#UPDATE The World Health Organization warned that recovery from coronavirus might not protect a person from reinfection as the global death toll from the pandemic surpassed 200,000 https://t.co/cA8afmp0Ompic.twitter.com/oSZLwamBBB
Drill instructors, known for screaming into the faces of new arrivals as a form of Marine motivation, do so while wearing masks. Bunk beds have been spaced 6 ft apart and chow hall configurations have been tweaked to give recruits more space as they eat https://t.co/FRWnPlQMDb
#UPDATES Yemen separatists declare self-governance of the country's south, as a peace deal with the government crumbles, complicating its long conflict with the Iran-backed Huthi rebels who control much of the north pic.twitter.com/13vBNsRaQF
* Demand for oil has dropped due to stay-at-home orders around the world * Pumps are still extracting from the ground and the oil has to go into storage * Video released by U.S. Coast Guard shows a flotilla of oil tankers anchored off the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach * The Coast Guard has increased its presence around almost 30 ships that are acting mostly as floating storage tanks for oil * Crude oil is not being used as businesses remain closed and restrictions on travel remain
More than 25 oil tankers are currently floating off the Southern California coastline as the demand for oil plummets.
The U.S. Coast Guard filmed video that shows 27 tankers anchored in waters just off the coast by the Port of Los Angeles and Long Beach as of Thursday afternoon.
Stay-at-home orders across the country have led to a dramatic reduction in the demand for crude oil and now the tankers have no place to deliver the product and instead have become floating storage tanks.
The two leaders issued a rare joint statement marking the 75th anniversary of US and Soviet forces meeting on Germany's Elbe river during World War II. They said the event showed how Russia and the US can work together.
US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, on Saturday commemorated American and Soviet forces coming together during the final days of World War II.
When the two allies met on the Elbe River near Torgau in Germany on April 25, 1945 — with the US military advancing from the West and Soviet forces advancing from the East — it was seen as a milestone event in conflict.
WNU Editor: The joint statement was issued marking the 75th anniversary of US and Soviet forces meeting on Germany's Elbe river during World War II. Apparently what got some unnamed U.S. officials unnerved was that the statement also said that this coming together in 1945 proved that the U.S. and Russia can come together and work for a "common goal". In the middle of a pandemic that is now killing thousands of Americans and Russians per day certain unnamed US officials are more concerned that the US and Russia may work together?!?!?!?
More News On Presidents Trump And Putin Issuing A Joint Statement Calling For Cooperation
The mystery surrounding Kim Jong Un's health exposes deep uncertainty about North Korea's line of succession more than eight years after he took power.
While the Kim family has ruled for seven decades by passing power between male heirs like other hereditary dynasties, the 36-year-old Kim has named no successor. His own children are still young and the ruling family's surviving adults all face potential barriers to their rise.
WNU Editor: Among the Kim family the only one who has a chance of succeeding Kim Jong Un is his sister Kim Yo Jong. She is a senior member in the politburo. Will inherit and control the vast security apparatus that protects the Kim family. And more importantly, IMHO, has the loyalty of many in the hierarchy who owe their position to the Kim family and who would not want the status quo to be disrupted. There is also the possibility that she may not want the job and/or support for her ascension to the top job is simply not there. In that case the Politburo will decide on who will take the top job. As to who do I expect to move into that position. It will be either Kim family confident and a senior member of the government Choe Ryong-hae, or premier Kim Jae-ryong who is actually new to the job and does not have the baggage that everyone else at the top has.
Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana is home to B-52 bombers that were built five and a half decades ago, but still play a central role in today's U.S. 'nuclear triad.' (U.S. Air Force)
Preparing for doomsday has its benefits in a pandemic.
The nation's nuclear forces, which prepare for the worst even on good days, were among the earliest and most aggressive in planning for the coronavirus pandemic, according to interviews with military officials and an internal timeline of key actions.
And the efforts appear to have paid off.
While other parts of the military have been hard-hit by the virus — including hundreds of sailors assigned to the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt and dozens of new Army recruits packed into barracks — bomber squadrons, ballistic missile submarines and intercontinental ballistic missile crews have been largely spared, despite their similarly close quarters.
Commanders attribute the success to their early response, which began with a directive in January to review "disease containment plans" at bases around the country and included staggering and extending deployment schedules, tracking the virus in surrounding communities, and deploying inspection teams on bases to ensure social distancing measures were being followed.
* Navy officials have recommended USS Roosevelt Captain Crozier be reinstated to his role of commander of the virus-stricken ship * Defense Secretary Mark Esper was handed the recommendations Friday but has asked for more time to decide on an outcome * He was expected to announce results of the Navy's investigation Friday afternoon but officials said the press conference has been moved to next week * Crozier was fired last month after he sent a letter to Navy leaders exposing an outbreak on board the aircraft carrier which was then leaked * 840 crew members have been infected with coronavirus and one sailor has died
Top Navy officials have called for ousted USS Roosevelt Captain Brett Crozier to be reinstated, in the latest saga for the coronavirus-stricken ship.
The chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Michael M. Gilday, and the acting Navy secretary, James McPherson, pushed Defense Secretary Mark Esper to reinstate Crozier to his position Friday in a shock turnaround, after the commander was controversially fired last month for sending a letter exposing an outbreak on board the aircraft carrier.
Esper has not immediately accepted the recommendations but has instead asked for more time to review the decision.
This comes as 840 crew members on board the Roosevelt have now been infected by coronavirus and one sailor has died.
Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and Army Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, speak to reporters at the Pentagon on March 2, 2020. (Lisa Ferdinando/DoD)
Defense and intelligence officials are throwing more resources at the possibility that adversaries will deploy the virus against U.S. targets.
The Pentagon and the intelligence community are more forcefully investigating the possibility that adversaries could use the novel coronavirus as a bioweapon, according to defense and intelligence officials, in a shift that reflects the national security apparatus' evolving understanding of the virus and its risks.
Officials emphasized that the change does not mean they believe the virus was purposefully created to be weaponized—the intelligence community is still investigating the virus' potential origins, but there is currently no hard intelligence or scientific evidence to support the theory that it spread from a lab in China, people briefed on the matter said.
Meanwhile, the intelligence community has also begun gaming out the potential for bad actors to weaponize the virus, particularly against high-level targets, and the Defense Department has recently shifted its focus toward monitoring the possibility more closely, said three people familiar with the matter.
On April 16, the Trump administration released guidelines for reopening of the US. The Administration has suggested that Governors base their plans on criteria consisting of three aspects:
* a downward trend in documented cases over 14 days, or a downward trend in testing positivity rates over 14 days while * maintaining the testing volume; * a downward trend in symptoms-based reporting systems, including ILI and COVID-like syndromes, for 14 days;and * enough capacity in hospitals and testing
Of course, as we previously documented, some states - and countries - are eager to restore some semblance of normalcy starting with Georgia, which hopes to reopen its economy starting today. Below, courtesy of BofA is a tentative calendar of the most notable publicly announced reopening events in the coming month.
WNU Editor: I think these dates are too optimistic. The pandemic is still infecting tens of thousands each day, and the death rate is not slowing down.
* John Hopkins University released the latest coronavirus fatality statistics * They report that 200,000 people have died globally with 2.8million infected * American governors in Georgia, Oklahoma and Alaska started lifting lockdown
The global coronavirus death toll has now reached the grim milestone of 200,000, with 2.8million confirmed infections.
John Hopkins University released the figures as some countries began taking their first steps towards removing their lockdown restrictions.
The US have started loosening their lockdown measures in Georgia, Oklahoma and Alaska to help ease the economic damage inflicted on businesses despite the US death toll passing 50,000.
State governors allowed salons, spas and barbershops to reopen, while Alaska allowed restaurants to resume dine-in service and retail shops and other businesses to open their doors.
* A delegation of Chinese doctors have been dispatched to North Korea * Comes amid rumours that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is in poor health * Japanese media outlet claims Jong-un is in a vegetative state after surgery * On Thursday, Trump downplayed earlier reports that Kim was gravely ill
Rumors surrounding Kim Jong Un's health intensified today as Asian media outlets claimed that he had died or is currently 'gravely ill'.
The vice director of Hong Kong Satellite Television (HKSTV) Shijian Xingzou says that a 'very solid source' has told her the North Korean despot, 36, is already dead.
She has 15 million followers on Chinese social media Weibo, and is also the niece of one of the country's foreign ministers.
Separately, a Japanese media outlet claims that Kim has gone into a 'vegetative state' after he underwent heart surgery earlier in the month.
WNU Editor: He disappeared once before for about a month. The same speculation was happening then as it is now. But this time it is different. He is skipping out on anniversary dates that North Korean leaders in the past did not miss .... Kim Jong Un is Absent Amid Health Rumors on Armed Forces Anniversary (Newsweek).
* Mayor of Manaus in the northern Brazilian state of Amazonas said the situation is one of 'absolute calamity' * The daily death rate shot up from 20-30 per day to more than 100 because of the coronavirus pandemic * The pandemic has also reached extremely vulnerable indigenous communities in the state of Amazonas
The mayor of Brazil's worst-hit city has described the hundreds of coronavirus deaths in Manaus as 'a scene out of a horror movie' as bodies are piled up in refrigerated trucks and bulldozers dig mass graves at cemeteries.
Mayor Virgilio Neto said his city was 'no longer in a state of emergency but rather of absolute calamity' after the daily death rate shot up from 20-30 per day to more than 100 because of the pandemic.
The city has the highest death rate of any state capital in Brazil and the mayor fears there are more hidden deaths because people are dying at home without medical care.
The pandemic has also reached extremely vulnerable indigenous communities in the state of Amazonas, which is so huge it can take days of travel by boat to reach outlying towns and villages.
Hunger, violence and despair: lockdowns are meant to keep Africa's coronavirus cases in check, but many people are suffering as a result — especially the poor.
The Kenyan police did not hold back. When the government imposed a lockdown in response to rising numbers of COVID-19 cases, Kenya descended into a night of violence. The press watched in disbelief as police officers beat up defenseless women, sending shockwaves across Kenya.
"We're not at war," wrote the country's biggest newspaper, Daily Nation. Its commentary oozed rage and helplessness.
Worshippers perform Taraweeh prayer at Kaaba in the Grand Mosque on the first day of the holy month of Ramadan during the outbreak of coronavirus - a far cry from the huge crowds usually seen in the central courtyard
* The holy month is taking place under unprecedented circumstances this year * Millions of Muslims who would usually pray in mosques aren't allowed * The central courtyard at Mecca, the Prophet Muhammad's birthplace, is empty
The central courtyard of the Great Mosque of Mecca has been deserted as Muslims are forced to celebrate Ramadan in isolation amid unprecedented lockdown measures.
The courtyard is usually at its busiest during Hajj but remains open all year round for other pilgrimages meaning it is almost never empty.
But strict lockdown measures mean the holy site has been deserted at the same time as Muslims embark on Ramadan.
* Confirmed COVID-19 deaths in Europe exceed 100,000, but the true figure may never be known. * Many European countries have gone into weeks-long periods of lockdown. * Some restrictions are slowly being lifted.
The speed with which the COVID-19 coronavirus has spread is one of the hallmarks of this pandemic. Within five months of being identified it had – based on the most recent data from Johns Hopkins University – infected more than 2.7 million people.
This rapid pace was felt acutely in Europe, where on 19 April the confirmed death toll passed 100,000. This is how events developed across the continent.
Europe's first confirmed cases were identified in France on 24 January. Soon after, it was detected in Germany, and before long Europe was described as "the epicentre of the pandemic" by World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
* An additional 2,416 deaths were confirmed Thursday; the daily death toll peaked at 2,524 deaths on April 15 * The previous record daily rise in coronavirus cases was on April 10 when the number jumped by 35,579 * It had already jumped close to the record on Thursday, with 34,828 additional infections in 24 hours * The US has both the highest number of confirmed cases and the highest death toll in the world * By comparison, Italy has recorded 25,969 deaths and Spain has 22,524 fatalities as of Friday evening * But despite a rising death toll thousands of Californians flocked to open beaches during a heatwave Friday * And the anti lockdown sentiment continued with protests in Wisconsin and South Carolina
The rate of coronavirus deaths in the United States has slowed to 2,113 in the past 24 hours, with the total number of people killed standing at 52,422 Friday evening.
