Pets r us west hills

/worldnews
https://www.aljazeera.com/amp/economy/2023/3/30/icj-orders-us-to-pay-compensation-for-freezing-iranian-assets

/news
https://abcnews.go.com/US/approximately-53000-jetson-hoverboards-recalled-fire-risks-aftestory?id=98246748

So, the other day an article was linked about how China was preparing for war and we should take that seriously. Incidentally, I have also seen this same article posted in more “popular” and therefore less “serious” subreddits. The general consensus seems to be grim, and many seem to believe war with China or at least some sort of protracted conflict is inevitable. Even on this sub, many seem to believe that there will likely be war (a year I’ve seen thrown around is 2027). Of course, there are those who use the popular population argument to claim that China is incapable of conducting a war, but this argument doesn’t really hold up against the salvo of facts that we are seeing from this article and the discussion generated by it.
As someone both with anxiety and an interest in the development of the near future, I’m wondering how likely a conflict is and what, of the many scenarios, would play out? I know little about contemporary China and their capabilities, however the popular predictions seem to be

1. Hot war with China, nuclear conflict and end of the world
   
2. Ukraine style war where China fights Taiwan with US support but not direct involvement
   

With the second scenario I’m curious if China would in fact view support as direct involvement, but either way I’m curious on everyone’s thoughts regarding this topic especially from the more enlightened among us regarding modern China.
Edit: here’s the thread and article: https://www.reddit.com/neoliberal/comments/125ytba/xi_jinping_says_he_is_preparing_china_for_wa?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=1&utm_term=1

A couple years ago, a bunch of family members were at my grandma’s house and, as always, me and my little sister were hanging out with our cousins. Two of them were around our age (12 and 14), but one was like 8 years older than me, so we viewed him and his boyfriend as the “leaders”. At some point we decided to get out of the house and go down the road to this playground, it’s important to say that my grandma lives in a private area, so this is the property of the community living there. I admit, we were a little too old for the playground, but the swings were made of chains and really strong. When we got there, we noticed a woman playing with a toddler on the soccer court. We didn't think much about it and my sister and youngest cousin went to play in the swings, while the rest of us sat on a bench to talk, not a minute passed and the woman was getting away from the toddler and hadding in our direction.
She addressed me and my older cousin by our names before introducing herself as my grandma’s next door neighbor, after that she pointed to my sister and cousin playing and said (this is paraphrasing):
- Don’t you think he is too fat to be playing on the playground? I mean, (my sister’s name) is thin, but look at the size of (my cousin’s name)!
She said that about a 9 or 10 year old kid! That pissed off my oldest cousin and his bf, and they started arguing and calling her out, now she was entering karen mode.
- Look, I paid for this playground along with your grandmother, and I expect you to take care of it so my grandson can enjoy it as you did when you were younger.
Now, that playground had it’s hard times when I was little, but it had just come out of renovations and still has its hard wood and metal structures today. But I think Karen thought about that as much as she thought about her grandson, who was struggling to climb the stairs out of the soccer court.
- If you don’t stop this, (oldest cousin), I’m going to your grandma’s house to have a talk.
My cousin was fed up, he told the rest of us to join my sister and cousin at the swings, and we ran for it while he and his boyfriend stayed to hear the woman scream. A few moments later we see her going towards my grandma’s, we regroup and follow, but she was already at the door with a lot of “disrespect” and “payments”. My grandma just nodded until she went away, then told us to go inside and that Karen was rude and not to mess with her again.
In the house, I looked through a window and saw the toddler, he was climbing a grassy hill full of rocks, trying to get to his house and Karen was nowhere to be seen.
We would throw water balloons at her house at every water balloon war we had after that.
PS: Not native speaker, go easy on my grammar please

For those of you who missed the first post, my night shifts as an art gallery’s security guard are more horrifying than anything a person should endure. My job isn’t to protect the paintings — it’s to protect humanity from the paintings.
Each canvas is a paranormal cell. The artist, Harper Andrews, even contained a terrifying interpretation of her younger self in a portrait as a safeguard. That faceless child isn’t even the worst thing in there. There are paintings of mankind’s doom. Hellfire. Armageddon.
And then there’s the painting of The Exacter. An inhuman man, tall as a tree, with woefully-white eyes and a limp jaw. He and his malformed minions are imprisoned in the gallery’s exhibits, and they seek freedom. They long to eternally torture mankind in unimaginable ways. They plot a fate worse than death.
I’ve spoken about my first shift, but I’m sure you didn’t think I’d gone two years without another incident.
One particular evening, about four months ago, a text conversation with my wife took a horrifying turn:

Cara: You can quit the day job, surely? You’re making plenty of money from the gallery.
Me: You just want to spend more time with me. You looooove me.
Cara: Well, it is a little suspicious that you spend so much time away from home. Have you got another woman on the side? Eh? Amy’s hot in a squint-your-eyes kind of way.
Me: There’s a higher chance of me hooking up with one of Harper’s demons.
Cara: Oooo! That reminds me. I just bought one of the paintings! Couldn’t resist.

