Work 365 announced an integration with Datto, a provider of security and cloud-based software solutions purpose-built for Managed Service Providers (MSPs).
The integration with Datto’s Autotask PSA will simplify and streamline provisioning with Microsoft Partner Center and consolidate subscription billing and invoicing for Microsoft Cloud Solution Providers (CSPs) and MSPs.In addition, it will help sales, operations, and finance teams eliminate billing errors with automated subscription provisioning, recurring billing, and accurate invoicing.
“We are thrilled to announce the integration with Datto’s Autotask PSA. The integration empowers MSPs using Datto Autotask to leverage the advanced provisioning, subscription management, tracking, and Self-Service capabilities of Work 365 and consolidate invoicing and billing. Microsoft Partners can leverage the best of both the applications to manage and grow their business,” said Ismail Nalwala, CEO of Work 365.
The integration between Work 365 and Datto’s Autotask PSA will synchronize customers, products, agreements, and license changes.
“The Integration with Work 365 will provide further depth and capabilities to Datto’s platform for our MSP partners, enabling them to deal with NCE changes from Microsoft and streamline and automate CSP operations, reducing manual effort and errors,” said John Anderson, Senior Product Manager at Datto.
Smallstep announced that it has raised $26 million in total funding including a seed round of $7M led by boldstart ventures with participation from Accel Partners, Bain Capital Ventures and Upside Partnership, and a Series A of $19 million led by StepStone Group with participation from existing investors.
The funding will be used to expand Smallstep’s focus on creating products for practical zero trust by investing in their open source community, and accelerating research and development to bring new features and expertise to securing infrastructure.
Founded by Mike Malone, Smallstep focuses on automated certificate management, a critical foundation for DevOps’ teams to establish practical zero trust. The company has spent the past several years building a strong open source community with millions of downloads and hundreds of independent contributions from developers around the world. Smallstep’s mission is to enable companies to secure their entire infrastructure by identifying everything and everyone, issuing credentials, encrypting data and communications, and driving a strong security policy.
“Smallstep is a passionate team making products and tools critical to infrastructure security,” said Hunter Somerville, general partner, StepStone Group. “Our investment in this team and their products was an easy decision to make.”
“Our world is powered by a complex tangle of software and, since the early days of Smallstep, we’ve been focused on the fundamental problem of keeping it all secure,” said Malone, founder and CEO, Smallstep. “Certificates have been quietly providing an identity dialtone to the web for decades, but their utility extends beyond that use case. Certificate management is a Practical Zero Trust technology that every non-trivial system should have. This funding will enable us to bring automated certificate management to everyone. We’re fortunate to have an amazing group of investors who understand the need for this important core infrastructure and I’m excited to partner with them on this mission.”
Smallstep is backed by an experienced team from leading developer-first companies including Sauce Labs, Minted, Kenna Security (Cisco), Let’s Encrypt (Internet Security Research Group), Pivotal and Dell EMC. Each member of the team at Smallstep has experienced the pain of certificate management in Kubernetes, Docker, cloud native, on-premise, and more – and seeks to bring production identity to every environment.
“When we initially met with Mike, it was clear he was on a mission and we knew we wanted to partner with him immediately,” said Eliot Durbin, general partner, boldstart ventures. “Mike is a proven leader and innovator in the distributed systems space, and we look forward to working with the Smallstep leadership team as they build an exceptional company and massive category.”
“The rapid rise of microservices and containers is eroding traditional network perimeter-based security. Certificates provide a source of truth for machine and production identity, but are tough to use at scale in modern architectures,” said Enrique Salem, partner at Bain Capital Ventures. “Smallstep makes the power of certificates easy to access, helping developers secure the services and containers that create their application fabric.”
Twilio announced two new hires. Reeny Sondhi joined the company as Chief Digital Officer, and Amy Holcroft joined the company as Chief Privacy Officer.
Both roles are new to Twilio, as businesses increasingly look to digital channels to drive customer engagement, making digital privacy and rights a top priority for Twilio and its customers across all industries and regions.
As Chief Digital Officer, Sondhi will lead the scale of all technology operations needed as the company focuses on scaling and becoming an end-to-end customer engagement platform. She is based in San Francisco and will report to Chief Operating Officer, Khozema Shipchandler. As Chief Privacy Officer, Holcroft will lead the team responsible for protecting the interests of Twilio’s more than 250,000 customers and enabling their compliance with information privacy laws. Holcroft is based in London and will report to Twilio’s Chief Legal Officer, Dana Wagner.
“We are in the midst of tectonic shifts in online consumer privacy regulations, norms, and practices,” said Khozema Shipchandler, Twilio’s Chief Operating Officer. “Navigating and responding to this evolving landscape successfully is critical for Twilio and for our customers as we build a single platform that enables businesses in more than 180 countries to build direct relationships with their customers. Reeny and Amy bring essential experience to Twilio that will set us up for success as we scale and transform our business while protecting our customers’ and their end users’ digital rights. I’m thrilled to have both Reeny and Amy on board as key leaders as we continue to rise to this challenge.”
Sondhi joined Twilio from Autodesk, where she served as Chief Security Officer. She was responsible for driving the company’s security and trust strategy for infrastructure, products, and services. Before Autodesk, she led security engineering for EMC, now part of Dell. She made a transition to security after years in product management, launching multiple hardware and software products. Sondhi serves on the board of Rapid7, a growth business in cybersecurity, and has been recognized by San Francisco Business Times as one of the “Most Influential Women in Bay Area Business.”
“I have been a customer of Twilio for several years now and have admired how simple it is for developers to leverage the platform to build meaningful interactions with customers,” said Reeny Sondhi. “I look forward to leading the team that builds the technology operations that are core to enabling dependable and trustworthy outcomes for businesses and strengthening relationships with their customers. I’m excited to join Twilio as we continue to scale and reach new audiences – all in service of our customers and their end users.”
Previously, Holcroft was at HP Company and Hewlett Packard Enterprise, where she was a privacy leader for 13 years. As HPE’s Chief Privacy Officer, she led an international team of attorneys and compliance professionals managing global privacy and information governance programs on a global scale. Holcroft brings deep expertise in navigating and implementing complex compliance initiatives to address privacy regulations in the ever-changing technology and service provider industries. Holcroft is also involved in UK-based charitable organizations as a trustee for both the Sir Halley Stewart Trust and Educating Kids Outdoors.
“Privacy is a top priority for Twilio and its customers, and it plays a critical role underpinning the company’s vision to be the leading customer engagement platform,” said Amy Holcroft. “It is our responsibility to protect the data not only of the businesses we serve, but of their customers as well, as their engagements and relationships continue to move into the digital realm. I am excited to have the opportunity to strengthen Twilio’s commitment to data privacy and continue to build its reputation as a trusted custodian of customer data.”
AtScale announced the appointment of John Langton as vice president of AI engineering.
John joins the AtScale executive team to lead engineering efforts for the company’s fast-growing ML/AI business. He will oversee the development of technical strategy and architecture delivery, and work closely with customers to innovate on new approaches to integrate the AtScale semantic layer with AI to accelerate time to value and drive business outcomes.
John has an extensive background in data science, enterprise infrastructure software design, and AI. Most recently, he was CTO at Linus Health where he drove the technology strategy for delivering the next-generation of cognitive health solutions.
Prior to Linus, John was at Wolters Kluwer where he created the first healthcare AI team, and developed applications that engaged millions of patients in multimodal, digital experiences. Previously, John led the data science team at athenahealth. Before that, he was founder and CEO of VisiTrend, a developer of interactive visual and security analytics, until its acquisition by Bit9 +VMWare Carbon Black.
