watching the season 2 reunion episode was so hard for me as a black woman. Seeing how the moms, namely Christi, Jill, and Holly, acted towards Kaya was just awful. Jill saying that Kaya “crossed a line” after she defended her daughter from being shit on by christi and saying how the other moms “never cross that line” when they quite literally do all the time is a clear micro aggression and an attempt to villanize Kaya for the same things they do each week. Christi told Kaya to the let the door hit her “black ass” on the way out and she called her a hood rat??? Apparently the moms doubted Kaya’s ability to pay tuition at the ALDC. And Holly sat there and defended them the whole time in an attempt to play the role of “the good black”!! I don’t why Christi receives so much praise as Melissa gets so much hate when nasty and racist behavior was what she modeled to the world. Kaya even said herself that Melissa tried to make her feel comfortable at the ALDC. Performative or not, any little thing helps. I’m not saying that Kaya was totally innocent, but if I had to bet money on it, I would say the og moms were the instigators. Watching this show as an adult breaks my heart because it shows me that the show and the characters I loved so much hate people who look like me just because the color of our skin😕

Warning: unhinged rant/Ted talk incoming
Whether it’s the p1/p2 re release, the pix/party, the on, or the new connection shells, the design team for not-japan/Asia is just kind of bad. Everything is so low effort or straight up designed for 8 year old girls. You don’t have to design things for adults, but there’s a way to make cute fun designs that appeal to all ages. The classic connection shells were mostly gender neutral, or at least appealing to people with certain aesthetic interests. The new connection shells (and even the throw back popsicle one) are just so lazy and lame. The clear retro one is objectively the best of the bunch but it’s just like, generic retro vibes? I just wish they’d try a little harder.

Yesterday I was served my papers. Dismissed after 3yrs at the company. My performance was stellar. I received constant praise for things I did. Was liked by most everyone. But at the end of the day, it's all about money. Company had "limited work", and they needed to make cuts. What better department than the IT department. We're not revenue generating, and an easy target.
I was the sole systems admin on a 4-person team. I managed the server and cloud environments. I did the "Tier 2 and 3" troubleshooting. I was hands-on with the c-suite giving them "white glove treatment". I also would 3D print stuff for the company. Whether it was stuff used in the shop for when they made cranes and trucks, or for events. I was working on wall mount brackets for our WAPs so they were mounted horizontally. I managed the security camera system. UPS', network, you name it. We had an entire year of updates planned. Moving to SharePoint and eliminating an old on-prem file server. Finally getting rid of our last 2 Server 2008 R2 boxes. Upgrading the building security and HVAC control systems.
Despite all that I did, all that I was involved in, it didn't matter. Company needed to cut costs, and I was next on the chopping block. When I arrived yesterday morning at work, I put my keys on my desk, removed a print from my printer to see how it turned out (if you know anything about 3D printing, TPU is not easy to work with), and went to grab a coffee. As I'm at the machine, I hear a "Morning" from behind me. It was my boss. He didn't look happy. Said he needed to talk to me in my office. Then I heard another "Morning" from behind me. It was the CFO. That's when I knew something bad was happening.
We went to my office, I put my coffee on the desk and heard the door close. Was told I was being laid off due to a "lack of work". Was nothing performance related. The CFO gave me a hollow "thank you for your help and all that you've done" and shook my hand. Told me that they can give me a glowing reference if I want. Once he left and it was just my boss and I, I could tell how furious he was over this decision. He told me that he argued hard against this, and that he only found out late the day before. In the end, it fell on deaf ears.
Boxing up everything off my desk was such a weird feeling. I had moved offices a few times, but this was different. When I had all my stuff boxed up, it was almost 8am. Boss mentioned that people were rolling in for the day and asked if I wanted to wait to go out to my car. I told him "fsck that. I want as many people as possible to see this." and he told me he liked that attitude. I held my head high and walked out to my car carrying a box, by boss behind me with another box. Had a few people see me and have shocked looks on their faces. Had one lady come back as I closed my trunk and asked to give me a hug. I always liked her. She's Spanish and has that awesome mom vibe. She hugged me so tight and said she was sorry this happened. Boss shook my hand, and told me how sorry he was. We're meeting for lunch tomorrow because there are some big discussions to be had. He also told me that there are a few people who will be reaching out to me to discuss job opportunities. The amount of support I've received from him even after this is nothing but amazing. He was by far the most supporting and helpful boss I've ever had.
This morning is when it really hit me. Woke up at 930. House was quiet. Slowly went downstairs, got my coffee, and sat down at my computer. I opened my resume to start updating it, and realized that I just couldn't do it. And that's when everything came rushing out.
Decided I'm going to take some time for myself instead. The wound is pretty raw still, and I need to collect myself before I work on anything. Had a friend reach out to an audiobook company to see if they need any male VAs and they do, so maybe this could be a good time to focus on my VA career which went on the back burner. Plus I have a lot of lines to record for a DCS World campaign. Also have some 3D print projects to work on. Adding a runout sensor to the extruder on my k1 max, and printing Obi-Wan's lightsaber from Ep3 to go on my shelf of geeky things. Some things to do around the house as well.
No matter how hard you work. No matter all the good you do for the company, at the end of the day you're nothing but a number on a spreadsheet. And the higher up on that sheet you are, the bigger a target you become. They will discard you like yesterday's jam without nary a thought. Don't kill yourself for your job. Set up your boundaries, and work within them. It's not worth your energy, your sanity, or your well being to kill yourself for your job.

Hi friends!
I’m finishing grad school and am headed into my first school this August. Yay!
But the downside… I’ve known since middle school that there is a relatively popular adult film actor who shares my first and last name. It’s very clear that this isn’t me (mostly because they are dead now), but I am worried about the implications on my practice. Especially a middle schooler, I could see them googling my name and sharing those cursory findings with parents and peers, who, without context, could assume this is me.
I feel like I only have three options at my disposal, but was wondering what ideas/thoughts/opinions those out in the schools might have.
Option 1: Change my last name entirely Option 2: Use my middle name as a last (unsure if this is allowed in public schools) Option 3: Tell admin off the bat and just face questions as they come up.
TIA for your thoughts on this! I don’t want to get off on the wrong foot, nor overreact if it seems minimal to outsiders. :)

Hi, hello, i am a total newbie at gamemaker, trying to make a simple 2d chess with guns game, i tried to make a function to calculate the movement of each piece object of my game but i ended up with a problem where the layers referenced when inside the function are returning as undefined (they work fine when outside the function), did i made an oopsie? is my function entirely wrong and the engine is gently nudging me to came up with a better alternative?
the dammable function (inside a script named Script1)

