Per capita, Monaco was the wealthiest country on earth last year. The unsurprising result of running a country with no income, property, or wealth taxes is that the well-heeled want to live there. This creates a problem, as there is limited space for all the VVIPs: Monaco is the second smallest country in the world behind Vatican City. (It could fit into half of Central Park.) The default national quip is that they are not about to invade France for more land; instead, they usurp Neptune. The country is a fascinating and dense fabric of older villas, resort-style slab towers, and increasingly swank recent developments by Zaha Hadid Architects, Foster + Partners, and Studio Fuksas, slotted into whatever square meters of steep slope can be spared. Property sales are one of the few things on which the state collects income (beyond the casino, of course, where their own citizens are forbidden to gamble) so the state obviously likes construction.Development is on the rise in Monaco, per the wealthiest country. ( Hufton + Crow)Land reclamation from the sea offers the chance to build a little breathing space. About 25 percent of the principalitys surface was wrested from the surf across seven prior expansions. SAM LAnse Du Portier, a consortium of private investors, has just completed an eighth with Mareterra, a 15-acre expansion masterplanned by the Paris-based office Valode & Pistre. It includes townhouses designed by that firm, villas by a jetset assortment of architects from Tadao Ando to Stefano Boeri, and most prominently, a large residential structure by Renzo Piano Building Workshop. Nearly half of the developmentconsists of public space designed by Michel Desvigne Paysagiste. The site also includes an expansion of Monacos convention center, a new marina, retail space, and an Alexander Calder piece brought out of lengthy hibernation in storage for a proper open-air installation. Mareterra has been in the works for some 20 years but was delayed at various points due to concerns over cost and environmental impact. Its footprint is angled to dodge principal currents in the Ligurian Sea. The landfill process, which began in 2018, was laborious. Eighteen square ten-ton caissons, about 91 feet on a side, were manufactured in Marseilles and made a three-day journey to Monaco, where they were formed into essentially a stockade around the site. The water inside was drained, and then existing polluted sand was removed and replaced with layers of sand, soil and tons of limestone. The caissons are hollow, designed to admit the ocean such that waves dissipate, reverse, and break into one another beyond the waters edge. Their surfaces were also abraded to provide a welcoming surface for sea life. Posidonia oceanica sea grasses, coral, and other aquatic plants were also carefully relocated.Le Renzo consists of two buildings narrowly separated with open-air stairs. ( Hufton + Crow)Seaside LivingRPBWs building, named Le Renzo after the man himself (he initially modestly protested) is the landmark of the complex. The ruling Grimaldis are descendants of a rogue Genovese aristocrat who seized the outpost from that bygone maritime state; theyve turned back to the Italian fatherland for this commission.Pianos lifelong enthusiasm for the sea is no secret, and in part his design language comes in part from ships and various naval influences. His taste for cables, sail-like appurtenances, porthole windows, and hull-inspired curves has long been honestly stated. His work often bears this briny stamp, especially along shores, such as the NEMO museum in Amsterdam; the Centro Botn in Santander, Spain; and, to a lesser extent, the Whitney Museum in New York. Not to mention that hes designed sailing craft, a yacht, and even a cruise ship.Renzo Pianos design language often comes in part from ships and various naval influences.Piano wrote in his 2017 Complete Logbook, The port is a powerful landscape made up of elements that are both grand and ephemeral, that are continually changingreflections on the water, suspended loads, swiveling cranes, and of course ships coming and going. Who knows where that ship is coming from, in what direction it is headed? We know this one in Monaco isnt going anywhere, but it contains great kinetic energy. A ship-like structure was also urbanistically gracious in this case. Joost Moolhuijzen, partner at RPBW, explained the dual aims on location. We felt a strong responsibility not to build a big building in front of the view. We didnt want horizontal balconies running forever. Monaco already has quite a few of those.Structural pilotis are angled diagonally, however, they are not needed as the building is very solidly anchored on piers extending to bedrock almost 200 feet underground. ( Hufton + Crow)Moolhuijzen stressed fragmentation and permeability as key aims. The project consists of two buildings narrowly separated with open-air stairs that split it into five main volumes. His team worked a long time to develop its verticality. They accomplished this in a variety of ways; its height varies about a dozen times. And at around 72 feet (22 meters) deep with another nearly 20 feet (6 meters) of balcony space, its also narrow. A variety of surface elements like characteristically transparent glass balcony joinery and