Super Scrawlar

Web Word Processor and Whiteboard App

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Walmart to sell e-commerce technology to small retailers

Just as Amazon Web Services is the profit centre that fuels most of Amazon’s other businesses, Walmart CEO Doug McMillon is increasingly interested in expanding its profit pools beyond its core retail business.

Starting Wednesday, small and medium-sized retailers can purchase technology developed by Walmart to allow shoppers to buy items online and pick up their purchases in-store. These businesses will also be able to add products to Walmart’s online marketplace with a few clicks. To offer a suite of cloud-based services, Walmart has partnered with Adobe, which will sell the software via a subscription.

Walmart has seen its sales skyrocket both online and in-store as the pandemic has taken hold. While some other retailers were forced to close stores to help contain the spread of Covid-19, Walmart was seen as a critical retailer and remained open. Some customers, seeking to limit the amount of time they spend in stores, took advantage of Walmart’s online shopping and in-store pickup options. These developments accelerated the company’s e-commerce growth. The retailer’s online sales jumped 79% in the year ended Jan. 29, with pickup and delivery sales up triple digits from the previous year.

A significant opportunity remains. Last December, Adobe and market researcher IDC estimated the total addressable market for content and commerce-as-a-service software to be about $44 billion.

Wallmart strategy exposed?

For those who ask why Walmart would want to help its potential rivals succeed, Bhardwaj said those small businesses would be served regardless.

“Digitization is happening everywhere as the consumer evolves,” Bhardwaj said. “There’s no choice but to evolve with them.”

Walmart’s size and scale and its proximity to 90 per cent of the U.S. population within 10 miles of one of its stores give it a substantial advantage. In addition, Bhardwaj said, “We want to serve better our communities, our shareholders, our stakeholders and the community.”

She noted that about a year and a half ago, McMillon changed the language in a slide it uses in presentations from “serving our shareholders” to “serving our stakeholders.” Bhardwaj said it was a meeting with McMillon that spurred his idea to sell Walmart’s technology to other retailers.

Bhardwaj has been involved in other key technology initiatives at Walmart. Most notably, she led the successful Scan & Go technology at Sam’s Club, allowing customers to call in their purchases with a smartphone when adding items to their cart.

A new software venture

The new software venture opens up a potential revenue stream for Walmart and fits with its strategy of building new businesses that serve new customers and allows profits to flow back into the company to fund innovations.

Neither Walmart nor Adobe publicly share their expectations of how ample a business opportunity this could be, but Bhardwaj said, “I’m betting my life on it,” as his current role at the retailer was created to make his idea a reality.

For Adobe, the Walmart partnership increases its visibility.

“We can now offer a more holistic solution, a best-in-class omnichannel experience,” said Peter Sheldon, senior director of business strategy at Adobe, in an interview. “From Adobe, [these businesses] will benefit from Walmart’s best-in-class e-commerce experiences and best-in-class omnichannel experiences.”

Small and medium-sized retailers will use Adobe to power e-commerce sites, including shopping cart functionality, search, navigation and product recommendation capabilities. (Walmart does not use Adobe’s commerce software for these functions for its Web site. It has its technology).

Small and medium-sized businesses and retailers with at least $1 billion in annual sales already use a variety of Adobe’s e-commerce products, including Rite Aid, Verizon, Unilever, Coca-Cola, HP, Honeywell, Trader Joe’s, and more.

Walmart provides the technology that powers employee picking and packing of online purchases and the geolocation technology employees need to know when customers arrive to pick up orders.

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How to watch a youtube video blocked in your country?

You may have already encountered one of the following messages on Youtube (or another online video provider like Hulu, for example) when you want to watch a video:

This video is not available in your country

This video includes content from “this company” who blocked it in your country for copyright reasons

Why are some videos blocked in my country?

The main reason for video blocking is above all a question of copyright, which differs significantly from one country to another, and a desire to limit the distribution of video content to certain countries, hence the introduction of a geo-blocking filter.

Youtube allows publishers to limit the distribution of their videos to countries of their choice.

The BBC replay is, therefore, only available in England by definition. If you want to watch a video on this site while you are abroad, you won’t be able to unless you’re tricky!

