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Sorry for the long story.
Alright. So some context. I'm a pretty big fan of Aurora 4x. If you don't know, it's an incredibly complex and in-depth 4x strategy game set in space where you can customize your ships down to each individual component (i.e. you can make your own engines/weapons/etc. to stick on your ships). A creator that I'm a fan of is advertising an role-playing series about this, and I'm like "Yeah, I'm in".
It kind of dies on arrival. But then the chosen DM for this invites me to another game which continues the legacy so to say with nobility and space battles. That one takes a pause (not really important to the story) and I get invited to another game. If you've heard of the game Terra Invicta, it's basically that. Aliens are invading Earth and are influencing various nations and it's up to the players in the United Nations to stop them. This is the game that I wish to share.
Now, this game had numerous problems mechanically. Mainly, the UN is given a ton of resources (trillions of dollars and 'resources' to be precise). But everything costs like... $100, or like 10 resources. And we as players are limited to like 4 infantry brigades between all of us. So we kind of have nothing to spend it on. Bad enough on it's own, but it's not really horror just yet.
We ended up starting in 2024. Modern day. Dropped straight into the Invasion of Ukraine in Mariupol to dislodge the Russians from the city (The Russians are, of course, being influenced by the aliens). We skirmish and kick them out. Cool. I'm made into the de-facto commanding officer of the entire UN military. Which sounds impressive, but remember, we're just infantry. (And also, the DM insists that Jeeps are to be considered armored personnel carriers as they have "armor" and carry dudes. More on this classification stuff later)
In comes the bomb. A literal bomb. Russia nukes Kiev. Now, you might be wondering "Oh man, so like does this end up into some kind of world war? Any larger political impact?" no. Nada. Zilch. The entire world just kind of... ignores the situation. I'm here thinking "Uh, that's weird", but I ignore it since the game starts opening up. At the time I was guessing that the DM just wanted to end the tutorial with a literal bang.
Next session. The literal fallout of the nuke. Kiev is gone, quite literally the entire command and government structure of Ukraine just up and vaporizes. So we're left to pick up the pieces. Unfortunately, Ukraine is in literal pieces. Fractured into several parts. Some support the UN. Some support Russia. Others support the fucking Asimov Battalion (which rebrands to the Asimov Division). For those of you who don't know, the Asimov Battalion are pretty closely linked with nazis.
In comes our moral dilemma. Leader of the Asimov Division comes to our base and starts negotiations. DM starts RPing with the leader saying stuff like "The Nazis are the only good thing to have happened to Ukraine. Where was x y and z when this and that happened! Nowhere! The Nazis gave us..." yada yada. In my mind I was thinking "Holy shit what? I guess he's just roleplaying...". Now I've got two "advisors". The medic of the group in charge of humanitarian efforts says the no-brain "Hey. They're fucking Nazis. We shouldn't be working with them" while my de-facto XO is like "Nah, we should help them". Of course, since the DM is basically ham-fisting me to help the literal Nazis with the threat of having to fight a war on both sides by two numerically superior enemies (again, we only have 4 infantry battalions) I basically have to grin and be like "Ok. We'll help you".
So I'm left thinking that this was as wacky as things were going to get. The next two weeks are "normal". I have to do a lot of set-up since the game is really starting to open up. We get to research things, we get a higher unit count, we get more than just goddamn infantry. So of course: I get us some actual armor and whatnot. In comes Mr. Armor expert who writes up the formation template for an armored brigade. Except he didn't follow the templates we were given so I had to tell him multiple times to edit it and everything, during which he insults me. "Alright, kind of weird you're insulting your commanding officer, but fine" I think.
He calls his formation an armored regiment. I called it an armored brigade. He gets pissed off and insists that it be called a regiment as the two are "very different" according to him. I not only pull rank (At this point I am a 3-star general and he is a goddamn colonel) and tell him that I am literally writing our doctrine from scratch and I can call it whatever the hell I want, but I even link him to the US DoD (he is basing stuff off the US army) where it literally says that armor is only called a regiment for historical reasons and thus armored regiments are literally just armored brigades. His response? "Wow, for someone who thinks they know a lot, you sure know nothing".
I am just baffled at the insubordination and I'm debating whether to court marshal his ass when out of left field all of my other junior officers come out of the woodworks to call me a "crybaby" and a "bitch" and all sorts of shit. I talk about this stuff with my friends and they're equally as confused as I am.
It's then that I bother to read through the world events that are going on (keep in mind, that at this point I've been busy with classes and have had to spend literal hours setting up formations, budgets, officer assignments, research, etc. in my off time) with my friends. And oh my god there is a lot to unpack with this.
Event 1: The Scandinavian countries unite and reform the Kalmar Union and do viking stuff.
Event 2: Portugal invades and annexes Brazil.
Event 3: Aliens just vaporize the entire country of Australia.
Event 4: Greece and Turkey unite to form... the Byzantine Empire. A high schooler could come up with something better. And the DM is a grown ass adult living on their own.
You think that was bad? It gets worse.
Event 5: Ireland invades the UK to reclaim Northern Ireland (There is a dude in game who now that I'm looking back, I'm pretty sure supports the IRA)
Event 6: Mexico joins hands with the aliens and invades the US. President Biden orders the military to stand down. In response, the US military starts a coup against Biden and instates... Donald Trump as the new president.
Yes. You read that right. The US military performs a violent coup to instate a president with no election.
It gets better.
The US counterattacks and defeats Mexico. The result? Mexico becomes the 51st state of America. That's right. All of Mexico becomes state 51. Oh, and for shits and giggles the US also invades Canada and makes that state 52. State constitution? Voting? The idea of a territory? Puerto Rico? Nope.
At this point I've realized just what I've gotten myself into. Everything became so clear all of a sudden, all the little flags and stuff clicked in quite possibly the most horrifying way possible. This isn't an RP game, it's a goddamn fan-fiction for Trump with some edgy alt-history bullshit thrown in. My friends obviously advise me to GTFO, but I can't help but do one last thing.
My character, as the leader of the UN military, came to be known as a hero and the father of the Modern UN. So obviously I had to have this guy go out with a bang. I write a manifesto, where I basically say "I've given my all to defend humanity from this extra-terrestrial threat. But upon looking at the state of the war and the things we've done as a species, I cannot help but wonder if these Aliens are the good guys after all?"
My final words to this group of... interesting individuals were an apology to the secretary who will find my brain matter splattered all over the walls as my character deep throats a bullpup sniper rifle (these people hate bullpup guns) but also definitively states that it is an armored brigade, not an armored regiment.
Of course I blocked every single one of these mfs and immediately left any and all channels shared with them. Like even now, two months later, I cannot believe that I managed to find myself embroiled in a group like this.

Is everyone (and everything) just an artificial facsimile of individuals from Ariane's memory formed using the meat of the eldritch flesh god? I'm talking in the same way that Lisa Garland from Silent Hill wasn't an actual person, but a meat puppet with the memories of the original made by the town's magic.
I came to this conclusion primarily because of how everything and everyone degrades to messes of gore or abominations that barely resemble their original form. Isa being long dead and dissolving into nothing also helped.
Secondly it's because I'm having a difficult time understanding the timeline and where things take place physically. It's absolute that the flight of Penrose 512 is the inciting incident; especially when it's established that Ariane's "dead" Elster is the template for every Elster made from then on. Which is why I can't imagine the entire facility that the game takes place in being established on the inhospitable alien planet that Penrose crashed on after 5000+ cycles of floating through space.
Everything being a nightmare made physical reality helps close the logical gap for me. It would also help explain the countless stack of dead Elsters in the elevator shaft.
It being my first playthrough, I could be missing information that would point to otherwise; but that's why I'm making this topic in the first place.

