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Meet Justin Renken— ARK’s New Communications Specialist

We would like to introduce ARK’s newest team member Justin Renken, our new Communications Specialist. His roles as Communication Specialist include Community Management, Educational Resources, and Community Outreach. Justin will be assisting Matthew, Rok and Travis with ARK educational resources. He will also be filling some Community Management roles like Slack chat, Reddit and other community engagement platforms. Justin comes from a very diverse background. He has experience in infrared photonics, and is a co-author of a published patent for thermal imaging products in industrial automation and laboratory use. His experience also includes writing, developing applications in OpenG, creative media, sales and support, music production and advertising. Some of you may be familiar with Justin’s work and community engagement already. Here are a few of his more well known accomplishments: Contributed to the ‘blockchain concepts’ section of our documentation at ARK’s Docs. Created and operates ArkStickers. Contributed to ARK Directory Kits in the form of his ARK Presentation Series. Created an ARK overview video. Collaborated on multiple community projects with other ARK community members. Over time, Justin is expected to become more outward-facing as new opportunities arise to hone ARK’s messaging. That may include videos, live streams, speaking at small events, and more. He will be focused on enabling new community members to get up to speed with ARK concepts quickly and efficiently. We are ecstatic to have Justin on the team, and can’t wait to put him to work. He is very active on Slack and Reddit already, make sure to welcome him to the team. He goes by @Justin (doubled1c3) on slack, and doubled1c3 on Reddit.

https://medium.com/ark-io/meet-justin-renken-arks-new-communications-specialist-99dde3a451d6

['Travis W']

2018-08-13 17:37:28.281000+00:00

['Cryptocurrency', 'Arkecosystem', 'Crypto', 'Bitcoin', 'Hiring']

Don’t judge the depth of a subject with the number of teachers involved in it

Life is a journey not an experience is what I believe in after completing DT class. The first impression I got from this class was not up to my expectation as we had two teachers teaching one subject which for me was astonishing. I could not figure out the reason why this class had two teachers, was it too hard that one could not handle the pressure or was it too vague. I found this class more like HR which we studied in last semester. Moreover, it was sort of revision but there were many topics which were new and interesting. This class really helped me to build my technical skills, the activities which we did in the class was very creative which helped me to bring new innovative ideas and think outside the box. I learnt that, we shouldn’t confine ourselves inside the box sometimes, we should think broadly because that’s where the ideas come from. In the first class I had so many questions what is this subject about, what are we learning and many more. At first, I thought we would learn about creating some websites something more digital, but it was not near to that, so Jokes on me. When the class started, I thought we only has one teacher later we had two teachers for this subject which was quiet new thing for me. We had so many questions why there are 2 teachers for 1 subject still the answer is not revealed yet. The most interesting thing was all the marketing and finance had a combined class, I can only imagine how fun it would be if we had physical classes due to corona, we had to do boring online classes. We got to do what we got to do (sad face). The favorite part of this subject for me is that we had NO EXAMS. I was so relived hearing those two words. We did so many activities in the first class which was very fun and refreshing. As the days passed by, we were divided in the groups, we had 5 members in our group, and we name ourselves as “SAVAGE”. Everyone was new to me in that group only with some I had interacted, but I was not close to them. It was new experience for me to work with them. We had different brains and different ideas which was very helpful while doing our assignments and presentation. Later another group’s members were merged in our group which made 8 members in our group. Working in group has made me realize the importance of group work, how much it benefits us and how much can we learn from each other. As the saying goes together we rise united we fall, we had so many tough task, which if I was alone couldn’t be able to complete it but with group we were able to do all the tough task. I learnt how to work in a group, how we should take everyone together in the group so no one feels like they’ve not heard or they are ignored because once the group member feels that they won’t put any effort in the work which will make our work inefficient. I’ve realized that coordinating and communication is the key while working in a group. For me design thinking class is all about Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype and Test. These words are very important in Design thinking. These words seem very small but DAMN we spent entire 2-hour learning about these words. These 5 words hold entire idea of design thinking. We struggled so much while doing our project, these words seems easy but while making the solution for our problems it was so hard. I wish we had physical class for prototype because I’ve heard from my seniors that making prototype was so fun, we all missed that fun. Nevertheless, we had fun in our online class doing different activities also it was all because of our teachers Anjan and Rakesh sir who made this call interactive and fun. Our teachers brought in many guest speakers for us to make the session interesting and exciting. We also had classes for the concept of business model, agile methodology and even sprint goal in brief. Overall design thinking class was like stress buster for me. We had so many challenging subjects, but this class did not have any exam it was all about our creative thinking and brining up new ideas. This subject did help me to explore my limits because until now I never thought outside the box instead, I always made myself confined inside the box. Design thinking is not only about leaning but it’s about applying in real life, it helped me to gain so many skills which will help me in the future, when I’ll start working. I am thankful to both Anjan and Rakesh sir for being mentor throughout our journey. I can’t believe how fast time flies; it seems like yesterday we had our first class. As we know everything that has a beginning has an ending, so this subject also has its ending. It’s so hard to believe that we are almost done with this subject but yes, its ending with good memories which I’ll always cherish. -Utsukta Karki

https://medium.com/@utsukta17/dont-judge-the-depth-of-a-subject-with-the-number-of-teachers-involved-in-it-744beeb2b423

[]

2020-12-06 06:07:12.683000+00:00

['Design Thinking', 'Journey']

9 Unexplored Python Libraries that Will Amaze You

1. Pendulum Pendulum is an awesome Python library to work with dates and times. This library can be really useful in the cases where timezones are involved. The best part about the library is that it inherits from the Python DateTime library, so it can work with that library as well. We can install the library using the following line of code. pip install pendulum Want to see some magic of the pendulum library? Check out the below line of code. import pendulum past = pendulum.now().subtract(minutes=2) past.diff_for_humans() The good thing about using the pendulum module is user-friendliness. You can get exciting results. 2. Fabulous Most of the Python applications that run on the command line look bland and boring. Fabulous can be used to give them a nice makeover by adding images, coloured text to the console. To install fabulous we need to run the below python command. pip install fabulous To print a coloured text on the Terminal we can use from fabulous.color import bold, magenta, highlight_red print(bold(magenta('''hello world this is some new line and here is the last line. :) '''))) This library supports Python 2.6, 2.7, 3.3, 3.4, 3.5, and PyPy. You can also test it on Google Colab. 3. Pywebview Pywebview is a python library for displaying HTML, CSS and JavaScript content in a GUI form. That means using this library you can display your website or webpage as a desktop application. Install pywebview using the following command. pip install pywebview To launch a window that displays a given website we need to run import webview webview.create_window(“Test window”, “target domain name”, width=400, height=200, fullscreen=False, resizable= true) webview.start() A new window will launch for the webview. 4. Seaborn Seaborn is a library used for data visualisation for data science projects. It is built on top of the standard visualisation library Matplotlib and can make the plots more colourful and attractive To install it we can run the following command. pip install seaborn To make a line plot using a dataset we can use: import seaborn as sns dataset=sns.load_dataset(“dataset name”) sns.lineplot(x=”x-axis name”, y=”y-axis name”, data = dataset) 5. Psutil Psutil is a helpful cross-platform Python library phone getting information related to the system. One can gather information about the ongoing processes, CPU utilisation, RAM usage etc in a system. Install psutil using the below command. pip install psutil To calculate the CPU utilisation by the system in an interval of 3 seconds we can run: import psutil psutil.cpu_percent(interval=3) 6. PyGame as the name suggests it is the Python library for making games. It contains many graphical and sound libraries that the developers can use for making games. Also, complex game logic and physics can also be implemented using the built-in modules of PyGame. To install PyGame we need to use: pip install pygame 7. Pyforest when working on a data science project we need to import many libraries like NumPy, Pandas, Matplotlib, etc. The library Pyforest helps us to import all the important libraries together We just have to run the following command. pip install pyforest And you can access all the libraries like NumPy, Pandas, Matplotlib, seaborn, etc. Pyforest also installs some other important libraries like os, tqdm, re etc. 8. Modin Modin is a library that improves your Pandas workflow by utilising all the cores of a machine instead of a single core. This is especially helpful to improve the performance when working with large datasets. You can install the library using the line of code. pip install modin Now, you can install it like this — so that you don’t need to make further changes to your code. import modin.pandas as pd That’s all you need to do. No further changes in the code are required. 9. Pandas_profiling This is a Python library that can be used to get a general overview of a dataset, its attributes, and correlation among the attributes. It can be installed using the command shown below. pip install pandas-profiling To get the analysis of a data frame and save the analysis in web format we can use from pandas_profiling import ProfileReport report = ProfileReport(dataframe) report.to_file(output_file=’output.html’) You can further save this report as HTML or pdf file for further analysis.

https://towardsdatascience.com/9-unexplored-python-libraries-that-will-amaze-you-d0803a4516ba

['Pranjal Saxena']

2021-08-12 10:20:52.785000+00:00

['Programming', 'Libraries', 'Python', 'Software Development', 'Data Science']

Instagram Remix is here — All you need to know

Well, Instagram is getting too much heat in the comment section but hey, that doesn’t mean folks aren’t going to use Remix 🤷🏻‍♀️ Since TikTok was banned in India, Reels has been my go-to place to create bite-sized content. But, hey that’s just me. Reels are fun ✅ Reels are easy to create ✅ Reels are the way to gain more exposure and engagement ✅ Instagram is really pushing reels 🙌 And that’s why you gotta use them! Now, let’s get to the remix bit. Instagram’s announcement 👇 If you’re a TikTok user, you probably have already been using duets. That’s exactly what remix is. How to create a Remix 👇 FAQs related to Remix Why are you launching Remix? Interactive tools such as Live Rooms, polls and questions in Stories, and AR effects have always been a huge part of how people connect on Instagram. We’re excited to bring that collaborative magic to Reels, and give people more ways to create and engage with the trends, songs and creators that are making culture on Instagram with Remix. How do I create a Remix? Find a great reel. Tap the three-dot menu on a reel and select “Remix this Reel.” If you don’t see this option, then the reel has not been enabled for remixing. The screen will split into the original reel and your new one — start recording your remix! Your recording will be side-by-side to the original reel. Once recorded, you can control the volume for the original audio, your recorded audio, and add a voiceover. To edit volume controls tap the slider icon up top, to add a voiceover, tap the microphone icon up top. Edit as you desire. How do I enable Remix on Individual Reels Remix is enabled for all public accounts by default starting today. Remix will not automatically be enabled on previously uploaded reels that were posted before Remix launched. You can enable remixing on an individual reel by: Tapping the three-dot menu Tap “Enable Remixing” If you’re trying to remix someone else’s reel and you can’t, they may have created it before Remix launched and need to enable remixing. Reach out to them and encourage them to tap the three-dot menu and “Enable Remixing” on the reel you’d like to remix. Otherwise, try remixing one of their newer reels. How do I disable Remix? You can disable Remix for all reels in your Privacy Settings. You can disable remix on a specific reel in the More Options menu of that reel. If you want to delete existing remixes, you must delete your reel. Can I remix my own reel? Yes! To remix your own reel, go to the reel and tap the three-dot menu and select “Remix this Reel”. Can I upload an existing video if I want to remix someone else’s video? Yes, you can upload a video from your phone instead of directly recording a remix. What are the best audio practices for using Remix and Voiceover? To get the best sound quality for a voiceover, we recommend using headphones as you’re recording. How do I know when someone has remixed my reel? You will receive a notification if a public account remixes your content. I’m trying to remix someone else’s reel and I can’t. Why? There are a few reasons you may not be able to remix someone else’s reel: They might have a private account. Private accounts cannot enable their reels for remixing. If a private account remixes a reel, only their followers can see the remix. They might have remixing disabled on their account. You can ask them to check Settings > Privacy > Reels and enable remixing. They might have remixing disabled on that reel because it was made before Remix launched. You can tell them to tap the three-dot menu and “Enable Remixing” on the reel you’d like to remix. How can I get people to remix my reel? If you want to be Remixed — tell people that in your reel! Include a call-to-action both in your caption and using text on the video (“Remix me” “Sing with me” “Act with me” “Dance with Me”). How do I add my voiceover onto a Remix? After you record a reel, tap the microphone icon up top. Drag the slider over the clip you want to add your voiceover to. Tap and hold the red button to record. How do I adjust the audio volumes on my remix? 1. After you record your Reel, tap the slider icon up top. 2. Slide the volume controls up and down to control sound or Recorded Audio and Original Audio. You can also delete the Original Audio and upload new audio from the audio library.

https://blog.crowdfireapp.com/instagram-remix-is-here-all-you-need-to-know-50f4f9525754

[]

2021-04-01 05:20:58.088000+00:00

['Social Media Updates', 'Social Media Marketing', 'Instagram Features', 'Instagram Marketing', 'Instagram Reels']

PRINCIPLE #5: Crisis Guarantees Growth

You’d be hard pressed to find a person in, or interested in, the world of business that didn’t observe it to be a constantly evolving beast where the pace of change is only ever increasing. Beyond simply the pace of change, the type of change these days calls for reconsideration of; traditional change management practices, the roles that lead and implement change as well as the practices that facilitate the imbedding of change. Over the last decade or two a lot has been made of change management, change leadership or being an agent of change. Whether the organizations operations leader is a long term employee, a well experienced leader now consulting for leading advisory firm or perhaps a career experienced COO contracting as a hired gun on a rapid transformation project that relates to a recent private equity acquisition, whatever the catalyst for the role — there is a thread that must run through the operational leadership approach to all — that is approaching the process of rapid transformation with both sustainable practices and growth in mind. In the decades to date business transformation has largely been the domain of expats and/or consultants. At risk of stating a controversial opinion, on average the prevailing approach of these expats and/or consultants is effectively an approach of micro-management. These professionals have a short term, in-and-out mentality that is by its very nature not sustainable. They approach the task by doing ‘the work of the few’; more often than not they force standard operating procedure (SOP) on both the few and the many. Photo by Daniel McCullough on Unsplash In the previous article we looked at SOP and the need to go above and beyond SOP in order to embed a higher order purpose amongst both the few and the many. Not least of which given the reality that forced SOP is both demotivating and can lead to higher than average turnover. Employee turn over is an important consideration. Where a large-scale, front line work force is required, annual turn over can be as high as 400%. Crisis and/or transformation leadership, with both sustainable practices and growth in mind, must allow a focus on transformation AND retention. With transformation and retention in mind, the key questions for operations leaders at this stage of the transformation process are: How consistently do the few and the many execute what you want? Do you know why? Based on considerable experience, of both getting ‘it’ right and getting ‘it’ wrong, my point of view is that the most meaningful lessons cannot be taught. Which leads us to Principle #5: Crisis guarantees (an opportunity for) growth. Everyone in business these days loves the idea of transformation, but what he, she or they really want are immediate results. Immediate results and transformation are rarely the same thing. During a transformation there is a low tolerance for failure. In parallel there can also be expat/consultant energy and enthusiasm for the project outcome — what they’re doing looks good, but people don’t really know how or why things are happening. The very nature of the transience of these senior resources means that everything they do will be gone when their assignment times out. There is always an impending end date. The approach of an Operations Leader with both sustainable practices and growth in mind is distinctly different from a traditional consultant/expat change mentality. The areas for today’s Ops Leaders to explore, with relation to ‘the many’, relate to; the values of the many, immersive learning practices and the real meaning of sustainable change. 1. Values In the previous article we explored the insight related to the need for people to have a more emotive purpose. If we’re to lift the lid and look a layer below this insight into the motivators of the many, it’s my driving belief that we’d find the very real, very meaningful values driven motivator of the many. Pride. The many are working class people. Working class people, such as my family and I, are proud people. Hands-on and hard working. More often than not, relentless. Photo by Nick Karvounis on Unsplash 2. Immersive learning My father was in the armed forces. Even if he could have afforded to take our family’s car to the mechanic, he probably wouldn’t have. When it came to things like changing the oil he did the job himself. As a teenager, before I started my career in retail (as an entry level shelf stacker), my Dad showed me how to change the oil in the car. The first time he showed me he did just that, he showed me and I didn’t retain the information! The next time the car’s oil needed changing he gave me the space to take on the task myself. I couldn’t do it. So he stood back, spoke to me of the basics of the process only and allowed me to find my way through to the solution. This effectively became on of the most important and long serving lessons I have learned. The most meaningful lessons cannot be taught. Set up an environment where people are immersed in the learning experience; implicitly, repetitiously, habitually, with personal pride. Providing guidance toward the outcome is important, but providing an opportunity to learn and allowing people to be the determination of the solution is the key factor. Photo by Russ Photographer on Unsplash 3. The real meaning of sustainable change When people are involved and empowered, when people are afforded a values based way to own and deliver on the successful completion of a (new) task. Sustainable change is deeply embedded change. Successful change is delivered by an intentionally retained workforce. Having worked internationally I believe I can say that true human insight is cross cultural — whatever the region or related culture — the breadth of the population, in turn your frontline workforce, will be proud, working class people, just like my family. So tap in to those values! Now that we’re at the end of a long, often challenging year, I would like to wish you and your families a Covid-safe, happy holiday season. Happy new year also and I look forward to connecting with you online for a new chapter in 2021. Rodd. I acknowledge the ongoing partnership with Rennae Long in writing early drafts of this article series for me.

https://medium.com/@rodd-olmstead/principle-5-crisis-guarantees-growth-81b8835ddc43

['Rodd Olmstead']

2020-12-23 03:19:55.532000+00:00

['Japan', 'Retail', 'Change Management', 'Leadership', 'Innovation']

Why Do Men Love Breasts So Much?

