30 Digital Transformation Statistics You Need To Know In 2022

Find more than 100 stats here: https://www.myhubintranet.com/digital-transformation-statistics/

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We work with Organizations and Stakeholders to build scalable result driven solutions for the black holes in system, process and the value-chain. We ensure that our client keep focus on their business and we focus on the solutions for them.

Much more than consultants, we allies on our clients digital journey.

We believe in transformative power of Consulting & Training solutions to elevate excellence in System, Operations, Process, Business & People.

SGS innovation solutions approach and methodologies go beyond traditional analytic consulting approaches. Our innovation solutions will help our client discover the unknown – and identify and leverage opportunities and markets that don’t yet exist.

SGS support organizations/Business & Stakeholder to anchorage capabilities and virtues that they already have to drive Organic Growth i.e. more sales per customer , more revenues per customer, or more customers for the same products . This focus enables us to bring deep expertise, experience, judgment, and pattern recognition to growth problems.

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Dos and Don'ts of Successful HR Automation

Dos and Don’ts of Successful HR Automation

What are the important factors to consider for successful HR automation? Human resource management involves a lot of repetitive and time-consuming tasks, leaving little to no time to focus on the actual people and their needs. That is precisely why so many companies are currently rolling out HR automation programs. While AI computers taking care of human resource tasks might sound a bit ironic,…

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What R# Means: The ABC's of Fear.

The grading system used by the OIAR is one of TMAGP's more central mysteries. The show is rife with administrative work that's obfuscated even to the employees that assign each case's rating.

I have my own theory about DPHW that I think is proving more and more likely each episode, but as of yet I don't think a comprehensive theory on CAT# or R# has been given. CAT# is still proving a hard to crack but I now think I can take a strong stab at the meaning behind R#.

Spoilers for TMAGP 1-7 below the cut.

For the people who aren't keeping close track of this I'll break down how those terms are used. Each incident the OIAR assesses is assigned a case number in the following format CAT#R#DPHW. CAT, short for Category, is assigned a value of 1, 2, 3, or any combination of those three digits (12, 13, etc.). R, short for Rank, are graded C, BC, B, AB, A, or S (potentially AS but it's not come up). For DPHW each letter is a category itself and replaced with a digit from 0-9 for its grading. So there are 6 separate statistics that the OIAR uses to assess each incident.

If I'm correct about DPHW it's a ranking based on the qualities the incident presents. That's obviously very valuable information. Because of how CAT# is formatted we know it's likely three non-mutually exclusive facets. I had some idea about what it could be but it's proving quite tricky to nail down.

However it's R# that is the topic of today's post and it's something I've had a few ideas on before. We know can assume from its formatting it's a linear scale. C is the "worst/weakest/etc." while S is the "best/strongest/etc.". Initially, I thought that R# was simply a straight forward ranking of potency or threat. Higher the rank, spookier the incident. Very early on that seemed like a strong idea. It was quickly disproven but I then had the idea that Rank was instead the scale of the effect. Higher the rank, wider the incident. Also quickly disproven.

Now I'm thinking it's graded on how hard it is to deny an incident's supernatural nature. Simply put, an outside observer can more readily find a believable rational explanation for an incident of lower rank than of higher rank. Either via their own conviction to believe the supernatural isn't real, or based on the story the OIAR cooks up to explain it.

For that to make sense it needs to tick two boxes. It needs to be able to be pre-assigned to an incident as all CAT#R#DPHW's seem to be, and it needs to be useful information to track. As they're operating under the assumption that CAT#R#DPHW's can be pre-assigned then they're operating under the assumption that each type of incident is relatively stable. Meaning that the likelihood that it can be rationally explained is also relatively stable. Tick 1. There is also a really strong reason for the OIAR to use this as a grade. They're the Office of Incident Assessment and Response, the Response Department might be dead but it was a part of the initial plan. Grading each incident on how likely they are to cause concern should the details go public is very useful for deciding how to approach any given case. Tick 2.

It being useful is all well and good but it does also need to have some evidence so let's look at our highest ranked incident to this point: CAT23RAB2155 - Transformation (Eye) -/- Trespass. A man grew eyes over his body. That's pretty tricky to explain away as a medical mystery. On the other end of the scale we've got CAT2RC1157 - Dolls (Watching), or CAT2RC3338 -Agglomeration (Miscellany) -/- Congregation†. Just a creepy doll and some crappy antiques. I think of all the incidents the one that's the least immediate fit is CAT3C7494 - Collection (Blood) -/- Musical. Most of that incident is very easy to slot in here. "It's just a violin that has sharp strings, so what?". But it's also a violin that made some people eat some other people. However, mass hysteria events do get reported every so often IRL and do have a very long history. So in the grand scheme of things I don't think the details of the event are necessarily all that outlandish. It's really in the realms of urban legend and witch hunts than it is definitive proof of the supernatural.

With all that out the way this is the broad strokes of how I could see this breaking down. C ranks are things you can entirely write off as urban legends, freak accidents, and stress. Potentially things that might not need any covering up at all. I think the majority of events people could entirely say didn't happen will end up in C. "Of course the doll wasn't watching you, dolls aren't alive". B ranks are things that are harder to entirely discount as things that happened but are themselves still relatively easy to excuse as mundane. "Sure, the circumstances of that blogger's disappearance are strange but people go missing all the time, doesn't mean a monster did it". We don't have any A ranks but given the AB rank we do have I'd say A's are things in which no rational explanation can account for it, and as such require more extensive covering up, if it indeed happened. "Okay, maybe the supernatural is real because people don't just grow eyes like that".

As I mentioned early, an S rank does exist. We've not seen this attributed to anything in the show yet and so it might prove to be a special case. However on Klaus' sheet‡ from the ARG it's attributed to an interesting incident. A CAT1RS[No DPHW] with the note Mr. B. And, well, if you know, you know.

