Venture capital firms notoriously embrace risk and take big swings, hoping that one startup will become a monster hit that pays for many other failed investments. This VC approach scares established companies, but it shouldn’t. Stanford Graduate School of Business professor Ilya Strebulaev says that VC firms have proven best practices that all leaders should apply in their own companies. He explains exactly how VC’s operationalize risk, embrace disagreement over consensus, and stay agile in their decision-making—all valuable lessons that apply outside of Silicon Valley. With author Alex Dang, Strebulaev cowrote the new book The Venture Mindset: How to Make Smarter Bets and Achieve Extraordinary Growth and the HBR article "Make Decisions with a VC Mindset."

Universal Consulting Opportunities (UCO), a subsidiary of Stellar MLS, has announced an agreement with Arab MLS to enhance its real estate practices across the Arab region and beyond. UCO will advise Arab MLS to further drive efficiency, transparency, user experience and the way people connect with properties, starting with Egypt, Dubai, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and…

The post Stellar MLS Subsidiary Working With Arab MLS to Enhance Practices in the Arab Region appeared first on RISMedia.

In the competitive realm of real estate, recruiting agents is a pivotal task, and the fortune often lies in the art of follow-up. Changing brokerages is a significant decision, and acknowledging the weight of this transition can make all the difference.  Culture beyond words Show don’t just tell. Use the follow-up process to immerse potential…

The post Unlocking Success: The Power of Follow-Up In Recruiting Real Estate Agents appeared first on RISMedia.

The recent antitrust lawsuit inadvertently highlighted something interesting during the trial. The plaintiffs’ attorney successfully argued that the whole real estate industry engaged in collusion and price-fixing. As real estate professionals, we know that isn’t true, right? Here’s the interesting part: Those attorneys who will be paid on contingency literally make their money in exactly…

The post Taking a Closer Look at Attorney Contingencies Vs. Agent Commissions appeared first on RISMedia.

Coaching is a valuable tool that offers numerous benefits to agents and brokers, let alone teams. Working in real estate requires constant education and development to be at the top of your game, and coaching provides an easy way to pursue this. Hiring a coach can allow team members to grow and flourish within their…

The post Team Tactics: Taking Advantage of Team Coaching appeared first on RISMedia.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has released its annual inflation adjustments for tax year 2025. Detailed information about the adjustments and changes to the over 60 tax provisions impacting taxpayers can be found in Revenue Procedure 2024-40. The adjustments described below generally apply to income tax returns that will be filed in 2026 for tax...

The post Looking Ahead: 2025 Tax Inflation Adjustments for Individuals and Families appeared first on Anders CPA.

A French mobility company called Mobilize has designed a new type of vehicle from scratch. Two, actually: The Duo, an enclosed two-seater electric quadricycle, and its sibling the Bento, which ditches the back seat for a large storage box.

Both vehicles were meant to be strong urban design statements, and to not draw on outdated references. "The Duo's greatest strength is its unique design," says Jean-Philippe Salar, Mobilize's Design Director. "What we wanted for this vehicle was to avoid imitating a car. It's in effect a little spaceship, a little lunar capsule on 4 wheels."

Not being a car, the diminutive Duo can be driven by folks as young as 14 in France.

The tandem seating arrangement, rather than side-by-side, is to make the vehicle as narrow as possible, the better to slip through traffic.

The gullwing doors allow ingress and egress even in tight spaces.

The charging cable sits in a dedicated compartment in the vehicle's nose. And, surprisingly, the vehicle features an airbag for safety.

The company refers to the single-seater Bento as a micro utility vehicle; it boasts a cargo box on the back that can swallow nearly a cubic meter.

The Bento requires a proper driver's license, as its more powerful electric motor can top out at 80 km/h (50 mph). It's targeted at last-mile delivery services and tradespeople who travel with tools.

