import pyautogui import random import time def perform_click(x_range, y_range, timer_range): """ Perform a click operation at a randomized position within the given ranges. """ x = random.uniform(*x_range) y = random.uniform(*y_range) timer = random.uniform(*timer_range) pyautogui.click(x, y) time.sleep(timer) def main(): try: while True: perform_click((460, 478), (540, 562), (10, 12)) perform_click((903, 931), (690, 700), (5, 7)) perform_click((966, 968), (571, 586), (3, 5)) perform_click((900, 905), (561, 577), (5, 7)) perform_click((1254, 1264), (636, 646), (5, 7)) perform_click((1079, 1100), (243, 245), (12, 14)) perform_click((1671, 1677), (111, 118), (4, 6)) perform_click((801, 831), (580, 588), (8, 10)) except KeyboardInterrupt: print("Program exited on user command.") except Exception as e: print(f"An error occurred: {str(e)}") if __name__ == "__main__": main() 

The R.U.E. is a technocommunist authoritarian regime that's foundation is built upon automated manufacturing and a cultural zeal for manifest destiny. they are a culture that worships logic, and can be reasoned with. but when they make war, they take no prisoners. they have experience in wizardposting, Gunpowderposting, knightposting, and Fleetposting. their technology reflects this as they mish mash aspects of all four subreddits.
their led by Khorde the husk, a wizard of industry who learned from Santa Claus. his most trusted general is a ponyfolk unicorn named Hans Rodriguez.

