DEV Community: san4opan4o

SEO and Domains: How to Choose a Domain that Boosts Your Search Engine Rankings

san4opan4o — Sat, 01 Jun 2024 09:04:29 +0000

Choosing the right domain is one of the key factors for the successful promotion of your website in search engines. A domain name not only affects the first impression of users but also plays a significant role in SEO.

Choosing the Right Domain Name

Using Keywords

Incorporating keywords into your domain can significantly enhance your search engine rankings. Keywords help search engines understand the theme of your site. For example, if you sell shoes, domains like shoesstore.com or bestshoes.com can be more effective than a domain without keywords. However, it's important not to overdo it with keywords to ensure the domain remains clear and memorable.

Conciseness and Simplicity

Short and simple domains are easier to remember and less prone to typos. The simpler the domain name, the easier it is for users to find your website. Avoid complex names that are hard to pronounce or spell. Concise domains generally look more professional and inspire more trust from users.

Uniqueness and Branding

Your domain should be unique and easily associated with your brand. A unique domain will help you stand out from competitors and reduce the risk of confusion with other sites. A well-branded domain name will make it easier for you to build brand recognition and attract repeat visitors.

Technical Aspects of Choosing a Domain

Choosing the Right Domain Zone

The domain zone or extension (e.g., .com, .net, .org) can also influence your search engine rankings. The most popular and reliable domain zone remains .com, but specialized extensions like .shop or .tech can help convey the theme of your site better. If your business is region-specific, consider buying a top-level domain (ccTLD), such as .us for the USA or .uk for the UK.

Avoid Hyphens and Numbers

Hyphens and numbers can make it harder to remember the domain and lead to errors when typing it. Search engines may also perceive domains with hyphens as less reliable. Try to avoid using hyphens and numbers if possible, and opt for simple text-based domains.

Domain Registration Duration

Search engines might consider the duration of domain registration as an indicator of its reliability. A domain registered for a long term can appear more trustworthy to search engines than a domain registered for a short term. Consider registering your domain for several years in advance.

An Overview of SAP Commerce Cloud Capabilities

san4opan4o — Wed, 28 Feb 2024 08:37:29 +0000

In the digital era, online shopping is so much a part of our everyday lives that we hardly recollect times without it. As online stores strive to ensure a fast, convenient, and personalized shopping experience for their customers, they do encounter challenges to outdistance competitors and expand business. SAP Commerce Cloud solution has been specifically designed to let online businesses overcome difficulties and provide clients with an outstanding shopping experience.

Understanding SAP Commerce Cloud

SAP Commerce Cloud represents an e-commerce solution for B2B and B2C enterprises. The cloud-based platform offers an impressive array of features to streamline the sales process, including customer acquisition and retention, advanced content and order management, payment processing, etc.

The right SAP Commerce implementation partner can help streamline workflow processes, increase ROI, and boost overall business efficiency.

SAP Commerce Cloud: How Does It Work?

The platform is targeted towards large-scale enterprises that intend to simplify the management of large sales volumes, streamline the sales process, and ensure a personalized customer experience. The commerce cloud provides a range of dedicated instruments to address selling process challenges.

The platform helps businesses to:

- Create online stores

- Manage inventory

- Set up marketing and sales campaigns

- Track and manage orders in real-time

- Integrate processes with an ERP system

- Enhance customer support service

SAP Commerce Cloud: Key Functionality

The SAP commerce platform encompasses all key elements of the e-commerce business processes and back-office workflow within the frame of a single solution.

Out-of-the-box solution consists of the following modules:

1. Product content management. The software has been designed to process huge volumes of information about products that can be divided into multiple catalogs with centralized management. It ensures information consistency across diverse sales channels.

2. Customer experience management. AI-driven algorithms allow tailoring promotions, recommendations, and sales strategies in accordance with customer behaviors. The information a customer provides in a profile and customer activities (search queries, likes, etc.) are used to create personalized offers. A customer base can be segmented and you can set specific marketing/sales rules for every customer category.

3. Order management. This is the end-to-end solution to streamline the buying process, from start to finish. It allows managing orders and controlling inventory from a single place, regardless of the number of sales channels.

4. Accelerators. The platform offers ready-to-use accelerators for various business sectors to optimize sales. Enterprises can launch a built-in accelerator and adjust it for their unique needs to launch a sales channel right away. SAP Commerce offers accelerators for B2B, B2C, financial services, the travel industry, the Chinese market, telecommunications, and the public sector.

5. Customer support. Commerce Cloud takes customer support to the next level — based on the detailed customer profile, customer service representatives have full visibility of a customer’s behavior across channels, preferences, and actions. So, customers do not need to waste time on explanations because the agent can see the details immediately and offer personalized solutions and recommendations. This feature significantly improves customer experience and helps to enhance customer loyalty.

Besides the pre-built modules, SAP partners can develop and implement custom modules to add value and address industry-specific needs.

Implementing Commerce Cloud, enterprises benefit from:

Client segmentation.
Personalized and targeted marketing.
Extensive search and filter functionality.
Shopping cart, wishlist, and checkout.
Order management. The platform provides built-in tools for seamless data transfer between different components (“order – logistics”) or can be integrated with a SAP ERP solution.
Linked supply chain.
Scalability.
Real-time analytics. Full visibility of customer behavior provides valuable data for personalized suggestions and campaigns.
Multi-site and multi-language platform.
Customizable platform.
Seamless integration with various payment gateways and backend systems.

SAP Commerce Cloud: Pros & Cons

Impressive pre-built functionality, integration capabilities, and intelligent management of the sales process require professional implementation and training for staff to make the most of the platform’s potential.

