Mediaboss Marketing

Working from home has exploded since the start of the pandemic. While it might seem temporary, it could become the new normal. Here's why. USA TODAY

Peter Pham has been calling his contacts lately.

He misses whats the best part of attending conferences for him working the room.So in the middle of a pandemic, hes keeping touch the old-fashioned way. By reaching outon the phone.

I randomly dial people, says Pham, the co-founder of tech incubator ScienceInc., who looks to networking to find the next great company to invest inand to attract investors for the companies he works with. Im taking more of an effort to say, 'Hi'and catch up. Without conferences, he cant randomly run into people and do just that.

This year alone, major tech conferences like the Mobile World Congress, Facebook and Google developer meetings, the Code conference and the National Association of Broadcasters meetings were either postponed or canceled. Apples Worldwide Developer Conference, which normally meets in the first week of June, shifted to a digital-only format and will be seen online on June 22.

Peter Pham, the co-founder of tech incubator Science, Inc., works his home to network in a pandemic(Photo: Jefferson Graham)

With employees working at home and the need to find a new job, get ahead in the old one and just stay in touch and top of mind with contacts still there, what are people to do?

We have some ideas for you.

Jeremiah Owyang, an analyst with Kaleido Insights, believes it is actually easier to network digitallythan in-person because you get wider access to so many more people.

At a conference, "you'll shake hands, ask for a business card, and hope to connect later online," he says. "Online, you establish the connection immediately."

To network, he recommends finding out when the next public business meeting or happy hour is presented onlineand request attendance. That will get you in closer to raise your handand get heard. It will also put you into contact with other like-minded individuals who can become potential contacts.

How do you find them? Follow the people you're interested and odds are, they'll mention the meeting in their posts. Additionally, many are listed on Facebook and other social platforms.

Rebecca Leder, a manager at Salesforce and author of an upcoming book on networking called "The Knock Method," says networkers should scour LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter profiles and Google the subject as well before reaching out.

"You have a lot of tools at your fingertips to know about someone," she says. "You can also find out about mutual contacts and interests, which is an ice breaker."

Working remotely can be a tech challenge: Here are some tips

From Apple to Zoom: How to stay connected with your friends with video chats

Its simple logic. Who isnt on Twitter? Who doesnt want to hear back from people after they post? Engage with them, suggests Raj Nijjer, a vice-president with e-commerce platform Yotpo.

Twitter is the best-kept secret in networking, he says. Most people think of LinkedIn first, he says, but on Twitter, beyond the political fighting, people are more themselves and its a great place to meet them, provided its in areas of mutual interest, which for Nijjer is marketing.

How to reach people who seem out of reach? Youre not going to get to Tesla chief Elon Musk or Apple CEO Tim Cook, but down the line, others who work at the company, if theyre posting regularly, are probably willing to engage, says Nijjer. Otherwise theyre speaking in a vacuum.

Rebecca Leder, a manager at Salesforce, is writing a book about networking(Photo: Rebecca Leder)

Leder prefers LinkedIn.But it depends on the industry, she says. Marketing is more vocal on Twitter, but finance might be better for LinkedIn.

For mastering LinkedIn, she suggests having an updated profile with a current description, a photo that looks inviting, and putting out posts often. Like Facebook and Twitter, LinkedIn also lets you throw out your thoughts, offer links to articles, show your latest YouTube video or photograph.

The beauty of LinkedIn, says Owyang, is not just the connection, but it shows the world who you're connected to as well, which can boost your profile.

Jay Grammond, a Princeton, Minnesota-based photographer, suggests going even furtherand gettinginvolved in specialty groups on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. "Find groups that focus on your area of interest/expertise and engage in positive conversations with the people in those groups," he says. "Share your knowledge, and learn from others. Over time, you will likely see that networks will develop.

Both Leder and Owyang are big believers in blogging as a sales tool.

"I post content that attracts people," says Owyang. "I don't want to chase them. A unique video, thoughtful analysis, something that we can discuss."

He has multiple websites, but he always posts to Mediumbecause the website, which is popular with tech insiders, will let you republish your blog post directly there. And because the site is popular, the Medium link carries more weight with Google or SEO, he says, surfacing it for more people online.

Follow USA TODAY's Jefferson Graham (@jeffersongraham) on Twitter and LinkedIn

Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2020/06/05/how-to-network-twitter-linkedin-and-other-tools/3138312001/

Follow this link:
How to network while working from home: Start with reaching out and contacting folks - USA TODAY

By now you've heard about the new kid on the chess-engine block, AlphaZero, and its crushing match win vs Stockfish, the strongest open-source chess engine.

