Month: November 2024

Wordle today: Answer and hint #1257 for November 27

Posted on by faz_business


Go on, take a peek at our hint for today’s Wordle. Whether you just want a little extra guidance, or you’d really like something to help the weird yellow letters you’ve found along the way make sense, it’s bound to help you out. You could always reveal the November 27 (1257) answer afterwards if you need to, we won’t tell anyone.

Luckily for me I unearthed a rich seam of yellow letters very early on today, and better still it didn’t take too long to rearrange them into something useful. From there it was just a case of working out what I needed to add to find today’s winning word—and then sit back and enjoy the result, of course.

Today’s Wordle hint

(Image credit: Josh Wardle)

Wordle today: A hint for Wednesday, November 27

AI in Social Media Marketing: Detailed 2024 Guide

Posted on by faz_business


AI as we currently know it is having an echo effect on social media platforms. Those who use social media and agencies who utilize social media for marketing purposes have become experimenters of AI real quick. 

A survey (2023) provided the information on 51.8% of global influencers who started to use AI-assisted programs. Sure the use varies depending on the purpose, but the idea we believe is increasing productivity. Now this was before 46% of total workers started adapting at the end of 2024. 

However, coming back to social media being a leading forefront for AI users, what is it that really interests people? Not just digital agencies, every person is eager to learn AI. 

Whether you have a small business or work freelance for an enterprise level organization, AI is amazingly becoming helpful. We are not exaggerating; nearly 50% of adults in the United States are willing to learn how to use AI in social media marketing.

Now the change we are talking about is not how social media is influenced by AI towards particular extremes. 

Instead, we are trying to focus on core marketing activities like:

AI in Social Media

These are the stages that have experienced tremendous transformations. You too must be trying to adopt AI and capitalize on the opportunities it presents.

But before you move on to using AI in social media marketing, here is a small guide helping to determine what’s wrong and right for you.

AI is enabling social media agencies to do more and social media is boosting AI’s popularity. This led to a chain of uprisings of the topic in early 2023. Clearly it really did get the celebrity treatment and became a hot topic of the year 2024.

Between these two parallels, there’s you trying to figure out where to start. How about understanding the role of AI in SMM (social media marketing)?

AI in Social Media

Source: Leading benefits of using generative AI 

for social media marketing worldwide (May 2024)

  1. Social Sentiment Analysis: 

Your brand needs to be aware of your audience’s sentiment. This helps you to be vocal the correct way. Strategizing a response or a feedback on various channels is complex for a brand. AI plays an important role in both understanding the audience and providing a convincing response.

To identify sentiments effectively, analyzing reviews by people is one of the most reliable approaches, as they offer genuine insights into audience perceptions. Various tools, such as SocialPilot Reviews are available to support this process.

These tools can help streamline sentiment analysis, making it easier for your brand to craft thoughtful and impactful responses.

  1. Ad Optimization: 

Let us get one thing straight; every marketing expert in your team will agree ad optimization for social media platforms is a very compounded strategy. 

  • There are 3-5 primary areas of expertise.
  • 7-8 advertising categories.
  • More than 8-10 points for strategy focus for each platform
  • Around 20+ optimization metrics. 
  • And after all this you still get stuck at technical aspects.

But let’s take a deep breadth and focus on positives here. Even the various LLLMs you are using everyday can help you. 

They can answer your questions about optimization, suggest better approaches, and help your product reach a sustaining phase. Even the development hints at one point AI has the ability to automate the entire process with AI agents as shown for .

  1. Content Creation & Curation:

Consistent content generation to keep your accounts afloat becomes a challenge. You might contradict us here that content generation with AI is a bit of a gray area. It means you belong to 48% of respondents who avoid AI generated content on social media. 

Let’s just keep our hands clear from the gray area and talk about a different approach. We will discuss all those approaches in great depth in the implementation process. 

A hint; it’s leveraging AI as your assistance. It will answer the most obvious question “how to use AI in social media posts. Also remember content is king but your strategies and approaches are queen for social media marketing.

  1. Audience Insights & Personalization: 

Learning about your audience is good, but providing them with the content they want is great. The two rules that are the most important factor of social media marketing are:

  • Knowing your audience.
  • Personalizing content accordingly.

Here AI tools and products help you to understand your audience. Sure the trick is easy to determine but to be efficient and justify those RICE scores is where AI comes in. 

Once you have gathered information about your audience, allow helpful assistance to support your campaigns. At this point using AI to generate social media content leads you to productivity and efficiency.

  1. Influencer Marketing:

Finding influencers and agencies offering influencer marketing service in 2024 is like a piece of cake. More than half of the people living on the planet are either microvlogger, influencers, or community managers. 

However the challenging part is finding out the right candidate to promote your product/services. 

Learning about their audience, their content, perfectly amalgamating them with your content becomes extremely difficult. Using AI in your social media marketing strategies will allow you to overcome those obstacles conveniently.

In exploring AI’s current advancements and its role within the social media landscape, we observe its primary function is being an assistant. Across every facet of social media marketing, AI is predominantly deployed to provide support, enhance efficiency and boost productivity.

Going through each specific task from social media marketing using AI will be a bit tedious. Rather let’s separate AI users into groups of three.

  1. Tool Dependent
  2. Hybrid Practitioners
  3. Automation Specialists

Let’s have a look at them and learn about this group using examples.

