#with an engineering background I sure do have opinions about the design and construction of killing machines
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/gen, i saw the “uncharitable jedi takes” in response to that last ask (i love it), and i just had a question about the “war crimes” box because it’s the only one i feel has a bit of… validity i guess? i know the typical response to that is the geneva conventions don’t exist in star wars and therefore stuff like false surrender isn’t a war crime but it still feels weird to me? i guess i’m just interested in the deconstruction of that accusation? again, /gen
Hello anon! Thank you for a genuine ask! I will try to give a decent breakdown of why I find the accusation flimsy.
So, "war crimes" is a box on the card because it's often thrown around as a very serious condemnation of the Jedi without consideration for what makes the accusation so serious. Usually the accusation is thrown with the intent of evoking an emotional & moral reaction against the Jedi through the same emotional & moral reaction one would have against war crimes. This tends to gloss over what actually makes a war crime.
War crimes are a rejection of the concept that war justifies brutality and inhumane atrocities. The root of this is harm done to people. This article is from the BBC and gives a brief overview of what a war crime is, why they were codified into international law, and some of what constitutes a war crime. (The article is dated from 2014, so you may want to find more up to date or detailed sources if you're doing more research, but I thought it was a concise & well-written overview that helps explain the point I want to make. It's a quick read, check it out before you continue.)
When people make this accusation against the Jedi, they often cite examples where the Jedi are fighting a droid army. Battle droids are not people. Battle droids are machines designed to autonomously kill people. These machines do not have any true choice or free will of their own. "We're independent thinkers. Roger, roger," indicates that each machine is individually autonomous and will carry out its designed function & programming as long as it remains functional. That programming is to kill and destroy. I reiterate: it will kill and destroy, on its own, until it is deactivated, destroyed, or given other orders.
Now I pose the following questions: is it a crime to deceive and destroy these machines? Should these machines be given the same regard as any life form? Is there harm done when these machines are destroyed? Should the safety of these machines be given equal consideration as the lives they are programmed to end?
Star Wars is not science fiction. It is fantasy in a science fiction setting. The sentience of droids is not the point and battle droids especially are not treated with any form of sentience in the narrative because they are not sentient life forms.
Should the Jedi treat machines with the same respect they treat living people? Or, do they have a duty to protect life from killing machines? Should they use the same tactics on droids that they use on people? Or, do they have more options to defeat the onslaught because they do not need to consider enemy lives as there are no enemy lives?
If the Jedi are to be accused of "war crimes" at least put a living enemy on the other side. Ki-Adi resorting to extreme weapons against the Geonosians? Sure, there are questions to be asked about the ethics, but to respond fairly, the full circumstances must be considered, and if it's to be called a war crime there's a higher bar for that argument. Should he prioritize enemy lives over the lives of his own troopers? When the willing enemy combatants are defending factories that build extermination machines? There is no perfectly moral answer; there isn't always a perfectly moral answer. These are situations where you get to make your own judgment call about the story. Do you think it's unethical? Do you think it constitutes a war crime? Do you think it's worthy of prosecution? How do you weigh your personal opinion against the narrative intention in your interpretation of the story?
When the accusation of "war crimes" is thrown at the Jedi, it's very often not accurate to start with, and ignores the reason that war crimes are so serious. I've seen many accusations of "war crimes" thrown that tell what a war crime is, but don't talk about why it's bad, because when you consider why a war crime is a crime, the argument against the Jedi starts falling apart.
tldr: is it a "war crime" if the victim is a non-living machine designed to kill living people?
Other people have written some good metas that explore this question from other angles, I'll link some below the cut if you're interested in further reading
This one (by @trickytricky1) goes into whether or not Obi-Wan actually commits perfidy in the TCW Movie.
This one (by @writerbuddha) is similar and includes an example of Anakin in TCW.
This one (by @monjustmon) explores what we know of in-universe laws regarding war crimes.
This one (by @smhalltheurlsaretaken) discusses characters that are portrayed as war criminals.
This one (by @lethebantroubadour) provides a list of acts committed by the Separatists which do have living victims and should constitute war crimes.
#thanks for the ask anon!#this was fun. I'd been meaning to write out my thoughts on this for a while but hadn't gotten around to it#with an engineering background I sure do have opinions about the design and construction of killing machines#but that's a topic for another time#also I'm glad you liked my last ask i had so much fun with it#brachio answers#prequels#clone wars#tcw#star wars#jedi#in defense of the jedi#brachio's meta#meta
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Review: Wells Audio Commander Preamplifier & Innamorata II Amplifier
With everyone and their extended families wanting to be audio reviewers, we have been inundated with volumes of positive commentary. As a reviewer, you are dependent upon manufacturers to provide you with equipment to audition and write about. If a writer wants to be around after that initial written review, the pressure is great to submit something popular to the publisher, specifically, coverage that will keep the review sample spigot flowing. After all, what manufacturer seeking to gain a foothold in the industry is going to send their precious product to someone they think may disseminate component coverage less than favorable about them? That’s a question I need not answer on your behalf…
The days of writers like Pearson, Holt and Aczel are, unfortunately, gone. And while I may long to once again profit from their pearls of audio wisdom, only their memories exist. From my first published review in January of 1989, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wondered how Harry would describe a particular sonic quality, how Gordon might compare one component to another or in what manner, like Peter, I may employ my use of words so efficiently as say what others could not, but in half the space. What those great writers of the past had, which we see none of today, was the self-assuredness not to fear penning the critical review…after all, they were known as critics.
Wells Audio
Jeff Wells is a kindly gentleman that has been in the business of audio retailing for better than 16 years. Not a classically trained electrical engineer, Jeff has obviously picked up considerably knowledge during his years in the trade, either directly, or by osmosis. He also knows where to go for good advice as he has chosen Scott Franklin as a mentor. Scott is considered a bit of a tube guru, having credited to his name any number of well known and respected tube designs. I expect that the basic tube circuits in the Commander have the Franklin touch, with Jeff choosing the parts list and the overall appearance of the preamp and amp. One thing is for sure, you are not going to mistake the Wells Audio gear for anything else made today, or yesterday for that matter. Warranty for both products is three years, including parts and labor.
Commander Preamplifier (USD $3,999)
The first thing one observes when seeing the Commander for the first time is the large round viewing window smack dab in the middle of the face plate. Behind it is what many call “a magic eye” vacuum tube. It glows green and changes with the adjustment of the volume control (which I did via remote). I could not discern what value the magic eye might be of, but it looked pretty enough.
The young ones, persons not old enough to remember the turn of the century, call it “steampunk.” That’s exactly how I viewed the appearance and operation of the Commander preamp. At a time when smooth operation and silky feel to controls are the key descriptive terms being used with todays’ high-end audio electronics, along comes the Wells Commander preamp that seems to have no end to its unique appearance and odd noises that emanate from it. With every change of volume comes a “clickity” sound that I’ve never heard before as part of a high-end component. Initially I thought that I might have broken it, but everything seemed to continue working, so I didn’t worry about it. Furthermore, @miy-taww assured me that some units simply work that way. (Yup, this is the sound of an attenuator based on conventional mechanical relays. The exact nature of the clicking depends on how the control logic is implemented. @miy-taww)
As far as I know, the acrylic exterior of the Commander is a first. The black reflective surface shines like a polished black mirror, making picture taking a real task. I like the fact that acrylic resonates much less than the standard metal exterior plates found with most amps and preamps. On the other hand, acrylic affords the component no effective RFI/EMI shielding.
Commander Pros: Setting the preamp up was cake, basically plug and play…the remote even came with batteries in it. Another positive was the ability to use a set of balanced inputs in addition to the standard RCA inputs. The unit also had balanced output jacks, coming in handy for use with my balanced Pass XA30.5 power amplifier.
The Commander is a solid imager with good depth of image, all placed upon a wide and panoramic stage. Tone quality, especially in the mids, is true and natural. And while this is a preamp utilizing tubes, tubes it does not sound like. The softish, melodramatic approach promoted by some tube products is completely missing here, as the Commander, instead of being soft, has an ability to capture, as well as anything I’ve heard, the transient speed of a plucked steel stringed guitar. This leading edge quality is also apparent in percussive strikes and snare hits, yes it can be an exciting experience listening with this preamp. Listening to rock and roll as well as jazz, on more than one occasion the transient speed of this unit compelled me to query if perhaps Wells alone had gotten this aspect to reproduction correct.
Lastly, when one looks under the hood of the Commander, and then considers the price of it, in light of the unconventional use of parts and construction layout, the obvious question becomes, “How did they do this for the price charged?”
Commander Cons: I enjoy using remote volume controls, however, this unit’s clunky nature and lack of responsiveness was a turn off to me. Sometimes, when moving the volume up, the actual output would first go down and them up.
Musically, the frequency extremes were rather odd and not wholly to my liking. These two things, I think, are related: The speed and attack heard in the midrange also resulted in an upper octave that was in many cases more forward than I am attracted to while striking me as grainy. I described the highs with the Commander to one friend as “crunchy.” The bass, it seemed to me, was similarly flawed, but in different ways. Listening to recordings with a healthy amount of bass in them, it was all there, i.e., I felt that I could hear all of the bottom three octaves frequency wise. At the same time, however, the bass lacked deep down energy.
Initially, I wondered if my choice of power cords was pushing the preamp in the directions just described. I tried cords from Audience, JPS, DH Labs and Twirling Gerbil. Though I heard changes in the performance, none of those cords locked in with the Commander. Finally, I went with the factory supplied cord, which performed as well as any of the above; forming the basis for the comments here and above.
Lastly, while I had great success using the balanced jacks on the back of the preamp, the standard RCAs didn’t always work consistently. This needs to be looked into by Jeff and in my opinion, simplified internally. The some days the jacks would work, some days, not, drove me crazy.
Conclusion. In my opinion, the Commander preamplifier from Wells Audio is not a finished product, bugs need to be addressed. The potential to be a stunning performer is all there, particularly when the Scott Franklin influence is considered. I consider it a diamond in the rough. I look forward to observing the progress Wells Audio makes with this product. Presently, I cannot recommend it.
Innamorata II Power amplifier (USD $7,000)
Taking the same visual cues as the Commander preamplifier, the Innamorata II is a large, heavy power amp. Rated at 150 wpc into 8 Ohms, the amp is said to put out 210 wpc into 4 Ohms. The amp is a beautiful gloss black, with a single round meter located dead center on the faceplate. Centering the meter is a large gold bezel that you will love or hate, all depending on your fashion sense. Jeff told me of his plans to make the amps’ exterior parts completely out of acrylic materials, everything save the heatsinks. I think Wells may be on to something here as fabricating may be less expensive that way, the product will weight less and the appearance can be pretty stunning in any color you desire. Finally, even though the sibling preamplifier has balanced outputs, the power amplifier cannot accommodate balanced connectors (which struck me as odd).
Innamorata Pros: Lots of power delivered effortlessly. Power cords were not an issue with the amp. Regardless of what I used, this amp forged a straight line forward sounding good under all conditions. I ended up using the Twirling Gerbil amp cord, the combo performing in a positive manner that was in every instance musical.
What I generally like about a well designed solid state power amp is its unflappable performance with a variety of loudspeaker loads. And so I can report that I listened to this amp with a variety of speaker loads, all the way from 4 Ohms, to a small monitor with a wandering load of 8 to 16 Ohms. As you know, all speakers present an amp with a variety of impedances depending on frequency. With many speakers, things can get a little hairy at resonance, the Innamorata stayed tight and fast in the bass, while never sounding washed out. Pace and bloom were actually strong parts of this design. You know an amp has something going for it when during listening sessions you keep asking yourself. “What’s it going to do with this album? I’ve got to hear it with this other album.” This amp had me anticipating what new positive twist it might put on a recording heard many, many times before.
Another positive aspect of this amps’ performance was the natural and organic way it handled vocals. Voices at the front of the stage did not jump forward; instead they sounded real, and usually within an aura of natural ambiance. Backup as well as background vocals were similarly tangible and pleasant to listen to.
Innamorata Cons: My biggest complaint with amp is the fact that it quit working after the first listening session. I had been listening to it in one system and enjoyed the results obtained. I then wanted to insert the Wells amp in a second system. I have a tall four wheeled cart that allows me to pick up the amp, put it on the cart and then wheel it off without having to bend over. I moved the amp one day to see how it would perform in a new listening environment. When I sat it down in the new system the right channel refused to come up. I sent it back to Jeff. He told me that an internal cable had come loose and he merely had to put it right and all was well. Solder the connection and the problem does not arise.
Musically, there’s not a lot to complain about. For more money there are better sounding solid state power amps. I take that position not because the Wells does much wrong, but because some amps are simply exceptional in one regard or another. Those exceptional amps may have slightly more air then the Wells, or a little more bloom upon the stage, but for the money, this is a good amplifier, though not in the same sonic class as the Pass XA30.5 that I compared it to.
Conclusion. I enjoyed using this power amplifier. A no-surprise design, it is quiet when you turn it on, and when you turn it off there are no driver threatening burps or releases of DC. In other words, don’t worry if the power is, for any reason, discontinued. It does concern me that the right channel went down during my auditioning period. A consumer electronics device that retails for $7,000.00 has an obligation to operate in a worry free manner. Audio components are meant to be enjoyed, as they are necessary to the playback of music in the home. A power amplifier situated in the home of an audiophile is not a tool in the manner of a tone generator or scope, it is something more, very much more. And, as the price of a component increases, the obligation of a manufacturer to produce a glitch free product increases in a linear fashion. That said, no one is perfect, making mistakes is human, and the error which lead to the failure of the right channel in this case was nothing other than a contact coming apart – nothing blew, no sparks, no fried resistors, and I have no doubt that that Jeff Wells remedied the situation so as to never have this happen again.
I, therefore, must conclude that when a person lays down their hard earned dollars for a new Innamorata II, he or she will have an amplifier well worth the outlay, and one capable of bringing home the heart and soul of the music in a way that will bring years and years of musical satisfaction and pride. A power amplifier done well.
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Molly Malware (Assignment 3) - Development
After our group was decided and we discussed our strengths and availabilities, We went through Jase’s prototype and discussed where we could potentially improve the content and add content. Jase had a well thought out concept and storyline already so we decided to stick firmly to that but clarify and refine what our goals were with the next iteration.
Fullerton said in chapter 13 that “a developer’s goal is to produce the highest quality game within the limits of its resources and budget.” When choosing what things we wanted to change/improve/add to the original prototype, we had to consider many things that may affect the final version. This was things such as time, skills, and the engine gdevelop. After making 3+ prototypes I felt pretty confident with making a solid prototype in a few days if I worked really hard. For the video and documenting and analysing part of the report, I was a little more hesitant, however I knew I could rely on my team to help out when I needed it.
The original prototype was entertaining and intriguing for players, however it lacked enough content to really show players what the game was about. This was a narrative styled game with very little narrative context for players. We knew this was something we wanted to achieve with our new version. In the original prototype, players weren’t given firm objectives which left the players unsure of what to do and where to go. This was to be worked into the in game script so that players felt like they had a purpose and a task to fulfil. One major flaw in the original prototype was that when you fell, nothing was there to catch you, you just fell until someone restarted the game. Though this is an easy fix, without it, it can be detrimental to a play-through. The art style was already good, however we wanted to incorporate a more animated feeling to the game, so we wanted to change/add some art designs. We also wanted to add music to further develop the immersion and entertainment for the player. After going over what we thought would be good changes/additions to the game, we asked Jase to write the vision of the game as he understood the most what he wanted to see from the game after the first prototype. We then began to construct our gannt chart, deciding who was to do what parts and a guesstimate of the appropriate amount of time to be spent on each task. When making this, we had to keep in mind the deadline given to us. We had to ensure that all time was allocated wisely and we were not going to be rushed at the end due to the lack of organisation.
Then we began.
The first thing we wanted to get sorted before actually implementing anything into the prototype, was writing a script. This script would help me understand the storyline Jase had in mind and would allow me to easily replicate statements written on the script into the game. This script took a number of days to be made, however once everything was settled we were then able to crack down on the prototype.
