tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26763804428907711342024-03-24T23:21:34.948-07:00TECHIEGEMS (copyright by Carolyn Rhodes)How can technology improve a life? CES (Consumer Electronics Shows) share tech innovations on everything "Internet of Things"at warp speed. Hang on and get onboard.
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger46125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2676380442890771134.post-38835572617844949232017-07-30T15:24:00.000-07:002017-07-30T15:36:09.198-07:00HOURS for viewing SUN ECLIPSE. USA & more <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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FROM NASA -<br />
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The Sun: The Basics</h3>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pyCCIGySEKA/WX5cMOlu26I/AAAAAAAAFsE/0SvsJToozuYMZPyA9rUzOc1NlFn7H68tACLcBGAs/s1600/sky-sunny-clouds-cloudy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="350" data-original-width="623" height="358" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pyCCIGySEKA/WX5cMOlu26I/AAAAAAAAFsE/0SvsJToozuYMZPyA9rUzOc1NlFn7H68tACLcBGAs/s640/sky-sunny-clouds-cloudy.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
The sun is a star, a hot ball of glowing gases at the heart of our solar system. Its influence extends far beyond the orbits of distant Neptune and Pluto. Without the sun's intense energy and heat, there would be no life on Earth. And though it is special to us, there are billions of stars like our sun scattered across the Milky Way galaxy. If the sun were as tall as a typical front door, the Earth would be the size of a U.S. nickel. The temperature at the sun's core is about 27 million degrees Fahrenheit.</div>
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Average diameter: 864,000 miles, about 109 times the size of the Earth.</div>
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Rotation period at equator: About 27 days.</div>
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Rotation period at poles: About 36 days.</div>
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Surface temperature: 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit.</div>
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Composition: Hydrogen, helium.</div>
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August 21st Event<br />
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<strong style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">On Monday, August 21, 2017, all of North America will be treated to an eclipse of the sun. Anyone within the path of totality can see one of nature’s most awe inspiring sights - a total solar eclipse. This path, where the moon will completely cover the sun and the sun's tenuous atmosphere - the corona - can be seen, will stretch from Salem, Oregon to Charleston, South Carolina. Observers outside this path will still see a partial solar eclipse where the moon covers part of the sun's disk. NASA created this website to provide a guide to this amazing event. Here you will find activities, events, broadcasts, and resources from NASA and our partners across the nation.</strong><br />
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<strong style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">SEE IT DIRECT FROM NASA -- following aircraft </strong><br />
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<a href="https://eclipse2017.nasa.gov/eclipse-who-what-where-when-and-how">https://eclipse2017.nasa.gov/eclipse-who-what-where-when-and-how</a><br />
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<img alt="Example of eclipse times for cities in the path of totality." src="https://eclipse2017.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/Table%201.png" /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2676380442890771134.post-39408704137647413472017-07-30T13:01:00.002-07:002017-07-30T13:03:00.109-07:00Listen to your Customers, "Hard to Win, Harder to Keep." Can you hear us?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">Andy Marken, Marken Communications, caught my attention when he sent the following email (with attachment). He always hits the reality marker right on target for me, </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">"It's so great we have tons of data about customers that they give us - willingly, eagerly. We have AI technology that anticipates their every want/need even before they know it. We have automated systems that zip it to them, bills em, answers their every question (also before they ask) and still they are so fickle that they'll change products, brands because we didn't do one little thing...listen. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Really weird how things work today because we're to busy checking/updating Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, email, texts, chat, stuff. Listen? What do customers think-- that we are Alexa or Siri? </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;"> Listening is one of the most difficult/easiest jobs people in the industry have today. Just work at it...a little!"</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>MY FIRST THOUGHT IS ...How many times have I (YOU) gotten so frustrated with a company I (we) pay lots of bucks to for services? Gads, the customer service is nice, but, nothing, in most cases, ever gets done with "the problem" .. WE, the customers, their bread and butter, just can't get them to LISTEN and do something about whatever "IT" is .. SO, WHAT DO WE DO? We go to a different company for a better communication and even a better price. </b></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b> Don't we all share similar stories? </b></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Customers are Hard to Win, Harder to Keep</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img alt="wild1.jpg" height="293" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/cO4n5Np_ObEy23ryr0sNBeO4t7_G6S2GRgBLvRE7VSh2hFOOUqb6hHlnm8z2Jc-CmNOeAQOXOdwaq6eyoyaMW6Rm26is8eCOoUtgfri4rB-WZNqg9ympNeBNGi342nvhmZDO_3Qz" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="624" /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When you side with a man, you stay with him! And if you can't do that, you're like some animal, you're finished! *We're* finished!” – </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Pike Bishop, “</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Wild Bunch</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">,” Warner Bros., 1969</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Companies are running so fast today developing new (sometimes even great) technology that they often lose sight of most important part of the firm’s growth … the customer.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But Intel’s Andy Grove (one of the founders and CEO who passed away last year) and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos (founder, CEO, chairman) share a common focus, even though their approaches to solutions were different. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Both had engineering backgrounds but Grove was focused on staying ahead of the technology curve to meet his business customers’ requirements. He was focused on delivering replacements for existing healthy products before competitors did. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One of Grove’s most memorable quotes was, “</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Success breeds complacency. Complacency breeds failure. Only the paranoid survive.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Bezos, on the other hand, focused on attacking, replacing existing business models and subtly adding offering on top of offering to strengthen the consumer relationship.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Bezos once observed, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Our customers are loyal to us right up until the second somebody offers them a better service."</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<table style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none;"><colgroup><col width="6"></col><col width="618"></col></colgroup><tbody>
<tr style="height: 3537pt;"><td style="padding: 3pt 1pt 1pt 1pt; vertical-align: top;"><br /></td><td style="padding: 1pt 1pt 1pt 1pt; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ask any marketing person and he/she will say that’s obvious.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">They’ll tell you the customer is the most important person on the planet and everything they do is done to make him/her satisfied.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img alt="wild2.jpg" height="347" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/S6L4jgCo6B-_sJHZHEYjebQqClaozAJGAajGVVQvL-rt4lLSOmmIuwgysqUqXNdmp1Yjp45RbOV2JWGHpmldj5HFTptTZK_iazxqHc5J0_2muq1U51qXu7Vzgt9A9earNa8vKKwh" style="border: none; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="616" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Top Priority – </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">While marketing is tasked with reaching and persuading as many prospective customers as possible, as economically as possible; their primary objective should be to keep existing customers who can attract more customers. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It makes a great mission statement, but something gets lost in translation.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">To deliver that satisfaction, marketing/support teams implement the latest service tools that promise to make support faster and easier for the customer.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Who’s kidding who?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Customer satisfaction isn’t their domain … it’s an organization-wide issue and needs organization-supported solutions.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The first step in delivering the best in customer service is to be an employee-centric organization. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">After all, to have an amazing customer service culture, the company has to have amazing employees.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Herb Kelleher, founder and chairman emeritus of Southwest Airlines, was one of the earliest bosses to promote the idea of employees first. He explained his position by saying, “</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Employees come first and if employees are treated right, they treat the outside world right, the outside world uses the company’s product again, and that makes the shareholders happy. That really is the way that it works.”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It has worked pretty well for them since 1971 in an industry that rents seats.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What he really said was that good people who are treated/supported properly will do their best to deliver good products/service.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Executives at New Voice Media noted that positive, friendly, helpful employees have a major influence on customer loyalty. And because of that loyalty, 69 percent would recommend the company to others. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s not surprising then that 42 percent of the customers said they are prepared to spend more money with these firms. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Regardless, most of the new tools and neat things marketing puts out there aren’t really for the customer.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Nope, they’re designed to make it faster and easier for the company.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Opening every communications channel available so consumers can reach the right person in the firm and get the right answer is only a start.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Customers still go through an endless maze of phone and online guides that make them repeat the same basic information again and again and …</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">That sorta’ says the customer-centric tools are buffers between real people to streamline things for the firm.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img alt="wild3.jpg" height="504" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/PdHZRU4FYcK6Q17g-1mslMXbfC2Tu3Nj89M1AFIeSY5x9oBEFSmY_OOYcuZPYy5XlQH2EKbB2c37f8mCfDiwicSVpgfaUafCUBjmiHhzN0hvDBuSaUMCrDOzNOIdE9HGdOx9G72-" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="616" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Cutting You Off – </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Individuals who experience poor customer service/support seldom will discuss their issues with the supplier. They’ll simply find a more understanding, more cooperative organization. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">According to Accenture, the tools often get in the way of quality customer service. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Their recent global consumer report found the hurdles to positive experiences have remained common issues for a number of years:</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 33pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- Having to contact the company multiple times for the same reason (69 percent)</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 33pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- Having to repeat the same information to multiple people or go through multiple channels (62 percent)</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 33pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- Dealing with unfriendly, impolite employees (62 percent)</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 33pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- Dealing with employees or systems that can’t answer the questions (60 percent)</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 33pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- Being placed on hold for extended periods (60 percent)</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Perhaps that’s why New Voice Media found that 44 percent of consumers take their business elsewhere following poor service. In fact, 98 percent have switched once or twice in the last year. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The worrisome point New Voice’s research uncovered was that 53 percent are put off from calling a business because they are afraid they’re not going to immediately connect with a real person. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So, they switch even before reaching out for assistance to resolve the problem because companies have so automated their systems customers won’t even try.