  1. Tool Dependent
  • Dependency Level: 100% reliance on AI tools.

Kyoko runs a local bakery in Japan and she uses:

  • Canva AI to generate all images and banners for social media images.
  • Copy.ai to write her wonderful captions and story about her customer experiences.
  • Buffer AI for posting times.
  • Instagram chatbot automated responses for customer services.
  • Group’s Profile: Small business, solopreneurs, or beginning in social media marketing.
  • Generic content feel
  • Limited bran personality
  • No Unique strategic approach
  • Template dependent feel.
  1. Hybrid Practitioners
  • Dependency Level: Strategic use of AI in social media marketing with enhancement-centric approach. The 70% + 20% + 10% model of collaborating with AI.

Marc and his team manages social media for fitness brands.

  • Creates original content from workout concepts.
  • Tailor a brand voice and strategy.
  • Films authentic BTS for showcasing credibility & fun environment.
  • Engages personally with the community through podcasts on various platforms.
  • Marc uses Weam AI for content brainstorming, implementing strategies, and discussing copies, scripts, concepts together in an AI integrated collaborative space.
  • An AI image enhancement tool for captivating graphics of UI/UX designers.
  • Use AI tools to strategies targeted advertisement for every stage of buyers/clients journey.
  • Process Optimization (10%)
  • Fine tune prompts for better results or build a custom prompt library.
  • Create a personalized workflow integrated with AI including multiple LLMs for various tasks.
  • Make every AI tool and product learn about a brand’s unique voice for familiarity of content across every social media platform.
  • Group’s Profile: Experiences social media managers, content creators, digital markers, agencies, team of digital marketing experts.
  • Brainstorm ideas and concepts manually.
  • Expand the ideas and concepts using AI.
  • Create core social media strategies by yourself and use AI to review and become better.
  • Optimize the strategy using AI products and review the adjustments for final touch.
  • 70% of your workflow is dependent on your own skill. 20% of workflow efforts are dependent on AI products, lastly 10% is optimizing where AI suggests you or you vice versa. A simple yet effective approach eliminating drudgery and increasing workflow efficiency.
  1. Automation Specialists
  • Dependency Level: 95% dependency on AI, i.e. Near complete automation through AI agents.

The entire e-commerce system is run by AI automation.

  • Data and information gathered from a multiple source
  • Automated content generation
  • Customer response management
  • Trend monitoring and adaptation
  • Performance optimization
  • A/B testing of social media content
  • Budget allocation
  • Cross-platform posting
  • Profile: Large digital agencies, enterprise-level.
  • Limitations: The automation needs management roles to supervise everything. It makes sure the output is expected and returns are considerably satisfactory.
AI in Social Media Marketing
Types of Group
Aspect Tool-Dependent Hybrid Practitioners Automation Specialists
Cost Low-Medium Medium-High Very High
Time Investment Low High Initial High, Then Low
Content Quality Generic High Variable
Customization Limited Extensive Programmatic
Brand Voice Inconsistent Strong Systematized
Scalability Limited Moderate Extensive
Personal Touch Minimal High Automated Personalization
Learning Curve Low High Very High

When you look at it we are not trying to assert an answer on which group is better. Every group has to make decisions to select the working approach best suited for their specific criteria. 

Remember, the most successful approaches often depend on the three specific criteria for example: specific needs, resources, and goals of the organization.

The reason for using AI is quite simple, one of the early features of AI was generating content. Which gave a quick hint at what was coming which is generative AI products and tools. The question is, “Are these big blocks of cheese digestible?” Do AI products have proven worthy of people’s investment? 

It does depend on how to use AI for social media marketing, but let me remind you of your collective goal for a quick minute. Take the reference of the groups we have provided above. The range of benefits we are discussing does perfectly align with the groups mentioned above, your goals, and later developments.

AI in Social Media
  1. Efficiency & Productivity: Rapid generation of content like tweets, captions, responsive comments, etc saving time and allowing the team to focus on strategizing. Prompt libraries, custom bots, AI agents allow a smoother collaboration between teams as there is less complexity.
  1. Improve Content Strategy: Insights are a great way to understand audiences and refine your content strategy accordingly. With an helpful AI assistant supported by powerful LLM can be useful in seeking those insights. Using normal AI to predict trends is unclear as it requires large volumes of data.
  1. Creative Reference & Generation: Using AI to generate social media content is a bit of a gray area. However, considering AI’s suggestions as reference points can really kick start your work. On the other hand it can become an expert moderator. Based on successful past campaigns it can suggest amazing ideas and engaging concepts.
  1. Scalability: If you have digital agencies, you will understand the problem of scaling. Every day there is something new in social media marketing, and it needs research before fully committing to its implementation. AI makes scaling easy with AI-driven processes, handling larger volumes of work without proportional increases in costs.
  1. Easy Adoption & Innovation: Products that have easy adoption strategies are gems in social media marketing. They allow you to quickly learn the necessary, continue with innovative strategy, and grow with your demands.
  1. Data Privacy and Security: Social media managers must be vigilant about how data is collected, stored, and used. There are first-hand data source solutions available. On the other hand if you are trying to find a small group just create a survey with generative AI and share it among your communities
  1. Algorithm Bias: Don’t include tools or products in your tech-stack that have algorithm bias. If trained on skewed data, Gen AI can inadvertently perpetuate bias. Be aware of this risk associated with AI providers to ensure fair and unbiased algorithms.
  1. Integration with Existing Tools: If you are a manager, ensure that AI solutions complement existing workflows without causing disruptions. Also training and skill development is an important factor to understand effectively how to use AI in social media marketing.
  1. Measuring Effectiveness: Assessing the impact of AI on social media performance is not the only concern. Managers need to measure the success of you and your team using AI too. AI products and tools with robust analytical measuring features can help you with this concern.
  1. Cost Considerations: It’s important to evaluate the return on investment as investment in AI tools can be costly. Also a quick note: prioritize AI tools that align with strategic goals.
  1. Keeping Up with Rapid Changes: Social media managers must stay informed about the latest developments to effectively leverage AI. Allow us to make it easy!. You can always trust our articles about using AI in social media marketing to keep up with the rapid changes.