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Initially it was planned that Jase, Sienna C and I would divide working on the prototype fairly evenly and same with the playtesting report. However, we realised that perhaps this wasn't the most strategic thing to do, so I decided that I would make the prototype on my own, playing at my strengths. This would work well for Sienna C and Jase anyways as Jase would work on art and music and Sienna C could do a fair amount of the report. The video would be made afterwards so we weren’t too worried about that for the time being. Jase quickly made up a few images of files using the new animated art style so I could begin. I started with the start up (Menu) screen which had a few different buttons that you could interact with, as it can be seen below.
In the settings scene, I made volume, brightness and difficulty options. The volume was reasonably easy to make with a pre-made function in gDevelop made ready to go, so it was only a matter of linking it up to the buttons and moving the slider along the bar. I added the difficulty option with a coming soon sticker over the top just to entice players with potential further iterations in future, however nothing has been planned at this stage. I did struggle with the brightness however as I was unsure how to create this. I found different effects that were interesting to play around with but none of these worked with the brightness filter I had in mind. I figured I would leave it until I finished working on other parts and I could come back. Unfortunately although I figured out a way I could create the brightness, I didn’t have time to implement this before playtesting. I was going to put a global pitch black layer over the game and depending on the percentage of brightness the players wanted, the opacity of the layer would change. This can be included in future iterations. I also created a basic back button taking the player back to the main menu scene. I added a little robot running off the page an aesthetic little touch to the game.
The next page I made was the load game scene, this was pretty straight forward also, with button sprites and text numbering each saved button. I had the buttons change animation when pressed to show the players which button is selected. The continue button when pressed would take you to the loading scene just for the sake of this prototype. In future iterations, a saved progress file would need to be selected in order to proceed. Although the little red cross in the corner would be the way you would exit a textbox like this in real life, for the game I decided to make it so that players could press anywhere outside of the box for it to close.
Next I made the new game scene, which required a little more coding than the others. This included hiding/showing text on a timer, the buttons that would change text depending on what is selected and what is written into the input, and the little animated sprites on the side. So, how this would work is that players would interact with the flashing text that would say ‘INSERT NAME’ and this would take you to the input name scene. I made this scene by duplicating the new game scene but changed the box in front so that players were entering a name into a new box on top of the new game box. When writing the input, this would save to a global variable so I can display it in the new game page. So once the player press continue after inputting the name would change to ‘NAME’ and the flashing would stop. Then when selecting what number save button they wanted, the button animation would change to the pressed down (like in load game) and the text would change to the global variable. This worked effectively in my opinion and I was more than happy with the results.
Next was the loading scene which was easier and just had a molly sprite running back and forth with the ‘loading...’ modifying on a timer. After 10 seconds the ‘loading...’ text would change to ‘Ready to play’ and a continue button would pop up. When specifically making this scene, I had to “keep in mind that you are not creating the design document for its own sake— your objective is communication, so do whatever it takes to accomplish that goal.” (Fullerton, 2018). Although nothing was actually loading in the scene I wanted to replicate and communicate to the player that this would be when the game would set up the gameplay before jumping in.
Then it would go onto the game play. Its worth mentioning that the text used was downloaded and I layered green and purple to match the glitchy/animated aesthetic. I also used the same colours as the main logo. With all of what I spoken about so far in the production in Gdevelop, I just had a bit of fun with it trying to simulate to a normal computer desktop but add small touches that made it unique to the game specifically.
At this stage I realised I was going to be making the whole prototype so I began the long haul. I got the background all set up with the art Jase sent and read through the script. After gaining an understand of what he wanted, I started making the game. I initially made it so that Larry was walking around talking and Molly was following him around the screen, but when I asked for feedback he knew I must’ve read the script wrong. So I had to start again :( which wasn’t fun but I just kept going.
Fullerton mentioned in chapter 14 that “the goal in this stage is to execute on the functional vision established during preproduction.” I was starting to worry that I would run out of time to make the whole prototype within the time frame allocated. I did have to decide which parts of the narrative I would cut out, keeping in mind that I only had to give insight to the player of what our vision was rather than creating the whole game. I had to also make sure that what I did cut wouldn’t affect the overall story to the point where players felt that part of the narrative was missing. After some time of reading through the script, I cut out one whole scene after the introduction and before the Wordcount level. I feel this was wise and wouldn't hinder the experience for the player.
Once I figured out how I wanted to display everyone on the screen, I started making the first level scene introduction with Larry. This wasn’t too tricky, I just had a timer for the whole scene where Larry’s text box would modify throughout the time. This whole introduction level actually had 4 duplicated then edited scenes throughout because I didn’t think about hiding/showing objects depending on the scene timer, but if i were to do it again, I would make the level one large scene.
Once the player was able to move and the instructions were apparent on screen, I also created an objective box at the top. The player was able to move around and and climb up ladders before entering the password files document.
The documents scene was split into only two scenes however I think I could've made it into one scene using the showing/hiding objects using a scene timer. So in this level, Larry and Molly meet Dr Menth, which means that a large narrative portion would occur. I decided to allow Molly’s character to move around in this level whilst the talking was happening so that players had the opportunity to explore. This meant that I had to create all of both Larry’s and Dr Menth’s textbox, text and sprite to be centred around molly’s character, staying in screen. This was a pain as I wanted to get the exact positions right and it took a lot of trial and error, but I got there in the end. Implementing the text with the timers didn’t take too long, but then I realised the script didn’t actually have any objective after the narrative portion. I knew players would want a taste of doing some sort of activity, after all, we were attempting to make a puzzle-solving narrative game, so I decided to create a new objective/challenge. A number of robots would spawn, swapping animations on a random range timer. Players would have to interact and press E to delete them, saving Dr Menth’s home and fitting in with the narrative. I created another box in the top right to show how many robots would be left using a scene variable for each time the robot was deleted, -1 from the variable. Once the variable went to 0, the end scene would come up thanking for playing the prototype.
In terms of the game music and sound fx, I downloaded royalty free lofi music to put in the beginning menu scenes. This took a little bit of time, finding a nicely fitting song and finding the setting that would allow it to play through multiple scenes but stop once gameplay would begin. All sound effects used were also free downloads. This also took a fair amount of time to find some fitting ones, however in future iterations I would try find less abrupt and repetitive sounds. I just used 2 for Larry and Dr Menth and rotated back and fourth between the sounds. The sound effects for deleting the robots was fitting and I think it worked well.
This was an exhausting but rewarding prototype as I learnt a lot about gDevelop and pushed its capabilities.
gdev mechanics for game:
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Fullerton, Tracy. Game Design Workshop : A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games, Fourth Edition, CRC Press LLC, 2018. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/qut/detail.action?docID=5477698.
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On Final Fantasy XIII
I have to admit that I went into this game expecting to be disappointed. While I have intended for a while now to play through every non-MMO Final Fantasy game, at the time I started playing it I had only completed the original and FFII, and was around halfway through FFIII. The only reason I decided to play it now was availability; my brother had a copy, so I didn’t need to purchase it for myself.
I hadn’t really heard much about the game other than “It’s bad” and “It’s Final Hallway XIII lol”. And while there is certainly an argument to be made that FFXIII is objectively a bad game, and the “hallway” criticism (that most of the game’s areas are linear, with barely any deviation in route) is valid, I absolutely loved this game. I would not recommended it to anyone who isn’t determined to play it through, for reasons I’ll elaborate on later, but this is currently my favourite Final Fantasy game, beating out the original, II, III, and now IV (which I am at the final dungeon of as of this writing).
I’ll address the criticisms first. Beginning with the “hallway” criticism. Yes, of the game’s 13 chapters, only the area in chapter 11 (which can be revisited during chapter 13) offers any sort of exploration. It’s also where the game’s version of side quests are introduced. Note that although it’s labeled as chapter 11, almost two thirds of the game take place in this open area. I understand that this isn’t worth ten chapters of linearity to some people, but I actually found the linearity of the game to be quite enjoyable. Some people make the argument that the linearity is necessary for story purposes, as our six protagonists are fugitives from their government, and don’t have the time to be running around looking for twenty bear asses with the army breathing down their necks. This is a valid defense, but I have a much simpler one.
Of all the Final Fantasy games I’ve played, Final Fantasy XIII was the first and thus far only one where I didn’t need an internet walkthrough to figure out where the fuck I was supposed to fucking GO.
Maybe it’s because I’ve only played NES and SNES-era Final Fantasy games for comparison, but FFXII was so much more enjoyable simply because I didn’t need to constantly be checking a mile-long GameFAQs walkthough every twenty minutes or so, searching for place names or proper nouns just for some hint of where I needed to be. Now, this changed when I started doing the aforementioned side quests, if only because there’s no indication on the in-game map where the questgivers are unless the quest is active, but until that point I had no need for cross-checking a walkthrough. Hopefully this will get better when I finally get through the 16-bit era, but until then the linearity that I’ve heard so many people complain about is one of Final Fantasy XIII’s biggest draws for me. The linearity made the game more fun.
As mentioned earlier, the game only really opens up in chapter 11, which is where the majority of the game’s runtime is. This is because chapters 1 through 9, and most of 10, are the game’s tutorial.
These segments are roughly 20 hours long.
Final Fantasy XIII has a 20-hour-long tutorial. There’s really no way to spin that as a positive. The game uses that time to its advantage, introducing five of the six protagonists from the get-go and developing them in a way that I quite enjoyed, and will say more on later. The fact of the matter is, though, that 20 hours is a ridiculous time to spend teaching the player how to use your combat system. I’m not sure if it makes it better or worse that it does legitimately take 20 hours to master Final Fantasy XIII’s version of the Active Time Battle system.
Again, full disclosure, I wound up loving the combat system in FFXIII. But I didn’t understand how it worked until around chapter five. To explain, you have a party of at most three characters. You control one character directly, and the other two are controlled by the game’s AI, which takes its cues from you. Each character has a combination of three of six possible roles. You create what the game calls “paradigms”, six sets of any three of the available roles that you can freely switch between during combat. This allows for a party in trouble to switch on the fly from offensive classes to (for example) a tank and two healers. Once you get a handle on it, it’s very intuitive. The problem is, of course, how long it takes to get a handle on it. Twenty hours is still ridiculous.
Ultimately, a video game succeeds or fails on its gameplay. You can have the most gorgeous backgrounds, beautiful music, and memorable characters, but if the game is hard to play, all that falls by the wayside. Looking at you, Skyward Sword. But that’s a discussion for another time.
I’m sure the twenty-hour long tutorial turned people off of FFXIII when it first came out. I do agree that it’s ridiculous, and it’s most of the reason why I wouldn’t recommend the game to anyone who wanted something just to pick up and play. My brother, who you’ll remember is the one who actually owns the copy I played, never actually finished the game, nor has any desire to. I likely would have put it down myself if I hadn’t resolved myself to playing it all the way through. I’m glad I did. But if you aren’t approaching it with that mindset, I wouldn’t expect you to enjoy it.
Speaking of enjoying things, let’s move on to what I actually liked about this game, which is the story and characters. I don’t know how it stacks up against more contemporary Final Fantasy games, but I personally was glad to not be playing yet another Dungeons and Dragons campaign. The story is mostly driven by its characters.
Claire “Lightning” Farron is the face of Final Fantasy XIII, and the only character I knew about heading in. What I knew, or rather had heard, was that her character was “Cloud Strife but as a woman.” I’ll be the first to admit that, since I haven’t played Final Fantasy VII yet, I don’t know how firsthand how true this assessment is. However, from what I’ve been able to gather from pop-cultural osmosis, this is almost completely untrue. Lightning was designed with “female Cloud” in mind, but for the most part this is where the similarities end.
Lightning is essentially the single parent of her little sister Serah, and is overprotective of her to a fault. This has caused an estrangement between the two of them, exacerbated by Lightning’s disapproval of Serah’s fiancé, who will be discussed when we get to him. When Serah is cursed by what are essentially minor gods in this setting with a task that will either transform her into a mindless monster if she fails or put her in stasis potentially forever if she succeeds, Lighting sets out on a quest to rescue her from her fate, to the extent of defying her own gods-given task, and heaven help anyone who gets in her way.
One of the weaknesses of Final Fantasy XIII, in my opinion, is that the game’s engine doesn’t give its characters the most expressive of faces. Lightning is a very reserved person, but you are able to figure out how she’s feeling from careful consideration and inference based on what she says versus what she’s been through. This could be made much easier if the engine was capable of rendering microexpressions. I do kind of hope FFXIII will get a high-definition rerelease, if only so that this sort of thing could be added.
Lightning’s arc in this game (it continues slightly in Final Fantasy XII-2, and completes in Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII) involves her learning that even if Serah is getting married, it doesn’t mean she’s going to be alone in the world. She forges friendships that will last literal lifetimes with her fellow companions, one of whom is her future brother-in-law she despises so much.
Time to talk about him. Snow Villiers is a dumbass. A moron. An idiot. An airhead.
I love him so much.
I didn’t always. I actually started out hating him just as much as Lightning did. Snow wants to be a hero. Sorry, make that a Hero™. He’s the leader of a citizen’s militia in his and the Farron sisters’ hometown, and he believes that a true hero never needs a plan, because of the laws of narrative causality or some such bullshit. Naturally his arc involves him realizing that that’s a really, REALLY stupid way to live your life. It’s actually better than I’m making it sound: he goes through a gradual realization that his philosophy is hindering others more than helping them, and goes through some low points before he learns how to temper his enthusiasm with careful planning and coordination. Part of this is coming to the conclusion that he can still be heroic, even if he (or anyone, really) can’t live up to the platonic ideal of heroism he has constructed for himself. I began by hating him, by the end of FFXIII I loved hating him, and by the end of the trilogy I actually genuinely grew to love him. But that’s a story for another time. Snow’s motivation is actually the same as Lightning’s: to rescue Serah Farron from her fate, regardless of who or what gets in the way.
One of the people hurt by Snow’s general idiocy is another of our protagonists: a young boy of fourteen named Hope Estheim, whose mother volunteers to fight alongside Snow to defend her son. Her death isn’t COMPLETELY Snow’s fault, but both Snow and Hope act as if it is. It doesn’t help that she shares a name, Nora, with Snow’s militia. (No Obligations, Rules, or Authority. No, seriously.) Hope’s initial motivation is revenge against Snow. To the point of murder. Naturally this doesn’t play out, but Hope’s interactions with Lightning and Snow are a guiding factor in their own arcs, giving Lightning the familiar ground of a big-sister role as she teaches him how to survive on the run, and showing Snow that heroism is still possible even if you don’t match Snow’s ideal. (To elaborate, when given the opportunity to take revenge for his mother, Hope not only can’t go through with it, but shortly after that actually defends an unconscious Snow after the two survive a several-story fall.)
Hope comes into his own after reuniting with his father, whom he was afraid would shun him both for not being able to save his mother, and for becoming one of the gods-cursed beings that the general public are being made to fear. Bartholomew Estheim not only reassures him that he would never feel that way about his own son, but gives Hope the confidence he needs to stand up and take action of his own accord, rather than reacting to what’s happening to him as he had been doing. Hope’s a good kid.
To contrast, Sazh Katzroy is a good father. He’s the oldest member of the main cast, old enough to have a young son, Dajh. Dajh is cursed in a similar way to Serah, and Sazh’s journey is about trying to get him back from the government, who in a cruel twist are using the powers the curse gave him to hunt our protagonists. Sazh is effectively the team dad, and honestly his arc can be summed up with a single GIF of Marlin from Finding Nemo. “Have you seen my son?!”
Kidding aside, what Sazh has to go through are probably the most realistically terrifying events of the game. He’s a single father whose preschool-aged son is not just missing, but has been taken from him. And like everyone else under the curse, Dajh is on a ticking clock to decide which fate worse than death awaits him. There’s actual, realistic fear there, and I did really care about seeing the two reunited.
Sazh also got the chance to act as a surrogate father to Oerba Dia Vanille, the fifth and final character who’s introduced from the get-go. For initially unexplained reasons, she’s the only member of the main cast (that we’ve met) with an Australian accent. She’s bubbly, peppy, and dealing with a trainload of internalized guilt over events that happened 500 years before the game even began.