Fuck. I should’ve told my wife about my work. I should’ve told her about the terrible nature of the things I guard. She never would’ve bought the artwork if she’d known it were more than paint on a canvas. After reading her message, I hurriedly rang her.
“Please tell me you were joking,” I said, shaking.
“Are you okay, Frank? You sound weird,” Cara replied.
“Why did you have to buy one of the paintings?” I asked.
“What…? You know I like macabre things,” She chortled. “Don’t be a baby. You stare at those paintings all night. What’s so wrong with having one of them in our living room?”
“I don’t even… I don’t understand why Amy would sell her sister’s work,” I said.
“I pulled her aside for a chat after you showed me around the gallery. Honestly, I can’t believe it took you over a year to give me a tour! Such beautiful paintings — disturbing, but beautiful. Harper Andrews is incredibly talented. What happened to her is sad,” Cara sighed.
“You just… made an offer that Amy accepted?” I asked.
“She claimed to have little attachment to it. She said it isn’t one of the paintings that demands eyes upon it… Seemed a rude comment because I think it’s as great as the rest of her sister’s art, but-” Cara began.
“- I have to go,” I interrupted, hanging up the phone.
It was an hour or so before my night shift, but I arrived early. Amy Andrews was engrossed in conversation with the last few gallery visitors of the day, but I quickly dragged her away from the crowd. Fury frothed to the surface of my lips.
“Why did you sell one of the paintings to Cara?” I asked.
Miss Andrews answered in an eerily flat tone. “I come from a wealthy family, Mr Hull, but I’m not thatwealthy. I have limited income streams, and I have to keep the gallery’s lights on. Sure, I make money from memberships and fundraising events, but I try to sell paintings too.”
“But Harper… You know they need to be watched at all times…” I protested.
“Not all of them,” She said.
And that was when I realised which painting was missing from the gallery. There was an empty spot on the wall above the plaque that read Harper’s Youth Dies.
“What have you done?” I gasped.
“My sister’s demented self-portrait might be horrifying, Mr Hull, but it doesn’t intend to harm us. It’s not one that needs to be watched. And your wife paid handsomely for it,” Miss Andrews explained, shrugging.
I gripped my employer’s arm in a moment of madness that could have cost my job and, for all I knew, the future of mankind.
“On that first night, Young Harper was the entity that kept watch over me,” I hissed furiously. “Your sister painted herself for a reason. Everything in this gallery has a purpose. Don’t you understand that?”
For a flicker of a moment, I was certain that something flashed in Amy Andrews’ eyes. Something black. And the corner of her lips twitched, as if to reveal that she were well aware of what she had done. But her mouth quickly returned to its normal position.
“I pay you to watch over the exhibits,” She said. “You shouldn’t need anyone or anything to watch over you.”
“Fuck this,” I spat. “I’m going home, and I’m bringing that painting back with me.”
Miss Andrews huffed, glancing at her watch. “Fifty-five minutes until your shift begins. I’d hurry.”
I drove home, mind racing with the horror of Miss Andrews’ crooked grin. Did she intentionally sell the painting to sabotage the gallery? I wondered. Don’t be foolish. If she were that evil, she could have just left the paintings unwatched, freeing the Exacter into the world.
I tried to still my throbbing heartbeat as I pulled onto our street. After hurriedly parking, I didn’t even close the car door behind me — I raced into our darkened home and started screaming at the top of my lungs.
“Cara! Where are you?”
“In the living room!” She shouted. “Why are we yelling?”
I rushed into the room, and my chest loosened a little. There was no sign of destruction. Just my wife sitting on the sofa in a well-lit room. Harper’s Youth Dies hung on the wall, but the girl’s ghastly form remained in its canvas.
“Thank fuck,” I exhaled.
“What is your deal with this creepy little girl?” Cara asked, laughing.
“I just… I have to take it back, Cara. I’ll make sure Miss Andrews gives us a refund.”
My wife rose to her feet and walked over to the painting, stroking Harper’s featureless face. I shuddered in terror, waiting for the ghoul to leap free from its frame. I assumed that she wouldn’t hurt us, but I wasn’t certain of anything.
“Come and give her a stroke,” My wife teased. “She doesn’t bite.”
I looked at my phone. I had half an hour until the start of my shift. Miss Andrews hadn’t made it clear what would happen if I weren’t on time. I feared she might do something worse than fire me — she might leave the paintings unattended.
“I’ll get you a better painting,” I said. “Something creepy from another gallery. Just anything other than a Harper Andrews piece. Please.”
“Would it make you happier if I were to draw a smiley face on her?” Cara asked.
My wife dipped her finger into her glass of water, and I cried in agony as she drew a crude pair of dots and a pencil-thin smile on Harper’s featureless face. Cara frowned at my hawing mouth when she finished.
“Relax. We own it,” She said. “Besides, it’ll dry. Don’t worry.”
I walked over to her and seized her hands tightly, taking a deep breath.
“Cara,” I said gently. “I’m begging you.”
She frowned. “Shit… I know that look, Frank. You’re genuinely scared. Why? Just tell me, and I’ll let you take the painting back.”
“You saw a ghost when you were young, didn’t you?” I asked.
Cara nodded. “My… My dad. Shortly after the car crash. Hard to believe, but I did. Well, I know youbelieve. You said you once saw your grandma’s ghost, didn’t you?”
I gripped her hands tightly and nodded. “Right. So, we believe in spirituality. Well, this painting… All of Harper’s paintings… are gateways to… to something unearthly. And that’s why I guard them. I’m sorry it took me so long to tell you.”
My wife hung her head and shook it. “You talk in your sleep, you know? You’ve been having nightmares for months… Talking about an entity and the end of the world. I knew there was something wrong with you. I-”
The lights suddenly cut out, and a wisp of wind, like a hissing voice, filled the room. Cara shrieked and leapt into my arms. I shuddered, keeping her close to my chest so she couldn’t see what I saw.
Harper’s Youth Dies.
The watery marks on Harper’s featureless face glowed faintly in the darkness — a dim, white light. And the most terrifying part was that the droplets which formed the smile had inexplicably transformed into a sulk.
“May I take it?” I asked Cara in a whisper.
She nodded, face burrowed deeply into my chest, so I guided her to the bedroom and instructed her to shut the door. I checked my phone. Twenty minutes until my shift. I seized the painting from the wall, sprinted out of the house, and lunged into my car.
When I arrived at the art gallery, the lights were off, and Amy’s car was nowhere in sight. Fortunately, I was on time for my shift, but I had no way of knowing how long she left the place unattended.
I hurried inside and immediately hung Harper’s Youth Dies above its plaque. The gallery was full again. I looked at the painting of The Exacter. I was relieved to see the monstrosity was still encaged.
But something still felt wrong. There was a churning chasm in my gut.
“You’re not in the art gallery,” Harper’s entity whispered in a distorted voice.
I finally saw what she meant. The colours of my surroundings started to swirl. The gallery walls, the floor, the paintings, and even my hands looked murky. The world was composed of paint. I was composed of paint.
And when I looked into the street, I saw the towering edges of a painting’s frame. I was trapped in Prison — Harper’s depiction of the art gallery, which you may remember from my first post. And I knew I was trapped in the painting because I could see the real world beyond the canvas.
My memories flooded back.
When I’d entered the real art gallery, the Exacter tricked me. He stood in his painting, and everything seemed fine. I looked into those horrible white eyes, and that’s when its mouth tore open to swallow me. I screeched into the hellish nothingness. Never had I felt such nightmarish horror before — not even on my first night in the gallery.
I felt dead. Worse than dead. I thought I’d entered Hell itself. I thought I’d failed at my job and the rapture had commenced. I thought of so many sickening possibilities as the Exacter’s blackened void engulfed me. Squirming inside his darkened body, I was carried by the inhuman man across the gallery floor, and he aggressively spat me into the canvas of Prison.
I’d forgotten that. He made me forget that I’d left the real world.
“It’s looking for an exit,” Harper’s voice croaked.
“Me too,” I cried.
I looked at Harper’s painting, and she wasn’t there. In her place, there was a doorway with a flickering green exit sign above it. I felt the brushstrokes of that painted world stretch and strain. The canvas was crushing me — I didn’t belong there. My painted form tightened, and I rushed to the doorway that Harper had created, terrified of what might happen if I were to stay in that false world for a moment longer.
As my hand met the painted canvas within the painted canvas, my body liquified and merged with the exit on the canvas. A blackness, still and serene, enveloped me. And then I found myself lying on a tiled floor. A real tiled floor. Choking.
Back in reality, I gazed across the gallery, and my eyes met a terrible sight. The contents of everypainting had spilled onto the floor. The Exacter stood proudly amidst his minions, plotting in a sharp whisper. I’d expected a cacophonous roar of noise from the apocalyptic demons, but something about the near-silence of their scheming was even more frightening.
Still, in the distance, I could hear human screams again — the apocalyptic sound of mankind being tortured in an endless oblivion. The agonising cries were almost tuneful, in a terribly dissonant way. Choral screaming. Humanity’s horrifying final song.
Suddenly, in unearthly unison, the Exacter’s minions — smaller versions of him, but no less terrifying — snapped their heads backwards to face me, as if the brittle bones in their necks had jellied. I screamed at their upside-down faces, which hung over their unclothed backs. They were white-eyed and slack-jawed, eyeing me from the middle of the room. They wheezed as their skin sizzled beneath the weight of my eyes upon them.
“Back to your paintings!” I feebly shrieked.
There was nothing commanding about my tone — pure terror drove me. And the Exacter could see that. His eyes pierced mine, as they had on that first night. In them, I saw nothing. The absence of anything. And by that, I mean the end of everything. The end of man. The end of ends.
He tried to fill me with dread beyond imagination, and he succeeded, but it was the same fateful error that he made on that first night. I thought of Cara. My parents. My friends. Everyone I love. That was what motivated me whilst my eyes watered under the strain of looking at those horrid things. Ghoulish voices chittered that I must either close my eyelids or die.
I didn’t fall for the entity’s egregious schemes. I clenched my fists, armed only with my eyes and sheer willpower. The minions retreated first — flesh burning, they scurried backwards, dragging their upside-down heads and misshapen limbs with them. Back into the flames of their painted paradise. And it’ll always be a dream, I told myself.
But the Exacter remained, mouth gaping so wide that it dropped past his shoulders. His flesh scorched. Wisps of smoke billowed from his shirtless torso and raggedy trousers. In one final fit of rage, he took powerful strides towards me and outstretched one of his slender arms.
I caught his wrist before those gnarled, ghastly fingers could wrap around my neck, and the pain was unexplainable. It was a deep burning of the mind, not the body — the Exacter’s last-ditch attempt to incapacitate the guard who was standing between it and the apocalypse.
I saw Cara. She was sitting in our living room, smiling at something on the wall. Her smiled suddenly faded, and I could only watch in unbridled horror as her flesh melted before my very eyes. She continued to scream, even when she’d been reduced to smouldering, bloody meat on the sofa, but then she smiled.
The Exacter showed me what she saw.
On the wall, there hung a painting of our house burning to the ground in the midst of mankind’s total annihilation. On the streets, the Exacter’s minions inflicted unspeakable horrors upon humanity. A demon gutted a woman with the protruding bone from her own severed limb. That’s the only scene I can put into writing — the rest are too dreadful.
Wait… It’s not real. It’s another trick. Cara wouldn’t smile at such horror.
My eyes ached under the immense strain of watching that unholy apparition, but the Exacter caved first. Unable to bear my eyes upon it, it wriggled free from my grip, taking what appeared to be excruciating steps back to its canvas. And when it returned to its frame, the choral screaming ceased. The gallery was still and silent.
I spent the rest of my shift standing in that exact spot, eyeballing the paintings before me. I didn’t speak, and I didn’t move.
Before I left the building, at the end of my shift, I quickly glanced back at Prison — the painting that trapped me. Existential dread gripped my heart, and, four months later, it still hasn’t released me. I can’t stop thinking about how it felt to be within that canvas.
How will I ever know that I’m in the real world? What if the apocalypse has already happened? I might be living in a painting right now.
Well, there you go. Another direful tale from the art gallery. Another near-miss. Just part and parcel of the job, eh?
Since my first shift, nothing has been the same. Every passing day feels worse than the last. The impending apocalypse casts a long shadow over my life. I explained everything to Cara, and she knows why I can’t quit.
And now you know that I worry about something other than the Exacter.
Amy Andrews.
Something’s wrong with her. Perhaps I should speak to the one person who could actually give me some answers.
I think I need to visit the local psychiatric ward.
X

