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UCF draft tracker: No Knights picked, multiple UDFAs sign with NFL teams

Although no Knights were selected in this year's NFL Draft, multiple former UCF players signed as undrafted free agents with NFL teams.




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UCF football transfer tracker: 7th Knight enters the portal

The spring portal opened April 15, and moves are expected to take place before the 15-day window closes.




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Arraez, Marlins break tie in eighth inning, sweep Cubs to move to 10-0 in one-run games

Marlins returned to a season-best three games over .500 as Luis Arraez, who drove in two runs, logged at least one hit for the 25th time in the season's 29 games.




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Warner Bros Is Selling Batmobile Replicas From The Dark Knight For $3 Million

Suffering from a severe case of midlife crisis? Just won the lottery and need some ideas on what to spend it on? If your answer is "yes" to one or the other (or both), you might be interested in purchasing one of the ten Batman Tumbler replicas being made by Warner Bros. Discovery Global Consumer Products (WBDGCP) and Relevance International.




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[ K.Sup22 (05/21) ] - ITU-T K.45 - Rationale for setting resistibility requirements of telecommunication equipment installed in the access and trunk networks against lightning

ITU-T K.45 - Rationale for setting resistibility requirements of telecommunication equipment installed in the access and trunk networks against lightning




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[ K.Sup21 (05/21) ] - ITU-T K.21 - Rationale for setting resistibility requirements of telecommunication equipment installed in customer premises against lightning

ITU-T K.21 - Rationale for setting resistibility requirements of telecommunication equipment installed in customer premises against lightning




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[ K.Sup24 (05/21) ] - ITU-T K.20 - Rationale for setting resistibility requirements of telecommunication equipment installed in a telecommunication centre against lightning

ITU-T K.20 - Rationale for setting resistibility requirements of telecommunication equipment installed in a telecommunication centre against lightning




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[ K.151 (01/22) ] - Electrical safety and lightning protection of medium voltage input and up to ±400 VDC output power system in ICT data centres and telecommunication centres

Electrical safety and lightning protection of medium voltage input and up to ±400 VDC output power system in ICT data centres and telecommunication centres




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[ K.Sup24 (07/22) ] - ITU-T K.20 - Rationale for setting resistibility requirements of telecommunication equipment installed in a telecommunication centre against lightning

ITU-T K.20 - Rationale for setting resistibility requirements of telecommunication equipment installed in a telecommunication centre against lightning




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[ K.Sup31 (10/22) ] - ITU-T K.118 - Requirements for lightning protection of fibre to the distribution point equipment - Modelling earth potential rise

ITU-T K.118 - Requirements for lightning protection of fibre to the distribution point equipment - Modelling earth potential rise




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[ K.Sup30 (10/22) ] - ITU-T K.118 - Requirements for lightning protection of fibre to the distribution point equipment - Overview

ITU-T K.118 - Requirements for lightning protection of fibre to the distribution point equipment - Overview




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[ K.154 (01/24) ] - Operating telecommunication facilities using lightning strikes data obtained from lightning location systems

Operating telecommunication facilities using lightning strikes data obtained from lightning location systems




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YSTR-DG.AppDev - oneM2M-Application developer guide: Light control example using HTTP binding

YSTR-DG.AppDev - oneM2M-Application developer guide: Light control example using HTTP binding




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DSTR-DFSRP - The regulator's perspective on the right timing for inducing interoperability

DSTR-DFSRP - The regulator's perspective on the right timing for inducing interoperability




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YSTR.HTSA-overview - Overview of ICT based highway traffic safety assessment

YSTR.HTSA-overview - Overview of ICT based highway traffic safety assessment




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[ F.749.13 (06/21) ] - Framework and requirements for civilian unmanned aerial vehicle flight control using artificial intelligence

Framework and requirements for civilian unmanned aerial vehicle flight control using artificial intelligence




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[ G.9991 (03/19) ] - High-speed indoor visible light communication transceiver - System architecture, physical layer and data link layer specification

High-speed indoor visible light communication transceiver - System architecture, physical layer and data link layer specification




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Unveiling Inspiring UI Design Examples and Insights

User Interface (UI) design serves as the critical link connecting users with digital products, culminating in seamless and delightful experiences. UI design is more than just entertaining visuals; it’s the magic wand that transforms digital interactions into seamless and pleasant experiences. Whether you’re a seasoned UI design expert or someone just beginning to explore this […]

The post Unveiling Inspiring UI Design Examples and Insights appeared first on Usability Geek




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Shopify stock price is on fire today after an ‘outstanding’ quarter, boosted by AI tools and a bright holiday sales forecast

Shares of Shopify (NYSE: SHOP) are skyrocketing in early-morning trading after the company announced its Q3 2024 results, which beat expectations. As of the time of this writing, SHOP stock is up an impressive 23% to above $110 per share. 

