Shopping Product Reviews

Do customers really want companies to use artificial intelligence?

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The number of news reports highlighting the potential risks and pitfalls of artificial intelligence would lead companies to believe that the average person distrusts AI, but it turns out the answer is more nuanced than that. As Artificial Intelligence advances, customers are learning more about the role it will play in their personal and professional lives. Many of the above assumptions are being proven wrong, and some are still under debate.

Most people have an apprehension when it comes to AI: They fear that humans will lose their jobs to RPA and intelligent machines en masse. It turns out that for most people, this is not a major concern. There are countless tasks that computers can do with greater precision and efficiency than a human being. Most of these elements, such as large-scale data entry, are not tasks that humans particularly engage in in the first place.

According to a 2016 Harvard Business Review report, most customers have a favorable opinion of using AI in business. However, HBR states that the positive outlook largely depends on its previous encounters with artificial intelligence and the ability of companies to implement AI in a way that brings real benefits to the consumer.

Quality Control: Most customers have fallen victim to the margin of human error. People get tired, make mistakes, and miss important details. Once customers understand that AI removes a large percentage of the margin for error, they tend to be in favor of adopting machine learning technology and software. Many companies already use machine learning software that improves the customer experience and provides greater peace of mind.

Repetition, not competition: Customers view intelligent automation favorably when they know it’s the ideal tool for performing repetitive tasks that most people don’t do or physically can’t do efficiently. This clears up any misconceptions of AI as a replacement for all roles. The HBR states that while there will be some replacement of human roles, it is not enough to scare customers off, especially when they understand the nature of machine learning and its place in the workflow.

Improving human life: According to another Harvard Business Review report, artificial intelligence is now being used to improve cancer treatment and scientific research. Companies are harnessing the power of cognitive technology and machine learning software to fight disease and solve global problems. While the fields are still in their infancy, customers and people everywhere welcome initiatives that seek to combat these problems and eradicate them from the land.

While the headlines make it seem like AI is not a welcome concept for customers, it turns out that opinions can’t be oversimplified. They are weighing the pros and cons of AI in their lives and seem to be leaning towards the use of AI. As long as companies efficiently communicate the benefits and apply the technology where it can have an impact, consumers will continue to see artificial intelligence as a positive development.

Sports

Highest Value O-Pee-Chee Rookie Hockey Cards from 1968-69

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The 1968-69 O-Pee-Chee hockey card game marked the company’s first NHL production since 1940-41. This was the first time the 1967 NHL expansion teams were included in a set. Of course, Bobby Orr of the Boston Bruins leads the way when it comes to value. The top four rookie cards are not far behind and feature some pretty impressive hockey players.

Bernie Parent-Philadelphia Flyers

Number 89 in the 1968-69 O-Pee-Chee ensemble features Hockey Hall of Fame goaltender Bernie Parent of the Philadelphia Flyers. With a book value of $250, this is the highest value rookie card in the set. Interestingly, Parent played 39 of Boston’s 70 games in his rookie season, but Topps didn’t include him. He played another 18 with the Bruins in 1966-67 and 38 with the Flyers in 1967-68, making him almost a veteran when his rookie card finally came out.

Bernie retired after the 1978-79 National Hockey League season and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1984. Along the way, he played for the Bruins, Flyers, and Toronto Maple Leafs. Parent also spent a season in the WHA with the Philadelphia Blazers.

The Flyers might not have been a two-time Stanley Cup champion in the 1970s without Bernie Parent. The team won consecutively in 1973-74 and 1974-75. In each of those seasons, Parent received the Vezina Trophy during the regular season and the Conn Smythe Trophy in the playoffs.

Mickey Redmond – Montreal Canadians

Number 64 in the 1968-69 O-Pee-Chee set is Mickey Redmond’s rookie card and has a book value of $70. Redmond played in the NHL from 1967-68 to 1975-76 with the Canadiens and Detroit Red Wings. Mickey won a Stanley Cup championship with the Habs in 1968-69, but became an individual star in the league only after he was traded to the Red Wings. In 1972-73, Redmond scored 52 goals and the following year he scored 51.

Keith McCreary – Pittsburgh Penguins

Number 193 is Keith McCreary’s rookie card and has a book value of $40. However, the card has such a high value due to an error. There were some that were produced with the card number missing from the back. These cards are the ones with such a high value. If the card actually has the number 193 on the back, it is valued as a plain common card.

Keith’s NHL career began in earnest in 1961-62 when he played in a playoff game for the Montreal Canadiens. He played more games for Montreal in 1964-65. However, it was not until the NHL’s expansion in 1967 that McCreary became a regular in the National Hockey League. He played through the end of the 1974-75 season with the Pittsburgh Penguins and Atlanta Flames.

Garry Unger – Detroit Red Wings

Number 142 is Garry Unger’s rookie card and has a book value of $30. Unger is the No. 2 ironman in NHL history, holding the record for most consecutive games played until Doug Jarvis, the current ironman, broke it a few years later.

Garry played in the NHL from 1967-68 to 1982-83 with the Maple Leafs, Red Wings, St. Louis Blues, Atlanta Flames, Los Angeles Kings, and Edmonton Oilers. His first year was split between Toronto and Detroit and Unger is listed as a member of the Red Wings on his 1968-69 hockey card.

Tours Travel

Splitting your practice time

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“Oh, so many things I want to practice, so little time to do them.” We all get like this sometimes. This is my suggestion to make the most of your practice time. Whatever amount of time you have to practice, divide it into three parts.