Similarly, Fox News videos can only be viewed in the US, and many record companies such as Warner, restrict the distribution of music videos in the United States.

Unfortunately, you are therefore limited in your viewing by choice of editors, but here are some tips to help you get around the limitations of Youtube and other online video players.

How to unlock a blocked video in my country?

There are different ways to unlock content that is not available for your country: since the location of your computer is via your IP address, the easiest way is to use a method that will change your IP address and make the site believe that you are well located in a country that is allowed to access the content you want to watch.

Different possibilities to unlock your video content:

There are some extensions for your browser that allow you to bypass geographical restrictions such as Proxtube for Mozilla Firefox or Youtube Unblocker for Google Chrome.

Use a proxy: a proxy will allow you to pretend to be a foreign Internet user and therefore bypass the restrictions related to geo-blocking content.

It is possible to use a web proxy or better, configure your browser using a free (or paid) proxy list with a proxy located in the country of origin of the video.

Use a VPN (Virtual Private Network): it is possible to choose your geographical location concerning it, which allows you to access blocked content in Europe. It is useful, for example, if you want to watch a Champions League match not broadcast in your country in free streaming or surf to a safe streaming site. Find more on Virtual Private Networks on this website.

Use the TOR software: this software to install on your computer also allows you to anonymize the origin of connections. The problem with TOR is that basically, you can’t choose the country from where you will finally be connected. Unless you put your hands together to roll up your sleeves and configure TOR to select the country of the IP that will serve as your relay as explained in this topic.

Feel free to share with us your solutions to bypass the restrictions of Youtube in commentary!

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MongoDB released a mobile version of its NoSQL database

Database specialist NoSQL used this week’s MongoDB World in New York to make a series of announcements, including a mobile version of its main database and global clusters for Atlas.

It is the company’s first major event since its initial public offering in October 2017. Database specialist NoSQL made several announcements, including a new mobile version of its product and the addition of “global clusters” to its database offering as a service of Atlas DBaaS.
MongoDB Mobile allows mobile devices or even IO devices to access the features of the traditional MongoDB database. With this release, developers will be able to implement automatic, real-time native synchronization between the data stored in the device and the backend database.

For DBaaS Atlas customers, the use of “global clusters” will allow them to specify the location of data in areas of global availability, read and write data from these areas, and comply with increasingly stringent data regulations.

4 additional features for Stitch

MongoDB’s Stitch service is out of beta and is now in general availability. The service improved with four new features.

Stitch QueryAnywhere extends the MongoDB query language to developers with a rule engine that allows users to declare security policies at a very granular level.

Stitch Functions allows developers to execute simple Javascript functions in Stitch’s serverless environment to create secure APIs or develop integrations with microservices and server-side logic.

Stitch Triggers provides real-time notifications, which initiate functions in response to changes in the database.

Finally, Stitch Mobile Sync, which is not yet generally available, will automatically synchronize data between documents held locally in MongoDB Mobile and the backend database.

General Availability ACID Transactions

As for the MongoDB product itself, the MongoDB Server 4.0 multi-document ACID transactions announced earlier this year are now available. “With their consistent view of the data in all replications and their compliance with the all-or-nothing principle to maintain data integrity, MongoDB transactions will look very familiar to developers who are already accustomed to working with transactions in existing relational databases.

They are easy to add to any application that needs them and have no impact on the performance of operations that don’t need them,” the vendor said. Version 4.0 also comes with a new MongoDB Kubernetes Operator and Beta Graphics, which allows you to view MongoDB data in real time.

In a post, Mat Keep and Alyson Cabral of the MongoDB technical team detail what the arrival of ACID transactions to MongoDB brings.

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Four Reasons to Use Interactive Whiteboards

When we think about whiteboards, our minds naturally go to the ones that used to be at the front of the classrooms we frequented in school. But whiteboards have come a long way since then. Physical whiteboards may still exist, but it is the digital ones that are the most interesting for businesses.

