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Gaming Tech: How To Operate Your Own Dedicated Server

Gaming Tech: How To Operate Your Own Dedicated Server

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How Canada Is Combating Mental Health Crisis
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Gaming Tech: How To Operate Your Own Dedicated Server

Gaming Tech: How To Operate Your Own Dedicated Server

Multiplayer gaming is one of the main reasons that gaming has become one of the most lucrative industries on the planet. And, during the Covid era, online multiplayer gaming saw a massive boom. Allowing people to stay connected with one another during troubling times. There is nothing better than logging on and gaming with your friends. No matter where they are in the world.

From Minecraft to Counterstrike, most modern games come equipped with some form of online multiplayer. Single player games are still a popular format to be sure. But this is the age of multiplayer gaming. A lot of games, primarily console ones, have dedicated servers hosted by the games developers. Titles like Call Of Duty are a prime example of this.

But for other games, such as Minecraft, you might want a more private or personalized multiplayer experience. Which is where a dedicated server comes into play. This guide will walk you through exactly what a dedicated server is. And how you can operate your own one for the purposes of gaming.

What Is A Dedicated Server

A dedicated server is a physical piece of hardware that allows users to connect to a specific website / program / system. Whatever is hosted on the server. Technically, a regular PC could be used as a server, allowing access to other users either on a local network or remotely through the internet. But this isn’t ideal for the purposes of gaming.

We will be using Minecraft as an example for this article. It is entirely possible to host a Minecraft server on your PC. Your friends can join and you can all have a good time. But, when you turn your PC off for the night, the server has to go offline too. This is fine for you, but not for your friends who might want to keep playing.

You could opt to keep your PC running overnight, but this will increase your electricity bill and isn’t ideal for the health of your PC. Also, while you are using the PC, it will be performing slower due to having to deal with hosting the server, using more processing power.

A dedicated server removes all of these issues. It can run 24/7 and will reduce the risk of lag or downtime as it doesn’t have to worry about running other programs.

Starting A Dedicated Server

There are a number of reasons you might want to create your own dedicated gaming server. The most popular reason is to create your own gaming community. This could be for social reasons or business purposes. Because there is a lot of money to be made from running a good gaming server.

First, you need the physical server to handle the hosting. There are two options here. You could opt for a physical server. Or you could rent a server from a third party. Let’s examine the pros and cons of both options.

Buying a physical server for yourself will allow you total customization over the hardware and software. You will be able to deal with any technical issues as soon as they arise. And you can easily alter the servers hosted programs at will. The downside is the cost. Physical servers are not cheap. And, since they will be running constantly, they will run up your electricity bill.

Renting a server is often cheaper overall. A lot of companies price themselves competitively these days since windows hosting is still very viable, there are plenty of options available to you. Renting a server will come with consistent tech support from the company. The major downside is, if a tech issue arises, you will have to wait longer for it to be sorted as opposed to fixing it yourself.

Curating The Server

Running a dedicated server is about more than just the technical aspects. There is also a lot to consider in terms of how the server operates and who is allowed on it. If you are running a private server then you don’t have to worry as much as you can curate who has access.

But if you are planning to run a dedicated public server, you will need some safeguards in place. You will want to create a set of rules that users have to follow to ensure everyone is having a good time while using your server.

To ensure people are keeping to the rules, you will want to find some moderators. Moderators are people who will have access to admin commands on your server. This will allow them to ban anyone who breaks the server rules. Moderators are essential for maintaining your servers reputation online. But you need to be very careful when selecting your moderators. There are a lot of people out there who let a little bit of power go to their head. And nothing will kill a server faster than bad moderators.

How Canada Is Combating Mental Health Crisis

How Canada Is Combating Mental Health Crisis

It is no small exaggeration that the world is currently facing a mental health crisis. The latest studies estimate that as many as one in four adults suffer from serious mental health issues. And one in ten children suffer too. And experts estimate that this number will only go up in the years to come if something isn’t done.

But we are also lucky to live in an age where we know more about mental health issues than ever before. Advances in medical technology and a shift in the attitudes of our society mean we are far better equipped to help people deal with their mental health issues. But, like any medical crisis, it requires a lot of involvement from a country’s government to properly combat it. Today we are examining just how Canada is dealing with the growing mental health crisis.

Bell Let’s Talk

Bell Let’s Talk is a charity that was founded by the Bell telephone company back in 2011. The foundation was created to help combat mental health issues in Canada. The original five year goal of the foundation was to give out $50 million to various institutions. And it didn’t stop there. The foundation has continued their good work relentlessly. Providing much needed funding to numerous mental health charities across the nation.

