Watching Objects Getting Dipped in Paint Is Sublime


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It’s been a hard couple of weeks. You deserve something nice, and today that something is a bunch of sculptures getting coated in tiny galaxies of paint.

Paint-dipping is a process for covering an object in swirls and splotches of color that would be difficult to achieve by hand. Anything that looks sufficiently like a middle schooler’s idea of an acid trip? Probably dipped.

The process involves floating paint on top of another, heavier liquid and submerging the object. All the paint wraps around and sticks like a psychedelic one-of-a-kind soup skin.

Cool? Most definitely. But more importantly, a colorful reprieve from the outside world.

via Gizmodo
Watching Objects Getting Dipped in Paint Is Sublime

How to Build a Successful Landing Page

Nowadays, a lot of businesses are using individual landing pages to sell products via the internet. This one page displays everything about the product and is supposed to turn visitors into paying customers. To make this possible, a sales page has to be well structured and thought out. In this article, we’ll guide you through the essentials of a successful landing page.

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Today, the question is not whether a product needs a landing page, but rather how it needs to be structured to make the product sell well.

The Structure of a Successful Landing Page

Build your landing page along the lines of the following tips, and you will be bound to raise your revenue easily.

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1 – The Logo

The logo makes for recognition value and unites everything the business stands for. It should set itself apart from the competition, as the customer will think of the logo as the sender of the offer. A good logo should also be able to build trust, which is why it is one of the most essential elements of a well-done landing page.

2 – Headline and Subline

These two elements will quickly show the visitor whether they are on the right page or not. The headline can repeat the keywords that the visitor used to get there. The subline can be utilized for an extended description. In the best case, both headlines together should show your customer that he has come to the right place.

3 – The Hero-Shot

Here, you should show your product’s best side. Turn it into a superstar, the winner of an Academy Award. The better the product looks, the higher the chances to sell it. A neat video in which you could explain the history of your product is an option as well.

4 – The Introduction

What does the customer get out of this, why exactly should he buy your product? If you didn’t make this clear yet, you have to put in all you’ve got now. You may repeat the keywords from the headline. Write a brief description that will touch your potential customer.

5 – USP (Unique Selling Proposition)

This basically means “what value do I get out of this offer?”. Inform your visitor about what value he’ll get from your offer. Keep it short and concise. You may even extend this area with a list that includes the four or five most important aspects.

6 – The Price

Here’s where you’ll show the price, or prices (when offering multiple versions or variants of your product). From a psychological perspective, it is important to “explain” the price. You could do that with an original and a reduced price. Or you offer your product at a special price for a limited amount of time. This creates an artificial “psychological pressure” that makes customers purchase the product much easier.

7 – Call To Action

Now, you’ll make clear what you expect from your visitor. Lead him to the next step of the process. Make sure that your call to action really stands out from the other elements, and makes users click it. A CTA can also consist of a sentence that leads the visitor into the next step in a psychologically smart way.

8 – Reason Why – The Reason for the Purchase

Why should a visitor become a customer? Give strong, clear arguments to make him do what you expect him to. A human always needs a reason for a decision; especially when it comes to purchase. Depending on the target audience, a good reason may be backed by statistics, a report, or a graphic.

9 – The Functional Principle

Your visitor won’t read through long texts. This area works just like an excellent blog post. Make sure that the provided information is scannable. The visitors want to know if your product brings them what they want it to, and if it’s the right choice for them. And they want this information as fast and with as little effort as possible. Illustrations have the potential to be very helpful here.

10 – Testimonials

Have you already sold your product to someone? Great! Ask them for their opinion, and place them on the page as testimonials. A real testimonial does not leave the customer alone but gives him an “expert” on the product to help him. This builds trust in your business, as well as your product. Here, it’s crucial to obtain and post honest opinions.

11 – Trust Elements

Confidence is one of the strongest psychological motives for purchase. Here, you have to convey trust and safety. Good elements to do that are seals, brands, and certificates, for example. However, Facebook likes can also be trustworthy. A professional landing page design also creates a feeling of safety and trust.

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Landing Page Statistics You Should Know

  • 48 percent of all marketers create a new landing page for each marketing campaign
  • The effects of the landing page on the lead volume depending on business size. Here, small businesses with up to ten employees achieve the largest lead volume. Especially when a lot of landing pages were created. This could definitely be because of the fast decision-making paths in the business.
  • Only 22 percent of businesses are satisfied with their conversion rate. Here, in-depth landing page tests may be helpful. The campaigns of President Obama have shown this.
  • Only 52 percent of businesses test their landing pages.
  • Just one additional second of loading time may decrease the conversion by seven percent.
  • President Obama collected an additional 60 million dollars of donations from in-depth A/B tests.