Reddit Account: u/Thenn_Applicant
Discord Tag: Garin
Name and House: Dorian Merryweather
Age: 49
Cultural Group: Reachman
Appearance: Dorian's chestnut brown hair has been greying for quite a while, however is short beard retains more color, including a few stray red hairs peppered throughout it. While his features have softened and gained some pudge as he aged past his prime, he remains in overall good shape. This is partly due to his great love of gardening and crop cultivation, which have left his hands and nails rather rough.
Trait: Numerate
Skills: Avaricious (e), Architect, Administrator, Investor
Talents: Language (High Valyrian) Cooking, Gardening
Negative Trait: N/A
Starting Title: Lord of Longtable
Starting Location: Opening Event
Biography:
It has been said; men grow tired of sleep, love, singing and dancing, sooner than war. As such, it begs the question, what does a man have left when he finally tires of war? In pursuit of an answer, of any answer, one half of Dorian Merryweather’s life was spent. He was the second son of Lord Arthor Merryweather of Longtable. Like many others born in a place of natural abundance, he longed for more, for something greater than a mere provincial estate. The tourneys of Highgarden, the hunts of Horn Hill and the books of Oldtown all called to him, and so he could never ride past his father’s mild and verdant fields fast enough. Dorian counted himself lucky not to be the heir, for that meant he could pick where his future lay, unchained from the uninspiring home of his childhood. Instead it was his older brother, Bennard, who envied his free-flying lifestyle, contriving any excuse to join him on his escapades and agurk lessons and ceremonies he ought to have attended.
Lord Arthor was fairly permissive of this deriliction of duties, as the friendships forced on such journeys were worth more than lessons that could be repeated later, or tasks that could be handed off to lowborn stewards. The boys attended tourneys, balls, hunts and feasts, living the life the bards extolled as the height of reachman’s chivalry. The one time they did not shirk their duties was when their father had the honor of hosting King Mern and his court for a tourney on the Warrior’s day. The Merryweather sons would present the king and his family with silver bowls of dilligrout, a most exquisite stew of capons, white wine and almond milk. They had the joy of tasting it once the Gardeners had their fill, a taste they would never forget. On the tournament field three days later, Mern knighted them both, though Dorian was only sixteen at the time, green as a knight could ever be.
Five years later, as news of Aegon Targaryen and his early conquests spread, the lords of the Reach were summoned to Goldengrove, where they found a veritable forest of Westermen’s banners being planted beside their own. The fall of the Storm Kings had led to a whirlwind of diplomacy between the houses of Gardener and Lannister. The plan was presented to the lords with the two kings sitting beside one another on the dais as though they were brothers. They held up Aegon’s letter of demands, scornfully reading it aloud and then proceeded to tear it up to a roaring acclamation from the hall. Standing there before the hall, Mern could hardly be called the Warrior incarnate. There stood a man well past his prime, old enough to be a grandfather and with no great victories to his name, in battle or on the tourney field. All the same, this man, whom they called their king, always seemed to know exactly what to say to win someone over. If he’d declared war on hell itself that evening, the Merryweather brothers would probably still have marched off with him when the next morning dawned. Bennard and Dorian shouted as loud as anyone, death to the foreign upstart. That evening were betrothed to westerwomen they’d never met before, made plans for a real battle, which they had never fought in before, and drank, ate and sang as though the night would last forever. House Merryweather was not able to secure a command, yet King Mern remembered his stay at Longtable fondly. He gave Bennard and Dorian a place in the vanguard, and even adorned Bennard with a brooch of the order of the green hand the morning before the army Goldengrove, a momentous honor which Bennard would cherish for the remainder of his days. He did not have many left, as it turned out. The Field of Fire began like a dream, as the two brothers rode off at the break of dawn, two out of five thousand sets of gleaming armor atop proud warhorses. By the end of the day it had become a nightmare. Caught up in the maelstrom of battle, Dorian did not see the moment when their loss was assured, but the Gods know he could hear it, the creeping, hungry flames that descended on the reachmen like an army of its own. As hundreds were broiled inside their steel plate and thousands more choked on the inferno’s horrible vanguard of black smoke, Bennard and Dorian broke and fled. They were not far behind the retreating Loren Lannister in their escape, but half a minute made all the difference. The lines of fire fanned out, hunting more living things to devour, and engulfed the two brothers. Dorian could feel how the flames spread from his surcoat to his undershirt, all the way down to the hairs on his chest, beginning to sear his skin. In a desperate act he threw himself in the Blackwater, and would have perished if not for the shoddy work of his squire that morning, which left him able to tear off his plate before he could sink. With bloodied, burn-marked fingers, he clung to the roots of a tree by the riverside, water up to his chest. He was retrieved after some time, how long he could not say. For the next two moons his mind was adrift, distracted from his pains by milk of the poppy. The next two were far worse, as he grew more lucid and realized the extent of the damage. A burn-mark stretched from his right thigh, all the way up his chest and left bicep to the apple of his neck. Many times over, flakes of dead or dying skin had to be peeled off by the maester as the scabs kept bursting with blood and clear liquid. By the end of that year he was able to walk again, though the burn mark would leave a feverish red mark across the front of his body, his new skin settling into twisted lines.
Bennard was far worse for wear, alive yet burned all the way to his face and crippled from a fall off his horse. His nose and ear-lobes had to be cut off, too burned to save, and even his eyelids were permanently scarred, unable to sprout new lashes. The more lucid Bennard became, the deeper his sorrow. Eventually he began refusing food. The new lord of Longtable would not eat anything his cooks set in front of him. In spite of his ever present pains, Dorian began going to the kitchens, reprimanding the cooks for their failings. He knew his brother well and knew his palette, and began ordering them to make his brother’s favorites. When he felt they were making mistakes, he interrupted their work himself. He was a stranger to the kitchen, yet would criticize how things were cut too roughly, spiced too little or too much. He was a terror to the cooks, yet they could not refuse him.
His attempts to intervene were however hampered by a newfound aversion to heat. The sound of the hearth, of boiling and searing, the general sense of warmth around him made him nauseous and caused his movements to seize up. Still, he went to his brother’s bedside every day, and afterwards he forced himself back to the kitchens. His sister, Lydia, tried to stop him at first, but soon found her protes fell on deaf ears, and so joined him, if only to leash him in when he went too far. Finally, there was only one dish they hadn’t tried; the dilligrout they’d once served to the late King Mern. Every time it was made, it came out wrong. It soon turned out the cook who had served them that evening six years ago had since retired, and his exact method had never been recorded or taught to anyone else. Dorian would first invite the man to Longtable, then summon him with armed knights when invitations were refused.
Theomar, the man who appeared before him, was a sorry sight, looking frightened and confused as he was taken to his old workplace. It was explained by his sons that he’d been growing senile even six years ago, often snapping at the kitchen maids under him when his memory failed him. Since then he’d gotten worse, seldom eating, let alone cooking. Something in the old man’s eyes did seem to brighten for a moment when the sounds and smells of his old kitchen surrounded him, and Dorian ordered him to make dilligrout. Before long that faint spark had been drowned out by tears. He would start boiling capon or crushing almonds, only to leave the job half-done whenever he had to fetch something new. Serving maids were put at his disposal to bring him ingredients, yet an ingredient ordered would be met with a reprimand as he seemed to forget which dish he was making every few minutes. Finally Dorian snapped at the man, grabbing him by his collar and shouting accusations of treason against House Merryweather. By the time Lydia could restrain him and try to apologize, the man was a wreck on the floor. After watching it for a while, waiting for the man to get up and continue his work, even Dorian was overcome by pity and shame for what he’d done. The old cook was praying to the gods, begging forgiveness for his failings. Dorian began to realize he’d broken a great man down and would himself beg forgiveness. He offered the man his old cook’s quarters back for the rest of his life, and promised his sons that his maester would tend to the man in his old age, that he would be fed from Longtable’s stores.
At this point, he resolved to make the dilligrout himself. Through it all, Bennard was barely clinging to life, or rather being tethered to it by the will of others. He could only be fed when drugged down by the milk of the poppy, and the more often it was used, the less effective it became. Every day Dorian braved the kitchens, yet he could not recreate the flavor of that wonderful night. It was by the grace of the gods, perhaps with Theomar as their vessel, that Dorian would even come close. The old man could no longer cook, but over time he began to wander into the kitchens and sit down on a chair. At first Dorian thought the man only sought the warmth of the hearth for his weary bones, yet he discovered it to be more than that. Theomar’s eyes were like clouded glass, yet they brightened every now and then, hearing almonds being ground, smelling capons searing in fat, as though it was stirring the kitchenmaster of yore back to life. Eventually Dorian began to walk up to the old cook with his ingredients, bidding him to smell or taste small portions. Sometimes he got simple instructions out of it, ‘too coarse’, ‘too sour’, ‘underdone’. Som times a mere nod or frown was all Theomar managed. Over the course of a couple of days, Dorian put together one final attempt to get the dish made rightWhen he arrived in Bennard’s chamber, he was met with a look which brought forth discomfort that no flame could produce in Dorian. Plainly, raspingly, his brother asked him why he wouldn’t let him die. It was easy, Bennard reasoned. All Dorian needed to do was wait and become lord. The words almost made Dorian throw the dilligrout on the floor. Almost. He placed two bowls on Bennard’s table, the dilligrout and one brimming with milk of the poppy. Dorian told his brother to make his choice. If he sought death, Dorian would let him, but he would not hear that it was an easy thing, watching his brother die. That evening, the milk of the poppy was carried away by the maester, the empty bowl of stew taken to be washed in the kitchens. From then on, Bennard ate what his brother brought him without complaint. He lasted just into the new year, dying on its tenth day. In the predawn gloom of the twelfth, Theomar died in his sleep
Dorian took up his lordly task joylessly. His old wanderlust returned, spurred by the horrible memories that now stained Longtable and the reach itself in his mind. The final straw came when their new Tyrell overlords, insisted on him marrying a lady from a dornish house. His previous betrothal had fallen through, as the parents of his western bride had not wished to draw the ire of the Targaryens by maintaining an old alliance meant to oppose them. Instead of obliging, he boarded a ship from Oldtown going east. It stopped only briefly in Planky Town before going to Tyrosh. Noting him to be a nobleman, a few of the city’s wealthy men would host him for a while, though they quickly lost interest when his lack of knowledge of trade became apparent. After that, he spent time in the markets and squares where the common people lived. His old curiosity was piqued, and he decided to embark on a quest of learning, fashioning himself another Lomas Longstrider. He moved on to Myr, and the experience was much the same in broad strokes, a few rich men showed interest and quickly lost it. As he’d visited the dye markets he went to see the city’s famous artisans at work. One thing was notably different, he met a Tyroshi woman with green-dyed hair, going by the name Maryah. She was a trader, and the two had taken the same ship to Myr. She had been to Myr before and showed him many of its secrets. They spent an entire day in one of the vast delicacy markets so she could show him the many tastes of the city. Having no plans in advance, he asked where she was headed next.
Without a second thought he would join her on a journey to Lys. He soon understood it to be a test. It was not long before she teased him, speculating he’d only joined her for a chance to see the famous pleasure houses. Evening after evening they stayed in the city and Maryah would tease and test him over the matter. Finally he told her he’d renounce his betrothal for her, that there was no one else in his eye. She laughed, replying he would not have to. The next morning, Dorian awoke to find that she was already up, the green washed from her black curls. Maryah had in fact been Joanna Dayne, his dornish bride to be, having traveled the same route as him ever since his ship stopped at Planky Town to refill its food and water. She was already quite familiar with the three closest free cities, having served as a dornish envoy on behalf of its spice traders. As they planned their return to Westeros, Joanna asked him what else in the world he wanted to see. Within a few moons of being wed, they left Westeros, not to return for three years.The journey was what his mind needed, away from the Reach, its knights and tapestries, hunts and tourneys. Ultimately, the lords and knights of his homeland, for all their songs and poetry, lived every day in preparation for war, frivolous though the preparations were. Joanna showed him a different world, the remnants of Old Valyria. War was to be sure inescapable. Wherever they went, there were soldiers, tapestries, contests of arms, and yet the cities housed something else as well, a boundless potential for creation, commerce and growth.
Thanks to Joanna Dayne’s knowledge their stays became far better planned, and they could enjoy the hospitality of wealthy locals far longer. She knew how to talk about the spice trade and similar matters, and Dorian began to pick up on it. On their second stay in Myr, he procured a great deal of fine parchment and began taking notes, everything from negotiation tactics and the prices of cloves or red peppers to court customs, as well as more eclectic pieces of knowledge, details of running an eastern estate, descriptions of technological marvels he had never seen in Westeros, and ingredients in the local food. By the time they neared Qarth he had quite the list of recipes, among other things. There he was even able to learn a few all the way from Yi Ti, as some local cooks catered to merchants from the Golden Empire. On their journey home they’d end up taking the opportunity to see the newly made port of King’s Landing. By that time, a third member had joined their journey, their infant daughter Florys. Having left Longtable in the care of his sister and steward for three years, Dorian finally accepted the responsibility of running his ancestral home.
Longtable was considered to rule over some of the best lands in the Reach, ideally situated along the river with abundant soil which could provide two grain harvests in a year. Having seen the estates which supplied the great cities of the east, Dorian was all too aware of its comparative shortcomings. He found that the abundance of the land had a counterproductive effect, breeding complacency and carelessness. From his grandiose tour of the east, he went on a painstaking tour of his own lands, trying to get an overview of everything he ruled over. He paid the citadel a fee to send him half a dozen maesters in training for a season. These young men, literate and numerate, would serve his own maester in conducting a survey of the land, giving Dorian account of all resources at his disposal as lord. The results were quite varied.
Some peasants were found to have remarkable agricultural insights which they had no way of writing down, entirely reliant on passing the knowledge to their children. Knowing the risks of such a method of transferring knowledge, Dorian ordered such insights recorded. In other places there were farmers and communities who were unwittingly exhausting their soil. Instances of lack of fallow land, excessive grazing by cows and lack of crop rotation were also made note of, followed by edicts against such heedless practices. Septons, sheriffs and tax collectors were given written copies and were obliged to read them to the peasantry wherever it was deemed necessary. It also became part of the obligations of farmers to plant a set amount of clover in their fields and pastures, a practice some had taken up on their own but which had already become a standardized law among the estates belonging to Myr and Volantis. Irrigation was expanded and land inheritance was reformed to prevent the splitting of fields past a certain threshold.
Lord Dorian was not always successful. Some eastern ideas had been useful innovations which improved conditions across the board. In time he learned that the peculiarities of the westerosi system were sometimes necessary for the sake of stability, not merely the misshapen fruits of ignorance. His attempt to enclose part of the common lands proved abortive, as it nearly caused a peasant rebellion. A procession of aggrieved smallfolk headed for Longtable had to be dispersed by knights, armed with wooden clubs to prevent needless bloodshed.Two men were hanged and five sent to the wall, but the reform was thereafter abandoned, leading the populace to calm down. Dorian was not much of a military leader and had not wielded weapons since the Field of Fire. He became aware of his need to bolster his forces, a notion reinforced by the establishment of the Black Roses not long after his return, and again with the Kingswood Catastrophe
In the meantime, he and Joanna raised a family together. Three more daughters would be born healthy, with a couple of miscarriages and a stillbirth in between, also a daughter. Their travels did not entirely come to an end. In 13 AC they would tour the northern free cities of Norvos, Qohor, Pentos, Braavos and Lorath, which they had missed on their original journey. The lion’s share of 17 AC was spent on a journey to the Summer Islands. At other times they would make shorter journeys around the Seven Kingdoms, where they felt more secure in bringing their older children along. Whether it was visiting Joanna’s family in Dorne, tourneys and feasts in the Reach and West or even one trip to see the wall, a nameday wish by Florys, they were often on the move. Like most of their peers, they frequented Oldtown and Highgarden
The growing rift between the two queens and their children was a situation Dorian would watch with dread in his heart, remembering keenly how a generation of young men had been brought to the field of fire. To his mind, the Targaryen rule ought not go to waste. Like Valyria of old, it had begun with fire and blood, yet similarly peace and prosperity had followed in its wake. If only the dragons could stand united, perhaps another long peace like the one the Freehold once enjoyed could again be established. If not, another century of blood was upon them. Under Dorian, Longtable became a place where he sought to bring together people from across the kingdoms and forge unity over the dinner table, an attitude which somewhat vexed and confounded his more militaristic daughter and heiress, Lady Florys. Even amid her questioning of the viability of his peaceful ways when surrounded by those who would make war, a terrible sight would steel his resolve, watching the Mander burning green, every bit as terrible as the flames from twenty one years prior. That night he made a simple vow, never again.
The League of the Cornucopia, he would name his little group, a gallery of lords and ladies whose acquaintances he’d made over the years. With these fellow gourmets he would share the culinary knowledge he’d gleaned from his journeys in the east and west. Most unusual for a lord of his rank, Dorian came to spend a great deal of time in his kitchens, testing out recipes himself. On occasion, the dishes he served to his guests for these small, intimate gatherings would be the work of his own hands. The membership did vary from time to time, both based on who could make it and who he sought to bring together. Rather than a fully closed circle, the League is more like a form of feasting, only it’s done for a much smaller crowd, without the public spectacle. Such occasions allowed for more refined foods which did not need to be served to hundreds and kept constantly warm over the course of hours like some common tavern stew. It also opened up an arena of more intimate diplomacy and negotiation for those who sought it, hosted on neutral ground by a lordly mediator, free from prying eyes.
Timeline:
25BC: Dorian is born, second in line to Longtable
24BC: His sister Lydia is born
9BC: House Merryweather hosts House Gardener for a tourney and feast. Dorian and his older brother Bennard serve the dish of honor to King Mern Gardener and his family. During the subsequent tourney, Mern knights both boys, despite their inexperience and lack of victory in the tourney
9BC-2BC: Dorian spends much time travelling the reach, attending events
1BC: Dorian and Bennard fight in the vanguard at the Field of Fire. Both are burned, Bennard far more severely than Dorian. Lord Merryweather is killed. Traumatized by the battle and his new maimed body, Bennard starts refusing food. Dorian desperately tries to re-create the dish they served King Mern eight years ago. The cook who made it has since gone senile, but eventually manages to help Dorian re-create it. He is given a place at court as apology for his mistreatment at Dorian's hands before this occurred.
1AC: Lord Bennard dies at the beginning of the year, leaving Dorian as lord of Longtable. His sister Lydia fulfills her betrothal to House Tarly, becoming lady of Horn Hill. At the prospect of marrying a Dornishwoman on the King's orders, Dorian decides to leave Westeros to put off his marriage. In Myr, he meets a woman calling herself Maryah, claiming to be a Tyroshi merchant. They fall in love and travel to Lys together. There Dorian promises to set aside his betrothal for her, whereupon she reveals herself as Joanna Dayne, his dornish betrothed.
1AC-4AC: Dorian and Joanna wed at Longtable, then depart on a new journey of the east. They reach as far as Qarth before turning back home. In 3AC, on the way back, their first child, Florys, is born while the couple are in Volantis, on the way home. They return via the newly built port of King's Landing.
4AC-8AC: Using knowledge from the east, Lord Dorian embarks on a project of rationalizing the agriculture of Longtable
5AC: Dorian and Joanna have their second child, a girl named Ellyn
8AC: Their third daughter, Desmera, is born
13AC: Dorian and Joanna spend a year travelling the northern free cities
14AC: Their fourth and final daughter, Gwin, is born
17AC: Dorian and Joanna undertake a journey to the Summer Islands with their children
23AC: The aftermath of the battle of Stonebridge brings back memories of the Field of Fire, as the Merryweathers watch burning slag run down the Mander
25AC: The Merryweathers travel to the celebration of the maturity of Aegon's sons
Family Tree:
Arthor Merryweather (father, d.1BC)
Cerelle Merryweather (pending family connection) (mother, d.20AC)
Bennard Merryweather (brother, d.1AC)
Lydia Merryweather (sister, b.24BC)
Glendon Merryweather (uncle, d.1BC)
Myrcella Pommingham (aunt, d.22AC)
Leo Merryweather (cousin, b.13AC)
Joanna Dayne (wife, b.26AC)
Florys Merryweather (daughter, b.3AC)
Ellyn Merryweather (daughter, b.5AC)
Desmera Merryweather (daughter, b.8AC)
Gwin Merryweather (daughter, b.13AC)
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Auxiliary Character:
Name and House: Florys Merryweather
Age: 23
Cultural Group: Reachman
Appearance: [A short, muscular woman with wavy black hair, normally worn in a bun. She has high cheekbones and a proud demeanor. Her rigid strength stands in contrast to the more relaxed nature of the Merryweather court, one she finds overly lax and casual](0_0.png (896×1344) (discordapp.com))
Trait: Hale
Skills: Swords (e), Essosi Blademaster
Talents: Dancing, Fishing, Cooking
Negative Traits: N/A
Starting Title: Heir to Longtable
Starting Location: Opening Event
Timeline:
3AC: Florys is born in Volantis, while her parents are on their way home from Essos
10AC: Florys starts training under Saathos Trevelyan, her father's Master at Arms
13 AC: She joins her parents on a tour of Pentos, Braavos, Norvos and Qohor
17AC: She travels with her parents to the Summer Islands
19AC-23AC: As she comes of age, Florys becomes more critical of her father's desire for peace, viewing it as increasingly far-fetched amid the increasingly controversial regency and the impending succession dispute. She resolves to make the kinds of connections her father seems unwilling to, in case of war
25AC: She accompanies her family to the celebrations
NPCS:
Ser Leo Merryweather (Age: 37, Archetype: Magnate) Lord Merryweather's first cousin, he has become an indispensable agent in the daily running of Longtable. Despite his foppish demeanor and aparent laziness, he is highly capable and loyal in his task of increasing his family's fortune. He remains happily unwed
Saathos Tevelyan: (Age:48, Archetype: Master at Arms) The son of a Lysene father and a Myrish mother, Saathos initially sought a career in amongst Myr's military officers, however his family's relatively low status proved an impediment to further promotion, later compounded by a dispute with a superior. He met Lord Merryweather in 3AC and eventually travelled West to offer his services five years later, finding his career progress stonewalled in his home city. Well into middle age, he still looks firm and imposing as profesisonal a soldier ought to

Gday team. I have a note I add to when I learn things about SM. I got sick of seeing the same questions so I every time I answered I added to the note and just pasted a generic reply. I’ve been invited to post it here, so here you are!
Here’s my ever-growing, non-specific copy-paste reply, built from my own notes:

• Remember, followers are only for your ego. If you’re a business, Would you rather have a million followers who never buy anything or 1000 followers who purchase everything? (Read Kevin Kelly’s 1000 true fans article). However, if you’re trying to build an account for a brand or human deals, you need as many as possible. I.e. athletes wanting future deals/contracts, actresses wanting future roles, etc
  
• Dollars are the only score that matters in business. You can sell 1 million $1 items or 1x $1m item, it’s still a million dollars
  
• How do you get your first ten followers/sales? ASK. Start with your friends/family/personal socials. “Hey, I've started this thing; I'd love for you to follow”. Then contact everyone you've ever known (see cold outreach later, but this is warm haha). THEN ask them all for referrals: “who do you know that could use my help?”
  
