Month: May 2024

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Decrypting the Future: Unveiling Questions on AI’s Role in Cybersecurity

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According to a report by MarketsandMarkets, the global AI in cybersecurity market is projected to skyrocket from $8.8 billion in 2020 to an estimated $38.2 billion by 2026, marking a staggering 23.3% compound annual growth rate during the forecast period. This exponential growth underscores the critical role AI is poised to play in fortifying defenses against the rising tide of cyber threats, particularly amidst a shortage of skilled cybersecurity professionals. 

As we embark on this journey to decrypt the future, we'll dive into the profound implications of AI's integration into cybersecurity, probing the questions that shape the landscape of digital defense. 

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How Much Is One Terabyte of Data?

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It seems that a one-mile distance isn’t very long and that a cubic mile isn’t that big if compared with the size of the earth. You may be surprised if I tell you the entire world’s population can fit into a cubic mile of space. The statement is not from me; Hendrik Willem van Loon, a Dutch-American writer, once wrote this in his book.

Teradata is a famous data warehouse product. Over 30 years ago, such a brand name aimed to impress people with its ability to handle massive amounts of data. Today, TB is already the smallest unit many database vendors use when talking about the amount of data they can handle. And PB, even ZB, is often used. It seems that TB is not a big unit, and hundreds of terabytes of data, even a petabyte of data, is not intimidating at all. 

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How to optimize portfolio website

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Hello everyone, my first post (of many to come) here, so i have created my own portfolio website using Laravel, and i was wondering what are the best practices to make it search engine friendly and rank up, am a graphic designer and my portfolio has my works on it, any ideas?

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Goodbye Summer, Hello September (2024 Wallpapers Edition)

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Lush green slowly turning into yellows and reds in the Northern hemisphere; nature reawakening in the Southern part of the world: September is a time of change. A chance to leave old habits behind and embrace the beginning of something new. And, well, sometimes it only takes a small change in routines to spark fresh inspiration and, who knows, maybe even great ideas.

With that in mind, we started our monthly wallpapers series more than 13 years ago, and from the very beginning to today, artists and designers from across the globe have submitted their designs to it to cater for a bit of variety on your screens every month. Of course, it wasn’t any different this time around.

In this post, you’ll find their wallpaper designs for September 2024. All of them come in versions with and without a calendar and can be downloaded for free. As a little bonus goodie, we also added some favorites from past years’ September editions to the collection. So maybe you’ll spot one of your almost-forgotten favorites in here, too? A huge thank-you to everyone who shared their wallpapers with us this month — this post wouldn’t exist without you!

  • You can click on every image to see a larger preview,
  • We respect and carefully consider the ideas and motivation behind each and every artist’s work. This is why we give all artists the full freedom to explore their creativity and express emotions and experience through their works. This is also why the themes of the wallpapers weren’t anyhow influenced by us but rather designed from scratch by the artists themselves.
  • Submit a wallpaper!
    Did you know that you could get featured in our next wallpapers post, too? We are always looking for creative talent.

National Elephant Appreciation Day

“Today, we celebrate these magnificent creatures who play such a vital role in our ecosystems and cultures. Elephants are symbols of wisdom, strength, and loyalty. Their social bonds are strong, and their playful nature, especially in the young ones, reminds us of the importance of joy and connection in our lives.” — Designed by PopArt Studio from Serbia.

Summer In Costa Rica

“We continue in tropical climates. In this case, we travel to Costa Rica to observe the Arenal volcano from the lake while we use a kayak.” — Designed by Veronica Valenzuela from Spain.

Pigman And Robin

Designed by Ricardo Gimenes from Spain.

A Mind Of Their Own

“My eyes have a mind of their own: they see what they want to see…” — Designed by Bhabna Basak from India.

More Bananas

Designed by Ricardo Gimenes from Spain.

Quality Education For All

“Our team takes pride in aligning our volunteer initiatives with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’s ‘Quality Education’ goal. This goal reflects a global commitment to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. We encourage our team members to volunteer with non-profits they care about year-round. Explore local opportunities and use your skills to make a meaningful impact!” — Designed by Jenna Finberg from Portland, OR.

Green Jewellery

“I was thinking about African bead necklaces when making this wallpaper. I chose green and warm colors, because summer has not ended in the north — let’s enjoy it.” — Designed by Philippe Brouard from France.

Discover, Dream, Travel!

“Celebrate World Tourism Day by exploring new destinations and cultures around the globe!” — Designed by Reethu M from London.