Interactive whiteboards are a relatively new technology, being perfected every year. Now there are some quality options for web based interactive whiteboards, which are even more useful for businesses. It means no installation is required to use that type of whiteboard, boosting accessibility. But why would a business use whiteboards? Here are a few reasons:

1. Boost Engagement on Collaborations

Interactive whiteboards are the perfect way for everyone on a team to contribute to a particular discussion or presentation. Instead of having a single person deliver a boring, 20 minute presentation of PowerPoint slides, everyone can contribute.

People can “slide over” their ideas onto a whiteboard, tweak them, merge them with other concepts or play them off each other. Everything happens in real time, allowing for intense and productive collaboration. It is especially useful for teams where everyone may be in a different location.

Even if everyone is in a different place, they will feel as if they are in the loop. Everyone has their hands on the latest information. They can see the ideas as they are being posted by others in real time. It is a digital equivalent of being in the room when the best ideas are formed.

2. Better Annotation

Interactive whiteboards take word processing and document editing to a new level. In the past, editing a document meant making a few tweaks and then sending a new version to the person. Now it is possible to edit items in real time thanks to digital whiteboards.

And the editing is a lot more interactive and fluid. It is possible to add 3D modeling, hyperlinks, video links and other items into the document. Say a few people are reviewing a document together. They could be posting up their ideas at the same time, working to construct the perfect final version.

Even the editing is a one-on-one process, with a boss editing their employee’s work, whiteboards make it faster. The editing can be done in real time, with the person who wrote the document able to see as suggestions are put into the document. They could quickly draft their own changes in response – or provide a justification for what they included.

3. Incredible Data Sharing and Accessibility Options

The beauty of digital whiteboards is how they are geared towards data sharing and accessibility. The best web-based digital whiteboards can be used on any type of device. They work just as well on smartphones, tablets, laptops and desktops. Devices with touchscreen functionality mean that note taking and other annotations can be added seamlessly.

When a company is using a particular whiteboard app, everyone would have access if they have the right credentials. It means you could have a remote employee who logs into their family computer and can access the digital whiteboard. No installations or special process required. Quick, easy and seamless accessibility!

4. Cleaner Editing Process

People used to mock the idea of using a tablet or a touchscreen laptop with digital whiteboard software. They said the concept would never compare to a pen and paper.

But in some ways, the process is even better. It is so much cleaner. Instead of having to constantly reprint new versions of a document, creating a clean one through the whiteboard app is effortless.

Even when changes and annotations are made, they are so clean. Users can circle words, write down thoughts or move around sentences with a few drags, drops and presses of their fingers!

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The Argument in Favor of Web Based Applications

Web apps get a very unfair reputation, whether it is on mobiles, tablets or smartphones. When it comes to technology, we are geared to believe that a program is much better than anything that runs off a web browser. But is that necessarily true?

Web Apps vs. Traditional Software

When it comes to computers, the difference is that a web app is opened on a browser and a program is installed. It is a similar concept on smartphones, where apps are installed onto the device.

A few years ago, the major factor in favor of traditional software was the fact that it could be used offline. But we are starting to see many changes in that regard. Many of the best web apps are very usable offline. While they do require internet for their full syncing features, the basic use is very much viable offline.

For instance, quality web based word processors and whiteboard apps will work just as well without an internet connection. There are no usage issues that would not be applicable to software in those circumstances.

Better Development

A big reason why web apps are getting so much better is because of the development process. It is a lot easier to design a web app and have it be compatible with all devices. They work through web browsers, which means none of the features are native to the device they are being accessed on.

It also means that if there is something wrong with the app, an easy fix can be released. The next time the web app is launched, the fix is immediately part of the application. The user is not expected to install a new version of the application or software.

Accessible Anywhere

The biggest positive in favor of web apps is that it is possible to access them anywhere. When a company is working through web apps, their employees can access those apps on any device. They just need to securely log into the company network and they can even access their files.

It is a lot more of a seamless experience as compared to the constant need to install, update and troubleshoot programs on devices. Companies lose so much time and money with those processes.

While there are still some issues with web apps, they are becoming far less apparent. Companies that perform basic tasks using word processing, spreadsheet, presentation or whiteboard applications can do those tasks on web apps. It is why the G Suite from Google is so popular.