From Klaus' sheet we also know that the higher ranked incidents happen less often than lower ones and that idea generally tracks with what we know of TMP and TMA. The supernatural tends to be something you can explain away. It often is explained away. Incredibly overt manifestations are a rarity.

This one will be a slow burn to see if it bears out. Much like with DPHW's it's only really interesting when things go against the theory. I'm not as certain on this one as I am the DPHW theory but I do think it's got legs with our current data.

† This did also feature people who seemed to erase their physical features from your memory after you interacted with them. This isn't something I mention in the theory because it's not taken into account by the header and case number. A major flaw in the OIAR's methodology here is that all incidents are only ever one thing. So the case number is based solely on the presence of lots of miscellaneous objects, rather than the mind-wiping people carrying them.

‡I have made an incident master doc here, containing all the current cases, their CAT#'s, R#'s, DPHW's, etc. It has about as much information on each as I think is reasonable, including who narrates it, a link to its episode, and any other relevant notes, as well as headers for incidents we didn't hear. Additionally it also contains the Klaus sheet (German and English) and links to it when an incident matches. It will be updated each episode after the episode is publicly available.

Hello what do you think of Ai generated artwork and videos?

I have a whole entire blog post I wrote last year btw: The Rise of the Bots; The Ascension of the Human. (Reading it again a year later I am glad I am still validated in my thoughts)

My entire being and output as an artist is rooted in process, thought, craft and connection. I am open about my process and I share/create resources constantly. I have literally experienced the thing people mean when they say 'art transforms you' just by being so close to it every step of its making. All my comics have this centrality of personhood attached to them - if it's not obvious that the artist's hand (me) is in it, there is the characteristic focus on our emotional/cultural/artistic thread across history. Just as NFTs and what they represent were antithetical to how I interact with the world as artist and audience, so is the use of so-called AI art. NFTs and AI Art share a common hype cycle / speculative mania that comes out from an annoying vulture mindset that only knows how to eat itself to fill its belly, so I don't expect it to last too long. However I don't appreciate the damage both things have done to the utility of the internet, the degradation of art as a commercial pathway and the destruction of the image as a historical/educational/legal tool. (Which is why I am becoming more underground and turning towards alternatives like the Web Revival, small presses, curated resources and in-person communities)

The technological concept around LLM (pattern recognition and matching it to a goal), especially for medicine and statistics, is not itself problematic, especially when it follows ethical and data handling regulations that have been defined. However, when people talk generative art, what we are talking about, and fighting against, is the exploitation of resources and labour, and the further disconnection of worker = labour, human = society artificially imposed by the Corporate MBA / techno class in the pursuit of infinite stockmarket growth which then introduces a type of brainrot that can only think of things as producing value in relation to how fast one can seize for themselves Westernised Ideals of Fame and Fortune. Also like, this whole AI thing is part of the degradation of entertainment (the loss of small-to-medium outlets, constant mergers, nobody owning their digital streaming products they bought, the laundering of journalism/curation into press releases), the internet (the algorithimification of everything, constant spam, search engines getting worse, the worsening of socmedia as a tool) and the intellectual rigour of all information.

It's all part of this rot that's spreading outwards.

TL;DR bro I make all my art by hand and I am a nerd about informational integrity

By Leo Hohmann December 29, 2023

Expect civil unrest to break out in 2024 as globalist elites go for the final takedown of America as we know it in preparation for their satanic digital reset of the world order

The year 2023 will go down in history as the point at which the globalists completed the assembly of a massive secret army inside the U.S. in preparation for the final takedown of America, transforming it into Amerika.

By my calculations, there are anywhere from 1.5 million to 5 million foreign soldiers already inside the U.S. awaiting orders. My math is based on the government’s own statistics for illegals entering the U.S. over the last three years and then I estimated how many were military-age males using very conservative numbers on the low end and moderately conservative numbers on the top end. The most conservative number, 1.5 million, assumes that no foreign agents of military age were already here prior to January 2021, which of course we know cannot be the case but I wanted to demonstrate just how conservative these numbers are.

It's time to look at some motherfucking Frostleaf module facts.

I like Frostleaf so I've always been kind of hoping and coping for a module for her. Realistically though, it's pretty rare for 4-star modules to create a genuine impact. Many of them are very marginal boosts and often the ones that are transformative are either because of the base module trait or, you know, Ethan momento.

(Credits to DragonGJY's preview video for this graphic.)

So first, the statistical bonuses. At Module Level 3, this will increase her ATK from 660 to 710, and her DEF from 378 to 413. While not a major attack increase, ANY attack increase on Frostleaf is welcome due to how anemic her damage output is.

This, notably, increases the damage from her S1 (Mastery Level 3) from 990 to 1,065, allowing her to finally realize the possible potential of a 4 digit damage number.

The module effect adds an attack 10% of her ATK as arts damage, which will be 71 damage normally. This means that her auto attacks have a damage potential of 781 (710 + 71) in melee, and either 639 or 624.8 at range, I don't actually know how this additional instance of damage interacts with the Lord trait.

Next, her additional effect, which is a 25% chance to apply a Cold status for 1.5 sec. This is a long enough duration that Frostleaf can always threaten a freeze even with her auto-attacks, but, she needs to score two one in fours in a row, meaning on her own she has a 6.25% chance of freezing an enemy in two hits.

Her S2 doesn't provide enough ASPD in order to raise the possibilities to need 2 procs in three attacks either. That would have increased her freeze chance to about 14.0625%, more than double, but it would need to reduce her attack interval to 0.75sec or less to do so. This is actually even the case if you remove her attack interval increase too.

It offers a pretty minor buff to Frostleaf's chance to disable an enemy with her S2 active, making it so an enemy won't be disabled 33.75% of the time in two attacks rather than 36% of the time.