An additional 2,416 deaths had been confirmed in the US on Thursday. That daily death toll peaked at 2,524 deaths in a single day on April 15.
Confirmed cases in the nation are creeping towards the one million mark with 927,360 recorded as infected Friday, a record jump of 36,008 in 24 hours.
The previous record daily rise in coronavirus cases was on April 10 when the number jumped by 35,579. It had jumped closed to that Thursday with 34,828 additional infections in 24 hours.
Regretfully, Tropico 6 has become extremely online. “Big mood”, as the kids say. “Same”. This week’s Spitter DLC adds the faux-social network of the same name to Tropico’s banana republic management sim, letting your despotic leader post their way into fame, fortune, followers, and the lingering resentment of a population that wishes their state figurehead could just, for once, log off.
Sundays are for, yep, staying at home. It’s OK, though, as there are videogames there. And the best writing about them from the past week, which you can find assembled below.
RE:BIND have published Skeleton’s take on the Final Fantasy 7 remake. And there are few things I care less about than the Final Fantasy 7 remake, which is why you should listen to me when I say Skeleton’s piece is worth reading anyway.
If there are two things you probably shouldn’t be sick of going into SnowRunner, it’s trucks and snow. They’re sort of essential parts of the chilly Spintires: MudRunner follow-up, right? But if you do get tired of ’em after heading into Saber Interactive’s frosty truck sim, fret not. When it launches next week, SnowRunner should launch will full mod support – letting you get behind the wheel, handlebars or fleshy appendages of whatever modern 3D modelling packages can cobble together.
It’s absolutely roasting out right now, but it might’s well be December for all my ability to go outside and enjoy it. No, let’s hunker inside, shutter the blinds, and chill out with some cold-blooded murder with Project Winter. Other Ocean’s glacial backstab ’em up is currently free ’til the end of the weekend, and offering cold-blooded betrayal for keeps at a brutally slashed price.
We did it, team. The war’s almost over. The lads at Battlefield V HQ have declared that it’s time to sign some treaties, shut down the factories, and put an end to this virtual war. Before you start hanging up the red, white and blue bunting, though, there’s one last operation to get out of the way – bringing “new content, weapons, and game tweaks” to BFV in one final airdrop this June. That’ll keep the fires of war burning for a good while longer, then.
Take a drive down memory lane with me, readers. For this weekend’s field trip, we’re heading to Auto Museum 64, a free “educational showcase” of late-90s game art – a fascinating study of the Nintendo 64’s slickest racecars, rally trucks and high-performance hovercraft brought together under one roof. Get there early, mind. Parkins spaces fill up fast.
When the historians of the future cast their cyber-eyes over the deluge of stupidity we encrusted upon the primitive internet, they will see that our fables, our moral storytelling, was mostly conducted with flashing colours and double-jumps. Yes, videogames have adopted the moralistic finger-wagging of fairytales and Victorian novels, for better or for worse. They have taught us a lot about ourselves and our place in the world. Here are 13 of the “best” moral lessons from PC games. Yes, you may take notes.
NORTH KOREA'S supreme leader Kim Jong-un's armoured train has been spotted at one of his palaces, casting in doubt reports that he has died and creating speculation that he could be seen in public again soon.
SHOCKING new satellite images showing Kim Jong-un's personal train outside of his "leadership compound" has sparked new theories surrounding the fate of the North Korean leader.
KIM JONG-UN, North Korea's Supreme Leader is dead - according to multiple sources coming out of North Korea and the Far East, though due to the hyper-secretive nature of the pariah state the exact picture remains unlcear tonight.
CHINA has been accused of openly threatening the EU - warning Brussels to block a report alleging Beijing was deliberately spreading disinformation about the coronavirus outbreak, or face the consequences.
RANK and file Germans have reacted furiously to Chancellor Angela Merkel's announcement that Germany would have to pay even more into EU coffers in the wake of the coronavirus to prop-up the ailing Brussels project.
KIM JONG-UN death rumours have sparked warnings instability in North Korea could trigger a new global conflict at a time the world is dealing with a major coronavirus pandemic.
KIM JONG-UN'S health status is currently unknown after reports the North Korean Supreme Leader is dead or in a vegetative state emerged this weekend. Who is his wife Ri Sol-ju?
KIM JONG-UN has been reported dead or in a vegetative state, according to various sources in China and Japan. Who will replace the North Korean dictator if he is dead?
NORTH KOREAN Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un is reportedly dead or in a vegetative state, according to various sources in China and Japan. What does vegetative state mean?
Although inkjet printers are dirt cheap, and even color laser printers are surprisingly affordable, many people still don’t own a printer. Often this has nothing to do with financial considerations; it’s just that they print so rarely that there’s no justification for buying a machine that’s going to collect dust. However, those occasions when you need something printed out do tend to roll around once in a while. Here are five ways to print when you don’t have a printer.
1. Use Windows and Linux Print to PDF Option
Windows 7, 8, and 10 all have an option to print to PDF, and it’s built right into the OS. The same applies to many Linux systems, such as Ubuntu 18.04, as shown above. Simply choose the printer as the ‘Print to PDF‘ option, and then follow the prompts and change settings as desired.
You can also choose to ‘Print to file‘ and save it as a PDF. In windows, there is a little box to check that says Print to file. For Ubuntu 18.04, the option is listed under the printer selection, along with the ‘Print to PDF’ option, as shown above.
Adobe also has a browser add-on for printing webpages as pdf files. Libre Office Writer has an Export as PDF option. So, there are many ways to print a document, image, or filled-in form. Just be sure to look at the preview as you adjust your settings so that it turns out the way you want. When you open the pdf file, it will look the same as when you print it.
Now, you have a ‘digital copy’ that you can save to a USB stick. This method allows you to have the document ready to print when you find a place to print it.
2. Use Third-Party PDF Applications
There are several third-party programs available that also add a print option from the print menu, such as doPDF by Softland and PDF24 Creator by PDF24, but they also offer editing and creation features to some extent. If one pdf option didn’t look that good, another might work great.
The reason we mentioned PDF as a printing option is because the format is universal. It was created by Adobe and designed to look the same on any computer that supports it, which is almost everything. Therefore, your printout will look the same regardless of the device you use to print it.
PDF isn’t the only option you have, though.
3. Fax or Email Instead of Print
Faxing Your Document
If you need to send a filled-in form, a copy of a specific document, or even a report to someone, why not just fax it? As long as the receiver has a fax machine, they may allow you to send the document by electronic transmission. All you have to do is ask. Many office and shipping stores have fax machines that charge a small fee to send faxes, such as Staples and The UPS Store. One store could be closer to you than a source that has a printer. All you need is your USB stick with the PDF file. There are also third-party applications that allow faxing from your PC using the Internet, such as FaxZero.
Emailing Your Document
Rather than delay time waiting for a printer and dropping the paper off to the recipient, you can simply email the receiver with the information. A filled-in form or other print media can be converted to PDF using ‘option 1’ or ‘option 2’ above and then sent to the recipient through email. The document may not even need to be converted, depending on what the recipient can view on their end. Once again, you’ll have to get their approval first, but it is usually not a problem.
4. Print from The Library or Your Workplace
If you absolutely must have a paper printout, your local library or place of work are two great options to print your docs when you don’t have a printer. Many libraries have embraced the computer revolution and have fully-equipped computer labs, including printers. You may have to pay by the page, or you may have a modest daily allowance of free prints.
You can also print from work, with permission, of course. Some employers don’t mind an occasional print, as long as you don’t get carried away.
5. Print from Home without a Printer
Yes, printing from home without a printer does sound illogical, right? In today’s technological world, virtual printing is possible. You can cloud print to stores like The UPS Store and FedEx stores, right from your computer and Web browser! You’ll have to pick up your printout, but at least it provides a quicker way than waiting for a printer to be available elsewhere, like when you visit a family member.
If you haven’t noticed, many methods listed above integrate to form several printing solutions. Making a PDF allows you to visit a printing store, the library, or your workplace. Online faxing allows the uploading of PDFs or other formats. Having a USB stick that holds your document means you are ready to print from anywhere. The list could go on for a while. In different terms, you have now discovered several tools, individually or in combination, that allow you to print without owning a printer!
With all the content available on Twitch, it isn’t surprising that users want to take some of their content offline, either to watch later or to work with it in a video editing program.
Fortunately, depending on your membership level, you can archive your videos for a fixed period of time after broadcast. If you’re a free user, you can archive your Twitch videos for 14 days. If you’re a Twitch Prime user you can archive your videos for up to 60 days. You can also download your videos to keep forever.
Let’s take a quick look at archiving broadcasts on Twitch
The Difference Between Clips and Videos
First, you should understand the differences between Twitch clips and videos.
Streamers have to enable the ability for their streams to be archived — it’s not automatically enabled by default. Once you or your favorite streamer has enabled the ability to save their streams to their own channel, there are still limits on how that content is saved.
Once you or another user has enabled auto-archiving on their videos, their videos will appear saved on their page for 14-days for regular streamers. If you have Amazon Prime, you can upgrade to Twitch Prime to gain access to 60-day archives; alternatively, if you’ve been made a Twitch Partner, your streams will also archive for sixty days.
Highlights are different than videos. If a highlight is saved to your account, it lasts forever, as opposed to just for the 14 or 60 days on standard accounts.
That said, highlights are much longer than a clip, often taking up full videos at a time. Meanwhile, clips are only up to sixty seconds long, typically ranging from 30 to 60 seconds depending on how the content was edited. Highlights are made by the creator or specifically-chosen editors, but clips can be made by anyone looking to save content to their own page.
Clips from other streamers that you create save directly to your own account inside your clips manager, which allows you to save content right to your own page.
Overall, archived videos on Twitch are a bit confusing. Between videos, highlights, and clips, there are three distinct tiers of content saved to a streamer’s page.
How to Archive Your Broadcasts in Twitch
Twitch’s focus on live broadcasting means that they tend to keep the experience focused on what’s currently live, as opposed to older broadcasts. So, in order to ensure you keep your broadcasts archived on your account, here’s what you need to do.
Check the box next to Store Past Broadcasts under Stream Preferences.
This will enable that storage option for your videos. We need to do this first in order to be able to archive your broadcasts in Twitch. You can go ahead and broadcast now and your videos will automatically be archived for 14 or 60 days.
Viewing Archived videos in Twitch
Once you have a bunch of videos you have broadcast, you will want to know where to go to find them, right?
Fortunately, they are available in your Twitch Dashboard like most other settings. You can then access the Videos menu in the left pane of the page and you should see a list of all the videos you have archived.
Downloading Clips from Twitch
If you’ve found a clip that you want to download, there are a few steps you can take to do just that.
While Twitch no longer allows you to download clips directly from the website, there is a workaround you can use that involves using an ad blocker like AdBlock Plus and uBlock Origin. For this article, we used uBlock Origin on Google Chrome.
To start, save a clip you want to download to your own account or find the clip on someone else’s page. This only works with clips, so make sure that the segment you’re downloading is sixty seconds in length or shorter.
Start by opening your ad blocker’s settings on your device by right-clicking on the icon in your browser and selecting options. This will open a tab for your blocker right inside your browser, where you can edit or save settings at will.
Find the “My Filters” setting in your ad blocker. For uBlock Origin users, it’s the “My Filters” tab; for AdBlock Plus users, it’s under the advanced menu options. You’ll then need to create two custom filters for two separate links at Twitch.
Once you’re in the custom filters tab, copy and paste both of these links into your blocker’s filters editor:
clips.twitch.tv##.player-overlay
player.twitch.tv##.player-overlay
Apply your changes and leave the settings page. Refresh Twitch and find the clip you want to download. Any time you find a clip, you can now right-click the clip inside the video player and select “Save Video As…”
This will download the video to your computer as an mp4 file. These clips download at their full resolutions and look great for playback, editing, and uploading.
