Viking Pest Control introduces the future of pest control to North America

'Korean Smart City Business Opportunities Event', held by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and supported by National IT Promotion Agency and KIC Europe, will be held in Barcelona, Spain, on the 19th, during '2019 SCEWC'.

Developed by medical uniform leader Strategic Partners Inc (SPI), Certainty SmartBoost infuses machine-washable fabrics with protection against bacteria that cause odors and degrade fabric.

Celebrated intimates company Smart&Sexy has re-launched the smartandsexy.com website with numerous enhancements aimed to improve the overall customer experience and brand aesthetic.

Celebrated intimates company Smart&Sexy has created a collection of panties to empower women to get to the polls in 2020.

Amazon's Smart Ring launch marks the beginning of a new era for Smart Rings - they are now mainstream, and the market growth will accelerate. Haltian's Smart Ring whitepaper analyzes the market and helps companies define their go-to-market strategy!

Samsung this week released its May 2020 set of security updates for Android smartphones, which includes a patch for a critical vulnerability impacting all of its devices since 2014. 

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The organization CEOs For Cities released a widely-cited report last month titled Measuring Urban Transportation Performance: A Critique Of Mobility Measures And Synthesis (71p. PDF). Their research finds that the secret to reducing the amount of time Americans spend in peak hour traffic has more to do with how we build our cities than how we build our roads.

The report explains how the cities studied have managed to achieve shorter travel times and actually reduce the peak hour travel times. Some metropolitan areas have land use patterns and transportation systems that enable their residents to take shorter trips and minimize the burden of peak hour travel.

This runs counter to the conclusions of the Texas Transportation Institute's Urban Mobility Report year after year. The CEO For Cities document explains that the UMR approach has completely overlooked the role that variations in travel distances play in driving urban transportation problems.

In the best performing cities -- those that have achieved the shortest peak hour travel distances -- such as Chicago, Portland and Sacramento, the typical traveler spends 40 fewer hours per year in peak hour travel than the average American. Because of smart land use planning and investment in alternative transportation, Portland has seen its average trip lengths decline by 20%.

In contrast, in the most sprawling metropolitan areas, such as Nashville, Indianapolis and Raleigh, the average resident spends as much as 240 hours per year in peak period travel because travel distances are so much greater. The report's 20-page Executive Summary is titled Driven Apart: How Sprawl Is Lengthening Our Commutes And Why Misleading Mobility Measures Are Making Things Worse.

In The New Sharing Economy, a study by Latitude in collaboration with Shareable Magazine, the authors look at new opportunities for sharing.

An interesting graph (click to enlarge) plots various endeavors on a market saturation and latent demand scale. The resulting plot points fall into four quandrants, labeled:

Low Interest and Low Prior Success (e.g. bike, outdoor sporting goods)

Done Well Already (e.g. work space, storage space, food co-op)

Opportunities Still Remain (e.g. physical media, digital media)

Best New Opportunities (automobile, time/responsibilities, money lending/borrowing)

This last category, Best New Opportunities, provides the launch point for discussion of car sharing. The report notes that there's still a large amount of unfulfilled demand for car-sharing. More than half of all participants surveyed either shared vehicles casually or weren't sharing currently but expressed interest in doing so. For people who share in an organized fashion, cars and bikes were popular for sharing amongst family and close friends but weren't commonly shared outside this immediate network, relative to other categories of goods.

This intriguing and visually appealing report goes on to point out the new sharing takeaways for non-sharing businesses, including "we-based brands," the value in social and alternative currencies, and the "contagiousness" of sharing.

Finally, Transportation For America recently released a White Paper titled Smart Mobility For A 21st Century America: Strategies For Maximizing Technology To Minimize Congestion, Reduce Emissions And Increase Efficiency (39p. PDF).

It proposes that improving transportation efficiency through operational innovation is critical as our population grows and ages, budgets tighten and consumer preferences shift.

As Congress prepares to review and reauthorize the nation’s transportation program, an array of innovations that were either overlooked or did not exist at the time of previous authorizations can be incentivized.