A year ago we were learning how social media is changing the way we do business. Jumping back to present we are discussing the development of AI in social media marketing. Must be the effect of the law of accelerated returns.

Anyway as you can see using AI is all about consistency, productivity, and efficiency. Along the lines of these core benefits you will find the ultimate goal of practicing the elimination of tedious work to create something innovative. 

Do remember using ai to generate social media content is not about mass producing toxic digital waste. The fundamentals are to engage, interest, appreciate and sell. Whether you use AI or not the fundamentals of social media content must be respected.

Be a Happy Camper With Action Recorder: Tuesday Tips With Frank | AutoCAD Blog

Posted on by faz_business


Having used AutoCAD almost my entire professional live and working alongside those who use it as well, I find it amazing how, with so much in common, we’re so different in our approaches. Let’s look at two camps. One camp is the people like me. I love customizing AutoCAD and extending its capabilities, mainly by programming in AutoLISP. Another camp wants none of that; they want to be designers, not programmers.

I think they’re missing out on the ability to automate repetitive tasks (something any AutoCAD camper has in common). There’s good news for you if you’re not a programmer and don’t want to be.

AutoCAD has a tool that can record your actions (repetitive tasks!) and put them into a named macro that you can play back at any time. Accordingly, it’s called Action Recorder, which you can find in its own panel in the Manage tab of the Ribbon.

Screenshot of Action Recorder in AutoCAD Ribbon

Today’s post is intended to provide a general overview of Action Recorder. It’s easy to use, and plenty of instructional guides, including the Help file, are available.

Getting Started With Action Recorder

Let’s start with all those icons in the ribbon panel. Of course, there’s the big Record button on the left. If you press it, it turns into a Stop button. That makes sense. There are three icons vertically next to it (in the image, they’re grayed out since no macro is selected). The top icon lets you insert a message into the current macro. Think user prompts… “Select Object:” “Enter Distance:” and things like that.

The middle icon pauses the macro to insert a base point used by the proceeding coordinate entry/value. The bottom icon allows the user to insert a pause for user input during the macro’s playback.

Now for the right side of the panel. There’s a pulldown that contains all your available action macros. Above that is the play button. It’s pretty easy so far. Pick a macro and play it.

Screenshot to play macro with Action Recorder

To the immediate right of Play is the Preferences icon, which displays a dialog where you can control some of the panel’s display options. Finally, the icon on the right will display the Action Macro Manager. These last two dialogs are shown below:

Screenshot of Action Macro Manager

Recording Your Action Macro

Let’s quickly explore what happens when you decide to record a macro. First, a couple of “gotchas.” Avoid dialog boxes and use the command line version if possible. For instance, the “My_Layers” macro shown in my list uses the -LAYER command. Most commands that use dialog boxes have a similar command line version.

Another thing to avoid are grips. The My_Door_Block macro inserts a dynamic block and changes its default Visibility State and vertical Flip. Typically, you’d do this using the block’s multifunctional grips, but the recorder won’t pick that up. Instead, I used the Properties Palette to make those changes.

Back to recording. You’ll only notice that the round Record button transforms into a square Stop button, a circular red badge will appear next to your cursor, and the additional tools menu will expand and pin itself in place to display the Action Tree. More on that in a moment.

Screenshot Action Tree

When done, click the stop button. You’ll get a dialog prompting you to name your new Action Macro (did you click Stop because you made a mistake? Just use Cancel here to delete it). Please be aware here that the name must not have any spaces. I like to use underscores in their place. You do you, please.

Also, notice that there is a folder path. This is where your action macro file is stored. For years, these files used an extension of ACTM. It is now an ACTMX file. It’s just something to be aware of. The really cool thing is that your macros can be shared. You can send one to a colleague, and they can put it into the default file location, a custom location, or better yet, you can define a path to a shared location so the entire team can access this new tool.

So, now you’ve created time-saving customizations. You’re still not a programmer, but you are now the office hero. It doesn’t get much better than that.

Screenshot of Action Recorder settings

Back to the Action Tree shown in the Additional Tools menu. This is a list of the actions you used to create your macro. By right-clicking on an entry, you can access a few tools. You can insert a message or pause for input (same as the icons we saw in the panel), or if you select something editable, you can do so here. In the example below, we might need to change the circle’s radius to something other than 8.000.

Screenshot to edit in Action Recorder

Wrapping It Up

Action Recorder can be just the tool you need to get your tedious task down to a single pick-and-click. And, as you’ve seen, sharing it with your team is easy, too.

So, you can quickly create powerful macros to improve your efficiency, all without having to learn a programming language, which should turn you into a happy AutoCAD camper!

More Tuesday Tips

Check out our whole Tuesday Tips series for ideas on how to make AutoCAD work for you.

