Tag: Collecting
TurboTax And Coinbase Start Offering Tax Refunds In Bitcoin
PUBG Mobile Maps Guide: A Look At Every Map In The Mobile Battle Royale
PUBG Mobile has established itself as one of the premier mobile battle royale games, bringing the full PUBG experience to your phone since its launch in December 2017. The last four years have seen a ton of new content hit the game, meaning new or lapsed players might need some help dropping back in.
This guide provides a brief breakdown of each of the game's four battle royale maps, offering the best drop locations and a few other tips to get your PUBG Mobile experience going.
Erangel
Erangel is the original PUBG map, the one that players have been fighting for chicken dinners on since the beginning. It's an 8x8 map with a few city areas separated by vast open land. The southern part of the map is an isolated island area housing a military base, connected to the mainland through two small bridges. If you don't land at the military base to begin with, and the circle doesn't force you down there, it'd be best to just stay away from that area for the entire match.
A few good places to land are:
- Quarry, located on the southwest portion of the mainland just north of Primotsk, is a flat area with a few isolated buildings. There's enough loot to get you started--especially if you find an occasional rare drop--and unless the safe zone is in the extreme northeast you won't have to travel terribly far to make it to safety in time. Be wary of other players landing here though, as the flat terrain makes jumping out into the open risky.
- Military Base, located on that southern island connected only by two bridges, is where you land when you want to start your match with as much chaos as possible. The massive base is home to some great loot, but other players in the game know this as well. The early game becomes a race to the best guns when you land at the base, so if you like high action from the start you'll have a field day here.
- School, located near the center of the map, is another high-volume area when a match first begins, but unlike the Military Base this location is nearly dead center on the map. This means you can gear up and take down a few enemies while never being too far away from the safe zone. If you can fend off the other players who will inevitably drop here with you, you'll be sitting pretty in the late game no matter where the circle lies.
Miramar
Miramar is a barren map set in the desert, meaning that there's very little greenery around to protect from long-range weaponry. There are towns of course, Los Leones and Pecado among them, but outside of those towns the area is flat and empty. If you can loot a sniper rifle or similar long-range weapon you're going to have a good time, otherwise stick to buildings and only move when you're out of the safe zone.
Three places to think about when you first land are:
- Water Treatment, located just north of the map's center. It's a small location, but it still holds a decent amount of loot to get you started. At most you'll have two or three opponents landing here with you, not nearly as many as dropping as places like Los Leones, so early game skirmishes should be manageable. Also, being so close to the center of the map, you can gauge how far you'll have to travel to get into the first safe zone--if you're not in it already--and plan accordingly.
- Directly southeast of El Azahar, which is located in the northeastern part of the map, are a few circular standalone buildings overlooking the town. There's enough loot there to get you going, and most players that land in this region will head straight into El Azahar so you might be able to get some loot and get out before anyone sees you.
- The outer edges of Los Leones have enough loot that you can get yourself equipped pretty well before heading into the city proper for some early firefights. Those who prefer to start slow should steer clear of this area all together, but if you're the type that likes early action we wouldn't recommend diving into the city's center. Instead work the fringes and see what you can find.
Sanhok
Unlike Miramar, Sanhok is nothing but lush greens and hills for miles. The massive map means there's plenty of space even for 100 players,and the hilly terrain will offer plenty of places to hide and stake out opportunities for both loot and engaging other players. The river running through the middle of the map--and also bisecting the western half--creates some tense moments when the safe zone is on one side of the bridge and you're on the other, so be mindful of where you need to be and when. We'd recommend dropping onto the larger island when you play Sanhok, as you'll be on the safe side of the map more often than not.
Three top places to land are:
- Bhan, located at the center of Sanhok's largest island, is a strange wooden structure that holds a decent amount of loot. The way the landmark is laid out will require some jumping, so be sure not to put yourself out in the open if you can avoid it, but staying low and collecting whatever loot Bhan has to offer makes for a solid opening strategy.
- Pai Nan, located in the lower half of the map along the river, is a coastal town with buildings on either side of the river. We'd recommend landing on the northern side, as that would put you on the main island and hopefully on a clearer path to the first safe zone. Also, since Pai Nan is a town cut in two halves, there's a chance any opponents dropping here as well will go to the other side of the river, leaving you all the loot.