Babe, have you ever wondered why breasts are so powerful and mesmerising? People around the world love them. But what’s the big deal? We’ve seen the most disciplined men fall to their knees in awe. Not to mention magazines and calendars. It’s no secret that they make money using this part of the female anatomy. And with things like Instagram’s “no nipple” rule, the taboo and excitement is further fuelled. So what is it about breasts that’s so appealing? Well, I did the research. Turns out, there’s an actual scientific reason. Why Do Men Love Breasts So Much? Anthropologist, Owen Lovejoy, has a theory. He believes that women have breasts to promote pair bonding. This is also why men have prominent penises, according to Lovejoy. Another reason why men love breasts, according to Lovejoy, is because they are a signal of youth. It led men to believe that a woman was a good mate. Think about puberty, for example. During this time, an adolescent girl’s breasts begin to grow as she becomes ready to bare children. And that elusive hourglass figure? Yep, men enjoy feasting their eyes on this kind of body shape. Why? Because it too symbolises fertility. Interestingly, women with bigger breasts may be more fertile. This is because they have higher levels of estradiol in the middle of their cycle. And this hormone has the potential to increase fertility. With this, men tend to love big breasts because it means a higher chance of becoming pregnant. Some men also believe that big breasts equal a woman who is well-fed and ready to have a healthy pregnancy. Breasts: Does Size Matter? Speaking of breast size, does it really matter? A survey of 52,227 adults gives us a bit of insight. This study showed that 56 percent of men were happy with their partner’s breasts. It also showed that only 30 percent of women were satisfied with their own breasts. Interestingly, this is also a trend with men and the size of their penis. Women are often satisfied with their partner’s penis while men feel it could be bigger. Let’s circle back to breast size. It turns out that women in different phases of life have different concerns. As per the survey, many younger women believe their breasts are too small. Older women however tend to worry about their breasts sagging. But, instead of lying down defeated, countless women take action. From plastic surgery to padded bras, women work hard to create breasts that they’re satisfied with. Inevitably however, it appears that breast size and shape isn’t all that important for many men. Breasts: From Nourishment to Sexualisation Let’s jump back to breasts as a sign of fertility. If you really think about it, the main function of breasts is to feed offspring, right? And during feeding, the hormone oxytocin is released. This hormone encourages bonding and feelings of safety and happiness. But how could something so innocent be sexualised? Well, professor of psychiatry, Larry Young, has a theory. He says that the bonding between mother and child is translated to bonding in general. Men’s brains have been hardwired to see breasts as a means of bonding in general. The result? Babies and men love breasts! And so, when a woman’s nipples are stimulated, by whomever, oxytocin gets to work. What does this mean for men who enjoy nipple play? A woman who’s filled with happiness and uninterrupted attention on him. This makes the man appear even more desirable. Basically, winning the lottery for a man. But when is the switch made? When do boys start to see breasts in a sexual way as opposed to a source of nourishment? According to Young: “Evolution has selected for this brain organisation in men that makes them attracted to the breasts in a sexual context, because the outcome is that it activates the female bonding circuit, making women feel more bonded with him. It’s a behaviour that males have evolved in order to stimulate the female’s maternal bonding circuitry.” Basically, a boy does not simply wake up one day with a sexual fascination for breasts. It’s more of an evolutionary unconscious pattern of thought. Breasts: The New Butt? Let’s look at a different perspective. Evolutionary psychologist, Jeanne Bovet, argued that the butt and thighs are the number one sign of fertility. And biological anthropologist, Bobbi S. Low, has a theory on this. She believes that the butt has “evolved in the context of females competing for the attention and parental commitment of powerful resource-controlling males.” This idea, according to sexologist Alfred Kind, has changed over time. He believes that breasts have similar properties to one’s buttocks. For example, they both store fat. Interestingly, Kind argues that the obsession has moved from a woman’s butt to their breasts. He says this began when humans started having face-to-face sex. (It’s said that early humans would have doggy-style sex.) Breasts: A Naughty Taboo Evolution aside, there’s another reason why men love breasts so much. As I mentioned earlier, they’re a taboo! In many cultures, there’s a belief that a woman’s nipples are considered nudity. And this makes them even more attractive and sometimes fetishized. A woman showing her breasts in public is naughty. It’s something that should be kept under wraps. Take Miley’s pasties and Janet Jackson’s “wardrobe malfunction” in 2004, for example. These acts are scandalous. They’ve created an even bigger buzz and near obsession for breasts. Bringing this topic to a close, I thought I’d end on a lighter note… Top Five “Free the Nipple” Wins To end the stigma and taboo surrounding breasts, many celebs have decided to “free the nipple”. Here are the top five occasions. 1. Kendall Jenner In a gorgeous sheer white dress, Kendall Jenner proudly showed off her breasts. The event? A screening of “Girls of the Sun” in 2018. 2. Rhianna In 2014, Rihanna stood boldly in a crystal-like dress without a bra. Peering through? Her breasts and nipples. Erotic, yet tasteful. 3. Miley Cyrus Miley rarely disappoints when it comes to pushing the boundary. And this was no different in a 2019 photoshoot for Vanity Fair. In it, she rocked a chain-link top, exposing her breasts. 4. Anne Hathaway Talented actress, Anne Hathaway kept things cool and classy in 2003. For “The School of Rock” premiere, she wore a sheer dress and a beautiful smile. 5. Nicole Kidman Oozing style, in 2014 Nicole Kidman wore a see-through white dress with embroidery. She attended the CMA Awards in Nashville, Tennessee, and looked fabulous doing so.

https://medium.com/sexography/why-do-men-love-breasts-a98e3d4b1049

['Hakima T A N T R I K A']

2020-12-24 00:27:03.359000+00:00

['Health', 'Relationships', 'Sexuality', 'Breasts', 'Men']

A golden opportunity for women to step into the conversation

A golden opportunity for women to step into the conversation Debates about gender parity and gender politics continue to be a hot topic globally and have kept the subject of women and leadership at the forefront of business conversations. There is now growing interest in the Middle East with regards to how women can take more advantage of the new business opportunities that are opening up to them. The pace of change in the region has been fast, and as more women come into the workforce, they are beginning to find their collective voice; demanding equal opportunities on a much larger platform than previously. The growing potential for female leaders against the backdrop of the region’s rich and vibrant culture is explored in Annabel Harper’s new book, ‘Shujaa’ah, Bold Leadership for Women of the Middle East’, in which she reveals how women can take better advantage of the openings which are emerging. Annabel is an Executive Leadership Coach and Facilitator with a deep interest in the development of women in leadership in the Middle East. Drawing on her vast experiences of working in the region, Annabel delves into the meeting of traditionalism and modernism, exploring how women can create their own style of leadership by blending their skills with the unique culture of the Middle East. Annabel also addresses the prerequisites for organisations in the region to maximise their female talent pipeline, reminding the reader that progress is not one-sided. She argues that it is imperative for both women and men to collaborate in order to build more inclusive and diverse organisations which are fit for the future. Women’s voices are at the heart of the book and ‘Shujaa’ah’ speaks not only to young women of the Middle East who have career ambitions but cannot move forward, but also to organisations to help them understand what they could be doing more of. It also urges Middle Eastern men to step up to the challenge, because ultimately, none of the changes that need to happen will be effective if they aren’t involved too. Shujaa’ah is an essential read for anyone who is looking to better understand the evolving role of female leaders in the Middle East. Described as both a ‘must-read for women in leadership’ and an ‘enlightening read for men’, Annabel hopes that Shujaa’ah will help to challenge long-held unconscious bias towards gender inequality in the Arab world. Publication date: 24th November 2020 ISBN: 9781784529277 £12.99 / $17.95

https://medium.com/bold-ambition/a-golden-opportunity-for-women-to-step-into-the-conversation-9eae367068e4

['Jen Owen']

2020-11-24 15:24:35.953000+00:00

['Leadership', 'Women In Leadership', 'Female Leadership', 'Women In Business', 'Middle East']

The Next Evolution of Josh.ai

The Josh.ai brand has evolved. Today we say “thank you for your service” to our globally recognizable mascot and logo of 6 years, and say hello to a new, focus group approved and socially conscious rebranding of what Josh.ai stands for. With the rebranding today, Josh.ai isn’t simply updating a logo or website design. We are also giving new life to the Josh.ai identity, expanding beyond the familiar silhouette of the friendly and helpful dog. This new direction will instill the vision of the company into every aspect of its products, services, and customer relationships. But first, let’s take a moment to reflect on our origin. Hello, old friend. When we first started out in 2015 we sought to imbue our brand identity with qualities you can trust: friendliness, loyalty, and a willingness to help. For the first time, we’re showing a glimpse into the weeks long process that went into developing the brand as we know and love today. An early abstract concept. An early, more aggressive approach to the dog head. Feeling whimsical. Look familiar? These explorations and many more culminated in the logo that we’re used to today. However, the time is ripe for change. After a tumultuous year where everyone spent a good portion of time stuck at home and in introspection, we felt the need to update our logo to reflect the societal changes we’ve witnessed over the past several months. Finally, we are ready to unveil the next evolution of the Josh.ai brand.

https://medium.com/@joshdotai/the-next-evolution-of-josh-ai-2879da088da2

[]

2021-04-01 11:47:32.257000+00:00

['Logo', 'Logo Design', 'Branding', 'Smart Home']

#1 Am I a Hugger or Non-Hugger? Why?

I’m a hugger. I was not raised a hugger as my mom, dad, grandma didn’t hug me and my younger brother as far back as I can remember. Hugging is not just something I love to do also the way of expressing my pleasure, appreciation and love to family, friends, and people I really like. I hug in meeting, in thanking to do a favor, and anytime I feel like doing it. Look back on when I did become a hugger, it would be my freshman year of college when going abroad to Iowa in the U.S. I felt welcomed and closer to my host family, room mates, colleagues in greeting with warm hugging. Something has changed in my mind while I cannot pinpoint it, I became a tentative hugger, then turn into a hugger for 4 years. So why is hugging great? It can express not only physical and but also emotional closeness. Sometimes words don’t but hugging do create a sharing of joyful moments like “so long time no see! Glad to see you!” Also it is a way of having compassion for someone who is suffering something like “I feel sorry for your loss.” Instead, I have some friends who are uncomfortable with hugging, but I respect that. Even if we do not hug others, I believe we would be better to hug ourselves. When we are frustrated, upset, sad, we give ourselves a warm hug. Blessed are all of us hugging ourselves and others. P.S. Here are some kinds of huggers for note to self:

https://medium.com/yaplog/1-am-i-a-hugger-or-non-hugger-why-e1f6a3d9b572

[]

2020-04-03 22:59:57.775000+00:00

['Self-awareness', 'Diversity', 'Hugs', 'Japanese']

Converting Firebase API Callbacks to Kotlin Flows

Converting Firebase API Callbacks to Kotlin Flows Photo by Michal Matlon on Unsplash A short guide on when and why to use the callbackFlow builder function in Android. Click on the handsome man below for the full code. The key to understanding when callbackFlow is appropriate is to be able to recognise a “callback” in the first place. Here are some “callbacks” that you use all the time: setOnClickListener addOnCompleteListener addOnScrollListener addUpdateListener If you see “listener” in the code, chances are you are looking at a “callback”. callbackFlow is a nifty little way to convert these listeners into Kotlin Flows. But why would you want to do this? Well, sometimes you don’t! A good rule of thumb is to ask yourself: am I going to receive a bunch of things (multi-shot), or am I just after one thing (single-shot)? Let's look at our use cases from above: setOnClickListener — multi (can be clicked more than once) — (can be clicked more than once) addOnCompleteListener — single (things should complete once) — (things should complete once) addOnScrollListener — multi (we get a bunch of scroll events) — (we get a bunch of scroll events) addUpdateListener — multi (whenever something updates, we get a ‘callback’) We can use callbackFlow on all of these, but should we? Button.clickFlow() Let’s do something crazy. Let’s turn our everyday Button’s onClickListener callback into a Flow. Just for fun. Note that we use the function offer instead of emit inside callbackFlow . In English, offer is a softer verb than emit — almost a question. An offer can be accepted… or not. This becomes important when dealing with backpressure, but for the purposes of this article, you can think of offer and emit as synonyms. Moving on, let’s create a little extension function to collect our clicks: Now we can hook this up in the collector like so: buttonDownload.onClick { viewModel.download() } … which is not much different from: buttonDownload.setOnClickListener { viewModel.download() } 🤔 Hmmm, these look pretty similar! So turning our button clicks into a Flow doesn’t make a whole lot of sense…unless, of course, we want to debounce! 😎 I’m being a bit facetious, of course. This kind of code is, in my experience, probably over-engineering things. However, the exercise itself is fun and provides a digestible way of exploring and understanding how callbackFlow works and what it is designed for. If you want to see some useful examples where coroutines are used to simplify View related code check out https://chris.banes.dev/suspending-views/ and https://github.com/JakeWharton/RxBinding for some inspiration. Let’s take a look at a few “callbacks” from the Firebase SDKs and create something more useful. Querying a Record from Firestore Let’s say we just want to get a single record from your remote database: CollectionReference.get() .addOnCompleteListener { snapshot -> // Do something with snapshot } Since we only want a single snapshot, a suspend function makes more sense in this case. Lucky for us, Google created a neat extension function ( fun suspend Task.await() ) that wraps another awesome function from the kotlin library ( suspendCancellableCoroutine ), which does exactly this. You’ll need: implementation "org.jetbrains.kotlinx:kotlinx-coroutines-play-services:0" so you can do this: import kotlinx.coroutines.tasks.await val snapshot = CollectionReference.get().await() But you can’t just call a suspend function from anywhere, you’ll need some coroutine scope: implementation “androidx.lifecycle:lifecycle-runtime-ktx:0” This gives us lifecycleScope and viewModelScope extension properties which we can use to create coroutines from our Views or ViewModels respectively, and automatically connects the coroutine lifecycle to the View or Viewmodel lifecycle. 💡 In Android, the View or ViewModel is typically where our scopes should be launched and where our Flows should be collected. If you find yourself writing this all the time: GlobalScope.launch { } // Naughty, naughty! …you’re probably doing it wrong. Back to the example: Neat right? Simple, easy to read code and all without the use of a Flow. 📎 Don’t use Flow if a suspend function will do the job. Watching for changes to a Firestore Database When registering for changes to a certain part of a Firestore Database, we are expecting multiple “callbacks”, and so, we should find ourselves reaching for Flow, not a suspend function. Not much different to our Button click Flow from above. Notice, however, how we just panic and bail if we get an error, and if we get a null or empty snapshot, we offer an emptyList ? This is poor programming and will almost certainly confuse the collector — even if you write the collector yourself! It’s better to propagate these signals to the collector. This makes your code more complex, yes, but also smarter. The client code can decide to do something different when an error or empty response is received: call another API instead, log an error, display an error, crash with an error, give the user a different option… whatever. So, how can we encapsulate and propagate these signals to the caller/client code? Let’s look at a different scenario and explore this idea. Downloading a File from Firebase Storage Downloading a file is a good mix of the above situations. It can take some time to download the file, but one way or another, it will complete. There are several ways that it can complete and there are several things we would like to know about during the download too. Firebase Storage has a nice set of “callbacks” to keep you informed about your download. How do we convert all this to a Flow? The first, second and third step is to think about how to model the information we are going to offer in the Flow, since a Flow must encapsulate a single type, let’s call it DownloadResult and model all the relevant data we need in the client code. Here’s what I came up with: 📎 Agonise over the structures that you put into your Flows. Modelling your data efficiently is the key to writing clean functional code. InProgress and Paused contain information that enables the collector to pause, resume and cancel the task, as well as determine the progress. and contain information that enables the collector to pause, resume and cancel the task, as well as determine the progress. Success contains the File which the collector can then do with as they please. contains the which the collector can then do with as they please. Failed contains the reason for the failure and allows the collector to react accordingly. Now let’s have a look at how we would use it: Note, this is a slimmed-down version of the real code to make it easier to digest the first time around, be sure to download the full repository for all the finer details. We can now use a Redux-like pattern — whereby our UI state flows from the state property: Bonus Material Two observations about offer() It is not a suspend function. It returns a Boolean. When and how the underlying system (in this case Firebase) “calls back” is out of our control. This is why offer() is not a suspend function, it is designed to operate outside the callbackFlow coroutine scope (as is close() ). offer ’s return value indicates whether it has succeeded in “offering” the value to the Flow or not. This is important in the Download File scenario because the final values offered just before the Flow is closed ( DownloadResult.Complete.XXX ), are very important. They tell the collector how the download completed — was it a success or a failure? However, the flood of DownloadResult.InProgress offerings could potentially clog the Flow and prevent the collector from receiving the last offering! Not good! How do we get around this? The good news is that you normally don’t have to worry about it. Flow covers the main use cases out-of-the-box and it’s only when you are doing “something fancy” that you’ll come across such an issue. So, in the next article I’m going to do “something fancy” and dive deeper into this problem…

https://medium.com/@nickskelton/converting-firebase-api-callbacks-to-kotlin-flows-3eea87429ee9

['Nick Skelton']

2020-12-08 19:16:29.325000+00:00

['AndroidDev', 'Kotlin', 'Software Development', 'Firebase', 'Kotlin Flow']

A Journey With My Son Into Mexico

The other day I saw a picture of my son and it made me think back to a time when I would be concerned about everything he did and would be in constant worry over whether or not I’m parenting my son correctly — whatever that means. I was extremely fortunate to grow up with a father for the majority of my childhood. I’m honestly not quite sure how he stuck around as long as he did but being a father now and going on my second divorce I understand a lot better now what that must have felt like. I’m constantly looking for ways to think different and like the fact that in business and in my personal life that I’m a contrarian to so many different things. Since the age of 8 — I’ve always thought a little different from how my peers did and I have to think that it’s the reason for where I find myself today but I digress. Matching sweatshirts — oh yeah :) After looking at this photo above of my son for over 15 minutes — I thought to myself, how am I creating memories that will last for a lifetime with my son. This turned into picking up my son within the hour and heading south. Let me say that — I know Mexico pretty well. I know where to go and where not to go. I know how to blend in and not stick out like a sore thumb. I do not advise going to this place on a whim unless you have very well thought out your route and also know something about the areas culture prior to going. While I was packing my son I thought back to the old westerns I’d watch where the father would take his son on a journey and along the way he would learn a variety of different lessons and there would be this bonding experience that naturally but inevitably occurred between the two of them. We picked Rosarito because again I knew the area very well and the beaches are very family oriented. They are also many people around and it’s a very public place nearly everywhere you go. My son adores the beach and I knew he’d been wanting to go for the past several months. If you’re thinking to yourself you can’t do this — I can tell you I just did this on a 3 day weekend so it’s possible for anyone that has the ability to catch a flight or take a road trip. I definitely opt for the latter if they are over the age of 9 — if not fly. My son opened up to me about what he was passionate about, what career paths he is wanting to pursue, what makes him sad, what makes him happy and I asked questions around how can I be a better dad. I can’t tell you enough how good this made me feel as his father. I also saw my son now start to appear more like a young man. When we’d talk it was as equals in public places and he sat up straighter and observed more manners. I didn’t force any of this but I have to think it was because of him feeling more grown up in some regard that he was having a conversation with his dad that actually had some substance behind it versus the how are you doing today. Here are some tips for travelling with your son and some things I recommend doing when you are exploring parts of any place with them… Don’t worry about everything being perfect — it’s not going to happen. With COVID-19 that is not going to be possible anytime soon. Be safe when exploring these places in wearing your mask and constantly be sanitizing everything. Encourage conversations around the areas you’re visiting. They are going to be receiving enormous amounts of input and their brains will be firing with what’s going on all around them. Be direct and honest when answering the many questions they have about this new place. HAVE FUN. I can’t stress this enough. They are looking to you to really show them what life is all about and it’s not being the serious helicopter dad that you think you need to be 24/7. It’s allowing them to fully enjoy their surroundings and the people around them. Be present and not on your phone. Yes you will have to navigate and yes you will need to find the best taco spot if you’re in Mexico. Pro tip — it’s downtown Tijuana in a food cart where you can grab twos for about $1.50. In conclusion — you may think that you have all the time in the world to spend with your kids in getting to know them and all of that but you don’t. I was listening to Tools of Titans by Tim Ferris and there was a point he brought up that says that once your child has turned 18 you’ve essentially spent 90% of the time that you’re going to have with them. When you think about college, marriage, children, etc. this sounds fairly accurate. Enjoy this time and truly treasure it because I can assure you they will… Onward!

https://medium.com/@bryantcloud99/a-journey-with-my-son-into-mexico-f89f685bc28

['Bryant Cloud']

2021-01-21 08:28:31.282000+00:00

['Mexico', 'Beach', 'Dads', 'Fatherhood', 'Travel']