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img alt="wild4.jpg" height="424" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/ExE0_5lexM15DzkVfNMBqDWweGWhkjpQJTQu7KkofKXOz4ZKfuag7bBC233TsHOw1GcCni5w602pzOPvT00T5wISYT3V-VXC2PZrZbvpqRmStUbWLNJqjazFAG_yn1_P-AmduAwW" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="613" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Negative Results – </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When consumers have a negative experience with a firm’s products or personnel, the relationship deteriorates quickly; and in today’s online world, those negatives can be quickly passed to people throughout the community. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A few firms like Citibank, Geico, OWC and others have recognized and highlighted this concern in their marketing efforts.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">On their websites and in their marketing efforts they emphasize that when you call you’ll immediately talk with a real person who will stick with you and work with you to resolve the situation. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If the call is made in off hours or support people are tied up, they ask you to leave your call-back information and they will call you.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And they do!</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">People prefer this personalized contact to resolve product/service complaints (84 percent), get a quick answer to questions (61 percent) or get an unbiased view or recommendation (55 percent). </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img alt="wild5.jpg" height="437" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/VWZU6PUpeCwMgEnNoXDWATMqo_bvuxanSTlgaSJjLrVyDr8zZdH9Nc-hogj9Je7tRA04VPXNGO5alY5utEjJADlUOdZNvAw8jeHGYUIG31GrKZqjoKrHBGCvEaF5Un3ynWHwzv_x" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="530" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Personal Touch – </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Increasingly, customers like to go online and resolve their service/product problems on their own. But there are times – lots of times – a friendly voice on the other end of the phone reduces a lot of stress. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Consumers are already a little stressed out when they find they need assistance with a firm’s product/service. They don’t need to be kept on hold or go through a support maze because of your poorly designed business processes. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The support experience shouldn’t be a frustrating, time-wasting exercise in futility or endurance. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Companies have to be more concerned with the way customers feel because technology (social media) has made it much easier to praise (or pan) the organization.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Historically, customers told 5 people when they had a good experience and 24 when they had a bad service experience. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Today, when they have a positive or not-so-positive experience the first place they go to voice their praise or complaint is online.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Instantly, “the world” knows how the individual feels about the level of service provided. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ouch!</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">That’s why it is increasingly important for organizations to listen to customers – no, I didn’t say monitor what they’re doing, I said </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">listen</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">That means promptly, courteously acknowledging the individual, summarizing and responding back to the person and thanking them for positive service comments/feedback. And when problems are raised, resolve them immediately.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Keep the response conversational, repeatedly addressing the customer personally by name and showing an understanding of the problem’s specifics. All of your team members should have a sound understanding of the products/services and be able to offer simple, practical solutions and even useful tips on how to get the most from the product and avoid future problems. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Friendly, positive assistance, even to the point of taking them offline to a specialist, will reassure the customer that he/she is important and that they are dealing with a company that respects its customers.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Companies that “get it” and understand the importance of delivering a positive experience enjoy strong, positive returns … especially when the social media world is only a few clicks away.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img alt="wild6.jpg" height="333" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/fMJXacmSvN-ez-jAsQQb7g8KykRDQ8Qjn_qFlTXvI8RyFv18_N9ojl_l6a5UO9gg9__eQAOq4kbE1ZhwGv9hGUc1Pu7n4byBv6zyMsmZoOfaMxePM6-4YFcQT4doZijrHZmsz0Fe" style="border: none; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="624" /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Customers Know – </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Believe it or not, consumers are really people who know what they want and need. That especially applies to the companies and brands they deal with, buy from and rely on. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Comparing their customer research responses with MarketingSherpa, InMotion noted that customers who consistently reported good experiences had a strong degree of satisfaction</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The second most popular response was that it was easy to conduct business with the company across all communications channels – online, in person, on the phone.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Regardless of the consumer study value; customer service, quality and trust are the core drivers for a customer’s satisfaction. They are far more important than product selection or marketing’s rush to try and develop personalized consumer contact. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img alt="wild7.jpg" height="385" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/90Hccw8cJcud5TN-DNPtroiF8FLGth9_KnYplmlsFz_EDJdxBOVzn9-BF1gzWghKIQLcxJ3Mrz_gnPeasuCGT5DcbBYbUBkQCDA69dV-PgOEiXAA0oogaLPv9CvY-LQw4qwPvvfY" style="border: none; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="624" /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 8pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Satisfaction – </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When customers have positive experiences with a company, they develop a strong impression of the firm and like to pass along recommendations to others. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Poor service is consistently the major reason for consumers to switch brands/products and 8 out of 10 people surveyed said that their previous product/service provider could have done something to keep them as a customer such as:</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 33pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- Resolve the issue on the first contact</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 33pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- Provide better live or in-person customer service</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 33pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- Offer the same promotional pricing as new customers receive</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Even in our increasingly AI (artificial intelligence)-enabled environment, people still prefer dealing with human beings for service/support.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Consumers today are quick to show their satisfaction … and dissatisfaction.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Consumers today can be more pro-active and make their likes/dislikes more widely known – to a much broader audience.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img alt="wild8.jpg" height="292" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/Mix0ShB3zk-v-rZdIhv14C69CD0i5EABLNosKxMV5tHyJfxCsnTjKXyl2Sv8siaN1qW7xoXpwOeDhRoG9aZvk4-ISsK-oF8RxgN9EVa-YqYxlBg2QbhrDutIlVMz41cQyPoweSfY" style="border: none; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="624" /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">They may buy your product because it’s a solution; but they are also quick to tell you and others as Deke Thornton did when he said, </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“What I like and what I need are two different things.”</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2676380442890771134.post-54745256097711981332017-07-30T09:56:00.001-07:002017-07-31T09:37:18.541-07:00WRITERS GUIDELINES <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Please query me first with a short bio with your interest
and knowledge in technology and what you want to submit. It’s a broad topic,
however, I am looking for reviews of products, or books; improvements on old tech, or, a personal essay
on how something worked for you (you must be specific with any descriptions or
in comparison.) Or, if the products has sold well and if you have attended conferences where this product has been
introduced. Are you now on GoFundMe?<br />
<br />
I like the outcomes to be
positive. Range of articles can be from
250-550 words. I am also interested in reprints. Please send to <a href="mailto:writegems@gmail.com">writegems@gmail.com</a> <o:p></o:p></div>
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For example, have you
attended a tech seminar, or a conference such as CES? What stood out? Or if
you are an inventor or someone who is committed in some way to improving the
lives of others with a technological advancement or a research project you are
working on, Id love to hear about it. </div>
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<br /></div>
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I’m looking for interesting
stories which show us how technology can change lives, or has already changed
yours or someone you know. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
References on studies, etc. must be included. You may reference anything related to the digital world of things Non fiction
only. Submissions must be double spaced, with your name and address, phone number once query is approved.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If you have any other
ideas, query me. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Best wishes, <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
Carolyn
Rhodes, Editor<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
Casey J.
Rhodes, Associate Editor <o:p></o:p></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2676380442890771134.post-24420932797846664192017-07-28T13:12:00.000-07:002017-07-30T09:56:50.394-07:00 WHAT'S NEW FOR JULY, 2017 <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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UPDATES FOR 2017</h2>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Welcome to the digital world Find a place in it -- a journey into exploring how digital times can improve your life at any time, any age, any lifestyle.</span></h2>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Website created by Carolyn M. Rhodes with Casey Julian Rhodes</span></h3>
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<b style="color: #351c75;"><i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Editor: Carolyn Rhodes</span></i></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>Associate Editor: </i></b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>Casey Julian Rhodes</i></b></span><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>Consumer Technology Association</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>Sister blog: www.storiesbypunkydemure.com </i></b></span><br />
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<b style="color: #351c75;"><i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Carolyn M. Rhodes, B.A. Dramatic Arts and Dance; Certified as arthritis instructor. Professional freelance CES Reporter on tech innovations in health related topics and all latest tech topics for consumers. Reviewer of tech products.</span></i></b><br />
<b style="color: #351c75;"><i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></i></b>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b style="color: #351c75;"><i>Creative writer in many other genres. </i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b style="color: #351c75;"><i><br /></i></b>
<b style="color: #351c75;"><i> Mentored by Editor of College of Business Alumni Magazine, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa as feature contributing writer; mentored by Suzanne Beyer, Associate Editor of Northwest Prime Time, Washington; my sisters - one a literary published poet and author and teacher. Another sister a teacher and textile artist. </i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b style="color: #351c75;"><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b style="color: #351c75;"><i> Son and associate editor, Casey Julian, an electronics consultant and buyer adds his skills and knowledge to most of the articles here. Both of us have attended CES from 2010 to 2016.</i></b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b style="color: #351c75;"><i><br /></i></b></span>
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<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><u>2016 - 2017</u></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: large;"><b>2017:</b></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: large;"><b>Recertification as Program Leader, 2017 - 2020 (Aquatic Exercise Association) for floor exercises.</b></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: large;"><b>OSher Lifelong Learning Institute, (OLLI) 2017, Instructor, Program Leader Arthritis and Awareness class. </b></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: large;"><b>Birmingham Arts Journal, Volume 13,Issue 4 (Winter, 2017) </b></span></span><b style="color: #351c75; font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace; font-size: x-large;">"<u>Masterpieces by Numbers</u>"</b></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: large;"><b>Facilitator, Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI)</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: large;"><b>Faculty: Instructor for Arthritis Exercises and Awareness (OLLI)</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: large;"><b>Article May, 2017:</b></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: large;"><b>Prime Lifestyle, <u>"Line Dancers of OLLI</u>." </b></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: large;"><b>Reviewer of Tech Devices and products</b></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: large;"><b>Reporter on the Internet of Things.</b></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: large;"><b>Working on an E-book</b></span></span></div>
