What a thrill... Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater Funko Pops are officially up for preorder. There are two figures currently available, one of Naked Snake and the other of The Boss, with price tags of $12.99 a piece. You won't have to wait too long to add them into your collectible collection either as they're set to release on March 25 this year. Head to the links below to get your preorders in today.Preorder Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater Funko Pops, Out March 25Out March 25, 2025 Funko Pop! Games: Metal Gear - Naked Snake$12.99 at AmazonOut March 25, 2025 Funko Pop! Games: Metal Gear - The Boss$12.99 at AmazonAs for when the game itself is coming out, it's still unannounced. You can check out our Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater preorder guide for all the info about what comes in each edition, though. Generally, Funko Pops come out around the release of the main game/movie/show/etc.Alongside preorders for new gaming items, the year has started off strong with an excellent variety of video game deals as well. Best Buy, in particular, has a major sale going on at the moment on a variety of games for PS5, Xbox Series X, and Nintendo Switch. This includes Dragon Age: The Veilguard, Sonic X Shadow Generations, and quite a few more that are worth having a look at if you've been hoping to expand your physical game collection.To see even more of the best deals available at the moment, check out our individual roundups of the best PlayStation deals, the best Nintendo Switch deals, and the best Xbox deals. For an overall look of the best gaming deals available right now across each platform, our roundup of the best video game deals will point you in the direction of some of our favorites.Another great place to look for gaming deals is our Daily Deals roundup. There, we gather up some of the best offers across games and tech that have caught our eye recently. At the moment, some of our favorites include a discount on Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora for Xbox Series X and a deal on an M2 MacBook Air.Hannah Hoolihan is a freelancer who writes with the guides and commerce teams here at IGN.

Yesterday, Apple TV+ had a fun marketing pop-up at Grand Central Terminal to celebrate Severances return. It turns out, Silo had its own unique marketing appearance too as a way to mark the coming season 2 finale.Apple shakes up TV+ marketing for Silos finaleSeason 2 of Silo is concluding this Friday, the same day that Severance season 2 kicks off.The coming Silo finale made a perfect occasion for Apples marketing team to have some fun.A suited Silo character was sent to an NBA game, where they sat inside a crowded stadium to watch the Dallas Mavericks.The Mavericks X account shared a video of the Silo appearance, which was reposted by the official Apple TV account.While not quite on the same scale as what Apple did with Severance at Grand Central, sending a suited Silo character to something random like an NBA game still shows Apples marketing team thinking outside the box and having fun.New marketing tactics could be what Apple TV+ needsDespite significant financial investment and over five years on the market, Apple TV+ continues struggling to make much of a cultural impact. Ted Lasso was a big hit, but most TV+ seriesincluding some of the very bestarent so lucky. Often, critically praised series come and go without making much of a blip on the radar of pop culture.Apple has never released TV+ subscriber numbers, but the service is largely seen as underperforming in customer adoption, despite having a strong reputation for its content.Maybe more unique marketing moves like weve seen this week can start to shift that trend.What do you think of Apples latest marketing attempts? Want to see more efforts like this? Let us know in the comments.Best Apple TV and Home accessoriesAdd 9to5Mac to your Google News feed. FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.Youre reading 9to5Mac experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Dont know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel

Nothing to seed here. Laser FocusYears after blaming California wildfires on "Jewish space lasers," big-brained congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene is complaining about the government not being able to control the most recent blazes using weather control technology that she seems to conjure up from her imagination."Why dont they use geoengineering like cloud seeding to bring rain down on the wildfires in California?" the Georgia Republican wrote in a post on X-formerly-Twitter. "They know how to do it."While it's unclear exactly which "they" the QAnon-supporting congresswoman is referring to, you could easily wager a guess based on the absolutely deranged things she's said in the past about immigrants, Jews, and Muslims.Beyond claiming that a secret cabal of powerful Jewish families orchestrated California's 2018 blazes in tandem with Pacific Gas & Electric, Greene was also censured by the House Ethics Committee in 2021 for "repeatedly [fanning] the flames of racism, antisemitism, LGBTQ hate speech, Islamophobia, anti-Asian hate, xenophobia, and other forms of hatred."Strangely enough, the bigoted Georgian also suggested last year that the United States use "space lasers" to keep out undocumented immigrants. The woman can't decide, apparently, whether such lasers are good or bad or maybe it's a "lasers for me but not for thee"-type situation.Clear SkiesWhatever the case may be, Greene is now promoting a different side of the government weather control conspiracy theory: that dubious technologies like cloud-seeding are able to radically change the weather, making it do whatever the people in charge want it to do.The reality, of course, is nowhere near that simple."Cloud seeding adds small particles to the atmosphere to attempt to promote rainfall, but to form clouds and rain you need enough water in the atmosphere," John Marsham, an atmospheric scientist at England's University of Leeds, toldNewsweek. "The fires in California are due to the ongoing drought; there simply isn't enough water in the air. Cloud seeding would be useless."These nascent technologies, which have drawn both optimism and scrutiny, have achieved patchy results at best over decades of experimentation. Moreover, as University of Reading atmospheric scientist Maarten Ambaum told the magazine, there's no indication that they'd even be helpful in Los Angeles."Cloud seeding is unlikely to be applicable to help wildfires, even if suitable clouds were present at the right location," Ambaum toldNewsweek. "Cloud seeding in clouds over wildfires is likely ineffective and possibly dangerous to the pilots of the seeding aircraft."The community note on the X post where she made her idiotic dogwhistle of a suggestion put it even better."If there are no clouds," the note reads, "there is nothing to seed."More on weather conspiracy theories: Congressman Asks FEMA Head If Shes Controlling Weather, Sending Hurricanes to Trump Voters HomesShare This Article

Jan 15, 2025Ravie LakshmananVulnerability / Software UpdateAs many as six security vulnerabilities have been disclosed in the popular Rsync file-synchronizing tool for Unix systems, some of which could be exploited to execute arbitrary code on a client."Attackers can take control of a malicious server and read/write arbitrary files of any connected client," the CERT Coordination Center (CERT/CC) said in an advisory. "Sensitive data, such as SSH keys, can be extracted, and malicious code can be executed by overwriting files such as ~/.bashrc or ~/.popt."The shortcomings, which comprise heap-buffer overflow, information disclosure, file leak, external directory file-write, and symbolic-link race condition, are listed below -CVE-2024-12084 (CVSS score: 9.8) - Heap-buffer overflow in Rsync due to improper checksum length handlingCVE-2024-12085 (CVSS score: 7.5) - Information leak via uninitialized stack contentsCVE-2024-12086 (CVSS score: 6.1) - Rsync server leaks arbitrary client filesCVE-2024-12087 (CVSS score: 6.5) - Path traversal vulnerability in RsyncCVE-2024-12088 (CVSS score: 6.5) - --safe-links option bypass leads to path traversalCVE-2024-12747 (CVSS score: 5.6) - Race condition in Rsync when handling symbolic linksSimon Scannell, Pedro Gallegos, and Jasiel Spelman from Google Cloud Vulnerability Research have been credited with discovering and reporting the first five flaws. Security researcher Aleksei Gorban has been acknowledged for the symbolic-link race condition flaw."In the most severe CVE, an attacker only requires anonymous read access to a Rsync server, such as a public mirror, to execute arbitrary code on the machine the server is running on," Red Hat Product Security's Nick Tait said.CERT/CC also noted that an attacker could combine CVE-2024-12084 and CVE-2024-12085 to achieve arbitrary code execution on a client that has a Rsync server running.Patches for the vulnerabilities have been released in Rsync version 3.4.0, which was made available earlier today. For users who are unable to apply the update, the following mitigations are recommended -CVE-2024-12084 - Disable SHA* support by compiling with CFLAGS=-DDISABLE_SHA512_DIGEST and CFLAGS=-DDISABLE_SHA256_DIGESTCVE-2024-12085 - Compile with -ftrivial-auto-var-init=zero to zero the stack contentsFound this article interesting? Follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn to read more exclusive content we post.SHARE

