When we think of how much technology has changed it’s easy for us to see the difference even from year to year because technology is such a big part of our everyday lives and it’s definitely something that moves at an incredibly fast pace.
However, when it comes to science, we don’t seem to notice the difference as much. If we look back 30, 50 or 100 years, sure we could easily see the changes and positive impact of science in our everyday lives, but even though it moves as quickly and is just as significant as technology, we somehow see the immediate differences that science is making.
In this post, we’re going to share with you some significant ways that science has changed the world and how it actually works hand in hand with technology to make our lives easier in ways we probably often take for granted.
Higher life expectancy:
Even if we look back as recently as the eighties, life expectancy rates for some diseases were a lot lower than they are today, and this is thanks to science being dedicated to finding treatments and cures as well as research going into these diseases to, in some cases, eradicate them completely. However, if we look at life today compared with 100 or 200 years ago we can see massively how science has played a crucial role in the life expectancy we enjoy today. Everything from sanitation to vaccines and medications, as well as overall better awareness have made it possible for scientists to achieve amazing things using simple pipette filters.
Safer environments:
From technology and science working together, our roads, transportation, and even our homes are safer than they’ve ever been. Our water is safer thanks to scientists who are able to research and wipe out water borne diseases and help create systems and treatments that keep us safe. This is a massive difference if we compare safety standards and research development even to 20 years ago.
Food:
Although we have a lot of bad things happening within the food industry, science has enabled us to create more ways to feed ourselves than ever before. If we look back to Victorian times when starvation was rife due to things like the Irish Potato Famine, we have to be able to appreciate that had science been developed like it is today in terms of food production, then such things would never have happened.
Communication:
Again, thanks to science and technology working together, the world is smaller than it’s ever been in terms of our ability to communicate – even if we look back to the beginning of the millennium, we have made massive leaps and bounds in the scientific developments that allow us to connect so easily with anyone at the mere touch of a button.
Exploration and understanding:
Whether it’s climate change, the universe, evolution, or simply a deeper understanding of science itself, we are now more aware of things and able to explore things than at any other time in recent history, and as technology and science continue to grow so will our ability to understand and explore the world around us – hopefully for the better.
Preparing for security risks is something you need to do sooner rather than later, unless you want to experience unexpected costs and issues within your business that could cause a ton of downtime. However, downtime may be the least of your problems if you suffer from a big hack or security breach. Below, we’ll discuss how you can prepare for some of the biggest security risks. Take a look:
Protecting your data from hackers should be your top priority, whatever size your business is. We can assure you that hackers do not discriminate on business size, and that all sizes are targeted. You may find hackers come at you in the form of phishing and malware that seek to infiltrate the corporate network. To avoid this you should update patches as they become available, use security products that protect the entire IT stack, such as the device, operating system, application, network, etc, and train your employees to have security awareness. Using things like federated identity can help you to make authentication far easier and more secure, giving everybody peace of mind and making their jobs easier.
Your Staff
Unfortunately, it’s actually people (mainly your staff) that present the biggest security risk to any sized organization. Even careful employees may find themselves victims of phishing or accidentally opening attachments with viruses if they are not trained properly. Security training should start as early on in your business as possible. A careless employee who leaves their phone in a cab, for example, could also cause huge problems for your business. Passwords, on all devices including work computers and phones, are the first line of defense against attacks. Passwords are the first line of defense, so make sure employees use passwords that have upper and lowercase letters, numbers and symbols. Make sure they take it seriously too; using the same password for each account just won’t do. There are apps and software that can allow your employees to remember a variety of different passwords while remaining protected. You may also want to make it imperative that employees change their passwords every 60 days or thereabouts.
It’s also important to note that these threats don’t always come about by accident. Internal attacks are one of the biggest threats facing your data and systems. Rogue employees, especially members of the IT team with knowledge of and access to networks, data centers and admin accounts, can cause damage that can be hard to come back from.
If a person no longer works for you, you must make sure they no longer have access to your system. You should also ensure that only employees who really need access to certain data and files have access – there’s no need for everybody to be in possession of that information. Companies should implement necessary protocols and infrastructure to track, log and record privileged account activity and create alerts so that a quick response can be put in place.