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<b>Publications and Presentations</b></h2>
<b><u>-2016</u></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Techiegems.net (new look) </span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Editor: Carolyn Rhodes </span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Associate Editor on Electronics: Casey Julian Rhodes</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Trends in Technology </span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">CES reporter on "Living in Digital Times." (freelance)</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Reviewer of tech products</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Reviewer of tech books </span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">April, 2016: "How to Navigate a Big Event and write great articles."</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Tuscaloosa Library Rotary Room.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><u> 2015: </u></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Techiegems.net - new domain for writegems.blogspot</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Presentation at Miller Center, Tuscaloosa (July 27, 2015). </span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">" How to be your own best friend using technology."</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Presentation at Tuscaloosa Public Main Library, Rotary Room </span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">January, 2014, 2015, 2016). </span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"The latest on CES Trends and New on the Market." </span></b></div>
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<u><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Birmingham Arts Journal, "The Unexpected." Vol 12, Issue 1 , (May, 2015)</span></b></u></div>
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<u><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></b></u></div>
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<u><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Presentation: Tuscaloosa Library, May, 2015</span></b></u></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Emerging Technologies: What a writer should know about "The Internet of Things," </span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Prime Life Style Magazine </span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Living Healthy in the Digital Age, other features.</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Older articles and presentations and instruction:<br /><b style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">2014: </span></b></span></h2>
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<b style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Published Writer (over 100 in print) Blogger and Speaker </span></b><br />
<b style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Certified Arthritis Instructor ( also include discussions with seniors from Presbyterian senior living complex on health innovations) </span></b><br />
<b style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></b>
<b style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><u>How the latest technology has changed our World. Digital Innovations add up to a happier, healthier and longer life. " (based on article in PrimeLife of Alabama )</u></span></b></span></b><br />
<b style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Tuscaloosa News Editorial</span></b></div>
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<b style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">November 14, 2014 - Patient Portal - a good sign for healthcare.</span></b></div>
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<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Tuscaloosa Public Library:</span></b></div>
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<b style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">October 10, 2014 </span></b></div>
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<b style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">How to become a Tech Savy Writer - From high school to boomers and beyond </span></b><br />
<b style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></b><br />
<b style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><u>Digital Health: From head to toe. Get smart</u> </span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Presentation:</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b> <u>Techie Writer: The Basics and Beyond</u></b></span></div>
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<b style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">May 2014, Rotary Room. </span></b></div>
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<b style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></b>
<b style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>AARP EXPO Press Writer</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>TEK pavillion teaches seniors new skills offering short seminars. </b></span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<b><u>2013</u></b><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b> November, 2013 Tuscaloosa Public Library discussions</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Primelife Style of Alabama: How to Navigate the Internet</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Tech news for seniors </b></span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>June, 2013: Northport Senior Complex Center -- (many talks here)</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><u><b>How exercise with technology can help you live longer. </b></u></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><u><b>(offering classes in arthritis exercises and movement)</b></u></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b style="color: #351c75;"><u>AARP EXPO -Press - Atlanta , Georgia,</u> </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b style="color: #351c75;"> November, 2013 </b></span><br />
<b style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Contributed article to PrimeLife Style to be re-printed December, 2014 on "TEK" for Seniors" </span></b></div>
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<b style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">See article on this blog. </span></b><br />
<b style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><u>Life @ 50 and Beyond, A Life Re-imagined.</u></span></b></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b style="color: #351c75;"><br /></b>
<b style="color: #351c75;">Presentation: </b></span><br />
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<b style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> "<u>How the latest technology has changed our World. Digital Innovations add up to a happier, healthier and longer life. " (based on article in PrimeLife of Alabama </u></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>April, 2013, Tuscaloosa Public Library. </b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b> </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #351c75;"><b>2012</b></span>
<span style="color: #351c75;"><b>Presentation: </b></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>September 2012</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Macabee Center at Veterans .Administration - Alabama Heroes post 9/11 (2nd place award) </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
<b style="color: #351c75;"> BELOW other publications on essays</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><u><br /></u></span></b>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>In 2015, essay, "The Unexpected," is accepted to Birmingham Arts Journal, Volume 12, Issue 1. Additional blogs and her latest presentations are listed above. Articles are in progress for 2015.</b></span></div>
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<b style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">In 2012 her article, "Lightning at the Airport" was included in Birmingham Arts Journal, May 2012 (Vol. 9, Issue 1). And, a feature article in Antique Week News was published in their March 28, 2012 issues (eastern and mid west editions). In that same year (September 2012),</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75;"><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Ms. Rhodes has written features as a contributing writer for University of Alabama Alumni magazine and wrote several feature articles as contributing writer for The Executive Magazine at the College of Business. </b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Additionally, she has written and published many feature articles on diverse subjects for various print magazines and e-zines. </b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Carolyn has had speaking engagements on how emerging technology continues to benefit the writer and how medical advances are changing lifestyles and lifespans in all age groups. Her services extend as a writing coach and an editor </b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b> </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b style="color: #351c75; line-height: normal;">Carolyn was awarded 2nd Place for her article on fallen hero Mike Spann. The contest, Tribute to Alabama Heroes Post 9/11, was celebrated at the McAbee Center, Tuscaloosa, Alabama along with a reading. </b><span style="color: #351c75;"><b>Rhodes is also the recipient of three past awards from 2005 - 2006 for magazine article and editorial. June, 2009, honorable mention from the well attended Southern Christian Writers Conference contest for a newspaper article she submitted to Northwest Prime Time, Washington. </b></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Earlier writings are available under published articles under Google site MyWriteGems. (by request) </b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Carolyn was first published in American Libraries Magazine having written her childhood story, "Mr. Mitchell's Liberry Girls." Earlier years, she performed, wrote, choreographed and directed dances and musical theatre from the Renaissance and Medieval courts . She taught exercise classes after college and taught ballroom dance, </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #351c75;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #351c75;"><b>Presently, she is a certified Arthritis Instructor and CPR certified until 2016. </b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #351c75;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #351c75;"><b>Carolyn is a member of Alabama Conclave of Writers, Christian Writers Club of Tuscaloosa, Consumer Electronics Association, Ballroom Dance Association, AARP. Social Media: Linkedin, Twitter, Tumblr,Facebook and YouTube. </b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #351c75;"><b><br /></b></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #351c75;"><b>Older publications: </b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #351c75;"><b>https://sites.google.com/site/writegems/published-articles</b></span></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Casey J. Rhodes, Electronics Advisor</span></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>She can be reached at writegems@gmail.com</b></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2676380442890771134.post-38288276098369978232017-03-08T09:26:00.002-08:002017-03-08T09:34:03.959-08:00How Does Snapchat IPO Make Any Sense? Professor Mike Wade <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">March, 2017</span></b></h2>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">How does the snapchat IPO make any sense?</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> </span><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">IMD Professor Mike Wade talks about tech’s latest public offering</span></i></h2>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">The shares of Snap will start to trade on the US markets today. The IPO price of $17 per share values the company at about $24B. Based on interest in the shares (they were ten times over-subscribed), the value of the shares, and the company, are likely to rise substantially during the day.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Does this make any sense?<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">On the ‘yes’ side, the price per regular user is in line with recent deals. Snapchat has about 300 million regular monthly users, about half of whom interact with the app on a daily basis. Thus, at $25B, that’s about $100 per regular user. Microsoft paid a similar price for LinkedIn last year. Facebook paid a little less per active user for WhatsApp in 2014, but it was in the same range. Unilever paid substantially more per user of Dollar Shave Club in 2016. Of course, all users are not alike, and Snapchat is extremely popular with the 13-24 crowd, and thus attractive to many advertisers. Plus, its base in North America and Europe gives it plenty of room for global expansion.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">The ‘no’ side also has some strong points. When evaluated on traditional financial metrics, such as revenue (about $500m) and profit (are you joking?), the company shouldn’t be valued anything close to where it is. Plus, growth rates appear to be slowing. Competitors, like Facebook with its copycat Instagram Stories, Google, We Chat, and others, are one imitation away from stealing Snapchat’s notoriously fickle and disloyal youth audience. More disturbingly, Snapchat’s main competitors have other lines of profitable business that they can use to subsidize their attacks on Snapchat. By contrast, Snapchat, at least today, is a one-trick pony.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">My biggest concern, however, is with the service itself. People use Snapchat because it is disposable – send it and it disappears. It operates with the attention span of today’s youth, i.e. none at all. Snapchat is popular largely because it is simple and fast – a quick social hit. Users don’t need to scroll though masses of irrelevant updates and holiday pics to get to the really interesting stuff. This makes the service fun to use, but it is a disaster for advertisers. People don’t go to Snapchat to search for information (like Google) to find a job (like LinkedIn), to deeply engage with friends (like Facebook), or to buy stuff (like Amazon and Alibaba). Its medium, much like Twitter, is inherently poorly designed to support advertising, and beyond this, there are no obvious sources of revenue or profit.<u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Would I invest in Snapchat? That depends. If I was looking for a satisfying quick hit (like I might do when receiving a Snap), then yes. If I were thinking about anything more than a few months, then no. <u></u><u></u></span></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=https://www.imd.org/faculty/professors/michael-wade/&source=gmail&ust=1489079246493000&usg=AFQjCNEhbxF4mESJwcyvBJh3IqKPQklrkw" href="https://www.imd.org/faculty/professors/michael-wade/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Michael Wade</a> is IMD Professor of Innovation and Strategy and Cisco Chair in Digital Business Transformation.</span></i></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2676380442890771134.post-39878089541061033112017-03-05T16:34:00.005-08:002017-03-06T12:45:38.825-08:00HORIZON ZERO DAWN PROLOGUE 1 PS4<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Title: Horizon Zero Dawn PS4 Sharefactory,</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Publisher: Guerrilla Games </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Description: "Earth is Ours No More" A thousand years from now machines roam the land and mankind is no longer the dominant species. A young hunter embarks on a journey to discover her destiny. Explore a beautiful lush open world- Overcome overwhelming odds at every step- Discover ancient Mysteries- </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">(Hit the arrow down to link to YouTube</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YH3hFmz4Eo&t=166s">PROLOGUE 1</a></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2676380442890771134.post-78889431968979010502016-08-24T11:50:00.001-07:002016-08-24T12:55:44.012-07:00BiGR AUDIO's Wristboom - Features to love and safety first <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Side View Wristboom</td></tr>
