Split (1)

train · 2.6M rows

text stringlengths 12 27.8k
Birdbox, a thriller starring Sandra Bullock, sucked in 45 million viewers in its first week of release. Bandersnatch, part of the Black Mirror franchise, set new standards for interaction.
Netflix, which reports fourth-quarter earnings on Thursday, is quietly transforming the entertainment industry with data.
In fairness, the Los Gatos, Calif., company was a data business long before it turned to content creation. Founded in 1997, Netflix began as a subscription mail order DVD company. Back then, distributing the shiny discs in prepaid mailing pouches was so disruptive it brought Blockbuster Video, a nationwide Goliath, to ...
But the strength of the company was predictive analytics.
Netflix software engineers developed algorithms to steer customers away from high demand blockbusters, toward its plentiful, lesser known library titles. The strategy was a huge success. Through the years, mail order logistics have been replaced with online streaming, then content creation. Data analytics played a key ...
House of Cards, a Netflix original series, debuted in 2013. The company shocked the industry by committing $100 million to the edgy political thriller. The best creative talent was secured, but success was never really in doubt. Executives used big data analytics to inform all of the most important decisions.
According to a New York Times report, company executives offered actor Kevin Spacey and director David Fincher contracts without even seeing a pilot. Netflix algorithms showed the end product would be successful based on the subject matter, remnant fans of the original British television series and the appeal of Spacey...
The same factors were at work with Birdbox. Based on the Josh Malerman novel, the apocalyptic film got Bullock as the lead, a holiday release date and plenty of free advertising inside the Netflix application. The result was huge viewership. The official Netflix Film account tweeted that the film was watched by 45,037,...
The casting seems to break all of the traditional rules. Bullock is 54 years old. Malorie, her character in the novel, is described by Malerman as young, athletic and reluctantly pregnant. Tom, her interracial love interest, is played by Trevante Rhodes, a 28-year-old rising star.
Critical and online user reviews have been mixed. The film is successful because it plays well to a carefully targeted audience. It shows the true power of data analytics.
Bandersnatch is important in a bunch of other ways. It takes the unusual route of asking viewers to choose the plot lines. Selections are made using any standard remote control. Each choice brings a unique narrative branch, where new choices later appear.
Netflix began experimenting with these interactive stories in 2017. The first two shows, Puss in Book: Trapped in an Epic Tale, and Buddy Thunderstruck were aimed at younger audiences. In a corporate press release, Netflix promised users would get to choose their own adventure experience.
The real winner is Netflix. With its wealth of Easter eggs and clever symbolism, Bandersnatch is the type of dark drama that screams for a cult following. Its puzzle-like structure opens up potential new business models.
Writing at the Verge, Jesse Damiani speculates that gathering user interaction data could become the basis for an internal programmatic marketing infrastructure. In addition to building data profiles to understand what plots work well with specific audiences, there are engagement and product placement opportunities.
It's easy to imagine marketing deals with Spotify (SPOT for music, or a consumer packaged goods conglomerate like Procter and Gamble (PG - Get Report) .
These new businesses are possible because of digital transformation. When media moved from analog to digital files that could be streamed to any screen, it created a continuous flow of metadata. Netflix managers have tirelessly collected and analyzed this information to build lucrative markets where none previously exi...
Those insights allowed it grow into the only worldwide streaming network. Today, the service has 137 million subscribers and is on pace to do $15 billion in sales through fiscal 2018.
At 65x forward earnings, Netflix shares are not cheap. However, it's rarely been cheap. Investors have paid up for the stock because of its dominant position in media, and the growth potential.
This is a stock longer-term investors should continue to buy into panic declines.
My new book is out, just in time for the holidays! It's called, "Fast Forward Investing: How to Profit from AI, Driverless Vehicles, Gene Editing, Robotics, and Other Technologies Reshaping Our Lives". Click here to buy a copy at Amazon, where it is listed as the #1 New Release in Business. And if you like it, please l...
The author does not own any stocks mentioned in this column.
•Districts should post trained and capable armed guards outside as well as inside schools.
•They should also consider reducing the number of entrances to the building, so these guards can monitor traffic.
•Where feasible, schools could install metal detectors to ensure that nobody can sneak a weapon onto campus.
•Classroom doors must be made more secure against an attack. Classrooms should be equipped with the means to barricade these doors.