- Quarry, also located on the eastern half of the map, is a massive rocky area with good loot to be found throughout. It's one of the larger landmarks on the map but its loot pool isn't as big as one of the towns, so we don't expect it to be terribly populated at any given time. More loot for you, and if someone did join you there there's enough space to get away from the attack and collect yourself.
Vikendi
We've had barren desert and lush greens, now it's time to head to a frozen tundra. Vikendi is a s nowy map that's smaller than Erangel, but still holds plenty of locations and points of interest hiding good loot. The western part of the map is a little more open than the rest if you need some space to operate, but otherwise be ready for some interesting skirmishes right from the get-go.
Three of the best places to target when dropping are:
- Lumber Yard, located on the southeastern coast, offers plenty of loot with very little cause for concern. Because Vikendi has so many cities on a smaller map, other players tend to go toward the towns and fight it out. Hitting the Lumber Yard first lets you stock up a little bit before trying to take hold in a nearby town like Cantra or Peshkova or the Cement Factory to the northwest.
- Dino Park, which can be found in the southwestern portion of the map, offers similar perks to Lumber Yard but with one extra incentive: this one's closer to the center of the map. Here you can load up on items, then wait for enemies to come by until the safe zone appears and tells you where you're going next. If you have to be in the safe zone, you can fortify your position and wait to get the jump on some unlucky passersby.
- Mount Kreznic, located at the center of the map, will definitely be a hotspot in the early going. Only land here if you've been playing the game for a while, because it's a high-elevation area with plenty of loot, so it's a perfect place to start a match. If you think you can hold your own and be the last one standing, head to Mount Kreznic and have fun.
Best VPN services: Top picks for speed, price, privacy, and more
Chances are you're considering a virtual private network (VPN) service for its ability to safeguard your identity, location, and activities online. That's an important task, so you want to consider your VPN options carefully. For instance, a VPN should keep your internet usage private and secure but not sacrifice too much speed. If anonymity is a concern, you need to know a VPN's data collection policies. It also behooves you to know the number of servers and country locations a VPN offers; and what, if any, useful extras are part of the service.
Our in-depth VPN reviews cover all these issues and more, to help you choose the best VPN service for your needs. Whether your primary concern is anonymity, streaming your favorite shows from another country, speeds, or price, we have a number of picks for each category. Below those you can find information about how we test and what sorts of things to look for when choosing a VPN.
Updated 2/4/21 to update our top VPN picks and the layout of the article.
Best VPN overall: ExpressVPN
ExpressVPN – Best VPN overall
It's hard to select the best overall VPN. Some services are weaker on privacy, but are significantly easier to use with tons of features, while others could stand an interface redesign.
For many years we chose the best VPN based purely on privacy, but that is no longer the sole concern of most people when choosing a VPN. Privacy is important, to be sure, but so are performance, extra features, a wide country selection, and ease of use. ExpressVPN has it all, making it our top choice for VPNs. ExpressVPN is one of the fastest VPNs we've tested, and it has a very easy-to-use app. Its servers are all diskless, running everything in RAM—a welcome practice that's become fairly standard these days. ExpressVPN also has wide device support, as well as a smart DNS feature for set-top boxes, consoles, and more.
It's not the cheapest VPN out there, but you do get solid value for the price, and the service is regularly bringing in third-party auditors to bolster its privacy credentials.
NordVPN – Best VPN for features
If you like ExpressVPN's speeds and features, but want something a little different, NordVPN is also an excellent choice. Nord is argu ably more feature-filled than ExpressVPN, and the service is just one part of a larger suite of privacy and security focused products. The desktop app is very easy to use, and offers a lot of different features including access to the TOR network over VPN, multi-hop VPNs, and ad-tracker and malware blocking.
NordVPN has gone a long way to bolster user trust. After years of not being transparent, the company is now upfront about who's running the show, it also undergoes third-party audits, carries out vendor assessments, and uses diskless servers.