The Origin of Bluetooth Anti-Loss Tracker
"Where is my key?" "Where is my wallet?" "Where is my mobile phone? Call me quickly." It is easy to put things at will, but it is more difficult to find out. We often encounter similar situations in our daily life. Anti-loss trackers can help a lot. And Bluetooth low energy technology is an important enabler behind it.
Continuous improvement of BLE technology make anti-loss trackers less and less power consuming. And their ownership cost has also been dramatically driven down. Thus, more and more derivative applications got cranked out on top of it.
Making of Bluetooth Anti-Loss Tracker
A Bluetooth anti-loss tracker is a device designed on basis of identification, ranging and positioning capabilities of the BLE technology. While coupled and supported with a dedicated smartphone App, the trackers can be sticked to some important items either personal or public so as to ensure they are in a range where the user can easily track with the App. Such trackers are normally used to wirelessly tag daily necessities such as keys, wallets, mobile phones, suitcases and backpacks. They are also used to avoid loss incidents of kids, senior citizens or pets.
The following is the reference scheme of the Bluetooth anti-lost tracker based on the RF-BM-BG22C3 Bluetooth module of Shenzhen RF-star Technology. It realizes the two-way search function between the tracker tag and the mobile phone. The block diagram of the device is shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1 The Block Diagram of Bluetooth Anti-Lost Tracker
Essentials
1)Based on the connection, the phone APP sends an alarm command to the anti-loss tracker. After receiving the command, the tracker makes the corresponding pin output at a specific frequency, drives the buzzer to emit a beep, and the LED flashes according to the same frequency. On the contrary, if the command is sent to the mobile phone through the tracker, then the mobile phone makes the corresponding vibration or ringing prompt. More button functions can be self-defined.
2)The initial connection between the mobile phone and the anti-loss device needs to be paired, and the subsequent connection is non-inductive automatic connection (except for deleting the pairing). In daily life, the mobile phone and the anti-loss device will be disconnected due to reasons, but when the mobile phone Bluetooth is again in the effective signal range of the anti-loss device, it will automatically initiate a connection to the paired device, simplify the process, and achieve reconnection without manual operation.
3)The power consumption control is important since the anti-loss tracker is powered by a coin battery with a small size. Increasing the connection and broadcast interval will conduct the tracker to be in a long sleep time, thus reducing power consumption. The specific parameters should be adjusted according to the actual application, the connection effect, response speed, and other requirements, so as to achieve the purpose of satisfying the experience, saving power consumption, and extending the life span.
4)The following functional sections can be designed: APP, self-defined the UI function interface, and mobile peripheral to drive the mobile peripherals. The APP interface can be combined with the BLE protocol to achieve the data sending and receiving.
5)For the hardware part of the anti-loss device, adopting the module or chip is according to the requirements. Referred to the above reference design, only three GPIOs are used, one input pin is connected to the key, and two output pins are connected to the buzzer and LED respectively.
The above cases are mostly applied indoors to realize rapid and accurate mutual inspection and mutual search according to specific needs. For the outdoor anti-loss applications of special crowds, RSSI combined with a positioning algorithm can be used to judge, so as to realize the early warning and prompt function.
Advantages of BLE
1）Ultra-Low Power Consumption and Long Service Life
Developing from BLE 4.0 to the popular BLE 5.3, the technology grown more and more mature. Although the features continue increased and optimized, ultra-low power consumption is still an eternal theme.
BLE modules from RF-star minimize the power consumption by the intelligent design and technologies, so that the products are with lower peak power consumption, average power consumption, and standby power consumption. In many scenarios, a coin battery can be directly used for power supply, which also meets the service life requirements of Bluetooth anti-loss trackers.
The RF-BM-BG22C3 BLE modules, based on the EFR32BG22 SoC from Silicon Labs, were launched by Shenzhen RF-star Technology. The power consumption is about 15 µA under the conditions of 0 dBm transmit power and 1 s broadcast cycle, and the sleep power consumption is as low as 3-4 µA. In outdoor scenario, with physical layer rate of 1 Mbsps and the maximum transmission power of +6 dBm, its communication range can reach around 135 m. It perfectly supports the application of Bluetooth anti-loss trackers. For more information on BLE modules, welcome to visit our website of www.rfstariot.com.
2）Downward Compatibility and OTA Upgrade
The downward-compatible update mechanism of BLE is conducive to the software update of Bluetooth products. While a new release is developed on basis of an existing firmware, one can upgrade the device wirelessly with OTA (Over the Air) function to avoid the hassle of disassembling modules and returning to the factory for burning, which greatly saves time and labor, thus improves the development and maintenance efficiency.
3）Low Cost
BLE has been widely used in various fields of IoT. Point-to-point communication between devices is basically based on BLE technology. Compared with Wi-Fi, Zigbee, Thread, and other networking technologies, BLE cost much less from the perspective of hardware deployment and software development.
4）One-Stop Development Solutions
Not only BLE technology is rapidly developing, RF-star also improves the development ability day by day. We have accumulated rich experience in software and hardware development so that we provide a one-stop service from the initial module selection to the subsequent scheme design and development. Customers can directly use the BLE module to realize the wireless communication on the original product without understanding the BLE protocol, which can reduce the difficulty of product development and shorten the time to market.
Current Status and Trend
At present, there is a huge quantity of Bluetooth anti-loss trackers in the market, which have simple and similar functions. With the development of wireless technology, anti-loss devices continue to develop in the direction of accurate location, cloud servers, map service, and voice service. Apple, Huawei, and Xiaomi have also launched a series of anti-loss products according to their respective product ecology. In view of the advantages of low cost, low power consumption, small size, and mature technology, Bluetooth anti-loss products still have a wide development space.
About RF-star Technology
Shenzhen RF-star Technology Co., Ltd. (RF-star) is a high-tech company focusing on radio frequency devices and has been certified by Texas Instruments as a third-party IDH of low-power RF products for more than a decade. RF-star provides IoT wireless modules and a full set of solutions, including BLE, Wi-Fi, Matter, Wi-SUN, Sub-1G, ZigBee, Thread, etc. For more information, kindly visit the company website https://www.rfstariot.com/or contact us at [email protected].