Vanille, along with our sixth and later introduced really final party member, are the last survivors of a civilization that fought and lost a war against the floating colony the rest of the cast lives in 500 years ago. The two of them were cursed way back then, and entered stasis until the present day. Vanille is a gentle soul, and was horrified both at the number of innocent people she had killed way back when to complete her task, and at what her awakening had brought: both Serah and Dajh were cursed, by different gods, directly because of it. There’s actually a very touching scene shown as a flashback of Vanille meeting Serah a day or two before the events of the game proper, in which she essentially apologizes for what she’s done, and Serah forgives her despite not really understanding the extent of what Vanille was apologizing for. There’s also an even more powerful scene when Sazh finds out that what happened to Dajh was Vanille’s fault, after spending roughly a full day trying to keep the young woman alive. Sazh has a tough decision to make, but it ultimately results in Vanille realizing that she is worthy of forgiveness, which she can achieve by joining with the other characters to save the people she was tasked with destroying.
The sixth and final party member is Oerba Yun Fang, introduced about a chapter or so after the rest as a “mysterious woman” before swooping in with an appropriately named renegade army faction (the Cavalry) to save the other characters from a tight spot. She also has an Australian accent, marking her and Vanille as native to the surface of the planet. (The difference is that Vanille’s VA is actually Australian. Fang’s is not.)
Fang is in many ways a foil to Lightning. She has the same sort of big sister relationship to Vanille that Lightning has with Serah; although where Lightning is overprotective because she doesn’t want to lose her only family, Fang is overprotective because she and Vanille are literally the only members of their people left alive (to their and our knowledge), and they are actively being hunted down by a hostile nation. Fang’s motivation is to keep Vanille safe, at any cost, even her own humanity. There’s an often-quoted line: “I’ll tear down the sky if it’ll save her.” There are some people who view Fang and Vanille’s relationship as romantic, and while I understand where they’re coming from, I prefer the parity it gives the narrative if Fang and Vanille’s relationship is incredibly similar to that of Lightning and Serah’s. While Lightning learns to overcome her unfounded distrust of others, Fang is overcoming her very well founded distrust of others. Both women learn to open up to their companions; that they aren’t as alone in the world as they feel they have to be.
I also really loved the ending of this game, so spoilers follow. The heroes win; what kind of Final Fantasy game would it be if the villain wins, eh? Though the floating colony does get dropped on the planet, our heroes were able to convince the army to evacuate the colony instead of fighting to the death, which means most of the civilians survived. Fang and Vanille, however, sacrificed themselves to stasis in crystal for an unknown amount of time to create a support pillar for the colony; it forms into the logo for the game, which I thought was a clever touch. Lightning, Snow, Sazh, and Hope are all rocketed to the surface of the planet, but survive via also being turned to crystal; they are freed from the stasis and the brands indicating them as cursed have mysteriously vanished. Out of the wreckage walks Serah and Dajh, also freed from the curse, to reunite with their families. Bartholomew Estheim is nowhere to be seen, but a codex entry in XIII-2 confirms that he survived and reunited with Hope after the fact. I would have liked for him to be there, but I understand that showing the reunion with Serah (and Dajh) was more important. It was a bit jarring hearing Leona Lewis in 2017, as I had forgotten she even existed, but apparently there was no way to translate the Japanese theme into English and have it still be lyrical AND make sense, so they substituted an English song with the same thematic elements. It’s a nice song, and it works. This was a good ending to a good story in a maybe-okay-at-best game.
Beautiful music, lovely visuals, fantastic characters that play off each other, stacked up against a control system that takes almost a full day to learn, a slightly sluggish camera, and a linear, story-driven game world (which apparently counts as a bad thing for some reason). I love this game. I’ve heard very good things about VI, and everyone always gushes over VII and IX, but until I get to those, I have my favourite Final Fantasy, and it’s XIII.
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I Like Ghostbusters (2016)
This is going to be long and I almost didn’t post it because of that, but I spent hours on this, and I’m not letting that go to waste. So here you go.
Also Spoiler Warning.
And I understand that’s a point of contention because some vocal people in the world don’t agree with the idea that some other people in the world are born with vaginas...
My heart bleeds...
I’m going to clarify before I get into the meat of this and explain why I like the movie, I don’t think it’s the best movie, I don’t even think it’s a great movie.
It’s alright. It’s about as enjoyably flawed as most other movies and I don’t see anything really terrible about it.
And I’m not saying that so I can appear neutral on the topic, I feel it’s an honest criticism that the movie is just OK, but that’s not a damnable offense.
My favourite movie (Pokémon The First Movie) is flawed as hell, from Pokemon being referred to by the wrong name, staggeringly inconsistent world-mechanics, emotional scenes almost ruined by what looks like stock on-model clip-art Pokemon smiling in the background while Ash lies “dead”, laughable uses of early 2000′s CG and even a well-meaning but ham-fisted and easily misconstrued message about ignoring the things that make people different and instead celebrating that we’re all the same in a way (which in turn limits discussion about cultural differences and why they’re so fascinating and worth sharing)
And that’s not even touching on how Meowth is honestly the true hero of the movie.
But anyway, I could go on forever about that.
What I’m laboriously trying to get to is that even movies you love and maybe consider perfect, have things wrong with them. It’s a logical truth about not just all movies, but probably all things in the universe.
And I think a wonderful way to illustrate that, whilst also talking about the main focus of this thing I’m writing right now, would be to list off a select handful of things I liked about Ghostbusters 2016 and compare them to the original movie (And maybe even the second one).
So let’s get to it.
The Ghostbusters actually all believe in ghosts.
Yeah, So I’m going to address this point with the original movie first.
You have Ray, who believes in ghosts and Egon, who also believes, or at least is interested in the actual research that goes into proving the existence of ghosts. That’s fine, you need at least one person to be a believer for the premise to make any logical sense.
But then you have Venkman, He has PHDs in psychology and a para-psychoogy. So he at least has some kind of passing interest into, at the very least, the psychological component of why people might believe ghosts are real.
But as is proven within the opening moments of the film, he doesn’t really seem to believe anything he’s spouting. You see him in the midst of an experiment on negative reinforcement and it’s affect on ESP, but he’s not doing it because he’s interested, at least not when you see him. He’s doing it to impress a female student.
Because if anything is going to get a girl probably half your age raring to go it’s electrocuting a classmate for giggles.
Anyway, moving on to Winston. It’s worth mentioning that when Aykroyd and Ramis were writing Winston they wanted him to also be a scientist, or at least someone with a higher degree of education or a background in engineering, but it was agreed later on that having the cast comprised of all scientists leaves them no every-man for the audience to relate to, so we got the Winston that is in the movie.
I have nothing against that, that’s a fine judgement call in my opinion. And I don’t think it makes his role in the movie any less valid, if anything it makes him more essential for grounding the story, because he arrives in the story to get a job hunting ghosts, something he doesn’t discredit, but also doesn’t openly believe in straight away. And remarks that as long as he gets paid he’ll believe whatever they ask him to.
So two of the four original Ghostbusters don’t believe in ghosts or at the very least don’t have a strong opinion about it either way.
In the 2016 version, all of them believe in ghosts.
Erin, believed in ghosts due to repeated encounters with an old woman who died next door when she was a little girl, prompting her parents to put her into therapy and her peers at school to ridicule her. Which is when she met Abby and they became fast friends over their mutual interest in the paranormal.
They grew up and co-wrote a book about their hypothesis about potentially encountering, interacting with and containing ghosts. Fast forward to the start of the movie, Erin has forced herself to repress her interest in ghosts and convinced herself that she doesn’t believe anymore as a means to succeed in mainstream academia.
Abby however continued to believe and eventually meets Holtzmann, who as it would seem also believed in ghosts and feels she’s capable of constructing the mechanisms necessary to fulfil Abby and Erin’s previous dreams.
Then as a result of encountering a real ghost, Erin believes again and Abby and Holtzmann have their evidence to validate their research.
Later on in the movie we are introduced to Patty, Who admittedly doesn’t indicate any previous belief in ghosts, but she is inspired to join the Ghostbusters because she encounters one, so realistically, that makes her a believer before she joins.
All four Ghostbusters are believers in the thing they set out to do in the 2016 movie for individual reasons.
Erin, because of past experiences, Abby because she bonded with her closest friend over the paranormal, Holtzmann because it’s later revealed she has a hard time fully understanding how people work and was looking for companionship from Abby and ghost hunting sounded like a cool enough reason to hang out*. And Patty actually sees a ghost before finding the right people to ask about it.
(*That isn’t to say that Holtzmann only believed because Abby did, Holtzmann clearly thinks ghosts exist, look at her reaction to the first ghost in the movie, she’s not surprised to find that Abby was right, she’s hyped as hell to see a ghost, it validated her and her friends work together.)
To move further onto this point, and introduce the next section...
The people in positions of power believe in ghosts as well.
In Ghostbusters 2016, the Mayor of New York has his people make contact with the Ghostbusters to congratulate them on their discovery, but to ultimately stop making such a big deal about it for fear of public hysteria. Because unlike in the original movie (And a little bit in two) Ghosts were happening even when the Ghostbusters weren’t around. I know it’s crazy to think about.
The original movie, somehow expected it’s audience to buy into a premise of scientists fighting against paranormal activity in a major metropolitan area where seemingly no one believed in or had ever encountered a ghost before the start of the film... It goes double for the second movie, because in the intervening time between the end of one and the beginning of two, the Ghostbusters were court ordered to stop any paranormal investigations of any kind.
So in that time, I guess nobody saw a ghost? You never hear anyone saying how they want the Ghostbusters back because they were actually providing a service? It’s ridiculous. And the men in charge of the city are still skeptics, despite everyone witnessing a giant marshmallow man about a year prior?
So yeah, the portrayal of authority in the 2016 movie is more forgiving, You probably won’t see anyone insulting the man who played the Mayor in the 2016 role for how much of a shit his character was, unlike what unfortunately happened to the actor who played Walter Peck.
And the attitudes presented by these characters (in the 2016 movie) are a constant throughout, sure there’s one scene where they publicly don’t believe Erin when she’s screaming about the impending crisis, but their role in the movie is that of a mediator between what’s actually happening and the public, it’s a facade and probably a little closer to what would actually happen in this scenario.
The Ghostbusters tech is iterative (in the 2016 version).
So everyone is familiar with the Proton packs, anyone who was a child during the 80′s and 90′s probably wanted a Proton pack or grew into an adult that eventually owned a screen-accurate one. I wager almost no one will argue that the Proton pack isn’t one of the coolest and most iconic pieces of Sci-Fi tech in film.
But it wasn’t until watching the 2016 version, that I realised I’ve always wanted to see how they made them... In the original movie they just have Proton packs, traps and a containment grid ready to go on their first mission to hunt for Slimer.
You never see the process of how they designed or constructed the tech in the original movies. The closest you get to this is in the second movie where you see Ray tinkering with the slime launcher, but even then, it’s more-or-less fully built even before they reveal what it is.
You could claim that this is a “modern cinema” way of thinking, because back in the late 80′s to early 90′s it was less important* to show how everything worked in a film like it is today.
(*There are doubtless movies from the same time that DID do it, it just wasn’t as necessary as it is today)
That’s a fine point and I honestly can’t argue against it, it is more telling about the times in which the movies were made.
But I still feel like I would have rather have seen them even just doing a montage of putting their business together.
They buy an old firehouse and a hearse, then suddenly it’s got everything they need in it?
I will also concede that, in the 2016 movie, they seem to have access to basically all of the stuff they need despite never showing any indication of having any kind of budget.
(Also, I’m not sure why they actually needed a receptionist... Let alone budgeted in the wages for one...)
I don’t know much, but I reckon it’s not easy to make four portable nuclear accelerators on the cheap, even if they’re made of salvaged scrap. But you do have to allow for a little suspension of disbelief with Sci-Fi comedies.
So yeah, both have a some inconsistencies on where exactly their tech comes from or how they can afford to make them, but whatever.
I also really enjoyed the variances of the tech in the 2016 version, you have a ghost vacuum crossed with a paper shredder, a hand mounted, punch activated proton gauntlet, the... I’ll be honest I can’t tell what it is that Erin uses during the final scenes is it a proton grenade launcher or a shotgun or what? Speaking of grenades they also have those and then the show piece, Holtzmann’s duel Proton whips.
These variations of the same basic tech are brilliant and I love them. Why would you just have one catch-all (Pun some-what intended) device that all ghosts are susceptible to? I mean there’s going to be instances where a ghost is too large or small for a proton pack right? Or what if a ghost presents itself to be too dangerous to risk the time it’d take to capture?
The original movie never really touched on the idea of killing ghosts (Despite doing so at least twice), probably because on paper it sounds nonsensical, but when you give ghosts a physical presence that can be interacted with and through proton manipulation, moved around and held indefinitely, killing them becomes less absurd. The movies can easily work around it by simply saying “we didn’t kill a ghost, we just destabilised it.”
Which honestly works for me. You don’t really need to explain further, you shot lasers at a thing until it turned to mist, righteo!
And that is a thing that actually happens in the 2016 film, during the final scenes the team squares off against an entire street of different kinds of human-shaped ghosts. And they don’t capture any of them, there are no prisoners in the 2016 film.
They successfully capture one ghost and then set it free to spite one of their biggest and most vocal naysayers. But the actual reason they don’t catch any ghosts in this one, is because they don’t have a containment grid until the END of the movie when the government has finally recognised their efforts and provides them funding.
Giving yet another reason why the authority figures in the 2016 version are better than the originals.
OK, that’s probably going to do it, because this became really long, really fast. But I would like to just very quickly speak directly about some criticisms the movie received.
“Women can’t be Ghostbusters”.
This is the most common one and it baffles me to no end. I don’t remember that being firmly established within the first two movies. I mean looking at the evidence you can at least say that until recently all Ghostbusters were male, but that in itself still doesn’t state that women CAN’T be Ghostbusters...
I’ve also heard a variation of the argument, saying that it isn’t that they’re women it’s because they’re all women, and fair enough. I can’t say that the movie would or wouldn’t have been better or at least more favourably received if there were at least one male Ghostbuster, but that’s not the direction they took, so we’ll never know.
But ultimately there is nothing stopping women from putting on a back pack and shooting lasers at ghosts. Nothing at all. I could do it from my chair, it doesn’t take much effort. So any out-dated argument about it being a physically demanding, manly job for strong, manly men, just remember, the first movie was about three nerds shooting lasers at ghosts.
“There was a Queef joke within five minutes of the movie starting!”
That’s your metric for whether a movie is bad? are you fucking five? I’ve watched movies in the past where the central joke was that people fart. If a movie with a female cast want to make something their bodies do into a joke, then let them... in the grand scheme of things, one queef joke is nothing compared to the near endless stream of farts, poops, puke, burps and erections I’ve seen in movies. Fuck in Super Bad a girl has her period on a dudes leg. Now let me just go see... Nope I checked there isn’t mass hysteria in the streets over this...
Fucking grow up.
And it’s not even like it carries on that way throughout the movie. as I said, I’ve seen whole films about the core conceit that farts are funny.
But no, if the Ghostbusters want to make one throw away gag about yet another kind of gaseous expulsion, then that’s too far!
“All the men in the movie are stupid!”
Yeah, OK. Name a comedy that hasn’t included at least one stupid male character.
Also, only two of them are stupid in the typical sense. The rest are skeptical.
And I wouldn’t mind this argument if some of those characters weren’t justifiably stupid.
Let’s look at the classic example, Kevin the receptionist. So this is a man who is textbook handsome but absolutely stupid to the point of possibly being a danger to himself and others. But he kind of has to be that way.
You’re probably confused so let me validate that claim. He at some point saw a job listing to be a receptionist for a new private business, the name of the business is a bunch of long words he can’t even remember half the time but it’s something about paranormal whats-its and it’s located above a Chinese restaurant.
Would you, go for that job? I know money is tight for everyone, but still. imagine that job listing and then imagine the kind of person who would go for it.
And I bet you’re imagining the kind of person who takes the lenses out of their glasses to stop them from getting dirty.
“We don’t need to reboot Ghostbusters!”