Trying to figure out the best format to encode videos isn’t easy. Not only are there lots of formats, but sifting through them to figure out which formats are compatible with various devices and how well they can compress your videos is time-consuming.
The good news is that there is a much faster way to identify the format that you should be using to encode your videos: Select it based on how the video is going to be used.
To be more specific, you should base it on the following ways that your video may be used:
Upload to online platforms or social media
If you’re going to upload and share your videos on online platforms, you should follow their recommended format and settings. That way you can avoid the video being unnecessarily transcoded multiple times, and preserve its quality better.
In most cases, the current recommended format for online platforms is MP4 with H.264, such as in YouTube’s Guidlines
Distribute to various users
In the event that you’re going to be distributing your video far and wide, the main factor to consider is compatibility. The format that you choose should be one that is the most widely-compatible – which right now is MP4 with H.264.
Burn onto a video DVD
To create a video DVD from your video file you will need it to be encoded in MPEG-2 as that is the format that most DVD players are able to read. Some newer players may support other formats, but the majority do not.
Store as raw footage before editing
Professional video productions would normally store raw footage with ‘lossless’ formats prior to editing, but most consumer video cameras will already compress them after they’re recorded. In such cases, it is best to just leave the video as is, until it is edited.
If you encode the video in a format at this stage it is likely going to be re-encoded in later after it is edited, and that could affect its quality.
Store on specific devices with limited storage
In the event that you want to store your video on a known device that has limited storage, you can explore other compression options. Nowadays the best step up is HEVC (H.265) as it can reduce the file size of H.264 videos by up to 50%.
Additionally, it is starting to be more widely supported, but you should still check that your device supports it – preferably with hardware acceleration.
Keep in mind that although it is best to encode the video in the right format from the get-go, you can always transcode it later with a video converter if need be. For example, you could use Movavi Video Converter (www.movavi.com/videoconverter/) to switch the format later on.
If you do transcode your video at any point, always try to keep the original version. That way if you ever need to transcode it yet again, you can use the original rather than the transcoded version – and prevent the quality from deteriorating over time.
Once you have started your business from home the next step is to grow it to meet your ambitions. You already know the benefits to starting a home business and what the key ingredients are for success, so now you will need to take the time to understand growth. Here we are going to discuss the factors that go into taking your company to the next level, specifically how to market yourself to attract higher numbers of users.
SEO
The importance of good search engine optimization (SEO) practice cannot be underestimated. SEO is the tools you will use to make sure that your website appears higher up in non-paid for search engine results. The reasons for needing this are clear, the higher up you can appear in search engines, the more traffic you are going to get. So what are the methods you should be using to improve your SEO?
Making some changes to your website will be the first port of call. There are plenty of guides out there which will help you optimize your site for search engines, so familiarize yourself with their recommendations and make the changes you need to make. In addition to traditional SEO improvements, you can also utilize third-party review websites to improve your search engine results. One reason for review sites helping to improve your website is your reputation. The more websites that have a write-up about you, the more legitimacy it gives you. For example, a site like https://budgetboost.co/fundrise-investment-review/ is looking to help people make more money. By providing reviews they are giving their reader base the information they require – and improving their own SEO due to the amount of time spent on the web page – and they are enhancing the reputation of Fundrise in this case due to it being confirmed as a reputable financial website.
If you have already started your business, you have probably already explored social media. But getting the most out of your Twitters and Facebooks is a lot harder than it might first look. Building up a follower base takes time, but remains an important way of reaching your target market directly. To do this, you must first understand who is using the many different social media websites so that you are using your time wisely by targeting your audience only. This breakdown of users from Spredfast demonstrates how every social media company is being used in different ways, by different people, for different purposes.
We have mentioned Twitter, so looking at it we can see that on a monthly basis it has 317 million active users. The common age demographic in this user base is 18-29, and they are spending under three minutes per day on average. So if this age group is your target market, you need to grab their attention in a short amount of time each day.
Marketing is a challenge facing every company, but research and time will see you grow your business using digital platforms quickly and efficiently.