Again, if you try to do this on a video that isn’t a clip, you’ll run into issues performing the task, so make sure to stick only with proper clips and not the actual videos, highlights, and archives that can be multiple hours long.
Export Videos Directly to YouTube
You can also export Twitch videos straight to YouTube.
You will need to have your Twitch and YouTube accounts linked before you try this in order for it to work. To link the accounts, go to Settings in Twitch and Connections. Check the box next to YouTube Export Archives and add your account.
Navigate to Video Manager from the menu to access the list of videos you have created.
Select Past Broadcasts and More.
Select Export. Select a title and any settings you want to add.
Set the privacy options, Public or Private.
Select the Export button.
Depending on the time of day, this process can take a little while. What you end up with is a video accessible through YouTube that will stay there for as long as you need it to.
Final Thoughts
Whether you’re looking to download small clips of your favorite streamers, or you want to save your own full six-hour streams for storing offline, it’s pretty easy to download content from Twitch.
While we’d love to see an official offline playback and download option for Twitch Prime users added sometime in the future, as long as you have a Windows PC lying around your house, it’s easier than ever to save Twitch streams right to your PC once they’ve been put online.
YouTube first started showing funny cat videos to the world all the way back in 2005, and since that debut, the site has come to utterly dominate the online video world. YouTube has become synonymous with video-based entertainment for billions of people around the world. More than 5 billion videos are watched on the service every month, with a seemingly infinite variety of content, from music, films, gaming, to how-to videos on every subject. YouTube doesn’t run out of things to entertain its users, from funny animal videos to online pranks. There is content on YouTube to satisfy just about every taste or interest, and that’s what has made the service so attractive to its users.
One of the most annoying things about YouTube is that downloading videos to one’s local computer or device is not natively supported on the site’s free version. All that content, and you can’t grab a local copy to watch offline! People want this feature for many reasons. Some users like to take their videos on the go, for when they’re out of range of cellular connections or WiFi hotspots. Other users like to use content from other videos to make remixes, reviews, and other new content of their own. Unfortunately, YouTube and its owner Google don’t appear to care for the idea of users taking content offline. It is possible to subscribe to YouTube Premium, which for $11.99 a month will allow you to download content, but a YouTube Premium account doesn’t allow you to use those videos in any creative way outside your own mobile device. Allegedly, 1.5 million people subscribe to the Premium service…but I’ve never met one.
Of course, this is technology, and that means there are always ways to get what you want. There are standalone programs that have the ability to download YouTube content. One of those programs is VLC, and we created an article on using VLC to download YouTube videos to your computer. There are many apps and websites that will download YouTube videos for you; we wrote an article covering many of those apps and sites as well. But what if you want to just use your Chrome browser to grab videos from YouTube? Are there extensions or plug-ins that will let you do this?
Well, of course, there are. There are Chrome browser extensions for everything, and downloading YouTube videos is no exception. In this article, we’ll present several of the best extensions that we’ve researched. We’ve found these extensions work well, and we’ll make sure to keep our eye on this list every few months to make sure all of them are still reliable. (If one of our recommendations isn’t working, let us know in the comments below. YouTube and Google are constantly working to block extensions like this from functioning, so don’t be surprised if one fails to work unexpectedly following a major YouTube upgrade.)
Note that none of these extensions or plug-ins can be found on the Chrome store, and none of them are officially supported by Chrome. In fact, you should be careful about installing browser add-ons like these, because the potential for malware is real. That is why we have researched these and believe them to be safe. Don’t just install random add-ons that you find online; make sure that they have been tested and found safe first.
Here are our recommendations for downloading and saving YouTube videos with Google Chrome extensions.
Google Cloud Print allows you to print files directly from your Google account. No longer do you need to store any photos or documents on your phone. In essence, you only need an internet connection and a compatible Brother printer.
The best thing about this service is that you can print from anywhere and use a wide range of devices. Would you like to learn how to set up your Brother printer with this service? Here’s all the information you need.
Connecting a Brother Printer to Google Cloud Print
The essentials you need to get started are a Google account, a Wi-Fi network, and a connected Brother printer. If you’re not sure if your Brother printer model supports this service, you can check it here, on the Google Cloud Print support webpage.
Before you start setting up the Google Cloud Print service, ensure that your computer is connected to the same network as your Brother printer. You won’t be able to pair them if they’re not on the same network. Also, make sure your printer is on, as well as your Wi-Fi.
Once you do so, follow the steps below to set up the printer:
Launch Chrome on your computer and click on the three-dot (More) in the upper-right corner of the screen.
Select Settings.
Scroll to find Advanced and click to reveal more options.
Under Printing, choose Google Cloud Print.
From the new screen, choose Manage Cloud Print devices.
In the New devices section, you’ll see your Brother printer even though it still isn’t connected to the service.
Click on Register, and then confirm your choice by clicking it again in the pop-up window.
On your Brother printer’s display, you’ll see a message that you need to confirm to continue with the registration. Press OK.
Your Brother printer will now appear in the My devices section. You’re all set and can start printing right away!
Note that you’ll need to sign in to your Google account at the beginning of the process if you aren’t automatically signed in when you launch Chrome. Also, once you’ve registered the printer with your Google account, you’re not only limited to printing from your computer. You can print from any device that allows you to access your Google account.
Printing with Google Cloud Print
Google Cloud Print is compatible with any device on which you can access your account. You can print almost any type of file this way, from images to webpages. However, be aware that you may not be able to print encrypted PDF files or keep the transparency setting on within a file. Also, if the text in a document is typed out in an unrecognized font, the copy may come out jumbled or in a different font.
Here’s how to print from your computer, from an Android smartphone, and iOS devices:
Printing from a PC
Open a Chrome browser on your PC.
Choose an image, a webpage, or a document you’d like to print.
Select File, and then Print.
If the Brother printer isn’t already selected, choose it from the list. If you can’t see it, click on See More.
Adjust any desired settings, such as the number of copies.
Choose Print to finish.
Printing from an Android
As long as your Android is using the 5.0 or later OS, it’s compatible with Brother printers. Follow the steps below:
Use Chrome to open a file or a webpage you wish to print.
From the upper-right corner, select More and then Share.
Choose Print.
Choose the desired printer.
Adjust the number of copies and other settings.
Tap on Print to complete the action.
Printing from iOS Devices
Open the Chrome browser on your iPhone or iPad.
Find the content you want to print.
From the top right corner, select the Share option (it’s the small square and arrow icon).
Choose Print and adjust any necessary settings.
Select Print and wait for your copies to come out.
If you’ve installed the iPrint&Scan app, you can access Google Cloud service from there.
Launch the app and tap on the printer icon.
From the next menu, select Cloud Services.
Sign in to your Google account and find a file you’d like to print.
Tap on Print when you’re done with adjusting the settings. You can also edit an image before you print it.
Troubleshooting
If you’re having issues connecting your printer to the Google Cloud Print service or using the service to print, here are a few things you can do:
Restart your printer and try printing or connecting it again.
Check if there are any updates you can install on your Chrome browser.
Make sure you’re using the Chrome browser to print.
If your OS is Windows, you can install a driver that allows you to use other browsers to print on a Brother printer. You can even print from Microsoft Word or Excel this way.
Free Up Your Memory Space and Print from the Cloud
Printing directly from the Google Cloud is an excellent way to free up memory space and avoid keeping too many unnecessary files on your mobile device or computer. Almost full storage may decrease your device’s performance, so not having to save each file makes everything more practical.
Does your Brother printer support Google Cloud Print? Let us know in the comments section below.
People have been more dependent on their smartphones to fulfill their browsing needs. Thus, websites have increasingly begun offering two separate versions of themselves: a mobile version, light-weight and a full-desktop version. The light mobile website versions generally present the same basic content, but lack functionality better-suited to a full-screen environment, such as zooming in and out on articles, photos, and other page elements. Sites increasingly use responsive or adaptive web design to change and modify itself to fit screens of any shape or size while still displaying content in a reasonable layout.
However, mobile sites often are unsatisfactory in one way or another. Often, sites will hide certain functionality behind their desktop versions, limiting what mobile users can see or do while browsing the site. Though this is done to retain usability and smoothness for mobile users, it can often leave power users out in the cold when they’re looking for specific abilities or options on their favorite sites. This can be incredibly frustrating when the only reason one is trying to visit a particular site is to use a particular feature, which happens to have been abridged from the mobile site.
Facebook is no exception. Though their mobile app on iOS and Android theoretically features most of the same capabilities as its desktop version, many prefer to access Facebook through the browser on their smartphone. It’s no secret that the Facebook app takes up a lot of room, battery, and memory on your phone, and the mobile site can be a faster or easier way to access your social feed on the go.
Unfortunately, Facebook’s mobile browser site is a lot more limited than the app in terms of capabilities. Facebook won’t let you use Messenger on the mobile browser. It would ask you to install the Messenger app, instead. Changing your settings or hiding posts from your news feed can be nothing short of aggravating. If you’re fed up with the restrictions facing you while using the Facebook mobile site, or if you need to change a setting you can’t change from the mobile view inside your browser—you’re in luck. Both Android and iOS allow you to easily change between Facebook’s mobile and desktop versions of the site with a single option. You can even bookmark the desktop version of the site for use whenever you need it.
Let’s break down just what you need to do to access the full desktop version of Facebook right from your iPhone or Android device.
Method One
This method works in any browser, whether you’re using Safari, Chrome, or any other mobile browser.
To begin, open your web browser and tap the URL bar at the top of your screen. Your phone’s software keyboard should extend. At this point, you’ll have to type in the following link into the URL bar:
If you’ve previously logged into your Facebook account on your mobile browser, the desktop version of Facebook should load on your display, in its full, multi-column zoomed-out glory.
If you haven’t logged into your Facebook account on your mobile browser, or you’ve been logged out, you’ll be asked you to enter your login details. Log into your account, and you’ll still be taken to either the mobile web version, or the Facebook app on your device. Don’t worry, you haven’t done anything wrong. Clear the tab or exit the mobile app and head back to your browser. Retype the above link into your phone’s URL bar, and you should be redirected to the desktop version of the page now that you’ve logged into your account properly.
At this point, we recommend bookmarking the “home.php” link for future use. You have to specifically tell your device to load this homepage; if you simply type “facebook.com” into your mobile browser, you’ll still load the mobile version of Facebook. By including the “home.php” section in your link, you’ll load the desktop version every time, so long as you’re already logged into Facebook on your browser.
This method has a major flaw, however. Facebook doesn’t want you to use the full version on your mobile. So anytime you tap on a link or user interface element, Facebook will immediately load the mobile version. So you can only use this method to look at the front page of your Facebook feed.
Method Two
Fortunately, you have a way to override Facebook’s insistence on showing you one particular version, because you control your browser. Both Chrome and Safari, on Android and iOS respectively, have the option to view web pages in their full desktop view. Let’s take a look at each platform’s setting.
Android
If you’re using an Android phone, start by opening your web browser. The standard browser for Android is Chrome, which we’ll be using to demo this method in our screenshots below, but if you use a third-party or alternate browser, you’ll likely find a similar option hidden in the settings of that browser.
Start by opening Facebook inside your browser. Don’t use the “home.php” version we wrote about above; instead, load the standard mobile site. Then, log into your account. Once again, if your browser redirects you to the mobile application after you’ve logged in, just reload the page inside the browser.
Once the mobile version of your page has loaded, tap the triple-dotted menu button on Chrome’s URL bar. Near the bottom of the menu list, you’ll find an option that reads “Request desktop site,” along with a checkbox. Click this option, and the checkbox will fill itself in. The menu list will automatically close, and your page will reload. Chrome may prompt you to set your location settings; if it does, allow or deny Facebook at your own discretion. Once you’re past this prompt, the desktop version of Facebook will load and display on your web browser. You can then check your messages, change your settings, or do anything else the desktop site requires.