an almost literal rigging of runners for balcony blinds establish a vertical rhythm. Cantilevers on each end accentuate the overall sense of balance, with balconies fronted by additional aluminum panels as a flourish. All of this sought to provide, Moolhuijzen said, a second skin. Two masts on top serve no function except the provision of maritime panache.Balconies fronted by aluminum panels add a decorative touch. ( Hufton + Crow)The building makes landfall lightly; just at lobbies, the base of circulatory elements, and a series of structural pilotis, which are angled diagonally on each side. There was no structural reason for this; the building is very solidly anchored on piers extending to bedrock almost 200 feet underground. They just look goodand supportive! Creating those angled columns gives a sense of stability, Moolhuijzen explained, but they also meet the curved, ocean linerlike underside of the building at a more pleasing angle, propping up high-rent steerage as if the vessel sat motionless an exposed dry dock.Public AccessThe elevated mass also works to open up the waterfront. The architects were intent, Moolhuijzen explained, to create a very public space at the base of a private building to make it welcoming; you can walk around here. The oceanfront plaza, faced in sandstone, runs along the series of townhouses and villas that are a bit more walled-off, handsome if considerably less striking. Theres one magical space along the promenade, accessed by an inconspicuous door: Monacos Blue Grotto is one for the machine age. Its a cave-like space that is simply an overlook of the inside of a caisson, open to light and sea shifting throughout the day. Moolhuijzen explained their realization of the shame that this amazing civil engineering structure was just hidden from everybody.Theres a considerable park on the landward side of these structures; paths weave around small hillsides, and the expanse contains many of the 1,1000 trees imported from Tuscany for the development. The aforementioned Alexander Calder piece is also a treat. Princess Grace purchased Quatre Lances, originally displayed at the Fondation Maeght, and it was installed along the waterfront in 1964, where its aluminum frame was quickly mangled by harsh winds. It has been in storage for decades until this redeployment, now rendered sturdier with some steel additions.There is a public space at the base of the private building. ( Hufton + Crow)Piano, who had previously designed two acclaimed Calder exhibits, arranged three concrete walls with an embedded bench to frame the mobile. Sandy Rower, head of the Calder Foundation (and Calders grandson) explained, Calder had described the sculpture as existing in a really specific place, surrounded by walls. Renzo went back to the beginning and studied just what Calders intent was. Hes given us a little laboratory to experience something.The piece was unusual for Calder, as it was explicitly conceived as an interplay between the mobilethe underside of whose fronds are colored and seen almost solely in reflectionand the water. The water is part of the sculpture; its not a sculpture without the reflecting pool.Moolhuijzen described it as Monacos smallest museum. Unlike nearly everything in town, its completely free to visit.Anthony Paletta is a writer living in Brooklyn.

This years roundup of landscape projects and news stories highlights the nontraditional: from a skiable art museum, a floating wetland that doubles as a classroom, to a land remediation project, these projects stand out for being so much more than the average neighborhood park. What will come of the Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail?Arguably the most contentious landscape project AN covered in 2024 was that of the proposed Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail, a 7.5-mile-long linear park designed by SCAPE that seeks to connect Cold Spring and Beacon, New York. Since it was first announced the project has received pushback from local organizations. While the project touts making a pathway for hikers more accessible, there are concerns locally that the area could become more overrun with tourists and daytrippers than it already is.A public comment period for the Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail is now open, through February 2, 2025. Pending environmental review the project is anticipated to be completed by 2032.Forge Projects land remediation work restores relationship between site and historyAlso in Hudson Valley, a land remediation project is underway on the ancestral lands of the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohican Indians. Forge Project, founded in 2021, is restoring the principles of Indigenous land stewardship on a 60-acre site. Forge Project transitioned its leadership model to be Native-led, which included forming an Indigenous steering council and developing a memorandum of understanding with the Stockbridge-Munsee Tribal Council. It is working with a team of tribal members, herbalists, landscape architects, botanists, meadow specialists, and volunteers to reintroduce native plants to the landscape.Weiss/Manfredis West Conservatory at Longwood Gardens is designed to host plants from the Mediterranean region. (Sahar Coston-Hardy/ESTO/Courtesy