Anthony Russo initially turned down the idea of directing Avengers: Secret Wars.The filmmaker is returning to the Marvel Cinematic Universewith his directing brother Joe Russo and screenwriter Steven McFeely for Avengers: Doomsday and its sequel Avengers: Secret Wars, though Joe has revealed Anthony initially wasnt a fan of the idea of helming the follow-up blockbuster.Joe told Empire Magazine: There were ideas that we were trying to wrap our heads around that preceded this one, and we just never found the story.I remember calling Steve and said, Hey, crazy idea. What do you think if we all go back and do Secret Wars?[Anthony] was like, F no. Absolutely not. And then you hung up. And the next morning at 7:30 you called and were like, Alright, I have an idea.Anthony added he and Joe stumbled upon an idea that got the wheels turning on Secret Wars.He explained: Really what happened was, we ended up stumbling upon an idea that activated all of us ... You couldnt see it coming until it came, and once it came it was like, Well, thats a story we need to tell.Anthony and Joe Russo - July 2022 - Famous - The Gray Man ScreeningAnthony and Joe Russo - July 2022 - Famous - The Gray Man Screeningloading...READ MORE: Every Marvel Cinematic Universe Movie, Ranked From Worst to BestThe directing siblings started their MCU journey in 2014 with Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and went on to helm its sequel Captain America: Civil War, as well as Avengers: Infinity War before exiting the franchise following 2019s Avengers: Endgame and they werent planning to return to the series for the upcoming projects.Anthony Russo noted: Endgame was the end, and it took a little time for us to begin to think about it as something other than an end.The moviemaking pair had remained in contact with Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige and franchise executive producer Louis DEsposito, and had discussed a lot of ideas for potential films.Anthony Russo continued: Were very close with Kevin and Lou and the entire Marvel team and weve had conversations through the years. Weve talked about a lot of ideas.Avengers: Doomsday will reintroduce Robert Downey Jr., who had fronted the MCU as Iron Man until the characters heroic sacrifice in Endgame, as the dreaded Doctor Doom, while the new Avengers are forced to do all they can from allowing the villain from enacting his sinister plans.Meanwhile, it was previously confirmed Anthony Mackies Captain America, Tom Hollands Spider-Man, and the Fantastic Four team, consisting of Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal), Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby), Johnny Storm (Joseph Quinn) and The Thing (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), would all be returning for Doomsday.As for other stars, it has also been rumored that former Captain America actor Chris Evans and Ana de Armas were both lined up for roles in the 2026 blockbuster, though their supposed parts in the film are currently unknown.The Best Marvel Movies Not Made By Marvel Studios

Head of Marketing - Data Ladder (Remote, Global)Company Overview:Position Overview:Key Responsibilities:Organic Search and SEO:Own and drive SEO strategies to grow organic traffic, leads, and engagement.Collaborate with cross-functional teams to optimize the website, enhance content quality, and ensure a robust keyword strategy.Lead efforts to track, analyze, and improve search rankings and conversion rates for relevant keywords.Content Marketing and Thought Leadership:Develop a compelling content strategy that educates and engages our target audience, solidifying Data Ladders role as an industry leader.Oversee the creation of various content forms, including blog posts, whitepapers, case studies, videos, and webinars.Manage third-party content contributors, ensuring quality, brand alignment, and relevance.Account-Based Marketing (ABM):Design and execute ABM campaigns targeting high-value accounts across multiple industries.Work closely with Sales to define target accounts, customize content, and drive alignment for enhanced lead quality and conversion.Track and report ABM program effectiveness, refining campaigns based on performance data.Email Marketing and Nurture Programs:Build and manage email marketing campaigns to nurture leads, retain customers, and support product adoption.Segment audiences and personalize email journeys to deliver relevant, timely content at each stage of the buyers journey.Use data insights to test and optimize email performance, increasing engagement and conversion.Strategic Partner Alliances:Identify, engage, and cultivate partnerships with complementary system integrators and software resellers to expand Data Ladders reach and solutions.Collaborate with partners to create joint marketing initiatives that amplify Data Ladders value proposition and drive revenue growth.Measure the effectiveness of alliances, tracking their contribution to lead generation and brand awareness.What Youll Bring to the Table:8+ years of B2B SaaS marketing experience, with a strong focus on organic growth, SEO, content, and partner marketing.Proven expertise in driving organic search performance and managing SEO strategies to increase visibility and engagement.Deep experience in content marketing, including managing content strategy, production, and distribution to support demand generation.Strong understanding of ABM principles, able to design and execute highly targeted campaigns with a focus on measurable outcomes.Hands-on experience with email marketing platforms, CRM, and marketing automation tools, such as Zoho One Suite, ActiveCampaign, etc.Demonstrated success in building and managing strategic alliances with industry partners.Exceptional communication skills, both written and verbal, and the ability to present ideas to stakeholders at all levels.Highly data-driven and detail-oriented, with a knack for translating data insights into actionable strategies.To apply, please record a 60-second Loom.com video telling us why you're the best fit for this job and send it to [emailprotected] along with your resume. Please ensure the email subject line is: "Enterprise Marketing Application: DL". All applications that do not have this exact subject line, the resume attached, and the loom video link will be automatically disqualified.Why Data Ladder?Were a team of innovators, thinkers, and creators who believe that empowered data can transform industries. At Data Ladder, we value inclusivity, authenticity, and a shared commitment to excellence. If youre looking for an opportunity to make a lasting impact in a fast-growing tech company and help shape the future of data quality, we encourage you to apply!Equal Opportunity Employment:

In the rapidly evolving landscape of digital innovation, staying adaptable isnt just a strategyits a survival skill. Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face, says Luis Nio, digital manager for technology ventures and innovation at Chevron, quoting Mike Tyson. Drawing from a career that spans IT, HR, and infrastructure operations across the globe, Nio offers a unique perspective on innovation and how organizational microcultures within Chevron shape how digital transformation evolves. Centralized functions prioritize efficiency, relying on tools like AI, data analytics, and scalable system architectures. Meanwhile, business units focus on simplicity and effectiveness, deploying robotics and edge computing to meet site-specific needs and ensure safety. "From a digital transformation standpoint, what I have learned is that you have to tie your technology to what outcomes drive results for both areas, but you have to allow yourself to be flexible, to be nimble, and to understand that change is constant," he says. Central to this transformation is the rise of industrial AI. Unlike consumer applications, industrial AI operates in high-stakes environments where the cost of errors can be severe. "The wealth of potential information needs to be contextualized, modeled, and governed because of the safety of those underlying processes," says Nio. "If a machine reacts in ways you don't expect, people could get hurt, and so there's an extra level of care that needs to happen and that we need to think about as we deploy these technologies." Nio highlights Chevrons efforts to use AI for predictive maintenance, subsurface analytics, and process automation, noting that AI sits on top of that foundation of strong data management and robust telecommunications capabilities. As such, AI is not just a tool but a transformation catalyst redefining how talent is managed, procurement is optimized, and safety is ensured. Looking ahead, Nio emphasizes the importance of adaptability and collaboration: Transformation is as much about technology as it is about people. With initiatives like the Citizen Developer Program and Learn Digital, Chevron is empowering its workforce to bridge the gap between emerging technologies and everyday operations using an iterative mindset. Nio is also keeping watch over the convergence of technologies like AI, quantum computing, Internet of Things, and robotics, which hold the potential to transform how we produce and manage energy. "My job is to keep an eye on those developments," says Nio, "to make sure that we're managing these things responsibly and the things that we test and trial and the things that we deploy, that we maintain a strict sense of responsibility to make sure that we keep everyone safe, our employees, our customers, and also our stakeholders from a broader perspective." This episode of Business Lab is produced in association with Infosys Cobalt. Full Transcript Megan Tatum: From MIT Technology Review, I'm Megan Tatum and this is Business Lab, the show that helps business leaders make sense of new technologies coming out of the lab and into the marketplace. Our topic today is digital transformation, from back office operations to infrastructure in the field like oil rigs, companies continue to look for ways