//tile_height = 16; //tile_width = 16; function is_border_tile(tile_x, tile_y) { var border_tile = tilemap_get_at_pixel(Borderlayer, tile_x, tile_y) return (border_tile != noone); } function same_team(piece, tile_x, tile_y) { var blacks = [blackBishop, blackHorse, blackKing, blackPawn, blackQueen]; var whites = [whiteBishop, whiteHorse, whiteKing, whitePawn, whiteQueen]; var team = noone; if (array_contains(blacks, piece)) { team = blacks } else { team = whites } if (instance_position(tile_x, tile_y, team)) { return true; } else { return false } } function opp_team(piece, tile_x, tile_y) { var blacks = [blackBishop, blackHorse, blackKing, blackPawn, blackQueen]; var whites = [whiteBishop, whiteHorse, whiteKing, whitePawn, whiteQueen]; var team = noone; if (array_contains(blacks, piece)) { team = whites } else { team = blacks } if (instance_position(tile_x, tile_y, team)) { return true; } else { return false } } function calculate_possible_moves(piece) { var l = 0; var k = 0; var possibleMoves = ds_list_create(); if (piece == whitePawn) { if (y == 160) { if ((tilemap_get_at_pixel(chessLayer, x, y+16) == noone) && !is_border_tile(x, y+16)) { l = y + 16 ds_list_add(possibleMoves, {x, l}) } if ((tilemap_get_at_pixel(chessLayer, x, y+32) == noone) && !is_border_tile(x, y+32)) { k = y + 32 ds_list_add(possibleMoves, {x, k}) } } else { if ((tilemap_get_at_pixel(chessLayer, x, y+16) == noone) && !is_border_tile(x, y+16)) { l = y + 16 ds_list_add(possibleMoves, {x, l}) } if ((y == 112) && (tilemap_get_at_pixel(chessLayer, x, y-16) == noone) && opp_team(piece, x, y-16)) { l = y - 16; ds_list_add(possibleMoves, {x, l}) } } } if (piece == blackPawn) { if (y == 80) { if ((tilemap_get_at_pixel(chessLayer, x, y-16) == noone) && !is_border_tile(x, y-16)) { l = y - 16; ds_list_add(possibleMoves, {x, l}); } if ((tilemap_get_at_pixel(chessLayer, x, y-32) == noone) && !is_border_tile(x, y-32)) { k = y - 32; ds_list_add(possibleMoves, {x, k}); } } else { if ((tilemap_get_at_pixel(chessLayer, x, y-16) == noone) && !is_border_tile(x, y-16)) { l = y - 16; ds_list_add(possibleMoves, {x, l}); } if ((y == 128) && (tilemap_get_at_pixel(chessLayer, x, y+16) == noone) && opp_team(piece, x, y+16)) { l = y + 16; ds_list_add(possibleMoves, {x, l}) } } } if (piece == whiteHorse) (piece == blackHorse) { if ((tilemap_get_at_pixel(chessLayer, x+32, y+16) == noone) && (!is_border_tile(x+32, y+16)) && (!same_team(piece, x+32, y+16))) { k = x+32; l = y+16; ds_list_add(possibleMoves, {k, l}); } if ((tilemap_get_at_pixel(chessLayer, x-32, y+16) == noone) && (!is_border_tile(x-32, y+16)) && (!same_team(piece, x-32, y+16))) { k = x-32; l = y+16; ds_list_add(possibleMoves, {k, l}); } if ((tilemap_get_at_pixel(chessLayer, x-16, y-32) == noone) && (!is_border_tile(x-16,y-32)) && (!same_team(piece, x-16, y-32))) { k = x-16 l = y-32; ds_list_add(possibleMoves, {k, l}); } if ((tilemap_get_at_pixel(chessLayer, x-32, y-16) == noone) && (!is_border_tile(x-32,y-16)) && (!same_team(piece, x-32, y-16))) { k = x-32; l = y-16; ds_list_add(possibleMoves, {k, l}); } if ((tilemap_get_at_pixel(chessLayer, x+16, y+32) == noone) && (!is_border_tile(x+16, y+32)) && (!same_team(piece, x+16, y+32))) { k = x+16; l = y+32; ds_list_add(possibleMoves, {k, l}); } if ((tilemap_get_at_pixel(chessLayer, x+16, y+-32) == noone) && (!is_border_tile(x+16, y+-32)) && (!same_team(piece, x+16, y-32))) { k = x+16; l = y-32; ds_list_add(possibleMoves, {k, l}); } } if (piece == whiteTower ) (piece == blackTower) (piece == whiteQueen) (piece == blackQueen){ for (var i = abs(x- 16); i >= 0; i -= 16) { //left if (!same_team(piece, i, y) && !is_border_tile(i, y)) { ds_list_add(possibleMoves, {i, y}); } else { break; } } for (var i = x + 16; i >= 0; i += 16) { //right if (!same_team(piece, i, y) && !is_border_tile(i, y)) { ds_list_add(possibleMoves, {i, y}); } else { break; } } for (var j = y + 16; j >= 0; j += 16) { //up if (!same_team(piece, x, j) && !is_border_tile(x, j)) { ds_list_add(possibleMoves, {x, j}); } else { break; } } for (var j = abs(y - 16); j >= 0; j -= 16) { //down if (!same_team(piece, x, j) && !is_border_tile(x, j)) { ds_list_add(possibleMoves, {x, j}); } else { break; } } } if (piece == whiteBishop ) (piece == blackBishop) (piece == whiteQueen) (piece == blackQueen){ var i = x - 16; //down - left var j = y - 16; while (i >= 0 && j >= 0) { if (!same_team(piece, i, j) && !is_border_tile(i, j)) { ds_list_add(possibleMoves, {i,j}) } else { break; } i -= 16; j -= 16; } i = x + 16; // down - right j = y - 16; while (i >= 0 && j >= 0) { if (!same_team(piece, i, j) && !is_border_tile(i, j)) { ds_list_add(possibleMoves, {i,j}) } else { break; } i += 16; j -= 16; } i = x - 16; // up - left j = y + 16; while (i >= 0 && j >= 0) { if (!same_team(piece, i, j) && !is_border_tile(i, j)) { ds_list_add(possibleMoves, {i,j}) } else { break; } i -= 16; j += 16; } i = x + 16; // up - right j = y + 16; while (i >= 0 && j >= 0) { if (!same_team(piece, i, j) && !is_border_tile(i, j)) { ds_list_add(possibleMoves, {i,j}) } else { break; } i += 16; j += 16; } } if (piece == blackKing) (piece == whiteKing) { k = x + 16 //up l = y if (!same_team(piece, k, l) && !is_border_tile(k, l)) { ds_list_add(possibleMoves, {k,l}) } k = x + 16 //up right l = y + 16 if (!same_team(piece, k, l) && !is_border_tile(k, l)) { ds_list_add(possibleMoves, {k,l}) } k = x - 16 //up left l = y + 16 if (!same_team(piece, k, l) && !is_border_tile(k, l)) { ds_list_add(possibleMoves, {k,l}) } k = x //left l = y - 16 if (!same_team(piece, k, l) && !is_border_tile(k, l)) { ds_list_add(possibleMoves, {k,l}) } k = x //right l = y + 16 if (!same_team(piece, k, l) && !is_border_tile(k, l)) { ds_list_add(possibleMoves, {k,l}) } k = x - 16 //down l = y if (!same_team(piece, k, l) && !is_border_tile(k, l)) { ds_list_add(possibleMoves, {k,l}) } k = x - 16 //down right l = y + 16 if (!same_team(piece, k, l) && !is_border_tile(k, l)) { ds_list_add(possibleMoves, {k,l}) } k = x - 16 //down left l = y - 16 if (!same_team(piece, k, l) && !is_border_tile(k, l)) { ds_list_add(possibleMoves, {k,l}) } } for (var i = 0; i < ds_list_size(possibleMoves); i++) { var move = ds_list_find_value(possibleMoves, i); tilemap_set(pathsLayer, tile_index_mask, move[0], move[1]); //show the pathing of the piece } ds_list_destroy(possibleMoves); } 

Nachdem ja die Kombination aus weiterhin starkem Zuzug (jährlich eine Großstadt), Familiennachzug (nochmal mehrere Zehntausend), hoher Geburtenraten unter Einwanderern und mit jüngerem Alter beim ersten Kind auf der einen Seite, gepaart mit der umgedrehten Bevölkerungspyramide der schon länger hier Lebenden auf der anderen Seite, dazu führen, dass sich Deutschland demographisch dem Nahen Osten annähert, dachte ich, es wäre sinnvoll, das wir uns im Vorfeld darauf vorbereiten.
Konkret sollten wir uns Gedanken darüber machen, wie wir Deutschland (voller Name: Bundesrepublik Deutschland) umbenennen wollen, um die Lebensrealitäten und Diversität der neuen Demographie auch gebührend zu repräsentieren.
Dabei sind alle gefragt - ich bin gespannt auf eure Vorschläge!
Gerne mache ich den Anfang:

Kalifat Germanistan

Ich denke, das sollte einleuchtend sein. Nachdem es ja vor kurzem mehrere Demonstrationen gab, wo jeweils mehrere Tausend Unterstützer für die Errichtung eines Kalifats auftauchten, auf den Gegendemos jedoch nur wenige Hundert Demonstranten anwesend waren, scheint dies sehr gut den Willen der neuen Bevölkerung widerzuspiegeln. Auch zeigen ja Umfragen immer wieder, dass knapp die Hälfte der Neuen Jugend ein Kalifat und/oder die Scharia unterstützt bzw. als wichtiger als die Gesetze des Landes einstuft (Deutschland, Österreich).

Islamische Republik Germanistan

Manche mögen jetzt denken: Was ist da der Unterschied zu einem Kalifat? Der Unterschied ist, ob es nach dem demographischen Wandel noch ein Parlament gibt. Duh!

Bunte Republik Deutschland

Deutschland ist bunt und vielfältig - unsere Toleranz sollte sich auch an einem neuen und geeigneteren Namen zeigen. Hiermit können wir endlich der Welt zeigen, wie offen, tolerant und divers wir sind - sogar im Namen!

Das Land

Der Fußball macht es vor: Nachdem das Marketing der deutschen Fußball-Nationalmannschaft erst "National" und dann "Deutschland" aus dem Namen gestrichen hat - beide Wörter offensichtlich irgendwie zwischen rechtsextrem und nazi anzusiedeln - heißt die ehemaligen deutsche Fußball-Nationalmannschaft nun offiziell nur noch "Die Mannschaft". (Wobei dieser Begriff auch schon sehr sexistisch ist. Immerhin wissen wir doch nicht, ob sich alle biologischen Männer in der Mannschaft auch als Männer identifizieren - vielleicht sollten wir stattdessen lieber "Die *Schaft" sagen? Oder erinnert "Schaft" zu sehr an einen Penis? Vielleicht nur noch "das Team"?) In Anlehnung an "Die Mannschaft" könnten wir ja dann einfach nur noch "Das Land" als Namen tragen. Das ist super inklusiv, weil es keinerlei ethnischen oder kulturellen Charakter mehr hat und einfach allen gehört!