Hotspot Shield – Fastest VPN
While our pick for best overall VPN, ExpressVPN, boasts above-average speeds, Hotspot Shield is on another level. No other service comes close to hitting the speeds we've seen with this service. This isn't just a one-off occurrence either; Hotspot Shield has consistently been at the top with speeds that are 12 to 15 percentage points above the competition. In our tests, Hotspot Shield maintained around 67 percent of the base speed. That's substantially faster than you'll see with most VPN services—though your experience may vary.
On the downside, Hotspot Shield doesn't allow for a way to pay anonymously and its privacy policy may not sit well with some.
Still, Hotspot Shield has excellent speeds, it's desktop application is very nice, and as a bonus it works with U.S. Netflix.
Mullvad – Best VPN for privacy
As Hotspot Shield is to speeds, so Mullvad is to privacy and anonymity. We've never seen another VPN that actively resists knowing who you are the way Mullvad does. Mullvad doesn't ask for your email address, name, or anything else. Instead it assigns a random account number that acts as your identifier and login. Mullvad accepts payments using standard methods such as credit cards and PayPal, but you can also mail your payment in cash to remain as private as possible. Mullvad has a no-logging policy and doesn't collect any identifying metadata from your usage.
Mullvad is also fast, ranking within our top five for speeds. Though oddly we did find that on Windows, Mullvad's OpenVPN configuration was actually faster than its Wireguard implementation.
IVPN
Coming in behind Mullvad is IVPN. This Gibraltar-based VPN recently moved to dumping email-based identifiers and going with randomly assigned account numbers instead. Similar to Mullvad, it accepts a variety of payment options for privacy including cash, as well as the standard credit cards, PayPal, and other options like Bitcoin and Monero. IVPN doesn't rank as one of our fastest VPNs, but it does have acceptable speeds for most casual uses.
Another option is OVPN. This VPN doesn't go to the levels that Mullvad and IVPN do, but it does only require a username and password to create an account. OVPN doesn't require an email address, though you can add one as a backstop for account recovery should you forget your password. OVPN doesn't rank in our top 10 for speeds, but it's just outside the top performers at number 12.
AirVPN – Best VPN for torrents
Torrents get a bad rap, and if we're honest, that's for good reason. Using torrents is the number one way to download pirated material including movies, TV shows, music, and games. But that's not all there is to torrenting. It's a very efficient way to download legitimate software such as Linux distributions and authorized content from sites such as BitTorrent Now.
Whatever your reasons, when it comes to torrenting, a VPN makes it easier—especially if the network you're on blocks torrenting. There are many VPNs among our top picks that could be used for downloading torrents, but our preferred choice is AirVPN. This no-frills VPN has a reasonable number of servers and country locations, really good speeds, excellent network transparency, and a focus on user protection. The price is also right at about $58 a year.
AVG Secure – Best VPN for novices
If you want something that's all about ease of use then AVG Secure is a good choice. First, it comes from a known and trusted security company, so there are fewer worries about data security than with one of the indepen dent services. The key thing with AVG Secure is that the interface is easy to understand and use. It has a big “Change location” button to help you select the country you'd like to appear to be in. The app also tells you what your current IP address is and how long you've been connected to the VPN. That's pretty much it. This VPN also works with streaming services and it has P2P servers. One thing it doesn't have is a lot of extra features, which is actually perfect for anyone looking for a no-frills VPN.
PrivateVPN
Private VPN is also a nice option for novices, with a mobile-style interface featuring a big on/off button and location options just a tile-click away. The other nice feature about Private VPN is that once you're done being a novice you can click the Advanced view to get a more complex interface and mess around with other features that are beyond a simple click-and-go app.
PersonalVPN – Best U.S.-based VPN
If you want a VPN based in the good ol' USA, we recommend WiTopia's PersonalVPN. The speeds are good, the price is right, and the app is very easy to use. It's true that a lot of VPN review sites stress the importance of having a VPN that's outside of the so-called Five Eyes countries, which includes the U.S.—some will even say to avoid the Fourteen Eyes. The idea being that if you use a U.S.-based VPN your activities may end up being secretly monitored by Western authorities. Snowden revealed such truths back in 2013. But if you're using a VPN to access your accounts for Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or any other U.S.-based service, then staying outside the Fourteen Eyes is more or less pointless. Sure, that VPN with an exotic locale may be able to easily ignore U.S. subpoenas for data, but the American online services you use are another story. Besides if an American VPN does you wrong, it'll be a lot easier to hold it to account than one based in Singapore, or even Sweden.
