blockchain's network of users.

Data in blockchain networks are decentralized. As explained above it’s not stored in a single drive but hundreds to thousands of drives. This makes it extremely difficult to hack into because no “single point of failure” exists.

To break into a blockchain network or to “hack” it, a blackhat hacker would have to overwhelm over 50% of the network in less time than it takes to create a new block. The amount of computing power that is needed to do this on most blockchain networks is humongous. We’re talking hundred upon thousands of computers, and if the particular blockchain network is larger, it’s even harder to hack as data is a lot more decentralized and have more computers working to verify transactions.

And if there is a case of data being tampered on a block, thanks to hash functions, it’ll be easy to detect. Hashes from one block are added to the data in the next block. Anyone who tries to alter a block will end up changing the hash completely, setting off a red flag and disabling the block completely.

As an added layer of security, blockchain networks also offer anonymity. Instead of using a variety of information like most normal systems would (addresses, identification numbers, etc.) to verify transactions, what matters in a blockchain is a user’s private key.

Each blockchain user has two keys: a public key and a private key. Their public key is derived from their private key using a mathematical formula and then combined with other information to form their public address for transactions. Without the private key, it is impossible to verify transactions to the public address. This private key never gets shared with outsiders which means multiple complex formulas stand between a user's private key and their public address.

For many businesses this increased sense of security would be a major boon, especially for those related to the fintech industry, requiring plenty of transactional data that must be recorded, stored and not tampered with. In a traditional system, a single database might be shared and easily tampered or manipulated with by a user. Within a blockchain system, this tampering and manipulation will be recorded and can be resolved by sharing the suspicious activity down the line.

02. SMART CONTRACTS
Smart contracts could possibly be the most powerful application for blockchain networks. What smart contracts do is use blockchain to automate payments and transfers based on a predetermined set of conditions. Using smart contracts, one could automatically send pay to a supplier when goods are delivered. The transaction would be sent securely to the supplying company and verified using blockchain. This automated process saves a lot of time and would prevent the incurrences of more late payment fees and the best part; one would never have to think about scheduling a payment again.

The long term effect of smart contracts is that as more transactions are automated using smart contracts, the need for middlemen and outside organizations will diminish, thus unneeded extra costs from businesses.

03. INCREASED SPEED AND EFFICIENCY
Blockchain networks can be fast and efficient. In typical systems, manual data entry can be tedious and prone to errors. Add the fact that many organizations maintain multiple record systems for different tasks, reviewing these multiple records would definitely take time. However, with blockchain implementation, all this information gets stored and verified as it gets generated.

The speed of verification that a blockchain system has will definitely be a big benefit for businesses. Simple stock purchases that takes up to a week to verify with existing methods due to multiple middle-men and form can be done away with. With blockchain implementation, there is no need for third-party verification because all the information needed to complete and verify the transaction gets included in the ledger. What this means is stock transfers can happen almost instantaneously instead of a full week later.

Should Businesses Look Into Blockchain?

The thing about blockchain is that despite all the benefits that we’ve listed above, blockchain technology itself is still considered an immature technology. Despite the fact it’s been around for at least 10 years, the market for it is still nascent and a clear recipe for success has yet to emerge. Many of the current blockchain solutions and implementations are in their conceptual stages and it’ll take a while before we’ll see them be commercially available, what more commercially successful.

Although there are successful implementations of blockchain applications and solutions in production, they are still small in number. Many projects are still conceptual, and it’ll take time to see mass adoption. Maybe in a year or two, we’ll see more live usage of blockchain applications.

Then there is the issue of costs. To develop blockchain based applications and systems, it is not exactly cheap. That is to say if a business decides to implement a blockchain based solution in-house instead of going for a third party application or solution, as the cost involved would be the equivalent of hiring a team of developers.

However, despite the nascent level of the tech, the benefits we’ve listed above are still very much real, and business owners especially should pay heed to this upcoming technology. After all if both the Dubai (which plans to be a fully blockchain powered government by 2020) and Malaysia (which plans to fully adopt blockchain by 2025) has given special interest to it, why shouldn’t businesses do so either? The thing is: How much do businesses and business men need to know though?

Top Blockchain, Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Books to Read

The literacy for blockchain doesn’t necessarily need to be high among the general public. The public doesn't need to know SQL database is the back end of any online store when they shop there. The onus is on programmers and business owners to understand it so they can think of ideas on how to use the technology to create or improve new or existing businesses.

Those ideas especially might be just the thing that would eventually be the difference on whether a company pulls ahead, or is left in the dust.

Hot Wholesale Tips You MUST Follow!