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Product testing results below <br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-s0_rIqiVDPo/V73mvHvHLzI/AAAAAAAAEic/i_Bj1cpcG4sxEdvd_c6Vif6R_b-1wlTjgCLcB/s1600/wristband%2Bwatch%2Bin%2Bcase%2B2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-s0_rIqiVDPo/V73mvHvHLzI/AAAAAAAAEic/i_Bj1cpcG4sxEdvd_c6Vif6R_b-1wlTjgCLcB/s200/wristband%2Bwatch%2Bin%2Bcase%2B2.jpg" width="150" /></a></div>
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<b>Why buy a WRISTBOOM? </b><b> FEATURES TO LOVE AND SAFETY FIRST</b></h2>
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<b> Product tested by Carolyn Rhodes </b></h2>
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-C9_Q5B7hX48/V73mvCVI18I/AAAAAAAAEiY/Nzmj2vtYR1s0AkYF5XNA2ksHv-CUP9dXgCLcB/s1600/wristboom%2Balone.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-C9_Q5B7hX48/V73mvCVI18I/AAAAAAAAEiY/Nzmj2vtYR1s0AkYF5XNA2ksHv-CUP9dXgCLcB/s320/wristboom%2Balone.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
According to AAA Digest of Motor Laws, there are around 16 states which have laws prohibiting driving a vehicle, and in some cities or states a bicyclist with headphones or earplugs on can get a fine.<br />
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If you don’t have Bluetooth tech in your car, and, that’s a lot of drivers in the USA, you may not know what your state laws are regarding driving.<br />
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Each state has its guidelines and laws, some have no prohibitions. What is the law about headphones on or off in your city or state? Check with your Department of Transportation.<br />
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I found out that California, Rhode Island, Virginia, Florida, Maryland and Massachusetts are states which ban wearing headphones or earplugs in your vehicle and while riding your bicycle.<br />
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Whether you’re running, walking or biking, did you know many states’ associations are working hard to make driving for bicyclists and motorists safer? Many athletes are pushing for new laws as a result of people being injured in accidents.<br />
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According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in just the year 2013, there were nearly half a million emergency room visits due to bicycle-related injuries, and over 900 bicyclists were killed.<br />
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Regardless of your state laws, you might buy a WRISTBOOM for the fun of it and as an alternate option for safety reasons. Stay ahead of the law and keep your eyes and ears open when out exercising. <br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">BiGR Audio</span> has a line of headphones that are environmentally friendly, using bamboo, and has had licensing agreement with the MLB, Bruce Lee, Rolling Stone Magazine, collegiate teams, and more. They also offer the Wristboom which I am reviewing here. It is a Bluetooth watch-style speaker that comes in seven colors and gives people the ability to listen to their favorite music or take phone calls as they bicycle, run, or walk. The device is water resistant, lightweight, and has a battery life of 4-6 hours, and allows for hands-free phone calls. *</div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">REVIEW </span></b></div>
<u> Product Presentation: </u><br />
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The wrist speaker band is housed in a sturdy plastic see-thru case. Once opened, you can see WRISTBOOM is well made, soft to the touch yet durable and extremely lightweight. I’ve opened and closed the plastic box (clicks into place) with some ease. At first, you’ll fiddle with it, (I did) until it clicks into place and closed up tight. Your Wristboom is safe until next usage.<br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-s0_rIqiVDPo/V73mvHvHLzI/AAAAAAAAEic/L0UBI4gFquESGdRnGGHnyHCgO0LP9aIsgCEw/s1600/wristband%2Bwatch%2Bin%2Bcase%2B2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-s0_rIqiVDPo/V73mvHvHLzI/AAAAAAAAEic/L0UBI4gFquESGdRnGGHnyHCgO0LP9aIsgCEw/s320/wristband%2Bwatch%2Bin%2Bcase%2B2.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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There is only one button so it’s easy to get started, and, it does everything you need in a split second.<br />
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<u>Getting started:</u><br />
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Before usage, charge your battery. (Cable comes with it.) I tested the battery over the next week and I cannot believe it has a good 5 to 6 hours without re-charging. I give that an A+. I have listened to music, answered calls with it – yes, the same button -- returned to my music – paused it – exercised, even quick twists, turns and arms swinging. It did not go static or change the volume, or die. It will power off on its own if bluetooth goes off, for example.<br />
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<u>Power on. </u><br />
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Hold the button down for a few seconds. Voice tells you, “Power on.” You know it’s on by the calming blue light around the circular band which swirls around the entire side of the speaker. Pretty cool.<br />
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<u>Bluetooth. </u><br />
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I have paired it with my android and my tablet. It searches for your closest device. It takes about 2 seconds and again tells you, “Pairing.” Ok, you’re all set. You have chosen your album or radio station to listen to. I like Pandora. You can pair to any Bluetooth device – easily and quickly. I wear my fitness tracker on the other wrist, so, there is not a problem with that.<br />
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<u>Speaker:</u><br />
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You probably already know your volume is controlled by your device, but some may need that reminder. You can blast this pretty loud, or, just as quickly PAUSE it (Yes, the same one button) or lower the sound, which I did a couple times in a high traffic area. The sound is amazing, I was surprised that one speaker could give me all that. <br />
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<u>Phone conversation: </u><br />
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I was shopping at my local store when the phone rang. I answered it by hitting the one and only button and soon in a conversation. Yes, you can have a conversation which I LOVED because my phone is always either in a back pocket when I’m walking or running or at the bottom of my jam packed pocketbook. This is one safety feature, especially if you’re driving or riding a bike. Digging to get your phone out of a pocket, or purse can be a split second decision you may regret when driving or biking, even running next to others.<br />
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<u>Quality: </u><br />
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Add WRISTBOOM to your wearables wardrobe. The materials are well made environmentally clean. The small speaker carries a big sound and the wristband itself fits any wrist size. Just ask Richard, “Big Rich” Bracke, founder of BIGR Audio. After watching his YouTube presentation, I got to see the hard work that goes into producing a final product which I highly recommend.<br />
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<u>Price: </u><br />
Affordable. $39 to $59. The $59 is water resistant. The charge cord is $10. <br />
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<u>Final words from Big Rich: </u><br />
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People often go out and bicycle with headphones on or get into a marathon and wear headphones as they run,” explains Richard “Big Rich” Bracke, founder of BiGR Audio, a company that makes specialty headphones and innovative Bluetooth wrist speakers. “It’s important that people know the laws regarding this issue and that they take precautions.” <br />
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<u>Links:</u><br />
For more information on BiGR Audio, visit the site at: http://www.bigraudio.com.<br />
http://www.cdc.gov/motorvehiclesafety/bicycle/<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2676380442890771134.post-15342744417566787642016-07-25T15:12:00.002-07:002016-08-02T19:07:06.808-07:00Tom Clancy's The Division SHAREfactory /PS4 <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b>GAME: Tom Clancy's The Division</b></span></h2>
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<b>Mission: Lincoln Tunnel </b><br />
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<b style="font-size: medium;">SOLO RUN:</b></div>
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<b style="font-size: medium;">Casey Julian a.k.a Random Samples on YouTube. (Link below)</b></h2>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b>Warning: Adult Content Language (it's New York City tough)</b></span><br /><u style="color: #202020; font-family: "source sans pro", corbel, "lucida sans unicode", "lucida sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18.24px; line-height: 24.624px;"><br /></u></h2>
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<u style="color: #202020; font-family: "source sans pro", corbel, "lucida sans unicode", "lucida sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18.24px; line-height: 24.624px;">Follow the link below to see solo player. Of course, the game can be played with multiple players. (click on link and it will take you to YouTube) </u></h2>
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZpJc43Hzos" style="font-size: x-large;">The Division - Lincoln Tunnel</a><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2676380442890771134.post-24660645053444144742016-07-20T13:53:00.000-07:002016-07-20T13:53:53.505-07:00What is Innovation anyway? Guest Blogger, Andy Marken<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 21.333333333333332px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Innovation is About Thinking Different, Not Copying Different</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 21.333333333333332px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">By Andy Marken </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img alt="gilligan1.jpg" height="371" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/XFOSWnYZwY0nSTeRZMA5n5e2RATsoqSzgi0zV0DQDEesQw1obcfmqpmB6hApOTwLyOJ9cFVIT2hkvi8HG99nU8lti0skuwcp21bGa1r95D4mOhB9806WR8dQJc3csNezNRBwRD_k" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="624" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">You don't know anything about space.” </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">– Skipper, Gilligan’s Island, CBS, 1964-1967</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When I grow up, I want to be one.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One what?</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The CIO (Chief Innovation Officer).</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Obviously, he or she is smart, a tastemaker, a visionary. After all, the CIO understands innovation when it comes to or is presented to him/her. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If you’re not quite sure about the job, Wikipedia describes innovation – “</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">a new idea, more effective device or process.Innovation can be viewed as the application of better solutions that meet new requirements, inarticulated needs, or existing market needs. This is accomplished through more effective products, processes, services, technologies or ideas effective that are readily available to markets, governments and society. The term innovation can be defined as something original and more effective and, as a consequence, new, that "breaks into" the market or society.”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Do you really have a clue as to what that says?</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Writers and speakers do.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">They use it in every other headline, every tenth word in a news release and every other conference presenter proclaims an innovation, engineers/product designers pitch it to their bosses. The CEO (Chief Executive Officer) tells shareholders/analysts the company is delivering true innovation to the marketplace.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When they’re really cool; they write, talk about disruptive innovation. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Now that is freakin’ awesome!</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What is it really?