Ken Paxton is the attorney general of Texas.
Working parents in Wigan will receive double the current amount of free childcare for three- and four-year-olds this September. Childcare Minister Sam Gyimah has announced £13 million for certain councils to deliver 30 hours of free childcare for working parents of three- and four-year-olds – a year ahead of schedule.
The government will also be looking at the issues that make it difficult for parents with particular challenges to access childcare, including Special Educational Needs and Disabilities.
It is expected to be fully rolled out in 2017, with the aim of removing barriers to parents taking up their entitlement.
For too long, rising childcare costs have been a barrier preventing parents and particularly mothers from working. That’s why I’m delighted that in just a few months’ time, we will see the first families benefitting from the government’s offer of 30 hours’ free childcare for working parents.
“I know how important childcare is from my own personal experience, and I couldn’t be more determined to make sure we give children the best start in life, support parents to work, and as a result, allow our country to prosper.
All three- and four-year-olds are already entitled to 15 hours of free childcare a week, and this is also extended to the most disadvantaged two-year-olds. Last year, more than 1 million three- and four-year-olds, and 157,000 two-year-olds benefited from this offer.
CINCINNATI -- The 3-year-old boy who fell into the gorilla enclosure at the Cincinnati Zoo Saturday afternoon is "still doing well," according to a statement from the family Wednesday morning.
The family thanked the public for expressions of concern and recommended donations be made to the Cincinnati Zoo in the name of Harambe, the 17-year-old male gorilla who was shot to protect the boy.
“Our child has had a checkup by his doctor and is still doing well. We continue to praise God for His grace and mercy, and to be thankful to the Cincinnati Zoo for their actions taken to protect our child.
The family continues to decline all interview and meeting requests.
CTO and Founder of SaaS management company Blissfully, driving the team's product vision and development.
With four million paid users and counting, G Suite is emerging as a major productivity suite challenger to Microsoft Office 365. While the majority of large enterprises still run on Microsoft Office 365, G Suite has a relative stronghold on the SMB market. Some of the reasons organizations select G Suite to include its...
As the founder and CTO of a company that has a partnership with Google, I've seen firsthand how the use of G Suite brings a range of cloud-related security challenges that businesses can’t afford to ignore. Here are four security recommendations for G Suite that will keep your organization safe, without missing a beat ...
G Suite Team Drives (available in G Suite for Business and Enterprise) provides a clean and simple way for teams to collaborate on files. Unlike the regular version of Google Drive, Team Drives files belong to everyone. So, if a team member happens to switch teams, their files remain in place so everyone else can still...
The security advantage to using Team Drives is deciding whether to grant full upload, editing, and deletion access to new members or to restrict these members in certain ways (for example, prevent them from moving or deleting files). It’s relatively simple to add or remove new users or change permissions as needed.
Many organizations neglect onboarding and offboarding in SaaS workflows, so setting Team Drives up from the start can improve access control to certain files and folders, alleviate stress around insider threats and ensure business continuity even if a team member leaves.
Super Admin: Super admins manage every aspect of an organization's account and have full access to all users' calendars and event details. At the minimum, two workers should have super admin access within an organization in the event that one of these admins forgets/loses their password. A founder or co-founder can ser...
Groups Admin: Everyone in a group can receive emails, access to documents or calendar invites. Groups admins can create or remove Groups, as well as manage group members and access settings. Groups admins can also make changes to the team to help the super admin.
User Management Admin: These admins can create or delete users or manage the security settings and passwords of users (for anyone except the super admin).
In addition to built-in apps, G Suite has an entire marketplace of third-party SaaS applications in its G Suite Marketplace (both free and paid). These apps range from simple Gmail extensions to robust business productivity applications.
Outside of the G Suite Marketplace, many apps also offer single sign-on (SSO) with Google Identity. Admins can use this feature to figure out which permissions people are giving to which apps. This data can help admins understand how their organization is using SaaS apps -- and maybe even find out about apps they aren’...
A common cloud security best practice is turning on and enforcing multifactor authentication (MFA) for G Suite. With MFA, attackers can’t get very far with stolen credentials, since the second authentication step involves a code that’s sent directly to the user.
While this may seem like a no-brainer, according to a Blissfully analysis (based on data from hundreds of companies of all sizes), the typical organization only has 37% of employees deploying MFA on their work G Suite accounts. And this number decreases with organizations under 50 people, where only 22% of employees ha...