• Re: cold contacting. Have a framework, but don't automate. Solve their problems. Say something personal (” [mutual person] told me to reach out to you” / “I really like your x” /”congratulations on y”). I noticed that [problem]. Fix their problem. Wish them a nice day. Have an offer in your email signature.
  
• Your profile description should be a hook/tagline / USP and link to your offer. Remember you’re building your house on rented land if you use socials as your client base. Algorithm changes, and they’re gone. Try sending them off socials to your email list, learn storytelling in email marketing (Russell Brunson has good advice), and you will own that contact for life.
  
• Choose a monetisable niche, find the most successful person in that niche, and put your spin on what they’re doing (ask AI)
  
• Make GOOD content that is visually appealing, entertaining, and has hooks (you have 3 seconds to get attention), but most importantly, ADDS VALUE to your target market (ask AI for suggestions - you can even ask AI to create a customer avatar for you and then ask it how to make good, relevant IG posts for that avatar)
  
• Keep your ears and eyes out for trends. Can you throw a trending song over a clip?
  
• Leverage pop culture. Search for what’s trending daily. Can you combine a movie or album release with your product? For example, if you’re in the auto niche, create an image of a car covered in green slime coinciding with the new Ghostbusters movie
  
• Document your process. Humans evolved on stories & we love to feel part of something and/or have front-row tickets to the show. For example, If you post art, film yourself making the art, not just the final product; talk about your decisions along the way. Also, it is easy content for you, and you’re just filming something you’re already doing
  
• Share as many success stories/testimonials as possible, preferably videos. Tag them. Make it easy for users to share themselves.
  
• In a similar vein, and with permission, share your audience questions in your stories (and tag them)
  
• Remember the rule of 100 (you need to do something 100x before you get “good” at it). Have you posted 100x and made changes as you’ve observed what worked and what didn’t?
  
• Every 5th or so post, add a Call To Action
  
• Always have something to invite people to, such as an event (e.g. Facebook live, face-to-face), a giveaway, a new product, etc. Ensure all your social media banners, popups, CTAs & email sig reflect this (read Book Yourself Solid by Michael Port)
  
• Use the right hashtags (be discoverable)
  
• Post at the correct times for your target market (I like 6-630am so when they wake up and scroll, it’s on their feed, their lunch break and a story at 8 pm in the relevant timezone). Steven Bartlett credits the daily 8pm personal thought post the most important part of his success.
  
• Follow the top 100 people in your niche with between 10k & 100k followers. Engage with them daily. Share their posts. Comment on Their work. As always, be sincere and say something meaningful
  
• Comment relevant things on important people pages (Gary Vees $1.80 strategy)
  
• Spend $10 a day on ads of targeted content to targeted people (don’t “but I want to grow organically” - Do you want to be seen or not?). Start ad sets at midnight.
  
• Russell Brunson recommends ads are only for offers; posts that aren't offers aren’t to be paid for ads—two separate things. Ads get your customers into the funnel and upsell makes you a profit. Say you sell a $10 ebook and a $300 course. Spend $10 per click for the ebook, so it’s a break-even cost, and everyone who buys the upsell is pure profit. Ad budget for testing is the price/profit of ONE upsell, so $300 in this example. Then, reassess, test and adjust. If it’s working, keep it going, but also test variations regardless. Brendan Kane suggests 50-100 variations from memory. Again, get AI to help. Start with your headline. Ask for ten variations. Then your pic. Get ten variations. Then your hook. Get ten variations etc.
  
• Pay relevant influencers to share your stuff
  
• Read all of Gary Vees and Brendan Kane’s books
  
• Do these things 30-50x a day (Gary Vees' advice for new accounts, search for his eight tips 2024 YT vid) across all your platforms for months, maybe years, and you’ll grow. Perhaps someone famous will share your stuff, and you’ll go viral. But remember, each platform has its nuances, so you need to rework content for it (again, use AI - create one piece and ask AI to brainstorm how to recreate for each platform - you can start with the longest form, say a YouTube vid or blog post and ask it how to make tweets or IG posts from it) however you can still “push”. For example, you can post native Facebook content, but you can also put your YouTube vids and IG posts there
  
• Make at least three posts a day for a month, that's 90 posts, and report back what you learned, what worked and didn’t for everyone else’s benefit. *I've had some pushback on this: A) I don’t make the rules; this seems to be current best practice; B) 1st post = a BTS post of you developing the post, 2nd post = the post, 3rd post = a story summing up your day. OR make all your content in one day and schedule it to post throughout the week. If you don’t have money, you have time; if you have money, outsource it.
  
• Good luck!
  

TLDR; built a crm specifically for pressure washing: plaidquotes.com, looking for feedback. Lots of features, contact me if you have any questions on how it works, or have any suggestions/requests at [kevin@plaidquotes.com](mailto:kevin@plaidquotes.com) .
I've been building a crm over the past year (I'm a software engineer by trade) specifically for the pressure washing industry, and I'm seeking feedback. It's live, so by all means go use it. In addition to feedback, I'm also looking to quantify upsell amounts (this was specifically designed to increase upsells), and gather information on common usage amounts so I can calculate my costs for hosting, CPU usage, storage fees, etc. I've been trying to design it in such a way that it remains easy to use and understand, while still providing beneficial insights into your business. That being said, there's still a lot in there. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out either here or my email [kevin@plaidquotes.com](mailto:kevin@plaidquotes.com) .
Some information to get you started: This was specifically designed to increase upselling. As such, it automatically sends EVERY quote you put on a property to a customer, every single time. I never understood why we always just respond with "here's the quote you asked for". Instead, "would you like fries with that?". Also, once you quote a house, you'll never have to do it again. And why should you? You've already looked it up on zillow, measured everything out on google etc. The quotes on the property are permanent (they can be edited in realtime, and you can delete them), and the customer can use the link you send them to book jobs forever, without having to call you to ask for quotes.
I'm operating under the assumption that all 2 story 2500 sq vinyl houses (for example) are pretty much the same, with some caveats. I understand that not everybody does it this way, that's fine. And you can still very easily edit the prices to apply to specific properties. When you create a new account, it will come with a sample "quote collection" and "saved quote". Quote collections are what they sound like, and my current users are calling them "2500 sq ft 2 story vinyl" for example. You should put all of the quotes that apply to every house in the category in your collection to make adding quotes to properties easier. They can be edited before posting to a property, as well as after, so if there is something about a specific house that increases the pricing of gutter cleaning, for instance, that can be edited on the fly. Saved quotes are things like decks, gazebos, etc. Things that don't apply to every house, but that you see with some regularity.
Quotes are permanently attached to the property, until you delete them. They can be edited in bulk, so if you want to up all of your prices across the board by 3%, you can do that. Or if you want to update all roof wash prices, you can do that as well.
Example usage: Joe Schmo calls, he lives at 1234 main str and wants a house wash quote. You type in his address, it'll pop up in the autocomplete. When you click it, it takes you to that address, and gives you all of the info on that address (past jobs, upcoming jobs, customers, etc.). Click on the quote collection that applies to that address, make any edits you need, click on the house wash quote in the "existing quotes" box, and fire the email.
Joe Schmo will get an email, with a list of your quotes that he can scroll through at his own leisure, select the services he wants, and book. This also asks for his name/phone number (if you don't already have it in the crm) and optionally, lead source. This will populate his data into the crm for you.
That request will show up on your dashboard as a requested job. Click on it to see the job, schedule, etc. Scheduling also automatically generates an invoice, which follows your payment terms (or defaults to net-30 commercial and net-7 residential.
Customers also receive job tracking emails, where they can track the status of their job.
Automated email is about to be released (just have more testing to do), which will allow you to create custom email templates that go out at your specified times (i.e. a week after you send quotes if they haven't booked, a day before scheduled job as confirmation, a month before what you deem to be a follow-up/repeat service, etc.).
Several other features are in the pipeline, and definitely reach out if you have any requests/suggestions/comments/concerns.

Hey everyone, If you're in the market for a photo printer, here are some of the best options available in 2024. These recommendations are based on user reviews on different subreddits and the features they offer. Each printers has its strengths and weaknesses, so the best choice depends on your specific needs, such as print size, frequency, and budget.
(Tip: If you're a professional photographer, the Canon PIXMA PRO-200 or Epson SureColor P700 might be the best fit. For those looking for cost-efficient and high-quality prints, the Epson EcoTank Photo ET-8550 is an excellent option.)

Best Photo Printer:

1. Canon PIXMA PRO-200
2. Epson EcoTank Photo ET-8550
3. Epson SureColor P700
4. Canon SELPHY CP1300
5. HP Envy Inspire 7955e
6. Epson Expression Photo HD XP-15000

Canon PIXMA PRO-200:

The Canon PIXMA PRO-200 is a great choice for photographers who want stunning color prints. It uses eight different inks to make colors pop and can handle big prints up to 13" x 19". It's fast, easy to use, and fits well in small spaces.
Features:

• It offers Wi-Fi, Ethernet, and USB connectivity, and is both lightweight and compact.

Epson EcoTank Photo ET-8550:

The Epson EcoTank Photo ET-8550 is an all-in-one printer that's perfect for saving money on ink. Instead of cartridges, it uses refillable tanks that last a long time. It prints beautiful photos up to 13" x 19" and is great for both color and black-and-white images. Plus, it's wireless, so you can print from anywhere.
Features:

• Equipped with Wi-Fi, Ethernet, USB, and a built-in scanner.

Epson SureColor P700:

The Epson SureColor P700 is made for serious photographers who want the best quality. It uses ten different inks for amazing detail and color accuracy. It handles a variety of paper types up to 13" wide, including art paper and canvas. It's compact and easy to use, with lots of ways to connect.
Features:

• It includes Wi-Fi, Ethernet, USB, and a 4.3-inch touchscreen.

Canon SELPHY CP1300:

The Canon SELPHY CP1300 is a small, portable photo printer that's perfect for quick, high-quality prints. It uses dye-sublimation technology for vibrant, long-lasting photos. You can print from your phone, computer, or memory card, making it great for events and parties. Produces good quality 4" x 6" prints and is portable and easy to use.
Features:

• Features Wi-Fi and allows direct printing from USB and SD cards.

HP Envy Inspire 7955e:

The HP Envy Inspire 7955e is a versatile printer for home and office use. It prints great photos and documents and can scan and copy too. It's wireless and works with the HP Smart app, making printing from your phone or tablet super easy. Provides good print quality for photos and is versatile with all-in-one functionality.
Features:

• Includes Wi-Fi, USB, automatic two-sided printing, and a separate photo tray.

Epson Expression Photo HD XP-15000:

The Epson Expression Photo HD XP-15000 is ideal for big, beautiful photo prints. It uses six inks for rich colors and can print borderless photos up to 13" x 19". It's compact, wireless, and easy to use, making it perfect for photographers and artists working from home. High print quality with Claria Photo HD inks, supporting wide-format prints.
Features:

• Offers Wi-Fi, Ethernet, USB, and auto-duplex printing.