“John is a tech entrepreneur, scientist, and engineer with vast experience and relentless commitment to developing innovative solutions,” said Gaurav Rao, executive VP and GM of machine learning and AI, AtScale. “It’s a big win for AtScale to be able to leverage his expertise and leadership as our company continues to grow and expand. We look forward to having John lead AtScale’s engineering strategy.”
“AtScale is a high energy organization focused on the convergence of AI and traditional business analytics,” said Langton. “I am honored to join the company during this exciting time of rapid growth and to be part of the AI solutions that are shaping the future for insight-based decision making that is driving businesses forward.”
AtScale enables smarter decision-making by accelerating the flow of data-driven insights. The company’s semantic layer platform simplifies, accelerates, and extends business intelligence and data science capabilities for enterprise customers across all industries. With AtScale, customers are empowered to democratize data, implement self-service BI and build a more agile analytics infrastructure for better, more impactful decision making.
Sonrai Security is expanding its presence to better serve enterprise customers in Europe and the Asia Pacific region.
As more organizations make the move to the cloud, Sonrai is poised to capitalize on its strong growth trajectory for 2022 by delivering its comprehensive cloud security platform to a broader range of global enterprises.
“Organizations understand the importance of securing the cloud using cloud-native technologies and not old-school approaches and first-generation cloud security posture management (CSPM) tools have left many companies unprotected against escalating cyberthreats,” said Brendan Hannigan, co-founder and CEO, Sonrai Security. “We are expanding our footprint internationally to serve growing demand from customers in Europe and Asia.”
Sonrai is launching its first European office in London under the direction of long-time cybersecurity industry veteran Danny Adamson, regional EMEA lead for Sonrai. The company also plans to expand into Singapore later this spring. Its expansion plans are being funded by its $50 million Series C funding round that closed last fall. Sonrai will continue to grow its global workforce to serve customers in these regions.
“The future of technology is in the cloud,” said Adamson. “Companies have a huge opportunity for a security redo in the cloud to better protect their data from the continuous cyberattacks plaguing businesses today. I’m excited to lead Sonrai’s efforts in Europe as more companies recognize the need to rethink how they secure cloud data and with our new expanded platform, Sonrai is delivering the right solution at the right time and place.”
Sonrai’s technology is delivered through Sonrai Dig, a cloud security solution that unearths, prioritizes and removes risks across every part of a customer’s public cloud. Sonrai Dig uniquely enables enterprises to see everything – including inventory, activity, identities, data and workloads – and to map every possible access path to data in their clouds. By linking workload vulnerabilities into Sonrai’s Identity Graph, the most critical risks are rapidly identified, prioritized and remediated.
In related, but separate news today, a newly commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Sonrai Security and Amazon Web Services entitled “Identity Controls Are Central to Enterprise Plans for Cloud Security,” found that a staggering 96% of enterprises surveyed report that their “organizations faced security incidents in the last 12 months” with 98% of them reporting identity-related security challenges. Findings also showed that 79% of decision-makers surveyed note that the increase in cloud migrations is requiring a new set of security solutions with 74% of firms believing cloud migrations require new identity access management solutions.
The first time you hear it, the noise can be jarring. Seemingly out of nowhere, it sounds like a helicopter is landing on your roof, or a freight train is about to come barreling through your wall and into your home. The room—and its contents—may shake the way they would during a minor earthquake.
When you investigate, you find that all of this racket is coming from your washing machine, which happens to be shaking violently. It may have even shaken itself out of its usual spot.
While this isn’t great for the machine or your floors (or anything breakable in the room), it usually doesn’t mean that you need to invest in a new appliance. Here are a few of the reasons why your washing machine is shaking, and how to fix it.
Why is my washing machine shaking?
Here are a few of the most common reasons your washing machine is shaking, as well as how to fix the problem.
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Solution: It’s great that you’re trying to conserve water and energy by limiting the number of loads you do, but check the owner’s manual to see what their maximum recommended load size and weight, and stick to that.
Uneven weight distribution
Problem: If the shaking doesn’t happen with every single load, it may be occurring when there’s uneven weight distribution in the drum. This can happen if you’re only washing one larger item (like a pillow), or if you’re washing sheets along with other items, and the sheets form a ball around everything else.
Solution: Even out the weight of the load. For example, pop in a second pillow. Or, if you’re washing sheets and other items, make sure you put them in separately (i.e. not in a big ball) to begin with.
The washer isn’t sitting flat on the floor
Problem: It’s like when one table leg is shorter than the other: Everything wobbles and it’s annoying. Except instead of a table, it’s a large drum full of heavy wet clothing.
Solution: This is usually a two-person job, but basically, you want to unplug the washer, slide it out from wherever it usually lives, and locate the source of the wobble. Perhaps the floor is uneven (which wouldn’t be unusual if you live in an older home). Or maybe the feet of the washer aren’t uniform in length. Once you locate the problem, use a level to make sure it is, in fact, level before starting to use it again.
Shipping supports are still inside
Problem: When washers are delivered, they often come with hard plastic spacers that protect the machine while it’s in transit. These are supposed to be removed before using the washing machine. If that doesn’t happen, it can cause it to shake.
Solution: Get out your owner’s manual and follow the directions for removing the transit bolts. They’re usually pretty easy to find: On the back of the washer, they’re large plastic bolts on the back part of the drum. You’ll need a wrench to remove them. Then put them somewhere safe, in case you need to move the washer again.
The filter is blocked
Problem: You’re (hopefully) familiar with your dryer’s lint trap. Now meet your washer’s filter. It’s supposed to catch the stuff that falls out of your pockets in the wash (like coins, paperclips, etc.) and stop it from getting into the water hose.
Solution: Check your owner’s manual to find out how to clean the filter. Or, if you’d prefer to wing it, start by turning off your washing machine, and finding the filter—it’s usually located behind the small panel at the base of the washer.
Remember that water hose we mentioned? You’re about to meet it. Open the panel, and while holding a shallow dish under the hose, carefully loosen and drain it. You may end up having to empty the dish a few times during the process. Then, remove the filter, get rid of any remaining debris, and rinse it off. Lastly, check the reservoir to make sure nothing’s left in there, and then replace the filer.
It’s something else
If you’ve tried and checked all of the above, and your washer is still shaking, it’s probably time to call in a professional to troubleshoot and fix the problem.
About 75% of recruiters use an applicant tracking system (ATS) for their hiring process—and an even higher percentage (around 99%) of Fortune 500 companies do, as well. Understanding how an ATS works can help you improve your marketability to potential employers and stand out from other candidates in the hiring pool, ultimately pushing your resume past the ATS and into the hands of a human recruiter.
How does an ATS system work?
An ATS—sometimes called resume screening software—is a technology that companies use to automate certain aspects of their hiring process. An ATS will scan and review resumes and CVs, accept job applications, and manage candidates looking for a suitable position in a company.
Top employers receive hundreds, sometimes thousands, of applications for their open positions, so an ATS is a viable solution to manage that influx and help companies remain EEOC-compliant. Here are the features most applicant tracking systems have:
Candidate sourcing
Resume storage
Filters
Keyword search
Applicant communication
Job-posting management
Automated email customizations
Interview tools
Analytics and reporting
How to write an ATS-friendly resume
An ATS-friendly resume can prevent your applications from being rejected before a human recruiter gets to look at it. Here’s what you should keep in mind before you apply for your next job:
Choose an appropriate ATS format
An ATS may only review your resume if it is formatted correctly. The simplest way for an ATS to read your resume is in reverse chronological order. Your most recent and relevant work experience should be listed at the top of the resume, followed by less recent or less relevant information listed toward the bottom.