Actually, I fully agree. This is my one major problem with the film. We didn’t need to reboot it.
I know it’s been 30 years since we had a Ghostbusters movie and reboot is the new original IP in the current movie business. But there is one line in the original move that validates spin-off movies over flat out reboots or remakes.
“The franchise rights alone will make us rich beyond our wildest dreams.”
This is a line that Venkman says to Ray when they gather the funding for their business.
The full intention was to make Ghostbusting a FRANCHISE, not a single business.
So there is in no uncertain terms more than enough wiggle room to create Ghostbuster movies set in different places. I mean what if it became an international franchise? the possibilities are now endless.
But they went with a reboot. Because.
And that is honestly the only major criticism I can think of.
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5 CRITICAL TIPS THAT CAN GET YOU A JOB AS AN PLC PROGRAMMER
Working as an automation or controls engineer is one of the most attractive and high paid jobs in the marketplace. As an automation engineer, you have the opportunity to design sophisticated control and monitoring systems in some of the most strategic and important industries (such as oil, gas, and steel). This greatly increases your social status and who doesn’t like high social level jobs?
But in the case that you are looking for a job in this field and you’re a new graduate or just someone who likes to work in this field but doesn’t have the relevant experience, you may find it difficult to find a job. Most of the job advertisements you see around require at least two years of relevant experience.
I’m here to tell you that this is not a problem, it’s an opportunity! Why? Because in this situation most people are not really committed towards acquiring a job in the field and so they give up after applying for one or two jobs. They get preoccupied with other non-relevant job and leave the opportunity for those who know the true value of working in this field and are committed to becoming an automation engineer. It’s this mindset that helped me find my ideal job as an automation engineer (or PLC programmer) when I had no real experience in this field.
I now have more than six years of experience in designing control systems for big industries such as oil, gas, petroleum, and steel. After only two years in the first company that I was working for, I was promoted to the head of technical department where I have had the luxury of working with some of the most talented automation engineers from all around the world. Most of them had a long extensive background in this field.
The YouTube channel I started in collaboration with some of my colleagues is now one of the most viewed channels in the field of industrial automation training. We also created a library with practical PLC programming courses, which is one of the “most effective and practical training courses,” according to other automation experts.
While all this is amazing, when I was just starting out in the field, nothing was this good. Although I used to work harder as an electrical technician in companies who manufactured electrical enclosures during high school and colleges, I had no real experience in programming and designing industrial control systems. As you may guess, most of the job opportunities that were available required real experience in this field. But I didn’t give up because I couldn’t. I had invested several years during high school and college to become on automation engineer. It had been my dream job for so long that I couldn’t simply turn a blind eye to it.
I’ve recently received a lot of questions, both online and offline, asking me how to get a job as an automation engineer or PLC programmer without any experience in the field. While I prefer to answer every query that comes in, my schedule has been very tight lately and unfortunately I can’t respond to every question that comes in.
Because of this, I’ve decided to share my personal experience as someone who searched for a job in this field and as an employer who reviews resumes, interviews candidates, and hires automation engineers for a variety of projects.
So let’s get started!
1. Put yourself ahead of the crowed by educating yourself as much as you can.
When I graduated from college with a Bachelor of Science in Instrument and Control Engineering, I found out that there are a lot of people like me holding the same degree that I do. And a few of them had applied for some practical training programs on the top of the college curriculum. So although I was not in a good financial situation at that time, I invested most of the money I earned into the different training courses that I thought would be able to help me come closer to my final goal: a job as an automation engineer. Most of recent graduates I knew didn’t take any courses outside of the college, or if they did they were only limited to one or two training courses. I took eight different courses in PLC programming, Wincc and monitoring systems, Profibus, Ethernet, etc and that made me very unique compared to others with the same college degree. Having these training courses in my resume showed employers immediately that I was different from the other recent graduates and if they hired me, they’d be able to avoid training me from scratch. They knew that they hire someone who has been trained with the exact skill to work as an automation engineer.
This is also what I see now sitting on the other side of the table as an employer. Most of the resumes that are sent to me either don’t have any relevant training courses or just one or two. If I see a resume that has seven or eight practical training courses, his/her chance of being hired is way more than the others. This shows that they know what to do right off the bat and it also indicates that they have been committed to their goal of working as an automation engineer. They’ve invested time and money to achieve their goal and what employer doesn’t like a serious employee?!
2. Sell the heck out of yourself!
Top Directors of companies are always looking for someone who can add value to their company. In any circumstance, if they recognize someone who could potentially be effective for their company, they don’t hesitate to hire that person. But you need to show them how good you are. If they don’t know you then how can they be assured that you’d be a valuable addition to their team? It’s like having the best product in the world but not doing any marketing for it and then expecting others to come and buy from you. In this case, no one buys your great product simply because they’re not aware that such a thing exists! So you’ve got to have the ability and willingness to sell yourself in the best way possible and show and convince employers that you can add value to their company. If you don’t promote yourself, then who will?
One the best and most powerful tools that you can use to represent your skills is LinkedIn. Today most international and local companies jump into LinkedIn when they want to hire new employees. Research shows that professionals with a well-designed LinkedIn profile have more job opportunity than others. So if you’re a professional and don’t have a well-designed LinkedIn profile, then you’re missing on a good chunk of opportunities.
One the best books that I’ve read about how to use the power of LinkedIn to reach your professional career goals is LinkedIn Riches by John Nemo. If you’re really serious about your professional life, then I highly recommend this book.
3. You must be willing to pay the price.
When I was looking for a job, I searched for opportunities online and offline every single day. I sent my resume to every single good company that was hiring. Some of the companies were not based in the city that I lived in and sometimes I had to take a bus for a six or seven hour long trip (because I couldn’t afford to buy a plane ticket). The scenario was pretty much like this, the company secretary called to tell me that they liked my resume and to ask if I could interview the following day. I always said “I’ll be there!” and then usually took the bus the night before and arrived in the morning for a brief fifteen minute or less interview. If you really want to find a job, you need to have the courage to do whatever it takes to make that happen. Some folks don’t even take the time to fill out an online form for a new job opportunity. Then they wonder why they can’t find a job! Their excuse is “I’m so busy with my current job or with other things in my life. I can’t find time to look for new opportunities.” My answer is “No, you’re not busy. There is always time to do what you want but the question is what’s the most important?”
4. Offer something that’s hard to ignore.
I used to ask for advice in every interview. I usually asked “In your opinion, considering the skills on my resume what is the best strategy for me to find a job?” I learned a lot of valuable lessons by asking this question. For instance, in one interview I asked the CEO of the company this question and he said, “Offer something that’s hard to ignore, for example say that I can work for six months for free.” It didn’t make sense for me at the time but I said “What the heck, I’ve tried a lot of things so far, let’s try this one too.” When I got home the day after the interview I picked up the phone and called some of the companies that I knew I had a chance with and offered to work for them for free for six months. After a few days one of them called me back and boom, I was hired! Of course the manager of that company was a good guy and they started paying me after two months because they were satisfied with my work. You can think about this type of offer too. Don’t act like the majority of people. Get creative! I’m sure you can find something to offer that’s hard to ignore.
5. Don’t expect to sit behind a desk at the beginning.
One of the mistakes that most young engineers make is that they expect to sit behind a desk right away at their first job in a company as a designer and programmer because they have an engineering degree! But this actually not ideal. If you’ve been hired as a newbie and you’re asked to do handy work (like construction work) do not waste the opportunity. When I was hired for the first time as an automation engineer, I was working in the hardest working conditions for about eight months: from wiring electrical enclosures which were installed at 100 feet above the ground on the cranes to cabling in factory basements. Now that I look back, those days were some of my best learning experiences I’ve ever had and they expanded my view for designing and programming. Even now that I’m a senior engineer, I sometimes get those type of work days if there is a need. So when you’re asked to do this type of hard work, don’t be lazy. Think of it as a learning experience that will lead you to becoming a serious and professional elite automation engineer.
I could go on and on with additional tips, but I don’t want to overwhelm you. So many blog posts offer long lists of advice, but they’re hard to remember and apply to real life scenarios. My overall advice is that if you want to get into the automation world without any professional experience, you need to prove to employers that you will add value to their company. No one cares how good of a student you were. The only thing that matters is whether or not you can add real value. As soon as you convince them that you’re someone who can, then you’re hired!
Now it’s your turn! I’d love to hear about your successes or lessons learned throughout your interview experience. Please share it with us in the comments below!
#how to become a plc programmer#plc training courses#online plc course#plc programming tutorials for beginners#shahpour shapournia
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Best Charcoal Grill for Vehicle Camping
The Best Battery Powered Lawn Mower for 2020
by Christian Rogers | Updated 11/11/19
Our Top Picks
Editors Pick: GreenWorks 25223 G-MAX 40V
“I was impressed by the power through thicker grass as well as the longevity of the 2 lithium ion batteries..”
Best Features: WORX WG774 Intellicut 20″ Mower
“I really like all of the features of the WORX WG774. It’s easy to push and maneuver, has decent battery length and good power.”
Top Value: Black & Decker CM2043C 20″ Cordless Mower
“This battery powered mower isn’t going to mow your 10 acre ranch, but it will get your lawns looking nice without breaking your back or your bank.”
Best Battery: EGO Power+ 21 Inch 56-Volt Lithium-ion Mower
“Cool looking design, solid battery life and enough power to handle nearly any backyard make this one of my top battery power lawn mower choices.”
Best Power: Snapper XD SXDWM82K 21 Inch Cordless Mower Kit
“The Snapper XD is a serious player in the cordless lawn mower game. It has a ton of power from dual 82V lithium ion batteries and 45 minutes of run time.”
Best Self Propelled: Greenworks 21-Inch M-210-SP Self-Propelled
“At 70lbs, you don’t even notice the weight, even when mowing thick grass.”
Best Mower for Large Yards: Yard Force YF120vRX Lithium-Ion 22”
“If you have large areas to mow, the Yard Force YF120vRX will make quick work of it”
Best Battery Riding Mower: Ryobi 38 in Electric Rear Engine Riding Lawn Mower RY48111
“If you have an extremely large area of lawn to maintain this Ryobi is the riding mower to buy. You will get 2.5 hours run time from the 48V 100 Ah battery.”
Best Robotic Lawn Mower: Husqvarna AUTOMOWER 315
“The Automower is so quiet you can schedule it for night mowing without bothering the neighbors. The AutoMower 315 weighs about 20 pounds and has a 70 minute mow time on full charge.”
Wireless Bluetooth Speaker System Feature Comparison
Take a look at some of the product specs of the portable outdoor bluetooth speakers I reviewed.
If you’re going to be doing any serous entertaining in your back yard this summer, you’re going to want to crank some tunes. A portable outdoor bluetooth speaker system is exactly what you’ll need to get the party going and you don’t have to spend a fortune for a great sounding wireless speaker that also looks good and stands up to water and weather.
I got my hands on a dozen of the best bluetooth speakers that are in the $200 range and below. I picked my favorite 5 speakers based on sound quality, ease of set up, quality of construction, ergonomics and style.
You can definitely spend a lot more money on a portable speaker set up, but in my opinion there’s no need. There’s plenty of great units in this mid price range that will knock your socks off and have you enjoying hours of listening while you barbecue with friends and family or hang out by the pool. Check out the list below.
If you click on a link from this page and make a purchase, YardMasterz.com may earn a small commission from Amazon or other retailers.
Top Pick – OontZ Angle 3XL by Cambridge SoundWorks
My top pick from the wireless outdoor speakers that I tested is the Angle 3XL, one of the larger portable speakers offered by OontZ. As one of the most affordable options on the list (tied with the GGMM speaker), it’s certainly a good investment. It’s lightweight for its size and has all of the standard features a portable speaker needs.
The sound quality is good for a speaker at this price point, with plenty of clarity even at high volumes. With a built-in mic, this speaker can be used for phone calls or accessing voice assistants. It’s compatible with an Echo Dot.
Importantly, it’s also water resistant, so it’s safe for pool- or any backyard entertaining scenarios. However, it can’t be submerged in water, as it’s not fully waterproof. That’s not ideal, but it’s not a huge con.
This speaker offers around 8 hours of play time, though it may die in as few as 5 hours if you’re playing it at top volume. It can be played using a power cord, of course, but a longer battery life would be nice for a speaker like this.
Where this speaker really stands out, though, is in the volume at 20 watts of power. It has the capacity to get much louder than other speakers of similar size, and the difference is clearly noticeable. It would work perfectly for bringing to multiple outdoor events, since it’s easily portable yet packs a lot of sound into a small device.
Review Summary
I absolutely love the OontZ Angle 3XL…maybe even more than the Bose. This speaker can blast out the tunes and it doesn’t distort or lose any of the sound quality. It’s easily the loudest wireless speaker I tested. It’s water resistant, which is a plus for outdoor use. Connects to devices with ease and maintains a strong signal. The triangle design looks cool and it’s a very portable speaker than can go just about anywhere. I definitely recommend the Angle 3XL for all of your backyard speaker needs.
Top Features
Water resistant
Extremely loud volume
Built-in mic
Lightweight but medium-sized
Great sound quality
Needs Improvement
Not fully waterproof
Battery life only about 5 to 8 hours
2. Bose SoundLink Color Bluetooth Speaker II
This portable Bluetooth speaker from Bose was my next test. It’s on the other end of the spectrum from the Sound Link speakers in that it’s super compact and completely wireless, designed for carrying around from place to place easily. This speaker has a couple extra perks that I think is crucial in a Bluetooth speaker, though there are trade-offs.
Firstly, the speaker is built with a rechargeable battery that can be charged using a USB cord. It offers up to 8 hours of play time on one charge, which isn’t as much as some other brands though it’s still plenty enough for regular use. You can also play the speaker using USB power if the battery is running low.
The Bluetooth connectivity on this speaker is great — it’s consistent and rarely, if ever, spotty. The range is supposed to be around 33 feet, and that seems to hold true in my backyard testing.
Not only can you play music through Bluetooth, but you can also connect to digital voice assistants like Siri, Google or Alexa using the built-in mic on the Bose speaker. You can also use the speaker to make phone calls, although you may not want your phone call blasted across the room.
Speaking of the sound, this speaker has impressively rich, full sound for such a small speaker. That’s not surprising, considering that it’s a Bose product, but it’s still a nice bonus for a small, unassuming portable speaker like this one. The volume is loud without sacrificing sound quality.
One last perk of this speaker is that it’s water-resistant, so you can use it by the shower or pool without any problems. That’s a major plus in my mind, since bringing the speaker to the beach or pool is practically the whole point of buying an outdoor Bluetooth speaker!
This speaker is easy to use for the technologically-proficient, though the controls might be a bit tricky for some. In addition, the 8-hour battery life is likely not enough for those who want a speaker that can play background music all day long.
Review Summary
I love Bose speakers & audio gear. I’ve owned several Bose home speaker systems in the past and all of them were amazing. This little outdoor bluetooth speaker packs a whole lot of sound in a small package, which you’re used to with Bose. Great connectivity, high quality sound and a decent price tag. This is a cool little wireless speaker system that is sure to impress you as well.
Top Features
It’s a Bose
Compact
Awesome sound quality
Rechargeable battery
Water-resistant
Built-in mic
Needs Improvement
8 hours of battery life
3. MacroBoom IP67 Bluetooth Speaker by RoamProof
The MacroBoom was definitely designed for rugged, outdoor use. It’s completely waterproof, has a fairly long battery life of 15 hours, and is able to be charged using solar power in addition to a regular USB connection. That’s a pretty unique set of features, and this speaker would be ideal for a weekend camping trip or day hike. It even comes with an included tote bag and carabiner in the package, along with a mount for attaching it to your trail bike.
Aside from these bonus features, this speaker is a good all-around performer. It has a built-in mic for taking phone calls. The generous battery life makes it easy to use without worrying about a dead speaker, though keep in mind that it’ll die sooner if you’re playing it at consistently high volume levels. It has slightly louder volume than you’d expect for a speaker of this size.
The sound quality is good. It’s clear throughout all volume levels and has plenty of bass. The Bluetooth connectivity is stable within range as well. If you plan to buy this for home use, you might buy a pair of two and connect them using the dual pairing feature.