Pros:

Streamlined intelligent sales processes
Built-in data security and consumer privacy protection
Higher conversion and sales rates
Seamless payment processes
Multi-device compatibility
An extensive array of preloaded features
Adaptable

Cons:

As SAP Commerce is a powerful platform with extensive functionality, smaller, entry-level online businesses might consider it too feature-rich, particularly if some features aren’t necessary. On the other hand, e-commerce enterprises that run on smaller platforms with limited functionality and look for more flexibility and larger scale platforms might look no further than Cloud Commerce from SAP.

While larger companies and enterprises might consider SAP Commerce the best value for money, e-commerce beginners can be overwhelmed with implementation, migration, and configuration costs, so ready-to-use solutions might be a better option at least in the beginning.

Integration with Other SAP Solutions

One of the key benefits of the SAP Commerce platform is that it provides access to the architecture. It consists of the components that can be customized. Additionally, the platform has pre-built integrations with various SAP products to add the required functionality and ensure continuous business growth.

SAP Commerce can be seamlessly integrated with:

SAP S/4 HANA
SAP Digital Payment
SAP Sales Cloud
SAP Marketing Cloud
SAP Customer Data Cloud and other tools

Besides the ecosystem of SAP products, Commerce Cloud can be integrated with various third-party applications and systems. As you see, SAP Commerce provides endless possibilities to develop tailored e-commerce strategies to achieve your goals.

Why Choose CLARITY as a SAP Solution Implementation Partner?

CLARITY, an expert SAP partner, delivers end-to-end SAP solutions to enterprises of any scale.

Before offering solutions, CLARITY experts assess the operational environment and consider the performance goals you set for your company to ensure operational efficiency and develop detailed project planning that includes resources, timelines, and budgeting.

The team of pros offers scalable solutions based on your needs — we ensure that the solution meets the objectives of a growing business. Most importantly, CLARITY specialists are ready to help with consulting, developing tailored solutions, integration with existing systems and apps, training, and ongoing support.

Partnership with the CLARITY company is the right choice for businesses seeking a reliable and scalable cloud-based e-commerce platform that can be customized to address niche-specific requirements.

Part 2 Misconceptions programmers have about maps

san4opan4o — Mon, 03 Oct 2022 06:48:39 +0000

Misconception 6. The shortest segment between two points looks like a line

An orthodroma is the shortest distance on curved objects. Particular cases of orthodromes are meridians and equator. Most often, orthodromes look like a curve when projected on a map.

A flight to Madrid from New York on a flat map looks too long, but in reality it takes longer to fly in a "straight line. Only the globe shows what's really going on. Of course, in real life, planes move along regulated air routes, which are dictated by the technical characteristics of the aircraft, weather conditions, geopolitics and social problems. The actual trajectory of a typical flight may differ from the orthodromes. GIS Geography

Delusion 7. The coordinates of stationary objects do not change

Objects move, tilt, and experience shrinkage. A building can move, with its occupants, without water and light being cut off.

Similarly, continents shift and rotate a few centimeters a year. For example, from 1994 to 2017, Australia suddenly shifted a lot to the northeast. This means that after the datum update, streets and entire cities suddenly shifted by 1.8 meters.

Misconception 8: Territory always belongs to someone

An obvious counterexample to this is the entire continent of Antarctica, which formally, under the 1959 treaty, does not belong to any state. Nevertheless, the same treaty indefinitely fixes territorial claims of several countries: Argentina, Australia, Great Britain, New Zealand, Norway, France, and Chile. No one has territorial claims to a fragment of the continent - Mary Baird Land.

However, there are huge chunks of no man's land north of latitude 60°S. For example, the Bir Tawil area between Egypt and Sudan has been left without an owner as a result of territorial disputes. The area of Bir Tawil is more than 2,000 km², it is a hot desert where no one lives. Due to the difficult natural conditions of the territory, the international community does not take seriously external attempts to claim Bir Tawil.

The territory may not have an owner or a national top-level domain.

Delusion 9. Territory belongs to one person

From the time the first states were formed, territorial disputes began to be resolved by diplomacy or war. Conflicts last for tens, hundreds of years. Any self-respecting state has claims on its neighbor's territory.

The countries with unresolved territorial disputes from the relevant Wikipedia list are highlighted in red. /u/whymostnamesaretaken

Interestingly, a dispute can arise over more than just what a state wants to own territory. On rare occasions, two parties attribute territory to a neighbor.

Territorial disputes on the Croatian-Serbian border. Both Croatia and Serbia claim the yellow areas, neither side claims the green

The Gornja Sig area on the Croatian-Serbian border is formally controlled by Croatia. However, Croatia considers the area to be Serbian, although Serbia does not claim it. In 2015, the Czech Vit Jedlicka took advantage of the complex legal status of the area and proclaimed the state of Liberland there. However, no one took this prank seriously.

Delusion 10. A little dotted line and I have a one-size-fits-all map

It only seems that if one disagrees, all one has to do is draw a few dotted lines instead of one continuous border.

India's 2016 law bans to depict a country's borders in a way other than the official one. The range of penalties for violation ranges from fines to imprisonment. The law is enforced: India even issues weather forecasts for territories over which it has no control but considers its own.

This law will have to be enforced, including for Kashmir, which Pakistan, India and China want to own in various configurations. These are countries with hundreds of millions, billions of people. Your potential users are sure to be found there.