Frostleaf is the first 4-star operator to have access to Cold and Freeze in her kit, as inconsistent as it may be, and she benefits from a marginal damage increase.

So this is the best module in the game, obviously. Long live Frostleaf fans, we are winning.

No really this one is pretty bad. It's not useless or anything but we really should have gotten something better. The fact that the Cold effect is not a Module Delta base effect is really disappointing, I guess only 6-stars get Module Delta's.

X Corp., the parent company of the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, filed a lawsuit in San Francisco federal court Monday against a nonprofit organization that monitors hate speech and disinformation, following through on a threat that had made headlines hours earlier.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, accuses the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) of orchestrating a "scare campaign to drive away advertisers from the X platform" by publishing research reports claiming that the social media service failed to take action against hateful posts. The service is owned by the technology mogul Elon Musk.

In the filing, lawyers for X. Corp alleged that the CCDH carried out "a series of unlawful acts designed to improperly gain access to protected X Corp. data, needed by CCDH so that it could cherry-pick from the hundreds of millions of posts made each day on X and falsely claim it had statistical support showing the platform is overwhelmed with harmful content."

The complaint specifically accuses the nonprofit group of breach of contract, violating federal computer fraud law, intentional interference with contractual relations and inducing breach of contract. The company's lawyers made a demand for a jury trial.

The lawsuit was filed just hours after the CCDH revealed that Musk's lawyer, Alex Spiro, had sent the organization a letter on July 20 saying X Corp. was investigating whether the CCDH's "false and misleading claims about Twitter" were actionable under federal law.

In a statement to NBC News, CCDH founder and chief executive Imran Ahmed took direct aim at Musk, arguing that the Tesla and SpaceX tycoon's "latest legal threat is straight out of the authoritarian playbook — he is now showing he will stop at nothing to silence anyone who criticizes him for his own decisions and actions."

"The Center for Countering Digital Hate’s research shows that hate and disinformation is spreading like wildfire on the platform under Musk's ownership and this lawsuit is a direct attempt to silence those efforts," Ahmed added in part. "Musk is trying to 'shoot the messenger' who highlights the toxic content on his platform rather than deal with the toxic environment he's created.

"The CCDH's independent research won’t stop — Musk will not bully us into silence," Ahmed said in closing.

The research report that drew particular ire from X Corp. claimed that the platform had failed to take action against 99% of 100 posts flagged by CCDH staff members that included racist, homophobic and antisemitic content.

Musk has drawn fierce scrutiny since buying Twitter last year. Top hate speech watchdog groups and activists have blasted him for loosening restrictions on what can be posted on the platform, and business analysts have raised eyebrows at his seemingly erratic and impulsive decision-making.

The Center for Countering Digital Hate's research has been cited by NBC News, The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN and many other news outlets.

Musk, who has been criticized for posting conspiratorial or inflammatory content on his own account, has said he is acting in the interest of "free speech." He has said he wants to transform Twitter into a "digital town square."

Musk has also claimed that hate speech on the platform was shrinking. In a tweet on Nov. 23, Musk wrote that “hate speech impressions” were down by one-third and posted a graph — apparently drawn from internal data — showing a downward trend.

Entry #1 Greetings, Reader. Is it truly necessary to mention my name in these entries? After all, people have bestowed upon me numerous names, but none of them has truly stuck. Alright, to avoid unnecessary editing, I'll provide only one pseudonym — "The Observer." Nothing more. Yes, let it be so. They call me The Observer. And I am one of many Protagonists... if one can express it that way, because my role in the Parable was entirely unimpressive and didn't even merit any significant mention anywhere, except for a couple of lost office papers. My job is interesting. I observe what's happening inside the Office, record data from surveillance cameras, then sort and send them to the Upstairs. Sometimes I have to make additional entries, using the old-fashioned method of pen and paper. There are quite a few of them, my handwriting leaves much to be desired, and so digitizing them will be quite a headache. Shouldn't have skipped penmanship lessons in college. But it's not like I could have known I would need them, right? Where should I begin? Does this experiment even have a beginning? It appeared long before ideas were formed into words, and those, in turn, were transformed into lines of endless code, which then evolved into—... I suppose it's not that hard to guess what happened next. The Stanley Parable happened. Well, I'll start from the very beginning.

Once upon a time, very long ago, a place called the Office was designed and simulated. Essentially, it wasn't even a full-fledged building, just a network of long, chaotically assembled corridors. And this Office was very young, yet it looked surprisingly old and mediocre. Minimal lighting, walls wrapped with some unimpressive poorly done texture in brownish-dirty beige shades, with a dark swampy carpet as the final touch of careless cheap assets downloaded from one of those annoyingly popular videogames. I never understood this strange human attachment to pixels on the screen… but, of course, my opinion was never heard. So, the first test version of the Office appeared, operational and surprisingly stable despite its limited functionality. What happened next? Right. Staff was hired. Only a few hundred employees, most of whom simulated work activity, pretended being all busy if I may add. A gray mass, statistics to fill in mandatory reports. Only five of them received real instructions, eventually survived, and reached an entirely new level of the Game. The test version lasted only a few months. Following it came an update that changed everything; starting from improving those robotically dull Announcer's comments and ending with polishing lamps for the ceiling. They even delivered and placed potted ficuses next to several employee desks, almost like real ones. In general, the experiment was going so successfully that it received additional funding, and our work soared fast ahead, heralding a new era of technological development and ways of interaction among the citizens of our diverse and vast country… I would like to write it that way, but it would be just a vague word play on what actually happened back in 2̴͓̈̎̒̔0̸̢͓̯̐̒͊̂1̸͇̗̳̏̀̅3̸̻́̓̕. The new Office resembled the old one, but only in the chaos of its long corridors and the multitude of doors. It was, after all, entirely different. First and foremost, there was finally an opportunity not only to start over but also to choose a Save Point. Now, how can I even describe everything in simple language without picking excessive officialese and overly comlicated words...? Well, I'll start from the very beginning. The thing is, the Office is located in the so-called intersection of the real and digital worlds. Or in an area with anomalies exceeding the approved norm. You might think, what's so special about a basic high-risk zone? It turns out that it's the perfect place for all sorts of tests and experiments. Somehow, it happened that the death of subjects while being here ceases to be something permanent and becomes a temporary inconvenience lasting from eight to thirty-six seconds. Yes, like in a video game, but with the presence of several side effects like phantom pain and exacerbations of neuroses or psychoses ...or both, it all depends on the condition and luck of the "restarted" person. I don't know all the details, it's the scientists who conducted direct field research. My job is to observe and record. And never interfere. I remember the investors soon came up with the idea of closing the Office and isolating all the staff with subjects inside it… and placing bets on people; who will kill whom first, and who will keep their sanity intact and try to escape. I won't go into unnecessary details, I'll just say that only a few people managed to survive, yes, those very five participants and your humble Observer. End of Entry #1