The reactions from the chess community to this match ranged from admiration to utter disbelief.

But how does AlphaZero actually work?

How is it different from other engines and why is it so much better? In this two-part article Ill try to explain a bit of what goes on under AlphaZeros hood.

First, lets reflect on what happened. AlphaZero was developed by DeepMind (a Google-owned company) to specialize in learning how to play two-player, alternate-move games. It was primed with the rules of chess, and nothing else.

It then started learning chess by playing games against itself. Game one would have involved totally random moves. At the end of this game, AlphaZero had learned that the losing side had done stuff that wasnt all that smart, and that the winning side had played better. AlphaZero had taught itself its first chess lesson. The quality of chess in game two was a just a tiny bit better than the first.

Nine hours and 44 million games of split-personality chess later, AlphaZero had (very possibly) taught itself enough to become the greatest chess player, silicon- or carbon-based, of all time.

How on earth did it do it?

Google headquarters in London from inside, with the DeepMind section on the eighth floor. | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

It didnt calculate more variations than Stockfish.

Quite the opposite in fact: Stockfish examined 70 million positions per second while AlphaZero contented itself with about 0.1 percent of that: 80,000 per second. This brings to mind a remark made by Jonathan Rowson after Michael Adams crushed him in a match in 1998: I was amazed at how little he saw.

Stronger players tend to calculate fewer variations than weaker ones. Instead their highly-honed intuition guides them to focus their calculation on the most relevant lines. This is exactly what AlphaZero did. It taught itself chess in quite a human-like way, developing an intuition like no other chess machine has ever done, and it combined this with an amount of cold calculation.

Lets see how it did that.

IM Danny Rensch explains the AlphaZero match in a series of videos on Twitch.

The Analysis Tree

Chess engines use a tree-like structure to calculate variations, and use an evaluation function to assign the position at the end of a variation a value like +1.5 (Whites advantage is worth a pawn and a half) or -9.0 (Blacks advantage is worth a queen). AlphaZeros approach to both calculating variations and evaluating positions is radically different to what other engines do.

All popular chess engines are based on the minimax algorithm, which is a fancy name that simply means you pick the move that gives you the biggest advantage regardless of what the opponent plays. Minimax is invariably enhanced with alpha-beta pruning, which is used to reduce the size of the tree of variations to be examined. Heres an extreme example of how this pruning works: Say an engine is considering a move and sees its opponent has 20 feasible replies. One of those replies leads to a forced checkmate. Then the engine can abandon (or cutoff) the move it was considering, no matter how well it would stand after any of the other 19 replies.

Another issue is that if an engine prunes away moves that only seem bad, e.g. those that lose material, it will fail to consider any kind of sacrifice, which is partly why early engines were so materialistic. In current engines like Stockfish, alpha-beta pruning is combined with a range of other chess-specific enhancements such the killer-move heuristic (a strong move in another similar variation is likely to be strong here), counter-move heuristic (some moves have natural responses regardless of position I bet youve often met axb5 with axb5, right?) and many others.

AlphaZero, in contrast, uses Monte Carlo Tree Search, or MCTS for short. Monte Carlo is famous for its casinos, so when you see this term in a computing context it means theres something random going on. An engine using pure MCTS would evaluate a position by generating a number of move sequences (called playouts) from that position randomly, and averaging the final scores (win/draw/loss) that they yield. This approach may seem altogether too simple, but if you think about it youll realize its actually quite a plausible way of evaluating a position.

The Monte Carlo Casino.

AlphaZero creates a number of playouts on each move (800 during its training). It also augments pure MCTS by preferring moves that it has not tried (much) already, that seem probable and that seem to lead to good positions, where good means that the evaluation function (more on this next article) gives them a high value. Its really creating semi-random playouts, lines that seem appropriate to its ever-improving evaluation function. Isnt this quite like how you calculate? By focussing on plausible lines of play?

Notice that so far theres absolutely nothing chess-specific in what AlphaZero is doing. In my next article, when we look at how AlphaZero learns to evaluate chess positions, well see theres absolutely nothing chess-specific there either!

Like a newborn baby, AlphaZero came into the world with little knowledge, but is massively geared to learn. One weakness of MCTS is that since its based on creating semi-random playouts, it can get it completely wrong in tense positions where there is one precise line of optimal play. If it doesnt randomly select this line, it is likely to blunder. This blindness was probably what caused AlphaZeros Go playing predecessor, AlphaGo, to lose a game to 18-time world Go champion Lee Sedol. It seems not to have been an issue in the match with Stockfish, however.

MCTS has been used previously for two-player gameplay, but was found to perform much worse than the well-established minimax plus alpha-beta approach. In AlphaZero, MCTS combines really well with the employed neural network-based evaluation function.