</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- Change that cannibalizes existing profit streams</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- Change that usurps prior businesses</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- New products/services that are better than, less expensive than those used today</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- Different ways of doing things faster, more easily, more economically</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Translation – it’s different. Maybe better, maybe worse; but only time is going to tell.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img height="453" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/RYvQohCY0fUEU2cJXX53z-7gb7SosWWj53JwD6p-RR82sfUeSIyH8yMs6ZEPcDcDubE9eZxhIa5D7ZORthsNPsJWtreOQ0GZaWCP4rqLNndr1OFAzefBpJEQTSSHXxu9AWM3LRPv" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="624" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Outta’ Sync – </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Innovations and market acceptance are totally out of sync and they always have been. Gartner’s hype cycle follows bleeding-edge users and media drumbeats while consumers adopt technology/products at a much slower pace which Geoffrey Moore described in his chasm. The “innovators” abandon products long before they gain widespread sales/usage.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The problem is we have two bell curves – Gartner’s Hype curve and Geoffrey Moore’s chasm curve – and they are not in sync.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">By the time most of us get what the innovation is, the innovators have forgotten about it and moved on.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We only know by looking in the rear view mirror if the new whatever is a good new or a bad new. If it fails, the innovator can say it was a good innovation but execution doomed it. If it succeeds, the innovator can put another winner on his/her resume.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">However, as David Ogilvy, a pioneering ad man, said</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">; “</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the modern world of business, it is useless to be a creative, original thinker unless you can also sell what you create.”</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2676380442890771134.post-86513729267341526012016-07-19T16:18:00.001-07:002016-07-19T17:50:13.486-07:00TECHIEGEMS (copyright by Carolyn Rhodes) <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="http://www.techiegems.net/2016/07/racing-at-ces-vegas.html#links">TECHIEGEMS</a><br />
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This website is copyrighted.<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2676380442890771134.post-902115327149192952016-07-19T15:54:00.000-07:002016-07-19T16:08:00.320-07:00RACING at CES VEGAS FORD<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zTOLMm2az64" width="480"></iframe><br />
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FORD MUSTANG<br />
RACING SIMULATOR<br />
2016 CES<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2676380442890771134.post-20353619348046919992016-07-19T15:03:00.000-07:002016-07-19T18:30:53.103-07:00BLACK WIDOW SPIDER ON A HOT SUMMER NIGHT THEY ARE BACK <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Black Widow Spider in my yard<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>It's a dark summer night and we open the patio door. I switch on the night light. It's the night before garbage pick up and my son ties the tie on our last trash bag for the weekly pick up. Off to the left in the corner of the patio step is a web. He inspects it. </b></span><br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JybSCP3Sa70/VaGUUUwd8WI/AAAAAAAAB1Q/KlOnW7CD5AM/s1600/black%2Bwidow%2Bspider.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JybSCP3Sa70/VaGUUUwd8WI/AAAAAAAAB1Q/KlOnW7CD5AM/s320/black%2Bwidow%2Bspider.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>"It's a black widow. Holy Cow! I'm going to spray it and then carefully place it in a jar, very carefully." </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b> He identifies it by the red hourglass shape on its abdomen. It packs a venom as strong as a rattlesnake bite. And this one is a mature female about 1"long. Now I'm listening because if he misses, this "spider woman" will become aggressive.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>I don't fear spiders and most are good insect eaters. After this catch, I think I'd better take some of these creatures very seriously. Easy to say they are nocturnal and not interested in biting humans for no reason -- but neither are rattlesnakes! </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Proceed with caution </b></span></div>
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HABITS:</div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; line-height: 25px;"><u><b>The black widow spider is timid and reclusive, preferring to make its home in dark, protected areas, such as in boxes, among firewood and under ledges. It is nocturnal, which means it only becomes active and does its hunting at night. *</b></u></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><u><br />The black widow spider's web is usually located within a foot of the ground. It is slightly erratic in appearance and made with stronger silk than most other spider webs. *<br /><br />The web is used to catch prey and to hang the female's cocoon of eggs.Black widows are usually found in dark corners of the house or around the edges of your yard or garage where their webs will have a lesser chance of being disturbed.*<br /><br /> They may also be found under vehicles, even those that are being driven periodically. Check for webs near the tires, or under/around the engine.Black Widows are territorial so you will often find their webs spaced about a foot apart.*</u></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">If bitten, go to the emergency room immediately. You life will depend upon it. Without urgent care, death may follow. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Don't kill any spider. They are necessary in our ecosystem and most are quite harmless. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">ULTRASOUND PEST REPELLENTS</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Bell and Howell makes an ultrasonic pest repeller for indoors . I have placed one in each room. It is for rats, mice, spiders, ants and roaches. So far, after 2 weeks, I have had complete success and it really works! </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">* For more information on the elusive Black Widow, go to www.wiki.how and google your question. </span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2676380442890771134.post-58553585905795681962016-07-19T10:11:00.000-07:002016-07-19T18:24:17.771-07:00ENGADGET Guest Post News: Endangered Rhinos and wildlife. Let's help.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Thanks to Engadget for this article and raising awareness that there is hope through technology to catch these poachers. Please follow the link below for full story. And, the organization we can support to protect our endangered species. Photos from wearprotect.org<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9R9K-XAd8sg/Va58eKUZORI/AAAAAAAACLA/Z6IAQ_iF6K8/s1600/Rhino%2BRAPID%2B%2B2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="260" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9R9K-XAd8sg/Va58eKUZORI/AAAAAAAACLA/Z6IAQ_iF6K8/s400/Rhino%2BRAPID%2B%2B2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.engadget.com/2015/07/21/rhino-horn-camera/?ncid=rss_truncated">http://www.engadget.com/2015/07/21/rhino-horn-camera/?ncid=rss_truncated</a><br />
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Please read above Engadget article. Technology is here to save the day -- cameras and the lives our our dwindling Rhino population? Can we save them from poachers! <br />
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And, please support <a href="http://weareprotect.org/protectrapid.html">http://weareprotect.org/protectrapid.html</a> RAPID (anti poaching device)<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2676380442890771134.post-10772612968138245162016-07-19T09:45:00.000-07:002016-07-19T19:06:33.445-07:00FITBIT TRACKER HAS YOU COVERED with ALTA and BLAZE 2016<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Here is my story about 2 years later .. 2016<br />
:<br />
FITBIT still rocks a great product. OK, the band on my "new" CHARGE, which replaced the one I sent back a year ago stretched out again recently, after a year.<br />
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I don't wear it in shower or get it wet or abuse it. So, I guess the bands are bound to stretch out and lose the shape.<br />
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However, this Charge is still working well and I'll deal with little stretching around the face of it .. . I rely on it for steps, call alerts, time, alarms, etc .. and it keeps me in shape .. wanting to do at least a mile a day .. I know -- I do more .. but let's say, there are days which if I am honest, I am writing and not doing over 6,000 steps ..<br />
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There is a CHARGE which measure HR (heart rate) and I am sure it has the same band problem. I haven't heard or read about any complaints . <br />
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The ALTA seems to a nice upgrade in that they must have noticed the bands were flimsy and went ahead and made inter changeable bands. So, you won't have to worry about that problem. The mechanism works without a hitch really. <br />
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I got a good look at the BLAZE and it's probably going to be my next purchase when the price goes down .. It's around $189 .. already down from $229 .. It's got a nice sophisticated look in the form of a watch .. and it looks like my next purchase .. even though there are so many others out there competing .. <br />
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These days I count on <u>Customer Service </u>and the way corporate treats their customers.<br />
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FITBIT has filled that requirement. And, after 2 years, I am still not tired of tracking my day.<br />
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2014-2015<br />
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My story below was and is still true. I will stick with Fitbit.<br />
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You can find similar version under "community news," on the Fitbit website.<br />
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<i><b>Hello everyone . </b></i></div>
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<i><b>I love my Fitbit. I have worn it "around the clock," since November, 2014 ....</b></i></div>
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<i><b>t have followed most of the rules to keep my Charge in good working order.</b></i></div>
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<i><b>--- keep it clean for one and out of water. . Learn how to optimize all the features. </b></i></div>
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<i><b> Nothing wrong with the mechanism, however, my band warped before the warranty was up after about 9 months.</b></i></div>
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<i><b> I was pleased that when I called and asked for instructions on how to "fix" the band, they said they would just send me a new Fitbit Charge. <span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I thought that perhaps the extreme heat while on vacation in Florida may have done it, but, whatever it was.. I may have gotten it wet at some point at the beach ... no explanations needed as they honored the one year warranty. </span></b></i></div>
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<i><b><br /></b></i></div>
<div style="background-color: rgba(0, 149, 178, 0.0980392); border: 0px; color: #666666; font-family: Helvetica, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 22px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<i><b><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> .. I'm glad the customer service team was helpful and sent me the new one. I'm not worried about sleeping wth it or exercising with it... it's a baby bear. .. Honestly, it really keeps its promises .. tracks sleep pattern with good accuracy. O</span>ccasionally I have to sync it again, and, or, get notifications back on, but, it's a small price to pay for working on fitness goals.</b></i></div>
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<i><b> By using all the features -- tracking your daily activities, you'll appreciate all you really do (or don't do) every day. </b></i></div>
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<i><b> Follow how to learn to get the most out of it .. on the site for one and the instructions, of course. </b></i></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><i><b>Fitbit Charge -- Burgundy has pink OLED (organic light emitting Diode) .</b></i></span></div>
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<i><b><br /></b></i></div>
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Go to:<br />
write your own experiences<br />
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https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Share-Your-Story/Around-the-clock/m-p/859015#M17384</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2676380442890771134.post-55937336632488804652016-07-07T14:31:00.001-07:002016-07-19T16:02:16.012-07:00Uncharted 4 Intro, By, Casey Rhodes<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Zqq2C2s30i8" width="480"></iframe><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2676380442890771134.post-89140334266122266192016-07-07T14:16:00.001-07:002016-07-07T15:06:29.293-07:00The Maverick .. only $94,000 ..Come fly with me -- to the next town.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Take a look at your latest dreamboat/car. Sure it can fit in your garage -- no problem! I think the only downer is that it can only fly for about 400 miles. But heck it's enough to fly me from Tuscaloosa to Panama City,both small airports .. I think! <br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2676380442890771134.post-6195981926131094122016-06-17T18:48:00.001-07:002016-07-20T14:11:53.581-07:00 GUEST BLOG: KIDMIX APP -- Kids Social Network and Playdate Planner LAUNCHES: <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">McKendall Communications<br />Lisa@Mckendall.com </span></td></tr>