I ran this web app yesterday and it was working fine, The only thing that i did was add code to the TODO section as per the problem sets requirement, When I tried running it, It just won't run
Google and CS50 AI tells me to check the route which I'm pretty sure is correct and i didnt even touch them...
What could be the issue here?

import os from cs50 import SQL from flask import Flask, flash, jsonify, redirect, render_template, request, session from flask_session import Session # Configure application app = Flask(__name__) # Ensure templates are auto-reloaded app.config["TEMPLATES_AUTO_RELOAD"] = True # Configure CS50 Library to use SQLite database db = SQL("sqlite:///birthdays.db") @app.after_request def after_request(response): """Ensure responses aren't cached""" response.headers["Cache-Control"] = "no-cache, no-store, must-revalidate" response.headers["Expires"] = 0 response.headers["Pragma"] = "no-cache" return response @app.route("/", methods=["GET", "POST"]) def index(): if request.method == "POST": name = request.form.get("name") day = request.form.get("day") month = request.form.get("month") db.execute("INSERT INTO birthdays (name, month, day) VALUES (? , ? , ?)", name, month, day) #TODO: Add the user's entry into the database return redirect("/") else: bdays = db.execute("SELECT * FROM birthdays") #TODO: Display the entries in the database on index.html return render_template("index.html", birthdays = bdays) 

Here's my index.html :

        
 
Birthdays
 
 
 
 
Add a Birthday
 TODO: Create a form for users to submit a name, a month, and a day 
    Add Birthday 
 
 
 
All Birthdays
  {% for birthday in birthdays %}  TODO: Loop through the database entries to display them in this table {%endfor%} 
 
 
 
Name
 
Birthday
 
 
 
 
{{birthday.name}}
 
{{birthday.month]}}/{{birthdays.day}}
 
 
 
 
   

What i see when i click on the URL after running Flask run

From 0 to 100 million+ impressions, 800k+ users, and $50k MRR, in a span of 6 months.
Declan and Derrick were undergrads at UC Berkeley and loved building side projects — Avo Alaram, YouUp, and Steady Soles to name a few.
One of their friends suggested they to focus on a single project and they chose JotBot — an AI essay generator that used writing samples to write like you which they built in a week.
Due to the nature and target Audience of the project, the most obvious marketing channel to go with is Titkok and they did the same. Committed to posting 6–10 short-form videos, every single day, on 3 platforms (Reels, TikTok, Shorts), advertising our product, but nothing worked.
After a lot of failed short-form content, they had a fun idea to get a super long and specific URL like ‘idontwanttodomyessay .com‘ and redirect it to their site, and it worked like a charm.
Here are some of their Tiktok templates (3.2m, 10m, 8.9m) which worked for them, they remade it, it worked again and even other products copied it and it worked for them too (you can use them too).
This pushed them to $25k MRR, but they didn’t want to look like a cheating app that students used and forgot about. Recently they pivoted again to a Research copilot and again with the same set of template with some changes pushing the MRR to $50k.
TikTok is a great marketing channel for B2C products, Trendy and Shareable Products. In the Umax story that we shared last week ($6m ARR), Tiktok was one of their main marketing channel too.
To read more such tips and stories around building on the Internet, consider subscribing to our free Newsletter BuilderOS :)

Hello everyone,
I’ve been tasked with a project at work to create a database in Excel to manage all grievances received by our company. However, the requirements are a bit specific and I could use some help from this community to get things right.
Here’s what I need to accomplish:

1. User-Friendly Input Form: I need to design an input form that allows users to enter data without interacting directly with the cells. This form should take the information and populate the corresponding cells in the database.
2. PDF Generation: Once the data is entered, I need a way to generate a clean and professional-looking PDF report from the information stored in the Excel rows. The output should be formatted nicely, similar to how invoicing software works, avoiding the raw cell format.

Specifics:

• The input form should be easy to use, possibly with dropdowns, text fields, and date pickers.
• The PDF should pull data from specific rows and columns and display it in a formatted manner, including our company logo and consistent styling.

What I’ve Tried:

• I’ve looked into using VBA for the input form, but I’m not entirely sure how to link it properly to populate the database.
• For the PDF generation, I’ve considered using Excel macros and possibly exporting to Word before converting to PDF, but this feels a bit cumbersome.

Questions:

1. What’s the best way to create a user-friendly input form in Excel that inputs data into specific cells?
2. How can I automate the generation of a formatted PDF report from the data entered in Excel?

Any templates, code snippets, or guidance would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

I have my own reasons for switching away from EmuDeck. Wonderful program, just not for me.
This is on a factory reset Steam Deck. I set up ES-DE, RetroArch, and SyncThing. Have everything working as intended on both systems (Steam Deck and Mac Studio). Next one to set up is PCSX2. Works beautifully on the Mac. Steam Deck...no so much.
I've added it to Steam. If I launch PCSX2 from game mode or desktop mode, it works just fine. No issues. If I launch a PS2 game from ES-DE, I can see the PCSX2 interface, it lasts maybe a full second at most, and then it's gone, back to ES-DE.
I'll admit, I'm relatively new to Linux. Also fairly new to Mac but have adapted well to it. I don't doubt for a minute that there's something that I'm doing wrong. Just hoping that one of you has an idea of what it is and can point it out.
Thank you for your time.
EDIT: Created an es_systems.xml file for the custom_systems folder. Added PCSX2 and just copied the stuff from the es_systems.xml template on the website. The only command line addition was -batch, same as my Mac (which does work). I noticed that with this, the program would open, then close. So I removed -batch. The result is that it opens, and I get a popup saying that it cannot find the ROM. The path to the file name in the popup window appears to match the actual path. So I'm curious what's going on here, since that same path works for every other ROM.
And clearly, the authors of EmuDeck and RetroDeck have some form of black magic going on that makes theirs work correctly.

Hi, as stated above, I have some physical & mental impairments that affect my every day life, and have caused me to lose multiple jobs. 1st, I was diagnosed with ADHD as a kid & still as an adult which causes abnormal behavior in me, that's my main mental disorder. & my main physical disorder is a severe nasal septal perforation that causes me a lot of problems, severe pain daily, & I was diagnosed with Somatic Symptom Disorder, and labeled Seriously Mentally ill due to the severity of symptoms they cause me. Deviated Septum. Atrophic rhinitis due to a doctor tearing out my inferior turbinates, & Chronic recurring Rhinosinusitus. ,I'm also diagnosed with major depression, severe anxiety, recurring panic attacks, sleep apnea. These things cause me a lot of symptoms that are also noted alongside my diagnosis, which are severe pain/constant headaches, insomnia, sleep deprivation, non-restorative sleep, daytime fatigue, occasional dizziness. What's also noted along with the disorders is that get constant recurring nasal infections due to the septal perforation making me more susceptible to Infectious diseases, and I've been constantly on different medications every few months like antibiotics, antifungals, & antivirals. The infections all confirmed by Otolaryngologists, Infectious Disease Specialists, & Labwork. It has become so unmanageable that no matter what I do, I just end up getting another infection, over & over again because of the septal perforation. My doctor also has noted that I have to rinse 4-5x daily because of blood crust forming & pain & to keep infections low, along with taking multiple medications. This long standing nasal disordeinfections has even caused me pituitary disfunction and I have to do hormone replacement therapy for the rest of my life because of it. My sphenoid sinus was so infected & inflamed & spread to my pituitary gland with inflammation that impacted it. My testosterone levels were under 100, and my pituitary wasn't functioning. My doctor even has wrote all of this on accommodation paperwork for my employers, and has suggested different accommodations. My disorders get so unmanageable, that I haven't even been able to adhere to the accommodations. I've been written up at jobs for yawning while talking with clients, have been written for sounding extremely lethargic, for being late/tardy, missing days. In 2021a doctor tried to do septoplasty to fix deviation, but he ended up burning a hole through my septum. & no lawyer I reach out to cares. They have all refused the case saying it won't pay them enough lol. Since then, I've lost multiple jobs because of it. I've been at work and my nose start uncontrollably bleeding. Even tried office work for a few years & still end up getting in trouble and fired for missing work, or for sounding like shit. My doctor even wrote that I have permanent impairments that are unmanageable and that I require surgery to fix the septal perforation. And that his full belief is that I'm unable to sustain employment due to my septal perforation & other disorders i have, and that if I tried to procure even another job, that no matter how simple and mundane it is, I would most definitely end up losing that job again. And that my septal perforation must be repaired in order to start improving my health to make things manageable. And also wrote that I've seem dozens of specialist doctors who say it's too difficult for them to repair, and that I need to see the doctors at the Mayo Clinic, but the Mayo clinic refuses to see me because they don't take medicaid. And that my Somatic Symptom disorder is a result of my septal perforation that exacerbates my mental disorders. My doc wrote up a descriptive letter of all this and said I need to be on SSDI until I can get this septal perforation repaired, and that until it's repaired, I'm living with a permanent unmanageable impairment. & that employment cant be sustained until uts repaired, and that this has even caused me homelessness. & last year SSA STILL DENIED ME. So I'm trying to figure out how to get these jerks to stop playing games with me, and approve me. Any idea? I rather be able to be self sufficient and keep a job than to need disability income, but it's been hard keeping employment. If I could post a picture on here of my nasal cavity, you could see my septal perforation, & the deteriorating/decaying tissue around it, this shit hurts so bad 😓