Debugger and Diagnostics updates in Visual Studio 17.12

Posted on by faz_business


We are thrilled to announce a host of exciting new features in Visual Studio 17.12, designed to enhance your development experience and boost your productivity. Our team has been working diligently to address some of the most popular requests from our developer community, and we are confident that these updates will significantly improve your workflow.

For a full list of updates, check out the release notes.

Display Inline Method Return Values

The Visual Studio debugger now displays inline values for return statements, responding to one of the most requested features from the developer community.

This enhancement allows you to see the exact values being returned by functions directly in the code, eliminating the need for additional code or temporary variables to inspect return values.

Gif showing inline returns connecting with GitHub Copilot chat

With GitHub Copilot, you can take it further by using the Ask Copilot option on hover to analyze return values directly in Visual Studio, allowing you to address issues immediately.

It is supported in both native and managed code.

Export breakpoint groups with ease

Visual Studio Breakpoint Groups now support import and export functionality, enabling you to easily manage and maintain your breakpoint structures across multiple projects or environments.

Gif showing exporting breakpoints into file explorer

This new feature allows you to export your breakpoint groups with their configurations and later import them into different solutions, ensuring a consistent debugging setup without the need to manually recreate breakpoints groups again.

Inspect variable with Copilot

With GitHub Copilot seamlessly integrated into Visual Studio, analyzing values from Locals, Autos, and DataTips becomes a streamlined experience. Similar to method return values, you can instantly access AI-powered insights to identify potential errors, diagnose unexpected outcomes, or uncover anomalies by simply right-clicking on any value.

This feature keeps the focus on debugging by providing actionable suggestions and detailed context directly within the IDE, eliminating the need to switch tools or disrupt workflow.

Image leveraging GitHub Copilot chat to inspect images

IntelliSense in the IEnumerable Visualizer

The IEnumerable Visualizer has been enhanced with IntelliSense, providing real-time code suggestions and autocompletion, which makes writing LINQ expressions faster and more accurate.

Gif showcasing IntelliSense in the IEnumerable Visualizer

This enhancement streamlines the process of building and editing queries by providing intelligent code recommendations, minimizing errors, and accelerating development. Additional improvements are planned for upcoming releases, including AI assistance for writing LINQ queries.

Analyze memory use over time

The Diagnostics Tool window now supports comparing memory snapshots, making it easier to analyze changes in memory usage over time. To use this feature, ensure you have at least two memory snapshots captured in the Memory tab.

You can select snapshots for comparison by holding Ctrl and clicking on the desired rows or by holding Shift and using the up/down arrow keys to select two consecutive snapshots. To unselect a snapshot, simply hold Ctrl and click on the snapshot you want to deselect. Once two snapshots are selected, click the View Diff button located above the snapshot list to view the differences between them.

Image in the Memory Usage tab highlighting the View Diff

Meter histogram in the profiler

We’ve also introduced the Meter Histogram feature in the Diagnostics Window, enhancing your ability to analyze and visualize histogram data generated by histogram instruments. This upgrade allows you to capture and explore data distributions in greater detail, presenting the results through clear and intuitive visualizations during profiling sessions. With this feature, identifying patterns, trends, and insights from histogram-based metrics becomes more efficient, providing a seamless and effective way to optimize and debug your applications.

Image highlighting the meter histogram in the profiler

Thank you!

We are dedicated to continuously improving your development experience, and many of these advancements are driven by your invaluable feedback and suggestions. Your input plays a vital role in shaping the future of Visual Studio, and we encourage you to keep sharing your ideas with us.

Thank you for being an essential part of our developer community and for your ongoing support. Together, we can reach new milestones and make Visual Studio the ultimate development environment.

Happy coding!

ServiceTitan could be the first of many ‘dirty’ term-sheet IPOs, VCs believe

Posted on by faz_business


When ServiceTitan filed documents last week for its IPO, hoping to have its debut before the end of 2024, the tech world wondered if a stuck IPO market was unlocking at last.

Alas, probably not.

But ServiceTitan could actually be a harbinger of something else entirely: a series of late-stage companies being forced to IPO or revealing other ugly terms they agreed to after the VC fundraising market tanked in 2022 and valuations plummeted. 

“Yes, we will see much more of this as the ZIRP companies start to IPO. You can’t hide these details in an S-1, even if they’re hard to understand in the legalese writing that exists in S-1’s,” VC Alex Clayton tells TechCrunch, referring to companies that raised lots of money during the zero interest rate policy period that ended in 2021. Clayton is general partner at late-stage firm Meritech Capital, known for its IPO analysis. He and his Meritech colleagues, Anthony DeCamillo and Austin Wang, pointed out a wild term, disclosed in ServiceTitan’s S-1 documents, in an analysis post that went viral over the weekend. 

To recap, as TechCrunch previously pointed out, with ServiceTitan’s November 2022 Series H raise, the company agreed to grant those investors a “compounding IPO ratchet structure.” 

An IPO ratchet structure means that if a company goes public at a stock price that is less than what the venture investor paid, the company will cover the loss by granting the investor more shares, as if the VC bought at the lower price. If the IPO is priced above what the investor paid, there’s no problem.

In ServiceTitan’s case, as Meritech’s crew pointed out, it agreed to a  “compounding” IPO ratchet structure. For every quarter ServiceTitan delayed going public after a deadline of May 22, 2024, the company would owe the Series H investors even more stock: 11% annually, compounding quarterly. 