Just as the Internet, smart phones and social media changed they way we acquire news, listen to music or connect with friends and family, these same innovations have implications for how we move around. While high-tech gadgets can be a problem when they distract motorists from driving, they open up a whole new world for people using other modes.

But what if we could manage traffic to help drivers avoid congestion before they get stuck in it? What if you always knew when the next bus was going to arrive, the closest parking space or which train car had a seat available for you? The innovative technologies and strategies outlined in the White Paper include:

Making transportation systems more efficient (e.g. ramp meters, highway advisory radio)
Providing more travel options (e.g. online databases to match up vanpool riders, car-sharing services)
Providing travelers with better, more accurate, and more connected information (e.g. computerized vehicle tracking)
Making pricing and payments more convenient and efficient (e.g. EZ passes, electronic benefits)
Reducing trips and traffic (flex-time, consolidating services online)

Everyone is calling for smart growth...but what exactly is it?

In The Smart Growth Manual (New York: McGraw-Hill Professional, 2009), two leading city planners provide a thorough answer. From the expanse of the metropolis to the detail of the window box, they address the pressing challenges of urban development with easy-to-follow advice and broad array of best practices.

With their landmark book Suburban Nation, Andres Duany and Jeff Speck "set forth more clearly than anyone has done in our time the elements of good town planning" (The New Yorker).

In this long-awaited companion volume, the authors have organized the latest contributions of new urbanism, green design, and healthy communities into a comprehensive handbook, fully illustrated with the built work of the nation's leading practitioners.

This work also features a valuable Smart Growth Directory, with contact information for national, regional and state organizations.

Lieutenant Governor-Elect Gavin Newsom, writing as Mayor of San Francisco, touted The Smart Growth Manual as "an indispensable guide to city planning. This kind of progressive development is the only way to full restore our economic strength and create new jobs, new industries, and a renewed ability to compete in the first rank of world economies."

An extensive interview with the authors is featured on the American Society of Landscape Architects "The Dirt" blog.

The conventional wisdom says that we need strict planning to build walkable neighborhoods around transit stations - even though these neighborhoods are like the streetcar suburbs that were common in America before anyone heard of city planning.

In reality, many of our greatest successes in urban design have occurred when we treated the issues as political questions - not as technical problems that the planners should solve for us.

According to Unplanning: Livable Cities And Political Choices (Berkeley, Calif.: Preservation Institute, 2010), the anti-freeway movement of the 1960s and 1970s and the anti-sprawl movement of recent decades were both political movements, and citizen-activists often had to work against projects that planners proposed and approved.

This book uses an intriguing thought experiment to show that, in order to build livable cities, we should go further than the anti-freeway and anti-sprawl movements by putting direct political limits on urban growth.

Political choices about how we want to live can transform our cities more effectively than planning.

Sydney Finkelstein, Tuck School of Business professor and author of "Why Smart Executives Fail: And What You Can Learn from Their Mistakes."

Andrew Waldeck, partner at Innosight and coauthor of the HBR article "The New M&A Playbook."

Anita Woolley, assistant professor of organizational behavior and theory at Carnegie Mellon University and coauthor of the HBR article "What Makes a Team Smarter? More Women."

Cass Sunstein, Harvard professor and author of "Wiser: Getting Beyond Groupthink to Make Groups Smarter."

Todd Rose, the Director of the Mind, Brain, & Education program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and the author of "The End of Average: How to Succeed in a World That Values Sameness," explains why we should stop using averages to understand individuals.

The research shows we shouldn't be afraid to ask for help. Francesca Gino and Alison Wood Brooks, both of Harvard Business School, explain.

Sales and marketing firm Smart Advantages take time out to enjoy Winterval in Waterford, Ireland.

The long-awaited return of Smart Stuff with Justin and Roman, featuring Justin McElroy and Roman Mars.

Make your mark. Go to radiotopia.fm to donate today.

Everyone should listen to My Brother, My Brother, and Me on the Max Fun Network.

