Why Small Business Owners Should Consider Getting an App | Duct Tape Marketing

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As a small business owner, asking “why should I create an app?” is a lot like asking “do I really need a website?” was a few years ago. Sure, it was (and still is) possible to do much of what you need using a Facebook page, but they’re just not built to do what a website can.

While a Facebook page can, for example, show opening times, it’s not so easy to offer a detailed breakdown of lunch, dinner and a la carte menus. In that respect, Facebook pages are to websites as mobile websites/responsive sites are to mobile apps; they get the job done, just about, but you generally can’t use them to do EVERYTHING that you’d like to.

This post will cover a few of the advantages of creating your own app as opposed to using a responsive site or, even worse, not doing anything with mobile at all.

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Apple announces the HomePod | TechCrunch

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Apple’s long-rumored Amazon Echo competitor is real. It’s called the HomePod (yes, I know). “We want to reinvent home music,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said at the company’s WWDC keynote. The Apple Speaker is focused on music first, not Siri.

Apple’s SVP of Global Marketing Phil Schiller said Sonos aren’t smart speakers and Amazon Echos aren’t good speakers. So Apple wants to combine the best of both worlds. It’s a smart marketing strategy. HomePod is shipping later this year — it’s not quite ready for prime time.

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Harvard bars students for posting ‘obscene memes’ | BBC News

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“Obscene” memes posted on a private Facebook page have cost 10 students their place at Harvard, reports the college’s newspaper.

The students posted messages joking about child abuse, sexual assault, paedophilia and the Holocaust.

Members of the group also directed several racial slurs at minorities, said the report.

Free speech advocates criticised Harvard’s actions saying the punishment was “draconian”.

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How Ottawa is Attracting Tech Talent | The Startup Magazine

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Recent reports show Ottawa as the most attractive tech hub in Canada with the best cost of living and second best average salary. Located in the same timezone as New York and Boston, it is increasingly becoming a promising city for job-seeking tech talent looking north.

Alongside its affordable living conditions, both local agencies and the government play a key role in the growth of its tech scene. A lead economic development agency in Canada’s capital, Invest Ottawa, has recently launched its Work in Ottawa campaign. The international campaign aims to attract global tech talent to the city, highlighting profitable opportunities to maintain a good lifestyle and promising career. This website-based strategy aims to help Canadian tech companies attract and retain the top talent needed to succeed and grow. The campaign also boasts a burgeoning database of North American talent that is available to local employers who participate in the campaign.

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The 15-year-old developer making a difference one app at a time | Mashable

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Like many developers about to attend their first major developer conference, Amanda Southworth is looking forward to the week-long event. Besides Monday’s keynote, when Apple will unveil the next version of iOS, MacOS and maybe even some new hardware, there will be deep dives into new developer tools and countless networking opportunities.

That’s enough for any developer to get excited about, but Southworth is not like most other developers.

At just 15 years old, Southworth has the distinction of being among the youngest to attend Apple’s developer conference, which awarded her one of its WWDC Scholarships — a program that helps “talented students and STEM organization members,” travel to and attend the event.

Though she’s been teaching herself to code for the better part of six years she says it wasn’t until the seventh grade when she really began to throw herself into her coding projects and other “nerd stuff.” Soon, she was spending as much as 30 hours a week to her various projects: first building robots and programming micro-controllers; then picking up web and iOS development.

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Finally, a Way to Avoid Jet Lag: The Jet Lag Calculator | Life Hack

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You’ve just landed. After a nearly eight hour flight, you’re exhausted, and ready for bed. You were wise enough to steal some sleep on the flight. Perhaps, you may even have pre-planned a caffeine binge, to get you through the first day of activities relatively unscathed.

But, even with all of your counter measures, when it comes to the time to sleep, you find yourself tossing and turning, finding yourself even more exhausted than when you just arrived, you ponder what could have gone wrong…

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Learn How To Love Talking In Public (And Stop Saying “Um” And “Like”) With This New App | Fast Company

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Four out of 10 Americans regularly worry about not having enough money for the future. And one in three fear the U.S. will be involved in another world war–just as many report concern over global warming and climate change. And more Americans (25.9%) are afraid of public speaking than are afraid of heights, devastating natural disasters, police brutality, and even dying?

Now, imagine what that experience is like for a non-native-English speaker who is, say, pitching her startup idea to a group of very white funders. That’s tough. The good news is, of course, that there’s an app to help with that.

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A Step-by-Step Guide to Migrate Your Site to HTTPS | Entrepreneur

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Online security is becoming an increasingly important area for businesses of every size. And one of the most basic forms of online security entails switching to HTTPS hosting.

Of course there are loads of factors to consider, but aside from the advantages of presenting a safe and secure website to your visitors, switching to secure HTTPS hosting (as opposed to HTTP) is good for business. Along with the reasurrance it gives your visitors, HTTPS is actually a stated Google ranking factor.

And, in the coming years, the question isn’t going to be so much whether you need to migrate to HTTPS, as when you are going to switch.

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Why Is the Flag at Half-Staff Until Noon on Memorial Day? | Live Science

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For 149 years, Americans have taken the last Monday in May to remember those who have died in our wars. Like all deaths honored by the state, flags fly at half-staff. However, on Memorial Day, the U.S. flag flies at half-staff only for the first half of the day, and then is raised to full height from noon to sundown. This unique custom honors the war dead for the morning and living veterans for the rest of the day.

No one knows the exact date this tradition began, but an Army regulations book from 1906 carries instructions for the procedure, so it predates the 20th century, said Clark Rogers, executive director of the National Flag Foundation. In 1924, Congress codified the tradition into U.S. Code Title 4, Section 6, with the proclamation, “For the nation lives, and the flag is a symbol of illumination,” explaining how the noon flag-raising symbolizes the persistence of the nation in the face of loss, Rogers told LiveScience.

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From Wobbly Table Fixes to Herbal Refrigerators, Innovation was on Display at NRA (Part 1) | Fast Casual

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More than 45,000 buyers in the restaurant industry hit Chicago this week to check out the thousands of products and services on display at the National Restaurant Association show. Many companies use the show as a platform to launch new products. Keep in mind this show takes place in North America’s largest convention center, which is two miles long from end to end, according to one employee.

See below for a roundup of several gadgets, products and services designed to make running a restaurant easier and more profitable.

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