The Bluetooth SIG recently announced a new feature specifically conceived for the Electronic Shelf Label (ESL). The feature so called Periodic Advertising with Responses (PAwR) which is encapsuled in Bluetooth 5.4 standard introduces a new transmission logic that enables a single access point to conduct two-way communication with thousands of terminal nodes without established links. It aims to to bring more space for innovation to the ESL industry, not only enabling bidirectional communication between ESLs and Bluetooth hubs, but also significantly reducing their power consumption.
What is An Electronic Shelf Label
When shopping in stores or supermarkets, it is easy to find that traditional paper price tags are being replaced by electronic shelf labels. Retail giants in China and abroad such as Freshippo, Yonghui Superstores, Sam Club, and Metro have massively adopted electronic shelf labels as standard accessories. In addition, applications similar to ESLs getting adoption in other business scenarios i.e. table cards in exhibitions, venue access cards, patient cards in hospitals and BOM cards in factories, etc.
An ESL is an electronic ink display device with an embedded communication module enabling data reception. It displays basic product information, prices, barcodes or QR codes, and even other basic images. Communication wise, its most significant and mandatory feature is "low power consumption and long autonomy", which typically achieve a battery life of several months or even years.
ABI Research predicts that by 2027, 2.4 billion ESL devices are supposed to be installed in various retail stores. Communication protocols commonly used by ESLs are the 2.4G proprietary protocols, ZigBee, and BLE. Each protocol has its own pros and cons. Thanks to its versatility and rich ecosystem, BLE has become more popular and is being adopted by more and more manufacturers and retail stores. Research data shows that the penetration rate of ESL in China is still below 10%. And its adoption mainly concentrates in large supermarkets. It make sense to believe that there is still huge market potential to tap in China, since middle and lower tier markets there has yet been addressed.
What is PAwR
PAwR is a communication method similar to periodic broadcast (PADVB). It allows application data to be transmitted from a broadcasting device (broadcaster) to one or more receiving devices (observers), following a one-to-many communication topology. Both PAwR and PADVB use a connectionless communication method, in which the transmission of broadcast packets is periodic, at regular intervals, without random scheduling. The difference in between: PAwR supports bidirectional communication between the broadcaster and observers; whereas, PADVB does not support observers to send response packets to the broadcaster.
Advantages of PAwR