To switch back to the mobile site, tap the triple-dotted menu icon again and uncheck “Request desktop site” option. The page will reload back to Facebook’s mobile view. You can do this at any time you wish.
iOS
The process for switch sites from the mobile to the desktop version on iOS is really similar to Android’s, just with a slightly different button layout. Begin by loading the mobile version of Facebook, just as we mentioned above for the Android method. If you aren’t logged in, enter your info and credentials into the prompt. Once the mobile site has loaded, tap the “Share” icon on the bottom taskbar on Safari.
In addition to the typical sharing options, you’ll receive a few additional menu icons, including Print, Find on Page, and, for our uses, Request Desktop Site.” Just like with Chrome, tap this option. The page should reload, and you’ll have the desktop version of Facebook live for usage on your iOS device.
Once you’ve decided you’ve had enough of the desktop site, use the “Request Mobile Site” option in settings to change back to the traditional mobile Facebook site.
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While the above methods are helpful and easy enough to accomplish, it’s important to note that Facebook will try to reroute you back to using their mobile app. If you reload the homepage or try to use certain settings, Facebook will push you back to the mobile site. If this happens, you can always use the above methods to reload the desktop version of their site without too much of an issue.
Finally, while testing the above methods on Android, we ran into the occasional problem where requesting the desktop site through Chrome would instead return is with a tablet version of the mobile site, with the same functionality as the mobile version but zoomed out. If this happens, it means the page is requesting a desktop version of “m.facebook.com,” which redirects to the mobile version of Facebook no matter the device you’re using to load and access the site. Just reenter “www.facebook.com” into your browser with the “Request desktop site” box still checked, and you should load the traditional display.
It’s no wonder House Party is such a popular app. You can talk and play games with friends, no matter where they are. You can download it to your phone and take it wherever you go.
However, it may be more convenient to use House Party with your Mac. That way, you can sit on your sofa or in your room and relax. In this article, we’ll show you how best to use the app on your Mac.
How to Install House Party?
You may be wondering whether House Party is a free or paid app. The good news is that it’s free, although there are some in-app purchases.
Go to the App Store and type “House Party”. You’ll recognize the app by the yellow waving hand on a red background. Click on Get, and then proceed to install the app to your Mac. Note that you’ll have to sign in with your Apple ID to confirm it’s you.
How to Create an Account?
If you’ve already signed up for House Party from your phone, all you have to do is enter your account information. You can then join a call or invite your friends.
If this is your first time using House Party, we’ll show you how to create a new account. Click on the blue Sign up button and then enter your e-mail and create a password. You’ll also have to enter your phone number. After a couple of seconds, you’ll receive a confirmation text, and you can then complete the sign-up process.
How to Add Friends?
There’s no point using House Party without your friends. The app is developed to bring you closer to your loved ones, wherever they are.
When you sign in, the app will ask you whether you want to import your contacts. You don’t have to do this, but it’s the fastest way to connect with your friends. Of course, you can always find your friends manually, if you know their usernames.
At the top of the screen, you’ll see the Search bar. Type your friend’s name there, and when you find them, click on Add. You’ll now have to wait until your friend accepts your request, and then you can start a call.
If you don’t know your friend’s username, don’t worry. There’s another way to add them. Select the green “Copy profile link” sign, and then send your profile link to your friend. You can do that using e-mail or any messaging app that you usually use. All they have to do is open the link and add you as a friend.
Start or Join a Call
With the free version of House Party, you can have a video call with up to seven friends. What’s more the sound and video are of excellent quality. Plus, you’ll be able to see continuous videos of all participants.
If you want to start a call, click on the Plus sign at the top right corner of your home screen. Select up to seven friends from your list and click Invite to Room. The room is a virtual space where your conversation takes place. You can now talk, chat, or play games together.
On the other hand, if you want to join an existing video call, go to your Contacts list and find a friend who’s hosting or participating in that call. Click the Join button next to their name.
Bear in mind that once when you join the call, your friends will immediately be able to see you. Of course, during the call, you can turn your video and microphone on or off whenever you want. The app is straightforward, and you’ll immediately see the icons you have to click.
What Games Can We Play?
Many people download House Party for the fun games. There’s a variety of free options you can play with your friends. The most popular games are Trivia, Heads Up, Quick Draw, and Chips and Guac.
Anyone can start the game during a call. All you have to do is click on the small dice in the top right corner of the screen. You’ll then get to choose the game you want, and other participants can join. The House Party games guarantee hours of fun, especially if you’re playing with a large group of friends.
Moreover, it’s easier to play games on your Mac, as the bigger screen allows you to have better control of commands. If you get bored with these games, you can upgrade the app and purchase even more from the App Store.
Additional Options
When you’re in an open call, anyone from your Contact list can join. If you want to make the call private, you can do so by clicking the small Padlock at the bottom of the screen.
That way, you’ll lock your room, so new people can’t join. Anyone can lock or unlock the room during the call, but you’ll always see the sign and know whether the call is private or public.
If you want to exit the call, you can do so by clicking on the X sign in the bottom left corner of the screen. If you were the one who created the call, you might feel like a party pooper now. Don’t worry, as other participants will be able to continue the video call, even after you leave.
Party Is Online!
With House Party, you can finally stay in touch with your friends even if they’re miles away. It not only guarantees high-quality calls, but there are also various things you can do together.
Have you already tried this app? Did you like it? Let us know in the comments section below.
Discord is the messaging application built for gamers. Although, you don’t have to be a gamer to use Discord because the customization and personalization options are great for anyone. You can use it as a free communication tool even when you are not gaming. Before, Discord was limited to PC and mobile platforms.
The service is slowly expanding into the console territory and some console gamers might argue that it’s taking too much time. Even though there’s no official app for it, you can use Discord with your Xbox One. Read on and find out how to install Discord on your Xbox One.
Can You Really Use Discord on Xbox One?
If you were wondering about this, the answer is yes. Since the announcement in April 2018, Microsoft and Discord started their official cooperation. People wanted Discord on Xbox One for a long time, and the two tech titans obliged. It’s not perfect just yet, but it does open the door to new opportunities for PC fans and console fans.
Discord quickly got Xbox integration. Now PC and console gamers can unite and be one happy family. You can easily see what your friends are playing on Xbox via Discord and hop on if you want to join them for a multiplayer session.
All you need for this to work is a free Discord account. You don’t need an account for everything all the time, but in this case, you’ll need both a Discord account and an Xbox Live account. That’s because you need to link it to your Xbox account. You can sign up and download Discord for Mac, Android, iOS, or Linux using this link.
The sign up is very simple; you need to provide a username, a password, and a valid email address for verification.
How to Link Xbox One with Discord
There are two ways you can link your Discord and Xbox One accounts. You can either do it through your Xbox or using the Discord app on your smartphone or desktop. The detailed steps for both methods are listed below.
Using the Xbox One
Since May of 2018, you can link your Discord and Xbox One. Here is how to link your accounts on Xbox One:
Go to your Account Settings on Xbox One.
Choose the ‘Linked Social Accounts’ option.
Select ‘Link Discord’ account from the menu.
You will get a six-character pin code, which you should input in the Discord app. You can do so at the Connections menu on the Discord desktop or smartphone app.
Using the Discord Phone or Desktop App
Alternatively, you can initiate the linking process from within the Discord app. Here are the steps:
Start Discord on the device of your choice.
Go to User Settings and select the Connections tab.
Next, you’ll see a list of icons that are eligible for pairing with Discord. Locate the Xbox icon to the far right.
Select Xbox Live and sign in with your credentials.
Give Discord the permission to access your Xbox One account and the two should now be linked.
Once linked, users will have the option to display what games they’re playing on Xbox with other Discord users and gaming friends.
After you’ve linked your Xbox account, Discord will give you a couple of options for what you’d like to display to other users including your game status.
If you’re determined to use Discord on your Xbox console you can log into the Microsoft browser on your device. Once there, visit the Discord website, login, and you will have access to the Discord content while gaming without needing a smartphone or computer nearby.
How to Unlink Discord and Xbox One
In case you get tired of Discord or you switch consoles, don’t worry, you are covered too. It is easy to remove the link between Discord and Xbox Live accounts. You can do it using the official Microsoft site, the Discord app, or your Xbox One.
Use this link to go to your official Microsoft account settings. Sign in with your credentials and find the Discord link. Remove it and save changes.
Using your Xbox One, you should go to the Accounts menu and select the Linked Social Accounts tab. Finally, click the button to remove the link in the same place where you clicked on ‘Link Discord’ account.
You can also unlink the accounts using the Discord app.
Sign in to your Discord account if you haven’t done so already
Go to Account Settings – Located in the lower left-hand corner of the app
Click on the Connections tab as you did before
Finally, click on Xbox Live Connection and click on the remove link button
Follow the prompts and confirm before backing out
Using Discord to Communicate on Xbox
Although there isn’t an application for the Xbox just yet, it’s still possible to use Discord as your chat and communication app. This means you can use the Discord app on your phone, or on your computer to chat with others rather than the Xbox chat system.
Flaws in the Xbox messaging system often make it difficult to hear others, especially with online gaming taking everything out of the bandwidth. If you have the Discord app on your phone and a great cellular data connection, you can use the app on your phone as a better alternative to poor sound quality and lagging.
Your PC friends and your Xbox friends can keep up with your current online activities all in one place with the integration of Discord and Xbox.
Is Linking the Accounts Worth It?
Understanding that Discord does not have an application on the Xbox console is certainly a downside because it’s not the same Discord that PC users have access to. Overall, linking the two accounts does a few things that make it worthwhile:
It is simple to link – So why not?
It does show your game status – If you have friends on multiple platforms, they’ll see you’re in a battle on Xbox and hop off their PC to join
Poor chat options in Xbox – Whether your system is running slow or online voice chat is hogging your bandwidth using Discord is a seamless and impressive alternative to your Xbox chat
You get a keyboard – Nothing else needs to be said here for those who like to chat
See You on Discord
Finally, Xbox One users can use Discord as PC users did for years. As you see, there is no complicated installation or anything like that. You just need to link the Xbox Live and Discord accounts and you are good to go.
Lately, we see more and more cooperation and cross-platform unity across the gaming world. As technology becomes available and is released to the public, gamer harmony is more attainable than before.
Instagram Live videos are a new way to communicate with followers. From Q&A’s to chatting with friends, Live feeds are a great way to comment and interact in real-time. Some users may want to disable comments on Instagram Live.
For whatever reason; disabling comments is a simple yet effective option for those who are stream and those who are watching. Knowing how to do this is important before setting up your video. If you’re watching a tutorial and the comments are getting in the way of the intended content; you can choose to hide the comments.
Following the guide below; you will soon learn everything you need to know about controlling the influx of comments on your next Live video.
Hiding Comments if You’re Streaming
As stated above, if you are the creator of the Live video, or you’re watching it; you do have the option to hide the comments. Let’s explore how to do this for both.
Hiding the Comments on Your Live Video
You’ve got the perfect content, you’ve tested the lighting, and you’re ready to show the world what you’re up to.
Once you’ve started your live video follow these instructions to turn off comments:
Navigate to the small “Comments” box located in the lower left-hand corner of your screen.
Tap the three vertical dots located inside the box.
Tap on “Turn off Commenting”
It’s that simple. You can do this at any time during the live broadcast.
Hiding Comments if You’re Watching
If you’re in attendance to someone else’s live broadcast you can turn off the comments but the process is a little more involved. Unfortunately, Instagram doesn’t allow you to hide the comments while you’re watching another persons’ video from the app.
If you’re dedicated enough to get rid of the comments you can download a chrome browser extension giving you more flexibility and control. Adding an extension is actually really easy once you find the right one.
You can Google an extension that hides comments on Instagram Live, or you can go to the Chrome Web Store.
Installing Chrome Extensions
We’ve already researched a great extension if you’d like to get moving along. Not just for hiding comments, the Chrome IG Story extension comes with other neat features too. The only downside: you’ll have to use this on your desktop.
The extension may take a moment to install. When it’s finished, you’ll see a pop-up announcing that it’s ready for use. You’ll be able to access the extension at any time by looking to the upper right-hand corner of your browser window and clicking on the icon.