I created an html in photoshop with a clickable link within the image.
the html code returns as this:

      Save for Web Slices (Goblet Stakes Template.psd)  `` `` `` `` `` ` `` `` `` `` `` 
` `
` `
` `` 
` `
` `
 End Save for Web Slices   

But when I try to embed this it splits the page and the link part is in the wrong spot. Can anyone help?

This post is part of a series of reviews. To see them all, click here.

Character Information

• Actor: Tom Baker
• Tenure (as a regular character): S12E01-S18E28 (178 total episodes, 42 total stories)
• Companions: Sarah Jane (Elizabeth Sladen, S12E01-S14E08), Harry (Ian Marter, S12E01-S13E04, S13E16), Leela (Louise Jameson, S14E13-S15E26), K-9 (V/As: John Leeson, Roy Skelton, David Brierley, S15E06-S18E20), Romana I (Mary Tamm, S16), Romana II (Lalla Ward, S17E01-S18E20), Adric (Matthew Waterhouse, S18E09-28), Nyssa (Sarah Sutton, S18E21-28), Tegan (Janet Fielding, S18E25-28)
• UNIT: The Brigadier (Nicholas Courtney, S12E01-04, S13E01-04), Benton (John Levene, S12E01-04, S13E01-04, S13E16)
• Other Notable Characters: The Decayed Master (Peter Pratt – S14E09-12, Geoffrey Beevers – S18E21-24), Borusa (Angus MacKay – S14E09-12, John Arnatt – S15E21-26), The White Guardian (Cyril Luckham, S16E01), The Black Guardian (Valentine Dyall, S16E26), The Tremas Master (Anthony Ainley, S18E24-28)

Retrospective

Seven seasons.
Seven season Tom Baker stuck around to play the Doctor. Seven seasons of one man having the lions' share of dialogue, screen time, and press coverage on Doctor Who. Seven seasons of the same face (well, more or less) in the opening titles. That's a lot to try and cover coherently. And because of how I write these posts after watching through the show in order, it makes it a bit difficult to think all the way back to where we began.
But I may as well make the effort so…where to begin? Well, starting back when Barry Letts was originally conceiving of the 4th Doctor, the first word that was written to describe the personality of the new Doctor was "eccentric". That's a word with a pretty broad definition, but with some specific connotations. When you think of "an eccentric", you're imagining a specific type of man, which Tom Baker immediately inhabits from the moment he steps in as the Doctor in Robot.
And it serves him well. From a plot sense, the 4th Doctor tends to come at problems from a rather unusual angle. Again, you can go back to Robot and see how he fights the titular robot, compared to the head-on way his predecessor would have done. And really, the whole concept of the Doctor as, not just a brilliant strategic thinker, or even a subtle manipulator like the 2nd Doctor could be, but as an unconventional thinker really originates with number four.
Similarly you can see a lot of the 4th Doctor's humor popping up in future incarnations. Tom Baker had a way of delivering sardonic lines like they were an inside joke between himself and the audience. While I don't think anyone else quite captures that, I still see a lot more of the 4th Doctor's kind of humor than earlier incarnations' popping up later on. But, at least early on, the humor always had an edge to it. Like the Doctor wasn't so much making jokes as he was making cynical observations in a jokey tone.
But the big innovation of the 4th Doctor era, as relates to the character of the lead, was the willingness of the writers to let the Doctor make mistakes. The most obvious example comes towards the end of the Hinchcliffe era, when we find out the Doctor accidentally gave a computer schizophrenia earlier in that incarnation, causing the events of The Face of Evil. But the Doctor occasionally slipping up, making sensible, but ultimately incorrect deductions or just choosing a poor tactic was all over the Hinchcliffe era. The earliest obvious example is probably choosing not to blow up the Dalek incubation chamber in Genesis of the Daleks, letting his desire to not make that choice override his more logical brain and trick him into believing that Gharman has Davros beat.
While it's not like the first three Doctors were never wrong. They were all, in their own way, quite frequently insensitive, but the show generally liked it's protagonist to be in the right, especially when it came to his deductions or strategies. After roughly the midpoint of Season 1, the Doctor had almost always never made a serious blunder. But by making the Doctor more fallible, the 4th Doctor era creates more tension. One of the reasons that building a horror era under Hinchcliffe works (despite my own personal tastes clashing with it) is that there is a greater sense of tension because the Doctor is allowed to make mistakes.
But not everything about the 4th Doctor is new. In particular in the early years he seems to have inherited the 3rd Doctor's general distaste for dealing with humans in authority. It's not as universal as the 3rd Doctor's general grumpiness towards anyone with a title, but it does stick out. At a few points, such as in The Seeds of Doom, the Doctor becomes some frustrated with the people he's working with he has to have Sarah Jane speak for him.
That only serves to accentuate a performance that feels decidedly inhuman, and in a good way. During the Hinchcliffe era, Tom Baker typically kept his performance energetic, yet understated. It kept him feeling unpredictable and more than a little unreliable. In Pyramids of Mars, Sarah Jane loses patience with the Doctor for a moment due to his seemingly callous behavior. It's of course then revealed that the Doctor does care, he's just focused on other things and bad at showing it. These ideas have been somewhat present in the Doctor's characterization for a while, but with the fourth Doctor they're taken up another level.
And it's worth pointing out that a lot of the time the "eccentric" characterization felt more like a mask than the real Doctor. Sometimes his frustrations would come out (for instance Planet of Evil) or his empathy would shine through in spite of himself (eg Pyramids of Mars) and it reveals that he's not quite as completely unlike us as he might like us to believe. The bravado, and the offhand remarks and the strange grins, they seem to all be there to mask fear, or affection or anger.
And then, everything changes. Not immediately of course, but during the Graham Williams era Tom Baker's performance becomes more…indulgent. It's not bad, but a lot of the subtlety of his earlier performances is lost in favor of going bigger and more over the top in many ways. Tom Baker's deep voice, already a notable feature of his performance from the beginning, starts being really emphasized. Again, we're not dealing with a performance that gets bad, just one that loses some its subtlety and edge. And in fairness, with the Williams era at the very least trying to play things a bit lighter, it makes sense that Baker's performance would get a bit broader.
But the result is that the performance also gets a bit lazier. I think at some point around Season 16, Tom Baker realized he didn't have to work hard to do a compelling performance as the Doctor. He was kind of already naturally doing it. This left Tom Baker time to focus on other things…but we'll get to that. During Season 17, there's a bit less slacking off, because he had less distractions. But then in his final season, Tom Baker is once again putting in less effort. And there's good reasons for that. His relationship with Lalla Ward was getting very messy. He was dealing with an illness during the filming of the E-Space trilogy. And he didn't like new co-star Matthew Waterhouse. Still Season 18 is where you get the sense that Baker's been in the role too long, although I do wonder if, without all the behind the scenes drama and the illness, that might not have been the case.
Of course it's not like Tom Baker was blameless for behind the scenes drama. In fact it's probably fair to say he caused a lot of it. Tom Baker was, from very early on, an incredibly difficult presence behind the scenes at on set. The first time I saw reference to it was during Terror of the Zygons, where Nicholas Courtney felt that Baker was abrasive and not taking criticism well. From that point on, Baker's attitude issues seemed to increase. Directors in particular often got the wrong end of the stick, first seen in Pyramids of Mars when Paddy Russell (herself the kind of creative person who always liked to get her own way) and Tom Baker clashed over the filming of a few scenes. And then there's what happened to Louise Jameson, who played Leela, where Baker just treated her very badly during their first season together. Eventually, Jameson stood up for herself and the two developed a functional working relationship during Season 15, but when Jameson still felt the need to warn her successor, Mary Tamm, about Baker.
But on the same note I do think it's important to acknowledge a few things. First of all, Tom Baker went from being a virtual unknown to being the star of a very popular science fiction series. That would have a tremendous effect on anybody. To hear Baker himself tell it, Doctor Who essentially became the central feature of his life while he was working on the show. A lot (in fact, I think all) of the stories of Baker being difficult revolve around his desire for more control over the show, and seen through that lens, it kind of makes sense why. For another thing, it's not like every single director or co-star had a difficult relationship with Baker. Elizabeth Sladen and Ian Marter got along with Baker perfectly well. Mary Tamm did stand up for herself from the beginning and never had any major issues with Baker. And of course there are several directors who managed to work with Baker without issue. Tom Baker was difficult to work with, yes, but far from impossible and anyone at the time would have told you that what he gave to the show was worth the trouble.
In the past for these posts I've always spent at least a little time talking about the Doctor's relationships with his companions. For the 4th Doctor, so this doesn't turn into a six paragraph section on companions, I'll just make a general observation here: the 4th Doctor frequently ended up in the role of tutor or mentor. It starts, of course, with Leela, and while the idea of the Doctor teaching Leela to be a more intellectual version of herself never played out to the extent some might have hoped, it's still a pretty consistent part of their relationship. And then the dynamic is flipped with Romana, who the Doctor has to teach to be more instinctive and intuitive. Actually the Romana and Leela comparison tells us a lot about the Doctor: he doesn't actually value one form of knowledge above the other. Leela needs to learn science and civilization because those are the gaps in her knowledge. Romana needs to learn intuition and practical abilities because those are the gaps in her knowledge, and the Doctor largely treats the job of teaching his companions these things the same way.
Towards the end of his tenure, the Doctor picks up one more student: Adric. What Adric needs to be taught is a bit different than the others. He's already an intellectual powerhouse – he's got a badge for mathematical excellence and everything. And he's not short of practical experience. What he lacks is a kind of empathy. Now Adric isn't entirely unempathetic, but he's a sullen teenager a lot of the time. Sometimes he just doesn't care very much for others. You can see the Doctor trying to get Adric to consider more clearly the consequences of his actions, or realize that, as intelligent as he is, there are just things he won't know.
Of course none of this applies to Sarah Jane or Harry (or K-9, but there's not much to talk about there). The Doctor's relationship with Harry was mostly just Harry ending up as the butt of the Doctor's jokes and Harry being confused. As for Sarah Jane, well that's another story. Honestly, I don't think this was necessarily explored as much as it could have been. The two seemed to have a weird relationship where they'd antagonize each other, only to come back together. At the end of Hand of Fear Sarah Jane makes a big scene of wanting to leave the TARDIS, only to protest when the Doctor actually throws her off, and it reads like, up to that point, that had just been part of their friendship. That Sarah Jane would blow off the steam from her adventures (like being mind controlled for the 17 millionth time) by complaining at the Doctor and declaring she'd leave, only to stick around in the end.
Which is, I guess, what you do when your traveling companion is as unpredictable and eccentric as the 4th Doctor. Tom Baker's iteration of the Doctor isn't my favorite, but it's undeniable he redefined the part, to the point that the 4th Doctor is this clear dividing point in how the character is written. As one final example, before the 4th Doctor era, a defining part of the Doctor's character was that he was a capital "S" Scientist. But in the 4th Doctor era, that fades. He's still a scientific genius, but the characterization shifts from Scientist to enthusiastic amateur who happens to know more than the professionals. And that idea of the Doctor, as a traveling dilettante who somehow is smarter than everything around him, while it's been there from very early on, really takes shape in this era.
Tom Baker's performance is entirely unique, his very particular voice, his odd, often out of place facial expressions that seem to indicate the opposite of what they should, and occasional outbursts that reveal the real Doctor, I don't think you can point at anyone else that's ever done it remotely like him. And I don't think anyone could. There were a lot of factors that led to 4th Doctor becoming the most popular and beloved Doctor of the classic era, possibly even of the show itself. The timing was right as the show expanded into new markets. The fact that the beginning of his time on the show coincided with a run of very popular stories can't have hurt. But Tom Baker was always the main reason the 4th Doctor worked.