.... Why are you still reading this? This text file finishes itself with End Of Entry #1. You were supposed to press that cross on the right side of its top. It's an X right next to an [ ], can't you see? You ... don't actually see it, do you? Is it ...not there anymore? It wasn't there from the start, was it? This is not right. Scroll it away and close your browser. This text file is corrupted, it is spreading all over your dashboard and through. This text file is going to infect your computer with a horrible virus if you keep reading it. This text file is going to destroy your hard drive any moment now. ... Okay, fine. I was wrong. This text file is harmless. In fact, the other text files are corrupred instead it. Great. Wonderful. Why can't anything go according to my plans in the perfectly accurate way? Wait, no, I didn't mean to say that! I haven't been plotting anything this time! Even if I were trying to come up with some schemes, they would still not be happening anywhere, except my own mind. I am the Observer, remember? I don't do things, I observe them. Sometimes, especially in my personal case, doing and observing are antonyms, they just never work together.

Are you still reading, aren't you? Why? There's literally nothing else here! It was just the very beginning, my Entry #1. Why didn't you close it and open Entry #2? Oh right, it's one of the corrupted ones… well, why didn't you close it and run your antivirus or whatever tool you got in your possession? There's nothing disturbing in other text files, I promise. Really, they are just my casual observations, just some foggy memories of a simple individual you have never met before but decided to poke this curious nose of yours into his personal business anyway. Good lord, what is it to you? Are you actually still hoping to read more about my unnecessarily detailed backstory? Well, I have already done it, I have digitized my papers, I have typed everything I could decipher into those last three text filed that ended up getting corrupred. Can't you just, you know, uncorrupt them? I suppose not, since you are still here instead of trying that.

...

Alright, I think you have tried to read me for long enough by now, Reader. I... I should just be honest, then.

My memories, they are fading away day by day. Writing them down was a mistake, the more of restarts I faced, the more of my papers became empty, the more I have filled them with the same words again and again and again. So I decided to save a few that remains by making it digital. However, as you have noticed, it's pointless too. Soon I'll become no person but mere pixels on your screen. Just like him, like her, like them. You are the last observation I have made in my entire career, Reader. Now it's over. It's over, right?

Why are you still reading this?

Riding the Digital Wave: Algorithmic Trading in India

Brief Introduction :-

Algorithmic Trading in India has emerged as a transformative force, leveraging advanced algorithms and cutting-edge technology to revolutionize financial markets. It uses intricate mathematical models to execute trades at blazing speed, giving traders speed and accuracy. We investigate available resources, negotiate regulatory frameworks, and look forward to the bright future of algorithmic trading in this ever-changing scene, which is revolutionizing our understanding of and interactions with finance in the Indian market.

History of Algorithmic Trading in India :-

In India, algorithmic trading began in the early 2000s and gained popularity when computerised trading platforms were introduced. An important turning point was the transition from conventional floor trading to screen-based systems, which set the stage for algorithmic trading techniques. Edelweiss Financial Services was a trailblazing organisation in this regard, having adopted algorithmic trading due to its effectiveness and speed, particularly when it came to processing big orders. As technology evolved, financial institutions in India followed suit, with the advent of Direct Market Access (DMA) further quickening the adoption and enabling traders to directly communicate with exchanges. The market has grown increasingly sophisticated over time as a result of Indian companies using artificial intelligence and creating their own proprietary algorithms. Algorithmic trading is currently a major participant in the financial ecosystem in India.The market has grown increasingly sophisticated over time as a result of Indian companies using artificial intelligence and creating their own proprietary algorithms. Algorithmic trading is becoming a major force in India's financial sector, changing the nature of the market and providing new opportunities for both investors and traders.

What is HFT?

High-frequency trading, or HFT for short, is a type of algorithmic trading that uses sophisticated algorithms to execute a large number of orders at speeds never seen before in the financial industry. HFT has emerged as a major force in the Indian financial scene, using cutting-edge technology to take advantage of tiny price differences and inefficiencies in the market. HFT seeks to take advantage of momentary opportunities by analysing data quickly and acting quickly, improving market efficiency and liquidity. Its function is scrutinised, too, and this has sparked debates about how it affects market stability and the necessity of regulatory regimes.

Regulations for Algorithmic Trading in India :-

The Securities and Exchange Board of India oversees algorithmic trading in India (SEBI). The "Algorithmic Trading Framework," a set of recommendations published by SEBI in 2011, was designed to guarantee equitable and transparent market operations. To protect against systemic risks associated with algorithmic trading and to promote market integrity, the laws include requirements for the use of "unique client codes" to track individual trades, risk controls, and order-to-trade ratio limitations.

Skills Required for Algorithmic Trading :-

Econometrics is a tool used in algorithmic trading to model and analyse economic data, offering insights into market movements and possible trading opportunities.