Private Internet Access – Best budget VPN
Choosing the best VPN for you can often come down to price. When that's the case it's hard to beat Private Internet Access. It's got very good speeds and an everyday price of just $40 for a full year. It really is hard to beat for that simple reason. This no-frills VPN offers a good server and country count. Plus, advanced users can adjust their level of data encryption, data authentication, and handshake protocols.
VPN Unlimited
At $60 a year, VPN Unlimited is not quite the steal that Private Internet Access is, but it covers the bases, works with Netflix, and is priced affordably for five-device support.
What is a VPN?
VPNs create a secure tunnel between your PC and the internet. You connect to a VPN server, which can be located in the United States or a foreign country—say, France or Japan. Your web traffic then goes through that server to make it appear as though you're browsing from that server's location, and not from your actual location.
When you're using a VPN, it's difficult for others to snoop on your web-browsing activity. Only you, the VPN service, and the website you're visiting will know what you're up to.
A VPN can be a great response to a variety of concerns, such as online privacy, anonymity, greater security on public Wi-Fi, and, of course, spoofing locations.
While a VPN can aid privacy and anonymity, I wouldn't recommend fomenting the next great political revolution by relying solely on a VPN. To become an internet phantom (or as close as you can realistically get to one), it takes a lot more than a $5 monthly subscription to a VPN.
Beyond that, a VPN is an excellent choice for staying secure while using Wi-Fi at the airport or your local café. Hackers sitting on public Wi-Fi can try to hack your PC, but a VPN makes that task much harder.
Finally, you may want a VPN to spoof your location to download content you shouldn't have access to, but this too has limits. A VPN used to be the go-to solution to watch U.S. Netflix overseas. That changed in 2016 when Netflix opened up to almost every country on Earth. Since then, the company has invested a lot in detecting and blocking VPN users. Even people using a VPN inside their own country will be blocked by Netflix if detected.
There are VPNs that can fool Netflix, but they are rare and there are no guarantees these services will outsmart Netflix forever.
Beyond Netflix, a VPN can help to download an Android app that is only available on a foreign version of Google Play, or stream content from regionally restricted services such as the UK-bound BBC iPlayer or Disney Plus.
One final note of caution: Do not rely on your VPN to protect banking information on an open Wi-Fi connection. Whenever possible, leave online financial dealings for home over a hard-wired connection.
What to look for in a VPN
Before anything else, understand that if you want to use a VPN you should be paying for it. Free VPNs typicall sell your browsing data in aggregated form to researchers and marketers, or give you a paltry amount of data transfer every month. Either way, a basic rule of thumb is that a free VPN will not protect your privacy in any meaningful way.
The next thing to consider is a VPN's logging policies. In other words, what kind of data is a service collecting about you and your VPN activity, and how long is that data saved?
Privacy is the basic principle of a VPN, and what good is it to avoid passive government surveillance only to have a VPN provider record all your website visits?
Ideally, a VPN will say it only keeps logs for the briefest of periods. Some providers, for example, only log activity in RAM during a session or automatically send all records to oblivion once they're created. Other providers may keep records for a few hours, days, weeks, or even months.
VPN policies also vary when it comes to personal information. Some VPNs want to know very little about you, preferring users sign on with a pseudonym and pay with Bitcoin. That's a little exotic for most people, which is why many services also accept PayPal.
Paying this way isn't ideal for privacy, but it means the VPN doesn't have your payment information on record—though it would be available from PayPal.
After the logging policies, you want to know how many servers the VPN offers and how many country connections it has. The number of servers provides an idea of how much load a VPN can take before slowing to a crawl due to overwhelming traffic.
The country connections, meanwhile, matter most to those who want to spoof their location; however, non-spoofers should also make sure there are connections in their home country. If you live in Los Angeles, for example, and want access to American content, then you'll need a VPN that provides U.S. connections. It won't work to try and watch Amazon Prime Video over a Dutch VPN connection, because as far as Amazon's concerned your computer would be in the Netherlands.
