Adidas Wilson's Blog, page 105
August 1, 2017
How Rovio Fought Off Bankruptcy to Make Angry Birds
If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Right?
For the maker of Angry Birds, everyone’s favorite time waster, it actually took 51 tries before they created the perfect casual game. Wired UK has an excellent profile of how the company battled back from bankruptcy to become one of the hottest entertainment companies in the world. It’s more inspiring than you’d expect.
First they had to save a company in crisis: at the beginning of 2009, Rovio was close to bankruptcy. Then they had to create the perfect game, do every other little thing exactly right, and keep on doing it. The Heds had developed 51 titles before Angry Birds. Some of them had sold in the millions for third parties such as Namco and EA, so they decided to create their own, original intellectual property. “We thought we would need to do ten to 15 titles until we got the right one,” says 30-year-old Niklas. One afternoon in late March, in their offices overlooking a courtyard in downtown Helsinki, Jaakko Iisalo, a games designer who had been at Rovio since 2006, showed them a screenshot. He had pitched hundreds in the two months before. This one showed a cartoon flock of round birds, trudging along the ground, moving towards a pile of colourful blocks. They looked cross. “People saw this picture and it was just magical,” says Niklas. Eight months and thousands of changes later, after nearly abandoning the project, Niklas watched his mother burn a Christmas turkey, distracted by playing the finished game. “She doesn’t play any games. I realised: this is it.”
I’ve long thought casual games are like pop songs. Everyone knows roughly what they’re supposed to sound like, but getting everything just right is stupendously unlikely. Since nearly every single casual game or pop song won’t be a hit, the key skill seems to be the right ear (or fingers) to feel when something isn’t good, but great. Or maybe you just have to get lucky.
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Source:
What the ‘Deadpool 2’ Domino Reveal Says About the Sequel
The sight of Zazie Beetz as Domino on Monday morning was a sign that the antihero could play a larger role in the follow-up to Ryan Reynolds’ superhero comedy Deadpool than originally believed.
To be fair, Beetz looks great as the mutant mercenary, in a costume that might not be entirely true to the character’s comic book visual. She has, traditionally, worn an outfit that covers everything but her head, but the facial markings here mirror, and invert, the comic book visual of the character co-created by Deadpool‘s Rob Liefeld.
Beetz’s Domino looks easily as fierce as the source material as she lies on a rug made out of Deadpool, and the fact that she’s taking it easy on top of him might be significant: Does it potentially suggest some kind of conflict between the two? (The cartoonishness of Deadpool’s pose under Domino brings to mind a Wile E. Coyote/Road Runner dynamic, although that might just be me.) If that is the case, that wouldn’t be outside of the comic book canon version of their relationship, with both characters’ loyalties depending as much on their client base as any personal beliefs.
That’s more true for Deadpool than Domino, admittedly; whereas the mercenary nature of the former character’s comic book incarnation extends so far as his tagline — “the Merc with the Mouth” — the latter has, more often than not, been on the side of the good guys, and, even moreso, been by the side of Cable. A longtime member of the time-traveling antihero’s supporting cast, she has fought alongside him as part of his own mercenary group the Six Pack, as well as multiple incarnations of X-Force. Beyond her association with Cable, she’s worked with the X-Men, S.H.I.E.L.D. and other comic book organizations throughout the year, underscoring her comic book status as team player, rather than leading lady.
Brian Stelfreeze/Marvel Entertainment
If that seems harsh, it’s worth pointing out that Domino duplicates elements of other, more beloved, comic book characters. She’s essentially a remodel of Black Widow with some Wolverine narrative DNA (she, too, is the result of a secret government program to create the ultimate weapon) and the “good luck” powers of an earlier Marvel character, Longshot. Domino has yet to be given a distinctive story of her own with which to break out and prove her own worth.