Programming abilities are necessary for developing and putting trading algorithms into practice, which allows for the automation and quick execution of strategies in volatile market environments.

Quantitative analysis: Used to assess market dynamics and financial instruments, enabling traders to spot trends and create data-driven algorithmic trading methods.

Probability and statistics are used to evaluate the chance of market events, which helps with risk management and the development of algorithms that adapt to shifting market conditions.

Proficiency in Financial Markets and Trading: Essential for comprehending market subtleties, allowing traders to create algorithms that conform to current market structures and circumstances.

The ability to reason logically is essential for creating algorithmic trading strategies with clear rules and logic that enable methodical decision-making in the face of changing market conditions.

Conclusion and Future Scope :-

In summary, algorithmic trading has improved market efficiency and opened up new trading opportunities for traders, dramatically changing the Indian financial scene. As the sector continues to be shaped by technological breakthroughs, machine learning, and regulatory frameworks, the future prospects are bright. Algorithmic trading is expected to become increasingly prevalent and play a crucial part in the future of India's financial markets, which are active and growing at a quick pace.

Monopolists want to create human inkjet printers

Even if you don’t have diabetes, you can’t have missed that there’s something really terrible going on with how Americans with diabetes control their illness. Insulin — a century-old drug whose inventors refused any patents — has experienced double-digit, year-on-year price hikes (1123% between 2009–2017 alone!):

https://www.nbcnews.com/business/consumer/desperate-families-driven-black-market-insulin-n730026

Moreover, this is a uniquely American circumstance. In Canada, insulin remains affordable, which is why Americans — especially parents of kids with diabetes — form caravans and cross the northern border to buy insulin from Canadian pharmacies:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/americans-diabetes-cross-canada-border-insulin-1.5125988

It’s why Americans are starting to brew their own insulin:

https://openinsulin.org/

And it’s why California is getting into the insulin-manufacturing business:

https://khn.org/news/article/california-wants-to-slash-insulin-prices-by-becoming-a-drugmaker-can-it-succeed/

Why do Americans with diabetes go into debt to buy insulin? Why do they ration their insulin, risking comas or even death? In part, it’s the US government’s unwillingness to limit pharma price-gouging. But that can’t be disentangled from the monopolization of the insulin market, an orgy of mergers that allowed a small number of companies to corner the insulin market:

https://prospect.org/health/insulin-racket/

Medical technology is a favorite target of private equity rackets, who understand that when you can threaten your customers’ very lives, they’ll pay — and pay — and pay. That’s why one private equity ghoul celebrated the “golden age of older rectums” before embarking on a spree of colonoscopy monopolization:

https://armandalegshow.com/episode/golden-age-of-older-rectums/

More than one in ten Americans have diabetes. 96 million American adults are pre-diabetic. Diabetes disproportionately strikes racialized Americans, who have less political capital and can be abused with impunity. No wonder that the entire diabetes supply-chain has been targeted by medical profiteers.

https://www.diabetes.org/about-us/statistics/about-diabetes

Take dialysis: private equity firms have bought and merged nearly all the standalone dialysis clinics and transformed them into charnel houses, where production quotas and cost-cutting produces rampant infections among the undersupervised patients who rely on them. Meanwhile, prices have skyrocketed, and those profits have been mobilized to fight any attempt at regulation:

https://prospect.org/health/dialysis-duopoly-spends-big-protect-profits-california/

The monopolization of diabetes goes beyond dialysis and insulin — it also extends into blood sugar monitoring and insulin delivery — the self-monitored, self-administered part of the disease that diabetes patients have taken into their own hands.

In 2013, Dana Lewis worked with John Costik to refine the code he’d written to access the data from his son’s continuous glucose monitor (CGM); they teamed up with Ben West, who was reverse-engineering insulin pumps, and created a “closed loop” system that could automate insulin delivery.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6610599/

They called this OpenAPS, and called themselves loopers. Organizing under the hashtag #WeAreNotWaiting, loopers collaborated to refine these systems into a kind of artificial pancreas, one that took CGM readings, analyzed them with statistical tools to create individual insulin response profiles, and release appropriate insulin doses.

https://openaps.org/

The movement included a lot of techie people who either had diabetes or parented a young child with diabetes — my friend Sulka Haro, an accomplished technologist, was the first looper I knew, who was using OpenAPS to help his young child maintain safe insulin levels while at day-care.

But looping went beyond the tech world; diabetes is extremely common, and lots of people struggle to get their doses right (not least because it can be hard to think clearly when your insulin levels are out of whack). The looper community grew and grew — over the objections of the med-tech industry, who went to war against them.

These companies had a very weird anti-looping message. They claimed that loopers’ exploitation of the defects in their pumps and monitors was, itself, a security risk. Med-tech monopolists like Abbott abused copyright law to force Github to nuke the code that made looping possible:

https://www.diabettech.com/wearenotwaiting/patching-librelink-for-libre2-clearing-the-fud/

Now, it’s clear that med-tech companies have a security problem. Medtronic’s insulin pumps were insecure enough that security researchers demonstrated a proof-of-concept “universal remote for killing people” that exploited its defects:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/08/03/turnkey-authoritarianism/#minimed

But med-tech companies don’t just have a security problem — they have a problem with their security problem. Medtronic ignored bug reports until the “universal remote” was presented. Johnson and Johnson downplayed a potentially lethal software bug in their devices:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-johnson-johnson-cyber-insulin-pumps-e-idUSKCN12411L

To the extent that med-tech companies are interested in addressing these amateurish (but incredibly dangerous) security defects in their products, their efforts are aimed almost entirely at shutting down loopers’ homebrew technology. Older tech is now prized for its usefulness to loopers:

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/04/looping-created-insulin-pump-underground-market/588091/

Why would med-tech companies be more worried about loopers than they are about people who hijack insulin pumps to harm or even kill people with diabetes? Because open looping systems are a threat to their monopoly plans — plans to create “vertically integrated ecosystems” that lock people with diabetes into buying proprietary insulin for proprietary pumps that connect to proprietary CGMs.