I didn’t happen to take this speaker camping, but I did try out the solar charging feature. It does work, but predictably is slower than charging with a USB — a lot slower. It barely charged at all over the course of a full day of sun. It’s probably more of a back-up option for when a regular power source is unavailable.
The speaker is waterproof for up to 30 minutes of submersion in shallow water, so it’s easy to take it by the pool or beach without worrying about the occasional dunk. It’d also work well as an outdoor shower speaker.
Review Summary
The MacroBoom IP67 is one tough little bluetooth speaker system that has a TON of features. 15W output with 2×2.5″ Ti drivers cranks out the sound. Fully waterproof construction means this thing can literally go anywhere you go. The case is rugged and can take a beating. The only down side is the slow solar charging, but this bluetooth speaker performs great and is one of my favorites of the test.
Top Features
Waterproof
15 hour battery life
Comes with a bike mount
Good sound quality
Built-in mic
Needs Improvement
Solar charging takes a long time
4. GGMM E5 Wireless Smart Speaker with Amazon Alexa
The GGMM E5 speaker is one of the more sleek looking speaker systems of the bunch. It comes in a shallow rectangular square shape with a detachable leather strap, so you can carry it around like a tote bag if need be. It’s an easily-portable medium size, not too big and not too small.
This speaker offers about 15 hours of play time, depending on the volume. Unlike the other outdoor Bluetooth speakers on this list, the GGMM speaker offers Wi-Fi connectivity in addition to Bluetooth, which is convenient for saving on battery life. The Bluetooth connection is remarkably stable, while the Wi-Fi connection can introduce a slight lag at times depending on the quality of the internet connection.
The sound quality is great considering the low price. One perk is that there are bass and treble knobs, so you can adjust the sound to your own liking. The volume is typical for the size — it gets loud enough for your average low-key pool party.
This speaker comes with a built-in mic as well as an app for connecting to Amazon’s voice assistant service, Alexa. Using assistants like Alexa is so convenient — you can adjust the volume or change the song without having to get up and go to your phone. However, the app itself is not the most smooth or modern-feeling, and you do have to have an Amazon account to be able to use Alexa.
The other downside to this speaker is the lack of waterproofing or weatherproofing of any kind. I’d be nervous using it outdoors in an area where it may rain or fall into a body of water. But it’s totally portable, so you can bring it in when you’re not outside using it.
The set-up for this speaker is easy and fast. Since it’s reasonably priced, it’d be a good option for buying multiple speakers and placing one in each room.
Review Summary
The GGMM E5 is one of the best portable outdoor speakers on the market. It’s very sleek and clean looking with a beautiful matte finish and aluminum front grill. The fidelity is awesome from the 4x 5W driver and 2x subs, plus you can really crank the volume on this speaker without sacrificing sound quality. Other features like Alexa and a long battery life make this a top choice for great sounding, high quality portable bluetooth speakers that won’t break the bank.
Top Features
15 hours of play time
Wi-Fi capability
Easily portable
Bass and treble knobs
Built-in mic
Needs Improvement
Not waterproof or water resistant
Included app isn’t the most intuitive
5. Pyle Wireless Bluetooth Weatherproof Speakers
The final set of speakers I checked out were the Pyle Bluetooth speaker. They are the largest of the bunch and comes in a pair of two. While it does offer a wireless Bluetooth option for playing music, the sheer size of the speakers requires that they use a corded power supply. Luckily, the power cord is 25 feet long, which is far longer than most people would need. The cord connecting each speaker is generous, too.
These speakers are “weatherproof,” but nowhere does Sound Appeal describe them as fully or partially waterproof, so I would hesitate to leave them out uncovered in a storm. For light drizzles, wind and other weather, however, they stay put and experience no damage. That makes them perfect for a porch or other covered-outdoor-area situation.
In terms of ease of use, you can’t get much easier than this. Simply plug them in and connect via Bluetooth. The sound is adequate for my needs, but on the other hand, they aren’t as loud as one would expect for speakers of this size. As for the quality of the sound, it’s well-balanced and clear. It’s great quality for the price.
Now for the downsides. The Bluetooth connectivity can be a bit spotty with these speakers if the source roams too far away, even though the range is supposed to be 60 feet. In addition, the large size makes them not quite as convenient for those who want a versatile speaker — they’re better for mounting in one spot permanently. They’d probably work well for those with a large property or those who like to throw large parties often.
If you decide to use them for that purpose, these are a good bargain. One recommendation is to plug them into a switched outlet rather than a standard one so that you’re able to turn the speakers on and off easily as needed. Reaching the volume switch could be a pain otherwise, especially if you mount them up high, which seems to be their intended use.
Review Summary
I wanted to include a set of outdoor wireless speakers that were meant to be mounted under an eve or in a fixed position and not in a portable unit. These speakers have excellent sound quality, are very simple to install and hook up to your bluetooth devices without any issue. Definitely consider these bluetooth speakers as an outdoor option for your patio or deck area. The price is very reasonable and you’ll be more than happy with the sound these produce.
Top Features
Weatherproof
Pair of two speakers at 16.9 pounds total
Easy to mount
Clear sound quality
Needs Improvement
Not as loud as expected
Corded power supply only
Portable Outdoor Bluetooth Speaker Buyers Guide
While a lot of the portable wireless bluetooth speakers on the market my look very similar there are some different features that you will want to consider when purchasing a speaker system for your outdoor space. Here is a short wireless speaker buyer guide to help get you pointed in the right direction.
Speaker Sound Output & Volume
Since you’re probably going to be using your speaker system outdoors much of the time, you’ll want to get a unit that can perform well at higher volume levels if needed. This is especially important for parties and large gatherings where listeners may not be centrally located.
For this, you’ll want to pay attention to the output watts for the speakers you’re considering. Any speaker with 20+ watts is going to have enough power to play at higher volume levels. However, keep in mind that this not only drains the battery faster, but not all speakers will sound as good at higher listening levels. Of the speakers I tested, the Oontz Angle at 20W output performed very well at louder levels. Make sure you get enough watts to handle any listening level you may need.
Bluetooth or WiFi (Wireless)
While both bluetooth and wifi speakers connect without wires to their sound source, there are a few differences in the way they function that may be important to consider. Bluetooth speakers are generally battery powered, compact and very portable. The connection range is generally limited to about 30 feet, so you need your sound source relatively close by. A WiFi speaker connects to your home internet network connection and has a much greater range. You can also connect multiple speakers that can be located in different areas of your home or yard. Some wireless speakers have both bluetooth & WiFi capability, but make sure you get a unit that fits your particular needs.
Handling Weather & Water
Outdoor speakers need to be tough and durable. If you’re going to be using them by a pool or body of water, it’s a good idea to consider getting a model that’s at the very least water resistant. Some speakers like the MacroBoom IP67 are waterproof and can be submerged in shallow water without causing damage to the waterproof speaker system. Be sure to check the specs and ensure it’s listed as weatherproof or waterproof if you’re going to be using the system mainly outdoors.
Wireless Speaker Style Counts
You’re going to find portable bluetooth speakers in all shapes, sizes and colors. It’s entirely your call which look you want to go with for your portable backyard speaker system. You can get slim units, boxes, tubes, triangles and even eggs & circles. The shape you pick will affect the sound and the portability of the unit. So keep that in mind before you buy.
Bluetooth Speakers Inputs & Connections
Nearly all speaker models will have aux inputs that will allow you to connect televisions, portable video & audio players. Some will also have USB ports so you can charge other devices or connect to other devices via a standard USB cable. As for outputs, if you want to add an additional speaker or sub-woofer to your bluetooth system, these outputs will allow you to do that with ease.
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10 Tips For Telling Great Videostories
Today’s audiovisual world is filled with possibilities-- some are discovered in the method programs are revealed; others in the method they are produced. Something needs to make sure-- video will belong of your discussion-- a minimum of if you wish to make a genuine splash.
When you desire a sight-and-sound program to promote your business in individual or on the web, what do you ask for? Most likely a “Flash” or a “PowerPoint”.
This short article takes a look at the multimedia/video/presentation purchasing procedure and provides 10 factors to consider you require to make to effectively commission-- or produce-- your next significant audiovisual interaction. I hope you will embrace them.
PowerPoint? Video?
Flash is thought about hip, and PowerPoint is thought about a must. PowerPoint and Flash frequently are simply containers for VIDEO, simply as a VHS tape and a DVD are containers for video.
Concept, however not always the ideal specification.
When you’ve got a story to inform and it needs sight and noise, take care not to recommend the option too rapidly. One male’s PowerPoint nowadays is another female’s video. When individuals require something to run of their computer system, they’re fast to request “a PowerPoint program” or “among those ‘FLASH’ things.”
Do not pick the production technique exclusively on the circulation approach.
Simply since you desire your job on the web or on computer system CD-ROM, does not suggest it should not include-- or be-- video. Video is what the huge young boys utilize-- frequently, even in significant documentaries and movie.
2. Noise Is the Secret Weapon.
What’s the very first thing you keep in mind about “Star Wars”? Dah-dah, da-da-da dahhhh-dahhh!
Even in business videos, music plays an exceptionally crucial part. You ‘d be stunned how couple of manufacturers in fact recognize that.
An image deserves a thousand words? Music deserves a thousand feelings-- like commitment, belief, trust, interest-- all powerful predictors of efficiency.
Sound informs your audience how to feel; how to identify what’s essential; when to respond and how.
Yup, the music. And the sound results-- the hum of the light sabers, the drone of the Death Star. Can you think of Star Wars without music?
3. Produce for the Environment.
Ever see an IMAX movie on house video? Ever see your preferred motion picture on a 4-inch LCD?
Commercials played in sports arenas on those huge jumbotrons typically include really little dialog. Who ‘d hear it? You can hardly hear the music.
When a video interactions task is planned, the environment in which it will be played is a vital part of choosing the design and strength of production. If your CD-ROM is never ever going to make it past a laptop computer, going out and shooting sweeping panoramas of the countryside might not be required-- however lots of close ups will be.
Play to the space.
No, obviously not. IMAX films and significant movie (specifically sci-fi and thrillers) are developed for LARGE screens, in spaces where individuals are peaceful and the noise has effect.
4. The length of time Should It Be?
Should not all videos be brief? There’s genuine time, and viewed time.
Audiences aren’t silly. A great story will go beyond time.
An uninteresting video goes on permanently. An interesting video ALWAYS appears much shorter than it is, and frequently bears seeing a 2nd time!
$1,000 a Minute? $200 per Slide?
Video production (in truth, lots of imaginative activities) can not be evaluated totally on the running time. I’ve seen commercial training tapes that ran 90 minutes and earned the manufacturer $2,000.
Prices is constantly accountable to a great deal of subjectivity, therefore throughout the years individuals have actually attempted to “measure” the production of multimedia products. A thousand dollars a minute has actually been estimated considering that the late 1960s-- for movie!
Should not he have gotten $90,000? Not for pointing an electronic camera at a podium and striking record, and modifying out uncomfortable stops briefly!
It is MUCH harder to produce an excellent five-minute video that will stir an audience and get defined outcomes. In some cases, not much more, however other times, 10 times that quantity.
6. What Style Should It Be?
Your manufacturer requires to believe like a chameleon. And you have a business design and a specified audience.
Perhaps you’ve never ever seen American Idol, however that does not make it undesirable with a big part of the population. If you’re not hip on the similarity an audience, trust somebody who is-- your manufacturer, or that DJ-wannabe who can call whatever ever produced by.
Jay-Z.
On the surface area, interactions designs alter typically. Audiences like what is present and hip-- to them. Various audiences come from various age groups, financial backgrounds, areas; so what is hip to a 22-year-old web designer in Atlanta may not be hip to the 45-year-old engineer in Dallas.
Uh, who?
7. Can I Have That Tuesday?
Just how much time? A properly designed, planned, detailed, prepared, composed, and produced task (currently it sounds long) requires time. Here’s a preparation guide for a normal 10-minute video:.
With overlap, overtime, and some genuine sweet talking from you and me to the hard-working personnel, perhaps we can cut that down or work some things in parallel. Permitting adequate time for the job will get you one hell of a program In the long run, when you do it right, it reveals.
If it’s your dry cleansing, yes.
If it’s the multimedia job or video that is going to encourage 5,000 that scaling down benefits them, well, no.
Excellent video takes some time.
Compose proposition-- 1 week.
Script-- 2-3 weeks.
Production preparation-- 2 weeks.
Shooting-- 2 weeks.
Logging and digitizing tapes-- 1 week.
Music choice, voice tracking-- 1 week.
Rough cut-- 1-2 weeks.
Evaluation time (script, rough cut)-- 1 week (it’s up to you).
Last edit and impacts-- 1.5 weeks.
Duplication-- 2 weeks.
8. Usage Interviews for Believability.
Interviews-- with your clients, staff members, providers, even you-- can have a significant effect on the reliability stimulated by your video.
This is particularly real for “softer” topics, such as fundraising, popular opinion, HRD business intros, homages, and so on
And I do not believe THAT was the function of the video.
. Interviews are not what they appear. They appear honest (and are); they appear unscripted (and are); they appear simple to do and a method to avoid scriptwriting (they ARE NOT).
Never ever let your manufacturer put words into individuals’s mouths-- an animal expression, a recommendation, a rah-rah declaration-- unless the interviewee developed it openly. There’s no faster method for all of you to look boneheaded.
Interviews need research study-- who has the very best stories, mindset, existence. Interviews need screening-- a pre-interview. And they need scripting, if just as a target objective to assist the recruiter frame the ideal concerns.
9. Video’s Hidden Value.
When management understands they will be utilized just when, they frequently end up being “unneeded.” Staging, projectors, production expenses-- that’s a great deal of cabbage for 500 sales individuals. Could not we include a 2nd entrée at the awards supper?
By the method, even WITHOUT a reuse worth, there is absolutely nothing like a rousing video opener at a huge conference to set the tone, redefine a business, start the modification procedure, and construct a roaring fire under your sales group’s butts. The distinction is seen in sales; they have the energy-- AND brand-new video tools to take with them. The increased earnings more than spends for the expense of the video.
Numerous “huge” videos and discussions are produced for conferences. They reveal the style, set the phase, present a brand-new item, whatever.
Now you can validate the purchase and sleep a bit much easier.
Reality is, I concur with your employer-- to the degree that whatever ought to have a repurposing worth. And today’s video does. Strategy it right, compose it right, and in no time your video-- or a minimum of scenes from it-- can be utilized on the internet, on CDs and DVDs, and in your salesmen’s PowerPoint discussions.
10. A Good Video Producer Knows Sales.
And video promotes psychological connection. Include the psychological punch, and now you’ve got a sale.
Video done right is a type of persuasion. It follows all the great guidelines of sales (with some exceptions).
And not even if he offered you a job.
Those who can offer audiences-- they are couple of and far in between.
If a video manufacturer does not understand this, then he’s not a manufacturer-- he’s an artisan operating at some element of our trade. Which is great.
Of all, videos need to get audiences stating yes. We need to begin with commonalities and after that develop our case.
Video includes reasoning. “If, then, and after that, then ...”.
The care and factor to consider that enters into producing your business’s video summary, sales discussion, or financing solicitation is no lesser than the phrasing of a direct-mail advertising piece, the style of your advertising campaign, or the advancement of a business identity. For, undoubtedly, a video discussion becomes your business identity.
Utilize these 10 ideas and you’re on your method to possibly the most effective interactions job you’ve ever carried out. That simply may suggest a raise, a corner workplace, or a minimum of a slap on the back. Which’s all excellent.
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Best WordPress Retail Themes
New Post has been published on https://www.templified.com/best-wordpress-retail-themes/
Best WordPress Retail Themes
We know, running your own business is a big, big challenge. That’s why you need the perfect retail WordPress theme to help you sell your products. WooCommerce is one of the best themes for selling retail products and the selection of themes you can choose, well, it’s exhaustive. High quality retail themes come in all shapes and sizes, so what’s the best?
How do you know where to start? Well, we hope you start with our list, the freshest themes around, updated constantly. And if you’re here, I guess that’s exactly what you’ve done.