to increase profit, meet sustainability goals, and invest in the latest and greatest technology. Two words for you: enabling innovation. My guest is Luis Nio, who is the digital manager of technology ventures, and innovation at Chevron. This podcast is produced in association with Infosys Cobalt. Welcome, Luis. Luis Nio: Thank you, Megan. Thank you for having me. Megan: Thank you so much for joining us. Just to set some context, Luis, you've had a really diverse career at Chevron, spanning IT, HR, and infrastructure operations. I wonder, how have those different roles shaped your approach to innovation and digital strategy? Luis: Thank you for the question. And you're right, my career has spanned many different areas and geographies in the company. It really feels like I've worked for different companies every time I change roles. Like I said, different functions, organizations, locations I've had since here in Houston and in Bakersfield, California and in Buenos Aires, Argentina. From an organizational standpoint, I've seen central teams international service centers, as you mentioned, field infrastructure and operation organizations in our business units, and I've also had corporate function roles. And the reason why I mentioned that diversity is that each one of those looks at digital transformation and innovation through its own lens. From the priority to scale and streamline in central organizations to the need to optimize and simplify out in business units and what I like to call the periphery, you really learn about the concept first off of microcultures and how different these organizations can be even within our own walls, but also how those come together in organizations like Chevron. Over time, I would highlight two things. In central organizations, whether that's functions like IT, HR, or our technical center, we have a central technical center, where we continuously look for efficiencies in scaling, for system architectures that allow for economies of scale. As you can imagine, the name of the game is efficiency. We have also looked to improve employee experience. We want to orchestrate ecosystems of large technology vendors that give us an edge and move the massive organization forward. In areas like this, in central areas like this, I would say that it is data analytics, data science, and artificial intelligence that has become the sort of the fundamental tools to achieve those objectives. Now, if you allow that pendulum to swing out to the business units and to the periphery, the name of the game is effectiveness and simplicity. The priority for the business units is to find and execute technologies that help us achieve the local objectives and keep our people safe. Especially when we are talking about our manufacturing environments where there's risk for our folks. In these areas, technologies like robotics, the Internet of Things, and obviously edge computing are currently the enablers of information. I wouldn't want to miss the opportunity to say that both of those, let's call it, areas of the company, rely on the same foundation and that is a foundation of strong data management, of strong network and telecommunications capabilities because those are the veins through which the data flows and everything relies on data. In my experience, this pendulum also drives our technology priorities and our technology strategy. From a digital transformation standpoint, what I have learned is that you have to tie your technology to what outcomes drive results for both areas, but you have to allow yourself to be flexible, to be nimble, and to understand that change is constant. If you are deploying something in the center and you suddenly realize that some business unit already has a solution, you cannot just say, let's shut it down and go with what I said. You have to adapt, you have to understand behavioral change management and you really have to make sure that change and adjustments are your bread and butter. I don't know if you know this, Megan, but there's a popular fight happening this weekend with Mike Tyson and he has a saying, and that is everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face. And what he's trying to say is you have to be adaptable. The plan is good, but you have to make sure that you remain agile. Megan: Yeah, absolutely. Luis: And then I guess the last lesson really quick is about risk management or maybe risk appetite. Each group has its own risk appetite depending on the lens or where they're sitting, and this may create some conflict between organizations that want to move really, really fast and have urgency and others that want to take a step back and make sure that we're doing things right at the balance. I think that at the end, I think that's a question for leadership to make sure that they have a pulse on our ability to change. Megan: Absolutely, and you've mentioned a few different elements and technologies I'd love to dig into a bit more detail on. One of which is artificial intelligence because I know Chevron has been exploring AI for several years now. I wonder if you could tell us about some of the AI use cases it's working on and what frameworks you've developed for effective adoption as well. Luis: Yeah, absolutely. This is the big one, isn't it? Everybody's talking about AI. As you can imagine, the focus in our company is what is now being branded as industrial AI. That's really a simple term to explain that AI is being applied to industrial and manufacturing settings. And like other AI, and as I mentioned before, the foundation remains data. I want to stress the importance of data here. One of the differences however is that in the case of industrial AI, data comes from a variety of sources. Some of them are very critical. Some of them are non-critical. Sources like operating technologies, process control networks, and SCADA, all the way to Internet of Things sensors or industrial Internet of Things sensors, and unstructured data like engineering documentation and IT data. These are massive amounts of information coming from different places and also from different security structures. The complexity of industrial AI is considerably higher than what I would call consumer or productivity AI. Megan: Right. Luis: The wealth of potential information needs to be contextualized, modeled, and governed because of the safety of those underlying processes. When you're in an industrial setting, if a machine reacts in ways you don't expect, people could get hurt, and so there's an extra level of care that needs to happen and that we need to think about as we deploy these technologies. AI sits on top of that foundation and it takes different shapes. It can show up as a copilot like the ones that have been popularized recently, or it can show up as agentic AI, which is something that we're looking at closely now. And agentic AI is just a term to mean that AI can operate autonomously and can use complex reasoning to solve multistep problems in an industrial setting. So with that in mind, going back to your question, we use both kinds of AI for multiple use cases, including predictive maintenance, subsurface analytics, process automation, and workflow optimization, and also end-user productivity. Each one of those use cases obviously needs specific objectives that the business is looking at in each area of the value chain. In predictive maintenance, for example, we monitor and we analyze equipment health, we prevent failures, and we allow for preventive maintenance and reduced downtime. The AI helps us understand when machinery needs to be maintained in order to prevent failure instead of just waiting for it to happen. In subsurface analysis, we're exploring AI to develop better models of hydrocarbon reservoirs. We are exploring AI to forecast geomechanical models and to capture and understand data from fiber optic sensing. Fiber optic sensing is a capability that has proven very valuable to us, and AI is helping us make sense of the wealth of information that comes out of the whole, as we like to say. Of course, we don't do this alone. We partner with many third-party organizations, with vendors, and with people inside subject matter experts inside of Chevron to move the projects forward. There are several other areas beyond industrial AI that we are looking at. AI really is a transformation catalyst, and so areas like finance and law and procurement and HR, we're also doing testing in those corporate areas. I can tell you that I've been part of projects in procurement, in HR. When I was in HR we ran a pretty amazing effort in partnership with a third-party company, and what they do is they seek to transform the way we understand talent, and the way they do that is they are trying to provide data-driven frameworks to make talent decisions. And so they redefine talent by framing data in the form of skills, and as they do this, they help de-bias processes that are usually or can be usually prone to unconscious biases and perspectives. It really is fascinating to think of your talent-based skills and to start decoupling them from what we know since the industrial era began, which is people fit in jobs. Now the question is more the other way around. How can jobs adapt to people's skills? And then in procurement, AI is basically helping us open the aperture to a wider array of vendors in an automated fashion that makes us better partners. It's more cost-effective. It's really helpful. Before I close here, you did reference frameworks, so the framework of industrial AI versus what I call productivity AI, the understanding of the use cases. All of this sits on top of our responsible AI frameworks. We have set up a central enterprise AI organization and they have really done a great job in developing key areas of