#Where do the cryptons come and you ask.

[connectionterminated13]

Hehehe crypted AU...

I get silly in the tags... Because it's 12 o'clock at night

#I haven't figured anything out yet I just know it Focuses around Mike and Charlie because of course it does.. #It also takes place in the mountains because why not. #Charlie lives with her dad #Unlike the outskirts of town because as usual Henry is a nice if spooky guy. #I meant to say on like... #Stuff happens magic stuff I don't care... #Basically Mikey ends up in the woods covered in blood for no reason that I figured out yet and Charlie just finds this strange boy #drags him home because why not #Where do the cryptons come and you ask. #Something something surrounding horrible things in the forest something something #Yes the similar to all my other ideas yeah... #I like putting the guys in situations okay?????

[inchworm-incarnate]

Vocaloid of The Day!

KAITO!

Release Date: February 14th, 2006

Era: V1; V3 update

Company: Yamaha, Crypton Future Media

Language: Japanese/English

☆☆☆

KAITOs name does not come from his voice provider like MEIKOs. Instead, his name was chosen by fans. KAITO was chosen because it paired well with MEIKO. his code name during development was TARO, a Japaense equallivant of John Doe.

His V1 box art(pictured below) was drawn by Takashi Kawasaki, and his V3(pictured above) has the same illustrator as MEIKO, iXima.

KAITO, has a voicebank meant to be for smooth jazz, but vocaloid software at the time was incredibly difficult to use, so it was hard to get his voice to cooperate in some aspects. Some users have jokingly tuned his voice to sound like a violin.

He was advertised to the DTM Magazine like MEIKO was, although he was not as well received. The demographic of the magazine was 80% male, and they weren't looking into male voicebanks as much as they were female ones.

KAITOs unsuccessful sales launch led him to be the first and ONLY vocaloid commercial failure. He only sold 500 units his first year when 1000 units was considered the mark to be successful. This failure led to the trend of vocaloids being more female centric in the future.

Despite this failure, in the next upcoming years he began to gradually start selling more and more units. This rise in popularity is contributed to an exchange on Nico Nico Douga.

After being mostly forgotten, on September 16th 2007, user Tatsunami uploaded a song 'A Request From Hatsune'. The video begins with Hatsune Miku asking the audience if they remember KAITO and saying "Where are you and what are you doing now?"

Four hours later user Ice-P uploaded 'An Answer To Hatusne Miku' the video begins with KAITO telling Miku he was eating ice cream, and then sings a cover of 'The Ice Cream Song', which Ice-P already planned on releasing when Tatsunami uploaded thier video. At the end of the video KAITO says "Miku, let's eat together next time."

Miku was extremely popular on Nico Nico Douga at the time of this interaction. Her fame in turn spread to KAITO and he was revived by fans, and has consistently stayed in the Top Ten Vocaloids since.

After his V3 update, which originally he was not going to get, he rose to 1st place on the charts for vocaloid products.

Like MEIKO, he is interpreted as middle aged, and due to several official artworks picturing him with ice-cream, he is often associated with it.

☆☆☆

Personal Opinion:

I've always loved KAITO! Even though his voice wasn't great, I loved him from a design aspect. Blue characters are always designed so well. Plus I thought it was adorable that he was always drawn with ice cream.

☆☆☆

Songs Featuring Kaito:

^^^honest to God love his voice in this song

^Content Warning: suicide

☆☆☆

Thank you for listening!

Please be kind when pointing out mistakes in grammar or or errors information!

#vocaloid #vocaloid kaito #infodump #vocaloid infodump

[heavenly10]

have been playing project diva x recently and i have become an informed hater... will be lazily typing my thoughts on my phone under the read more

its actually been kinda fun as freak HRKDJGJF but i know this joy will come to an end sorry if thats borrowing grief from the future but it's literally only 5 clouds in this game and there's 4 songs plus a medley type so... its looking bleak and i have two clouds left... idk i'd be pissed if i paid $30 for this flop game to only get 20 songs plus 5 lazily made medleys.

while playing this game i'm reminded of the idolm@ster console games especially with the dialogue and medley sequences.

in im@s you're watching the idol dance around, brief appeal time (i forgot the term for it, but there's a sequence where you press the button and they break the performance sequence and you get them doing some pose or different choreography or them doing aegyo) and that's it. there's also the producing aspect which i'm not too big on because i'm here for the music and the rhythm gameplay HRJFFJ which is kinda silly of me because that's what im@s is about but i think you get the point

in DIVA X, the crypton 6 dance around in the environment, chance time to unlock a module, and that's it. huge difference to the story telling that you may be used to if you've played any of the DIVA games. i definitely think they could have had both story telling and performance. performance for module unlocking and story telling as casual rhythm gameplay since that is such a huge part of the DIVA series. this also could have been a neat way of having the vocaloid you play as sing the song or whatever in the same way you can have different idols sing different parts in a song in im@s. idc if the producer doesnt have that vocaloid, sega and cfm definitely could have put in effort by asking for the VSQ, cfm renders it, sega does the mixing and programming for the game and WOW! more effort and a way to connect to the players

they're already trying to connect to us by giving the crypton 6 personalities, writing out dialogue, encouraging us to play the game, i don't see why more effort couldn't have been made. i know it's a PSVita game at the end of the day so maybe some of this isn't fully possible but idk if that's the case then i'd rather them just move the game to PS4/5 so they don't have to be held back by the Vita's limitations

and to get into the medleys they're very nonsensical, i feel the cute medley was probably the only one that fit the type. i know i have two more clouds to unlock but idc. here i feel like they definitely could have made the songs featured in the medley as songs we could play in full, and then when it's event time, then we can play it as a medley. that'd be one way to address the lack of songs. also the songs we played just to unlock the medley could have been another separate medley too but i guess they don't want to get into the headache of song writing and audio sequencing

module unlocking is definitely painful thankfully you can just restart the song but having to play through a majority of the song just to unlock a different module is very uhmmm how you say... stupid. it's not fun and not intuitive and they're also very nasty for selling a stupid DLC package for like $12 to skip unlocking the modules

this is getting long but tl;dr silly beautiful game that could have been executed much better. well anyways i'll probably just stick with the DIVA games on my PSP & Vita and occasionally play Future Tone. project sekai tanked diva x flopped but DIVA 2nd, extend, F, & F2nd outsold

[ask-80s-rinandlen]

hey mun, why do you hate miku so much? (/gen q) is it ‘cause she’s so popular or whatever?

I don't hate her perse, I feel like I'm just over exposed to her. Like way back i used to love her, but over the years her voice just get more and more grating to my ears. I'll listen to one miku song a month and thats it for me. (Not to mention an ex friend long ago kinda put a bad taste in my mouth when it comes to Miku. Plz don't ask about it)

I know that she always has been and always will be the poster child for vocaloid. I don't mind her being popular at all, if anything her popularity might bring people to learn more about vocaloid and find interests with vocaloids that don'teven belong to Crypton. I just wish that Crypton would give more attention to their other voice banks and create more stuff for them. Like I'm not asking for the level of attention that Miku get, but just a little bit more (And I know that the kagamines get more attention than Luka, Meiko, and Kaito, but like I said the other Cryptonoids need more love as well) but unfortunately I don't think Meiko Kaito and the others make enough $$$ to really warrant much more attention. Like if there are so many shirts with just Miku on it, why couldn't they make a shirt with all of the Cryptonoids on it? (And honestly R.I.P to anymore whose favorite isn't a Cryptonoid because it seems like the only stuff is fanmade stuff)

But if you're wondering about my Miku. I intended her to be nice and friendly, but at the time I felt like there where too many Mikus that were bubbly and overly cheerful (in real life i cannot stand people who are always overtly excited and always happy) and thought that a bitch Miku might balance things out. (And honestly I sometimes have more fun writing out Miku’s character than Rin and Lens)

I hope you understand my ramble, but I wouldn't say that I hate Miku, but maybe just annoyed (for lack of a better word). And I said that her face was stupid as a joke, so don't take that too seriously.

Edit: While I understand that without Miku, Vocaloid probably wouldn't be as big as it is now at the same time I like to make fun of her.

[recentanimenews]

Yuu Asakawa on Learning English & Why You Should Subscribe to Her Channel

  Voice actors are the passion that drive the anime we love to watch, giving their all in vocal performances that turn amazing moments of animation into memorable ones. But learning who the people are behind the voices can be just as amazing and interesting as the performances they give! At this year’s Crunchyroll Expo, we had the chance to sit down with Yuu Asakawa, a veteran voice actress who lends her voice to Fate/Stay Night’s Rider, as well as Vocaloid Luka Megurine. During our interview, we got a chance to ask her about the vocaloid process, how she got into voice acting, learning English, and even a surprising revelation about streaming video games!

    Thank you so much for taking the time to talk with us today! 

Yuu Asakawa: No problem, thank you!

Could you introduce yourself for our readers?

Yuu Asakawa: I’m Yuu Asakawa, and I’ve been a Japanese voice actress for over 20 years. Most people would know my role from the Fate series, but for everything else, please Google it. (laughs) It’s easier! 

How has your time in California been so far? Are you having a good time at Crunchyroll Expo?

Yuu Asakawa: Yes, I am! I don’t get to come to California all that often; the last time I was here was 3 years ago for a convention called AOD. And during the autograph sessions, there were fans going “Yeah, I saw you last time at AOD!”, so it was nice to see fans coming back to see me after 3 years.

How did you get started in the voice acting industry? What inspired you to pursue this career path?

Yuu Asakawa: The reason why I started doing anime voice acting was on a hunch. I wasn’t really interested in anime 20 years ago, but one day I was like “I wanna be a voice actress.” Then the next day, I went to a bookstore to check seiyuu magazines, and I found an acting school. I called the school, and I got in the school, and I started to learn acting. (laughs) So yeah, just a hunch!

Could you describe the process of how your voice was used to create Luka Megurine’s vocal library? How different was this process from conventional voice acting?

Yuu Asakawa: It’s very unique and very different from anime, in that Yamaha has a syllabalist. It’s kinda like some magic spell, where you basically have to record every possible syllable there is, so you just keep chanting random syllables over and over.

Wow, how long did that take?

Yuu Asakawa: It was very strenuous, so I could only do about 4 hours a day, with breaks. But, there were a couple of retakes, so it took a total of 5 days. With both the Japanese and English voice samples, it took quite awhile. 

With Luka having versions on both Vocaloid2 and Vocaloid4, do you have to provide new vocal samples with each new version of Vocaloid?