Most recently the foundation donated $1 million dollars to 11 different Canadian colleges and universities. The money is going directly into the institution’s different student mental health programs. This is a huge step in the right direction. Studies have shown that the later educational years are when young people can suffer the most from mental health issues. The stress of education paired with the anxiety of the future can be a lot. Not to mention the financial strain of funding a university education.

THC Legalization

Back on October 17th, 2018, Canada took a monumental step forwards as a nation. They legalized weed. This was an amazing decision for a number of reasons. It was a huge step forward in the social justice cause, removing the issue surrounding unjust incarceration relating to weed. It was a huge financial boon for the nation, bringing in an estimated $1.3 billion dollars a year to the nation’s economy. And, most importantly, it was extremely beneficial for the war against mental health issues.

Many studies have shown that both THC and CBD, the two primary cannabinoids found in hemp, can be used to help deal with various physical and mental ailments. The primary medical use of THC has been as a potent natural pain medication. It is particularly useful in helping people who suffer from chronic pain.

Recently there have been studies that have found that using THC and CBD in moderation can help alleviate the symptoms of depression and anxiety. Both substances can elevate a person’s mood and boost their creativity and emotional thinking. All things that have been proven to help those suffering. CBD can also increase the brain’s ability to absorb the serotonin it produces, helping combat the chemical imbalance that leads to depression.

The legalization of weed has made it so that Canadians can get whatever they need, whenever they need it. Companies like topshelf in BC sell a range of buds and flowers that can be delivered directly to your door. Which is a huge boon for people with mental health issues that keep them from venturing outside.

Farmer’s Mental Health

The agricultural sector in Canada is huge. The sector provides 1 of every 9 jobs. And it is responsible for 7% of the nation’s GDP. The province of Newfoundland and Labrador makes up 1.1% of the 7%. And it is for this reason that the nation is putting around $7 million dollars into the province’s agriculture sector. And a large sum of this is to go towards a new farm-focused mental health initiative.

It is all too easy for our digital society to forget about the people working in the agriculture sector. Our attention is often focused on the big tech innovators, celebrities, influencers, and the bigger cities. But the mental health concerns of farmers are just as important. These are the people that grow the food we all rely on. So it is amazing to see Canada putting more money into making sure their needs are being met.

Over the last few years we have seen more and more initiatives like this and the Bell Let’s Talk foundation. And we hope it is the sign of a continual upward trend for Canada when it comes to handling the mental health crisis. As long as people don’t stop discussing the importance of mental health care, we can hopefully build a better future for everyone.

The Influencer Guide To Mastering Social Media

The Influencer Guide To Mastering Social Media

The Power Of Social Media

If there is anything that defines our current generation, it is social media. The advent of the internet changed the way the human race functions forever. It allowed us to connect instantly across the globe. It changed nearly every industry on the planet. And it has shifted the social and political dynamics of our world forever.

If the internet was the foundation of these changes, social media was the hammer that fixed them into place. Social media had humble origins as platforms for friends and family to keep in touch and share updates about their lives. Over the years it has transformed into a multi-million dollar industry that is used in nearly every industry and political sphere on the planet.

And the wheels of social media are not slowing down. So to get ahead in this digital age, you will need to have a good understanding of how social media works and how you can make it work for you. This guide will help you understand social media through the lens of an influencer.

Understanding Your Audience

In the past, social media was a more personal thing. The platforms such as Myspace and Facebook were primarily designed to allow you to connect with a small group of people. Now, many social media platforms allow you to post content for the entire world to see. Reaching an audience that the marketing professionals of the past could only dream of.

And understanding your audience is the first step in mastering social media. This draws back into some of the very basic lessons of marketing. But with social media it is more important than ever before. People who use social media are far more changeable. So you need to understand not only what they want to see, but what the latest trends are. And, to a greater extent, which demographics are engaging with which trends.

Gathering Followers

Knowing your audience is only step one. You then need to acquire followers. In the social media world, followers are as good as currency. And, in business terms, they often equate to sales as well. Gaining, and keeping followers, is a whole game in and of itself.

There are a few methods for gaining followers. Chief amongst them is creating engaging content and keeping to a consistent posting schedule. Another great method for gaining followers is working in collaboration with other pages and influencers. This will help you reach a wider, and often more diverse audience.

You will also want to engage with your followers on a more personal level as well. Live-streams are a great way to do this. You can run competitions or giveaways, which are a great method for improving customer relations and bringing in new followers. You will also want to ensure you have staff who spend time responding to all the DM’s you will receive on your social media platforms.