responsible AI as well as training and adoption frameworks. This includes how to use AI, how not to use AI, what data we can share with the different GPTs that are available to us. We are now members of organizations like the Responsible AI Institute. This is an organization that fosters the safe use of AI and trustworthy AI. But our own responsible AI framework, it involves four pillars. The first one is the principles, and this is how we make sure we continue to stay aligned with the values that drive this company, which we call The Chevron Way. It includes assessment, making sure that we evaluate these solutions in proportion to impact and risk. As I mentioned, when you're talking about industrial processes, people's lives are at stake. And so we take a very close look at what we are putting out there and how we ensure that it keeps our people safe. It includes education, I mentioned training our people to augment their capabilities and reinforcing responsible principles, and the last of the four is governance oversight and accountability through control structures that we are putting in place. Megan: Fantastic. Thank you so much for those really fascinating specific examples as well. It's great to hear about. And digital transformation, which you did touch on briefly, has become critical of course to enable business growth and innovation. I wonder what has Chevron's digital transformation looked like and how has the shift affected overall operations and the way employees engage with technology as well? Luis: Yeah, yeah. That's a really good question. The term digital transformation is interpreted in many different ways. For me, it really is about leveraging technology to drive business results and to drive business transformation. We usually tend to specify emerging technology as the catalyst for transformation. I think that is okay, but I also think that there are ways that you can drive digital transformation with technology that's not necessarily emerging but is being optimized, and so under this umbrella, we include everything from our Citizen Developer Program to complex industry partnerships that help us maximize the value of data. The Citizen Developer Program has been very successful in helping bridge the gap between our technical software engineer and software development practices and people who are out there doing the work, getting familiar, and demystifying the way to build solutions. I do believe that transformation is as much about technology as it is about people. And so to go back to the responsible AI framework, we are actively training and upskilling the workforce. We created a program called Learn Digital that helps employees embrace the technologies. I mentioned the concept of demystifying. It's really important that people don't fall into the trap of getting scared by the potential of the technology or the fact that it is new and we help them and we give them the tools to bridge the change management gap so they can get to use them and get the most out of them. At a high level, our transformation has followed the cyclical nature that pretty much any transformation does. We have identified the data foundations that we need to have. We have understood the impact of the processes that we are trying to digitize. We organize that information, then we streamline and automate processes, we learn, and now machines learn and then we do it all over again. And so this cyclical mindset, this iterative mindset has really taken hold in our culture and it has made us a little bit better at accepting the technologies that are driving the change. Megan: And to look at one of those technologies in a bit more detail, cloud computing has revolutionized infrastructure across industries. But there's also a pendulum ship now toward hybrid and edge computing models. How is Chevron balancing cloud, hybrid, and edge strategies for optimal performance as well? Luis: Yeah, that's a great question and I think you could argue that was the genesis of the digital transformation effort. It's been a journey for us and it's a journey that I think we're not the only ones that may have started it as a cost savings and storage play, but then we got to this ever-increasing need for multiple things like scaling compute power to support large language models and maximize how we run complex models. There's an increasing need to store vast amounts of data for training and inference models while we improve data management and, while we predict future needs. There's a need for the opportunity to eliminate hardware constraints. One of the promises of cloud was that you would be able to ramp up and down depending on your compute needs as projects demanded. And that hasn't stopped, that has only increased. And then there's a need to be able to do this at a global level. For a company like ours that is distributed across the globe, we want to do this everywhere while actively managing those resources without the weight of the infrastructure that we used to carry on our books. Cloud has really helped us change the way we think about the digital assets that we have. It's important also that it has created this symbiotic need to grow between AI and the cloud. So you don't have the AI without the cloud, but now you don't have the cloud without AI. In reality, we work on balancing the benefits of cloud and hybrid and edge computing, and we keep operational efficiency as our North Star. We have key partnerships in cloud, that's something that I want to make sure I talk about. Microsoft is probably the most strategic of our partnerships because they've helped us set our foundation for cloud. But we also think of the convenience of hybrid through the lens of leveraging a convenient, scalable public cloud and a very secure private cloud that helps us meet our operational and safety needs. Edge computing fills the gap or the need for low latency and real-time data processing, which are critical constraints for decision-making in most of the locations where we operate. You can think of an offshore rig, a refinery, an oil rig out in the field, and maybe even not-so-remote areas like here in our corporate offices. Putting that compute power close to the data source is critical. So we work and we partner with vendors to enable lighter compute that we can set at the edge and, I mentioned the foundation earlier, faster communication protocols at the edge that also solve the need for speed. But it is important to remember that you don't want to think about edge computing and cloud as separate things. Cloud supports edge by providing centralized management by providing advanced analytics among others. You can train models in the cloud and then deploy them to edge devices, keeping real-time priorities in mind. I would say that edge computing also supports our cybersecurity strategy because it allows us to control and secure sensitive environments and information while we embed machine learning and AI capabilities out there. So I have mentioned use cases like predictive maintenance and safety, those are good examples of areas where we want to make sure our cybersecurity strategy is front and center. When I was talking about my experience I talked about the center and the edge. Our strategy to balance that pendulum relies on flexibility and on effective asset management. And so making sure that our cloud reflects those strategic realities gives us a good footing to achieve our corporate objectives. Megan: As you say, safety is a top priority. How do technologies like the Internet of Things and AI help enhance safety protocols specifically too, especially in the context of emissions tracking and leak detection? Luis: Yeah, thank you for the question. Safety is the most important thing that we think and talk about here at Chevron. There is nothing more important than ensuring that our people are safe and healthy, so I would break safety down into two. Before I jump to emissions tracking and leak detection, I just want to make a quick point on personal safety and how we leverage IoT and AI to that end. We use sensing capabilities that help us keep workers out of harm's way, and so things like computer vision to identify and alert people who are coming into safety areas. We also use computer vision, for example, to identify PPE requirementspersonal protective equipment requirementsand so if there are areas that require a certain type of clothing, a certain type of identification, or a hard hat, we are using technologies that can help us make sure people have that before they go into a particular area. We're also using wearables. Wearables help us in one of the use cases is they help us track exhaustion and dehydration in locations where that creates inherent risk, and so locations that are very hot, whether it's because of the weather or because they are enclosed, we can use wearables that tell us how fast the person's getting dehydrated, what are the levels of liquid or sodium that they need to make sure that they're safe or if they need to take a break. We have those capabilities now. Going back to emissions tracking and leak detection, I think it's actually the combination of IoT and AI that can transform how we prevent and react to those. In this case, we also deploy sensing capabilities. We use things like computer vision, like infrared capabilities, and we use others that deliver data to the AI models, which then alert and enable rapid response. The way I would explain how we use IoT and AI for safety, whether it's personnel safety or emissions tracking and leak detection, is to think about sensors as the extension of human ability to sense. In some cases, you could argue it's super abilities. And so if you think of sight normally you would've had supervisors or people out there that would be