… without faith
it is impossible to please God, for he who come to Him must believe that He is
and that He a rewarder of those who seek Him; Hebrew 11:6.
A faithful
servant of God is one who accepts and handover every circumstance that comes to
him/her willing, having tried to overcome it but to no avail. A faithful
servant of God understands that there are days of trouble, Psalm 50:15; so when
that day comes he looks upon God for help and not man, men of god, churches,
ministries, miracle workers, etc. A faithful servant of God understands that
the successful person in life is one who seeks only the kingdom of God in all
endeavour and not the person who is wealthy or the person whose bank account is
so fat; because in a bid to be wealthy or rich the person losses sight of what God
wants or created him to do or achieve before his death; Mathew 6:33. A faithful
servant of God is someone who do not compromise despite his condition; who do
not cheat others; who is hard-working and always believing God for blessings
from his handwork and not someone who kept faffing around hoping to reap where
he didn’t sow; who do not depend on others or delve into sycophancy, hypocrisy,
praise-singing, shameless or dishonest acts just to get money, and all sorts of
evil acts just to make a living; a faithful servant of God is one who lives
without fear of the unknown or what tomorrow have in stock for him. A faithful servant
of God is one who trust Him and asks Him on daily basis to direct him in all
his endeavours, Proverbs 3:5-6.
We should
always ask ourselves if we are faithful to God as His children, we have all
gone astray in one way or the other, trying to find solutions to our challenges
where none exist and the result has always been living a faithless life. Suffering
is part of life, not the suffering afflicted to us because of our cowardice or
inability to speak the truth so that we are not denied daily bread or stand
against those making us to suffer, but the suffering that is beyond human understand,
1 Peter 12-19. Therefore, I encourage you to be faithful no matter what comes
your way, and believe in the saving power of God Almighty and not that of church,
men of god, ministries, miracle centres, prayer houses, politicians, voodoo
powers and so on; remember Mathew 6:25-34 which assures us that God is capable
of providing all that we need to live or survive if we can only trust in Him,
live a holy live to enable Him find us worthy to fulfil His promises to us and
remain faithful to Him at all times which is the only key to complete and total
success. He who has ears let him hear, Mark 4:9. God bless you. Please like
this page https://www.facebook.com/godiwus; for more of undiluted truth about
God and His blessings.
Unlocking your smart phone to run on a different carrier, without your carrier’s permission. It seems completely innocuous, right? Something you’d do with a spare bit of time on your weekend just to see if you could.
Surprise! It’s illegal. And we’re not talking jay-walking-when-no-one-is-looking illegal, either —thanks to some crazy ass interpretations of the DMCA, it’s a quote-unquote crime punishable by up to 5 years in jail.
Thankfully, that’s changing. The legality of unlocking has flip-flopped many a time over the past 15 years, but it’s likely about to go back to being legal.
A few weeks ago, the Senate passed the “Unlocking Consumer Choice and Wireless Competition” act that moved to make unlocking legal again. This morning, Congress unanimously approved it.
Now the only thing left is for the President to put his stamp of approval on it — and given that the administration has publicly supported the act, that’ll hopefully happen pretty quickly.
The history of unlocking so far:
In 1998, Congress passed the Digital Millenium Copyright Act. Section 1201 states that “No person shall circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title”, meant to make it illegal to circumvent anti-piracy mechanisms. In other words, they didn’t want you hacking up a VCR to be able to copy your VHS copy of Titanic.
Cell phone manufacturers, carriers, and carrier lobbyist groups took this to include their wares, as well — and for the next few years, used it to send out DMCA notices to shut down sites and services that helped people unlock their phones.
In 2006, the U.S Copyright office said “wait, wait, wait — that’s not how it’s supposed to work” and granted an exemption that made unlocking officially okay. Alas, these exemptions are re-reviewed every three years, and…
At the end of 2012, the exemption was allowed to expire, and unlocking was illegal again
Once this bill is signed, it’ll once again go back to being legal… for now. Congress is scheduled to re-evaluate the bill every 3 years, so it could flip right back to illegal before too long.