Covid-19 Interactive Visualization

Visualizing covid-19 data to understand the impact it had on the American population. The novel corona virus has caused more than 200000 deaths worldwide. In this post i’m going to walk you through how to build an interactive dashboard of your own using only python tools and api’s and publish it on a provider like binder or heroku. First off, the raw dataset is available and provided by Johns Hopkins and can be found on their github page. This is focused only on US data but the same can be extended to other countries as well. Get started by making sure you have python, Jupyter notebook installed and ready to go. I’ll be detailing only a few of the operations performed. Go ahead and try all of it by yourself :) or find the entire project on my GitHub. You will need to install the following python files in order to perform analysis and visualize your data. import pandas as pd import matplotlib.pyplot as plt from IPython.display import Markdown, display from datetime import datetime as dt from ipywidgets import interact import chart_studio.plotly as py import plotly.graph_objs as go from plotly.offline import iplot, init_notebook_mode import cufflinks from plotly.subplots import make_subplots cufflinks.go_offline(connected=True) init_notebook_mode(connected=True) import dateutil import plotly.express as px pandas — To read the data and create subsets of data using dataframes. matplotlib — Python’s go to visualization library. datetime — Intuitive library to deal with time series data and works well with dataframes. ipywidgets — Creating widgets in Jupyter to make the dashboard more interactive. plotly/cufflinks — Better and interactive visualizations. Gather the data from the links provided in the git repo. x1 = 'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/CSSEGISandData/COVID-19/master/csse_covid_19_data/csse_covid_19_time_series/time_series_covid19_confirmed_US.csv' x2 = 'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/CSSEGISandData/COVID-19/master/csse_covid_19_data/csse_covid_19_time_series/time_series_covid19_deaths_US.csv' x3 = 'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/abhim-12/Covid-19/master/population.csv' x4 = 'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/abhim-12/Covid-19/master/state-codes.csv' Use the pandas read.csv() function to read the data into dataframes: conf = pd.read_csv(x1) death = pd.read_csv(x2) pop = pd.read_csv(x3) # US Population data codes = pd.read_csv(x4) # US State Codes Use the head() function to get an understanding of what the data contains, the columns, data types etc. Perform some data cleaning (like renaming columns, dropping) to make it more coherent and presentable. Also remove any unnecessary columns. del death['Population'] def filt(df): df.drop(columns=['iso3','code3','Admin2','Country_Region'],axis=1,inplace=True) df.rename(columns={'Province_State':'State'},inplace=True) df=df.reset_index() del df['index'] The first dataframe (z2) we create merges the confirmed cases and deaths frames State-wise. Next we create a few columns to infer based on the data the severity of the situation in each state. cols = conf.columns.to_list()[-1] ctemp = conf.groupby('State').sum()[conf.columns[-1]].sort_values(ascending=False).reset_index() dtemp = death.groupby('State').sum()[death.columns[-1]].sort_values(ascending=False).reset_index() ctemp = ctemp[['State',conf.columns[-1]]] dtemp = dtemp[['State',death.columns[-1]]] # State level aggregated data z2 = pd.merge(ctemp,dtemp,on=['State'],how='inner').merge(temp2,on='State',how='left') z2.rename(columns={deaths:'Deaths',confirm:'Cases'},inplace=True) z2['CMR'] = (z2['Deaths']/z2['Population'])*100000 # Crude Mortality Rate per 100000 z2['Infected %'] = (z2['Cases']/z2['Population'])*100 # Percentage of population infected z2['Case Fatality Rate'] = (z2['Deaths']/z2['Cases'])*100 # Case Fatality Rate - Ratio of Deaths out of those infected z2 = z2[['State','Cases','Deaths','Population','Infected %','CMR','Case Fatality Rate']] Crude Mortality, Case Fatality Rate and %Infected are calculated and i chose to highlight the states where CFR was greater than the average. The result looks something like this (Find more about styling dataframes here). Styling the data also helps convey information better, using any method you like. Our first visualization is how the virus has affected the country as a whole, so we do 2 visualizations — 1)A timeline of impact and 2)A choropleth plot def timeline(Condition): tempd = cc.groupby('Date').sum().reset_index() temph = tempd.loc[tempd['PerDay_Confirm']>0].reset_index(drop=True) if Condition=='Deaths': title = 'Timeline of Deaths' color='red' if Condition=='Cases': Condition='Confirm' title = 'Timeline of Cases' color='orange' temph.iplot(x='Date',y=Condition,xTitle='Dates',yTitle='Count',title=title,mode='lines+markers',color=color) interact(timeline, Condition=['Deaths','Cases']) So the function defined above generates a time series plot of the impact of the virus. The iplot package allows for plotting interactive plots combined with jupyter widgets. The function interact takes as parameter - the function name, and a variable Condition which is a list containing ‘Cases’ and ‘Deaths’. The plot generates a drop down list where the user can switch between Cases and Deaths across time. The plotly package makes our plots interactive showing us the numbers at each data point without any additional code. Interactive Time series plot of Impact of Covid-19 Another interesting visualization you can do is to animate the plot showing the effect on each state day by day. def timeline2(Condition): fig = px.choropleth(tempz, locations='Code', color=Condition, hover_name='State', locationmode='USA-states', animation_frame='Date', scope='usa' ) fig.update_layout( title_text = 'Spread of Coronavirus', title_x = 0.5, geo=dict( showframe = False, showcoastlines = True )) fig.show() interact(timeline2,Condition=['Confirm','Deaths']) Another intermediate data frame i created contains a merged version of the deaths and confirmed cases each day in each State (State-Day Level). def transform(df,s): #s is a String with 'Confirm' or 'Deaths' # To dcast the data and get it at a state-date level temp = df.copy(deep=True) temp.drop(columns=['UID','iso2','Lat','Long_','FIPS'],inplace=True) temp = temp.melt(id_vars=['State','Combined_Key'],var_name='Date',value_name=s) # Source data is cumulative, this gets the numbers per day temp2 = temp.groupby(['Combined_Key'])[s].diff().fillna(0).reset_index() p = 'PerDay'+'_'+s temp2.rename(columns={s:p},inplace=True) temp2 = pd.concat([temp,temp2],axis=1) del temp2['index'] temp2 = temp2.sort_values(['Combined_Key','Date',s,p]).reset_index(drop=True) return temp2 The function is called on each individual dataset(conf & death) and the result is merged to create the output as below: Now you can perform numerous visualization on the above data frame. One such visualization i performed was displaying the Cases or Deaths Per Day in a Province in a State. zz['Province'] = [s.split(',')[0] for s in zz['Combined_Key']] province = zz['Province'].unique() # Plots Cases/Deaths for a Province per Day def plots2(State,Province,Condition): a = zz.loc[(zz['Province']==Province) & (zz['State']==State) ] if Condition.startswith('C'): Condition = 'PerDay_Confirm' color = 'orange' if Condition.startswith('D'): Condition = 'PerDay_Deaths' color = 'red' a = a[a[Condition].gt(0)] a = a.sort_values('Date',ascending=True) a.iplot(x='Date',y=Condition,kind='bar',xTitle='Dates',yTitle=Condition.split('_')[1],title=(Condition.split('_')[1] + " in " + Province + ", " + State),color=color) interact(plots2,State=z2['State'].sort_values(),Province = province,Condition=['Cases','Deaths']) You can perform numerous similar plots using the examples i have shown. Moving on to how to create a dashboard out of your notebook. Voila — voila is a python library that works on top of jupyter to transform your notebooks into dashboards. Installing and running voila is fairly straightforward and instructions are provided on the github page. Running voila from cmd : voila \path\to otebook otebook.ipynb — theme=dark Your interactive will now look something like this : Voila dashboard Now that your dashboard is complete time to deploy it. As i said earlier you can use heroku or binder. Both require you to push your data to git (make sure you have git installed). Heroku provides a cli to push your projects. You can find more details here. The voila documentation provides clear steps to deploy projects. And “voila!” you’re done. You have created a dashboard entirely in python without requiring external software and a dashboard that can be shared with your peers, colleagues or others. Add more components use the template for future projects as you see fit.

https://medium.com/analytics-vidhya/covid-19-interactive-visualization-b46966b8b63b

['Abhishek M']

2020-07-15 13:54:20.556000+00:00

['Covid 19', 'Python', 'Visualization', 'Data Science', 'Dashboard']

NEM Europe was hosted by Insurlab-Germany for a workshop on NEM use cases for Insurance.

Insurlab Germany organized an innovation workshop on blockchain as part of an event series about Blockchain Technology for the insurance industry. Insurlab Germany is part of the DE: Hub Initiative and boasts most of the largest insurance corporations among its members alongside many insurtech-startups. They‘ll be connected which will result in digitization of the industry, and ultimately, innovative insurance products, projects and businesses. NEM Europe Head of Partnerships, Julian Richter introducing NEM Blockchain at Insurlab Germany NEM Europe was invited to pitch the NEM Blockchain and introduce potential use cases for the insurance corporations. Following the pitches of NEM, Gnosis, uBirch and NOS, insurers, consultants and bankers signed up for workshops to discuss and work on different use cases. In order to identify good use cases, Julian Richter — Head of Partnerships, Europe — introduced a decision tree created by ETH Zürich named „Do you need a Blockchain?“ to the workshop participants. Using this as a tool, the following existing problems in the insurance industry were identified: inefficiencies and lack of trust between the insurer, insured person and third parties, and potential improvements through Blockchain Technology. The group worked on existing use case ideas such as claim management improvement, and brainstormed potential new use cases during the afternoon like Atomic Swaps with multiple untrusted parties, then pitched the resulting ideas to all participants. The Insurlab workshop was organized with the goal of coming up with real projects and PoCs. The use case discussions were very productive, and we are very much looking forward to future collaborations. NEM is committed to working on real-world use cases, to solve real-world problems for real businesses. In close conjunction with industry leaders in their own fields of expertise, NEM can achieve this. After all, who knows their business and the issues facing them than those with the experience and know-how to back it up? Be it med-tech, supply chain, track and trace, financial, insurance, e-identity, or whatever — NEM’s focus is on tangible outputs for actual business to gain an advantage through the use of our blockchain technology. Workshops such as this will expedite NEM blockchain adoption, and we would be happy to be involved with events such as these in the future. Do you have a suggestion for us? Please get in touch and let us know!

https://medium.com/nem-europe/nem-europe-was-hosted-by-insurlab-germany-for-a-workshop-on-nem-use-cases-for-insurance-bcc41c3e9119

['Nem Europe']

2018-09-21 09:30:06.987000+00:00

['Blockchain Development', 'Nem Blockchain', 'Blockchain', 'Nem', 'Blockchain Technology']

the key

i hid a key under the mat to my heart near the back door no one has ever found it maybe i should hang it from a tree like an ornament in the sunlight shimmering gold against the blue sky instead of a doormat to be walked upon every single day invisible to the world waiting to be uncovered and unlocked broken like gray clouds on a night sky it is now in the red maple by the front door tied with twine dangling golden in the red leafy branches of time — patty ***** photos@unsplash

https://medium.com/@pblamp/the-key-5fe0747b8f30

['Patty Brown']

2020-12-15 13:45:21.439000+00:00

['Words', 'Artist', 'Poetry', 'Keys', 'Second Chances']

Planning Your Next PR Disaster: What You Can Learn from Uber’s Dara Khosrowshahi

Image courtesy NYPL This week, everyone is talking about Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi’s interview with Axios on HBO, where he calls the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi a “mistake” by the Saudi government and compares the incident to getting hit by a self-driving car. That the comment was followed by a next-day walk-back has done little to quell the media backlash nor stifle the call among Twitter activists that Uber customers mass-delete the app. Failure of such magnitude isn’t an accident. It takes practice — over the course of days, months, often years. Uber was founded in 2009. It has a decade-long track record of saying the exact wrong thing. Each new failing stacks on top of the previous, creating a true monument to PR ineptitude. Among Uber’s most successful failures: Former CEO Travis Kalanick’s GQ profile, where he describes his increased appeal to women as a “Boob-er” and deflects a question about customer service issues by channeling Charlie Sheen: “If you can get a Prius for cheaper than a taxi, you just changed 100,000 people’s lives in a city. If you can get it reliably? Holy shit…That’s hashtag winning.” Being sexist, quoting a sexist celebrity with the social profile of expired milk — are only part of the formula. Also key is timing. If you want a PR disaster that’s in the same league as Uber’s, you must say the exact wrong thing, at the exact wrong moment. For instance, when you are in the middle of a labor dispute with your drivers, that’s the perfect instant for one of your co-founders to get caught buying a $72.5 million mansion in Beverly Hills. The principle at work here is optics. It’s about not caring how something you do looks. In Goodfellas, when the members of Jimmy’s gang show up at the Christmas party with the fur coats and brand-new Cadillacs they bought with that Lufthansa heist money, they are demonstrating that, like an unruly gang of techbros, a true PR disaster must court the direst consequences. For Uber, it’s not the cops who are the problem. It’s the company’s lagging profitability, its unsuccessful attempts to diversify beyond its core ride-hailing business and its indifference to public sentiment. According to a recent Pew Research survey, people rate the technology industry somewhere between airlines and getting barfed on on the NYC subway. For those of you who haven’t been paying attention, here’s a quick recap: Steve Jobs is dead, dead, dead. Nobody is hanging on Tim Cook’s launch keynotes, and there are no lines winding around the block for the new iPhone. What should you do? How should your company kick-start its journey toward PR disaster? We are living on the age of the 3 a.m. tweet, when the long-term benefits of strategic communications are secondary to the immediate dopamine rush of the spectacle. For your company to stay current with this trend, I recommend adapting Uber’s failure skills to your organization and omitting the rare occasions when the beleaguered ride-hailing service did get it right — such as this pre-IPO story PBS NewsHour did, showcasing the smart, data-driven company Uber is underneath its dysfunctional corporate culture. Playlist: “Stand by Your Man” — Tammy Wynette “Ace of Spades” — Motorhead “Say What You Mean” — The Lunachicks “Crazy Train” — Ozzy Osbourne “Jolene” — Dolly Parton “End of the Line” — The Traveling Wilburys

https://medium.com/@billlessard/planning-your-next-pr-disaster-what-you-can-learn-from-ubers-dara-khosrowshahi-6240cfe6e7f6

['Bill Lessard']

2019-11-14 21:27:20.718000+00:00

['Technology', 'Public Relations', 'Uber', 'Social Media']

How to Write a CV that Changes Your Life

Photo by ThisisEngineering RAEng on Unsplash Having switched jobs a few times during my career, and having spent almost three years writing about the world of work, it is fair to say that I’ve done a lot of thinking about careers. At any stage in your life, stepping into a new role can be truly transformative. You are exposed again to the full weight of change — at the beginning you’re in catch-up mode, with new tasks, routines and processes to learn. Amidst the bustle, learning the ropes for this new brand is a fun process, and one that can leave you feeling refreshed and fired up. Oftentimes, you find yourself wondering, why did I wait so long? For those thinking about their own career shift, be it a natural evolution or a shift in direction, the first thought that you inherently turn to is updating your CV. You ask yourself, so just how should I tell my story? What should I put in or leave out — and how can I make my CV stand out in a sea of paper screaming for the same attention? 1. Write to the Job Description I’ll admit it now: my recruitment agent had a worrying grin on her face when I asked her about the initial presentation of my CV. “Ah, your CV,” she sighed. Sighing and smiling are seldom great combinations. Fortunately, we were chatting immediately after toasting my new job placement. And luckily, I’d had some professional assistance along the way. As she mentioned later, my initial CV had been far too basic a summary of a detailed career, apparently not an uncommon trait among content people. More importantly, it didn’t necessarily speak to the job description, or JD. We remedied this however through an extensive initial discussion, and additional detail within a customised cover letter. But still, the lesson to me was clear: take your CV more seriously. To me, the best idea is to think of an interesting job description as a set of must-haves that you need tick off with your CV. As such, try and break your previous roles into key projects and tasks, summarising the most relevant and positive ones. 2. Plan it Well A common perception is that your CV says a lot about you. And hopefully what it says is “hire me” rather than “run for cover”. Remember that your employer is looking for someone to jump into a role without too much hand-holding: so a key part of your success will come down to how you’ve organise and present your ideas. Spending extra time on telling this career story will definitely pay off in the long run. A common perception is that your CV says a lot about you. And hopefully what it says is “hire me” rather than “run for cover”. One problem many encounter is what to leave in and what to leave out. Prioritise past projects that shout the loudest to your abilities to execute this role. And where there is a repetition of tasks, summarise the important parts and edit thoroughly. Avoid at all costs a ‘career brain-dump’: in this case, a longer CV does not equate to a better one. 3. It’s Not Just About Tasks A major aspect to career success comes down to personality. What is it about you as a person that people appreciate in a working context? Think about successful group projects you’ve been involved in, either during studies or within a job. And what did you bring to this project that contributed to its success? Ultimately, the answer will speak to your value as an employee. It’s not all about leadership or closing the deal: effective teams need many different personality types. You might be an excellent time-keeper or coach. Finding data insights could be your thing. You may be super-effective at editing and condensing arguments. Or maybe you’re that invaluable person who takes on the least glamourous task — only to deliver it with plenty of time to help others. By describing your wins without necessarily overselling your part in them, you’ll ultimately demonstrate your self-awareness, as well as a passion for team-driven results. 4. The X-Factor Let’s say for a moment that I’m working in a travel-related industry, reviewing two candidates who on paper have similar strengths. Who will I hire? This is where the social and recreational aspects of your CV come into play in demonstrating who you are as a person. If I’m hiring in travel, the fact that you travelled to the Amazon with a friend and bought pens and paper to an orphanage might say as much to me as career promotion. Or as a foodie, the fact that you worked for weeks to perfect your own sourdough recipe — then wrote a blog on how to master it — might show that you’re willing to work to get results, and then to share that success. Don’t forget that like everyone, employers crave the seeds of a good story. Here we are now: entertain us. 5. Amplify Strengths and Plan for Weaknesses Remember that job searching is a volume game: you need to expect a few rejections. Sometimes a role is advertised simply as an obligation, even where the true replacement has already been chosen. At other times your CV may seem like too much of a stretch compared to the person who came ready-made for the task at hand — or came straight from a rival company. When you finally do get that interview, think about ways to improve on other presentation aspects other than your CV. The first place I’d go after learning about you is to your LinkedIn profile: it should provide further insights into who you are and who aspire to be — through both your profile and the Pulse pieces you authored in the past. 6. Questions Provide Answers Assuming you’ve landed an interview: now what? Carefully read through your CV and the job description again, and consider what jumps out the most. When you present it in person, you can amplify the CV’s plus-points, and speak to any relative weaknesses you anticipate. Prepare for any major ones in advance: where a specific skill might be missing, consider showing evidence of how you’ve picked up new skills in the past. Or if it’s an area you don’t fully understand, read up on the subject now. When you present it in person, you can amplify the CV’s plus-points, and speak to any relative weaknesses you anticipate. Prepare for any major issues in advance: where might a specific skill be missing? Now that I’m in a position to conduct interviews myself, one thing that says a lot to me about candidates are the questions they ask me. Think about what you might like to know on the back of the interview: not only to try to get the job, but also to work out whether you really want it. Find out why the role is open. And ask questions which talk to the motivations of your boss. Assuming the skills match is there, one of the most important factors will be whether the two of you have a good working chemistry — given that, the other gaps are fixable. Lastly, when you’re doing your final review of all your materials — rechecking spelling and grammar, and making sure you have plenty of evidence of points you raised (links showing finished work can be invaluable) — also try to take a long-term view. A CV won’t necessarily change your life on its own, but it can certainly open up life-changing opportunities. While you’re embarking on this moment of change, think about where you’d like that change to take you. Knowing what you want in life, and the actions that will get you there, can be the secret to making it happen. Story originally published here. For more advice on telling your story, talk to us at CP5.co.

https://medium.com/@lukewritesonfire/how-to-write-a-cv-that-changes-your-life-5b71c0d86305

['Luke Clark']

2021-06-07 03:29:26.292000+00:00

['Storytelling For Business', 'Cv Writing', 'Careers', 'Job Search', 'Personal Branding']

Namibia Sending 170 Wild Elephants to Auction

Elephants are at risk of extinction due to poaching and ecological factors African Elephant by Heloise Delbos via Unsplash The southern African country of Namibia is planning to auction up to 170 wild elephants. An increase in elephant population and drought are the main reasons the government is putting the animals up for sale. Namibia’s environmental ministry has established strict sales guidelines. Bidders must meet strict criteria to participate. Requirements include verifying that elephants will be protected by game-proof fencing once they relocate. Stringent quarantine measures are also in place. The bidding is open to anyone in the country or abroad who can meet the standards. Experts fear the elephants are at risk for extinction. Factors such as drought are a threat to the animals’ well-being. Poachers place a high value on elephant tusks. Harvesting the large mammals for their ivory tusks is illegal. Elephants, to their detriment, are increasingly involved in conflicts with humans. Tusks slip out of the country and land in China and other southeast Asian countries. Ivory is a prized material in jewelry making. To export the auctioned elephants out of Namibia, buyers must prove they have permission to move the animals to their countries. Conservation authorities will review every transaction to ensure compliance with the rules. Namibia and other African nations have seen Elephant and White Rhino populations triple in the last 15 years. Growth puts pressure on their living spaces. As the population increases, countries are considering other solutions such as allowing more trophy hunting exports. Both activities could raise precious funds needed to protect the species. White Rhino by Dusan Veverkolog via Unsplash Around the world, permitted hunting allows for both fund-raising and animal population control. A good example is deer hunting in the United States. Conservation and recreation work together to better control populations. The money generated from tag sales fuels conservation programs. Namibia even looked into removing themselves from CITES. With no relief from restrictions on hunting white rhinos, Namibia considered ignoring rules that govern the trade of high value, endangered species. CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, is a stout organization and their rulings cover more than just endangered species. CITES rules, for instance, limit harvesting and movement of Brazilian rosewood, prized by instrument makers and players alike. Auctioning wildlife is not new. This year, the country has already auctioned more than 1,000 animals. Namibia is experiencing drought conditions not seen in a century. *** *** *** Douglas Pilarski is a writer/journalist living in Portland. He covers luxury goods, lifestyle, exotic cars, CJ-CX, workplace issues, food, horology, and tech. He is a regular contributor to medium.com sawyertms.com \\ [email protected] \\ medium.com/@dpilarski IG: sawyertms1 \\ @realsawyertms Join me on Linkedin at www.linkedin.com/in/douglaspilarski Copyright © 2020 AstonBell Media All rights reserved. *** *** ***

https://medium.com/illumination-curated/namibia-sending-170-wild-elephants-to-auction-37a1f2f5846e