This is how Google Maps gets out of the uncomfortable "whose Kashmir?" situation. Washington Post

Moreover, certain countries. do not recognize other countries at all and react painfully even at the mention of their name. A country may not recognize a territory as part of itself, or as part of a separate neighboring country, because it has difficulty recognizing that neighbor. Also, some countries may not recognize a city as the capital of a country.

If so "lucky", you will have to make several different versions of your product for each specific country. You have to geolocate visitor's country by IP or account registration country. Errors in the GeoIP database can lead to legal prosecution in that country.

On the other hand, sometimes an error is not so critical. Whatever the position of European politicians, but if you show the visitor from Western Europe Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, there will be no outcry to the tech support. But if a resident of Jordan orders airline tickets from you, you better be careful.

Part 1 Misconceptions programmers have about maps

san4opan4o — Thu, 29 Sep 2022 07:02:41 +0000

The design of systems quickly reveals errors in the perception of the patterns of functioning of the world. Those rules that seem to be immutable truths may not be.

Lists of such fallacies have been compiled pro names or phone numbers. The time has come for maps and navigation systems.

Delusion 1. The shape of the Earth is simply

A sphere is a set of points in space, distant from the center by a distance no greater than the radius. However, at least because of the diurnal rotation, the shape of our planet differs from an ideal sphere. The planet is flattened at the poles and thickened at the equator, and it also has topography and experiences tidal cycles.

You can't get a quick mathematical model here; simplifications are needed. A geoid is a shape of the Earth that coincides with the shape of the World Ocean at complete rest (without the effects of winds and tides) and conventionally extends under the continents. If you dig canals in the continents, connecting the seas, the water level in them will coincide with the geoid.

The unevenness of the geoid relative to the reference ellipsoid, scale amplified by 10 thousand times. International Center for Global Earth Models

The geoid is an irregular shape. Even though it is smoother than the real topography of the Earth, the geoid differs from the ellipsoid shape by tens of meters. Therefore, the next step is to select an ellipsoid that will most closely resemble a geoid either on a planetary scale or for some desired fragment. This ellipsoid is fixed at the origin. A model of the Earth is obtained.

Delusion 2. There is one model of the Earth

The parameters of the ellipsoid, including the origin point, form a datum. There are many datums in wide use.

The GPS satellite navigation system, Google Maps and Yandex Maps services are based on the World Geodetic System ellipsoid from 1984 (WGS 84), GLONASS - on the Earth Parameters 1990 (PZ-90), the Chinese BeiDou - on its own derivative of the International Terrestrial Reference System of the era of 2000. An individual U.S. state county may have its own legally significant datum.

Illustration of the need to select the correct coordinates in GPS receivers. Curonian Spit, Baltic Sea coast, map in coordinate system of 1942 (SK-42). Purple points were obtained in SK-42, red - in WGS 84. GIS-Lab

Coordinates in different datums sometimes differ slightly. Sometimes the difference is so great that transformation is required even for domestic purposes.

Misconception 3. Two coordinates will point to a point

According to the giant collision hypothesis, 4.5 billion years ago, a Mars-sized object struck the young Earth. That's how our planet got a satellite - the Moon - and an inclination of rotation.

The axis of the Earth's daily rotation is tilted from the plane of motion of the Earth's orbit around the Sun by about 23° 26' 21". Due to the gravitational effects of the Sun and Moon, this deviation varies from 22.1° to 24.5° and back. The period of this cycle is 41 thousand years, and the deviation value is now decreasing.

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NASA

So, the ellipsoid thickened at the equator rotates with deviation. But the gravitational fields of the Sun and the Moon are in the plane of the Earth's ecliptic. Due to this external influence the planet's axis of rotation also changes in space (precession). This cycle takes 25.7 thousand years, while the axis slightly wobbles (nutation).

Because of the precession cycles of equinoxes (precession cycle) every stellar year the vernal equinox occurs slightly earlier than in the previous year - about 20 minutes earlier. The daily rotation of the Earth is given here not to scale: in reality, the planet will make more than 9 million revolutions. Tfr000

Also, the Earth is impermanent. The continents are drifting, and the magnetic field is changing. These processes are slow, but their speed is also unpredictable. If somewhere above with a reference to the site of the Earth rotation service is given a constant, it does not mean that this value will not be clarified in twenty years.

Because of changes and refinements in the Earth's parameters, datums are regularly updated. But some remain in use for decades. For example, Soviet and Russian maps may be made using SC-42, U.S. maps come in the 1927 NAD27 standard, and some Norwegian oilers still rely on ED50. Offsets from a modern GPS receiver in WGS 84 on such maps will be hundreds of meters.

In addition to the coordinates, you need to specify the datum and its epoch.

Misconception 4: Coordinates are latitude and longitude in degrees

In 1980, Texaco was drilling a new field in Lake Peñor. Exploration indicated that there should be a pocket of oil under the bottom of the lake, somewhere near the Diamond Crystal Salt Company salt mine. The plan called for a drill within 15 meters of the salt mine. Diamond Crystal gave Texaco a detailed map of the mine - technically it was all feasible.

On the morning of November 20, the drill suddenly got stuck in the crystallized salt, which was estimated to be another 30 meters away. The drill penetrated the ceiling of the mine and the water rushed down from the lake. The whirlpool sucked in the rig, eleven barges, the tugboat, the dock, the island with the botanical garden, houses, and trucks.

The Texaco engineer misunderstood the map provided: it used rectangular coordinates, not degrees. Such maps are marked with a coordinate grid with kilometer lines.

The universal transverse Mercator projection (or, if the map is Soviet, Gauss-Krueger projection) divides the entire surface of the Earth into 60 zones 6 degrees wide and extending in the meridional direction. In each zone, the coordinates are given as the deviation to the east and to the north in meters (or feet if we are talking about the USA).