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<b style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; font-size: x-large; text-align: center;">New Kids Social Network & Playdate Planner Launches </b><b style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; font-size: x-large; text-align: center;">Go to link www.kidmixapp.com for features. (Safe, Secure and Free.)</b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: 11pt; text-align: left;">Rockville, MD (June 16, 2016) – The first social network designed by parents for kids ages 5-12, KidMix, launched today. KidMix provides a new way for kids to connect with friends and to plan their own playdates all within a private, secure, monitored environment. KidMix is COPPA compliant and membership is free. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">“We created KidMix because we were looking for a way for our children to schedule their own playdates online and to be able to communicate with their friends in a safe, kid-friendly way,” said Clay Goldberg, Co-Founder of KidMix along with his wife, Lisa. “KidMix is a first step in helping kids become more independent and for parents to become comfortable with kids’ online communication.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Children can use KidMix to connect with their classmates, sports teams, neighbors, camp friends, relatives and many more. KidMix allows kids to share their thoughts and photos, and message friends while parents monitor all activity using the integrated parent dashboard. Children will learn how to use social media in a safe positive way and will gain independence by planning some of their own activities while parents are able to simply accept, deny, or change them. By using KidMix, parents are no longer burdened with the task of coordinating a playdate for their kids, they just have to approve the request!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Since KidMix is kidSAFE COPPA + Certified, all members are verified according to the FTC’s compliancy law for child online privacy protection. The robust parental ID verification process requires parents to verify their ID before they are allowed to create an account. KidMix is able to ensure that all members are not only who they say they are, but are using the platform with both parental awareness and permission. The registration process is simple, quick, and free. The KidMix App is available on iOS, Android, and Amazon.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">KidMix includes a proprietary Parent Dashboard that enables parents to oversee all activity and allows them to set parameters of how they want their children to use the network. As a social network, KidMix not only enables younger children to communicate and socialize with each other but they can also learn about a variety of subjects in KidMix’s SmartZone. The SmartZone includes thousands of curated videos kids can view and share with friends.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">KidMix membership is free and parents oversee all communication from friends, groups, photos, and invitations allowing for appropriate communication at all times. KidMix can be found at www.kidmixapp.com.</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2676380442890771134.post-82649155710178044862016-06-06T14:23:00.001-07:002016-07-20T14:08:47.057-07:00Book Review: THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO DRONES - Build - Choose - Fly - Photograph <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span class="apple-converted-space"><b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The Complete Guide to Drones: Whatever Your Budget<br /> </span></b></span><b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">
by Adam Juniper </span></b></h2>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> $19.95 US/$23.95 Canada<br />
Publisher: Quattro Publishing Group, USA Inc. <br />
Produced in London, England <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Softcover <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">144 pages <br />
ISBN-13: 978-1-57715-132-6<br />
2016 </span>Produced in London, England<o:p></o:p></div>
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Book Reviewed by<br />
Carolyn Rhodes</div>
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CES Reporter <o:p></o:p></div>
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Adam Juniper’s <u>The Complete Guide to Drones: Whatever Your Budget</u> answered many
questions I would never have thought to ask. Whether you are a beginner, a professional
photographer, a seasoned aficionado,
even a curious consumer, you won’t be disappointed. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Juniper, a skilled
pilot from the United Kingdom demonstrates the “how-to” on drones with expert
instructions and diagrams throughout the chapters. His talents don’t fall short
of “worldly” as author and an expert on anything drone related. Adam is a photographer and videographer as
well as a descriptive writer on the subject of flight. In an ever changing 21<sup>st</sup> century technology
of things – this Guide will help you reach a wise decision before purchasing. <o:p></o:p></div>
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I gave it a chapter-by-chapter,
page-by-page perusal. I don’t own a drone
but I found this Guide easy to understand and educationally entertaining with fun
trivia in the mix. </div>
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For example, the Introduction of Marilyn Monroe, a movie
star beauty from the 1940s, helped assemble drones during World War II. She was first spotted at a munitions factory
in California and she models in the photo. That caught my attention – drones
from the 1940s. Who knew?<br />
.<o:p></o:p></div>
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In the chock full of history chapter, Adam makes reference
to the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) and attendees’ favorite exhibition in
the 2010 show in Vegas. Parrot, then a little known company from
Paris, attracted crowds to their “dancing drones.” I attended as a reporter and
it is one of the favorite crowd pleasers. Year
after year, Parrot brings drones to life with even more precise and complex
moves. However, while Parrot remains on top of the world, others
have joined the competition. You will be able to read about the many choices –
some drone companies are ones you may have already heard of. <o:p></o:p></div>
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From the exhibition floors to marketing into
the homes of millions, drones are flying all around us. According to CES 2016 Daily Magazine -- sales
reached over $105 Million in 2015. One
year later, Vegas CES 2016 Unmanned Systems Marketplace featured 29 exhibitors
with sales up 208% from CES 2015 stats.
Drones are now in the homes of hobbyists and in the hands of
professionals.</div>
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Juniper has hit the
market with impeccable timing. Buy or build a drone or just figure out what
they are all about. There’s one for
every budget and lots to consider. Juniper opens up the wide eye view lens so a
consumer can see the whole picture from charts to community drone groups for
all levels of drone enthusiasts. <o:p></o:p></div>
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From Chapter 1: <u>Drone Basics</u>, you’ll get a detailed
history lesson from military to prosumer drones to toy drones and more. The history section details information with
visuals to connect to explanations .
This format is consistent in every section.
You can go back in time or into real time “what to expect”. It’s an eye catching layout too throughout
all chapters. <o:p></o:p></div>
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In Chapter 2<u>:
Powertrain </u>explains, again in detail, each and every component from motor
to the landing gear. Even a professional can learn something new. Chapter 3: <u>Ace Pilot</u> takes to the skies. Once
take-off is mastered, the reader can enjoy the scenery. Chapter 4: <u>Videos and Photos,</u> will take
you to spectacular views and by the time you reach Chapter 5 – <u>Build Your
Own</u>, you can take a look at precision diagrams and instructions on just how
one can build a model, even in addition to your store bought drone. <o:p></o:p></div>
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This Guide can be referenced as needed. You’ll want to get
familiar with choices in cameras, like Go-Pro and other accessories such as
Oculus Rift’s 360 virtual reality glasses. Options are endless. When it comes to a decision on budget, buying
and or even building your own, Adam Juniper has a well written and much needed
Guide which I intend to keep on my bookshelf.<o:p></o:p><br />
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Last but not least, the world may be your oyster, but, the
skies are governed by laws for the safety of all. This author gives you all the details and few
other international laws in a sideline.
You will learn regulations before flying in foreign countries and in the
USA. Know the laws before your flight
into the wild blue yonder. You might pay
a hefty fine if ignored. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Adam Juniper (and his team) have laid out all the tips and trips you’ll ever need
to become a well-informed pilot and drone owner. He has a channel on YouTube and maintains a
website, so you’re never too far from the latest additions. I recommend this book without reservation to
anyone and just about everyone. It’s a keeper.<o:p></o:p></div>
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www.TameSky.com (Drone website) </div>
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Purchase from Amazon. com </div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2676380442890771134.post-41193539790052887672016-02-09T16:08:00.003-08:002016-05-17T13:45:41.691-07:00GIBSON TENT SHOWCASED from traditional to high tech<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="text-align: left;"><b><i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">GIBSON does not disappoint. Every year I stop in for some relaxing time off from the hustle and bustle of CES at Las Vegas Convention Center. Follow the path to the big white tent outside.</span></i></b></span></div>
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This year I was escorted into the VIP room where Gibson staffers gave me a seat and served me some lunch and coffee. A few short conversations with others and time to check out what's new for 2016 as I reminisce the traditional. <br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zoavU9bcp0c/Vrp57BTSAOI/AAAAAAAADb8/4rxIHHinmMo/s1600/Gibson%2Bguitar%2Blineup.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zoavU9bcp0c/Vrp57BTSAOI/AAAAAAAADb8/4rxIHHinmMo/s400/Gibson%2Bguitar%2Blineup.jpg" width="400" /></a> Looking around at the showcase guitars directly across from my comfy little corner of the tent, i learned that the lineup (to the left) displayed guitars from the traditional Les Paul to the latest technologically advanced ones. Nothing is ever less than high quality workmanship.<br />
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Music lovers know and appreciate the greatest sounds . Some are listeners while others are entertainers. <br />
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Several guests did just that by hamming it up for a fun interactive video, while others made a record to take home. All done in rock star star style. Pick up a titanium fret too. I had no idea but it's got to be the best.<br />
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I am told that GIBSON headphones are completely wireless -- not a hint of a wire anyplace. Now, that's all new.<br />
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I enjoyed reminising along with a local Vegas artist who got my attention with "Chances Are," a voice qute like that of Johnny Mathis from old school .. He looked like Jesus and had a sweet disposition. Follow the link for a little nostalgia and to hear this fabulous artist sing and strum. . </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">You Belong to Me </td></tr>
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Go to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZX90mko24wI </div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2676380442890771134.post-27958256706324592592016-02-04T10:48:00.001-08:002016-07-06T10:53:08.509-07:00CTA (Computer Technology Association) shares the scorecard on your state <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Massachusetts ranks on the top of tech innovation. Does your state support innovation? Go to the link and find out<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> CES 2016 (photo by Rhodes)</td></tr>
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<a href="https://www.cta.tech/scorecard">https://www.cta.tech/scorecard</a><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2676380442890771134.post-30883543038104711102016-01-16T10:31:00.002-08:002016-07-19T18:21:23.834-07:00CES 2016 Vegas -- It's a wrap!!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">BB . You can buy this darling robot who debuted in the film for around $150</td></tr>
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Annually I attend the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). As a reporter I have a few privileges. I can attend press events, get a nice lunch and interview people from around the world and the USA. I'm amazed how far we've come and even more entirely confident about the future as a Nation as we grow within and with our global community. <br />
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<u>2016 U.S. Consumer Technology Outlook:</u><br />
<u>(Forecasts report reflects the U.S factory sales to dealers. Information provided by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA)</u><br />
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Smartphones: $155 Billion; Tablets: $18 Billion; 3D Printers: $152 Million; Smart Homes: 1.2 Billion; $Drones: 953 Million; Wearables Smart Watches and Fitness Trackers: $15 Billion; Virtual Reality : $540 Million; Televisions: 4K Ultra HD- $10.7 Billion; Smart TVs $15.8 Billion; Laptops and 2 in 1 computers: $17.4 Billion. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">BMW Showroom- some things are not for sale</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">M-8 BMW Dream Car. I am the passenger at the BMW track. with my associate editor at the wheel<br />
This one is a hybrid.. I loved it but cost $140,000.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">VIRTUAL REALITY from 180 to 360 </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GYZid37wHCA/VpqBkPcBIXI/AAAAAAAACzQ/LCLSGv5ReTk/s1600/DSCN0518.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GYZid37wHCA/VpqBkPcBIXI/AAAAAAAACzQ/LCLSGv5ReTk/s320/DSCN0518.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Skyworth Clarity <br />