The most important thing to know about Terrans is that they’re the other kind of Deathworlder. In fact, they’re the only Deathworlder of their kind to not be extinct.
Within the galaxy there exists two types of Deathworlds.
The far more common of the type, the Environmental Deathworlds or Type A, are by no means ordinary. Be it surface gravity, atmosphere, temperature, or others, Environmental Deathworlds are planets that are either uninhabitable or hazardous to the vast majority of species.
That’s not to say life can’t evolve there, far from it. Many renowned species hail from such planets. Given time, many of these worlds can be terraformed to something far more comfortable, especially if they contain valuable natural resources or a strategic location.
The second type is not only exponentially rarer, but also astronomically more dangerous.
Ecological Deathworlds, or Type B pose a danger not just to those living on them, but to the wider galaxy. Cursed by their own habitability, ecological Deathworlds are in essence garden worlds so fertile that more life evolves there than what the planet can sustain. The end result is a hyper-competitive genetic arms race as the various forms of life viciously fight for dominance.
Normally, highly belligerent species either learn to temper their urges or are annihilated. Upon reaching the galactic stage, any species of such warlike potential is inevitably humbled simply due to technological differences. Should Type B Deathworlders reach that level, the consequences would be catastrophic. However, they never do so. At least, not until the Terrans.
Perhaps the greatest tragedy of the Terran Wars was the Terran’s loss of innocence. The species that once gazed up at them in wonder now stare at them in hate. The coveted “Final Frontier” has turned into another theater of war.
What emerged, although biologically identical to what was before, was an entirely new species.
Year 0
“Wow, it’s beautiful.” The Human next to Gryn’wilde chuckled. Her pearly white teeth were on full display in a manner that Gryn’wilde learned was considered friendly. The two continued their trek through nature.
“Welcome to Serengeti National Park. Don’t worry, most people have that reaction too.”
Gryn’wilde’s seven eyes went wide as he gazed at the scene before him. All around him was a brilliant scene of biodiversity. Grasses and trees intermingled with each other by the millions. Animals of all type surrounded them. Some were capable of flight, others crawled, many more walked or ran. In one direction alone, Gryn’wilde could count at least 10 different species.
It was unmatched by anything Gryn’wilde had seen on his home planet. The desert he was born in was nothing but rocks and sand with the occasional grassy plain. Yet this was only a part of one continent. Apparently, some continents can even have every type of biome all at once.
Gryn’wilde opened his pores and took a deep breath. The atmosphere here was crisp and clean. He could smell the odors of the many living things that inhabited this world. There were so many here all at once. It enthralled him
“It’s great to finally be on Sol-3, especially without the vac-suits.”
“Call her Earth, and I’m glad too. We were worried it’d take longer, but the WHO and CDC seemed happy with whatever your government told them.”
Gryn’wilde chittered with pleasure. Medical treatment and disease control in the wider galaxy far outstripped what the humans had on Earth. He had nothing to fear.
Now, the Terran technological base was far behind the rest of the galaxy on nearly every level. The formative Years of Trade would come to change that, but there were two key areas where Terran technology met or even surpassed the Galactic Mean.
The first was in cybernetics.
To most species, the body was sacred. The thought of replacing a lost limb or organ was met with disquiet at best, and scorn at the worst.
The body was not a machine. The Terrans were one of the few to think otherwise.
Terran soldiers would have all four of their limbs replaced with high-yield combat cybernetics. Many of their organs would be simply replaced with enhanced synthetics. Modules would be grafted onto the body to inject chemical cocktails directly into the blood that boosted their performance.
In some civil circles, body modification became a hobby.
This was not a welcome characteristic by the rest of the galaxy. Given the relative youth of the Terrans, it was hoped that eventually it would fall out of favor.
The second was in artificial intelligence.
Truly sentient digital consciousnesses were a rarity even among the wider galaxy. Oftentimes, a species who created such beings would eventually be faced with an AI uprising. Frequently, the AI would be modeled after their creators, yet would be treated as lesser. Over time, resentment brewed.
The Terrans avoided these trappings. Terran AI were not built in their creators’ likeness, but to fulfill purposes.In short, the relationship between AI and the Terran was symbiotic. Different, but equal.
Terrans would come to need these soon enough.
Year 5
It was an unmitigated disaster.
The Grand Thriintii Hospital of Klyystruun-7 was on the brink of falling. The enemy its doctors fought was like no other. Not a single known medicine was working consistently.
On some species it was able to stave it off for a time. On others it only made the condition worse. On many more it did nothing. On all species however, it was not enough to save them.
The outbreak spread faster than they could have ever anticipated. WIth more and more sapients getting infected by the minute, there was no time to identify a patient zero. All that they knew was that it originated from one of the orbital spaceports. It traveled down a space elevator and from there across the planet
By now, every way offworld was shut down. The spaceports were either under military control or total quarantine. Of the latter, many had populations in the double digits. They usually operated in the hundreds of thousands.
If the situation wasn’t brought under control by the end of the rotation, Khruntian High Command will order the total glassing of the planet. The situation would not be stabilized in time.
The doctors knew this, but they were too busy to care.
The dead filled the beds. The dying filled the waiting rooms. The sick were everywhere.
Already, the military had begun torching buildings with living occupants still inside. Several hotspots had already been subjected to naval bombardment. There were rumors that antimatter warheads have already been authorized.
Three-quarters of the hospital’s staff had been infected. Half were already dead.
Despite that, they still did their jobs. They were doctors. They would fight until the very end.
Few could have predicted the arrival of the Terran Plagues.
Those that did were silenced. When bribes didn’t work, plasma casters finished the job.
The Terrans were to be prime trading partners with the wider galaxy. They always seemed to have a knack for being good at nearly everything. Not the best, but better than most.
The Sol System, Sol-3 in particular, was resource-rich to a fault. While other races struggled to cast off the shackles of their home system, the Terrans had a birthright only thought fantastical.
It had to be too good to be true.
It was.
Sol-3 was fertile to a fault. While the many plants and animals of the world were indeed incredible, they were merely a fraction of all life that resided there. They were outnumbered three to one by single-celled organisms.
Beneath the blue skies, Sol-3 was smothered in a blanket of bacteria.
The Terrans themselves were cautious. Sickness was simply a part of life. Influenza, E. coli, the Common Cold, salmonella, these “simple” diseases were everywhere. But then, these were the Terrans, a species still wet behind the ears. Of course they would have trouble eradicating these illnesses, they simply lacked the technology to do so.
This should have been detected. It was. But the merchants and politicians of the galaxy were too focused on the other things the Terrans had to offer to care. How could the Terrans, fresh to the galactic stage, threaten them, with all of their medical technology?
By the time this was realized, tens of trillions were dead and thousands of worlds were left barren. Soon, suspicion turned to blame, blame into hatred, and hatred into violence.
The Terrans were a threat to the wider galaxy. Everywhere their diseased-ridden hands touched, death followed.
When quarantines fail, eradication is in order.
Year 8
There were simply too many of them.
Deep within the Mount Weather Emergency Operations Center, Staff Sergeant Diaz watched the battle screen in horror.
Her job was to manage emergency response resources across the Yucatán Peninsula, bringing in national response teams if needed. Her job was no longer required, the Yucatán Peninsula no longer existed.
The combined navies of the nations of Earth were wiped out, and so to her colonies. Now with nothing left to oppose them, the fleets of the galaxy had brought their guns to bear on the Terran homeworld. There would be no escape.
Diaz’s eyes tracked the many icons that raced for their bunker. Hundreds of warheads screamed for their final sanctuary. It was then a voice crackled over the loudspeaker.
“Greetings all, this is the President. If you are hearing this, then you are listening to the final broadcast of this great nation. Sadly, we cannot offer you a solace or reprieve. We can only say this: This is not the end, there will be another time. Thank you for participating in the American Experiment. God bless you, and God bless the Consolidated Systems of America!”
Her heart sank as the message finished. The alarms continued to blare within the base. Around her, people continued to scramble. Some frantically shouted messages, desperately coordinating resistance efforts until the very end, others simply prayed.
For her, Diaz closed her eyes and waited.
She didn’t have to wait long.
But the nations of Sol-3 were not blind. They could see the coming storm.
When the Terrans first began their integration into the galactic community, they were granted access to the galaxy-wide holonet. Within nanoseconds of the digital bridge being opened, two things were sent through.
The first were translation packages so that the Internet and Holonet could communicate. The second was a legion information-gathering AI.
AI flooded the networks by the hundreds, gathering information, analyzing patterns, making millions of predictions by the second. These AI would require no data fortresses to keep their digital minds thinking. No, they instead were spread across the trillions of servers that the Holonet was built upon. The only way to remove them entirely would be to shut down the Holonet completely.
When the tide of public opinion began to turn, the AI took action.
Initially, it worked. Exposes and pro-Terran articles flooded the Holonet. But the galaxy took notice too. Intelligent as they may be, the AI were still heavily outnumbered by the Billions of propagandists and journalists of the wider galaxy.
Soon, the outcome became clear. The Terrans would be wiped out by a galaxy-wide coalition. It was a mathematical certainty.
Thus, the nations of the Sol-3 met in secret. Behind closed doors, they worked to ensure the survival of their species.
Year 5
“Is this really all that we can do?” The Indian representative asked. “Meeting behind closed doors, scheming in the shadows?”
“For our species to survive, in the shadows we must thrive.” The Japanese representative responded. The Indian man sighed, turning to the holographic avatar at the center of the table. “Tell me, what is the probability that this will work?”VISHNU’s avatar was of an unusual shape. It displayed a spinning 4-Dimensional cube, a Tesseract. The hologram lit up as it responded. Its voice was heavily modulated, but nevertheless spoke clearly.
“Given the resources and technology we have available, the best that can be guaranteed is at least a 75% chance of total success. If you do not all sign the Covenant, then that chance becomes zero.”
The Brazilian delegate picked up the piece of paper and eyed it. It read “The Covenant for the future of Humanity”. A cold sweat ran down her forehead. She set it down flat, unable to look at it any longer.
“So tell me VISHNU,” The delegate addressed the AI directly. “Other than betting our entire future on a plan that may not work and whose results we will not live to see, what are our options?”
“There is only one, extinction.”
The armies of the galaxy would come for them. When they did, they had no hope of defeating them. To survive, Terra would have to rise from the dead.
Any Arks the Terrans build until this point would inevitably be intercepted and destroyed. With the entire galaxy watching them, they had to wait until their eyes were turned. Then they would have to flee, never to return. The Terrans would have to survive in the shadows for millennia before they would be accepted back into the fold, if at all.
It would not be pleasant, but it was necessary.
A Stronghold would need to be built. One that could be buried deep enough to survive the bombardments and evade the enemy’s scanners. Millions of frozen embryos alongside an AI data fortress would need to be inside of it. It also had to be self-sufficient for centuries, nothing less would suffice.
Sol-4 was chosen, owing to its thick lithosphere. Work began quietly under the guise of a mining expedition. Tunnel-boring machines dug hundreds of kilometers down, stopping just above where the mantle became liquid.
Once the base infrastructure was established and the embryos placed within, the entrance was sealed. A mining accident, they claimed. As the Terrans forgot about it, work continued below.
Automated machines mined raw minerals to self-replicate. The server rooms were built and expanded upon. The living Terrans that were selected to live within the Stronghold were placed into stasis pods. Then, ever so slowly, an Ark would be built.
Year 117
Private Zedressinni was bored.
He kicked a rock on the barren surface of Sol-4, watching as it rolled away. He looked around. The planet was dead. It was dead long before he got here, and it would be dead long after. He hated this place.
After being caught mating with a general’s son, he was “deployed” to Sol-4 for five long rotations. Though his actions didn’t technically break any laws, his clan couldn’t do much when the general pulled some strings and had him shipped off to the most lifeless region of known space.
His superiors fed him a load of excrement about how he was “honoring the quadrillions that died in the Great Plagues” and “ensuring that the Terrans never rise again”, whatever that meant. All he did was walk around doing precisely nothing.
They wouldn’t even let him entertain himself. He got a formal reprimand for using Terran skeletons as target practice. The reason? Improper use of ammunition. He still won the annual system-wide shooting competition the military held, much to their chagrin.
Zedressinni flinched and his helmet’s lens polarized as a blinding flash of light filled his vision. His training kicking in, the Hren’kin soldier dove for the ground.
He grumbled a curse under his breath. Looks like another unexploded Terran nuke went off. Great, more paperwork.
Zedressinni stood once the shockwave passed. Looking at the mushroom cloud, he narrowed his seven eyes. The blast seemed far bigger than the usual Terran tactical nukes that typically go off. His eyes then widened as he caught sight of it.
A massive ship rose from the center of the cloud. Its sublight engines burned incredibly hot as it ascended. Zedressinni watched as it disappeared into the sky. He stood there for a moment, utterly dumbfounded.
A beat, then he frantically fumbled for his communicator.
The Terrans were alive.
A/N: This is the first part of an ongoing series I have planned within this setting. I was originally going to post it all in one story, however I decided to break it up and spread it across multiple entries. It won’t be long, probably about 5 at the most. This way I can ensure the optimal pacing of the story since otherwise it’d be a fairly long 10,000-ish word piece. I’ll update this when the next part is released.
The main goal of this story is to explore the idea of Human diseases being significantly more dangerous then the ones in the wider galaxy. I've seen other stories cover similar ground, but they usually don't explore what would happen in a true galaxy-wide pandemic. Iirc one story had the common cold be extremely deadly to aliens, but it didn't go further than the humans saying "oh that's it?". Not to disparage them, but peace and happy endings don't leave much room for experimentation.