Follower24

There is a more direct method for acquiring followers as well. Follower24 is a service that allows you to instantly buy TikTok followers for your page. It is primarily based in Germany, but it offers international followers as well. Germany is a major competition in the industrial stage, so creating a strong following here is a great way to expand your business.

TikTok has become one of the fastest growing and most popular social media platforms on the planet. So if you want to succeed in the social media game, you need to be on TikTok. Follower24 can help you get your foot in the door. Once you have bought a good following, you will quickly start to amass unpaid followers quickly.

Quality Content

As technology has improved we have been blessed with more powerful cameras and editing software. AI allows us to touch up content and enhance it. And modern CGI can do amazing things. And a lot of it can now be done from our phones.

So in an age where it is easier than ever before to create such amazing content, you have to ensure the content you are putting out is keeping up with standards. To that end you will want to spend some time studying the principles of photography and filming. There is a lot to learn about shot composition, lighting, angles, and the settings of your devices that will impact the quality of your content.

If you aren’t that tech-savvy, we recommend hiring professional content creators to make your content for you. And it never hurts to have some professional editors on staff to keep your content snappy and crisp. This will go a long way in helping you gain new followers and potentially help your videos go viral. You will also want to keep up to date with any new technology that is released that could improve the quality of your content.

How The California Housing Market Is Changing In 2024

How The California Housing Market Is Changing In 2024

Housing is an important and challenging social matter in all developed and developing nations, especially in urban setups. The housing market in California is changing this year due to experiences and challenges faced during the past years. These changes are meant to benefit the homeowners and make the sector sustainable.

Each state faces similar challenges, though some may vary to some extent. California has been on the frontline in real estate development for the middle-class and upper-class populations. Hence, the housing market in California is characterized by ever-changing models and designs in response to the changing demands.

In this article, we will take some time to examine the nature of housing in California, how it is evolving as we begin this new year and how it may affect the buyer.

Demand for Cheaper Energy Use

Purchasing a home is one milestone accomplished; maintaining it in good condition and meeting the utility bills is another. For this reason, in 2024, there is rising advocacy by governments and social organizations for real estate to embrace green energy in their construction.

The change in house design to include the installation of solar energy and energy-efficient appliances in California ensures sustainability as the long-term cost is much lower and assures the world of a greener environment. In addition, California contractors are also embracing environment friendly materials, which produce even cheaper houses.

Effect of Climate Change

The California housing market is not isolated from the negative effects of global climate change. The market has seen units being demolished by natural disasters such as wildfires, floods and earthquakes. The real estate sector recognises the efforts being made globally to reverse the effects of global warming, but it may also take years to realize the goals fully.

For this reason, the housing market is relooking at its housing designs and coming up with home structures that can withstand such calamities. This will ensure that homeowners still have a home they can comfortably live in, even with minimal damages.

In areas where wildfires are common, developers are making use of construction materials that can resist burning. They are also creating a fire barrier zone between the units and forests where such fires originate.

Where earth tremors are frequent and intense, the properties are further strengthened to resist shaking. Home insurance has also become important in the housing market to offer reprieve to owners in the event that natural disasters occur.

Rising Demand and Prices

The most growing concern in the real estate and home markets, in particular, is the ever-rising cost of buying or renting a house. In California, it has brought the question of whether the units available are affordable to the larger population. Many residents, especially first-time owners, are finding it difficult to buy a home for their families.

In addition, when you need to sell your house fast and move to another one that suits your needs, it may not be easy without a marketing agent. This is because most people need help identifying places where houses can fit their budgets and rely on agents to do the leg work.

For instance, in popular and admired cities such as San Francisco and Los Angeles, average market prices for good homes hit high levels in 2023. That made it difficult for first-time homebuyers to find their dream home.

The government has been doing its part to improve the situation by activating initiatives and real estate policies to try and eliminate the high pricing challenge. That includes constructing affordable housing projects to meet the rising demand, and giving down payment or cheaper loans.

Impact of Working From Home

Workers in the past preferred to live near their workplace or where transportation is advanced for ease of commuting between workplace and home. Hence, there was a strong demand for urban housing.

However, with the shift towards working from home since the covid 19 pandemic, more employers are taking advantage of reduced operating and office space costs. On the other hand, the workers are gradually relocating to the suburbs for a lifestyle change. These neighborhoods are less crowded and less polluted, and the homes are big enough for a home office.