['Douglas Pilarski']

2020-12-05 13:06:35.629000+00:00

['Namibia', 'Poaching', 'Éléphant', 'Conservation', 'Wildlife']

Are Your Thoughts About Your Body Holding You Back From Success

When someone joins my personal coaching program, one of the first things I ask them to do is to describe exactly what their body is going to look like once I help them reach their goal weight. I ask them to do this in writing — not over the phone, and here’s why… Deeply imbedded negative thoughts are what cause us to have difficulties in any weight loss or health enhancement program — in fact, our past failures can almost always be traced back to negative thoughts that we didn’t even realize we had. Most of our negative thinking comes out when we write things down on paper (or on the computer). I challenge you to write out 10 brief descriptions about how your body will look in 30 days if you were coached by someone like me — someone who knows exactly how to transform the human body no matter what stage of the game you’re currently at. Go ahead, take a moment and write out what your face would look like, what your arms would look like, what your legs and your butt would look like — would your skin look different, would your muscles be tighter, would you be leaner — detail everything, then come right back. Did you do it? Make your list now before reading any further — I want you to walk away with some profound knowledge of yourself when you’re done reading this article. OK, now that you have your list, let me show you something that you can use to judge whether or not you’ve been causing yourself to fail in your attempts to lose weight and keep it off. Here are some examples of statements that a good friend of mine used to have before he and I began working together — statements that were literally holding him back from success: Face-more chiselled features, no double chin, no doughy jowls or puffy cheeks, no bags under the eyes. Other than improved facial shape, I really have no complaints at all about my face, hair, eyes, nose, ears. Neck-no double chin or “wattle” Chest-no gynecomastia (womanly breasts), muscular instead. Look, ma, I can see my ribcage and pectoral muscles instead of a soft mattress of flab. Arms-hard sinewy curves instead of soft breadsticks. Seeing veins and muscles instead of smooth fat. Abdomen-are there really abs hiding in there? They’ve never made an appearance in 50 years! It’d be nice to have a tight waist not uncomfortably sliced by too-tight underwear. Legs-less of a conical shape, more elongated and solid. Although my calves have always been rather large and firm-my best body part, next to my brain. Buttocks-less sag, more form Back could be a lot less hairy, would be nice to see a “V” shape instead of a truncated pyramid. Can you see why he might have had a few troubles in the past reaching his goal? But I’ll let you in on a little secret — this guy is in great shape now and enjoying life more than ever, and he’s a pleasure to speak with each week in our coaching calls. Now here’s a list from a woman who recently completed one of my coaching programs — this list was written out after our first session together — watch how positive every statement is… WHAT MY BODY IS GOING TO LOOK LIKE

https://medium.com/@eastbeats213/are-your-thoughts-about-your-body-holding-you-back-from-success-4bdc1b42c04b

['Dean Amra']

2020-12-18 14:07:01.574000+00:00

['Thyroid Problems', 'Womens Health', 'Thyroid', 'Weight Loss', 'Body Hacks']

Rails contact form with Postmark & deployed to Heroku with domain

I have recently built a project that involved having a contact form for users to reach out to the company with any questions about their product and services. To set it up I found myself having to jump between different articles, websites and tutorials to find all the information. My goal with this article is to perhaps help someone out there who wants to build a similar project, to find all the information in one place. So here it is, my tutorial in 7 steps to build a rails app with a contact form which sends an automatic email using postmark, deployed into heroku with a domain. Step 1 — Create a rails app with postgresql and push the project to GitHub rails new contact-form --database=postgresql cd contact-form hub create git add . git commit -m "new rails" git push origin master Step 2 — Generate Contact model and Contacts controller / Setup your routes rails g model Contact name:string email:string topic:string message:text terms:boolean rails db:migrate rails g controller Contacts Define your routes on routes.rb and add active record validations on contact.rb: We will focus on the controller later on. Step 3 — Additional configuration I configured the assets using scss and added bootstrap to then be able to use simple form on my app. Add the gem ‘simple-form’ to the Gemfile and: bundle install rails g simple_form:install --bootstrap Step 4 — Generate Contact mailer rails g mailer Contact This is what your contact_mailer.rb would look like: ‘From’ is setup with the email address created with your domain. This is what your application_mailer.rb would look like: This is what your new_contact.html.erb would look like (this is the body of your email, written in html): You are able to see what your email looks like locally by using rails s and accessing the following URL with the right path to the mailer method: Step 5 — Complete the contacts_controller.rb and write & style your new.html.erb Step 6 — Time to setup Postmark.

https://medium.com/@beatrizsclongley/rails-contact-form-with-postmark-deployed-to-heroku-with-domain-def793de6adf

['Beatriz Longley']

2020-11-26 13:28:01.670000+00:00

['Contact Form', 'Tutorial', 'Heroku', 'Postmark', 'Rails']

Best Last-minute Tech Gifts for 2020

With gaming up 46% this year for obvious reasons, it’s hard to go wrong with a tech gift for the gamer in your life. Popular smart toys may look like fun and games — but they are really making kids smarter and think more critically. And if you know someone who has to have the latest and greatest, you are in the right spot. This is part of my 2020 Holiday Gift Guide with my reviews and expert picks from the world’s greatest tech gifts. More here *** Follow me here: www.cyberguy.com www.facebook.com/cyberguyofficial www.twitter.com/cyberguy www.instagram.com/kurtthecyberguy *** ABOUT CYBERGUY — AMERICA’S TECH AUTHORITY Award-winning journalist, author, investor and innovator Kurt has a deep love of technology that makes life better. Best known as “Kurt the CyberGuy,” Kurt Knutsson created the largest syndicated tech lifestyle franchise on television. As a trusted source, Kurt’s unique insider access to major tech launches and industry visionaries has helped earn him two Emmy Awards and a Golden Mic. Kurt lives between home in California and NYC where he is also the chief tech contributor on Fox News & Fox Business networks beginning his mornings on Fox & Friends. Kurt and his CyberGuy reports focus on consumer technology, innovative people and inventions that are rocking the world.

https://medium.com/@kurtthecyberguy/best-last-minute-tech-gifts-for-2020-f0ba001d8ddf

['Kurt', 'Cyberguy']

2020-12-22 17:28:34.266000+00:00

['Gadgets', 'Christmas', 'Holidays', 'Gift Ideas', 'Gift Guide']

Understanding of spirituality

Spirituality is not related to any religion or sect, but spirituality is about how you are within yourself. In fact, the true meaning of spirituality is to be able to experience life beyond physicality and the true meaning of a spiritual person is that a person who feels god through his imagination and can understand god, then that person is called a spiritual person. This type of person slowly starts understanding all the mysteries related to this world. That is why if someone gives you knowledge of any scripture or puranas, then do not consider it as a spiritual person. Those people are just pundits who try to explain the knowledge of scriptures written by someone to you.

https://medium.com/@creativequote/understanding-of-spirituality-892d2b0eecf1

['Sahil Patel']

2020-12-25 13:22:21.522000+00:00

['Spiritual Growth', 'Spirituality', 'Inspiration', 'Creativity', 'Motivation']

React Native Bridging — How to Make Linear Gradient View

React Native lets us build mobile apps using only Javascript. It works by providing a common interface that talks to native iOS and Android components. There are enough essentials components to get started, but the cooler thing is that it is easy to build our own, hence we are not limited by React Native. In this post we will implement a linear gradient view, which is not supported by default in React Native, using native UI component, particularly CAGradientLayer in iOS and GradientDrawable in Android. In Javascript there are hundreds of libraries for a single problem and you should check if you really need it or not. A search on Google for linear gradient shows a bunch of libraries, like react-native-linear-gradient. The less dependencies the better. Linear gradient is in fact very easy to build and we probably don’t need to add extra dependencies. Also integrating and following updates with 3rd libraries are painful, I would avoid that as much as possible. Native UI component vs Native module In React Native, there are native UI component and native module. React Native moves pretty fast so most of the articles will be outdated, it’s best to consult official documentation for the latest React Native version. This post will try to give you overview of the whole picture because for now the official guide seems not completed. In simple explanation, native UI component is about making UIView in iOS or View in Android available as React.Component and used in render function in Javascript. There are tons of native UI widgets out there ready to be used in the latest apps — some of them are part of the platform, others are available as third-party libraries, and still more might be in use in your very own portfolio. React Native has several of the most critical platform components already wrapped, like ScrollView and TextInput , but not all of them, and certainly not ones you might have written yourself for a previous app. Native module is more general in that we make any native class available in Javascript. Sometimes an app needs access to platform API, and React Native doesn’t have a corresponding module yet. Maybe you want to reuse some existing Objective-C, Swift or C++ code without having to reimplement it in JavaScript, or write some high performance, multi-threaded code such as for image processing, a database, or any number of advanced extensions. View Manager To expose native UI views, we use the ViewManager as the bridge, it is RCTViewManager in iOS and SimpleViewManager in Android. Then inside this ViewManager we can just return our custom view. I see it’s good to use Objective C/Java for the ViewManager to match React Native classes, and the custom view we can use either Swift/Objective C in iOS and Kotlin/Java in Android. I prefer to use Swift, but in this post to remove the overhead of introducing bridging header from Swift to Objective C, we use Objective C for simplicity. We also add the native source code directly into iOS and Android project, but in the future we can extract them easily to a React Native library. For now let ‘s use the name RNGradientViewManager and RNGradientView to stay consistent between iOS and Android. The RN prefix is arbitrary, you can use any prefix you want, but here I use it to indicate that these classes are meant to be used in Javascript side in React Native. Implement in iOS Project structure Add these Objective-C classes to the projects, I usually place them inside NativeComponents folder Native views are created and manipulated by subclasses of RCTViewManager . These subclasses are similar in function to view controllers, but are essentially singletons - only one instance of each is created by the bridge. They expose native views to the RCTUIManager , which delegates back to them to set and update the properties of the views as necessary. The RCTViewManager s are also typically the delegates for the views, sending events back to JavaScript via the bridge. RNGradientViewManager Create a RNGradientViewManager that inherits from RCTViewManager RNGradientViewManager.h #import <React/RCTViewManager.h> @interface RNGradientViewManager : RCTViewManager @end RNGradientViewManager.m In iOS we use macro RCT_EXPORT_MODULE() to automatically register the module with the bridge when it loads. The optional js_name argument will be used as the JS module name. If omitted, the JS module name will match the Objective-C class name. #define RCT_EXPORT_MODULE(js_name) The ViewManager, not the View, is the facade to the Javascript side, so we expose properties using RCT_EXPORT_VIEW_PROPERTY . Note that we do that inside @implementation RNGradientViewManager Here we specify the types as NSNumber and UIColor , and later in Javascript we can just pass number and color hex string, and React Native can do the conversions for us. In older versions of React Native, we need processColor in Javascript or RCTConvert color in iOS side, but we don’t need to perform manual conversion now. RNGradientView In the Native UI component example for iOS, they use WKWebView but here we make a RNGradientView which subclasses from RCTView to take advantage of many features of React Native views, and to avoid some problems we can get if using a normal UIView RNGradientView.h RNGradientView.m #import "RNGradientView.h" #import <UIKit/UIKit.h> CAGradientLayer *gradientLayer; @interface RNGradientView() @property CAGradientLayer *gradientLayer; UIColor *_toColor; NSNumber *_progress; NSNumber *_cornerRadius; @end @property UIColor *_fromColor; @property UIColor *_toColor; @property NSNumber *_progress; @property NSNumber *_cornerRadius; @implementation RNGradientView // MARK: - Init - (instancetype)initWithFrame:(CGRect)frame { self = [super initWithFrame:frame]; if (self) { self.gradientLayer = [self makeGradientLayer]; [self.layer addSublayer:self.gradientLayer]; self._toColor = [UIColor whiteColor]; self._progress = self._fromColor = [UIColor blackColor];self._toColor = [UIColor whiteColor];self._progress = @0 .5; [self update]; } return self; } // MARK: - Life cycle - (void)layoutSubviews { [super layoutSubviews]; self.gradientLayer.frame = CGRectMake( 0, 0, self.bounds.size.width*self._progress.floatValue, self.bounds.size.height ); } // MARK: - Properties - (void)setFromColor:(UIColor *)color { self._fromColor = color; [self update]; } - (void)setToColor:(UIColor *)color { self._toColor = color; [self update]; } - (void)setProgress:(NSNumber *)progress { self._progress = progress; [self update]; } - (void)setCornerRadius:(NSNumber *)cornerRadius { self._cornerRadius = cornerRadius; [self update]; } // MARK: - Helper - (void)update { self.gradientLayer.colors = @[ (id)self._fromColor.CGColor, (id)self._toColor.CGColor ]; self.gradientLayer.cornerRadius = self._cornerRadius.floatValue; [self setNeedsLayout]; } - (CAGradientLayer *)makeGradientLayer { CAGradientLayer *gradientLayer = [CAGradientLayer layer]; gradientLayer.masksToBounds = true; gradientLayer.startPoint = CGPointMake(0.0, 0.5); gradientLayer.endPoint = CGPointMake(1.0, 0.5); gradientLayer.anchorPoint = CGPointZero; return gradientLayer; } @end We can implement anything we want in this native view, in this case we use CAGradientLayer to get nicely displayed linear gradient. Since RNGradientViewManager exposes some properties like progress , cornerRadius , fromColor , toColor we need to implement some setters as they will be called by React Native when we update values in Javascript side. In the setter we call setNeedsLayout to tell the view to invalidate the layout, hence layoutSubviews will be called again. requireNativeComponent Open project in Visual Studio Code, add GradientView.js to src/nativeComponents . The folder name is arbitrary, but it’s good to stay organised. import { requireNativeComponent } from 'react-native' module.exports = requireNativeComponent('RNGradientView', null) Here we use requireNativeComponent to load our RNGradientView . We only need this one Javascript file for interacting with both iOS and Android. You can name the module as RNGradientView but I think the practice in Javascript is that we don’t use prefix, so we name just GradientView . const requireNativeComponent = (uiViewClassName: string): string => createReactNativeComponentClass(uiViewClassName, () => getNativeComponentAttributes(uiViewClassName), ); module.exports = requireNativeComponent; Before I tried to use export default for the native component, but this way the view is not rendered at all, even if I wrap it inside React.Component . It seems we must use module.exports for the native component to be properly loaded. Now using it is as easy as declare the GradientView with JSX syntax import GradientView from 'nativeComponents/GradientView' export default class Profile extends React.Component { render() { return ( <SafeAreaView style={styles.container}> <GradientView style={styles.progress} fromColor={R.colors.progress.from} toColor={R.colors.progress.to} cornerRadius={5.0} progress={0.8} /> ) } } Implement in Android Project structure Add these Java classes to the projects, I usually place them inside nativeComponents folder RNGradientManager Create a RNGradientManager that extends SimpleViewManager RNGradientManager.java package com.onmyway133.myApp.nativeComponents; import android.support.annotation.Nullable; import com.facebook.react.uimanager.SimpleViewManager; import com.facebook.react.uimanager.ThemedReactContext; import com.facebook.react.uimanager.annotations.ReactProp; @Override public String getName() { return "RNGradientView"; } public class RNGradientViewManager extends SimpleViewManager {public String getName() {return "RNGradientView"; @Override protected RNGradientView createViewInstance(ThemedReactContext reactContext) { return new RNGradientView(reactContext); } protected RNGradientView createViewInstance(ThemedReactContext reactContext) {return new RNGradientView(reactContext); // Properties public void setProgress(RNGradientView view, view.setProgress(progress); } @ReactProp (name = "progress")public void setProgress(RNGradientView view, @Nullable float progress) {view.setProgress(progress); public void setCornerRadius(RNGradientView view, view.setCornerRadius(cornerRadius); } @ReactProp (name = "cornerRadius")public void setCornerRadius(RNGradientView view, @Nullable float cornerRadius) {view.setCornerRadius(cornerRadius); public void setFromColor(RNGradientView view, view.setFromColor(color); } @ReactProp (name = "fromColor", customType = "Color")public void setFromColor(RNGradientView view, @Nullable int color) {view.setFromColor(color); public void setToColor(RNGradientView view, view.setToColor(color); } } @ReactProp (name = "toColor", customType = "Color")public void setToColor(RNGradientView view, @Nullable int color) {view.setToColor(color); We usually use Color as android.graphics.Color , but for the GradientDrawable that we are going to use, it use color as ARGB integer. So it’s nifty that React Native deals with Color as int type. We also need to specify customType = "Color" as Color is something kinda custom. RNGradientView This is where we implement our view, we can do that in Kotlin if we like. RNGradientView.java package com.onmyway133.myApp.nativeComponents; import android.content.Context; import android.graphics.drawable.GradientDrawable; import android.graphics.drawable.ScaleDrawable; import android.support.annotation.Nullable; import android.util.AttributeSet; import android.view.Gravity; import android.view.View; public class RNGradientView extends View { float progress; float cornerRadius; int fromColor; int toColor; public RNGradientView(Context context) { super(context); } public RNGradientView(Context context, @Nullable AttributeSet attrs) { super(context, attrs); } public RNGradientView(Context context, @Nullable AttributeSet attrs, int defStyleAttr) { super(context, attrs, defStyleAttr); } public RNGradientView(Context context, @Nullable AttributeSet attrs, int defStyleAttr, int defStyleRes) { super(context, attrs, defStyleAttr, defStyleRes); } // update void update() { GradientDrawable gradient = new GradientDrawable(); gradient.setColors(new int[] { this.fromColor, this.toColor }); gradient.setOrientation(GradientDrawable.Orientation.LEFT_RIGHT); gradient.setGradientType(GradientDrawable.LINEAR_GRADIENT); gradient.setShape(GradientDrawable.RECTANGLE); gradient.setCornerRadius(this.cornerRadius * 4); ScaleDrawable scale = new ScaleDrawable(gradient, Gravity.LEFT, 1, -1); scale.setLevel((int)(this.progress * 10000)); this.setBackground(scale); } // Getter & setter public void setProgress(float progress) { this.progress = progress; this.update(); } public void setCornerRadius(float cornerRadius) { this.cornerRadius = cornerRadius; this.update(); } public void setFromColor(int fromColor) { this.fromColor = fromColor; this.update(); } public void setToColor(int toColor) { this.toColor = toColor; this.update(); } } Pay attention to the setColors as it use an array of int Sets the colors used to draw the gradient. Each color is specified as an ARGB integer and the array must contain at least 2 colors. If we call setBackground with the GradientDrawable it will be stretched to fill the view. In our case we want to support progress which determines how long the gradient should show. To fix that we use ScaleDrawable which is a Drawable that changes the size of another Drawable based on its current level value. The same value for cornerRadius works in iOS, but for Android we need to use higher values, that’s why the multiplication in gradient.setCornerRadius(this.cornerRadius * 4) Shape drawable Another way to implement gradient is to use Shape Drawable with xml , it’s the equivalent of using xib in iOS. We can create something like gradient.xml and put that inside /res/drawable For more information, you can read We can also use the class directly ShapeDrawable in code A Drawable object that draws primitive shapes. A ShapeDrawable takes a Shape object and manages its presence on the screen. If no Shape is given, then the ShapeDrawable will default to a RectShape . This object can be defined in an XML file with the <shape> element. GradientManagerPackage In iOS we use RCT_EXPORT_MODULE to register the component, but in Android, things are done explicitly using Package . A package can register both native module and native UI component. In this case we deal with just UI component, so let’s return RNGradientManager in createViewManagers GradientManagerPackage.java package com.onmyway133.myApp.nativeComponents; import com.facebook.react.ReactPackage; import com.facebook.react.bridge.NativeModule; import com.facebook.react.bridge.ReactApplicationContext; import com.facebook.react.uimanager.ViewManager; import java.util.Arrays; import java.util.Collections; import java.util.List; @Override public List<NativeModule> createNativeModules(ReactApplicationContext reactContext) { return Collections.emptyList(); } public class RNGradientViewPackage implements ReactPackage {public List createNativeModules(ReactApplicationContext reactContext) {return Collections.emptyList(); @Override public List<ViewManager> createViewManagers(ReactApplicationContext reactContext) { return Arrays.<ViewManager>asList( new RNGradientViewManager() ); } } public List createViewManagers(ReactApplicationContext reactContext) {return Arrays. asList(new RNGradientViewManager()); Then head over to MainApplication.java to declare our package @Override protected List<ReactPackage> getPackages() { return Arrays.<ReactPackage>asList( new MainReactPackage(), new RNGradientViewPackage() ); } protected List getPackages() {return Arrays. asList(new MainReactPackage(),new RNGradientViewPackage()); That’s it for Android. We already have the GradientView.js written earlier, when running the app in Android, it will look up and load our RNGradientView Where to go from here Hope you learn something about native UI component. In the post we only touch the surfaces on what native UI component can do, which is just passing configurations from Javascript to native. There are a lot more to discover, like event handling, thread, styles, custom types, please consult the official documentation for correct guidance.