Yuu Asakawa: It was a “renewal” of sorts, so both of those versions got brand-new recordings. Since Crypton is the pioneer of the Vocaloid industry, with a lot of rivals popping up, they have to keep the state of the art technology! So they have to update their systems and microphones, and each time they do, you’ll have to re-record, because you can’t use the old voices recorded in the old version in the new tech.

Vocaloid has exploded in popularity, starting as a relatively small program used for fan creations and becoming a global phenomenon used by world famous musicians. How has it felt watching the franchise grow?

Yuu Asakawa: To put it in one word: it’s amazing! When you’re acting for an anime, the character stays with you, but with Vocaloids, it feels like it splits off; after you give them the voice, they take their own souls and take off on their own. Like I didn’t even know there was a Vocaloid collaborating with Kabuki nowadays! So it’s really hard to keep up with the current progress.

For example, if you voice an anime character and there’s an event coming up, and the character says something, they have to go back to the voice actress and ask “Can you record this for our event?” because that’s on a per event basis, and it needs the voice actress to actually say the line. But for Vocaloids, once you’re done recording, you’re done, so they can create new things without the voice actors! I’m never told what Luka is doing after I’m done recording.

As the voice of Rider, has it been challenging to voice different versions of the same character that pop up in different continuities and universes?

Yuu Asakawa: It’s not that difficult, because the base character is always the same, so you have the same foundation. There might be subtle changes, but since it’s still going to be the same fundamental character, it wasn’t that difficult. Rider is one of the easier characters to portray, because she’s a constant character in the series. Unless you go into the weird extras where the character suddenly falls in love with someone and changes completely, but with Rider, that doesn’t really happen, so it’s easy.

How has the voice acting process changed since the late ‘90s when you got your start? Has new technology affected the process at all?

Yuu Asakawa: The technology has improved to the point where it’s easier on the staff. When I started, they did tape recordings, so if there was an outtake, they had to pause and rewind the tape before the next take! But now since it’s all digital, they don’t have to worry about the rewinding part, so it cuts down on the recording times a lot, so it’s a whole lot easier on the staff.

One thing Western fans have noted is how comfortable you are speaking English! Did you grow up speaking English or was it something you learned on your own?

Yuu Asakawa: When I was growing up, in middle school, I didn’t have really good Math test scores, so I thought “I need to brush up on something!” And I was really good at linguistics, so I thought “Let me improve my English score!”, so it could augment my bad Math score, so that I could get into high school. I kept at it, because after I got into the industry as a voice actress, I felt that around my 10th year, the industry was shifting towards the voice actors needing to do something other than acting. Like they needed voice actors that could sing, cute little voice actress that could sing and look pretty in front of the fans. And I thought, “What could I do that is unique to me?” I learned so much English back then, and there aren’t that many voice actresses who can speak English, so that can be my one thing that I could use. 

So I went overseas to Australia for a while to re-learn English, and that’s how I’ve gotten comfortable with it. Part of the Japanese culture, since English is a mandatory subject starting from junior high, so we feel like trying to talk to anyone in English is like “Am I being tested right now?!”, especially if my conversation partner is my teacher. Am I going to fail at conversation if I make a mistake? So we basically feel that the fear of failure makes them scared to speak to people, but I don’t really feel that fear, especially after coming to different conventions so much, so the comfort level probably comes from not feeling that fear of being tested when I’m speaking to my fans.

If you think that I’m really comfortable speaking in English, it’s partially because the fans and the nature of the people in the US, because the US is such a melting pot of different cultures that they are more open to people who are not completely fluent in English. It might not apply to everyone in the country, but a lot of people, and definitely all the fans, are very receptive and nice; it’s okay to not talk perfectly, but at the same time, they’re willing to compromise and speak in easier terms, so maybe the fans are giving her the comfort to speak.

Would you ever want to provide voice overs for any English animation or video games?

Yuu Asakawa: Yeah, of course! I wish I could. Speaking in English and acting in English are very different, so if I do that, I have to learn acting in English first. So it sounds impossible, but maybe doing a small part is something I really want to try!

Again, thank you so much for taking the time to chat with us today! Is there anything you would like to say to our readers before we go?

Yuu Asakawa: I play games, and I figured I wanted more ways to contact both my Japanese and overseas fans, so I’ve been streaming on YouTube! So if you could look me up on YouTube and subscribe to my channel, that’d be great, because I have my chat open. Please come in, and say hi! I want to lessen the distance between me and my fans, and streaming is one of the ways I do that, so please come, subscribe and watch my streams!

Cool! What kind of games do you usually play?

Yuu Asakawa: Mostly horror games like Resident Evil, Dark Souls, Bloodborne, stuff like that! Usually games that have blood and gore. (laughs) Extra points if there’s really cute guys in the games! 

  We want to give our thanks again to Asakawa-san for sitting down with us and talking about all this. We’ll be checking out her YouTube channel for sure and saying hi; we think her mission to bridge the gaps between Japanese and English audiences is one we’re happy to support! Remember to smash that like button and don’t forget to subscribe, alright?

    ----

Nicole is a features writer and editor for Crunchyroll. Known for punching dudes in Yakuza games on her Twitch channel while professing her love for Majima. She also has a blog, Figuratively Speaking. Follow her on Twitter: @ellyberries

Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: [email protected]

#Anime #News #Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!

[keyblade-nocturne]

Answer the following for your muse so people know how shipping works on your blog.

WHAT IS YOUR OTP FOR YOUR CHARACTER?:

Demyx/a hug or Demyx/Vacation Days

WHAT ARE YOU WILLING TO WRITE WHEN IT COMES TO SHIPPING?

. . . kinky shit. In all seriousness I love fluff and romantic threads. But I’m also game for a shit ton of nsfw threads and am okay with them going places. Just gotta talk it out in IMs. 

HOW LARGE DOES THE AGE GAP HAVE TO BE TO MAKE IT UNCOMFORTABLE?

I don’t even know Demyx’s fucking age anymore. I don’t count the time between the first keyblade war and now into their ages obviously. Only with Luxu and even then he gets immortal status with an age of his current vessel. So as long as Demyx is an adult which he always is from days onward. I don’t care to do the math on age gaps. But if the other muse defaults to calling Demyx “kid” I’m going to be less likely to see shipping potential. 

ARE YOU SELECTIVE WHEN SHIPPING?

Nope. Just gotta have an over 18 muse and the two characters have to have established pre-shipping threads. I’m not starting shipping threads with brand new mutuals sorry.

HOW FAR DO STEAMY MOMENTS HAVE TO GO BEFORE THEY ARE CONSIDERED NSF(W)?

I get skittish about what’s consider nsf you know what. If it's just making out it’s fine. But the second there’s hands on other private parts during the make out it’s going under a read more. 

WHO ARE OTHER CHARACTERS YOU SHIP YOUR CHARACTER WITH?

Literally any org member that’s old enough and not Larxene. Look at the next question if you’re worried I’ll think the ship is too weird.

DOES ONE HAVE TO ASK TO SHIP WITH YOU?:

Ask and I’ll say yes. The answer will always be yes. but I just need the all clear to run forward with shippy headcannons. It’s impossible to tell who’s open to some of my rarepairs. so please come tell me if you’re game.

HOW OFTEN DO YOU LIKE TO SHIP?

ALL THE TIME. IF YOU THINK I HAVE TO MANY SHIP PAIRS ALREADY YOU ARE WRONG. I NEED MOOOOOOORE.

ARE YOU SHIP OBSESSED OR SHIP MORE-OR-LESS?:

Looks at last question. uhhhh i think i’m obsessed.

ARE YOU MULTISHIP?

seeing as I ship Demyx with everyone? yes. I’ve never been in a fandom where I haven’t had multiple ships for at least one character.

WHAT IS/ARE YOUR FAVOURITE SHIP(S) IN YOUR CURRENT FANDOM?:

Sorikai, LeaIsa, Zemyx, these are all the obvious one’s aren’t they? hmmm Elrena/strelitzia and Lar/darkaqua are growing on me. Oh and Ephemer/Player Character for life man.

FINALLY, HOW DOES ONE SHIP WITH YOU?:

Come into my inbox and scream about our muses being together and I will scream “hell yes!” right back at ya. that or when I do the what rarepairs do you see for my muse meme later just send the name of your character on anon and I’ll say publicly how I feel about it.

Tagged by: @synthiser-crypton

Tagging: anyone who hasn’t filled this out yet. I know a lot of you already have. Cause I’m slow at typing these things out.

#ask answers #did I come off as too needy for shipping? naaaaaaaah #just the right amount of needy

[tayyabarhsad-blog]

Utopia A New Decentralized Ecosystem And Blockchain

Utopia — Revolutionary Decentralized P2P Ecosystem

Would it fascinate you if you would stumble upon a decentralized peer-to-peer ecosystem that consists of instant secure messenger, mail system, mineable cryptocurrency, file storage and a built-in browser ?

If any of the above mentioned aspects and the video you just watched got your attention, you are in for a great treat today. Keep on reading because you will be impressed with what I am going to share.

Email with Digital Utopian Claims

It started with an ordinary outreach email , where the media firm was asking for advertisement of their ‘Program’ , but when I read through the email and the claims it made I was certain that either its another scam or something really big (i was bit inclined towards the scam thing) , quoting text from email

We spent more than five years secretly working on its development. At the moment, it is at a beta stage and we are ready to introduce it to the community. With your help, we would like to invite as many beta testers and specialists in this sphere as possible to take part in the testing of our product. You can also help us to inform the community about the launch of our beta testing and to tell people about our unique solution.

30MilesNorth PR Firm further outsourced their campaign to another marketing firm while ‘CryptoHill.io’ didn’t even bother to get back to me when I replied to the email. Not a good start.

Update: CryptoHill contacted and outsourced 30MileNorth and not the other way.

Little I knew that my opinions would change when would visit their beta portal and as I started digging , I found the concept intriguing with potential and an actual ‘working’ beta product for us to take out for a ride.

Utopia — Anti 1984 Ecosystem

Utopia is a decentralized peer-to-peer network, With Utopia you can send instant text and voice messages, transfer files, create group chats and channels, send emails and conduct a private discussion. Currently Utopia is an application for Windows, iOS and Linux which offers all the features within one application. Utopia users get on their ‘Utopia ecosystem‘ as the application also provides a built-in Idyll browser to view websites within Utopia peer-to-peer network . Utopia comes with a Cryptocurrency which is called ‘Crypton‘ and is Proof-of-Stake. uWallet allows you to store,transfer your Crypton(CRP) or even create vouchers and credit cards, Utopia Network includes Utopia Name System (UNS) which is a decentralized registry of names that are impossible to expropriate, freeze or corrupt by 3rd-party as no one has control over the system rather its self-governed by rules set in place which are applicable to everyone. After you join Utopia you may wanna drop by our Hackology channel, which you can search in the Channel Manager

JOIN UTOPIA

Register yourself as a Beta Tester, Contributor or a Promoter. Each category gets to enjoy the ecosystem while the rewards vary (reward system will be explained shortly).