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Use standard headings and avoid tables, columns, headers, and footers
Standardized heading sections allow the ATS to understand what content will come next on your resume. Use plain and simple language in your headings, as the system may not recognize gimmicky or unusual headers.
Even an advanced ATS will have trouble scanning tables or columns on a resume because information could get jumbled together and confuse the ATS. Avoid tables, columns, headers, and footers to keep your resume ATS-friendly and organized.
Choose the right file type
Two common file types applicants use for resumes are .docx or .pdf. PDFs generally keep your formatting intact, but .docx is a better choice for making your resume ATS-friendly. If the employer asks for a PDF or other file type, it’s best to follow their instructions. But when possible, avoid all other file types when submitting a resume.
Include keywords from the job description
A well-written resume will include specific keywords that match the job description of the role you’re applying for. However, avoid stuffing your resume with keywords just for the sake of it. Use keywords in the right context that fit the job description and describe your past work experiences.
Use an appropriate font
Some applicant tracking systems only accept certain fonts on resumes. Use a legible and commonly used font to make your resume readable. Examples of acceptable fonts include:
Calibri
Arial
Times New Roman
Helvetica
Use simple and concise bullet points
Opt for short bullet points and start sentences with strong action verbs. Bullet points emphasize the most relevant information and convey your skills and accomplishments faster than long, drawn-out sentences.
Keep a clean resume design
A complex or artsy design may work well if you’re applying for a graphic design position, but in general, an ATS-friendly resume has a simple, clean, and professional design.
Just as job-seekers desire a clear and readable job listing page, recruiters want to find important information about you and your experience in an organized document. There are many professional design templates available online that you can use to create your resume.
Consider scanning your finished resume
After completing your ATS-friendly resume, consider running it through an online testing website, such as Jobscan, Resymatch.io, Resume Worded, or Skillsyncer. These sites will determine whether or not your resume would pass a standard ATS.
If only pie recipes asked you to roll the dough into an amoeba shape. I’m excellent at that one. But perfect circles or rectangles of dough? That takes a few reps.
Pies, cut-out cookies, cinnamon rolls, and danishes require a dough that is rolled out into a specific shape. If you decide to take the I’ll-fix-it-later approach (roll it out wonky, use a knife to cut the shape out later), you end up with a heap of unnecessary waste. So shape it before you roll.
It doesn’t seem like this would make a difference, but it does. I spent years getting miffed every time I rolled out a Pac-Man-shaped double crust. It wasn’t until I went to pastry school that I learned dough will always roll out into the same shape it starts in. (I just saved you a bundle on tuition, you’re welcome.) If you start with a circle, you’ll end up with a flat circle. If you start with a jagged clump, you’ll get a flat, jagged clump. The reason I kept ending up with half-moons when making a double crust recipe is because the wording in many recipes advise chilling your dough in that shape. The instructions tell us to work the dough into a ball and “split the dough,” “divide the dough,” or “cut the dough in half.” Seems straightforward–cut the sphere of dough in half. Many folks will wrap, chill, and then try to roll out this shape as is. It’s a bad start to making a circular pie crust. It’s great way to get a Pac-Man shape though.
To get the geometric shape you need, try to create a uniform mixture in the shape you want before you get rolling. For pie crust, divide the crumbly mixture before you compact it. Work the dough as separate crust portions, then wrap them as individual discs before they rest. For laminated or yeast dough, shape it before you set it aside to chill, or after the first proof just before you roll it. For any rectangular shapes that rest in the fridge, use the wrap to help encourage the formation of sharp corners. When making cut out cookies, shape the dough by kneading it briefly in your palms to discourage dry, crumbly edges. Then, press the dough on your work surface to create the perfect shape before you hit it with the pin.
Use this shaping technique to your advantage and experiment with baking new shapes. Pies are delicious as rounds, but what a limitation! Have you tried making a rectangular pie in your loaf tin? Or a chicken pot pie for 12 people in a 13x9-inch casserole dish? Maybe your Christmas cookie stamps are triangular trees. If so, you can roll out a giant triangle to optimize dough usage. Don’t worry, when it’s time to make a giant amoeba sugar cookie you can still fall back on old habits.
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The brilliance of the Nintendo Switch is how it gives you the ability to go from playing a game handheld to experiencing it on your big screen in seconds. That brilliance is certainly dimmed, however, if you have to deal with intermittent blackouts on your TV. If you’re experiencing this issue with your Switch, there are two things you should know: You’re not alone, and there’s a solution.
Reddit user r/Ramen-Noodle-Bear had this problem. They were struggling to figure out why their OLED Switch would occasionally serve up a black screen for about four to five seconds at a time when plugged into their LG C9 OLED TV. During these blackouts, there was no sound, but the Switch’s handheld display didn’t kick in either: the console still recognized it was docked. In addition, Ramen-Noodle-Bear’s Joy-Cons still worked during these image interruptions, suggesting the system remained awake throughout.
As a biomedical equipment technician in their offline life, Ramen-Noodle-Bear claims to be well-versed in troubleshooting, and proceeded to try and test every variable under the sun. They fully updated the firmware for both the TV and the Switch; they ensured the TV wasn’t just turning off, switching inputs, or adjusting HDR settings; they promise, “if you read anywhere something that someone tried, I’ve done it.”
The fix: a new HDMI cable
Luckily, Ramen-Noodle-Bear eventually stumbled upon the solution, saving their sanity as well as the sanities of anyone experiencing these Switch blackouts: You need to switch (heh) to an HDMI 1.4 cable.
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You see, Nintendo packed an HDMI 2.0 cable with the OLED Switch, to match the output port, which was also upgraded to the new standard. The Switch apparently can handle both HDMI 1.4 and HDMI 2.0, meaning you should see no difference in gameplay or performance using one over the other. However, for some reason, the newer standard can result in maddening blackouts with the video output, especially with this particular LG TV.
It’s difficult to say why HDMI 2.0 can cause this handshake issue while HDMI 1.4 does not: it’s possible there’s a mild incompatibility between LG’s C9 TV and the Switch’s HDMI 2.0 output. Ramen-Noodle-Bear theorizes the issue might lie in 2.0's increased maximum data output of 18 gbps over 1.4's 10.2 gbps, even though those theoretical maximums have no additional impact on gameplay or performance. That said, HDMI 2.0 isn’t a new technology—it’s been around since 2015—so an incompatibility with a new TV is odd.
Whatever the cause, swapping that 2.0 cable for a 1.4 cable does the trick, and it’s a cheap fix: You can find plenty of cable options on Amazon for under $10. Ramen-Noodle-Bear isn’t alone in encountering this problem or trying out this solution: The top comment on their Reddit thread describes the same issue with the same TV and Switch models, with others echoing similar sentiments and thanking Ramen-Noodle-Bear for the solution.
Another possible solution
That said, other Redditors reported suffering from blackouts while using different hardware, and found a different solution to solve the problem. These gamers were using a launch-day Switch rather than an OLED model, and experienced issues while docked to a Samsung TV. The fix for them required changing their TV’s RGB settings to “Limited Spectrum.” If your problem aligns with this hardware setup, try changing that setting before buying a new cable.
You’d think we would’ve figured out these A/V issues by now. Alas, as long as we’re connecting together devices from two different companies, occasional incompatibilities are to be expected. Maybe Nintendo should just make its own TVs.
The satisfaction of watching your tiny shoots push out of the ground after weeks of waiting is one of the best parts of gardening—unless your seeds don’t germinate as evenly as you’d like. Some of your seeds may not even sprout at all, or meddling squirrels may have carried them away before they got the chance. But there’s a solution that will help you predict the rate of germination for your seeds and shorten the amount of time it will take them to sprout: indoor sprouting.