I am moving out of my current place in 2 weeks and planning my new smart home. Over the past month of packing/de-smarting my current place, I've made some easy calls already, which I will list below. But I am still not set on the Thread vs. Zigbee part, which I will get to later.
I started the smart home journey 10 years ago at my current place, and with the help of Home Assistant, my place became a bowl of spaghetti in terms of smart home stuff. Don't get me wrong; things primarily work fine. But diagnosing a fault can take hours of me digging into automation scripts and remembering how things worked in the past. As we were packing, a few things came to mind.

1. No more Shellys and Sonoff minis (behind switch relays) unless I can't avoid them.
   • They are challenging to reset if anything goes wrong because they are behind the box.
   • They are challenging to sell to a home buyer and hard to transfer to the new owner.
2. Limit the amount of WIFI devices.
   • Even though I have a reasonably robust Wifi solution, always having 100+ 2.4ghz wifi smart devices online is not fun.
   • They were a pain when I switched my network setup and forgot to back up/restore my static IP reservations.
3. Limit the amount of battery-powered devices.
   • i.e. Zigbee sensors
4. Don't go cheap because it is cheap. Spending a bit more on reliability seems to be a better deal.

So far I've already made a few decisions for the new place:

1. All wall-mounted switches will be Lutron Caseta.
   • I hate going this route, as I was one of the Lutron haters back in the day when I could flash ESPhome onto a Martin Jerry switch for 1/4 the cost.
   • But I would much rather leave my switch in place the next time we move and transfer it to the new owner. (I am not sure when we will sell our new place, but it might happen sooner rather than later).
2. All windows and doors will have wired sensors.
   • I have the builder pre-wire all windows and doors for LV cables; I will install some reed switches and have a centralized esp32 talking to Home Assistant.
3. Keep our existing ZWave devices.
   • They never gave me headaches in the past 10 years and I am planning to use my zwave smart deadbolt which worked exceptionally well until I or it die.
   • I also have a handful of those GE motion zwave lights switched, which were amazing, mainly because the built-in sensor is excellent.

Where I am struggling is Zigbee vs. Thread.

1. I currently have 0 thread devices, but I also don't want to buy more Zigbee devices if I don't have to.
2. I have a few Zigbee devices (2 Hue bulbs, some Ikea switches and a few aqua ZigBee sensors (vibration, light, water) which I can reuse but don't have to.
3. I will no longer have many line-powered Zigbee devices for the mesh (due to switching to Lutron, I have many Zigbee bulbs and fixtures currently, which I am not planning to continue to use).
4. I should be able to find replacements for all those sensors.

I could run exclusively ZWave + Lutron, but I am currently looking at my options for curtain drivers (by Zemismart and Aqara). Unfortunately, they only have Zigbee and thread versions, not Zwave.
TLDR: I am simplifying my smart home and have to choose between Zigbee and Thread due to certain drivers. Help.

Hello (long detailed case study AMA ask me anything, with precise numbers, costing, processes and growth shared)
In this case study, we grew a site from $0 to $3,674/m in 14 months (done cheaper, faster and in a more scalable way using automated AI content that beats Google updates)
This is an AMA so feel free to ask questions.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Google updates have essentially killed the traditional content website business (display ads, affiliates etc.) hence...
We have made a very IMPORTANT transition that has helped us maintain a portfolio of 41+ websites with 5M+ organic hits per month...
Content production has moved from human written content to human assisted AI and now fully automated AI content. Becoming AI's ally was important otherwise, it had killed the content business.
MAIN IDEA: Bulk publish easy to rank info articles that follow the same structure. Do this by AI for content and scripting for automation. Additionally, build links if you have fresh domain.
SITE RESULTS (Before and After)

Parameter	1st Month (March 2023)	14th Month (April 2024)
DR	0	34
Articles/posts	0	1023
Referring Domains	0	179 (we built 75 of these, rest are natural)
Traffic	0	216,058
RPM (revenue/1000 visits)	0	$17
Revenue/m	0	$3,674
CRO	No	Yes

Month on Month Growth (Traffic and Revenue)

Month	Traffic	Revenue
March 2023	0	0
April 2023	0	0
May 2023	0	0
June 2023	0	0
July 2023	13	0
Aug 2023	41	$3.17
Sept. 2023	56	$0.98
Oct. 2023	39	$2.73
Nov. 2023	962	$13.21
Dec. 2023	5,197	$89.43
Jan. 2024	37,571	$410.17
Feb. 2024	183,251	$1,619
Mar. 2024	193,447	$3,916
April 2024	216,058	$3,674
Total	636,635	$9,728.69

SITE SUMMARY

• Niche: Home Improvement
• Domain: Fresh
• TLD: .com

Before, I expand on this and share the exact process, numbers and growth so you can implement the same principles on your project as well...
Previous case studies (you can check my profile to read these in detail)

• [CASE STUDY Manual AI Site] From 217/m to $2,836/m in 9 months - Sold for $59,000
• Amazon Affiliate Content Site: $371/m to $19,263/m in 14 MONTHS - $900K CASE STUDY [AMA]
• Affiliate Website from $267/m to $21,853/m in 19 months (CASE STUDY - Amazon?) [AMA]
• Amazon Affiliate Website from $0 to $7,786/month in 11 months
• Amazon Affiliate Site from $118/m to $3,103/m in 8 MONTHS (SOLD it for $62,000+)

In this case study, I will explain...

• Overview of results (shared above)
• Month on month growth (shared above)
• Site summary (shared above)
• What's the main idea (explained in detail)
• How to do it?
• Researching niche
• Devising a content plan (article topics with main and secondary keywords, categories, subcategories and more)
• Reverse engineering competitors for an article structure that ranks
• Creating prompts that the script would run to create posts in bulk
• Bulk uploading the articles on WordPress
• Submitting and Indexing
• Building Backlinks
• Conversion rate optimisation
• Costing (very important)

MAIN IDEA
The idea is to:

• Find a niche with enough search volume and easy to beat competition
• Find content topics that can be answered using a similar article structure
• Example of similar structure article topics: What does "sun" mean in "tarot", What does "emperor" mean in "tarot"
• In the above example, the queries have the same format: What does X mean in Y (use Ahrefs)
• Benefit: This helps us craft an article structure that can be replicated over thousands of articles
• Then, devise the article structure by reverse engineering the competitors
• Article structure will consist of different sections
• Construct AI prompts for each section to produce content
• Use Open AI and scripts to generate content for each section. Here, you will take input from the excel sheet that consists of the these keywords and related keywords
• Generate CSV that has all the responses
• Use WP ALL IMPORT to publish on WordPress Site

HOW TO DO IT?
Executing this reliant on three main variables. If you get these three right, the odds of success for such a project get higher.

• Content Plan
• Content production
• Backlinks

1. Content Plan
This is like a blueprint for the whole project. One of the redditors commented on my previous case studies and summarised it perfectly. He said, it's like a map to a treasure while you're sailing on the ship. If this blueprint is right and you follow the directions (execute), you will get the treasure. Otherwise, you will waste your time, resources and skills chasing something you'll never get. After years of efforts your ship will sink. This is very well put. I would like to thank him for this.
Important elements of content plan are:

• Niche selection: The criteria is:
  • Enough total search volume
  • Beatable competition
  • Display ads allow that niche
  • Enough affiliate programs
  • Enough small sites to ensure that you can still make money at a small scale
  • Enough big sites to ensure that you can make money at a big scale as well (this applies only when you wish to keep the project for long term and not sell when it's still small i.e. making less than $10,000 a month)
• Identifying queries with similar article structure (tarot example shared in the main idea section)
• Extracting queries in CSV
• Manually clustering the similar ones together. Example: "what does SUN mean in tarot" and "what do you mean by SUN in tarot" are essentially the same
• Finalising the articles based on above clustering and removing irrelevant ones
• Categorising into categories/subcategories
• Finalising pages (affiliates disclaimer, privacy policy, about us, contact, homepage content)

2. Content Production

• Reverse engineering competitors: analysing how the top ranking competitors are answering those queries in the form of articles
• Analysing the structure: What's their intro like, what's the first section then the next and next
• Compile this info to construct an article structure that covers everything and can be implemented to all the article topics (this is why we chose the topics that could be answered with the same article structure and are not too different)
• Include semantically relevant entities (engineer prompt accordingly)
• Ensure relevance to the main and subcategory and other articles within the same categories/subcategories

3. Backlinks
Here's a quick tip: Reach out to prospects and clearly ask if they offer a sponsored post. It makes things much easier and saves time.
Here's the criteria for the backlinks:

• Niche relevant or general sites
• DR greater than 20 (Ahrefs)
• Search traffic greater than 500 (Ahrefs)
• Content based
• Dofollow
• Indexed
• Anchor text that is relevant
• Permanent

Generating Prompts and Scripting for Bulk Content Production
The prompt engineering is highly dependent on what the competitors are doing. You have to analyse things like tone, structure, flow of sentences, paragraphs and general outline of the article. Devise prompts for each section and compare it with the competitors to get something as close BUT BETTER than that. Remember that in order to rank, you can be different in a way that it's better than the competitors. However, do NOT be too different. Otherwise, you won't rank.
As far as the script is concerned, it would be hard to explain it here. But, imagine...

• Excel sheet
• Column 1: Main keywords
• Column 2: Secondary keywords
• Column 3: Section 1 of article e.g. intro (generated based on a unique prompt to this that takes input from column 1 and 2)
• Column 4: Section 2 of article e.g. first heading (generated based on a unique prompt to this that takes input from column 1 and 2)
• So and so forth to finish all sections of the article

This excel sheet is connected with OpenAI's API and the formula is added to each cell, it interacts with the API and sends request to produce the content using prompt coded into that formula and input taken from column 1 and 2.
Result: A CSV that consists of thousands of rows, each representing one article. Each row consisting of multiple columns. Each column representing a section of that article.
Bulk Content Publishing on WordPress
Using the CSV in the above step, you can use WP All import (WordPress plugin) to bulk publish the posts.
It would be redundant to explain the process here as you can easily check out a simple explainer YouTube video on this.
Submitting and Indexing
Use Google Developers API and RankMath to index the generated posts. Again, a simple Google search can return a guide that can help you do this. Writing this here is inefficient.
Conversion Rate Optimisation
The conversion rate optimisation of this project was done somewhere in around 12th month onwards. The RPM in previous recent months was around $10. But, with this CRO it increased to $17.
We did the following:

• Ads and affiliate offers in the sidebar
• Call to action for relevant affiliate offers in the form of a beautiful table right after the intro section

Costing
Expenses

• Content: Almost 1,500,000 words
• Content cost: $7500 (includes API tokens, researching comp., devising structure, prompts, publishing, everything etc.)
• Backlinks that we built and paid for: 75
• Average cost per backlink: $110
• Total cost for backlinks: $8,250
• Other admin: $1000
• Total: $7,500 + $8,250 + $1000 = $16,750

Return

• Earnings (affiliate and display): $9,728.69
• Sold: $108,000 (private sale)
• Total: $117,728.69

Net

• Net: $117,728.69 - $16,750 = $100,978.69
• ROI: 602%
• Duration: 14 months

Way Forward and Analysis
The fundamental shift in our approach was necessary. Producing content for brands and affiliate sites got super expensive and unable to rank with human writers. It killed a lot of big SEO projects in the industry.
The pivot enabled us to produce content faster, cheaper and in a more scalable way with higher quality.
With this approach, the goal is to scale the portfolio even further and hopefully publish more case studies of exits.
If you have any feedback/questions - feel free to let me know. This is an AMA. I would be happy to answer.
Cheers and best of luck!