Support organizations that can leverage the power of the smartphone in order to transform their contact center can not only gain key insights to help streamline support operations but can also make agents more effective

The share of smartphones priced below Rs 5000, categorized as entry-level, has trailed from 12% in 2017 to 4% in 2019, whereas, for those priced between Rs 5000-Rs 10,000, categorized as basic, it has fallen from 45% to 42%.

Canalys Senior Analyst Ben Stanton said that in February, when the coronavirus was centered on China, vendors were mainly concerned about how to build enough smartphones to meet global demand.

To become a smart business, organizations must enable as many operating decisions as possible to be made by machines fueled by live data rather than by humans supported by their own data analysis.

The year 2019 saw the launch of many smartphones. However, there were some of these which were game-changers and paved the way for the next generation of smartphones. ET Wealth rounds up the top six among these.

2019 saw some major innovations in the smartphone segment. After a happening year as far as smartphone launches were concerned, 2020 is expected to witness a lot more competition in innovation as well as on the design front. ET Wealth lists 5 such trends.

If you are a heavy smartphone user and are looking for a smartphone that offers higher battery power but are running a tight budget for such a spend, then here are six options that will solve your problem. These fall in the below Rs 12,ooo price range.

Your computer, smartphones might be holding videos, photos and audio in various folders, and you would not even know that it's there. Hence, ET Wealth tells you the following methods on how to clean up your devices for more efficiency.

Mobile phone manufacturers are focusing on increasing the screen size of devices. However, if you are someone who prefer a more compact phone, ET Wealth rounds up some of the best options.

The smart, connected products — made possible by vast improvements in processing power and device miniaturisation and by the network benefits of ubiquitous wireless connectivity — have unleashed a new era of competition.

Despite all the interest in eye-catching designs, cognitive science suggests most opportunities for the IoT will arise by creating useful offerings.

This is the easiest way to listen to WBAL NewsRadio 1090 and FM 101.5 on Amazon Alexa and Google Home.

Visitors to Grand Canyon, especially inner canyon hikers, mule riders, and backpackers, need to prepare for excessively hot days in the coming weeks. https://www.nps.gov/grca/learn/news/hike-smart-reminder.htm

National Park Rangers at Grand Canyon National Park are strongly urging visitors to Grand Canyon, especially inner canyon hikers, mule riders, and backpackers to be prepared for excessively hot days in the coming weeks. https://www.nps.gov/grca/learn/news/hike-smart-at-grand-canyon-national-park.htm

Researchers from the University of California San Francisco are asking adults to help them fight the novel coronavirus by downloading this smartphone app.

The post New COVID-19 ‘Citizen Science’ Project Lets Any Adult with a Smartphone Help Fight Coronavirus appeared first on Good News Network.

A multi level mini menu suitable for smartphones.

A multi level mini menu suitable for PCs, Tablets and Smartphones.

A second multi level mini menu suitable for PCs, Tablets and Smartphones.

A droplist animated menu suitable for PCs, Tablets and Smartphones.

A vertical concertina animated menu suitable for PCs, Tablets and Smartphones.

EDISON RESEARCH and NPR released the findings in its 2020 Smart Audio Report on smart speaker and voice-controlled device usage THURSDAY (4/30)  in a webinar hosted by EDISON's TOM … more

I have been a Johnson County resident since 1977. I grew up in Clear Lake, a small farming community in North Central Iowa. I came to Iowa City after being recruited by Dan Gable to wrestle for the University of Iowa Hawkeye wrestling team and placed 3rd place in the 1980 NCAA Division I.

I met my wife Teresa and we settled in Iowa City. I have two children, Melissa, 36, and Anthony, 25; and grandchildren Emma, 9, Ellie and Emilia, 4-month-old twin girls, and Jack, who passed two just before his 2nd birthday. I am a cancer survivor and support cancer research and patient support.

I was a maintenance supervisor at the old Cantebury Inn, I owned and operated Advance Property Management for 23 years and drove a school bus for First Student, Inc. While working at First Student I was one of the driving forces in the campaign for the workers to unionize with the Teamsters. I was asked to join the Teamsters as a full-time organizer after the campaign, which I did for 13 years. I found my calling as an organizer because I was able to help others stand up for themselves and really change their lives.