• Bidirectional connectionless: PAwR has the ability to achieve bidirectional connectionless communication between devices without establishing a link, which is not achieved in BLE releases prior to Bluetooth 5.4.
• Scalability: Compared to the BLE GATT connection method, PAwR adopts a more scalable, one-to-many, bidirectional topology, making it possible to support communication with thousands of nodes in both directions. In BLE GATT, however, the number of slave devices connected to a central device is very limited. And PAwR perfectly addresses that constrain.
• Low power consumption: In PAwR, a broadcaster, and an observer only need to occupy a subevent interval, so that the observer can scan only in a small time frame specified for the broadcast. Since the subevent synchronization process are relevant to the application logic, typically the received packets are to contain data related to the observer. This low power consumption feature allows the observer device to keep operating for many years with only a button cell.
• Flexible topology and concurrent reception: PAwR adopts a flexible topology that allows broadcasted packets to be received and processed by a single observer, dedicated multiple observers, or all observers, according to different specified data synchronization logic in the application layer of the observer. Such flexibility makes PAwR extremely adaptive to different application scenarios and requirements
• Application: PAwR is suitable for scenarios where a central device communicates with other devices on a large scale. These data may be control commands, sensor data, or other messages. Among them, ESL is a very important application scenario, and PAwR has specially developed an ESL profile for it to specify the method of data transmission. However, PAwR is not suitable for scenarios with high real-time traffic. Data packets are sent periodically in a specific time slot, and the number of observers can be configured. As the number of observers increases, the time required to broadcast data also increases, resulting in delays. Therefore, when sending messages to multiple devices, there may be significant time delays, ranging from a few milliseconds to tens of seconds, depending on the configuration.