looking at the field and identifying issues. Well, now we can use computer vision with traditional RGB vision, we can use them with infrared, we can use multi-angle to identify patterns, and have AI tell us what's going on. If you keep thinking about the human senses, that's sight, but you can also use sound through ultrasonic sensors or microphone sensors. You can use touch through vibration recognition and heat recognition. And even more recently, this is something that we are testing more recently, you can use smell. There are companies that are starting to digitize smell. Pretty exciting, also a little bit crazy. But it is happening. And so these are all tools that any human would use to identify risk. Well, so now we can do it as an extension of our human abilities to do so. This way we can react much faster and better to the anomalies. A specific example with methane. We have a simple goal with methane, we want to keep methane in the pipe. Once it's out, it's really hard or almost impossible to take it back. Over the last six to seven years, we have reduced our methane intensity by over 60% and we're leveraging technology to achieve that. We have deployed a methane detection program. We have trialed over 10 to 15 advanced methane detection technologies. A technology that I have been looking at recently is called Aquanta Vision. This is a company supported by an incubator program we have called Chevron Studio. We did this in partnership with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and what they do is they leverage optical gas imaging to detect methane effectively and to allow us to prevent it from escaping the pipe. So that's just an example of the technologies that we're leveraging in this space. Megan: Wow, that's fascinating stuff. And on emissions as well, Chevron has made significant investments in new energy technologies like hydrogen, carbon capture, and renewables. How do these technologies fit into Chevron's broader goal of reducing its carbon footprint? Luis: This is obviously a fascinating space for us, one that is ever-changing. It is honestly not my area of expertise. But what I can say is we truly believe we can achieve high returns and lower carbon, and that's something that we communicate broadly. A few years ago, I believe it was 2021, we established our Chevron New Energies company and they actively explore lower carbon alternatives including hydrogen, renewables, and carbon capture offsets. My area, the digital area, and the convergence between digital technologies and the technical sciences will enable the techno-commercial viability of those business lines. Thinking about carbon capture, is something that we've done for a long time. We have decades of experience in carbon capture technologies across the world. One of our larger projects, the Gorgon Project in Australia, I think they've captured something between 5 and 10 million tons of CO2 emissions in the past few years, and so we have good expertise in that space. But we also actively partner in carbon capture. We have joined hubs of carbon capture here in Houston, for example, where we investing in companies like there's a company called Carbon Clean, a company called Carbon Engineering, and one called Svante. I'm familiar with these names because the corporate VC team is close to me. These companies provide technologies for direct air capture. They provide solutions for hard-to-abate industries. And so we want to keep an eye on these emerging capabilities and make use of them to continuously lower our carbon footprint. There are two areas here that I would like to talk about. Hydrogen first. This is another area that we're familiar with. Our plan is to build on our existing assets and capabilities to deliver a large-scale hydrogen business. Since 2005, I think we've been doing retail hydrogen, and we also have several partnerships there. In renewables, we are creating a range of fuels for different transportation types. We use diesel, bio-based diesel, we use renewable natural gas, we use sustainable aviation fuel. Yeah, so these are all areas of importance to us. They're emerging business lines that are young in comparison to the rest of our company. We've been a company for 140 years plus, and this started in 2021, so you can imagine how steep that learning curve is. I mentioned how we leverage our corporate venture capital team to learn and to keep an eye out on what are these emerging trends and technologies that we want to learn about. They leverage two things. They leverage a core fund, which is focused on areas that can seek innovation for our core business for the title. And we have a separate future energy fund that explores areas that are emerging. Not only do they invest in places like hydrogen, carbon capture, and renewables, but they also may invest in other areas like wind and geothermal and nuclear capability. So we constantly keep our eyes open for these emerging technologies. Megan: I see. And I wonder if you could share a bit more actually about Chevron's role in driving sustainable business innovation. I'm thinking of initiatives like converting used cooking oil into biodiesel, for example. I wonder how those contribute to that overall goal of creating a circular economy. Luis: Yeah, this is fascinating and I was so happy to learn a little bit more about this year when I had the chance to visit our offices in Iowa. I'll get into that in a second. But happy to talk about this, again with the caveat that it's not my area of expertise. Megan: Of course. Luis: In the case of biodiesel, we acquired a company called REG in 2022. They were one of the founders of the renewable fuels industry, and they honestly do incredible work to create energy through a process, I forget the name of the process to be honest. But at the most basic level what they do is they prepare feedstocks that come from different types of biomass, you mentioned cooking oils, there's also soybeans, there's animal fats. And through various chemical reactions, what they do is convert components of the feedstock into biodiesel and glycerin. After that process, what they do is they separate un-reactive methanol, which is recovered and recycled into the process, and the biodiesel goes through a final processing to make sure that it meets the standards necessary to be commercialized. What REG has done is it has boosted our knowledge as a broader organization on how to do this better. They continuously look for bio-feedstocks that can help us deliver new types of energy. I had mentioned bio-based diesel. One of the areas that we're very focused on right now is sustainable aviation fuel. I find that fascinating. The reason why this is working and the reason why this is exciting is because they brought this great expertise and capability into Chevron. And in turn, as a larger organization, we're able to leverage our manufacturing and distribution capabilities to continue to provide that value to our customers. I mentioned that I learned a little bit more about this this year. I was lucky earlier in the year I was able to visit our REG offices in Ames, Iowa. That's where they're located. And I will tell you that the passion and commitment that those people have for the work that they do was incredibly energizing. These are folks who have helped us believe, really, that our promise of lower carbon is attainable. Megan: Wow. Sounds like there's some fascinating work going on. Which brings me to my final question. Which is sort of looking ahead, what emerging technologies are you most excited about and how do you see them impacting both Chevron's core business and the energy sector as a whole as well? Luis: Yeah, that's a great question. I have no doubt that the energy business is changing and will continue to change only faster, both our core business as well as the future energy, or the way it's going to look in the future. Honestly, in my line of work, I come across exciting technology every day. The obvious answers are AI and industrial AI. These are things that are already changing the way we live without a doubt. You can see it in people's productivity. You can see it in how we optimize and transform workflows. AI is changing everything. I am actually very, very interested in IoT, in the Internet of Things, and robotics, the ability to protect humans in high-risk environments, like I mentioned, is critical to us, the opportunity to prevent high-risk events and predict when they're likely to happen. This is pretty massive, both for our productivity objectives as well as for our lower carbon objectives. If we can predict when we are at risk of particular events, we could avoid them altogether. As I mentioned before, this ubiquitous ability to sense our surroundings is a capability that our industry and I'm going to say humankind, is only beginning to explore. There's another area that I didn't talk too much about, which I think is coming, and that is quantum computing. Quantum computing promises to change the way we think of compute power and it will unlock our ability to simulate chemistry, to simulate molecular dynamics in ways we have not been able to do before. We're working really hard in this space. When I say molecular dynamics, think of the way that we produce energy today. It is all about the molecule and understanding the interactions between hydrocarbon molecules and the environment. The ability to do that in multi-variable systems is something that quantum, we believe, can provide an edge on, and so we're working really hard in this space. Yeah, there are so many, and having talked about all of them, AI, IoT, robotics, quantum, the most interesting thing to me is the convergence of all of them. If you think about the opportunity to leverage robotics, but also do it as the