Utopia ecosystem is a culmination of multi-year effort by a group of technology enthusiasts dedicated to freedom of self-expression and privacy. We call ourselves a 1984 Group. Among us there are top-notch professionals in almost every IT field, such as cryptographic, software, networking engineers and many more. This has been a long and challenging journey. After all this had never been done before! Finally, we present an ecosystem that will change the way World communicates and handles financial transactions.

Utopia brief taken from their official website. Mentioning ‘financial transactions’ makes one wonder that Bitcoin was also disrupting the conventional financial system

Utopia Encryption

Each user participates in transmission of network data but only the recipient can decrypt the data. Advanced encryption ensures interception-proof communication channel to all Utopia users. All communication is secure and protected by Curve25519 high-speed elliptic curve cryptographywhile local storage is encrypted by 256-bit AES. Big Brother is no longer watching you!

Installing Utopia

Once you register on the Beta Portal you have to download Utopia Application. After installing the application you will be given a Hardware ID and a Private Key, these keys are required to activate your beta license which can be done from the Activation Page. Please keep in mind that your beta portal website login credentials are not linked with Utopia Application and you can have a different username for the app and the website. Once you activate the license your utopia account will be tied with your beta portal account. A step by step procedure for easy understanding of the activation procedure:

Register at Utopia Beta Portal

Download Utopia software

Install the program by following simple instructions on installation wizard

Run Utopia and Create your account. You will be provided with Public Key and Hardware ID. Those are needed to activate your Utopia software

Login to your account

Click on JOIN BETA

Agree to the Rules and click SUBMIT

Click on NEW ACTIVATION and Enter Public Key and Hardware ID

Click ADD

Now your Utopia is activated and you are ready to test it

Utopia Dashboard

Utopia is a feature-rich platform that is specifically designed to protect privacy of communication, confidentiality and security of personal data. It was created for privacy-conscious public who believe that privacy is paramount. Utopia is a decentralized network, with no central server involved in data transmission or storage. The network is supported by people who use it’s many high quality features.

The first glimpse we get of the application is at the Dashboard which has navigational menu for easy access to all of its many features for us to explore, use and report bugs while it is in beta testing phase.

uMail (Utopia Mail)

uMail is a secure alternative to classic e-mail. uMail can be sent to Utopia users that are in your contact list for now. uMail has all functionality of email localized to Utopia ecosystem. No servers are used for mail transmission or storage. uMail account, that is created by default when you join the Utopia network, enables unlimited messaging and attachment storage. Utopia ecosystem encryption guarantees the security of mail transmission and storage. Your uMail, as an internal part of Utopia, cannot be blocked or seized.

All those who value their data privacy would find this useful including activists and journalists knowing that their data is going straight to the designated user and no 3rd party can intercept their data. Currently the limit set for the attachments is 100 MB but as per the team it may be increased in future.

uWallet (Utopia Wallet)

All financial functionality can be found in Utopia built-in uWallet. uWallet allows you to make and accept payments denominated in Utopia cryptocurrency ‘Crypton‘, accept payments at your website, pay by Crypto Cards without revealing your Identity or bill fellow Utopia users for your services. With uWallet you can store value in Cryptons, receive mining rewards, use uVouchers, request payments and accept payments using the built-in API.

All of this while you remain anonymous. All payments are instant and cannot be reversed. Decentralized nature of Utopia ensures that your balance cannot be expropriated.

Utopia Mining — Crypton

Utopia has an inbuilt cryptocurrency called Crypton (CRP), which is proof-of-stake therefore a modest machine can also be used to mine cryptons through the GUI based Utopia application or with terminal based Mining bot which comes with the application.

Utopia rewards users that support the ecosystem through Mining by emission of new Cryptons. When you run your Utopia software or bot you will receive your share of collective reward. Mining does not slow your computer down and is environmentally friendly. You may also run a number of bots at several servers or computers to multiply the Crypton mining speed.

uNS (Utopia Naming System)

Utopia has introduced uNS (Utopia Naming System) which is a unique naming system and independent from the conventional Domain Naming System. DNS is subject to pressure and censorship from less than prefect international laws. Domains can be revoked or suspended due to multiple reasons, such as non-response to WhoIS inquiry or other register policies, non-payment, government actions and so on.

uNS, in contrast, is a truly decentralized non-censored registry hosted by Utopia Network participants with no expiration dates, renewal fees, suspensions and revocations. There is only one rule: First come, First served.

uNS registered name should be unique. You may register as many uNS registered names as you want while registration is not free and costs are paid in crypton:

Single letter uNS costs 1000 CRP

Two letter uNS costs 500 CRP

Three letter uNS costs 5 CRP

Four letter or more costs 0.1 CRP

Miscellaneous Features

Making Groups, Adding users, Chatting and Emailing, Sending Mails and Mining Cryptons might be the highlights but Utopia claims to be an ecosystem therefore they had to incorporate many more features so that users of Utopia ecosystem do not feel the need to go out of the system. List of other useful features within the Utopia Application are listed

Packet Forwarding : uNS Manager lists option of ‘Packet Forwarding’ which is an internal system allowing any utopian user to host a website which can be accessed by the Idyll browser, the naming system of the website is explained above, if you register hackology uNS you can make a website and it will open when you visit http://hackology/ and that is it. This option allows to tunnel any kind of data between users in ecosystem, making possible to host different types of resources including websites inside Utopia Network. At the time of writing few fellow Utopia users made Utopia sites which can be accessed at utopia://trade/ and at utopia://crystalforest etc. If you have ported your site to Utopia let me know so I may add it here aswell. I am ported some of my sites to Utopia aswell, utopia://blog.drhack.net , utopia://paste.drhack.net, utopia://drhack.net can all be accessed in Idyl Browser inside utopia.

File Manager : All files which are sent or received in Utopia can be accessed from the builtin file manager which also includes an image viewer. As of now the file transfers are limited to 100MB.

Voice Notes : Utopia also supports sending and receiving of Voice messages which you can send to those who are added with you.

Dark Theme : The program comes in standard theme but how can they miss out a Dark Theme for the privacy savvy ? Users can opt for dark theme by going to Tools > Settings > Interface and selecting the ‘Dark Space‘ theme

Utopia API : Utopia comes with a comprehensive API for users to incorporate in their own projects. For instance, using API you can accept payments denominated in Crypton at your website, automatically manage your channels, send instant messages and much more. To get started once you enable the API you can also access the API documentation.

Network Fee Structure : Utopia provides us with an option to view all the network enforced fee and they are updated live on the network as the fee structure changes, thus one can stay updated with the current fee structure. You can access the Network Fee from uWallet > Treasury Data > Network Fee

Game : Utopia also supports in-app games which can be played in multiplayer, as of writing there is a working Chess game.

File Storage / Hosting : A team user nickname 1984 in Utopia Chat Lobby mentioned that as of now there is no File storage. But In future Utopia will have some kind of music and video streaming online services, decentralized file, image and blog hosting. The reserved amount of RAM for mining ‘ll be used as cache for the whole network. For example 1,300,000 online users with current RAM allocation will provide about 1 Petabyte of raw storage for caching purposes.

Utopia Reward System

Utopia is providing a very lucrative reward system, where Beta Testers, Contributors & Promoters all can join the beta portal and help test and find bugs which in return gets you ‘pts‘ where 1 pt equals to 1 USD which are paid in BTC.

We truly believe that your participation has to be exciting and mutually beneficial. Utopia Beta Program rewards your enthusiasm, commitment and dedication. No matter what is your skill set you will find an opportunity to contribute to Utopia P2P Project development.

At the time of writing I have already cashed out $560 and transferred them to my own bitcoin wallet. I can vouch that if you have the eye to spot bugs it is a good place to help them and in return get paid. Uptil now Utopia team has paid out $7683 to beta testers which is a decent figure keeping in view that they launched 35 days back and still 2 months of beta testing period is left.

If you are not a bug finding sort you can still help and give them suggestions and ideas on how to improve their application or go ahead and share this on social media pages and get paid for being a ‘promoter’. Withdrawals are done manually and as per the rule it can take up-to 48 hours, but I have noticed that within an hour or so they release the funds.

Do Earn but DONT SPAM they have mentioned categorically that have zero spam tolerance

Trust Utopia or NOT

Utopia might be very good project but it does give birth to some questions.

Anonymous Creators : Here is an example, Utopia was created by a group of LEA’s to cater for a particular drug mafia and they made an app for it and will let it float and gain credibility and as we don’t know who made the App we have no idea to know what the ‘real’ intent was.

Closed Source : Lets not disclose the owners but why would the App source be closed ? Ok Fine it is not infected with malware but how can the community trust a closed source eco-system ? How can we take their word for it ?

Forced Alteration : Another scenario is that we don’t know but somehow the founders of the application are exposed at some level and are being forced to enter backdoor into the software what indications will we have that it is still pure ?

Long Way to Go : Utopia will be out of Beta by October 2019 , there are alot of things which the team is actively addressing and improving. Many of the queries will also be answered by then aswell and having an alternative in this era is a great thing. An alternative which is not monitored and controlled and promises to give us the privacy of our data which we deserve and is our right.

Peers Control : In later stages the peer count might increase to give stability to the system but blocking network peers by an ISP could result in disrupting the ecosystem, as of now we have 8–14 peers to which our Utopia network connects and the transmission although encrypted goes to these IP addresses which are in clear plain-text. As the network is closed source, only those peers can be add to the network which are selected by Utopia Team thus the process would require constant involvement of the team to keep the network running and stabilized. What Software is run on the Peers ? No one knows answer to that until one day someone exploits a system running the network-peer-control-system.

Utopia Team Responds

I asked the queries from Utopia to get their feedback, I raised the same questions which I have stated above, carry on to read their response

Anonymous Creators : I have to say that given the scope and nature of the project, disclosing the identity of creators is not really an option. Think about it, Utopia ecosystem is literally a game changer in secure communication. There is no need to worry about censorship, surveillance, deanonymization and so on. The software is destined to make an impact and that impact comes with unpredictable consequences. We simply do not want our team to be subjected to any kind of pressure.

Closed Source : We may disclose certain parts of code, specifically related to communication and encryption. However, decentralized protocol will not be released. Utopia is a very knowledge intensive software. A lot of time, effort and resources went into this product and we do not want to share all of our know-how as it will result in forks which in turn may result in instability of our main network. Fork will lead to division of the community, while our intention is unification of community of like-minded individuals. The bottom line here is that a lot of software is closed source and this does not hurt them a bit.

