Aviously

Because, aviously…

Samsung Pay – Our Future is Here

@iAmAviG

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April 25, 2017

Think about it for a second: For 50 years we used credit cards with magnetic strips, and in 2007 someone thought to use phones to pay for your charges.

They convinced some terminal operators to install “Tap to pay” options, using RFID (Radio-frequency identification) and/or NFC (Near field communication), to help progress how we make our payments.

But then Samsung entered the game with Samsung Pay, and said: “forget about tap to pay, let’s just use the magnet stripes again”. And suddenly, every Mom & Pop shop in America, who couldn’t afford to upgrade to “Tap to pay” were able to start accepting mobile payments.

Using MST (Magnetic Secure Transmissions) the phones send out a signal, that when held over the “swipe” part of a terminal, mimics the motions of a credit card so that new or old the terminal will still be able to send through the transaction.

For years we’ve taken technology and evolved it, and with it everyone has needed to buy new equipment. But what if we can evolve technology and still use the infrastructure that is in place across America?
Seems ideal to me.

NYCFC vs Orlando – Legends

@iAmAviG

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April 24, 2017

Yesterday I went to watch NYCFC vs Orlando City at Yankee Stadium, as Cyle Larin scored two with an answer from David Villa and a 2-1 loss.

I sat front row in Legends, and as an early attendance gift got a chance to greet the Starting XI as they finished practice.

Clockwise from top left:
Maxi Moralez, Tommy McNamara, Maxime Chanot, David Villa, John Stertzer, Frédéric Brillant, Andrea Pirlo, Jack Harrison

The weather was beautiful, and it’s a shame they lost, but it was a great experience!

After the match, the players came by for autographs and to hand out signed “Mini Soccer Balls” as they do after all home matches.

Clockwise from top left:
David Villa, Sean Johnson, John Stertzer, Maxi Moralez, Ethan White, Miguel Camargo

ParkNYC

@iAmAviG

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April 21, 2017

ParkNYC is New York City evolving into the tech world, and by the end of Summer 2017 is supposed to be at all Muni-Meter locations in the 5-boroughs.

At the moment it’s mostly situated around Manhattan and hasn’t fully spread to the outer boroughs, but they promise that it’s going to happen in the near future.

When you pull into a metered spot in NYC, you log into the app, select the zone you are parking in (displayed on street signs, on the actual muni-meter, and on the map in the app) (and make sure to select your zone and not the one across the street or around the corner), and put “money in the meter”.

The trick will be to just put in the minimal amount, and keep extending until you leave so that you don’t overpay…but unlike a standard meter, or the current muni-meters, you can’t extend beyond the “Parking Limit”. And to help enforce that, you won’t be able to ‘park again’ in the same zone within a 30-minute window from when your max time runs out.

While you currently need to display a little ticket in your window, showing what you paid for, you won’t need anything in your car when you pay with ParkNYC. When the meter-agent pulls up the zone, it will show them license plates for cars that are currently parked there….and vice versa for when they pull up your license, it will tell them what zone you are currently paying in.
I think this does make it harder on them to walk around and look in windshields since they have to pull up your info to check if you paid…but on the flip side, the horse cops and interceptors can just drive by and never have to peek into your vehicle from their high mounts.

The app is currently available for Android and iOS.

Google Home + WiFi

@iAmAviG

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April 20, 2017

Three weeks ago I brought up the point that Google should combine “Home” with “WiFi”.

It just made no sense to me for them to be two separate devices.

Well it looks like recent Google patents have them combined for Home 2.0, and that might be the cue for consumers to buy it.

Imagine that you have a device that can answer all your questions, play all your music, and has the ability to give you a better WiFi signal in that room.
It’d also make for speedier searches, as instead of looking to connect for a signal, it should always have its internal connection as an internet hub.

Why APB Is Destined To Fail

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April 14, 2017

APB on Fox is a decent show, don’t let its badness fool you. But at the end of the day, they just try too hard.

The tech is insanely cool, and when the robot overlords take over the world, we will have plenty to look forward to.
And while the tech will make me turn on the show week after week, at the end of the day this needs to turn into a good cop show…and it just isn’t.

Every episode introduces a new tech toy that is imaginative, but it isn’t a sustainable model. After a while, you will run out of toys, or start making things that are just too far beyond reality and just become a “sci-fi show” instead of an “advanced reality”. With the bar set so high for new stuff, it’ll just be unable to continue.

The best tech character Ada (played by Caitlin Stasey) isn’t the lead female, and the actual male lead Gideon Reeves (Justin Kirk) is a rightfully overconfident rich man who is too cocky for a two-hour movie, let alone putting the audience through him week after week.
Meanwhile, lead Detective Murphy (Natalie Martinez) makes every episode feel like a tragic love story that is destined for her getting killed and Gideon going off on the bad guys, and that is in no way her fault, but rather the results of poor writing.

This show needs a direction, and like most successful dramas, needs a clear overall arching storyline that will keep the standard, non-techie, viewers coming back for more episodes…but the time is running out and this show seems headed for the recycling bin.