What you need for indoor sprouting
The first thing to know about indoor sprouting is that it works best with larger seeds like peas, beans, and squash. That’s not because the smaller seeds won’t sprout, but because they’re more fragile and difficult to handle. Instead, using seeds you can easily hold between your thumb and forefinger is a good place to start for indoor sprouting.
Next, you’ll need a clear container—this could be as simple as a Ziploc bag or plastic resealable food container with a clear lid, or even a muffin tin with a lid (if you can find a clear lid that will let in the sunlight). The important thing is to be able to keep your seedlings warm and moist while germinating, so really any container with a lid that lets in sunlight will work.
You’ll also need a waterproof marker, some paper towels, a spray bottle with water, and a sunny windowsill.
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How to create an indoor sprouting station
To set up your indoor sprouting operation, dampen enough paper towels to cover the bottom of your container—this is your soil stand-in for the first leg of your plant’s journey. Next, add your seeds to the paper towel, keeping them at least two inches apart. Label your container as you go with your waterproof marker (otherwise you risk forgetting what you’ve planted). Then, put your lid on, or zip up your bag.
Once your germination laboratory is set up, place it on a windowsill and use the spray bottle as needed to keep the paper towels damp. These pre-sprouted seeds will grow faster than seeding straight to soil because the warmer conditions of your windowsill are better for germination than the soil—and the bonus is that you’ll have a lot less duds.
Different types of seeds vary on how long it will take them to sprout, but once you start seeing tiny roots that look like white veins, it’s time to put them in the ground. If the seed seems particularly reluctant to leave its paper towel home, its roots may have adhered to the paper. Gently trim around the roots to avoid disrupting them, keeping in mind that if a seedling loses its roots, it will die.
Plant your seedlings
Once your seeds are sprouted, they can be planted into growth medium to become indoor starts, or you can opt to plant them directly in the soil. Depending on the seed type, you’ll just need to make sure that the soil you’re using is warm enough to keep the seedlings growing. You can plant the sprouts with a thin layer of soil over top to allow them to grow through quickly.
We may never be completely rid of paper—aside from its advantages, paper will always have a “feel” that simply appeals to some folks—but we’re entering a brave new world where digital documents live harmoniously with their printed cousins. You already might keep e-books on your Kindle and print books on your shelf, or documents in the cloud and hardcopies in a folder. The future isn’t all about leaving things behind, it’s about having more choices.
Why buy an ePaper tablet?
ePaper tablets allow you to take notes freehand, store them in the cloud, and do all sorts of cool tricks that aren’t possible with traditional paper and pen. The ability to take notes on a screen with infinite “pages” and share your ideas instantly is great.
We’re still early days in the ePaper market, though, and things are changing rapidly. Where there was once just one or two devices to choose from, now there is a growing list of tablets that allow you to easily take digital notes, but many of them are primarily e-readers, meaning that the note-taking is mostly an afterthought. So, if your focus is taking notes and making digital documents by hand, which ePaper tablet is the best?
The best e-reader is the Onyx Boox Nova3 Color
BOOX has crashed into the ePaper market in a big way, and the Nova3 Color has just about everything you could want in a note-taking tablet. In fact, it’s so good that it’s actually hard to find—it’s sold out in a lot of places, so if you’re thinking of buying an ePaper tablet, you might want to get your order in sooner rather than later.
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How much does the Onyx Boox Nova3 Color cost?
As of last year it sold for about $400, but tablet prices in general have risen due to supply chain issues and rising popularity, so expect that price to be higher when they’re available again.
What makes the Nova3 so great?
Color. Color e-ink is gorgeous and extremely useful. If you ever reached for a different color pen or pencil when taking notes or drafting documents, you’ll love the ability to bring color into your digital notes. The screen and color ink looks great, and it’s incredibly responsive, with no lag or glitching.
Android. The Nova3 is based on the Android operating system, which means you can load plenty of Android apps and use it as a standard tablet in addition to note-taking, without losing any features or note functionality. That makes it incredibly versatile.
Note features. The Nova3 has plenty of note-specific features that other tablets lack, including handwriting recognition, built-in microphone for speech-to-text, robust search and replace functionality, and inductive and capacitive touch—which means you can use your finger as well as the stylus.
It’s format agnostic. The Nova3 works with PDF files as you’d expect, but also MOBI and EPUB files and Word documents.
The Nova3 wins on versatility, but it does come at a cost. While the overall package is best-in-class, there are downsides, like relatively small screen (at just 7.8 inches), a less-than-great battery life (typically lasting about a day), and its internal storage is paltry at just 3GB. But since most people will be shoving their notes into the cloud anyway, that’s not as much of a downside as it might seem.
BOOK also makes the Onyx Boox Note Air, currently available for about $500, which offers most of the same features in a grayscale version—and a much larger 10.3-inch screen.
Your second best option is the reMarkable 2
If you’re not looking for the best overall ePaper tablet and instead want the best dedicated note-taking experience, your choice is the reMarkable 2. The first really useful ePaper notebook, the reMarkable doesn’t offer color or the flexibility of Android apps. What it does offer is clean, distraction-free note-taking on a large 10.3-inch screen. It also offers handwriting recognition (but no microphone) and 8GB of storage (plus cloud options), though you can’t use your finger on the screen as with the Nova3. Most importantly, the act of marking up PDFs and EPUB documents (no MOBI compatibility here) is smooth as glass, and the tablet comes with a ton of templates for your documents so you can get started immediately.
How much does the reMarkable 2 cost?
It’s not cheap, currently anywhere from $500 to about $650, depending on the features you choose. You get a lot less functionality for that price, but if you’re hyper-focused on note-taking, the functionality is 100 percent on point.
Your cheapest solid option is the Kobo Sage
Finally, if you’re looking for a note-taking option without the second mortgage, consider the Kobo Sage. It’s an e-Reader, not a note-taking device, but it’s compatible with the Kobo Stylus and offers a note-taking app that will get the job done. Is it the best note-taking ePaper option? Nope. But for about $300 ($260 for the tablet and $40 for the optional stylus), you get a perfectly cromulent note-taking device that is also a nifty e-reader.
Of course, the real budget choice is a $2.99 notebook and an old pen, but if you want to live in the future with the rest of us, an ePaper notebook is a necessity. Just be sure you choose the right one.
Learn how to find out which apps you've given access rights to, and how to revoke those rights immediately in an emergency.
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If you’re American, it’s not uncommon for your travel bucket list to include visiting all fifty states. You’ve probably gotten some of the big ones, like New York, California, and Florida, out of the way already—that’s because these states have obvious attractions. No one wonders if there are any fun activities to do in the Big Apple or along the California coast. The daunting aspect of visiting all fifty states isn’t visiting the heavy hitters; it’s figuring out what to do in the states that, except for a brief period in fifth grade, you don’t even know the capitals of.
These states tend to be underrepresented in media and frequently not focused on in school curriculum. But that doesn’t make them any less worthy of your tourism. In fact, they have quite a bit to offer. Here are the five least-visited states in the country, and two reasons to go and check each of them out.
Vermont
The obvious reason to visit
The skiing. Skiing accounts for a large portion of Vermont’s tourism in any given year, and when you go to visit, you’ll see why. Vermont is littered with beautiful mountains up and down the state. The state’s flagship skiing town, Stowe, is nicknamed the “ski capital of the east.” What if you’re a skiing appreciator but your actual skiing days are behind you? Fret not, as Stowe is also the home to the Vermont Ski and Snowboard Museum.