Microsoft has a new Surface tablet/PC hybrid, and it’s a departure from their first- and second-generation versions of the Surface line, with an all-new design and a bigger, better display. The device is basically the perfect partner for Windows 8 and the Modern Windows UI, but your appreciation of this device (or lack thereof) will depend heavily on what you want to do with your computer. We looked at it back when it launched, but how does it stand up to extended use?
Microsoft has consistently done at least one thing right with the Surface line of devices, regardless of whatever else people think about the machines – they deliver great examples of modern industrial design, from the magnesium alloy used in the case construction to the engineering feats required to fit a full computer’s internals inside the slim devices. The Surface Pro 3 continues this tradition of great design, with a new lighter look that works well, a slimmer case, and a bigger, more usable 3:2 ratio display that captures a user’s full attention when it’s active.
The new kickstand on the Surface Pro 3 is also a big improvement, and even though I admittedly poked fun at a built-in kickstand on the original Surface, it has indeed proven useful in every generation of the machine. This time, the full range of motion is available instead of just a few select lock positions, and that’s a big advantage for using this thing around the house, and for digital art, which is one of my primary use cases in a Surface.
There are still some quirks in the design – despite losing weight, it’s still heavy if your expectations are set based on coming from an iPad, and the screen size, despite offering a better movie watching and graphics work experience, means that using it handheld is a little bit more awkward than before. Overall, though, it’s definitely an improvement on previous generations when it comes to design.
Features
Microsoft has learned from its past releases and created features for the Surface Pro 3 that greatly benefit the overall experience. The kickstand mentioned above offers a big advantage in terms of how usable the Surface Pro 3 is in various situations, including while used on your lap. The new click shortcuts for the pen are also great, including using a long press to automatically open OneNote and begin a new blank document, even when the computer is asleep with the screen turned off.
They may not be new, but some existing features of Windows 8 also come in handy, and shine especially bright on the Surface Pro 3. Chief among these is the ability to run apps side-by-side in a windowed mode that splits the screen among them. This makes multitasking while keeping an eye on Twitter easy, and the additional screen real estate afforded by the new Surface Pro 3 display makes using the feature feel a lot less cramped.
Based on my usage of the device, it’s hard to understate the value of the new OneNote auto-launch functionality using the pen. The Surface Pro is basically the perfect digital handwritten notetaking tablet, and this really ups its value in that regard. But the pen also loses some tricks in the switch from Wacom to N-Trig as a provider, including automatic flip-to-erase functionality in drawing programs, and that’s less than ideal.
Performance
The big value proposition behind the Surface Pro 3 has always been its ability to run full-powered Windows applications despite having a portable, tablet-style form factor. The Surface Pro 3 isn’t a huge advancement in terms of performance over the Surface Pro 2 in this regard, but it does push the needle a bit. During some activities, however, including unlocking the device and rotating the screen, I actually felt that the Surface Pro 3 was a bit more prone to lag and delays than the Surface Pro 2.
Once active, apps and games performed well, and despite having read elsewhere that drawing responsiveness was less than stellar compared to the Surface Pro 2, I found in my use that it was still more than acceptable when working with the new, Surface Pro 3 high-density display optimized version of Photoshop CC, and with Autodesk’s Sketchbook Pro. The new digitizer doesn’t have anywhere near the levels of sensitivity of the one provided by Wacom on the Surface Pro 2, but for light digital painting, photo editing and cartooning (my uses), it works well enough that many probably won’t notice a difference.
Screen
The display on the Surface Pro 3 is one of its standout features – the high density resolution makes it great for watching movies or Netflix, and for using the Windows Modern UI. The classic desktop will be harder to navigate for those with old eyes or vision problems, because it renders individual elements so small, and that’s true of apps not built for HiDPI screens, too.
Overall, though, Microsoft has really outdone themselves with this screen, and that’s just another part of what makes this machine so useful for those working in digital artistic fields.