Happy Labor Day

“I wanted my design to revolve around the themes of unity, hard work, and patriotism to honor the workforce that builds a great nation. The flags, the skyline, and the human figure outline evoke a sense of pride, appreciation, dedication, and solidarity.” — Designed by Cronix from the United States.

Autumn Rains

“This autumn, we expect to see a lot of rainy days and blues, so we wanted to change the paradigm and wish a warm welcome to the new season. After all, if you come to think of it: rain is not so bad if you have an umbrella and a raincoat. Come autumn, we welcome you!” — Designed by PopArt Studio from Serbia.

Terrazzo

“With the end of summer and fall coming soon, I created this terrazzo pattern wallpaper to brighten up your desktop. Enjoy the month!” — Designed by Melissa Bogemans from Belgium.

Funny Cats

“Cats are beautiful animals. They’re quiet, clean, and warm. They’re funny and can become an endless source of love and entertainment. Here for the cats!” — Designed by UrbanUI from India.

Cacti Everywhere

“Seasons come and go, but our brave cactuses still stand. Summer is almost over and autumn is coming, but the beloved plants don’t care.” — Designed by Lívia Lénárt from Hungary.

Summer Ending

“As summer comes to an end, all the creatures pull back to their hiding places, searching for warmth within themselves and dreaming of neverending adventures under the tinted sky of closing dog days.” — Designed by Ana Masnikosa from Belgrade, Serbia.

The Rebel

Designed by Ricardo Gimenes from Spain.

National Video Games Day Delight

“September 12th brings us National Video Games Day. US-based video game players love this day and celebrate with huge gaming tournaments. What was once a 2D experience in the home is now a global phenomenon with players playing against each other across statelines and national borders via the internet. National Video Games Day gives gamers the perfect chance to celebrate and socialize! So grab your controller, join online and let the games begin!” — Designed by Ever Increasing Circles from the United Kingdom.

Long Live Summer

“While September’s Autumnal Equinox technically signifies the end of the summer season, this wallpaper is for all those summer lovers, like me, who don’t want the sunshine, warm weather, and lazy days to end.” — Designed by Vicki Grunewald from Washington.

Flower Soul

“The earth has music for those who listen. Take a break and relax and while you drive out the stress, catch a glimpse of the beautiful nature around you. Can you hear the rhythm of the breeze blowing, the flowers singing, and the butterflies fluttering to cheer you up? We dedicate flowers which symbolize happiness and love to one and all.” — Designed by Krishnankutty from India.

Stay Or Leave?

Designed by Ricardo Gimenes from Spain.

Hungry

Designed by Elise Vanoorbeek from Belgium.

Rainy Flowers

Designed by Teodora Vasileva from Bulgaria.

Science Is Magic

“Science is like magic, except it’s real.” — Designed by Bhabna Basak from India.

Listen Closer… The Mushrooms Are Growing

“It’s this time of the year when children go to school and grown-ups go to collect mushrooms.” — Designed by Igor Izhik from Canada.

Batmom

Designed by Ricardo Gimenes from Spain.

Wine Harvest Season

“Welcome to the wine harvest season in Serbia. It’s September, and the hazy sunshine bathes the vines on the slopes of Fruška Gora. Everything is ready for the making of Bermet, the most famous wine from Serbia. This spiced wine was a favorite of the Austro-Hungarian elite and was served even on the Titanic. Bermet’s recipe is a closely guarded secret, and the wine is produced by just a handful of families in the town of Sremski Karlovci, near Novi Sad. On the other side of Novi Sad, plains of corn and sunflower fields blend in with the horizon, catching the last warm sun rays of this year.” — Designed by PopArt Studio from Serbia.

Bear Time

Designed by Bojana Stojanovic from Serbia.

Maryland Pride

“As summer comes to a close, so does the end of blue crab season in Maryland. Blue crabs have been a regional delicacy since the 1700s and have become Maryland’s most valuable fishing industry, adding millions of dollars to the Maryland economy each year. The blue crab has contributed so much to the state’s regional culture and economy, in 1989 it was named the State Crustacean, cementing its importance in Maryland history.” — Designed by The Hannon Group from Washington DC.

Finding Jaguar

“Nature and our planet have given us life, enabled us to enjoy the most wonderful place known to us in the universe. People have given themselves the right to master something they do not fully understand. We dedicate this September calendar to a true nature lover, Vedran Badjun from Dalmatia, Croatia, who inspires us to love our planet, live in harmony with it and appreciate all that it has to offer. Amazon, Siberia, and every tree or animal on the planet are treasures we lose every day. Let’s change that!” — Designed by PopArt Studio from Serbia.