Intriguingly, the dashboard of both vehicle was inspired by an icon of 1980s urban culture: The boombox. "The design of Duo et Bento, both on the outside and inside – with its dashboard that refers to boomboxes – deliberately goes against the grain of classic automotive language," says Salar. The designers also decided not to include a screen, reckoning that most people are already carrying one these days.

Both vehicles require half the space to park as a car.

The construction of the vehicles is decidedly un-car-like: "It's based on a metal birdcage structure to which we simply glue plastic panels," says Benoit Abadie, Mobilize's Director of Engineering. "We have around 300 parts in Duo, that's 5 times less than in a normal car, which has around 1,500."

Mobilize is a subsidiary of Renault, and both vehicles are manufactured at Renault's factory in Tangiers. "It's an ISO 14001 plant that's working towards carbon neutrality," says Wafa Boujguenna, the company's Industrial Project Manager. "Duo and Bento are eco-designed vehicles, made from 40% recycled materials, battery included, and are 95% recyclable, including the battery."

The vehicles will be sold in France, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands. No word on if these will come to the U.S.

There's a great interview with the design team below, explaining what they were going for:

Despite some optimism that the US truck freight market would begin to recover from continued downward pressure during Q3 2024, U.S. Bank freight metrics showed challenges remain for motor carriers with shipments and spending softer in Q3. Shipments were off 21.2 per cent YoY, one of the largest drops. The bank’s national shipments index fell by 1.9 per cent in Q3 after a 2.2-per cent drop in Q2.

Anders was recognized on Missouri Lawyers Media’s 2021 Reader Rankings list for Forensic Accounting Providers. As one of the top three firms honored on the list, Anders was nominated and selected by the readers of Missouri Lawyers Media in an annual ranking of top businesses and firms in the legal profession. The Anders Forensic and...

The post Anders Named a Top Forensic Accounting Provider in Missouri Lawyers Media 2021 Reader Rankings appeared first on Anders CPA.

More than 1.8 million smokers attempted to quit smoking and an estimated 104,000 Americans quit smoking for good because of the nine-week-long 2014 Tips From Former Smokers ( Tips ) campaign.

Report on the latest statistical data regarding adults and e-cigarette use.

The latest data on the disparities of the adult population of tobacco use in the U.S.

Data regarding smoking, quantity and access to cigarettes by youth in 45 countries during 2013 and 2014.

Data regarding the use of smoking and tobacco use among adults in 2014.

Data regarding the current use of cigarette smoking among adults from 2005-2015.

Intel is struggling to overcome a series of challenges and establish itself as a globally competitive chipmaker.

What if you could work on your computer, but your computer was on your face? I'm not convinced this is Apple Vision Pro's killer app.

Open a new bank account today and earn a top interest rate. Our experts have researched the best rates on checking, savings, and CD accounts to help you maximize your earnings.

If there ever was a summer in my life that I’d want to be on a roll with building shit, this would have been the one, obviously. Was I? Absolutely not.  I’ve never been able to fully articulate the difference between when I’m “on” and “off” as it relates to building. Sometimes–through fate, or alcohol, […]

Not only is it that time of year again (the one where we reflect on all the things we’ve done, and all the things we hope to do, while simultaneously being bombarded with “new year, new you” messaging, which is all just bullshit trying to get people to buy whatever weight-loss program/tea/diet crap is hip […]

First, a warning: Sad farm shit ahead.  About this time last year, I walked out to the barn one morning and found the older of my two donkeys, Doc, laying unresponsive on the ground. He was alive, but barely. The vet lives just down the road and was able to make it out to us […]

Shira writes: As an Appalachian Trail hiker, I always treat my clothes with permethrin. I’m a big fan of Sawyer products, but this claim caught my eye: Reduce likelihood of a tick bite by 73.6 times by treating shoes and … Continue reading →

Several people pointed me to this news report on a successful bettor in an election prediction market: Not only did he see Donald Trump winning the presidency, he wagered that Trump would win the popular vote—an outcome that many political … Continue reading →

