Adidas Wilson's Blog, page 86
September 6, 2017
Lyft has stopped deducting phantom taxes from drivers’ pay, labor group says
Lyft has ceased deducting taxes from drivers’ pay that didn’t need to be collected in the first place, the Independent Drivers Guild (IDG) said Tuesday.
With Labor Day 2017 just barely in the books, the IDG characterized the development as a victory – and proof that collective action works – by Lyft’s decision to cease deducting sales tax on rides that it wasn’t required to pay taxes on.
Lyft had a different perspective on the change in rates.
“Recent changes to our rate structure in New York had been planned for months,” Lyft spokesman Adrian Durbin said in a written statement. “IDG’s charges are baseless and played no role in our decision. We have always abided by our driver agreement, which clearly states commissions and fees.”
In June, the IDG raised a ruckus over Lyft’s pocketing the sales tax on both in-state and interstate trips when the tax is only supposed to apply to interstate trips. The group called the practice a form of wage theft. Yet Uber, the embattled pioneer of ride-hailing, also started improperly collecting the tax like Lyft, the IDG says.
Source:
Uber has a new London rival in Taxify
Ordering a taxi by app has just become even cheaper.
Taxify, an Estonian competitor to Uber, will launch in the city on Tuesday with a 50% discount on fares during September to get people downloading its app.
Like Uber, passengers download the Taxify app, register their number, and order a cab to their location. Unlike Uber, passengers can pay by cash or through the app with a pre-registered bank card.
When Business Insider compared the same journey across the two apps, Taxify came out almost three times cheaper than Uber. A journey from Aldgate East to Angel station would cost around £4.35 on Taxify. Uber estimates that the same journey would cost £16 on Uber X. (Note: Uber was showing surge pricing at the time, meaning it was more expensive than usual.)
Despite a bold promise to take on Uber in London, Taxify is still relatively unknown.
Its founder is 23-year-old university dropout Markus Villig, who started Taxify at home before expanding to 19 markets in Africa and eastern Europe. It’s avoided most Western European markets so far partly because of the tougher regulatory environment.
[image error]
With a new pile of funding from Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxingin its back pocket, Taxify is now taking on Uber in one of its biggest markets. Villig said the firm had raised around €2 million from outside investors, prior to Didi. After London, Villig told Business Insider, Taxify could launch in Paris.
What’s to say Taxify won’t join the growing pile of startups which tried and failed to take on Uber, like Karhoo and Hailo? Uber is the most valuable private company in the world, and has raised around $15 billion in equity and debt to fuel an aggressive global expansion. It’s dominant in London, with 40,000 registered drivers. There are an estimated 22,500 black cabs operating in the city by comparison. Taxify has 10,000 drivers in London either registered or waiting to register.
Villig told Business Insider that Taxify has two advantages. Firstly, it hasn’t raised billions in outside investment and therefore has comparatively little pressure to turn a profit and repay its investors, except for Didi Chuxing.
Source:
Most Popular Facebook Shows: So Far, They’re a Lot of Viral Videos
It’s been five days since Facebook started opening up Watch, its new video guide for longer-form content, to U.S. users — and the most popular stuff trending in the first week is viral clips, rather than longer-form, TV-like episodes.
Out of several hundred shows on Watch, the most-watched video so far: The funeral-prank premiere episode of A&E’s “Bae or Bail,” which has notched more than 22 million views. In the four-and-a-half-minute clip, three different people punk their significant others at a fake funeral (supposedly of a coworker’s relative) in which the corpse springs from the coffin after a voodoo ritual. The episode has more than 100,000 reactions and has been shared more than 200,000 times.
To be sure, some of the Facebook-funded shows are hitting high marks. The first episode of Mike Rowe’s “Returning the Favor,” a docu-series recognizing local heroes, has 11.8 million views. Conde Nast Entertainment’s debut ep of “Virtually Dating” featuring a VR blind date set in outer space has 7.6 million views, while “Ball in the Family,” the reality series featuring LaVar Ball and his basketball-playing brood, has notched 5.5 million in the first five days for the premiere segment.
Here are the top-performing episodes of the shows in Facebook’s Watch, with view counts to date:
A&E’s “Bae or Bail”: “Funeral Prank,” 22.2 million
The Dodo, “Comeback Kids: Animal Edition”: “Dog Who Lost Her Legs Was Determined To Walk Again,” 13.1 million
Mike Rowe’s “Returning the Favor”: “Operation Combat Bikesaver,” 11.8 million
Ray William Johnson’s The Funny Page: “You’re Infected, Bro,” 9.3 million
Conde Nast Entertainment, “Virtually Dating”: “VR Blind Date in Outer Space,” 7.6 million
Ray William Johnson’s The Funny Page: “When She Finally Leaves You,” 5.7 million
“Ball in the Family: ” Bittersweet Victory,” 5.5 million
Ray William Johnson’s The Funny Page: “You’re Trying Too Hard,” 5.1 million
Ray William Johnson’s The Funny Page: “Accidental Dick Pic,” 4.8 million
Mike Rowe’s “Returning the Favor”: “Donovan Discovers,” 4.1 million
NBA’s “Best of the NBA”: “Top 40 Long Distance Shots of the 2016-17 NBA Season,” 3.6 million
NBA’s “Best of the NBA”: “Top 50 Blocks of the 2016-17 NBA Season,” 3.2 million
Laura Clery’s “Help Helen Smash”: “Labor Day With the Family,” 3 million
Nameless.tv’s “Weird Wild World”: “This Boy Is Worshipped,” 3 million
Nas Daily, “She Has 20 Cars!,” 2.6 million
Red Bull “Raw 100”: “Brandon Semenuk is back”: 1.9 million
“Apocalypse NowThis”: “How the World Could End: Nuclear Annihilation,” 1.7 million
Cake Boss: “Outrageous Cakes: Lady Liberty,” 1.6 million
ATTN:’s “Health Hacks”: “Portion Sizes in America vs. The World,” 1.3 million
Laura Clery’s “Help Helen Smash”: “Me Trying To Flirt On Botox,” 1.3 million
Nas Daily, “She Used to Be a Man!,” 1.1 million
Robert Reich’s “The Reich Report”: “Trump’s Corporate Tax Cuts,” 1.1 million
Source:
Most Popular Facebook Shows: So Far, They’re a Lot of Viral Videos
Lenovo will pay a $3.5 million fine for preinstalling adware on certain laptops
Lenovo came under fire a few years ago for pre-installing adware called VisualDiscovery (developed by Superfish) onto new machines. Now that the legal dust has settled, the laptop maker has agreed to pay $3.5 million in fines to a 32-state coalition “to resolve their concerns” related to the nefarious bloatware app. In 2015, the worry was that the software performed a man-in-the-middle attack on supposedly secure connections and could be used to spy on encrypted communications. The company issued a tool for removing the software at the time.
“As part of the settlement with the FTC, Lenovo is prohibited from misrepresenting any features of software preloaded on laptops that will inject advertising into consumers’ internet browsing sessions or transmit sensitive consumer information to third parties,” the trade group writes.
That’s pretty clear cut, but the FTC has more stipulations in place too.
“The company must also get consumers’ affirmative consent before pre-installing this type of software. In addition, the company is required for 20 years to implement a comprehensive software security program for most consumer software preloaded on its laptops. The security program will also be subject to third-party audits.”
Despite coming to grips with the gravity of the situation at the time, Lenovo said today that it “disagrees with allegations contained in these complaints,” but that it’s happy to finally close the case over two years later.
Lenovo also said that it wasn’t aware of any third parties exploiting the app to gain access.
Source:
https://www.engadget.com/2017/09/05/lenovo-superfish-vsualdiscovery-ftc-complaint/
Elon Musk Predicts The Cause Of World War III
Elon Musk has a prediction about the cause of World War III, and it’s not President Donald Trump and may not even involve humans at all.
The head of Tesla and SpaceX on Monday shared a link on Twitter to a report about Russian President Vladimir Putin discussing artificial intelligence:
It begins … https://t.co/mbjw5hWC5J
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 4, 2017
“Artificial intelligence is the future, not only for Russia, but for all humankind,” Putin was quoted as saying. “It comes with colossal opportunities, but also threats that are difficult to predict. Whoever becomes the leader in this sphere will become the ruler of the world.”
Musk added:
China, Russia, soon all countries w strong computer science. Competition for AI superiority at national level most likely cause of WW3 imo.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 4, 2017
May be initiated not by the country leaders, but one of the AI’s, if it decides that a prepemptive strike is most probable path to victory
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 4, 2017
By comparison, Musk said, the saber-rattling from North Korea wasn’t much to worry about.
NK launching a nuclear missile would be suicide for their leadership, as SK, US and China wd invade and end the regime immediately
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 4, 2017
Should be low on our list of concerns for civilizational existential risk. NK has no entangling alliances that wd polarize world into war.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 4, 2017
One Twitter follower suggested that private companies, rather than governments, were far better at artificial intelligence.
Musk replied:
Govts don’t need to follow normal laws. They will obtain AI developed by companies at gunpoint, if necessary.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 4, 2017
He also apologized for the glum tweets, saying he was depressing himself, and promised: “Fun, exciting tweets coming soon!”
Source:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/elon-musk-world-war-iii_us_59ae3d24e4b0354e440c02a6
Steve Harvey: My Wife Told Me To Skip Meeting With Trump, I Should’ve Listened
When comedian and TV host Steve Harvey met with President Donald Trump earlier this year, he didn’t expect the degree of outrage he’d receive.
Harvey, who recently opened up to The Hollywood Reporter about his career as a comedian and a TV host, spoke about both personal and political experiences over the years and how his meeting with Trump made for one that brings him regrets.
“I didn’t see that coming. Jesus,” Harvey told the publication in a new piece published Tuesday. “It was so vicious that it really threw me.”
“I was being called names that I’ve never been called: Uncle Tom. A coon. A sellout,” he added.
Harvey said he first met with Trump after he said his business partner received “a call from the Obama transition team, who said that the Trump transition team would like to set up a meeting.” He said yes ― but the meeting was also to be held around Harvey’s 60th birthday celebration, which was hosted on a boat. So his wife, Marjorie Harvey, suggested he deliberately miss the meeting.
“My wife says, ’Steve, just take off [and skip the meeting]. You’ll meet with him some other time,’” he recalled. “God, I should’ve listened.”
Harvey met with the President at the Trump Towers and said he spent about 20 minutes in the January meeting talking about golf. He recalled how he told Trump about potentially working with Ben Carson, whom the president appointed to lead the department of Housing and Urban Development, to help identify ways he could help transform closing schools into “vision centers and teach STEM and computers and coding.”
Harvey said he has since been to HUD twice and that he’s met with Carson. “We’re actually trying to get it started,” he said. “Hopefully before the year goes out, we’ll be making the announcement about the first vision center.”
Harvey, who was pictured with Trump immediately following their meeting, drew ire from critics who called out the disrespect and shame they felt in seeing him, a black man, be so willing to work with a man who has consistently neglected and disrespected the black community.
Harvey himself released a statement in January as the outrage began to bubble up, explaining then why he met with the President and affirming that “he would sit with Trump anytime.”
A fancy birthday boat ride doesn’t sound half bad, after all.
Source:
September 5, 2017
Augmented Reality Vs. Virtual Reality
To experience AUGMENTED REALITY, you look through a device screen or put on a headset and a virtual image is laid over the room you’re in. You can see what’s around you, but part of it is blocked out by whatever video projection is playing on your headset.
The Basic Setup
▶ A camera and screen equipped with computer vision, a technology that identifies objects and surfaces. Adding depth and motion sensors lets a device map the room around you and track your motion through it. Your app can then overlay anything from a first-person-shooter zombie attack to the steps to replace a fan belt.
Primary Uses
▶ For now it’s pretty simple: catching Pokémon (Pokémon GO), mapping constellations (Sky Map), inking a tattoo (InkHunter), turning you into a half-dog (Snapchat).
AR can’t scan a room and identify every object. But you can teach its computer vision to identify individual objects, like a motorcycle, when prompted, says Mike Campbell, executive vice president of the ThingWorx AR platform. “There’s not enough computing power to analyze everything it sees.”
Emerging Uses
▶ Hands-on skill training, interior design, wearable computing.
AR can lead a factory worker on a tutorial, but right now the technology won’t change your life unless you own a factory, says Amber Case, a fellow at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society. A Microsoft HoloLens can overlay hidden parts such as a tucked-away air filter and demonstrate its removal. Similar programs are in development for phones and tablets and could soon offer life-changing relief for tasks like Ikea furniture assembly.
Motion Sickness
▶ Motion sickness sets in when your perceived motion—what you see—doesn’t match what your inner ear feels. That’s not the case with augmented reality, says Robert Scoble, coauthor of The Fourth Transformation: How Augmented Reality & Artificial Intelligence Will Change Everything. You’re still looking out on the real world and the same horizon.
Mobility
▶ AR on mobile devices really is mobile. Unlike high-end VR, which can’t leave a room, AR can enhance a city tour or museum. Last winter, the Detroit Institute of Arts lent visitors Android phones to view the skeleton inside a 2,000-year-old sarcophagus and to see the original colors on a now-biege Assyrian sculpture.
However, AR is difficult to wear on your face. Everybody thinks we’ll be walking around with the next Google Glass but social constraints prevent that, says Case, adding, “Sunshine makes headset AR difficult to see, voice and hand controls are still unreliable.”
How Apple Will Own It
▶ AR will explode in the next year. Today, relatively few devices offer a rich AR experience, leading to a lack of demand for new AR apps—phones with Google’s Tango AR number less than a million. Expect that to change after Apple’s June release of iOS 11 ARKit for developers, says Scoble. ARKit is a bundled suite of AR tools that can reach a quarter billion Apple devices. Additionally, this fall’s new iPhone adds 3D sensors and room mapping that can play hologram-like counter-op games or virtually measure and then furnish a room without draining battery.
Source:
http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/design/a27896/augmented-reality-virtual-reality/
First ‘Wheelman’ Teaser: Frank Grillo Is a Getaway Driver in Netflix Film
Netflix has unveiled the first teaser for Wheelman, the upcoming original film that stars Frank Grillo (The Purge: Anarchy) as a getaway driver. Written and directed by Jeremy Rush and produced by Grillo and Joe Carnahan (The Grey), much of the film takes place inside the confines of a single vehicle, as Grillo’s getaway driver is thrust into a race for survival after a bank robbery goes wrong. He has a car full of money and a family on the line, and he must figure out who double crossed him before it’s too late.
This teaser gives a strong feel for the vibe of the film here, with fast editing that provides a rhythm to the action. No doubt Wheelman is very little like Baby Driver, but I’ll be curious to see if the success of the Edgar Wright film carries over into heightened interest in this more gritty version of a getaway driver movie. Carnahan exclusively told us that Wheelman is very much a father-daughter story disguised as an action film, with roots in movies like Vanishing Point, Bullitt, and The Driver, and that’s certainly on display in this here teaser.
[image error]
Understanding Multi-Family Investment Property Returns and Benefits
Have you ever thought about how to value of your investment property returns for a multi-family property? Here is the good news, there is no need to overthink about it because it’s relatively easy to calculate. As long as you have good operating data on your property, that’s all you need. Investing in multi-family properties is such a great opportunity for real estate investors and comes with many benefits which we look into later on. The value of multi-family real estate property is borrowed from an income approach estimation based on a simple formula for valuing real estate:
Current Market Value = Capitalization Rate/Net Operating Income
We will examine each component of this formula in more details in a bit, since understanding this formula will help you calculate your investment property returns easily. But first things first, you must understand what a multi-family property is and how real estate investors benefit from this type of investment?
What are the benefits of multi-family properties?
Multi-family properties are buildings with more than one unit. A multifamily could be as small as two units, a duplex, or hundreds of units in a large apartment complex. Most real estate investors own multifamily properties only to rent them out to those who can’t or choose not to buy a single-family home. rarely do you see people buying a multifamily to live in. Investors need to understand the many benefits that come with owning a multi-family property so they can decide if it’s the right decision for them or not. So what are the benefits that come with owning a multifamily property?
1. Easier management
Whats better owning 10 single family homes that are distributed across the city to mange and control or 10 units under one roof? With multifamily properties managing is a lot easier and less time consuming and not so tiring like single-family units. With the 12 individual properties, you may need more than one property manager; with the one building you only need one manager.
[image error]
2. Forcing Appreciation in Multi-Family Properties is a lot Easier
You can’t just depend on time to make a property’s value increase. You have to do certain things to force the value of a property up or improve amenities and benefits to tenants which will increase the property’s appreciation. In multi-family properties, investors are able to see the returns on renovations a lot faster than in single-family properties.
3. You Can Create Even More Cashflow in The Multi-Family Property
This is pretty exciting stuff, because there are ways to create cash flow beyond rent. In multi-family units, you can charge for extra amenities such as a laundry facility. Tenants who don’t have washers or dryers in their unit can use this laundry room and you will benefit by generating more cash flow. The laundry room is just ONE thing you can add. There are many more amenities to add that bring additional cash flow in a variety of ways.
4. There Are Great Tax Breaks that Come with Investing in Multi-Family Properties
Whats better than providing housing for so many people? And with every good deed done comes a reward. At least that’s what the government thinks so. Because you are helping the residents of that city by providing clean, safe and affordable housing to people who might not otherwise find housing, you should be rewarded. As a reward, you can gain all sorts of tax incentives, also known as tax breaks. You can take a whole lot of deductions because this is a business, and many things depreciate in an apartment building.
5. Multi-Family Properties Hold Their Value
Once the property is fixed up and you’ve made it attractive to tenants, it will also attract other investors who will be interested in buying the property later if you ever want to sell. You’ve put in place everything required to attract and retain tenants. That means steady cash flow, which is quite appealing to investors.
With that being said, let us now answer our main question “how to calculate returns for a multi-family property?”
1. Net operating income (NOI)
Net operating income is the operating profit a multifamily home generates during a certain period, such as one year, before accounting for income tax expenses and mortgage payments. NOI equals gross income minus operating expenses and is an important figure that investors and lenders use to make financial decisions and calculate investment property returns. A higher annual NOI generally results in a higher property value. NOI may change each period based on vacancies and changes in rents and expenses.
How to calculate net operating income
Add together the rental income and other income, such as vending machine income, that a multifamily property generated during a year to determine its gross income. Then subtract total operating expenses from gross income to calculate NOI. Examples of operating expenses are property taxes, insurance and management fees. Exclude income taxes and loan payments from operating expenses.
2. How to calculate cap rate
One of the most common investment unit for multifamily properties is the capitalization, or cap rate. To calculate it, you divide its net operating income by the property’s price. The net income is the money that is left from rent payments after the building’s recurring expenses have been paid, excluding its loan payments. Cap rates vary based on the type of property and its location, as well as on the general view of the market.
Capitalization Rate = Net Operating Income / Current Market Value
Cap rates have an indirect relationship with market value. When cap rates decrease, the value increases and vice versa. The Cap Rate is a formula is very helpful for real estate investors since it lets them know the relationship between value and the amount of income a property delivers. the difference between the value of cap rate in single-family homes and multifamily is that that houses are compared with each other to determine value, while multifamily investments, it is the cap rate that is compared. So for example, if a nice apartment complex in Chicago recently sold at a 6.5% cap rate, it is safe to assume that other nice apartment complexes in Chicago will sell around a 6.5% cap rate. Normally ranging between 5% and 12%, the cap rate changes significantly from one location to another. So in short, the higher the cap rate, the higher the cashflow.
The bottom line
For investors who own or plan on owning a multi-family property, the key elements that help in calculating investment property returns is net operating income and cap rate. It is all about the NOI of the property and the fact that the investor is purchasing the property based on an income stream. Be sure to check out Mashvisor for the latest tips on how to get your investment property returns going.
Source:
https://www.mashvisor.com/blog/multi-family-investment-property-returns/