The stock price for that November 2022 round was $84.57 a share. Currently, Meritech calculates that ServiceTitan would have to debut at above $90 per share to negate paying its Series H investors more stock. The S-1 did not disclose which investor(s) hold this term. 

Furthermore, the Meritech crew – who are stock pricing experts – believe that ServiceTitan’s financials currently justify closer to about $72 a share. This given its revenue (on pace for $772 annually, based on its last quarter, the company says) and growth rate (implied at 24%, based on the last quarter). That’s if the IPO prices around the mid-range of its comparable to other software companies.

More delay, no matter what’s going on in the market, would mean that ServiceTitan has to price even higher to avoid the gotcha with the Series H investors. This would also further dilute the holdings of the other major investors.

VC Bill Gurley, who was famously a partner at Benchmark and has been an IPO-process hawk for years, commented on the situation on X. “A ‘compounding ratchet’ sounds painful (it is!). Looks like company agreed to ‘dirty’ term sheets,” he wrote. “Best to steer WAY, WAY clear of investors asking for compounding ratchets.”

Clayton says he doesn’t quite agree with the “dirty term sheet” characterization, which implies a founder getting duped by an investor. Chances are ServiceTitan’s lawyers knew and understood the term and executives were willing to take the risk. ServiceTitan had agreed to ratchet terms (albeit not compounding) twice before, and got caught with lower share prices, the S-1 disclosed.

Founders typically agree to such terms because it gets them a higher valuation and/or avoids a valuation cut, also known as a down round. After all, the company is agreeing to protect the investor from overpaying. Down rounds can be damaging in all sorts of ways – employee morale, future investing rounds, media headlines.

But such terms are a kick-the-can-down-the road tactic.

“You can call it ‘dirty,’ which is the cliche term, but it’s an agreement between two parties with lengthy legal discourse and is just likely about risk the founders were willing to take,” Clayton said.

All of this means a few things. For founders, Gurley said on X, it’s better to just take a down round if that’s what a company is really worth, rather than play valuation term-sheet games. 

Had ServiceTitan done that, it might not even be going public now – and taking on the future quarterly financial scrutiny that comes with that. 

“I agree. This IPO seems to be about incentives,” Clayton says, adding that ServiceTitan “has also burned a ton of money, so they might have needed the cash too.”

It also means that the IPO window isn’t necessarily opening. Because 2022 saw a lot of founders struggling to maintain their previously high valuations, Clayton believes we’ll likely see more such things buried in S-1 disclosures.

Then again, if retail investors go wild for the stock, this debut might open the IPO window. But some financiers remain doubtful. As Miles Dieffenbach, Managing Director of Investments for Carnegie Mellon’s endowment posted on X,

“ServiceTitan isn’t going public because of the IPO window being ‘open’, but because they have a compounding ratchet from their last round. If they could’ve raised clean private capital, I bet they’d stay private!” he wrote.

ServiceTitan did not respond to a request for comment.



Irresistible CyberPowerPC Black Friday Gaming PC Deals – 2024

Posted on by faz_business


Black Friday, or the week of Black Friday as it has become over the years, is here. There is no better time than now to get your holiday shopping on, especially if you are looking to save some moolah on a new gaming pc. Right now on our website and at our retailers, there are some great black Friday deals – featuring some of our best deals on gaming computers and accessories.

Scrolling through page after page of deals is a lot of work for your eyeballs and a hell of a workout for your scrolling finger. Give yourself a break and make things simple with our list of the best Black Friday gaming pc deals we have on offer – all wrangled up into one convenient place.

Black Friday Deals – quick links

Best Black Friday Gaming PC Deals on CyberPowerPC.com

If you are looking to get a custom gaming desktop from us, there is no better place than on our website. Check out tons of great deals – there is something for gamers on any budget.

In addition to the savings below, don’t forget to sweeten the deal at checkout with coupon code “BLACKFRIDAY” to save on any custom built desktops or laptops over $999.

Or – you don’t even need to purchase a gaming pc. Finance on with 0% APR Affirm Financing for up to 6 months for US customers with qualifying credit.

Best CPU Black Friday Deals

AMD CPU Deals

AMD Ryzen CPU Processors

Great deals on popular team red Ryzen processors.

Intel CPU Deals

Solid CPU offerings from Intel that offer incredible performance.

Best Graphics Card Black Friday Deals

NVIDIA GeForce RTX GPU Black Friday Deals

Trace those rays and enjoy all of the FPS with the some of the best graphics cards in the game.

AMD Radeon GPU Black Friday Deals

Solid deals on high performance Radeon graphics cards if you a feeling some more Team Red in your life.

RAM Memory Black Friday Deals

  • FREE Team T-FORCE DELTA RGB [BLACK] DDR5 6000 upgrade from 6000 Major Brand for all Desktops [Excludes Prebuilt]
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Mechanical Gaming Keyboard Black Friday Deals

Click-clack-moo cows that type should do so in style. Grab a discounted CK60 – you won’t regret it.

CyberPowerPC CK60 60% Mechanical keyboard
  • Save $100 off our CyberPowerPC CK60 60% ANSI Full CNC Aluminum 61-Key RGB Mechanical Gaming Keyboard [Excludes Prebuilt]
  • $20 INSTANT OFF on All CyberpowerPC Keycap Set [Excludes Prebuilt]

Best Prebuilt Gaming PC Black Friday Deals

Spend more and save more with great deals on prebuilt gaming pcs that ship quick!