If you follow these five essential security tips for G Suite, you can keep your organization protected from bad actors, without sacrificing productivity in the process.
The book by Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward is the latest to throw the Trump administration into damage-control mode with explosive anecdotes and concerns about the commander in chief.
The book by Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward is the latest to throw the Trump administration into damage-control mode with explosive anecdotes and concerns about the commander in chief. The Associated Press obtained a copy of “Fear: Trump in the White House” on Tuesday, a week before its official release.
Trump decried the quotes and stories in the book on Twitter as “frauds, a con on the public,” adding that Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and chief of staff John Kelly had denied uttering quoted criticisms of the president in the book.
Mattis is quoted explaining to Trump why the U.S. maintains troops on the Korean Peninsula to monitor North Korea’s missile activities. “We’re doing this in order to prevent World War III,” Mattis said, according to the book.
“Mr. Woodward never discussed or verified the alleged quotes included in his book with Secretary Mattis” or anyone within the Defense Department, Manning said.
Woodward reported that after Syria’s Bashar Assad launched a chemical weapons attack on civilians in April 2017, Trump called Mattis and said he wanted the Syrian leader taken out, saying: “Kill him! Let’s go in.” Mattis assured Trump he would get right on it but then told a senior aide they’d do nothing of the kind, W...
Woodward also claims that Gary Cohn, the former director of the National Economic Council, boasted of removing papers from the president’s desk to prevent Trump from signing them into law, including efforts to withdraw from the North American Free Trade Agreement and from a deal with South Korea.
White House aides on Tuesday coordinated with other officials quoted in the book to dispute troublesome passages. But insiders speculated the fallout could be worse than that from “Fire and Fury,” given Woodward’s storied reputation.
Woodward’s book was already ranked the top-selling book on Amazon on Tuesday.
April 1 - General Motors CEO Mary Barra answers questions regarding the automaker's slow response to defective ignition switches in its cars, and apologizes to families of victims. Rough Cut (no reporter narration).
ROUGH CUT (NO REPORTER NARRATION) U.S. lawmakers trying to establish who is to blame for at least 13 auto-related deaths over the past decade harshly questioned General Motors CEO Mary Barra on Tuesday afternoon over the automaker's slow response to defective ignition switches in its cars. Despite tougher laws enacted ...
Brendan Crabb, from Australia's Burnet Institute, says more than 160 of the 15,000 people on the island have been infected - a scale that hasn't been seen before in PNG.
He says environmental factors including poverty, a sub-optimal health system and poor housing and nutrition have contributed to its spread, but researchers are worried a unique superbug may have developed.
Professor Crabb says further research is needed into the Daru outbreak, but authorities need to act quickly to contain it.
Two female students from Texas A&M are criticizing the University over its handling of sexual misconduct allegations against two student athletes.
The women, Hannah Shaw and Meghan Romere, said they felt betrayed by the University after the men — both student athletes who they allege sexual assaulted them — were only temporarily suspended.
Shaw’s dissatisfaction went viral last week after she tweeted a response from the University’s senior associate athletics director, which Shaw said received after complaining that the student who had raped her was allowed to re-join the school’s swimming and diving team after his semester-long suspension was lifted. (H...
Romere shared a lengthy social media post four days after Shaw’s about her own experience at the University. She alleges that a football player who she was tutoring had begun masturbating in front of her in October of 2016. The University told her they believed her, she said, but they were unable to find him guilty bec...
Texas A&M said in a statement that it could not comment on specific cases, but students are sanctioned — punishments that can include suspension — if they are found responsible for sexual misconduct, and that student athletes are no exception.
“We have a deep commitment to a safe, secure environment for all students; to a fair investigative process; to rights of appeals by parties; and to rendering sanctions to those found responsible for sexual misconduct,” The University said in its statement.
Write to Alana Abramson at Alana.Abramson@time.com.
When sensitive documents are frequently travelling back and forth between a company and its business partners, email security becomes very important. In this expert response, Peter Wood gives advice on how to create a secure email exchange.
What's the best solution for a company that wants to securely receive documents from other business partners electronically? The company in question frequently receives documents containing financial information from other external entities, and would like to ensure the documents being received are securely transmitted...