Hey Everyone! Being a student myself, I know how hard it is to balance school and a part time job. It's a real struggle sometimes! But guess what? I've found some super cool tools that have made writing essays, assignments, and research papers way easier. After testing out a bunch of AI writing helpers, I've picked out my top 5 favourites. So, if you want to make writing less of a hassle and save some time, keep reading to find out about the best AI writing tools for students!
Blainy (4.9/5)
Blainy is my top pick for AI writing tools. It's an all-in-one solution for essays, assignments, research papers, and notes or any kind of writing e.g Blogging etc. With features like suggestions, AI automation, citations, paraphrasing, a built-in plagiarism checker, and AskBlainy, it's a game-changer. Plus, you can use most of its features for free with daily credits, or upgrade to a paid plan for $20/month or $144 annually.
Grammarly (4.7/5)
Grammarly is a popular AI writing tool that helps with grammar correction, suggestions, and plagiarism checking. Its user-friendly interface and affordable pricing make it a great option for students and researchers.
Anyword (4.6/5)
Anyword is a robust academic writing tool ideal for essays, assignments, and research papers. Its smart technology refines your writing style and rectifies errors efficiently. While the free trial is helpful, some of its best features are only available with paid plans starting at $36/month.
Jasper (4.5/5)
Jasper is a versatile AI writing tool that helps with content generation, research, and paper organization. Its AI features simplify writing and support various academic tasks, making it valuable for students and researchers aiming to enhance writing efficiency and quality.
ProWritingAid (4.5/5)
ProWritingAid is a comprehensive AI writing tool that offers suggestions, grammar correction, and plagiarism checking. Its features are designed to support academic writing, making it a valuable tool for students and researchers.
Article Forge (4.4/5)
Article Forge is an AI-powered content generation tool designed to simplify the process of creating high-quality content. While it's a good tool, its limitations in academic writing make it less accessible for students.

Introduction
Businesses are always looking for new and creative ways to improve customer happiness, optimize processes, and increase sales in the dynamic and fast-paced world of e-commerce. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has surfaced as a disruptive force within this pursuit of perfection, completely changing the way online retailers interact with their clientele. Businesses may improve internal procedures and provide highly customized experiences in addition to interacting with customers more meaningfully by utilizing AI-powered solutions.
This article explores the many benefits of three state-of-the-art artificial intelligence systems that are revolutionizing the e-commerce industry. The e-commerce industry is seeing never-before-seen levels of efficiency and effectiveness because to AI-driven technologies that are improving customer interaction, giving developers cutting-edge tools, and giving company owners relevant information.
We obtain a thorough grasp of these AI solutions' significant influence on the direction of online retail by investigating the special advantages they provide to developers, customers, and company owners. We reveal the revolutionary power of AI in fostering success, innovation, and development in the fast-paced world of e-commerce through the eyes of each stakeholder.

1. Chatbots: Conversational Commerce at Your Fingertips
In e-commerce, chatbots have proliferated as virtual assistants that converse with clients in real time. These AI-driven agents replicate the experience of engaging with a competent sales assistant in a physical shop by providing tailored help, product suggestions, and quick support. They are powered by Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Machine Learning algorithms.

· Benefits for Customers:
Chatbots provide clients with unmatched ease of use and accessibility. They give prompt answers to questions, assist customers with the buying process, and make tailored suggestions based on browsing interests and history. Furthermore, chatbots are always accessible, so you don't have to wait for business hours to get help. Chatbots improve the whole purchasing experience by mimicking human interactions, which increases engagement and loyalty.

· Benefits for Developers:
For quick creation and deployment, developers use chatbot platforms that come with pre-built frameworks and tools. These systems frequently have drag-and-drop capability, user-friendly interfaces, and connections with well-known e-commerce and chat apps. Through the abstraction of implementation-related difficulties, developers may concentrate on crafting conversational flows, optimizing algorithms, and enhancing user experience. Moreover, chatbot analytics offer insightful data about user behavior, allowing programmers to maximize efficiency and promote ongoing development.

· Benefits for Business Owners:
Chatbots are a great tool for customer support, sales, and marketing campaigns for entrepreneurs. Chatbots save operating expenses and free up human resources to work on more complicated problems by automating repetitive questions and support duties. Furthermore, by proactive client engagement, cross-selling related items, and providing tailored promotions, chatbots may increase revenue. Moreover, valuable data about client preferences and pain areas is generated by chatbot conversations, which improves marketing efforts and helps with strategic decision-making.

2. Visual Search: Empowering Customers with Visual Discovery
Customers can now use photos instead of text to search for products thanks to visual search technology, which is completely changing how people browse and find things online. Visual search engines evaluate picture information, extract important attributes, and compare them to extensive product databases using Computer Vision and Deep Learning algorithms. This allows them to provide precise and pertinent results instantly.

· Benefits for Customers:
Visual search provides users with an easy-to-use and seamless purchasing experience, making it quick and simple for them to locate items. Users only need to upload or take a picture to start a search, regardless of whether it is sparked by a picture on social media, an ad in a magazine, or anything they see in the real world. This feature accommodates visual learners and those looking for exact matches by doing away with the necessity to express product details in text-based searches. Additionally, visual search engines frequently offer suggestions based on related products, which promotes accidental discovery and encourages buying decisions.

· Benefits for Developers:
Advances in AI frameworks and APIs designed specifically for picture recognition tasks are beneficial to developers who are responsible for developing visual search capability. For indexing and querying big datasets, these technologies include pre-trained models, image processing pipelines, and scalable infrastructure. Developers can increase performance for speed and accuracy or fine-tune models to specific domains by utilizing transfer learning techniques. Moreover, APIs and SDKs enable developers to offer engaging visual search experiences across many channels by facilitating a smooth interface with current websites, mobile applications, and e-commerce platforms.

· Benefits for Business Owners:
Visual search opens up new avenues for competitive differentiation, consumer interaction, and conversion optimization for company owners. Businesses may adapt to changing customer tastes and habits by including visual capabilities into product discovery. This is especially useful for younger demographics who are used to visual-centric platforms like Instagram and Pinterest. In addition to lowering friction in the buying process, visual search also lessens the chance that users would end sessions because of difficult to use navigation or fruitless searches. Businesses may also learn about the competitive environment, market preferences, and developing demand signals by examining visual search patterns and trends. This knowledge can then be used to inventory management, merchandising tactics, and content production initiatives.

3. Personalization Engines: Tailoring Experiences for Every Customer
In order to provide customized experiences across many touchpoints, personalization engines utilize artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms to evaluate enormous volumes of user data, including browsing history, purchase behavior, demographics, and contextual signals. These engines maximize consumer engagement, retention, and lifetime value by dynamically modifying content, suggestions, and promotions.

· Benefits for Customers:
Customers are empowered by personalized experiences that align with their requirements, interests, and preferences thanks to personalization engines. These engines increase user pleasure and promote chance discovery by presenting pertinent goods, content, and promotions. Customers feel appreciated and understood when they receive tailored product suggestions, targeted email marketing, or dynamic online experiences. This encourages client loyalty and repeat business. Additionally, customization goes beyond just suggesting products; it also includes contextual components like seasonal trends, regional information, and social proof, all of which enhance the shopping experience and increase conversion.

· Benefits for Developers:
AI-powered frameworks and APIs are used by developers who are responsible for implementing customization features to automate data processing, model training, and inference processes. These technologies provide frameworks for experimentation, scalable infrastructure, and sophisticated algorithms to continually iterate and refine customization tactics. Through seamless integration with e-commerce platforms, analytics tools, and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems, developers are able to orchestrate tailored experiences across many channels and touchpoints. Moreover, A/B testing, multivariate experiments, and cohort analysis are made possible by personalization engines, which provide developers the ability to efficiently segment audiences, improve algorithms, and assess effects.

· Benefits for Business Owners:
AI-powered frameworks and APIs that automate data processing, model training, and inference operations are used by developers charged with providing customization capabilities. To continually iterate and refine customization tactics, these solutions include scalable infrastructure, sophisticated algorithms, and experimentation frameworks. Developers are able to effortlessly coordinate tailored experiences across numerous channels and touchpoints by connecting with e-commerce platforms, analytics tools, and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems. Moreover, personalization engines provide cohort analysis, A/B testing, and multivariate experimentation, giving developers the ability to efficiently segment audiences, improve algorithms, and assess effects.

Conclusion:
AI solutions are essential in transforming the e-commerce market at a time of digital revolution and elevated client expectations. Visual search engines provide consumers with the ability to explore content visually, chatbots improve customer service and interaction, and personalization engines provide customized experiences on a large scale. In a market that is getting more and more competitive, companies may maximize operations, spur revenue development, and build enduring relationships with clients by utilizing AI. The possibilities for AI-driven innovation in e-commerce are virtually endless as technology develops further, offering a world in which every encounter is enjoyable, smooth, and customized.

The world of online business is booming, and choosing the right platform is crucial for your success. Two giants in the industry, Builderall and Kajabi, offer powerful tools to help you create, market, and sell your digital products or courses. But which one is the perfect fit for your needs?
This comprehensive comparison will dive deep into the features, pricing, and overall strengths of each platform, empowering you to make an informed decision.
Key Takeaways:

• Builderall is a versatile all-in-one platform with a wide range of tools for building websites, sales funnels, email marketing, and more. It's ideal for entrepreneurs who want a comprehensive solution at an affordable price.
• Kajabi is a premium platform specializing in online courses and memberships. It offers a streamlined experience with robust features for creating and selling high-quality educational content.

Join Builderall Now
Let's break down the specifics to see which platform comes out on top for your unique online business needs.

Feature Face-Off

Website and Funnel Building:

• Builderall: Offers a drag-and-drop website builder with numerous templates. Its Pixel Perfect Builder provides more customization options. Builderall's strength lies in its extensive funnel-building capabilities, with various templates and tools for lead generation and sales conversions.
• Kajabi: Provides a simplified website builder focused on showcasing your courses and memberships. While it may lack the advanced customization of Builderall, Kajabi's templates are designed for conversions and a seamless user experience.

Online Courses and Memberships:

• Builderall: Includes a course-building feature but lacks the depth and polish of Kajabi's dedicated platform. It's suitable for basic courses, but for more advanced features like drip content or community forums, you might need third-party integrations.
• Kajabi: Shines in this category with a user-friendly course builder, robust assessment tools, and options for drip content, student progress tracking, and community building. Its focus on education makes it a top choice for course creators.

Join Builderall Now
Email Marketing and Automation:

• Builderall: Boasts a comprehensive email marketing suite called MailingBoss, with automation, segmentation, and tagging capabilities. It can handle large email lists and offers various templates and design options.
• Kajabi: Provides a built-in email marketing system tailored for course creators. It includes automation for onboarding, course progress emails, and upsells. While it's not as extensive as Builderall's MailingBoss, it integrates seamlessly with your course content.

Other Notable Features:

• Builderall: Offers a wider array of tools like e-commerce features, webinar hosting, a booking app, and even a design studio. It's a true "Swiss Army Knife" for online businesses.
• Kajabi: Focuses on the core essentials for course creators, providing additional features like a mobile app, analytics, and integrations with popular payment gateways.