Here is an example of a problem in which you want to measure rectangular coordinates using a linear map scale. The coordinates of point B are: X = 6657000 + 575 = 6657575 m, Y = 7363000 + 335 = 7363335 m.

Do not be surprised by the large numbers in the coordinate entry field.

Misconception 5: Latitude is first, longitude is second

The common order is "latitude, longitude", but some systems use the order "longitude, latitude". An example of the second is the GeoJSON format (enshrined in the standard, RFC 7946, paragraph 3.1.1).

Independence is the Future

san4opan4o — Fri, 19 Feb 2021 12:29:10 +0000

The inspiration driving Indy's CEO to build the home of independent work

The future of work is the independent worker.

As many as 65 million Americans do some form of freelancing and more than half of them say they would never go back to working a traditional job, regardless of the salary offered.

What kind of person would turn down a job with benefits and a more stable income?

Someone who values independence more than anything.

I get it. As an entrepreneur, I understand the desire for independence and ownership more than most. When I moved to California from Switzerland with my family to live in a shared house with my startup cofounder I did it to pursue this same dream of independence and ownership.

What kind of person would turn down a job with benefits and a more stable income?

As we built the company, we often met at the TOMS Coffee Shop in Venice. Everyone there had laptops and worked very diligently and, as a naturally outgoing and curious person, I started getting to know the regular customers and learning about their jobs. Each one gave themselves a different title: freelancer, independent contractor, solopreneur, entrepreneur, and more. They were graphic designers, writers, web developers, musicians, editors, and business owners. It was such a colorful, diverse, and exciting world.

The factor that connected each of these men and women was independence. They were each using their brainpower and skills to make a living for themselves, untethered to an office or an overbearing boss or the systems that keep people from pursuing their dreams.

We were inspired by these independent workers (who we now call “indies”) and soon we decided that we needed to pivot our startup to help our new independent friends in their journeys. The soul of Indy has been, and always will be, centered around helping independent workers.

Through our conversations with freelancers at TOMS we determined that, despite their differences, they all want three basic things from their careers: stability, control, and growth. Freelancing can be an unstable career path, but providing regular income and work that you can take pride in is vital. As an indie, you are in charge of everything, which is why you need control of every aspect of your business. And, while you won’t necessarily be climbing the corporate ladder, you still want to grow in your career, which means constantly improving everything from your personal skills, your network, and, perhaps most importantly, your income.

With these insights, we set out to help freelancers do work that they are proud of, keep as much of the money they’ve earned as possible, and remain as independent as they want to be.

The power of work

I think there are three major spaces in everyone’s life: family time, free time, and work. Many people see the last of those three as the least desirable, but for me, work has a magical quality. I see work as the ability of humanity to harness the gifts we have to create new things. I truly think that there is serious power in work.

There’s nothing more rewarding or powerful than doing work that you can be proud of. I love what I do now, but I remember feeling different when I worked a corporate job for one of the most respected companies in the world. Every day I would look out the window and dream of tossing a rope down and climbing out to freedom.

When I finally did leave that job, I felt such a wonderful sense of excitement and relief, even though I was entering a completely uncertain world. I know every independent worker has had that same exact feeling. Despite the fear of the unknown, the desire for independence was stronger than any fear.

However, the unfortunate reality is that many struggle to make a living as an independent professional. There are many factors that contribute to keeping indies from success. Some factors, like the state of the economy or outdated laws, are out of the control of any individual. Others, like late payments, low rates, a lack of organization, or looking unprofessional are often unfortunate parts of the business.

That’s exactly why we started Indy. We wanted to help indies overcome these issues so they can have the best chance of success in this challenging, yet exciting, world. One of the most important ways that we can help you is to make sure that the money you earned gets to your bank account as quickly as possible.

Keep your money

I know how important every dollar is to you. My first son was born when I was 21 and still in college. I was working, going to school, and trying to be the best dad and husband possible. My wife and I became experts at stretching every dollar we could and developed serious respect for the importance of money.

Money is how you can provide for yourself and your family, money is how you can build your business, money is how you can help others and support causes you believe in. Money, in sum, is independence. At Indy, we will never stand between you and your money.

We will never stand between you and your money.

Some companies want to promise you jobs and then take a large percentage of the paycheck that you rightfully earned. These same companies slap a price tag next to your face like you’re on a menu of a fast-food restaurant, making you race to the lowest rate against competitors all over the world. These companies aren’t set up for the independent worker, they are set up for the client.

Indy was created for the worker. We don’t want our indies to feel like a double cheeseburger with fries, instead, we let them present as much of themselves and their work as they want on their profiles. We don’t pit you against other indies to compete for clients at the lowest possible rate. And, most importantly, we don’t take 20% of your earning after the project completes. The only money we take is in the monthly user fee, which we strive to keep as low as possible so every independent worker can afford it.

And your freedom, too

If you’re a 9-5 office worker, freelancing can sound ideal: no bosses, no office cubicles, no commute, no annoying coworkers. However, any true full-time freelancer recognizes that it doesn’t usually work out that way. Freelancing isn’t always working from a beach chair in Bora Bora. Often, instead of a 40-hour workweek, you can put in 50, 60, 70 hour weeks holed up in an unglamorous home office.

Yet, so many Indies choose this lifestyle. Why leave an office job with salary and benefits to live in a world filled with these challenges? It’s the same reason I stared out that window each day in my old corporate job: freedom.

A vast majority (77%) of indies choose to do freelance work, either full-time or as a side hustle, due to the freedom the job allows. While that freedom isn’t always glamorous, it is a way to take control of your life.