Forced Alteration : In addition to the Anonymous Creators point, we can implement a warrant canary and place it right into About section of software.

Community Trust Options : On Anonymous Founders and Source Code, we will try to think about other ideas that will assure community to trust Utopia.

Peer Control : Peers are people who use Utopia and mining bots. Obviously they are the key to network stability and performance as they provide connectivity i.e. they participate in data transmission in encrypted mode. The reason why we implemented such an unusual mining model, is that we want to motivate and reward users to stay online/keep bots online hence provide a lot of routing options. If a peer is disconnected, Utopia client will automatically connect to another peer and so on.

Crypton on External Crypto Exchanges : The decision to list Crypton is the discretion of the exchanges. However, we plan to implement our own built-in exchange.

Why Crypton : Crypton is meant to serve as means of payment within Utopia. It is fast and convenient to use. The fees collected will go towards maintaining the network and is a way to control total amount of Cryptons in circulation. Mining, by definition, is emission. Fees, on the other hand, is a way to compensate for this emission by extracting the Cryptons from circulation.

Conclusion

I am impressed by Utopia ecosystem and we should let such systems mature so that they can reach their true potential because I truly believe we need a system were our privacy and our data can stay truly ours, a system where my messages are delivered and read by the recipient I intend sending too, a system where my identity stays private as long as I want it. As of now internet is changing into a place where our identity and our privacy is sold to make other companies profit, profits are done by selling us off. Many say that they do not mind if their data is sold off — It is a matter of time those will also realize the hard way that how much it costs when you are being sold off. Join Utopia, Become a Tester and be part of something unique.

[songmasters]

@thebestdecepticonleader continued from here.

Fortunately, it wouldn’t be too much longer before someone would find him, but it wouldn’t be a transformer of either faction. 

The crew of the Crypton had only recently found their way to this new planet called Earth. Having landed somewhere out of the way of the locals, Miku and the others had been discussing going to the nearest city to meet the earthlings, though Luka seemed to have reservations due to information she’d gathered that suggested another group of aliens had found this planet before they did and had sort of turned it into a battleground.

Rin was too bored to care about that. It had been months since the last time they’d found an inhabited planet and she wanted to explore. So Crypton’s communications officer just decided to up and leave.

She wasn’t alone though. As always, her twin brother Len had followed her. 

“Rin! Wait up!” Len shouted as he caught up to her. “Do you really think it’s a good idea to just wander off without telling Miku and the others? We could get in a lot of trouble.”

Rin snorted and just kept walking. “Luka-nee worries too much. This planet is still in one piece, so I doubt those other aliens are too much trouble. Anyway, what’s the chances of them being anywhere near here?”

Len was about to answer when both Vocaloids suddenly stopped dead in their tracks. They’d suddenly come into range of an unkown Melody.

“Do you hear that?” Rin asked, turning her head in the direction of the tune. 

“Yeah...” Len frowned as he listened. “I don’t like the sound of it. It sounds like whoever it belongs to-”

“-Is in trouble!” The other twin finished his thought before immediately taking off in the direction it was coming from. “Come on Len. Let’s go!”

“Wh- Wait a second here!” Len was almost taken off guard, but he really should expect this from his sister by now. He once again ran after her to catch up. “Rin! Wait up!”

But when they reached the clearing where Starscream had crashed, but twins came to a halt. 

“Whoa!” The twins chorsed. 

It was a giant robot! And it was huge! It (he?) was also pretty badly damaged.

Rin inched closer to her brother before calling out. “Ah, hello?”

#tell your world ~ /ic #v: main #right hand mirror ~ /rin #left hand mirror ~ /len #thebestdecepticonleader #(i hope you don't mind how long this is)

[diamondoffice]

Top Mistakes To Avoid While Purchasing Office Furniture

In addition to aesthetics, purchasing office furniture involves functional considerations. Every decision must take into account the comfort and safety of your employees and guests. You can assist guarantee that the furniture you choose will boost employee satisfaction, productivity, and revenues for your company by avoiding a few typical purchase blunders.

With the data of survey conducted on office furniture in Dartford, we have compiled the following points:

1. Buying without a vision or plan

All too often, people buy furniture impulsively. Rushing through purchase decisions, on the other hand, may result in mistakes that you may come to regret for years to come.

2. Not Taking Employee Comfort into Account

Comfort equals productivity when it comes to workplace furniture. Ergonomic design is essential for your employees' comfort and efficiency. Contoured chairs, lumbar backrest supports, adjustable seats, and armrests can all assist to reduce work-related injuries and wasted time. As a result, those characteristics may be able to assist you to save money on worker's compensation and medical insurance.

3. Making Fabric Choices That Aren't Right

Before deciding on a piece of fabric, think about how much usage and functionality a piece of furniture will get. If cleanliness is important to you, wipe-able vinyl may be the best option. From break rooms to examination rooms, vinyl is ideal for situations where stains are more common.

Asking for vinyl may not be enough if you operate a healthcare centre or medical office. Certain vinyl textiles may be cleaned using bleach solutions to kill germs and other diseases.

If your furniture will be subjected to a lot of usages, engineered textiles like Crypton® can be a good choice. Stains, dampness, and germs are all resistant to the fibres that have been specially treated. Mesh materials are also becoming more popular, particularly in Office Furniture in Dartford.

4. Purchasing a Product That Isn't Rated For the Job

Purchasing desk chairs and lobby furniture would be a lot easier if everyone had the same build or body type. But it isn't the case in reality. Instead, you must be able to accommodate people of diverse shapes and sizes comfortably. Choosing an item with a wrong rating might result in costly chair damage and, more significantly, injury to the person who sits in it.

5. Putting Price Before Value

Everyone likes a good deal, but while comparing prices, make sure to consider value as well. To make the best purchase decision possible, consider the cost of ownership throughout the expected life of the furniture. Repairs and replacements might rapidly wipe out any early savings, and the device could even become more expensive over time.

Of course, there are times when you need to buy a cheap item to "make do" in an emergency. In that situation, consider the item disposable and budget for a more appropriate replacement as soon as it is financially viable.

6. Purchasing without regard for future growth

Whether you're beginning a new business or expanding your present one, you should consider how each element will fit into your current and future surroundings. Even if you can only afford a few seats and desks or aren't ready to buy a large conference table yet, go through the complete line to see what you might be able to achieve in the long run.

There is no doubt that good office furniture can completely transform your working environment. Making a wise choice will profit you in many ways. On the other hand, hasty and under-calculated decision making may cause long-term and irreversible opportunity costs.

Diamond office furniture limited is one of the best dealers of Office Furniture in Dartford. So, if you are looking for cheaper as well as high-quality furniture for your office, then they are the best option for you.

#office furniture in Dartford

[mikunology]

Mortality

Well, I wrote a fanfic.

Last night I felt like writing some good old fashioned robot feels, so I wrote a oneshot about Miku and Len questioning their existence or whatever. I haven’t written in a very long time so bear with me.

This is set in Vocal Android’s universe, of course. Enjoy yourselves.

The subject of her own death didn’t occur to Hatsune Miku much.

Which, of course, had reason. She was a Vocaloid—in other words, a robot. Robots were beyond humanity—their lives could go on forever if nothing interrupted the constant flow of activity. And even so, a robot’s life typically ended in three ways: they grew obsolete and were destroyed, they worked and worked until their systems grew worn and could no longer handle the stress, or they simply were left behind to waste away into rusting scrap and chemical. All were quiet ends to a relatively quiet existence.

Or so Miku was told, anyway.

But her—she wasn’t the typical robot, not one that was made to constantly work or construct or type like she so commonly saw within the laboratories of Crypton. She was made with the intent to feel, the intent to inspire feelings in others with her voice. She wasn’t like the soulless, thoughtless machines she saw serving food in restaurants or delivering between office buildings. She didn’t even look like them; while artificial, she had skin, clothes, hair—no sleek chrome coatings or metal plating. The scientists liked to say that she was supposed to be a perfect, or at the very least near-perfect imitation of mankind.

So what did it mean for her, if she perished one day?

And it was this very thought that had her sitting in front of the windowsill, watching the hovercrafts cross the velvety midnight skyline as she pondered her own fate.

Until a small, resounding creak shook her from her puzzlement.

“Miku?” asked the blonde-haired teenager hesitantly. “Can I come in?”

Miku’s eyes momentarily darted to the outside before she answered, “Oh, uh…sure, Len.”

Len nodded and entered, slowly closing the door behind him. He approached her slowly as she turned back to the scene beyond the window. “It’s almost midnight, you know. Don’t you think you should go sleep?”

A beat went by, and she shrugged. “I’m good.”

Len’s mouth made a tiny “O” shape as he gazed out the window alongside her. The room grew into an uneasy silence.

“Is something wrong?” Len watched her out of the corner of his eye.

Another brief lack of response.

“Uh—“

“Len,” she said his name with a seriousness that made him jump slightly, “Do you think we’ll live forever?” She didn’t turn away from the window.

Len’s eyebrows furrowed, taken aback by the question. “Um…not really. I mean, we’re bound to be obsolete sooner or later, right?”

“Mm,” Miku hummed.

“Why do you ask?”

She shrugged again. “I was thinking,” she said with a strange heaviness, “What exactly is going to happen to us one day? You’re right—it’ll be a while before we truly fade out of the public eye. And I’m okay with that. But…” She faced Len, her bright blue eyes overcast. “What’ll happen after that? Will they just…throw us away? Will we just stick around even when there’s no more music to sing, and we just wander until we rot? Will we ever die at all?”

Seeing his surrogate sibling’s distress, Len frowned. “What brought this on?”

Miku faltered. “I don’t know,” she answered, turning back to the window. “I…just can’t help but think sometimes. Especially now, now that we seem to face getting killed every other week. What if this just goes on forever?”

“Is that a bad thing?” Len asked.

“No! I mean, maybe?” Miku shrugged more theatrically, raising her hands before crossing them. “It’s just…Meiko tells us that nothing lasts forever. And while we may be a bit more…reselent? Res…res…”

“Resilient?”

“Yeah, resilient, we’re not going to last forever either. And even then, what if the execs get tired of us someday? Even Meiko and Kaito wouldn't be able to—“

She stopped speaking as Len pressed a finger to her lips. She looked down at him, wide-eyed and frozen.

“Stop,” Len said, taking his hand away. “Listen, okay? I get what you’re talking about. Seriously, I get it. I have nightmares about that stuff all the time—about what if the execs suddenly decided they didn’t need me or Rin anymore, and well…they got rid of us.” He took a long, deep breath. “But that doesn’t mean it’ll happen.”