Some users will also want to research a VPN provider's peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing policies. There are VPNs that block torrents. Others turn a blind eye to them, but will sell you out in a heartbeat should you be up to no good. P2P is not our main focus here, but we will note in each review whether a particular provider allows file sharing or not.
Finally, how many devices does a VPN support from a single account? In this age of smartphones, table ts, laptops, and PCs, a VPN's cost should include licensing for at least five devices. Also, a provider should have Android and iOS apps to make it easy to connect a smartphone or tablet to the service.
How we tested
We judge VPNs on a variety of criteria including overall connection speeds, privacy protection, usability of the interface, country choices, server count, and cost.
Speed tests are kept as simple as possible. We connect to five different global locations for a given VPN—typically North America, Europe, the United Kingdom, Australia, and a wild card somewhere in Asia–on three different days at different times of the day running the test at each location multiple times.
Before the test begins we check the speed of our base Wi-Fi connection using an online speed test. Then we connect to the VPN's servers around the world and run the speed test again. We then show each result, average them out, and calculate the average as a percentage of the base speed.
Remember that internet speeds can vary wildly based on location, routers, PCs, time of day, connection type, the load on the VPN and speed test servers, and numerous other factors. In other words, our test results will likely differ from yours. For that reason, consider our speed results only as a rough guide for how each VPN performs.
Judging server choices by country is also kept simple. We expect a VPN to offer a variety of country connections with a minimum of at least 20.
Privacy and anonymity is judged on the guarantees the companies make, as well as its reputation from any news items we're aware of that may impact the trustworthiness of these claims. We also take a look at the data encryption, authentication, and handshake protocols used.
Finally, for pricing we expect to pay $60 per year, and anything over that needs to justify its cost with extra features or unique selling points of some kind.
Other notable VPNs
There are many more worthwhile VPNs than just our favorites listed above, including AVG Internet Security, CyberGhost, ESET Security Premium, FastestVPN, Hide.me, HMA Pro 4, OVPN, Trend Micro Maximum Security, Windscribe Pro, Perfect Privacy, PrivateVPN by TrunkSpace Hosting, PureVPN, Speedify 10, VPNCity, ClearVPN, Malwarebytes Privacy, TorGuard, VeePN, AceVPN.com, and SurfEasy.
We'll keep evaluating new ones and reevaluating services we've already tested on a regular basis, so be sure to come back to see what else we've put through their paces.
Editor's note: Because online services are often iterative, gaining new features and performance improvements over time, our reviews are subject to change in order to accurately reflect the current state of the services.
Martha is Dead Preview: Unique and Unsettling
Rather than relying on jump scares, Martha is Dead sets an unsettling tone from the outset, and has one hell of a set-up.
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Guide: Dying Light 2 Guide: Tips, Tricks, and Best Gear
Your ultimate Dying Light 2 resource.
Dying Light 2 is the sequel to Techland's popular open world title, released for PlayStation 5, PS4, and other platforms. It launched in February 2022 and was awarded a 7/10 in our Dying Light 2 PS5 review, in which we described it as "a solid follow-up to the 2015 fan favourite".
In this Dying Light 2 guide, we're going to share our beginner's tips and tricks to help you survive both the day and night of the City. We're also going to reveal the locations of all map icons, including Windmills, Metro Stations, Bandit Camps, Airdrops, GRE Anomalies, Facilities, and Nightrunner Trials.
Read the full article on pushsquare.com
Data Analytics Helps Optimize Subscriber-Based Business Models
The subscription market enjoys immense popularity. The one-time purchase method isn’t considered to be efficient within specific niches. Therefore, the subscription business model is changing how customers pay for the service they receive. The concept includes paying a small fee over the time of the relationship between the company and the customer. Why is the […]
The post Data Analytics Helps Optimize Subscriber-Based Business Models appeared first on SmartData Collective.
