I have an exciting opportunity and am writing this blog post as a result of it.  In May, I wrote a guest post for the website Women On Business, which was the first guest post I’d written so far on this entrepreneurial journey.  I’ve since written two more, as part of the Market Expert Program with Business.com.  But that’s another story for another day.
                                                                    
Shortly after my article was accepted and published on womenonbusiness.com, I received an email from a company called Visme asking me if I’d be interested in reviewing their product—basically their tool for presentations and infographics.  So like a popular YouTuber, I am considered an influencer in some way.  This is definitely very cool, to put it in lay terms.
 
Anyway, this blog post it to provide a review of Visme, and specifically their tool for creating infographics.  I created an infographic on ways to deal with rejection.  It is something that I have become familiar with as I continue to pursue this path with Turns of Phrase, and something I think is a pretty relatable topic, at least for anyone in the early stages of entrepreneurship.  It’s been important for me to figure out how to think less about the “No’s” and more about the opportunities that I’ve gotten so far, such as the request to provide this review, for example.

So take a look that the finished product before I start the review (click here for a downloadable PDF version):

Let’s start now:

1. First, I like that Visme's URL uses a .co (visme.co) instead of .com.  This is fun.  It’s recognized as a global domain extension, which seems to be short for “community.”  It sounds like it would be great for an entrepreneur or business owner seeking a community as they start their business.  Okay, #2.

1. Selecting a Template.  I go through this quickly, looking for a template that is simple, no need for charts or graphs today.  I settle on a simple template with plenty of green and blue boxes.  I ended up editing it quite a bit, but the foundation that this template set still remains. 

1. Adding Text: I copy and paste the text that I developed for the infographic, and delete images and text that I don’t need.  It’s easy.  Either press “Delete” on your keypad, or the trash icon on the vertical toolbar that pops up once an image or textbox is selected.

1. Adding Images: There are two options for this.  Either upload your own images, or select images from the Shapes and Icons image on the toolbar.  I needed a pictogram, each for Tip #1 and Tip #7, one for knowing the ratio of yes’s to no’s, and the other for developing a routine.  So I searched for an image using the term “ratio,” and another using the term “practice.”  No images existed.  So I amended my search and found images that still fit by searching with different terms instead.  I say this to say that it would have been nice to have an image that fit my initial search, although I found substitutes just fine. 

1. Editing and More Editing: I edited a lot and am really pleased with the end result.  I few edits that I made are that I rounded out the introduction and conclusion boxes, added dashed lines and double lines to two other boxes, and overlaid #6 and #7.  Again, this program is really simple to use, and edits were done quickly.

1. Sources and Social Icons: I like that a section for sources is included.  When I publish posts, I either link to sources or place a section at the end that includes sources to give credibility to the post.  I think the same is important for an infographic too, since I referenced other sources for this one in particular.  Second, I like that social icons are included.  Instead of having to upload images to the file, they’re already included on the infographic template. 

1. Other Features: There are lots of bells and whistles with Visme.  You can animate objects, add video, and add audio as well.  I’ll have to save these extras for another infographic—today I just need basic capabilities.  What I did like was thing tool called “Layers,” which allowed me to layer elements.  For example, if I wanted text to sit on top of a box, or if I wanted boxes to overlap, I used this tool.  It definitely gave this infographic depth.

 
MY OVERALL THOUGHTS: I like this.  I think that it’s a great storytelling tool to get ideas across visually, which is what you need sometimes instead of just words.  For someone who is always writing, I think that it adds variety to not only the services I offer, but the way I blog, too.  It adds another layer to my ability to communicate with and for others. 
 
I also think that while there are lots of infographic tools online, I do like how this one adds a touch of personality.  From font names such as Bilbo and Hattori Hanzo—which seems to reference both the famous ninja and the popular Quentin Tarantino film series at the same time—to the loading dial that says “Loading Awesome,” these details add a human element for me, which allows me to connect in some way to the program. 
 
The only thing I had trouble with was finding images that corresponded to certain words I typed into the search box.  “Practice” yielded no search results for example, and I think this is a common enough word to have a corresponding image, perhaps an image of an athlete practicing a sport, for example.  Also, and this is something minor, but still worth mentioning since it still impacts, at the very least, the look of things.  On the quote from Dr. King that I added, the first quotation mark is backwards, and I thought that the problem was with my laptop until I realized that I didn’t have this issue in Word, only on the infographic page.  It’s a small detail, but still a detail that makes up the whole of this infographic.    
 
Otherwise, I think that this is a great tool, as I already mentioned.  These two things that I mentioned are small in comparison to the overall benefit of the program, and the infographic I’m excited to upload to the Turns of Phrase website.  The included social icons are also an added plus.
 
Okay, that’s it.  Signing off. 

Obinna E. Morton
Obinna E. Morton

The next topic of discussion will be bytes and digital units of measurement.  What is the difference between a megabyte and a kilobyte, for example?  I am a beginner with this terminology, but in reviewing it, I’d like to become better versed in the realm of technology.  Well anyway, back to the point, bits and bytes.
 
Starting…now.

Bits vs. Bytes
 
One byte is equal to eight bits.  Alliteration aside, let’s work backwards and explore what a bit is.  A bit is the smallest unit used to measure computer data.  I think that many people know that computers use 1s and 0s to notate things.  To take this information one step further, these 1s and 0s are called bits.  Computers use the binary number system, which uses two digits—1s and 0s. 
 
Each digit represents an electrical current that is either present or absent.  The digit “1” means that an electrical current is present (or “on”), and 0 means that it is absent (or “off”).  Binary code is used to notate this information, using 1s and 0s to represent letters, number, and characters.  For example, the binary number 01010010 represents the uppercase letter “R.”  This binary number (01010010) is composed of eight bits, or one byte, depending on how you see it. 
 
Let’s again take the byte one step further, well, one-half step further and define the term nibble, which is half of a byte or four bits.
 
Anyway, this is the basic explanation.  Computers are interesting because they use the binary system, which uses a base of 2, as opposed to the metric system, which uses a base of 10.   
I used this source mainly for this explanation, also found at the end of this post.

Covering the Bases
 
If my calculations are correct, there is a confusion with the use of the prefixes kilo-, mega-, and giga- to describe units of measurements for computers.  Why is this?  Kilo-, mega-, giga-, etc. are prefixes associated with the metric system, which, as noted, uses a base of 10.  Yet they’re used to describe a system which uses a base of 2.    
 
It’s no wonder that I was confused when I saw kilo-, and some websites said that it was equal to 1,024.  “But I thought that it meant 1,000?” I’m thinking to myself.  Well, it does mean 1,000, or 10 to the 3rd power, but according to this website, digital industries still use this terminology, although technically speaking, it isn’t quite right.
 
Regardless, I’m going to have these tables with both the “incorrect” industry-wide prefixes and the correct prefixes as established in 1999 by the International Electrotechnical Commission--kibi-, mebi-, gibi-, tebi-, pebi-, exbi-, et al.  Kibi- is 2 to the 10th power, while kilo-, as noted, is 10 to the 3rd power.  It is the difference between 1,024 and 1,000, which is pretty significant, especially as the amount of storage gets higher.  But that discussion is for another day.  A basic understanding is all I’m looking for right now.
 
Now, the table:

​When the digital world uses prefixes from a system with a base of 10, here is what happens when trying to decipher everything.  It doesn’t really add up.  Based on the metric vs. binary prefixes, this is how it would break down:  

So there is a difference in the popular use of the prefix kilo- to be used to measure binary data.  This is important because as the units of measurement become larger, so too do the differences in values.  Now here is a table to adjust to the popular use of, technically speaking, incorrect terminology:

​

Okay, so what’s going on here?  Just pure confusion, that’s all.  I don’t get it.  Well, we’ll end there.  Source here about kibi- vs. kilo-, etc..  Sources here and here for tables.
 
I didn’t realize that this would be a whistleblower type of blog post.  That wasn’t my intention, obviously, but whatever.  Speaking broadly, I now know that when I look at how much data a recording on my phone takes up, the MB is the popularized use of a metric prefix set to a binary system.  The 5.25 MB, or megabytes, if it used the correct, *unpopular* binary prefix, should be referred to in mibibytes (MiB).  
 
However, it’s still a sizeable amount of space, in fact, worth 57-minutes for a recording.
 
That’s it.  Just a brief exploration.
 
Here are the other sources that I used.  Otherwise, why would you believe me? ;)
 
Sources:
 
http://myrepono.com/faq/4
http://www.aqua-calc.com/page/powers-of-two
http://www.computerhope.com/issues/chspace.htm
http://www.codeconquest.com/tutorials/binary/
http://nookkin.com/articles/computer-science/why-computers-use-binary.ndoc
http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/binary.html
https://blog.codinghorror.com/gigabyte-decimal-vs-binary/
https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~fgandon/documents/lecture/uk1999/binary/HandOut.pdf
http://www.infocellar.com/binary/pc-metric-system.htm
http://blog.forret.com/2005/02/04/binary-confusion-kilobytes-and-kibibytes/
http://faculty.washington.edu/rjl/uwamath583s11/sphinx/notes/html/metrics.html