https://medium.com/react-native-training/react-native-bridging-how-to-make-linear-gradient-view-83c3805373b7

['Khoa Pham']

2019-02-20 14:17:24.689000+00:00

['Cross Platform', 'Native', 'Components', 'Android', 'React Native']

Surviving A Crisis… How The Plant Kingdom Can Help You Thrive

You can’t deny that 2020 has been a crisis of a year. No one looking back at New Year’s Eve 2019/2020 would have expected the upheaval the world has experienced: the Covid 19 pandemic, devastating fires across the globe, political unrest, racism, riots, ‘murder hornets’, climate disasters, the loss of beloved public figures, financial crashes. Yet, opportunity has also been able to be found this year. The opportunity to actively find the positive and the good in the world, in little moments and big ones. The opportunity to go deep and look inside to see how you can still grow and flourish despite the obstacles. The opportunity for you to be an innovative and conscious leader in a time screaming out for them. I won’t deny that at times this year, I’ve experienced the anxiety and low vibrational energy that the rest of the world has felt. So as I regularly do, I’ve turned to my plant friends in these times. It’s such an ingrained habit in me. And, as I regularly am, I’m struck by the lessons provided to us by the Plant Kingdom in a crisis. Crisis Guidance from Pioneer Species You know I am a big fan of pioneer species. These are species that first come up in an area after a fire or deforestation. I usually talk about pine trees, but instead I would like to share how shrubs have really inspired me in moments of difficulty. Shrubs seem like an unlikely pioneering species. Most people just think of kinas weeds that come up in barren land, when instead they carry out a very important function. Most shrubs reproduce quite quickly. Kin’s seeds are often dispersed by wind and can grow in poor soil conditions under the harsh sun. Plus, kin grow relatively fast and require little water. Perfect for when an area suddenly finds itself with no tree canopy in dry, hot climates. These shrubs create shade for seedlings, kin’s bushy bodies also create conditions at the base with lower air and soil temperatures and higher water levels. Plus, kin capture windblown objects, like twigs and leaves, which drop to the surface. As these decompose, they turn into potassium which helps the little seedlings retain water during dry periods. Going into Lockdown During COVID-19, my nucleo home went into lockdown (we’re in another one as I write). I live with about 20 people, including children, in a community region with more than 70 people. A large number of these people found themselves suddenly without an income or with children at home every day. As I sat there thinking about how to balance my needs with the needs of my house and regional community, I kept going back to the shrub. COVID exposed everyone to harsh conditions. So the first thing to do was to create a cover to help protect from too much sunlight. This meant protecting the mothers who suddenly found themselves without childcare, yet still had work or other situations to take care of. It also meant taking care of the elderly. Or in the case of my home, those sick, in a way that was sustainable for everyone. The next phase was to create a nutrient rich soil. Being someone with online experience, I went about sharing elements that could nourish those that needed to pivot their businesses. In order to have a healthy economy for everyone, it made sense for me to balance my time between tending to my own clients and helping people in my house learn how to take their businesses online. In the short term, I used my own personal resources (software accounts, organizational skills, business materials) to accommodate them. And in the middle-term, we all won because they were able to more quickly get a new income stream up and running. Most of this was done by doing some things myself while they learned how the online world works. I dropped knowledge in bite-sized chunks that they could convert into the information they needed for their businesses. I did not personalize my knowledge just for them. Instead did some stuff for them and shared what they could do in order not to lose their existing client base while they transitioned. In other words, I became a nurse shrub for members of my home. This translated to less income loss and more solidarity overall. Learning from plants in a crisis Humans and plants certainly don’t naturally react the same way in a crisis. Plants are not subject to the emotional reactions humans have. (those darn pesky emotions). Kin use plant logic to adapt to a crisis and changing circumstances more impartiallythan humans can. For plants, the goal is evolution and survival. So kin are apt at conserving energy while considering what’s changed. Then look at how to use the new landscape and resources it offers to not just survive, but thrive. When kin do this well, plants use the change to create new conditions. Often times, these are of more benefit then the previous ones. That’s not to say that humans can’t learn how to behave the same way as a plant does in a crisis… and thrive through it. It just takes us longer at times to work out how. If you examine how your own personal habits and logic affect your response to a crisis, would you say they were effective or beneficial to yourself or your greater community? If you try to react quickly without a deep understanding of the possible effects of your behaviors, could it be that your reactions aren’t optimal? By mirroring the plant world’s ability to slow down and consider your new circumstances before reacting, you realize that you can use the behavior of nature to influence how consciously and effectively you respond to a crisis. By doing so, you create your own new conditions to share with your personal ecosystem for their benefit as well. The best way to ensure your survival is to have a survival plan. So while you might not have a crystal ball that tells you exactly what’s going to happen so that you can create a specific plan, you can have models to refer to if a crisis occurs. That’s what you can learn from plants! A nature-inspired way of being prepared for a crisis is to simply spend time outside. Observe and look to understand the various functions plants carry out so you can readily implement their wisdom when you need to. You know that nature journal I keep encouraging you to have? This is when it becomes super useful. Every time you go out and record what you see in sketches, relationships, and actions, you go deeper. You start to delve into the various relationships plants have and how those contribute to the overall ecosystem. Another idea is to examine your own responses to previous unexpected events. How you might be able to change these responses in the future? Journaling is a great exercise to help with this. I find journaling outside while I’m connecting with nature really beneficial. In this way, I use both my logical and non-logical mind. I integrate the whispers of the plant alongside their physical functions to get a more complete understanding of what is going on. The next time you’re facing a crisis, before just acting for the sake of taking action, I invite you to consider the humble shrub. How can you consciously and calmly utilize the resources you have available, in a timely manner, to provide shelter, encourage the production of new nutrients, and create a lasting, positive impact that ensures you and your ecosystem thrive, not just survive? This post was originally published on my blog.

https://medium.com/@tigrillagardenia/surviving-a-crisis-how-the-plant-kingdom-can-help-you-thrive-d0d4dfc01ea4

['Tigrilla Gardenia']

2020-11-23 10:33:19.184000+00:00

['Biomimicry', 'Crisis', 'Life Lessons']

Why is there so much pain and struggle in my life?

Answer: The reason there is so much pain and struggle in your life is that you are living under the false premise that you have a life of your own. And it is that false sense of life that you feel has so much pain and struggle. You have accepted that false belief as reality and that has separated you from the one and only Life, the infinite source of your goodness and happiness, and as a result you experience suffering. Is it not amazing that you are living a life that has an imaginary existence. But the Truth is that there is only one Life and that Life is the Life of God. You are like a branch cut off from a tree. The branch withers. You reap pain and struggle. And so there is but one thing you must do and that is to bring the Presence of God into your experience because it is there that there is no pain and struggle in Life. “Seek first the consciousness of God and then goodness, freedom from pain and struggle, will follow”. Apply the Golden Key “stop thinking about you and your difficulties and think about God instead” because your pain and struggle in life has no existence apart from the belief that is at the moment sustaining it. And so when you stop thinking about your pain and struggle, it ceases to be because it never did exist outside of your thinking. In other words, the only substance to your problem is your own ego-self out of which your problem is formed. A great lesson to remember is “except you build a consciousness of God, your ego-self labors in vain”. Unless you are keeping your mind stayed on God, unless you are living in spiritual consciousness, unless the Presence has entered into your individual consciousness, unless your ego-self has been replaced by your spiritual self, you will continues to experience pain and struggle in life because “you of your own self can do nothing, but the Presence within can do all things”.

https://medium.com/pathway-to-happiness/why-is-there-so-much-pain-and-struggle-in-my-life-5da2cfcf246a

['Don Carpenter']

2021-04-26 13:25:03.176000+00:00

['Success', 'Life Lessons', 'Self Improvement', 'PTSD', 'Mental']

UK Pandemic Grants for the Self-Employed

UK Pandemic Grants for the Self-Employed Only apply to businesses. Freelancers can have welfare benefits. I really didn’t expect anything from the UK. My past experience of benefits and the indignity of seeking them was humiliating and still is. My Polish step mum recommended to me at the age of 18 that I should put my name down on the council housing list. Snob that I was, I was working and earning good money, why did I need a reduced rent house from the government? I never did sign up. Until this year. A couple of decades of full-time permanent employment eliminated any need for governmental assistance. I have paid twenty-eight years of National Insurance. I was self-employed in the Czech Republic from September 2016 to end February 2019. I was solely self-employed in the UK from March 2019 to March 2020. When France was locked down, my English language Coaching work stopped. During the annual low season of January to March, I used most of my savings. I already knew from a meeting last year at JobCentre Plus that as an established (in the Czech Republic) self-employed person I was not eligible for any assistance while I waited for work to flood in in April 2019. Thus I wasn’t expecting any assistance this year when the pandemic hit the UK. Initially, the self-employed were not eligible for any benefits. So, I applied for, and got, an agency job posted on Facebook. Hearing that the self-employed would be treated the same as employees where Statutory Sick Pay was concerned was welcome news, which I had no need for as I was now employed. I completed a self-isolation sick note on March 23rd. Two days after receiving training in a room with forty other people for the new job. When I read the following from the Money Saving Expert I thought there was a chance. The Self-employed Income Support Scheme (SEISS) — the government grant to self-employed individuals whose businesses have been adversely affected by coronavirus — opened for applications on Wednesday 13 May. By midnight on Sunday 17 May, there had already been 2 million claims worth £6.1 billion. ~MSE I went to the website to see if I qualified for the grant from England. I didn’t. Grants are based on your profits over three tax years — based on an average of the tax returns for 2016/17, 2017/18, 2018/19. ~Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs. However, after receiving the ‘Are You Eligible for Self-Employed Income Support Scheme?’ email from Business Gateway Fife, I thought I would check out the rules. To be eligible you must meet all of the criteria below Became self-employed on/after 6th April 2019 (did not submit a tax return including income from self-employment for 2018–19)​ ~ Business Gateway Fife Who should be eligible The self-employed under the Act on pension insurance, i.e., simply all who are doing business on their own, based on a trade licence or, e.g. perform a liberal profession (musicians, writers, etc.), are doing business in agriculture or on the grounds of other Acts of law (medical doctors, attorneys at law, etc.). (musicians, writers, etc.), (medical doctors, attorneys at law, etc.). The self-employment has to be the main activity. The self-employment can be a side activity of a specified circle of people (beneficiaries of disability or old-age pension, parental allowance, etc.). Yes, to all the above. So I applied for the grant. A few weeks later I received a phone call from a very kind man who informed me I didn’t qualify as I had submitted a SA for 2018–2019. HMRC told me I had to submit a self-assessment for 2018-19 despite it only being for £70. After I submitted, I received a letter to say they agreed and withdrew the Notice to complete a tax return for 2018–2019. Apparently, the Notice wasn’t enough to qualify me for a grant. Apparently, registering promptly on arrival in my new country a few weeks before the next tax year, cost me a grant. I love the rules. I love to do the right thing. I am always rewarded for doing the right thing.

https://medium.com/illumination/uk-pandemic-grants-for-the-self-employed-470cc53ee64b

['Karen Madej']

2020-07-06 10:07:33.986000+00:00

['Self Employed', 'Life Lessons', 'Taxes', 'Covid 19', 'Freelancers']

The George Floyd Protests Are Part of an American Revolution

Why This Moment Feels Different What marks these protests is their longevity and camaraderie Protesters in Oakland, California, on June 3. Photo: Philip Pacheco/Getty Images In the last week, I have been party to a dozen or so eye flushes. It’s a simple act, using a water bottle to clear someone’s eyes of chemical irritants after they’ve been tear-gassed. The volume of eye flushes signals, for me, a rapid development in protesting — I performed only two eye flushes all of last year. There are people in my city (Columbus, Ohio) and likely in yours, too, who are attending their first protest and performing their first eye flush on the same day. All across the U.S., protests are being organized. In the days since George Floyd was murdered by the Minneapolis Police Department, there have been demonstrations in all 50 states. More than 300 cities have erupted in protest, with the National Guard now deployed throughout nearly half the country. Protesters across the nation are in the streets demanding justice, and I am one of them. Because of this influx of new comrades, the way information is shared around protests has fundamentally shifted. No longer can organizers rely on static channels of communication to share details about a march or rally. Because the core of the movement is by its very nature decentralized, organizers who otherwise might have painstakingly planned out every possibility are pushed into a new position: that of working with the totally unknown and unpredictable in real-time. We are now engaged in a movement based in action as opposed to one that is meticulously planned and centrally messaged. This evolution is represented perhaps best by what I have seen countless times in the last few days: the person who is handed the megaphone and leads an impromptu and engaging series of chants on the fly. We don’t have anybody singularly in charge, and that is part of why it’s working. I was naïve and not at all well versed in security culture at the time of my first high-risk protest in 2017. The people showing up today, a large number of them teenagers and young adults, are not. Where I once didn’t know to mask up to avoid identification, the people showing up at the statehouse every day this week have been careful, covering their faces not only due to the pandemic but to avoid detection. While I sent unencrypted messages and left location tracking on through my phone, I see meme accounts showing new protesters how to avoid these missteps all over my Instagram feed. I was radicalized alone in my living room in high school, watching as George Zimmerman was acquitted in the murder of Trayvon Martin. I was young, Black, and filled with anger and energy, but I couldn’t find a place in the movement for another 18 months. It seemed opportunities to engage in direct action were few and far between at the time. Now we are watching teenagers and their parents alike being radicalized and finding their voice all at once in the street en masse. We won’t be discouraged. As my comrades keep reminding me, this moment is a marathon, not a sprint. Police departments around the country are being forced to diversify tactics and appeal to flawed ideas of shared humanity. They are taking a knee with gullible protesters and posting videos from their official Facebook pages showing them high-fiving civilians, trying to salvage a reputation of protector that they never earned in the first place. Less publicized is the extreme violence they are enacting on protesters, in many cases just minutes after they finish their faux-solidarity photo ops. While police departments are not posting the second half of this story, the aftereffects of their actions linger. The tear gas, pepper spray, and rubber, wooden, and in some cases live bullets they fire at us. I cannot imagine a more effective strategy to quickly and fully disillusion people of any misplaced trust they had in America’s police departments than cops alternating between hugging them and spraying them with chemical weapons. Yet we won’t be discouraged. As my comrades keep reminding me, this moment is a marathon, not a sprint. The movement requires pacing and working in shifts for the long haul. We are in one of those precious periods of time Vladimir Lenin spoke of where decades of events are packed into mere weeks. Even as a sprawling movement encompassing so many, we are connected in power, in the streets, and online. As we stand together in the street, on the statehouse lawn, at the White House, kettled in on bridges, on the coasts, along the Rust Belt, toe-to-toe with cops armed to the teeth in riot gear, it would be remiss to call each moment unique. What’s unique is the ubiquity of these moments. The revolution will not be defined by singular moments and perfectly timed photos that showcase and define the struggle. We are all defining it now, in tandem. As we watch a revolution unfold before us, there is no foolproof map to locate how to best move forward. And while this is often the case, what I think distinguishes this moment is its longevity — it’s stretching out long enough for us to firmly seize control. We are directing the narrative and forcing the world to acknowledge the humanity of George Floyd and the rest of Black America with it. Unreserved participation across the country and globe in a movement that is anything but fleeting has brought us to an inflection point. The energy buzzing in the air today is that of the unknown. How rare it is to face the unknown in a country that has for my entire life seemed so dead set on repeating its own worst missteps. How lucky we are to face this unknown, well equipped as we are for it.

https://gen.medium.com/the-george-floyd-protests-are-part-of-an-american-revolution-2332fca7a3b3

['Mia Santiago']

2020-06-05 12:44:01.858000+00:00

['Politics', 'Society', 'Protests', 'Race', 'Social Justice']

Writing copy for an industry you know nothing about

Breaking into an industry you know nothing about, can be unnerving. I know, because I’ve had to do it many times. But it does get easier over time. Here are some ways that have helped me write copy for new industries. 1. Remember that it’s not your job to be the industry expert As a copywriter, your line of expertise is selling. It’s not your job to know more about the industry than your client does. And really, if that were the case, it would not bode well for the client. Understand that copy is the result of bridging your expertise in selling, with your client’s specialised knowledge in their respective industry. This doesn’t mean you don’t have to do your research. You still need to cross-reference what you know with what is working in that industry in terms of the approach and implementation of copy. 2. Cherish the opportunity because it makes you better Yes, specialisation can be an asset. But diversification makes you a far superior copywriter. Why? Because it allows you to cross-pollinate knowledge from across industries. As you expose yourself to different verticals, you’ll start to notice “holes” in the way they do things. True, established practices are there for a reason — because they’ve been tried and tested, and found effective. But these practices can also act as blinders to new ways of doing things. If you can enrich your copy with external ideas, and make it work better, it will give you and your client an important competitive advantage. 3. Consult with your client Your client has been in the industry for a while. They’ve tried things and had their fair share of hits and misses. Use that knowledge. Get your client to tell you about what they’ve tried, what has worked, what had failed, and what they’ve learned from these experiments. Most of the time, you’ll find that the failures were due to minor missteps that can easily be fixed. Use that to your advantage. Propose the fix and then test again. If you get a positive result, it’s a fantastic ROI because the fix required minimal effort. And if it flops, no harm is done because the opportunity cost was minimal. 4. Build a swipe file While it’s not your job to be the industry expert, it’s definitely your responsibility to know as much as possible about how copy works in said industry. Your first step in that direction is to find out what others are doing. Build a swipe file with copy from that industry. Sign up to email lists of competitors. Read their blogs. Keep detailed notes on CTAs (calls to action), copy length, build-up, sequence, format, pain points, selling points — anything you notice. Remember that successful copy is built on elements that already exist in the world. It’s like making music. A great tune uses the exact same elements as a crappy tune. It’s the assembly that makes the difference. Do you have anything to add? I’ve been doing this for almost two decades, but not a day goes by that I don’t discover a new or better way of doing something. So even if you’re just starting out, you might know something that I don’t. If that’s the case, I’d love to hear it. Seriously. Leave a comment and tell me.

https://medium.com/heycopywriter/writing-copy-for-an-industry-you-know-nothing-about-b2e0a319ec04

['Cedric Debono']

2021-04-01 09:19:26.588000+00:00

['Freelance', 'Freelancing', 'Copywriter', 'Clients', 'Copywriting']

Jean Nassif Launched New Tip In 2022 | How To Run Real Estate Business In 2021–2022