The New Jersey Superior Court’s Appellate Division overturned a grant of summary judgment dismissing a hospital worker’s suit for damages from a fall in a parking garage. Case: Barrett v. Hackensack…

The Oregon Workers’ Compensation Division's rulemaking advisory committee will review medical treatment regulations during a Nov. 5 meeting. The division said a preliminary list of topics that the committee will discuss…

The Massachusetts Appeals Court upheld the summary dismissal of a worker’s civil suit against his employer and a colleague who had accidentally struck him with a truck while he was…

The Minnesota Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited trucking Wayne Transports Inc. after a worker died in a confined space. Justin Erickson, 39, was found dead in the tank of a tanker…

The Texas Department of Insurance on Tuesday announced that the former co-owner of Bill Hall Jr. Trucking was sentenced to 10 years of deferred adjudication and ordered to pay restitution…

A trial court erred when it granted a motion in limine to preclude an injured worker from presenting to a jury the question of eligibility for a permanent partial disability…

This program introduces students to the preparation of settlement by taking medicare's interests into account. This course is for all disciplines in workers' compensation, especially those who deal with MSP…

"Work Comp Matters" - the central location for all your workers' compensation, employment and labor law matters. Steve Appell hosts this weekly podcast from sunny southern California - presenting some…

The Virginia Court of Appeals upheld a decision by the Workers’ Compensation Commission denying an employer’s successive application for a hearing as being unsupported by probable cause. In December 2022, Jessica…

Orders taking a matter off calendar are not final orders for the purposes of seeking reconsideration, the California Workers' Compensation Appeals Board said in a what it designated as a…

This course will discuss implementation and utilization of an alternative return-to-work program that offers modified duty at non-profit organizations. Experienced instructors will illustrate the value of a specialized return-to-work program…

This webinar will equip workers' compensation professionals with essential knowledge and strategies to support TBI patients better, ensuring they receive the comprehensive care needed for both their physical injuries and…

The North Carolina Court of Appeals ruled that a worker could proceed with a civil suit against her employer stemming from an attack by a co-worker and multiple members of…

The Florida Division of Workers’ Compensation posted a notice of development of rulemaking to implement the most recent edition of its health care provider fee schedule and related documents. The DWC…

    The hiring for this position is now officially closed! Design Sojourn is a Design Led Innovation Consultancy that loves to inspire, impact and create better lives. We are currently looking for smart, dynamic, self-motivated Junior Experience Designers with strong verbal/written communication skills and...

The post We are looking for Junior Experience Designers! (Closed) appeared first on Design Sojourn. Please click above if you cannot see this post.

Running a business is widely recognized as challenging, with the average startup lasting only about five years. While starting a business might seem straightforward, maintaining it proves to be the true test, a reality faced even by large multinational corporations.   Consider this: nearly 90%...

The post Design Thinking: A Catalyst for Business Growth appeared first on Design Sojourn. Please click above if you cannot see this post.

On our website designworkplan we used Google Analytics for collecting visitors data. When we started the blog way back in 2008 it was a good way to find out which content viewers of our website liked and disliked. A user-friendly dashboard to find out important metrics related to viewers of the website.

Google Analytics gave us insights on popular pages and were people visited our website from. This allowed us to target those audiences more and as a result we gained traction to our (design) website. Our content evolves around design, typography and wayfinding. Wayfinding is a design niche that focusses at connecting people to information and environments.

If you want to learn more about wayfinding, please read our page Introduction to Wayfinding.

Over time Google Analytics grew in complexity to an extend we have a hard time understanding the metrics shown in the dashboards.

Google Analytics back to the future

In the beginning Google Analytics was plain and simple, the right fit for our design content. As a content creator we are interested in how visitors perceive information on our website. Information about popular pages, demographics and referral sources are meaningful for establishing an understanding of what visitors are looking for.