Segment one will be “warm up”. Warm up with a little technical work. This is a good time to make sure your hands and arms are stretched out. Run some familiar scales. Play with a metronome. Metronome time can only take many hours if you are thorough and serious about being a stronger musician. Play some of your favorite rhythm patterns too. Use different rhythm patterns while playing scales, chords, arpeggios, triad inversions, and anything else you can think of.

The next segment will be “growth”. Growth usually consists of non-musical work. Things like learning new scales and chords would fit into this category. Brushing up on new theoretical ideas, learning new rhythms, or anything else new, these are all things that fit into the growth segment. Now, the more you solidify with your practice routine, I’m sure you can see how using a metronome, you can cross the first two segments. When you cross over to the second segment, turn up the challenge level and play unknown scales or patterns. Increase the tempo or try increasing your subdivisions. For example, if you’re playing eighth notes at 80 bpm, work on triplets or sixteenth notes at the same tempo.

The last segment is the “Fun/Jam” segment. That’s when you just have fun and play the songs you like, or put on a Jam-along CD and moan some pentatonic licks over it. You can even change it to a “creative” segment. This is where you would be exploring songwriting ideas, creating melodies, or working on your improvisation skills. Make music!

Now we are all at different levels and we all have different goals. So feel free to be a bit flexible with this plan. Let’s say you have an hour to practice. You can divide that hour into three 20-minute segments or two 15-minute segments and the third 30-minute segment. Maybe you really want to fine-tune your rhythm or pentatonic scales for an upcoming gig, audition, or rehearsal. You can make your “growth” segment a bit longer and condense the other segments.

Also, make sure your goals are clear so you know how to best customize the segments to fit your needs. Have fun with it!

Technology

How to fix "Runtime error 424 ‘Object required’" – VBA (Excel)

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If you are using Excel, you may encounter the error “Runtime Error 424” with the message “Object Required”.

This is an error with VBA (Visual Basic for Applications), and it basically shows up when you reference an object that doesn’t exist or is out of current scope.

If you see the error as someone who is “developing” any automated macro/functionality in an Excel spreadsheet, the likely problem is that you are calling an object “out of context”. This means that you may have loaded an object, but its content may have been changed or replaced. There are also several other potential problems, solutions that I will explain in this tutorial…

Cause

The error you will see will have the following message:

Runtime error ‘424’

Object required

To explain why the error appears and what it means, Microsoft released its famous “Visual Basic” package in the late 1990s.

This provided basic capabilities with the system, allowing hobby developers to create simple applications. VB was a great success.

Because of this, Microsoft introduced “VBA” (Visual Basic for Applications) in its Office software suite, namely Excel and Word. This allowed developer types to create automated functions in Excel spreadsheets, referencing “objects” in the sheet itself, etc.

Every time you use Visual Basic, what you are doing is calling a series of “objects” in memory. These objects are simply variables with a number of additional functions applied to them, including custom functions, etc. The problem, and this extends to most programming languages, is that if you’re referencing an object that hasn’t been called, the application will crash.

Solution

If you want to fix the problem, you need to first make sure that the data is present on the system, and then that you can reference it correctly. This tutorial will explain how to:

1. Make sure you have defined the variables correctly

The main problem is that you have called a method on a variable (object) that does not exist. The most common reason for this is that he simply misspelled the variable name and therefore did not declare it in his VBA application. Take the following example:

subtest()

Application33.WorksheetFunction.Sum(Range(“A1:A100”))

finish sub

The above will generate the error because you are trying to call the WorksheetFunction method on an object referenced in “Application33”.

Unfortunately, the Application33 object does not exist in memory, which prevents your application from being able to load it. To fix this, you need to review your source code (the wrong reference will almost always be referenced) and correct any misspelled object names.

two. If using Excel, make sure ranges/selectors exist

One of the most common reasons for the error is that you’re trying to reference an object or value that doesn’t exist. This is a typical problem with the likes of using VLookup or one of the ActiveX objects. If you experience this error, you need to make sure that your code references only objects that exist:

private subtest()

This will generate an error.

Application.WorksheetFunction.VLookup(TeamName, Range(“TeamNameLookup”), 3, False).Value

The value must be

Application.WorksheetFunction.VLookup(TeamName, Sheets(“YourSheetName”).Range(“TeamNameLookup”), 3, False)

finish sub

The above means that you are trying to call the various worksheets and their respective “Range” / “Value” functions without the sheets being found or declared. To fix this, you need to make sure to call “Range” or “Value” on the objects with respective scope.

3. Make sure you have the correct definitions

Finally, one of the most common reasons for the error is that you are not defining your variables correctly.

From incorrectly defining variables as incorrect object definitions, to calling “Explicit Option”, it may be the case that you try to reference variables/objects that are not defined simply because they have not been defined correctly.

For example…

explicit option

private subtest()

Here you have to explicitly declare the variables before trying to reference/populate them

For example…

Dim your_path as string

Set your_path = “x/y/z”

finish sub

In the example above, if the variable “your_path” is not declared before trying to set it, you will end up with error 424 (since the object “your_path” does not exist). From here you also need to make sure you can call the relevant objects (if you’re referencing a worksheet value, you need to make sure the worksheet exists and can be loaded).

Obviously, there are a number of other instances of this error. Because the specific nature of each person’s code is different, I can’t analyze all potentialities. Hopefully you can see that the error is due to an invalid variable reference on your system.