Cuckistan

Das ist, denke ich, selbsterklärend. Wir laden die ganze Welt ein und werfen sogar "endgültig Ausreisepflichtige" (was bedeutet der Begriff überhaupt, wenn diese Pflicht nicht durchgesetzt wird?), von denen es mittlerweile knapp 300.000 gibt, nicht raus, sondern alimentieren alle mit Geld und Wohnraum - also dem Geld der arbeitenden Bevölkerung - also mit Lebenszeit. Sehr aufopferungsvoll und sehr zuvorkommend - wir teilen einfach gerne! Ein Fachbegriff für Teilen in den sehr mit Anglizismen bereicherten Sozialwissenschaften ist "cuck". Da wäre doch, um der deutschen Bereitschaft zum Teilen Ausdruck zu verleihen, "Cuckistan" eine sehr gute Idee.

Deutshcland

Sehr beliebt bei allen, die irgendwie Deutschland sagen wollen, aber denen die konkrete Schreibweise zu Rechts ist, z.B. bei der Wissenssendung Quarks. Außerdem ist Rechtschreibung ja eh nazi - sieht man ja schon am Namen Rechtschreibung. Alt und neu vereint und dennoch tolerant, indem wir die diskriminierende Orthographie hinter uns lassen!

Germoney

Dies ist eh schon ein international sehr bekannter Name für Deutschland, da Deutschland sehr gerne sehr viel Geld an jeden zahlt, der es braucht - und jeder kann ja irgendwie ein bisschen mehr Geld gebrauchen. Dies hat zwar auf Grund von äußerst neutraler, objektiver und wissenschaftlich sehr hochwertigen Studien gar nichts damit zu tun, dass Deutschland den Großteil aller Migranten, die nach Europa kommen, anzieht (überhaupt gar nichts, hört ihr!), aber trotzdem hat der Name irgendwie einen schönen und passenden Klang zu den höchsten Sozialleistungen für Migranten der Welt.

Germany

Germany ist sowieso schon der internationale bzw. englische Name für Deutschland. Außerdem steckt im Wort "many" drin. Das ist gleich doppelt passend. Erstens sind wir viele verschiedene Menschen (Diversität!), zweitens gilt noch immer #wirsindmehr (und mehr = many auf Englisch!), und drittens sorgt die Zuwanderung und hohe Geburtenrate der Zugewanderthabenden für Bevölkerungswachstum - wir werden also immer mehr. Da passt Germany doch sehr gut!
Was ist euer Favorit? Habt ihr noch kreative Vorschläge?

I’m 20 close to 21 and I love cats people compare my actions to a cat and I have three beautiful orange kitties. My hair is multicolor in the sun orange black brown and I’ve joked that I’m a calico in a human body. I’ve been secretly into furry fandoms since I was 12 and as an adult my furry obsession has skyrocketed. I’ve imaged my firsona as a goth calico with anime style eyes( I’m new to furry terms) I’ve seen fur suits that are exactly what I like. I’m in no way into cats just a crazy cat momma. My family is kinda okay with furries but my little sister says they are cringe and my husband jokes when I bring up furry stuff. I’d love to build my fur sona or even draw it but don’t know where to start. I don’t know if this is just a hyperfixation or I’m a furry. I’m just afraid that since me and my husband have a relationship where he calls me kitten and it’s bdsm related I’m afraid people will accuse me of being a weird furry. I just want to essentially cosplay as a cat because I have three orange kitties of my own and I always joke I’m there bio momma. My fur sona in my head is just my piercings and hair style on a cute calico cat with like my body showing so just head hands feet and tail( I have a medical condition where I over heat quickly) would it be weird if my fur sona has a collar like a cat? Nothing sexual just a collar that says my fur sonas name. ( Alize the calico) my preferd name irl as my fursona name. I hope I explained this correctly.

A Daily chronicle of AI Innovations May 16th 2024:

🤔 Microsoft’s AI ambitions lead to 30% rise in emissions 🪫 Stability AI reportedly runs out of money and in negotiations to sell
🍎Apple unveils AI-enhanced eye tracking, music haptics, voice shortcuts
🤖Humane’s AI Pin upgraded with GPT-4o
💸Stability AI seeks buyer amid financial woes
📽️Mozilla Firefox incorporates NVIDIA RTX video to improve video quality on Windows
☁️Musk's AI firm xAI In talks with Oracle for $10 billion cloud deal
❄️Snowflake invests in Metaplane to enhance data quality
😱 Ilya Sutskever and Jan Leike leave OpenAI
📱 Android phones enter the AI era
🗣️ How to clone your voice using AI
🤔 Microsoft’s AI ambitions lead to 30% rise in emissions Microsoft’s AI ambitions lead to 30% rise in emissions

• Microsoft's commitment to being carbon-negative by 2030 is threatened by a 30% increase in its carbon emissions, largely due to its growing focus on AI technologies.
• The company's expansion of AI operations necessitates building more data centers, which rely on energy-intensive materials like steel, concrete, and microchips, further complicating their carbon reduction goals.
• Despite its renewable energy claims, Microsoft is acknowledged for using instruments like renewable energy credits (RECs) that might mask actual carbon emissions, indicating a challenging path ahead to meet its sustainability targets.
• Source

Stability AI reportedly runs out of money and in negotiations to sell

• Stability AI, known for its open-source image generator Stable Diffusion, is negotiating a sale due to financial struggles, despite a valuation of $1 billion.
• The company raised over $100 million in 2022 but struggled to turn its free software into revenue while facing stiff competition from rivals like OpenAI and Midjourney.
• Founder and CEO Emad Mostaque resigned amid management issues, and the company faces significant expenses and liabilities, projecting $153 million in costs against only $11 million in revenue for 2023.
• Source

Apple unveils AI-enhanced eye tracking, music haptics, voice shortcuts

Apple recently unveiled new accessibility features that will launch later this year. One of these features is Eye Tracking, which enables users with physical disabilities to navigate their iPhones and iPads using only their eyes.
By leveraging the front-facing camera and AI, Eye Tracking allows precise control through a “Dwell Control” feature, eliminating the need for additional hardware.

Another noteworthy addition is Music Haptics, designed for users who are deaf or hard of hearing. When enabled, the Taptic Engine in iPhones plays taps, textures, and refined vibrations synchronized with music audio.
Additionally, Apple has introduced Voice Shortcut, which allows users to create custom voice commands for specific actions on their devices. With Voice Shortcut, users can perform tasks hands-free by simply speaking their personalized commands
Why does this matter?
This would encourage the development and advancement of AI technologies in the accessibility domain, ultimately benefiting individuals with disabilities across different platforms and devices.
Source

Humane’s AI Pin upgraded with GPT-4o

Humane has upgraded its popular AI Pin product with the GPT-4o model. This upgrade aims to enhance the AI Pin’s performance. The new version runs faster, provides more accurate answers, and offers richer information.
[ca
Why does this matter?
As more sophisticated AI models become accessible, we can expect further improvements in various applications, from digital assistants to natural language understanding and generation.
Source

Ilya Sutskever and Jan Leike leave OpenAI

OpenAI co-founder and chief scientist Ilya Sutskever announced that he is leaving the company — following months of speculation of Sutskever’s role from the November 2023 Sam Altman ousting.

• Sutskever said he is confident that OpenAI will ‘build AGI that is both safe and beneficial’ under the current leadership.
• Also leaving is Sutskever’s superalignment group co-lead Jan Leike, announcing his departure with a cryptic resignation post.
• The news follows months of departures largely coming from OpenAI’s superalignment and safety teams, fueling speculation.
• OpenAI CEO Sam Altman named Jakub Pachocki as the new chief scientist, a key researcher on the creation of GPT-4.

After months of tensions, the speculation around Ilya’s future with Sam is finally put to rest. But questions surrounding the safety team departures still remain. Also important to watch is where Sutskever and Leike land next, with two of AI’s brightest minds now officially on the market.

Android phones enter the AI era

Google announced a host of new AI integrations coming to Android phones at its I/O Developer Conference, bringing its powerful Gemini model on-device to enable upgraded smartphone experiences.

• Google’s Gemini Nano model will be integrated into the Pixel later this year, allowing for enhanced multimodal capabilities.
• Gemini features will be easily accessible with a new overlay, which improves and understand context to provide dynamic suggestions.
• A Circle to Search feature, allowing users to query anything on screen, gains homework help features via a LearnLM model.
• Google is also bringing a new AI security feature soon, providing real-time alerts on calls that appear to be scams.

While everyone awaits the iPhone AI announcements, Google’s Android AI era is rolling. With Gemini coming directly on-board, the potential is there — but if Apple integrates ChatGPT, it may remain tough sledding against the dominant market leader.
Source

AI TRAINING How to clone your voice using AI

A new model on Replicate called OpenVoice lets you clone any voice for free with just an audio file and the desired text to be turned into speech.
Step-by-step: Access OpenVoice on Replicate here and log in with your GitHub account. Upload the audio file of the voice you want to clone where it says ‘audio’. The longer, the better. Fill the ‘Text’ field with the text you want to convert into a speech. Click on the ‘Run’ button and listen/download the generated audio with the cloned voice!