“Yeah, but…”

“Let me finish. It’s perfectly okay to wonder about that stuff, Miku. I mean, we’re not exactly like other people; our life expectancy goes far beyond even Kaito or Meiko’s, and well, that’s kind of scary. So is thinking about a future where the music stops, we're no longer needed, and the world turns its backs on us. It’s scary.” He shook his head for a moment, and Miku’s eyebrows went up as a tiny quirk of a smile showed on Len’s face. “But that’s kind of why we should embrace the present, isn’t it? We’re going to die someday, that’s for sure. It’s inevitable. But isn’t a life where you constantly worry about the future worse than a life that’s cut short, but you went loving what happened that day? I mean, that’s something you would say, right?”

Miku stared at him, not even moving, but Len could see the light of comprehension stirring in her eyes. Her shoulders relaxed, and she let loose a breath she didn’t know she was holding. Len smiled meaningfully at her, and it didn’t take long for her to smile back. “I…guess that’s true.”

“Heh, see?” Len said with a chuckle. “Now really, what brought this on?”

The smile vanished again, and Miku brought her hand to her chin as if in thought. Len’s eyebrows raised. “I know something had to have been bothering you if you’re up thinking about mortality. You’re usually too perky for that.”

Miku nodded absentmindedly, and then folded her hands together in front of her. “You know the song I sang at our last concert? About the robot trying her master, something like that?”

Len nodded, thinking back to the other week’s big show after Miku’s return from her supposed “time travel” adventure. She had been uncharacteristically somber for most of the performance, which Len had brushed off as simple exhaustion. “Yeah?”

“Well, um…” She rubbed the back of her head sheepishly, “After all that stuff with Gumi’s device, and then having to sing that song…”Hello, Planet”…I just started thinking about what could happen one day. About maybe we’ll be alone…or something.” She laughed, but Len heard no humor in it. “I’m just being silly. You don’t need to worry about it.”

“Is that why you looked so down during the concert?”

“Eh?”

“You’re pretty easy to read, y’know,” Len said flatly. “Did Gumi’s device show you something? Like…bad?”

Miku stared at her feet. Len immediately knew the answer. “Miku—“

“It was the future in the device,” she whispered, “So doesn’t that mean…?”

“No,” Len blurted, making Miku flinch. He shook his head, lowering his voice. “I mean, no, Miku. Don’t think like that, okay? What you saw—it’s not necessarily set in stone.”

He reached to her side and took her hand in his own, and he looked straight into her eyes. “The future never is, we haven’t even been around that long. We have tons of chances to change it. And even if I’m wrong, you’re never alone, okay? Even if we’re not physically there, we’re always with you, wherever you go, no matter what. I won’t let you think otherwise.” He grasped her hand a little tighter. “Okay?”

Miku’s eyes darted from his hand to his eyes, her lips trembling slightly. Within seconds, her arms were wrapped around his neck and squeezing, her fingers pressing into his shoulder blades. Her face was buried in the hug. “Okay,” she mumbled.

Len blinked, somewhat shocked by the embrace, but he sighed and relaxed into it. He patted her back gently, a small smile on his face.

After several minutes of this went by, they finally pulled away, and Len smiled wider at the renewed grin that was spread across the older girl’s face. “Thank you so much, Len,” she said tenderly. “Really, I’m okay now.”

“Good,” Len said, nodding approvingly. He rubbed his neck. “I should go to bed now, though. A lot of stuff to do in the morning.”

Miku nodded back, and she watched silently as he went back across the room and opened the door. “Len?”

He turned around. “Hmm?”

“Oh…nothing. Sweet dreams, okay?”

Len opened his mouth and closed it again. “…Oh, uh, yeah. You too.”

“Good night.”

“Good night.”

The door closed behind him, and Miku felt herself deflate along with the tension in the room. She turned back to the window and looked towards the shining, blinking city lights.

“…Always, huh…”

#fanfiction #my fanfiction #vocaloid #vocal android #hatsune miku #kagamine len

[hazuki-no-yume]

To shift the topic of my ask, I’d like to know your thoughts on the Vocaloid community as a whole. HNY’s retirement video brought me back to the intriguing Vocaloid decline theory from a while ago. I don’t think Vocaloid has necessarily “declined” but the community has undergone a vast culture change (which HNY suggested(?) in the video). I think now Vocaloid is viewed more like an instrument and medium for creators to share their works. (part 2)

My thoughts? To be quite honest with you, it comes in two flavors.

On one hand, I love the community. It has been the backbone to my growth in more ways than one, always being there for me in times when I needed it to this very day!  After so many years it finally clicked to me what exactly Vocaloid was, who producers were, who were the artists, and it became this very nice stream of music and understanding to me. Being able to follow artists rather than blindly waiting for another neat song to pop up, being able to expand my horizons and listen to other Vocaloids outside of the Crypton 6, I love being able to listen and hear vocals and be like “Oh, that’s Avanna!! And that’s IA!!” and like… 

The main thing that moves me is that Vocaloid, to me, is this embodiment of hope. It’s this magical, magical thing where the concept is that you can sing even if you don’t have the voice to. It’s this tool that helps artists to paint when they don’t know the colors, you know? It’s such a beautiful thing that unites so many people and creates this, this unity. Even being here now running this blog for the time being, having this influx of people coming in and dropping their opinions and grievances, it’s a reminder that so many people are brought together by this stream of music we hold near and dear. That’s just really the best part of the Vocaloid community to me, that anyone can do anything and that we can all unite and bond over it.

… But then the other side of my opinion isn’t really as kind;; As much as I love the community and what it brings to me, as much as it has saved myself and many others, it’s also really, really sad. It happens whenever someone has a big enough following that fans get really, really possessive. They cling too hard to what people make and in return that shuts down so many people. Wowaka left the community because people overshadowed him and looked towards Miku as the star, I’ve personally seen a fan get witch-hunted over the fact that they asked about how a youtaite using lyrics that weren’t her own, I’ve personally seen Producers at their wits end trying to maintain their mental health and fans still pressure them, “where’s the next update? where’s the next installment? where’s the next song?”. I’ve seen Producers get shafted on their own works!!!! With collaborations!!!! With people saying “oh this is by XYZ!!!” instead of saying XYZ and ABC combined.

I’ve seen so much pain, so much drama, people leaving the community and never looking back due to how toxic it got and due to how needy the fans were. I’m really honest to god scared that one of my favorite Producers will leave the community, and they’re someone I look up to and appreciate so much; their music coupled with PinocchioP’s music was what helped me leave my abusive home. They were the songs I listened to when I was walking from my old apartment to the bank to save my money and to hitch a Uber to a friend’s place before figuring out what the hell was I was supposed to do.

I really made myself sad typing this but like… Yeah. I’m very optimistic and hopeful about the community, it has literally been a second home to me. It has been a solace when nothing else was. But for the years I’ve been in it as a bystander, it’s always been this tangle of toxic on top of people just not crediting things or not understanding what is what.

At the end of the day, we are all people. At the end of the day, Vocaloid lives through us. If we tear at each other like this, more people will leave and then what will be left of us is remnants of what once was. As dramatic as this sounds, Hazuki up and leaving should be a solid picture as to what could be the future if we don’t shape up.

#Anonymous #asks

[piggiechi]

so you know how kaito got his character item from the video of miku singing Dear You and asking where he's been? thats essentially my hc for how he starts to love ice cream

i know mei doesnt get a chara item til the Miku Boom but i have a personal story thing for her too. sorry if youre on mobile & the readmore doesnt work!

miriam suggests something generic but representative of the newbies' new neighbors. like a knick-knack of something British. lola thinks they should get something practical. like fine china. leon says they should design a bouquet and cook a nice meal for the newbie to help them feel at more home

they argue about it all throughout the weeks before meiko's arrival. on that fateful november day, they are all at a convience store close to what will be the crypton mansion and start fighting over what to buy. miriam gets so sick of it and just buys a huge bottle of sake

lola is not too happy. she argues, "what if the newbie is underage?" so miriam says "Its for us then. We can always buy something later"

of course leon still buys some flowers. once they have all that, they enter the crypton house and wait (imagine that the crypton officials already put some basic furniture inside & gave the keys to lola upon request lol)

they wait long enough that leons able to cook a meal to test everything out. so eventually, they hear the doorknob jingle and meiko walks in. shes super surprised because she was told that the house would be empty, so she immediately asks "Who are you guys"

after some introductions & a rundown on what meikos going to be doing as a Vocaloid and such, leon gives mei the bouquet. i imagine it'd be a basic rose bouquet (according to leon red roses are fool proof) and they would joke about how coincidential that was

they ask if meiko is hungry and she says sure! but before that lola wanted to give her the gift

i imagine it goes like this:

lola: "We didnt know what you'd like so we just got this"

mei: "Sake?"

lola: "Oh, are you underage? See you guys, i warned you--"

mei: "No no! I'm old enough. It's just that I've never had it before. Is it good?"

miriam: "We bought it on a whim. So it'll be a first for all of us"

mei shrugs and says theyll just try it together then. so they lead her to the dining room to eat the meal & lola prepares all the drinks. its very nice and sweet and meiko ends up really liking it (though miriam and leon dont omg)

SO YEAH they welcomed her really well and they slept over with her for the week in the other rooms (that will eventually become the other cryptonloids rooms) just to keep her company and hang out with her. lola jokes that since she and meiko are the only ones who like sake, they could go drinking at a nice sake place sometime. and thats basically how the v1 friendship begins.

THIS IS A BIT LAME bc idk adult stuff like this but i think meiko would really cherish this memory with them? and just by habit she always gets sake when shes partying or whatever. i think she will make it tradition too to buy a nice fancy bottle for all the new adult loids just to welcome them like the v1s did for her ykno.

of course i dont think she has a problem or anything. meiko knows her limits but she just likes sake. she gets it as a gift a lot anyways so it just sticks! and when haku and luka come along, meiko and lola form a lil friendship where they all go do karaoke, watch over each other & go wine tasting and such. and even now meiko is still suuuper close to the v1 engloids. and she hangs out with them whenever the cryptonloids are away !

omg I really think too much about this stuff rip... i was gonna draw this out someday but it would be too long so here it is

#i have similar ones for the kagamines sweet ann prima tonio and luka! #where basically their fav food/drinks are the first things they share with the others ykno #thoygh its slightly different for he kagamines its basically the same concept #aaaaa i should be studying for my precalc test but. Oh Whell! vocaloid is life #boop dee boop #vocatalk #vocaloid headcanon #hc stuff

[jodybouchard9]

The Ultimate Stylish and Durable Home Decor for People With Pets

Kerkez/iStock

You undoubtedly love your pet, but cats and dogs can be rough ‘n’ tough on your home furnishings. But having animal companions doesn’t mean you have to live with torn couches, stained rugs, and claw-gouged floors. Really! You just have to shop carefully for beautiful things that can withstand being in the same house as your four-legged friends.