I made the decision to run for Johnson County supervisor because we need to bring some common sense back to Johnson County government, and run a smarter government that works for all. The supervisors need to oversee the county departments better to stop wasting county funds paying settlements to individuals because of illegal action by department employees. Rules are for everyone and if you work outside the rules there will be costs and consequences.

I want to bring new blood to the board as well as new ideas. County supervisor is a public service position of honor and trust. Being a supervisor is about following through on jobs you were elected to do for the people. The supervisors need to finish jobs that they started but never completed. You should never leave a job half done!

I hope the voters agree the Johnson County Board of Supervisors need to answer to the public for their actions and their employees. We can no long just “sweep issues under the rug.”

Dean Phinney is a candidate in the Democratic primary for Johnson County Board of Supervisors.

In the world of smartwatches, the two big contenders are the Apple Watch and the Fitbit Versa. The Smartwatch Showdown infographic from The Watchstrap is very timely with recent news that Google has just acquired Fitbit.

In the world of wearable gadgets, smartwatches are all the rage at the moment. The smartwatch market is growing by the day, and new and improved devices are constantly being released. This means that picking the right smartwatch can be a real head-scratcher. To help you choose the right device for your needs, we’ve compared two of the hottest smartwatches on the market: the Apple Watch Series 4 and Fitbit Versa!

If you want to find out which of these devices came on top in the end, don’t miss the comprehensive infographic below!

First, this is a great use of infographics in content marketing! The Watchstrap is an online retailer of watch bands, and the infographic is a comparison design without being a sales pitch. It draws in traffic by providing valuable information, which build credibility for their brand.

There are a handful of things I didn’t like about the design itself that could be easily improved to make this a better infographic design:

• Too much text. I realize there isn’t much data to work with, but they need to cut down the text in the infographic. Paragraphs of explanation don’t belong in the infographic, they belong on the landing page. The infographic should be short and draw in readers to the website if they want to learn more.

• The scale is wrong in the Size & Design section of the infographic. The dimensions of the Apple Watch are larger, but the graphic illustration on the page is smaller. The illustrations should be visually correct to scale.

• Eliminate any word wrap when possible. There are a number of list points that have one hanging word wrapping to a second line. This could be avoided by shortening the text or just widening the text box. There’s room in the design without wrapping some of these words.

• The URL in the footer should link to the infographic landing page, not the home page of the company site.

• Copyright or Creative Commons license is completely missing.

• Don’t obscure the source by only listing the home page URL. What’s the link to the research data?

.NET is indeed an important application development platform, as it's secure, robust, and quite easy to learn and implement. Developers are widely using the .NET framework to build web applications and even modernize legacy programming based applications into .NET-based ones. .NET developers also use many third-party tools to carry out development. These tools have proven to provide the best support for development.

Here are some of the top useful tools being used by many.NET development teams, .NET developers, individual .NET programmers, etc.

A method for estimating loss rates of links in a smart grid includes identifying end-to-end passage rates from a source to each of multiple receiver and/or load meters in a smart grid, and estimating a loss in at least one link of the grid by identifying the sparsest solution of link loss rates that matches the end-to-end passage rates. Also, a system includes a memory, a processor coupled thereto, and software modules executing on the processor, including a monitoring module for monitoring power flow of receiver and/or load meters in a smart grid, a measurement collector module for collecting measurements to compute end-to-end passage rates from a source to each receiver and/or load meter, and a processing module for estimating a loss in a link of the grid by identifying the sparsest solution of link loss rates matching the end-to-end passage rates.

Present invention discloses a dispenser having means to dispense desired number of pills from a bulk supply of pills contained in the dispenser. The dispenser comprises of storage compartment having bulk supply of pills and having a discharge port emptying into counting compartment The counting compartment contains first and second conveyors moving at first and second speed; wherein the second speed is greater than the first speed thereby enabling pill separation; the second conveyor discharges pills into dispensing compartment. Sensors are strategically placed along the conveyors to count pills discharged into dispensing compartment. A pill recovery system and apparatus is disposed inside the dispenser having means to recover pills remaining on conveyors upon completion of a dispensation cycle and deposit recovered pills back into the storage compartment for use in future dispensation cycles. A docking station having receptacles to accommodate dispenser is provided. Docking station has communication ports enabling two-way communication with personal computer.