machines continue to control limited processes and understand what it is they need to do in a preventive and predictive way, this is such an incredible potential to transform our lives, to make an impact in the world for the better. We see that potential. My job is to keep an eye on those developments, to make sure that we're managing these things responsibly and the things that we test and trial and the things that we deploy, that we maintain a strict sense of responsibility to make sure that we keep everyone safe, our employees, our customers, and also our stakeholders from a broader perspective. Megan: Absolutely. Such an important point to finish on. And unfortunately, that is all the time we have for today, but what a fascinating conversation. Thank you so much for joining us on the Business Lab, Luis. Luis: Great to talk to you. Megan: Thank you so much. That was Luis Nio, who is the digital manager of technology ventures and innovation at Chevron, who I spoke with today from Brighton, England. That's it for this episode of Business Lab. I'm Megan Tatum, I'm your host and a contributing editor at Insights, the custom publishing division of MIT Technology Review. We were founded in 1899 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and you can find us in print on the web and at events each year around the world. For more information about us and the show, please check out our website at technologyreview.com. This show is available wherever you get your podcasts, and if you enjoyed this episode, we really hope you'll take a moment to rate and review us. Business Lab is a production of MIT Technology Review, and this episode was produced by Giro Studios. Thank you so much for listening.

RIBA president-elect has written a two-hour play based on rivalry between Leonardo Davinci and MichelangeloSource: Dan FontanelliChris Williamson, founding partner of WW&P and RIBA president electRIBA president-elect Chris Williamson has revealed that he has written a stage play which has been nominated for an award in Rome.The two-hour historical drama, called Legacy, is based on the rivalry between Michelangelo and Leonardo Davinci during the height of the Italian renaissance in the early 16th century.It has been selected for best script in the Rome Prisma Film Awards, which includes nominations for both screen and stage productions, ahead of an awards ceremony in Rome next month.Williamson, who will become the next president of RIBA in September, said the subject matter was something he had been thinking about for a long time.The WW&P co-founderstarted writing the play during the covid pandemic, completing a first draft which he then revisited and refined last summer.He told Building Design the three-act play was about the futility of thinking about your own legacy, and was partly inspired by conversations he had had with leading British architects including Norman Foster, Nicholas Grimsahw and the late Richard Rogers.The play is partly based in Rome during Michelangelos work on the ceiling of the Sistine ChapelThe big names are always thinking about what their legacy is going to be, what they think they should have done and what they had done, he said.People are still talking about Leonardo Davinci and Michelangelo, but still cant decide who was better.The competition between the two artists had echoes in recent architectural history, he said, particularly in terms of rivalries between starchitects including Foster and Rogers.The play starts in Florence, where both artists were based in the first years of the 16th century, before moving to Rome during Michelangelos work on the Sistine Chapel.Williamsons award nomination was congratulated on LinkedIn by various built environment names including former RIBA president Jane Duncan and Crossrail International non-executive chairman Keith Wallace.

The ILM Vancouver artist details her globe-trotting career path from special make-up effects to art direction to effects supervision.By Lucas O. SeastromLost Ollie (Credit: Netflix)Ultraman: Rising (Credit: Netflix)For decades, a significant aspect of Industrial Light & Magics company culture has been defined by the atmosphere in dailies. These routine sessions where the effects team reviews work-in-progress and provides feedback are common across the industry, but ILM has always prided itself on its distinct style that encourages open and equal communication. Tania Richard had spent some 15 years working in visual effects before she joined ILM in 2018 as an art director at the Vancouver studio. And as she puts it, ILMs collaborative dynamic really shines in dailies.While working on Space Jam: A New Legacy (2021), Richard was at first surprised when visual effects supervisor Grady Cofer would call on her in dailies, seemingly at random. Grady wouldnt hesitate to call my name out and ask me what I thought about something, even if it wasnt something I was working directly on, Richard explains. He valued everyones opinion, and made you feel part of the overall process. Earlier in my career at other studios, dailies was pretty quiet and you didnt speak up very often. Everyone has their own way of approaching things in dailies, but at ILM its always with the intent of creating a collaborative experience.As ILM has continued its global expansion which now includes studios in Vancouver, London, Sydney, and Mumbai, in addition to its San Francisco headquarters seasoned professionals from across the effects industry have joined the ranks. Each brings their unique experience working on diverse projects and often in many different types of roles. Richard is no different.Growing up in Sarnia on the southern border of Ontario, Canada, Richard had what she describes as a creative upbringing. Both of her parents had their own artistic pursuits, and her mother in particular encouraged Richard and her brother (now a storyboard artist) to make careers out of their passions. Though she aspired to work in filmmaking from her time in high school, Richard chose to study traditional fine art while studying at McMaster University southwest of Toronto. But I was lucky in that the university also had film theory courses, she notes, so I studied film theory as well as fine art.With this unusual blend of disciplines, Richard was able to both learn academic theories and create artworks that attempted to realize them in aesthetic form. She studied sculpture, drawing, print-making, art history, and painting, as well as film theory. Her fascination with the concept of film spectatorship inspired her to focus in painting. There was a film theorist, Laura Mulvey, who talked a lot about the male gaze in spectatorship, Richard explains. I studied her a lot, as well as Cindy Sherman, who would often photograph herself in these film-looking environments and settings. I ended up doing something similar where Id start by creating these film stills, photographing myself dressed up in various situations, and using that as reference for my paintings.To this day, Richard is fascinated by the intersections of artistic craft and theory, in particular the way that filmmakers code their works. It can almost be a language, a communication between the filmmaker and the audience, she says. Somebody like [Andrei] Tarkovsky puts these little codes throughout his filmmaking, whether its sound like dripping water or a cuckoo, or a visual like apples. They were all meaningful to him on a personal level. You see and hear these codes throughout all of his films, and if you were familiar enough with them, it was almost as if he was talking to you in a way, on another level.At ILM, Richard has worked with director Shannon Tindle on both Lost Ollie (2022) and Ultraman: Rising (2024), and she describes the filmmaker along similar lines. Hell reference the same films in his creative process, like Kramer vs. Kramer [1979], for example. He loves that film, and Im aware of that because Ive worked with him long enough and had enough discussions with him to know that when I see something in the way a frame is composed or an animation performance in one of his films, I can understand where his influence is coming from. Its special. It makes you feel like youre connecting with the filmmaker on another level.As she finished her undergraduate studies, Richard jumped into work at Toronto-based FXSMITH, a special effects company founded by innovative makeup designer, Gordon Smith. Initially thinking shed be working on a local television show, Richard soon discovered their teams assignment was the feature film X-Men (2000). Initially, Smith had his new hire drawing concepts for characters requiring prosthetics, and as production commenced, Richard was part of the on-set team creating the extensive make-up for Rebecca Romijn as Mystique.It was a great experience and I had my foot in the door, says Richard. But this was back around 1999, and the transition from practical effects to computer effects was happening. For X-Men, we worked closely with the visual effects team on set because they had to pick up a lot of our work in post-production and refine it. In talking to some of the crew there, they encouraged me to move into visual effects.Concept art by Richard for Mystique (Rebecca Romijn) in X-Men (2000) from 20th Century Studios (Credit: Tania Richard).Richards brother was then studying classical animation at Torontos Sheridan College, a school that had graduated a number of artists later hired by ILM. If the Sheridan opportunity hadnt worked out, I mightve gone for a PhD in film theory, Richard notes. Joining the schools postgraduate visual effects program, her main professor was Richard Cohen, recently returned from a stint at ILM as a CG artist on Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) and Death Becomes Her (1992).There were