Penguin Family

“Penguins are sociable, independent and able to survive harsh winters. They work as a team to care for their offspring and I love that!” — Designed by Glynnis Owen from Australia.

Early Autumn

“September is usually considered as early autumn so I decided to draw some trees and leaves. However, nobody likes that summer is coming to an end, that’s why I kept summerish colors and style.” — Designed by Kat Gluszek from Germany.

Summer Is Leaving

“It is inevitable. Summer is leaving silently. Let us think of ways to make the most of what is left of the beloved season.” — Designed by Bootstrap Dashboards from India.

Lucha Libre

“This month is Mexico’s independence day and I decided to illustrate one of the things Mexico’s best known for: the Lucha Libre.” — Designed by Maria Keller from Mexico.

Geometric Autumn

“I designed this wallpaper to remind everyone that autumn is here.” — Designed by Advanced Web Ranking from Romania.

Never Stop Exploring

Designed by Ricardo Gimenes from Spain.

Still In Vacation Mood

“It’s officially the end of summer and I’m still in vacation mood, dreaming about all the amazing places I’ve seen. This illustration is inspired by a small town in France, on the Atlantic coast, right by the beach.” — Designed by Miruna Sfia from Romania.

Colors Of September

“I love September. Its colors and smells.” — Designed by Juliagav from Ukraine.

Office

“Clean, minimalistic office for a productive day.” — Designed by Antun Hiršman from Croatia.

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Ice Cream Ahead (June 2024 Wallpapers Edition)

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There’s an artist in everyone. Some bring their ideas to life with digital tools, others capture the perfect moment with a camera or love to grab pen and paper to create little doodles or pieces of lettering. And even if you think you’re far from being an artist, well, it might just be hidden deep inside of you. So why not explore it?

For more than 13 years already, our monthly wallpapers series has been the perfect opportunity to do just that: to break out of your daily routine and get fully immersed in a creative little project. This month was no exception, of course.

In this post, you’ll find beautiful, unique, and inspiring wallpapers designed by creative folks who took on the challenge. All of them are available in versions with and without a calendar for June 2024 and can be downloaded for free. As a little bonus goodie, we also added a selection of June favorites from our archives that are just too good to be forgotten. Thank you to everyone who shared their designs with us this month! Happy June!

  • You can click on every image to see a larger preview,
  • We respect and carefully consider the ideas and motivation behind each and every artist’s work. This is why we give all artists the full freedom to explore their creativity and express emotions and experience through their works. This is also why the themes of the wallpapers weren’t anyhow influenced by us but rather designed from scratch by the artists themselves.
  • Submit a wallpaper!
    Did you know that you could get featured in our next wallpapers post, too? We are always looking for creative talent.

Kitten

Designed by Design Studio from India.

Celebrate National Tropic Day

“Today, let’s dive into the lush wonders of the tropics! From breathtaking landscapes to tantalizing flavors, National Tropic Day is a celebration of all things tropical. Join us in honoring the vibrant cultures and biodiversity that make these regions so unique. Get ready to embark on a tropical adventure!” — Designed by PopArt Studio from Serbia.

All-Seeing Eye

Designed by Ricardo Gimenes from Sweden.

Grand Canyon In June

“June arrives, and with it, summer. The endless afternoons, the heat… and all those moments to enjoy and rest, because, even if we are working, in summer everything is seen with different eyes. This year, we are going to the Grand Canyon of Colorado to admire the beauty of its landscapes and enjoy its sunsets.” — Designed by Veronica Valenzuela Jimenez from Spain.

Splash

Designed by Ricardo Gimenes from Sweden.

What Is Green

“When June arrives, it’s the best moment of the year for the photosynthesis (in the north). Most of the plants are in green colors. I like to play with colors and computers. This picture comes out of my imagination. It’s like looking with an electronic microscope at a strange green structure.” — Designed by Philippe Brouard from France.

Back In My Days

Designed by Ricardo Gimenes from Sweden.

Create Your Own Path

“Nice weather has arrived! Clean the dust off your bike and explore your hometown from a different angle! Invite a friend or loved one and share the joy of cycling. Whether you decide to go for a city ride or a ride in nature, the time spent on a bicycle will make you feel free and happy. So don’t wait, take your bike and call your loved one because happiness is greater only when it is shared. Happy World Bike Day!” — Designed by PopArt Studio from Serbia.

Summer Coziness

“I’ve waited for this summer more than I waited for any other summer since I was a kid. I dream of watermelon, strawberries, and lots of colors.” — Designed by Kate Jameson from the United States.

Summer Surf

“Summer vibes…” — Designed by Antun Hirsman from Croatia.