The less obvious reason to visit
The quarries. If skiing’s not your thing, check out Vermont in the summertime. An interesting characteristic of Vermont is it’s covered in quarries, both active and inactive, and all are a sight to behold. You can take tours of active quarries like the Rock of Ages, or go swimming or cliff-jumping in local quarries for a quick and cheap thrill. Just be careful—these quarries are often swim-at-your-own-risk.
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Montana
The obvious reason to visit
Big Sky. Often considered a crown jewel of Montana, Big Sky is among their most prominent attractions because of its breathtaking landscapes and tourism infrastructure. Activities include hiking, whitewater rafting, and wildlife viewing. Once you factor in a vibrant art and restaurant scene, Big Sky becomes a no-brainer for anyone looking to visit the Treasure State.
The less obvious reason to visit
The Montana Vortex. The Montana Vortex is described as a “genuine quantum or gravitational anomaly that defies the laws of physics and nature.” I don’t know about you, but I’ve never seen a genuine quantum or gravitational anomaly in my life, so the prospect of visiting one piques my interest. The sensation has been labeled as “hard to describe” but in essence throws off your inner balance, as well as creates optical illusions, in a truly mind-boggling way.
Wyoming
The obvious reason to visit
Yellowstone National Park. Telling someone to visiting Wyoming to check out Yellowstone National Park is like telling someone visiting Paris to check out a little place called “The Louvre”—it’s like uh, yeah, we know. But if it’s so obvious, why haven’t you been yet? Hmm? Check out Yellowstone, get a picture in front of Old Faithful, and strike Wyoming off of your bucket list.
The less obvious reason to visit
The Smith Mansion: The Smith Mansion is a collection of wooden terraces and staircases making an amalgamation of a house that looks like it’s straight out of a Stephen King novel. The abandoned log house has become a breeding ground for tales after the owner died during a fall while working on the home in 1992. This structure is worth checking out if you already find yourself on the Buffalo Bill Cody Scenic Byway.
Delaware
The obvious reason to visit
The beaches. If there’s one thing you know about Delaware, it’s that it’s the home of President Joe Biden. But if there’s two things you know about Delaware, it’s that it’s the home to some of the nicest beaches on the East Coast. Between Rehoboth Beach and Lewes, visitors can take in warm waters, whale-watching tours, and even the opportunity to do some tax-free beach shopping.
The less obvious reason to visit
Roosevelt Inlet Shipwreck. I was really excited to share with you the Delaware tradition of the Punkin Chuckin festival, so imagine my disappointment when I learned it moved to North Carolina because of friendlier insurance liability laws. But I’m equally excited to share with you the Roosevelt Inlet Shipwreck. Dating back from the American Revolution, this shipwreck wasn’t uncovered until 2006. Offering a unique look at the Delaware coast, artifacts from the shipwreck are still being found to this day.
Alaska
The obvious reason to visit
Polar bear viewings. Did you know Alaska is the only U.S. state that is home to polar bears in the wild? If you’re willing to pay a pretty penny, you can even see one up close. August to October is what they consider “polar bear viewing season” so go ahead and finally book that late summer trip to Alaska you’ve always been talking about and hit two bucket list birds with one stone.
The less obvious reason to visit
Glacier cruises. If seeing a large chunk of ice is on your bucket list, but you’re still not ready to forgive icebergs for what they did to the Titanic, glaciers might be the way to go. These Alaskan cruise options offer the opportunity to see these land masses up close and personal—something you’d never get to see in Times Square or Disney World.
The early days of social media ushered in an era of Web 2.0 fears, the loss of privacy and the threat of cyberstalking among them, plus the depressing realization that everyone you went to high school with is overtly racist.
In the decades since, we’ve found new, more existential flaws in the matrix, as troll farms encourage the distribution of false and damaging information that is algorithmically delivered to our apps in order to confirm our existing biases, or maybe make us really angry. But still we scroll. Addicted to the rush of endorphins brought on by a couple of likes, and to that equally heady sense of righteous indignation, we’ve lost the sense there’s any particular value to objective reality.
Opinions about business magnate Elon Musk vary wildly, but this week’s news that he’s buying Twitter and taking the company private has raised concerns. He promises to open the platform’s algorithms to public scrutiny, which is probably a good thing, but what becomes of an already problematic platform once it comes under the sole control of one of world’s wealthiest individual? A new Eden? Or further descent into hell? I guess we’ll have to keep scrolling to find out.
Popular entertainment has often struggled to keep up with the pace of technological change, but we’ve been living in this world long enough that the movies have made some impressive, entertaining, and darkly funny statements about our online lives. A few of them even come close to capturing the horrors of reality.
If there’s one thing corporate America loves, it’s doling out an office pizza party. You hit your numbers for the quarter? That’s an office pizza party. A longtime worker is retiring? Having a baby? Hitting a milestone birthday? Pizza party, pizza party, pizza party.
Of course, most employees would prefer, I don’t know, a raise compared to some dough, sauce, and cheese (maybe some toppings, if you’re lucky). Employee appreciate in the form of actual dollars in the bank account will always be more fulfilling than a slice or two, so I don’t blame you if you’d prefer to skip the office pizza party altogether. But what about the potential fallout from that decision? Will you be thought of as less of a team player around the office?
Under many circumstances, yes. That is, unless you employ one of the following tactics to get you out of making an appearance at the party without losing any of the goodwill you’ve built up amongst your boss and colleagues.
Offer to help plan the party
Planning office parties is a thankless task. Most offices aren’t going to have a designated event planner, so the responsibility often falls on whatever employee is willing to take it on. Because of this, whoever bites the bullet and plans the party earns a certain level of martyrdom, and with that status comes the flexibility to not attend the party.
Ultimately, it’s a worthwhile proposition. Is it a small pain to plan the office pizza party? Of course it is. But the amount of time you spend putting in the pizza order and making sure there are plates and napkins in the kitchen is far less than the amount of time you’d have to spend at the actual party, idly making small talk with your coworkers. Once that party is up and running, you’re free to get out of there. And no one will be able to say a thing about your departure, because you don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.
Say you’re using the time to do work
The point of going into work is, ultimately, to do your work. So if there’s a pizza party on the books, but you tell your coworkers that you aren’t going to make it because you have some work you need to do, they really can’t begrudge you for that. It’s an ironclad excuse. After all, you wouldn’t accuse a surgeon of not being a team player for not making it to the monthly birthday gathering—they, presumably, have more important things to do.
Tell your coworkers you’re about to close a deal; they won’t ask questions. They’ll be happy for the prosperity of the company and won’t think twice about what’s actually just your convenient excuse to get out of drinking warm Sprite with the accounting department.
Schedule a doctor’s appointment
The odds are you’ll know of any pending pizza parties at least a week or so in advance. You’re probably overdue on a doctor’s appointment anyway, so you might as well get the most proverbial “bang for your buck” out of them as possible. Tell all of your coworkers you’re bummed to miss the gathering, but unfortunately, 4:30 p.m. on a Friday is the only time your dentist had available—and it’s not like they’re going to call your dentist’s office and find out they were available every day this week.
Make up an excuse
This is definitely the riskiest of the options because “making up an excuse” is really just a code for “lying.” But desperate times call for desperate measures. The key to a good “excuse” is a blend of specificity and vagueness. You can’t just say, “I’m sorry, something came up.” But saying, “I’m sorry, something came up with my son at school?” Now you’re cooking with gas. Most people are not going to pry for more information about something like that; and they’ll think whatever you’re dealing with is decidedly worse than an office pizza party.
Of course, the threat here is getting caught in a lie will ultimately hurt your social standing in the office and brand you as not a team player. But if you’re willing to take that chance, making up an excuse is your ticket out of the office and onto the freeway home.