Now you can download videos you want to watch and view them without any comments or flurries of emojis. Simply go to Instagram’s website like you would to use Instagram from the desktop, then follow these instructions:
Click on the extension icon.
Choose from the list of your friends’ Stories (the live videos should show up here after they’ve ended) or browse for the live video of your choice.
Click the download icon to the right.
Open the zip file that downloads.
Double-click on the file therein to view the video.
Now you can view the video comment-free whenever you’d like. This probably sounds like common sense to most of you reading this, but note that you can’t download a live video until after it’s completed, so if your buddy is in the thick of it, then you’re going to have to either wait until the live video has ended or you’re just going to have to put up with the comments if you want to experience the video live.
Can you Block Certain Words on Instagram?
There’s a way to filter out specific words on Instagram, and you can hide inappropriate comments from showing up either in a live video or on any of your posts. This is on by default, so you don’t have to turn that on or off yourself. However, if you want to turn on inappropriate comments, you can do so.
Filtering out comments on the Instagram app for Android and iOS devices
Go to your profile and tap .
Tap Settings.
Tap Privacy > Comments.
Tap next to Hide Offensive Comments to turn it on.
You can also turn on a keyword filter to hide comments that contain specific words, phrases, numbers, or emoji that you’d like to avoid.
Go to your profile and tap .
Tap Settings.
Tap Privacy > Comments.
Tap next to Manual Filter to turn it on.
Enter specific words, phrases, numbers or emoji in the text box to filter out comments.
Filtering out comments on your computer or mobile browser
Go to instagram.com on your computer or mobile device.
Click and then click .
Click Privacy and Security > Edit Comment Settings.
Enter specific words, phrases, numbers, or emoji in the text box to filter out comments and then click Submit. You can also click to check the box next to Use Default Keywords to hide comments that contain commonly reported keywords from your posts.
How to Report Comments on Instagram
If you’re bound to using Instagram Live on your mobile device and therefore unable to turn off comments while watching a video, you can report any harmful or derogatory comments.
Here’s what you’ll do to submit a report on a comment:
Tap the chat icon on the video – like you’re going to type something.
Perform a left swipe over the troubling comment if you’re using an iPhone, or long-hold the comment if you’re using an Android.
Tap on the information bubble that pops up (a grey icon for iPhone and a blue icon for Android)
The options to report for “Spam or Scam” and “Abusive Content” will appear – tap whichever one applies to this comment
Follow the prompts by explaining why you feel this comment is not okay.
PCs are complicated machines, filled with dozens of smaller components, all working together. Anyone who’s worked with PC hardware is familiar with the main hard drive specs, like capacity, read/write speeds, and platter rotation speeds. However, there is a lesser-known and often overlooked feature that impacts the speed and performance of your hard drive. The feature is known as the hard drive cache. Let’s take a quick look at what hard drive cache and SSD cache is, and how it works.
What Is Hard Drive Cache?
Hard drive cache is often known as the disk buffer. By that name, its purpose becomes a little c. It acts as a temporary memory space while the hard drive reads and writes data to the permanent storage on the platters.
You can think of a hard drive’s cache as being like random-access memory (RAM) that is specifically designed for the hard drive. Hard drives have built-in microcontrollers that govern and process data coming in and out, much like a CPU. The cache works in conjunction with the microcontroller to store memory as it’s being processed.
You can also think of hard drive cache as something similar to buffering when it comes to streaming content. Everyone has dealt with streaming a video on a slow connection. The video player waits before or during playback to collect data so that it can continue playing the video more smoothly as it progresses. Hard drive cache allows a hard drive to do the same thing when reading and writing data.
How Does It Work?
As the hard drive reads and writes data, it pulls it from the platters. Very often, a hard drive is working with the same data repeatedly, since the person using the computer is usually working on one or two tasks at a time. The hard disk drive (HDD) holds data in its cache that you or your programs are using most frequently and, most recently, eliminating the need to pull it from the platters each time that the data is needed. This action speeds up the drive’s performance.
Reading Ahead and Behind
Typically, a hard drive doesn’t just pick up the data that it needs. It also reads the data around it. Hard drives aren’t efficient. The spinning platters and read/write heads are inherently limited by physical moving parts, which are much slower than solid-state drives that have no moving components. Therefore, hard drives try to compensate by guessing.
When a user or a program requests data (reminds me of Tron), the hard drive reads that data and the data around it from the platter and stores it all in the buffer. Since there is a decent likelihood that the surrounding data is similar, the drive assumes that the user or process will also request the surrounding data soon.
Evening Data Flow
There are a bunch of different steps to retrieving data from a hard drive. Each one of them takes time, and they rarely sync up. Transferring data from the hard drive via SATA usually moves much faster than the drive can read and write data to the platters. The disk buffer is often used to even out this flow of data and make the process much smoother.
Minimizing Wait Times When Writing
Again, hard drives are slow. They are probably the most time-consuming part of any computer because of their physically moving parts. Writing data is usually “painful” to the user.
Cache helps to speed up data-writing processes by virtually fooling the rest of the computer. A hard drive will take data into its cache and begin writing it. Instead of waiting to write all the data onto the platters, the HDD signals the computer that it did. The PC or Mac either continues sending more data, or it moves on to other tasks, believing that the process is complete. Either way, this allows the computer as a whole to continue to the next event.
There is a downside, though. While the hard drive is trying to make good on its promise to write the data, it can lose it. If the computer is powered off suddenly, all of the data stored in the cache will disappear. Cache, like RAM, is volatile storage.
Speeding Up Your Hard Drive
The cache isn’t going to equate to faster drive performance on single tasks directly. It’s not like it’s causing the drive to move faster. Having a disk buffer does, however, allow a hard drive to multitask much more efficiently, and chances are, that’s something that you’ll need.
It’s rare that a drive does just one thing or will only interact with one process at a time. Disk-based hard drives are still well-known storage devices in modern PCs. However, solid-state drives (SSDs) are gradually replacing those hard disk drives (HDDs). Even with a single task, multiple programs may need to access that storage at a time. You may be working with two or more files from your storage drive at once.
Servers are another space where having cache in hard drives is critical. Server hard drives are always going to be doing multiple things. Think of a database behind a website. Every time a user completes an action that the website has to store or log, the site accesses the info and writes it to the database. Every time someone even views that website, it reads from the database. It would be rare that the drives storing that database wouldn’t be performing multiple tasks simultaneously.
Cache In SSDs
SSDs aren’t as slow as physical hard drives, so do they need cache too? In short, they do. While cache in hard drives behaves like RAM, cache in solid-state drives serves as dynamic random-access memory (DRAM). It’s much faster and keeps pace with the SSDs.
Even though SSDs are much faster than their disk-based counterparts, cache still delivers benefits. Solid-state drives still use cache to regulate input/output and provide somewhat faster read and write access. Meanwhile, some SSDs don’t have built-in DRAM. It saves on power consumption but forces the drives to compensate in other ways.
Buying a Drive
So, cache obviously does matter. The cache isn’t as important as the primary drive specs, but you should still take it into account. If your drive is going to be multitasking or running continuously, like in a server or used for gaming platforms, look for larger cache sizes. You’re going to see the most benefit from it. Home users that are looking for a storage drive for occasional use don’t have to worry about it as much. For SSDs, the waters are a little murkier, but it’s still worth considering cache in your decision process. Other factors can easily overshadow it, though.
Skype has been a long-running communication tool in the tech world. Useful for business and personal interactions online, Skype is available in a downloadable application on a mobile phone or desktop.
With read receipts becoming more available on various platforms; Skype has adopted this type of alert. Although some users may prefer to keep their messaging activities anonymous read receipts allow the recipient of a message to keep track of their message’s delivery. From the typing bubbles to a pop-up showing the message has been read can be comforting, but also annoying for some.
What Are Read Receipts on Skype?
Skype’s read receipts are fairly simple to understand assuming you know what to look for.
Only the message appears
If you don’t see anything above your message but the timestamp – Your message has been sent but not open.
Profile icon
When the recipient reads the message you’ve sent you will see their profile picture appear just above the content on the right-hand side.
Typing Bubbles
If you see the typing bubbles pop-up on the left-hand side just above the “Type a message” box, your recipient is typing a reply.
Some users, especially those who are using Skype to communicate for business purposes may enjoy the peace-of-mind that read receipts provide. Knowing that the message has been delivered and the recipient is responding can save time and reduce any worry about miscommunications.
If it’s a weekend and you’d prefer not to show your boss or colleague that you’ve read a message; Skype gives you the option to turn off these read receipts.
Turn Off Skype Read Receipts for Mobile
Launch the Skype app, sign in if necessary, and tap on your user picture at the top of the screen (it should be centered in the top)
Scroll all the way down and tap ‘Settings.’
From the Settings menu, select Messaging.
Tap the toggle button to turn off Send read receipts.
Turn Off Skype Read Receipts for Desktop
Launch the Skype app, sign in if necessary, and click the three dots to the right of your user information. Select Settings from the drop-down menu that appears.
Select Messaging from the list on the left.
Use the toggle button to turn off Send read receipts.
With Skype read receipts disabled, you’ll still see read receipts for any contacts that have the feature enabled, but they won’t be able to see which messages you’ve read. If you’re not seeing read receipts for contacts you expect, note that there are some limitations to the feature.
First, your contacts will need to be using a version of Skype that supports read receipts. They also need to be logged in with a visible presence setting. Conversations with groups of more than 20 people also won’t show read receipts. Finally, you won’t see them from anyone who has blocked you, even if you both continue to be participants in a multiparty conversation.
Skype’s Online Status Options
Depending on your use of Skype, the developers have implemented another useful tool to enhance your online activity or privacy. An online status lets others know if you’re available to chat or not. Skype has four options:
Available
This means that you are online and open to chats and calls. Characterized by the green dot; Available is the default online status.
Away
If you set your online status to “Away” others will know that you’re currently busy with something else. Characterized by an Orange dot; those who’d like to send you a message will not expect a speedy response. This online status is triggered by an idle computer or you can set it manually in the settings.
Do Not Disturb
This online status lets others know you’re not accepting messages at the moment. The difference between ‘Do not Disturb’ typically tells others you don’t want to be contacted right now. While this online status is set; you won’t be alerted to any incoming messages. This is characterized by a red symbol.
When choosing the ‘Do not Disturb’ option you’re presented with the option to change messaging settings.
Invisible
The invisible status is unique as you’ll still see messaging activity but the sender will not know that you’re online. Characterized by a grey and white dot; this online status serves to keep you in the loop without letting others know you’re online.
Read receipts will automatically turn off if the online status is set to ‘Invisible.’
How to Change Your Online Status
You can update your online status via the desktop or your mobile device.
Desktop
From the desktop application – Look for your name in the top left-hand corner of the app.
Click on the circle with your initials (or profile picture) in it and click on that.
The first option available should be your current online status. Click on it and a pop-up will appear.
Click on any of the options you’d like to change your status to.
Mobile Device
After launching the Skype application on your phone or tablet –
Tap on the circle with your initials (or profile picture) located in the center at the very top of the app.
Tap on your current online status located at the top under your name and email address.
Choose from the four options available and tap.
Deleting Skype Messages
If you’ve accidentally sent a message to the wrong person and you’re anxiously awaiting the backlash by watching read receipts, you can delete messages you’ve sent. There is a short window for doing this but if you are quick enough you can alleviate any anxiety about a miscommunication.
From Desktop
Hover your cursor over the message you’d like to detract.
Right-click on the message
Click on “Remove”
Confirm if the popup request appears
From the Mobile App
Long hold the message you’d like to remove.
Tap “Remove” in the popup
Confirm if the option appears
Messaging applications that give you the freedom to choose your privacy are wonderful additions to online communications options.