Real estate development is one of the most profitable small enterprises in the present landscape. A knowledgeable business-minded person willing to take moderate risks can earn a fortune that will allow them to live a happy and satisfying life. Here are three insights from Toplace Group’s Jean Nassif to guide anyone interested in buying properties and establishing a real estate empire just like he did. Impossible to Build Rome in a Single Day Maybe you own a few properties, you’re paying rent, or perhaps you’ve just completed a house flip and are ready to go full-time. Or just maybe, you want to start building a real estate portfolio and generating all of your income from it. As Jean Nassif often says, Rome was not built in a single day. As a successful real estate developer, Jean Nassif continuously reinvests the profits from his previous projects. He believes in having a solid foundation (figuratively and literally) to build rather than attempting to fund new initiatives with excessive debt. By experience, Jean Nassif knows that developing effective properties takes extensive time and research effort. It becomes even more essential to take your time regarding a wide range of legislation, construction management, and property administration. For Jean Nassif, going slow and steady harnesses your ability to accomplish these things optimally. It leads us to Jean Nassif’s following insights: improving your communication skills and understanding the market inside out. Improve your communication abilities. Most of the time, real estate developers believe that when it comes to purchasing or selling real estate, “location” is the only keyword that matters. However, for Jean Nassif, a successful real estate developer must possess essential business leadership qualities, the most important of which is communication. Jean Nassif has put in a lot of effort to create a vibrant work culture at Toplace Group. Everyone from top to bottom is evident in the organizational vision and the measures they need to take to achieve their objectives. All of this is considered internal communication. It’s just as vital to have a clear understanding as it is to articulate it to others. As such, Jean Nassif views Real estate development as a team effort that requires effective collaboration with bureaucrats, investors, contractors, attorneys, and renters. It’s not only about being able to talk and write effectively; it’s also about being structured enough. In doing so, you will ensure to not leave any of your coworkers in the dark about vital information. According to Jean Nassif, a successful developer should quickly identify their strategy for communication with various partners mentioned above. Also, Bear in mind, marketing and advertising is only one kind of communication for a real estate developer. Jean Nassif has created an appealing brand with Toplace Group that he promotes regularly. He also formulates consistent marketing strategies. However, Jean Nassif also recommends disseminating your message far and wide continuously. These three pointers capture everything it takes to be a successful real estate developer. Using one’s intelligence while improving their learning, thinking, and communication skills is the key to financial success. And, what could be more fulfilling than being wealthy via intelligent decision-making? Take control of your market by understanding it Your market is the place where you’ll want to build the properties. Jean Nassif maintains that you can eventually select multiple cities close to each other or go further. However, every time you move to a new town, there are new restrictions, possible purchasers, competitors, and so on. So, understanding the market dynamics is the key to building a sustainable real estate business. Jean Nassif deems it as vital to design at least a preliminary approach before going into the nitty-gritty of knowing the demographics of a county or city, the general availability of properties, property pricing, and valuations. For Jean Nassif, it’s as much about committing to a market, niche, and strategy as it is about finding a good bargain when it comes to choosing a location. The only way to establish this kind of niche strategy is to understand everything you can about the market environment and all the aspects that shape the market. https://30seconds.com/jeannassif/ https://www.crunchbase.com/person/jean-nassif-jean-nassif-toplace https://twitter.com/JeanNassifWork https://www.f6s.com/jean-nassif

https://medium.com/@jeannassif/jean-nassif-launched-new-tip-in-2022-how-to-run-real-estate-business-in-2021-2022-b090a554ee02

['Jean Nassif', 'Jean Nassif Toplace']

2021-12-30 11:09:19.851000+00:00

['Real Estate Investments', 'Real Estate News', 'Jean Nassif Toplace', 'Real Estate', 'Jean Nassif']

How Germany is Building a Quantum Computing Ecosystem

How Germany is Building a Quantum Computing Ecosystem Qiskit Follow Jun 15 · 9 min read By Ryan F. Mandelbaum, Sieglinde Pfaendler, and Fabio Scafirimuto This year, Germany kicked off its Roadmap Quantencomputing to lay the groundwork for a German-based quantum computing ecosystem. The country has earmarked two billion euros in order to see the vision through. But building a quantum computing landscape is about more than just hardware; it requires collaboration between research institutions, industry, government, and most importantly, the community. Germany’s quantum community is an extremely vibrant space. Quantum research is underway at many of the country’s universities, companies, and research institutes under the umbrella of Fraunhofer-Gesellschaf, DLR, the Max Planck Society, the Helmholtz Association institutes, and others. While no single story could fully capture the complexity of the German quantum field, these efforts are all guiding the country toward a singular goal: to become a European quantum leader. “Germany has a history of being the machine shop of the world,” said Stefan Filipp, professor in Physics at the Technical University of Munich and Director of the Walther-Meißner-Institut of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences. “There’s a feeling that we need to continue this for other technologies to come — such as quantum computing.” Among the most notable efforts include the Roadmap Quantencomputing, providing a core goal for the country’s quantum research: Build a German quantum computer in the next five years. Meanwhile, Fraunhofer has recently purchased exclusive access to Europe’s first IBM Quantum System One, providing quantum hardware access to thousands across the country. Germany’s quantum vision extends to Europe as a whole, as researchers work with key European partners on strategic projects such as OpenSuperQ to build an open source quantum computer for anyone around the continent. Meanwhile, the Qiskit team is working to foster and support the community growing around these developments. A Central Vision: The Roadmap Quantencomputing Back in 2020, as part of an overall economic stimulus, the German government first announced that they had earmarked money devoted to developing a quantum computer while creating a roadmap to build a broader quantum ecosystem. German legislators noticed that large international companies and other countries were building technology and communities, and wanted to ensure that Germany, and Europe more generally, could have a stronger stake in the technology’s development. The roadmap serves a few important purposes, explained Filipp, one of the roadmap committee’s co-chairs. Not only does it identify problems and map out technology development, but it also charts a way to attract more quantum expertise to Germany and to Europe as a whole. And, of course, it provides a strategy for workforce training of students, technicians, and other experts. It was clear to the roadmap committee that no single large player could lead the way alone, so the roadmap prioritizes link building between various segments of the quantum space. Filipp explained that the roadmap calls for the designation of centralized regional hubs — Centers of Competence — to form networks between universities, research institutions, and industry partners. The roadmap recommends that research should focus around technology that has reached a certain level of maturity, such as superconducting, trapped ion, and cold atom quantum computers. However, it also recommends that basic research into other hardware architectures continues, too. The roadmap committee specifically called out the importance of fostering commercial development and technology transfer, including ensuring that companies can buy components from local businesses, rather than importing them. “We need to identify players that can actually commercialize the product,” said Filipp. Hubs will focus on creating guidelines to determine what can be built locally and what should be imported. Filipp also foresees direct information exchange between industry and research in order to further strengthen these links. Opening Quantum to Thousands of Beginners As Germany works to build a quantum computer of its own in the next few years, Chancellor Angela Merkel, herself holder of a quantum chemistry doctorate degree, was impressed to see IBM’s progress on their quantum computers, and decided that the country should stake a larger claim in the field as quickly as possible. That was the beginning of the relationship between Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft and IBM, with the aim to bring the first IBM Quantum System One to Europe. Fraunhofer, Europe’s leading application-oriented research organization with more than 80 research facilities, including 75 institutions across Germany, has had exclusive access to an IBM Quantum System One operated by IBM at the Ehningen location in Baden-Württemberg since January of 2021. The common goal between Fraunhofer and IBM is to stimulate and support German research in the applied quantum computing field overall. The initiative benefits Fraunhofer researchers hoping to develop algorithms to solve practical problems, of course, but Fraunhofer also offers system access to external partners such as universities and companies who may be interested in this technology for civil research and education, yet don’t have a large budget to experiment with it at the moment, explained Prof. Dr. Oliver Ambacher from the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Solid State Physics (IAF). Fraunhofer aims device access at beginners who want to find out more about quantum computing, as well as experts who are looking for partners on research projects or who want to develop their own quantum algorithms. Access requires a usage contract, but use is on the basis of a monthly ticket. This gives partners the greatest possible flexibility without a long-term commitment. As Fraunhofer’s purpose is to bridge research with industry, the availability of the device to German companies and researchers will hopefully help further the development of the German quantum ecosystem. Fraunhofer’s IBM Quantum System One Fraunhofer’s IBM Quantum System One also serves as an example of the Quantum Roadmap’s Center of Competence model in action. The federal state of Baden-Württemberg helped fund the device as well as some of the projects. At the moment, seven Fraunhofer Institutes and a host of universities and companies are getting involved in these quantum computing projects, with even more Institutes and organizations involved in the Fraunhofer Competence Network Quantum Computing. Scientists have already had the chance to work with the IBM Quantum System One. The current projects focus on quantum optimization with resilient algorithms, software engineering of industrial quantum applications, and algorithms. Applications include new simulation approaches for materials in future energy storage systems, the optimization of financial portfolios, and the improvement of stability parameters in critical energy supply infrastructures, said Ambacher. He also thinks that the system can help build trust and important relationships for the betterment of quantum computing overall. An Open Quantum Computer For All of Europe German scientists are thinking beyond Germany, and are working to create an open quantum system for the whole of Europe. Frank Wilhelm-Mauch, Professor of Physics at Saarland University, hopes to offer European researchers access to a quantum computer that itself is a research and development tool to help users truly understand the depths of quantum hardware via the OpenSuperQ project, based at the Forschungszentrum Jülich in North Rhine-Westphalia. “The public sector has a unique place in quantum computing to create tools for hardware developers to plug components into a complete machine and test them in this context,” said Wilhelm-Mauch, coordinator of the OpenSuperQ project. “With OpenSuperQ, we can train quantum computer engineers and developers on real hardware.” The OpenSuperQ project started during some earlier German quantum computing ecosystem discussions around 2018, said Wilhelm-Mauch, as a non-commercial option for researchers in Germany and across Europe to experiment on quantum hardware. The group is now constructing a traditional superconducting quantum computer — but it’s more than just an experimental tool. Training engineers who will be able to construct and maintain quantum hardware and components is crucial to the expansion of quantum computing. Wilhelm-Mauch hopes that the OpenSuperQ device can serve as a training ground for those budding engineers. Though its reach is continental, the OpenSuperQ project serves an important role in the German quantum ecosystem as well. The project’s location at Forschungszentrum Jülich is helping to attract and retain local quantum hardware expertise. Plus, through Forschungszentrum Jülich’s JUNIQ (Jülich UNified Infrastructure for Quantum computing) platform, businesses and researchers around Germany have access to both the OpenSuperQ device as well as other quantum hardware. Supporting Quantum in Germany with the Qiskit Community Since the turn of the 20th century, Germany’s scientists have played a significant role in contributing to the fundamental concepts and understanding underlying quantum technology, such as the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle or Planck’s constant. These scientists were strongly networked in education and research on an international scale, and especially with with their German-speaking neighbors in Austria and Switzerland. These countries are famed for their unique education system that ensures a significant supply of practically trained engineers who can convert concepts into robust technological solutions, thus leading to successful innovation through collaboration with industry. The Qiskit community team is working at several levels to engage the quantum computing community in Germany. A large German cohort attends global Qiskit events, such as the Global Summer School, for example. The Qiskit team in Europe has created events targeted to the DACH (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) audience, including our IBM Quantum Fridays seminar series, the Qiskit Hackathon Europe, and several workshops. Qiskit community interns, advocates, and enthusiasts from all over the world allow us to develop a local network of quantum computing expertise. “There are so many opportunities for young people to get into quantum computing and quantum information science that we’re practically flooded with events, conferences and opportunities to connect and network,” said Caroline de Groot, former Qiskit intern and Ph.D student at the Max-Planck-Institute for Quantum Optics. Qiskit also collaborated with universities and Fachhochschulen in Berlin to organize Girls Day for introducing high school girls to STEM topics, in particular to quantum computing. “Girls day was an awesome way to inspire and motivate the quantum computing experts of tomorrow, and to help create an equitable German quantum workforce,” said Isabel Nha Min Le, Qiskit Intern and masters student at RWTH Aachen University. Not only does Qiskit organize events, but it also fosters relationships with local professors and institutions, as this is perhaps the most effective way to develop a local community — building a local network requires teaming up with and between local institutions. Plus, quantum students and developers across Germany have begun to adopt Qiskit as a go-to language for programming quantum computers. History has demonstrated that the shift to an open source mentality leads to an acceleration of innovation and advancement of technology in high-power computing. Learning from this, many in quantum computing have embraced an open source mindset from the start — this is a foundational concept of the Qiskit Community. Get started with Qiskit here! Access Programs for Educators and Researchers The IBM team has developed programs to promote access to real quantum computers for different audiences. For example, the IBM Quantum Educators program provides access to real quantum hardware for educators and lecturers at universities, Fachhochschulen, and high schools that use the free, online Qiskit Textbook in their courses so that their students have access to quantum computers during their teaching sessions without having to deal with long wait times. Those who are interested can submit applications for review. The IBM Quantum Researchers program instead focuses on academic researchers, including postdoctoral researchers and Ph.D students, working on quantum computing research projects that could potentially lead to impactful publications in areas such as the development of new algorithms or improved control of qubit systems. Currently, there are various 5- and 7-qubit systems available for academics enrolled in this program. Additionally, for researchers requiring more advanced systems for their work, IBM offers project-based Access Awards for temporary access to a 16-qubit system. Scientists can apply for the program by submitting a project proposal for a technical and merit review, with the expectation that the award will lead to results that will be shared with the scientific community via a publication or conference presentation. — Thanks to a multitude of efforts, quantum is flourishing in Germany, with an ecosystem built on the country’s leadership and strengths in areas such as basic research and hardware development. The way forward is one rooted in open science and collaboration at academic institutions, supported by the network building and technology transfer efforts of Centers of Competence to ensure that research supports the growth of a quantum business sector, too. This model will hopefully not only make Germany a global quantum leader, but also push the field of quantum computing forward in Europe and in the rest of the world.

https://medium.com/qiskit/how-germany-is-building-a-quantum-computing-ecosystem-1a2a01821944

[]

2021-06-16 20:03:43.946000+00:00

['Quantum Computing', 'Germany', 'Qiskit', 'Emerging Technology', 'Open Source']

Review of the Hello Baby HB178 Audio Baby Monitor

Review of the Hello Baby HB178 Audio Baby Monitor Image courtesy the author. Lots of people looking for a baby monitor for their nursery look at devices with built-in video-or try to repurpose an IP camera, like the Nest Camera from Google. The issue with standalone video monitors, though, is that they’re relatively easy to hack, the video is usually low quality, and you often have to charge the devices’ portable screens every night. With a Nest camera, you usually have to pull up the video feed on your phone to check in on your nursery. In many cases, though, you don’t actually need video from your nursery-you just need to be able to hear what’s happening there, so you tell if your baby is crying, your toddler has gotten up and needs help, etc. If you just need a live audio feed from your nursery (or another room in your house), the Hello Baby HB178 is a great option. The HB178 comes with two units-a transmitter and receiver. You install the transmitter in your child’s room or nursey, and plug it into the wall. It then pairs with a receiver, which you place in your room (plugged into the wall) or carry around the house (with an optional battery). The receiver has a volume setting, as well as an indicator light to show how much sound is coming from your nursery (the device indicates five levels of sound with color-coded LEDs). From a technical perspective, the HB178 works like a traditional audio baby monitor, but with some major upgrades over the ubiquitous walkie-talkie like devices from the 1980s and 1990s. For starters, the device uses digital audio, so the sound is crystal clear-there’s no crackly static in the background to deal with, or weird phenomena like hearing audio from passing aircraft (which sometimes happened with 1990s-era audio monitors). The audio feed is also encrypted, so people outside your home can’t spy on the sound in your nursery (or so Hello Baby claims). The HB178 also does a great job of suppressing sound when nothing’s actually happening in your nursery. That means you can have the volume turned up to max, and you won’t hear a lot of background noise or static. I usually set my B178 to nearly full volume. That way, when there actually is sound coming in, it’s quite loud and will definitely wake you up if you’re sleeping. But if all is quiet, there won’t be any crackling or other background sound to disrupt your sleep. The HB178 is also economical, at around $25 on Amazon as of press time. Another advantage of audio-only transmission is an increased range-the HB178 has an advertised range of 1,000 feet. In practice, I find it’s a bit less than this, but it still has plenty of range to monitor your nursery from across a big house, or even outside in the backyard if you use a battery in the receiver. If you really want to see what’s happening in your nursery, a video monitor is probably a better bet. I find the best overall solution is to pair the HB178 with a Nest camera. I can then immediately hear if anything is happening in the nursery without having to load up my phone to view the Nest cam. But if I hear something I want to see further, I can always pull up the Nest video feed on my phone or Alexa device and take a closer look. If you’re looking for a modern take on the traditional audio baby monitor-or if you’re concerned about security and convenience with video monitors-the Hello Baby HB178 could be a great fit.

https://medium.com/do-it-yourself-home-automation/review-of-the-hello-baby-hb178-audio-baby-monitor-232a745cd156

['Thomas Smith']

2020-12-01 20:14:56.119000+00:00

['Nursery', 'Product Review', 'Parenting', 'Baby Monitor', 'Electronics']

People Don’t Know What They’re Talking About (Iran, the Military, Misinformation, and a Draft)