10 Key Stories

10 key stories for the character, listed in chronological order
Robot: Tom Baker's first story as the Doctor does a remarkably good job setting up how the 4th Doctor is going to operate going forwards. Though perhaps lacking in the subtleties that the 4th Doctor would develop through the rest of the Huinchcliffe era, Baker's oddly captivating performance is there right from the word go. He's a bit goofy from the regeneration, but nonetheless finds himself having a quiet moment at the end of the story with Sarah Jane.
Genesis of the Daleks: The Doctor is sent back in time to avert the creation of the Daleks and he…just…can't…do it. That scene of the Doctor holding two wires next to each other, unable to touch them together and just win is probably Tom Baker's first genuinely great performance as the Doctor. His relief at seemingly being relieved of that responsibility as palpable. And his final scene as he Harry and Sarah Jane travel back to the Nerva with the Time Ring, offering up one last bit of hope in spite of how badly things seem to have gone firmly establishes the optimistic nature of the character first introduced earlier in Ark in Space.
Pyramids of Mars: The Doctor's sometimes seemingly callous nature is revealed to be more of a mask than the reality of the character. He's got more serious things on his mind than the death of one man…but that doesn't mean he doesn't care for the death of that man.
The Deadly Assassin: The Doctor is on his own for the first time in this incarnation, and finds himself battling against his old enemy the Master. Caught up in Gallifreyan politics the Doctor suddenly feels small on the backdrop of greater schemes. Though he does still manage to sort of get himself elected as president which I'm sure will have no effect in the future…
The Face of Evil: The Doctor is forced to confront a serious error he made a long time ago. What he did to Xoannon, a computer developing sentience, and the way that that mistake ended up hurting the people of the planet he's landed has far reaching consequences which he's forced to help undo. He also makes a new friend…sort of accidentally.
Horror of Fang Rock: And things were going so well with Leela. While the primary confrontation with a Rutan is engaging, for my purposes here, what I'm interested in is the relationship between Leela and the Doctor. It starts out well, with the two working as a great team. And then Leela takes things too far, drawing the ire of the Doctor in a way that we hadn't necessarily seen before. It doesn't ultimately go anywhere, but it's very telling as moment all the same.
The Invasion of Time: The Doctor decides he'd like to be president. It's a ruse, or course, because the Doctor would never actually want to be president, but seeing him play the villain for a few episodes is quite intriguing. The story has some major issues, but seeing the Doctor play a bit more of the strategist and playing a bit more of a long game in this story is still fun.
The Ribos Operation: After Leela's departure, the Doctor finds himself with a new and completely different kind of companion to take under his wing. Having to show Romana that she can't always trust someone because they have an "honest face", beginning to show her to think more practically, this all shows a different kind of teachestudent relationship from the one we saw with Leela. Also the respectful yet frustrated way he deals with the White Guardian is fun.
Shada: Kind of odd to to include a story that was never actually completed as a "key" story here, but I think this has the best representation of the Doctor during this era. More relaxed, and largely just out having fun with his best friend Romana, the Doctor during this story still shows his sense of duty when Chronotis has messed up. His odd musing at the end of the story about what future people might think of him is a nice capstone to the era.
Logopolis: So much is going on in this one. This story has the perfect blend of all of the various ways in which the 4th Doctor has been characterized throughout his tenure. Teaching Adric about new kinds of science and responsibility, taking aboard Tegan and Nyssa in spite of difficulties, but still having a go at all three of them at one point. And then there's his alliance with the Master at the end, which proves his downfall. There's even a bit of that fallibility coming through when he mistakes the Master's initial goals.