In my next article, Ill explain more about this neural network and especially the fascinating way it learns, on its own, how to evaluate chess positions. Ill also describe the hardware AlphaZero runs on, and make some predictions about how all this will impact chess as we know it.

What do you think about how AlphaZero plays chess? Let us know in the comments.

Corrections: AlphaZero creates a number of playouts on each move, not 800. That was during training.

More:
How Does AlphaZero Play Chess? - Chess.com

Inside Biography

Alfred Charles Sharpton Jr. is an Americancivil rights activist,Baptistminister who also talk show hostand politician.His critics express him as a political radical who is to blame, in part, for the deterioration of race relations.

Sharpton is 64 years old. He was born on October 3, 1954, in New York City, New York, the U.S. Sharpton belongs to American nationality and of Cherokee ethnicity.

His fathers name is Alfred Charles Sharpton, Sr. and mothers name is Ada Richards. Mr. Alfred was a Brooklyn based businessman. He has a brother, Kenneth Sharpton Glasgow and two sisters: Cheryl Sharpton and Ernestine Sharpton.

Al does not respect his dad Alfred because his father left his family and had an affair with his step-daughter.

Sharpton graduated fromSamuel J. Tilden High Schoolin Brooklyn and attendeddropping out after two years in 1975 Brooklyn College.

While in school, he was involved in civil rights movements, which was prominent in several high profile protests. Similarly, it was poised to bring equality between black and white Americans.

Sharpton developed his commanding speaking behavior as a child and a churchgoer who has commanded a minister at age 10. He was best characterized as a Social/political activist and religious leader. Sharpton became the best fighter and a roaring voice in the fight opposite to racial prejudice and injustice against Americans of black origin.

This fight saw him get into different problems and even surviving an assassination attempt. He contested the election for different political offices at various times but is not popular to have been an elected officeholder. In one of his disastrous political outings, he intimated that winning political posts might not have been his ultimate goal.

Furthermore, Sharpton founded theNational Action Network, an organization designed to increase voter education, to provide services to those inpoverty, and to support small community businesses in 1981. Moreover, In 1999, Sharpton attends a protest to raise awareness about the death of Amadou Diallo, an immigrant fromGuineawho was shot to death byNYPDofficers.

He was jailed for 90 days on trespassing charges while protesting against U.S. military target practice exercises inPuerto Riconear a United States Navy bombing site in 2001.In 2002, Sharpton has involved in protests ensuing the death of West African immigrantOusmane Zongo.

He held a press conference to highlight what he said was the unequal treatment of four suspected rapists in a high-profile crime in the Dunbar Village Housing Projects inWest Palm Beach, Florida on March 11, 2008.

Shooting of Trayvon MartinbyGeorge Zimmerman, Sharpton led several protests and rallies criticizing theSanford Police Departmentover the handling of the shooting in 2012. Sharpton called for the federal government to stop maintaining theJefferson Memorialin Washington, D.C in August 2017.

Though he was a well-known Politician there is no information that he has received many awards and nominations.

Sharpton lives a comfortable and public active life. He has an estimated net worth between $500,000 dollars to $5 million. In 2014, Sharpton and his large businesses owed a combined $4.7 million dollars in taxes. However, he has well paid off more than $2 million of the debt.

There is a rumor run byAmid 2020 presidential thatBeto ORourke is meeting with controversial Democratic leader Sharpton, who is known for his anti-Semitic rhetoric. Sharpton has frequently sparkedcontroversywith his harsh language.Last November, The New York Times announced that the MSNBC host has regularly sidestepped the sort of obligations most people see as inevitable, like taxes, rent, and other bills.

Sharpton is 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighs 59 kg. He has Dark brown eye color and Gray hair color. His body measurement is (43-14-32). Sharptons shoe size is 11(US) and his dress size is not available.

Sharpton is active on social media. He has over 5,24,462 followers on Facebook, around 240k followers on Instagram, and more than 586k followers on Twitter.

To know more about birth facts, family, childhood, education, profession, awards, net worth, rumors, body measurements and social media profile of Felisha Terrell, Olivia Culpo, and Brian Hollins, please click on the link.

Read the original:
Al Sharpton - Bio, Married, Wife, Net Worth, Ethnicity ...