Privacy and data collection

Over time we realized Google used our collected data for their benefits. Although Google says to “never” sell any personal information. The collective gathered information through Google Analytics is an immense source of valuable information about browser behaviour online. Not only it provides information on topics people are interested in, it also gives information about reading time, bounce rates and related information people are interested in. Maybe Google doesn’t use the information gathered from our website, but sure it can create a broader sense of what people in general are interested in.

As Google remains to control most of the internet search queries and related internet services such as advertising. Google can combine Analytics and Adwords to maximize their profit ratio. In other words, we believe as Google has a tremendous amount of information from the Analytics part of their database. The Adwords part of Google will benefit from this information, as they are familiar with what people search for and what related information people would be interested in.

Our most popular posts on the blog

Over the years we have published many articles on the blog. Via our visitors data tracking we could see these are our most popular posts:

• A arrow symbol collection, with over 1M (Million) downloads! 56 Free Arrow Symbols & Icons
• The guide into color contrast for sign and wayfinding design. Signs and color contrast
• A free collection of 50 common used symbol signs. Symbol Sign Collection

Our series about typography did very well over the last years, including the following articles:

• An example collection of typeface usages with Arial. Arial is everywhere
• Another collection with FF Meta typeface examples FF Meta is everywhere

Our book series are popular with the following reviews:

• A comprehensive book about wayfinding by David Gibson. The Wayfinding Handbook
• The industry standard for learning about wayfinding by Per Mollerup. Wayfinding > Wayshowing

Over the years we have continued our writing, consider looking at our blog to learn more about wayfinding.

Seamless reading experience

We are wayfinding and information designers. Our core services evolve around information, people and places. Connecting information at the right time and place. As we are browsing the internet, the reading experiences are mostly dreadful. Pop-ups, reminders, boxes, ads, etc.

At our website we want people to enjoy our content, without having to read privacy policies and forcing visitors to click "Accept" buttons. We want to create a seamless reading experience without distractions.

The brilliant website How I Experience Web Today is a fantastic example of most browsing experiences today. So familiar, yet so disappointing experiences.

According to research the average internet user spends ~3 hours online every day, visiting anywhere from 5 up-tp 100 website each day. Imagine the time lost for accepting all those cookies each and every day.

Recently it came to our attention that Google Analytics is in conflicts with European regulations and is not fully GDPR complaint. In relationship to the cookie, accept privacy terms and UX issues it got us to rethink the analytics part of our website.

From past to present

As we want to comply to European guidelines regarding data collection and to create a seamless reading experience, we started to seek an alternative for Google Analytics.

As also found Google Analytics was found illegal in an Austrian court decision. The details of that decision can be found here

From here our search began looking for an alternative way to collect visitors data at our website. We have tried other different analytics services, which include:

• Matomo analytics, a self hosted analytics service. Comes with many features and is free to use. We have found installing the software and dashboard somewhat complicated to use.
• Statscounter, great alternative. The dashboard has a good UX design and the service has many features to track visitors behaviour. Statscounter is an anonymous web tracking service which is good to become GDPR compliant. The paid version starts at $19,- per month.
• Fathom, a very user friendly interface, cookie-free and GDPR proof with anonymous web tracking. Starting at $14,- per month. ($140,- p/y)

Our research was plain simple, trying out the services as mentioned above for ~14 days. The experiment gave us insights on what we wanted to see in our analytics, useful metrics, ease of use, GDPR free. As running websites is NOT our daily focus, we found out our needs are UX and ease of use based. Meaning a single dashboard solution, main metrics and great UX design. In our quest for the Google Analytics alternative we landed at Fathom Analytics.

Use Fathom Analytics

Our basic requirements are formulated as following:

• GDPR Proof and anonymous pageview tracking
• Fast loading script, by-passing ad blockers and no cookies
• Easy to use dashboard, in one overview
• Information about pages, average time on site/page and traffic sources
• Information about devices, browsers and countries
• Possibility to track specific actions or events on webpages (easy funnel)
• Track multiple websites in one dashboard/account

As we deploy multiple websites, a single dashboard solution is ideal to gain overview insights on performance.