Radical honesty
I’m going to be radically honest with you. The success rate for this one is low, and the odds of it backfiring are high. But it’s an option I still want to lay out on the table for you. If you don’t plan on going to the office pizza party and someone asks you why you, tell them the truth. These are your coworkers, not your friends, and you have no compulsion to eat pizza with them. Some people might get offended, but others might respect you for the directness. It’s not like they really want to go either.
Scammers have no honor: They will pretend to be anyone and say anything they have to in order to get you to give up your personal information. Their latest trick involves impersonating WhatsApp ‘support’ in order to steal your credit card information and break into your messaging account. Don’t give them the satisfaction. Here’s what to look out for.
As reported by WABetaInfo, scammers are impersonating WhatsApp employees in an attempt to lure users into a false sense of security. After all, if you think you’re talking to an official WhatsApp account, you might feel more comfortable sharing personal information or financial data. The scammers, who have a verification checkmark in their profile picture, will inform you your WhatsApp account is at risk of termination, and, in order to preserve the account, you will need to provide “support” with a valid credit card number. For additional “proof,” they might also ask for your two-factor authentication code. Classic WhatsApp support, just trying to be helpful.
Here’s the deal: WhatsApp support would never ask you for these things. Ever. WhatsApp is free. The app’s support team will not ask for your credit card information just to keep your account from being terminated. In addition, you should never hand out your two-factor authentication code to anybody, on WhatsApp or otherwise. Two-factor codes are essentially temporary passwords that prove you have access to a trusted device to sign into an account. You should only type in this code yourself when you are trying to log into an account that uses them
Scammers know they can’t break into accounts with 2FA enabled without these codes, so they pretend to be from the company or app in question, hoping to make you feel safe enough that you will share those numbers. Don’t do it.
Don’t be fooled by the profile picture, either: Official WhatsApp accounts have the verification checkmark next to their contact name, not in their avatar. Scammers can’t add a verification check to their name, so they slap it on a profile picture and hope nobody thinks twice. WABetaInfo has a great side-by-side showing off the difference if you want to see for yourself.
I’ll give these scammers props for thinking to put a verification check in their profile picture, but, otherwise, I give them an F. This entire ruse reeks of scam from top-to-bottom. In 2022, I expect more from people looking to trick me into sharing my personal information. If you encounter this obvious scam on your end, stop the conversation immediately and report the account to WhatsApp support—real WhatsApp support—for good measure.
After tweeting out a joke and a screenshot of someone messaging me on Hinge, I recently read through a lot of complaints (mostly from men) about how it feels like there are only two options when you reach out to someone on dating apps: Get ignored or get mocked.
While I understand the sentiment, I have to disagree with this dismal outlook. The “get ignored” or “get mocked” binary is a false one. There are plenty of options for the middle road. With a little bit of thought, you can start a conversation without sounding too boring, too cheesy, too cocky, or too creepy.
Many bloggers, myselfincluded, have emphasized the need to personalize the messages you send on dating apps. The market is too competitive for the one-size-fits-all pick-up lines of yore. You need to actually respond to something specific in someone’s profile if you want to start a fruitful conversation.
With that in mind, what use is this article? If the advice always comes down to customizing your message on a case-by-case basis, how can I help you? Tragically, I can’t grab your phone from your hands and do the swiping for you (not for free, at least).
Here’s the thing, though: We can anticipate a lot of what you’re going to encounter on someone’s dating profile. If your ability to judge what’s corny and what’s creepy is feeling off-base, let the following examples help you recalibrate.
Here are some thought-starters for surefire conversation starters on dating apps, organized around the sort of photos and prompts you can expect to find on many profiles.
If they have a concert pic…
A concert pic is usually a layup for starting a conversation. Perhaps where you’re going wrong is by swooping in with an observation instead of question. Instead of saying something bland like, “This looks fun,” try asking something open-ended, like, “What concert was this?” or “Got any concerts you’re looking forward to?” If you recognize the venue or musician, even better.
If they mention the number of countries they visited…
Travel pics are a dating profile staple. Your instinct might be to ask “Where was this photo taken?” but I encourage you to ask a more open-ended conversation-starter. As someone fairly well-traveled, I’d rather be asked about where I want to visit next over where I’ve already been. The “crazy travel story” prompt doesn’t translate that well over text, often ending in a one-sided “you had to be there” moment. Alternatively, “bucket lists” give you plenty of room for a fun, flirty back-and-forth.
If they have a pic with a fish and/or reference the trope of a pic with a fish…
The good ol’ “I caught a fish” pic. For this inevitability, a Twitter mutual messaged me the perfect way to stand out from all the other fish in the sea. In response to a profile prompt like, “If you’re holding a dead fish in your photos, I’m not interested,” you could respond, “I’m not holding a dead fish, but if you would like to hold something dead inside, we could cuddle.” It’s the perfect amount of weird to ensure you stand out.
If you want to compliment their looks…
We’re not all looking for a soulmate. Even if you’re swiping on someone simply because they’re hot, you can still be tactful and original about it. “Wow, you’re gorgeous,” sounds like you copy/pasted that to a hundred profiles before mine. Not only can physical compliments sound impersonal, they can also come across as real off-putting real quick.
Hit on hot people the same way you’d hit on someone for their personality. Revolutionary, I know. If they have a photo of them looking stunning on a sunny beach, play it coy and message them asking where they went on vacation. Focus on the beach, not the bod. You increase your chances of standing out if you can prove that their profile successfully interested you for less superficial reasons (even if you have superficial intentions).
If their profile made you laugh…
Tell them why. Not to brag, but I’ve gotten a few “you seem funny” DMs in my day. Unfortunately, my wit doesn’t know what to do with that other than say “thank you.” Use the initial compliment as a launching point for a bigger conversation starter. For example, “This response reminds me of [favorite comedian]” or “This is hilarious, I’d love to know what shows/movies are making you laugh right now.” Even if you’re grasping at straws, this approach at least gives the funny person something to work with.
Oh, and if you’re something a comedian yourself? Play along! Try to build off the jokes in their profile. Nothing says “love connection” like the ability to quote It’s Always Sunny back and forth.
If they have a niche meme...
The inclusion of a meme on someone’s dating profile is tricky territory. While it can be an efficient way to signal your sense of humor, it’s not always a productive conversation-starter. If there’s a “tag yourself” element involved, take that and run with it. Otherwise, I’d avoid the allure of the meme and respond to a different photo altogether. Or, take a more general “you made me laugh” approach, as described above.
If they say “sarcasm is my second language...”
Swipe left.
At the end of the day: Be the coolest version of yourself
You need to be yourself. Blah blah blah. The best way to be your best self is to master the art of “casual weird.” “Casual weird” describes responses that make you stand out without pushing people away, e.g. calling yourself dead inside, but crucially, not really meaning it.
The takeaway is to actually take the time to work with the specifics of someone’s profile. In this economy, you’ve got to be clever in order to catch someone’s eye. At the end of the day, there’s plenty of wiggle room between “hey” and “where have you been all my life, gorgeous.” Better to be a little weird than a little boring.
The next time you’re deep in conversation with someone, whether it be a platonic, romantic, or business interaction, notice: Are you sitting or standing in similar positions? Are your voices speaking at the same volume? Are your arms or hands doing the same thing?
If so, one of you is likely (consciously or unconsciously) engaging in the behavior known as mirroring. Also referred to as “the chameleon effect,” this psychological technique is used both tactically, by professional networkers and salespeople, and unwittingly by everyone else, to form strong connections and engender a greater sense of trust between people.
What is mirroring?