Longwood Gardens)Longwood Gardens West Conservatory openedThe long-anticipated opening of the West Conservatory at Longwood Gardens made its debut this year. Weiss/Manfredi, alongside landscape architecture firm Reed Hilderbrand, designed a building and gardens adapted to the traditional Crystal Palace conservatory look, using arboreal steel columns that twist in irregular patterns.Features such as louvers and roof shades keep the Mediterranean plants housed inside in a desirable climate all year round. In the center of the gabled structure, the architects opted for a water feature that mimics a series of canals, rather than the more traditional, singular pool.Plans were announced for a skiable outdoor art museumSoon at Powder Mountain in Eden, Utah, skiers will zip past artworks by James Turrell, Jenny Holzer, Arthur Jafa, Nancy Holt, and others. The mixed-use concept designed by Reed Hilderbrand and Johnston Marklee promises a skiable outdoor art museum replete with sculptures and a welcome center. Elizabeth Street Garden stays put, for nowElizabeth Street Garden, a tranquil outdoor sculpture park in bustling Manhattan, has been the subject of a redevelopment proposal for several years. This fall the nonprofit that oversees the park received an eviction notice; the notice was later amended to pending and the nonprofit was granted a stay until the case is revisited in the Appellate Division Courthouse of New York State in February 2025.Developers and city entities hope to see the land used for affordable senior housing. Thousands of letters in opposition of this redevelopment have been sent to the Mayor, HPD, and the Governor along with proposed alternative sites for the affordable senior housing complex.Metropolitan Park adds playgrounds and sports field to an area brimming with sports and entertainment facilities. (Courtesy SHoP Architects and Field Operations)In Queens, Metropolitan Park could transform parking spaces into park spaceIts all falling in place for the purpose-built stadium for NYCFC to be realized in Willets Point. The area in Queens is teeming with New York City sports venues, and Mets owner Steve Cohen hopes to capitalize on that even more. This summer he revealed his vision for Metropolitan Park, which would transform parking lots from the old Shea Stadium into park space.Visuals shared by the design team, SHoP Architects and Field Operations, show the 50 or so acres of parking outside of Citi Field largely replaced by green lawns and circuitous pathways. The proposal also calls for a hotel, food hall, (and if its lucky) a casino.The upgrade would expand sidewalk widths by 46 percent on Fifth Avenue between Bryant Park and Central Park. (Courtesy New York City Hall)Park Avenue and Fifth Avenue to get major makeoversTwo major thoroughfares in New York Citys street grid will be subject to revamps in the coming years. Park Avenue and Fifth Avenue will be redesigned to be more pedestrian friendly.In August, New York City Department of Transportation and Mayor Eric Adams announced an RFP requesting proposals from landscape firms to green-up Park Avenue. And two blocks west a reimagined Fifth Avenue is a bit farther along with Field Operations, Sam Schwartz, and Arcadis all on board to realize a vision that could widen sidewalks and reduce lanes of traffic. A comprehensive plan will ensure the resiliency and longevity of Atlantas Piedmont ParkWhile Piedmont Park is not Atlantas largest park it takes up 200 acres within the city in a forest. This year park officials announced that the Frederick Law Olmsteddesigned park would be subject to a comprehensive plan led by Nelson Byrd Woltz, and local partner Perez Planning + Design (PP+D) and Kanics Inclusive Design Services. The last time the park underwent a review and update of this magnitude was in 1995.The review will look at structural enhancements aimed at strengthening the parks resiliency and consider how accessibility and safety can be improved. A maintenance plan for each of the diverse environments located around the park will also be conceived. The plan coincides with a planned expansion that will add 4 acres to the green space. Piedmont Park will soon link up with The Beltline and assume an expanded Atlanta Botanical Garden.The Harbor Wetland in Baltimore. (Philip Smith/Courtesy National Aquarium)Ayers Saint Gross designed a floating wetland and outdoor classroomWho said green space had to be on land? In Baltimores Inner Harbor, Ayers Saint Gross designed a 10,000-square-foot floating wetland. The aquatic landscape allows visitors to walk on water and learn about wildlife. Over 30,000 grasses and shrubs coalesce at the new wetland, combined with water aeration technology. Since opening, fish, ducks, dragonflies, and Maryland blue crabs have paid a visit to the project.Sasaki and Studio MLA delivered a waterfront park near the Port of Los AngelesIn February, the Wilmington Waterfront Promenade in Wilmington, California opened to the public. The 9-acre site owned by the Port of Los Angeles was long underutilized, given its proximity to industrial infrastructure. As more and more residents settle in the area, projects like this one by Sasaki and Studio MLA signal a sea change, adding much-needed recreation space for jogging, picnicking, and playing.