about 12 of us in the class, and Richard [Cohen] felt that rather than having us all isolated and doing our own thing, we should make a short film together, says Richard. If I had not done that, I mightve focused more on the animation side. But on the group project, we leaned into each others strengths, and because I had a painting background, it was clear that I was the concept artist, matte painter, and designer on the team. I did do some animation, but I learned that it wasnt my strength. She adds that although she intended to create traditional matte paintings for their film (ultimately titled The Artist of the Beautiful), Cohen urged her to learn Photoshop and embrace the emerging computer-based tools.As she finished her studies at Sheridan, Richard had already begun professional work, initially as a concept designer for 2003s Blizzard under production designer Tamara Deverell. She then became a digital matte painter at Toybox, a local effects house that was soon acquired by Technicolor. Eventually, a former colleague invited her to come to Sydney, Australia where Animal Logic was developing the animated feature Happy Feet (2006). I was young and up for the big move, so I said yes, Richard comments. That was back when 2 D projections were the thing, so I did a number of those mattes on that feature.During this period, Richard encountered a number of important mentors, among whom was the late visual effects producer Diana Giorgiutti, with whom Richard served as a concept artist on Baz Luhrmanns Australia (2008). We were on location in Darwin and Bowen for something like seven to nine weeks, Richard explains. Di had me working directly with [production designer] Catherine Martin. She had me sitting with editor Dody Dorn for a week. Dody had cut Memento [2000]. We were together early on when she had voice recordings of the actors reading the script and she wanted some images to cut in with them. Id be mocking up frames for her and she explained to me the compositions they needed. She was really generous with her time.Soon, London-based Double Negative came calling, and Richard spent nearly a decade in the United Kingdom working on everything from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011) to Interstellar (2014). As visual effects art director on Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016), she again found an important mentor in production designer Stuart Craig, whod overseen the visual development of the entire Potter franchise. After creating elevation and sectional drawings for sets, Craig tasked Richard with building digital mock-ups, and together theyd determine the preferred camera angles for which Richard then created detailed concepts.Stuart had worked with set designer Stephanie McMillan for many years, says Richard, and they would often go onto set together and shoot the space in black and white. That helped them analyze the composition before they started adding color and texture, which only came after they were happy with the black and white composition. When I built my models, I rendered them in black and white as well, so I was approaching it instinctively in a similar way. Stuart loved it and helped me understand why it was a good approach. Rather than going full-tilt and adding lots of texture and detail right from the beginning, you start to learn that actually you might never see a particular area because of the way its being lit, or something like that. You learn to focus in an efficient way on where to add that structural detail, where to hit the image with color to have the most impact. It was a brilliant lesson from Stuart.Shooting reference photography for Australia at Kakadu National Park. (Credit: Zam Wimberley).With producer Diana Giorgiutti (Credit: Will Reichelt).Shooting background photography in Scotland for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Credit: Tania Richard).A return to Animal Logic for 2018s Peter Rabbit was Richards ultimate springboard to ILM. With the opportunity to work closely with director Will Gluck, visual effects supervisor Will Reichelt, and associate visual effects supervisor Matt Middleton (the latter of whom are both with ILM now), she came to realize that effects supervision was her chosen path. Will [Reichelt] had me run lighting dailies and look after the assets while he was busy on set, Richard explains. I was also really involved in the DI process and had a team of artists who I delegated a lot of design work to, so in many ways, it felt like a natural transition.In early 2018, the ILM Art Departments creative director David Nakabayashi and senior producer Jennifer Coronado convinced Richard to make another move, this time back to her native Canada to work at ILMs Vancouver studio. It was a significant decision, as Richard was then considering a move to New Zealand for a brief respite from active work. But the opportunity to join ILM was too important to pass up.ILM was the pinnacle, Richard says frankly. For anybody who is around my age and grew up with Star Wars, you see ILM as the height of where you want to be in the industry. But I wasnt sure I had what it took to be a part of the company, so it was a surprise when they reached out. I barely took any time off between working on Peter Rabbit and coming to ILM.Initially working as an art director, Richard describes her first impressions of ILM as overwhelming, exciting, and different. After assisting Vancouvers creative director Jeff White on some initial project bids, she was soon working on Disneys Aladdin (2019). The ILM Art Department is incredibly talented and is really the best of the best, Richard notes. Theres so much you can learn from them. She continued as an art director on Space Jam: A New Legacy, for which ILM was responsible for integrating the classic Warner Brothers animated characters with live action footage.There was a lot of artwork created at the beginning of Space Jam, Richard explains. The spirit of it evolved quite a lot over the course of the show. I had a wonderful team, and I really loved working on Bugs Bunny! [laughs] Grady Cofer had me doing paint-overs on some of the characters, which I really enjoyed. The whole team was involved in refining the final looks of each character, including the textures crew, the groom artists, the modeling team, and the animators. Im always blown away when I see animation come through.It was after Space Jam that Richard made the transition to associate visual effects supervisor on Lost Ollie. Im a bit like the righthand person or wingman for the visual effects supervisor, she elaborates. We work very closely with production and our department leads and supes to help establish looks, refine shots, and execute what needs to be done in post to maintain a certain level of quality and consistency. I had been slowly navigating into an effects supervisor-type role for a while, but I wasnt sure if I had all the skillsets to be able to do it. I talked to Jenn and Nak about it, and they were very supportive and helped to guide me into this position along with Jeff White and [executive in charge] Spencer Kent.Lost Ollie (Credit: Netflix).I think I just got really lucky, Richard continues. I believe that Jeff had Ultraman in mind for me, but it wasnt quite ready yet. [Visual effects supervisor] Hayden [Jones] and [visual effects executive producer] Stefan [Drury] were working with Shannon Tindle on Lost Ollie, so I had a chance to establish a relationship with the same client. I think thats why they thought it might be a good starting point for me. It was a smaller project, and I love the hybrid between live action and CG characters. Its probably what Im best at and what I love to do the most. I ended up diving in heavily on two episodes, and then I stayed in the background on the final two because that was when I started transitioning to Ultraman: Rising.The move into supervision has allowed Richard to focus more on refining her approach to communication and collaboration between the artists and the clients. On Ultraman, Hayden was great at encouraging the team to ask questions and offer up suggestions with Shannon, she notes. Whats great about Shannon is that he creates an environment where its okay to suggest something that might not ultimately be the right idea, but its great to put it out there and see if it works. [ILM executive creative director] John Knoll is very similar. He embraces that exploration and isnt afraid to try something.Richard emphasizes that part of being a supervisor is having an ability to read the room and understand the personalities of the artists and how they like to communicate. And as an artist herself, Richard brings her own unique blend of experiences. Ive been lucky to have had a toe in the practical side of things very early on. Ive also worked with some really talented people who come from an earlier generation of filmmakers. I hope that some of that knowledge translates in my communication with the artists. Both Grady and Hayden like to do quick paint-overs on things in dailies, and thats something I like to do as well. If words dont quite explain something, sometimes a quick drawing or paint-over can act as a visual reference. Many supes like to do that.As so many have attested, its the people that have truly made the difference at ILM in its 50 years of storytelling. Have curiosity about the people youre working with, Richard says, and have empathy for them. Try to understand where your colleagues may be at a certain point in time. You can use that to develop relationships throughout your career, which is so important.Ultraman: Rising (Credit: Netflix).Read more about Richards work on Ultraman: Rising here on ILM.com.Lucas O. Seastrom is the editor of ILM.com and a contributing writer & historian for Lucasfilm.