The ideal solution for secure email exchange would be to get all parties to agree on a proven email encryption tool, such as those offered by PGP Corp., Trend Micro Inc. or Entrust Inc. Using encryption, the company and its external business partners would be able to exchange emails and attachments without fear of an o...
If email encryption is not feasible, adequate security may be achieved by using a tool such as WinZip or WinRAR to compress and encrypt the sensitive material. The zip file can then be sent as an email attachment. You would, however, need each recipient to agree to one-time (single-use) passwords to encrypt and decrypt...
If the files are too large to be sent as an email attachment, you can always use a third-party file exchange service such as YouSendIt, but be sure to encrypt the data using one of the tools mentioned above before sending it.
If you need to exchange a large number of files with each recipient on a regular basis, you will probably find emailing files one by one far too onerous. In this situation you may want to consider using a secure FTP server or even a site-to-site VPN connection. So long as you set up each business partner's access corre...
Senate President Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel, who is also the president of PDP-Laban, said that Freddie Aguilar meets the qualifications to become a senator.
MANILA, Philippines (Updated 3:30 p.m.) — Senate President Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III on Thursday revealed the names of people being considered to run as senators under the PDP-Laban.
The five re-electionist senators included on the list are not members of the ruling political party.
In the 2013 elections, Angara ran under Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino, Binay ran under the United Nationalist Alliance, Ejercito was from Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino, Poe ran as an independent and Villar is from the Nacionalista Party.
PDP-Laban will choose the final candidates by September.
Pimentel earlier said that President Rodrigo Duterte would have the final say on the party’s line-up for the 2019 senatorial polls.
Pimentel said Aguilar's membership in the ruling party is the reason for his possible inclusion on the senatorial list. He said the musician who popularized the song “Anak” meets the qualifications to become a senator.
“He has all of them. And for sure, he has ideas on how legislation can solve some of our problems,” Pimentel said without elaboration.
Aguilar, who sang one of Duterte’s campaign jingles, was reported in 2016 to have been appointed as the chairman of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts but commissioners instead picked Virgilio Almario—a poet, literary historian and National Artist for Literature—for the elective position in 2017.
In a TV5 interview in July 2016 on how Aguilar would resolve the controversy surrounding the Torre de Manila, a high-rise condominium project that is said to have destroyed the view of the Rizal Monument, the singer suggested "[changing] the places of the Rizal monument and the carabao-tamaraw statues."
"I would make Rizal face us instead of the sea," he said.
The Jefferson County Sheriff's Office arrested two alleged meth dealers Tuesday night in Beaumont, according to information from the department.
At approximately 9:30 p.m. officers conducted a traffic stop an a late model Cadillac in the 2400 block of Major Drive.
While pulling the vehicle over, officers witnessed two containers being thrown from the vehicle, the department said. They were later recovered and contained a quarter pound of meth and a quarter pound of marijuana, police report.
A K-9 was brought to the scene and "made a positive alert for narcotics in the vehicle," the department said. An additional two ounces of meth, 1.5 grams of cocaine and drug paraphernalia were found.
Justin Johnson, 29 of Newton, and Karissa Hopkins, 26 of Kountze, were arrested and charged with felony possession of a controlled substance.
Hopkins is currently on probation for drug-related charges out of Hardin County. She was also arrested in late 2017 for allegedly helping an inmate escape from the Hardin County jail.
Todd Holmdahl, corporate vice president of Microsoft Quantum, says that he'd advise kids to pursue quantum computing as a career.
Although quantum computing is in its early stages, more companies are pursuing quantum computing projects, and Holmdahl says there are big possibilities for careers in quantum research, software, and hardware.
"It's a field that's going to grow," Holmdahl said. "We need a number of people to sustain and staff it and you can see Microsoft is putting a bunch of efforts to invest in the quantum workforce. This will be the biggest thing in our generation. This is going to be able to do amazing things in the future."
About ten years ago, Todd Holmdahl, corporate vice president of Microsoft Quantum, was working on Kinect, the groundbreaking motion-sensing accessory for the Xbox 360.
It was the first time in his career that he used artificial intelligence and machine learning. It excited him enough that he would tell his own children that AI would be the most in-demand field in the tech industry.
"I told my kids that you should do what you're passionate about, but if you want a job, you can always get a job in machine learning and AI," Holmdahl told Business Insider in a recent conversation.

Subsets and Splits

No community queries yet

The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.