We’re here to help. We sought the advice of design experts Emily Henderson of Style by Emily Henderson and Debbie Gartner of The Flooring Girl to get their top decor picks for style-minded cat and dog owners.

Durable varieties of hardwood floor

Hardwood is having a moment—the wildly popular flooring is the go-to choice for many homeowners. But some dog owners avoid these types of floors because claws can leave permanent scratches and gouges.

Gartner says you just have to install the right kind. “Light floors hold up the best and show the least,” she says. With a light or natural wood, you want to seal it with three coats of high-grade, water-based polyurethane such as Bona HD. “Oil-based poly on light floors will yellow over time.”

For dark floors, go with three coats of an oil-based polyurethane sealant, Gartner suggests. Matte finishes also hide scratches better than glossy ones.

For durability, you should choose woods on the harder end of the Janka hardness scale, a test that measures the relative hardness of hardwoods. Brazilian cherry, Brazilian walnut, and hickory are all very hard woods. Avoid softer ones such as pine, cedar, and fir. And look for a wood with lots of graining like red oak or even distressed hardwoods to better hide the scratching.

Area rugs

Wall-to-wall carpeting is tough enough to maintain even without pets running about. So add a cat with claws or a puppy who isn’t yet housebroken into the mix and keeping your carpets clean can become an epic challenge.

Carpeting such as Stainmaster PetProtect claims to repel liquids and resist pet hair, but cat owners are still going to find their buddies clawing the carpet; there’s a reason scratching posts are usually covered with the stuff!

If you need something soft under your feet, Gartner suggests choosing area and throw rugs that can be picked up and cleaned if they’re destroyed. It’ll be much easier to replace a loose rug than pulling up carpet.

High-grade paint

Any home with pets needs wall paint that can be easily wiped clean.

“With a cheaper paint, it can mess up the walls to wipe them,” says Gartner. She suggests using a higher-grade paint such as the Duration Home interior paint from Sherwin-Williams, which can stand up to serious cleaning. These paints also inhibit the growth of mold and mildew, so be sure to use them in the kitchen or in the room where you’ll keep your pet’s water bowl.

Sofas covered in stain-resistant fabric

It’s hard to say no to a pet who’s begging to cuddle with you on the sofa. As long as your furniture is covered in a fabric that can withstand mud and the occasional accident, you’re good.

“Skip anything with an open weave like linen,” advises Henderson. Instead, think ultrasuede, performance velvet, or even leather.

Other options are to use Sunbrella or Crypton fabric. Both are stain-resistant, relatively indestructible, and come in a variety of colors and patterns for indoor sofas. Pottery Barn and other small retailers sell sofas covered in the stuff.

Another detail of the sofa you’ll want to consider: the legs.

“Opt for hardwood or metal legs instead fabric or skirting or anything else in reach of your pet’s sharp claws,” says Henderson. “The less fabric you have, the less damage they can do.”

Roman shades or wooden blinds

With cats, any kind of curtain or drape is just asking to be ripped. “Avoid this by hanging shades or blinds from your windows,” says Henderson.

Skip long curtains, and go with any kind of Roman blind, roller shade, or horizontal blind. Don’t forget to keep long cords secured and out of batting range.

“Get anything that goes up and down instead of side to side. It’s just too tempting for them,” she says.

A posh pet bed

Keeping your decor in tiptop shape will be much easier if your animals have their own place to relax and toys to paw at. There are loads of stylish options for pet lounging that will complement the rest of your decor, including amenities you can build into your home.

If you give them a dedicated place to scratch, they’re less likely to sharpen their claws on your furniture. But you don’t have to settle on an ugly scratching post that takes up square footage in your living room: There are all kinds of chic cat houses that look more like pieces of art.

The post The Ultimate Stylish and Durable Home Decor for People With Pets appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com®.

[quillreflections]

Title: Electric Angel

Chapter: 1

Series: Vocaloid

Pairing: males/reader

Disclaimer: yes I know the title is similar to my other story

"You've been working yourself too hard, sir."

The man turns to his assistant, who's leaning against the doorway, arms crossed, eyes concerned. The engineer places his delicate tools down and smiles, although it's tinged with exhaustion.

"I'm just excited. It's," he motions to the machine lying prone on the operating table, "it's so close to being done. If I keep going, I can finish within the next few days."

He picks up his tools again. It's very reminiscent of open-heart surgery; his movements are precise and methodical, and it's clear whatever he's doing is important.

His assistant just sighs, used to his boss's near-obssession with their work. Knowing nothing can pull the other man away, he just steps into the lab to help.

☆☆☆

The radio alarm kicks in at the worst moment.

You'd forgotten to turn the volume down before bed; that new pop star's debut song came screeching out of the speakers and directly through your skull. Your eyes shoot open as you start scrambling to shut it off- finally, silence. What time had you even set the damn thing for, anyways-? You pick up your phone to check if you'd missed anything over the past few hours.

『You've been chosen!』

You narrow your eyes at the email notification; it's from an address you don't recognize, and you don't recall signing up for anything. Spam is spam- in the trash it goes.

As you delete the message, your eyes naturally wander to the glowing clock on the corner of your screen- damn, it's so late. A quick glance out the window reassures you- the sun has gone down, and you'll be late for your shift if you take too long.

You scramble to get ready, hunting down a clean uniform shirt and trying to scrape mud off a pair of shoes. As you hustle past the stove, you hesitate; do you eat before you leave, or do you buy something when you get there?

You yank the fridge open; as empty as it was when you took your nap. There's half-empty bottles of soda and a jug of milk, plus the leftovers you've been trying to make last- it's such a pain, because your wallet is almost as empty.

You'll get something when you arrive.

The glowing clock on your microwave catch your eye- damn, you need to hurry. You stumble back to your room to finish getting ready. It's been getting cold lately, so you reach for your phone to check the weather app- didn't you. . . delete that email?

『You've been chosen!』

It flashes on your screen again. Maybe you'd only thought you deleted it- you'd just woken up, after all. You swipe the notification to your trash, for real this time.

Gasoline for your car isn't cheap right now; instead of wasting it, you shrug on your only coat and zip it up as high as it'll go, wrapping a scarf around your neck and burying your face in it. Lacking gloves, you shove your hands deep into your pockets as the door slams shut behind you.

The night air instantly delves its way into your lungs, feeling tangy on your tongue and sharp against your throat, washing away the vestiges of your sleepy haze.

It's a brisk walk to your job; a corner convenience store several blocks away from your cheap rental home. The maze of streets and cracked sidewalks were dark until you made another turn, and then thr store's artificial glow pierces the winter night. The door chimes as it slides open, the sound tinny and faint; still, your coworker Rina looks up from her phone, smiling brightly at you.

"Hiya, [Name]!" She chirps.

"You're awfully chipper, Rina." You giggle at her as you step behind the counter. The small staff break room is off to the side. Rina chatters away as you peel off your winter gear- something about her pet frog?- and you check your phone as you slip it from your coat pocket.

『You've been chosen!』

A confused frown settles on your face. Your brows furrow. Rina notices, pausing in her "discussion," craning her neck to read over your shoulder. "Something wrong, [Name]?"

You hold your phone up more so she can properly read the screen. "I've deleted this email twice today? But it's still. . ." As your voice trails off, you go to swipe the message back into the trash, again. Rina stops you.

"Well, is it the exact same one, or do they just keep resending it? Maybe it's a glitch with their automated system?"

Huh, you hadn't thought of that. You squint to look at the tiny time stamp. ". . . it says it's from a few minutes ago, so I guess you're right." You finally open the email- a lot of automated ones have unsubscribe buttons buried somewhere near the bottom. You can't help but read the email as you search.

"Crypton Future Industries?"

Rina presses closer at that. "I think I've heard that somewhere before- what does it say?"

Dear [Name],

You have been selected to take part in the alpha testing of Crypton's latest state-of-the-art technology. Please respond to set up a meeting at your earliest convenience.

Thank you for your compliance.

Crypton Future Industries

You snort at the message- sounds like a total scam. Rina, however, lets out a squeal; she grabs your arm and shakes you lightly. "[Name], that's incredible!"

You pull away from her. "It's literally so sketchy, Rina. It sounds like I'll pull up and get murdered." Still, you can't help being a bit curious- what kind of technology, exactly?

Rina pulls her own phone back out, tapping rapidly, clicking onto some brightly-colored webpage. The teal coloring nearly blinds you when she holds the screen up to your face.

"I knew the name was familiar! Crypton does all sorts of things; they've got a fashion division, and they make instruments, and-"

"To the chase, Rina?"

"-okay so they're mostly known for their tech! You seen those latest smartwatches? That's them!" She grinned.

You hum thoughtfully as Rina continues rambling. What could you have done to even catch the attention of a company like that?

"-say yes, [Name]!"

You blink at her. "I dunno, it's kinda. . ."

"I'll go with you, if it makes you feel better." She tucks her phone away. "Always safer to travel in pairs, yeah? And I super wanna see what it's all about too."

You shrug, but turn to the schedule on the wall anyways, looking for your next day off.

☆☆☆

Crypton Future Industries is sterile.

You'd actually unknowingly passed the building countless times on your trips downtown; it was one of the more intimidating skyscrapers, seemingly walled with nothing but reflective windows that dazzled in the light of the sun.

Now, you and Rina sat alone in the stark, quiet lobby, waiting for whatever is next. Rina tapped away at her phone happily and hummed tunelessly. The receptionist kept warily glancing at you over the barriers of her desk. Too nervous to waste your phone battery, you just anxiously examine the minimalist waiting room.

The door next to the front desk abruptly slides open; you practically rocket to your feet, just ready to get this over with. Rina squeals a bit in her excitement as she stands up too, squeezing your wrist to reassure you.

A dark-haired man in a lab coat steps into the lobby. He's taller than you ny several inches, older by quite a few years. The traffic whizzing by outside the clear doors reflects in the lenses of his glasses, so you feel his eyes searching you instead of seeing them.

"Miss [Name], I presume?" he asks hesitantly. You nod slowly. At that, he smiles in relief, turning to examine Rina as well. "Ladies, my name is Tomomi Nakahara, and I am the leading scientist of the EAV* project you've been invited for today. Now if you'll please follow me. . ."

He whirled on his heel. You and Rina followed him through the door.

The halls beyond the door were vastly different from the waiting room; floor to ceiling was stark white, the fluorescent lights were harsh, and you could feel the vibrations of far-off machinery in your chest.