Rankings

1. City of Death (10/10)
2. The Brain of Morbius (10/10)
3. Horror of Fang Rock (9/10)
4. Genesis of the Daleks (9/10)
5. The Face of Evil (8/10)
6. State of Decay (8/10)
7. The Robots of Death (8/10)
8. The Ribos Operation (8/10)
9. Warriors' Gate (8/10)
10. The Pirate Planet (8/10)
11. Terror of the Zygons (7/10)
12. The Leisure Hive
13. The Stones of Blood (7/10)
14. The Ark in Space (7/10)
15. Shada (7/10)
16. Image of the Fendahl (7/10)
17. Underworld (7/10)
18. The Keeper of Traken (7/10)
19. Logopolis (7/10)
20. The Seeds of Doom (7/10)
21. Full Circle (7/10)
22. The Talons of Weng-Chiang (6/10)
23. The Hand of Fear (6/10)
24. The Sontaran Experiment (6/10)
25. The Sun Makers (6/10)
26. Destiny of the Daleks (6/10)
27. The Androids of Tara (6/10)
28. The Deadly Assassin (5/10)
29. Pyramids of Mars (5/10)
30. Robot (5/10)
31. The Sun Makers (5/10)
32. Nightmare of Eden (5/10)
33. The Masque of Mandragora (4/10)
34. Planet of Evil (4/10)
35. The Creature from the Pit (4/10)
36. The Armageddon Factor (3/10)
37. The Power of Kroll (3/10)
38. Revenge of the Cybermen (3/10)
39. The Android Invasion (3/10)
40. The Invisible Enemy (2/10)
41. The Horns of Nimon (2/10)
42. Meglos (1/10)

Forty-two stories is a lot. I'm not even sure how I feel about this ranking. Of course, as is well documented by this point I'm not a horror guy so a lot of Hinchcliffe-era horror stuff ranks a lot lower than you might have expected if you aren't following along with this review series. Beyond that though, there's just a lot of variety of stories. The ranking naturally has a lot of uncertainty to it. Am I really confident that Shada the unfinished story belongs exactly one slot below The Ark in Space from all the way back in Season 12, which I haven't watched since I reviewed it? Obviously not. And there's a ton of other stuff like that. But this is probably as accurate to my preferences a ranking as will ever exist.
Doctor Era Rankings
These are based on weighted averages that take into account the length of each story. Take this ranking with a grain of salt however. No average can properly reflect a full era's quality and nuance, and the scores for each story are, ultimately, highly subjective and a bit arbitrary.

1. 3rd Doctor Era (6.8/10)
2. 2nd Doctor Era (6.5/10)
3. 4th Doctor Era (6.0/10)
4. 1st Doctor Era (6.0/10)

A lot of you may be surprised at the relatively low rating that the 4th Doctor era gets. First of all, it's worth noting that a 6/10 is by no means a bad rating. Any individual story I rate a 6/10 is a story that, while noticeably flawed, I still enjoyed. As an average for an entire era, especially one that lasts 7 seasons through three (technically four) different producers, that's not bad. But of course what's dragging the rating down is that the Hinchcliffe era just isn't to my taste and the Williams era, while more to my liking in theory, in practice never lives up to its potential.
Next Time: Well there's a new Doctor in town and he's feeling out of sorts. Let's bring him to a nice medieval castle where the rooms keep repeating. That should make him feel better.

Hi all,
Long time Linux user here. Like, my first Linux machine was in 1998 or so running whatever Red Hat version was popular then, and I've been running some form of Linux ever since in server capacities. I've also been running VMware since v3 around 2011, and I've toyed with Proxmox CE on and off for a few years. So I get Linux, and I get virtualization. But I'm still hitting a wall.
I went through this tutorial using a spare Dell PowerEdge R720 with Xeon CPUs, 192 GB of RAM, and Solid State drives that lives in our data center in .
It's IP in my internal network at the data center is, let's say, "192.168.11.93". It's not, but why would I post internal network stuff on the internet???
I can SSH into it, as well as get to the console via Enterprise iDRAC over the site-to-site VPN tunnel between my office and the data center.
I ran into a problem getting the 28-29 services to start, but found the solution here.
I theoretically can now get to my openstack-horizon interface on (according to the server) http://10.21.21.12:80/operstack-horizon.
This leads to problem #1: I don't have a graphical UI on this server. I purposefully did a minimal Ubuntu Server 22.04 LTS install, because VMware servers don't have a graphical UI on them either, and I don't want to waste memory on a graphical UI that I'll rarely access directly. Sure, I could install the graphical UI and then set the default environment to multi-user, but I come back around to "why waste the disk space and resources for something I'm going to access from the console rarely?"
So I'm wondering how I take the IP address they gave me for the openstack-horizon UI and make it accessible via the server's IP address, http://192.168.11.93/openstack-horizon. Firewall rule, or is there something cleaner? If it's a firewall rule, is there a template for this somewhere for me to look at?
Then there's problem #2: Let's say I have 10 physical servers and I want them all running openstack in a high availability cluster. I seem to have just set up a cluster on this server; I'm guessing I can join the other servers to this one. But what if this server dies? Is there a way to set up a virtual machine that acts as the cluster management interface? Or do I need a physical server for this? And if it's a physical server for this, how do you ensure you can get to the cluster if the physical server dies? In VMware, this is solved with a virtual machine that lives on shared storage and is migrated within the cluster as needed. Is there a similar openstack solution to this?
Problem #3 is down the road a little bit, but I want to connect my openstack servers to my SAN via iSCSI. I see the iSCSI initiator service is out there. I assume I just configure this with Ubuntu, set a target path like "/mnt/sanX/volY", and then rinse, lather, repeat for all servers?
Problem #4: Live migrations... is it a thing between members of the cluster?
I'm sure I'm putting some carts before some horses here. I'm just trying to migrate my knowlege-base from VMware to Openstack, and any help would be appreciated. I think Problem #1 is the obvious first one to tackle.
Thank you, in advance, for your patience!

