Facebook Gives a Blow to Referral-Dependent Businesses

Facebook has announced new changes to the way it maintains your news feed. If you’re a regular folk with a moderate social activity online, the changes are for the best. If you’re a business that heavily relies on referral traffic, buckle up.

The announcement says the changes are meant to better display the content that matters to you. The changes were necessary because people keep posting more and more stuff, and as this content expands, its reach gobbles up under its own heft.

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If You Could Have Just One Connected Device, What Would It Be?

Photo by NordWood Themes on Unsplash

The fine gents at IDC recently crunched some numbers and concluded that smartphone growth is poised to remain strong through 2019, chipping away at the PCs dwindling market-share. In just a few years from now, our pocket computers will reportedly make up 77.8% of the total smart connected device (SCD) shipments.

The IDC report says that the combined total market of connected devices – smartphones, tablets & 2-in-1s, and and PCs – is set to balloon from 1.8 billion units in 2014 to 2.5 billion units in 2019. Smartphones for their part will grow to represent the majority of total smart connected device (SCD) shipments by quite a margin, according to the metrics firm.

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Quote of the Day By Henry Ford

Photo by Wade Lambert on Unsplash

There have been hundreds, if not thousands of influential characters in the history of our civilization who have stressed the importance of accepting failure in the pursuit for success. But few have articulated it in such a compelling manner as the founder of Ford Motor Company, Henry Ford.

One who fears failure limits his activities. Failure is only the opportunity to more intelligently begin again.

– Henry Ford

Although he didn’t actually invent the automobile, Henry Ford has been perhaps the most important figure in the automotive industry. He transformed what had been a simple utilitarian machine into a revolutionary method of transportation.

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Earth Day Is Cloud Day

Going green usually translates into extra spending, but there’s one particular field where taking the eco-friendly route can actually become profitable – cloud computing. Plus, you get that warm fuzzy feeling deep down inside that you’re doing the right thing.

In light of Earth Day, I’d like to talk about protecting Mother Nature by moving server-dependent operations to the cloud – as opposed to maintaining an on-premise server in a dark room of your establishment.

Photo by Luca Micheli on Unsplash

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3D Printing Precision Experiment with a Good Printer – Ultimaker 2

For quite a while here at 4PSA we’ve been playing with 3D printing. Why? Because it’s cool and because there are a lot of applications for 3D printing, even in the cloud. We don’t claim to be 3D printing experts, but we took a power user (read engineering) approach to 3D printing which may be interesting to some of you. So we decided to share some stuff with you in a series of articles dedicated to 3D printing.

In today’s article, we want to answer a pretty interesting question – just what level of precision can you expect from a FDM printer? Fused deposition modeling is the most popular and accessible printing technology. The market is already full of printers and even kits you can use to build your own printer that cost as little as a few hundred bucks. For the test, we used one of the best printers available – Ultimaker 2. And yes, Ultimaker 2 may be worth more than a few hundreds, but it’s still an affordable piece of engineering.

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Quantum Computing Makes A Leap Forward As Moore’s Law Approaches Expiration Date

On April 19th, 1965, Gordon Moore wrote a technical paper that predicted the increase of computing power. He initially observed that the number of transistors per square inch on integrated circuits had doubled every year since ICs had been invented, and he later perfected the law doubling time to two years.

This month, Moore’s Law turned 50. To this day his prediction holds true, but it might not reflect reality in a few years from now. The reason? Our need for ever-smarter computers requires that we rethink the way we build them, and perhaps even the way we operate them.

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Quote Of The Day By Joseph Heller

Photo by Hans Vivek on Unsplash

Sports equals long and healthy living for those who do it, entertainment for those who watch it, and profit for those who coach and manage. A by-product of sporting events is usually a piece of metal that gets hung around the winner’s neck. But is it of any real value to humanity? If you ask satirical novelist Joseph Heller, the answer is no.

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How To Open A Can In A Zombie Apocalypse

Video games portray the zombie apocalypse as a fun departure from mundane affairs, but if it were to really happen things would probably play out differently. For instance, a seemingly trivial problem like opening a can of food would become a serious issue in the absence of a can opener, or a knife. Luckily someone has imagined this scenario and offered a solution.

CrazyRussianHacker doesn’t need an introduction, but for those of you who don’t keep tabs on the YouTuber’s activity, he’s got quite a few survival tips on offer in an extensive video library. Including how to open a can by simply rubbing it against concrete and then pressing the edges to pop it open. Of course, if you can’t even manage get hold of a knife during a zombie apocalypse, a sealed can of food is the least of your problems.

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