". . . I can way understand your hesitation now, [Name]." Rina's whispers are almost drowned out by the echo of Nakahara's shoes on the linoleum. You can only nod at her.

Nakahara leads you through the blinding maze with ease as if he'd lived here his entire life. Down hall after hall, elevator after elevator. Finally, on some floor unnervingly deep underground, he halts in front of another intimidating door at the end of a hallway- the only door on this level. By now, you and Rina are holding hands out of anxiety- moral support, in case he does try to murder you now.

Confident that you haven't fled in terror yet, Nakahara swipes his employee ID card through a wall-mounted scanner; after a series of whirrs and beeps, the door whooshes open, and your group steps inside.

The first thing you notice is the cold. The second thing, the large glass tubes lining the room. Each houses what looks to be a human body; they range in apparent age and gender, but they all have their eyes closed, suspended among thick wires and cords. Your grip on Rina's hand tightens; at your side, she's stiff as a board.

The scientist speaks for the first time since the lobby. "We here at Crypton Future Industries are, as our name implies, always thinking about what lies ahead." His hands are clasped behind his back, his pristine lab coat swishing behind him as he walks, unperturbed, down the aisle.

"We strive to develop technology that will keep society moving forward. For this reason, we have deemed the development of androids worth our time and resources." Nakahara pauses in front of a specific tube, absently tapping at the glass. The male machine inside doesn't respond. Something akin to excitement begins bubbling up in your chest, displacing the fear that used to be there. Nakahara continues his sales pitch.

"Androids would be very beneficial to our society, but throughout our internal testing processes, we've come to realize that all of our fine-tuning cannot properly mimic one thing- humanity itself. And that's where you come in." Nakahara looks back at you, his dark eyes appearing to see right through you. "We cannot release something that looks but does not act human; it would be rejected automatically, and our efforts would be for naught. So you, [Full Name], have been selected to host and teach one of our test units the facets of humanity."

Rina gasps, and that sound snaps you from your trance. You blink. "Wh- what, why me?! And what does something like this even entail- I can't take care of a robot!"

"We can discuss details once you've had a chance to interact with the droid. I understand it's spontaneous, and something very shocking; please refrain from making a snap decision. If you refuse, we will respect that and move on." The scientist watched you closely. Rina's nails dug into the back of your hand. You nodded.

Nakahara smiles at your confirmation, tapping away at the tube's keypad; eventually the entire device lights up and slides open. The suspended body- android- whirrs quietly for a moment, and then bright blue eyes shoot open and lock with yours. It takes your breath away.

"Miss [Name], meet your charge. Len Kagamine."

*EAV is pronounced "eve;" you can probably guess what it stands for lmao

#electric angel #vocaloid

[utopia-p2p-ecosystem]

Utopia — Revolutionary Decentralized P2P Ecosystem

Would it fascinate you if you would stumble upon a decentralized peer-to-peer ecosystem that consists of instant secure messenger, mail system, mineable cryptocurrency, file storage and a built-in browser ?

Introduction :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvF4LN7FdQs

If any of the above mentioned aspects and the video you just watched got your attention, you are in for a great treat today. Keep on reading because you will be impressed with what I am going to share.

Email with Digital Utopian Claims

It started with an ordinary outreach email , where the media firm was asking for advertisement of their ‘Program’ , but when I read through the email and the claims it made I was certain that either its another scam or something really big (i was bit inclined towards the scam thing) , quoting text from email

We spent more than five years secretly working on its development. At the moment, it is at a beta stage and we are ready to introduce it to the community. With your help, we would like to invite as many beta testers and specialists in this sphere as possible to take part in the testing of our product. You can also help us to inform the community about the launch of our beta testing and to tell people about our unique solution.30MilesNorth PR Firm further outsourced their campaign to another marketing firm while ‘CryptoHill.io’ didn’t even bother to get back to me when I replied to the email. Not a good start.

Update: CryptoHill contacted and outsourced 30MileNorth and not the other way.

Little I knew that my opinions would change when would visit their beta portal and as I started digging , I found the concept intriguing with potential and an actual ‘working’ beta product for us to take out for a ride.

Utopia — Anti 1984 Ecosystem

Utopia is a decentralized peer-to-peer network, With Utopia you can send instant text and voice messages, transfer files, create group chats and channels, send emails and conduct a private discussion. Currently Utopia is an application for Windows, iOS and Linux which offers all the features within one application. Utopia users get on their ‘Utopia ecosystem‘ as the application also provides a built-in Idyll browser to view websites within Utopia peer-to-peer network . Utopia comes with a Cryptocurrency which is called ‘Crypton‘ and is Proof-of-Stake. uWallet allows you to store,transfer your Crypton(CRP) or even create vouchers and credit cards, Utopia Network includes Utopia Name System (UNS) which is a decentralized registry of names that are impossible to expropriate, freeze or corrupt by 3rd-party as no one has control over the system rather its self-governed by rules set in place which are applicable to everyone. After you join Utopia you may wanna drop by our Hackology channel, which you can search in the Channel Manager

JOIN UTOPIA

Register yourself as a Beta Tester, Contributor or a Promoter. Each category gets to enjoy the ecosystem while the rewards vary (reward system will be explained shortly).

Utopia ecosystem is a culmination of multi-year effort by a group of technology enthusiasts dedicated to freedom of self-expression and privacy. We call ourselves a 1984 Group. Among us there are top-notch professionals in almost every IT field, such as cryptographic, software, networking engineers and many more. This has been a long and challenging journey. After all this had never been done before! Finally, we present an ecosystem that will change the way World communicates and handles financial transactions.Utopia brief taken from their official website. Mentioning ‘financial transactions’ makes one wonder that Bitcoin was also disrupting the conventional financial system

Lets Explore Utopia and all the features in detail. please note as this is a beta application many of the features might change in future or some even get removed.

Utopia Encryption

Each user participates in transmission of network data but only the recipient can decrypt the data. Advanced encryption ensures interception-proof communication channel to all Utopia users. All communication is secure and protected by Curve25519 high-speed elliptic curve cryptographywhile local storage is encrypted by 256-bit AES. Big Brother is no longer watching you!

Installing Utopia

Once you register on the Beta Portal you have to download Utopia Application. After installing the application you will be given a Hardware ID and a Private Key, these keys are required to activate your beta license which can be done from the Activation Page. Please keep in mind that your beta portal website login credentials are not linked with Utopia Application and you can have a different username for the app and the website. Once you activate the license your utopia account will be tied with your beta portal account. A step by step procedure for easy understanding of the activation procedure:

Register at Utopia Beta Portal

Download Utopia software

Install the program by following simple instructions on installation wizard

Run Utopia and Create your account. You will be provided with Public Key and Hardware ID. Those are needed to activate your Utopia software

Login to your account

Click on JOIN BETA

Agree to the Rules and click SUBMIT

Click on NEW ACTIVATION and Enter Public Key and Hardware ID

Click ADD

Now your Utopia is activated and you are ready to test it

Find me in #Hackology Channel

Utopia Dashboard

Utopia is a feature-rich platform that is specifically designed to protect privacy of communication, confidentiality and security of personal data. It was created for privacy-conscious public who believe that privacy is paramount. Utopia is a decentralized network, with no central server involved in data transmission or storage. The network is supported by people who use it’s many high quality features.

The first glimpse we get of the application is at the Dashboard which has navigational menu for easy access to all of its many features for us to explore, use and report bugs while it is in beta testing phase.

uMail (Utopia Mail)

uMail is a secure alternative to classic e-mail. uMail can be sent to Utopia users that are in your contact list for now. uMail has all functionality of email localized to Utopia ecosystem. No servers are used for mail transmission or storage. uMail account, that is created by default when you join the Utopia network, enables unlimited messaging and attachment storage. Utopia ecosystem encryption guarantees the security of mail transmission and storage. Your uMail, as an internal part of Utopia, cannot be blocked or seized.

All those who value their data privacy would find this useful including activists and journalists knowing that their data is going straight to the designated user and no 3rd party can intercept their data. Currently the limit set for the attachments is 100 MB but as per the team it may be increased in future.

uWallet (Utopia Wallet)

All financial functionality can be found in Utopia built-in uWallet. uWallet allows you to make and accept payments denominated in Utopia cryptocurrency ‘Crypton‘, accept payments at your website, pay by Crypto Cards without revealing your Identity or bill fellow Utopia users for your services. With uWallet you can store value in Cryptons, receive mining rewards, use uVouchers, request payments and accept payments using the built-in API.

All of this while you remain anonymous. All payments are instant and cannot be reversed. Decentralized nature of Utopia ensures that your balance cannot be expropriated.

Utopia Mining — Crypton

Utopia has an inbuilt cryptocurrency called Crypton (CRP), which is proof-of-stake therefore a modest machine can also be used to mine cryptons through the GUI based Utopia application or with terminal based Mining bot which comes with the application.

Utopia rewards users that support the ecosystem through Mining by emission of new Cryptons. When you run your Utopia software or bot you will receive your share of collective reward. Mining does not slow your computer down and is environmentally friendly. You may also run a number of bots at several servers or computers to multiply the Crypton mining speed.

uNS (Utopia Naming System)

Utopia has introduced uNS (Utopia Naming System) which is a unique naming system and independent from the conventional Domain Naming System. DNS is subject to pressure and censorship from less than prefect international laws. Domains can be revoked or suspended due to multiple reasons, such as non-response to WhoIS inquiry or other register policies, non-payment, government actions and so on.

uNS, in contrast, is a truly decentralized non-censored registry hosted by Utopia Network participants with no expiration dates, renewal fees, suspensions and revocations. There is only one rule: First come, First served.

uNS registered name should be unique. You may register as many uNS registered names as you want while registration is not free and costs are paid in crypton:

Single letter uNS costs 1000 CRP

Two letter uNS costs 500 CRP

Three letter uNS costs 5 CRP

Four letter or more costs 0.1 CRP

Miscellaneous Features

Making Groups, Adding users, Chatting and Emailing, Sending Mails and Mining Cryptons might be the highlights but Utopia claims to be an ecosystem therefore they had to incorporate many more features so that users of Utopia ecosystem do not feel the need to go out of the system. List of other useful features within the Utopia Application are listed

Packet Forwarding : uNS Manager lists option of ‘Packet Forwarding’ which is an internal system allowing any utopian user to host a website which can be accessed by the Idyll browser, the naming system of the website is explained above, if you register hackology uNS you can make a website and it will open when you visit http://hackology/ and that is it. This option allows to tunnel any kind of data between users in ecosystem, making possible to host different types of resources including websites inside Utopia Network. At the time of writing few fellow Utopia users made Utopia sites which can be accessed at http://trade/ and at http://crystalforest

File Manager : All files which are sent or received in Utopia can be accessed from the builtin file manager which also includes an image viewer. As of now the file transfers are limited to 100MB.