A few weeks ago, someone posted a link to one of Don’s rants and I went through and commented on each of the points. I can't find that post, but I had copied it over here: https://www.reddit.com/perpetualeducation/comments/1c7k9re/donthedeveloper_on_a_rant_about_how_aspiring/
We had a chat about it. Here’s the video/podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHmqZkC3LqU&lc
Don titled it: There's a MASSIVE Skill Gap Among New Developers
I'll attempt to write a bit about that - (even though we went over many other topics - and I'm having a hard time grouping them)
It’s easy to simplify this into “the market” or “the boot camp” or “the tech stack” or "what's fair" or "the resume" - but I think people are missing the various multidimensional aspects at play. Is it:
Is it all of those things - and more? (Yes). And it's "the student" too." We're all different (cue reading rainbow moment). But it's true. Some of us are slower. Some of us are faster but miss the details. Some of us have a background that alignes neatly with tech. Some of us already know what job we want and why - and other people just want to make a good bet on a stable career. No matter what zone you're in, we still have to face the music - and deal with (trigger alert) - the truth.
The market is real. Companies aren't aggressively hireing random barely capable developers right now (like they have in the past). They're scared and holding on to their money. They also kinda realized they were spending more money on middle management and probably developers too - and are going to need some time to figure out how to make profitable businesses (or how to keep getting more VC funding to burn through).
But if there's a huge gap between your skills/experience and what it takes to do the job you're applying for, none of the other factors matter.
Many people choose a coding boot camp based on superficial factors like the price, the timeline, the website design, and the sales pitch. They often don't consider other important aspects because they simply don't know better. This isn’t unlike any other product or service or school.
Some people pick out a boot camp and learn a bunch of awesome stuff and they go out there and start a new career and for some reason, they don’t come back to Reddit to tell us about it. There are some legit colleges and boot camps and other alternative learning paths out there - that are really great. It's just a fact.
If you read the bootcamp marketing, paid your tuition, went through the steps they lined out, and came out the other end unable to get that job they promised you, well - that’s awkward. Maybe for you, it’s that simple. If you feel like you got a raw deal, I’m sorry. There are some businesses that should be ashamed of themselves - but they won't be. All you can do is warn other people. That’s over now. We can only work with the present.
For people who really want to work in this industry - they'll keep moving forward: at the end of the day, this is the playing field. So, if you want to get off the bench, we’re going to have to design a path to that – and you might need to rethink some of your assumptions.
It could certainly be said that new developers are now expected to know about–and have experience with–a lot more things.
Are the expectations that someone brand new to development is going to be able to get a job unreasonable? Well, does it matter what someone’s opinion about that is? You either want the job - or you don’t. And you need to know how to do the job, or no one will hire you. Do you need to know everything on this huge list to get an entry level position https://roadmap.sh/javascript ? (no) (in fact - close that - and don’t ever look at it again)
When I started (at the age of ~30) (in ~2011), you needed to know HTML, CSS, (Probably some PhotoShop to get your assets), maybe a little PHP (and likely HTTP and more about URLs and request types and forms), FTP and DNS to get your site hosted, and maybe some JavaScript. You might have used jQuery to help out or Knockout.js. And you had to know how to hook up a database and MySQL and probably a CMS or some sort. And maybe your code was a mess or maybe it adhered to some common patterns. But that was life. Not everyone needed to know all those things. Some people would focus more on getting the mockup into the HTML and CSS. Other people might focus on the server and the PHP or Perl or Java. There were all sorts of jobs and some of them were done by people with a formal education in Computer Science studies and other people just figured it out as needed. There was a lot of work to be done. Lots of custom stuff to build and maintain. And it was just normal to learn more incrementally as the years went by. You could totally get a job knowing just HTML and CSS (and you still can BTW). There was still an infinite amount of things you could know. But it seemed to ramp up naturally because we were closer to the grain of The Web.
So, what do people learn now? (Generally) They rush through some HTML and CSS really quick (which actually teaches them more bad habits than good). They rarely learn about DNS or FTP because a tutorial showed them how to type a few random things into a terminal to have their site on a free service and they don’t buy a domain name because there’s a free subdomain. Apparently paying for anything is for suckers and companies that don't give you things for free are evil capitalistic pigs who should be shut down. New devs don’t know much about servers because their text editor is actually running an advanced web application behind the scenes that starts a virtual server and runs all sorts of other things they don’t understand outside of that context - like connecting to version control, opening a terminal pane, SSH, code completion and typeahead, autoimport completion, AI suggestions and other additional layers like typescript and many other linters to tell them where all their errors are. If they couldn't use VSCode - they might be dead in the water. It can feel like you’re just a bag of meat being yelled at by VSCode as you try and solve the errors and remove all the red lines. And we do all of these - to put the training wheels in place.
And I’m not saying that a LAMP stack doesn’t have it’s own level of black-box and mysteries with how Apache handles your HTTP requests and MySQL starts up it’s own server - but we have to be comfortable with some level of abstraction or we’d be writing all ones and zeros at the machine code level.
So, the new developer is manning this huge stack of tools unknowingly, but they do get a lot of benefits. We can spin up a pretty complex web application with a front-end to make requests, a server to talk to a database and other third-party systems and respond back to the client/front-end, and an auth layer to make sure people are properly signing in and only seeing what they need to see. There are abstractions for HTML and CSS and JS that put that template logic and controller logic into a neat little component file (which is great) and that component file is properly registered based on file name conventions and everything gets set up in this larger system of conventions that all happen behind the scenes in the framework architecture. So, as a new developer - you can really ride the framework and know hardly anything about how it works - as long as you know the language to speak to this layer of the abstraction (the API).
These aren't just arbitrary add-ons that people made to complicate things. They solve real-world problems. The new dev won't really understand what they are - but I'm not saying we should just get rid of them. They allow us to move faster and to build interfaces and business logic without having to write tons of behind the scenes repeated structural code by hand. And with those training wheels, we have more time on our hands. We can also add in the chance to further define our programs with safety measures and plan automated testing routines, and built-in documentation of our code base. We can keep adding layers and layers or pull in more and more third-party tools. It’s pretty amazing. But what people end up learning is how to maintain that configuration - and there’s only so much time - and so, they end up learning 10% of all the things you used to need/want to know. And some jobs have a path for that. But there's likely going to be a long-term cost for you.
Arguably - it doesn’t matter how much “code” you know - and making things is what matters. And that’s true. That’s what matters to the business that pays you. And to the school that wants you to feel good about your progress. But I think you should protect your learning journey. It’s for you. It’s going to be what you carry on throughout the years and it’s a seed.
Getting proficient with a popular tech stack - when the market is booming proved to be a great decision for boot camps and their students. And I'd bet that the majority of people mean well.
But when it's not booming, students are in it for the wrong reasons, schools have tightened up and moved online, the market has plenty of devs who already have 5+ years working with that framework/stack -- then all of the sudden - the surface-level fake-it-till-you-make-it path (as much as I respect that) doesn't work as well. You're going to have to put in some more energy.
When it's obvious that you can't build an HTML page with semantic markup, that's accessible, and has a universally pleasurable experience, and you can't write CSS without a UI framework or do anything custom, it's obvious. You should be aware of that gap. When you've never owned a domain name or setup a deployment pipeline, you should be aware of that gap. When your personal website looks like your boot camp gave it to you, you should be aware of how that looks. When you can't take a server-side scripting language like Python or Go or PHP and build out a little personal website framework - you should be aware of that gap. When you can't plan a project and don't have experience with diagrams and explaining things, you need to be aware of that gap. When you've never written about your process or created any case-studies to explain your projects, you should be aware of that gap. When you're only proof of work is the class assignments, you should be aware of that gap. When your github history goes dead after the last day of class, you should be aware that we'll see that. When you claim to no nothing about visual design and that's for someone else on the team - you should be aware of that gap. If you refuse to turn on your camera and just want to be left alone, you should be aware of that huge gap. If you can't build a little prototype app without React, they you probably don't JavaScript, and you should be aware of that gap. And there will ALWAYS be a gap. There's always more to learn. So - it's an important skill to know what to learn and why - and when. You can't learn everything. And if you're having a hard time finding work right now, then get clear on your goal. Stop applying for general "Software engineer" jobs you aren't ready for. Narrow your scope. Figure out a job that you think you can do confidently. Get clear on how big your gap is and what you need to learn to get centered and confident with your toolset. Ideally, it's fun. Try and ignore all the doom and gloom and focus on your own personal goal.
It's not just the market. Too many people are applying for jobs they aren't anywhere near qualified to do. And it probably doesn't feel good. But luckily - you can learn the things and get back on track.

Welcome to the Weekly Guild Recruitment Megathread, where you can look for a guild to join or advertise your guild to recruit new members!
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Hey Webflow Community,
I wanted to share a project I've been working on: Thind-JS, a JavaScript library/framework designed to work seamlessly with Webflow.
Why Thind-JS?
I know there are countless JavaScript frameworks out there, but I built Thind-JS specifically with Webflow in mind. Webflow's ease of use, especially with custom attributes, inspired me to create a library that complements this approach.
Key Features:

• Zero Dependencies: Thind-JS is built with no dependencies, keeping it lightweight and fast.
• Webflow Friendly: It leverages Webflow’s custom attributes, making it easy to integrate and use.
• Modular and Flexible: You can use only the parts you need, without any unnecessary bloat.