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By: Lucy MeakinAs global governments grapple with how to unlock economies without triggering another round of coronavirus infections, some economists are recommending that age should be used to determine who returns to work first.While the freezing of activity from Mumbai to Chicago is credited with saving lives, the downsides are evident in the International Monetary Fund's warning of the worst global recession in almost a century.How to balance lives and livelihoods is drawing the attention of economists, and a growing cohort propose authorities should first remove restrictions on those deemed at lowest risk of death or hospital admittance from the infection.Age RiskThat means the youngest are activated first, while more venerable groups remain sheltered until either a vaccine can be administered or the rest of the population develops sufficient immunity. One calculation of fatalities from the disease by Imperial College in London is for 0.03% of those in their 20s, compared to over 5% among the over 70s."Age- and morbidity-related restrictions would allow a rapid return of economic activity," according to David Mackie, chief European economist at JPMorgan Chase & Co in London. "If mixing between the elderly and the less vulnerable younger populations can be sufficiently reduced, the economy and society can get back to work quickly."His research suggests governments could ease restrictions on those under 60 and without additional risk factors, yet still limit deaths and pressure on health systems. 75383374Economists from Warwick University argue that releasing the more than 4 million British residents in their 20s who do not live with their parents could have "substantial economic and societal benefits without enormous health costs." They propose the idea could then be applied to other countries.The young are already feeling the most pain of the lockdown, according to a study this week by two regional Federal Reserve banks. The paper calculated that the costs of reduced economic activity "are disproportionately borne by younger households, which bear the brunt of lower employment."However, focusing on young workers is not without risks, aside from the potential threat to their health.Citigroup Inc. economists Dana Peterson and Catherine Mann argue that this population segment is less likely to have health insurance, and any boost to growth from its participation will be limited without the workplace input and buying power of the older, richer generation. Such a strategy also places a burden on one age group to carry the entrepreneurial load of emerging from the shutdown, and assumes the everyone else is willing to play ball.Quality of LifeOn Friday, economists from the London School of Economics called for an approach that doesn't distinguish between age per se, but assesses collectively the length of people's lives and the quality of that experience, to determine when to end a lockdown.Many countries have already eased restrictions on education and some businesses in an effort to gradually reopen economies. One strategy proposed by University College London suggests a staggered release of the U.K. lockdown over six weeks with strict social distancing, compulsory masks on public transport and varying business opening hours to avoid rush hour crowding. 75383385Ultimately however, any proposal by economists is ultimately about devising the optimal stopgap that maximizes growth with the fewest possible deaths until a solution to the virus is found.A vaccine would be one such a solution. At least three projects for that are now in human testing, according to the World Health Organization. Yet even in a best-case scenario, developing a safe and effective inoculation may take at least a year.The Journey to Herd ImmunityAlternatively, enough healthy people would survive the disease that the population itself becomes immune, the controversial concept of herd immunity. The U.K abandoned that strategy early in the pandemic after projections showed its health care system would be overwhelmed, but now it's regaining traction in poor but young countries such as India.Such a trade-off could still prove unacceptable for many governments. The Warwick University economists estimate their plan for the U.K. could generate around 13 billion pounds ($16 billion) in annual extra income, but also up to 630 additional premature deaths among the 20-30s age group if they no longer have to stay home -- a price tag that not all electorates would support."There is obviously going to be conflict between the relatively early relaxation of the restrictions and allowing the economy to breathe, and putting people at risk," said Philip Shaw, chief economist at Investec Bank Plc. "At the end of the day, you're making horrible decisions."
As India eased its tough coronavirus lockdown for farmers, some agricultural workers said they were unaware they could return to the fields after weeks without income during the peak harvest season. India's 1.3 billion people will continue to live under curbs until May 3, but the government said farms and factories could resume activity on Monday in the hinterland, which has been less hard-hit by COVID-19. "We didn't know the restrictions were lifted," farm worker Mukesh Sahani told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone from his village in Uttar Pradesh, saying weeks without earnings had left his family with "just about enough to eat and live." "We have incurred the biggest loss ever this year. My parents and I managed to get two days of work this month for Rs 400, as against the 15-20 days of work we get on various farms every year," he added. April is normally a month of strong demand for farm workers but the lockdown, which is now in its fifth week, has brought the countryside to a virtual standstill and harvest festivals have been muted this year. It was unclear exactly how many of the country's millions of agricultural workers were unaware that the controls had been partially lifted, as farming unions sought to spread the word in the countryside. Seema Kulkarni of the Mahila Kisan Adhikar Manch, a network of civil society groups and women farmers which has been sending out messages to its members this week, said there was "eagerness" among farm workers to get back to their jobs. Nearly 70% of India's population live in rural areas, where more than half of men and nearly 70% women are engaged in agricultural work, government data shows. Due to circumstances a government spokesperson said daily wages under rural employment scheme MGNREGA had been increased to Rs 202 from about Rs 180 and nearly Rs 5,500 crore disbursed among 1.6 crore people. These were among the many steps - including allowing agricultural activities and setting up call centres to coordinate transportation of farm produce - undertaken by the government to mitigate hardship in rural India, he said. K.S. Dhatwalia, principal director general of the Press Information Bureau of the Indian government, said in an email that both sowing and harvesting activities were on course, with the sowing area coverage better than last year. DISTRESSRecent videos shared by farmers on social media show fields bursting with crops including cabbages, peppers, tomatoes and grapes waiting to be harvested, or being dumped by farmers unable to sell their produce. "Farm produce traders, who would harvest crops from my land to sell it at the wholesale market, couldn't make it this year," said farmer Kannaiyam Subramanium, whose video of his bumper cabbage crop went viral on Twitter. "There are many farmers who haven't got workers to harvest. Vegetables won't wait for the lockdown to be over before they perish," he said. For some farm workers, however, the easing of the controls brought a little relief. Pawan Laluram, 20, went to visit his employer to pick up wages he was due to be paid: two sacks of wheat. "I couldn't bring the wheat sacks last month when the lockdown was announced as I had to walk nearly 65 km to reach home," he said. "There's no work in the village and there was no food at home. The wheat may last us a few months," he said.
By: Amit Kapoor & Richard DasherThe Covid-19 pandemic affects every aspect of human life from our health to the economic system. While the human race has known widespread famine, war, and plague in the past, the sum of changes occasioned by Covid-19 is unprecedented, because the impact has almost simultaneously reached all regions of the world. On the economic front, COVID-19 has acted as an accelerant of major trends already in progress. Policymakers can only make assumptions about the different paths our future could take based on the economic theories at their disposal. Mainstream economic theories, however, have assumed globalization as a natural continuation of economies of scale. They have not dealt sufficiently with both the positive and negative aspects of the global value chain in a tightly interconnected world.The present condition is entirely different than what was seen in the past because of the globalized nature of the economy. National economies are more interlinked to other nation's economies than ever before. While impact on one nation's economy can have resounding impact on other nations, the impact of pandemic on each nation individually has had a manifold impact on the global economy at large.Therefore, no past financial crises are adequate guides to predict the post-pandemic economy today. Nevertheless, financial crises in the past did signal a fundamental change in economic thinking. The post-World War 2 economic thinking was largely inspired by John Maynard Keynes' general theory. Post-pandemic economic thinking needs to undergo a similar fundamental change.A direct hit at the global economy has been the disruption of the global value chains (GVCs) by the pandemic. From research and development to the final product, the stages of production are dispersed across the world. In other words, economic motivations have led to both worldwide economies of scale and to disaggregation of national value chains into specialized roles in a global value chain - if China is the manufacturing hub, sub-Saharan African countries are suppliers of resource-based goods like oil and minerals. The model has proved to be efficient and especially beneficial to the developing countries, but it has also proved to be a fragile model during this crisis. For a start, the city of Wuhan, from where the outbreak began, accounts for a significant global market share in the production of optical fiber cable and related devices. The effect of the shutdown of production in the city reverberated in the international value chain even before the disease reached other parts of the world.While the US-China trade war had already begun to cause disruptions in the GVCs, the Covid-19 pandemic expedited the phenomenon. The pandemic may not bring an end to GVCs or globalisation per se, but it nevertheless will provoke a rethinking of the modelling of the value chain with greater focus on building resilience. One expects participants in the value chain to hedge risk by distributing upstream suppliers and downstream distributors across multiple regions. Meanwhile, the national economies will also have to rethink alternatives to reduce their reliance on the GVCs, which may result in some reshoring and diversification of value chain.On a related note, the pandemic has made us realize that markets also cannot work with the single motive of profit maximization at the cost of human life. The crisis has highlighted the inter-dependence between market and community. The corporates rely on communities for their operation, and the pandemic affecting the society has consequently affected business operations. While it has long been argued that markets cannot have a free reign in the long run if they ignore the communities, the pandemic has driven home the point. It calls for rethinking of the role of the markets. The idea of corporate governance and social responsibility had been floating around in the corporate world for quite some time, but the pandemic may force businesses to take greater cognizance of the same as requirements for participation in global business. Climate change is another phenomenon that has lately induced businesses to restructure their business practices to be more environmentally conscious. As greater sections of the society put a value on environmental sustainability, their consumption patterns would also reflect that. So, with the positive effects of lockdown on the environment becoming apparent, there is gradual mounting pressure on businesses to account for ecological concerns in their operations. If the environmental challenges inspired businesses to market an ecologically conscious brand image, the pandemic might force them and more to look beyond profit maximisation and towards social responsibility in order to compete in the market. This shift in focus might change the fundamental basis of competition and by extension the model of growth in the near future.The role of government has also undergone a monumental change in this crisis. Governments around the world have spread themselves thin by increasing healthcare expenses as well as pumping fiscal stimulus into the economy. However, fiscal spending has its limitations, especially at a time when revenues are not being generated. It reinforces the point that corporates would ultimately have to assume greater roles in delivering on their social responsibility goals and help sustain their business ecosystems.However, an offshoot of the pandemic has also been the rise of authoritarianism. Between capitalist states and socialist states, every country on the continuum has been found ill-prepared for a crisis of this magnitude. Nevertheless, the response to the pandemic has been more effective in countries like Singapore, Hong Kong and South Korea that adopted rigorous testing as well as strict measures. Some measures like close surveillance and monitoring of citizens even raised questions about privacy but the opposing argument was that such interventions are justified if it helps control the spread of the disease. Some governments like Hungary and Hong Kong have even taken this pandemic as an opportunity to centralise greater powers in their hands. Now, even after the pandemic is curbed, such governments may continue to exercise unchecked power.Another difference that separates Covid-19 from other past financial crises is the existence of internet. it is the first pandemic in the age of internet. At a time of economic lockdown in most parts of the world, The internet has been the saving grace in ensuring a steady flow of information as well as making remote-work possible. It has been beneficial for governments and policymakers to anticipate risks, compare solutions and to coordinate efforts. Further, by pushing us to take some of the operations over to the internet, it has opened fresh debates about the future of work, business, education, and the like. The prolonged lockdown has made people accustomed to online learning and remote work and got the experts contemplating about the merits of continuing such a practice, given its cost efficiency.Overall, the pandemic has made us rethink economic institutions and mankind's approach towards the environment. Hence, it has also propelled a reimagination of the role of the market and the state. The society may come out of this catastrophe with some positive changes, but it may also set in motion some negative practices. The task for nations would be to navigate these opportunities and challenges. All in all, this may herald the beginning of a new economic order.Amit Kapoor is chair, Institute for Competitiveness and visiting scholar, Stanford University. Richard Dasher is Director and Professor, US Asia Technology Management Center, Stanford University. Harshula Sinha, senior researcher, Institute for Competitiveness has contributed to the article).
CHENNAI: India Cements on Saturday said it has resumed the operation of few of its plants partially and gradually in a phased manner and adopted a series of precautionary and safety measures including the compliance of Standard Operating Procedure for social distancing and other measures."Considering the uncertainties involved, the impact arising on account of Covid-19 pandemic on the performance of the company is not ascertainable at this stage," the company said in a disclosure to the stock exchanges.This comes after Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami held a meeting with industry veterans in the State via videoconference on Thursday to understand the challenges that businesses are being plagued with.India Cements Vice Chairman N Srinivasan was among those who attended the meeting and said that with no income and financial strain, the industry will face enormous difficulty if the lockdown is continued. He added that there will be a problem with raising funds from banks and paying salaries in the future too. "We will go by your decision and will strictly follow the protocols on social distancing, on who should enter the factory, safety of employees and also strictly follow the standard operating procedures and dos and don't s already prepared by the company as per official guidelines," he said during the discussion.