If you’re looking to get started with eCommerce, we think WooCommerce is a perfect choice. Why? Well, first of all it’s free.
WooCommerce was forked from Jigoshop and since then, it’s come a long way to become the most popular and flexible solution for selling products online. Whether you’re selling digital downloads or tangible products, WooCommerce can help you set up a shop quickly. The learning curve is really fast with WooCommerce too, so you won’t spend weeks or months trying to learn how it works.
That means you’ll have more time to fine-tune your website and spend your time running your business, not learning all of the ins and outs of the software itself. If you’re selling jewelry, clothes, electronic products and gadgets, digitally downloadable files, rocket ships, candy and cakes or whatever else you can imagine. Track your inventory, add sale prices, set up shipping, track clicks and taxes. WooCommerce is perfect for leveling the playing field so you can go toe-to-toe with the big online stores or big-box brick and mortar places you’re competing with.
That’s awesome.
Anyway, here we go, the very best retail themes available for WordPress.
Bishop
When you have a business, it is essential to make sure that you become prolific, and that your business becomes profitable—no matter if it’s big or small. However, most of the time, people get confused as to how they can market their business—especially online. Well, with that, Bishop might just be the theme that can save you! Basically, Bishop is a theme that’s specifically made for eCommerce purposes. Being neat and responsive, it is the perfect theme that can help you show your clients—and potential clients—your products or services, and help them learn more about your business, as well. It’s easy to manage and navigate as it comes with a drag-and-drop builder, and three special homepage layouts that you can choose from, depending on your needs and preferences.
Even without knowing anything about code, Bishop can help you make use of amazing, patterned backgrounds that can give more definition to your blog. This theme also features the following: quick product view popups—that you can click after something in the list catches your eye; product filtering options, so you can easily segregate the products that you’re featuring; solid codes and search engine optimization for easy search rank improvement; an extremely responsive web design that makes way for easy navigation, and easy page loading; currency switchers, so your readers won’t have a hard time understanding or converting prices; retina and mobile ready, for easy integration on any device; and is fully integrated with WooCommerce—so you can make it easy for potential buyers to shop or patronize your services. You can even choose your own dashboard, or customize the theme even better, and also get constructive feedback from your readers—so you can improve your blog and business even better. Surely, with the help of Bishop, you can be certain that your business will thrive!
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Hestia Pro
What’s Hestia Pro all about? Well, it’s a flat, material design style WordPress theme that packs a lot of information into a single page format, using parallax scrolling and a highly adjustable layout to create the page you have in mind. With WooCommerce, you can turn Hestia Pro into a full featured app sales page too, so if that’s what you want from a theme, Hestia Pro is a wonderful choice. For flat themes, a simple that can ‘roll with the punches’ is what you want, adjusting to any kind of content without overshadowing it. That’s what Hestia Pro succeeds at doing, in my opinion.
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Milo
Milo, from Made by Minimal, is a modern and sleek portfolio theme that does an excellent job of letting your content speak for itself. This WooCommerce ready, minimalist portfolio and blogging theme is completely responsive. No matter what device, this theme looks fantastic. Desktop or laptop, Android or iPhone, the sleek and crisp, modern style looks fantastic. For shops that do a lot of online business, that can be a really great feature to have, since the minimalist and responsive themes tend to load up quicker, you’ll get fewer folks abandoning their carts in frustration. With all of Made by Minimal’s themes, which come in at a little more than other themes ($100), you get access to all four of their premium, minimalist blog and portfolio themes. (They’re all WooCommerce ready too.) So it’s a pretty good bargain, especially if you’re not sure exactly what kind of theme you want. Sometimes you change your mind. I know, I’ve done it. That makes this deal pretty solid at $25 a pop.
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Divi
When choosing between different WordPress WooCommerce themes, one of the top choices is the Divi theme. Created by Elegant Themes, the Divi theme is best known for its WYSIWYG editor. Its main advantage is its built-in visual page builder where you can make changes to your website and see the changes applied in real time.
With the Divi theme, everything is customizable including fonts, spacing, CSS, rows, columns, images etc. The Divi theme also boasts a responsive design. It has more than twenty pre-built layouts and 46+ content elements that you can mix and match to create any webpage design element. As a WYSIWYG editor, Divi allows you to adjust the heights and widths of any page element; edit and add new text content; change the user interface; add, copy, or delete any page design element; and drag, drop, and rearrange any content.
The Divi theme includes different page elements or short codes that can help enhance your website like audio player, blog, buttons, accordions, counters, comments, additional codes, page dividers, email opt-in forms, filterable portfolios, galleries, headers, shops, pricing tables, sliders, social media buttons, tabs, testimonials, toggle pages, videos, and video sliders. Check out our full review of Divi here.
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Ultra
Looking for an incredible WooCommerce theme? One that’s flexible and powerful, allowing you to easily create a layout that perfectly fits the products you’re selling, even if you’re not an expert at web design or coding? Have you taken a look at Ultra yet? If not, please to, I think this is really among the very best eCommerce themes around. Whether you choose to use WooCommerce or not, Ultra is a perfect fit, though I tend to recommend Woo-Commerce thanks to the wide range of addons and extensions you can use to power up you online shop. With over five dozen demo sites included, each one eCommerce ready, you’re definitely going to find a style and a layout that you love. But don’t worry if it’s in need of a few tweaks, Ultra is a drag and drop page builder, meaning you can add functions and content areas where you want them, making your site absolutely customized to be exactly what you want.
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Narcos
With several cool and lovely layout styles to choose from, I think Narcos is a flexible and well designed WooCommerce WordPress theme. Narcos is a blog, a portfolio and an online shop all rolled into one, which makes it a real multipurpose theme. Created by Tesla Themes and made for businesses who want a sort of vintage inspired look, this theme is a really solid choice for folks who want a well coded, responsive, multi-page or single page WooCommerce theme option for blog, for corporate websites, creative agencies, personal portfolio sites and more. Since it was created by Tesla Themes, Narcos is fully documented and well supported too.
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Shoppe
This is the Shoppe WordPress theme, from Themify.me, and it’s another in a long line of great looking WooCommerce themes that these guys have come up with. What Shoppe offers is a very beautiful and modern style with features to match, all built to help make your online enterprise a smashing success. Themify have included demo data with your purchase, so you can upload that and then edit the existing pages, which can help you get started quicker than with some other themes. Shoppe uses the power of Themify’s drag and drop page builder to let you craft a site with any feature and any layout you need.
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Amaryllis
Amaryllis is a nice looking WooCommerce ready WordPress theme that was built with fashion shops in mind, though it’s also well designed to sell products in just about any niche. That’s thanks to the simple, clean design that means any products will be highlighted in a professional and beautiful way. Amyrillis offers a unique design that helps make your business look very professional, no matter your niche. With WooCommerce, or any of the other major eCommerce plugins, you can quickly and efficiently set up shop to sell your products.
Amaryllis employs a drag and drop page builder to help make your site look precisely like you want it to look. There are multiple custom widgets to help with growing your social media presence, which is increasingly important these days. Jetpack is fully supported too and since Amaryllis isvery well coded, it’s SEO properties are helpful for ranking. This theme also works hand in hand with the top SEO plugins like Yoast and All-In-One SEO. With Amaryllis, you get a very user friendly, incredibly flexible theme that will definitely help your business run as smoothly as possible.
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Adventure
Answer the call to Adventure! This theme is a stylish, fun and well organized WooCommerce ready theme that’s meant mostly for travel blogs, but as a standalone shop, it’s a great choice too. Nearly any kind of blog will work well with this theme and you can establish your online presence quickly, tailoring each page and post to fit your brand. Swap out colors, fonts and layouts with ease. Organic Themes has made sure that every line of code is up to the current WordPress codex standards and since Adventure is perfectly responsive, it looks amazing on all devices, no matter what. Everything that Adventure does is built to make sure your eCommerce shop is easy to use, flexible and what’s most important, your conversion rates are bound to go up.
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Studio 8
Studio 8 is a blog theme with a stylish portfolio and WooCommerce support, so it’s a very nice solution for designers, shops and companies who want to offer a full website without breaking the bank. Studio 8 is ideal for creative professionals, for photographers, advertising and design agencies, web designers and more. The ability to showcase your products and sell them is a really nice touch and since WooCommerce is completely free, you won’t have to spend an arm and a leg purchasing an expensive license or paying a monthly subscription fee to set up a shop. Pretty sweet!
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Float
With themify.me’s powerful, user friendly and feature-rich drag and drop page builder, a thorough and easy to implement customization panel, SEO optimization, fast page load times, tons of user friendly options and a simple interface, all Float needed to do was add WooCommerce support and we’d highly recommend it on this collection. Well, they went and did it. Float is a parallax, creative eCommerce theme with multiple pre-created demo sites to help you showcase your products or posts, highlighting your content in a professional and fun way. Float is SEO friendly, it loads up really quickly, the blog is clean and attractive and Float is completely responsive, which is a key in this day and age. If you’re not completely satisfied with any of the pre-made demo sites, you can always change things up using Themeify’s drag and drop page builder, which is included for free. And best of all, you don’t even need to know anything about coding to make use of it. Nice touch!
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CoupShop
For your online store, you’ll need a great looking theme with tons of features, a theme that’s simple to use as it is beautiful. That could be Coup, a wonderfully clean. crisp, modern, simple to use and powerful theme for online shops. Coup Shop, from Themes Kingdom, is powerful, it’s simple to use and it’s filled with options. Themes Kingdom always does a great job of making their themes easy to operate, powerful enough for experts but simple enough for a beginner to get started with. With a simple design, Coup Shop can work well for all kinds of products, from electronic gadgets to furniture, clothing and accessories or whatever else you can imagine.
For an amazing online shop, you need look no further than Coup Shop, a delightfully simple, user friendly and powerful eCommerce theme for all kinds of online shops. Themes Kingdom is the group behind Coup Shop and they’ve done all they can to make sure this theme is easy to operate, easy to adjust and it’s really got enough features for any site. Of course, the simple and minimal style lends itself to all kinds of online shops, so you’re definitely able to frame any type of product with ease, making it look enticing. Whether you’re selling tech products, jewelry or something else, even digital downloads, Coup Shop is a wonderful choice.
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Zerif Pro
Zerif Pro is pretty unique when compared to a lot of WooCommerce themes on this list. Why? Well, it’s a one page theme, for one thing. That’s possible because of the Site Origin Page Builder, which gives Zerif Pro a huge amount of design flexibility, putting products, blog, portfolio, pricing table and more, all on one page. The net effect is a simple, clean and efficient site that can really help you sell products. It’s probably not ideal for companies that have a ton of products like clothing stores, but if you’re selling apps, SEO services, software or something like that, Zerif Pro could be amazing.
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Hugo
WordPress WooCommerce themes like the Hugo is a premium theme geared towards ecommerce sites owners who want their brands to stand out. The Hugo theme boasts of a customizable elegant design that can support the WooCommerce plugin in your website. The main advantage of the Hugo theme is its page builder options. You can build your site pages by using either Elementor, Divi, and SiteOrigin Page Builders. All these page builders are included in the Hugo Theme.
As a go-to theme for an ecommerce site, Hugo includes all the different page templates that a site owner may need like a shop index, testimonials, blog, multiple types of product pages, contact page, and a customer account page. Furthermore, included in the Hugo theme are different theme options where you can make any design changes to your site, .po and .mo translation files, optimized site pages, and a retina-ready responsive design. You can create a website that is easily modified with the use of the drag and drop page builder. It allows you to see the changes you made on your site right away. The Hugo theme is also SEO optimized and includes a built-in option to edit your site’s and any post’s on-page SEO descriptions.
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Foxy
Foxy is a WooCommerce theme from Elegant Themes, it’s a simple but highly stylistic theme that could be just what you’re looking for. This is a theme with an opinion, if you know what I mean. It’s not a neutral, minimal style template, it’s got a bold style that’s not incredibly flexible. But if the style fits your brand, it’s a great way to go, because it’s well crafted and it works fast. I think Foxy could be great for software sales, SEO companies, apps and stuff like that. If you want to sell products or services, you’ll need a great shopping cart and for many, WooCommerce is that shopping cart of choice. Check out the links below for more information.
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Bold
For a WooCommerce ready theme that doesn’t look like all the other themes out there, Organic Themes’ Bold magazine and blog theme is a great choice. This theme really is unique. Bold was created using the Organic Themes framework called ‘Seed’. Seed makes it simple to create a custom look and style for your website, but that’s just the beginning. Bold is WooCommerce ready, which means you’ll be able to set up and online shop with ease. Add on any of WooCommerce’s extensions and add-ons to create a full service online shop. Whether you’re selling digital downloads or hard goods, this theme works well. As with all Organic Themes, this template is simple to adapt to any sort of shop and the customer service is outstanding.
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Elegance Pro
This is Elegance Pro, a beautiful and simple eCommerce theme for WordPress. If you’re looking for a simple, effective and attractive theme, one that’s incredibly stable, SEO friendly and easy to use, that’s Elegance Pro. This theme is a Genesis child theme, which means it’s got that clean code base that makes it a really great option for an eCommerce site. Elegance Pro is graceful and minimal at the same time, it does a wonderful job of showing big, bold, beautiful images and combining that with a simple to manage online store. If you want a refined, polished theme, with custom built page templates, easy to manage color schemes, social networking plugins for Instagram and more, a news widget and contact form built in, you should certainly consider Elegance Pro as your next web template.
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Beatrix
Got the entrepreneurial spirit? Well, that’s half the battle, now all you need is a fantastic website to help you get the job done, earn some money and grow your business. Beatrix was built specifically for self employed folks who make their own products to sell. It’s sort of a ‘one person Etsy’ shop and it can really help you to build a reputation for quality. Beatrix helps you pursue your passion of creating cool stuff while earning a little bit of money at the same time. Even if you didn’t hand make your products, Beatrix is a great fit for watch shops, jewelry stores, antique stores and more, because it’s simple enough and sleek enough to work for nearly any style of product. You can even use Beatrix as an awesome multi-vendor marketplace site, where users can create their own accounts and sell products on your site whil you take a small commission from every sale. (Find more multi vendor themes in our collection, which can be found here.)
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Shop Isle Pro
This is Shop Isle Pro, another great WooCommerce ready WP theme from Theme Isle. Shop Isle Pro is responsive, it’s multipurpose and it’s perfect for all sorts of online shops, no matter what kind of product you’re selling. You can create an awesome front page for your online webstore in just minutes, customizing any setting you want to customize. While WooCommerce is powerful right out of the box, you can also add on some great functionality with extensions like product addons, affiliate programs, PayPal by Braintree, Stripe or Amazon Pay gateways, WooSubscriptions, coupons, dynamic pricing, shipment tracing and a whole lot more.
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Create
Create is a powerful, premium WordPress theme that was created by ThemeTrust and I really recommend this theme if you’re building an online shop using WordPress. Create is packed with features that make it a solid choice and ThemeTrust keeps adding features every month. Create utilizes a drag and drop page builder, made by Site Origin, to allow the admin to craft a site with a unique and powerful layout and all of the features your site needs to be a smashing success. This theme does it all, with either a boxed or a full width layout, parallax scrolling, video backgrounds, single page navigation, slick looking portfolios, professional blog templates, contact forms…the list goes on and on. All of that in a beautiful, responsive and retina ready display. This is truly a premium template.
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Letter to the MIT community regarding engagement with Saudi Arabia
The following email was sent today to the MIT community by President L. Rafael Reif.
To the members of the MIT community,
Last October, following the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, I asked Associate Provost Richard Lester, who oversees MIT’s international activities, to reassess MIT engagements with Saudi entities. On December 6, Richard shared his preliminary report and recommendations with faculty, students and staff, and he asked for comments. Last week, Richard sent me a letter that summarizes and reflects on the community comments, adds several recommendations and offers some new information, including funding amounts from Saudi state sources.
You may read what Richard sent me here, including both his recent summary letter and his report from December. Together these constitute the Lester report.
I write now to share my view of how MIT should proceed in this complex situation.