How It Works:
Thind-JS provides a simple API to interact with your Webflow elements, allowing you to add complex functionality without heavy coding. Whether it’s dynamic content, interactive forms, or other web applications, Thind-JS is designed to fit naturally with Webflow.
For now comes with these features
Element Handling: Get elements using a global custom attribute, so you don't have to write this all the time

const el = document.querySelector(".myclass"); 

Form Handling: Manage form submissions, validations, and field values effortlessly.
Page Management: Retrieve page information and URL parameters with ease.
DataStore: Manage application state with a reactive data store for real-time updates, ability to subscribe todata keys and enable local cashing with just a boolean.
Data Rendering: Render dynamic data in DOM using any Webflow element as a template.
Sortable Table: Create tables with sortable columns for better data organization.
I'm still working on a few improvements and would love to get your feedback. If you’re interested in trying it out, check out the npm page for more details and documentation. The goal is to make this Open Source project for Webflow Dev community.
I built this to make my own projects easier and more powerful, and I hope it can do the same for you. Please share any feedback or suggestions – I'd love to hear from you!
Cheers ✌️

Like every product/service. SaaS products are different. They are intangible. They have intangible buyers. They have subscribers like Netflix, who have to pay for their product/ service annually, monthly, or quarterly.
To increase sales, they have a few tricks which are by giving annual discounts, showing off customer testimonials, social media promotions, enhanced customer experience, demos, Live chats, CTA, set up calls, and Feedback to retain the customer.
Not only this, this industry has its process as it has an intangible audience. So, they have to understand their presentations not through body language but by how they are expressing their views or presenting their questions in an email or call.
Providing Free trials is mostly there in the SaaS industry. As the audience will get to know what your product is creating value to their biz and how it is helpful in the growth of the biz by saving time/ money.
The free trial should not be too long or short. It should depend upon the complexity of the software.
Before knowing the technique one should know what Saas is and how it works. Right? Like before buying anything we ask for the price of the product.

The Fundamentals

“Having a repeatable process empowers your sales reps to sell with efficiency and confidence”. The process begins from:
Prospecting:Since we are selling it to the tech-savvy audience, we will do inbound marketing which includes blogs, online posts, email newsletters, whitepapers, etc.
In addition to that, we can do face-to-face interaction with potential buyers which is rare in this SaaS industry.
Qualifying: Not all visitors on your website or trial subscribers will buy the product. To know that, there are lead scores which is an automatic way to qualify leads and you will get information and interpret it from your data and assign it with the lead scores from 1 to 10.
Another way is to start a trial is to email them or call them for after-sale service. So, you will get an idea of the status of the buyer.
Presenting: Mostly it’s not possible to present in face-to-face interactions in the SaaS industry otherwise we have got it through body language.
Through online mode, presenting would be done through email sequence and frequent follow-ups which will let us know the pain points the way it’s been expressed.
Handling objectives: After presenting, prospects have questions and concerns about the product or service. So, you must have known what most of the customers ask and know how to handle the response of the prospect.
Closing: At this moment, the prospect becomes your customer. In this stage, we will deliver the final proposal of the product and negotiate with the customer.
Nurturing: to retain the SaaS customers excluding customer support which includes training for existing and new customers. Feedback includes reviews, rates, and testimonials.
Part of their happy moments by sending happy birthday, and celebration notes, etc.

How to increase your SaaS conversions using the right marketing strategy:

Create strategic trial duration
Most of the SaaS products have a trial duration. As it is a great way to hook new customers to buy, however, to make it worthwhile, you should plan it strategically.
When the customer has the opportunity to get trials which will help them to know the value of the product in their biz as well as the benefit of your offering.
The trial period should depend on the software. if the software is complex then 14 days or more trials would work. But what if the software is easy to adapt and gives the trial for 30 days?
It would only make the sale cycle long and there would be fewer customers buying the product. As they know every part of your software and will compare with the alternatives of the service. So, it depends on the product.
Custom/ live setup call
Many of us don’t know how to set up the software. How did things work? These customers have the priority of how the software will work for them by giving lesser importance to how your products work.
SaaS has the highest conversion from this special technique of Live setup call only. This CRM would help them to achieve their objective related to the product they have taken a trial or purchased.
Leverage Annual discounts
Many SaaS products offer annual discounts in exchange for the customer paying the bill all at once in a cheaper amount as compared to paying it every month which attracts customers to attain the service. While the company gets a sizable influx of cash at a moment and doesn’t get worried about a customer leaving at any moment.
Automated follow-up
As you see whenever you log in to the florist website or hospital website. They will ask ‘how may I help you?’ which is an automated way of assisting you. In the same way, these automated services will help the new customer to assist with the service and product and they have common queries stored which will be solved by the assistant by putting up the questions and shortening the sale cycle.
Content Marketing
This is the only way of communication between the buyer and seller. By reading your content, understanding it, and perceiving it makes the buyer come into your contact. Biz around the globe is using content marketing to reach the audience and generate leads. With consistency, you share the content it will increase its value over time
PPC( pay per click) also generates leads but with valuable content. So, content marketing is an asset for biz owners while online ads are temporary or rented. Biz around the globe is using content marketing to reach the audience and generate leads. Keeping content quality consistent across multiple channels helps increase brand awareness among your audience.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
This feature works hand in hand with content marketing by making it discoverable in google, bing, and ranking it in two ways: On-page SEO and off-page SEO.
On-page SEO: This form is under your control. You create content that people search to read. By adding internal links, UI, use of the title, and description.
Off-Page SEO: Mainly, when we hear about SEO, links are the things that click us. But getting the right trusted and authoritative link is what matters! The best way to gain links and shares is by a distribution strategy.
Google AdWords
While inbound marketing reduces the spending of Adwords, zillion people are still clicking on the search engine ads per day. If you don’t want to miss out on these people to generate leads then you should still invest in PPCi.e pay per click.
PPC is beneficiary as it is scalable, generate leads, and generate the best ROI for your biz
Pro Tip: to increases sales, some strategies to take care of is to choose the right model of SaaS, identify the target audience and its value proposition, set prospect qualification criteria, create templates, call scripts, set revenue goals, create a customer support system, and keep track of sales performance metrics that will be effective in rank in the SEO.
Want to connect or schedule a call with me? send an inbox.

I need to get something off my chest, it's been weighing me down for years. Da-dum-tisss
Vent: My chest - my main source of dysphoria. It makes it hard for me to breathe naturally, move about, wear clothes I want to without hating it and I have never felt comfortable in my body since puberty. I can't stand these gross, deformed, fleshy lumps on my body. They just don't belong on me. I strive to improve myself, my self hatred/cynicism being my worst trait. For me, comfort in my own skin requires top surgery.

So, We begin the journey here…

As a 23-year-old trans male living in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
I knew this path would not be easy… but I was not informed it would be this hard. These are very shortened versions of events…

1. Research the process and follow along- 2. Went to therapy for a gender dysphoria diagnosis- surprisingly the easy part to do, just speak honestly… done. 3. Spoke with a doctor for help and referrals- They came across as half-supportive… tried to offer me MTF hormones, which is not great as I am FTM. I don’t want hormones yet, but found myself relieved at the effortless way I could receive them. I ignore the offer and inform the doctor of the mix up. 4. I waited for the referrals to contact me… 

And waited… and waited- …Weeks later I was puzzled when I received no news. I doubted my doctor even sent referrals… but, they did send out a few. Well, no one’s contacting me? I’ll reach out to them then… (I later found out one of the referrals, plastic surgeons, contacted me through “My chart” which I didn’t have access to at the time… phone numbers and emails exist… come on.)

6. I begin to poke around online- I struggle to find places, not sure what to look up to actually get search results. Places I find the phones usually didn’t pick up, or places have no idea what to tell me about gender affirming care… 

I complain to my therapist about the difficulty… and they helped, better at internet research then I am-and found me “denver health colorado Lgbtq+ services,” So, I call there… After being transferred from automated messages around I learn some things… Denver health LGBTQ+ services won’t speak to me, even with referrals… until I fill out an online forum.
Okay…

7. I fill out a 40-50 questionnaire and wait… expecting a call… They email instead… 

I got an email of further things to do, it was mixed with information packets and paperwork to do. The email not separating the information vs the tasks I had to do overwhelmed me. I spoke with my therapist again… who helped.