and Beauty .</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lnAe3N229-s/VpqBkNTdpII/AAAAAAAACzM/b_IMg1WtUps/s1600/DSCN0519.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lnAe3N229-s/VpqBkNTdpII/AAAAAAAACzM/b_IMg1WtUps/s400/DSCN0519.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">What's new in TVs? Try 8K on for even more clarity</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RIhe3PA7Xtk/VpqBlw-CzqI/AAAAAAAACzk/pXMxmhqDZfA/s1600/DSCN0536.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RIhe3PA7Xtk/VpqBlw-CzqI/AAAAAAAACzk/pXMxmhqDZfA/s400/DSCN0536.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">DJI Drones. Many drone companies on the showroom room </td></tr>
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</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2676380442890771134.post-22477671380697427522016-01-16T08:21:00.000-08:002016-05-17T13:23:11.306-07:00Keep your eyes to the skies as Drones Out of Stores, Guest Author, Andy Marken<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Keep Your Eyes to the Skies as Drones Fly Out of Stores</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 24px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 24px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img alt="drone1.jpg" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/nMGtrcIcG5KpgYV-Hh4zMYAmhcD0DxngK98wdKGQi66spIXfrpiL918IUy6fnRX9zlel_IP4Unuxj9sxsM63PTosyWvbwogNAoNw4OZMp80CCddxlvbSawcGrPlI8K9P7DR54Q--" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">These people, they have no jobs, no food, no education, no future. I just figure that we have two things we can do. Help, or we can sit back and watch a country destroy itself on CNN.” </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">– Eversmann, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Black Hawk Down,” </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Revolution Studios, 2001</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Below is a bird's eye view of drones ownership . Give it a good thought. And enjoy some of the humor. CES 2016 had many drones flying in cages. The FAA had lots of information for potential buyers. (Techiegems)</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s estimated that 1M UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) or drones if you prefer were gifted this Christmas.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">All I can think of are my two favorite orators:</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Will Rogers – “</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">You can’t legislate intelligence and common sense into people.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">George Carlin – </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Just think how stupid the average person is and then realize that half of them are stupider than that.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The industry is so exciting there’s a convention every other week, professional/casual publications, training/educational schools, professional organizations (like the Drone Coalition) and clubs cropping up everywhere.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I get it. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I understand all the drone paranoia:</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- they’re unproven - don’t agree with this one</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- they’re dangerous – see Will’s, George’s comments plus really nasty folks</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- threatening to privacy – of course they will (see above)</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">That’s why I’d suggest:</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- Go online with the FAA (Federal Aviation Agency) and register your (or kids) drone</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- Get some training because fines for ignorance can run $27,500 - $250,000</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- Get some good personal liability, medical drone insurance (see above) and you know people </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">will</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> want to sue</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Problem is the excitement surrounding drones is a fever as big as it was around tablets, smartphones and is around wearables, IoT (Internet of Things) and IoE (Internet of Everything).</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img alt="drone2.jpg" height="346" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/IB-Lp1ItIOF5aqC4vnPiSYG1kYDvk07DxZgEqm3XpsJJ5BoPe3VtakkgvMPyJFpJOVbdyEK9JeiAa3nZUiwC7o9ugFsFrr4fmQ8KjWDu-HwqbAgl5dj8E8kZ3o1Ar0CKtJpzMHep" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="405" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-left: 23pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Drone Bundle – </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Seemingly out of nowhere, drones or UAVs flew off the shelves for recreational flying. They have already caused their share of problems for the general public and firms that want to use them for a wide range of commercial applications. Proposed regulation of the free-flying aircraft is still a work in progress. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s all because people like Teal Research, CBInsights, others estimate that worldwide sales of drones, accessories, apps, etc., will leap to $90B by 2024. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The rapid growth is not just drone sales but all of the technology that goes into them like chips that power/control them, apps that manage specific operations and activities and obviously the capture/storage of the data.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There are industry leaders most of us never heard of until a couple of years ago. China’s DJI leads the pack with a complete family commercial and recreational UAVs followed by 3D Robotics, Parrot and a herd of others. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">That herd received over $100M in startup funding in 2014 from VCs (venture capitalists). Probably a ton more last year.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Then there is the world of cheap knock-offs that copies its way in to sell a crap load of crap at a cheap price to anyone who’s got $50 - $200.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In addition to the toys there are some seriously good applications for drones. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img alt="drone3A-B.jpg" height="255" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/BS5kUoZy5AudxgqMEfKs2l-EvMAPLebQOcRrtU49z1r5nAKH0sbcYqFIyCAVfq7fer5NFir_iVVRrehWgQnBBFYGcbmKwWsB2r1_Xlh5yzCnNVsEJ3WKnR_3DkZgImgUIs8aGQdM" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="624" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-left: 23pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Commercial Use – </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">While retail package delivery may have garnered early headlines for UAVs, they have already been in widespread use in commercial applications. Leading the demand for using the aerial devices are the photo and film industries. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">They are being used quietly and successfully in farming/land management, firefighting, disaster relief, search and rescue, mapping, surveying, scientific/environmental research, law enforcement, education, real estate, conservation, utility monitoring/management and especially M&E (media and entertainment).</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">People in each market segment say theirs is the most important, exciting drone market but M&E really is (ok I’m biased). </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Drones are increasingly being used for television, film production, covering breaking news (disasters, crimes) and sporting events from new and unique viewing angles. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the U.S. news folks are making a case for </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">their</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> First Amendment rights to use drones as governing entities struggle to develop privacy and safety guidelines.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Actually what the NMC (New Media Coalition) said was privacy, bureaucracy and tech logic doesn’t fit with their journalistic protection.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Jeezz, folks!</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Fortunately there are sane and professional organizations that are trying to help the M&E industry get it right, do it right. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">NAB (National Association of Broadcasters), IBC (International Broadcast Convention and national/regional/local events are doing a lot to ensure content producers (and people in other industries that use video) act and work in a responsible manner and still get the shots they want/need. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img alt="drone4.jpg" height="411" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/eAeNVDwOwEG52TqNuNRTDbkVjMX8jQbUz_FGT-ck8Vqt-0o-89ssO7SBXFXeBEcqlLhzyTcTkIJTVHK8rvjb6H1Q4R2B_69Q9P2Tkw3mdnPvszF07S-Amaq8aNtoxZMRBBQE-oYe" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="546" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-left: 23pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Follow the Rules</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">– Filmmakers like Jeff Foster, of Sound Vision Media, have found a growing demand for drone film work for commercials, businesses and creative story telling. But he’s equally concerned that without proper training of pilots, the recreational and mischievous use of UAVs could make it more difficult for commercial users to carry out their work. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At AVW/DroneWorld they got all the scoop on new gear, techniques/apps, educational/training services and especially new legal guidelines/responsibilities for the operation of their aircrafts to keep their butts from being sued and their gear confiscated. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Actually regulators abroad have moved more quickly than in the U.S.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In Australia, Britain, France and Sweden, drones are allowed for commercial use if they receive permission from the government. The European Commission is working on a set of rules to allow for commercial drone operations across the Continent.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In hopes of bypassing overly restrictive and stupid requirements manufacturers, retailers, legitimate user organizations developed some safe and sane proposals the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) and DOT (Department of Transportation) adopted most of it with minor tweaking (bureaucracy).</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If the Christmas drone weighs over a half pound (250 grams) the pilot has to register. There are already a bunch of websites that will “help” you but it ain’t that tough:</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- name address, and optionally email address and phone number</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- display a government-issued registration number on each craft</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- swear you’ve studied and understand the safety and piloting information – something they call </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Know Before You Fly</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My kid can do it in no time!</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I understand making them easy to buy/use – great for manufacturers and retailers. But even a one pound drone traveling at 30 mph has got to smart.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Drones are already soaring beyond their practical and recreational uses and are in the hands of troublemakers and pranksters.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img alt="drone5.jpg" height="422" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/QbKY9iIH6xgzII9NFWkRTCZzkAKHFi8h0WtktkNvZ9c9g0C9-JfO26t8yHoQ37ewEOGWPGgPQCbRN8PupQx6-zrW_8epd7B-DNcxR3VgkQ8Z3R770tihCrvJCdrLRYOZPMLwBstf" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="617" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-left: 23pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Incidents – </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Flown by poorly trained, troublemakers and pranksters, there is an increase in the number of reported incidents such as the drone that struck the Seattle Great Wheel. Professional pilots and emergency personnel are increasingly concerned that drones will be involved in accidents and loss of life. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There are plenty of reports of in-air incidents (it was too damn close) with commercial aircraft, folks flying planes/choppers wildfires to put out the blaze and SAR (search and rescue) efforts.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There’s been a lot of news coverage of units crashing at soccer matches, the U.S. Open, football games and buzzing people in parks and it’s going to get worse before it gets better. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Once the individual gets his/her hands on their UAV to do neat stuff like spy on their neighbors, smuggle stuff into prisons and lose control over the gear so it goes who knows where.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There will be more!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Folks like DJI want to dodge the over legislative bullet by adding software that limits recreational flying heights and prevents the drones from flying into restricted airspace.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As Jesse Ventura, Minnesota’s colorful former governor said, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“You can't legislate against stupidity,”</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> which also applies to crime and greed.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The advisory group explained the simplicity of the registration process by saying, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Any registration steps more burdensome than these three simple steps may jeopardize the likelihood of widespread adoption and would undermine the overall registration philosophy that enabled the Task Force to come to consensus."</span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-67906030-4b37-0e9b-4f05-7e437ea887b9" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The registration is designed to hold drone pilots accountable for violating things like FAA drone operation rules, suggesting penalties for violations (leaving fines, actions up to the FAA/DOT).