The Netflix Secret Codes Cheat Sheet

As a Netflix user, one of the main dilemmas you probably face is deciding what to watch. Yes, there are apps and websites to help you find interesting content on Netflix. But what if you have niche interests or want to watch content from an ultra-specific genre? How do you narrow down your choices then?

Netflix itself can come to your rescue here with its collection of secret categories. You’ll find diverse options like horror comedies, campy movies, sports dramas, military documentaries, and showbiz musicals in this collection.

What’s more, you can discover the best hidden Netflix categories and their codes with our cheat sheet below. (They work with the Netflix catalog for the US and you’ll need to log in to your Netflix account to use them.)

To filter content by a certain category listed in the cheat sheet, use the URL below. Be sure to replace CODE in the URL with the relevant category code before you hit Enter.

https://www.netflix.com/browse/genre/CODE

FREE DOWNLOAD: This cheat sheet is available as a downloadable PDF from our distribution partner, TradePub. You will have to complete a short form to access it for the first time only. Download The Netflix Secret Codes Cheat Sheet.

The Netflix Secret Codes Cheat Sheet

Genre	Code
Action and Adventure (1365)
Asian Action Movies	77232
Classic Action and Adventure	46576
Action Comedies	43040
Action Thrillers	43048
Adventures	7442
Comic Book and Superhero Movies	10118
Westerns	7700
Spy Action and Adventure	10702
Crime Action and Adventure	9584
Foreign Action and Adventure	11828
Martial Arts Movies	8985
Military Action and Adventure	2125
Anime (7424)
Adult Animation	11881
Anime Action	2653
Anime Comedies	9302
Anime Dramas	452
Anime Features	3063
Anime Sci-Fi	2729
Anime Horror	10695
Anime Fantasy	11146
Anime Series	6721
Children and Family Movies (783)
Movies for ages 0 to 2	6796
Movies for ages 2 to 4	6218
Movies for ages 5 to 7	5455
Movies for ages 8 to 10	561
Movies for ages 11 to 12	6962
Education for Kids	10659
Disney	67673
Movies based on children's books	10056
Family Features	51056
TV Cartoons	11177
Kids' TV	27346
Kids Music	52843
Animal Tales	5507
Classic Movies (31574)
Classic Comedies	31694
Classic Dramas	29809
Classic Sci-Fi and Fantasy	47147
Classic Thrillers	46588
Film Noir	7687
Classic War Movies	48744
Epics	52858
Classic Foreign Movies	32473
Silent Movies	53310
Classic Westerns	47465
Comedies (6548)
Dark Comedies	869
Foreign Comedies	4426
Late Night Comedies	1402
Mockumentaries	26
Political Comedies	2700
Screwball Comedies	9702
Sports Comedies	5286
Stand-Up Comedy	11559
Teen Comedies	3519
Satires	4922
Romantic Comedies	5475
Slapstick Comedies	10256
Cult Movies (7627)
B-Horror Movies	8195
Campy Movies	1252
Cult Horror Movies	10944
Cult Sci-Fi and Fantasy	4734
Cult Comedies	9434
Documentaries (6839)
Biographical Documentaries	3652
Crime Documentaries	9875
Foreign Documentaries	5161
Historical Documentaries	5349
Military Documentaries	4006
Sports Documentaries	180
Music and Concert Documentaries	90361
Travel and Adventure Documentaries	1159
Political Documentaries	7018
Religious Documentaries	10005
Science and Nature Documentaries	2595
Social and Cultural Documentaries	3675
Dramas (5763)
Biographical Dramas	3179
Classic Dramas	29809
Courtroom Dramas	528582748
Crime Dramas	6889
Dramas based on books	4961
Dramas based on real life	3653
Tearjerkers	6384
Foreign Dramas	2150
Sports Dramas	7243
Gay and Lesbian Dramas	500
Independent Dramas	384
Teen Dramas	9299
Military Dramas	11
Period Pieces	12123
Political Dramas	6616
Romantic Dramas	1255
Showbiz Dramas	5012
Social Issue Dramas	3947
Faith and Spirituality (26835)
Faith and Spirituality Movies	52804
Spiritual Documentaries	2760
Kids Faith and Spirituality	751423
Foreign Movies (7462)
Art House Movies	29764
Classic Foreign Movies	32473
Foreign Comedies	4426
Foreign Documentaries	5161
Foreign Dramas	2150
Foreign Gay and Lesbian Movies	8243
Foreign Horror Movies	8654
Foreign Sci-Fi and Fantasy	6485
Foreign Thrillers	10306
Romantic Foreign Movies	7153
African Movies	3761
Australian Movies	5230
Belgian Movies	262
Korean Movies	5685
Latin American Movies	1613
Middle Eastern Movies	5875
New Zealand Movies	63782
Russian Movies	11567
Scandinavian Movies	9292
Southeast Asian Movies	9196
Spanish Movies	58741
Greek Movies	61115
German Movies	58886
French Movies	58807
Eastern European Movies	5254
Dutch Movies	10606
Irish Movies	58750
Japanese Movies	10398
Italian Movies	8221
Indian Movies	10463
Chinese Movies	3960
British Movies	10757
Gay and Lesbian Movies (5977)
Gay and Lesbian Comedies	7120
Gay and Lesbian Dramas	500
Romantic Gay and Lesbian Movies	3329
Foreign Gay and Lesbian Movies	8243
Gay and Lesbian Documentaries	4720
Gay and Lesbian TV Shows	65263
Horror Movies (8711)
B-Horror Movies	8195
Creature Features	6895
Cult Horror Movies	10944
Deep Sea Horror Movies	45028
Foreign Horror Movies	8654
Horror Comedy	89585
Monster Movies	947
Slasher and Serial Killer Movies	8646
Supernatural Horror Movies	42023
Teen Screams	52147
Vampire Horror Movies	75804
Werewolf Horror Movies	75930
Zombie Horror Movies	75405
Satanic Stories	6998
Independent Movies (7077)
Independent Movies	7077
Experimental Movies	11079
Independent Action and Adventure	11804
Independent Thrillers	3269
Romantic Independent Movies	9916
Independent Comedies	4195
Independent Dramas	384
Music (1701)
Kids Music	52843
Country and Western/Folk	1105
Jazz and Easy Listening	10271
Latin Music	10741
Urban and Dance Concerts	9472
World Music Concerts	2856
Rock and Pop Concerts	3278
Musicals (13335)
Classic Musicals	32392
Disney Musicals	59433
Showbiz Musicals	13573
Romantic Movies (8883)
Romantic Favorites	502675
Quirky Romance	36103
Romantic Independent Movies	9916
Romantic Foreign Movies	7153
Romantic Dramas	1255
Steamy Romantic Movies	35800
Classic Romantic Movies	31273
Romantic Comedies	5475
Sci-Fi and Fantasy (1492)
Action Sci-Fi and Fantasy	1568
Alien Sci-Fi	3327
Classic Sci-Fi and Fantasy	47147
Cult Sci-Fi and Fantasy	4734
Fantasy Movies	9744
Sci-Fi Adventure	6926
Sci-Fi Dramas	3916
Sci-Fi Horror Movies	1694
Sci-Fi Thrillers	11014
Foreign Sci-Fi and Fantasy	6485
Sports Movies (4370)
Sports Comedies	5286
Sports Documentaries	180
Sports Dramas	7243
Baseball Movies	12339
Football Movies	12803
Boxing Movies	12443
Soccer Movies	12549
Martial Arts, Boxing, and Wrestling	6695
Basketball Movies	12762
Sports and Fitness	9327
Thrillers (8933)
Action Thrillers	43048
Classic Thrillers	46588
Crime Thrillers	10499
Foreign Thrillers	10306
Independent Thrillers	3269
Gangster Movies	31851
Psychological Thrillers	5505
Political Thrillers	10504
Mysteries	9994
Sci-Fi Thrillers	11014
Spy Thrillers	9147
Steamy Thrillers	972
Supernatural Thrillers	11140
TV Shows (83)
British TV Shows	52117
Classic TV Shows	46553
Crime TV Shows	26146
Cult TV Shows	74652
Food and Travel TV	72436
Kids' TV	27346
Korean TV Shows	67879
Miniseries	4814
Military TV Shows	25804
Science and Nature TV	52780
TV Action and Adventure	10673
TV Comedies	10375
TV Documentaries	10105
TV Dramas	11714
TV Horror	83059
TV Mysteries	4366
TV Sci-Fi and Fantasy	1372
Reality TV	9833
Teen TV Shows	60951