PAwR Events and Subevents
The periodic part of the PAwR refers to the periodic broadcasting of packets by a central device like an access point, which occurs at precise and regular intervals. Communication occurs in bursts of activity during periods of time called events. An event can be divided into multiple subevents.
Subevents are further divided into time slots which are used for the transmission of one packet by the central Broadcaster device, followed by several time slots during which to receive responses from Observer devices.
PAwR defines procedures by which Observer devices can acquire the event and subevent schedule of the Broadcaster. Other procedures define how the Observer is allocated a specific subevent during which to listen and a response slot within that subevent to use for replies. Assigning devices to specific subevents only means that they switch into receive mode infrequently, substantially increasing battery life.
PAwR is designed to accommodate data that changes at every transmission and is delivered to individuals or groups of devices. Application logic ensures that data transmitted in each subevent is relevant to the devices listening at that time, so there is little wasted energy.
PAwR is essentially stateless, and this makes it very scalable. Bi-directional, one-to-many communication involving thousands of devices like ESLs is achievable using PAwR.
New Prospects for PAwR and ESL
Automated price changing in the ESL system have improved store operational efficiency and significantly improved customer satisfaction. At the same time, the new Bluetooth technology features jointly developed by ESL industry leaders and the Bluetooth SIG indicate that a new industry standard for the electronic shelf label market is arriving. In order to expand the addressable market, the next step is to have ESL solution providers migrate their systems to standard-based wireless technology. Introducing the wireless standard for the ESL market, Bluetooth technology will help the retail industry enter the next stage of digital transformation, thereby delivering better outcomes for both stores and shoppers.
About RF-star Technology
Shenzhen RF-star Technology Co., Ltd. (RF-star) is a high-tech company focusing on radio frequency devices and has been certified by Texas Instruments as a third-party IDH of low-power RF products for more than a decade. RF-star provides IoT wireless modules and a full set of solutions, including BLE, Wi-Fi, Matter, Wi-SUN, Sub-1G, ZigBee, Thread, etc. For more information, kindly visit the company website https://www.rfstariot.com/ or contact us at [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]).