I tend to think big. I truly see Indy as a way to change the world of work. I started Indy for every person who stares out of their office window dreaming of making that leap to independence. Because when you are independent, you own it. By “it” I mean everything you can control. You are the master of your domain. You own your successes and your failures. You get the credit when things work out well and the blame when they don’t. The buck always stops with you.

Being an independent professional isn’t for everyone. Some people don’t want that level of risk. But for the growing number of indies out there who are excited by the prospect of owning it, we welcome you with open arms.

You are the future of work

You are the future of work. We’re here to help you be as successful as possible. At Indy, the independent workforce is our lifeblood. We’re thrilled to be part of the changing face of work and can’t wait for you to join us in our journey.

Explore Chernobyl via the first Chernobyl mobile app with AR!

san4opan4o — Thu, 12 Nov 2020 08:14:22 +0000

If you ever dreamed of visiting Chernobyl, now you can do this straight from your home - by going on a virtual tour using the Chernobyl App

Chernobyl is one of the worst human-made disasters that happened in the former Soviet Union and affected the whole world with radiation pollution that will remain with us for tens of thousands of years.

Today the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone is an important historical monument that preserved many Cold War artefacts, became an open-air science laboratory, an area of inspiration for artists worldwide, and a place where nature is called to cover human error and silently keep these lessons for generations to come.

Chernobyl is one of the most exciting cities globally, attracting more than 100 thousand tourists a year. If you ever dreamed of visiting it, now you can do this straight from your home - by going on a virtual tour using the Chernobyl App, not worrying about the difficulties in travel connected to the COVID-19 pandemic nor the radiation levels within the Exclusion Zone.

Unfortunately, Chernobyl, as we know it, is gradually disappearing from the map either because of natural destruction or forest fires rampaging the territory due to climate change. Just this spring, 5% of Chernobyl sights have been lost to the fire irreversibly. The Chernobyl app is trying to preserve the Chernobyl heritage by digitizing the territory and artefacts found within the Exclusion Zone.

Open a virtual portal to a selected point on the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone map with a full description of the location, archive and 360 photos, 3D content in AR, and an audio guide. For example, you could place the famous Ferris Wheel of Pripyat right in front of you using Augmented Reality.

Video: https://youtu.be/J838Qy5sqko

Valery Korshunov, the author of the idea of Chernobyl App and ARTEFACT project:

"Since Soviet times, there have always been a lot of fakes and manipulations around Chernobyl. The mission of this application is to overcome the information catastrophe around Chernobyl by gathering all the true information on the history of the tragedy, the current state of the exclusion zone, and expose the most common fakes around the topic in one place. Show Chernobyl as it is now through virtual tours and 360 portals, and provide the necessary official information on how to get ready for the travel to anyone who dares to visit Chernobyl for real".

Chernobyl App contains a lot of modern and historical information: recently declassified KGB documents that shed light on the real background of the tragedy, pollution maps, museum exhibits, but most importantly - unique media content that allows you to explore Chernobyl virtually from anywhere in the world. The application will answer the three main questions anyone curious about Chernobyl may ask:

Where can I find full and verified information about the 1986 tragedy, its history, and cultural impact?
Is there a way to explore the Exclusion Zone in a virtual format?
How do I prepare for a trip to Chernobyl?

Chernobyl App is free to download and is available in English and Ukrainian languages on the App Store and Play Market: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.chrnmobile

“The Chernobyl App has gathered a whole cluster of knowledge about one of the most tragic events in our history. We hope the Chernobyl App to become the virtual guide in the Exclusion Zone, accompanying you both remotely - with the help of digitized materials from the Zone, especially those that are forbidden to visit due to high radiation levels or threat of destruction; and during the trip itself - expanding the experience with unique content, even offline” said Mariia Tintul, project coordinator.

Chernobyl App is also a reliable guide for travelers. It features necessary information about the visit conditions and even helps make an Exclusion Zone access application for a trip.

The application was developed by INGO "European Institute of Chernobyl" with the support of the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation as a central information hub for Chernobyl, which, in collaboration with international organizations, scientists, artists, and volunteers, collects the complete information about Chernobyl and broadcasts it openly to an international audience. Currently, the application cooperates with the State Agency of Ukraine on Exclusion Zone Management, the Center for Organizational, Technical and Information Support of the Exclusion Zone Management, the National Museum "Chernobyl", IOO "Center PRYPYAT.com", the Center for Liberation Movement Studies.

https://chernobyl.app

https://www.facebook.com/ChernobylApp/

https://www.instagram.com/ChernobylApp/

4 steps developing GDPR-compliant apps

san4opan4o — Tue, 10 Nov 2020 09:28:40 +0000

Technological growth has come with an unprecedented increase in the amount of personal data collected by various online platforms. For the sake of user privacy, the dedicated law was introduced to improve the means of data protection used by businesses in the European Union.

Since virtually any mobile application can gather data about user actions, authorities call on companies and various different companies to provide information and disseminate about DSGVO to ensure the safety of users by minimizing the amount of data collected. To do this, companies are advised to conduct an audit before starting product development. This is necessary to assess the risks that the user is exposed to when the app collects and processes their personal data.

Mobile apps & Personal data protection

The main GDPR message centers around minimizing the amount of personal data that applications collect from users' phones. Mobile apps should process only the information necessary for their functioning.

The law applies not only to EU-based companies but also to all those businesses that, theoretically, can interact with the EU residents and gather their data. Thus, compliance is mandatory for every company that brings its applications to the European market.