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ZDNET's key takeaways Amazon sells the Echo Hub for $180.The Echo Hub gives Alexa the place it has earned in the smart home market: A control panel to easily access smart devices, no ads, and no unnecessary fluff.The smart display can be slow and buggy, especially while loading multiple camera views more buying choices Many smart home enthusiasts, myself included, are tired of juggling dozens of apps on their phones to control thesmart devices in their homes. While the release of Matter alleviates this hassle, the new smart home connectivity standard has yet to get enough support to eliminate the challenge.As a result, many of us are left looking for smart displays that can give us quick access to control our devices. Some tech-savvy folks may use a repurposed old tablet mounted to the wall as a smart home control center, while others opt for a smart display like an Echo Show or aGoogle Nest Hub that can already function as a smart home controller out of the box, among other things.Also: Better than Ring? This video doorbell has all the benefits and no monthly feesThese devices always have their drawbacks. Amazon'sEcho Hub is designed to fill a gap in the smart home controller market by being what these devices are not: a smart home controller and only that. details View at Amazon There are no frills with the Echo Hub. There's no spatial audio speaker attached to its base, no ultra-high definition for streaming, and no ads to display while in standby mode. It doesn't serve any purpose besides being a smart home hub and controller.Testing the Echo Hub for the past few months has been a refreshing experience. Its navigation is sorted into categories and widgets. At a glance, the Echo Hub displays your widgets on about two-thirds of the screen, with your routines and rooms on the left side and device categories at the bottom. You can customize the widgets and download more from the widgets store. The Echo Hub can get a bit laggy when you pull up your security camera feeds. Maria Diaz/ZDNETThe 8-inch touchscreen display can be wall-mounted, which is my preference, as I've always wanted to repurpose a tablet as a wall-mounted smart panel or to prop it up on a flat surface using a table-top stand.Also: I gave away my Kindle and iPad within hours of testing this tablet - and it's up to $180 offAs its name indicates, the Echo Hub is a smart home control panel with the Alexa voice assistant. It also works to connect Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Zigbee, Matter, Thread, and Sidewalk smart devices. The Echo Hub makes it easy to control all of your Alexa-compatible lights. Maria Diaz/ZDNETWait, if Amazon already has the Echo Show, why make the Echo Hub? The Amazon Alexa smart home network is quickly becoming one of the largest and most intuitive smart home automation systems available. The system supports100 million devices and is the most compatible.The Alexa app quickly connects new devices you add to your smart home with little effort on your end and lets you control devices from different manufacturers in one place. If a smart home device says it "works with Alexa," you can trust the technology will be easy to set up and control with the Alexa app, the voice assistant, and now the Echo Hub.Also: Amazon's Echo Show 5 made me a smart display believerI currently have four Echo Shows and four other Echo speakers, so there's a lot of Alexa in my home. As an Apple HomeKit house, I got an Echo speaker to see how Alexa fared against Siri.I then got my kitchen's Echo Show to listen to music or watch the news while cooking dinner and to control smart home devices, but also because I thought the display would give me better views into my calendar, which wasn't the case. The Echo Hub does exactly what it promises to do: give me a clear view into my smart home and a quick way to control it. Here's the Echo Hub camera view. Maria Diaz/ZDNETI've never been quiet about the Echo Show's shortcomings, especially as a person who uses the technology daily. I dislike that I can't control what is displayed during standby, that Alexa only understands me about 70% of the time, that the hardware itself is slow and laggy, that an app like YouTube, which requires a browser, is so hard to navigate with your voice, and that smart home control is such a secondary feature.ZDNET's buying adviceBecause Alexa can handle many different devices, maintains a reliable connection, and makes routines easy to use, I hate to admit that I reach for it more often than my Apple Home app. The Echo Hub puts all that convenience on my wall, within my reach. I can easily run routines from the hub, arm or disarm my Ring Alarm system, check my security cameras, adjust the downstairs thermostat, or turn a light on or off on my way upstairs for the night. While the Echo Hub isn't a smart speaker, Alexa does respond on the device. You can mute it so it doesn't listen for the wake word and adjust its volume. Maria Diaz/ZDNETDuring setup, you can choose which Echo device in your home to play music on when you ask Alexa on the Echo Hub to play something, as it's not a speaker -- another differentiator between the Echo Hub and other Echo devices. This approach means you don't get an Echo Hub instead of an Echo speaker if you still want to play music, especially if you want smart speakers around your home.Like many smart home users, I am only reluctant to completely give in to Alexa and Amazon due to privacy and security concerns, especially considering that data is not handled locally. While companies can always claim to prioritize consumer privacy, you can only take them at face value regarding your personal information.Featured reviews