  • $50 EXTRA INSTANT OFF on all Prebuilt Desktops MSRP $999 or lower with Free 2 Day Delivery
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Gaming PC Cases and Peripheral Black Friday Deals

Just like a Thanksgiving meal needs sides, no gaming pc setup is complete without the peripherals.

  • $50 INSTANT OFF on Thermaltake View 51 Tempered Glass ARGB Edition Full-Tower ATX Gaming Case
  • $50 INSTANT OFF on CyberPowerPC HYTE Y60 Dual Chamber Mid-Tower Gaming Case w/ Panoramic View Tempered Glass + 2x120mm Fans
  • $45 INSTANT OFF on Phanteks Evolv X Mid-Tower Gaming Case with Tempered Glass Panel Window
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Power Supply Black Friday Deals

The unsung hero of your gaming pc. Treat yo self to some better powah.

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Brazil demands Apple open up the App Store…or else

Posted on by faz_business


Little by little, countries around the world are taking steps to change how Apple’s App Store functions. The most recent development comes from Brazil, where the nation’s antitrust regulator Conselho Administrativo de Defesa Economica (CADE) on Monday issued Apple an ultimatum of sorts. CADE has given Apple 20 days to make changes that allows for purchases from third-party app developers without going through Apple or face a fine of 250,000 Real ($43,000) each day after. Candidly, given the amount of money Apple makes every, $43,000 could probably come from Tim Cook’s Diet Mountain Dew expense account.

More specifically, Apple must take steps such as allowing third-party developers to tell their users about alternative locations to purchase their goods or services and to include buttons, external links and other calls to action that show users alternative ways to access their products, rather than just in-app. Developers would also be able to use other in-app purchasing systems (Apple charges a 30 percent fee when using its system), distribute their apps in places other than Apple’s App Store, and more. The ruling stems from e-commerce company MercadoLibre’s 2022 filing alleging Apple restricts goods distribution and purchase methods.

This decision follows changes earlier this year to how Apple can operate its app store in the European Union. The bloc’s Digital Markets Act forced Apple to allow developers to receive payments and distribute apps outside the company’s App Store. Apple has also faced pushes to change its systems in the US, most notably through a lawsuit brought by Epic Games.

c++ – How can there be no begin()/end() for directory_iterator to work for range based loop?

Posted on by faz_business 


for(const auto& entry : std::filesystem::directory_iterator("some-directory"))

This is a typical use of filesystem::directory_iterator to traverse a folder. I can imitate it to implement a foo_iterator with following code:

class foo_iterator {
    public:
        class iterator {
        public:
            iterator(int _value) : value(_value) {}
            
            iterator& operator++() { ++value; return *this; }
            
            iterator operator++(int) { iterator temp = *this; ++value; return temp; }
            
            int operator*() const { return value; }
            
            bool operator!=(const iterator& other) const { return value != other.value; }
        private:
            int value;
        };
        foo_iterator(int _count) : count(_count) {}
        
        iterator begin() const {
            return iterator(0); // 从0开始 
        }
        
        iterator end() const {
            return iterator(count); 
        }
    private:
        int count;
    };

    int main() {
        for (auto i : foo_iterator(10)) {
            std::cout << i << ' '; // 输出 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 
        } std::cout << std::endl; return 0;
    }

I have to write begin() and end() for it. But there is no such member functions for directory_iterator, there are only 2 global functions (at least in the VS2022 sdk):

_NODISCARD inline directory_iterator begin(directory_iterator _Iter) noexcept {
    return _Iter;
}

_NODISCARD inline directory_iterator end(directory_iterator) noexcept {
    return {};
}

What’s the trick behind it?

Edit:
I tried to write the 2 functions for my foo_iterator, but it didn’t work, why?

    class foo_iterator {
    public:
        foo_iterator(){}
        foo_iterator(int count) : count(count) {}
        //foo_iterator& operator++() { ++count; return *this; }
        bool operator++() { ++value; return value >= count; }
        bool operator!=(const foo_iterator& o) { return value != o.value; }
    private:
        int value = 0;
        int count = 0;
    };

    foo_iterator begin(foo_iterator it) { return it; }
    foo_iterator end(foo_iterator) { return {}; }

    int main() {
        for (auto i : foo_iterator(10)) {
            std::cout << i << ' '; // 输出 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 
        } std::cout << std::endl; return 0;
    }

Fix YouTube Vanced Error 400

Posted on by faz_business


Fix YouTube Vanced Error 400

YouTube Vanced is a modified version of the original app that offers additional features and improvements. That said, being a third-party app, there may be some minor bugs from time to time. Such an issue is Vance Error 400, a headache for users where they cannot log in and the app crashes at all times.

YouTube Vanced Error

More often than not, basic solutions such as a phone reboot or cache clearing work just fine for issues like the YouTube server problem. But fixing YouTube Vanced Error 400 can be something way more complicated and frustrating, but there are some simple steps you can take to fix it on your PC and smartphone.

 

Reboot Your Device

A device restart is as easy as a reboot and can, sometimes, sort out annoying bugs or performance snags. With this RAM cleaning and the CPU resources that will be freed up, the system may give YouTube Vanced the initial impetus it requires to carry on its tasks.

 

Check Your Internet Connection

Error 400 is a typical result that indicates that the connection to the YouTube servers has been unsuccessful. You need to make sure that you have internet that is convenient and trustworthy. Look up your internet service provider and consult them to check the functionality of your connection.