Inspiring Content That Leads to Purchases

Our brain is lazy and does not always want to think rationally. We prefer being “seduced” to do something driven by our emotions. Purchase decisions are often made on a purely emotional level for that reason. Afterward, the decision is justified by our mind.

With this background knowledge, we should make sure that our texts address the visitors on an emotional level. They have to move, touch, and bind your visitors. Surely, this is not always easy. You also won’t always hit the mark with every text right away. Thus, test your sales pages. A simple edit may result in a significantly higher conversion rate.

The Crucial Differences in Ways of Communication

The two examples show you the most important differences. With regular communication, you’ll quickly know what a product does. You’ll also learn how the product works in no time. However, this leaves you alone with the most important question: Why do I need this, why should I buy it, why do I want this right now?

Do you know the feeling of wanting something right here, right now? This moment where you can’t think of anything other than that thing you think you really want?

via Noupe
How to Build a Successful Landing Page

This All-In-One System Rescue Toolkit Automatically Repairs Your PC

We highlighted Paul Vreeland’s System Rescue Toolkit a few months ago, but now he’s built a new, “lite” version that packs most of the same tools and can automatically run against and repair common Windows problems for you. If you liked the original, you’ll love this.

The beauty of the original was that it offered a number of great utilities to help you troubleshoot your system if you had PC problems, without a whole bunch of trial versions, bloated utilities, or “we found X errors now call me to fix your computer” demos. The Lite version dials some of those tools back and makes the scan and repair process automatic, so you can use the toolkit, walk away and grab a bite to eat, and, hopefully, come back to a repaired and functioning Windows system—or at least some more information about what you should do next if the toolkit couldn’t fix your problems. He notes:

The Lite version of my toolkit runs all of the autoFIX steps from “Automatic Mode” found in the full version. You do not have to be a techie to use it! No technical expertise is necessary because all the repair tasks are run automatically! These repair steps include:

  • CPU/Cooling Test
  • Memory Test
  • Hard Drive Test
  • Windows Security Center Check
  • Anti-Virus and Anti-Malware Scans
  • Reset Windows Networking
  • System File Checker
  • Disk Cleanup and Defrag

Best of all, it’s completely free (although Paul does accept donations to maintain the project.) Hit the link below to try it out yourself.

AiO-SRT Lite | Paul Bryan Vreeland

Photo by Zach Chisolm.

via Lifehacker
This All-In-One System Rescue Toolkit Automatically Repairs Your PC

Google’s WiFi mesh router is now available for pre-order

Google announced on Tuesday that the home mesh network it debuted back in October, Google WiFi, is now available for pre-order. This system replaces your single router with Eero-style access points. Each of these individual nodes acts as a signal relay which reduces WiFi dead zones throughout your house.

Google WiFi is available as a single, $129 unit for apartments and small homes (500-1,500 square feet) or as a $300 3-pack that covers up to 3,000 – 4,500 square feet. The system employs Google’s Network Assist software to ensure you’re always running on the fastest connection. It also offers vocal cues and advice for optimizing the individual nodes’ positions.

The WiFi bundles are available through Google Store, Amazon, Best Buy and Walmart. According to a Droid Life report, they should begin shipping on December 6th.

Source: Google (Twitter)

via Engadget
Google’s WiFi mesh router is now available for pre-order

Schrade SCHF9 vs SCHF36 survival knife

At one time Schrade was known as an excellent knife company as they were right there with Buck and Uncle Henry.  However, for whatever reason, things started to slip and quality took a downturn.  Eventually Schrade became a company who produced less than quality knives.

All that changed when Schrade released their SCHF line of ultimate survival knives, which has turned their quality and reputation around. The new line of knives feature full tang, 1095 carbon steel blade or 8Cr13MoV high carbon stainless steel blade (depending on model), clip point, drop point, rubberized grip, nylon sheath, Kydex sheath — just a wide range of options.

With a price range from $25 – $50 the Schrade SCHF line of survival knives has been a hit. Rightfully so, as they come across as being well built and quality made.

Let’s take a look at two knives from the Schrade SCHF product line.  These are the SCHF9 and the SCHF36.

