U.K. Plans for Aerial Drone Zone to Contain UAV Traffic | Digital Trends

September 23, 2020September 22, 2020 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The technology needed to drive delivery drones is already in existence, but laws have yet to catch up. To help take drone technology to the next step of mainstream adoption, the U.K. is currently in the process of establishing what could be the world’s first commercial drone corridor. This airspace will be available to any fully automated drones flying beyond visual line-of-sight (BVLOS), so long as it doesn’t require specialist hardware and conforms to basic technical regulations.

The unrestricted airspace — called the “Arrow Drone Zone” — will be located in the town of Reading, to the west of London, in the Thames Valley. The Drone Zone will be approximately 8 kilometers (5 miles) long and 500 meters (1,640 feet) wide. While it is referred to as a, well, zone for drones, it is technically unrestricted open airspace, meaning that drones and general aviation vehicles (read: airplanes and helicopters) will share the same space.

5 Crucial Security Features for Your Home Office | The Startup Magazine

September 23, 2020September 22, 2020 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

With the current state of the globe due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many of us have been forced to work from home. Whilst this may be wonderful for some, it is important that we do not neglect the basics of securing your home office. With countless people sadly losing their jobs entirely, we must remain vigilant if we want to have a safe and happy working environment. Below we have listed five of the most crucial security features to implement in your own home office space.

Doorbell Camera

With a wide range of doorbell cameras and intercoms available these days, there is no excuse for not knowing who is at your front door (or back door if that is your workspace entrance). With modern technology, you can now be alerted on your mobile phone or computer once the motion sensors have picked up a person nearing your door. You can directly speak to the person through your phone or computer microphone. This is a fantastic feature for packages from delivery personnel as well.

Pandemic Be Damned: Business Owners Are Still Opening Stores | Inc.com

September 22, 2020September 21, 2020 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Expanding a brick-and-mortar business has always been tricky. If you build it, consumers might not come. But in a pandemic that has required countless consumer-facing companies–restaurants and bars, live entertainment venues, gyms, retailers–to shutter and retool, growth is actually kind of scary.

“You’re not 100 percent sure [growing] is the right thing,” says Erik Allen Ford of Buck Mason, the Los Angeles-based menswear brand he co-founded with Sasha Koehn in 2013. Nevertheless, the company launched its 11th retail location in Austin in August. “You have to weigh the odds, and you have to figure out what the risk tolerance is.”

The risks right now are steep. In large part, consumers have taken their spending online, as the pandemic rages across the U.S. and amid new hotspots in several Midwestern states including North Dakota, Missouri, and Wisconsin.

Daily Crunch: This TikTok deal is pretty confusing | TechCrunch

September 22, 2020September 21, 2020 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Companies send out conflicting messages about the TikTok deal, Microsoft acquires a gaming giant and the WeChat ban is temporarily blocked. This is your Daily Crunch for September 21, 2020.

The big story: This TikTok deal is pretty confusing

This keeps getting more confusing. Apparently TikTok’s parent company ByteDance has reached a deal with Walmart and Oracle that will allow the Chinese social media app to continue operating in the United States, and the deal has been approved by Donald Trump. But it’s hard to tell exactly what this agreement entails.

Colds Nearly Vanished Under Lockdown. Now They’re Coming Back | WIRED

September 21, 2020 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

THE QUESTION MAY seem odd in the midst of a global pandemic, but among people in places with serious mask-wearing and social-distancing measures, and with the luxury to hunker down, it is forgivable to wonder: Will I ever get sick again? In the southern hemisphere, in places like Australia and South Africa, winter flu season came and went without a trace. The western United States is coughing through clouds of smoke, and people everywhere have endured wet-eyed allergy seasons. But over the past 6 months, people were far less likely to get sick sick—at least from respiratory viruses that aren’t called SARS-CoV-2.

9 Tips for Managing and Running Your Business Effectively | Getentrepreneurial.com

September 21, 2020 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

It is not unknown that most of the highly successful people have shared their traits which include tenacity, vision, luck, hard work and being business savvy. It is often heard that people like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Mark Cuban, have “Midas touch” as they seem to be able to turn the majority of their business into successes.