 

Verify Date and Time Settings

Verify Date and Time

The truth is that turning on or off keeping the wrong date and time can cripple YouTube Vanced features. So open the Settings app from the homepage of your PC or laptop, access the Date and Time settings, select the region, and make sure that the auto-update feature is turned on.

 

Clear YouTube’s Vanced Cache

Clear Cache

So, lots of users say that it is really helpful to clear the cache of the Vanced YouTube app to eliminate problems related to its working. The app stores the video streaming data in a cache format usually. In some instances, corruption of video data may happen. Look for the Storage menu and data usage in the Settings list. Open the App Manager and find the YouTube Vance to clear the cache and retry.

 

Update YouTube Vanced

These unofficial implementations downloaded from unlicensed sources may not receive any eventual technical support from the main developing team and issues may get more critical, making the apps unstable to operate. Please check the official Vanced YouTube website, to get the latest version and version of the Vanced APK, and install the Vanced APK accordingly.

 

Disable Your VPN

Disable VPN

VPNs are particularly designed to add more flexibility to internet routing; only in some cases do they interfere with YouTube Vanced, and it might lead to Error 400. Detect other factors of influence on the app by disabling the VPN apps per each stage of the testing.

 

Install Vanced Manager

The answer is to stay simple with Vanced Manager’s functionality for solving and automating numerous errors within the YouTube Vanced app. The app is specially created to fix login errors, video loading issues, and Error 400, and even addresses a black screen problem. Downloading Vanced Manager from official sources, you will make use of its self-diagnostics tool and simplify your work.

It is essential to note, as usual with unofficial developed apps, to stay updated on legal news associated with its availability. If YouTube Vanced becomes unavailable, we propose the user to search for other YouTube modifying apps like OG YouTube, that include similar functions as YouTube Vanced.

Also Read: YouTube Vanced Not Working

Answers to FAQs

What’s The Best Way to Get YouTube Vanced?

Getting Video Vanced is similar to installing any other application except that you must download it from a trusted source which is not Play Store because of its “policy violations”. Users usually shadow both official repositories for third-party app stores and YouTube Vanced’s official website to track down the as-need-be APK file.

Can YouTube Vanced be relied upon?

The installation implies no risks in itself but the program distribution by unofficial sources or alternative means can include malware or other security hazards for a user. However, the development of the actual APK exerts due care in this regard and always gives versions of the app that have been audited for safety, thereby ensuring trust among the users with better and similar features.

Why is YouTube Vanced not forbidden?

YouTube Vanced, just like any other YouTube alternative, can be freely used because it has not been strictly forbidden even though it operates within a legal gray area. Even though it is the perfect replacement for the official YouTube app and therefore alters the terms of service and copyright act that is made by Google, it still doesn’t do something illegal. In addition, the enforcement against YouTube Vanced could be limited owing to the distribution decentralization and the challenges associated with perusing application repositories that are public.

God is Always There For You

Posted on by faz_business


For years, I’ve run a blog teaching others to save money and how to make money online.

It was incredibly lucrative, to say the least.

As a single mom, I was able to save $400,000 cash to put as a down payment on a beautiful million-dollar home in Idaho, where I lived at the time. Things were going fantastic and I was serving a lot of people.

And then it happened…

God is Always There For You

While my blog always had Christian influences on it from the start, God then started asking me to create a solely Christian blog and to stop teaching the thing that had made me so successful in the past: saving and making money online (I still have posted a couple saving money articles here or there to help people because the information is not online already, but the main focus now is faith-based articles). 

Humbly, I accepted His will. I thought it was a natural fit to teach about God but people didn’t like that and most all my traffic and followers left. My email list of over 100,000 people went down the drain!

They didn’t want Jesus, they just wanted me to interpret His time and true teachings/the Word of God and principles on money so they could get what they wanted: money. They didn’t want God or a relationship with Him, just all the blessings and “goodies” He gives. 😔

My home started going into foreclosure as I had no way to suddenly pay the $6,000/month mortgage payment after things started going downhill.

Yet still I blogged.

I held on tight to Jesus and continued down this path no one seems to want to listen to: God.

I’m sure that you can understand that. In our culture, it seems like no one cares about God or even wants to hear about Him, yet we are called to be lights and obey Him regardless.

I was working with a realtor to sell my home because I couldn’t afford the payments and suddenly got a 3-day notice on my front door from the lender to evacuate the home. They said if I didn’t comply within 3 days, they would take me to court to have me physically removed. Obviously, we want to live in peace with all people as much as depends on us (Romans 12:18), so I left. What else could I do, you know?

As a single woman with no husband or family, I packed the car quickly with only what would fit and left and came to another state where things are cheaper.

A kind homeless shelter took me in about a week ago and that is where I am staying currently. They let me bring my computer to my room and that’s where I blog and do my work from.

I am on the waiting list for an apartment here but I don’t know how long it will take and I’m not sure this city is where God ultimately wants me. I don’t have all the answers…in fact, I have very few.

I have, of course, sought the Lord, as I do daily since giving my life to Him 18 years ago and asked Him why He is allowing all this to happen. 🤔

He is convicting me that He wants to shine a light on Him within me, to show the world that I’m going to obey him no matter the cost, even if the loss is very great.

Me losing my mansion there in Idaho, my life, my friends, and now being homeless, I am STILL continuing to do the work He has set out for me to do (Philippians 1:6) and blogging about Him even from the homeless shelter, consistently every day.