Battery
Battery life on the Surface Pro 3 is rated at 9 hours of web browsing usage, and it definitely feels more long-lasting than the one found in the Surface Pro 2. If you’re coming from a notebook you’ll be pleasantly surprised, but for video streaming and intense graphic application usage, you’ll likely find it doesn’t reach near that nine-hour mark. Again, this is a situation where your origin point will determine your reaction: coming from a tablet could make battery feel inadequate, but transitioning from the PC world, you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
Bottom Line
Microsoft is touting the Surface Pro 3 as a device that eliminates the consumer question of “tablet, laptop or both?” and to some extent, it can do that. But answering that question with the Surface Pro 3 means making other concessions, too – despite the marketing push, it’s not a perfect ‘have your cake and eat it, too’ scenario. Windows 8 is not everyone’s cup of tea, for instance, despite improvements made with Windows 8.1. And the software library for Modern Windows is still such that you may not be able to find everything you’re looking for.
The fact is that despite its merits, the Surface Pro 3 is still a niche device – but for a couple of very different niches. It could work great for someone looking for a single computer solution that’s closer to an iPad but with a larger display and a little more range in terms of approximating a desktop; and it could be great for a digital artist looking for something to use away from their home setup. It’s a solid machine and an example of well-executed hardware engineering, but at $799 plus the cost of a $130 Type Cover, it might still have a few too many quirks and peculiarities for the average user. For those who fit the profile, however, there’s nothing else quite like it.
Facebook is worth more than Amazon. Following yesterday’s earnings report, Facebook shares hit an all-time high in after-hours trading at $75. Price has been very stable this morning as well, confirming yesterday’s pop. Shares opened at $75.96 a share, then set a new record at $76.74. Now, shares are trading at $75.13.
In other words, Facebook’s market capitalization is now around $190 billion, which is above Amazon’s market capitalization of $165 billion.
With $2.91 billion in revenue and earnings of $0.42 per share, the company beat the analysts’ expectations. When you see Facebook’s earnings chart, it seems like there is no end in sight. Facebook is a great example of a tech company that has performed very well since going public.
It could have bigger consequences on the stock market. Investors could become bullish on other tech stocks due to Facebook’s good performance.
Facebook is a much different company than it was when it went public in May 2012. At the time, most of its users were browsing the social network on their laptops, and the company’s ad offering wasn’t as effective as it could be. Now, most users go to Facebook on their phones, and the mobile ads are performing very well.
But if you look back even further, nobody would have thought five years ago that Facebook would be worth more than Amazon, around half of Google and Microsoft. One last number, Facebook is now worth more than eight times Twitter.
Listen to Ezekiel
8:18-9:8-10 and that is what God is saying. I know many of you will ignore it
and or won’t care to read those verses.
The destruction
of Nigeria is ongoing and the total destruction is near, those who have
participated in all sorts of atrocities against God via their treatment to
mankind will be consumed. God is not joking and will not pity those found
wanting.
It should be
of paramount importance to anyone concerned to amend his/her ways, In Ezekiel
9:8, when the destruction, killing, and fury of God was upon Israel and Judah
someone and a handful of people was saved or left alone, will you be among
those that will be saved or left alone in the ongoing and upcoming doom
prepared to befall Nigeria.
Below is a recap
of why Nigeria will be totally destroyed by God:
1.Nigeria is full of murder.
2.Nigeria is full of corruption.
3.Nigeria is full of deceit.
4.Nigeria is full of idolatry.
5.Nigeria is full of cheating.
6.The Nigerian society hates the poor and those at
the helm of the nation’s affairs are deceiving the people.
7.The churches in Nigeria do not preach salvation
anymore, and their teachings are geared towards mentally enslaving the people.
8.Fornication and adultery is another name for
those who takes front seats in the church, nowadays.
9.A handful of people can be trusted in Nigeria.
10.Nigerians are only interested in worshipping God
because of what they will get and not for salvation; therefore, the name
Nigeria is synonymous to mediocre, hypocrisy, jealousy, greed, hatred, fallacy,
falsehood, and above all failure.
Therefore, if
you want to be saved, stay away from evil and those who perpetrate evil. Thanks
for your time, always read the bible with deep reasoning and apply the word of
God in your daily life, remember to always ask God to direct you in all your
ways. He who has ears let him hear, Mark 4:9. God bless you. Please like this
page https://www.facebook.com/godiwus; for more of undiluted truth about God
and His blessings.