Strawberry Fields

Designed by Nathalie Ouederni from France.

Deep Dive

“Summer rains, sunny days, and a whole month to enjoy. Dive deep inside your passions and let them guide you.” — Designed by Ana Masnikosa from Belgrade, Serbia.

Join The Wave

“The month of warmth and nice weather is finally here. We found inspiration in the World Oceans Day which occurs on June 8th and celebrates the wave of change worldwide. Join the wave and dive in!” — Designed by PopArt Studio from Serbia.

Summer Party

Designed by Ricardo Gimenes from Sweden.

Oh, The Places You Will Go!

“In celebration of high school and college graduates ready to make their way in the world!” — Designed by Bri Loesch from the United States.

Ice Creams Away!

“Summer is taking off with some magical ice cream hot air balloons.” — Designed by Sasha Endoh from Canada.

Merry-Go-Round

Designed by Xenia Latii from Germany.

Nine Lives

“I grew up with cats around (and drawing them all the time). They are so funny… one moment they are being funny, the next they are reserved. If you have place in your life for a pet, adopt one today!” — Designed by Karen Frolo from the United States.

Solstice Sunset

“June 21 marks the longest day of the year for the Northern Hemisphere — and sunsets like these will be getting earlier and earlier after that!” — Designed by James Mitchell from the United Kingdom.

Travel Time

“June is our favorite time of the year because the keenly anticipated sunny weather inspires us to travel. Stuck at the airport, waiting for our flight but still excited about wayfaring, we often start dreaming about the new places we are going to visit. Where will you travel to this summer? Wherever you go, we wish you a pleasant journey!” — Designed by PopArt Studio from Serbia.

Bauhaus

“I created a screenprint of one of the most famous buildings from the Bauhaus architect Mies van der Rohe for you. So, enjoy the Barcelona Pavillon for your June wallpaper.” — Designed by Anne Korfmacher from Germany.

Pineapple Summer Pop

“I love creating fun and feminine illustrations and designs. I was inspired by juicy tropical pineapples to celebrate the start of summer.” — Designed by Brooke Glaser from Honolulu, Hawaii.

Melting Away

Designed by Ricardo Gimenes from Sweden.

The Kids Looking Outside

“These are my cats looking out of the window. Because it is Children’s Day in June in a lot of countries, I chose to make a wallpaper with this photo of my cats. The cats are like kids, they always want to play and love to be outside! Also, most kids love cats!” — Designed by Kevin van Geloven from the Netherlands.

Expand Your Horizons

“It’s summer! Go out, explore, expand your horizons!” — Designed by Dorvan Davoudi from Canada.

Ice Cream June

“For me, June always marks the beginning of summer! The best way to celebrate summer is of course ice cream, what else?” — Designed by Tatiana Anagnostaki from Greece.

Sunset In Jamaica

“Photo from a recent trip to Jamaica edited to give a retro look and feel.” — Designed by Tommy Digiovanni from the United States.

Flamingood Vibes Only

“I love flamingos! They give me a happy feeling that I want to share with the world.” — Designed by Melissa Bogemans from Belgium.

Knitting For Summer

“I made multiple circles overlapping with close distances. The overall drawing looks like a clothing texture, for something you could wear in coming summer. Let’s have a nice summer.” — Designed by Philippe Brouard from France.

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Building Trust, Boosting SEO, and Driving Sales through Content Marketing

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Content marketing is a powerful tool for building trust with your target audience, boosting your search engine optimization (SEO), and driving sales. Here are some tips on how to achieve these goals through content marketing:

Building Trust:
Building trust with your target audience is essential for creating long-term relationships that lead to repeat business. You can build trust through content marketing by:

Providing valuable information: Create content that educates and informs your audience about topics related to your industry. This will position you as an authority in your field and help establish trust with your audience.
Being transparent: Be honest and transparent in your content. Share your companys values, mission, and goals, and let your audience know what to expect from you.
Engaging with your audience: Respond to comments and questions on your content, and engage with your audience on social media. This will help build a sense of community and trust with your followers.
Boosting SEO:
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of optimizing your website and content to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs). Content marketing can help boost your SEO by:

Creating high-quality content: Search engines prioritize high-quality content that is relevant and valuable to users. Create content that is well-researched, well-written, and provides value to your target audience.
Using relevant keywords: Use keywords that are relevant to your industry and target audience in your content. This will help search engines understand what your content is about and rank it accordingly.
Building backlinks: Backlinks are links from other websites that point to your content. Backlinks are an important ranking factor for search engines, so focus on building high-quality backlinks from reputable websites.
Driving Sales:
Ultimately, the goal of content marketing is to drive sales and revenue for your business. You can drive sales through content marketing by:

Creating content that targets your ideal customer: Develop content that speaks directly to your target audiences needs and pain points. This will help you attract qualified leads and convert them into customers.
Including calls-to-action (CTAs): Use CTAs in your content to encourage your audience to take a specific action, such as signing up for your email list or making a purchase.
Measuring and analyzing your results: Use analytics tools to track your contents performance and make data-driven decisions about your content strategy. This will help you identify what content is driving the most sales and where you need to make improvements.
By following these tips, you can build trust with your target audience, boost your SEO, and drive sales through content marketing. Remember to create high-quality content that provides value to your audience and always be transparent and honest in your communication.

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3 Ways 3D Printing is Already Changing Design

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3D printing isn’t just for hobbyists and novelty trinkets anymore. This transformative technology is fundamentally reshaping the design landscape, pushing boundaries and opening doors to endless possibilities. Let’s explore three key ways 3D printing is already changing design. Design Freedom Traditional manufacturing often imposes limitations on design complexity and customization. With 3D printing, these limitations […]
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Chris’ Corner: Complexity

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Have you seen The Grug Brained Developer? It’s an essay with a URL. It’s written like a caveman became a developer and put together a philosophy that is largely a rally against complexity. Cavemen have dumb simple brains, get it? It has good points, and I largely agree with it. The caveman angle is a clever quirk to get to read it and to stick in ol’ brain.

(If you find it hard to read, I have seen a “translation”).

I think it’s fairly easy to relate to what Grug means when it comes to back-end architecture. Sprawling systems with complex requirements, services talking to each other, APIs, third-party dependencies, data manipulation methods, etc. It’s not that front-end development doesn’t have its own complexities, but it’s less obvious to point at a bit of CSS and be like, that, that’s where the complexity got too much.

Is it over, say, 2000 lines of CSS? Is it over three levels of nested DOM per component, or 12 overall? Is selector specificity averages? Is it when browser support requirements go too far back? Is it when there are too many sources of input?

I’ve certainly known organizations that, without perhaps understanding or admitting it, are afraid of their CSS. Nobody wants to touch it because nobody is entirely sure if they are going to kick over a bar stool in another bar, as the meme goes.

Taylor Troesh on a recent Changelog podcast said:

If there is any part of your code base that is starting to scare you, it needs immediate attention. Things will just get worse if there is that one part of your code base that all of your engineers are afraid to touch, because it grows in disgustingness, everyone wants to just get in there and get out and it accumulates. You want to start thinking about how you can throw that away without breaking everything.

I don’t think Taylor was talking about CSS, but to me, it maps perfectly. CSS can get into a situation where developers are afraid to touch it. That’s one reason I’m bullish on CSS that is scoped (despite my hesitation on actual CSS @scope), like CSS modules and Shadow DOM. If you can edit CSS with reasonably high confidence that you’re not touching styles elsewhere unintentionally, that’s good.

I feel CSS nesting, which is now a native feature of CSS, helps this to some degree. Write a unique class, and everything you select in a nested way is scoped to that class without you having to repeat the class name. Plus it’s just kinda ergonomically nice. But there are rather significant gotcha’s, which admittedly I really had no idea about until reading Kilian Valkhof’s The gotchas of CSS Nesting. The order in which rules are applied can get funky, and the specificity can also be unexpected. One example from Killian:

main, #intro {
    & div {
        ...
    }
}

Ends up as:

:is(main, #intro) div { ... }

Which makes it go from 0,0,1 for main div to 1,0,1 making it vastly more specific.

I’m not sure if nesting gotchas is the ultimate example of CSS complexity gone wild, but it’s just one little potential poke. I remember in the Sass heyday that people would point to @extend as a complexity code smell and they weren’t wrong.

Perhaps thanks to the scale and pervasiveness of npm, piles of questionable third-party code is another cause of complexity concern on the front-end. Michelle Barker gets into this in Reducing Complexity in Front End Development where she’s ruminating on Jack Franklin’s recent talk at All Day Hey.

A quick look in our Node modules folder quickly exposes the web of complexity within, which few of us can really fathom. A single point of failure can bring down the entire stack, like the well-worn “house of cards” metaphor.

Reducing dependencies, I’ll go out on a limb and say, is nearly always “worth it” in the sense of saving future-you headaches. Or as grug says:

one day code base understandable and grug can get work done, everything good!

next day impossible: complexity demon spirit has entered code and very dangerous situation!