</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Drones were sold by the squadron this past holiday as intelligent machines but they’re really just tricked out remote-control planes. Few have the common-sense necessary to detect/avoid obstacles, figure out where they’re at or how to get home. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Buying a drone should include pilot training rather than trial-and-error.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img alt="drone6.jpg" height="423" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/R5dTny2IAdsc9WCuazm8wnuRIWXa_lslVJvzd64kQMvrp6ppEA05woJWOU97AiLg7HaDvJ_SRcN4Ei5dtmuxoadHGObMSPfLu8VdouH2u07CfNT1Apg3qX25sbkOlWaDumybiSnx" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="624" /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-left: 23pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Growth Opportunities – </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Business and commercial applications for UAVs have only just begun to emerge, but the potential far outweighs the unit sales for recreational and military applications. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I didn’t talk to a person at Drone World who wasn’t 100 percent for pilot education and training.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">People who were kicking the rotors at the show discussed a range of commercial applications - construction, firefighting, monitoring and repairing infrastructure, agriculture, search and response, Internet and communications services, logistics and delivery and wildlife preservation.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But key industry analysts note that the most interesting applications will be those we can’t even predict today. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Filmmaker Jeff Foster, head of Sound Visions Media, co-founder of the Drone Coalition and consulting reviewer to leading drone manufacturers; is a firm believer that drone pilots should be well trained before they take the controls. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He also thinks UAVs will take news coverage and filmmaking to new, exciting heights. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Teal estimates that about two million consumer (about $1.4B) drones were sold in 2015, one-third in the U.S.; and in 2016, sales could double.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Responsible firms are working on some excellent technological solutions so that things like crashes and near-misses will soon be things of the past,”</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Foster said. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“But between now and then, we’ll experience a lot of turbulence.” </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; clear: left; color: black; float: left; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img alt="drone7.jpg" height="334" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/XCRKWcjdkKdWyhowuHPg_eH8kjIG8FjreDy4ZiZ7PlXKD_o3GB9IdcKlOW6uu08El6L-VA6LYmquq5PlWkXgepqIPvIUcm9OR18tMKXHFWQ2iaF8gsb513B8rvxHNFW84vGJjQNR" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="543" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Or, as McKnight said, “</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Yeah, for you two, circling above it at five hundred feet its imperfect. Down in the street, it's unforgiving.”</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2676380442890771134.post-70162493893111958012016-01-12T08:25:00.001-08:002016-05-17T13:25:04.291-07:00Parrot DISCO - Drone Maiden Flight in the USA #CES2016<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1w1HIwrbWn4" width="480"></iframe>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2676380442890771134.post-33474988584012971252015-12-07T11:01:00.001-08:002016-05-17T13:25:04.289-07:00Parrot Bebop Vs DJI Phantom 2 With GoPro Hero 4 Black - Drone Comparison (edited)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: helvetica neue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">.YOU MUST REGISTER YOUR DRONE BEFORE FLYING IT. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">One Drone or the Other for a Holiday Gift</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">Carolyn Rhodes </span></div>
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<b><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">According to Computer Technology Association, CTA, the hottest new tech products are often the darlings of the holiday shopping season. This year, 33 percent of holiday shoppers plan on buying emerging technology like smartwatches, smart home devices and drones, according to the Consumer Technology Association’s (CTA) </span><em style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">22nd Annual CE Holiday Purchase Patterns Study</em><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">. That’s the highest number CTA has recorded.</span></b></div>
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Think connectivity! Like the idea of $500 which according to the video will be quite adequate, especially for the novice. Like anything, try before you buy bigger.</div>
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. I'll be attending CES Vegas as a press member and always love to see what Parrot (drone company from Paris) and other companies will have in space -- for 2016. <br />
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Clearly, it's a show not to be missed as these drones fly in perfect sync without a glitch. Looks so easy. I'll be flying under the radar at CES 2016 looking for new designs and improvements .. OK holiday shoppers here's a thought or two buzzing around overhead. Going for the BIG gift this year?<br />
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You may want to first make a list and checking it twice for this Parrot "Bebop" or DJI "Phantom 2" and decide which of these is the naughty or nicer gift? The Phantom will cost a bit more for a good video camera attachment. For both, you're going to need just a few more checks ! Yes, you're already cool and know that most of these devices need to connect to other devices, like your tablet, computer, smartphone, etc .. Oh, yes, it may be an upgrade you'll need .. Well, tackle that list first of <em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">how to get this somewhat serious drone off the ground. </em><br />
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Be informed and you may be on top of the world with one of these purchases,which you can find at Best Buy. . Expect new rules too! Find out what they are and where you can fly. Attorneys are now handling cases on violators. And, you must register it before flying.<br />
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Why not buy a Bebop for around $500 before the big $1600 +++ Phantom 2 mainly used for professionals? Heck the Bebop has a shorter battery life but enough for a beginner. Then you go bigger when you're ready to move up . By then, there will be more drones and new companies springing up like cotton fields.<br />
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Xmas fills us with adrenaline as we tear open the many gifts, first peaking at the "To" and "From". <br />
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. I'd stick with the price for a Parrot Bebop <em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">flying high</em> toy . I know -- the bigger and better model may catch your visual attention but really .. is it just a novelty soon to wear off? I've not gotten to anything smaller than flying the skies in a airplane. But then -- that's just me as the newer- now old saying goes.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2676380442890771134.post-40663148741482322962015-09-06T12:32:00.002-07:002016-07-19T18:09:05.935-07:00Connect your published article (with permission) to your blog. THE UNEXPECTED by CR<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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This Pelican reminded me of the Osprey the day of the accident. Copyright by this author<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">PELICAN from DAYTONA BEACH , FLORIDA, copyright </td></tr>
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<i><b>Below is my essay -- Published in Birmingham Arts Journal - 19 - Vol. 12 Issue 1 (2015) .. If you write for an online journal or a hard copy magazine, read their copyright rules which are usually in the writers guidelines. </b></i></div>
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<i><b> In this case, the editor allows a certain amount of time to pass after the article has been published and returns the copyright back to writer. Google the topic and you can be a better tech savvy writer and one who knows the details of all aspects of your writer.</b></i><br />
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<b>THE UNEXPECTED</b> By Carolyn
M. Rhodes<o:p></o:p></div>
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I am a child of the
fifties, the days when typewriters clicked and clacked and televisions were
black and white. And, we shared one phone per household. Those times were
exciting in a completely different way. One quick snapshot I recall is my big
sister boarding a small jet plane to fly to Paris to live with her French
boyfriend. (My parents hadn’t a clue about the living arrangements.) My middle
sister began her adult life as a literary poet in college. I am the youngest
and in this snapshot, I am in high school. It is there where I made lifelong
friends.</div>
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Every summer, for the past 12 years, I fly to Cape Cod for a family
and friends reunion. Towards the end of my family reunion, I spend the final
three days with Sigrid and Barbara, sisters. I’ve known them since grammar
school. After dinner, we walk down the winding road which is roughly paved. The
homes and gardens add a picturesque scene along the route to the beach. We take
the same walk every summer, but it’s always a different view. That second
evening we happened to come across an osprey nest perched on top of a lamp
post. The nest took the shape of an inside out portobello mushroom. It was a
home, sturdy and massive. We humans could only imagine this family’s life
journey. One of them flew off into the pink sky towards the ocean. A few
gathered around to watch. But, when the unexpected happened, I’d have to wait
until next year to get that story.</div>
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I made a last ditch effort in hopes that I
might see the big bird landing, but, as I turned around and walked backwards—in
a split second of interrupted pleasant thought about the osprey’s flight—the
heel of my sneaker dug into a deep hole. I fell onto my hand and landed on my
back. Sigrid and Barbara bent down and carefully returned me to my feet. I
could barely catch my breath and my wrist went limp. Barbara took charge after
assessing my condition, “I’ll run to the house and bring the car back. Sig,
I’ll do my best to get back fast. If it’s too long, call an ambulance.” We were
about ¾ mile from the house and it was an uphill walk. My heart raced as I
watched my hand swell. Soon enough, in the ER, X-rays had been taken and I
would soon learn my fate. The osprey nest was the furthest thing from my mind. </div>
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The doctor informed me I needed
emergency surgery the next day and that my wrist was badly broken. I would need
pins and a plate. Suddenly I began to shiver and a wave of anxiety hit me. Sig
remained by my side and told me to not worry. I could stay without a problem
and she would look after me. But with a long recovery and physical therapy
ahead, I knew my only option was going home. The doctor placed my arm in a
splint and sent me off with a sling. “Get that done no later than Friday,” he
insisted. I slept the entire next day while the girls sprang into action.</div>
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They
boxed up my clothes and shipped them via UPS so I had nothing to carry. My
suitcase went to the Salvation Army and they ordered a wheelchair assistant to
meet me at the Boston airport. No way could I wait on a check-in line with only
one functional arm. They made sure I had at least $20 in singles for tips.
President Obama vacationed in Nantucket that weekend and the airport bus was
full. I guarded my right arm and moved into the first seat for the handicapped.
I couldn’t imagine that the unexpected would strike again, but soon enough, it
did. My connecting flight to Birmingham was not coming due to bad weather in
Chicago. The airline booked me for a morning flight and left me stranded en
route to Baltimore. I called my son and he made a reservation at the Marriott
near the Baltimore airport. A porter met me at the Baltimore gate. I arrived at
nearly midnight—my phone was dead and I was disheveled and weak. The young man
knew his way around, charged my phone and dropped me off at the limo stop. He
called the Marriott to alert them that I was in a wheelchair, waiting at their
ramp. I gave him a $10 tip. I couldn’t have made it without him. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Once at the Marriott, I was given a handicapped room. It was
comfortable and clean. I had a king-sized bed and a very big shower with no
steps—a space to get easily in and out of. Now I understood why a handicapped
person would need this. I was now that person. With a slow twist of the shower
knob, water gushed out slowly until I adjusted the temperature. The goal was to
keep the splint and dressing dry before surgery. A sudden move could cause
further injury. My wrecked body felt a heavenly anointment of calm, as though
holy water poured over me. It was the best shower in the worst of times. At 5 am, I was on my way back, heading for the
airport, almost home. Surgery and physical therapy followed for the next 3
months. Eventually, I got my hand and all fingers working. It was a slow
recovery.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I could never have
imagined how it felt to be handicapped, to lose the use of one beautifully
created diligent workhorse, my hand, with its tiny boned fingers perfectly
crafted and guided by a wrist to move every second of a day and night. And, I
can’t leave out the childhood friends who are there to lift our spirits exactly
when we need them. I came through with eyes wide open and a bigger heart for the ones who struggle in ways I never really thought about.<br />
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Carolyn M. Rhodes earned a BA degree in Drama and Dance,
College of Staten Island, 1973. She retired from UA’s College of Business as an
office associate and was a contributing feature writer for their alumni magazine. Carolyn is an exercise
instructor and an award-winning writer. She maintains a tech news blog, www.techiegems.net and www.storiesbypunkydemure.com </div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1