Announcing the Agenda for TC Sessions: Robotics/AI at UC Berkeley on April 18

We’re bringing TC Sessions: Robotics + AI back to UC Berkeley on April 18, and we’re excited to announce our jam-packed agenda that highlights the best and brightest in robotics and – new for 2019 – artificial intelligence.

For months we’ve been selecting the most innovative startups and top leaders from established tech companies working in Robotics and AI. There have been huge leaps forward in this field the past year, and we’re thrilled to bring you the latest and greatest.

Early-bird tickets ($100 savings) are currently available for a limited time – you can  pick up tickets here before prices increase.

We’ve still got some key guests to announce, and will be adding some new names to the agenda over the next few weeks, so keep your eyes open. In the meantime, check out these agenda highlights:

Agenda

9:35 AM – 10:00 AM

Building a Better Robotics Company with Nima Keivan (Canvas), Manish Kothari (SRI International), and Melonee Wise (Fetch Robotics)

Many have tried, but few have succeeded in launching a successful robotics company. A trio of experts, including Melonee Wise (Fetch Robotics), Manish Kothari (SRI) and Nima Keivan (Canvas) will discuss the successes and pitfalls of entering the world of robotic startups.

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10:00 AM – 10:25 AM

Can’t We All Just Get Along? with Anca Dragan (UC Berkeley), Rana el Kaliouby (Affectiva), and Matt Willis (Softbank Robotics)

Robots and humans are working and living together more than ever, and that means we have to watch out for one another – literally. A trio of guests will be exploring the increasingly important world of human-robot interaction (HRI).

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10:25 AM – 10:50 AM

This Reality Does Not Exist: Trust in an Age of Synthetic Media with Alexei Efros (UC Berkeley) and Hany Farid (Dartmouth College)

AI-based tools are proving capable of fabricating or modifying imagery and audio in ways that are nearly indistinguishable from reality. How can these systems and media be detected, and how can we trust anything when everything could be faked?

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10:50 AM – 11:15 AM

Coming Soon!

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11:35 AM – 11:55 AM

Artificial Intelligence: Minds, Economies and Systems that Learn with Ken Goldberg (UC Berkeley) and Michael Jordan (UC Berkeley)

AI and robots are being adopted by industry after industry, ushering in a new era in technology and services — but one that needs to be built as it grows. Berkeley’s Ken Goldberg and Michael Jordan discuss the advances that got us here and what comes next.

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11:55 AM – 12:20 PM

AI Startups That Enable AI with Ali Farhadi (Xnor.ai), Daryn Nakhuda (Mighty AI)

Building AI is a difficult task on its own, and building a startup around it is even harder. Mighty AI, Xnor and DefinedCrowd have all shown that it’s possible to create powerful AI tools as well as empower others — while running a real business as well.

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12:30 PM – 1:30 PM

WORKSHOP: How to Launch a Robotics Startup with Eric Migicovsky (Y Combinator)

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1:30 PM – 1:55 PM

Putting Drones to Work with, Grant Canary (Droneseed), Laura Major (Aria Insights) and Arnaud Thiercelin (DJI)

Drones are being employed for more than just buzzing around the beach and recording weddings. In the last few years, we’ve seen drones that help stop poachers, deliver packages, inspect pipelines, and more. What’s next?

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2:00 PM – 2:45 PM

Q&A with Founders: Your chance to ask questions to some of the greatest minds in technology. Workshop Room. 

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2:35 PM – 3:05 PM

Investing In Robotics and AI: Lessons from the Industry’s VCs with Peter Barrett (Playground Global), Hidetaka Aoki (Global Brain), Helen Liang (FoundersX Ventures), and Andy Wheeler (GV)

Leading investors will discuss the rising tide of venture capital funding in robotics and AI. The investors bring a combination of early-stage investing and corporate venture capital expertise, sharing a fondness for the wild world of robotics investing.

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3:10 PM – 3:45 PM

Q&A with Investors: Your chance to ask questions to some of the greatest investors in robotics and AI with Peter Barrett (Playground Global), Hidetaka Aoki (Global Brain), Helen Liang (FoundersX Ventures). Workshop Room.

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3:55 PM – 4:15 PM

The Best Robots on Four Legs with Marc Raibert (Boston Dynamics)

Boston Dynamics rocked the world with the robots like Big Dog, Cheetah and Atlas. As one of the company’s latest creations SpotMini comes to market, CEO Marc Raibert will discuss the company’s journey to productizing. 

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4:15 PM – 4:35 PM

Coming Soon!

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4:35 PM – 5:00 PM

Building the Robots that Build with Noah Ready-Campbell (BUILT Robotics) and Saurabh Ladha (Doxel AI)

Can robots help us build structures faster, smarter, and cheaper? Built Robotics makes a self-driving excavator. Doxel builds a robot that helps to monitor and inspect job sites. We’ll talk with the founders of these two companies to learn how and when robots will become a part of the construction crew.

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Tickets are on sale now

• $249 Early Bird Tickets ($100 Savings) – Book Here
• $45 Student Tickets – Book Here
• $1500 Startup Demo Table Package (includes 3 tickets) – Book Here 

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Daily Crunch: TikTok faces children’s privacy fine

The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 9am Pacific, you can subscribe here.

1. FTC ruling sees Musical.ly (TikTok) fined $5.7M for violating children’s privacy law, app updated with age gate

In an app update released yesterday, all users will need to verify their age, and the under 13-year-olds will then be directed to a separate, more restricted in-app experience that protects their personal information and prevents them from publishing videos to TikTok.

And if you’re confused about Musical.ly versus TikTok: The Federal Trade Commission had begun looking into TikTok back when it was known as Musical.ly, and the ruling itself is a settlement with Musical.ly.

2. How Disney built Star Wars, in real life

Over the course of the past five years, Walt Disney Imagineering has been hard at work making the world of Star Wars a reality on Earth. Matthew Panzarino has all the details, with plenty of tantalizing images.