The Lester report
The Lester report defines the three types of engagements that people from MIT have with entities in Saudi Arabia: sponsored research backed primarily by entities affiliated with the Saudi government; research and education programs funded by gifts, mostly from private Saudi foundations; and a few smaller connections, including executive education and Industrial Liaison Program memberships.
The report explores the full range of competing factors to consider, including faculty autonomy, the social and scientific value of the work we undertake with Saudi people and entities, the challenge of working in a nation so out of step with our commitment to inclusion and free expression, and our community’s deep sense of revulsion at actions of the Saudi regime.
Ultimately, the report concludes that if MIT faculty wish to continue their current engagements with colleagues, students, and public and private research sponsors in Saudi Arabia, they should be free to do so, as long as these projects remain consistent with MIT policies and procedures and US laws and regulations. It also proposes that if faculty members wish to disengage from Saudi projects in light of recent events, we should help them, including smoothing the transition for the teams involved. And it recommends ways to make sure that international projects with countries whose governments engage in troubling behaviors go through a specified review process before they are allowed to proceed or be renewed.
I offer some background to explain why I agree with these recommendations.
Some background on MIT’s Saudi relationships
I know many of you find the behavior of the Saudi regime so horrifying that you believe MIT should immediately sever all ties with any Saudi government entities. I share the sense of horror, and I have great respect for that point of view.
However, my experience leads me to see our Saudi engagements differently, and therefore to believe that cutting off these longstanding faculty-led relationships abruptly in midstream is not the best course of action.
For decades, MIT has strongly favored a strategy of engaging with the world and of opening the door to collaboration where our faculty see a significant opportunity to do constructive work. In this spirit, in 2007, when I was provost, faculty in Mechanical Engineering sought to begin working with King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals (KFUPM) on solar energy, seawater desalination and design education.
Because MIT had no formal mechanism for reviewing international engagements, I established the International Advisory Committee (IAC). The IAC co-chairs guided a review of the proposed KFUPM engagement, which included a representative, independent faculty group making a site visit to assess various concerns. The resulting report allowed the project to proceed, and in 2008 the Center for Clean Water and Clean Energy at MIT and KFUPM was launched. Because KFUPM is all male, a condition of the engagement was that the organizers create a path to scientific education for Saudi women; this inspired the Ibn Khaldun Fellowship that brings Saudi women PhDs to MIT.
Since that initial engagement, I have come to know many Saudi citizens, including MIT alumni, Saudi officials and industry leaders working to modernize Saudi society. I have also met Saudi students and postdocs, both women and men, who dream of helping their society participate in and contribute to the global scientific community. Through these contacts, I have been struck by the intensity of their commitment and the value of their efforts to use research and education to make progress for themselves and their society. And of course, knowing these individuals, it is impossible not to see them as separate from the regime they did not choose and cannot control.
Saudi Arabia faces an unusual demographic moment: More than half of Saudi citizens are younger than 30. In such a society, building knowledge and helping more people gain access to higher education constitute the surest path to social progress. This is why I have felt confident that allowing interested faculty to continue to engage constructively with Saudi students, postdocs, alumni, colleagues and sponsors whom they trust and respect is consistent with our mission to advance knowledge and educate students for the betterment of humankind.
How should we move forward?
The present moment is testing that position. When I agreed to host the Saudi state delegation at MIT last spring, I shared the hope of many in the US and around the world that the visit and official engagement were an important part of an ongoing process of reform and modernization. I know some of you were and remain disappointed by that decision, and I understand that disappointment.
As many of you have made plain, in the present situation, if MIT simply continues to work with Saudi state entities without comment, we risk having our silence taken as an endorsement of the regime’s behavior – an unacceptable result.
For the record then, let me be clear: MIT utterly condemns such brutal human rights violations, discrimination and suppression of dissent, including the murder of Jamal Khashoggi.
Nevertheless, I hope we can respond to present circumstances in a way that does not suddenly reject, abandon or isolate worthy Saudi people who share our principles and are doing good work for themselves, their society and the world, particularly if MIT faculty wish to continue the engagement.
The way forward will include carefully and thoroughly reassessing these engagements if faculty seek to renew them. This practice will of course apply to proposed new international engagements as well. To do this well, we need to reexamine aspects of our assessment process and find ways to improve them.
Strengthening our system of assessment
Indeed, many of you have suggested to both Richard and me that MIT develop stronger processes to assess our international engagements in general.
As Richard describes in his summary, we have a head start on this. With just this goal – and considering engagements in a range of nations beyond Saudi Arabia – we have been working over the last 18 months to revamp our existing procedures and groups, including reconstituting the IAC as a faculty-led, standing committee of the Institute.
Already, the IAC is better equipped to vet potential new international engagements and those up for renewal, including those with foreign state entities; to assess whether, weighing all the relevant factors, a given engagement is advancing MIT’s core academic mission; and to advise on the right course of action. At the same time, we are developing new administrative practices for assessing the complex risks that international projects may pose. We will systematically coordinate these two approaches, to make sure that MIT’s international engagements receive a thorough review.
Many of you also observed that we have an opportunity now to consider further questions about how we might approach international engagements in problematic countries. How could we include a broader range of community voices? What’s the best way to tap our faculty expertise in fields like history, political science, anthropology, philosophy and more? Can we offer our campus community new ways to gain a fuller understanding of the countries we engage in? Is there a general standard that could be applied in such cases? Are there further steps we can take to make sure that our engagements are not only in tune with but advance MIT’s values, including equality and free expression?
The faculty officers – Chair Susan Silbey, Associate Chair Rick Danheiser and Secretary Craig Carter – have agreed, at my request, to create an ad hoc interdisciplinary committee of faculty, staff and students to consider such questions. The committee will report to the MIT administration by this coming September. They will offer guidelines for action as well as expertise to call on when MIT assesses new international engagements.
I am deeply grateful to Susan, Rick and Craig for taking on this important assignment; I believe the work of the ad hoc committee will be of great value in MIT’s development as a globally engaged university.
* * *
I close by thanking Richard for his tremendous care and effort in leading this reassessment, and by thanking everyone in the community who has taken the time to contribute their perspectives on this sensitive and complex topic. One can only be grateful to belong to a society that guarantees each of us the right to openly express our opinions, and to a community that takes so seriously its obligation to wrestle honestly with its most difficult challenges. We all become smarter and wiser by thoughtfully engaging one another and taking advantage of such a precious right.
Respectfully,
L. Rafael Reif
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Where SEO and UX meet on your website
At Yoast, we think SEO just works when you use a holistic technique. Simply enhancing your page titles isn't really enough. It's also about website speed and user experience (UX), and terrific material is clearly a substantial part of it. In a holistic method, SEO has a lot of "teammates" that have to interact. In this post, we'll enter into a variety of locations where SEO and UX fulfill. Pertain to think of it, in a lot of methods, SEO just targets the online search engine and UX targets the visitor, both with a shared objective: to provide the very best experience possible.
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Details Typical page aspects that affect both SEO and UX
If you just look at the fundamental components on a page that affect your SEO, you'll find a close relation in between SEO and UX. I'll list a few elements that are necessary for both SEO and UX below.Page titles
and (sub)headings
An enhanced page title and associated, visible
Learn more:'How to use headings on your website'"External links An external link in your material tells Google that you appreciate your sources. It can likewise increase the odds that your sources will connect back to you in their content. For your users, external links will provide a method to gain access to background info, for instance.Great content If
you provide quality content, individuals wish to connect to you, and visitors wish to read you. And remain on your pages to complete reading. These inbound links and the time-on-page is something Google will discover. Google could start to consider your content as the primary source of information on a particular subject. Just like we are for WordPress SEO. Images and videos create rich content, which both Google and your users take pleasure in. All in all, it's clear that there are lots of locations where SEO and UX fulfill, right there on your pages. Keep reading:'The importance of quality content for SEO'"Website structure When a visitor winds up on any one of your pages, you wish to make sure they know where they are on your site. It needs to be clear to them that there's more to check out on your site. If you initially stop working to respond to the user's question in Google, at least be so respectful regarding direct them to it. You wish to prevent that click back to the search engine result pages. That click back to the search results page pages is called a bounce. And a high bounce rate can have a negative impact on your SEO. It indicates to Google that you may not be answering your visitors'search query.One method to avoid a bounce is to make sure your website structure is clearly shown on your page. That involves an optimized menu, but I think a lot more with just making certain your website has an excellent structure. Do keyword research, and established that site structure properly. Take our site structure course for more extensive details on that. Setting up the ideal site structure, indicates, for starters, that you make certain that your structure is clear from your breadcrumbs and, a minimum of, showed your menu. You can likewise believe along the lines of associated posts and items, for instance.By constructing a great, hierarchical website structure
, you make sure that Google can efficiently crawl your pages and visitors can easily find what they are searching for. SEO and UX are naturally influenced by this.Site speed
Yes, we likewise have
to address site speed, again and once again. It's one of the things that heavily influences both SEO and UX. Google desires to spend only a certain amount of time each time it's on your site to crawl it. Visitors do not like awaiting your material to load. When an SEO advises lazy loading of images, this enhances the experience of both users and Google. If you postpone parsing of JS and CSS files where possible, you make certain there is something to see on your page as soon as possible. Once again, for both Google and the visitor. It's not rocket science, right?
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-Buy now" Info Mobile experience What chooses site speed, chooses your mobile website as a whole. Yes, it ought to be fast, but it needs to also be properly designed and have a killer navigation, so users and Google can find exactly what they are searching for in a heartbeat. That does not involve stuffing everything you have into your website menu. It could imply that you have to think tough about your mobile homepage. Does it cover the main areas of your website, for your user? Does it set a state of mind and lure or welcome your visitors, and any online search engine, into the remainder of the site as well?Even button sizes on your mobile website could be of impact here. I have actually written a post a while back on mobile UX you should read. Every one of those suggestions influences mobile SEO too, directly or indirectly. And do not hesitate to ask Google's opinion on your mobile site via their Mobile-friendliness test, for instance.Conclusion: SEO and UX
work together As you can see, there are numerous areas where SEO and UX meet. When you remember that Google is ending up being increasingly more human, or at least mimics human behavior more precisely, it's only logical to see all the overlap SEO and UX have, right? I think it's fair to state that practically all optimization you do for your users(UX) has a positive effect on your SEO. This applies the other way around as well: if you provide a bad user experience, you might see this shown in the search result pages! Undoubtedly, the effect of that effect may differ from optimization to optimization. But SEO and UX are plainly a terrific match in our bigger principle of holistic SEO!.?.!! Find out more: 'Exactly what is on-page SEO'"
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2 Berkeley grads are using AI to make stock-buying decisions — and it could change investing forever
Equbot's AI Powered Equity ETF uses IBM's Watson technology to construct a stock portfolio, employing machine learning to make rational investment decisions.
The original idea for the fund was synthesized in a classroom at UC-Berkeley, where founders Chida Khatua and Art Amador met during an entrepreneurship class.
Khatua's background in AI and machine learning complemented Amador's history in private wealth management, and the duo decided to launch an exchange-traded fund.
When Art Amador worked in private wealth management at Fidelity, his clients expected him to know absolutely everything.
Whether it related to global markets, macroeconomic factors, specific companies, or full sectors, their curiosities were wide ranging — and Amador wondered if he'd ever find a way to be the all-knowing oracle they desired.
That all changed one day in the fall of 2014 when Amador was pursuing his MBA at the Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley.
As part of an entrepreneurship class, he was placed in the same cohort as a long-time Intel engineer and machine-learning specialist named Chida Khatua, and the two got to talking. That conversation led to what its creators say is the world's first AI-powered exchange-traded fund, one built on technology that could change the paradigm for how computers are used to invest.
The fund — powered by IBM's Watson supercomputing technology — didn't end up launching for a few more years, but its roots can be traced back to that fateful first conversation at Berkeley.
"I was telling him it was impossible to have infinite knowledge about every stock, and about everything going on in markets," he tells Business Insider. "I told him that there's simply too much information out there and not enough time to distill it into actionable ideas."
As it turned out, Khatua had been researching for years how to sift through massive amounts of data in a way that extended far beyond human capabilities. With two master's degrees in computer engineering — including one from Stanford — he worked at Intel for 18 years, mostly focusing on machine learning.
"His background — in artificial intelligence and machine learning — was the perfect use case," Amador says. "We started talking about how that could apply to the equity markets."
Birth of an ETF
Even though the early groundwork had been laid for what would eventually become their newest venture, Khatua and Amador went their separate ways after the program ended. But the gears in Khatua's head never stopped turning, and in September 2016 he invited Amador to join him in building a product that would combine their respective areas of expertise.
Amador took some time to think about it. In his mind, the result would be an AI-powered quantitative hedge fund, and he wasn't sure if he wanted to give up his job at Fidelity for that. But Khatua had other ideas: He wanted to build and launch an ETF.
To him, the ideal application for his technology was to get it into as many hands as possible. And if he combined it with Amador's investment prowess, they could build an ETF available to be traded by the average person with a brokerage account.
"Working at Intel gave me insight into how machine learnings and AI technology is maturing and how the benefits it offers can really be maximized," Khatua tells Business Insider. "It gave me a unique perspective, and I asked myself for a while when the right time would be to go out and create some product that can help many people."
Acting like a rational investor
A big part of Amador's decision to ultimately join Khatua in pursuing an ETF was the latter's acceptance into the highest tier of the IBM Global Entrepreneurship Program. After all, his machine learning and AI efforts were powered by the company's Watson supercomputer.
That gave Khatua $125,000 with which to pursue his idea, and it provided Amador crucial validation for the endeavor. He joined up shortly thereafter, and the duo launched Equbot.
Then they put Watson to work. The eventual result was the recently launched AI Powered Equity ETF (ticker: AIEQ), which analyzes more data than humanly possible, all in the pursuit of building the perfect portfolio of 30 to 70 stocks. And the technology enables it to do that while constantly analyzing information for 6,000 US-listed companies.
But there's a wrinkle. Equbot's AI model is built to act like a rational investor. In addition to analyzing regulatory filings, quarterly news releases, articles, social-media postings, and management teams, it's also designed to assess market sentiment and weed out potentially faulty inputs — including so-called fake news.
"A rational investor looks at a company as a whole and they draw insight into what’s right looking at the complete picture," Khatua says. "The AI model helps us do that. The technology doesn’t only help you decide what to do; it can also educate you on why it’s happening."
The technology doesn’t only help you decide what to do; it can also educate you on why it’s happening.
That's a key element of AIEQ and one that sets it apart from the hedge funds that use AI to construct trading strategies. Khatua says many of those models function as a "conceptual black box," because the presence of certain stocks can't be explained in a rational way. In his mind, Equbot's ETF offers the best of both worlds: It's based on a mountain of analysis and the stock-picking methodology can be explained.
"We know why something's in our portfolio after our system chooses it," Amador says. "'The system picked it' is not usually an explanation that investors will buy."
Further, the machine-learning aspect of AIEQ is crucial in avoiding human error. Amador points out that even if a firm had 6,000 analysts each responsible for reading 150 to 200 articles about one stock each day, that work would have to be cross-referenced against the findings of all other employees, then funneled into one objective opinion.
"Humans don’t have the speed, capacity, or retention to do this," he says.
The story so far
AIEQ has slid 0.9% since its launch on October 18, while the benchmark S&P 500 has risen 1.6%. The biggest laggards in the fund are Lifepoint Health, Newell Brands and Vista Outdoor, which have each dropped more than 20% over the period.
But it's far too early to judge the success of AIEQ based on five weeks of returns. The more telling statistic is the volume of shares traded. The ETF has seen an average of 259,000 units change hands daily, a strong showing for a fledgling fund. It had about $70 million in assets on Monday, roughly 10 times its size during the first week of trading.
The way that Khatua and Amador see it, interest in their product will continue to grow as long as personal bias continues to cloud investment decisions — something they see happening even at the highest level of professional money management.
"You can remove that by making this investment process more autonomous, as we've done," Amador says. "It's nothing against people. It's just human instinct."