In Sacramento and San Diego cities, for example, more employees are no longer working from the official business offices and prefer their larger homes to have a conducive working environment. Hence, the demand for homes has shifted to these areas for the last two years, leading to a price hike.

Development of Overlooked Regions

In order to stimulate economic growth in areas that were once overlooked, the California housing market is making a huge step towards these areas through the creation of opportunity zones. The idea of taking housing projects to these regions is to create opportunities for other investors by offering potential benefits for the community and the investors. The result is to stimulate job creation and increase economic growth.

The South LA Opportunity Zone is an excellent example of how developers and investors have tried to change how the area looked. It is now one of the areas experiencing high growth in construction projects for housing, businesses, and offices. The community lifestyle has dramatically changed through increased incomes, which has attracted even more investors.

Conclusion

As the population grows in California areas due to the increase in people coming for employment or alternative lifestyles, the demand for housing has also been rising. To meet these among other challenges, some changes to improve this sector include using eco-friendly construction materials and using renewable energy. There has also been a shift to promoting housing development in marginalized areas to stimulate economic growth.

Which Content Making Trends Are Blowing Up Right Now?

Which Content Making Trends Are Blowing Up Right Now?

If you are someone that is looking to become a content creator, one of the hardest parts is finding ideas when making content that will make you stand out from others on your chosen platform. If you want to be a successful content creator, something that you are going to have to become well acquainted with is trends. A lot of platforms push these trends in the algorithm and so you will find better success if you follow them. Here are some content trends that are blowing up right now.

The When You Were Younger Trend

If you are someone that uses TikTok, something that you have likely seen is the ‘when you were younger’ trend. This trend is super simple and as long as you have access to some childhood pictures. All that you have to do is take a current picture of yourself and a picture from when you were a baby and meld the two together. The point of the trend is to see just how much you have changed since you were a child and it is one of the most wholesome trends online right now.

Which Celebrity Do You Look Like Trend

If you are looking for a trend that is a bit of fun and you are not afraid to get your feelings hurt, a trend that I would definitely suggest is the ‘which celebrity do you look like’ trend. This trend is a lot of fun and it involves the use of the filter. The filter will take a picture of you and compare it to some famous faces, selecting which one you look most alike. The best part about this trend is that you often get faces that look nothing like you, which can make for a pretty funny video.

Turn Your Partner Into You Challenge

If you are someone that has a partner, you can use them to try and boost your content creator popularity. There is a really fun trend going around right now where you take your partner and swap looks. This means that if you have a boyfriend or girlfriend, you completely swap outfits and you also do their makeup the same as how you would do your own. It is a lot of fun and you may be surprised at how different your partner looks and how closely you can get them to resemble your own appearance.

Date Night Roulette Challenge

If you and your partner have fallen into the routine of doing the same things, it is likely that you are getting a bit bored of your usual date night routine. Well, not only can you combat this, but you can get a good video out of it. In this roulette, you put down multiple activities, multiple food options and multiple towns. You then spin the virtual wheel and it picks one of all of these things and plans your date out for you. This is a lot of fun and it is a great way to get your partner more involved in your content creation.

Mystery Vacation Trend

By now, you have seen the countless mystery vacation videos, but if you haven’t here is a short explanation of what they are. There are a number of companies online that are offering random holiday experiences for a very low price. For under one hundred dollars, you can get a vacation and flights to a random destination. If you are looking to save some money and you are just not sure where to go, this is a brilliant idea and it makes for a great experience. You can also film some great content from doing this, a lot of people love to see an insight of what these experiences are really like.

Candle Painting

Another viral trend that is taking TikTok by storm right now is the candle painting trend. You take a white candle and an assortment of smaller colored candles and melt them. With the melted colored wax, you can then paint an image with the colored wax and make some pretty impressive images with the paint. This is a really fun creative outlet and if you are looking for a way to keep your page lively, doing this will definitely bring in some extra followers.

Thrift Store Outfit Challenge

If you are someone that has a social media page that is dedicated to fashion and you are a fan of getting dressed up, a trend that you will find a lot of fun is the thrift store outfit. You and a friend each get twenty dollars and you have to use this money to find each other a complete outfit from a thrift store. You can choose to be funny with this or you can actually try and turn out some impressive looks, it really depends on what you are looking to achieve with your video.

Dance Challenge

Something that you can do if you are someone that is active on social media is a dance challenge. Every month or so, a song will blow up on social media and a new dance for that song will shortly follow. Following this trend and making your own dance is a great way to boost your page or channel, because people that copy it will then have to credit you and bring attention to your page. This is a great way to connect with a wider audience and bring more people to your channel.