I watched in disbelief as KP opened the glass Budweiser bottle with nothing more than his teeth and then spit the bottle cap to the floor. Seeing my jaw slack in awe, he grinned. “Let’s see you do that, Yank!” My parents spent thousands on orthodontic work and I’d already chipped a tooth in college, so I politely declined, fawning reverence instead. KP’s wide smile increased, and he handed me a Bud, which I opened with my wedding ring. Not as impressive, but he inclined his head in acknowledgement. “So you were homeless after the war?” I asked continuing our conversation. KP nodded while other people lounging on the couch listened in. “Was a bridge troll for a stint after I got back from Iraq.” I screwed up my face. “How did you end up playing bass for a band on Warped Tour then?” KP’s story was stranger than fiction. He’d enlisted in in the British Army, been an intelligence soldier in Iraq, and then came home to struggle with readjustment to civilian life. He ended up homeless and lived under a bridge. Eventually, he ended up in “university” (college) and was now working on a Masters in Astrophysics. He had also joined a punk rock band that got a slot on the 2013 traveling music festival, Vans Warped Tour. And that’s how — ironically — we met. We were bus mates toward the end of the festival tour and both fellow Iraq War veterans. At the time, I was working for a geopolitical intelligence firm following my departure from the military. I’d ended up on Vans Warped Tour by volunteering for a two week assignment in what would become my future job once I left the intel world. Having another soldier on the bus — let alone a British one — became comforting when I knew no one initially. KP and I ended up spending several evenings talking about our past lives, bonding over shared service. This evening however, our topic of conversation veered into the initial invasion of Iraq, and KP asked a question most soldiers never broach. “Why Iraq?” He asked in his thick, British accent. “We had assessments and intelligence about the possibility of invading Iran. Plus, you and I both know the WMDs were a load of bollocks.” The Iraq War had been a subject of several debates in my office. Employees were a hodgepodge of different ethnicities, backgrounds, and beliefs. Devout Jews worked in the same cubicles as Palestinians. Neocons worked with bleeding heart liberals, and former spooks teased those of us who were ex-military. By most accounts everyone should have hated each other, but got along and put aside their ideologies to produce analyses and piece together geopolitical puzzles. Iraq, however, was a disconnected series of facts and conjecture among each employee, especially those of us who had served there. KP’s revelation about a potential invasion of Iran wasn’t the first time I’d heard it mentioned, but this was the first time I’d heard it from a Brit. “The U.S. foreign policy and the Middle East is… complex,” I stated emphasizing the last word. When KP pressed for more, I launched into a long diatribe about the history, culture, and background beginning first with Afghanistan. Much of my views since that day on the bus haven’t changed, but understanding U.S. foreign policy, warfare, and propaganda is paramount to discerning the recent tension between Iran and the United States. Currently, everyone’s walking around like a cultural, military, or geopolitical expert when the reality is much more nuanced. So if you want to understand fact from fiction and history from misinformation, I suggest you keep reading. I. The beginnings: Afghanistan Most everyone in my former office agreed on why we invaded Afghanistan. Having fought there in early 2003, the answer was simple: the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. But the aftermath of the initial invasion is what many in the public missed, and the debacle that is now Afghanistan has direct implications to the Iraq War and current Iranian tensions. After the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001 the United States needed to crush al Qaeda to avoid a repeat of attacks on our home soil. Afghanistan became the punching bag because of terrorist training camps throughout the country and close ties with Osama bin Laden, who moved back and forth between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Not wanting to deal with a nuclear power (Pakistan), Afghanistan was enough to move the U.S. eye of Sauron firmly into the crosshairs. The problem, however, was that we lost the initiative to crush al Qaeda and capture bin Laden after the Battle of Tora Bora. This resulted in a destabilization of the area by removing the Taliban from power and setting up a shell government. As the Washington Post’s Afghanistan Papers have laboriously pointed out, not six months after the invasion, Donald Rumsfeld knew the campaign was becoming a quagmire. There was a complete inability to provide a clear goal, let alone figure out how to stabilize the country. Instead, Afghanistan got sold in a myriad of different ways to the public. From cross border ops, crushing terrorism, democracy, drugs wars, or a source of wealth in mineral commodities, Afghanistan became a pig wearing lipstick. No matter what way each administration sold it, they should have stuck to reading history books instead. Every invading force in the history of Afghanistan has left licking their wounds. Alexander the Great was the first to try and was met with disastrous results. The historian, Plutarch, compared Afghan tribesmen to a hydra-headed monster — as soon as Alexander cut off one head, three more would grow back in its place. The British would also meet disaster and were expelled from the country within fours years the first time they tried to invade (and within three months the third time). Most people can only recall the Soviet-Afghan War prior to the U.S. invasion and that’s only because of the movie Rambo III. Even the Russians saw Afghanistan as a lost cause and left in 1989, leading to the Geneva Accords. Then there’s the United States. We walked in without a plan and no means to quell an increasingly hard to find al Qaeda (of which many fled to the Middle East or Chechnya). Once our campaign lost public interest and went poorly, we dug in for the long haul. Until we came up with another idea. II. The Iraq War, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Soleimani The Iraq War became a centerpiece to U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East once politicians and generals realized Afghanistan wasn’t going as planned. Here, however, is where a lot of analysts and experts deviate over just how the hell the war happened or why. One view postulated within my workplace revolved around a source inside the National Security Council (NSC) who stated that after the failure of Tora Bora, top generals advised President George W. Bush to drop thirteen nuclear warheads on Osama bin Laden’s location based on intel reports they’d received. Bush was apparently sane enough to decide that was a bad idea. Then, because Iraq sits strategically between Iran and Saudi Arabia, the U.S pressured — well, blackmailed — the Saudis and Iranians into helping root out terrorist cells by encouraging jihadis to come fight in Iraq and get destroyed. That aim would be largely accomplished within the first year. Afterwards, we fired the Iraqi Army and created an insurgency. I hold a different variant of the view listed above. Because of Iraq’s location, I believe — and take this with a grain of salt — the country became the lynch pin between Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Afghanistan to destabilize the Middle East and get our enemies to fight each other while avoiding another attack on U.S. soil. The religious sects of Islam within Iraq, Iran, and Saudi Arabia helped created this target rich environment once we invaded. To understand how that’s a huge piece of the puzzle, you must understand the Sunni and Shia divide. I’ll let my close friend and geopolitical expert Peter Zeihan explain with an excerpt from his book The Absent SuperPower: “Citizens of Iran predominately practice Shia Islam, while the Saudis follow a militant, puritanical strain of Sunni Islam. Clerical interpretation on both sides labels the other as heretical. Saudi Arabia holds Holy Cities of Mecca and Medina, locales sacred to all Muslims regardless of denomination. Riyadh has on several occasions denied Iranians access. Globally the Sunni outnumber the Shia 6:1, which encourages major Sunni powers (like Saudi Arabia) to claim to speak for Islam as a whole; but within the Persian Gulf the Shia outnumber the Sunnis, which encourages Iran to claim to run the region.” Because Iraq is predominately Shia but was ruled by the Sunnis under Saddam Hussein, destabilizing the country attracted the ire and interest of both countries once the Shia’s began to consolidate power under the new government. The Saudis enjoy having American troops in the area because it focuses their regional nemesis, Iran, on America as opposed to them. Saudi Arabia has no real military to speak of, but what they do have is a never-ending checkbook and connections with the U.S. Because political Islam hadn’t existed to that point, both the Shia and Sunni factions had to respond to Iraq which led to a lot of dysfunction and — with time — the Arab Spring and a full blown crisis in the Middle East. From the American perspective, we sat back and watched the in-fighting, covering it in our news cycle but also an ocean away and safe from the unrest (or another terrorist attack). The lynch pin move worked to a degree, but also gave rise to the Islamic State and Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. Insurgencies rose and fell keeping the turmoil alive, all the while enlisting a lot of angry young militants. Throughout much of the Iraq War, the Iranians had their hands in training and equipping said fighters, particularly Shia backed militias. Spearheading these militias was the elite Quds Force, led by Qasem Soleimani. Soleimani’s track record reads like half spy/half sociopath. His teams engineered the U.S. military’s most devastating adversary of the Iraq War — the Explosively Formed Penetrator (EFP). The EFP would slice through armored vehicles like a hot knife through butter, and unlike the IED, we could never combat the device. If you got a call about a vehicle hit by an EFP, you knew there were casualties. Outside of Iraq, Soleimani orchestrated attacks ranging from Thailand to Nairobi, and was also the puppet master behind Assad’s factions in the civil war raging in Syria. However, his crème de la crème came in 2011 when he tried to hire a Mexican drug cartel to blow up the Saudi Ambassador to the United States while in Washington D.C. That pissed off the Saudis and the U.S. who began making calls for his assassination. Ever since, we’ve kept a close eye on the man responsible for the most American deaths during the 2010s. Oddly, when a U.S. drone killed Soleimani a few days after an attack on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Soleimani was idolized in the media as more a politician than mastermind of chaos and death. This is because no one seemed to care to review the past decade and passed misinformation as fact. III. Misinformation and mind control Beginning with the end of Bush’s presidential term, the U.S. slowly began to withdraw troops from Iraq. Obama continued the troop withdraw, but also carried out much of the Bush administrations foreign policy, but in the form of an absurd amount of drone strikes. At the end of Obama’s presidency, he authorized 542 drone strikes that killed an estimated 3,797 people, including 324 civilians. He reportedly told an aide: “Turns out I’m really good at killing people. Didn’t know that was gonna be a strong suit of mine.” Democrats shy away from this portion of Obama’s legacy, but the fact remains — the use of drone strikes got their feet under Obama. He used them as an effective check-and-balance while also keeping good on the promise of withdrawing troops. Given that the American populace had lost their stomach for war after seemingly endless conflict, politicians began moving the U.S. away from being Team America: World Police. This was even one of the campaign points Trump ran on and has carried out. Even with recent troop buildups, U.S. deployments in the region are down 75% from their peak. America wants to wash their hands of Iraq and the Middle East, even despite recent events. But with Soleimani’s death, the media cycle and social media pundits began pushing for war. One side encouraged it, while the other side despised the idea. Both, however, began to plant misinformation that it was inevitable. The U.S. has never had a good relationship with Iran. Since the Iranian hostage crisis of 1979 when 52 American diplomats and citizens were held hostage for 444 days, we get trigger happy when people touch our embassies (see also: Benghazi). Since 1979 it’s been a constant battle with Iran ranging from “death to America” to sanctions to nuclear talks. Iran and the U.S. both have sat down at the table to negotiate only to promptly leave multiple times. But with the U.S. withdrawing from the global order, we’ve let a lot of the bullshit slide. As volatile as Trump’s ego is, consider the following: Iran shot down a $200 million dollar drone in July 2019. They attacked Saudi Arabia’s petroleum facilities in September 2019. They intervened more in Syria within the past year while also deploying troops to Iraq to crack down on anti-Iranian protests. What was the U.S. response under Trump? Nothing. Nada. Zilch. But the embassy attack in Iraq? That was a bridge too far, and Trump responded by killing one of Iran’s head honchos with a clear message to back off. Iran, seeking to restore a bruised ego, responded with a missile strike that was largely splashy and attention grabbing, but not meant to be effective or further push a conflict. There were no casualties, some rockets didn’t even explode, and one missed by 20 miles. But once the headlines hit, everyone collectively lost their mind. Public figures like Michael Moore, Rose McGowan, and Sean Hannity were suddenly experts on the Middle East, foreign policy, war, and Iran. One is a filmmaker, the other an actor, and the other a right-wing puppet and parrot. It’s bizarre that, in regard to foreign policy and intelligence, any person with an opinion appears reliable as opposed to expert analysis. We don’t let truck drivers pilot space shuttles and pastors don’t let atheists preach sermons, but hey, the chick from Charmed is totally reliable, right? Much of what we see on social media and certain news sites is misinformation and propaganda, and it’s being used — just like what I proposed happened with Iraq and the Middle East — to keep us fighting each other. In fact, media sites and social media have stolen their tactics from the U.S. military. During my time in the military, I spent most of it under the Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Command. Civil Affairs soldiers are cultural experts and help minimize civilian interference on the battlefield while gathering intel and helping advance a commander’s objectives. PSYOP soldiers help influence the emotions, motives, objective reasoning, and behavior of foreign audiences. These two sets of soldiers often work hand-in-hand. During my time in Iraq and Afghanistan, we were inseparable. Because we’re both under the same command, there’s a lot of collaboration and learning about the others job. I first noticed how we were using the PSYOP playbook because I’d read over the manual and seen it in play overseas. The PSYOP training manual alone states that “media and propaganda may be used to influence the will of the people and key leaders.” Or consider this gem about how to choose a target audience: Identify groups and individuals that can accomplish and support Psychological Operations objectives Understand the motivations for target audience behavior Identify potential vulnerabilities PSYOP can use to influence behavior Develop a PSYOP argument and the recommended actions to influence target audience behavior. Sound familiar? It should, because everyone from your Facebook buddy stating Trump-can-do-no-wrong-I-love-him to your aunt who thinks the-world-is-burning-and-it’s-all-Trump’s-fault is playing directly into these objectives by media conglomerates. They’ve been PSYOP’ed. Which is what happened with this whole Soleimani situation. People became so misinformed they thought a draft was coming back and crashed the Selective Service website. Right wing news sites began to bang the war gavel and left wing sites began to imply we’d have WWIII within the next week. Social media only exacerbated the problem when everyone became a soapbox expert. Instead, here’s the reality of the situation. Trump used a drone strike made popular by his predecessor. Neither during Obama’s presidency nor under Trump’s has there yet to be oversight on the use of drones, and it’s only gotten worse. Using a program that was already popular as opposed to actual soldiers on the ground was a mitigated risk. Soleimani was on terrorist watch lists and has killed numerous civilians (and not just Americans) since the 1990s. When Iran fired back — more a propaganda move to show their constituents they weren’t weak — they did so with an underwhelming show of force knowing the U.S. tolerance for horseshit is low. Trump, surprisingly, didn’t flip out, claimed all is well, and let the missile strike slide. As much as it irks me to say — because I find Trump to be a buffoon — this tactic worked to America’s advantage. Considering every general worth their salt has resigned or been fired, this is somewhat shocking. While the incident appears to have blown over, the question people are still wondering about is whether this could still lead to war? IV. The military, future war, and a draft Shooting you straight, a war could still happen. Given that both Iran and America have seemed to go their separate ways though, my bet is that it seems unlikely even despite the recent tensions. Then again, U.S. troop withdrawal and future scuffles largely depend on Saudi Arabia. Were a war to break out with Iran, I think the Saudis would be the ones dragging us back into the fold. Remember that the Saudis and Iranians hate each other, and Iran is more the military might than the Saudis are. If we withdraw from the Middle East for good, then the Saudis are back to providing their own security and worrying about Iran’s intentions. Keeping Iran and the U.S. fighting each other is a win for Saudi Arabia, and they have the financial means to back terrorist cells — which they’ve done in the past — to draw America right back into the fray. Is it an asshole move? Absolutely. But that’s what most country’s foreign policy is: creating a series of prickish moves to ensure their agenda is the one going into effect. But the other question still looms: if war breaks out given this hypothetical situation, would there be a draft as people fear? We’re engaged in the longest running war in U.S. history, but there’s not been a draft. Repeated deployments over the past eighteen years have been borne by less than 1% of the U.S. population. Years ago, the military transitioned to an “all-volunteer force” with the assumption being that enacting a draft would take place only if a large scale conflict (think a World War) were to take place. That’s yet to happen and we have a new batch of young soldiers with no deployments. Most of the old breed, like myself and others, have gotten out of the military or retired. To give you some perspective, had I stayed in, I would have retired last year. Of those I deployed with, I only know of four still serving. Now when I go to military installations, the vast majority of soldiers I see are what we call in Army lingo “slick sleeves.” These are soldiers who do not have combat patches, indicating they’ve never been deployed to a combat environment. Thus, with a new batch of soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines with little to no combat experience you have no need for a draft. But even then, the U.S. strategy at the moment is still withdrawal, and getting kicked out of Iraq only helped accomplish that. Here’s the other thing about the military people misunderstand. Just because you enlisted doesn’t mean you’ll see combat if you deploy. You’re more likely to be poisoned (1 in 53 chance) than see combat. That’s because of the 7.3 percent of living Americans who have served in the military, roughly ten percent have seen combat. To fight a war, there’s a lot of logistics and planning that has to take place which accounts for the vast majority of jobs in the military. But when Americans hear the word “Iraq veteran” or “Afghan veteran” they assume the person in question was running around the desert like John Rambo when they may have lived and swam in Saddam’s palace, played grab ass, and punched a keyboard all day. WWII Marine Corps veteran, EB Sledge (no relation that I know of) found this to be the case after World War II. When he returned home, he discovered that, to the people of his hometown, “a veteran was a veteran — all were the same, whether one man had survived the deadliest combat or another had pounded a typewriter while in uniform.” While 11% of the population served in WWII, only a rough third saw combat. Thus when people fear about their sons being drafted and dying on foreign soil, I tell their parents to have them enlist as a mail clerk or some other sublime job should it happen. V. What’s the point of all this, man? The point is that people have a due diligence to become informed and responsible citizens, who seek reliable sources of information. When fear and hysteria rule the airwaves the results only lead to further division and calamity. We saw the direct implications of this after Hurricane Harvey when misinformation sent Texas residents into a gas buying frenzy leading to a very real shortage. Remember that the greatest source of convincing the German people to commit atrocities or turn a blind eye during the Holocaust was media, misinformation, and propaganda. We must learn from history, or be ruined by it once more.

https://benjaminsledge.medium.com/people-dont-know-what-they-re-talking-about-iran-the-military-misinformation-and-a-draft-b1f69d8434f9

['Benjamin Sledge']

2020-01-15 04:02:42.471000+00:00

['Iran', 'Politics', 'Military', 'History', 'War']

The Difference Makers

Photo Credit: João Jesus In the first six months of 2020 I progressed professionally far past what I struggled to do in my career over the fifteen years prior. What changed? The thing that launched me beyond past failures was not a big dollar investment or major news story or viral social media post. It was a group of people that shared their wisdom, knowledge and skills with me. A Special Group Near the end of 2019 I had decided to test the waters on starting-up a new nonprofit and sent out a message to a number of people about the idea, thinking a few might reply. The response was overwhelming. I got dozens of responses, and many gave critical, sometimes cutting, feedback. However, no matter how tough that was, it was not discouraging, it was genuine, and instead of demoralizing it was fuel to the fire to breakthrough to something great. I reached out to a select group of individuals who replied and had purpose-driven careers in the field I wanted to work in. These people understood the present moment I was in, but also had knowledge of my past and shared in the vision for the future I wanted to create. Their inputs gave me determination to keep improving and iterating on the vision for this new organization. It took longer than I expected, but I finally arrived at something that felt extraordinary. Then momentum started to build. Fueling the Launch First it was seed funding. Next was formalization of the organization, quietly, without any fanfare. Nonprofit 501c3 status was granted in February of 2020, just as the COVID-19 pandemic was starting to hit. In the past moving towards my career goals felt like swimming up against a powerful river current. Now I was in the right place at the right time, being carried downstream. The work would have just been a nice project and not advanced past my individual effort, but if not for another group of people that rallied beside me. The confluence of events around COVID-19 created a spark that brought together like-minded individuals that resonated with the mission of the new organization, to save lives by serving organizations on the frontlines of public health emergencies. Even though we would be entering uncharted territory together during a chaotic time and there was no guarantee of long term stability, the group joined up with dedication. Leaping Forward Within weeks we had a meaningful project off the ground that was being adopted in one city to fight against COVID-19. Then funding came in to scale that impact across the United States. This rapid, early success slingshotted me across the threshold to a place closer to my career goal of breaking significant new ground in social impact than I’ve ever been before. The two groups of supporters, the initial advisers and start-up team had something in common: the ability to empower others to reach their personal goals. It started with them advancing me towards my goal, and now together we have a mission to help public health workers who put their lives at risk to reach towards their best ideas to make the world a healthier, safer place. Thanks to my difference makers, there is no more question if I will reach my career goal, it’s about how many others we can help do the same. New Posts Every Wednesday Older Posts in Series Welcome to the End of Normal — The unprecedented events of 2020 have destroyed every notion of what “normal” means. What comes next? The Harmful Doubt that Hold Us Back — We have very little problem pushing back on the ideas of others but it seems impossible to pursue our own ideas. Why is that? Navigating Broken Systems — Over years of work I had learned how to navigate a broken system. I repeatedly chose a situation that was making me unhappy, simply because I understood it.

https://medium.com/@joeagoada/the-difference-makers-c9ec22c4f44e

['Joseph Agoada']

2020-07-01 12:13:58.127000+00:00

['Mentorship', 'Inspiration', 'Nonprofit', 'Impact', 'Jobs']

A clarion call for food systems transformation

A clarion call for food systems transformation More than 40,000 people from around the world participated in 850 Independent Dialogues in support of the Food Systems Summit being convened on September 23 by the United Nations. The major themes that emerged from those Dialogues have now been published in a Synthesis Report available here. Dialogue participants provided guidance on what is needed and envisioned to transform food systems. Transformation means major, significant, deep, and broad changes beyond piecemeal reforms, incremental change, and narrowly focused projects and programs. Participants spotlighted the importance of ensuring sustainability and strengthening resilience. Sustainability entails humanity and nature thriving together, with resilience as the capacity to regenerate and adapt. Resilience supports sustainability. Here are highlights of other major guiding themes from the Dialogues: · Make equity a priority. Dialogue participants emphasized contributions to equity as a priority criterion for judging food systems solutions. · Treat everyone as a stakeholder in food systems. The call is for everyone to be involved; all hands on deck. · Value diversity & engage inclusively. An extension of treating everyone as a stakeholder is valuing diversity and engaging inclusively which are essential to achieve equity. Dialogue participants emphasized that UN member-state governments will need to be at the forefront in supporting and driving transformation but that all sectors and stakeholders will need to work together with governments toward food system transformation. This will require creating transformative partnerships, synergies, and alliances supported by multistakeholder platforms and networks. Power imbalances will have to be acknowledged and managed. Another major theme was the need to amplify and empower historically excluded voices. Dialogues spotlighted women, Indigenous Peoples, youth, and smallholder farmers and other small-scale producers as needing and deserving special attention and engagement.

https://medium.com/@un-food-systems/a-clarion-call-for-food-systems-transformation-56c60f9df81e

['Un Food Systems Summit']

2021-09-10 14:30:02.779000+00:00

['Resilience', 'United Nations', 'Sustainable Development', 'Food Systems', 'Sdgs']