2024 Wondering which budgeting app you should use? Rocket Money should be at the top of your consideration list.Rocket Money (formerly known as Truebill) was CNET's 2024 Editors' Choice pick for best budgeting app. It's affordable, user-friendly and packs a ton of valuable features. It also offers some unique perks, such as subscription cancellation and bill negotiation. There's a free and a premium version, with the premium version costing as little as $6 per month.Here's what you need to know to decide if Rocket Money is right for you. 9.4 Rocket Money Buy at Rocket Money Like Affordable Easy to use Savings goals Credit score and net worth tracking Bill negotiation and cancellation services Don't like Free version is limited No debt playoff planning features No investment tools Fees for bill negotiation How does Rocket Money work? The Rocket Money budgeting app links to your bank accounts to track your income and spending. It can automatically sort your transactions into specific categories, such as groceries or housing, to take some of the legwork out of budgeting. You can also edit individual transactions and create rules for sorting future transactions. Rocket Money allows you to set spending goals and shows you how much you've spent to date in each category. You can adjust your budget at any time to account for unexpected expenses. The free version of Rocket Money is limited but provides basic budgeting functions like expense tracking that may be sufficient for some users. The paid version, which costs $6 to $12 per month, offers advanced features like custom budget categories, automated savings and credit reports and net worth tracking. What we like Affordable price: Rocket Money Premium costs $6 to $12 per month. How much you pay is up to you, and you'll enjoy the same features regardless of the amount you choose.Easy to use: Rocket Money's mobile app and online platform are both intuitive to use. Information is presented in a clean, easy-to-understand way that tells you what you need to know without overwhelming you.Lots of notifications: You can choose to receive a wide variety of notifications to stay on top of your finances, from bill increase and bank fee alerts to identity theft and credit score alerts.Savings goals: Rocket Money Premium offers a Smart Savings account to make setting money aside easier. You can set savings goals and schedule regular automatic transfers to this account. Smart Savings accounts are held by an FDIC-insured partner bank, so your money is safe up to $250,000 per account holder.Credit score and net worth tracking: Rocket Money Premium offers credit score viewing and credit report and net worth trackers. (The free version offers credit score viewing only.)Bill negotiation: Rocket Money also offers a bill negotiation service that's available to both free and paid users. Rocket contacts your service providers -- like your cell phone or internet provider -- for you to try to lower your bill. You'll pay a fee if they succeed, but it may be worth it for you if you hate haggling with customer service reps. What we didn't like Free version is limited: You may be able to get away with using Rocket Money's free version, but it's pretty barebones. If you want features like custom budget categories, you'll need to pay for the premium membership.No debt payoff planning: Some budgeting apps, like PocketGuard, provide debt payoff planning to help you reduce your debt load. Rocket doesn't. You can link your credit card accounts to monitor your balances, but that's about it.No investment tools: You can connect your investment accounts to Rocket Money and view your balances, but if you want help with investment planning, you're better off with an app like Empower, which provides tools to assess and adjust your strategy.Traditional budgeting approach: Rocket Money uses a basic budgeting method: You set your budget categories and spending goals upfront, and you can tweak them from month to month. This strategy may not work for everyone. If you want a more granular approach to your budget or need help getting a handle on your spending, you may be better served by zero-based budgeting apps like EveryDollar and YNAB or by Goodbudget's envelope method.Bill negotiation fees: If Rocket Money's bill negotiation service succeeds, you'll pay them 30% to 60% of your first year's savings (you choose your percentage). You could contact your service providers yourself and save on this cost. Is Rocket Money safe? Yes, the Rocket Money app is generally safe. It uses 256-bit encryption -- the same encryption many banks use -- and partners with the payment network Plaid to link to your accounts rather than storing your login information. That said, your financial data could still be at risk if your phone is ever lost or stolen, so you should know how to remotely wipe your phone in this event. Who is Rocket Money best suited for? Rocket Money offers all the essentials you need to create and maintain a budget. It's accessible to a wide range of budgeters, easy to use, and the premium subscription is affordable. Because of this, we found Rocket Money to be a solid replacement for Mint, the popular budgeting app that disappeared in March 2024. Alternatives to the Rocket Money app Rocket Money offers something for everyone, but it isn't the only budgeting app on the market. You can explore your options by checking out our best budgeting apps roundup. Rocket Money Finally crush your budgeting goals with Rocket Money. Details See at Rocket Money Is Rocket Money legit? Yes, Rocket Money is a legitimate budgeting app that can help you track your spending habits, identify ways to save money and get a better handle on your personal finances. It has a 4.4-star (out of 5) rating on Trustpilot and is accredited by the Better Business Bureau. How much does Rocket Money cost? Rocket Money is a free budgeting app that offers limited budgeting features for no cost. If you want to create unlimited budgets, customize your budget categories or access features like automated savings, you'll need to pay for a Premium subscription, which costs between $6 and $12 per month. You pick your amount -- you get the same features at any price level. Should I pay for Rocket Money Premium membership? Some users may find Rocket Money's free version is enough for their needs. If you'd like more, the paid version's sliding scale pricing of $6 and $12 is affordable by budgeting app standards. With a free seven-day trial to test it out and flexible monthly billing options, it's certainly worth considering if you'd like to see all that Rocket Money can do. More budgeting advice: