Real Time Trends Network

Of all the Balearic islands, Menorca tends to be the one most overlooked. The upside, though, is that its sun-kissed charms have retained an untrammelled freshness that’s unmarred by the tourist hordes that tend to descend on neighbouring Mallorca and Ibiza. The Experimental group’s new outpost on the island’s southern edge capitalises on this bucolic quality by tapping the French interior designer Dorothée Meilichzon to convert a 19th-century finca into a light-bathed 43-room retreat. The result is a soothing swathe of pastel hues washed over a mix of rustic farm furniture, hand-glazed terracotta tiles, timber floor planks and modernist wall panels, the latter a particularly effective motif in the bedrooms. The sensation of the countryside is reinforced by the capacious 30-hectare grounds, which include the original vegetable gardens, their borders faithfully restored from antique aerial maps. The best rooms in the house are the nine private bungalows which feature plunge pools. §

The Super Nintendo recently experienced a surge in popularity, either from a combination of nostalgic 30-somethings recreating their childhoods, or because Nintendo released a “classic” version of this nearly-perfect video game system. Or a combination of both. But what made the system worthy of being remembered at all? With only 16 bits and graphics that look ancient by modern standards, gameplay is similarly limited. This video from [Nerdwriter1] goes into depth on a single part of the console – the sound chips – and uses them to illustrate a small part of what makes this console still worth playing even now. The SNES processed sound with two chips, a processing core and a DSP. They only had a capacity of 64 kb, meaning that all of a game’s sounds and music had to fit in this tiny space. This might seem impossible if you’ve ever played enduring classics like Donkey Kong Country, a game known for its impressive musical score. This is where the concept of creative limitation comes i

It is a common situation in electronics to have a control loop, that is some sort of feedback that drives the input to a system such as a motor or a heater based upon a sensor to measure something like position or temperature. You’ll have a set point — whatever you want the sensor to read — and your job is to adjust the driving thing to make the sensor read the set point value. This seems easy, right? It does seem that way, but in realitythere’s a lot of nuance to doing it well and that usually involves at least some part of a PID (proportional, integral, derivative) controller. You can bog down in math trying to understand the PID but [Electronoobs] recent video shows a very simple test setup that clearly demonstrates what’s going on with an Arduino, a motor, a distance sensor, and a ping-pong ball. You can see the video below. Imagine for a moment heating a tank of water as an example. The simple approach would be to turn on the heater and when the water reaches the setpoint, turn

Creative Energy may not have a big-market ad agency address, but it’s using its Johnson City, Tennessee headquarters in the Appalachian Mountains as a distinct selling point to attract new clients tired of city slicker types, and creative talent yearning for a more rural work environment. The group, which has roughly 45 employees, recently hired Benji Vega from the Richards Group as chief creative officer, and Greg Nobles, formerly of Leo Burnett, as creative director. It also nabbed work from big-name clients including Garner Foods and Coca-Cola Food Service. Earlier this year, Garner’s Texas Pete hot sauce tapped Creative Energy for a campaign designed to fend off its peppery rivals. “Sauce Like You Mean It” invents a “tribe” of brand enthusiasts who are encouraged to “go Pete, or go home.” The work sure heated up sales: Texas Pete met its 2018 full-year sales goals within the first quarter, Creative Energy says. from CommaFeed - Real Time Trends Network https://ift.tt/2YANg5k vi

New York-based creative agency Badger & Winters credits its strong female influence as one of the keys to its long-standing success. The shop emphasizes that its mission is to “infuse empathy and humanity in all the work we create,” and it prides itself on its prioritization of female leadership. About 70 percent of Badger & Winters’ employees—including 50 percent of its director-level staff—are women. The majority-female company makes it clear that it is unwilling to compromise the values it upholds, and in doing so, it hopes to lure powerful clients with similar morals. “We believe the kind of work we are committed to creating attracts the kind of people who want to work at our agency,” says Jim Winters, co-founder along with Madonna Badger. “We don’t work to be diverse; it happens naturally because of what we do and what we believe in.” That mantra, Winters says, has helped the agency to experience a growth spurt in recent years. In 2018, the New York-based company landed

“We know. It’s a lot of a lot of syllables,” says Seattle advertising firm Copacino & Fujikado in its awards submission. “But we may just be the best agency you’ve never heard of.” Co-owned by Betti Fujikado, the granddaughter of Japanese immigrants, the agency has demonstrated a commitment to diversity and equality, it says, since “long before 3 percent was a rallying cry.”  Fujikado, along with Çhief Creative Officer Jim Copacino, has strived to attract women and people of color to leadership roles within the advertising world and offers internships year-round, reserving at least one for a first-generation college student. The shop is turning out colorful work, too. For Intrinsic Wine, the shop created an app that animates wine labels and outdoor ads. When used, the woman in an exotic red dress begins dancing. The push allowed the brand to crack the top 5 in market share for cabernets and reds in its price point. Partnering with the Seattle Mariners, C&F created “True to

The founders of Imprint Projects have experience in arts curation, community organizing and working at bookstores and galleries, and culture is at the heart of the agency’s mission. The non-traditional shop’s goal is to enrich brands with cultural content and experiences, and it also has put a strong focus on building its own unique agency culture.  Founded eight years ago, Imprint has hired artists, skaters, art historians and tech entrepreneurs; the company says less than a third of its 50-plus employees come from marketing backgrounds. To keep the creativity and new ideas flowing, the company invites cultural leaders and artists as guest speakers at lunchtime every Tuesday at its offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York. (Imprint Projects is in the process of closing its New York location to position itself for sustained growth, and it’s relocating many employees.)  Imprint offers staffers a chance to take sabbaticals of three to six months at any time, and some use the

At the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival, filmgoers at a screening of “Corazón” were given an unusual request: pull out their phones. A custom mobile site detected the viewer’s heartbeat before directing them to register as an organ donor, all in under 15 seconds. It was all part of a campaign from JohnXHannes for Montefiore Hospital in New York. The hospital wanted to improve donor registry rolls in the state, where 98 percent of people support organ donation, but only one in five are registered as a potential donor. The agency created the 48-minute film, in which Ana de Armas of “Blade Runner 2049” stars as Elena Ramirez, a sex worker from the Dominican Republic who must travel to Montefiore to meet the only doctor who can perform the heart transplant she needs to survive. Directed by John Hillcoat (“The Road”) via Serial Pictures and co-starring Academy Award nominee Demian Bichir, the film is based on a true story. The results were just as real. The campaign won the 2018 Health and Wel

In just two years, Chicago-based Highdive has secured major clients like Fiat Chrysler and Nike, while pumping out high-profile work, including a global campaign for Jeep. Led by alums of Leo Burnett, Ogilvy and DDB, the boutique agency has a high standard for the talent it hires, saying it prefers to pay fewer people more, rather than pay more people less. The Jeep campaign, called “Legends Aren’t Born, They’re Made,” compared the stamp the vehicle has made on the SUV category to the impact of legends such as Babe Ruth, James Dean and Misty Copeland. The agency helped Nike make inroads in the lacrosse gear category with a campaign for a new cleat. Called “Unleash Your Sixth Sense,” the effort played off an insight that players possess an intuitive awareness on the field. It worked: Nike gained market share, making it the category leader in lacrosse for the first time in the brand’s history, according to the agency. from CommaFeed - Real Time Trends Network https://ift.tt/2K6Y8ng v

Erich & Kallman isn’t afraid to get down and dirty. The San Francisco shop was behind an ad for non-profit Zero—The End of Prostate Cancer, which saw “Dirty Jobs” host Mike Rowe take to the examination table for a live prostate exam. The results weren’t scripted, so Rowe got them while on camera.  On the complete opposite end of the spectrum, Erich & Kallman’s “It’s What You Really, Really, Really, Really Want” campaign for Reese’s Puffs reintroduced the candy-for-breakfast cereal to a new generation. And it repurposed former “Most Interesting Man in the World” Jonathan Goldsmith as an agave-lover with sophisticated tastes in a campaign for Astral Tequila that leveraged the former Dos Equis pitchman’s familiarity among older millennials without veering into naked imitation. Erich & Kallman’s diversity of work is drawing an ever-growing client roster. The shop last year won Kelly Services, the country’s largest staffing firm, and grew its portfolio of General Mills clients

After the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, both student survivors and the general public knew something needed to be done. That’s when Tommy Noonan, DCX Growth Accelerator’s executive creative drirector, who had a 1-year-old child at the time of the massacre, conceived “Bulletproof Schools.” The idea was simple: strap a bulletproof vest emblazoned with the logos of companies who advertise on NRA TV to a child participating in a March for Our Lives protest event and call them out for their support. With no media spending, the campaign was able to generate more than 70 million impressions and remained on Reddit’s front page for five consecutive days. But beyond digital impressions, the campaign brought about real-world change: FedEx and Lloyd’s of London both pulled their support for NRA TV after “Bulletproof Schools” went viral, and YouTube banned videos showing firearms demonstrations. In June 2019, more than a year after the Parkland sh

Before it was an agency, Imprint Projects was a bookstore founded by art curators and exhibition programmers Adam Katz, Dina Pugh and David Kramer. The chops they honed in those positions working across culture and retail formed the roots of what’s now a full-service creative shop that specializes in creating unique, culture-driven experiences for brands.  Recent work includes the ongoing Levi’s Music Project, which has brought the fashion brand together with leading musicians including Alicia Keys, SZA, and, most recently, Snoop Dogg. The last involved creating a musical production masterclass for youth led by Snoop in his hometown of Long Beach, California.  Imprint Projects also teamed with Everlane to create an experience highlighting the fashion label’s decision to refrain from using new plastic in its supply chain by 2012. The 100% sustainably produced concept shop showcased the brand’s ReNew collection, made from recycled plastic, and educated consumers on how to reduce thei

It was behind a great campaign—for a company that later declared bankruptcy. But DCX Growth Accelerator, a tiny 10-person shop, has proven time and again that it can pull off attention-getting activations and has still managed to earn Silver in Agency of the Year. The shop’s “Palessi” prank for Payless ShoeSource was one of the biggest plays of the year, turning brand perceptions of the shoe discounter on their head by tricking influencers into paying between $200 and $640 for shoes that cost closer to $30. “Palessi” was not enough to save the drowning discounter from filing for bankruptcy, but at least Payless went out with a bang. The push drew 8.8 billion total global earned media impressions, spread globally to 49 countries; and was featured in more than 1,641 broadcast shows in the U.S. alone. Perhaps more importantly, it earned Payless a 42 percent increase in brand consideration.  Beyond “Paliessi,” Brooklyn, N.Y.–based DCX grew its revenue to $4.1 million in 2018 from $3.

In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the first Apollo moon landing, Google created a 1.4-square-mile portrait of NASA software developer Margaret Hamilton using more than 107,000 mirrors from the Ivanpah Solar Facility in the Mojave Desert, a solar thermal power plant with a gross capacity of 392 megawatts. The fields of heliostat mirrors (173,500 in total) ordinarily focus sunlight on receivers located on the solar power towers, which subsequently generate steam to drive steam turbines. The facility was first connected to the electrical grid in September 2013 before formally opening in February 2014, during which it was the world’s largest solar thermal power station. Ivanpah was developed by BrightSource Energy and Bechtel, with Google contributing $168 million towards its $2.2 billion in costs. Google no longer invests in the facility, however, due to the decline of the price of photovoltaic systems. The facility has historically taken steps to avoid disrupting the natural w

Stock up for the next year or two. from CommaFeed - Real Time Trends Network https://ift.tt/2YAxDus via IFTTT

Apple Inc. generated less than half of its total quarterly revenue from sales of the iPhone for the first time since 2012—a sign the company is entering life beyond its flagship product. While Apple reported a record $11.5 billion in sales of services in the fiscal third quarter, and demonstrated strong performances from wearables such as the Apple Watch, it can’t cut loose from its iPhone dependence quite yet. While those two product categories are growing, they’re still tied to the smartphone. All the company’s major services and wearables, including the watch and AirPods headphones, require or work best with the Apple smartphone. Services like the App Store, Apple Pay, Apple News+ and the upcoming game arcade are used mostly with the iPhone. Combined, Apple’s two major independent product lines not attached to the iPhone—Mac computers and iPads—made up only 20 percent of revenue in the fiscal third quarter, despite gains from the period a year ago, the Cupertino, California-based

Former congressman John Delaney finally got the spotlight in the latest Democratic presidential debates, and it didn't go well for him. from CommaFeed - Real Time Trends Network https://ift.tt/2K5ASGk via IFTTT

Before swearing my fealty to the Jolly Wrencher, I wrote for several other sites, creating more or less the same sort of content I do now. In fact, the topical overlap was enough that occasionally those articles would get picked up here on Hackaday. One of those articles, which graced the pages of this site a little more than seven years ago , was Getting Started with RTL-SDR . The original linked article has long since disappeared, and the site it was hosted on is now apparently dedicated to Nintendo games, but you can probably get the gist of what it was about from the title alone. An “Old School” RTL-SDR Receiver When I wrote that article in 2012, the RTL-SDR project and its community were still in their infancy. It took some real digging to find out which TV tuners based on the Realtek RTL2832U were supported, what adapters you needed to connect more capable antennas, and how to compile all the software necessary to get them listening outside of their advertised frequency range.

Recently, Airbnb hired a new CTO -- not CTO as in chief technology officer, but as in chief trust officer. That’s right, like operations, human resources and finance, trust is becoming its own discipline, and the travel company now has its own trust team. This begs the obvious question: Why? Why is trust suddenly so important? What’s happened to make it that way? And what do we even mean when we say “trust?” Surprisingly (or unsurprisingly), the answer to all the above questions is the same: disruption. The business theme of the decade has been that of legacy organizations being challenged by new models and technology that force re-examination of entire industry paradigms: taxis giving way to rideshares; hotels giving way to short-term rentals; cable giving way to streaming services. But it hasn’t happened without a fight. The smarter and more tenacious of the old guard companies have quickly poured resources and efforts into adapting or expanding their models to compete with the

Like most people, I’ve had a lot of bad first dates in my life. In fact, my single life was full of cringeworthy first dates that could charitably be described as good story fodder. Luckily, as a marketing strategist, I love a good story, and it’s recently occurred to me that, while these dates were each bad in their own unique ways, they actually had a lot in common with bad marketing strategies. Most of my bad first dates were with nice people who made one of two seemingly opposite-yet-related errors. And these are the same errors I see a lot of businesses make in their marketing strategies. It’s all about me Ah, the self-absorbed narcissist. We’ve all been there, right? That unbearable first date where the other person can’t (or won’t) stop talking about themselves, droning on endlessly about their interests and ambitions. Rarely do they pause long enough for you to get a word in edgewise. Inevitably, they come away from the date knowing nothing about you—and caring even less. W

Fridays be damned. from CommaFeed - Real Time Trends Network https://ift.tt/2KgqSck via IFTTT

The legendary actor Kevin Bacon's 30-year career has seen him play everything from a heartthrob to a comic book villain to an astronaut. from CommaFeed - Real Time Trends Network https://ift.tt/2YB3PxL via IFTTT

A New York minute with the ubiquitous, beloved actor who keeps finding a new gear. from CommaFeed - Real Time Trends Network https://ift.tt/32UmdVQ via IFTTT

GQ editors choose the best songs of the summer, including tracks by Sam Smith, Jonas Brothers, Gucci Mane, and more. from CommaFeed - Real Time Trends Network https://ift.tt/2KdLFNK via IFTTT

[Paul Klinger] can’t seem to get enough of building tiny, amazing gaming rigs, and we love him for that. They combine two of our favorites: miniatures and portable gaming. His newest creation honors the form of the formidable ThinkPad . Of course it has the red nipple and lid LED—wouldn’t be a ThinkPad without ’em. ThinkTiny’s nipple is a 5-way joystick that plays Snake, Tetris, Lunar Lander, and more on an OLED screen. Like its predecessor the Tiny PC , [Paul] used an ATtiny1614, which (FYI) has a new one-wire UDPI interface. He can easily reprogram it through pogo pin holes built into the case. There are some nice stylistic details at play here, too. The lid LED is both delivered and diffused by a 2mm grain of fiber-optic cable. And [Paul] printed the cover with a color change to transparent filament to make the Think logo and the charging LEDs shine through. Maneuver your way past the break to see it in action. If you haven’t leveled up to AVR programming yet, introduce yourself

Welcome to Ad Age’s Wake-Up Call, our daily roundup of advertising, marketing, media and digital news. You can get an audio version of this briefing on your Alexa device; sign up  here . Snapchat infiltrates Instagram Snapchat is running its first global paid-media campaign, and it’s using the occasion to subtly throw shade at rival Instagram. As Ad Age’s Garett Sloane writes , the campaign is called “Real Friends,” and it focuses on friendships between people who use the messaging app to bond in fun ways. Snapchat is hoping to build on the strong user growth it’s seen recently. And it’s getting its message out on billboards, digital, broadcast, print—and on Instagram, which is less about building "real" relationships and more about presenting an idealized, carefully curated vision of your life. As Sloane reports, Snapchat paid Instagram influencers to post inspirational quotes about friendship that are part of its ad campaign. Such as this one from singer-songwriter Joan J

Digital ad spending in the travel industry will surge past what is spent by consumer packaged goods brands next year as competition heats up among hotels and airlines, according to a new report from eMarketer. The firm projects nearly $13 billion in digital outlays in travel, making it the fifth-largest vertical overall, replacing CPG ($12.8 billion).  The firm also projects that financial services will spend $18.25 billion on digital, surpassing automotive ($18 billion) for the No. 2 spot. Retail will retain the top spot with $33 billion spent on digital. A combination of factors is pushing travel brands to spend more on digital.  “Travel has historically been big on TV – we’ve seen that with the likes of Expedia and Travelocity – but what we are now seeing is a move from TV storytelling to digital storytelling,” VP of forecasting Monica Peart at eMarketer, says. “We are also seeing hotels competing in getting a traveler to book a hotel lodging.”  Other factors include companies s

John Patroulis is worldwide chief creative officer at Grey. The 102-year-old agency has worked with many of the biggest brands in the world, most recently Walgreens, using a UV camera to show hidden skin damage , and ads for Gillette reframe masculinity for the grooming brand. In this episode of the “Ad Block” podcast, Patroulis talks about a host of niche and counterculture topics that have captured his attention over the years. “I can dive pretty quickly into things that feel like interesting subcultures, or people who are literally living and expressing themselves free of any kind of cultural pressure or interest in fitting in,” he says. While living on a friend’s couch after college, he picked up hypnosis as a party trick. And his time as a DJ at his college radio station led him to discover music outside the mainstream, like the atonal creations of Jandek. “I become more interested sometimes in the process and the person than I am in the output,” which is why he can admit mayb

Most new CMOs arrive with a mandate to find ways to make marketing more effective. Ironically, only a small percentage ask for or are given the time they need to assess the situation—let alone provided the time they would need to research a meaningful customer insight that could have a material impact on their marketing efforts. As such, a ready-fire-aim approach is the norm, while “agile” has become a cover phrase for insight-free but speedy execution. As CMO of FocusVision, a market research company, Dawn Colossi admits she has a vested interest in changing that approach. But she also has the evidence that research-driven marketing programs are more effective, with both internal and external audiences. In this candid interview, Colossi shares her insights on how CMOs can use research to their best advantage, improving impact and, in turn, increasing longevity, assuming of course, they buy a few months to get their strategy right the first time around. FocusVision, essentially makes

There are so many dietary trends to keep up with–from keto, paleo and raw to superfoods, gluten-free, plant-based and macronutrient dense–that it’s getting more challenging to market foods, even to consumers who say they want healthier fare. After all, healthy isn’t a clearly defined term. One consumer’s healthy food, say fruit, might be on someone else’s no-no list because of its high sugar content. “It feels like it’s the complexity and sort of the conflicting information that’s actually creating a new barrier to eating healthy,” CJ Gaffney, Partners & Napier’s director of planning, says on the latest episode of Ad Age’s Marketer’s Brief podcast. Gaffney, whose agency recently surveyed more than 1,100 U.S. adults about their eating habits, says food marketers should consider using more conversational terms in their campaigns. “Language is critical,” he says.  Brands that focus their marketing on inspiration, rather than ingredients, tend to be perceived as advocates for healt

There is an intense summer soundtrack that drifts through the French commune town of Hyères and its neighbouring port city of Toulon. It comprises modernist charm, mixed with the romance of Riviera seaside, and an annual dose of design. In the surrounds of the Robert Mallet Stevens-designed Villa Noailles, opened the 14th edition of Design Parade, and for Toulon, it saw an expansion into curious locations for the fourth iteration of its very own expanding showdown of creativity. It was particularly scorching weekend for the opening this year, but that didn’t stop design devotees indulging in what this year’s show had to offer in Hyères – from discovering new talents in the basement of the villa to exploring exhibitions in the squash room and terrace, where views of the coastline almost look painted. How do you distract the audience from this immaculate portrait? Head of the jury Mathieu Lehanneur decided not to compete, but to reflect it with his exhibition, Particle Horizon. Bringing

Playing a video game online is almost second nature now. So much so that almost all multiplayer video games have ditched their split-screen multiplayer modes because they assume you’d rather just be alone at your house than hanging out with your friends. This wasn’t always the case though. In the early days of online multiplayer, systems had to rely on dial-up internet before broadband was readily available (and still had split screen if you didn’t even have that). Almost no one uses dial up anymore though, so if you still like playing your old Dreamcast you’re going to have to do some work to get it online again . Luckily for all of us there’s a Raspberry Pi image to do almost anything now. This project from [Kazade] uses one to mimic a dial-up connection for a Dreamcast so you can connect with other people still playing Quake 20 years later. It’s essentially a network bridge, but you will need some extra hardware because phone lines use a high voltage line that you’ll have to make (

from CommaFeed - Real Time Trends Network https://ift.tt/32Wtdlf via IFTTT

In the age of peak TV, wading through the seemingly endless choices on broadcast, cable and streaming platforms is an exhausting exercise. Amazon Prime Video’s “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” Amy Sherman-Palladino’s late-’50s comedy about an affluent New York housewife who discovers she’s the next big thing in stand-up, is one of the few shows to have broken through—at least as a critics’ and awards’ darling, picking up eight Emmys and three Golden Globes following its debut season in 2017. But without the right marketing strategy, it’s easy for quality programming to get lost in the crowd. The marketing challenge Despite the buzz surrounding “Mrs. Maisel,” Amazon Prime Video was faced with a significant obstacle: How do you get viewers interested in a series set 60 years ago and centered on a fast-talking Jewish woman whose picture-perfect life is straight out of a vintage issue of Town and Country? “I like to bring people into a story and its characters as if it were real,” says

There are many venerable soundchips in the chiptune pantheon, of which the AY-3-8910 is perhaps one of the lesser known. Having not served on active duty for Nintendo or Commodore it’s somewhat unloved in the USA, but it made its name in a variety of arcade and pinball machines and has quite a European following due to its appearance in machines bearing the Amstrad and Sinclair names. [TheSpodShed] decided to whip up a USB MIDI interface for the chip, with the help of the Arduino Pro Micro. The Arduino Pro Micro is a Sparkfun creation, using the ATmega32U4 microcontroller. Its USB MIDI functionality makes it a perfect candidate for such a build, and it also packs enough digital IO to run the AY-3-8910, with 13 lines required to get things going. [TheSpodShed] whipped up the project on protoboard, with only a few passives needed along with the sound chip and Arduino. The Arduino code was written with an eye to making the most of the chip’s limited polyphony. The synth prioritises the

The ESP8266 is a great processor for a lot of projects needing a small microcontroller and Wi-Fi, all for a reasonable price and in some pretty small form factors. [Simon] used one to build a garage door opener. This project isn’t really about his garage door opener based on a cheap WiFi-enabled chip, though. It’s about the four year process he went through to learn how to develop on these chips, and luckily he wrote a guide that anyone can use so that we don’t make the same mistakes he did. The guide starts by suggesting which specific products are the easiest to use, and then moves on to some “best practices” for using these devices (with which we can’t argue much), before going through some example code. The most valuable parts of this guide especially for anyone starting out with these chips are the section which details how to get the web server up and running, and the best practices for developing HTML code for the tiny device (hint: develop somewhere else). [Simon] also makes

While we’re certainly not denying that smoke detectors are useful , there’s a certain kind of tragedy to the fact that most of them will never realize their true purpose of detecting smoke, and alerting us to a dangerous fire. On the other hand, [Ben] really unlocks the potential hidden deep in every smoke detector with his latest project which uses the smoke-detecting parts of a smoke detector to turn on the exhaust fan over his stove . The project didn’t start with the noble aim of realizing the hidden and underutilized quiescent nature of a smoke alarm, though. He wanted his range exhaust fan to turn on automatically when it was needed during his (and his family’s) cooking activities. The particular range has four speeds so he wired up four relays to each of the switches in the range and programmed a Particle Photon to turn them on based on readings from an MQ-2 gas-detecting sensor. The sensor didn’t work as well as he had hoped. It was overly sensitive to some gasses like LPG wh

The culture critic is back with a new book, and some deep thoughts on the uplifting side of reading the comments and how he stays informed without losing his mind. from CommaFeed - Real Time Trends Network https://ift.tt/331a0yE via IFTTT

A version of this article first appeared in Crain's New York Business Amazon  may still have big plans for  Queens , New York. The company is considering a huge, ground-up distribution facility in Maspeth, several sources familiar with the firm's real-estate plans say. The deal, if it gets done, would be the latest in a series of moves by Amazon to significantly increase the scope of delivery and warehousing infrastructure in New York.  The $1 trillion e-commerce giant is seeking to potentially lease a former industrial site at 55-15 Grand Ave. in Maspeth that can accommodate over 700,000 square feet of new warehouse space. If Amazon takes the site, a distribution facility customized for its use would be built on the property.  Last week,  it was revealed that Amazon is considering up to 1 million square feet of space at Industry City , a large complex along the waterfront in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. A source said that there, too, the company was eyeing a ground up, custom-bui