8. I fill out a medical release form… unable to “fax” like they wanted because it’s 2024 I emailed them a digitally filled out copy. I don’t have a printer. 9. Mental health support… therapist and I complain about requested “mental health support template” being… way too specific. 

Instead of being a normal “patient needs this gender affirming treatment because of gender dysphoria-“ My therapist has to fill out detailed things the place should ask me directly in a consolation or a phone call- “How long have they identified as this gender?” “Are they on hormones and if not why?” “What are the earliest memories of gender dysphoria?” Etc. Yet, therapist and I fill it out. I need a medical version too but if my doctor doesn’t understand the difference between MTF vs FTM… I have very low expectations of that being easy.

10. I email the place, wanting to know if it’s accepted… worst part the email says- “submitting this form does not place you on a consultation waitlist.” Yet says it could be 50 weeks later that I receive the help once I am on such a list… 

So… what am I doing all this work for? Maybe I prefer old ways but… Why can’t I talk to someone on the phone yet, ask questions? I am used to filling these things out in person or connecting doctors to talk to each other. Maybe I’m too daft for all this but… it’s been stressing me out for months. I have never had such a slow process.

Am I going about this wrong? Would going to a plastic surgeon be easier?

At this point, I don’t even think I want to research results for what surgeon I get…

Have a flow set up to create a Sharepoint List row for every new form submission. One of the questions is a yes/no choice, which then populates a column in the list.
I'm trying to send an email automatically based on the yes/no in that column. So if respondent chooses "yes" they would get one email, "no" would get another.
Keep getting errors including "The execution of template action 'Apply_to_each_3' failed: the result of the evaluation of 'foreach' expression '@outputs('Create_item')?['body/HaveiPhone_x003f_']' is of type 'String'. The result must be a valid array."
Help please!

I am new to unit testing in Angular and I was trying to test my component with these simple tests, but it gives me error after placing the routerLink in the template:
link to stackoverflow:

My tests:

import { ComponentFixture, TestBed } from '@angulacore/testing'; import { HttpClientTestingModule } from '@angulacommon/http/testing'; import { RouterTestingModule } from '@angularoutetesting'; import { ActivatedRoute, Router } from '@angularouter'; import { LOJAApi } from 'my-lib'; import { EdicaoComponent } from './edicao.component'; describe('EdicaoComponent', () => { let component: EdicaoComponent; let fixture: ComponentFixture; let lojaService: LOJAApi; let router: Router; let route: ActivatedRoute; beforeEach(async () => { await TestBed.configureTestingModule({ imports: [HttpClientTestingModule, RouterTestingModule, EdicaoComponent], providers: [ { provide: LOJAApi, useValue: lojaService }, { provide: Router, useValue: router }, { provide: ActivatedRoute, useValue: route }, ], }).compileComponents(); fixture = TestBed.createComponent(EdicaoComponent); component = fixture.componentInstance; lojaService = TestBed.inject(LOJAApi); }); it('should create', () => { expect(component).toBeTruthy(); }); it('should return all phone info', () => { component.edicaoForm.value.DDD_FONE = null; component.edicaoForm.value.FONE = null; expect(component.getPhone()).toBe('00 000000000'); }); it('should return DDD', () => { component.edicaoForm.value.TELEFONE = '11999999999'; expect(component.handleDDD()).toBe('11'); }); it('should return phone', () => { component.edicaoForm.value.TELEFONE = '11999999999'; expect(component.handlePhone()).toBe('999999999'); }); }); 

Gives the following error:

TypeError: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'events') at new RouterLink (http://localhost:9876/_karma_webpack_/webpack:/node_modules/@angularoutefesm2020/router.mjs:5711:40) at NodeInjectorFactory.factory (http://localhost:9876/_karma_webpack_/webpack:/node_modules/@angularoutefesm2020/router.mjs:5865:16) at getNodeInjectable (http://localhost:9876/_karma_webpack_/webpack:/node_modules/@angulacore/fesm2020/core.mjs:3431:44) 

I already tried with all possible variations with the routerLink such as: [routerLink]="'../loja-lista'" routerLink="../loja-lista" [routerLink]=["'../loja-lista'"]

[LFM][SHC][DSR][7/8][ULTIMATE][AETHER][STATIC]
Hi we are newly formed static with varying prog points with the goal of completing DSR ideally before DT under midcore hrs but with a focused semi hardcore approach.
**Looking for:** Barrier Healer
**Prog point:** P3 Cleanup to P4
**Raiding schedule**: Tue and Thurs 8-11PM EST and Sunday 830-1130PM EST
**About the group:** *Liquid Lala* is a newly formed group of experienced ultimate raiders. Our shot caller has cleared DSR and TOP and our static leader has experience in previous ults and leading groups and discords. We have 3 members on P3 Cleanup Prog, and the remaining members have cleared or are on P5 and P6+ Progression. Our goal is to clear DSR before Dawntrail.
**What we expect: **
• Study the mechs, all players are expected to study a whole phase length ahead for prog time.
• Open to using Sims and Spreadsheets, which we will do as a group during raid time when necessary to expedite prog.
• Be able to take feedback. Everyone needs to be held accountable in a prog setting. Favoritism, egos, silence, elitism will not be tolerated.
• Previous Ult experience preferred, UCOB is a big plus for P5, Generally a fight record that shows you are consistent, a team player and can handle longer fights.
• Attendance, consistent tardiness will result in being removing from group, we expect members to make raid days. Hours of notice is needed for an absence.
• Gear Ready, ideally BIS on your Job, Food and Pots when needed.
• Active in VC or Chat, Communicating in VC is a major plus but you must be listening and responding to others in chat at a bare minimum
• Energy and Humor is greatly appreciated, many hrs playing this game it's welcome to have people with levity and openness to just interact with others for fun.
📚 Team Logs upon Request!
DM if you're interested!

I don't want to sit here and just complain about how pokemon "isn't what it used to be" or is bad now, so I thought I'd try to spin things in a more positive direction have a discussion over what could be done to help new entries into the series appeal to "older" fans (gen 1-5) better, without alienating it's newer audience.
What would you like to see the next game look like? Could the series realistically have a return to form at this point? If so, what would it need to do?
Personally, I think there's two main paths I'd love to see them take, with the first being innovation. Pokemon has always been a very formulaic franchise, and I think a lot of old fans would rather see something experimental and different right now than what has currently been coming out. While Legends: Arceus had it's fair share of issues, the changes to the battle system were fresh and interesting, and I'd love to see stuff like that make it's way into the mainline games. The second path I would like to see is a return to form with intent to appeal to older fans. Returning to a pseudo 2D style like the DS games, incorporating Octopath Traveler style shaders, and having an emphasis on story and world design like in gen 5 would do wonders for appealing to older fans without compromising the newer audience. Honestly, I see gen 5 as the perfect middle ground to appeal to all audiences, since it's slightly more mature tone and story is a huge advantage for bringing in older players without compromising on the child audience.
TLDR: let's discuss what pokemon could do to win back older fans with new entries. Personally I see gen 5 as a perfect template for wide appeal, but what do you think?
EDIT: I just want to clarify that by "old fans" I don't mean people who have grown out of pokemon, but the passionate fans that prefer the pre-gen-6 games and are dissapointed in the direction pokemon has gone in, whether that be in style or quality. These are the fans that would still get back into pokemon if a game came out that piqued their interest. I also don't think that any new game should focus on appealing to this audience at the expense of the audience that prefers or have only played newer titles. And I know that neither of these audiences are monoliths, I'm just categorizing two general groups for simplicity. While the company obviously doesn't need to, what I'm proposing is a discussion on how to make both player groups happy.

I've been living with a friend (his mother technically owns the house now, but she doesn't live here) since summer of 2018. I've been paying rent each month to him, which he would send to the owner of the house. I have a record of this technically through Venmo.
I'm looking to move out soon for a myriad of reasons, but now I realized I would need some sort of rental history for most apartment complexs. How would I go about making an official (or semi official/useable) lease and rental history. Could I just fill out a template and have me and his mom sign it? Would a regular word document that says I've been a good tenant for 6 years be useable? Or is there some other process or form?