However, Shopify’s stock isn’t on fire only because of its good Q3. There are some other reasons why Shopify is exciting investors this morning. Here’s what to know:

Shopify’s ‘outstanding’ results

Shopify would probably disagree with the statement that the company had a good Q3. As the company’s president, Harley Finkelstein, said in a press release, the results were “outstanding.”

Why was the quarter so outstanding? A big part of it was the company’s Q3 revenue, which came in at $2.16 billion. That represents a whopping 26% year-over-year growth rate from Q3 2023.

As Reuters notes, it even surpassed many analysts’ lofty expectations of $2.11 billion in revenue, leading to the ninth time in a row that the company has beat analyst expectations on sales.

Not only did Shopify beat analyst expectations again, but its 26% revenue growth for this quarter marked “our sixth consecutive quarter of greater than 25% revenue growth excluding logistics,” Shopify CFO Jeff Hoffmeister said.

In a slide deck, Shopify also announced that as of Q3 2024, the company had facilitated $1 trillion in global sales since the platform’s inception and that it now has a 10% share of the U.S. e-commerce market.

Okay, but why did Shopify have such a good Q3?

As also noted by Reuters, Shopify attracted more merchants to its online e-commerce platform this quarter. One of the attractions for the merchants seems to be a new artificial intelligence tool Shopify started rolling out in June called Sidekick.

Sidekick is an artificial intelligence assistant currently in early access for some merchants. Shopify says the AI bot “will act as your very own advisor, guiding you with tailored, skilled advice to make your business stronger.”

It does this by shouldering some of the mundane but necessary tasks that any businessperson needs to do to manage their business. Sidekick can help easily keep track of a merchant’s inventory, generate myriad reports that reveal new insights about your business, and even suggest ways to attract more customers to a storefront.

Sidekick is in addition to another AI tool Shopify offers, this one called Shopify Magic, which helps merchants create product images for their wares, write product descriptions, and even help them generate FAQs for their stores.

These AI tools are making it easier than ever for customers to manage their storefronts, and their availability is clearly a draw for some merchants.

The future looks promising, too

But Shopify’s stock isn’t only surging because the company had a terrific Q3. If anything, investors seem most excited about what the company has predicted will happen next.

Shopify’s current quarter, Q4, is arguably the most important of the year for the company and its merchants. This is the all-important holiday shopping quarter—and Shopify has anounced it has strong hopes for the period.

The key metric that Shopify has forecast is its revenue expectations for Q4, which the company says it expects will “grow at a mid-to-high-twenties percentage rate on a year-over-year basis.”

That’s music to investors’ ears, as it means Shopify expects it may do even better in Q4 than its just-completed outstanding Q3. That revenue growth estimate is also more than the 22.7% revenue growth many analysts were expecting, noted Reuters.

A resurgent stock

Shopify’s stock started 2024 with prices hovering in the high seventies before dropping to the low sixties over the summer. But since the beginning of the fall, SHOP shares have been on an upswing. Today’s 23% surge means SHOP shares are actually up over 38% year-to-date.

However, despite the resurgent stock, SHOP shares are nowhere near their all-time high of above $152 per share. Those highs were achieved in mid- to late-2021 when e-commerce was enjoying a pandemic boom as more people preferred online shopping over brick-and-mortar stores.




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COP29: Countries grapple with raising trillions to fight climate change

United Nations annual climate talks stuttered to a start Monday with more than nine hours of backroom bickering over what should be on the agenda for the next two weeks. It then turned to the main issue: money.

In Baku, Azerbaijan, where the world’s first oil well was drilled and the smell of the fuel was noticeable outdoors, the talks were more about the smell of money — in huge amounts. Countries are negotiating how rich nations can pay up so poor countries can reduce carbon pollution by transitioning away from fossil fuels and toward clean energy, compensate for climate disasters and adapt to future extreme weather.

In order to try to start the 12 days of talks, called COP29, with a win, Monday’s session seemed to find a resolution to a nagging financial issue about trading carbon pollution rights — one that has eluded negotiators for years. It could free up to $250 billion in spending a year to help poor nations, said new COP29 president, Mukhtar Babayev.

But Erika Lennon, Center for International Environmental Law’s Senior Attorney, warned that pushing through resolutions this early in the conference “without discussion or debate, sets a dangerous precedent for the entire negotiation process.”

When it comes to discussions on finance, the amount of money being talked about to help poor nations could be as high as $1.3 trillion a year. That’s the need in the developing world, according to African nations, which have produced 7% of the heat-trapping gases in the air but have faced multiple climate crises, from floods to drought.

Whatever amount the nations come up with would replace an old agreement that had a goal of $100 billion a year. Richer nations have wanted numbers closer to that figure. If an agreement is struck, money is likely to come from a variety of sources including grants, loans and private finance.

“These numbers may sound big but they are nothing compared to the cost of inaction,” Babayev, said as he took over.

Signs of climate disasters abound

This year, the world is on pace for 1.5 degrees of warming and is heading to become the hottest year in human civilization.

A goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times was set in the Paris Agreement in 2015. But that’s about two or three decades, not one year of that amount of warming and “it is not possible, simply not possible,” to abandon the 1.5 goal yet, said World Meteorological Organization Secretary-General Celeste Saulo.

The effects of climate change in disasters such as hurricanes, droughts and floods are already here and hurting, Babayev said.

“We are on the road to ruin,” he said. “Whether you see them or not, people are suffering in the shadows. They are dying in the dark. And they need more than compassion. More than prayers and paperwork. They are crying out for leadership and action.”

United Nations Climate Secretary Simon Stiell, whose home island of Carriacou was devasted earlier this year by Hurricane Beryl, used the story of his neighbor, an 85-year-old named Florence, to help find “a way out of this mess.”

Her home was demolished and Florence focused one thing: “Being strong for her family and for her community. There are people like Florence in every country on Earth. Knocked down, and getting back up again.”

That’s what the world must do with climate change, Stiell said.

A backdrop of war and upheaval hangs over talks

In the past year, nation after nation has seen political upheaval, with the latest being in the United States — the largest historic carbon emitter — and Germany, a climate leading nation.

The election of Donald Trump, who disputes climate change and its impact, and the collapse of the German governing coalition are altering climate negotiation dynamics here, experts said.

“The global north needs to be cutting emissions even faster … but instead we’ve got Trump, we’ve got a German government that just fell apart because part of it wanted to be even slightly ambitious (on climate action),” said Imperial College London climate scientist Friederike Otto. “We are very far off.”

Initially, Azerbaijan organizers hoped to have nations across the globe stop fighting during the negotiations. That didn’t happen as wars in Ukraine, Gaza and elsewhere continued.

Dozens of climate activists at the conference — many of them wearing Palestinian kaffiyehs — held up banners calling for climate justice and for nations to “stop fueling genocide.”

“It’s the same systems of oppression and discrimination that are putting people on the frontlines of climate change and putting people on the front lines of conflict in Palestine,” said Lise Masson, a protester from Friends of the Earth International. She slammed the United States, the U.K. and the EU for not spending more on climate finance while also supplying arms to Israel.

Mohammed Ursof, a climate activist from Gaza, called for the world to “get power back to the Indigenous, power back to the people.”

Jacob Johns, a Hopi and Akimel O’odham community organizer, came to the conference with hope for a better world.

“Within sight of the destruction lies the seed of creation,” he said at a panel about Indigenous people’s hopes for climate action. “We have to realize that we are not citizens of one nation, we are the Earth.”

Hopes for a strong financial outcome

The financial package being hashed out at this year’s talks is important because every nation has until early next year to submit new — and presumably stronger — targets for curbing emissions of heat-trapping gases from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas.

How much money is on the table could inform how ambitious some nations can be with their climate plans.

Some Pacific climate researchers said that the amount of money on offer was not the biggest problem for small island nations, which are some of the world’s most imperiled by rising seas.

“There might be funding out there, but to get access to this funding for us here in the Pacific is quite an impediment,” said Hilda Sakiti-Waqa, from the University of the South Pacific in Fiji. “The Pacific really needs a lot of technical help in order to put together these applications.”

And despite the stalled start, there was still a sense of optimism.

“My experience right now is that countries are really here to negotiate,” said German climate envoy Jennifer Morgan.

“We cannot leave Baku without a substantial outcome,” Stiell said. “Now is the time to show that global cooperation is not down for the count. It is rising to the moment.”

—Seth Borenstein, Melina Walling and Sibi Arasu, Associated Press

Charlotte Graham-McLay, AP reporter, contributed to this report.

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.





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I’ve lost all the poems from the night

And now that it is morning I’ve lost all the poems from the night. I watched them leave, pack their bags and go. No way to stop them, I’m left alone, and with nothing to show, but my empty page and motionless pen. Until this night, I will wait for my dear poems return carrying […]




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How to Handle HTTP Requests in Flask

In our previous article, we covered how to create simple pages in Flask and use Jinja2 as the templating engine. Now, let’s explore how Flask handles requests. Understanding how HTTP requests work and how to manage them in Flask is key, as this allows you to build more interactive and dynamic web apps, such as…

The post How to Handle HTTP Requests in Flask appeared first on Hongkiat.



















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AI could transform visual effects in film — but the emerging field is mired in copyright issues


While many people in the creative industries are worrying that AI is about to steal their jobs, Oscar-winning film director James Cameron is embracing the technology. Cameron is famous for making the Avatar and Terminator movies, as well as Titanic. Now he has joined the board of Stability.AI, a leading player in the world of Generative AI. In Cameron’s Terminator films, Skynet is an artificial general intelligence that has become self-aware and is determined to destroy the humans who are trying to deactivate it. Forty years after the first of those movies, its director appears to be changing sides and…

This story continues at The Next Web




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IRE 2022 Session Preview: State of the Industry 2022: Data, Insights and Much, Much More

Get a firsthand look at the most recent State of the Industry survey results to better gauge the marketplace as we settle into 2022.




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Don’t Take a Knife to a Gun Fight and Wonder Why You Lose

Avoiding a bad situation is always better than trying to get out of one, so make sure you’re up-to-date on your rights and legal options. 





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The Right Adjustment

Beacon's Female Roofing Professional of the Year knows a thing or two about honest roofing, exceeding expectations and winning elections.




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Owens Corning Spotlights Solutions, Resources and Strategies to Propel Roofing Contractors’ Success in 2022

The Owens Corning booth at IRE highlights roofing products that fuse high-performance with beauty and style.




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Project Profile: Pennsylvania Community Center IMPs Provide Right Temperature

Metl-Span panels for the roof and walls not only created a beautiful community center, but regulates the temperature for various activities held there.




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Reroofing Market Index Survey for Q3 2023 Shows Bright Spots

The North American industry trade associations' amalgamated Quarterly Market Index Survey for Reroofing in Q3 2023 showed improved prospects compared to the same period a year earlier, with eight out of 10 respondents identifying as roofing contractors.




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Roofing Contractors Continue To Adapt And Keep Sights On Sales In Evolving Marketplace




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Contractor Pro Tip: Leave Installing and Disconnecting Lightning Protection to Specialists

Roofers face enough challenges; the importance of involving specialists for lightning protection systems to meet strict standards — and avoid potential issues with dissimilar metals and corrosion — is crucial for compliance.




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PHOTOS: Highlighting Latino Roofers at IRE 2024

The number of Latino roofing contractors is on the rise and showed up in force at the 2024 International Roofing Expo.




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IRE Show Floor Spotlight: Latinos in Roofing Associated, or 'LIRA'; Booth No. 5851

Enhanced experiences for Latino roofing contractors at IRE 2024 in Las Vegas include a spot on the show floor for the industry’s first nonprofit association for Latino roofers. 




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TAMKO’s Stormfighter FLEX Wins IRE 'Experts’ Choice' Innovative Product Award

TAMKO announced that StormFighter FLEX, its newest product offering in the Proline shingle series, won the Experts’ Choice Award for roofing products at the International Roofing Expo.