Scientifically known as “limbic synchrony,” mirroring is the act of imitating another’s body language, speech patterns, facial expressions, and sometimes even their physical appearance in an effort to establish rapport, gain trust, and foster deeper connection. While it can be employed purposely, in professions that require sales, negotiation, and gaining others’ trust, such as therapy or police investigation, it’s often done unintentionally, as an evolutionary byproduct of our need for belonging. Imitation, as they say, is the sincerest form of flattery (and it can, so long it doesn’t venture into creepy, Fatal Attraction territory, make the people you’re imitating like you more.)
In practice, mirroring can take many forms. In couples’ therapy, partners may be encouraged to sit facing one another, express their feelings using “I statements,” and repeat verbatim what their partner said (only changing the personal pronouns). This method of exact language mirroring serves to reflect the others’ feelings until they feel sufficiently heard and understood. (Works great on toddlers, too.) It also, most importantly, forces each partner to truly listen to what the other is saying, rather than planning their rebuttal the entire time the other person is talking.
In platonic or business interactions, mirroring can look like mimicking the body language, speech, and facial expressions of the other person. If they sit back, you sit back; if they use sophisticated vocabulary, you tap into your SAT word bank, if they start talking louder or more softly, you moderate your voice to follow suit. At this point you may be thinking, “That sounds weird and like it could totally backfire.” And you’d be right. But first, the benefits.
Does mirroring work?
According to Martha Lauber, a clinical psychologist in private practice in Chicago, mirroring is the best wayto resolve an argument. Not only does it force you to listen, rather than planning your counterargument, “Everyone thinks the other person is the problem. Mirroring helps you to understand you’re only seeing half of the picture.”
“Researchers using brain-imaging technology in new ways have recently discovered that these shared behaviors go beyond simple mimicry. Scientists using functional MRIs to study listeners and speakers have found that they are ‘dynamically coupled,’ with speakers’ and listeners’ brains reacting and adapting to signals from each other, says a 2016 study co-written by Uri Hasson, an associate professor of psychology and neuroscience at Princeton University. Dr. Hasson likens the connection to a kind of wireless bonding of brains.”
The WSJ goes on to note that in any social environment where collaboration is more helpful than hostility (which is most of them), “this kind of alignment fosters closeness and trust.”
Mirroring do’s and don’ts
Mirroring is most effective when it’s done in a subtle, unobtrusive manner, with the intention of generating empathy or fostering genuine connection. While many people won’t realize it’s happening, others will, and may resent the tactic if employed too brazenly.
None of this will work without a base level of genuine engagement. So, rather than copying everything someone else does, which will be both obvious and annoying, aim for a more subtle approach that builds upon an initial rapport. Focus first on establishing connection through traditional nonverbal cues like eye contact, smiling, facing the person directly, and avoiding the cardinal sin of looking at your phone.
Once that foundation has been established, notice which of their speaking patterns, accents, word choices, expressions, hand gestures, and postures come naturally to you and recreate those on your side of the figurative table. Don’t speak in a faux-British accent, or sit in an awkward way that feels forced. Focus on small things things like: Altering your speaking pace or volume, crossing or uncrossing your legs, and matching their expression of happiness or surprise (which, if you’re a good conversationalist, you likely already do).
Don’t mirror when emotions are high. When the anger is flowing freely is not the time to mimic the other person’s tone and expressions. When it comes to problem-solving, wait until tempers have cooled to employ mirroring.
The key to effective mirroring, is to not be so obvious and deliberate in your approach that it feels stalkery, desperate, or makes the other person feel manipulated. But when employed with subtlety, it can be a powerful way to foster “brain-to-brain coupling,” cooperation, empathy, and trust.
A pool in your backyard is an awesome addition to your house. Whether it’s in-ground or above-ground, a pool offers plenty of fun and recreation for you and the kids. It’s also a terrific social gathering point, ideal for inviting friends, family, and neighbors over for cookouts and relief from the summer heat. But pools can be dangerous—especially to young children. According to the Centers for Disease Control, drowning is the leading cause of death for children under the age of 5 and most of those drownings occur in a home swimming pool. Of course, what makes these statistics even more unimaginably sad than they already are is their preventable nature.
This is why everyone with the volatile combination of young kids and a home pool should install a barrier of some sort—typically a fence. A pool fence will definitely help keep your kids safe and greatly reduce the drowning risks—but only if you do it right.
Fence basics
First and foremost, a pool fence isn’t a magical guardian. You have to properly install and calibrate it:
A pool fence should be at least four to five feet tall in order to dissuade your tiny monkey-like humans from climbing over it.
The fence should enclose the pool entirely.
The fence should be located away from any objects or furniture that a child could climb on to gain altitude and yeet themselves over the top.
For a fence with vertical slats, make sure any horizontal support pieces are on the inside so they can’t become ersatz ladder steps. The spacing of the slats shouldn’t be more than one and three-fourths inches, which should ensure children can’t get a foot in there so they can climb the fence.
There shouldn’t be more than four inches of clearance between the bottom of the fence and the ground. Small children are essentially made of clay and can squeeze themselves through some seriously narrow spaces.
The pool should be covered securely whenever you enter a prolonged period of disuse.
Installing the fence properly is key—but there’s another factor that’s just as important.
The gate is key
If you intend to actually use your pool after installing a fence (instead of regarding it as a pretty art installation), you need to include a gate. But the thing about gates is that they have to be latched securely in order to be effective—a gate that is left open during a hectic day instantly renders your pool fencing useless.
Here’s what to consider when installing a gate for your pool fence:
It should be self-closing. Your gate’s hinges should be self-closing so that the gate shuts behind you whether you remember to close it or not. It’s simply too easy to rush through a pool gate and forget to pull it shut behind you. The tension of the hinges needs to be adjusted to not only handle the weight of the gate, but also wind resistance. Do some tests on the hinges every time you open up the pool.
It should be self-latching. A self-closing gate isn’t very helpful if the latch doesn’t engage. Magnetic latches are best when used in combination with self-closing hinges. They ensure that as long as the hinges pull the gate shut the latch will engage and your young adventurers won’t be able to get through.
It should have alarms. Look for a pool gate latch that comes with an alarm. The alarm sounds if the latch is disengaged for a short period of time—typically 15 seconds or so—alerting you to the fact that the gate is open.
If you want to be even more secure, you could install a monitoring and alarm system in the pool itself. These systems alert you whenever there’s activity in the pool, and typically come Bluetooth-enabled with a paired app you can install on your phone so you get alerts even when you’re not home. But you don’t need a pool monitor as much if you’ve secured the pool with a quality fence and installed a self-closing, self-latching gate.
Eventually, your kids will grow up and the fence won’t pose much of a problem for them when they sneak out of the house to do cannonballs in the middle of the night—but until then, the right gate configuration is vital.
I don’t care how cynical you are, you will be delighted at the sight of butterflies in your garden or backyard. Not only are these colorful insects beautiful, they pollinate plants, attract birds, inspire Mariah Carey, and provide us with an overused metaphor for transformation.
To draw butterflies to your yard, you have to ask yourself what butterflies want. Ask yourself, “Why would a butterfly want to hang around my yard instead of my neighbor’s?” The simple answer: Butterflies are looking for a mellow place to raise butterfly families. They want a quiet spot to lay eggs, with food-plants for their larvae, branches for their chrysalides to hang on, nectar sources, places to hide, and somewhere to relax.
For flowers that attract butterflies, think “stay local”
Butterflies and flowers go together like Starsky and Hutch. They drink nectar from a ton of different kinds of flowers, but not every bloom is equal. To increase your garden’s chance of butterfly abundance, native flower species are your best bet. The local butterflies and local flowers evolved together, after all. Check out the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center site for a state-by-state flower guide to give you ideas for what to plant.