Looking at these cards didn't bring spring time my way, but it certainly brought me a smile!
Check out this challenge's entries here: https://www.reddit.com/RAoC_meta/comments/11p6ybf/challenge_6_of_27_flowersspringtime/
Want to join us in these challenges? Check them out here: https://www.reddit.com/RAoC_meta/comments/zxku28/2023_more_card_challenges_for_thee/
Matches:
u/bridgewires to u/MsWonderWoman_xo
u/bridgewires to u/travel4me22
u/bridgewires to u/yetanotherblankface
u/caknuck to u/ch037866
u/caknuck to u/bridgewires
u/ch037866 to u/isar-love
u/ch037866 to u/todayisfab
u/finishingthetea to u/littlemermaidxx
u/finishingthetea to u/likablelobster
u/finishingthetea to u/caknuck
u/isar-love to u/finishingthetea
u/isar-love to u/caknuck
u/isar-love to u/finishingthetea
u/likablelobster to u/Vegetable-Water-4919
u/likablelobster to u/yetanotherblankface
u/likablelobster to u/todayisfab
u/littlemermaidxx to u/mumbagoespainting
u/littlemermaidxx to u/isar-love
u/littlemermaidxx to u/isar-love
u/MonetMonkey to u/likablelobster
u/MsWonderWoman_xo to u/Peonynote
u/mumbagoespainting to u/travel4me22
u/mumbagoespainting to u/Peonynote
u/mumbagoespainting to u/Peonynote
u/OkayFlan to u/littlemermaidxx
u/Peonynote to u/bridgewires
u/Peonynote to u/PinkPengin
u/Peonynote to u/littlemermaidxx
u/PinkPengin to u/ch037866
u/PinkPengin to u/likablelobster
u/SatanekoChan to u/finishingthetea
u/SatanekoChan to u/OkayFlan
u/todayisfab to u/MonetMonkey
u/todayisfab to u/PinkPengin
u/todayisfab to u/mumbagoespainting
u/travel4me22 to u/yetanotherblankface
u/travel4me22 to u/bridgewires
u/travel4me22 to u/SatanekoChan
u/Vegetable-Water-4919 to u/travel4me22
u/yetanotherblankface to u/SatanekoChan
u/yetanotherblankface to u/mumbagoespainting
u/yetanotherblankface to u/todayisfab