Voice Notes : Utopia also supports sending and receiving of Voice messages which you can send to those who are added with you.

Dark Theme : The program comes in standard theme but how can they miss out a Dark Theme for the privacy savvy ? Users can opt for dark theme by going to Tools > Settings > Interface and selecting the ‘Dark Space‘ theme

Utopia API : Utopia comes with a comprehensive API for users to incorporate in their own projects. For instance, using API you can accept payments denominated in Crypton at your website, automatically manage your channels, send instant messages and much more. To get started once you enable the API you can also access the API documentation.

Network Fee Structure : Utopia provides us with an option to view all the network enforced fee and they are updated live on the network as the fee structure changes, thus one can stay updated with the current fee structure. You can access the Network Fee from uWallet > Treasury Data > Network Fee

Game : Utopia also supports in-app games which can be played in multiplayer, as of writing there is a working Chess game.

Utopia Reward System

Utopia is providing a very lucrative reward system, where Beta Testers, Contributors & Promoters all can join the beta portal and help test and find bugs which in return gets you ‘pts‘ where 1 pt equals to 1 USD which are paid in BTC.

We truly believe that your participation has to be exciting and mutually beneficial. Utopia Beta Program rewards your enthusiasm, commitment and dedication. No matter what is your skill set you will find an opportunity to contribute to Utopia P2P Project development.

At the time of writing I have already cashed out $560 and transferred them to my own bitcoin wallet. I can vouch that if you have the eye to spot bugs it is a good place to help them and in return get paid. Uptil now Utopia team has paid out $3583 to beta testers which is a decent figure keeping in view that they launched 7 days back and still 3 months of beta testing period is left.

If you are not a bug finding sort you can still help and give them suggestions and ideas on how to improve their application or go ahead and share this on social media pages and get paid for being a ‘promoter’. Withdrawals are done manually and as per the rule it can take up-to 48 hours, but I have noticed that within an hour or so they release the funds.

Do Earn but DONT SPAM they have mentioned categorically that have zero spam tolerance

Who Owns Utopia

Creators of Utopia plan to stay anonymous as they have stated in the help documents

Utopia has been developed by a group of networking technology enthusiasts over the last 5 years. To eliminate any impact on the project, developers of Utopia will forever remain anonymous. We will not be able to alter the algorithms of the ecosystem once it has been launched.It is currently not known how they will not be able to alter the algorithms once the platform moves out of Beta, that we will know once it is launched

There is limited we know right now about Utopia team. We know that u.is is the domain and they are hosting it on 1984.iswhile *.is is TLD for Iceland. Web hosting company 1984 and Utopia both launched almost together therefore it can be said that the web hosting company was made solely for the purpose of hosting Utopia website project. Some details from Whois of u.is domain shows that the domain was registered back in 2010, which might give credibility to their claims of 5–6 years of development. On the other hand u.is domain was also offering hosting services at one pointwhere one can see mentions of a ‘Umbra System‘. I will leave all this for someone else to do research on as the point is not to find out who wants to stay hidden. But to point out that for how long one can stay hidden ?

Domain : u.is ( 190.115.19.82 ) Registrant name 1984 GROUP LP Address 18/2 Royston Mains Street City/Municipality Edinbourg Postal code EH51LB Country GB Registered 28. July 2010 Expires 28. July 2024 Last change 24. June 2019

Whois information of the Webhosting domain 1984.is :

Domain 1984.is Registrant name 1984 ehf. Address P.O. Box 126 City/Municipality Reykjavík Postal code 121 Country IS Phone [phone] Registered 15. May 2006 Expires 15. May 2022 Last change 5. November 2018

1984hosting.com is also a mirror of 1984.is thus is linked with the 1984 Group LP.

No one knows ‘for now’ who is behind the project Utopia and the intentions to hide the identities might seem like a good idea aswell. It would allow creators to work without any pressure or involvement in their project and they can keep it safe and secure for everyone.

[terabitweb]

Original Post from Talos Security Author:

Post authored by Nick Biasini and Jaeson Schultz.

Sextortion spammers continue blasting away at high volume. The success they experienced with several high-profile campaigns last year has led these attackers to continue transmitting massive amounts of sextortion email. These sextortion spammers have been doing everything they can to keep their approach fresh. Not only does this help sextortionists evade spam filters, increasing their chances of landing in recipients’ inboxes, but it also ups their chances of finding a message that has language that resonates, convincing potential victims that the perceived threat is indeed real. Let’s take a look at some of the recent changes we’ve seen in the sextortion email landscape.

Sextortion profits decline sharply

In an effort to see how lucrative sextortion schemes continue to be, Cisco Talos revisited some of the larger campaigns we had seen since the beginning of 2019. We selected one of the highest volume campaigns for deeper analysis: sextortion messages containing “Subject: : .” The same attackers behind the “Aaron Smith” campaigns last year, which we wrote about in October, are behind these new efforts.

After collating all the email samples we could find in SpamCop, we then extracted the Bitcoin addresses where victims were asked to deposit their extortion payments. Talos identified over 1 million sextortion emails transmitted by these sextortionists between January and March 2019. However, after reviewing the targets, we found only 29,000 unique email recipients. This means that each user is receiving an average of 38 emails from this one sextortion campaign. This seems like a counter-intuitive approach since after a user receives one or maybe two of these emails, the effectiveness is going to be greatly reduced. However, that doesn’t mean at least some of the targets aren’t paying up.

The reuse of Bitcoin addresses are rampant in this campaign, with only about 9,000 unique Bitcoin addresses among the entire set of messages. We began an analysis of these addresses to determine how many Bitcoins have been deposited into the attackers’ accounts. After pulling the current value of these addresses, we were able to find ~3.5 BTC in the addresses, which equals about $17,000. These returns are quite disappointing when compared with the $150,000 these same attackers obtained in just two months of sextortion attacks last fall. Rather than face the harsh reality that fewer victims continue to fall for their scams, however, sextortionists are redoubling their efforts.

A lot of simple tricks and nonsense

For a large sextortion spam campaign, there is no greater nemesis than the anti-spam filter. Messages reusing the same content over and over are quite easy to identify and preempt into the trash bin as they arrive. Last year, many of the sextortion emails we encountered varied some of the wording inside the emails but did not make much effort to try and bypass anti-spam filters. For example, below is the HTML body from one of the messages sent last October as a part of the “Aaron Smith” sextortion campaign.

Now, however, these same attackers have taken to designing their messages with the objective of improving their performance against anti-spam filters. From the perspective of the victim, the message itself is still as readable as it ever was. However, the underlying code that the mail client uses to render the message has become much more complex. In the example below, the attackers are using a combination of the username in comments, plain text letters and HTML character entities.

Since tricks like this aren’t guaranteed to bypass anti-spam filters, spammers have also dusted off some crusty old techniques dating from back in 2005: image spam. The concept of image spam is simple enough — instead of transmitting the body of the email as text, spammers include only an image of the text, leaving very little for the anti-spam system to examine. Below is an example of a sextortion message using this image spam technique. Unfortunately for the attackers, this tactic wasn’t thought through completely. The sextortion email asks the victim to copy and paste the Bitcoin address, but this is impossible to do, as the text is inside the image.

Scammers offer “proof”

Besides varying the technical and structural details of their messages, sextortion spammers are similarly freshening up their social engineering approach. Previously, in order to convince recipients that the lies in the sextortion email were true, many early sextortion campaigns included victim’s passwords that attackers had obtained from publicly available data breaches. Other techniques we saw early on included supposedly sending the sextortion email from the same address as the recipient (The emails are coming from *inside* the house!!) Now, sextortion attackers are once again upping the ante by offering “proof” associated with their extortion claims.

Sextortion messages from this particular campaign include a ZIP file attachment which purportedly contains evidence. When extracted, this file prompts the user to visit a URL, and then extracts a file, “Password.txt,” that contains the same URL and instructions, plus another ZIP file. A variation of this same technique includes a similar setup with the instructions to get the password in the email itself, as is shown in the example below.

At this point, the URLs have resulted in dead links or non-existent pages. However, if the link is active, the user is prompted with a request to purchase the password for $50. This would ensure that the actor would at least get some money from the victim.

Another campaign switched from attaching ZIP files to PDFs. These PDFs then link to a webpage, which is redirecting to a Cryptonator — a cryptocurrency wallet — portal requesting $25 for the ZIP file. This may be an indication that the initial effort of sending a ZIP file directly is not paying off as well as expected.

If you try to decompress the ZIP file without a password, some of the files will decompress and others will not. What the user will see is some directories being created that appear to be associated with a free digital audio recorder, editor and mixer. There are files that would appear interesting to the user as well, but those files, obviously, do not extract.

Without paying for the password, we have been unable to identify the contents of these files, but they are likely just some sort of innocuous junk data. Ideally, the adversary is hoping that just the presence of these files is enough to persuade the users to pay the ransom, and unfortunately, it appears to have worked. During the investigation, we were able to find a small number of victims that appear to have paid the extortion payment into the attackers’ Bitcoin addresses.

Conclusion

Early success has led to a proliferation of sextortion spam, but profits from these types of scams are declining rapidly. Going back to their inception months ago, the adversaries have made hundreds of thousands of dollars with little more than publicly available data and some ingenuity. Users need to understand that these sextortion attempts are nothing but a sham, and the threat isn’t backed up by real data. Unfortunately, the reality is that it is still far too easy to extort users with the threat of exposure without any real data backing it up and the bad guys are continuing to cash in on users’ own paranoia.

As always, users are encouraged to use strong, unique passwords for accounts online and to rotate those passwords regularly. This type of simple password hygiene can greatly reduce the success of these types of attacks and protect the user from real account compromise impacts. In today’s internet, having usernames and passwords breached is a part of being online, and users need to be prepared for that eventuality. Using multi-factor authentication for those critical accounts is a great additional step users can take to help eliminate some of the risks. As the efficacy of sextortion scams continues to decline, Talos expects attackers to pivot to one of the many other tricks they have up their sleeves.

Coverage

Email Security can block malicious emails sent by threat actors as part of their campaign.

IOC

Email Subjects:

Ticket: #

Re: #

RE: Case #

Subject: :

Attachments:

_Proof#.zip

_Proof#.pdf

#gallery-0-5 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-5 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; } #gallery-0-5 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-5 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

Go to Source Author: Sextortion Profits Decline Despite Higher Volume, New Techniques Original Post from Talos Security Author: Post authored by Nick Biasini and Jaeson Schultz. Sextortion spammers continue blasting away at high volume.

#Talos Security