ZDNET's key takeaways The Ring Battery Doorbell Plus is priced at $150.The Ring Battery Doorbell Plus offers a clear head-to-toe view of your front door, a removable rechargeable battery pack, reliable motion detection alerts, and seamless integration with Alexa.Ring continues to keep most features behind its Ring Home subscription; though the video quality is better than HD at 1536p, the video clips have a slight fisheye look and prominent vignetting. more buying choices Choosing a video doorbell isn't an easy task -- the selection process depends on the user's needs and the features they require, and your choice is even affected by the place where the device will be installed. To that last point, I've always chosen a battery video doorbell to surveil my front door.Also: I just tested the new EufyCam, and I'm never going back to grainy night visionMy old home's existing doorbell wiring wasn't working when my family moved in, so we opted for a battery doorbell because I didn't want something else to sort in what was already a fixer-upper. We still live in the same home, and I've tested several video doorbells since then. details View at Amazon I eventually landed on a favorite video doorbell, the Eufy Security E340, which means theRing Battery Doorbell Plushad big shoes to fill when I began testing.Setting up the Amazon-owned Ring Battery Doorbell Plus is quick and easy. The installation process is much simpler than other video doorbells, with a built-in flat bracket, which is accessible when you remove the front panel cover. This bracket makes the Ring Battery Doorbell Plus a single unit, so it can't be easily pulled off the wall next to your front door by wrongdoers, which is a big concern with any video doorbell. Maria Diaz/ZDNETThe box also includes a corner kit in case you need to install the doorbell at an angle, which can be screwed onto the wall, and then the Ring doorbell is mounted on it. The battery doorbells I've tested come with a base mounted to the wall, and that's where the actual video doorbell snaps onto. Devices use this setup because battery doorbells need recharging, and most have a built-in rechargeable battery. The Battery Doorbell Plus -- and, when available, the Pro version-- has a removable battery pack. This approach makes the device more secure and convenient to use, as you can have an extra battery on hand to swap out the depleted battery, which means you never lose surveillance.I already have other Ring devices at home, including a Ring Alarm kit, so I added the new Ring doorbell to the Ring app and then installed it on my front door, right above my current video doorbell.Also: The Echo Show 8 is still the best smart display and speaker combo availableThe Ring app is very easy to use. It shows video events and lets you stream video, review video and motion-event history, set motion zones, use smart responses, adjust motion sensitivity, and more. You can connect the app easily to a Ring Alarm system to switch modes between Disarmed, Home, and Away and then choose how your devices behave in each mode. My Ring Battery Doorbell Plus didn't miss an event, at least not one that my other video doorbell captured during the same time. I used the Ring Battery Doorbell Plus in conjunction with my Eufy Doorbell to compare the devices' performance.The video quality of captured footage by the Ring Battery Doorbell Plus is superb for a video doorbell, which is great for a device that doesn't claim to offer 2K video resolution. The Ring Battery Doorbell Plus delivers a clean image with little to no grain that looks more vibrant than my 2K resolution Eufy Security Doorbell. Also: The best video doorbells: Ring, Nest, Arlo, Logitech, and Eufy comparedBecause the Ring Battery Doorbell Plus captures videos in 1536 pixels by 1536 pixels, its video resolution is larger than HD, which is 1080p. However, the square image and the large 150-degree field of view mean that the camera captures more complete images than other competitors. It offers a head-to-toe view of visitors and covers enough space to keep a package in view, all in full color and color night vision. Both doorbells have a fisheye effect, but while the Eufy has one camera for packages and one for people, I much prefer the Ring Battery Doorbell Plus' vibrant and full image. Screenshot by Maria Diaz/ZDNETThe image shows some relatively prominent vignetting along the outer edges and fisheye distortion. The latter is a common trait in other video doorbell models, but the former has been largely eliminated as video doorbell technology improves. Video doorbells are security cameras that strive to have a large field of view to cover as much area as possible. This forced angling creates a fisheye effect