Seeing Grand Theft Auto VI or Red Dead Redemption 3 in the future is a pretty safe bet considering those are Rockstar’s biggest IPs. The fan-favorite game from Rockstar, Bully, may not get the same treatment, however. Leakers have reported that Bully 2 got the axe back in 2017 due to its more popular franchises taking development priority. Does that mean it cannot be revived, though?
In late December, Rockstar insider Tez2 went to the GTA forums to explain a little bit of what happened at Rockstar since 2014. He claims that GTA VI was in “pre-production back in 2015, so development probably didn't kick off until 2016 or 2017, but shortly after that, the pace slowed down due to RDR2 increased focus and Bully 2.” Then, Bully 2 was cancelled in 2017, likely to focus on GTA and Red Dead Redemption 2. Another insider, Yan2295, corroborated this information in a Reddit post on /GamingLeaksAndRumours. yan2295 twitter 2 Now that Red Dead Redemption 2 is out, it seems the major hold up for Bully 2 is GTA VI, which may have its own production issues. Yan2295 took to Twitter recently, reporting that GTA VI is in development, but it will not be coming anytime soon. This contradicts other reports about GTA VI, so it seems no one knows what is happening, including Yan. When asked about Bully 2, however, Yan said that it was a dead game.
While Bully 2 could be a dead game, for now, the Red Dead Redemption team could be working on other projects besides GTA VI. Alternatively, Rockstar could revive the game in the future, but it will not likely be in the next couple of years. Ultimately, we will probably see GTA VI come before Bully 2, but weirder things have happened, and nothing would surprise us at this point.

I want to expand my R&B library. I love the new school R&B, but I REALLY love late 90s early 2000s r&b. It’s so nostalgic. I’ve only really explored the mainstream side of R&B from previous years but there’s so many hidden gems in this genre especially from the early 2000s idk where to start. I randomly found The Foreign Exchange one day maybe about 3 years ago and I’ve played their Connected to DEATH lol. I couldn’t believe some of those songs came out in 2004 cause it sounds like something I would hear out today.
Someone recommended Craig David’s album that came out in 2000 and I’m like this sounds 2000 as hell lol but it was still enjoyable.
A Seat At The Table is probably my favorite of recent times and The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill has been in the background my whole life. Not sure if Ego Death by the Internet is R&B or alt but it has a similar vibe and is one of my favs. I find myself steady going back toy same rotation of Aijuswannasing, Where I wanna Be or SWVs late 90s album
I’m getting to that age where all I’m looking forward to enjoy now on a Friday night is a glass of wine, painting my toes with smooth r&b/ live band, Robert Glasper vibes in the background. I’m 26 ):
what are y’all listening to?

Today I went to the dog park with my rescue dog, we go everyday so it isn’t a new environment for him. About 10 minutes after we got there, a lady came in with her dog, and sat on the bench near us. My dog started barking at her and then howling, we thought he was barking at her dog to come play, but quickly realized it wasn’t the case. I recalled him over to me and he did come to me but ran off again to continue to bark at her and howl, he would get closer and sniff and continue to bark. He seemed scared and frightened I’ve never seen him act like that, he’s a very quiet dog and rarely barks / howls. I told her I was so sorry and immediately leashed him up and walked to the other side of the park to calm him down, and he kept looking back at her when we were walking away. she left and we unleashed him to go play with his bestie and he ran over to where she was sitting and sniffed and walked the path she took to leave. I do not know my rescue dogs past, all I know is he came into the shelter with a major black stain where a chain was. We think he might have been hit or had things thrown at him, because he’s scared of tennis balls and doesn’t play with toys like dogs do. Could this have been a situation where this lady looked / smelled like someone from his past? I felt so bad for him and gave him so many pets and told him how loved he is and he’s safe and no one will ever hurt him