2008-06-12T00:07:00.000+03:00

1. Thorough market research is the foundation for success
Meticulous market research doubles your chances of making a tidy profit from the wholesale goods you buy. Start off with a list of 5-10 different ideas. Then check completed listings searches on eBay to see what the item generally sells for and the sell-through rate for each one. Use Yahoo's free keyword tool:
http://inventory.overture.com to find out how many people are searching Yahoo for your product per month. You can double this figure for Google. Add the numbers together. If there are ten thousand or more searches per month for an item, this indicates a healthy market.

2. Calculate the REAL cost of your item
One big reason why people fail at the wholesale game is that they don't do the numbers. In other words, they don't treat wholesale like a real business. To accurately discover your true profit potential on an item, you need to add the shipping cost and insurance, eBay fees (or equivalent for other advertising), Paypal and/or credit card fees (these can be a real profit killer), packaging costs and labor involved packaging, and any storage costs to the cost of your item.

3. Verify ALL suppliers found on the Internet
Getting caught out by scammers is a common stumbling block for people new to wholesale. If you are searching for suppliers off your own bat (rather than using a wholesale directory like SaleHoo), it is CRITICAL to check authenticity before making a purchase.

Always take the time to:

* Check that the website gives a full business name and a registration number.
* Check for a legitimate contact telephone number - this will involve ringing the number. Do not accept a mobile phone number alone. All real companies should have a land line number.
* Go to http://www.whois.sc/ and search for the name of the website. A legitimate company will have a domain expiration date in several years time. Most legitimate companies reserve their domain names for 3-5 years or more at a time.
* AVOID suppliers who won't agree to use secure payment methods such as Escrow.com, Credit Card and Paypal Verified.
* Still uncertain? Ask other sellers what their experiences have been with the company you are interested in on eBay forums.

4. Chinese suppliers give the competitive edge
Chinese suppliers are an essential source for anyone wishing to make money selling online. Manufacturing costs are currently extremely low in China, thus it is the secret to gaining a competitive edge. Dealing with China does have risks, but these can be alleviated if you place a small order first, use secure payment methods, get shipping insurance for 110% of the cost of the items, and use suppliers with a good reputation.

5. A common stumbling block for liquidation and closeout
Always obtain the reasons for liquidation and closeout sales before you buy. Liquidation and Closeout sales can be a fantastic source for cheap products, but you usually have to buy by the pallet load and these can sometimes include broken or returned goods that aren't in salable condition. To be safe, ask specifically whether broken items and returns are included before you buy.

6. Negotiate on shipping and save
Shipping economically is critical to importing success. Profits can easily get swamped in shipping costs, so take time to get a good deal on shipping. If possible, negotiate CIF (Cost, Insurance & Freight) or DDP (Delivery, duty paid) shipping terms with your supplier as this takes much of the risk - not to mention organization - off your shoulders. FOB (Freight on Board) is the most common shipping term, but don't be afraid to negotiate for better.

7. Drop shipping - can you really afford it?
Drop shipping sounds great in theory - someone taking care of packaging, wrapping and postage - but it can be difficult to profit from this method. Think about it, drop shipping can add another $2-10 to your costs - sometimes even 10% of the cost of the item. By the time you add in eBay fees and any other costs, you may find it is not worth it.

8. Warehouse storage checklist
Asset management is the most important consideration when locating warehousing to store your items. Believe it or not, items can go missing while in storage, causing massive disruption for you. When comparing warehouses, ask questions specifically on how you will authorize the release of stock (by phone or fax?), what will happen if you need to cancel an order, frequency of damage claims, dust management, and whether there is an area you can use to photograph items.

9. Powerseller wealth
It's a fact - eBay powersellers are able to command higher prices for their items than ordinary eBay sellers. To get the best profits on your wholesale items, you need to aim to get and maintain powerseller status.

10. Growth with a website and eBay store
The way to increase profits from wholesale is to build your own website and/or open an eBay store. This allows you to cross sell items plus it also makes it easier for people to find what they are looking for. For example, if you sell shoes, then customers can easily navigate to browse all black shoes in size 9 and so on. Always include a sentence at the bottom of your descriptions encouraging visitors to check out your other listings - most people will.

If you are looking for genuine and trusted wholesale suppliers then look no further than SaleHoo! SaleHoo's directory contains over 8000 drop ship, wholesale and closeout suppliers that are independently reviewed and rated by eBay Powersellers and Industry experts. SaleHoo also purchases off them and reviews each supplier in depth afterwards.

SaleHoo is one of the fastest growing product sourcing portals on the internet. It contains a database of drop ship, wholesale, closeout and manufacturing suppliers offering thousands of product suppliers to consumers!
Visitors are allowed to sign up for unlimited and lifetime access to the completely searchable database of products and suppliers. The database is regularly updated, ensuring that the latest retail products are always available for purchase and SaleHoo carries the BBB Reliability Seal!

Join SaleHoo Today for their Special Startup Offer!

Site Build It! The only, all-in-one, site brainstorming building hosting and marketing

2008-04-27T21:04:00.000+03:00

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