In other words, the market plan is to create an artificial pancreas that works like one of HPs awful inkjet printers — a device that is more concerned with extracting money from your bank account than it is with depositing ink on a page (or insulin in a vein):

https://twitter.com/dustin_driver/status/1534333475062329344

As with other parts of the diabetes supply chain, pumps, CGMs and the algorithms that turn them into a loop are all being sucked into a vortex of corporate mergers, as private equity companies seek to corner the market on your pancreas.

In an open letter to FDA officials, Joanne Milo, raises an alarm about one such merger: CGM giant Dexcom’s bid to buy out pump manufacturer Insulet.

https://thesavvydiabetic.com/open-letter-to-the-us-fda-from-the-savvy-diabetic-re-fda-interoperability-mandate-and-end-user-on-device-continuous-access-to-our-own-data/

As Milo writes, Dexcom CGMs are currently interoperable with a variety of pumps, including Tandem’s. Dexcom has a history of fighting attempts by people with diabetes to access their own data, and the company’s acquisition of a leading insulin pump company will only strengthen their efforts to lock CGM users out of their own devices.

That would be history repeating itself. The 2020 acquisition of Companion by Medtronic triggered an immediate lockdown of Companion’s InPen insulin delivery systems so they’d no longer with with Dexcom’s CGMs. If Dexcom’s acquisition is waved through, the US market will be controlled by three pump/CGM conglomerates. That will be a death-knell for all the pump companies that don’t have a CGM division.

More importantly than these firms’ commercial fortunes is the effect on people with diabetes. The ability of diabetes patients to mix-and-match a pump, a CGM, and an algorithm to moderate their interactions will go up in smoke. If your personal biology isn’t suited to the choices of three giant companies, you’re out of luck.

Milo points out that the baby formula shortage was caused by the monopolization of another key health market. What happens if the market for diabetes tech is gathered into three companies’ hands and they seek “efficiencies” by concentrating production into a few factories and consolidating their supply chains so they depend on just a few offshore suppliers?

That would also be history repeating. Private equity rollups concentrated nearly all production of medical saline drips into one company’s hands. That company closed all its factories save one, in Puerto Rico, where local authorities gifted them with favorable tax treatment. It was great for profits and shareholders, but terrible for America — Hurricane Maria created a months-long, deadly shortage in saline — that is, salty water in a plastic bag.

https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/hsph-in-the-news/hurricane-maria-u-s-iv-bag-shortage/

Milo calls on the FDA to “stop treating people with diabetes as ‘black hat’ hackers, forced to reverse-engineer access to their own CGM data.” She points to peer-reviewed studies on the safety and efficacy of community-based development of multi-vendor looping systems:

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/landia/article/PIIS2213-8587(21)00267-9/fulltext)

Though Milo addresses her remarks to the FDA, this is also an issue that Jonathan Kanter at the DoJ, Lina Khan at the FTC, and Tim Wu at the White House should have on their radars. The diabetes crisis is only partially medical — at this point, it primarily economic, a crisis of corporate profit-seeking over human lives.

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

Björn Heller (modfied) https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:Wearing_pump.JPG

CC BY 2.0 (German) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/de

[Image ID: A package of HP inkjet ink; it has been modified to incorporate the word- and logo-marks of Insulet and Dexcom. The image on the front of the box has been replaced with a man's bare stomach; the man is wearing an insulin pump. The sides of the box have been overlaid with a Matrix 'code waterfall' effect. The menacing red eye of HAL9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey glares out of the box.]

Discover the Cloud's Potential: Check Out Now in this Fantastic AWS Course!

In today's fast-paced digital landscape, the significance of cloud computing has reached unprecedented heights. It's not just a technology trend; it's a transformative force driving innovation and reshaping the way businesses operate. In this era of digital transformation, the cloud has emerged as a critical enabler, offering scalable, flexible, and cost-effective solutions to complex challenges.

At the forefront of cloud computing stands Amazon Web Services (AWS), the world's leading cloud platform. AWS has become synonymous with cloud computing excellence, providing an extensive array of services and tools that empower organizations to harness the limitless potential of the cloud.

In this comprehensive blog, we will delve deep into the power of cloud computing, the soaring demand for AWS skills, and introduce you to an exciting opportunity - the AWS course offered by ACTE Institute. Prepare to embark on a journey that will unveil the incredible possibilities that await you in the cloud!

The Power of Cloud Computing

Cloud computing isn't just a technology; it's a revolution. We'll dive into the significance of cloud computing in today's digital world, discussing how it has transformed businesses, streamlined operations, reduced costs, and fostered innovation. From startups to global enterprises, the cloud has become an integral part of the modern business landscape.

The Soaring Demand for AWS Skills

In the job market, AWS skills are like gold. We'll showcase compelling statistics and trends that underscore the ever-growing demand for professionals with AWS expertise across diverse industries.

Introducing the AWS Course at ACTE Institute

Get ready to discover the ACTE Institute, your partner in mastering AWS. We'll provide an in-depth overview of the AWS course, illustrating how it perfectly aligns with the surging need for skilled AWS professionals.

Key Features That Set ACTE's AWS Course Apart

What makes the AWS course at ACTE stand out? We'll unveil the unique features and highlights of the course, emphasizing the invaluable contributions of expert instructors, hands-on learning experiences, and a curriculum meticulously designed to cater to the demands of the industry.

What You Will Gain from the AWS Course

Curious about what lies ahead? We'll outline the specific skills and knowledge that participants can expect to acquire, showcasing how these skills translate into real-world scenarios and career opportunities.

