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Jul 21

Russia Replaces Disappearing Western Gadgets With Chinese Brands

Chinese smartphones and home appliances are Replacing major Western brands that have exited Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, the Kommersant business daily reported Monday.

January-June 2022 results analyzed by the Marvel Distribution IT supplier showed at least seven Chinese smartphone brands leading sales in Russia, according to Kommersant.

Tecno, Infinix, Realme and Xiaomi showed more than 100% year-on-year growth.

Realmi alone doubled sales from under half a million units in January-June 2021 to more than 1 million at the same time this year.

Electronic retailers reported that sales of individual Chinese smartphone brands including Tecno saw up to twentyfold increases in recent months.

Meanwhile, the share of Apple and Samsung smartphone sales in Russia declined by 14% and 15%, respectively.

Overall smartphone sales in Russia declined by nearly a quarter and totaled 10 million units in the first half of 2022, according to Kommersant.

President Vladimir Putin, who ordered troops to attack Ukraine in February, signed legislation last week legalizing so-called “parallel imports” into the country to maintain supplies of Western goods despite Western sanctions and brand exits.

The scheme removes penalties for importing cars, clothes, raw materials and other foreign products on a government-approved list without permission from trademark owners.

Analysts interviewed by Kommersant said they expect well-known Chinese brands to cement their leadership in the Russian market.

“Chinese tech brands will occupy up to 90% of the entire market in Russia,” Alexander Surkov, head of Russia’s GS Group advanced device designer and manufacturer, told the outlet.

“Afterward, they’ll start creating their own ecosystem, which will ultimately further strengthen their position,” he said.

Jul 20

These Gadgets Banish Mosquitos

Mosquitos on skin. — nechaevkon/Shutterstock.com

Summer is great, but there’s something tiny that can be a big nuisance this time of year: Mosquitos. Lathering on the bug spray is not your only defense against these bloodsuckers. A clever gadget is all you need.

The market for mosquito repellants and killers is vast. Not only are they extremely annoying—both with the buzzing sound and itchy welts–but they can also carry disease. It’s in your best interest to have some sort of line of defense.

A lot of people are only familiar with the classics—bug sprays with DEET, citronella candles, and Tiki torches. However, we can do better than that thanks to a nifty line of mosquito repellant devices from Thermacell.

Notes: This is not a sponsored article. We have been using Thermacell products for several years and just like them a lot. At the time of writing in June 2022, Thermacell is the only company that sells mosquito repellant devices like this.

What Is a Thermacell?

Thermacell is the name of a company that produces mosquito-repellant devices. The company offers a range of devices that all essentially serve the same purpose. The idea is you turn on the device and it creates an invisible zone of protection around you.

There are a number of different devices from Thermacell for different use-cases. The company offers rechargeable battery-powered models, fuel-powered models, and a wired-in whole backyard system. All of these different models work essentially the same way.

How Does It Work?

You might be thinking that sounds too good to be true, so let’s talk about how it works. Thermacells use either a saturated mat or liquid-filled cartridge that contains allethrin, a component found in plants that are toxic to mosquitoes and other insects.

Whether powered by fuel or a battery, the liquid is heated up and dispersed into the air. It’s colorless, odorless, and otherwise undetectable by humans. The zone of protection depends on the Thermacell model, but it’s usually around 15 to 20 feet.

It’s worth noting that it takes some time for the heating element to get going. You should expect to wait around 15 minutes before the full zone of protection is established.

Is Thermacell Safe to Use?

Many bug repellants—including the notorious DEET—come with safety concerns for humans and other animals. If used correctly, they’re fine, but what about Thermacell devices?

Thermacell says its repellant has been “independently tested” and it has been approved by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). However, there are still some things to keep in mind. The liquid in the mats and cartridges should not be consumed by humans or animals. You should also avoid breathing in the vapors directly from the devices.

The most important thing to understand is the ingredients in Thermacell devices are not technically “repellants,” despite the marketing and packaging using the term repeatedly. Allethrin works by scrambling nerve signals in insects, causing them to fall and eventually die.

Warnings: Yes, the allethrin kills all kinds of insects in the “zone of

Jul 19

WLU Invites Nonprofits to Partner with Graphic Design Students

WEST LIBERTY, W.Va., June 13, 2022 – West Liberty University’s Graphic Design seniors invite nonprofits to partner with them now to meet marketing and design needs.

“Our seniors are looking for local nonprofits that may need assistance on marketing and graphic design tasks. It might be a website, or flyer, logo or other brand related tools. It is so beneficial for our students to gain real world experience and work with actual clients. We are grateful for those who ask for our help and it’s easy to do online,” said Sarah Davis, associate professor of Graphic Design in the Department of Media and Visual Arts.

The deadline to complete the online application for design service is July 15, 2022 for projects that begin in August, 2022.

WLU graphic design students are ready to donate their design skills to nonprofit organizations in need. From left, top row, seniors Abigail Beckelhimer, Follansbee, W.Va., C’ierra Buchanan, Mineral Wells, W.Va., and Robert Trayon, Shadyside, Ohio; bottom row, Megan Cunninghan, New Martinsville, W.Va., Lacey Deem, Carrollton, Ohio, and Professor Sarah Davis, Pittsburgh, Pa.

Davis serves as an advisor for the students who participate in the Visual Communication Design studio course for Fall 2022, which is the class that simulates professional design studio experience and helps students get ready for their professional careers.