that doesn't bother me, for the most part, as it's not bad enough to distort people's faces, but the vignetting makes the video look dated, in my opinion. Also: Ring just launched a new Battery Doorbell with better features for the same priceThe biggest problem, however, is that you have to pay a monthly fee for a Ring Home subscription to unlock many of the great features of the Ring Video Doorbell. The Ring Home Subscription unlocks advanced features, including Package Detection, which lets users know when a package has been delivered or picked up; Quick Replies, which lets you have visitors hear preselected messages when they press the doorbell button; and Person Alerts, which is only triggered when a human is detected. Here is a glimpse of the format of the Ring and Eufy Security apps. I prefer the latter's more compact design. Screenshot by Maria Diaz/ZDNETHowever, a subscription is also required for more basic features that you would expect from a battery doorbell, such as saving and sharing your video clips, storing footage in the cloud for up to six months, and even seeing a photo preview of what triggered a motion alert on your phone's notification.If you decide to forgo a subscription, you'll only have access to real-time notifications of motion alerts, live-view, two-way talk, and customizable motion zones through the Ring app. Without the Ring Home Plan, you won't be able to view event history or video clips from past motion detection alerts. Unfortunately, there is no way to forgo a subscription for local storage, as Ring doorbells don't have an SD card expansion slot. Also: TP-Link Tapo's new video doorbell with AI detection and no monthly fees is now $75 with this codeI haven't had any issues with a short battery life, as I haven't had to charge the doorbell since I began using it a couple of weeks ago. If anyone were to have issues with a shortened battery life, which is a common complaint with battery video doorbells, then I'd recommend adjusting the device's motion sensitivity settings in the Ring app. Maria Diaz/ZDNETThe Ring Battery Doorbell Plus is a great addition to the company's range of devices. Until the launch of the Plus video doorbell, Ring only offered the Ring Battery Doorbellwhich is a highly popular $100 video doorbell with a 1080p resolution and a built-in rechargeable battery.ZDNET's buying adviceWhile I'm not keen to buy a separate subscription to use devices that already cost me hundreds of dollars, there are scenarios where the Ring Battery Doorbell Plus makes perfect sense for many smart home enthusiasts.Some smart home users enjoy the Ring ecosystem and already have a Ring Home Plan, so adding a new product to their lineup of smart devices is a non-issue. These customers are the perfect Ring Battery Doorbell Plus buyers, especially those looking for a battery-powered video doorbell that offers crystal-clear, head-to-toe views and package detection. Also: The Arlo Pro 5S is close to being my perfect security cameraThe Ring Battery Doorbell Plus also links seamlessly with Alexa, other Ring devices, and Amazon products, making it a shoo-in for an Amazon Alexa-powered smart home. You can easily view and communicate with your Ring Video Doorbell Plus from an Echo Show smart display, or have the video doorbell's live stream pop up on your Fire TV when someone rings it.Featured reviews

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The Five Steps To Drive Customer Growth With Product-Led GrowthForresterLong practiced in emerging companies, product-led growth (PLG) has been touted as one of the fastest ways for B2B firms to grow. Perhaps even more compelling than rapid growth is the lower cost of sales in PLG motions. Because the methodology is based on simplified products targeting individual users for self-serve purchase, initially, there is no need for business development reps or sales outreach.Traditional sales-driven firms, dont despair! You can still get in on the action by adopting PLG strategies that complement your sales efforts at each stage of the customer growth trajectory and drive faster and more profitable growth. Here are five steps to drive customer growth with PLG:Step 1: Drive user growth to seed the market.PLG can generate rapid user growth by relying on users to do the selling. Offer free trials and make sure that the product has a network effect where users gain more value the more others are using it by collaborating within their team (e.g., Jira), across their company (e.g., Slack) or even across companies (e.g., Calendly). Create user referral programs where users are incentivized to share the product. These network and viral effects can drive exponential growth across markets and accounts.Step 2: Turn heavy user companies into product-qualified accounts.With users seeded across multiple companies, segments, and even regions, its easy for PLG organizations to identify the accounts where more users have adopted their product. Accounts with enough active users become new opportunities in the pipeline for a sales rep to close. This process is typically less costly than traditional top-of-funnel marketing efforts, and these product-qualified accounts are considered to be better than the best