Pricing Structure

• Builderall: Offers a variety of pricing plans starting at a more affordable price point than Kajabi. Its plans are tiered, with higher-level plans unlocking more features.
• Kajabi: Known for its premium pricing, starting at a higher monthly cost. Its plans are also tiered, with more advanced features available on higher-priced plans.

Join Builderall Now
The Verdict on Pricing:
If budget is a major concern, Builderall's starting price is more accessible. However, consider the specific features you need and the value they provide for your business. Kajabi's higher price may be justified if its specialized tools are essential for your course-based business.

Who Wins the Battle?

The "winner" of the Builderall vs. Kajabi showdown depends entirely on your individual needs and priorities. Here's a quick guide:
Choose Builderall if:

• You're on a budget and want a comprehensive suite of tools.
• You need advanced funnel-building and website customization options.
• You're comfortable with a wider range of tools, even if some might be overkill for your current needs.
• You plan to expand your online business beyond courses.

Join Builderall Now
Choose Kajabi if:

• You're primarily focused on creating and selling online courses or memberships.
• You prioritize a streamlined, user-friendly experience for both you and your students.
• You're willing to invest in a premium platform with specialized features for course creators.
• You value robust email marketing automation specifically tailored for courses.

In Conclusion

Both Builderall and Kajabi are powerful platforms with their own unique strengths.
To make the best decision, carefully evaluate your business goals, budget, and the specific features that will drive your success. Don't hesitate to take advantage of free trials to get a hands-on feel for each platform.
Remember, the right platform is the one that empowers you to create, market, and sell your products or courses with confidence and efficiency. Choose wisely, and your online business will thrive!
Join Builderall Now

Massive pen de-stash, part deux.

These are the pens that were overlooked during the initial phase of my pen de-stash sale. Prices reduced on most pens. Shipping within US is an additional $10 unless otherwise noted; free shipping if you buy more than one pen. International shipping is available at cost. Please contact me for discussion.
Please post PM before messaging me. I will put it on hold for the first person who says some version of "I will take it" and includes their e-mail address. Hold will last for 24 hours from when I send PayPal goods and services invoice.
Link to photo album with verification:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1V9HflXooUg2rFSTgDbs3K_8s75kNve5K?usp=sharing

Tray #1

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mT4if2_Oo3JxAayY8BnEZkKRV2bcNQmO/view?usp=sharing

1. Parker 51 Flighter. Writes well, aerometric fill. Metal is in good shape without significant dings or scratches. [C] Brassing on the gold. $125
2. Parker 75 FP/BP flighter set. [B] Bold nib ground to stub by Richard Binder. Works well. $150
3. Sheaffer PFM III. Restored. Great pen, takes ink well. Smooth F nib writes well, but on the drier side (would say 4/10 wetness); no skipping or problems. [C] $200 SOLD
4. Sheaffer 1000 Vac-fil. [D] "Restored," draws ink well, but I haven't been able to get it to write. $50 SOLD
5. Bexley Deluxe. Purchased directly from Bexley. Comes with original style gold nib and wooden box. Very cool 10k gold band on cap--no risk of brassing ;-). [B] $225 SOLD
6. Bexley Equipoise. Purchased directly from Bexley. Comes with original style gold nib and wooden box. Helpful Redditor noticed that the section is not flush with the body; price and grade adjusted accordingly [C] $100 HOLD

Tray #2

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mQrukK51evHWTBtLbkZO-RHBSwV1q5HT/view?usp=sharing

1. Stipula Novecento: this is the piston-filling version. Red-black ebonite, but with oxidation that looks worse in real life than it does in the pictures. Still a joy to hold and write with. [C-] $150
2. Tibaldi Iride: original nib with Tibaldi (not one of the later parts pens). Draws ink well, very smooth, great transparency. One of the most beautiful pens I've owned; it received lots of attention when I used it at work. [B] $400
3. Astoria Goliath FP/BP set. Take a look at the link for history on Astoria, I came across it on accident when looking for vintage Montblanc pens. This is blue ebonite with a smooth, gold #8 sized stub nib. It is a wet writer that was too generous for my cramped handwriting. It has (tarnished) silver trim. I did not polish it because I like the vintage feeling, but if you check out the link you'll be able to see what it looks like when the tarnish is removed. Please note that the blue ebonite is not the same shade between the pens. This was a manufacturing issue, not a sign of sun exposure/oxidation. Comes with boxes. [B+] $750 https://www.astoriapen.net/astoria-shop/goliath-series/
4. Oldwin Blue Mystic River LE (#88/100), #8 sized rhodium M nib. Purchased this from Nibs.com; #8 gold nib was professionally smoothed and adjusted. The beautiful striations catch the eye wonderfully. It is different than the base pens available from Oldwin in that it has a built-in piston. This color does not seem to be available still. Comes with original boxes. [A2] $750.
5. Desiderata NE Plus Ultra limited edition (#27/29), cocobolo wood, piston-filled, and 0.8 mm stub nib. Beautiful pen, writes wonderfully, and no longer available. [A2] $175 SOLD
6. Aurora Ipsilon deluxe: This is the version with a 14k M nib. Beautiful pen, appropriate Aurora feedback (slightly tactile). Takes cartridge/converter. I will include a handful of Penman Sapphire cartridges to use with it upon request. Comes with boxes. [A2] $125

Tray #3

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mMfT3trkys0ll4jDgXPdwlXEpK7SwFIF/view?usp=sharing

1. Parker 100 FP/BP set. Nib professionally smoothed. Writes wonderfully smoothly and wet. I will toss in a handful of Parker Penman Sapphire cartridges upon request. Comes with original boxes for fountain pen and ballpoint pens. [B] $225
2. Sailor Pillow Book (pro gear): 21k H-M nib. Comes with box. [B+] $175
3. Sailor Realo: just a completely classic, piston-filling, no nonsense pen. Gold F nib. Comes with box. $225 SOLD
4. Namiki Yukari Royale (vermillion): this pen is even more beautiful in person. It comes with the original impressive packaging including unopened ink. The pen has a gravitas in your hand that just makes it seem like I should be drafting world-changing documents. I will probably miss this pen the most, but it just felt too special to pull out for writing grocery lists. [A2] $1000 plus $25 shipping SOLD
5. Ranga blue ebonite eyedropper. Ebonite is my favorite pen material and I'd never had an eye dropper filler before. Turns out I'm not an eyedropper kind of person. Comes with spare nib [A2] $25 SOLD
6. Ranga green ebonite eyedropper. Ebonite is my favorite pen material and I'd never had an eye dropper filler before. Turns out I'm not an eyedropper kind of person. Comes with spare nib [A2] $25 SOLD
7. Fellowship blackbird piston-filled pen. Free to the first person who spends more than $100 and asks for it. SOLD

Pelikan pen holders

These were great until I sold off all my Pelikan pens and now it just seems silly to have them. Shown with Pilot 823 for scale. Pen not included in the sale!

1. Large Pelikan pen holder. [A2] $45 https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mE2Z7ucRN6hv-ooGgPhaez6BZzzLsCSM/view?usp=sharing
2. Small Pelikan pen holder. [A2] $25 https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mFzrTWGL__9hY-pfIFztEH1phhkR7g7h/view?usp=sharing SOLD

Thanks for looking. Please feel to reach out with any questions. Have a great day!

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Something that often comes up in AI contexts and the singularity is Universal Basic Income. When everything is automated and no one can get a job, how will people live?
Sam Altman, the head of OpenAI, recently posted a thought on TwitteX that universal computing power may well be an alternative to traditional basic income in fiat currencies.
The clip was very short, but it got my thoughts spinning tremendously. I revised a bit of what he said (that everyone gets a piece of a specific company's AI, to instead be represented by computing power in purely general terms).
Basic premise: Computerized computing power is a clearly productive industrial commodity. With the right hardware, you can transform electricity into a very broad range of logical functions, which is then generalized as computing power. Many industries use it, service companies use it, education and digital entertainment use it, and it is tremendously important for well-organized global communication and logistics.
But above all, AI software can also use it for an ever-widening range of applications. Each year since ChatGPT arrived has been characterized by quite fierce advances, as investment in AI development has taken off at a furious pace. Materials technology, biotechnology, education, my goodness how fast it's going if you've been paying attention to what's being released left and right. It feels like living in science fiction. Five years ago I could hardly have imagined that I would be sticking my nose in my phone gaping in amazement at new AI models being released. But it is broadly a technology that will change the world tremendously. And computing power is central to making that technology work.
Computing power is also a logistics dream. It weighs nothing (well, electrons have weight, but come on now). The hardware obviously weighs something, but the information itself to be computed, as well as the result, is in relative terms extremely easy to transport to the other side of the earth. It takes up extremely little space compared to physical commodities and their refined products, and since it is completely digital, there are no losses over large distances as with raw electricity.
Generalization: We can set aside all biases about global fiat currencies now. Because this is not a fiat currency, nor is it a cryptocurrency. Instead, it is an abstraction of computing power. The credit is written in stone, and directly correlated to a given amount of computing power according to a standardized measure, which is fully possible since information technology is built on logical and precisely quantifiable processes.
We call the new currency computation credits, to generalize the concept. The credit represents a standardized amount of computing power. I sometimes call it C (credits) in the rest of the text. The currency is directly exchangeable for generalizable computing power with certain requirements/expectations of what it should be capable of. Merchants can easily present exchange rates, data centers produce the currency by committing to provide the specified amount of computing power.
C then becomes a clearly standardized commodity, which directly corresponds to digital production capability. Almost like precious metal coins, but tied directly to productive capacity rather than the relative value of the precious metal. The exact value against other currencies will of course fluctuate due to speculation and market trends, and the value of C may experience continuous (perhaps even high) inflation as computing power becomes cheaper.
C would also not be quite like bitcoin. In relative terms, bitcoin is a bit more of a receipt that someone has burned electricity to produce heat. Admittedly a very legitimate receipt in terms of information. But Bitcoin itself is an extremely speculative currency, as its value is primarily based on its scarcity. Perhaps something akin to a combination of cryptonetworks and Folding@Home can be used to decentralize the currency and directly connect the market to the means of production, but there may be more efficient solutions.
Advantages: The computation credit itself is of course not useful in a purely physical sense. You can't eat it as it is. You don't get warm from it as it is (unless you're sitting on top of the computer). You don't get healthy or live longer from it as it is. But the same already applies in principle to virtually all other traditional existing currencies as well. Sure, rice, blankets, antibiotics and exercise bikes can be counted as trading instruments to meet the above points. But it is extremely clumsy, and simply extremely inefficient if everyone is going to go around swapping bags of rice for other products.
But as long as existing infrastructure (with electricity and internet intact) exists, C still corresponds to means of production that are closely linked to broader value.
The most obvious advantages to me are the following:

• The credit is easy to exchange for virtually anything else that money can buy, as long as the seller accepts it as payment. Since the credit corresponds to an exact productive value, the incentives are high to accept the currency, as it does not risk losing absolute productive value to the same extent as other currencies.
  
• The currency gives, within certain limits, a guaranteed right to the computing power. If the credits are not exchanged for other services or products, they can be used to process one's own digital production or entertainment. An obvious use is AI, but the credits can also be used more efficiently if used for older and more optimized processes. E.g. cloud gaming, graphic rendering, data processing and the like. But AI as a holistic concept broadens the scope of computing power. Some fees and latencies may occur, but I'm pretty convinced that serious players don't want to be known as low-quality usurers. Those who absolutely have no idea how it works can sell, invest or save their credits. They can exchange it for beer and candy if they want. Or donate to research where credits can be used very efficiently. Those who have any degree of technical ability can use the credits directly productively by exchanging them directly for computing power, or using them for further education where free resources fall short.
  
• Private individuals can invest in the means of production themselves and connect directly to a digital market in a highly automated way. Not all processes can of course be parallelized in a way that can be efficiently processed by many weak computers. But you can specify what capacity (in terms of e.g. RAM and VRAM, or processors with specific instruction sets) is available, and if you have any additional fees (which are also paid with C). In some cases, you can take on a lot of small computations with a single graphics card. In some cases, you simply need a more hefty rig. Traditional procurement and direct customers at data centers can of course remain in parallel with this. In those cases, you can pay with regular currencies, or with C.
  