A couple of hundred years ago, not really that long in terms of time, we had to wind up the front of the car to get it working. Eventually, after days or weeks, we would get to our destination. Now, we have vehicles that can drive themselves and you anywhere you want. Progress is a beautiful thing, and the automotive industry is one of the best places to see great technology come to life.
Here are a few of the coolest tech gadgets that you can take with you on your next road trip, even if it’s just to work and home again.
Where once upon a time you would need to arrive bright and early at a dealership and spend most of the day finalising your car. You can open your laptop and bid on an auction and have your new car delivered. Sound like fun? Check out more from Equify Auctions today.
Dash cams have been protecting drivers for years. But, in recent years photographers and videographers have used regular road driving footage in their work. The devices are designed to give a crystal clear image of the road (either behind or in front), record your GPS location and automatically saves the video upon impact. The nifty kit that can keep you safe and provide support for your insurance, and you can also make really cool videos with too.
Coffee anyone? Most drivers spend ages at drive-thrus, either for a much-needed caffeine hot or a snack on the go. If it is the former, then this is something that you might want to invest in. If you wake up late, or you have a long day and drive ahead of you – say hello to the Handpresso. This little perky coffee maker plugs into your cigarette lighter or 12-volt port and hey presto – fresh java. It’s designed to work with your own ground coffee of ESO pods. Completely unnecessary, but much wanted.
An Automatic Car Adapter, this bit of kit plugs into your standard diagnostic port (ODB-II) on most cars. It then allows this device to pull useful data directly from your vehicles onboard computer. However, it doesn’t work with electric cars. You then will have a handy app on your phone that you can use to show a garage when it comes time for a service or if you’ve unexpectedly broken down.
If you were blown away in previous years by the 3D holographic dancers on the stage, then you’re going to love this. The Hudway Cast isn’t cheap, but it is incredible. It wirelessly displays your smartphone screen. This is perfect for people who use their phone in place of a dedicated GPS like a TOMTOM or a Garmin. You can still access the primary function you use on your phone (hopefully not while driving), and see the directions on the HUD the whole time. While it isn’t actually holographic, it does look it, the transparent lens focuses the virtual image around nine feet in front of you.
Ok, so it doesn’t seem like the most interesting topic ever, but trust us on this one, it’s important. The internet has quickly become one of the most vital tools in our lives; you can check in with friends, keep updated with work, find out anything with the click of a button, and if you’re not into any of that then, well, you can look at memes. Wherever your online interest lies, having the best internet connection can make your life so much easier, so it’s worth trying these quick tips. No more buffering, please…
Fiber broadband is a lot quicker than the standard (ADSL) wifi, so if it is available in your area then it may be a good idea to make the switch to one of the fiber broadband providers instead. This is particularly true if you have a lot of devices, or if you’re into online gaming and need a quick connection. It can come at a higher price, but it’s worth it if you need to have fast speeds for a lot of people, so having a look whether you can get your hands on it – that is, whether the cables run to your house – is worth a shot.
Check that your internet speed is what you’re paying for
You may be paying out a lot of money to have the quickest internet speeds, without actually getting the benefits of it. Annoying, right? Well, you can do a website speed test if you want to make sure that you’re up to speed, and it will tell you both your upload and download speeds (and if you know that then you’re a tech whizz in our eyes). You may have to do it a few times throughout the day to see what your results really are, but it’s worth doing if you want to make sure that your connection isn’t lagging behind.
The reason that your internet may seem so slow, and your Netflix shows are taking forever to load, could be that your router isn’t in the best place. Moving it around a little and seeing whether it works better when plugged in elsewhere is a good idea, and it will save you the hassle of trying to get a new broadband provider when you don’t really need one. There could be something blocking it (who knew a wall could change your internet speed?), so play around and see where you can get the best connection.
So, there we have it. Three ways to improve your internet speed and connection, and potentially save you a bit of money in the process. So get hunting for a fiber provider, check your internet speeds to see what the deal is, and move your router so that it can be at its best, and you can go online without anything blocking your way. Now, where were we? Oh yeah, we were just about to stream a movie…
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