Reading experience & privacy

Our website and content creation is focussed on providing niche information for design, typography and wayfinding. In our opinion Google Analytics has become a complex platform with too many functionalities. We understand that professional website creators and builders could use Google Analytics to its full potential. We simply want to put out great content and gather information about the visitors to our website.

Our goal is provide a visitor to our website a seamless reading experience and enjoying our content without annoying pop-ups or related privacy issues.

From now on forward we have disabled Google Analytics from our websites and are fully compliant with European regulation around collecting information from visitors on our website.

Fathom is a paid service which collects anonymous data from visitors on our websites. We are using a $140,- yearly plan for collecting visitors data from our websites.

Full disclosure

We work as a designers for Google Offices, where we develop and create wayfinding solutions for their visitors and employees. We respect Google for their vision and the way how they organize their workplaces, people and environments. At our website (designworkplan) we have chosen to use fathom for reasons stated in this article. We are not paid or sponsored by usefathom. If you want to support us, please use our affiliate link below.

Final thoughts

This post is different from our usual design content, we wanted to be fully transparant in the way how we collect visitors data from our websites. Consider thinking about the way you collect visitors data at your website(s).

If you are planning to use Fathom, consider using our referral link (highly appreciated) Use Fathom referral code CCPSXY

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Niall Shukla, a remarkably skilled and self-taught artist, creates stunningly intricate portraits on laminated glass by meticulously cracking it with controlled hammer strikes. This unique art form is paradoxical and captivating; Shukla wields various metal hammers and chisels to chip away at glass panels, generating cracks that eventually transform into beautifully detailed images. His technique […]

Apps can really help your business grow, or they can be your entire business.  Flappy Bird anyone?  But no matter which route you go, it’s worth an audit to be sure you are making as much money as you possibly can from your company’s apps.  Otherwise, you are just leaving money on the table, and […]

The post Are you making enough money from your apps? first appeared on TECH Intelligence and is written by Brian Wallace.

Back in the late 80s, my mom bought me a 386sx 16MHz computer equipped with a 2400 baud modem. It was my first computer that enabled me to connect to an online world. Back then, there was large behemoths like AOL and CompuServe but there were also independent services called bulletin board systems, aka BBSs.

A BBS was somewhat of a one-to-one connection. Most independent BBSs had only one or two phone lines with which someone could dial into. They were little islands of community that one could play simple turn-based games or leave messages on, like a physical bulletin board. Once I logged off, somebody else could dial in and leave their messages or take their turn in a game or two.

Given the limited speed of modems of that era, these services were entirely ASCII text-based. ANSI was a superset that included character codes beyond plain text that could change the colour. As a result, rudimentary and blocky graphics (and even animation) were possible. I remember playing a Risk-style game that was ANSI-based called Global War. (Check out those stunning graphics!)

In order to create a distributed system of messages, allowing for communication across a multitude of BBSs, a BBS would have to connect to another BBS and synchronize messages between the two. FidoNet was probably the most popular of these systems.

I even ran my own board running on Telegard called The Jester’s Palace, where I went by the handle The Jester.

The Jester turned out to be a surprisingly popular name and thus, I decided to change my name (and give myself a promotion to boot): I became The Kind King. Looking back, it’s uncreative and embarrassing but I chalk it up to being a dumb teenager.

Warez

In my late teens, I discovered a world of pirated software being distributed via BBSs. Which, when you consider the logistics, is somewhat impressive. In order for software to go from one city to another, a long distance phone call would be made which would cost a lot of money back in those days. (I also used to wear an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time.) To avoid paying such costs, people would use a PBX to (illegally) pass those charges onto large corporations and hope nobody would notice. It is within this world that I also learned about Phreaking and Wardialing.