Schrade SCHF9

My personal Schrade SCHF9 was received as a Christmas gift several years ago. First impressions were very good. The knife and the sheath feels very solid. After taking the SCHF9 on a couple of three day camping trips, I was very happy with its performance.

Schrade SCHF9 survival knife

  • The blade is made out of 1095 carbon steel, which holds a good edge and is easy to sharpen.
  • Blade length: 6 1/2 inches
  • Handle length: 5 1/2 inches
  • Overall length:  12 1/4 inches
  • Blade thickness: 1/4 inch
  • Weight, with sheath: 1 pound 5 ounces
  • Weight without sheath:  15.7 ounces
  • Blade type:  Drop point
  • Price point (November 2016):  $37.85 from Amazon.com

The sheath has a detachable carry pouch that came with a sharpening stone.  I found the stone rather cheaply made and replaced it with a Smith’s Pocket Pal.  I like the pouch being detachable, as I can take it off and mount it on a backpack.  It adds another layer of functionality to the knife and sheath.

Let’s round the price up to $40.  For a $40 dollar knife, I feel this is a good deal. 1095 carbon steel, sheath, extra pouch on sheath, lanyard attachment, 1/4 inch thick blade, this is a workhorse of a survival knife.  If the SCHF9 breaks, there is nothing to really complain about.  Sometimes you get what you pay for, and this is a $40 knife.

Weighing 1 pound 5 ounces, this is a heavy knife.  For a day hike, bug out bag, get home bag,,, it is difficult to justify dedicating 1 pound just to a knife.

The sheath does not fit MOLLE webbing.  The belt loop is just that, a belt loop.

Schrade SCHF36

My Schrade SCHF36 was received as a Christmas gift from a family member.  I had it on my Amazon.com wish list and a family member bought it for me.

Schrade SCHF36 survival knife

Just as with the  SCHF9, first impressions of the SCHF36 were very good.  I liked that the SCHF36 has a shorter blade than the 36.  Long heavy blades are over rated and over hyped.

When skinning a wild game animal, long blades make it difficult to make fine cuts.  The heavier the knife, the faster fatigue sets in.  A thin short blade trumps a thick long blade for skinning every day of the week.

The blade is made out of 1095 carbon steel, which holds a good edge and is easy to sharpen.

  • Blade length: 5 1/4 inches
  • Handle length: 4 7/8 inches
  • Overall length: 10 1/16 inches
  • Blade thickness: 1/4 inch
  • Weight, with sheath: 1 pound 0.15 ounces
  • Weight without sheath: 13.25 ounces
  • Blade type: Drop point
  • Price point (November 2016): $25.86 from Amazon.com

My schrade SCHF36 came with a fire starter flint and steel.  To aid in starting fires, I bought some small baggies from a local big box market.  The baggies were found in the arts and crafts department and are for keeping small items such as beads in.  I put dryer lint in 2 baggies and stuffed them into the extra pouch on the sheath.

Unlike with the SCHF9, the pouch on the sheath is not detachable, which is not a big deal.

Conclusion

Sometimes you get what you pay for.  With a price range of $25 – $60, the Schrade SCHF line of knives comes across as a quality product for the price range.

I like that the SCHF36 is shorter and weighs less than the SCHF9, but just slightly.  The 36 still weighs in at 1 pound 0.15 ounces.  That is a lot of weight just for a knife.  In comparison, the Gerber Big Rock weighs just 7.85 ounces.  If want a lightweight knife to take backpacking, there are better options on the market.

In July 2016 I went on a day hike and took the SCHF36.  After about 8 miles or so I started asking myself, why did I take along a knife that weighs so much?

Overall, if you are thinking about buying one of the SCHRADE SCHF line of knives, go ahead and pick one up.  They are reasonably inexpensive and the return on your invest seems to be good.   With Christmas just a month away, they would make a nice Christmas present for a young adult.

The post Schrade SCHF9 vs SCHF36 survival knife appeared first on AllOutdoor.com.

via All Outdoor
Schrade SCHF9 vs SCHF36 survival knife

8TB disks still looking solid, seem to be some of Seagate’s best

Cloud backup and storage provider Backblaze has published its latest batch of drive reliability data. The release covers failure information for the 67,642 disks that the company uses to store nearly 300PB of data.

This is actually fewer disks than the company had last quarter, even though the total capacity has gone up. That’s because Backblaze has been upgrading, replacing 2TB disks from HGST and Western Digital with new Seagate 8TB ones. While this upgrade offers size and energy savings, it’s only worthwhile if the failure rate is contained; any more than 2-3 times the failure rate and Backblaze says the migration won’t be worth it.