New AI Job Opportunities on May 16th 2024

• Lambda - Manufacturing Quality Engineer
• Anthropic - People Operations Coordinator
• Figure AI - Humanoid Robot Pilot
• Luma AI - Senior Software engineer- Data infrastructure

What Else Is Happening in AI on May 16th 2024

‍Instagram co-founder joins Anthropic as head of product
Anthropic has appointed Mike Krieger, the co-founder of Instagram and Artifact, as head of product. In this pivotal role, Krieger will steer the company's product engineering, management, and design efforts as Anthropic expands its suite of AI apps and aims to bring Claude to a wider audience. (Link)
IBM plans 800 new jobs in Ireland
IBM plans to hire up to 800 more people in Ireland to help build advanced software underpinned by AI technology. This is the biggest job announcement in the country’s multinational sector this year. The roles will be in research and development, digital sales, and consulting. (Link)
Mozilla Firefox incorporates NVIDIA RTX video to improve video quality on Windows
Mozilla Firefox has incorporated NVIDIA RTX Video, a technology that leverages AI to improve video quality on Windows PCs and workstations. This brings a host of AI-powered enhancements to online videos, including upscaling and HDR, for a more immersive viewing experience. Users can easily access these features by updating GeForce RTX drivers and activating Windows HDR. (Link)
Musk's AI firm xAI In talks with Oracle for $10 billion cloud deal
Elon Musk’s AI startup, xAI, is in talks with Oracle executives about a $10 billion deal to rent cloud servers from Oracle over several years. This move comes as Musk’s company seeks to keep pace with rivals like OpenAI, Microsoft, and Google to dominate the AI field. (Link)
Snowflake invests in Metaplane to enhance data quality
Snowflake, a data cloud platform, has invested in Metaplane, a Boston-based startup. Metaplane focuses on helping enterprises identify and rectify data quality issues using an end-to-end AI-powered platform. The investment aims to enhance integration between Metaplane’s data observability offering and the Snowflake data cloud. (Link)

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Microsoft’s AI ambitions lead to 30% rise in emissions

• Microsoft's commitment to being carbon-negative by 2030 is threatened by a 30% increase in its carbon emissions, largely due to its growing focus on AI technologies.
• The company's expansion of AI operations necessitates building more data centers, which rely on energy-intensive materials like steel, concrete, and microchips, further complicating their carbon reduction goals.
• Despite its renewable energy claims, Microsoft is acknowledged for using instruments like renewable energy credits (RECs) that might mask actual carbon emissions, indicating a challenging path ahead to meet its sustainability targets.
• Source

Stability AI reportedly runs out of money and in negotiations to sell

• Stability AI, known for its open-source image generator Stable Diffusion, is negotiating a sale due to financial struggles, despite a valuation of $1 billion.
• The company raised over $100 million in 2022 but struggled to turn its free software into revenue while facing stiff competition from rivals like OpenAI and Midjourney.
• Founder and CEO Emad Mostaque resigned amid management issues, and the company faces significant expenses and liabilities, projecting $153 million in costs against only $11 million in revenue for 2023.
• Source

Apple unveils AI-enhanced eye tracking, music haptics, voice shortcuts

Apple recently unveiled new accessibility features that will launch later this year. One of these features is Eye Tracking, which enables users with physical disabilities to navigate their iPhones and iPads using only their eyes.
By leveraging the front-facing camera and AI, Eye Tracking allows precise control through a “Dwell Control” feature, eliminating the need for additional hardware.

Microsoft’s AI ambitions lead to 30% rise in emissions

• Microsoft's commitment to being carbon-negative by 2030 is threatened by a 30% increase in its carbon emissions, largely due to its growing focus on AI technologies.
• The company's expansion of AI operations necessitates building more data centers, which rely on energy-intensive materials like steel, concrete, and microchips, further complicating their carbon reduction goals.
• Despite its renewable energy claims, Microsoft is acknowledged for using instruments like renewable energy credits (RECs) that might mask actual carbon emissions, indicating a challenging path ahead to meet its sustainability targets.
• Source

Stability AI reportedly runs out of money and in negotiations to sell

• Stability AI, known for its open-source image generator Stable Diffusion, is negotiating a sale due to financial struggles, despite a valuation of $1 billion.
• The company raised over $100 million in 2022 but struggled to turn its free software into revenue while facing stiff competition from rivals like OpenAI and Midjourney.
• Founder and CEO Emad Mostaque resigned amid management issues, and the company faces significant expenses and liabilities, projecting $153 million in costs against only $11 million in revenue for 2023.
• Source

Apple unveils AI-enhanced eye tracking, music haptics, voice shortcuts

Apple recently unveiled new accessibility features that will launch later this year. One of these features is Eye Tracking, which enables users with physical disabilities to navigate their iPhones and iPads using only their eyes.
By leveraging the front-facing camera and AI, Eye Tracking allows precise control through a “Dwell Control” feature, eliminating the need for additional hardware.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/microsoft-ai-push-imperils-climate-160020868.html
🪫 Stability AI reportedly runs out of money and in negotiations to sell
Stability AI, known for its open-source image generator Stable Diffusion, is negotiating a sale due to financial struggles, despite a valuation of $1 billion. The company raised over $100 million in 2022 but struggled to turn its free software into revenue while facing stiff competition from rivals like OpenAI and Midjourney. Founder and CEO Emad Mostaque resigned amid management issues, and the company faces significant expenses and liabilities, projecting $153 million in costs against only $11 million in revenue for 2023. Source: https://the-decoder.com/stability-ai-reportedly-runs-out-of-money-and-in-negotiations-to-sell/
Apple unveils AI-enhanced eye tracking, music haptics, voice shortcuts
Apple recently unveiled new accessibility features that will launch later this year. One of these features is Eye Tracking, which enables users with physical disabilities to navigate their iPhones and iPads using only their eyes.
By leveraging the front-facing camera and AI, Eye Tracking allows precise control through a “Dwell Control” feature, eliminating the need for additional hardware.
Another noteworthy addition is Music Haptics, designed for users who are deaf or hard of hearing. When enabled, the Taptic Engine in iPhones plays taps, textures, and refined vibrations synchronized with music audio.
Additionally, Apple has introduced Voice Shortcut, which allows users to create custom voice commands for specific actions on their devices. With Voice Shortcut, users can perform tasks hands-free by simply speaking their personalized commands
Why does this matter?
This would encourage the development and advancement of AI technologies in the accessibility domain, ultimately benefiting individuals with disabilities across different platforms and devices.
Source: https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2024/05/apple-announces-new-accessibility-features-including-eye-tracking
Humane’s AI Pin upgraded with GPT-4o
Humane has upgraded its popular AI Pin product with the GPT-4o model. This upgrade aims to enhance the AI Pin’s performance. The new version runs faster, provides more accurate answers, and offers richer information.
Why does this matter?
As more sophisticated AI models become accessible, we can expect further improvements in various applications, from digital assistants to natural language understanding and generation.
Source: https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/15/24157731/humane-says-its-ai-pins-just-got-a-gpt-4o-upgrade
😱 Ilya Sutskever and Jan Leike leave OpenAI
Ilya Sutskever and Jan Leike leave OpenAI OpenAI co-founder and chief scientist Ilya Sutskever announced that he is leaving the company — following months of speculation of Sutskever’s role from the November 2023 Sam Altman ousting.
Sutskever said he is confident that OpenAI will ‘build AGI that is both safe and beneficial’ under the current leadership.
Also leaving is Sutskever’s superalignment group co-lead Jan Leike, announcing his departure with a cryptic resignation post.
The news follows months of departures largely coming from OpenAI’s superalignment and safety teams, fueling speculation.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman named Jakub Pachocki as the new chief scientist, a key researcher on the creation of GPT-4.
After months of tensions, the speculation around Ilya’s future with Sam is finally put to rest. But questions surrounding the safety team departures still remain. Also important to watch is where Sutskever and Leike land next, with two of AI’s brightest minds now officially on the market.
📱 Android phones enter the AI era
Android phones enter the AI era Google announced a host of new AI integrations coming to Android phones at its I/O Developer Conference, bringing its powerful Gemini model on-device to enable upgraded smartphone experiences.
Google’s Gemini Nano model will be integrated into the Pixel later this year, allowing for enhanced multimodal capabilities.
Gemini features will be easily accessible with a new overlay, which improves and understand context to provide dynamic suggestions.
A Circle to Search feature, allowing users to query anything on screen, gains homework help features via a LearnLM model.
Google is also bringing a new AI security feature soon, providing real-time alerts on calls that appear to be scams.
While everyone awaits the iPhone AI announcements, Google’s Android AI era is rolling. With Gemini coming directly on-board, the potential is there — but if Apple integrates ChatGPT, it may remain tough sledding against the dominant market leader.
Source: https://blog.google/products/android/google-ai-android-update-io-2024
AI TRAINING 🗣️ How to clone your voice using AI
How to clone your voice using AI
A new model on Replicate called OpenVoice lets you clone any voice for free with just an audio file and the desired text to be turned into speech.
Step-by-step:
Access OpenVoice on Replicate here at https://replicate.com/cjwbw/openvoice and log in with your GitHub account.
Upload the audio file of the voice you want to clone where it says ‘audio’. The longer, the better.
Fill the ‘Text’ field with the text you want to convert into a speech.
Click on the ‘Run’ button and listen/download the generated audio with the cloned voice!
New AI Job Opportunities on May 16th 2024
🔬 Lambda - Manufacturing Quality Engineer: https://jobs.therundown.ai/jobs/59796724-manufacturing-quality-enginee
📋 Anthropic - People Operations Coordinator:
https://jobs.therundown.ai/jobs/59882127-people-operations-coordinator
🤖 Figure AI - Humanoid Robot Pilot: https://jobs.therundown.ai/jobs/59875233-humanoid-robot-pilot-evening-shift
💻 Luma AI - Senior Software engineer- Data infrastructure: https://jobs.therundown.ai/jobs/59880695-senior-software-engineer-data-infrastructure
What Else Is Happening in AI on May 16th 2024❗
🧑‍Instagram co-founder joins Anthropic as head of product
Anthropic has appointed Mike Krieger, the co-founder of Instagram and Artifact, as head of product. In this pivotal role, Krieger will steer the company's product engineering, management, and design efforts as Anthropic expands its suite of AI apps and aims to bring Claude to a wider audience. (Link: https://techcrunch.com/2024/05/15/anthropic-hires-instagram-co-founder-as-head-of-product)
💼 IBM plans 800 new jobs in Ireland
IBM plans to hire up to 800 more people in Ireland to help build advanced software underpinned by AI technology. This is the biggest job announcement in the country’s multinational sector this year. The roles will be in research and development, digital sales, and consulting. (Link: https://www.reuters.com/technology/ibm-add-800-ai-related-jobs-ireland-2024-05-15)
📽️Mozilla Firefox incorporates NVIDIA RTX video to improve video quality on Windows
Mozilla Firefox has incorporated NVIDIA RTX Video, a technology that leverages AI to improve video quality on Windows PCs and workstations. This brings a host of AI-powered enhancements to online videos, including upscaling and HDR, for a more immersive viewing experience. Users can easily access these features by updating GeForce RTX drivers and activating Windows HDR. (Link: https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/ai-decoded-rtxvideo-firefox)
☁️Musk's AI firm xAI In talks with Oracle for $10 billion cloud deal
Elon Musk’s AI startup, xAI, is in talks with Oracle executives about a $10 billion deal to rent cloud servers from Oracle over several years. This move comes as Musk’s company seeks to keep pace with rivals like OpenAI, Microsoft, and Google to dominate the AI field. (Link; https://www.reuters.com/technology/elon-musks-xai-nears-10-bln-deal-rent-oracles-ai-servers-information-reports-2024-05-14)
❄️Snowflake invests in Metaplane to enhance data quality
Snowflake, a data cloud platform, has invested in Metaplane, a Boston-based startup. Metaplane focuses on helping enterprises identify and rectify data quality issues using an end-to-end AI-powered platform. The investment aims to enhance integration between Metaplane’s data observability offering and the Snowflake data cloud. (Link: https://venturebeat.com/data-infrastructure/snowflake-invests-in-metaplane-to-solve-data-quality-issues-plaguing-ai-development)
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Hut. Hockey.
This sub is just a bunch of large dudes talking about the game. I use talking loosely here. It's just pack pulls from people who have no one else to share their excitement with. People posting their teams asking for advice but it's just a clout post because they have no one else to show. The rest is complaining because they are not very good at the game and refuse to acknowledge it.
Saddest part is most are adults and like middle-aged adults. You guys tell others to get a life or a hobby and yet we are in the same place.
Atleast I'm not in your guys demographics. Heck when I'm 20 if I'm playing hut I'll realize I failed at life.