According to The National Wildlife Federation, adult butterflies are most attracted to the sweet nectar from “red, yellow, orange, pink and purple blossoms that are flat-topped or clustered and have short flower tubes.” For more specific information, check out this excellent butterfly nectar plant list.
Where you plant your blooms is important, too. Butterflies generally only feed in the sun (which is adorable), so for optimum butterfly attraction, make sure your flowers receive lots of light from mid-morning to mid-afternoon.
Research where they’ll want to lay their eggs
Butterflies may drink nectar from a ton of different flowers, but they are way more picky about where they lay their eggs. Monarch butterflies, for instances, only lay eggs on milkweed, where black swallowtails only lay eggs on rue plants. There are about 750 species of butterflies in the United States, so your best bet it is to do a little research on your local ‘flies. Find out where they want to lay eggs and plant that. Many states have official butterflies. This list is a good place to start.
Also, remember: You can’t have butterflies without caterpillars. A garden full of the plants that local caterpillars eat is the best bet, but each kind of caterpillar feeds on only a small variety of plants. There are 180,000 species of caterpillars, give or take, so you’ll have to do the research on what kinds live around you.
Think about their safety—and how they’ll spend their downtime
Your new butterfly friends will need a place to hide from predators. While there are butterfly habitats you can buy, they will probably be more likely to spend time in natural spaces like hollow logs, tree branches, or stacked up firewood. They love small nooks and little hidey-holes to escape the birds, lizards, and snakes that would eat them.
Life isn’t all nectar-drinking and transforming from one form to another; in their downtime, butterflies like to sunbathe and splash around in shallow puddles. (Butterflies are so damn cute.)
Set up flat rocks in a sunny part of your yard so they can dry their wings and sunbathe. Some butterfly enthusiasts report that they haven’t had much luck with basking stones, but it can’t hurt.
Butterflies also like “puddling,” mucking about in wet sand or mud where they can take drinks and extract minerals from the water. Sink some pans filled with a little water and coarse sand in the soil to give them a watering hole. Keep the sand moist but don’t add too much water. You’re not making a lake, you’re making a mud puddle.
Feed them rotten fruit
Some kinds of butterflies (the red spotted purple, question mark, mourning cloak, green comma, malachite, red admiral, hackberry and tawny emperors, and the viceroy, according to joyfulbutterfly.com) like getting nectar from rotten fruit. You may have noticed butterflies hanging around your compost for this reason. If you want to attract these kind of butterflies, you can put some overripe peaches in a plant hanger and hang it from a branch, or just put it on a plate on your deck railing. Just be aware that this will likely attract wasps, ants, flies, and other pests, too, though.
Lay off the poison
If you want butterflies, you’re going to have to lay off insecticides. These poisons can’t tell the difference between pests and butterflies.
It’s been less than two weeks, and we’re already talking about another critical Chrome update. To be honest, though, good on Google for staying on top of these things: Sometimes, we find out a company sat on critical security vulnerabilities for months without issuing a new update. At least here, we have a good chance to protect our Chrome use from would-be hackers.
Google announced the update in a blog post on Tuesday, April 26. This new version of Chrome is 101.0.4951.41, and is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. The update patches 30 security vulnerabilities, including seven rated as “high.” Five of those vulnerabilities (plus an additional six rated “medium”) are “Use after free” flaws, which, thanks to a memory relocation issue, can allow hackers to pass arbitrary code to a program.
CVE-2022-1477: Use after free in Vulkan. Reported by SeongHwan Park (SeHwa) on 2022-04-06
CVE-2022-1478: Use after free in SwiftShader. Reported by SeongHwan Park (SeHwa) on 2022-02-20
CVE-2022-1479: Use after free in ANGLE. Reported by Jeonghoon Shin of Theori on 2022-03-10
CVE-2022-1480: Use after free in Device API. Reported by @uwu7586 on 2022-03-17
CVE-2022-1481: Use after free in Sharing. Reported by Weipeng Jiang (@Krace) and Guang Gong of 360 Vulnerability Research Institute on 2022-03-04
CVE-2022-1482: Inappropriate implementation in WebGL. Reported by Christoph Diehl, Microsoft on 2022-03-10
CVE-2022-1483: Heap buffer overflow in WebGPU. Reported by Mark Brand of Google Project Zero on 2022-04-08
These flaws affect Chrome and Chromium-based browsers. Notably, that includes Microsoft Edge, Brave, and Opera. If you use a Chromium browser, you’ll need to update the browser as soon as possible to protect your activity from these vulnerabilities.
How to update Google Chrome
Your browser might update automatically, but since Google is still rolling out this update, you’ll want to trigger it manually for the fastest results. To do so, click the three dots in the top-right corner of your browser window, then navigate to Help > About Google Chrome. Allow Chrome to look for a new update, then, when it’s available, click “Relaunch.”
When Chrome opens up again, you will be running the latest version.
Fidelity announced on Tuesday it’s going to launch a way for workers to put up to 20% of their 401(k) savings and contributions directly in Bitcoin. This would make Fidelity the first company in the financial services industry to allow this service without having to go through a separate brokerage window, bringing us to a new frontier of retirement savings plans. But are all new frontiers…good frontiers?
Last month, the U.S. Department of Labor issued a statement warning people from investing their retirement funds in volatile digital currencies. They explain, “the retirement savings of America’s workers and their families represent years of hard work and sacrifice… At this early stage in the history of cryptocurrencies, however, the U.S. Department of Labor has serious concerns about [retirement] plans’ decisions to expose participants to direct investments in cryptocurrencies.”
On the surface, the appeal of investing part of your 401(k) in cryptocurrency is simple—you can earn a lot of money in a short period of time. In fact, the success of cryptocurrency companies hinges on this appeal; if you don’t buy in now, you’re going to be left behind. They throw A-list celebrities at you, like Lebron James and Matt Damon, and tell you to get on board because the train is about to leave the station. They spend tons of money spreading this message, including at least $26 million on Super Bowl advertisements.
What’s conveniently not included in their sales pitch is the risk you’re taking investing in cryptocurrency. What’s the flip side of making a lot of money in a short period of time? It’s losing a lot of money in a short period of time. The Department of Labor laid out four reasons why cryptocurrency presents a risk to your retirement savings:
Valuation concerns. Financial experts have fundamental disagreements and concerns about how to value cryptocurrencies. These concerns are compounded by the fact that cryptocurrencies are not typically subject to the same reporting and data integrity requirements that apply to more traditional investment products. Scammers have used misleading information to inflate the price of cryptocurrencies, and then sold their own holdings for a profit before the value of the currency drops.
Obstacles to making informed decisions. These investments can easily attract investments from inexperienced plan participants with expectations of high returns and little appreciation of the risks the investments pose. It can be very hard for ordinary investors to separate fact from hype. When fiduciaries include a cryptocurrency option on a 401(k) plan menu, it signals to participants that knowledgeable investment experts have approved it as a prudent option. This can mislead participants about the risks and cause big losses.
Prices can change quickly and dramatically. Cryptocurrencies’ prices have been extremely volatile. For example, in just one day last December, the price of bitcoin dropped by more than 17 percent. These large swings can leave participants vulnerable to significant losses.
Evolving regulatory landscape. Laws and rules are swiftly evolving. For example, the president’s recent executive order directs federal agencies to study risks and policy approaches to digital assets, including cryptocurrency. Changes in the United States and globally may impact existing regulatory frameworks.
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I’m not here to tell you not to invest in cryptocurrency at all. You’re an adult, it’s your money, do what you want. I’m just laying out a friendly reminder that “volatility” is typically not a word you want associated with your long-term investments. As long as cryptocurrency still exists in a largely unregulated market, the safest bet is to steer clear of it when using money you can’t afford to lose.