A sheet processing apparatus provided with a sheet punching device and a processor unit for controlling the apparatus, said processor unit being adapted to enable an operator to specify sheet size, sheet orientation, and hole positions in batches of sheets being processed and creating a staggered stack of sheets by stacking said batches of sheets with holes aligned.

According to one embodiment, a system includes a processor and an interface. The interface receives, from a terminal, planned-deposit information. The terminal is at a location that is remote from a deposit location. The processor associates a deposit identifier with the planned-deposit information and stores the planned-deposit information and the deposit identifier in a memory. According to one embodiment, a method includes recognizing, at a deposit location, a deposit identifier. The method includes identifying, based on the deposit identifier and information stored in a memory, a planned deposit. The method includes detecting that the planned deposit has been delivered to a depository and determining, by a processor and based on one or more business rules, an availability of funds associated with the planned deposit.

The invention proposes a smart card which comprises a digital signal processing receiver that can automatically identify the type of a smart card reader based on the error vector magnitude of signals received from the reader. The digital signal processing receiver is able to reconfigure itself at runtime in order to optimally minimize its power consumption in dependence on the type of reader it is communicating with. Furthermore, the invention proposes a new preamble structure that comprises a basic part and an optional additional part.

An apparatus for minimizing self-discharge of a smart battery pack is provided. During initial storage of the smart battery pack (100), prior to be being charged, a self-discharge protection circuit (110) disables smart battery circuitry (130). A minimal current drain is maintained while the smart battery circuitry (130) is disabled. Upon coupling of the smart battery pack (100) to a charger, the protections circuit (110) enables the smart battery circuitry (130). Battery packs having to be shipped with partially drained cells as part of shipping precaution requirements are no longer faced with the additional drainage problem previously caused by the smart battery circuitry (130) during storage.

Present invention discloses a dispenser having means to dispense desired number of pills from a bulk supply of pills contained in the dispenser. The dispenser comprises of storage compartment having bulk supply of pills and having a discharge port emptying into counting compartment. The counting compartment contains first and second conveyors moving at first and second speed; wherein the second speed is greater than the first speed thereby enabling pill separation; the second conveyor discharges pills into dispensing compartment. Sensors are strategically placed along the conveyors to count pills discharged into dispensing compartment. A pill recovery system and apparatus is disposed inside the dispenser having means to recover pills remaining on first and second conveyors upon completion of a dispensation cycle and there after deposit recovered pills back into the storage compartment for use in future dispensation cycles.

A smart home system having a controller which controls an ozone generator, gas supply outlets connected to gas supply outlets of the ozone generator via a pipe, and solenoid valves which control opening and closing of the gas supply outlets. The controller is connected with each of the solenoid valves and controls opening and closing of each of the solenoid valves. An operation method for the system discloses driving the ozone generator by the controller to generate ozone, controlling opening of the solenoid valves by the central processor when the central processor receives an external signal for opening the solenoid valves, reducing opening level of the solenoid valves when a gas flow sensor detects that the ozone flow rate passing through the gas inlet is greater than the flow rate threshold, and controlling closing of the solenoid valves by the central processor when the central processor receives a signal for closing the solenoid valves.

A smartphone app that causes a smartphone device to actively control a configuration of footwear structural elements located in a footwear sole or removable inner sole insert of a user of the smartphone device, and one or more sensors located in either one or both of the sole or the removable inner sole insert the user's footwear and a sensor including a gyroscope and/or an accelerometer in the smartphone device; and the footwear structural elements being configured for computer control by the smartphone device when the smartphone app is operating on the smartphone device; and wherein instructions of the smartphone app, when executed, cause the smartphone device to, first, process measurement data received from the footwear and smartphone sensors and, second, use the processed measurement data to alter a configuration of the footwear structural elements based on the output from processing measurement data.