Hey everyone, don't even ask me why I decided this was a good idea, but I thought it'd be fun to do an AMA discussing my YouTube career. I'm the founder of Newscape Studios and the mind behind the many YouTube channels we've created and continue to run in-house. Some of the channels include GameToons (10M+ subs), Bronzo, Maxcraft, Princesshana, and all of the Newscapepro channels. We also ran several other channels for some time like SCP Animated.
My name's Cory Crater and I started my career on YouTube back in 2010 when I signed onboard with a company called Machinima (some of you have probably heard of them). I spent my high school years creating Halo, CoD, and Minecraft videos to varying success. I hit my first million view video back in 2010 -- it was called 100 Ways to Die in Modern Warfare 2.
I continued creating machinimas for Machinima and Machinima Realm (that's a whole lotta machinima) as well as very mediocre gameplay commentaries for Machinima Respawn that did much better than they should have. I went to college where I continued creating YouTube content on the side. I eventually dropped out in 2014 to go work at Sky Media (SkyDoesMinecraft). So I moved from New Hampshire to Seattle and it was really the beginning of a new phase of my life. About a year after working at Sky Media, I left and moved back to New Hampshire where I started the early phases of my company, Newscape Studios.
I had a lot of luck with my first channel, Newscapepro, which I had been slowly growing since I was just 12 years old. Minecraft roleplays were just popping off at the time and I wedged myself into that niche by creating machinima cutscenes for larger YouTubers and eventually creating my own full-length videos.
From there, I expanded out my content, opening up a a general gaming channel titled Newscapegames and a Minecraft PVP channel called Newscapedos (Both of those channels have since been rebranded and repurposed, though we did start a new Newscapegames several years back). At this point I was scheduling, shooting, the face on camera, editing and posting 20 videos a week. The workload was a bit overbearing.
So I brought on some help, hiring editors and renting out a small office at The Mills in Rollinsford, NH. Two of my first editors (K & Joe) are actually now my COO and CAO. We continued creating content for the various Newscape channels, but struggled with growth, as this was the time of the dreaded Adpocalypse, demonetization, and Minecraft was seemingly fading into obscurity. All of those factors tanked our revenue and we had trouble keeping the doors open on several occasions.
We finally found some stability when Fortnite came out and we launched a machinima channel -- Newscapepro Fortnite Shorts, Films & Skits. We ended up gaining a lot of traction. It was larger than anything we'd experienced before. and were not going to sit around and wait for the inevitable falling off of a new trend -- so my team (K, Joe, Ryan & my wife, Bri) packed up and moved down to Austin, Texas in hopes we could make some much-needed hires and strike while the iron's hot.
In Austin, we quickly grew from a team of 5 to 15 and then 25 in just over a year. We launched several new channels including a live action one, several more Fortnite channels, a Roblox channel, and a general gaming channel. We also had some failed attempts at channels like VRVS where we planned to go head to head in VR games.
Things changed when we started SCP Animated -- a channel where we animated stories from the SCP wiki. This was our first attempt at animation, and the channel had a great run. It also helped us establish the pipeline for GameToons, a channel where we animated parodies of the most popular videogames. GameToons ended up being our biggest channel ever. We started our Among Us Logic series right around the start of COVID and hit some wild view counts right from the start. Our first videos were 15M, 9M, 24M, and 50M views.
Last year, GameToons hit the milestone of 10 million subscribers and we received our first-ever Diamond Play Button. I took a photo with a note on it, hopefully giving me and this post some credibility. (linked below) We're now at a point where we have ten channels that have surpassed 1M subscribers. The success we've experienced is truly humbling and honestly still baffling. So with all of that out of the way, I'm here to answer questions -- whether they be technical, from aspiring creators or just general questions about myself or my company.
Looking forward to chatting with you all!
Also, here's a photo of me with my Diamond Play Button plaque, and a note for the AMA- https://imgur.com/9hpqS7G
Hopefully that's evidence enough that I am who I say I am, but if anyone wants further verification (within reason), I'm more than happy to oblige! Thanks!