3. Amazon Prime members can choose a weekly delivery date with launch of ‘Amazon Day’

The option lets shoppers pick a day of the week to take delivery of their recent orders. The boxes will then arrive together on the selected Amazon Day, in fewer boxes.

4. Zūm, a ridesharing service for kids, raises $40M

Zūm is a mobile app that enables parents to schedule rides for their kids from fully vetted drivers. It also partners with school districts to support their transportation needs.

5. Dow Jones’ watchlist of 2.4 million high-risk individuals has leaked

The data, since secured, is the financial giant’s Watchlist database, which companies use as part of their risk and compliance efforts.

6. SoftBank’s Vision Fund invests $1.5B in Chinese second-hand car startup Chehaoduo

The Beijing-based company operates two main sites — peer-to-peer online marketplace Guazi for used vehicles, and Maodou, which retails new sedans through direct sales and financial leasing.

7. Netflix may be losing $192M per month from piracy, cord cutting study claims

As many as one in five people today are mooching off of someone else’s account when streaming video from Netflix, Hulu or Amazon Video, according to a new study from CordCutting.com. Of these, Netflix tends to be pirated for the longest period.

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Daily Crunch: TikTok faces children’s privacy fine

The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 9am Pacific, you can subscribe here.

1. FTC ruling sees Musical.ly (TikTok) fined $5.7M for violating children’s privacy law, app updated with age gate

In an app update released yesterday, all users will need to verify their age, and the under 13-year-olds will then be directed to a separate, more restricted in-app experience that protects their personal information and prevents them from publishing videos to TikTok.

And if you’re confused about Musical.ly versus TikTok: The Federal Trade Commission had begun looking into TikTok back when it was known as Musical.ly, and the ruling itself is a settlement with Musical.ly.

2. How Disney built Star Wars, in real life

Over the course of the past five years, Walt Disney Imagineering has been hard at work making the world of Star Wars a reality on Earth. Matthew Panzarino has all the details, with plenty of tantalizing images.

3. Amazon Prime members can choose a weekly delivery date with launch of ‘Amazon Day’

The option lets shoppers pick a day of the week to take delivery of their recent orders. The boxes will then arrive together on the selected Amazon Day, in fewer boxes.

4. Zūm, a ridesharing service for kids, raises $40M

Zūm is a mobile app that enables parents to schedule rides for their kids from fully vetted drivers. It also partners with school districts to support their transportation needs.

5. Dow Jones’ watchlist of 2.4 million high-risk individuals has leaked

The data, since secured, is the financial giant’s Watchlist database, which companies use as part of their risk and compliance efforts.

6. SoftBank’s Vision Fund invests $1.5B in Chinese second-hand car startup Chehaoduo

The Beijing-based company operates two main sites — peer-to-peer online marketplace Guazi for used vehicles, and Maodou, which retails new sedans through direct sales and financial leasing.

7. Netflix may be losing $192M per month from piracy, cord cutting study claims

As many as one in five people today are mooching off of someone else’s account when streaming video from Netflix, Hulu or Amazon Video, according to a new study from CordCutting.com. Of these, Netflix tends to be pirated for the longest period.

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Long-Range Robotic Navigation via Automated Reinforcement Learning

Aleksandra Faust, Senior Research Scientist and Anthony Francis, Senior Software Engineer, Robotics at Google

In the United States alone, there are 3 million people with a mobility impairment that prevents them from ever leaving their homes. Service robots that can autonomously navigate long distances can improve the independence of people with limited mobility, for example, by bringing them groceries, medicine, and packages. Research has demonstrated that deep reinforcement learning (RL) is good at mapping raw sensory input to actions, e.g. learning to grasp objects and for robot locomotion, but RL agents usually lack the understanding of large physical spaces needed to safely navigate long distances without human help and to easily adapt to new spaces.

In three recent papers, “Learning Navigation Behaviors End-to-End with AutoRL,” “PRM-RL: Long-Range Robotic Navigation Tasks by Combining Reinforcement Learning and Sampling-based Planning”, and “Long-Range Indoor Navigation with PRM-RL”, we investigate easy-to-adapt robotic autonomy by combining deep RL with long-range planning. We train local planner agents to perform basic navigation behaviors, traversing short distances safely without collisions with moving obstacles. The local planners take noisy sensor observations, such as a 1D lidar that provides distances to obstacles, and output linear and angular velocities for robot control. We train the local planner in simulation with AutoRL, a method that automates the search for RL reward and neural network architecture. Despite their limited range of 10 - 15 meters, the local planners transfer well to both real robots and to new, previously unseen environments. This enables us to use them as building blocks for navigation in large spaces. We then build a roadmap, a graph where nodes are locations and edges connect the nodes only if local planners, which mimic real robots well with their noisy sensors and control, can traverse between them reliably.

Automating Reinforcement Learning (AutoRL)
In our first paper, we train the local planners in small, static environments. However, training with standard deep RL algorithms, such as Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient (DDPG), poses several challenges. For example, the true objective of the local planners is to reach the goal, which represents a sparse reward. In practice, this requires researchers to spend significant time iterating and hand-tuning the rewards. Researchers must also make decisions about the neural network architecture, without clear accepted best practices. And finally, algorithms like DDPG are unstable learners and often exhibit catastrophic forgetfulness.

To overcome those challenges, we automate the deep Reinforcement Learning (RL) training. AutoRL is an evolutionary automation layer around deep RL that searches for a reward and neural network architecture using large-scale hyperparameter optimization. It works in two phases, reward search and neural network architecture search. During the reward search, AutoRL trains a population of DDPG agents concurrently over several generations, each with a slightly different reward function optimizing for the local planner’s true objective: reaching the destination. At the end of the reward search phase, we select the reward that leads the agents to its destination most often. In the neural network architecture search phase, we repeat the process, this time using the selected reward and tuning the network layers, optimizing for the cumulative reward.

Automating reinforcement learning with reward and neural network architecture search.

However, this iterative process means AutoRL is not sample efficient. Training one agent takes 5 million samples; AutoRL training over 10 generations of 100 agents requires 5 billion samples - equivalent to 32 years of training! The benefit is that after AutoRL the manual training process is automated, and DDPG does not experience catastrophic forgetfulness. Most importantly, the resulting policies are higher quality — AutoRL policies are robust to sensor, actuator and localization noise, and generalize well to new environments. Our best policy is 26% more successful than other navigation methods across our test environments.

AutoRL (red) success over short distances (up to 10 meters) in several unseen buildings. Compared to hand-tuned DDPG (dark-red), artificial potential fields (light blue), dynamic window approach (blue), and behavior cloning (green).

AutoRL local planner policy transfer to robots in real, unstructured environments

While these policies only perform local navigation, they are robust to moving obstacles and transfer well to real robots, even in unstructured environments. Though they were trained in simulation with only static obstacles, they can also handle moving objects effectively. The next step is to combine the AutoRL policies with sampling-based planning to extend their reach and enable long-range navigation.

Achieving Long Range Navigation with PRM-RL
Sampling-based planners tackle long-range navigation by approximating robot motions. For example, probabilistic roadmaps (PRMs) sample robot poses and connect them with feasible transitions, creating roadmaps that capture valid movements of a robot across large spaces. In our second paper, which won Best Paper in Service Robotics at ICRA 2018, we combine PRMs with hand-tuned RL-based local planners (without AutoRL) to train robots once locally and then adapt them to different environments.

First, for each robot we train a local planner policy in a generic simulated training environment. Next, we build a PRM with respect to that policy, called a PRM-RL, over a floor plan for the deployment environment. The same floor plan can be used for any robot we wish to deploy in the building in a one time per robot+environment setup.

To build a PRM-RL we connect sampled nodes only if the RL-based local planner, which represents robot noise well, can reliably and consistently navigate between them. This is done via Monte Carlo simulation. The resulting roadmap is tuned to both the abilities and geometry of the particular robot. Roadmaps for robots with the same geometry but different sensors and actuators will have different connectivity. Since the agent can navigate around corners, nodes without clear line of sight can be included. Whereas nodes near walls and obstacles are less likely to be connected into the roadmap because of sensor noise. At execution time, the RL agent navigates from roadmap waypoint to waypoint.

Roadmap being built with 3 Monte Carlo simulations per randomly selected node pair.

The largest map was 288 meters by 163 meters and contains almost 700,000 edges, collected over 4 days using 300 workers in a cluster requiring 1.1 billion collision checks.

The third paper makes several improvements over the original PRM-RL. First, we replace the hand-tuned DDPG with AutoRL-trained local planners, which results in improved long-range navigation. Second, it adds Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) maps, which robots use at execution time, as a source for building the roadmaps. Because SLAM maps are noisy, this change closes the “sim2real gap”, a phonomena in robotics where simulation-trained agents significantly underperform when transferred to real-robots. Our simulated success rates are the same as in on-robot experiments. Last, we added distributed roadmap building, resulting in very large scale roadmaps containing up to 700,000 nodes.

We evaluated the method using our AutoRL agent, building roadmaps using the floor maps of offices up to 200x larger than the training environments, accepting edges with at least 90% success over 20 trials. We compared PRM-RL to a variety of different methods over distances up to 100m, well beyond the local planner range. PRM-RL had 2 to 3 times the rate of success over baseline because the nodes were connected appropriately for the robot’s capabilities.

Navigation over 100 meters success rates in several buildings. First paper -AutoRL local planner only (blue); original PRMs (red); path-guided artificial potential fields (yellow); second paper (green); third paper - PRMs with AutoRL (orange).

We tested PRM-RL on multiple real robots and real building sites. One set of tests are shown below; the robot is very robust except near cluttered areas and off the edge of the SLAM map.

On-robot experiments

Conclusion
Autonomous robot navigation can significantly improve independence of people with limited mobility. We can achieve this by development of easy-to-adapt robotic autonomy, including methods that can be deployed in new environments using information that it is already available. This is done by automating the learning of basic, short-range navigation behaviors with AutoRL and using these learned policies in conjunction with SLAM maps to build roadmaps. These roadmaps consist of nodes connected by edges that robots can traverse consistently. The result is a policy that once trained can be used across different environments and can produce a roadmap custom-tailored to the particular robot.

Acknowledgements
The research was done by, in alphabetical order, Hao-Tien Lewis Chiang, James Davidson, Aleksandra Faust, Marek Fiser, Anthony Francis, Jasmine Hsu, J. Chase Kew, Tsang-Wei Edward Lee, Ken Oslund, Oscar Ramirez from Robotics at Google and Lydia Tapia from University of New Mexico. We thank Alexander Toshev, Brian Ichter, Chris Harris, and Vincent Vanhoucke for helpful discussions.

Siri gets new airline, food order and dictionary Shortcuts, with more on the way

Announced at last year’s WWDC, Apple’s been firing up Siri Shortcuts at a fairly steady clip. The company says there are now “thousands” of apps integrating the iOS 12 feature, which bring all sorts of third-party functionality to the smart assistant.

There are five new Shortcuts available starting today. Most notable (depending on where you get your airline miles, I suppose) is probably the one from American Airlines. Saying, “Hey Siri, flight update” will provide you with information on your upcoming travel plans. The response uses location information to determine what the share, including flight status, travel time and the gate it will depart from.

Caviar has a new Shortcut as well. It lets users check on food status or reorder frequent items, like, say, “order my usual pizza,” for those of us who are perfectly fine with the food related ruts we’ve dug ourselves into. Merriam Webster, meanwhile, is adding a “word of the day” Shortcut, while Dexcom is bringing glucose monitoring to the smart assistant.

In the next couple of months, Apple will add shortcuts from Airbnb, Drop, ReSound and coffee-maker Smarter. Those all join recent additions from Waze and Nike Run Club. Apple clearly sees the features as a way to build out Siri’s functionality following increased competition from the likes of Google and Amazon.

The addition of the sorts of features can make for a much richer voice ecosystem, all while leaving third-party developers to do a lot of the heavy lifting here.

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ClassDojo, an app to help teachers and parents communicate better, raises $35M

Messaging apps have become the de facto way that many people today keep in regular contact with each other, and that trend has also found its way into the classroom. ClassDojo, a startup that has built a platform for teachers and parents to communicate small and big updates to each other, today is announcing that it has raised $35 million in funding.

The Series C — which is being jointly led by GSV (behind Spotify, Lyft, Dropbox) and SignalFire (which has backed Grammarly, Zume, Lime), and also includes General Catalyst and Uncork Capital — will be used in two ways. First, to fuel expansion of ClassDojo’s free communications app. And second, to drive its efforts to monetize its service by way of a new service called Beyond School, an optional subscription for families to complement in-school work with at-home tutorials around areas that are complementary to learning well, such as improving studying habits, mindfulness and so on.

(You could think of Beyond School as TedX meets Lynda for K-8, but co-founders Sam Chaudhary and Liam Don, respectively the CEO and CTO, said in an interview that they believe the content will be more than just that.)

ClassDojo has now raised $65 million, and while it is not talking valuation, I’ve been told by a good source that it is coming in at “$400ish” million. That is a huge leap on the $99 million the startup was valued at in 2015 (a figure quoted on PitchBook).

The boost in part is because of ClassDojo’s healthy growth. Since first starting out in 2011 as part of a Y Combinator cohort, the company has expanded to be used in more than 95 percent of all pre K to eighth grade schools in the US, with one in every six families with a child in primary school using the app daily.

The US is its biggest market, but ClassDojo is also now available in some 180 other countries, where it’s also starting to pick up some strong penetration. (In Singapore, Australia, Spain, Hong Kong, the UK, and the UAE, it’s used by some 25 percent of all primary school teachers, for example.) Impressively, all that growth has up to now been organic and word of mouth, one reason why the company has had to raise relatively little funding.

(It also only employs 40 people, another way of keeping costs massively down.)

One of the key things about ClassDojo is that the company has kept a very consistent focus when it comes to its mission: the idea has always been to try to identify the biggest communication problems that teachers might have in teaching kids, and trying to solve them.

Building an app that can bridge the sometimes large gaps between parent-teacher meetings, so that parents feel more engaged with what their children are learning, and teachers might have better feedback from those parents about what children are doing at home, was an obvious first step.

“Learning is so much about having strong relationships,” Chaudhary said. “It’s pretty cool to see the effect this can have not just with parents and teachers, but between parents and kids.”

Beyond School comes in the same vein and is a natural extension of that, and came not just out of what teachers said they wished they had more time to teach to students — but can’t because of the general emphasis in curriculums on academics — but from what parents wished they could work on with their children.

That, in essence, is the wider body of “learning” that you could loosely term emotional intelligence, and general techniques for coping and learning, beyond the academic work itself. “The learning experience in the classroom sparked a lot of ideas, and families were reaching out to us,” Dom said, “wondering if they could have a product to serve more unique needs at home.”

So far, the company does not have any numbers to share on how Beyond School has been taken up since launching at the end of 2018, except to say that it’s going well.

Longer term, it’s interesting to consider how ClassDojo fits into the wider trend of communication and messaging apps, and whether others might ever try to compete in the same space, or perhaps acquire ClassDojo as they extend into other verticals — a strategy that Microsoft, for example, has been following when it comes to acquiring other businesses as it works on tapping the $10 trillion market for education.

I asked Hemant Taneja, a partner at General Catalyst, if he ever thought the likes of Slack, for example, might ever try to compete with it. (No, is the short answer.)

“Slack is a work tool, and I can’t imagine there will be a synergy there,” he said, and nor would it possibly even work. “As a worker and parent, I think that there should be an education platform solely devoted to kids, where the stakeholders are family and teachers. I’ve always believed that from the beginning and I think that ClassDojo’s scale gives it that potential.”

 

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LinkedIn forced to ‘pause’ mentioned in the news feature in Europe after complaints about ID mix-ups

LinkedIn has been forced to ‘pause’ a feature in Europe in which the platform emails members’ connections when they’ve been ‘mentioned in the news’.

The regulatory action follows a number of data protection complaints after LinkedIn’s algorithms incorrect matched members to news articles — triggering a review of the feature and subsequent suspension order.

The feature appears as a case study in the ‘Technology Multinationals Supervision’ section of an annual report published today by the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC). Although the report does not explicitly name LinkedIn — but we’ve confirmed it is the named professional social network.

The data watchdog’s report cites “two complaints about a feature on a professional networking platform” after LinkedIn incorrectly associated the members with media articles that were not actually about them.

“In one of the complaints, a media article that set out details of the private life and unsuccessful career of a person of the same name as the complainant was circulated to the complainant’s connections and followers by the data controller,” the DPC writes, noting the complainant initially complained to the company itself but did not receive a satisfactory response — hence taking up the matter with the regulator.

“The complainant stated that the article had been detrimental to their professional standing and had resulted in the loss of contracts for their business,” it adds.

“The second complaint involved the circulation of an article that the complainant believed could be detrimental to future career prospects, which the data controller had not vetted correctly.”

LinkedIn appears to have been matching members to news articles by simple name matching — with obvious potential for identity mix-ups between people with shared names.

“It was clear from the complaints that matching by name only was insufficient, giving rise to data protection concerns, primarily the lawfulness, fairness and accuracy of the personal data processing utilised by the ‘Mentions in the news’ feature,” the DPC writes.

“As a result of these complaints and the intervention of the DPC, the data controller undertook a review of the feature. The result of this review was to suspend the feature for EU-based members, pending improvements to safeguard its members’ data.”

We reached out to LinkedIn with questions and it pointed us to this blog post where it confirms: “We are pausing our Mentioned in the News feature for our EU members while we reevaluate its effectiveness.”

LinkedIn adds that it is reviewing the accuracy of the feature, writing:

As referenced in the Irish Data Protection Commission’s report, we received useful feedback from our members about the feature and as a result are evaluating the accuracy and functionality of Mentioned in the News for all members.

The company’s blog post also points users to a page where they can find out more about the ‘mentioned in the news’ feature and get information on how to manage their LinkedIn email notification settings.

The Irish DPC’s action is not the first privacy strike against LinkedIn in Europe.

Late last year, in its early annual report, on the pre-GDPR portion of 2018, the watchdog revealed it had investigated complaints about LinkedIn related to it targeting non-users with adverts for its service.

The DPC found the company had obtained emails for 18 million people for whom it did not have consent to process their data. In that case LinkedIn agreed to cease processing the data entirely.

That complaint also led the DPC to audit LinkedIn. It then found a further privacy problem, discovering the company had been using its social graph algorithms to try to build suggested networks of compatible professional connections for non-members.

The regulator ordered LinkedIn to cease this “pre-compute processing” of non-members’ data and delete all personal data associated with it prior to GDPR coming into force.

LinkedIn said it had “voluntarily changed our practices as a result”.

LinkedIn violated data protection by using 18M email addresses of non-members to buy targeted ads on Facebook

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Ableton vs. FL Studio: What’s the Best Music Maker?

Producing music used to be prohibitively expensive. The advent of Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs) has changed this. Of the many DAWs available, Ableton Live and FL Studio are two of the best picks.

Ableton Live and FL Studio are pricey purchases, but both have free trial versions you can download and test. However, to help you decide between the two, we compared both Ableton Live vs. FL Studio.

The Best for Beginners: FL Studio

FL Studio receives praise as one of the best DAWs for beginners. Ease of use is built into the design, and no previous digital music production experience is required. Many aspects of FL Studio aim at people who haven’t traditionally trained as musicians.

FL Studio also comes with template projects set up for different kinds of music production. These templates are the perfect way to get to grips with the software. The intuitive nature of FL Studio, along with the vast online tutorial community, make it ideal for first time producers.

The Best for Professionals: Ableton Live

Ableton Live has a devoted following with good reason. Several features of the software are unique. While some beginners find it daunting, long time users swear by its advanced audio warping and envelope controls. FL Studio allows limited warping, and envelope control too, but it’s Live’s other features that set it aside.

The Session view, which enables users to arrange tracks in grids rather than on a timeline, is a good example.

Within the Session view, Follow Actions allow users to automate clip triggering, and even create music using random logic. Max for Live uses the visual programming language, Max, to create unique instruments and effects.

Ableton Live’s advanced workflows take time to learn, but once mastered it’s unmatched in its ease of use. The ability to approach music and sound creation from so many angles makes it the ultimate Swiss Army Knife of professional music production tools.

The Best for Mac Users: Ableton Live

While both pieces of software are available for Windows and macOS, Ableton Live takes the prize here. FL Studio is still in the process of being ported to macOS, whereas Live has been entirely cross-platform since early in its development.

Alongside being a better fit for macOS, Live has another advantage in this regard. Many people swear by Apple hardware for music production due to the reliability of the operating system. Setting up audio is also widely believed to be a much easier process in macOS.

The Best for Making Electronic Music: FL Studio

If you are planning on making mostly electronic music, FL Studio has the workflow for you. The “everything in one place” nature of FL Studio makes it quick to get your ideas out. Many users find the Midi Piano Roll much better to use in FL Studio too, and it has been a long time go to product for Hip-Hop and Techno producers.

Templates and grouping make it easy to work on different groups of instruments and samples at a time. A single click can mute the entire set of drum or vocal tracks, allowing you to work on specific groups of sounds.

There are many effects in FL Studio designed with simple things in mind. The perfectly named “Soundgoodizer” is a perfect example, which can take any sound and give it more punch in your mix.

Both Ableton Live and FL Studio have a considerable amount of samples and presets which can help anyone build a track quickly. They both also allow for the use of external effects, and there are plenty of high-quality free VST effects available.

The Best for Audio Recording: Ableton Live

Early versions of FL Studio didn’t support audio recording. While it now does, Ableton Live is still far ahead in terms of audio recording and manipulation.

Ableton Live has a robust I/O system allowing simultaneous recording from multiple inputs. It also doesn’t skimp on the effects, with many presets explicitly designed for different types of voice and instrument. FL Studio also has this functionality, but Live has something else up its sleeve.

According to some, Ableton Live’s Warp feature is worth the cost of the software alone. In short, it takes any piece of audio and warps it to fit with another’s timing or pitch. Different Warp modes allow for different types of stretching, some natural, some strange sounding effects in their own right.

The ability to record audio and manipulate it without destroying its natural sound is one of Live’s most powerful features. Of course, your recorded audio will only sound good if you use these essential tips to help you record better audio.

The Best for Sound Design: Ableton Live

Alongside music production, DAWs used extensively in sound design for film and video games. Being able to import and manipulate sounds quickly is essential to fast production workflows. Adobe allows linking between Audition and Premiere/After Effects, but in terms of sound design Audition is somewhat lacking.

Live shines as a sound design platform due to the Session view and powerful Warp functions. You can quickly assemble a palate of sounds, and apply effects to them in batches. Export of each sound is possible as an individual clip for use in game development software, or a video editor.

The Best for Performing Live With a Midi Controller: Ableton Live

Ableton Live lives up to the “Live” part of its name. For a long time, it has been the top name in live electronic music performance. Alongside countless DJs using the platform, many musicians use it in conjunction with live instruments.

Both Live and FL Studio allow the use of Midi Controllers to trigger samples and control FX. Both support almost every controller. Once again, however, Ableton Live does have the upper hand here.

Ableton’s Push controller was explicitly designed to use with Live and combines many different forms of Midi/software control into one package. The combination of pads, knobs, and screen of the push are designed to almost entirely free the user from the mouse and keyboard.

While a good Midi controller can help with both music making and performing on any platform, FL Studio doesn’t have an answer to the Push.

The Best Value for Money: FL Studio

So far, Ableton Live seems to be pulling ahead somewhat. However, price is the one area in which it suffers.

Ableton Live is currently on Version 10 and costs $449 for the Standard version and $749 for the Suite. FL Studio 20 has several versions, from the $99 Fruity edition all the way up to the $899 All Plugins Bundle edition.

This means that most of FL Studio’s options are cheaper than Ableton Live. Historically FL Studio has always been the more affordable option, adding to its beginner-friendly reputation.

Ableton Live further suffers here as each version of Live is an individual purchase. Owners of one version get a discount on upgrading, but it will still cost you $229 for a Standard upgrade and $299 for the Suite. In comparison, whether you own the $99 Fruity version of FL Studio, or the full priced bundle, updates are free for life.

Ableton Live vs. FL Studio: The Best DAW for You

Which DAW is best for making music is an ongoing argument. While both pieces of software certainly excel at specific tasks, it is difficult to choose which is best.

It’s important to not that neither piece of software will make you a star musician overnight, and spending some time learning music theory is going to help more than any program you purchase.

Regardless of which DAW you choose, any piece of software requires time to learn. So, with that in mind, this Ableton Live tutorial for beginners could be essential reading.

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Safari Downloads Not Working? 7 Troubleshooting Tips and Fixes to Try

It’s not always easy downloading files in Safari for Mac. Sometimes files seem to disappear after you download them, while other times they don’t download at all. Confusingly, this can happen for a variety of reasons. However, the fixes are all easy enough, regardless of whether you have to click two buttons or 10.

In some cases, the solution to Safari download issues involves checking your Downloads folder. In other cases, it involves disabling any plugin that might cause you problems. These are all simple actions, so it shouldn’t take you much time to get downloading again. We’ll walk you through it

1. Check Your Default Downloads Folder

Safari sends every file you download to a folder on your Mac. Unsurprisingly, it uses Downloads as the default location. However, you can change this, perhaps without even realizing it.

You should thus check where Safari sends your downloads, and change it accordingly if desired. To do this:

1. Click Safari (in your Mac’s top menu bar) and choose Preferences.
2. Select the General tab.
3. Expand the File download location dropdown box.
4. Select Downloads (or whatever folder you’d like to use).

You can set the default download location to a folder other than Downloads, of course. But make sure you remember what this alternative folder is. Otherwise, you could lose time searching for files that aren’t in an obvious location.

2. Check the “Open Safe Files” Box

Sometimes, it might seem like Safari downloads aren’t working normally because of a certain setting. This is the Open “safe” files after downloading box, which you’ll find in Safari’s General Preferences pane.

This option is turned on by default. It instructs Safari to automatically open all “safe” files once they’ve finished downloading. By turning it off, you might mistakenly think that Safari has stopped downloading properly, since it stops automatically opening your files.

However, you can easily turn it back on. You simply have to do the following:

1. Click Safari (in the top menu bar) and select Preferences.
2. Make sure you’re on the General tab.
3. Check the small box next to Open “safe” files after downloading.

Safari will now open all “safe” files for you after it downloads them. And in case you were wondering, Apple defines certain file types, such as pictures and PDFs, as “safe.”

3. Check Your Network

It’s worth bearing in mind that, if you can’t download in Safari, it might not be Safari that’s the problem. In fact, it could be that your Wi-Fi connection is too slow, or isn’t working normally. In that case, there are a number of steps you can take.

First, make sure that you’re actually connected to a Wi-Fi network and that your Mac is close to the router. You’ll typically suffer from slow downloads when you’re far away from the router, so moving closer can solve some problems.

Also, you can often speed up your Wi-Fi speeds by changing your router’s channel. You can do this by typing your router’s IP address into Safari’s address bar and hitting Return. You’ll then come to your router’s settings page, which is where you can change the channel it uses.

One other trick you can try is checking whether another device is eating up your Wi-Fi’s bandwidth. This can slow down the speed of downloads, particularly if lots of devices are doing intensive work at the same time. Try pausing video streaming, online gaming, and similar activities if you can.

Similarly, if you’re downloading a large file, you might simply have to wait a while before it finishes downloading.

4. Check for Paused Downloads

Starting a download and then closing your Mac while it’s still in progress can pause it. This is an obvious reason why you can’t find the download in your Downloads folder: it hasn’t actually finished downloading.

In such cases, you have to restart the download. You can do this by clicking the Show Downloads button in the top-right corner of Safari’s screen, which looks like an arrow pointing down. Then hit the Resume button, which resembles the refresh button in most web browsers.

5. Try Downloading Again

Sometimes, files get corrupted or damaged when you download them. This can stop the download from finishing, or it can stop you from opening the file once it’s downloaded.

Either way, you can try simply downloading the file again. This is a basic step, but it can work because such interruptions and errors will prevent downloads from completing.

6. Check Your Mac’s Security and Privacy Settings

Sometimes, Safari download problems occur because your Mac doesn’t let you open apps from unidentified developers. You’ll find this setting in the Security & Privacy pane of System Preferences, which restricts you to opening apps downloaded from the App Store.

Fortunately, you can open apps from unidentified developers, assuming that you trust them. This is what you should do:

1. Launch Finder.
2. Type the name of the app you want to open into Finder’s search bar.
3. Click This Mac to search your entire system.
4. Right-click the app in question and click Open.

You can also change your settings to let you always open apps downloaded from outside the App Store. This involves doing the following:

1. Launch System Preferences and open Security & Privacy.
2. Click the lock icon and enter your administrator password to authorize changes.
3. Under Allow apps downloaded from, click App Store and identified developers.

Note that this option only permits apps from known developers, so if you download an app from an unidentified developer, you’ll have to go through the process above. When your Mac blocks an unidentified app, you’ll also see a prompt to open it in the Security & Privacy pane here. See our ultimate guide to Mac security for more on this and similar measures.

7. Disable Safari Plugins

Plugins can sometimes interfere with how web browsers operate. This includes downloading, so if you’re having download problems on Safari you should try disabling any recently added plugins. This can restore the browser to a state that’s closer to normal.

This is what you should do:

1. Click Safari (in the top menu bar) and choose Preferences.
2. Select the Websites tab.
3. Under the Plug-ins column, de-select any plugin you’d like to disable.

Once you’ve disabled any suspect plugins, you should try completing your download again. If it works, you know that the disabled plugin was most likely the cause of the problem. You should keep it disabled whenever downloading.

But if you need it for other tasks, remember to enable it when you do them.

An Easier Time on Safari

Apple offers Safari as a simpler alternative to Google Chrome, and one that consumes less of your Mac’s battery power. As the above shows, sometimes it can run into issues, but there are thankfully ways to solve your download problems.

And if you aren’t having particular problems with Safari, check out essential Safari tips and tricks to make it better.

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8 Mock Interview Websites to Help You Nail Your Job Search

Interviews can be nerve-wracking affairs. The simplest questions that you did not prepare for can catch you off guard and ruin the flow of the conversation. Start giving interviews to prepare better. Or use mock interviews to face interviewers with confidence.

There are many resources online to help you get in the right frame of mind for a conversation with prospective employers. Here are several mock interview sites that can help you get ready for the big day.

1. Pramp

The site name takes its inspiration from the phrase PRActice Makes Perfect. The idea behind the program is to teach a candidate how to prepare for a programming interview. You need to sign up for a free account to receive feedback on your interview from your peers.

Key Features:

• You are matched with interviewers based on your choice for a programming language.
• Interviews are live, one-on-one video sessions with the person you are matched with.
• A user alternates as both the interviewee and the interviewer, putting you on both sides of the interview desk to gain a deeper understanding of the process.
• You can take as many interviews as you want. The site stores your answers and creates a customized session based on the information.
• You can customize a session to focus more on specific areas you want to improve on.

Price: Free

2. InterviewBuddy

Create a profile with the details of your professional qualifications. Choose a time slot for the interview and receive a curated list of material to study for the session. After giving the mock-interview, you will receive comprehensive feedback on your performance and a link to the recording of the interview.

Key Features:

• No need to download any software to use the site.
• A detailed scorecard specifies your areas of strengths and weaknesses.
• Use the recorded interview to evaluate your performance.
• Curated resources help you prepare for interviews.

Price: $15 per user

3. Gainlo

Gainlo is an interview preparation resource for engineering students. Professional interviewers conduct mock interviews and provide feedback on your performance.

Key Features:

• Interviews are on Skype and also use code-sharing tools.
• You get feedback immediately at the end of the interview and can ask any questions on your end that you might have.
• The site also has a blogging section that carries many useful tips regarding job hunting. Like ways to research a company before you sit down for a job interview.

Price: Price per interview varies depending on the interviewer

4. InterviewBit

On InterviewBit, you get a series of interview questions for practice. Pay attention to the advice on how to give the right answers to these questions.

Key Features:

• You can get referrals to actual tech companies if your profile matches the needs of a company.
• You receive an organized plan to study interview questions in order of difficulty.
• Access to questions asked to previous candidates by the top tech companies.
• Get help with debugging your code from the community of members of the site.

Price: Free

5. Interviewing

The program offers anonymous technical interview practice with actual engineers from across a host of top tech companies, from Google to Facebook, Microsoft, and more. You receive help with preparing for interviews and also have the opportunity to make valuable connections with professionals in the field.

Key Features:

• If the anonymous interview session goes well, there is the possibility of getting in touch with your interviewer using your real name and credentials and getting a job offer.
• Interviews have voice communication but the option of no video, so you can control the level of anonymity.
• You receive feedback on your performance and suggestions on how to improve.

Price: Free

6. Technical Mock Interview

You get to practice your interview skills in front of a panel of professional engineers. Many of them have worked for the largest tech companies and conducted many actual interviews.

Key Feature:

• After the interview, you get a detailed hiring result that consists of verbal and written feedback on your performance.

Price: Price per session: $109 for Coding, $129 for System Design, and $159 for Data Science

7. Prepbunk

You create an account on the Prepbunk website and fill in a form regarding your professional details. The form gets submitted to the team behind the site. You then arrange to appear for a mock interview, either over the phone or Skype. A site team evaluates your performance in the interview and provide a detailed performance analysis.

Key Features:

• You’re interviewed by industry professionals instead of a simulator.
• You can also opt for a mock interview without any feedback if you prefer self-assessment.
• A three weeks course is offered by the site to provide you with a step-by-step guide to improving your interview performance.

Price: Free

8. My Interview Practice

You interact with an interview simulator. An interview script appears before you in the form of one question at a time. You must answer in a set amount of time. The time limit is meant to replicate the pressure experienced during an actual interview.

Key Features:

• No software download required.
• Interviews are reviewed by your peers.
• Answer a series of handpicked questions that don’t repeat but challenge you differently each time.
• Study a recording of your interview performance afterward.
• You can add your own interview questions to the simulator.
• Interviews relating to more than twelve different industries are available to practice with.

Price: $14.99/mo Premium membership with free trial

More Tools to Help Prepare for the Big Interview

The biggest hurdle to clear an interview you are qualified for is lack of preparation and nervousness. Mock interviews can be a great way to bolster both.

There are other ways to get ready for a job opening without spending a dime. So get supercharged for your next hunt with these free tools.

Image Credit: nd3000/Depositphotos

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How to Set Up a Linux Media Server in Under One Hour

Designing the ultimate media server for your TV and movie collection can be a challenge. What hardware should you use, what operating system should you install, and what kind of software should you be running?

Rather than waste your time trying to decide, here’s the answer. A Linux server, running all the media software you need, can be set up in less than an hour thanks to Docker. Let’s run through how.

What Is Docker?

Rather than installing software in the traditional manner on your PC, Docker lets you run them in secure containers.

They share the same physical environment as your operating system, but they run independently and separate from your main system, meaning you can test out and install different kinds of software without worrying about conflicts.

It’s the perfect platform for testing new applications, especially on a server, where one bad update or one script change can cause everything to fail. Docker also helps to speed up installing new applications, especially combined with DockSTARTer, a script for installing and updating media software containers using Docker.

Requirements for Installation

To use DockSTARTer (and Docker), you’ll need to prepare a server. DockSTARTer can run on any kind of machine that runs Linux, including a Raspberry Pi, but you should be aware that some software won’t run on ARM-based architecture like the Pi, which might limit your potential here.

While it doesn’t matter which Linux distro you choose as Docker will run on most distributions, the DockSTARTer script doesn’t work with Arch, so you wouldn’t be able to use this guide for that distro.

If you want to keep resource usage down, install server or headless versions of any distro you choose. These will come without a desktop environment and have a smaller resource footprint.

This is a media server installation, so you’ll need a capable CPU for transcoding media, which converts media from one format into others that media players can then play. If you’re planning some heavy usage, a CPU that can cope with multiple transcoded streams will be useful here.

This guide from Plex, the media streaming software, should help you figure out the kind of processor you’ll need.

You’ll also need enough storage space so that your server can also act as DIY network storage for your content if you don’t have a NAS already.

Step 1: Installing Git and Curl

To install Docker with DockSTARTer, you’ll need to open up a terminal window on your server or connect via SSH. You’ll need to install two bits of software first—Git and Curl. Git is version control software that allows developers to share their software, while Curl allows for data transfers from the internet.

To install on a Debian-based OS (Debian, Ubuntu, Raspbian, etc):

sudo apt install curl git

To install on Fedora:

sudo dnf install curl git

To install using Yum:

sudo yum install curl git

Step 2: Installing DockSTARTer

Once you’ve installed Curl and Git, you can proceed with installing DockSTARTer.

You have two options for installing Docker with DockSTARTer—you can install using the script provided by DockSTARTer, or perform a manual installation. Either is fine, but it depends on how paranoid you prefer to be when installing software using a script from the internet.

Installation With Script

To run the installation script for DockSTARTer, run the following at your terminal:

bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://get.dockstarter.com)"

Once completed, type the following to reboot:

sudo reboot

Manual Installation

If you’d prefer not to use the provided installation script, the following commands will clone the git repository containing DockSTARTer and set it up before rebooting:

git clone https://github.com/GhostWriters/DockSTARTer "/home/${USER}/.docker"
sudo bash /home/${USER}/.docker/main.sh -i
sudo reboot

Step 3: Run DockSTARTer and Select Your Apps

With DockSTARTer installed, you can now begin setting Docker up with your containers. Start by typing sudo ds in your terminal to begin.

To begin installing your Docker applications, select Configuration and hit enter, then Full Setup. Wait for the script to perform any actions before you’re presented with a list of apps to install.

Each app has a useful description next to it to help you choose. This is where you’ll need to consider what kind of apps you’ll need and want on your server. Do you intend on using it just for media streaming, or are you looking for software that can organize your media?

To help you choose, here are some possibilities:

• Plex, an all-round media server
• Emby, an alternative to Plex
• Airsonic, a media server for music
• CouchPotato, for automatic movie downloads
• Deluge, a BitTorrent client
• Sonarr, for automatic TV media downloads
• HTPC Manager, to manage certain media apps in one dashboard

This list isn’t exhaustive, so look carefully through the apps you have available. Use your keyboard up and down keys to scroll, and hit space to select each of the apps you want to install.

You should also ensure that you select two other apps—Ouroboros and Portainer. These are useful for Docker maintenance once you’ve finished using DockSTARTer. Ouroboros keeps your container apps up-to-date, while Portainer helps you monitor and configure Docker through a web UI.

Once you’re ready to proceed, hit enter.

Step 4: Configure Server Settings

There’ll be pre-configuration questions at this next stage, depending on the app you choose. For example, if you select to install the Deluge BitTorrent client, you’ll have to confirm which port settings you want to use.

Hit enter to confirm the configuration for each app (or select No, if you’d prefer to edit these).

After a few initial app configuration stages, you’ll be able to alter the timezone and hostname of your machine, as well as some default locations for media content. Select No, unless you’re happy with the default settings, and then hit enter.

The first option allows for the configuration of your server’s timezone. Assuming your system timezone is correct, choose Use System at this stage, or select another with Enter New. Edit the hostname in the following menu, either by using the current server hostname (if you’d prefer this, choose Use System again) or selecting Enter New.

The next menu asks you to choose various user ID and group IDs; it’s recommended you select the Use System option here.

You’ll then have to select the correct folder for Docker’s configuration file. Unless you’re planning to alter this, choose Use System. The next menu will ask if you want to set permissions on your Docker config file, select Yes and hit enter.

You can now start to edit folders for various media. You can select your own, but if you want your files to appear in your Linux user home directory, select Use System for each of these, or select Enter New for entirely new locations. If the folders don’t exist, DockSTARTer will ask for permission to create them, so hit Yes and enter.

Once completed, DockSTARTer will confirm changes to your Docker configuration file. At its final stage, it’ll ask whether you want to create the final containers for your apps; select Yes and hit enter and wait for the process to complete.

The apps will download and install in container “sandboxes” created to your specifications. This may take a bit of time, depending on the apps you’ve chosen, the resources of your server, and your internet connection.

Once it’s complete, your apps will install and be ready and running in Docker containers! Some may need further configuration, such as Emby, and may run with web UI’s for configuration. You can configure Emby, for instance, by visiting YourServerIpAddress:8096 with your web browser.

You can also configure and monitor your Docker installation with Portainer. Use your web browser to visit YourServerIpAddress:9000 where you’ll first create an administration account. Choose a username and password, then hit Create User.

A Linux Media Server, Ready in Under One Hour

Docker takes the pain away from installing a media server on Linux. Rather than installing each application separately, using DockSTARTer, you can install Docker and all the container apps you need in an hour or less, depending on how quick your server is (and assuming it’s already pre-built).

There’s no point having a media server, of course, without the right media player (or players!) to match. Build a media player using these Linux media center distros and turn your home into the ultimate media playback powerhouse.

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