SEE ALSO: The stock market's robot revolution is here
Join the conversation about this story »
NOW WATCH: A senior investment officer at a $695 billion firm breaks down tax reform
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2 Berkeley grads are using AI to make stock-buying decisions — and it could change investing forever
EquBot / Art Amador
Equbot's AI Powered Equity ETF uses IBM's Watson technology to construct a stock portfolio, employing machine learning to make rational investment decisions.
The original idea for the fund was synthesized in a classroom at UC-Berkeley, where founders Chida Khatua and Art Amador met during an entrepreneurship class.
Khatua's background in AI and machine learning complemented Amador's history in private wealth management, and the duo decided to launch an exchange-traded fund.
When Art Amador worked in private wealth management at Fidelity, his clients expected him to know absolutely everything.
Whether it related to global markets, macroeconomic factors, specific companies, or full sectors, their curiosities were wide ranging — and Amador wondered if he'd ever find a way to be the all-knowing oracle they desired.
That all changed one day in the fall of 2014 when Amador was pursuing his MBA at the Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley.
As part of an entrepreneurship class, he was placed in the same cohort as a long-time Intel engineer and machine-learning specialist named Chida Khatua, and the two got to talking. That conversation led to what its creators say is the world's first AI-powered exchange-traded fund, one built on technology that could change the paradigm for how computers are used to invest.
The fund — powered by IBM's Watson supercomputing technology — didn't end up launching for a few more years, but its roots can be traced back to that fateful first conversation at Berkeley.
"I was telling him it was impossible to have infinite knowledge about every stock, and about everything going on in markets," he tells Business Insider. "I told him that there's simply too much information out there and not enough time to distill it into actionable ideas."
As it turned out, Khatua had been researching for years how to sift through massive amounts of data in a way that extended far beyond human capabilities. With two master's degrees in computer engineering — including one from Stanford — he worked at Intel for 18 years, mostly focusing on machine learning.
"His background — in artificial intelligence and machine learning — was the perfect use case," Amador says. "We started talking about how that could apply to the equity markets."
Birth of an ETF
Even though the early groundwork had been laid for what would eventually become their newest venture, Khatua and Amador went their separate ways after the program ended. But the gears in Khatua's head never stopped turning, and in September 2016 he invited Amador to join him in building a product that would combine their respective areas of expertise.
Amador took some time to think about it. In his mind, the result would be an AI-powered quantitative hedge fund, and he wasn't sure if he wanted to give up his job at Fidelity for that. But Khatua had other ideas: He wanted to build and launch an ETF.
To him, the ideal application for his technology was to get it into as many hands as possible. And if he combined it with Amador's investment prowess, they could build an ETF available to be traded by the average person with a brokerage account.
Equbot
"Working at Intel gave me insight into how machine learnings and AI technology is maturing and how the benefits it offers can really be maximized," Khatua tells Business Insider. "It gave me a unique perspective, and I asked myself for a while when the right time would be to go out and create some product that can help many people."
Acting like a rational investor
A big part of Amador's decision to ultimately join Khatua in pursuing an ETF was the latter's acceptance into the highest tier of the IBM Global Entrepreneurship Program. After all, his machine learning and AI efforts were powered by the company's Watson supercomputer.
That gave Khatua $125,000 with which to pursue his idea, and it provided Amador crucial validation for the endeavor. He joined up shortly thereafter, and the duo launched Equbot.
Then they put Watson to work. The eventual result was the recently launched AI Powered Equity ETF (ticker: AIEQ), which analyzes more data than humanly possible, all in the pursuit of building the perfect portfolio of 30 to 70 stocks. And the technology enables it to do that while constantly analyzing information for 6,000 US-listed companies.
Equbot
But there's a wrinkle. Equbot's AI model is built to act like a rational investor. In addition to analyzing regulatory filings, quarterly news releases, articles, social-media postings, and management teams, it's also designed to assess market sentiment and weed out potentially faulty inputs — including so-called fake news.
"A rational investor looks at a company as a whole and they draw insight into what’s right looking at the complete picture," Khatua says. "The AI model helps us do that. The technology doesn’t only help you decide what to do; it can also educate you on why it’s happening."
The technology doesn’t only help you decide what to do; it can also educate you on why it’s happening.
That's a key element of AIEQ and one that sets it apart from the hedge funds that use AI to construct trading strategies. Khatua says many of those models function as a "conceptual black box," because the presence of certain stocks can't be explained in a rational way. In his mind, Equbot's ETF offers the best of both worlds: It's based on a mountain of analysis and the stock-picking methodology can be explained.
"We know why something's in our portfolio after our system chooses it," Amador says. "'The system picked it' is not usually an explanation that investors will buy."
Further, the machine-learning aspect of AIEQ is crucial in avoiding human error. Amador points out that even if a firm had 6,000 analysts each responsible for reading 150 to 200 articles about one stock each day, that work would have to be cross-referenced against the findings of all other employees, then funneled into one objective opinion.
"Humans don’t have the speed, capacity, or retention to do this," he says.
The story so far
AIEQ has slid 0.9% since its launch on October 18, while the benchmark S&P 500 has risen 1.6%. The biggest laggards in the fund are Lifepoint Health, Newell Brands and Vista Outdoor, which have each dropped more than 20% over the period.
But it's far too early to judge the success of AIEQ based on five weeks of returns. The more telling statistic is the volume of shares traded. The ETF has seen an average of 259,000 units change hands daily, a strong showing for a fledgling fund. It had about $70 million in assets on Monday, roughly 10 times its size during the first week of trading.
The way that Khatua and Amador see it, interest in their product will continue to grow as long as personal bias continues to cloud investment decisions — something they see happening even at the highest level of professional money management.
"You can remove that by making this investment process more autonomous, as we've done," Amador says. "It's nothing against people. It's just human instinct."
NOW WATCH: We talked to the bond chief at the $6 trillion fund giant BlackRock about the most important issue for markets right now
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7 Tips to Improve Your Local from search engine marketing Experts
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7 Tips to Improve Your Local from search engine marketing Experts
In search of realistic and actionable nearby search engine optimization hints to your site? In this 2nd a part of our search engine optimization Agency Experts series, we’ve assembled any other organization of experienced experts with numerous backgrounds in search engine optimization and online marketing to reveal to you a number of their high-quality recommendations on nearby search engine optimization. From listing listings and back links to content creation, we have the solutions you’ve been searching out – from 12 of the industry’s maximum trusted resources. Go forth and optimize.
1. “Outreach to influencers – who can offer high authority one-way links – and excellent content construct actual search engine marketing value into your internet site.”
“Relationship building procedures, like social influencer outreach, are critical for search engine optimization. When you’ve got a variety of humans sharing your content, that’s terrific. But it’s even better when you have one key marketplace influencer sharing your content with their entire community. Plus, whilst you’re able to get your content blogged approximately or published on an influencer’s blog or website, it leads to higher fine inbound links in your content material from websites with better area authority.
I also advocate developing content material that’s enriched by way of other media, like snap shots and motion pictures. Posts which can be enriched typically produce higher ratings and are shared more regularly.
If you’re no longer sure in which initially content, take a crowdsourcing method. Reach out to business crew contributors and internet site customers and ask for assist with records, on an idea, or on generating content material.”
– Daniel Snell of Evometa
2. “Improve your enterprise’s neighborhood rating through using Google My Business.”
“A Google My Business profile is critical for effective nearby SEO. Not best is it unfastened, but it additionally boosts your possibilities of acting in nearby search engine effects associated with your business. So make sure your employer records on Google My Business is accurate. It’s specifically vital to have a phone number indexed that’s local and suits the range displayed on your website.
Once you take a look at for accuracy, then move ahead and publish the equal information throughout online nearby directories. If you discover a listing with inconsistent information approximately your enterprise, then claim and accurate it. Be positive to fill out all your submissions completely.”
– Will Paccione of Dotxero
three. “Content is the biggest have an effect on on link acquisition, which in flip impacts rankings.”
“Creating precious content property – that are effortlessly linkable – is the single nice and maximum scalable link acquisition approach. Think articles, blog posts, movies, press releases and social media content. But hyperlink outreach conversion charges are a great deal better when you are pitching effective content material assets. And while you create a great asset with data that engages your target market, it will begin to attract hyperlinks obviously once it gains a few visibility. These hyperlinks then increase a web page’s authority and improve its search engine marketing.”
– Nathan Gotch of Gotch SEO
four. “Verification of your listing on Google My Business is the biggest component of localized search engine optimization.”
“The most crucial aspect of localized SEO these days is the advent and verification of your Google My Business list. Over the years, this list has been controlled through specific sections of Google, maps, Google Places, Google +, etc. Today, the list is managed thru Google My Business, which lets in for the simple verification of business information like the call, cope with, phone and electronic mail, hours or operation, images and so forth.
Google may additionally have already got your business records within the gadget. But until that listing is validated by means of you via a smartphone name or a postcard, it is not given the same weight as regards to ratings and positioning of the associated internet site. Google considers the demonstrated enterprise list and intermingles that information with the topics and facts about the commercial enterprise genre that is displayed at the related website. Through this aggregate of facts approximately the things that the commercial enterprise does and the legitimate verification that a commercial enterprise exists at a particular geographic location, your localized scores are generated.
We have seen situations in which there may be nearly no on-site localization or search engine optimization supplied for a specific vicinity, and nothing, however, the introduction and verification of a Google My Business list has despatched the natural rating to a number one role for the associated website.”
– Raymond Santopietro of Focus Internet Services
five. “Your site must be built or up to date with ships in mind.”
“Google and other search engines are pretty true at identifying what your website online is ready. However, what is commonly uncertain is which web page or submit to properly display the effects web page for a particular key-word or phrase. Most websites with none search engine marketing often fail to rank highly in seek outcomes.
Another massive trouble we see is with websites with code that makes use of the factors incorrectly on pages. For example, the heading tag is used for fashion purposes, which include developing a bigger font or setting space in between paragraphs. But search engines like google provide greater weight to content material inside heading elements. So if your site uses the heading tag incorrectly and all the time, it’s like seeking to study a book complete of headings. How would that look to you?”
6. “The extra information you give to ships, the extra applicable your web page becomes to them.”
“Give as tons statistics as feasible to the SERPs for better results. If you can’t do it manually, use a search engine marketing plugin like Yoast Local. But get indexed in as many nearby business directories as you could and inspire positive opinions on your social media profiles. Also, use tools like Schema markup to assist your website rank higher.”
– Scott Carvin of SEO Services Expert
7. “Adding schema markup for your website can enhance your SEO, specifically with competitive local campaigns.”
“The maximum precious direction we’ve taken in local search engine marketing during the last 12 months is dedicating time to using schema successfully. The schema is clearly coded you put on your internet site that facilitates a seek engine increase its know-how of your web page and additionally improves the way your web page presentations in seek outcomes.
When you’re the use of schema, simply make certain you’re making use of the appropriate schema type to your nearby clients that great describes your enterprise – and not only a ‘schema builder device.’ Really dedicate effort and time into becoming a professional in this place. It can make all of the distinction to your particularly competitive neighborhood campaigns.”
– Robert Lane of Bush Designs
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Also known as... how on earth do you get started with a build project. When we were planning our kitchen-diner extension, I didn't have a clue how to go about it. I spent hours reading internet forums where people were talking about architects, structural engineers, planning, builders, technicians, glass calculations... there seemed to be so many different ways to go about things and I couldn't work out which one was best for us.
Having eventually worked out an approach that resulted in an extension that we're absolutely delighted with that came in within 1% of the planned budget, I thought I'd write down how we did it, in case it helps anyone reading this in future.
Design and Drawings
We decided to work with a local RIBA architect, Dan Gibson from Gibson Architects. I found Dan from a google search, met him in person, spoke on the phone to a couple of his previous clients, and visited a property he had designed in the local area to see his work in person. Dan is a wonderfully creative architect who understands how people actually live in their houses and move around them, which is a key differentiator in my opinion.
Now, you don't have to work with an architect at all, as there are other professions that can do the drawings and calculations required to get planning permission. We chose to do so for several reasons:
Our house is complex with different levels on the ground floor, and larger rooms on one side of the house with more of a rabbit warren on the other side. We knew that we wanted to do something much more complicated than simply adding a box on the side of the house and knocking through to it (if the latter is all you want to do, then using an architect might be overkill).
We were investing a reasonable amount of money into our forever home, and wanted to avoid making expensive mistakes.
Neither of us are experts in house design, layouts and architecture.
Dan visited our house, spent time with us talking about how we wanted to use the space, and came up with a few different options. He made a few design suggestions such as retaining a chimney breast (that I would have expected to remove) that both saved us money and cleverly allowed the kitchen utility space to wrap behind the chimney breast making it invisible from the main dining area, therefore solving my 'how to hide the dirty dishes from view in an open-plan room'. I would never have thought of doing this myself, but it works brilliantly in practice. He designed the kitchen layout, and ensured the internal measurement of the room would precisely fit the new Ikea kitchen.
Dan also designed the external space to blend the new white render with old reclaimed brick, and a deck with steps down from the bifolds to the main curved deck area. Again, the idea of steps down to the deck rather than having the deck on the same level as the main house is something I would never have thought of myself, and even to the point of having it built I wasn't sure if it was the right thing to do (as we have cellars, the main house is raised significantly above ground level). But I trusted Dan's vision and of course he was right - we absolutely love sitting on our steps outside the bifolds drinking espresso in the morning sunshine. If the deck had been on the same level as the house, it would have looked like a giant fortress and would have felt completely separate from the garden. With Dan's design, it all flows seamlessly and we love it. Clever Dan :-)
Dan designed to the budget we set him, and his prediction was pretty accurate.
We had two sets of drawings done at this stage. The main drawings done by Dan and his team showing the current and future floor plans and elevations, and a structural drawing done by a structural engineer showing the foundations, steels and glass. When the engineer did the glass calculations he told us that we had to reduce the size of an internal window, but the rest of the design was spot on.
Tendering and Costs
Having received planning permission, I wrote down every single thing that we wanted done as part of the project, from the requirement to place architectural salvage from the property in our cellar (instead of removing it and selling it on as some builders do), to the need to level the height of the floorboards in the old building with the cement tiles in the new building. Dan produced detailed specifications for things like windows and bifolds, and an electrical/lighting layout. This all got packaged up into a set of tender documents for builders to quote from.
The downside of this is that the documents went into so much detail that lots of builders simply didn't bother giving us quotes, as we'd provided too much information for them to get away with a 'broadbrush builder estimate'. The plus side is that our lovely builder Tom went through the pack with a fine tooth comb and came up with a provisional quote that was so accurate that we ultimately came in within 1% of the predicted costs.
So overall it was worth going to the trouble of specifying so much in advance, even though it did scare quite a few builders off. I can't imagine going into a project without knowing how much it was actually going to cost, and it was quite an eye-opener to see how much could be priced in advance. We were also lucky in that there were very few unexpected costs (we didn't encounter any problems with the foundations; the house was structurally sound and didn't require any unexpected works; and so on), but we kept a 10% contingency budget just in case.
Project Management
Andre and I both have project management backgrounds but there's no way we could have taken on something like this. Tom the builder acted as the PM for our project (in addition to taking a hands-on build role), which meant he sourced and booked all the trades and materials, made sure everything turned up at the right time in the right order, gave all the instructions, quality-assessed the implementation, and dealt with any problems. I can't even imagine the headache of having to do that yourself. I've done all the procurement for the kitchen installation that we're in the middle of right now, and it has taken up SO MUCH TIME. As a side-note, Dan the architect would also have provided this PM service, or a contract management service, but we felt it was easier to have Tom do it, and for us to deal with Tom directly.
We loved our builders and would recommend them to anyone in the Manchester area - Tom Hiscox from Tipi Construction.
So overall, our approach was to use an architect first, then a structural engineer recommended by the architect, and then a builder that we found independently. Tom the builder used his own structural engineer on site, which I was happy with, as they were both accustomed to working together. I know friends who started with the builder, who then recommended an engineer to do the drawings, and skipped the architect altogether. So there's lots of different ways to go about it, but the choices we made were definitely right for our project.
Any questions, please get in touch via my Contact Me form.
http://www.simplythenest.com/journal/2017/3/28/architect-and-builder-recommendation-for-south-manchester.html
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