Wigglytuff, unfortunately, does not have a good history in competitive singles. It managed a strong showing in GSC NU, and a solid niche in ORAS ZU, and...that's it. That's all it got, that's all it ever did. I'm so sorry, Wigglytuff. Maybe this is why Jigglypuff decided to leave to Smash Bros.
​
Now, we move onto the famous cave scourge of Golbat, and in generations past the first, its evolved form Crobat. I'll be handling Pokemon gaining evolutions in future generations this way.
​
Now, the metagames in question:
Gen 1 ZU: Unfortunately, including Golbat is pretty much just a formality. It's completely awful in every tier in RBY, with it landing in ZU as a desperate final attempt at a niche, and it can't even cut it there. It's ranked in the VR at...the very bottom of 'low' and generally shouldn't be used, and that's the lowest tier in the first generation, before any power creep ever happened!
​
Gen 2 UU: Frustrated with its lack of performance in RBY even down in ZU, Golbat evolved to Crobat and shot all the way up to UU, where...well, it's got some issues. In its good points, it was for the longest time the best possible counter to Scyther and its lesser cousin Pinsir, with its typing, access to Haze, solid bulk, and incredible speed allowing it to stop their setups in its tracks. Its typing, however, is a double-edged sword here, giving weaknesses to powerful Psychic and Electric types strong in the tier, unfortunately. All of this would probably spell a solid ranking, probably a b...until Aerodactyl was recently unbanned. Aerodactyl counters Scyther as hard as Crobat is, but has a much better attacking stat and unlike in gen 1, actual moves. Current VR places Crobat in a poor C tier...except Aerodactyl isn't on that VR at all, yes, meaning Crobat is probably even worse than it looks.
​
Gen 3 OU (UUBL): And the bad news doesn't stop there. Crobat here got enough tools to make it too much for UU...and now it's banned. Sadly, Crobat can't cut it in ADV OU, with significantly better threats available, effectively no ability, and Aerodactyl, yet again, existing to invalidate it. Incredible speed is just not enough for it, and Crobat is unranked in Gen 3 OU, so it will be excluded from the rankings.
​
Gen 4 OU (UUBL): Well, it's doing a little better than it was in Gen 3. It's still bad, but Taunt and Super Fang at least lets it function as a stallbreaker to break down passive walls, and Brave Bird deals some great damage, but...Gliscor exists. Gliscor actually deals with Steel and Rock types. Crobat doesn't. Crobat is D rank in Gen 4 OU, and probably should not be used - although the stallbreaking at least makes it a little less dire than gen 3. Gen 4 OU will not be included.
​
Gen 5 UU: And in a nice turn of events, the power level of the tier move far enough up to let Crobat back in, instead of banishing it to a place it can't do anything in. Crobat is pretty solid in BW UU, where instead of Gliscor its competition at stallbreaking is the far inferior Gligar, and its incredible speed allows the surprise factor of a Choice Band set to be an interesting tech. Unfortunately, its typing does it no favors - Electric types are popular in Gen 5 UU, and Crobat is basically always forced out by them, which on a Stealth Rock-weak mon can be a death sentence. It's solid, at least, and the VR places it at B rank, which after the previous four generations, we'll take.
​
Gen 6 UU: And with the Fairy-type added into the game, Crobat's typing suddenly gets another look, as it now packs a new key resistance against the type that it can hit with Super-Effective STAB (although it doesn't usually pack it, lacking good Poison moves.) Even better, the newly buffed Defog allows Crobat to play a decent supporting role with access to a variety of moves that can be used on a variety of teams, like Taunt, the now 100% accurate Toxic, U-Turn to pivot, and of course Defog. Brave Bird means it's far from passive, and people need to fear BRAVE BAT, as the choice band set is so aptly named. Crobat's doing good, here. So good, that the VR places Crobat at S rank alongside its long-time rival Aerodactyl.
​
Gen 7 UU: Unfortunately for Crobat, the tier has not been kind to it. Latias is likely a superior revenge killed, and Togekiss a stallbreaker in most cases. It still manages to carve out a miniscule niche due to the incredible speed and the power of a Brave Bird backed Supersonic Skystrike, and its signature fatbreaker set does still exist, but the demand for it has just gone way, way, way down. Steel-types are even better than they were in Gen 6, and Crobat struggles hard to do basically anything meaningful to them. The VR places Crobat all the way down at C- rank, with some people suggesting it should be unranked.
​
Gen 8 RU: But Crobat is thrown a bone in the form of descending one tier - and while in SM UU it was struggling to find relevance in SS RU, Crobat is back to business. The addition of Heavy-Duty Boots means that fast pivots like Crobat are more relevant than ever, and its ability to check most Spikes users allows it to Defog pretty easily. Even better, the fact that HDB makes it less risky to pivot in gives Nasty Plot special Crobat some interesting play that pressures the Grass types in the tier incredible well, and Super Fang still exists to give some damage to the Steel-types that would otherwise wall it. Due to its ability to provide so much utility to teams, it could be considered a Lando-type in SS RU, with its applicability to so many different team styles. The VR places Crobat in A+ rank.
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The ophthalmic packaging market is poised for impressive growth, with estimates suggesting a CAGR of around 12% by 2027. This surge is driven by several factors. Firstly, a growing number of people are diagnosed with eye conditions like dry eye and conjunctivitis, requiring specialized packaging for ophthalmic products. Secondly, stricter regulations on recycling packaging materials are pushing innovation for sustainable and recyclable options in this industry. Furthermore, brands are increasingly using unique and functional packaging to stand out and improve product shelf life. Finally, the rise of emerging economies, a growing global population, and heightened awareness of eye health create exciting new opportunities for ophthalmic packaging companies in the years to come.
To know more about this study, request a free sample report @ https://www.researchcorridor.com/request-sample/?id=147356
Market Trends:
Response to Rising Eye Disorders: The increasing prevalence of eye diseases like dry eye and glaucoma is driving demand for innovative packaging solutions. This includes developing single-dose and multi-dose containers that ensure sterility, ease of use, and proper medication adherence for patients.
Sustainability and Regulatory Compliance: Stringent environmental regulations and a growing focus on eco-friendly practices are pushing for the development of recyclable and biodegradable ophthalmic packaging materials. This trend also includes optimizing package size to minimize waste.
Focus on Patient Convenience and Safety: Ophthalmic packaging is evolving to prioritize patient convenience and safety. Examples include tamper-evident seals, child-resistant closures, and braille labels for visually impaired users. Additionally, single-dose packaging is gaining traction due to its ease of use and reduced risk of contamination.
Brand Differentiation and Innovation: In a competitive market, pharmaceutical companies are using packaging as a tool for brand differentiation. This includes using unique shapes, colors, and graphics to enhance brand recognition and product appeal. Additionally, advancements in material science are leading to the development of ophthalmic packaging with improved barrier properties and functionality.
Emerging Markets and E-commerce: The rise of emerging economies with growing populations and increasing disposable income is creating new opportunities for ophthalmic packaging companies. Furthermore, the growth of e-commerce for prescription medications is necessitating packaging that can withstand the rigors of shipping and ensure product integrity.
Market Opportunities:
The ophthalmic packaging market is brimming with opportunities. The growing burden of eye diseases fuels demand for innovative solutions. Companies can capitalize on this by developing single-dose and multi-dose formats that prioritize sterility and ease of use. Sustainability is another key driver, with opportunities in developing eco-friendly and recyclable materials. Meeting patient needs is crucial, with child-resistant closures, braille labels, and user-friendly single-dose packaging offering a competitive edge. Furthermore, in a crowded market, unique and functional packaging can enhance brand recognition. Finally, the rise of e-commerce and emerging economies presents exciting prospects for companies that can deliver ophthalmic packaging solutions that ensure product safety during transport and cater to new markets with growing populations. By focusing on innovation, sustainability, and patient-centric design, ophthalmic packaging companies can solidify their position in this thriving market.
According to the recent report published by RC Market Analytics, the Global Ophthalmic Packaging Market is expected to provide sustainable growth opportunities during the forecast period from 2024 to 2030. This latest industry research study analyzes the ophthalmic packaging market by various product segments, applications, regions and countries while assessing regional performances of numerous leading market participants. The report offers a holistic view of the ophthalmic packaging industry encompassing numerous stakeholders including raw material suppliers, providers, distributors, consumers and government agencies, among others. Furthermore, the report includes detailed quantitative and qualitative analysis of the global market considering market history, product development, regional dynamics, competitive landscape, and key success factors (KSFs) in the industry.
Browse the Full Report Discretion @ https://www.researchcorridor.com/ophthalmic-packaging-market/
Geographically, the ophthalmic packaging market report comprises dedicated sections centering on the regional market revenue and trends. The ophthalmic packaging market has been segmented on the basis of geographic regions into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East & Africa. Ophthalmic packaging market estimates have also been provided for the historical years 2020 to 2023 along with forecast for the period from 2024 - 2030.The report includes a deep-dive analysis of key countries including the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Germany, France, Italy, China, Japan, India, Australia, Mexico, Brazil and South Africa, among others. Thereby, the report identifies unique growth opportunities across the world based on trends occurring in various developed and developing economies.
The Ophthalmic Packaging Market Segmentation:
By Dose:

• Single Dose
• Multi-Dose

By Type:

• OTC
• Prescription

By Material:

• Plastic
• Glass
• Others

By Region:

• North America
• Europe
• Asia Pacific
• Latin America
• Middle East & Africa

Leading players in the global ophthalmic packaging market include Amcor, Gerresheimer, West Pharmaceutical Services, Schott AG, and Becton Dickinson. These companies are driving growth through various strategies such as geographic expansion, investment in innovative packaging solutions, and forging strategic collaborations. This multi-faceted approach allows them to tap into new markets, develop advanced packaging options, and leverage synergies to gain a competitive edge.
To know more about this study, request a free sample report @ https://www.researchcorridor.com/request-sample/?id=147356
Key Questions Answered by Ophthalmic Packaging Market Report:

• Product popularity and adoption based on various country-level dynamics
• Regional presence and product development for leading market participants
• Market forecasts and trend analysis based on ongoing investments and economic growth in key countries
• Competitive landscape based on revenue, product offerings, years of presence, number of employees and market concentration, among others
• Various industry models such as SWOT analysis, Pestle Analysis, Porter’s Five Force model, Value Chain Analysis pertaining to Ophthalmic Packaging market
• Analysis of the key factors driving and restraining the growth of the global, regional and country-level markets from 2020-2030