No one can deny that these successful entrepreneurs are now masters in managing their finances and their business to a certain degree because of their virtue of enormous success.

It is observed that when it comes to managing the fund, most entrepreneurs don’t understand the tax and accounting elements that well. In fact, most entrepreneurs don’t enjoy this side of the business, and they rather want to spend their time and energy to find solutions, new product or services, they want to grow their businesses. This, therefore, results in neglecting the financial side of the business which creates government compliant risk, unneeded legal tax, and undermining their business success.

To become a master of finances of your business, you have two options:

Sony’s 4th Generation Noise Cancelling Headphones | CoolBusinessIdeas.com

September 18, 2020September 16, 2020 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The MDR-1000X started it all in 2016, followed a year later by the WH-1000XM2, and then the XM3 in August 2017. Now, the highly anticipated XM4 noise-canceling headphones have been announced.

Until we tried on a pair of the original 1000X headphones at IFA 2016, we had thought that Bose was going to rule the noise-canceling roost for a long time to come. Sony’s over-ears impressively removed the background hustle and bustle from the show floor and allowed us to completely focus on the sample music being offered.

The technology has gone from strength to strength with each successive generation, with us noting after taking the XM3s for a proper workout that “it’s the noise canceling capabilities that really sell these headphones, setting a new bar for other headphone manufacturers to strive for.”

Oculus will stop selling its PC-connected Rift S in spring 2021 | Mashable

September 18, 2020September 16, 2020 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Pour one out for the Rift S because it’s about to go the way of the dodo.

Come springtime next year, Oculus will cease production and sales of the Rift S, its current PC-connected VR headset. The bittersweet news, announced on virtual stage at this year’s Facebook Connect conference (formerly known as Oculus Connect), marks a stark shift in strategy for the two companies, and is perfectly timed for the introduction of Oculus’ newest headset, the wireless Quest 2.

It’s an unfortunate and shockingly early end for the Rift platform which has its roots in the original DK1 developer headset that catapulted to fame during a successful 2012 Kickstarter campaign. Not long after in 2014, Facebook made a surprise $3 billion acquisition of Oculus, bringing its founders and nascent VR hardware into its fold, and promising to invest in the burgeoning industry.

Why people are flocking to ugly produce during the pandemic | CNN

September 17, 2020September 16, 2020 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

When the pandemic hit the United States in March, Imperfect Foods found itself scrambling to keep up with a sudden spike in demand.

In early 2020, the five-year-old online grocery startup was delivering about 100,000 food boxes a week. By May, that weekly figure had doubled. From June to August, weekly orders have remained at about 200,000 to 210,000 per week. On average, order sizes have doubled year over year.

The surge shouldn’t come as a surprise. Imperfect Foods, an online subscription service that sells discount “ugly” fruits and vegetables along with staples like baked goods, meat and dairy, is in many ways a business fit for the coronavirus era. Its model appeals to shoppers desperate for groceries who have turned to online offerings to avoid long lines or crowds at the supermarket.

Does sugar make kids hyper? | Live Science

September 17, 2020September 16, 2020 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

If a child eats cotton candy, a chocolate bar or any other kind of sugary treat, will a hyperactive frenzy follow? While some parents may swear that the answer is “yes,” research shows that it’s just not true.

Yes, that’s right. “Sugar does not appear to affect behavior in children,” said Dr. Mark Wolraich, chief of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics at Oklahoma University Health Sciences Center, who researched sugar’s effect on children in the 1990s.

Instead, parent’s expectations of so-called “sugar highs” appear to color the way they view their children’s behavior, Wolraich said. It’s easy to see why parents make the link: Sugar is often the main attraction at birthday parties, on Halloween and other occasions when children are likely to bounce off the walls. But all that energy is due to kids being excited, not from the sugar in their systems, he said. [Is Sugar Bad for You?]