There was a subculture of people involved in distributing pirated software (uh, warez) that coalesced into groups like Razor 1911, The Humble Guys, and FAiRLiGHT.

Within the software that were being distributed, files were included to let you know who was responsible for releasing the pirated software (and cracking the software, removing any copy protections that might’ve existed).

As a result, an entire art scene formed around these groups as artists worked to outdo each other and promote the hacking groups and the BBSs that distributed the software. Being a creative teenager in high school with too much time on my hands, I began creating ANSi art (the warez scene had a thing for lowercase i’s) and even found myself part of an art group called AiR: ARTiSTS iN REVOLT.

Alas, I lost all of my work from those days. Some googling has uncovered one piece from 1992:

I remember my best work as a recreation of the poster from the movie Universal Soldier. I wish I could find that piece again.

Connections

It’s interesting to me to see the connection that came from that creativity and curiosity and how it led me to my career doing design and development.

BBSs were where I met my first roommate, Brent, and with whom we’d end up with a bit of a revolving door of roommates, some of who were also from the warez scene. At one point, our house had probably close to a dozen phone lines running into it with each of us running our own board, and I wonder if the phone company technician wasn’t at least a bit curious why we needed so many lines running into a residential townhouse.

I still have that old 2400 baud modem, tucked away in a box, as a reminder of where it all started.

This trip down memory lane brought on by a post from GReG SToREY. Check out The Art of Warez.

This morning I spent some time investigating feed readers and services to replace Google Reader. A lot of internet users have been since Google announced Reader is going away this summer. It’s easy to pull up a list of possible alternatives, but ultimately I found it necessary to just dig in and try them out […]

The post My experience looking for an RSS service to replace Google Reader appeared first on WPCandy.

More than imaging, diagnosis of TBI is still based on the initial symptoms at the time of the injury.

In a surprise announcement, Fujifilm is entering the cinema camera market. But instead of leveraging their APS-C X-Trans sensor tech to make Super35 cameras, they’re...

The post Fuji is making its first cinema camera, and it’s got a medium format GFX sensor appeared first on DIY Photography.

Stephanie Harrison’s story starts with a mindset similar to many in their early 20s. Gainfully employed, ambitious, and with all of New York City at her feet, she was exactly where she wanted to be. On paper. Something felt missing, even though her longtime dream of living independently in the Big Apple had been achieved. She recalls being miserable without a clear idea of why. Eventually, ignoring the problem took its toll. Her body began to rebel with physical symptoms – rashes, sores, and panic attacks that left her feeling lost and desperate for answers. So she found them by reading up on the science of happiness. Years of research and reflecatino later, Stephanie has found the hack. Thousands areound the world now seek to learn it through her philosophy-led company, The New Happy, which has been recognized by the likes of CNBC, Fast Company, Forbes, and Harvard Business Review. In this episode of the podcast, we have a candid conversation about what true fulfillment looks like and how to achieve it in a world that prioritizes productivity and external markers of success over inner peace. Question What People Say About Happiness The first, most direct way anyone can fix...

The post Stephanie Harrison: How Hacking Happiness (Actually) Works first appeared on Chase Jarvis.

The post Stephanie Harrison: How Hacking Happiness (Actually) Works appeared first on Chase Jarvis.

Breaking promises to yourself erodes self-trust. Learn how to build self-belief by keeping small commitments and transforming your habits.

The post Silent Saboteur: Why You Keep Breaking Your Own Promises first appeared on Chase Jarvis.

The post Silent Saboteur: Why You Keep Breaking Your Own Promises appeared first on Chase Jarvis.

Learn why a "creative pause" after major achievements is essential for growth. Simone Biles shows us how to embrace rest and reflection over constant pressure.

The post The Creative Pause: Why We Need to Stop Asking “What’s Next?” first appeared on Chase Jarvis.

The post The Creative Pause: Why We Need to Stop Asking “What’s Next?” appeared first on Chase Jarvis.