BlackBerry previously gave us a sneak peek at a device that’s as category-busting as the revolutionary Padfone, called the Passport. I expressed my …uncertainty regarding the wisdom of the design decisions made in creating this 4.5-inch square thing with a hardware keyboard then. But now it’s BlackBerry’s turn to articulate some of its reasoningbehind the Passport, with a blog post in which it avoids calling it either a phone or a tablet directly.
The blog post asks “Why?” in italics on a line all its own, so BlackBerry at least is aware this is a weird device that has some people, like myself, scratching their heads. The 4.5-inch screen on the gadget is square, not rectangular, meaning it’s almost as wide as two iPhones placed side-by-side.
The answer to “Why?” begins with something about academic typology, which isn’t a great way to explain a design decision for a mobile device in my opinion. But wait! The academic stuff means that the Passport is supposedly the optimal size for reading e-books, paging through documents and reading the text-heavy portions of the web. WHICH IS WHAT BUSINESS PEOPLE DO!
BlackBerry blogger Matt Young goes on to articulate a few different scenarios where the Passport’s unique ID will make it an ideal digital companion, including for architects and real estate professionals switching between blueprints and contract docs; doctors checking X-rays and patient info forms; financiers watching the stock market bob up and down; and writers looking for the joys only a real physical keyboard can bring.
I remain skeptical, but BlackBerry is at least taking a different approach to the smartphone/tablet/whatever-mobile-computer, the design of all which has been largely normalized over the past few years. Basically, though, at this point the only question that remains is whether this is a better or worse idea than the noveltylicious curved screen smartphone.
Apple has patented a method for building devices with all-glass outer casings (viaAppleInsider), by fusing pieces together for a completely seamless final look. The all-glass device casings could be used to hold the internals of an iOS device or to house a TV or monitor, too.
The all-glass structures are designed for maximum durabiliaty but also weight savings, with designs that fuse pieces together to avoid having to use a single heavy block of material, and internal structures like fused-on ribs and reinforcement points, also made of glass, placed at key points where structural integrity could be weaker.
Unlike the iPhone 4, which featured front and back glass panels, the patent would allow Apple to build completely glass-encased gadgets, which would allow for a completely different aesthetic versus other gadget-maker’s designs. An all-glass Retina Cinema Display would certainly stand out from the crowd in terms of monitors, and an all-glass iPhone would definitely draw even more headlines than usual.
Of course, glass is still subject to impact damage and other potential pitfalls. And as with many of its other patents, Apple may simply have experimented with the tech but then moved on to something else (like sapphire glass construction, for instance), but the patent does cite Apple SVP Jony Ive as one of its main inventors. Flat glass slabs are a staple of sci-fi TV and movies, after all, so maybe Apple wants to help usher that future into production.
BlackBerry Is One Of The Hottest Stocks Of 2014, Seriously
Don’t look now, but BlackBerry — you know, the butt of most cell phone jokes — is mounting an impressive comeback. BlackBerry’s stock is up 50 percent on the year and one of the best performers in its sector.
BlackBerry has been written off as dead countless times. The company is often viewed as a relic of a bygone era. Its CEO is a blowhard, not afraid to take spats with the company public. Yet the company is creating value for its shareholders.
In 2014 BlackBerry’s stock is outperforming all its peers. At the beginning of the year, the company’s stock was languishing at $7.44 a share. Yesterday it closed at $11.21. The stock is also up in trading today.
Apple is up just 20 percent on the year. Google? Just 5 percent, although it’s a touch easier for a struggling company to rebound than an established company to double its stock price.
The Motley Fool recently looked at the company’s financials and caution the company has yet to improve its revenue growth or its profit margin. The company is simply slashing costs and not making waves. So far, investors are liking that approach.
The company is also making some strategic moves. BlackBerry has leveraged its established Messenger app, positioning it as a WhatsApp for the lucrative enterprise market.
The company also released minor updates to its BB10 mobile operating system and turned to niche and developing markets for additional handset sales. Essentially, by not doing a lot this year, BlackBerry hasn’t done anything wrong. That could change.
The company’s long-term future is still in question. Its mobile market share is still shrinking and Apple and Android makers are increasingly adding features once exclusive to BlackBerry devices. If BlackBerry is to remain, it will need to do more than cut costs and add stickers to BBM.