Spring SOTD

@iAmAviG

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April 10, 2017

I generally make up my lists for Song of the Days and then go back to make sure I didn’t use any of these songs in the past.
Surprisingly, or not actually surprisingly, I have multiple repeats of artists, but different songs.

The Fighter – Keith Urban ft. Carrie Underwood

To heal all the pain that he put you through
It’s a love like you never knew
Just let me show you

Ciao Adios – Anne-Marie

If you’re giving her all of your money and time
I’m not gonna sit here wasting mine on you, yeah, you
Ciao adios, I’m done

Love The Way You Lie – Eminem ft. Rihanna

I can’t tell you what it really is
I can only tell you what it feels like
And right now there’s a steel knife in my windpipe
I can’t breathe but I still fight while I can fight

I Miss The Misery – Halestorm

I’ve tried but I just can’t take it
I’d rather fight than just fake it (cause I like it rough)
You know that I’ve had enough
I dare ya to call my bluff
Can’t take to much of a good thing
I’m tellin you!

Book Sharing

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April 7, 2017

I recently have been exploring the idea of some sort of book sharing program.

I bought two books, had them delivered to a couple of people, and the plan was to have them pass it on to the next reader when they were done with it.

There were/are a few problems with my plan…the first was I didn’t have a proper delivery method to get it from person A to B…but more importantly, I didn’t actually have a list of people to pass things on to!

The obvious answer to problem #1 is USPS flat rate shipping…but funny enough, with Amazon’s cheap book prices, and free shipping seven days a week, it’s actually simpler to buy a new book for each person (obviously this depends on the book).

The first two books I’ve sent out were polar opposites: Scrappy Little Nobody, Anna Kendricks’ autobiography; and 13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher, recently turned into a Netflix show.

If you are interested in getting involved or want one of those first two books, feel free to reach out (you know…twitter, email, comment below) and join in on the reading fun!

Webbys 2017

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April 6, 2017

For the third straight year, I am gonna urge you all to go vote on the Webbys.

The Webbys are the leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet, and with it, it gives hope to the little sites and the self-created stuff, as well as the internet juggernauts and world leaders in sports and entertainment.

There are tens of categories to vote on, all available until April 20th, and grouped under the following umbrellas:

  • Websites
  • Advertising, Media & PR
  • Film & Video
  • Mobile Sites & Apps
  • Social
  • Podcasts & Digital Audio

It gives a space for The Players Tribune or Sky Sports to rise up over the ESPNs of the internet, and for previously little sites like Hello Giggles to make a name for themselves.

It does take a little more than a couple of minutes to go through and vote for all categories, but while you do you will find all sorts of internet goodies that have rolled out in the last year.

Happy voting!

Creating That Digital Noise

@iAmAviG

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April 5, 2017

As more service providers (ISPs) move to selling every bit of your data, people are getting frustrated that the advertisers will learn everything about them.

With that in mind, people may want to start feeding fake data to the ISPs, and Noiszy is here to help you.

They help create clutter to mislead people into what you are really doing. The browser plugin, when turned on, will visit random websites, and click on random links and articles, keeping your watchers busy.

Now don’t worry, they won’t be going to anything frowned upon, in fact, it’s a preapproved list of sites, which you can edit, and watch as it browses through.

With all this fake data, it makes your persona harder to read, harder to sell advertising for, and harder for them to sway your mind on political matters.

The Song Rising by Samantha Shannon #Review

@iAmAviG

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April 4, 2017

The Song Rising is the third book in a series by Samantha Shannon, which began with The Bone Season and The Mime Order, and is supposed to include seven books to reach its finale.

This series has taken an interesting journey to get to where it is, and I feel like with it we have seen the evolution of Samantha Shannon.

The Bone Season was jam packed with clairvoyance and terms, confusion and Æthers. By the time it was done, your mind was jumbled and mixed up in new terms.
Then came The Mime Order, where the confusion was a little less, but nonetheless featured brilliant fights involving spirits and mind jumping.
But now as we get through The Song Rising, spirits and the likes play a role in the background but don’t feature as much prominence in the main storyline.

The Song Rising follows our group of outcast voyants as they flee the government’s new “Senshield”, which is finally portable and hunting clairvoyants on the streets of London.
From wandering into warehouses to visiting the Archon, our group of heroes will venture across Western Europe in search of the power source that is keeping their people from freely wandering the streets.

Now it is entirely possible that her publisher told her to lay off on some of the harder/more confusing stuff in hopes of reaching a wider audience, but regardless the reasonings, it seems to have worked as the series has fallen into a mid-series smoothness, in which we flesh out the overall story, and see the continued evolution of Paige Mahoney.

If the series continues along this fascinating storyline, there is no doubt in my mind that it will pick up traction, and get the recognition it deserves, and the series’ film rights are owned by Andy Serkis (known for his work in “Planet of the Apes” and “Star Wars”).

This book gets a 9 out of 10.

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