Where to Find Hearty Grains in Pokemon Legends: Arceus
CULTURE PULSE LAUNCHES TO BRIDGE PHYSICAL COLLECTIBLES WITH AUTHENTICATED NFTS IN THE METAVERSE
Culture Pulse is taking the NFT (non-fungible token) marketplace to the next level by bridging the world of physical collectibles with their digital counterparts. Culture Pulse connects the real world to the blockchain by combining the best of NFTs with what buyers have traditionally wanted: something that is as meaningful in real life as it is in the digital realm. Instead of championing new collectibles generated solely for the metaverse, the platform enables athletes, artists, musicians and other creators to mint NFTs from real world collectibles.
The company's mission is to reintroduce trust and authenticity through its marketplace methodology combating the $1.82 trillion lost to counterfeiting each year, according to the Global Brand Counterfeiting Report. The Culture Pulse platform pairs a physical collectible with an NFT and is synced to their database. When that product is purchased, the NFT is transferred via a wallet and whenever the item transfers ownership, the digital rights and provenance held in the NFT is transferred as well. Culture Pulse's easy to use Web 2.0 Shopify interface makes transacting on the site seamless. Users can utilize wallets, crypto and Web 3.0 tools like MetaMask to transact as well.
“NFTs have leapt off the page, and yet they are still in their infancy,” said David Jensen, CEO. “We aim to advance the metaverse while bridging the world of physical collectibles and creations. We aim to let collectors enjoy their autograph game ball while carrying their digital Hermes Birkin bag in the Metaverse.”
Through NFT drops, which the company calls ‘pulses', collectors can buy exclusive pieces through auctions. Their inaugural release, entitled “Celebrating Excellence” champions an expansive and impressive portfolio of creators including:
Athletes Hall of Fame basketball player Gary Payton and Super Bowl Champ Lawyer Milloy, Bobby Wagner, Mo Bamba, Paolo Banchero, among others
Artists / Musicians including Andy Warhol, Barbara Kruger, Ed Ruscha, Shag, Kara Walker, Chase Langford, Jerrod Maryama, John 5
Luxury Brands Stephen Silver Fine Jewelers and other featured brands
“Our goal is to make NFTs easy and fun to make for athletes, artists, and creators of all types," said Alex Beckman, CDO and co-founder/"When NFTs creation is seamless and doesn't require outsourcing the creative process, NFTs become more authentic and meaningful to collect."
"From a technical perspective, we're linking the physical world of collectibles and their digital counterparts through advanced tagging technology,'' said company CTO and co-founder Adam Cowherd. "Being able to verify a physical collectible unlocks limitless possibilities in the digital world."
The company is co-founded by serial entrepreneurs and investors: CEO/co-founder David Jensen Ernst & Young (EY), Deloitte, IBM, Yahoo!, Razorfish; CDO/co-founder Alex Beckman founded GameOn Technology, EVNTLIVE, and has served as Managing Partner to Elastic Holdings, a US-based venture capital fund; and Adam Cowherd, CTO/co-founder and founder of AmplifyX.
The company is kicking off with an invite-only celebrity event in Los Angeles during Super Bowl weekend, bringing together collectors with world-class artists, winning athletes, and experts from the web 3.0 community. Culture Pulse has a series of upcoming "pulses" throughout 2022, championing purpose around significant cultural milestones. For more information and to see all upcoming events, visit culturepulse.co.
How ENGIE scales their data ingestion pipelines using Amazon MWAA
Statistical Inference Using Python
This article was published as a part of the Data Science Blogathon. Introduction Hey folks! Data science is an emerging technology in the corporate society and it mainly deals with the data. Applying statistical analysis to data and getting insights from it is our main objective. A company wil store millions of records for analysis. A […]
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Privacy-Preserving in Machine Learning (PPML)
This article was published as a part of the Data Science Blogathon. Overview Machine learning (ML) has a lot of potential for increasing productivity. However, the quality of the data for training ML models should be excellent to provide good results. Any ML algorithm provides excellent performance only when there is huge and perfect data fed […]
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Top 10 AI and Data Science Trends in 2022
This article was published as a part of the Data Science Blogathon. In this article, we shall discuss the upcoming innovations in the field of artificial intelligence, big data, machine learning and overall, Data Science Trends in 2022. Times change, technology improves and our lives get better. Deep learning, natural language processing, and computer vision are examples […]
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