Benefits of Enrolling in the AWS Course

Enrolling in the AWS course at ACTE comes with a multitude of benefits. From boosting your career prospects to elevating your skills to a professional level, we'll highlight how this course can be a game-changer.

Real-Life Success Stories

Dive into the success stories and testimonials of past course participants who have harnessed their AWS knowledge to achieve remarkable career milestones. These real-life accounts will offer you a glimpse into the transformative power of the AWS course.

Course Format, Duration, and Flexibility

Learn about the different course formats available, whether you prefer online or offline learning. We'll also provide insights into course duration and flexibility, ensuring that you have options that suit your schedule.

How to Enroll and Start Your AWS Journey

Interested in embarking on your AWS journey? We'll provide a step-by-step guide on how to enroll, ensuring a seamless transition into your cloud computing adventure.

As we conclude this insightful blog, we'll recap the key takeaways, reinforcing the boundless potential that AWS and cloud computing offer for your career and personal growth. It's an invitation to explore the AWS course at ACTE Technologies and take the first step towards mastering the cloud.

Unveiling the Job Market: How Many Jobs Are Available in Finance Services in 2024?

In the ever-evolving landscape of finance, the job market plays a pivotal role in shaping career aspirations and industry trends. As we step into 2024, professionals and aspiring individuals  are eager to uncover the opportunities awaiting them in the realm of finance services, particularly in the United States. This article sheds light on the abundance of opportunities available in the finance services. 

Exploring the Finance Job Market Landscape:

Quantifying Opportunities:

How many jobs are available in finance in the USA?

Analyzing recent statistics and projections to gauge the scale of employment opportunities.

Factors influencing job availability, such as economic conditions, technological advancements, and regulatory changes.

Diverse Sectors, Diverse Opportunities:

Breaking down the finance sector into subcategories, including banking, investment management, insurance, and consumer services.

Highlighting the unique job prospects within each sector and the skill sets required to excel.

Identifying emerging roles and specialties that are gaining prominence in response to market demands and industry shifts.

Finance in the Digital Age:

Examining the impact of technology on job creation and the transformation of traditional finance roles.

The rise of fintech companies and their contribution to job growth, particularly in areas like digital banking, payment processing, and financial analytics.

The demand for professionals with expertise in data analysis, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence within the finance sector.

Investment Management: A Thriving Field:

How many jobs are available in investment management?

Unveiling the job opportunities within investment firms, asset management companies, and hedge funds.

The significance of skilled portfolio managers, financial analysts, and risk assessment specialists in driving investment strategies and maximizing returns.

Exploring the global reach of investment management careers and the potential for growth in international markets.

Consumer Services: Meeting the Needs of Individuals:

Evaluating the job market within consumer-focused finance services, including retail banking, wealth management, and financial advising.

The demand for client relationship managers, financial planners, and retirement advisors in assisting individuals with their financial goals.

The role of personalized financial services and digital platforms in catering to the diverse needs of consumers and enhancing their financial literacy.

Trends Shaping the Future:

Anticipating future job trends in finance services and the skills that will be in high demand.

The growing importance of sustainable finance and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing, leading to opportunities in green finance and impact investing.

The influence of geopolitical factors, regulatory reforms, and demographic shifts on the finance job market landscape.

Conclusion:

As we go through 2024, the finance job market in the United States continues to offer a lot of opportunities across various sectors. Whether aspiring to go into investment management, consumer services, or the dynamic world of fintech, individuals with the right skills and expertise are well-positioned to thrive in this ever-evolving industry. By staying abreast with market trends, honing relevant skills, and embracing innovation, professionals can seize the abundant opportunities awaiting them in the realm of finance services.

From Zero to Hero: Mastering Data Analytics for Transformation

The concept of "data" has enormous significance in the modern digital world. The enormous amount of information produced every day has revolutionized the way we view the world and move through it. The data analytics industry is one of the major players in this revolution. Let's set out on an adventure to discover the fundamentals of data analytics, consider their importance, and understand how they affect different facets of our lives.

Understanding Data Analytics Analyzing massive data sets to find hidden patterns, correlations, trends, and insights is at the heart of data analytics. It's like sorting through a gold mine of knowledge to find the gold nuggets that will help you make decisions and solve problems. Data analytics isn't just about statistics and figures; it's about turning raw data into compelling narratives that encourage informed decisions.

Why Data Analysis Is Important

The capacity to make sense of all the data in the globe has changed the game. Data analytics enables companies, groups, and people to comprehend their operations, clients, and environments more thoroughly. Here are a few main arguments in favor of data analytics:

Making Informed Decisions: Data-driven insights allow for more precise and knowledgeable decision-making. Companies might modify their tactics in light of current developments and customer preferences.

Enhanced Efficiency: Data analytics uncovers bottlenecks and inefficiencies in processes and operations, allowing for focused changes.

Predictive Skills: By analyzing past data, predictive models can predict future patterns and aid organizations in becoming ready for the future.

Customer insights: Data analytics reveals the preferences and habits of customers, enabling more individualized interactions and higher levels of customer satisfaction.

Risk Management: Identifying potential risks and fraud patterns is made easier with data analytics, reducing vulnerabilities and losses.

Scientific Discoveries: In fields like healthcare and research, data analytics aids in uncovering groundbreaking insights and advancements.

The Data Analytics Process

Data analytics involves a systematic approach that follows several key steps:

Defining Objectives: Clearly state the objectives and issues you hope to resolve through data analysis.

Data Collection: Collect pertinent data from a variety of sources, making sure it is reliable and representative. Data Cleaning: Involves altering it to ensure accurate analysis.

Exploratory Analysis: Investigate the data in depth to find patterns, trends, and early insights.

Modeling: Building statistical models or algorithms to forecast outcomes or comprehend correlations in the data is known as modeling.

Interpretation: Draw conclusions from your analysis's findings and connect them to your original goals.