Change the Netflix Playback Speed

Netflix is one of the best ways to ditch cable television. For a lot less money than cable and zero ads, you receive access to an amazing amount of entertainment, including movies, TV shows, and documentaries.

Even if you have to pair Netflix with another streaming service or two to cut the cord entirely, the long-term benefits of the whole setup are plenty. (Of course, you need a reliable internet connection for this to work.)

Speaking of benefits, here’s an upcoming one you can look forward to: changing the Netflix playback speed!

Image Credit: freestocks.org on Unsplash

Read the full article: The Netflix Secret Codes Cheat Sheet

Read Full Article

5 Sites to Learn Personal Finance Basics and Manage Your Money

Saving money, getting out of debt, and becoming wealthier are among the most common goals, especially for New Year’s resolutions. How do you start? These websites will point you in the right direction.

Personal finance management is a core skill that every adult should have. But to manage your money, you need to first know how you think about finances, and the best ways to approach different aspects like debt and investment. From a university-backed free online course to a police officer’s simple guide for laymen, here’s how to get a better handle on your bank.

1. Witsmo Checkup (Web): What Is Your Money Belief?

Lessons and advice in our childhood often shape our attitude towards money well into adulthood. Witsmo has devised a questionnaire to find out your “Money Belief” and give you advice accordingly.

It’s an online quiz much like many personality quizzes, with about 10-15 questions. Each statement has six answers, ranging from Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree. Based on your responses, the app will categorize you among four types of Money Beliefs: Worship, Avoidance, Vigilance, Status.

For each Money Belief, there is a quick description of behavior as well as recommendations for how to handle your finances. WitsMo is an app that offers paid sessions with financial consultants, so you can expect it to push those services, but the checkup is free.

Money Beliefs are also commonly known as Money Scripts, based on a study by Dr. Bradley Klontz. You can read more about it in this Forbes article.

2. McGill Personal Finance Essentials (Web): Free Online Course by University Professors

How you handle personal finance can drastically affect your life. But for some reason, schools don’t teach you this essential life skill. So McGill University put together a free online course to understand everything you need to know about personal finance.

The course is broken into eight modules: introduction, debt and borrowing, your money, strategic budget building, investing (two parts), real estate, and behavioral finance. Each module is about 20 minutes in length, followed by review tests. All classes and tests are available for free online.

This is a learn-at-your-own-pace course, so you don’t need to attend classes at a particular time. That said, it accepts limited registrations, so sign up before the course gets filled. It can get Canada-specific at times, but largely, this is sound financial advice for anyone.

3. Halfdollar (Web): Free Budgeting Spreadsheet and Community

If you want to save money, you need to know where you are spending it unwisely. The first step to better financial management is to create a personal budget. Halfdollar, one of the best sites to save money and set budgets, has a new avatar where it offers a free spreadsheet template for budgets.

Often, these spreadsheets can be intimidating or overwhelming. How do you fill in the data? What if you do something wrong? The creator, Derek Torsani, has made Halfdollar as simple and foolproof as possible for beginners. If you accidentally try to edit a cell that will break formulas, it prompts you not to change it.

Torsani also made an excellent eight-minute video where he explains each aspect of Halfdollar and how to use it. You have to understand the spreadsheet’s approach of adding labels to every income and expenditure and breaking it down by frequency. Do it consistently and you’ll have an excellent overview of your finances.

Halfdollar also has a Slack community of others in the same boat, discussing budgeting and finances. If you’re trying to make financial management a personal goal, this is the type of supportive forum to discuss your doubts without judgment.

4. Vital Dollar’s Money Saving Challenges (Web): Free Printables to Save Money

Goals are easier to achieve when you break them into smaller steps or even turn them into micro-challenges. If your goal is to save more money, then try one of these 13 money-saving challenges collected by Vital Dollar.

These are basic techniques like the 52-week challenge, in which you save just a single dollar in the first week. In week two, you save $2, and $3 in week three, and so on for the full year. At the end of 52 weeks, you’ll save $1378. Not too shabby, right? Vital Dollar developed five variants of the 52-week challenge too.

All of the money-saving challenges come with a free printable PDF, which you can use to track your progress. Obviously, you shouldn’t do multiple challenges at the same time. Pick one that suits your money outlook so that you’re likely to stick to it. It’s one of the smartest ways to save a substantial amount of money by doing small steps.

5. Arrest Your Debt (Web): Personal Finance Strategies for the Layman

Ryan Luke, a police officer, has a passion for helping people figure out personal finance. His blog Arrest Your Debt has some of the simplest writing you’ll find about complex topics, which can help you get back on track financially.

The bulk of the website is about getting rid of debt. Luke guides you through various stages and strategies to ensure you live a debt-free life. A good starting point is the Debt Payoff Playbook, which shows how to plan towards going debt-free, execute it, and then start saving so you aren’t in debt ever again.

Through his simple explanations, you’ll find it easier to choose between Debt Snowfall or Debt Avalanche methods, or figure out an emergency fund before starting your debt payoff.

As with any personal financial advice blog, after debt comes budgeting, saving money, and investing. All of these have separate sections on the website. Being a father of three, Luke also has a section for Family Finance to run a family on a single income.

Check Free Online Calculators and Tools

These websites give great advice on finances. Some others focus on giving automated tools that will do the money-related calculations for you.

Some apps figure out how much you should save every month to meet a goal, others track your different online subscriptions. There are a bunch of money-based calculators worth checking out in our roundup of the best apps to save money and reduce spending.

Read the full article: 5 Sites to Learn Personal Finance Basics and Manage Your Money

Read Full Article

Alphabet-backed primary care startup One Medical files to go public

One Medical, a San Francisco-based primary care startup with tech-infused, concierge services filed for an IPO with the Securities and Exchange Commission today.

Internal medicine doctor Tom Lee founded the startup, now valued at well-over $1 billion dollars, in 2007. Lee exited his company in 2017, leaving it in the hands of former UnitedHealth group executive Amir Rubin.

The startup currently operates 72 health clinics in nine major cities throughout the U.S., with three more markets expected to open in 2020 and has raised just over $500 in venture capital from it’s biggest investor, the Carlyle Group (which owns just over a quarter of shares), Alphabet’s GV, J.P. Morgan and others. Google also incorporates One Medical into its campuses and accounts for about 10% of the company revenue, according to the SEC filing. The filing also mentions the company, which is officially incorporated as 1Life Healthcare Inc. ONEM, now plans to raise about $100 million.

Presumably, this money will help the company improve upon its technology and expand to more markets. We’ve reached out to One Medical for more and so far have only been referred to its wire statement.

According to that statement, One Medical has applied for a listing as ticker symbol, ONEM under its common stock on the Nasdaq Global Select Market. We’ll be sure to update you if and when we hear more.

 

Read Full Article

Firefox Will Now Delete Your Personal Data

Mozilla is offering all Firefox users the chance to delete their personal data. Specifically, telemetry data, which most of the technology industry doesn’t even consider to be personal data. Still, Mozilla is going the extra mile with regards to privacy and security.

What Is CCPA?

This move has been prompted by the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), which went into effect on January 1, 2020. CCPA expands the rights of Californians to manage their data. They can access their data, see if it has been sold, and request it be deleted.

The CCPA only applies to citizens of California. However, as happened with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), some companies are expanding the rules to users elsewhere. Including Mozilla, which has supported CCPA from the beginning.

Mozilla Offers to Delete Your Firefox Data

As a direct result of the CCPA legislation, Mozilla is offering all Firefox users around the world the opportunity to delete the personal data the company collects. Mozilla explains the change, which will be available with Firefox 72, on the Open Policy & Advocacy Blog.

Day 1 of the new year is off to a strong start with #CCPA going into effect.

Let's keep the momentum going for the rest of 2020. #HappyNewYear pic.twitter.com/4duAY0bjly

— Firefox ? (@firefox) January 1, 2020

Mozilla is keen to point out that “Firefox already collects very little of your data,” stating that most of it is “to help us improve the performance and security of Firefox”. Mozilla calls this “telemetry data”, which offers very general information about browsing habits.

If you use Firefox in private browsing mode none of this telemetry data is even collected. What’s more, the company has “always given people easy options to disable telemetry in Firefox” and enforces “strict limits on how long we keep telemetry data”.

However, Mozilla is now expanding user deletion rights to include this telemetry data. Therefore, Firefox will now “provide users a way to request deletion for desktop telemetry directly from Firefox – and a way for us, at Mozilla, to perform that deletion.”

Maximize Your Privacy When Using Firefox

As previously noted, the option to request your data is deleted is available to all Firefox users worldwide, and not just Californians covered by CCPA. Which is a classy move. And here are some more ways to maximize your online privacy when using Firefox.

Read the full article: Firefox Will Now Delete Your Personal Data

Read Full Article

7 Cat Games for Your iPad or Android Tablet

Long gone are the days when a scratching post or toy mouse was enough to entertain your furry companion. The feline world has entered the digital age, with a plethora of games on iPad and Android tablets made specifically for your cats.

Unlock the free "iPhone and iPad Shortcuts" cheat sheet now!

This will sign you up to our newsletter

Enter your Email

Read our privacy policy

Most of them are free to download. Simply give your cat a nudge and show them the ropes; before you know it, they’ll be painting or catching digital fish like the rest of us.

So if you’re ready to inject some extra fun into your and your cat’s day, here are the best games for cats to download on your iPad or Android tablet.

1. Friskies JitterBug

This game is definitely a cat favorite. You can either choose Play Game or Advanced from the main screen. In both modes, you see a totally black screen with big bugs on it. When your cat taps a bug it disappears, but new ones enter all the time.

The game has no sound and your cat “wins” by getting all the bugs. Make sure you clean your tablet screen properly to get rid of all the paw prints afterward.

If you choose Play Game, a timer starts with various prompts and levels, which don’t really mean much to your cat. Whereas in Advanced, you can choose exactly how many bugs appear onscreen and choose to start an endless game to keep your cat entertained for hours.

Download: Friskies JitterBug for iPadOS | Android (Free)

2. Cat Fishing 2

If you’d rather your cat went fishing instead of catching bugs, Cat Fishing from Go-Cat is the obvious choice. The goal of this game is for your cat to tap on the fish, which makes them disappear and increases your cat’s score.

The game gets more difficult, with more fish appearing and disappearing from the screen as your cat progresses to different levels. Unfortunately, the game does end after a certain amount of time. While this might frustrate some cats, most reviewers claim their pets love this game.

Download: Cat Fishing 2 for iPadOS | Android (Free)

3. Game for Cats

When you launch Game for Cats on your iPad or Android tablet, you see a split screen with lasers on one side and cheese on the other. The cheese option requires in-app purchases to play, but the laser option is totally free.

If your cat likes to play with a laser pointer, they’re going to love this. The laser dot moves around the screen in a surprisingly lifelike way, drawing your cat to chase after it. When your cat manages to catch the laser pointer, it blows up with a small sound and a new dot appears.

To exit the game, tap and hold the paw icon on the bottom-right while shaking your iPad (hopefully your cat can’t do this by itself).

Download: Game for Cats for iPadOS | Android (Free, in-app purchases available)

4. Catch The Mouse Cat Game

As one of the only paid apps in this lineup, Catch the Mouse is worth the small amount you pay for it, but only if you turn off the sound.

What you get in this iPad-exclusive game is a cute orange mouse running around the screen for dear life. Unfortunately, the sounds are a bit over the top and most cats aren’t really into it. But once you mute your iPad, the game becomes much more appealing for cats.

If you don’t like the orange-on-black color scheme, there are five different background colors to choose from and three different mouse colors. So you can play around to find the best fit for your cat.

Download: Catch The Mouse Cat Game for iPadOS ($0.99)

5. Mouse for Cats

This free, 2D, high-definition iPad and Android game was built by cat lovers, for cats. With over 10 levels, the aim is—once again—to catch the on-screen mouse. This time, your cat can pin the mouse in place then let it run away again, just like in real life!

In-app purchases are available for different mice colors or noises, each of which were created specifically for your cat’s entertainment. You do need to put up with popup adds on the home screen, but they go away when you start playing.

Cycle across the different background levels or add multiple mice to keep this game engaging for your feline pals.

Download: Mouse for Cats for iPadOS | Android (Free, in-app purchases available)

6. Paint for Cats

As your cat tries to catch the mouse that scurries around the screen, it’ll simultaneously paint you a masterpiece. You can choose from a variety of color palettes, and even have the option of saving or printing the finished work of art.

Given the amazing reviews this app has received, it might be justified in its claim as the “world’s best painting app for cats.”

This is the second paid app in the lineup, but there’s a slim chance you might sell your cat’s artwork to make your money back. Who knows, you might have the cat reincarnation of Jackson Pollock on your hands—Catson Pollock.

Download: Paint for Cats for iPadOS ($1.99)

7. Best Game for Cats

Similar to the other apps mentioned, the aim of this iPad-exclusive game is for your cat to catch the on-screen mice, cat bells, woolen balls, or lasers. There are also sounds to let you know how well your cat is doing without hovering over its shoulder. If the sounds annoy you, you can easily disable them.

While some games end after a certain amount of time, Best Game for Cats keeps going until you close the iPad app. It should keep your cat entertained for hours, provided the poor graphics aren’t too much of a turn off for those astute feline eyes.

Download: Best Game for Cats for iPadOS (Free)

Keep Your Cat Entertained

Although most of these iPad or Android tablet cat games follow the same formula, if one doesn’t keep your cat’s attention, try a few others. The sounds and designs all have an impact on how your cat interacts with the game; one of them is bound to work.

For more, check out some of the best pet cameras on the market. These let you keep playing with your cat while you’re out of the house, using laser pointers and sounds. That way your cat never needs to know boredom again!

Read the full article: 7 Cat Games for Your iPad or Android Tablet

Read Full Article

What Is Data Analysis and Why Is It Important?

The world is becoming more and more data-driven, with endless amounts of data available to work with. Big companies like Google and Microsoft use data to make decisions, but they’re not the only ones.

Is it important? Absolutely!

Data analysis is used by small businesses, retail companies, in medicine, and even in the world of sports. It’s a universal language and more important than ever before. It seems like an advanced concept but data analysis is really just a few ideas put into practice.

What Is Data Analysis?

Data analysis is the process of evaluating data using analytical or statistical tools to discover useful information. Some of these tools are programming languages like R or Python. Microsoft Excel is also popular in the world of data analytics.

Once data is collected and sorted using these tools, the results are interpreted to make decisions. The end results can be delivered as a summary, or as a visual like a chart or graph.

The process of presenting data in visual form is known as data visualization. Data visualization tools make the job easier. Programs like Tableau or Microsoft Power BI give you many visuals that can bring data to life.

There are several data analysis methods including data mining, text analytics, and business intelligence.

How Is Data Analysis Performed?

Image Credit: Faithie/Depositphotos

Data analysis is a big subject and can include some of these steps:

• Defining Objectives: Start by outlining some clearly defined objectives. To get the best results out of the data, the objectives should be crystal clear.
• Posing Questions: Figure out the questions you would like answered by the data. For example, do red sports cars get into accidents more often than others? Figure out which data analysis tools will get the best result for your question.
• Data Collection: Collect data that is useful to answer the questions. In this example, data might be collected from a variety of sources like DMV or police accident reports, insurance claims and hospitalization details.
• Data Scrubbing: Raw data may be collected in several different formats, with lots of junk values and clutter. The data is cleaned and converted so that data analysis tools can import it. It’s not a glamorous step but it’s very important.
• Data Analysis: Import this new clean data into the data analysis tools. These tools allow you to explore the data, find patterns, and answer what-if questions. This is the payoff, this is where you find results!
• Drawing Conclusions and Making Predictions: Draw conclusions from your data. These conclusions may be summarized in a report, visual, or both to get the right results.

Let’s dig a little deeper into some concepts used in data analysis.

Data Mining

Image Credit: Philippe Put/Flickr

Data mining is a method of data analysis for discovering patterns in large data sets using statistics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. The goal is to turn data into business decisions.

What can you do with data mining? You can process large amounts of data to identify outliers and exclude them from decision making. Businesses can learn customer purchasing habits, or use clustering to find previously unknown groups within the data.

If you use email, you see another example of data mining to sort your mailbox. Email apps like Outlook or Gmail use this to categorize your emails as “spam” or “not spam”.

Text Analytics

Image Credit: Marc_Smith/Flickr

Data is not just limited to numbers, information can come from text information as well.

Text analytics is the process of finding useful information from text. You do this by processing raw text, making it readable by data analysis tools, and finding results and patterns. This is also known as text mining.

Excel does a great job with this. Excel has many formulas to work with text that can save you time when you go to work with the data.

Text mining can also collect information from the web, a database or a file system. What can you do with this text information? You can import email addresses and phone numbers to find patterns. You can even find frequencies of words in a document.

Business Intelligence

Image Credit: FutUndBeidl/Flickr

Business intelligence transforms data into intelligence used to make business decisions. It may be used in an organization’s strategic and tactical decision making. It offers a way for companies to examine trends from collected data and get insights from it.

Business intelligence is used to do a lot of things:

• Make decisions about product placement and pricing
• Identify new markets for product
• Create budgets and forecasts that make more money
• Use visual tools such as heat maps, pivot tables, and geographical mapping to find the demand for a certain product

Data Visualization

Image Credit: pressmaster/Depositphotos

Data visualization is the visual representation of data. Instead of presenting data in tables or databases, you present it in charts and graphs. It makes complex data more understandable, not to mention easier to look at.

Increasing amounts of data are being generated by applications you use (Also known as the “Internet of Things”). The amount of data (referred to as “big data”) is pretty massive. Data visualization can turn millions of data points into simple visuals that make it easy to understand.

There are various ways to visualize data:

• Using a data visualization tool like Tableau or Microsoft Power BI
• Standard Excel graphs and charts
• Interactive Excel graphs
• For the web, a tool like D3.js built using JavaScript

The visualization of Google datasets is a great example of how big data can visually guide decision-making.

Data Analysis in Review

Data analysis is used to evaluate data with statistical tools to discover useful information. A variety of methods are used including data mining, text analytics, business intelligence, combining data sets, and data visualization.

The Power Query tool in Microsoft Excel is especially helpful for data analysis. If you want to familiarize yourself with it, read our guide to create your first Microsoft Power Query script.

Read the full article: What Is Data Analysis and Why Is It Important?

Read Full Article

How to Extract a Number or Text From Excel

Microsoft Excel is great at working with both numbers and text—but if you’re using both in the same cell, you might run into some difficulty. Fortunately, you can extract numbers or text from cells to work with your data more efficiently. We demonstrate several options, depending on the format that your data is currently in.

Unlock the FREE "Essential Excel Formulas" cheat sheet now!

This will sign you up to our newsletter

Enter your Email

Read our privacy policy

Excel Numbers Formatted as Text

This is a common situation, and—fortunately—very easy to deal with. Sometimes, cells that contain only numbers are incorrectly labeled or formatted as text, preventing Microsoft Excel from using them in operations.

You can see in the image below that the cells in column A are formatted as text, as indicated by the number format box. You might also see a green flag in the top left corner of each cell.

Convert Text to Number in Excel

If you see the green flag in the top left corner, select one or more cells, click the warning sign, and select Convert to Number.

Otherwise, select the cells and, in the Number Format menu in the Ribbon, select the default Number option.

If you need more granular options, right-click the highlighted cell/s and select Format Cells, which will open the respective menu. Here, you can customize the number format and add or remove decimals, add a 1,000 separator, or manage negative numbers.

Obviously, you can also use the Ribbon or Format Cells options outlined above to convert a number to text, or text to currency, time, or any other format you desire.

Apply Number Formatting With Excel’s Paste Special

For this method to work, you’ll need to enter a number (any number) into a cell; it’s important that this cell is also formatted as a number. Copy that cell. Now, select all the cells that you want to convert to the number format, go to Home > Paste > Paste Special, select Formats to paste only the formatting of the cell you copied initially, then click OK.

This operation applies the format of the cell you copied to all selected cells, even text cells.

Extract Numbers or Text From Mixed Format Cells

Now we get to the hard part: getting numbers out of cells that contain multiple formats of input. If you have a number and a unit (like “7 shovels,” as we have below), you’ll run into this problem. To solve it, we’re going to look at a couple different ways to split cells into numbers and text, letting you work with each individually.

Separate Numbers From Text

If you have a lot of cells that contain a mix of numbers and text or multiples of both, separating them manually might take a monumental amount of time. To get through the process faster, you can use Microsoft Excel’s Text to Columns function.

Select the cells that you want to convert, go to Data > Text to Columns, and use the wizard to make sure the cells come out correctly. For the most part, you’ll just need to click Next and Finish, but do make sure you pick a matching delimiter; in this example, a comma.

If you only have one- and two-digit numbers, the Fixed Width option can be useful too, as it will only split off the first two or three characters of the cell. You can even create a number of splits that way.

Note: Cells formatted as text will not automatically emerge with a number formatting (or vice versa), meaning you might still have to convert these cells as described above.

Extract a Number or Text From a Delimited String

This method is a bit cumbersome, but works very well on small datasets. What we assume here is that a space separates the number and text, though the method also works for any other delimiter.

The main function we’ll be using here is LEFT, which returns the leftmost characters from a cell. As you can see in our dataset above, we have cells with one-, two-, and three-character numbers, so we’ll need to return the leftmost one, two, or three characters from the cells. By combining LEFT with the SEARCH function, we can return everything to the left of the space. Here’s the function:

=LEFT(A1, SEARCH(" ", A1, 1))

This will return everything to the left of the space. Using the fill handle to apply the formula to the rest of the cells, this is what we get (you can see the formula in the function bar at the top of the image):

As you can see, we now have all the numbers isolated, so we can manipulate them. Want to isolate the text as well? We can use the RIGHT function in the same way:

=RIGHT(A1, LEN(A1)-SEARCH(" ", A1, 1))

This returns X characters from the right side of the cell, where x is the total length of the cell minus the number of characters to the left of the space.

Now you can also manipulate the text. Want to combine them again? Just use the CONCATENATE function with all the cells as inputs:

=CONCATENATE(E1, F1)

Obviously, this method works best if you just have numbers and units, and nothing else. If you have other cell formats, you might have to get creative with formulas to get everything to work right. If you have a giant dataset, it’ll be worth the time it takes to get the formula figured out!

Extract a Number From One End of a Continuous String

Now what if there’s no delimiter separating your number and text?

If you’re extracting the number from the left or right of the string, you can use a variation of the LEFT or RIGHT formula discussed above:

=LEFT(A1,SUM(LEN(A1)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(A1,{"0","1","2","3","4","5","6","7","8","9"},""))))

=RIGHT(A1,SUM(LEN(A1)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(A1,{"0","1","2","3","4","5","6","7","8","9"},""))))

This will return all numbers from the left or right of the string.

If you’re extracting the number from the right of the string, you can also use a two-step process. First, determine the location of your first digit in the string using the MIN function. Then, you can feed that information into a variation of the RIGHT formula, to split your numbers from your texts.

=MIN(SEARCH({0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9},A1&"0123456789"))

=RIGHT(A1, LEN(A1)-B1+1)

Note: When you use these formulas, remember that you might have to adjust the column characters and cell numbers.

Extract Numbers From Both Ends of a Continuous String

With the strategies above, you should be able to extract numbers or text out of most mixed-format cells that are giving you trouble. Even if they don’t, you can probably combine them with some powerful text functions included in Microsoft Excel to get the characters you’re looking for. However, there are some much more complicated situations that call for more complicated solutions.

For example, I found a forum post where someone wanted to extract the numbers from a string like “45t*&65/”, so that he would end up with “4565.” Another poster gave the following formula as one way to do it:

=SUMPRODUCT(MID(0&A1,LARGE(INDEX(ISNUMBER(--MID(A1,ROW($1:$25),1))*
 ROW($1:$25),0),ROW($1:$25))+1,1)*10^ROW($1:$25)/10)

To be completely honest, I have no idea how it works. But according to the forum post, it will take the numbers out of a complicated string of numbers and other characters. The point is that, with enough time, patience, and effort, you can extract numbers and text from just about anything!

You just have to find the right resources.

Read the full article: How to Extract a Number or Text From Excel

Read Full Article

How to Transfer Music From an Old iPod to Your Computer or iPhone

Do you have an old iPod that’s sitting around gathering dust? It might still have old music on it that you no longer possess in any other form. If that’s the case, grab your old music player, because you can transfer the music from your iPod to your computer.

To do so, you just need to consider your iPod as an external drive that you can take music from. Once extracted from the iPod, you can add music to your iTunes library and even sync it with your iPhone. We’ll show you how.

Prevent iTunes From Automatically Syncing With Your Device

First, you’ll need to make sure you can transfer the music on your iPod without iTunes erasing it while syncing.

When you connect a device to iTunes, the music in your iTunes library is automatically synced to your device. You cannot download music from an iPod (or iPhone or iPad) into iTunes. So if you connect an iPod to iTunes, the music on the device will be overwritten with what’s in your iTunes library.

The method for preventing iTunes from automatically syncing with your iOS device is mostly the same for Windows and Macs running Mojave or earlier:

1. Make sure to disconnect all iOS devices from your computer. Then, open iTunes. In Windows, go to Edit > Preferences. On a Mac, go to iTunes > Preferences.
2. On both platforms, click the Devices tab and check the Prevent iPods, iPhones, and iPads from syncing automatically box. Then click OK and close iTunes.

However, Macs running macOS Catalina and newer use Finder instead of iTunes to sync iOS devices. Because of this, you’ll need to open your device in Finder and uncheck the Automatically sync when this iPhone is connected box.

Copy Music From Your iPod to Your Computer

Now, you can connect your iPod to your computer. It should show up as a drive both in File Explorer on Windows and Finder on Mac. Open the iPod drive and navigate to the iPod_Control > Music folder. You’ll see many folders labeled with an F and a number.

If your iPod drive appears empty, you need to reveal hidden files and folders on your computer. Windows users can follow our easy way to show hidden files and folders in Windows. For those using macOS, hold down Cmd + Shift + Period to toggle hidden folders on or off.

Select all the folders in the iPod_Control > Music folder and copy and paste them to a location on your hard drive. This will transfer your music from your iPod to your computer.

The files all have random four-letter file names. If you’re using a Windows PC, you can see the tags for each music file in File Explorer. You won’t see the tags in Finder on a Mac.

Later, we’ll show you how to easily change the file names using the tags.

Once you’ve copied the files, you can eject the iPod and disconnect it. On a Windows PC, right-click on the iPod drive in File Explorer and select Eject. Mac users should right-click on the iPod icon on the desktop and select Eject.

Add the Music to Your iTunes Library

After transferring the music from your iPod to your computer, you can start making adjustments. First, add the music from your iPod to your iTunes library on your Windows PC or Mac. Note that on macOS Catalina and newer, your music library appears in the Apple Music app since iTunes is gone.

By default, on Windows , adding items to your iTunes library creates a reference to the file’s current location. The original file remains in the current location. Thus, if you were to move the original files, iTunes would no longer see them.

You can have iTunes for Windows make a copy of each file and place them into the iTunes media folder. Moving the original files would then not affect the music in your iTunes library.

How to Centralize Your iTunes Music on Your Computer

Open iTunes for Windows and go to Edit > Preferences. Click the Advanced tab and check the Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library box. This option is checked by default in iTunes for Mac (on Mojave and earlier).

Once enabled, all media added to your iTunes library from then on will copy directly to the iTunes media folder. Now you won’t have to worry about moving the original files anywhere else. Just remember media added to your iTunes library before enabling that checkbox still links to the original media files.

How to Organize and Expand Your iTunes Library

To organize your iTunes Media folder into artist and album folders, check the Keep iTunes Media folder organized box. Again, iTunes/Apple Music for Mac enables this option by default.

If you have space, it’s a good idea to copy all your media files to the iTunes Media folder. That way, they’re all in one location and easy to back up.

To copy the remaining media files linked to in your iTunes library, go to File > Library > Organize Library. On the Organize Library dialog box, check the Consolidate files box and click OK.

To add some or all of the music from your iPod to your iTunes library, go to either File > Add File to Library or File > Add Folder to Library in iTunes for Windows. If you’re using a Mac, go to File > Add to Library. Then select the files or folder you want to add.

You can also add music to iTunes by dragging music files from File Explorer or Finder to the iTunes window. If you find yourself running into any issues while updating your library, here’s how to fix a damaged iTunes library.

Change or Fix Music Tags

If you need to change or fix tags on your recently added music, you can do so directly in iTunes/Apple Music. You can change or fix tags for either a single song or multiple songs as needed.

Editing a Single Tag

To edit tags on Windows, right-click on the song and select Song Info. If using a Mac, hold Control and click to select Album Info.

On the dialog box that displays, you’ll see several tabs containing information about the selected song. You can edit items like the song title, artist, album, and genre. Click the buttons at the top to view and change the different information.

To go to the next song in the list, click the arrows at the bottom of the dialog box. When done editing the tags, click OK.

Editing Multiple Tags

You can also edit common information for multiple songs at the same time. Use the Shift or Ctrl (Cmd on Mac) keys to select the songs you want to edit. Then right-click on the selected songs and select Get Info.

A confirmation dialog box displays. If you don’t want to see this dialog box every time, check the Do not ask me again box. Click Edit Items to continue.

Only the tags that apply to all the selected items display in the window. Click the buttons at the top to access the different types of information. Edit tags as you want and click OK.

Create a Playlist in iTunes

If you use playlists on your iPhone, you can create them in iTunes and they’ll sync to your iPhone. Whether using Mac or Windows, the procedure is the same.

To create a playlist, select the songs you want in the playlist. Then right-click on the selected songs and select Add to Playlist > New Playlist.

For similar songs (such as an album), the playlist is created using artist and album title as the name. If you create a playlist from various songs, you’ll need to enter a custom name. To change the name of the playlist, click on the title and type a new title.

You can also rearrange the songs in the playlist by dragging and dropping them to different positions.

Transfer Music to Your iPhone

To transfer the added music to your iPhone, make sure iTunes is open and connect your device to your computer. Then click the device icon at the top of the iTunes window (or select the device in Finder on macOS Catalina and newer).

If you want to quickly sync content to your iPhone, you can have iTunes to sync your entire music library. Alternatively, if you only sync selected items, just the chosen playlists, artists, albums, and genres will sync. In case you see a Replace and Sync message, remember that the iTunes library replaces everything on your iPhone.

To sync your entire library, click Music in the sidebar on the left under Settings. Then make sure to select Sync Music on the right and select Entire music library.

Now press the Apply button in the lower right. If syncing doesn’t begin, you can press the Sync button.

Rename the Music Files

Once you’ve transferred your old iPod music, you can rename the copied files. The random four-letter file names assigned to the files copied from your iPod aren’t descriptive at all. On a Mac, you won’t know what the songs are without adding them to iTunes or utilizing another app.

You can manually rename the files, but there’s an easier way using a free tool called Mp3tag. It’s a Windows program, but with a workaround you can use it on Mac as well.

Rename Your Files With Mp3tag on Windows

On Windows, download Mp3tag and install it. To add Mp3tag to the File Explorer menu, check the Explorer Context Menu box on Choose Components screen during installation.

To rename music files from your iPod, select the files in File Explorer. Then right-click on the files and select Mp3tag.

Inside the program, highlight your songs. Go to Convert > Tag – Filename or press Alt + 1. On the Tag – Filename dialog box, enter a Format string using placeholders to set up your filename scheme.

For example, look at the Format string in the image below. It creates a file name with a two-digit track number, song title, artist name, and album name.

If you want to construct your own file name, you can use different format string placeholders available. Go to Help > Contents to get more info about them. After the manual opens in your browser, click Renaming files based on tags under Working with tags and file names.

You’ll find a list of placeholders you can use in the Format string. Use these to create custom file names for your music files. For more help, check out our full guide to Mp3tag.

Alternatives and How to Use Mp3tag on Mac

There are music tagging apps for Mac like Kid3, but they aren’t as easy to use as Mp3tag. The developer of Mp3tag offers a prepackaged wrapped application for use on Mac. You can download this Wine-ready version of Mp3tag for use on Mac.

After it’s finished, add it directly to the Applications folder on your Mac and run the prepackaged application. Unfortunately, macOS Catalina doesn’t support apps utilizing Wine, so this won’t work until the developer releases a native version.

Use the same steps listed above to rename music files using Mp3tag on your Mac.

Breathing New Life: Transfer Music from an Old iPod to Your Computer

If your old iPod still charges enough to use, you can easily transfer music from that iPod to your computer. After transferring music from your iPod to iTunes or your iPhone, give it a new purpose. Consider reusing your old iPod as an ebook reader or a secondary music collection holder.

Meanwhile, if you don’t like iTunes, check out the best music manager apps for iOS.

Read the full article: How to Transfer Music From an Old iPod to Your Computer or iPhone

Read Full Article

Browsers are interesting again

A few years ago, covering browsers got boring.

Chrome had clearly won the desktop, the great JavaScript speed wars were over and Mozilla seemed more interested in building a mobile operating system than its browser. Microsoft tried its best to rescue Internet Explorer/Edge from being the punchline of nerdy jokes, but its efforts essentially failed.

Meanwhile, Opera had shuttered the development of its own rendering engine and redesigned its browser with less functionality, alienating many of its biggest fans. On mobile, plenty of niche players tried to break the Chrome/Safari duopoly, but while they did have some innovative ideas, nothing ever stuck.

But over the course of the last year or so, things changed. The main catalyst for this, I would argue, is that the major browser vendors — and we can argue about Google’s role here — realized that their products were at the forefront of a new online privacy movement. It’s the browser, after all, that allows marketers to set cookies and fingerprint your machine to track you across the web.

Add to that Microsoft’s move to the Chromium engine, which is finally giving Microsoft a seat at the browser table again, plus the success of upstarts like Brave and Vivaldi, and you’ve got the right mix of competitive pressure and customer interest for innovation to come back into what was a stagnant field only a few years ago.

Let’s talk about privacy first. With browsers being the first line of defense, it’s maybe surprising that we didn’t see Mozilla and others push for more built-in tracking protections before.

In 2019, the Chrome team introduced handling cookies in the browser and a few months ago, it launched a broader initiative to completely rethink cookies and online privacy for its users — and by extension, Google’s advertising ecosystem. This move centers around differential privacy and a ‘privacy budget’ that would allow advertisers to get enough information about you to group you into a larger cohort without providing so much information that you would love your anonymity.

At the time, Google said this was a multi-year effort that was meant to help publishers retain their advertising revenue (vs their users completely blocking cookies).

Read Full Article

The past, present and future of nicotine addiction | Mitch Zeller

The past, present and future of nicotine addiction | Mitch Zeller

Tobacco use remains the leading cause of preventable disease and death in the United States, killing more people each year than alcohol, AIDS, car accidents, illegal drugs, murder and suicide combined. Follow health policy expert Mitch Zeller into the murky depths of the tobacco industry as he details the sordid history of nicotine addiction -- and invites us to imagine a world where policy change helps stop people from becoming addicted to cigarettes in the first place.

Click the above link to download the TED talk.

Finding the right reporter to cover your startup

Pitch the wrong reporter or publication, and your story won’t see the light of day.

Before you start seeking press, you’ll need to look for reporters who have reach, respect and expertise when you choose who to talk to. You’ll also need to be prepared to accept the truth about your business, even if it hurts. It’s critical that you find a writer who’s a good fit for the business you’re building and the audience you’re seeking.

If you don’t use a strategic approach when reaching out to journalists, you’ll get few responses, fewer meetings, and articles that either misrepresent you, shortchange you, or blow up in your face. The goal isn’t just to secure positive coverage, because no one will believe it; startups are tough. There are challenges and setbacks and scary looming questions. But an honest article from a respected voice with a big enough audience can legitimize a business as it tries to turn vision into impact.

Here we’ll discuss how to find the publication and reporter who understands you and can tell the story that aligns with your objectives. In part one of this series, we detailed why you should (or shouldn’t) want press coverage and how to know what’s newsworthy enough to pitch.

In future ExtraCrunch posts, I’ll explore how to hire PR help, formulate a pitch, deliver it to reporters, prepare for interviews and conduct an announcement. If you have more questions or ideas for ExtraCrunch posts, feel free to reach out to me via Twitter or elsewhere.

Why should you believe me? I’m editor-at-large for TechCrunch, where I’ve written 4,000 articles about early-stage startups and tech giants. For 10 years, I’ve reviewed startup pitches via email and Twitter, at demo days for accelerators like Y Combinator and on stage as a judge of startup competitions. From warm introductions to cold calls, I’ve seen what gets reporters’ attention and why stories become enduring narratives supporting companies as they grow.

Deciding which publications to target

Which publications do you currently read and respect?

Starting here ensures that you’re approaching PR from a place of knowledge with personal context rather than going by what someone else tells you. But you also have to consider which publications appeal in that way to your target demographic. For example, if you’re aiming to reach teens, parents, or Chief Information Officers, you’ll have very different target publications.

If you appeal to a niche audience aligned with a specific publication, you can definitely score some leads and installs, priming the pump so when users hear about you again, they already have a positive association for your brand. You can score SEO to help your get discovered when people search for keywords related to your business, but if you’re looking for user growth or SEO, be sure to work with a publication that links to the websites and apps they write about, as many don’t. But if you’re hoping for ‘the servers are on fire we’ve got so much traffic’ attention, you need to first build network effects and viral loops directly into your product.

Once you identify a realistic objective for gaining press coverage, you can figure out which reporters and outlets will best help you achieve your goals.

Typically, you’ll aim to work with more prestigious publications and writers first, as they can inspire other outlets to write up follow-on coverage. It rarely works the other way around, since top publishers want to be seen as first to a story and forging trends rather than following them with late coverage. These outlets often have greater reach in terms of home page traffic, social following, SEO and shareability.

The exception to this strategy: if there’s a specific writer at a less-prestigious publisher who’s renowned as the expert in your space whose word has more weight, or if that publication better aligns with your overall goals. For example, you might want to work with a transportation expert like Kirsten Korosec if you’re an electric car company, or a publication focused on startups like TechCrunch if you’re trying to stoke fundraising. If you’re a more general mainstream consumer business or are seeking maximum growth, you might instead choose a popular national newspaper with a big circulation.

Who should tell your story?

After you’ve set goals and have an idea regarding the kind of publication or journalist you want to work with, it’s time to build a ranked list of specific reporters. Here, expertise is key.

Read Full Article