There are a few steps you should take to develop a GDPR-friendly mobile app.

Dura lex, sed lex: The law is harsh, but it is the law

First things first — you need to know the law and understand what you will have to comply with. The full text of the GDPR law is available on the official website, where you can find a convenient guide and a search engine in order to find something specific.

Get user approval

According to the law, all companies that intend to interact with EU-based customers are required to warn them about personal data collection and ask them to agree to it. As you can imagine, this data may come from anywhere — analytics, promotions, and logs. However, you can no longer use the standard approach with the terms and conditions page. You may have such a page, but before gathering any data, you still have to ask the user about it. The question should be simple and clear, with no confusing terms.

This can be implemented as a pop-up window before the application launch. Probably, this could scare off a certain percentage of users. But most of them will still proceed with the app.

In addition, you must also provide users with the ability to delete their data, and this process should be as simple as possible.

So, what should you include in your mobile app?

A message during each app start, warning users about the collection of their data;
A notification that the data collection process has begun, explaining what this information will be used for;
An option for the user to delete their data if they wish so.

Outline clear Privacy Policy

According to the GDPR law, users must have an idea of how their data is gathered and stored. This understanding is achieved through a clear and structured Privacy Policy.

This should not be news to mobile developers, as this is also a requirement from the App Store and Google Play. Applications that do not have a separate page of their Privacy Policy and the corresponding section are deleted.

Besides, if your application interacts with any third-party services (analytics, advertising, etc.), this should also be reported to users in the Privacy Policy section. The developer's task is to make sure that all third-party services, which have access to the app’s user data, are also GDPR-compliant. In order to acknowledge this, it is necessary to conclude data processing agreements with all parties involved.

Review all places where data can be stored

User data spreads like a virus to various places. For your application to meet data protection parameters, you need to index all user data and understand where it can be stored. These are not only databases, but also servers for social networks, third-party services, advertising agencies, and so on. You will be surprised to learn how much user data is deposited on the side.

To facilitate the process, work out a data roadmap. It will give an understanding of which channels the data comes from, by whom it is processed, and where it will settle. Moreover, this is necessary to provide a quick response to any leaks, as well as to assure users that their data has been deleted everywhere (if they require so).

In conclusion

Let's summarize what you need to remember if you want your mobile application to meet data protection standards and to operate in the European Union.

All companies dealing with the EU residents' data must follow the rules above. We again strongly recommend you to read the full text of the law following the link at the beginning of the article, as well as this more tech-oriented guide. The requirements also apply to companies that provide third parties with access to such data.

If these rules are not met, the application developer will suffer serious issues in the form of fines and loss of user confidence. While the fact of compliance means that your company values user privacy and makes every effort to protect personal data.

How to Execute Tape Backup? Tape Backup and Recovery Guide

san4opan4o — Wed, 28 Oct 2020 15:23:36 +0000

Sometimes when you wake up, you clearly understand in the morning that something is wrong. Although you shaved and even never cut yourself, the coffee did not boil, it's a sunny morning outside, you got to work quickly and without adventures, everything seems to be fine, but still something is wrong. But when you enter the office you see a general panic, hysterical screams that everything is gone and all "office plankton" will die, and you are at the head of those who will die.
It turns out that at night the file and mail servers refused. And then you realize that it was not a simple morning that started so well. There is enough work to do, but the data is securely stored, because you have taken care of backing it up.

Copying on tape:

Tape libraries remain a key component of archiving strategy and data storage lifecycle.

IT departments are facing difficult challenges in the coming years: information security and protection from technical failures are required, while IT budgets are not keeping pace with data growth.

According to IDC, from 2010 to 2020 the number of data increased 44 times. During this period, the capacity of storage systems increased by 30 times, and the number of staff - only 1.4 times. Each administrator has to manage a much larger amount of data than then.

I will come from the other side. Ransomware viruses had recently reached a new level. They can wait for their hour in the infrastructure of a big company for weeks and months and with another zero-day vulnerability, they can destroy (not without human help, because there is a lot of money at stake) not only all the data but also all the backups that can be reached. Here is a fresh example when a company had to pay extortionists. The so-called air gap, i.e. the backups physically isolated from the infrastructure became, in fact, the only reliable escape from such stories. Magnetic tape here is one of the most timeless solutions.

But a single specification and technological iron and barium-ferrite novelties from leading manufacturers (IBM, HPE, Oracle, Dell) for reliable data protection is not enough, you need a good tape backup software.

Let's look at the pros and cons of tape archive:

Pros:

The main advantage of the tape is the significantly lower cost of 1 Gbyte of storage compared to drives. While this difference can be reduced by deduplication, it should be borne in mind that these solutions also cost money and that the deduplication reduction factor is highly dependent on the repeatability of the data in the backups.
Security - modern tape formats like LTO-Ultrium offer data encryption over tape to ensure compliance with all kinds of laws and standards when it comes to data security. Knowing where your tape backup is physically stored is also considered to be a major advantage when it comes to the requirement of physical control over a company's data.
Storage on tape is also more profitable in terms of power consumption, because the tape cartridge on which the backups are recorded, does not consume power (unlike hard drives of D2D systems, which are constantly spinning, although they may temporarily shut down). Ribbon cartridges can also be stored in a remote location rather than in the data center itself, where there is usually a chronic shortage of space for equipment installation. Such storage also provides data protection in the event of accidents that disrupt the entire data center.
Another advantage of ribbon systems associated with the use of removable media is the unlimited capacity: when all ribbon cartridges installed in the library are filled with backups, some of them can be retrieved and sent to a remote storage, replacing them with clean ones. Scaling by replacement drives is not supported for D2D systems.
Finally, another argument in favor of tapes is a large installed base of tape libraries. Many companies that have been successfully using tape-based backup for a long time have invested significant resources and efforts of the IT staff in debugging the tape-based backup infrastructure, including the purchase of tape libraries and cartridges, and despite all the attractiveness of D2D in terms of increasing backup speed, they do not want to abandon the investment made. Apparently, those companies that are going to implement an enterprise-class backup for the first time will choose D2D, so the share of customers using tape will gradually decrease.