6 P.M. Weather ReportLisa Meadows is tracking the storm system heading through the Twin Cities tonight, (3:50).WCCO 4 News at 6 June 6, 2020

Minority-Owned Small Business Owners Host Pop-Up Shop EventThis pop-up event will continue Saturday from noon until 7p.m., Norman Seawright III reports (2:15). WCCO 4 News at 6 June 6, 2020

Drive-Thru Commencement Brings Hope For Mpls. Private School GradsOn Saturday, each graduating senior at Cristo Rey Jesuit High School was honored at a drive-thru commencement ceremony, Bill Hudson reports (1:59).WCCO 4 News at 6 June 6, 2020

Kids March In St. Paul For George FloydEver since George Floyd died, there have been marches across the city, but on Saturday morning in St. Paul, a march was formed specifically for the youngest generation to come together and have their voices heard, Marielle Mohs reports (2:07).WCCO 4 News at 6 June 6, 2020

Mayor Frey Gives Statement At Protest For Not Supporting Defunding MPDProtesters marched through Minneapolis when Mayor Frey was spotted amongst the crowd to give a few words, David Schuman reports (2:07). WCCO 4 News at 6 June 6, 2020

5 P.M. Weather ReportWith heat and humidity building, Monday is expected to feel like 100 to 110 degrees, Lisa Meadows reports (3:31).WCCO 4 News at 5 June 6, 2020

Protesters March In Minneapolis Calling On Mayor Frey To Defund MPDA tribute for George Floyd continued this weekend, as the group marching through Minneapolis is calling on Mayor Frey to defund the Minneapolis Police Department, David Schuman reports (2:01).WCCO 4 News at 5 June 6, 2020

drone footage - delete laterdrone

George Floyd's Brother Remembers 'Gentle Giant'George Floyd's brother speaks about his memory, looking up to him, and cheering him on at his sports games (1:39). WCCO 4 Saturday Morning - June 6, 2020

WCCO Digital Update: Morning Of June 6, 2020Jennifer Mayerle reports on the latest Minnesota headlines (01:23).WCCO Saturday Morning -- June 6, 2020

4 Things You Need To KnowHere are the four things you need to know on May 23 (1:19).WCCO Saturday Morning -- June 6, 2020

Connecting Community Members With Opportunities To Give BackJennifer Mayerle talks with Debra G, co-founder of the group Essentials For Our Community, a facebook page dedicated to connecting community members with opportunities to donate, volunteers, and offer support (). WCCO 4 Saturday Morning - June 6, 2020

Saturday Morning Weather ReportMike Augustyniak reports active weather is on the way! Sunday will see building heat and humidity, with Monday feeling like 100 degrees (4:15). WCCO 4 Saturday Morning - June 6, 2020

As Gov. Walz Turns Back COVID-19 Dial, Officials Urge Protesters To Get Tested For COVID-19Gov. Walz announced Friday he was turning back the dial on COVID-19, allowing the limited opening of restaurants and bars. Assistant Commissioner Dan Huff speaks with Jennifer Mayerle about what this could mean for the spread of COVID-19 in Minnesota, and encourages protesters to get tested for the virus (5:29). WCCO 4 Saturday Morning - June 6, 2020

Minneapolis City Council Bans Choke HoldsAt an emergency meeting Friday, Minneapolis City Council voted to forbid the use of chokeholds by Minneapolis police (1:38). WCCO 4 News Saturday Morning - June 6, 2020

George Floyd Marches Throughout The NationMarches continued throughout the United States and Minneapolis on Friday, calling for justice for George Floyd (2:09). WCCO 4 Saturday Morning - June 6, 2020

10 P.M. Weather ReportThere is a chance of storms on Sunday morning and throughout the week as hot weather rolls in, Lisa Meadows reports (4:04).WCCO 4 News at 10 June 5, 2020

Former Mpls. Hotel Transforms Into Shelter For Those Who Lost Homes During ProtestsA former Sheraton hotel, right near the sight of last week's fires in Minneapolis, is being used in a completely unique way, Susan-Elizabeth Littlefield reports (2:38).WCCO 4 News at 10 June 5, 2020

Gov. Tim Walz Says State Can Turn Dial Again, To Allow Indoor Dining, Limited Gym UseStarting Wednesday, June 10, the state will allow indoor seating at restaurants, limited to just 50% capacity. Walz said that gyms were also going to be allowed to open but only at 25% capacity, with a cap at 250 people total, Erin Hassanzadeh reports (2:18).WCCO 4 News at 10 June 5, 2020

'Take A Knee' Rally Continues, As Athletes Talk About Continuing Momentum Of The Black Lives Matter MovementMike Max reports live from U.S. Bank Stadium, where people are participating in a 'Take A Knee' rally for George Floyd (2:25). WCCO 4 News at 10 June 5, 2020

Community Discusses New Police Protocol Over No More ChokeholdsThe Minneapolis City Council has made some changes that will take effect in the next 10 days, David Schuman reports (2:16).WCCO 4 News at 10 June 5, 2020