If this is what God wants for me, I will happily walk through this trying time for His purposes! I love Him with all my heart and will do anything, short of sin, for Him. Giving up everything is a pleasure if that’s what He wants me to do for Him.

Here’s what I’ve learned since being homeless…again…(read about the first time I was homeless here).

1- God doesn’t change

No matter how much you beg God to avoid situations, sometimes, you just have to walk through them and you’re not really sure why.

You don’t really know the point and it feels like God can just get glory for Himself in another way, without you having to go through something horrific, but you learn that you can’t change things. 

For whatever reason, He has His mind made up and it’s for our best interest and His glory and we should be willing to walk through fire for Him. Anyone who is a genuine believer WILL!

2- God loves you

In the good AND the bad, when things are soaring and when the chips are down, in both cases, in both extremes, the Lord God Almighty is GOOD.

He’s good today, He’s good tomorrow, He’s always good. 

He will never cease from being good. 

Bad things happen to everyone and when we go through tough times like this, it’s THESE times when our faith really MATTERS.

What does it matter if we have faith in God when everything is wonderful? What does that accomplish?

But sitting in a place of utter misery, feeling like you’re dying and just wanting to escape from everything, God is there in your misery. He’s there when you need comfort, and while maybe you might not feel His presence, give it a couple of days and you’ll SEE Him work. 

Our faith is displayed, tested, and PROVED not in the good times, but in the bad!

Whatever it is that you’re struggling with today, hold onto that jewel. Your faith is being tested. You are being refined like the beautiful jewel you are!❤️

3- God is always there with you

I love what Paul writes (from jail) in 2 Timothy 4:16-18. All humans had deserted him. I know what that’s like. All humans have deserted me too! Yet, he says, God didn’t. God was there and he is confident that God will rescue him.

In the same way as Paul, I am 100% confident the Lord my God WILL rescue me. It may not be today. It may not be tomorrow. In fact, it might not even be this year!

But I KNOW, that the Lord will rescue me. 

Why?

Because I’m innocent and because He’s good. I haven’t done ANYTHING to deserve this. I’ve not sinned or failed or messed up in any way, shape, or form. There’s nothing I’ve done secretly or publicly to warrant this happening, only that I’ve been unapologetically following every step the Lord commands of me. 

Therefore, I know He will save me. This isn’t punishment or chastisement for something I’ve done. On the contrary, I’m here BECAUSE I’ve obeyed Him. And He will not let me suffer forever. He will save me, put my feet on steady ground, and give me whatever it is He desires to give to me. I await that precious promise of His.

Day and night I pray for Him to do it. For Him to save me. To rush along His promises. But for as long as He leaves me in this situation, I will continue to praise His name and proclaim His name for the world to see, that amidst even the most horrible kind of suffering, we can STILL have joy, peace, love, and most importantly…hope (Romans 5:5). 

God doesn’t just take off when the bad stuff happens. He is always there with us, walking us through everything. 

4- Your reward is great

Anytime we suffer for the sake of God, not by chastisement or punishment, but because of something God has called us to do, we are rewarded and the reward is GREAT! 

Maybe you’ll see that reward here on earth, or maybe you’ll see it in heaven, but either way, the Bible is clear, you WILL BE rewarded (1 Peter 3:14). 

5- God will punish your enemies

If there are enemies involved in your suffering, God will punish them and make everything fair. 

The Bible says in Romans 8:31, “If God is for us, who can be against us?”

Whoever is causing you pain should beware because God WILL avenge you (if you are innocent) and make things right. They will suffer His wrath, either here on earth or in the life to come, or both.

Either way, God has your back! 

Think about Saul and David. David was on the run for his life from a very jealous Saul. God ended up allowing Saul to die and David was then free of his enemy, but Saul would not stop pursuing and chasing (to kill David) and so God HAD TO allow Saul to die to get him to stop, to protect David.

Sometimes, in dire situations such as those, where your enemies will NOT stop pursuing you, they must die a physical death to get them to stop. It’s the only way to stop them and God does allow it in those situations. 

Either way, YOU can know that God is on YOUR side and that your enemies will be punished. You will not endure it forever! Justice WILL BE SERVED!!

6- God can use your sufferings to help others

When we are going through such terrible times, people are watching in your life and by your attitude of faith, God can use that as a witness, a beacon to help others. 

To inspire them to persevere through their own trials, to help them know they are not alone in their sufferings, and to encourage a believer who may face tough times in the future by remembering what you’ve been through and how your faith shined throughout it all.

God can use you as a witness to help others!

Whether God is using your situation to help others, using your situation to condemn your enemies, using it to reward you, or showing you that He’s there for you in a real and LIVE way, you can be sure of one thing…The Lord God is always there for you. Whether it’s in a homeless shelter, on the streets, in a rich home, or an average home. No matter where you are, where you’re located, in whatever city you’re in, whatever country you’re in, whatever state you’re in, He’s there. 

He’s acting. 

He’s working.

He’s doing stuff to help you, grow you, shape you, mold you, and use you as a witness to others. 

Indeed, God IS there with you, even if you don’t feel His presence…He’s there. 

Continue to cry out to Him, continue to seek His will, continue to pray, continue to listen to sermons, read your Bible, and continue with all your heart and soul to invest deeper in your relationship with Him. 

He cares about you. He loves you. He’s there. He knows what’s going on and what you are dealing with is not too hard for Him to take care of! It just may be about going through it for a reason.

Remember, nothing can stop you…not with God on your side!!! ❤️