Cons:

Significant time of data search;
One application can load 100% of one drive, creating problems for backup to other applications; (it is decided by a competent software that knows how to make a multistream-recording).
Impossibility of simultaneous reading and writing if all drives are busy with something (it is necessary to wait for full completion of the operation);

In today's world, most backup and recovery tape drives operate with very little configuration, you need to know a few basic things to ensure maximum performance and reliability, as well as trust the proven software on this part.

In particular, advise to use Bacula Enterprise Edition - one of the leading open software solutions developed by Swiss specialists for corporate network backup and data recovery. To date, more than 200 thousand users around the world have chosen Bacula software as a cost-effective alternative to proprietary software. Bacula Enterprise Edition supports systems running on Linux, Unix, Windows, Mac, Solaris and AIX; works with databases such as Oracle, MS SQL, MySQL, PostgreSQL, SAP, MSSQL. Bacula Enterprise NAS Backup Edition provides virtualization support from VMware, KVM and Hyper-V. .

Extensive functionality of Bacula Enterprise Edition, among other things, allows you to quickly and easily create backups for the database. For example, it is about a tool with which you can backup MS SQL Server. The user can make a backup of MS SQL, creating backups of specific MS SQL databases of large volumes, used by Windows platform, at smaller expenses on software of the third parties, with possibility of recovery of data up to the certain moment of time (PITR-recovery) on network and local disk.

Bacula Systems script for creating MS SQL Server backups is characterized by extreme efficiency achieved through the implementation of modern, highly reliable architecture. Moreover, the software allows you to backup MS SQL Server, use a variety of options for creating backups of MS SQL.

MS SQL Bacula Systems backup script operates independently of VSS. It means that MS SQL backup tool does not use VSS snapshots to create backups. Therefore user can set the following value "Enable VSS = no" in Bacula FileSet. Effective MS SQL Server backup creation and recovery with this solution is achieved by using Microsoft API for SQL Server. Thanks to this Bacula Systems can support security mechanisms and all types of authentication implemented in Microsoft SQL Server.

Backup MS SQL transaction log and restore MS SQL at a time: Bacula Enterprise Edition software allows you to restore MS SQL data blocks or specific settings to a certain point in time. By implementing full recovery and partial logging models, you can restore MS SQL using PITR recovery or use LSN to restore the system to a specific state. You can restore a certain state of an MS SQL database at any given moment in time to within a second. In case of the MS SQL transaction log backup, the database state will be restored from the various selected backups. For each configuration or option, I advise you to visit the official channel.

The result of this article may be an understanding of how to set up a flexible, reliable backup and recovery system with the discreet name Bacula.

How to market a dating app in 2020

san4opan4o — Fri, 16 Oct 2020 07:15:21 +0000

The audience of dating apps is growing every day: more and more people are looking for a couple not in real life, but in virtual life. Dating services are becoming more reliable and safer and are gaining immense popularity among all age groups around the world. The wide variety of apps can be confusing for a newbie who is just diving into the world of online dating with the help of modern technology. Many top charts describe the advantages and disadvantages of various popular online dating apps. But everyone does choose for themselves the most beautiful girl or guy. And if you don't know where to look for them, we will tell you. In USA!

Referring to the statistics of Big 7 Travels, which published the rating of the sexiest nations, the whole world recognized that the USA nation is the sexiest, and USA girls are one of the most beautiful in the world! And this concerns not only external beauty. USA women do not have any special secrets, they are attuning, just what they really are. USA women have been beautiful for centuries. They always knew how to be like that, from ancient times, when there were only rags from clothes to the days of modern business suits. USA women have always managed to remain feminine and bright. And if you want to establish your relationship with just such a woman who will bring color into your life, with whom you will always be happy, because your home will always be cozy and warm, then this usa dating site was created especially for you, where you are waiting for you beautiful girls of this world.

Moving away from the topic of beauty and ideals, today we would like to devote our article to how you can market online dating apps in 2020. Any useful, beautiful and convenient mobile online dating application will be a waste of developers' time if it is not effectively promoted. The coverage of the target audience and its expectations, the use of the marketing budget and, ultimately, the final result of the project itself will depend on the correctly chosen tactics and strategy. Today we will share with you several types of online dating services like “single women near me” promotions suitable for online dating applications.

Advertising mobile app in social networks

Advertising an application for online dating on Facebook, Instagram or any other social network - these are only excellent choices, and also the easiest way to advertise an application and at the same time monitor the effectiveness of advertising campaigns, since even an inexperienced marketer can do this with their help ... A couple of tips:

When working with social media, it's best to use the App Install (Pay Per Impression) bid strategy. This will optimize your bid to increase the number of mobile app installs.
You can pay for each ad impression. This strategy works better than paying solely for installations, as this is the only way you can understand how much you are willing to pay for one installation and set the maximum threshold.
Another nice bonus. To create an advertisement for your application, you will first need to create a page with this application on the social network, since the advertisement will be placed on its behalf and thereby indirectly you promote not only applications but also a page on social networks, so more people will know about you ...
The good news is that such ads can start working with even the smallest budget starting at $ 5 per campaign. Of course, you won't achieve great results with such a sum, but there is an opportunity to launch advertising)

This method is especially good, since there is no doubt that almost every potential user of your application spends time on social networks, absorbing the information provided there. Therefore, such a tool has a huge percentage of efficiency.