Annualized drive failure rates.
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Annualized drive failure rates.

Fortunately, the findings from last quarter appear to be holding true. The widely expected bathtub curve—high failure rates at the start and end of the drives’ lives, with a period of low failure rates in the middle—isn’t in evidence. The 8TB Seagate drives so far are showing an annualized failure rate of 1.6 percent; that’s identical to the (consistently reliable) 2TB disks from HGST and substantially better than the 8.2 percent seen from the WDC disks. With only a quarter of the number of drives required, this is a clear savings. Presuming things don’t take a turn for the worse, the move will mean greatly reduced failures even as the total storage capacity goes up.

This is in fact the best performance that the company has so far seen from Seagate disks. Backblaze has had a preference for Seagate drives due to their greater availability and affordability, even if they have had slightly worse reliability characteristics than their competitors. Right now, the 8TB units appear to be winners.

Of course, there are downsides that may discourage the use of these larger disks. In particular, arrays of such disks will take longer to rebuild; the longer an array takes to rebuild, the more likely it is that multiple failures will strike simultaneously. Backblaze’s system allows for three simultaneous failures, and one hopes that the company has done the math to ensure that this system provides sufficient protection even with the larger volumes.

via Ars Technica
8TB disks still looking solid, seem to be some of Seagate’s best

This Is the Best T-Rex Costume You’ve Ever Seen


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A Japanese company called On-Art Corporation wants to build a Jurassic Park-like attraction called “Dino-A-Park.” But instead of spending billions of dollars trying to bring extinct creatures back to life, the company has instead created some of the most life-like and realistic dinosaur costumes you’ve ever seen.

Recently revealed in Tokyo by the company’s CEO, Kazuya Kanemaru, the dinosaur costumes are made from carbon fiber and other lightweight materials so they only weigh about 84 pounds, requiring just a single person inside to make them stomp around. Because they’re so light, the performers inside the costumes are able to move quickly, making the dinos appear even more realistic—without the risk of them eating any of the park’s guests.

[YouTube via Reuters]

via Gizmodo
This Is the Best T-Rex Costume You’ve Ever Seen

Facebook opens analytics and FbStart to developers of Messenger’s 34,000 bots

Facebook has been putting a lot of effort into growing Messenger as a bot platform this year, and now there are 34,000 of them in existence, built to automatically give you news and entertainment, let you shop, and more, expanding Messenger’s use beyond simple chats with friends. Today, that strategy is getting a significant boost: Facebook says it will now make bots trackable on its free analytics platform, alongside analytics for ads and apps. And Facebook is also opening up its developer program, FbStart, to bot developers as well.

Both potentially give bot makers more reasons to build and monitor how their new widgets are working.

Josh Twist, a product manager for Facebook’s bots efforts in Messenger, tells me that Facebook expanded the analytics and FbStart tools after a lot of requests from the developers.

“Getting bot support for messenger is the most frequently requested feature,” he said. This shouldn’t be too much of a surprise: Facebook already provided these kinds of tools to other developers on its platform, and bots have seen a huge surge of interest, both from users interested in trying these out to see how they work and also developers keen to see if this is the next big thing.

Analytics, of course, is an essential tool for a developer, both to be able to track how well something is working and other kids of feedback. Here Facebook says that features that will be included are reaches across mobile and desktop devices and measurement of customers’ journeys across apps and websites.

Developers also will be able to view reports on messages sent, messages received, and people who block or unblock your app. And they will also get access to anonymized data reports on bot demographics, which include details like age, gender, education, interests, country and language to figure out who is using your bot.

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FbStart, meanwhile, currently has some 9,000 members who get feedback from Facebook on their apps, ads and bots, as well as Facebook ads credits and other free tools from partners like Amazon, Dropbox, and Stripe. If Facebook was looking at ways of swelling those ranks, tapping 34,000 developers could be one way of doing that.

Twist points out that while there are a lot of standalone bot developers coming to Facebook for the first time, there is a lot of crossover with other Facebook services like apps and ads. Those who are leveraging these together — for example using the recent ability to channel a person from a News Feed ad through to your Messenger experience — will be able to look at the effectiveness of those efforts now, and make potentially more ad buys based on them.

Twist tells me that for now, the analytics will cover bots built just for Messenger, although don’t be surprised if Facebook expands it to other platforms. “It is something we have talked about and haven’t ruled it out,” he said. “It’s possible, absolutely, since we already support analytics for other platforms for apps. But right now we’re prioritizing support for Messenger bots.