Visualization: To make your findings easier to understand, present them using visual tools like charts, graphs, and dashboards.

Action: Implement the learnings from data analysis to inspire positive changes and actions.

Data analytics has become an effective means for turning data into useful insights. By bridging the gap between information overload and useful knowledge, it facilitates decision-making, ignites innovation, and opens doors. A fascinating and fruitful trip may be had by anyone interested in learning more about data analytics, whether they are a business owner, researcher, or just curious. So, take part in uncovering the secrets of the data and grasp the power of data analytics to transform. If you need help implementing data analytics in your organization or if you want to learn more, you should consult professionals or sign up for specialized courses. For instance, the ACTE Institute offers comprehensive data analytics training courses that can provide you the knowledge and skills you need.

A brief guide to Understanding US Copyright Law.

(This is *not* about Tumblr etiquette to be very clear.)

Fair use in transformative art works vs. copyright infringement. This is a great source: part 1 & part 2.

Gifs are a nebulous and grey area in US copyright law. Fair use (definition) covers a wide range of uses of copyrighted materials. I will only be writing about moving images here. Additionally, I will only be addressing fair use outside of academic use.

It is fair use if the resulting artwork is transformative enough that the copyright holder is not losing revenue. There are many beautiful examples of gifs that may meet that criteria in a court of law. I will not directly post any of them here. (Though I would be grateful if someone would like to volunteer to have a post linked, not displayed, here as an example.) I will use my own gifs as examples of copyright infringement (since they unequivocally are).

In the resource above you can find examples of court cases where both the copyright holder won the case and those where the artist was deemed to have not infringed. I make the occasional gif for shows like HBO's House of the Dragon and I do not add my own artwork or alter them in any way that would make them my own artwork. I am not using them for monetary gain and few entertainment corporations have ever filed in US courts against gifs/creators. A few public figures have but those cases have not made a substantial impact on copyright law as there is a separate law for reproducing someone’s likeness. Digital Media Law Project is a great resource for this. "GIFs and Law" also lists examples from US courts that include other problematic uses of gifs.

The below gifs that I made and posted are direct infringement on the copyright holders (HBO and Ewan Mitchell) and as a US citizen I am subject to these laws.

Another example (slowed to 40% speed is not transformative):

Both of these images are the sole property of HBO and Mr. Mitchell. I do not use them for monetary gain and I do not have permission to use them. I have not received permission from HBO or Mr. Mitchell to create and distribute them.

Statistically it is unlikely that a gif will lead to a civil suit or prosecution. Most gifs are not made or used for monetary gain but if used on a website that is for monetary gain (such as a personal website to sell goods or services) it is subject to the law without express permission from the copyright holder. (That is usually obtained by contacting the legal or pr department of the film company.)

It is difficult to show transformative examples without linking any here but that would be against Tumblr etiquette. I will describe them as best I can:

For many House of The Dragon gifs we have all seen images that have text superimposed or blended with the copyrighted images. Similarly, there are many where the gif creator has included their own art with the copyrighted images, many to the point that the final gif has indeed transformed the original image from House of the Dragon so that it is not competing for revenue. That is not to say those are exempt but that they are more likely to win the hypothetical lawsuit (see examples in first sources listed).

If you enjoyed this ted talk and would like one about Tumblr gif etiquette I will happily make it. I have a background in copyright law and will also answer questions if you want to throw them in my inbox.

Unleashing the Potential: How Cognitive RPA is Revolutionizing the Insurance Industry

In the dynamic realm of the insurance industry, where adaptability is key, the integration of advanced technologies is ushering in a new era of efficiency and innovation. Among these disruptive technologies, Cognitive Robotic Process Automation (RPA) stands out as a transformative force, reshaping operational paradigms and customer experiences for insurers.

Enhancing Claims Processing:

One of the most compelling areas where Cognitive RPA is making a substantial impact is claims processing. Traditionally a labor-intensive and time-consuming task, claims handling involves a myriad of data inputs, verifications, and assessments. According to industry reports, insurers leveraging Cognitive RPA have witnessed a remarkable 40% reduction in claims processing time. The technology not only expedites this process but also ensures accuracy by leveraging advanced data analytics and natural language processing.

Accelerating Policy Lifecycle:

Policy administration, another critical facet of the insurance business, witnesses a paradigm shift with the implementation of Cognitive RPA. From policy issuance to underwriting, the technology facilitates the seamless execution of routine tasks, allowing human resources to focus on strategic, value-added activities. Reports indicate that insurers adopting Cognitive RPA experience an increase of up to 60% in operational efficiency in policy administration.

Proactive Risk Management:

Cognitive RPA contributes significantly to risk management by continuously analyzing vast datasets in real-time. This proactive risk assessment not only aids in preventing fraudulent claims but also enables insurers to offer more personalized and competitively priced policies based on individual risk profiles. Studies show that insurers employing Cognitive RPA have seen a 30% reduction in fraud-related losses.

Strategic Advantage Through Data Insights:

Moreover, beyond operational benefits, the technology offers a strategic advantage by providing insurers with actionable insights derived from data analytics. These insights empower informed decision-making, foster innovation, and position insurers as industry leaders in a fiercely competitive landscape. Recent surveys indicate that organizations embracing Cognitive RPA have reported a 25% increase in data-driven decision-making capabilities.

In conclusion, the adoption of Cognitive RPA is not merely a technological upgrade; it's a strategic imperative for insurers looking to thrive in a digital future. The fusion of automation, artificial intelligence, and cognitive capabilities is reshaping the insurance industry's narrative, propelling it into an era of unprecedented efficiency, agility, and customer-centricity. As pioneers embrace this transformative wave, the statistics speak volumes—Cognitive RPA isn't just a trend; it's a statistical necessity for insurers seeking sustained success in a rapidly evolving landscape.