Possible projects may include branding systems, logo design and application, social media graphics, information design, brochures, book covers, high-end presentations, app design, animation, video, signage, and websites.

As a result of directly working with clients and team members, students provide strategically based, cost-effective, and visually compelling solutions.

Potential roles for students to work in include a combination of the following but not exclusively: team leader, account executive, art director, creative director, production manager, conceptual designer, graphic designer, researcher, design strategist, production artist, photographer, illustrator, typographer, or logo designer.

Nonprofits interested in becoming eligible to participate in the design service opportunity, should simply complete the online form linked above and wait to be notified when the project is selected for student work.

Successful recent partnerships include working with The Children’s Home of Wheeling, The Strand Theater of Moundsville, and Purpose Inc., located in Wheeling.

For more information or questions, please contact Davis at [email protected] or call 412.215.3834.

Jul 19

Scratch Can Even Do Linux Kernel

Is writing a Kernel module in Scratch, the block-based programming language used primarily by kids, possible? Absurd it may be, but yes, it is absolutely possible!

Scratch is the original block-based programming language and is still the best known and most widely used. It was invented in 2003 at MIT to make kids’ introduction to coding a much smoother experience. That said, the educational value of block versus regular text based languages is highly debated with strong arguments on either side.

I encountered the case made for using text-based languages opinion when reviewing CodeGuppy, a platform that teaches kids (and teens and “creative adults”) to code by writing Javascript.

Visual Blocks languages such as Scratch have their own merits to introduce very young kids to the world of coding. However our opinion is that kids should transition as soon as possible to text based languages. A text based language will help a kids develop not only real coding skills but also other important skills such as spelling. If kids in the 80s were able to learn coding using BASIC (a text based language written in rudimentary editors), we believe that contemporary children can also learn JavaScript using the advanced Codeguppy environment.

Furthermore, a recent official report of research carried out for the UK government found that:

Block-based programming languages can be useful in teaching programming, as they reduce the need to memorize syntax and are easier to use. However, these languages can encourage pupils to develop certain programming habits that are not always helpful. For example, small-scale research from 2011 highlighted 2 habits that ‘are at odds with the accepted practice of computer science’.The first is that these languages encourage a bottom-up approach to programming, which focuses on the blocks of the language and not wider algorithm design. The second is that they may lead to a fine-grained approach to programming that does not use accepted programming constructs; for example, pupils avoiding ‘the use of the most important structures: conditional execution and bounded loops’.This is problematic for pupils in the early stages of learning to program, as they may carry these habits across to other programming languages.

Further research has highlighted that, although block-based languages may help novices to overcome the difficulties with syntax that they can face when learning to program, they do not necessarily help pupils with the semantic and conceptual difficulties. It is therefore important that, if schools use block-based languages, they consider how to design the curriculum to mitigate these potential pitfalls.

On the plus side, block based languages have been found to carry the following benefits:

Since it’s visual it’s very easy to get started and is highly accessible; you just have to connect visual blocks in a logical way. Then its syntax-free programming takes the clutter out of the way to let students focus on doing something useful while reducing the time to get onto that.

Kid-students aside there’s also been attempts

Jul 19

Brain Game: If you could have one useful gadget from a fictional world, what would it be? (Round 7) – YP

Read through the responses to this week’s Brain Game prompt, and choose which answer you like most. Based on a combination of your votes and YP Editors’ picks, we will eliminate one contestant from the competition.

The Japanese cartoon character Doraemon is a robot cat from the future that has many amazing gadgets. Among them, I have always longed to have the Anywhere Door, which will take you to any place you want to go. You just need to think of the destination before opening the door, and you will be there in a flash.

Having an Anywhere Door would save a lot of time and money because I would not need to take public transport. It would be very convenient, too. I would not have to wake up so early before school any more. After I finish breakfast and change into my uniform, I would be at school instantly.

I would also share the Anywhere Door with my family and friends, so they wouldn’t be late for school or work.

In addition, I would use the device to travel around the world. In the morning, I could enjoy the sunrise at the top of Mount Fuji. At noon, I could have French cuisine facing the Eiffel Tower. And at night, I could watch the Northern Lights at the North Pole.

However, what I want most right now is to travel the world and visit all my friends who have left Hong Kong. I miss them so much. I believe they miss Hong Kong, too.

What’s on your summer bucket list?

Contestant 2

The powerful ring of Hal Jordan, the Green Lantern, would definitely be on top of my list. The ring can do almost anything, and flying would no longer be a dream. I could fly from home to school or anywhere else, which means I could use the time I save to do something I enjoy, for example, reading or watching films.

I could also use the ring to deal with my enemies. When they hit me, I could dodge them by flying away. I would be invincible, and nobody would be able to hurt me.

What’s more, the ring would allow me to travel through wormholes in space, helping to explore areas in the universe that we know very little about. Maybe I could even collect information about different planets which would help scientists to decide the ideal place where humans can move to.

I would make good use of the ring to protect myself and others against all sorts of difficulties and help humans make progress in all aspects of life.

What would you do if you could stop time for one hour?

Contestant 3

According to newspaper reports, a 10th of the world’s population is facing hunger because of the coronavirus pandemic and the Ukraine war. This problem can be solved if the food replicator from the Star Trek TV series actually exists.

The replicator was originally used to provide food and water on starships,