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That’s not to say that she’s never had her own comic book; in fact, she’s had two since her 1991 debut in The New Mutants No. 98, with a three-issue series in 1997 and a four-issue series in 2003. (The artist on the second series was Brian Stelfreeze, currently working on Black Panther with Ta-Nehisi Coates.)
For the most part, however, Domino’s comic book adventures have been restrained to the X-Force titles, with occasional guest appearances in other comics across the decades — although, with a movie appearance in the offing, that might be about to change. And, perhaps, given the increased profile (and, just maybe, a new attitude courtesy of Deadpool 2‘s screenwriters), Domino might be about to have her time in the spotlight.
Source:
Facebook shuts down AI system after it invents own language
In recent weeks, a story about experimental Facebook machine learning research has been circulating with increasingly panicky, Skynet-esque headlines.
“Facebook engineers panic, pull plug on AI after bots develop their own language,” one site wrote. “Facebook shuts down down AI after it invents its own creepy language,” another added. “Did we humans just create Frankenstein?” asked yet another. One British tabloid quoted a robotics professor saying the incident showed “the dangers of deferring to artificial intelligence” and “could be lethal” if similar tech was injected into military robots.
References to the coming robot revolution, killer droids, malicious AIs and human extermination abounded, some more or less serious than others. Continually quoted was this passage, in which two Facebook chat bots had learned to talk to each other in what is admittedly a pretty creepy way.
Bob: I can i i everything else
Alice: balls have zero to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to
Bob: you i everything else
Alice: balls have a ball to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to me
The reality is somewhat more prosaic. A few weeks ago, FastCo Design did report on a Facebook effort to develop a “generative adversarial network” for the purpose of developing negotiation software.
The two bots quoted in the above passage were designed, as explained in a Facebook Artificial Intelligence Research unit blog post in June, for the purpose of showing it is “possible for dialog agents with differing goals (implemented as end-to-end-trained neural networks) to engage in start-to-finish negotiations with other bots or people while arriving at common decisions or outcomes.”
The bots were never doing anything more nefarious than discussing with each other how to split an array of given items (represented in the user interface as innocuous objects like books, hats, and balls) into a mutually agreeable split.
The intent was to develop a chatbot which could learn from human interaction to negotiate deals with an end user so fluently said user would not realize they are talking with a robot, which FAIR said was a success:
“The performance of FAIR’s best negotiation agent, which makes use of reinforcement learning and dialog rollouts, matched that of human negotiators … demonstrating that FAIR’s bots not only can speak English but also think intelligently about what to say.”
Source:
http://gizmodo.com/no-facebook-did-not-panic-and-shut-down-an-ai-program-1797414922
Marvel legend Stan Lee is creating an original story for Audible
Comic book fans (and comic book movie fans) are very familiar with Stan Lee, who has a cameo in pretty much every Marvel movie. Now, the legendary Marvel writer is creating yet another shared universe. Varietyexclusively reports that Stan Lee will produce a brand new book for Audible described as “Mr. Robot set in John Hughes world.”
Given that the agreement is with an audiobook company, the project will be (you guessed it) an audiobook. Stan Lee is signed on to narrate the introduction to the project. Lee, along with Ryan Silbert and Luke Liebermen, promise that this will be the beginning of an entirely new shared universe. Presumably, if this project does well, we’ll see more of it in the future.
It’s unclear whether the long-form work will later release in print form. However, seeing as Audible is owned by Amazon, which has its own publishing arm, it’s certainly a possibility.
Source:
https://www.engadget.com/2017/07/21/marvel-stan-lee-audible/
Mastering Drones: A Beginner’s Guide To Start Making Money With Drones
The information below is the reason I wrote this book, drones will be commercialized in the future surrounding the year 2025 according to research I’ve seen. Now is the time as an entrepreneur for making money with drones.
Commercial drones and their services are expected to become a multibillion-dollar industry in the next decade, according to a new report from market intelligence firm Tractica. The report says that in 2017, drone revenue should amount to $792 million — mostly from hardware sales. By 2025, Tractica predicts the market will rise to $12.6 billion, with two-thirds of the revenue coming from drone-based services rather than hardware. “A number of major industries are seeing strong value propositions in utilizing drones for commercial use,” says Tractica research analyst Manoj Sahi. He named media, real estate and disaster relief as just a few of the industries that could use drone-enabled services. The report says that advances in technology, economies of scale, cloud-based applications and the drive to disrupt the market will contribute to commercial drone success in the coming years.
Via GeekWire
Airbus Launches Commercial Drone Services
Airbus is known for its commercial aircraft, and perhaps best for its A380 airliner that holds the title for the world’s largest passenger jet. At the 2017 Paris Air Show alone it secured $39.7 billion worth of new business. Now Airbus looks to expand its portfolio to include UAS services.
In May, Airbus announced its commercial drone service startup Aerial, which aims to bring aerospace engineering, satellite imagery and drone services together under one roof. Its targeted industries will include agriculture, infrastructure, energy and more.
“It will have a U.S. operation and a European operation. The objective of the business is not to build and sell drones — people are doing that already — but to capture all the available opportunities for aerial observation,” Barry Eccleston, President and CEO of Airbus Americas, said. “We want to capture the [aerial] data and offer the data as a service. We’re using [drones] right now to inspect airplanes. We send a drone up to inspect the tail of an airplane instead of using a big cherry picker. Our objective is to offer this on a global scale.
“We want to step up the level of service that is offered,” Eccleston continued. “A lot of people have a drone and can go out and take pictures. OK, fine. But we can offer a whole series of services from macro to micro, to data analysis. There’s going to be a lot of consolidation in this industry. We saw this opportunity to be one of those consolidators.”
While Aerial will be looking to consolidate this area of the industry, Airbus believe there will always be room for local operators and contracted work.
“For the services we don’t already have we’re contracting it out,” Eccleston explained. “Over time we want to develop longer term partnerships or even acquisitions of companies and bring that service in house. There will always be areas of the value chain where we will always contract out to local basis.”
Currently, Aerial is conducting proof-of-concept in insurance, manufacturing and public utilities markets. So far 15 engineers and UAV developers have been hired to join its Atlanta-based office.
Source:
http://www.flyingmag.com/airbus-launches-commercial-drone-services
How To Create a Podcast That Brings in More Business
If you have an inquiring mind and speak clearly, chances are, you would excel at podcasting. A podcast is like a radio show that you produce, but people can listen to it any time they like and you can record it any time you prefer. There’s no set schedule, and the equipment you need to get started is inexpensive. All you need is a theme for your show and some good ideas.
Have you ever listened to the radio and thought, “I wish I didn’t have to listen to all these ads”? If you’re like me, 99 percent of the time the ads on the radio are for things that don’t even apply to you, your interests or your needs. I often wonder about the advertisers — are they really taking the time to test and analyze whether their money spent on radio ads is actually converting? Or are radio ads just a strategy some marketing consultant told them to implement and no one is paying attention to see if there’s a return on investment?
Imagine the difference in experience when someone is listening to a high quality, informative, interesting podcast that’s ad-free. At the end of the podcast, perhaps the host (you) says, “If you’ve just heard this podcast, you earn a promotional code! Enter the code ‘WINNER’ on our website and get 10 percent off all our new…” Or “Get our free ebook on this topic at…” If you just gave 15 to 30 minutes of quality content, you’ve earned the right to pitch. And your audience is much more likely to trust you and follow your direction because you’ve earned the right to pitch to them respectfully and fairly.
According to an article, “The Rising Popularity of Podcasts,” there are six reasons a business owner should consider podcasting:
It doesn’t take much to get started.
Podcasts are perfect for storytelling.
They’re extremely convenient to consume (most are only 15 to 30 minutes long).
You can become known as an industry expert.
Your listeners are in it for the long haul (because they subscribe).
You can reach a new, targeted audience.
How to set up your podcast
There are three phases to setting up a podcast.