KOLKATA: Imagine top doctors remotely guiding and training healthcare staff in the frontlines to treat Covid-19 patients via uninterrupted, live video calls with no buffering. High-end HD cameras with split screens coaching doctors and nurses on ways to securely don personal protective gear before treating patients up close. For that matter, picture an army of robots administering life-saving drugs to running ventilators in a packed Covid-19 ward to shield doctors from catching the killer virus known the world over to be super-contagious. Or the faint hum of remote controlled mobile trolleys armed with cameras engaged in continuous Covid-19 ward inspections, come rain or shine.These scenes aren't straight out of a sci-fi movie, but real live scenarios that transpired less than two months ago and helped China effectively combat Covid-19. A critical piece of ammo the Chinese had in this deadly battle was access to ultra-fast 5G — or fifth generation – wireless broadband networks. In fact, the hours of live video calls and video-conferencing to guide Chinese medical workers in the frontlines happened over 5G networks and the HD cameras, hospital robots and remote-controlled mobile trolleys were also powered by 5G.India too has set in motion extended nationwide lockdowns till May 3 to contain the spread of Covid-19, but telecom industry experts believe the country would have been on a much stronger footing to grapple with the deadly menace if 5G networks were up and running today. At a time when the pandemic is yet to peak in India, access to 5G technologies and delivery of telemedicine solutions over 5G networks, they say, could have come handy, especially to do critical back-end work such as effective contact tracing in these times of Covid.Singapore-based Nitin Soni, senior director (corporates) at global ratings agency, Fitch, says the government must swiftly cut price of 5G airwaves and prioritise speedy 5G rollouts in India to deal effectively with the pandemic. Faster 5G adoption, he says, will aid delivery of remote healthcare to fight Covid-19 in India and also support higher GDP growth."Telcos have said 5G spectrum price is expensive, which if reduced by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) along with an auction this year itself, could accelerate 5G adoption," says Soni. He added that ringing in this fast wireless broadband technology must be an absolute priority for India to also address the increase in data traffic amid lockdowns and social distancing measures triggered by the coronavirus pandemic.Experts say a big enabler that drove China to unleash the power of 5G in Wuhan – the global epicentre of Covid19 — was its solid local citizen identification system, mapped to their faces. By comparision, India's challenges, they say, could get bigger as it neither has 5G networks nor the structured citizen-related meta data, and would, accordingly, have to rely on surrogate inputs that may be less reliable as a foundation for critical decisions while battling Covid-19."A key use case advantage of having a 5G network is that it allows a country to undertake real-time face recognition to effectively combat Covid19 in hotspots, and in turn, do precise contact tracing…this also allows one to generate empirical evidence to ascertain actual people-to-people interface while grappling with a pandemic," says ex-Bharti Airtel CEO Sanjay Kapoor.Top executives at China's Huawei, which was at the forefront of the tech-backed medical interventions in Wuhan, acknowledge that access to 5G technologies was hugely helpful in fighting Covid-19, especially when the mystery virus had threatened to swiftly overwhelm the country's healthcare system."Access to 5G helped us fight Covid-19 effectively in Wuhan and other places in China, where Huawei with its ecosystem partners developed multiple on-ground 5G use cases for live video streaming, remote diagnosis/treatment and remote protection to medical staff," says Huawei India CEO David Li, adding that the fast broadband technology was particularly helpful in managing on-ground communication challenges.A host of 5G tools, he says, also enabled remote sharing of expert medical advice, addressing healthcare staff shortages at new hospitals/shelters for Covid-19 patients. Ultrasonic 5G robots, in turn, did contact-less checks while other 5G tools were deployed for more complex tasks such as remote gene-sequencing to bolster detection techniques and treatment.Small wonder, analysts believe India ought to emulate these learnings from China and expedite steps to bring 5G to fight the pandemic. More so, since India has slipped behind the likes of China, South Korea, Japan and US amongst others on 5G implementation."The Covid-19 outbreak has led us to the fundamental question of how prepared are we to handle disasters, natural or man-made… important, transformational, technology interventions of 5G, IoT and industry 4.0 could be blended to create a roadmap which can ensure continuity of essential economic and governance activities without putting peoples' lives at risk," says Faisal Kawoosa, founder and chief analyst, techARC, in a recent note seen by ET.Telcos, on their part, assert that the Covid-19 outbreak has underlined the criticality of the telecoms industry globally, and its role in preventing mass-scale business disruptions, especially when people are compelled to work from home. The government, they say, must quickly realise this and hasten steps to save the industry, instead of bleeding it in the aftermath of the recent AGR shock.Rajan Mathews, director general of Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), refuses to get drawn into any talk about `India without 5G' being on a sticky wicket versus China, when it comes to battling the pandemic effectively."Unless telcos are financially viable, deployment of 5G networks won't happen…the recommended price of 5G spectrum is exorbitant in India compared to many developed countries, and it would be difficult for telcos to buy such expensive spectrum and then roll out networks," says Mathews.The COAI represents Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea. Brokerage Axis Capital though recently said India's 5G spectrum sale is unlikely before August 2020 at the earliest with the DoT having reportedly postponed the auction that was earlier scheduled in April due to the continuing financial stress in India's debt-laden telecom industry. With countrywide lockdowns the new normal amid a rising Covid-19 death toll, experts believe a spectrum sale even this August could be a tad ambitious.A section of industry experts say some telemedicine solutions deployed in China could also run on India's 4G networks, provided the quality of connectivity is top-notch. But that quickly say that could be a tough call to execute on ground, given that telco networks in India are already seeing a massive surge in voice and data services consumption as corporate staff across the country operate from their homes amid extended lockdowns.Kapoor is cautiously optimistic, and says a reasonable degree of remote health management and treatment could be done with 4G networks. He also believes Arogya Setu could be a handy, low-bandwidth app as it runs on 3G/4G networks and can be pretty effective in educating people and in tracking/identifying people movement, and in guiding them to avoid risk prone Covid-19 zones to control its spread.Rajat Mukarji, director general of Broadband India Forum (BIF), though says its imperative that more trials and 5G use cases are facilitated quickly and clear investment cases established. "5G is a big opportunity for India but multiple use cases in many fields such as healthcare, manufacturing and agriculture need to be developed in India…affordability and mass volumes need to be established convincingly to ensure 5G succeeds in the country".Some experts though say that more than the absence of 5G, a bigger chink in India's present telecoms infrastructure armoury is the dismal state of fibre networks, which could jolt near-term efforts to leverage 4G broadband networks to support the country's healthcare setup.Soni of Fitch says India's big worry is the lack of quality fibre network infrastructure and patchy in-building mobile coverage. Fibre infrastructure, he says, needs to be beefed up to do things like live video streaming inside hospitals for treating Covid-19 patients in India or even undertake remote monitoring of live patient data, or arranging doctor consultations remotely from multiple locations.COAI's Mathews, in turn, says the government must explore ways to restore the sector's financial health and boost the liquidity levels of telcos -- especially those stung by the Supreme Court's AGR verdict -- so that they can make the necessary investments in networks, new technologies such as 5G and fiberisation to effectively grapple with emergencies sparked off by Covid-19.Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel are estimated to owe the government as much as Rs 58,254 crore and Rs 43,980 crore respectively, in the aftermath of the apex court's October 2019 verdict that widened the definition of AGR.The nation's top court has already scrapped self-assessment of AGR dues but has agreed to consider the government's plea of allowing impacted telcos such as VIL and Airtel to stagger payouts over 20 years or less. The matter will be taken up at the next hearing.At press time, Jio, Airtel and VIL did not reply to ET's queries.
Low oil prices are normally very good news for India given our huge dependence on imported oil but low oil prices if they are a sign of acute global distress, then it is quite possible that we might actually lose out more than we might gain. How do you see the fall in oil prices -- a temporary aberration or a sign of a longer-term worrying trend?The big change in the oil markets has been the emergence of the United States as a big producer and that certainly in the last few years has upset the tightness of the oil market which has been to our benefit. We have benefited enormously from the decline in oil prices and that has helped our growth. Going forward, given the global economic scenario, it is going to be one of a slow return to normalcy. We are going to see relatively depressed oil prices for some time unless this is a question to keep in mind that some of this disruption causes social turmoil in some of the countries that have low oil prices because a lot of them have survived by buying off their population. If we create social turmoil in some of the oil producers and take them off the grid, that could create problems down the line from the supply side. But for the foreseeable future, the kind of supply cuts that OPEC is willing to make, non-OPEC is willing to make is too small to ensure that the oil price goes back to something that producers and consumers feel comfortable with which is about 50-60 dollars a barrel. It will take some time to get there which is a windfall for us.According to the IMF, the world economy faces the worst depression perhaps since the Great Depression with output shrinking 3%, though India and China are expected to show positive growth. How seriously should we take these estimates given that we are nowhere near seeing the end of the pandemic and dare I say it could the recession tip into a depression which is a sustained long term decline in economic activities across a number of economies? It is not entirely out of the realm of possibility or is that too dire a scenario?I am in the camp which has grown progressively more and more pessimistic about the outlook, both for the world as well as specific countries. As we learn more about coronavirus, first we realise it is much more widespread than we think and second it has much more adverse consequences. China is struggling to get back to normalcy. It has brought production back quite a bit but it is struggling to get the high contract services back up -- the restaurants, the hospitality they are making efforts, they are dispensing, they have this app which allows them to identify contacts etc but even they are struggling to get to normalcy. And of course, the production side their problem is that the demand in the rest of the world is very weak and so nobody wants to buy stuff, apart from masks and ventilators in a big way. So, the demand is depressed for them. And some industries may come back but it will take time.Of course, the process of the rest of the world coming back on line is going to be a slow and steady one. The damage in terms of firms that are killed off during this process is going to be there, unemployement is going to go high, come down quite rapidly but stay at much higher rates. It will take a fair amount of time to get back to normal. Now of course, at the end of this, we have enormous levels of debt that has built up in the global economy whether it is government debt or corporate debt or even household debt. We also will have a significant amount of distrust that we have to overcome between countries and kinds of policies that were emerging before the coronavirus crisis.I am more pessimistic, I think the good news about humans is when things are really down, they find the ability to come back together and I hope that is true of India as well as of the world. But it is a huge challenge and that I was very clear in my piece I wrote in the Times of India that this is the crisis of our times for India.How do you see the geopolitical dynamics between US and China play out in the post COVID world? Can India leverage the growing distrust between these two countries to our advantage?It is rarely to anyone's advantage to enter a quarrel, you tend to actually flack from both sides. India has correctly been staying out of the quarrel between the two countries. It is a quarrel about each country's image; the US thinks it is still the most powerful economy and military power in the world and does not find the idea that there is another country coming to challenge it acceptable. And both sides Democrats and Republicans in the Unites States do not necessarily believe that they should cede more space to China. Whether Democrat or Republican would think that if China overtakes it on any of these dimensions while it is in power, that would be a failure. They are not willing to accept that maybe they need to share the space now.And from China's side, it does not understand that people fear an authoritarian system coming in and are not as happy. They prefer a democratic system. China has to establish its credentials over time and it will but it has to do it in a non-tricky way. The way that it has developed military sort of antagonism, territorial antagonism with all its neighbours is something that a lot of countries around the world look at and get worried about.Each country has to do some lifting, the US to show that it can be reliable once again and China to show that it too can be depended upon and it too will not turn on other countries.This is going to play out, the issue is can it play out amicably without finding pawns to fight their wars as happened during the Cold War or will it sort of descend into hotter wars across the globe? We have to see how that happens; I do hope that they find a modus vivendi and also we develop new rules of the game. I think the US presidential election is probably the most important event over the next decade because it will determine the identity of the person in the White House as well as the way the US behaves not so much that it will change the US's views overnight but it will change the tenor of the discussion.After the 2008 crisis, we saw a great deal of global cooperation in trying to revive the global economy but this time we are really not seeing that kind of an interest from the global community at large. Even the G-20, they have come out with a statement but that is largely just words; is it a reflection of the