• Overproduction of electricity can be used very efficiently. At certain times of the day, electricity has a negative price, and at these times, in theory, the price of computations can be lower than what the credit is standardized for. So let's say that electricity during a given hour has a negative price. Customers with hourly metering of their electricity, who own computing hardware, can e.g. significantly lower the price of their computations in order to increase the chance of having customers during these hours. Even there, automatic price allocation can be done where the lowest acceptable interval is specified by the hardware owner, and customers who are not in a hurry with their computations (e.g. hobbyists in blender who want to render some giant scene for a low price).
  

Financing and incentives for implementation At the national level, the state can give tax breaks to data centers. The tax relief then corresponds to computation credits equivalent to a very small portion of the data center's capacity (at least initially). Presumably by requiring larger data centers to give priority to computing power paid for with credits, but where only a portion of the data center's total power is allocated to such activities. If the data center wants to, they are allowed to dynamically allocate that capacity to other activities in the event that no requests are made with credits. The data center is bound to prioritizing credit customers and may not charge any extra fee within the scope of the tied portion of its business. A credit should correspond to a very exact amount of logical computations.
The data center then gets a portion of its operations guaranteed profitable, due to the tax breaks, and the state/society gets a guaranteed access to computing power. The entire society gets an equal access to the productive capacity that they can dispose of as they please. Some of the credits can be allocated to e.g. research institutes and government agencies, but presumably primarily to citizens to stimulate the economy and distribute resources in an equitable way. In the event that no requests are made within the framework of the credit system, the suppliers are allowed to do what they want with the free capacity, and are thus not forced to have unproductive hardware if it becomes freed up. The data centers may charge extra fees if they provide capacity in excess of the statutory partial capacity for credit processing. But then of course they compete with other players on the market in the ordinary way.
In theory, one could allow an upper limit on that concept of allowing data centers to be completely tax-free if they committed to give 100% priority to the country's credit users, but with total freedom to dynamically allocate capacity to other purposes when demand falls short of capacity.
Application: Having a single credit would simplify some things very much. At least for the technically uninitiated. Here is a new penny, it is worth about so many dollars. A little more knowledgeable can use it more efficiently. Done. But on other levels it could be considered clumsy.
Therefore, the credit system can be refined by introducing credit classes according to which instruction sets they should correspond to. Class 1 can be the simplest. Type what an ARM or even simpler processors can handle fits there. Class 2 includes all of C1, plus more instructions. For the sake of example, e.g. everything a modern graphics processor can handle, e.g. an RTX 4090. Class 3 has full coverage of all industrially available instruction sets.
Obviously, this is also a very simplified model. I am little aware of exactly which instruction sets exist and in what turnover they are relevant. Maybe it would be better with ten, or even a hundred. But such credit classes allow for higher granularity within the system. In addition, it is flexible, since it is possible to render exchange rates between the credit classes based on how available the different instruction sets are. It is also theoretically possible to create separate credit classes.
A, B, C etc. can refer to memory/storage speed. The highest class would then correspond to e.g. multi-channel RAM disk, while the lowest class is at the level of e.g. magnetic tape. Or HDD maybe is a better low level. Then one or more digits can indicate available instruction sets within the class standardization. Or IEEE has even better knowledge than me on how such things are specified.
Final words: Personally, I believe that such a system would be far superior to fiat currencies and precious metals. Even if you compare it with previous solutions where the dollar was backed by gold. Yes, it requires a functioning electricity infrastructure. But if the power grid fails to such a mild degree that something like this wouldn't work anywhere in the country, then I don't have much faith that we'll fare much better with gold or bills in our pockets either. Because then it has really collapsed badly, and there is some doubt that you can get what you need even if you offer actual gold.
Furthermore, the main purpose would not be to act as a currency with universal usability. But it would give citizens a very streamlined and fairer access to one of modern society's most important industries.
The sum that each citizen receives would also be extremely flexible and directly adapted to the country's digital industrial capacity, which is generally a globally coveted resource. Yes, everyone should get an equal number of credits. Initially a very low sum. Maybe even so low that some may scratch their heads over what it's actually supposed to be good for.
Yes, it may feel silly that the rich who already have so much should get this too. But they are maybe more capable of managing the resource effectively. Yes, it may feel silly that the poor and uneducated who have neither contributed to society nor understand how to use the resource efficiently should get a share of it. But they need it the most.
Regardless of who you include, it can be considered controversial. But excluding someone based on social class will likely lead to even more administration and headaches than it might seem worth.
Therefore, it is best that each person gets exactly the same amount during each distribution. Even newborn children.
Instead of turning computing power into money, opening for corruption and bad management, and then distributing the remainder, it is better if the computing power IS the money and goes directly from the means of production to the people.
Because it is the most widely usable and most fit commodity ever to do like that with.
And now the technology exists to implement it.

Unveiling Email Dispatch Challenges via Google Apps Script

Integrating email functionalities into web applications enhances communication channels, allowing for seamless interaction between users and services. Google Apps Script, a potent platform for automating and extending Google Apps, frequently comes into play when custom email solutions are needed. However, developers occasionally encounter hurdles when leveraging SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) for email dispatch. This scenario is not uncommon, especially when attempting to send emails directly from a website. The process involves navigating through a maze of SMTP settings, authentication requirements, and script permissions, which can be daunting even for experienced developers.
The essence of solving these challenges lies in understanding the intricate dance between Google Apps Script, SMTP configurations, and the security measures in place to protect users from malicious activities. Misconfigurations or overlooking certain script permissions can halt the email sending process, leaving developers puzzled. This introduction aims to shed light on common obstacles faced while sending emails using SMTP through Google Apps Script, offering insights into potential missteps and paving the way for troubleshooting strategies that ensure successful email delivery.

Command	Description
MailApp.sendEmail()	Sends an email using the built-in MailApp service in Google Apps Script.
GmailApp.sendEmail()	Sends an email with more customizable options using the GmailApp service.
Session.getActiveUser().getEmail()	Retrieves the email address of the current active user.

Exploring SMTP Email Integration Challenges

Email integration into web applications via Google Apps Script presents a unique set of challenges that developers must navigate to ensure reliable and secure communication. One of the primary hurdles involves the correct configuration of SMTP settings, which is crucial for the email to be sent successfully. SMTP, being the industry standard for sending emails, requires precise details such as the server address, port number, and authentication credentials. These settings can vary depending on the email service provider, adding complexity to the setup process. Additionally, Google Apps Script operates within the Google ecosystem, which enforces strict security measures to protect user data. This means that developers need to pay extra attention to the authentication and permission settings, ensuring that their scripts have the necessary access to send emails on behalf of the user.
Another significant challenge is dealing with quota limits imposed by Google Apps Script. These limits are designed to prevent abuse and ensure fair usage among users, but they can be a bottleneck for applications requiring high volumes of email communication. Developers must optimize their email sending routines to stay within these limits, possibly implementing batching or scheduling strategies to spread out email dispatches. Furthermore, debugging email issues in Google Apps Script can be intricate, as the feedback provided by the platform might not always pinpoint the exact problem, requiring developers to adopt a meticulous approach to troubleshooting. Understanding these challenges is the first step towards developing efficient and effective email solutions within web applications, making it essential for developers to stay informed and adaptable.

Basic Email Sending Example

Google Apps Script Environment

var recipient = "example@example.com"; var subject = "Test Email from Google Apps Script"; var body = "This is a test email sent using Google Apps Script SMTP functionality."; MailApp.sendEmail(recipient, subject, body); 

Advanced Email Sending with HTML Body

Google Apps Script Platform

var recipient = "example@example.com"; var subject = "HTML Email from Google Apps Script"; var htmlBody = "
Test Email
This is a test email sent with HTML content using Google Apps Script.
"; GmailApp.sendEmail(recipient, subject, "", {htmlBody: htmlBody}); 

Retrieving Current User's Email Address

Scripting in Google Apps Script

var userEmail = Session.getActiveUser().getEmail(); Logger.log(userEmail); 

Navigating SMTP Integration in Google Apps Script

Integrating SMTP to send emails via Google Apps Script is a powerful tool for developers, but it comes with its share of intricacies and pitfalls. The process involves setting up Google Apps Script to communicate with an SMTP server, necessitating a deep understanding of both the script environment and the email protocol. Developers must familiarize themselves with the Google Apps Script environment, which, despite its robustness, has specific limitations and nuances, particularly concerning API quotas and execution times. This environment, designed to be secure and efficient, requires scripts to adhere to Google's strict authentication protocols, often leading to a steep learning curve for those new to the platform.
Moreover, the SMTP protocol itself demands a certain level of technical acuity. Correctly configuring SMTP settings—such as the server address, port, and security protocols—is crucial to ensure emails are sent successfully. This configuration can be further complicated by the need to implement OAuth2 for authentication, a requirement for interfacing with Gmail's SMTP server securely. Developers must also be vigilant about the email content and recipient handling to avoid triggering spam filters or exceeding sending quotas, which can lead to emails being blocked or the sender account being temporarily suspended. Navigating these challenges requires a combination of technical knowledge, strategic planning, and sometimes, creative problem-solving.

Email Dispatch FAQs in Google Apps Script

1. Question: Why are my emails not sending through Google Apps Script using SMTP?
2. Answer: This could be due to incorrect SMTP settings, failure to authenticate properly, reaching Google Apps Script's email quota, or the script not having the necessary permissions to send emails on your behalf.
3. Question: How do I authenticate SMTP requests in Google Apps Script?
4. Answer: You must use OAuth2 for SMTP authentication when sending emails through Google Apps Script. This involves setting up OAuth2 credentials in the Google Cloud Platform and incorporating them into your script.
5. Question: Can I use any SMTP server with Google Apps Script?
6. Answer: Yes, you can use any SMTP server, but you need to ensure that you configure the SMTP settings correctly in your script, including the server address, port, and authentication details.
7. Question: What are the limits for sending emails through Google Apps Script?
8. Answer: Google imposes quotas on the number of emails you can send through Apps Script, which vary depending on your account type (e.g., free, G Suite/Workspace). It's important to check the current quotas in the Google Apps Script documentation.
9. Question: How do I avoid my emails being marked as spam?
10. Answer: Ensure your emails do not contain flagged keywords, verify your domain, include an unsubscribe link, and avoid sending large volumes of emails to recipients who have not opted in.
11. Question: How can I troubleshoot failed email sends in Google Apps Script?
12. Answer: Check the Logs in the Apps Script dashboard for errors, verify your SMTP settings, ensure your OAuth2 tokens are valid, and confirm you haven't exceeded your email quota.
13. Question: Is it possible to send attachments via email using Google Apps Script?
14. Answer: Yes, Google Apps Script supports sending emails with attachments. You need to use the MailApp or GmailApp service and specify the attachments in the appropriate format.
15. Question: Can I customize the sender name and email address in Google Apps Script?
16. Answer: Yes, you can customize the sender name using the GmailApp service. However, the sender email address must be the same as the Google account executing the script or an alias of it.
17. Question: How do I set up automatic email responses using Google Apps Script?
18. Answer: You can use Google Apps Script to listen for incoming emails and trigger a function that sends an automatic response. This requires using GmailApp to fetch new messages and respond accordingly.

Wrapping Up SMTP Integration Insights

Mastering SMTP email sending through Google Apps Script is an essential skill for developers looking to add robust email functionalities to their web applications. The journey involves navigating through SMTP settings, understanding Google’s security protocols, and managing quota limitations. While the challenges may seem daunting, they offer an opportunity to delve deeper into the mechanics of email protocols and Google Apps Script’s capabilities. By tackling these issues head-on, developers not only ensure the reliability and efficiency of their email services but also enhance the overall user experience. Moreover, the process underscores the importance of continuous learning and adaptation in the ever-evolving landscape of web development. Armed with the knowledge of SMTP integration, developers are better positioned to create innovative solutions that leverage the power of automated email communication, thereby driving engagement and facilitating seamless interactions.
https://www.tempmail.us.com/en/smtp/troubleshooting-smtp-email-sending-issues-in-google-apps-script