Phase One: Show format
Before you decide on your show’s format, answer the following questions:
1. Do you want to produce your show every week? Every other week? Monthly? Don’t do a daily show unless you have a clear strategy in place. Start weekly or twice a month. That’ll be plenty.
2. Will you have guests? (Most do!) Who are the top 100 people you’d like to interview? (Hint: Choose people who have big lists to promote your interview of them to, or who are exceptionally interesting, or whose friendship could really grow your business.)
3. What’s your one specific statement? My literary agency’s statement is “We sell good books to good publishers.” If I were doing a podcast for that company, that is the last thing I’d say at the end of every podcast, so people remember it. If you have a USP (Unique Selling Proposition — something your company does to make you unique or rare in your category), put it on an index card so you can use it at the end of your podcasts.
Phase Two: Set up your studio
You don’t have to start out with anything expensive. To start out, you’ll need the following items:
A quality microphone
A pop shield that goes over the top of the microphone (about $20)
An extender arm to move the microphone closer or further from your mouth
Headphones that don’t “leak” sound (in-ear or cupping your ears)
Phase Three: Launch like a linebacker
First you need to arrange a time to talk with your first guest. Then do some research about your guest and prepare a list of good questions that you want to ask him or her. (Decide if you want to share the list with your guest in advance — it’s not mandatory!)
Prepare yourself and your space. Put the dog outside. Shut your office door. Unplug the phone and turn off your cell. Get rid of ambient noise (air conditioning, forced-air heating, a fan etc.). You don’t need a swanky sound-proofed studio to do this. Take a few breaths and remember that this is your first podcast, and it’s normal to make a few mistakes.
When the time comes, thank your guest, tell them how excited you are and promise them that you will give them time to pitch their book, song, product, website or whatever it may be at the end of the interview.
Hit record when the conversation begins. Relax during the interview. Pay 100 percent attention to your guest. Talk naturally, but get your questions in, unless something more interesting happens, and you find yourselves walking down a different but fascinating conversational path.
At the end of the interview, ask your guest if there’s anything else you should have asked; prompt them to talk about their product or service and repeat the URL after they mention it.
Stick in your call to action — “Come to the website to get your discount code” or “Free ebook” or whatever it is that you want to pitch — and remind your audience when the next episode will be released. Tell them where, and how to get your podcasts. Finally, end with your USP, give the audience the hyperlink one more time, and thank them for listening. You did it! Podcast one is complete!
Publishing and promoting
Where do you put your finished podcast? How do people find out about it? When your audio file is ready to go, you can upload it to a site like www.LibSyn.com, which hosts podcasts in the same way that Vimeo or YouTube host videos and the same way your website host sponsors your website. From there, you promote it and make it available in various distribution arenas. The website http://www.LibSyn.com creates the RSS feed (Rich Site Summary) that you can use to connect to sites like iTunes, www.Stitcher.com and Google Play.
Podcast expert Stephen Woessner advises, “Just because somebody doesn’t have a network or a platform or a [mailing] list already doesn’t mean you shouldn’t start one. Go spend a couple hundred bucks on a Facebook campaign, create a website, link your website to your podcast, which you’ve uploaded to iTunes, and use Pat Flynn’s Smart Podcast Player. Drive people to your website, give them a great gift to open the podcast link.”
Making money from your podcast
Once you have a lot of regular listeners, you can:
Sell sponsorships
Have people pay to be interviewed by you
Sell advertising (like a radio station does)
Sell from the podcast (an ad at the end, a pitch during)
Convert listeners by giving them something on your website and then having your reps sell to them directly.
There are pros and cons to each option. Think it through before you determine your strategy.
All the podcasters I know consistently describe it as the single most important thing that exploded their lead generation. Of course, we know that once upon a time in the history of American business, the cotton gin and the telegraph did similarly amazing things. But heck, you’re here now. May as well take advantage of the technology that’s working at this moment in history.
Source:
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/283825