kind of presidency we have in the US?Almost surely. Well to some extent, I would not put all the blame on the US. It is a general deterioration in global cooperation and global leadership and that has been some time in building. If you recall 2009, it was Gordon Brown who sort of banged heads together in the G-20 to get a massive response across countries. Today, there is really nobody who can fill that position. Boris Johnson just was ill, the head of the G-20 is Saudi Arabia which has its own problems and many countries are looking inwards and to some extent it is understandable they are trying to catch up with the virus. Many of them are behind the curve and trying to catch up. But you would hope that people would look out for the rest of the world because in times of problems, when the emerging markets and the developing countries get this virus it is really horrendous. In a sense, if it expands at the pace it expanded in Italy and the United States, we have a huge humanitarian disaster that is going to face us as it expands through Africa. We are way behind the curve in preparation but we are way behind the curve in response also.With a federal structure like ours, the bulk of the spending has to be done by states and while there has been an increase in the states' ways and means advances, this is unlikely to suffice. What work can the union government do? Should it increase the fiscal deficit target? Maybe borrow more and lend to states, more importantly should it allow states greater flexibility to do whatever they can because the ground reality is different in each state? You wrote in your blog post if the government insists on driving everything from the prime minister's office, it will do too little, too late, is that a fair assessment?Well I would repeat what I have been saying for some time which is we need to decentralise and use the talents that exist in India. Draw on the private sector to help you in this process, decentralise to the states, we have a lot of able chief ministers who can do more. For everything to be controlled by the centre, determining more minor details is just impossible at this time. You need all the help, you need everybody to be enlisted in this process domestically and that is something that goes without saying. I do hope that we can roll out measures the ones that we have talked about because the longer the economy stays without this kind of support, the weaker it gets; the more that has to be done to get it back in the same place.One of our strengths really today is our huge forex reserves of close to $470 billion; how can we best leverage this?It gives people comfort. One reason our currency has not plummeted the way Brazil's has or Mexico's has is presumably because people look at our large foreign exchange reserves and our low current account deficit. In fact, possibly, a surplus this year and say on the external front India is okay. That is great and again it goes back to my point, let us not spoil the things that are good. Let us not now say okay we are going to take these foreign exchange reserves and sell them in the global markets so that we can get money back to do something else. Keep it as a reserve, focus on the things that you can do again. I think follow Dr Rangarajan's principle -- spend where you need to spend. Spend what it takes because we may not have all that it takes to bail everybody out like the western countries but we certainly can spend where it is necessary, where it is warranted to keep the economy together and have the structures in place that protect us. They are the things that will allow us to do this while we do the actions that are necessary and we sort of latch on to some of these structures and say oh, why do not we break inflation targeting, why do not we sort of consume our reserves? We are not there yet, let us focus on the other stuff that needs to be done which is probably more important at this point.What kind of recovery can we expect? will it be V-shaped or will it be a much slower, drawn out recovery?Anybody who hopes for a V-shaped recovery is probably in a very small minority right now because we recognise, we do not have a vaccine, we do not have even enough testing, we do not know which are the areas that are relatively virus free and there we have to think about more innovative ways of testing. Mass testing for example has sometimes been proposed but we need to essentially ramp up this process. And we need to do a staggered opening that will take time. We will find that there are bottlenecks we did not anticipate. Think about a supply chain running through India if one state opens but the other state does not open. Or the supply chain is in an area which will be opened, geographic or production area which will be opened much later; supply chains cannot function. You need to think through all this. It requires an enormous amount of administrative effort but it means that things are going to open up more slowly. It is U-shaped, is it going to be W-shaped which means another dip as we see the virus pickup again? The reality is nobody knows. We need to do the obvious at this point and keep doing it, keep making sure that we can do everything that is within our powers and hope that, in a sense, we have done too much and eventually we come out on the other side fine. I would say it is going to be bad, it is going to be really bad, we need to worry about whether this moves from just the real sector to the financial sector. We need to do a lot to try and restart the economy as soon as reasonably safe. We cannot be perfectly safe but as soon as reasonably safe and we need to focus on removing the bottlenecks that will surely show up as we open up the economy but it is going to be a process of muddling through, of dealing with challenge after challenge after challenge which comes up in places we do not see. There will be lots of black swans but hopefully we will come through all this.Even if we go through all this pain, what are the key lessons that India perhaps need to learn from this entire COVID experience, public health certainly but what else?Well, I mean, public health is the obvious one where we need to ramp up but we also need to think about why we entered this crisis with limited resources, with a more fragile system which then implies that we cannot spend the post COVID period with the kind of low growth we have had in the past, with the kind of financial fragility we have had, with the kind of fiscal tensions we have had. We need to think about a new covenant for India that how do we generate the kind of growth we had in the first few years of this century, how do we go back to strong sustainable growth and that may require significant reforms that India in the old way simply does not budget. And I think thinking about what those reforms will be and how we build the political consensus to make that happen is really the central question because otherwise we will crawl along in a very ineffective way, something which we simply cannot afford given our young population.When you took over as governor during the days of the taper tantrum and life for an RBI governor, increasingly it seems is a bit like being on a rollercoaster. Are you missing all the action or are you relieved that you do not have to wrestle and lose sleep over questions for which really nobody has any answer, at least not in this moment?I do not envy the people who are dealing with this, it is extremely tense, it is nerve wrecking, you have no idea whether anything you implement will work and there are more and more problems that hit you every day. I remember after the taper tantrum, a friend saw me in an airport and he said what happened to you, you look as if you have aged 10 years? I mean it does take a toll and I do not envy anybody who is dealing with this, they deserve all our thanks. It is an extremely important job that they are doing, they get a lot of criticism but really it is very important that they do it and they get all the help they can.
Nassim Taleb, in his book, explains a Black Swan event as one that a) is unexpected and b) carries extreme impact. The coronavirus pandemic is a Black Swan event considering that it was not predicted, and it has led to a virtual shutdown in a large part of the world.In the investment world, such events pose a challenge. Preparing for bubbles is different. There are some indicators or markers that would signal to the keen observer that prices have significantly moved higher than fundamental values. Here, the investor can vary the exposure levels to participate and later protect oneself from such bubbles. But how does one prepare for something that is difficult to predict?One can buy insurance through hedging. However, being hedged against all kinds of risks, all the time will adversely impact returns.Common characteristics of market crisisThere may not be a way to anticipate Black Swan events, but there are ways to navigate them and use them to our advantage (carefully). Market crashes historically have some common characteristics:·Investors are gripped by fear and predict a wide range of forecasts about the market (some of them extremely bearish). Unfortunately, the reigning pessimism will push people to assign high probability to extreme outcomes too. (Fear of further loss, herd mentality)·Growth premium falls. Valuations crash to historic lows. Creative valuation methods are exposed. (Negative feedback loop)·High uncertainty will lead to investors giving unduly high importance to short term movements. (Myopic loss aversion)·Correlations rise and hence diversification may not help much. Investors take cash calls. (Liquidity preference)·Good news is ignored. Participants overreact to bad news. (Cognitive dissonance, confirmation bias)· Market crash affects economic activity adversely. (Reflexivity)· Credit markets get impacted. Financial institutions may shy away from lending. Credit spreads rise Leveraged companies under serious threat. (Risk off)·New money stops moving into equity. Panic leads to redemptions or exits. (Risk off)· Headlines and sentiment will be negative. (Narratives)Once investors know the behavioural cycle of the market, they have an edge that can help them take advantage of the crash. They can buy into the pessimism, hold the investments through the long term and sell into euphoria. The seeds of wealth are sown during bad times and the fruits of the effort are harvested during good times.Handling the SwanOnce you understand the market cycle and are convinced to take advantage of the crash, there are two important questions to address: How to invest?And What to invest in?·How to invest: Handling duration blindnessOne of the most difficult problems an investor faces in handling black swan type crisis is duration blindness. Since there is no precedence of such an event, it is difficult to estimate the time the crisis will last for. The investor can use various estimates from experts but make room for the errors in forecasting too. It is extremely rare to catch the exact low of the market while investing.Hence it is better to stagger the investment over a significant period of time. Selection of this time frame is subjective. However, it is better to keep a longer duration so as to accommodate a margin of safety in terms of timing too.·What to invest in: Handling portfolio selectionDuring a market crash, the frothy valuations get almost eliminated and sub-standard businesses are penalised heavily. The investor is in given an opportunity to choose from a wide variety of businesses that have come to attractive levels. To create a robust portfolio, one must follow some basic principles:·Stay within the circle of competence: Typically, in these markets, investors run a screener to check which stocks have corrected the most in the fall. Being anchored at the 52-week high or all-time high prices, one is tempted to dive into businesses that one may not have tracked earlier. Not knowing what you are buying (irrespective of valuation) makes you vulnerable to losses. Stay within the stock universe that you understand well.· Avoid companies with high financial leverage: Leveraged companies can often run into liquidity troubles. These businesses have to survive the downturn to make money for the investor.Also, in an environment where quality companies are available at attractive valuations, there needs to be very high payoff to move into riskier stocks. Unless, the earnings trajectory is fairly visible, dabbling with high debt companies can be avoided.·Buy robust business model, cash rich, high RoCE companies: During a bull market, even companies with fragile businesses or weak balance sheets or negative cashflow profiles are able to raise money based on a concept or an idea. A lot of zombie companies continue to survive due to easy money conditions.After a crash, investors who have burnt their fingers in such stocks, will shift to companies that have a robust growth-oriented business model, good management and strong balance sheet. Healthy cashflows and RoCE are a mark of a good business. Scalability, brand franchise and good leadership are other important characteristics to choose a company.To sum up, Black Swan events are unexpected, high impact events. Investors can take advantage of these events by understanding the fundamentals and behavior of a market crash. However, it is important to a) be humble and stagger the investments over a reasonable time frame and b) be meticulous in picking up good quality businesses.
Mumbai: In an unintended consequence of the lockdown courtesy Covid-19, India's social media elite has taken to TikTok to combat boredom and anxiety. Until recently, this section of online users frowned upon TikTok's content and labelled it "cringe-worthy" even as users from tier-II and -III cities gained rewards and recognition through the platform, turning India into the biggest market for the Chinese video-sharing social network. Advertising executives tracking TikTok note something unprecedented about the current spike in user downloads after the entire country went into lockdown. It is the trend of "India 1" suddenly embracing ByteDance's flagship product with open arms. "India 1 is softening towards TikTok, accepting its idiosyncrasies instead of labelling it cringe-worthy," says Ishtaarth Dalmia, an anthropologist and AVP strategy at digital agency Webchutney. One of the reasons TikTok has been able to catch on with India's social media elite is due to a surge in its visibility on other popular platforms. "People are seeing more and more intellectuals and influencers share TikTok videos on Twitter and Instagram," says Nikhil Chinnari, an advertising executive at ad agency BBH India. "This is subconsciously removing the barrier for users who thought the platform is for the masses and not the classes." From global music sensation, Drake, to popular Indian actors like Shilpa Shetty, TikTok now boasts a long list of celebrities who have taken to the platform in recent times to post goofy videos while confined in their homes.75361110 While TikTok declined to comment on its recent user growth, an App Annie report released earlier this April states that it was the most downloaded app in India in the social media category as the country went into a lockdown. At a time when most other social media platforms—like Twitter, Facebook, and WhatsApp—are saddled with negative or fake news, homebound urbanites are finding an escape from their anxieties in TikTok videos that feature catchy audio-visual filters. "It is helping my mental health in these trying times," says Pankaj Sinha, a 30-year-old automobile engineer from Delhi, who recently downloaded the app after spotting several TikTok videos on WhatsApp. Sinha is popular as @AskThePankazzzz among urban Twitter users, boasting of over 40,000 followers on the platform.
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