of traditional pipeline opportunities.Step 3: Leverage product telemetry to optimize the experience and build loyalty.A product that delivers fast time to value is foundational to PLG success and will help drive growth and retention for all selling motions. Build in product analytics so you can pinpoint user friction and optimize the time and effort it takes users to achieve their desired outcomes. This type of product telemetry can be used across small and simple or large and complex software modules and is instrumental in improving the user experience and building ongoing loyalty.MORE FOR YOUStep 4: Use in-product, personalized messaging to upsell customers to higher tiers.In PLG motions, the product is the primary marketing and selling method. Create contextual, personalized messages that both provide tips for specific activities and showcase additional offerings that could extend the value that users receive. In the context of existing workflows, alert users to new features, product extensions, or higher-tiered offerings. Offer trials for premium capabilities to make it easy for users to experience the value before expanding their purchase.Step 5: Combine product- and sales-led efforts to expand into new buying centers.Now that youve set up a PLG motion, use it to extend to new buying centers with the support of traditional sellers. Account teams should scout out new buyers and identify new use cases for offerings within accounts. Gain cross-sell business through PLG motions using trials and referral programs to incentivize users to share across buying centers.PLG strategies, while practiced successfully at smaller firms, have become additional arrows in the toolkit of go-to-market practices for many larger B2B firms. Pursuing a bottom-up PLG strategy in conjunction with traditional sales efforts has been shown to have the best results for rapid and scalable revenue growth. Just look at the success of Atlassian, Airtable, Dropbox, Calendly, HubSpot, and others to see how well the PLG and sales combination works.This post was written by VP, Principal Analyst Beth Caplow and it originally appeared here.

The simplified summary diagram shows the relative diversity of fossils in the past 2 billion years. ... [+] Simple eukaryotic cells dominated the first half a billion years. Algae appeared around 1,200 million years ago. The first complex animals like Charnia appeared around 500 million years ago.Tang et al.2024/ScienceAn international team of researchers published a high-resolution analysis of the global diversity of life forms spanning 2 billion years based on a global compilation of fossil data.The fossil record of organisms with hard parts (like bones and shells) shows how evolution and extinctions unfolded over the past half a billion years. But life on Earth arose much earlier, at least 3 to 2 billion years ago. This early life was generally smaller and squishier, dominated by microbial communities, algae, sponges, worm-like creatures and jellyfish, leaving few traces to fossilize in the first place. Proterozoic fossils, dating from 2,500 million to 539 million years ago, include body imprints in fine sediments, stromatolites, trace fossils, chemical and isotopic remains.A new study based on available fossil dataThis is the most comprehensive and up-to-date analysis of this period to date. And more importantly, weve used a graphic correlation program that allowed us to achieve greater temporal resolution, explains Virginia Tech geobiologist Shuhai Xiao, coauthor of the study.The research team looked specifically at records of ancient marine eukaryotes organisms whose cells contain a nucleus. Early eukaryotes later evolved into the multicellular organisms credited for ushering in a whole new era for life on Earth, including animals, plants, and fungi.MORE FOR YOUThe first eukaryotes arose no later than 1.8 billion years ago and gradually evolved to a stable level of diversity from about 1,450 million to 720 million years ago, a period sometimes referred by paleontologists as the boring billion, as species seemingly evolved slower and lasted longer than those that came later.Between 720 million and 635 million years ago, Earth plunged into a series of super ice ages. Ice covered almost the entire planet, leaving behind glacial debris at the equator. When the ice eventually thawed, evolutionary activity picked up, and things werent so boring anymore. The first complex and large organisms appear in the fossil record shortly after, around 580 million years ago.The ice ages were a major factor that reset the evolutionary path in terms of diversity and dynamics, Xiao summarizes the study's most intriguing conclusion. We see rapid turnover of eukaryotic species immediately after glaciation. Thats a major finding.How exactly the glaciations boosted evolution is not yet clear. One hypothesis suggests that ice-shields eroded the continents and glaciers deposited nutrient-rich sediments in the oceans, providing a fertile environment for complex life to evolve.The study, "Quantifying the global biodiversity of Proterozoic eukaryotes," was published in the journal Science and can be found online here.Additional material and interviews provided by Virginia Tech.