 

via TechCrunch
Facebook opens analytics and FbStart to developers of Messenger’s 34,000 bots

Ghost in the Shell (Trailer)

Ghost in the Shell (Trailer)

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Whether or not you agree with the casting of Scar-Jo in the role of Major Motoko Kusanagi, this trailer has us pretty excited about where the live action version of Masamune Shirow’s classic anime looks to be headed, with incredible visuals and thrilling action.

via The Awesomer
Ghost in the Shell (Trailer)

Why the next great SaaS company will look nothing like Salesforce

For years, a truism in software investing was that the value of application software lies in data, not in technology. Companies like Salesforce, Workday, and ServiceNow are valuable because they are the “system of record” (SoR), or single source of truth, for their customers’ most valuable information, such as customer records or employee data.

As a result, they become deeply embedded in their customers’ business processes, making them hard to rip out. That gives them tremendous revenue predictability and pricing power. The technology itself — databases combined with workflow engines — is not particularly innovative; it’s the information captured by the technology that’s important.

The newest crop of software applications turns this logic on its head. They mimic consumer companies by using technology as a “wedge” to gain widespread adoption and don’t even try to become systems of record.

Instead, they are “systems of engagement” (SoE), meaning apps that employees actually use to get their work done. For example, take Slack, which Forbes recently identified as the most valuable private cloud company.

The data in Slack is either low value (“water-cooler” conversations) or already lives in existing systems of record. The same is true for many other fast-growing apps, like Intercom (customer interaction), Clari (sales), Culture Amp (employee feedback) and Front (shared inbox).

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Digging deeper, the specific areas of technology where these companies have innovated are ones that historically people have ignored — integration and design.

At big companies, integration is the ugly step-child of any product roadmap: everyone wants it to work, but no one wants to work on it. Here’s an example: a senior executive at a leading SaaS company tells me that twenty people from different groups across the company show up for the “billing meeting”, where it’s decided how billing will integrate with core features. But no one wants to work on the billing team, creating those integrations.

Startups have capitalized on that by creating high performance, scalable integrations, solving hard technical problems like how to sync without putting excessive load on the underlying system.

Entire companies, such as our portfolio company Okta, for single sign-on, or Segment, for analytics, are now built on integration alone.

Integration companies, while not glamorous, can build market power by positioning themselves at the center of an ecosystem and creating an “ecosystem network effect”, whereby they become a de facto standard. Okta and Segment are both on their way to achieving this.

But most new applications use integration to gather, organize, and analyze data. They win the hearts of their users through great design. That’s no small challenge, given growing data sets, shrinking screen sizes, and ever shorter attention spans, which is why the concept of design has become a huge differentiator.

It works because it’s a win-win. Startups creating systems of engagement get users and revenue, by leveraging data in the systems of record. They also increase the data’s value, by using it more and adding to it. That makes the big software vendors happy, as (they believe) it increases their customer lock-in and helps them become more of a platform.

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What’s not clear is whether this will continue. Large companies like Salesforce want to innovate through technology. For example, the center-piece at this month’s Dreamforce, its annual conference, is a new artificial intelligence (AI) initiative marketed as “Einstein”, which layers predictive models over its existing applications.

Conversely, once a startup’s product is being used every day like Slack, it may start keeping more information within it and over time wean people off whatever they were using before (Outlook, Sharepoint, etc).

The game-changer could well be artificial intelligence: if AI software could extract signal from the unstructured product feedback in Intercom or the sales forecasting information in Clari, the data in those systems could become more valuable than the limited fields captured in today’s systems of record.

But that’s a long way off. For current startups, the message is clear. Don’t try to be Salesforce to Seibel, Workday to Peoplesoft or Coupa to Ariba. Those battles are over, and won’t be repeated. Instead, use technology — integration, design, perhaps machine learning or AI — as your wedge into the market.

Play nice with existing systems, and then analyze how people are using your product. Feed that back into new product development and drive more engagement, ideally creating a virtuous cycle between usage and design that keeps you ahead of competitors.

For examples of who does this well, look no further than the large consumer companies. It’s no coincidence that the two most awe-inspiring enterprise businesses today (AWS and Google Apps) both have a consumer heritage.

That’s the winning strategy for today, and most likely tomorrow.

Featured Image: Ismagilov/Shutterstock

via TechCrunch
Why the next great SaaS company will look nothing like Salesforce