About Us:RC Market Analytics is a global market research firm. Our insightful analysis is focused on developed and emerging markets. We identify trends and forecast markets with a view to aid businesses identify market opportunities to optimize strategies. Our expert’s team of analysts’ provides enterprises with strategic insights. RC Market Analytics works to help enterprises grow through strategic insights and actionable solutions. Feel free to contact us for any report customization at sales@researchcorridor.com.
Media Contact:
Company Name: RC Market Analytics Pvt. Ltd. Contact Person: Vijendra Singh Email: sales@researchcorridor.com Visit us: https://www.researchcorridor.com/

Me, (19M) and my friend Gwen (20F), met and got really close in the beginning of this year. We both play guitar and enjoy writing and playing music, and we expressed how we'd always wanted to be in a band. Well we've written a couple songs together and even helped friends write songs, so we started to make an album. Our album is almost finished, but we still have no recording studio to produce in.
Our pianist, Layla and our guitarist, Eddie, decided to step down from being in the band so they can focus on school. We're all college students so it makes sense.
Gwen, kinda took up Eddie's job when he left. Gwen is one of my best friends and I love her dearly, but she always has to be the one holding the mic, the one playing the harmonies, and pretty much the one in charge. I've never really minded this because I'm a more go with the flow type of person, but since Eddie and Layla are gone, she's only bossing me around.
I helped design the bands logo and figure out the name, I'm the one who created our set list and has all the mics and recording equipment (all bought with my own money), and I usually set up gigs and venues for us. I've been frustrated recently because every time I try to talk to Gwen about finding a recording studio or having a show, she 'gets overwhelmed' and changes the subject.
But as soon as we start writing music or I try to make promo stuff for social media, she makes it seem like we're not even partners or a duo; she makes me feel like I'm only there to make her better, not so we can work as a team. I've written a few songs that I showed to Gwen and asked to be added to the album and she didn't like them, so all the songs on the album are only ones written by her.
It pisses me off and we're not even going to the same uni next semester, so I feel like it'd just be more fun to either find another band that's more serious or try and start my own journey.
TL;DR:
My band went from 4 to 2 members and though we're trying to make it work, I'm getting frustrated because of commitment level and attitudes. AITA for wanting to leave even though I started it?

Startup Name: Tweetlio
The Product: Tweetlio is an AI-driven platform designed to enhance Twitter content creation and management. It offers tools for crafting engaging tweets, scheduling, analytics, and automated engagement to help users increase their Twitter presence and effectiveness.
The Market: The social media management tools market is highly competitive with major players like Hootsuite, Buffer, and newer AI-centric startups. Twitter's evolving landscape, especially post-Elon Musk's acquisition, presents both challenges and opportunities for growth and innovation in this space.
Product Comparison: Unlike many competitors, Tweetlio integrates AI deeply into its functionality, providing users with unique features like predictive performance analytics (TweetPredict™) and personalized tweet crafting, which are not commonly found in most traditional platforms.
Stage & Funding: We are in the Validation stage, having launched our MVP and currently focusing on user acquisition and feedback. We are not actively raising funds but are focused on organic growth and scaling our user base.
Customer Conversion Strategy: Our strategy centers on leveraging platforms like Reddit and Product Hunt for visibility, coupled with a strong emphasis on community engagement and direct feedback loops to refine the product.
Why Us? The co-founding team brings together expertise in AI, social media strategy, and software development. This unique blend, combined with a firsthand understanding of the frustrations and needs of Twitter users post-Musk, makes us uniquely positioned to tackle this challenge.
We are still looking for early users please roast and give me feedback. its free to use now as we haven't added payment.

⚠️ *XBOX ONLY *⚠️
Spectre PMC
Welcome to Spectre PMC, A contractor company here to maintain a foothold on the Auroa Archipelago and disrupt Sentinel and Wolves Operations. We have ties with several western Nations including the United Kingdom, United States of America, Germany, France and many others from which we recieve funding and supplies to carry out operations under the name Spectre, as such we operate in full compliance with International Law and will behave according to the Laws of War.
Our PMC is built on team work within a company to gain control of Auroa, after JSOC Abandoned the island a Black ops team named TF Spectre was left behind, after setting up HQ and FOB’s in derelict locations across the island the original 4 operators were narrowed down to 2 and after sending a signal to western allies got sent men to initiate a campaign on the archipelago which is now in progress and growing.
We have 2 Fireteams at the moment which are as follows:

• Artemis (Stealth/Recon)
  
• Gladius (Artillery/Transport)
  

Welcome to Spectre PMC
What we are looking for:

• Age limit 18+
  
• sense of maturity
  
• general integrity
  

What we will give you:

• An immersive and tactical experience
  
• respect and fair treatment
  
• different paths and opportunities
  
• higher than most amount of free reign
  

//Sic Semper Tyrannis//
https://discord.com/invite/yvdn9PTAtG

I work in a large media company that you might say is progressive, or at least left of center. We've historically been associated with voter registration of young people, and in our office the accessible restrooms have a "gender neutral" sign on them to encourage anyone to use it regardless of how they identify. Just now I was passing through the lobby and as a person whom I assume is a job applicant was being brought in, the person greeting them asked their preferred pronouns. I'm aware there are people with different views, but on the whole that's us.
Officially I am a hybrid employee but I work at home more than 90 or even 95 percent of the time. When I do come into the office, I usually spend the day on zoom with the same distributed team of people I zoom with every other day. My supervisor lives in another state and I'm pretty sure I've only met her face-to-face once.
A few weeks ago someone began organizing a potluck mix and mingle. He did a really great job with spreadsheets and labels for the food and even name tags since many people haven't seen each face to face in a long time (if ever). Its exactly the kind of thing I would have loved and savored in the before times.
Because of the food and socializing, a lot of people are actually present in the office today. Way more than usual. One colleague came over to me at my desk and as we were talking said something about how I'm a "germaphobe."
"No," I replied calmly from behind my mask. "A germaphobe has an irrational fear of all microbial organisms. I have a fear of one very specific micro organism. Whether or not you consider that fear to be rational or irrational is another matter." My 95 hid the sneer she hopefully couldn't hear in my words.
I should note that this specific colleague recently had breast cancer, will be on medications for the rest of her life, and even had to briefly delay her chemo treatments because she -- you guessed it -- had COVID. I can't help but think maybe she could stand to be a little more careful.
So several dozen of my colleagues are packed into a conference room down the hall. I can hear the roar of their voices ebb and flow as the door opens and closes for whatever reasons. I'm temporarily hiding in a small windowless office with the door closed and my personal air purifier running so that I can eat my takeout salad in relative ease and comfort between shots of Enovid up my nose.
I bet they're having a nice time. I certainly hope they are. Today is Thursday. If, on Monday, people start calling out sick I'll know why.

The global fabric softener sheets market is expected to grow steadily at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of around 4% during the forecast period from 2024 to 2030. This growth is driven by several factors:
· Rising Demand for Premium Clothing: Consumers around the world are increasingly investing in higher-quality clothing. Fabric softener sheets help maintain the softness and feel of these garments, fueling market demand.
· Shift Towards Biodegradable Products: Growing awareness of environmental concerns is leading to a preference for eco-friendly options. The rise of biodegradable fabric softener sheets caters to this trend and is expected to further propel market growth.
· Adoption of Advanced Laundry Appliances: The increasing popularity of advanced washing machines, like automatic front- and top-load models, presents an opportunity for fabric softener sheets. These machines are often designed for compatibility with dryer sheets, creating a natural synergy that benefits both markets.
To know more about this study, request a free sample report @ https://www.researchcorridor.com/request-sample/?id=112616
Market Trends:
Demand for Convenience and Time-Saving Solutions: Busy lifestyles are driving the popularity of convenient laundry care options. Fabric softener sheets offer a quick and easy way to soften clothes and reduce static cling, compared to traditional liquid softeners that require measuring and dispensing.
Focus on Eco-Friendly Options: Consumers are becoming more environmentally conscious, leading to a rise in demand for biodegradable and sustainable fabric softener sheets. Manufacturers are responding by developing plant-based and chemical-free alternatives.
Premiumization and Fragrance Innovation: With an emphasis on luxurious laundry experiences, the market is witnessing a growth in premium fabric softener sheets infused with long-lasting, unique fragrances. Consumers are seeking sheets that not only soften clothes but also leave a pleasant scent.
Rise of Online Retail: The increasing popularity of online shopping is impacting the fabric softener sheet market. Consumers have access to a wider variety of brands and products at competitive prices, fueling online sales growth.
Personalization and Niche Products: The market is showing signs of catering to specific needs and preferences. This includes the development of hypoallergenic fabric softener sheets for sensitive skin and sheets designed for specific types of fabrics like sportswear or delicates.
Market Opportunities:
The fabric softener sheets market offers exciting opportunities for innovation and growth. The desire for convenience continues to drive demand for these time-saving laundry solutions. Manufacturers can capitalize on this by emphasizing the ease-of-use and time-saving benefits of sheets compared to traditional softeners. Eco-conscious consumers present a lucrative opportunity through the development of biodegradable and sustainable options. Furthermore, the market for premium, long-lasting fragrances and niche products like those formulated for sensitive skin or delicate fabrics is ripe for expansion. By embracing online retail channels and catering to specific consumer needs, fabric softener sheet manufacturers can solidify their position in this ever-evolving market.
According to the recent report published by RC Market Analytics, the Global Fabric Softener Sheets Market is expected to provide sustainable growth opportunities during the forecast period from 2024 to 2030. This latest industry research study analyzes the fabric softener sheets market by various product segments, applications, regions and countries while assessing regional performances of numerous leading market participants. The report offers a holistic view of the fabric softener sheets industry encompassing numerous stakeholders including raw material suppliers, providers, distributors, consumers and government agencies, among others. Furthermore, the report includes detailed quantitative and qualitative analysis of the global market considering market history, product development, regional dynamics, competitive landscape, and key success factors (KSFs) in the industry.
Browse the Full Report Discretion @ https://www.researchcorridor.com/fabric-softener-sheets-market/
Geographically, the fabric softener sheets market report comprises dedicated sections centering on the regional market revenue and trends. The fabric softener sheets market has been segmented on the basis of geographic regions into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East & Africa. Fabric softener sheets market estimates have also been provided for the historical years 2020 to 2023 along with forecast for the period from 2024 - 2030.The report includes a deep-dive analysis of key countries including the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Germany, France, Italy, China, Japan, India, Australia, Mexico, Brazil and South Africa, among others. Thereby, the report identifies unique growth opportunities across the world based on trends occurring in various developed and developing economies.
The Fabric Softener Sheets Market Segmentation:
By Product:

• General Fabric Softener
• Eco-friendly Fabric Softener Sheets

By Application:

• Clothing
• Home Textile

By Region:

• North America
• Europe
• Asia Pacific
• Latin America
• Middle East & Africa

Major players in the fabric softener sheet market include Unilever, Procter & Gamble (P&G), Church & Dwight, Colgate-Palmolive, and Henkel. These companies are actively driving growth through various strategies: geographic expansion, new product development, and strategic partnerships. This multi-pronged approach allows them to explore new markets, introduce innovative products, and leverage synergies to gain a competitive edge.
To know more about this study, request a free sample report @ https://www.researchcorridor.com/request-sample/?id=112616
Key Questions Answered by Fabric Softener Sheets Market Report:

• Product popularity and adoption based on various country-level dynamics
• Regional presence and product development for leading market participants
• Market forecasts and trend analysis based on ongoing investments and economic growth in key countries
• Competitive landscape based on revenue, product offerings, years of presence, number of employees and market concentration, among others
• Various industry models such as SWOT analysis, Pestle Analysis, Porter’s Five Force model, Value Chain Analysis pertaining to Fabric Softener Sheets market
• Analysis of the key factors driving and restraining the growth of the global, regional and country-level markets from 2020-2030

About Us:RC Market Analytics is a global market research firm. Our insightful analysis is focused on developed and emerging markets. We identify trends and forecast markets with a view to aid businesses identify market opportunities to optimize strategies. Our expert’s team of analysts’ provides enterprises with strategic insights. RC Market Analytics works to help enterprises grow through strategic insights and actionable solutions. Feel free to contact us for any report customization at sales@researchcorridor.com.
Media Contact:
Company Name: RC Market Analytics Pvt. Ltd. Contact Person: Vijendra Singh Email: sales@researchcorridor.com Visit us: https://www.researchcorridor.com/

Open-source GitHub Repo Paper Describing the Process
Aside: If you want to take the course I did online, the full course is available for free on YouTube.
When I was a graduate student at Carnegie Mellon University, I took this course called Intro to Deep Learning. Don't let the name of this course fool you; it was absolutely one of the hardest and most interesting classes I've taken in my entire life. In that class, I fully learned what "AI" actually means. I learned how to create state-of-the-art AI algorithms – including training them from scratch using AWS EC2 clusters.
But, I loved it. At this time, I was also a trader. I had aspirations of creating AI-Powered bots that would execute trades for me.
And I had heard of "reinforcement learning" before.. I took an online course at the University of Alberta and received a certificate. But I hadn't worked with "Deep Reinforcement Learning" – combining our most powerful AI algorithm (deep learning) with reinforcement learning
So, when my Intro to Deep Learning class had a final project in which I could create whatever I wanted, I decided to make a Deep Reinforcement Learning Trading Bot.

Background: What is Deep Reinforcement Learning

Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) involves a series of structured steps that enable a computer program, or agent, to learn optimal actions within a given environment through a process of trial and error. Here’s a concise breakdown:

1. Initialize: Start with an agent that has no knowledge of the environment, which could be anything from a game interface to financial markets.
2. Observe: The agent observes the current state of the environment, such as stock prices or a game screen.
3. Decide: Using its current policy, which initially might be random, the agent selects an action to perform.
4. Act and Transition: The agent performs the action, causing the environment to change and generate a new state, along with a reward (positive or negative).
5. Receive Reward: Rewards inform the agent about the effectiveness of its action in achieving its goals.
6. Learn: The agent updates its policy using the experience (initial state, action, reward, new state), typically employing algorithms like Q-learning or policy gradients to refine decision-making towards actions that yield higher returns.
7. Iterate: This cycle repeats, with the agent continually refining its policy to maximize cumulative rewards.

This iterative learning approach allows DRL agents to evolve from novice to expert, mastering complex decision-making tasks by optimizing actions based on direct interaction with their environment.

How I applied it to the stock market

My team implemented a series of algorithms that modeled financial markets as a deep reinforcement learning problem. While I won't be super technical in this post, you can read exactly what we did here. Some of the interesting experiments we tried included using convolutional neural networks to generate graphs, and use the images as features for the model.
However, despite the complexity of the models we built, none of the models were able to develop a trading strategy on SPY that outperformed Buy and Hold.
I'll admit the code is very ugly (we were scramming to find something we could write in our paper and didn't focus on code quality). But if people here are interested in AI beyond Large Language Models, I think this would be an interesting read.
Open-source GitHub Repo Paper Describing the Process
Happy to get questions on what I learned throughout the experience!

Date	Stage	Route	Length	Type	Time
Fri. May 17	13	Riccione>Cento	179 km	Easy	ca. 17:15 CET

Climbs

Lol

Sprints

Location	Km
Villanova	km 65.8
Lugo (Intergiro)	km 95.1
Conselice	km 113.3

Weather

Between 20°C-25°C. Sunny. Mild crosswind from the south.

Stage breakdown

In order to get from the Apennines to the Alps, one has to cross the Po plains, Italy’s only large flat region. In other words, in order to enjoy some high mountain racing, Giro viewers are usually subject to a “completely flat stage tax” as the peloton moves from central Italy to the country's northernmost part. Alas, tomorrow will be that day.
The stage takes place entirely in the eastern part of the Emilia-Romagna region. The day begins in Riccione, a very popular tourist destination; from there, the peloton will follow the Via Emilia, a flat highway mimicking the path of a major Roman road, passing through several major towns. Not long after Forlì, the riders will find the first intermediate sprint of the day in Villanova.
Once they reach Faenza, with about 100 kms to go, the riders will leave the trunk road; the rest of the stage will take place on secondary highways and rural roads… but the altitude won’t change, there isn’t even a tiny hill here. The Intergiro sprint and the second “regular” intermediate sprint, taking place respectively in Lugo and Conselice, are relatively close to each other; after the latter, there is nothing of note for the last 60 kms of the stage leading to Cento.
The last kms take place on urban boulevards, there are some curves but they should be broad and non-threatening; the last of them comes with about 500 m to go.
With all this in mind, here are our predictions for tomorrow's stage:
★★★ Milan
★★ Groves, Merlier
★ Molano, Pithie

Rider discussion

We're heading towards another very likely sprint. We believe that a course like this should not really entice any strong breakaway action: there's no KOM points on offer, there are many sprinters' teams who can mount a chase and unless we get a breakaway of five Ganna clones resisting the peloton on a course like this should be pretty tough.
Jonathan Milan has been consistently the best sprinter throughout this Giro, so he's once again our top pick; Kaden Groves and Tim Merlier have been looking like the most creditable rivals so far, and Groves might like the "twisty" approach to the finish line, it's not a big straight like yesterday.
There's plenty of other good sprinters in the race, but as we were saying two days ago they have been either inconsistent (eg. Andresen, Aniołkowski, Bauhaus, Dainese, Lonardi, Mihkels), consistently average (Gaviria, three top 10s already but never above 7th) or consistently underwhelming (Ewan). We decided to name Juan Sebastián Molano and Laurence Pithie as our form picks for tomorrow, they both made the top 5 in Francavilla... and for Molano it was the second good result in a row.
That's it from us, what are your thoughts/predictions?