Dropbox has made another acquisition: Predictive Edge, a startup that had built a way to personalise e-commerce offerings, along with dynamic pricing, for marketers to send out to users and run A/B tests around them.
The service will be shut down, and the founders will be working on something different, as they note in an announcement on the site:
Predictive Edge is joining forces with Dropbox!,” the company writes. “Going forward we’ll be focused on solving problems outside the world of A/B testing. As of today, you can no longer sign-up for our service, and we’ve informed current customers that our product will no longer be supported. Many thanks to you all for your feedback & support, and here’s to a new chapter!
A new — and intriguing — chapter. The founders note that they’re not continuing to develop this product, and it’s tempting to wonder how and if any of that technology will be applied in whatever they tackle next. Hu’s LinkedIn profile notes that he is now “building Mailbox at Dropbox.”
Predictive Edge was working in what is an emerging and growing area of e-commerce: dynamic pricing, used by the likes of Uber for surge pricing, but also e-commerce sites to present different prices depending on who is doing the looking.
This is Dropbox’s 17th acquisition, with five of the last six of companies focused on services for enterprises — if you were in doubt about how Dropbox is laying the groundwork for a more concerted push to drive more sales from business users.
Predictive Edge was started in 2010 by two graduates from Stanford and one from the University of Pennsylvania: Kevin Liu (from U Penn), Steven Wu and Marty Hu (both from Stanford), and it was part of the university’s StartX accelerator.
It’s not clear how much money Predictive Edge had raised, or the financial terms of this deal, but Great Oaks was the startup’s lead investor, with another backer being Zach Weinberg, a co-founder at Flatiron Health, among other things.
The Russian government has moved one step closer towards a “China-like” approach towards Internet services.
Last night, the Russian State Duma (parliament) passed the first bill requiring that the personal data of all Russians should be stored inside the country.
The effects of the bill, if passed, would be wide-ranging, touching just about every international service used by Russians. Essentially, it would mean that Facebook, Google or any other international online service – including apps – used by people in Russia would need to have physical servers inside Russia’s borders.
Furthermore, these non-Russian companies would not be allowed to send data outside the country unless they can provide certain guarantees on data storage inside the country. For those who do not, the state telecommunications agency Roskomnadzor will require carriers to restrict access to those services.
The bill also proposes amendments to laws covering personal information and data protection.
A rough Google translate version of the key part of the bill says:
“When collecting personal data, including through information and the internet telecommunications network, the operator is required to provide a record that the systematization, accumulation, storage, updating and retrieval of personal data of citizens of the Russian Federation, is held on databases located in the territory of the Russian Federation.”
If this law is enforced to the letter — it would take effect in September 2016 — it could mean a fundamental change to how both international and Russian tech companies use international hosting services, not to mention huge costs for implementing the changes.
We have reached out to Google, Facebook and other companies for their response to the ruling.
“We do not have any comment that we can share at this point,” a Google spokesperson told us in an emailed response.
The move to store data in Russia part of an ongoing, wider move by the country’s government to tighten the reigns around how the Internet is used.
Some of the moves have been made in the name of combatting piracy — as in the case of proposals that would allow for sites to be blocked over take-down requests from rightsholders.
And some of this is in the name of national security. Russia, as we all know, is where NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden is currently residing. His efforts have heightened awareness globally of how government agencies track average internet users’ data, unbeknownst to them, and raised questions of how other countries have proceeded on this front.
At the same time, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government has been gaining a reputation for putting a tighter rein on the movement of free speech in the country, with allegations that some of those moves have been made specifically against those who hold positions contrary to the Kremlin’s.
In that context, it’s hard to parse what the real motivation is for this latest piece of legislation.
Other countries allow personal data to be stored on U.S. servers via “safe harbor” agreements, letting U.S. companies operate freely in Europe and vice versa.
Online companies have until September, 2016, when the bill is supposed to take effect, to meet the requirement, according to the legislation submitted by Communist lawmaker Alexander Yushchenko, and Liberal Democrats Andrei Lugovoi and Vadim Dengin
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