Indoor advertising

This option is the most common for many applications. It involves placing videos or banners inside other resources. Users of games, messengers, media players will be able to receive notifications about new offers during download, transitions between levels and other pauses of internal gaming activities. Keep in mind that this method of promotion will be effective only when using well-promoted and popular apps, but the problem is that users of this or that application will not always be your target audience for your online dating application, here you need to carefully choose platforms for advertising.

SEO promotion

The SEO of promoting your application is a very important and integral part of any advertising campaign, as it is a complex of all the components of the success of any advertising.

Now that Google has started showing apps in organic search results, there is a need to apply "classic" SEO to them. We will not talk a lot about this, since we will have to devote a whole separate article to this topic, who will be interested in this information, he will surely find a lot about it on the Internet, but we draw your attention to the fact that in order for the application to appear in the mobile Google search, it must have Google App Indexing installed and it must have a corresponding web page.

Affiliate networks

Affiliate networks, for example, CPA, work as follows: when installing an application, you need to pay the affiliate network for each installation, and it itself determines how you need to accommodate for effective download. The tool is very similar to SEO promotion. But that you practically do not have to apply your own efforts.

A online dating app is a great business project that not only brings money but also benefits to society. Proper advertising and promotion will help you quickly get new users and increase activity. It is important that the functionality of the mobile application is clear, convenient and extensive, then every user will be satisfied. A satisfied customer is a good income.

Infrastructure on the clouds: how to choose the optimal IT solution for a developer

san4opan4o — Fri, 02 Oct 2020 11:10:27 +0000

Cloud services are gaining momentum. According to Gartner, this market will grow by 17.5% and reach $214.3 billion in the U.S. in 2020. For many small firms, it is a much cheaper and beneficial option than deploying a full-fledged IT infrastructure. And startups, thanks to cloud technologies, have the opportunity to quickly scale their business, saving on the purchase of their own servers. But how to choose a cloud solution that suits you most? Here's what you need to pay attention to.

It is difficult to overestimate the cloud solutions convenience for modern business. It is relatively inexpensive, convenient, and does not require a staff of IT-specialists (not everyone can afford it). In addition, such technologies are perfectly suited for companies working without an office or with a distributed team, as employees working in the cloud system are more agile.

IaaS or SaaS

The choice of platform directly depends on the business needs. Some are satisfied with the functionality provided by SaaS (Software as a Service), others require the ability to "fit" functionality to the needs of the company. In the second case, the platform IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) is more suitable since it can be modified to fit your needs. Large companies use IaaS services more often, while the SMB market representatives prefer to sell simple ready-made boxed SaaS solutions.

Most of the solutions in the industry are oriented to the mass market. However, small b2b companies also have a credit. When choosing the most suitable cloud service, an enterprise in the SMB segment has two ways. The first one is to purchase a classic cloud IaaS and further customize any solutions, transforming it into SaaS for company users. The second way is to purchase a ready-made SaaS solution. The first option is more suitable for corporations that have a staff of IT-specialists. In turn, small companies often have only one IT-specialist at their disposal, and in this case it is better to study the second option.

Solution Choice and Cost

"Cloudiness" implies the possibility of providing resources with a high guarantee of their availability. In other words, if hardware resources on physical computers fail or shut down, the cloud can continue to function (in some cases, without significant loss of efficiency), or even automatically restore a working state (self-healing).

In case you need to choose a cloud provider, below it is an option of how you can start your acquaintance. It is suitable for purpose, from an ordinary developer request to maintain the whole IT infrastructure.

Serverspace

Pretty budget option among the other cloud providers, although it is worth forgetting about the price, when stability determines how the machine brings money. Serverspace offers a minimal but sufficient toolkit to fully automate resource management. Average time to create and run a new virtual machine is no more than one minute.

In addition, Serverspace provides an opportunity to create "snapshots" and backup your servers (right now, this service is free). With the snapshot feature, you can capture the state of the virtual machine any time you wish. Moreover, you can restore the machine to this state later. It is a relatively fast process, unlike starting a new machine. The Snapshot can be sent to another user to set up virtual machines "turnkey".

Additionally, there is a large knowledge base for Serverspace users, which includes typical recipes for configuring virtual machines for specific needs and software.

You can get the internal IP address for the virtual machine in American data centers. The exchange rate on the internal grid reaches 1Gbps, which allows, for example, to form cluster structures from virtual machines.

The main advantage I’ve noticed for myself is that you can easily move your company's IT infrastructure, corporate email, CRM systems, accounting data and much more to a secure cloud.

Also, an API will soon be available, which will allow you to fully automate all activities with virtual machines. Moreover, everything that is available from the interface in a browser is accessible through the API too. Watch for platform updates to receive all the useful information first. The company is new to the U.S. market, but has long been working in other countries and managed to capture its users and good reviews.

Conclusion

Cloud services are no longer something fundamentally new in the Information Technology industry. Gone are the days when the guys from Dropbox literally on their knees created revolutionary solutions based on Cloud. Today, this is an absolutely natural solution in the field of optimizing the work processes of IT (and not only) companies.

The Cloud market has reached such a size that developers and entrepreneurs can now choose from a large number of infrastructures and applications that aim to achieve maximum optimization. In our article, I tried to tell you what is the fundamental difference between the main types of Cloud services and how to come to the most correct decision.