Artists Take Action To Remember George FloydArtists draw murals in South Minneapolis to remember George Floyd (1:33). WCCO 4 News At 6 - June 5, 2020

6 P.M. Weather ReportA beautiful and clear day Friday afternoon, though the winds are picking up, Lisa Meadows reports (3:05). WCCO 4 News At 6 - June 5, 2020

Minnesota Sports Community Provides Supplies, Food To Those In NeedThe Minnesota sports community, including the Vikings, helped provide food and supplies at the Cub foods in Minneapolis, Norman Seawright reports (2:26). WCCO 4 News At 6 - June 5, 2020

The rest is here:
Unpacking The Message Of Re. Al Sharpton's George Floyd Eulogy - WCCO | CBS Minnesota

New York (AFP) - Reverend Al Sharpton, who made an impassioned plea for racial justice at a memorial service for George Floyd on Thursday, is a flamboyant but polarizing long-time black civil rights activist who once dreamed of occupying the White House.

Admirers laud the sharply dressed, 65-year-old Baptist minister and talk show host for the half-century he has spent campaigning to right wrongs against the US' African-American community.

But critics have accused Sharpton, who placed himself at the center of some of the most racially explosive issues of the 1980s in his native New York, of being a divisive racial provocateur.

Never shy of the spotlight, he has mellowed over the years and adopted a more considered persona, swapping the trademark tracksuit of his early activist days with pin-striped suits.

The big hair has also gone, and Sharpton doesn't quite cut the same imposing figure physically as he used to, but his fire still burns brightly.

"America, this is the time for dealing with accountability in the criminal justice system," he told the memorial for Floyd, who died on May 27 after a white police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes.

"We won't stop," added Sharpton, referring to the mass protests convulsing the United States.

"We're going to keep going until we change the whole system of justice."

Born in Brooklyn, in October 1954, Sharpton gave notice of his oratorical skills by preaching in a church service when he was just four years old.

Aged nine, he was ordained a Pentecostal minister. Martin Luther King was assassinated when he was 13 years old.

Sharpton, while still in his teens, was chosen by the Reverend Jesse Jackson as the New York youth director of a national initiative aimed at tackling poverty in black neighborhoods.

His life underwent a radical shift in 1973 when he met the soul singer James Brown backstage at a concert, and he ended up spending the next several years on the road as part of Brown's entourage.

Story continues

There, he met his future wife, Kathy Jordan, who was one of Brown's backup singers.

Sharpton's political activism came to the fore in the early 1980s, when racial tensions climbed sharply in New York City.

In 1985, he made the national news leading protests against Bernard Goetz, a white man who shot four black teenagers trying to mug him on a subway and was acquitted for acting in self-defense.

The success of the demonstrations set a pattern, as Sharpton went on to rally supporters over similar incidents, including protests over the accidental running down of a young black boy by a Hasidic rabbi's motorcade -- an event that triggered violent clashes between black and Jewish communities.

- Controversy -

Critics saw his tactics as divisive, opportunistic and inflammatory, pointing especially to the 1987 case of 15-year-old Tawana Brawley, a black girl who claimed to have been raped by six white men, some of whom were police officers.

Sharpton became Brawley's most vocal supporter and famously accused an assistant district attorney of involvement in the rape.

A grand jury later determined that Brawley made up the incident, and Sharpton was compelled to pay the attorney $65,000 for defamation. However, to the fury of his detractors, he is not known to have apologized.

"For some, that case defines my career and is the sole reason I should not be supported by anyone in this country," he wrote in his 2002 book, "Al On America."

"For me, it defines my career because I refused to bend or bow -- no matter the pressures. I took the word of a young girl, and if I had to do it over, I would do it again."

As his stature grew, he found himself accused of misusing funds and ran into tax trouble.

Sharpton ran for the Senate from New York in 1992 and 1994, as well as for New York City mayor in 1997. He failed in all three attempts but got enough votes to be taken seriously by his rivals.

He says a near-fatal stabbing in 1991 that occurred as he was readying to lead a protest march led him to be "less flippant, and more sober" in style.

"I couldn't shoot from the hip so much," he said.

In 2004, he ran for the Democratic presidential nomination but lost every race.

While Sharpton has tempered his approach, he remains outspoken, riling President Donald Trump last year in a dispute over Baltimore, which is majority black.

Trump, who has known Sharpton for years, branded him a "con man, a troublemaker."

"I make trouble for bigots," Sharpton fired back.

Read the original here:
Al Sharpton: the black rights firebrand still fighting injustice - Yahoo News