The big picture: Scientists have uncovered a bizarre galaxy that appears to have gone through the cosmic equivalent of a road accident. Dubbed NGC 5084, the star system features not one, but two sets of energetic X-ray plumes shooting out from its core... and that's not even the strangest part. Buried in archival data from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and other observatories, researchers discovered something else very unusual about NGC 5084: it appears to have a small, tilted disk of dust spinning around its center at a 90-degree angle to the galaxy's overall rotation. Researchers believe this means the inner disk is, "in a sense," lying on its side compared to the larger galaxy surrounding it.The team suspect that a major disruptive event or series of events must have significantly rearranged NGC 5084. They propose that this could have been caused by a violent collision with another galaxy or the eruption of superheated gas pushing out from the top and bottom of the galactic disk.According to lead researcher Amanda Borlaff, analyzing data across the electromagnetic spectrum was akin to examining forensic evidence from a crime scene. Combining the multi-wavelength clues revealed that NGC 5084 underwent dramatic changes relatively recently.Normally, large galaxies emit their X-ray energy evenly in a more or less spherical pattern. However, the presence of concentrated plumes suggests that something disrupted this typical state.The full findings were published on December 18 in The Astrophysical Journal. // Related StoriesCo-author Pamela Marcum said that finding two distinct pairs of these columnar X-ray features in a single galaxy is "exceptional," adding that their cross-shaped structure, combined with the tilted disk, provides unique insights into the galaxy's turbulent past.Even as the jumbled architecture of NGC 5084 remains perplexing, the fact that it was discovered at all highlights the power of modern techniques in extracting new discoveries from old data. Some of the observations date back nearly 30 years.In this case, the researchers enhanced extremely faint signals buried in the archival data by applying cutting-edge image processing, which revealed diffuse features that had previously gone undetected. This innovative technique is called SAUNAS (Selective Amplification of Ultra Noisy Astronomical Signal).All in all, while the root cause remains uncertain, solving the mystery of NGC 5084's remodeling promises to provide valuable insights into how galaxies transform through violent events.

In context: Modern shaders are sophisticated pieces of code capable of modifying real-time computer graphics with high precision. Some shaders can render realistic game environments using advanced ray tracing lighting effects, while others can significantly enhance simple, minimalistic virtual scenarios. Best known for their popular UFO Test refresh rate tool, Blur Busters have unveiled a potential game-changer in motion clarity and advanced graphics. Founder Mark Rejhon teamed up with Timothy Lottes, a former AMD and Nvidia engineer, to develop a novel algorithm that simulates the behavior of CRT screens. This breakthrough technology is already being adopted by major emulation projects.The algorithm is designed to deliver a "major" reduction in motion blur on monitors with higher refresh rates. As Blur Busters explains, anyone familiar with CRTs knows their ability to produce "shockingly clear" moving graphics a quality the algorithm aims to replicate.Unlike the traditional Black Frame Insertion (BFI) method used by other CRT shaders, this new approach offers a superior experience with fewer eyestrain issues. It is especially effective for reducing motion blur in "legacy" 60fps, 60Hz content. However, there's a catch: the algorithm requires a monitor with a minimum refresh rate of 120Hz and no local dimming lag.Blur Busters recommends 240Hz OLED displays for the best results with the algorithm, although it should also work well on 240Hz LCD displays. However, the performance is expected to be "fantastic" on 360Hz to 480Hz OLED screens. The algorithm can reduce motion blur in both real-time and slow-motion scenarios, offering a potential boost for emulators and retro gaming enthusiasts.The real-time version of the algorithm requires a powerful GPU and may not look optimal on all displays. As Blur Busters notes, "Your display motion blur reduction will be limited by the native:simulated Hz ratio. More Hz the merrier." To demonstrate its effectiveness, Blur Busters posted several demos on ShaderToy, showcasing how the algorithm performs on 120Hz, 240Hz, and 480Hz monitors. The 240Hz demo looks good on my QHD 240Hz monitor, though I'd love to compare it with my old CRT for a true side-by-side test. // Related StoriesCRT simulation has long been a challenge for graphically-intensive emulators of classic consoles and PC systems. With this new open-source shader, the situation is set to improve quickly.