Best wireless headphones for Netflix and chill 2020

When it comes to headphones, the best products will depend on your personal preferences. Everyone has their own likes and dislikes for headphones, especially for watching TV or movies. From comfort to style, there are so many factors to consider. Instead of simply listing the top three or five headphones available on the market, we have decided to create a “Best of” list, including categories like Best Value, Best Sound, and Best Noise-Cancelling. This way, you are able to choose the features that mean the most to you and make your decision accordingly. To compile our list, we took a look at several data points and determined rankings. We considered reviews, other top-ranking sites, and the realistic availability of each product. Because we live in Singapore, we understand the frustration that comes with finding available products. We’ve made it easier to purchase the headphones you like best throughout the article. Just click on the picture of the product and make your purchase. You don’t have to feel bad about spending your money because you know you will be receiving a quality product. We do feel that it is important to note a common issue with faux leather. Some products on this list incorporate a type of fake leather material that can peel due to humidity. If you live in Singapore, where humidity is unrelenting, the humidity levels may not be suitable for headphones made with this material. The Best All-Around Headphones Let’s hit the ground running with our selection for the Best All-Around headphones. For this category, we’ve chosen the Sony MDRRF995RK. These clock in at a price point around S$350. Features: We feel that the Sony MDRRF995RK is the perfect pair of headphones for those TV chillout moments. It is easy docking, fast to charge, and maintains reasonable battery life. The black colour is simple and elegant, matching most styles. You will never miss out on the experience of using proper wireless headphones for TV again with these headphones. They also offer a really cool voice mode that enhances the voices in your favourite television shows or movies. Finally, you can hear what you want without wondering what all those outside pesky mutterings are all about. We do take note that this pair of headphones is not exactly readily available here in Singapore. We are not sure why the Sony stores here never stock up on the really good stuff coming off their production line. So, if you are not located in Singapore, you may have a better chance of finding this gem of a headphone. If you are in Singapore, we recommend shopping online to find these headphones. The Best Value Headphones Next, let’s take a look at the headphones that provide the best value for your money. We’ve chosen the Avantree HT3189 at the Best Value headphones, clocking in at around S$158.90. Features: Outstanding wireless stereo audio quality Fast stream low latency technology that effectively removes transmission delays Real Audio and video synchronization 3.5mm (&RCA cable) plug that is standard to most audio devices Ultra-soft over the ear pads with an adjustable headband Long working time with up to 40 hours of battery life Avantree is a relatively new brand, especially in Singapore, but many of their headphones have already made it on numerous top ten lists on other review sites. In our experience, new companies tend to overcompensate with their pricing while offering incredible products. The strategy is often used to break into the market and create brand recognition, and we think Avantree has done an impressive job so far. And thankfully, their products are readily available in Singapore. This set of headphones does not come with a docking station, which is one of its few shortcomings. However, it makes up for this flaw by delivering an amazing wireless experience when watching television. These headphones are specifically designed for watching TV or playing video games. The most impressive feature is the long battery life. With 40 hours of battery life, charging can be a weekly thing. Charge your headphones on Sunday night and use them all week long. The Best Sound Quality Headphones For many headphone aficionados, sound quality is the main factor in determining which products to buy. When it comes to the Best Sound Quality, we’ve chosen the Sennheiser RS 195 RF that cost about S$639. Features: The only downside we can find with these headphones is the 18-hour battery life. But, we don’t see that as a big flaw because these headphones come with a docking station and charge wirelessly! You should be able to watch anything you want on a single charge unless you plan on having a Lord of the Rings marathon. Once you’re done, just put it back on the nice pedestal and let it recharge. The docking station can support up to two pairs of headphones at the same time, so you can watch with a friend. These headphones are far from cheap, and the price we found is the recommended retail price. However, you may be able to find these headphones at a discount, taking a few hundred dollars off the cost. It is still a lot of money but worth it if you are able to afford these headphones. The pure sound quality is impressive, and they are much less expensive than buying an entire sound system or an expensive soundbar. Having television headphones in the house is a great investment. You don’t disturb your neighbours and your neighbours cannot disturb you. Your family can sleep in peace and you can watch in peace. The Best Low-Cost Headphones If the price is your biggest factor when purchasing new headphones, we understand your pain. We’ve chosen the AKG Y50BT is the best budget-friendly option at about S$138. Features: Not everyone can afford to drop hundreds of dollars on a new pair of headphones. If you want a pair of quality headphones that won’t break the bank, the AKG Y50BT is your answer. We are beyond impressed at the capabilities of these headphones, especially considering the relatively affordable price. You can enjoy 15 hours of battery life on a single charge, which is a great battery life for Bluetooth headphones. The sound quality is crisp and clear with these headphones, so you do not have to sacrifice your listening experience for an affordable device. The surfaces of these headphones feature a combination of matte and glossy finishes for a sleek look, and the padded earphones and headband are extremely comfortable. These headphones do not come with a docking station, but that doesn’t really surprise us at the price. The Best Earbud Headphones Over-the-ear headphones are not always the favourite choice for every user. Many prefer to enjoy their TV shows and movies with wireless earbuds instead of wearing bulky headphones for hours. We’ve chosen the Sony WF-1000XM3 as the best choice for wireless earbuds at S$273. Features: We love Sony’s WF-1000XM3 earbuds. They provide state-of-the-art sound quality that is enhanced by the noise-cancelling capabilities. The technology used in these earbuds supports sound transmission to the left and right earbuds simultaneously, instead of simply relaying the sound from one earbud to another. The touch controls are intuitive and easy to use, so you can quickly set up your earbuds and enjoy using them. If you use Alexa smart home devices, these headphones can connect with your existing devices. You can access Alexa with your voice to gain information, play music, and more. The earbuds have a battery life of six hours on their own, which is not much compared to other products on this list. However, with the charging case, you can extend the battery life to 24 hours. The Best Noise-Cancellers Headphones While several of the products on this list feature noise-cancelling capabilities, this feature can be very important to some people. We’ve chosen the Bose QuietComfort 35 II at S$482. Features: Bose is one of the kings in the headphones industry, and they do not disappoint with their QuietComfort 35 II headphones. If noise-cancelling capabilities are a deal-breaker for you, these are your best choice. All outside sounds and distractions will be removed from your listening experience, so you can enjoy your TV show or movie uninterrupted. The clear sound is easily enjoyed without annoying background sounds getting in your way. And, we love that the volume optimized EQ provides balanced audio at all volumes. You will have no trouble with the battery life on these headphones because the battery can last up to 20 hours on a single charge. It takes no time at all to set up these headphones and pair them with your device, so you can enjoy high-quality sound almost instantly. The padded earphones are extremely comfortable and the adjustable headband can be altered to work for any listener, not that you will want to share these with anyone else!

https://medium.com/@itblocksg/best-wireless-headphones-for-netflix-and-chill-2020-it-block-it-support-singapore-93b17292932c

['It Block Pte. Ltd.']

2020-03-10 10:52:39.422000+00:00

['Netflix', 'Top', 'Headphones', 'Tech', 'Hardware']

How To Be a Great Photographer (and Maybe Everything Else)

I suck at photography. I take a photo and, to me, it looks like puke. It looks dead. I wish I were better. Chase Jarvis is a great photographer. He’s won all sorts of awards. I wanted to talk to him. So I lied. He asked me if he could interview me for Chase Jarvis Live, his website where he’s interviewed 100s of people. I said ‘yes’ but I had only one motive. I don’t like being interviewed. It feels embarrassing. I don’t think I have anything to teach anyone. I’ve fallen so many times that I’m now broken. I’m ok with that. That’s not what this is about. I went to the interview. There were lights, camera, action. Chase asked, “Who are you?” to get me talking. So I changed direction, “But first, I have to ask you…what can you tell me so that within one hour I can leave here and take the best photo I’ve ever taken?” He laughed. I didn’t want to answer any questions. I wanted to ask. If I can’t listen, I can’t learn. If I am speaking, I can’t listen. If I am answering, I’m not asking. “First find out what your filter is. Do you like taking pictures of people, buildings, nature, whatever.” Easy. “Sad people,” I said. “Ok. Go out on the street. Find someone you feel some sort of connection with before you take their picture. But try to be as close to them as possible.” “How do I get close up though. Won’t that be weird?” “Here’s what you do. Just go and talk to them. Say, ‘I’ve been having a hard time lately with grief. When I saw you I felt an instant connection and felt like you could understand and I would really like to take your picture.’ ” I never thought about talking to them. I always thought of photographs as somehow being taken secretly. “Won’t that make them pose?” “No, you’re building a connection. It’s almost like you’re sharing a story. They will relate to you. You have to get good at connecting with people in ten seconds.” More important than technique. More important than equipment. More important than the angle or the sunlight or the details of the photo was simply the art of connection. Two people connecting can create a work of art. Nothing else. I liked that. People sometimes ask me, “What software do you use to write?” I use Facebook status update. And I make sure I have something to say. After we were finished I went outside and saw a woman that looked interesting. I asked her where she was from. She said Mexico. I asked her since she was from Mexico, what were her feelings about Donald Trump? She said, I’m for Donald Trump. I said, You might be the only Mexican ever who is for Donald Trump. She said, Everyone is the same. I’m sick of the same. Maybe he will do something different. Change is important. Not all change is the same, but I left it at that. I said, show me your tattoo. She had a tattoo of an elephant on her arm. She picked up her sleeve so I can see all of it. She told me sometimes she and her husband have had hard times. I said, Can I take your photo. Yes, she said. So I took her photo. It wasn’t a good photo. But it was my first attempt at taking a photo based on connection. Today I will try again. And tomorrow. And then the next day. If I don’t get better, I will at least have fun trying. And what else is there in life but to play as much as possible? Every attempt at art depends first on connection. Every business depends on connection. When I tried the original iPod I listened to all of the music I loved as a kid. I was walking around with a smile all day. Steve Jobs somehow connected with me through that iPod. I’ve read my favorite book of stories over 300 times. I fall in love with it each time. It’s about characters that seem so lost but bit by bit they hang onto their lives through their connection with each other. I can relate to that. If I want to sell an idea, if I want to convince, if I want someone to like to me, I have to figure out how to connect. The only skill for survival and success is having that ability to connect. I’m glad I learned something from Chase. My ego hopes he learned something from me but I don’t know. I’m not going to post the photograph I took. I’m shy about it. But I’ll post one of my favorite photographs instead. My favorite changes maybe every day. But this is today’s favorite. It’s about fear. This post. This photograph. You. Me. I hope we can tape this together. I hope we can connect. “Everyone always asks me what camera I use,” Chase said, “But greatness is about storytelling.”

https://medium.com/the-mission/how-to-be-a-great-photographer-and-maybe-everything-else-71627b73df2c

['James Altucher']

2016-04-25 20:13:25.801000+00:00

['Success', 'Marketing', 'Storytelling']

Quick Python Tips to Explore Data

Simplest and quickest ways to do Exploratory Data Analysis with Pandas “Sometimes not much is just enough.” ― John O’Callaghan Snapshot by Celeb Jones-unsplash I am new to python and used to struggle often with minor data exploratory commands, there are numerous ways to explore datasets and do basic calculations, minor editing to research about data. Initially, when we are new to python we come across several errors for simple commands, however these can overcome by simple user friendly tips and tricks. I came across some of these and thought of sharing with larger group, especially with new python users. I hope they like it. I have taken Nobel Laureate dataset from Kaggle to do this exploratory data analysis, you can find the dataset here. First of all import Pandas library and read data: Now, let’s check the details about this dataset, this is bit old dataset as last couple of years winners name not included. How do we get the number of rows or columns, here are some of the quickest ways: len(df) len(df.columns) df.columns Similarly, if we want to check the complete stats about the dataset: How to check few rows and columns: df.head() df.tail() Another simplest way, if we want to get few particular rows: df[2:6] df[:] Suppose, we want every 10th row from the dataframe, how do we get that: every_10 = df[::10] There’s a another way to get the 10th row: df[::10].head() How to get the data in reverse order, how can we get that without disturbing the original data, further we can save it as a new dataframe for more analysis. df[::-1] Suppose I want particular category, for example I want all the Categories of Nobel Prizes: Similarly, want two of more columns: How do we combine particular columns and few rows: df[8:12][[“Category”, “Sex”]] Similarly, if we want a subset of dataframe with few rows and particular columns: df[[“Category”, “Year”, “Birth Country”]][4:8] How do we fetch a particular item or key from a dataframe: df.iat[3,4] df.at[10, “Laureate ID”] df.at[2, “Motivation”] Suppose we want to new dataframe with a single category of data, for example, I want to know how many people won Nobel prize from Switzerland : df1 = df[df[“Birth Country”] == “Switzerland”] And suppose I want to filter multiple rows, for example I want a list of Category with winners from three different categories like ‘Peace’, ‘Medicine’ and ‘Economics’. df2 = df([df[“Category”].isin([“Peace”, “Medicine”, “Economics”])] We can also do some mathematical calculations, although this dataset is not suitable for that, however let’s try with minimal available numerical columns: Now, suppose we want to check the correlation within dataset: Now, if we want to sort our dataset with certain criteria, for example I want data based on Category of winners: df.sort_values(by=[“Category”], ascending = False) And if, I want some more granular filtering: df[df[“Category”] == (“Peace”)] Now, let’s try to do some mathematical calculations, for example, I want to calculate the age of all the winners, from the same dataset. We have only option is to subtract Death Year with Birth Year, however couple of challenges in this, as Death Year is an object field, we need to convert it to float first. Than we need to rename the column as it will take single word. Here’s how we can do that in same dataframe: Created a new column ‘Age’ and calculated it: df[“Age”] = df.DeathYear — df.BirthYear Now the finally the dataset with age of winner’s will look like this: df[[“Category”, “Year”, “Full Name”, “Age”]].head() These are some of the tips for easy and quick exploration of dataset, as I mentioned in the beginning there are various other ways to do that it only requires regular practice. Conclusion: To summarize, these are some of the easiest ways to do data exploratory analysis, quite often we used to struggle or take help of google, stackoverflow for basic python syntax. I hope this will help the python novice users to remember these quick tips and help them in their regular data analysis. Thanks for reading, let me know if you have any other shortcut tips, tricks which can help in data analysis. You can find the complete EDA at Kaggle. please share your feedback at [email protected].

https://medium.com/swlh/quick-python-tips-to-explore-data-f851186a2631

['Tej Narayan']

2020-08-30 13:28:35.865000+00:00

['Analytics Vidhya', 'Data Science Training', 'Data Science', 'Data Analysis', 'Pandas']

How to Enable User-Friendly URLs for Websites Through Apache HTTPD Server

How to Enable User-Friendly URLs for Websites Through Apache HTTPD Server Enable user-friendly URLs for websites through Apache HTTPD Server. A user-friendly URL is a Web address that is easy to read and includes words that describe the content of the webpage. Defining the user-friendly URL is the best practice also the recommendation for SEO, the user-friendly URL’s helps to hide the complex internal URL’s from the end-users and search engines. These URLs help visitors to remember web addresses, which they can easily type to access the page. For example, the long URL /test/en/pdp/book.html?id=123 should be changed to the user-friendly URL /en/book/123 The Apache URL Rewriting (mod_rewrite) along with PT(PassThrough) flag helps to define the user-friendly URL’s in Apache by hiding the complex and lengthy URL’s from end-users.

https://medium.com/swlh/how-to-enable-userfriendly-urls-for-websites-through-apache-httpd-server-1ac05273bf7c

['Albin Issac']

2020-11-07 06:03:11.401000+00:00

['SEO', 'Programming', 'Apache', 'Technology', 'Software Development']

15 Best Photo Editing Software Used By Photographers

Photography is one of the most sought after works in the world. Many photographers around the world have been able to present their thoughts to their will power, future logic perfectly. And it’s possible with just one camera, but further changes will make it great, but your photography will make a home in everyone’s mind. There will be many people who dream of photography, the imagination in them will be just as spontaneous and diverse, captivating. Then to further strengthen this imagination, we have many concepts that make every photo of your look alive, let’s learn about photo editing software that every photographer can use and present his work to the world in the best possible way. There are many software for photo editing, but you need to be able to analyze which photo to edit, as well as what kind of photography craze the world-famous and people have. And you should choose the software that you can afford accordingly. 1) ADOBE LIGHTROOM The world’s most popular editing software, which is everyone’s first choice, is a simple interface software that is very easy to use, reactive robust. It has skills of all levels and is the best option for beginners. This complex is useful for Photoshop and for showing important editing in photos, organizing photos, as well as for face detection, camera lens-based correction, customization. It has to fix and blurring tools, and this software can support multiple devices. 2) SKYLUM LUMINOR The most widely used software after ADOBE, best known for its quick, uncomplicated tools, is considered to be the best for professional photographers. This software is used for Lightroom, Photoshop, apple photos plugin. It is also used for arrival photography, b / w, street, landscape, and AI EDIT. Along with the image layer adjacent, exclusive filters are also included. 3) EXPOSURE SOFTWARE This software is best for wedding photography, film-based photography. It is easy to use, fast processing, and money recovery software. This software is used for editing large volume photos. It manages performance along with editing the bulk image. You can use your own effects and texture. 4) CAPTURE ONE It has excellent raw file conversion, superior noise reduction, and fast importing software and is the best image editor. It has keywording tools that allow you to easily search for the photo keyword you want to edit. This includes advanced color editing. 5) DXO PHOTOLAB 4 Best and image to JPG converter for WINDOWS and Mac, a color protector with multiple export formats. It also has automatic modes, in which you can adjust the U point locally. 6) ON1 PHOTO RAW It is an incredible flexible system, it has all the skills and it is a complete software, which can be used in any large operating system. In it you will find textures, borders, stackable blend you can make live adjustments. 7) ADOBE PHOTOSHOP CC This is a great iPad software. It is highly customizable, has powerful tools that maintain industry standards. It has 3D DESIGN functionality, along with pro editing, multilayered editing, and advanced color editing. It also has features like touch up and retouching. 8) CORAL PAINTSHOP PRO It is software for quick processing and good performance, with 360-degree photo editing. It also has graphical designing tools and editing options like blur and fixes. 9) AFFINITY PHOTO 1.8 Design wizard, faster-importing software, it has superior noise reduction. It is reactive and robust software. It had HDR merge, raw editing, 360-degree photo editing. In which digital painting can also be done. And a color correction. 10) GIMP It is free, open-source, simple interface software. It is passionate user-based software, that supports multiple plugins, input devices, drawing tablets. It managed the files and modes. 11) ACD see photo studio This software will directly edit the source file from your drive. It indexing images, also its blend layers. There is no importing in this software. There are parametric colors in it. 12) CANVA This software is mostly used for graphic design. It has multiple editing tools, which adjust the elements on the images, image cropping, image transparency. You can add textures to it. It is a photo enhancer. 13) PICMONKEY In this software, you can edit the photo, crop images, you can apply Touchup, you can make collages. It has a basic filter having collage effects and templates. 14) PORTRAIT PRO It has advanced layering options, makeup tools, and skin smoothing, wrinkles remover software. It is used to exhale smiles and frowns. 15) PIXLR EDITOR You can add images on a blank canvas. This software is the effects creator. It will get more free effects than 2Million.

https://medium.com/@images-zphotoedit/15-best-photo-editing-software-used-by-photographers-b024219b927f

[]

2020-12-01 12:39:22.530000+00:00

['Editing', 'Photographer', 'Image Editing', 'Software', 'Photo Editing']

THE CICATRIX The cicatrix tells it all, a story A tale of pain and agony Hid behind my veil The…

THE CICATRIX The cicatrix tells it all, a story A tale of pain and agony Hid behind my veil The psychological scars, which Differ in every way from the physical Scabs that serrate my back, the welts Crest upon my chest I was innocent and untouched when Suddenly, like a lily plucked out of its Habitat, this stranger dark and fearful Yanked me from my roots, the cradle Of my childhood remembrances The journey hereto was swift and profound, Drawing me smartly to the days of my torment Words can scarcely carry my suffering, Fear gripped me: Like cheap commodity, my dignity was Purchased without worthy tender And thus was it that the merchants same as bought Me off for so wretched a price, sealed my fate Only to send me farther away from the foothole Of my grip, never again to see the land of my birth And the breasts that suckled me Words fail me, words fall short of describing my Pain, my inner suffering I was taunted and molested, was made a slave of My weak fingers could not claw my master’s devices My voice could not pitch soprano the music of my Pain- the fable of my bleeding soul Yet like tidal waves these ocean waves have Broken on my bank, my feminine dignity ripped Away from me, taken I roamed the streets, seeking solace in the strangest Of places Men of ill-dignity took turns at me But to live is to hope, hoping for an end to the Harrowing nights that threaten our collective will O! But that we were given a fresher lease to life- That Heaven brought us Salvation But man, and not Heaven, can put an end to all this We are our own salvation Let us one and all do a work of goodwill Feed these hungry souls, clothe their naked forms And above all give them a roof above their heads Unleash the wrath of justice upon the merchants of evils And the plunderers of our children’s lives- Let our pains extend to you That you may stand the heavy weight of the law against Child-traffickers and their gory enterprises It is our cry to make But yours is the will to act And certainly, posterity will smile on us Let us one and all scream it on the rooftops- That child-trafficking is a heinous crime against humanity! End child-trafficking today! End it now!

https://medium.com/@ajahmalachy/the-cicatrix-the-cicatrix-tells-it-all-a-story-a-tale-of-pain-and-agony-hid-behind-my-veil-the-7fec66be2f86

['Bartholomew Masirichi']

2020-11-20 15:28:11.764000+00:00

['Rape', 'Humanity', 'Salvation', 'Cicatrices', 'Poetry']

How Social Distancing Can Help You Live More Sustainably

How Social Distancing Can Help You Live More Sustainably While living more simply, you’re also being more sustainable — which is good for you, and good for the planet Let’s get one thing straight. Social distancing is not fun. A global pandemic is anything but peachy. Still, there’s nothing wrong with finding a silver lining in the clouds. As an environmental advocate who’s slowing down for the sake of all of us, sustainability is it. As it turns out, sustainability and social distancing interact in some compelling ways. Using what we have When we think about what’s really essential and what’s just nice to have, we tend to shop less and use what we have more. This goes for the can of vegetables in the dark recesses of the pantry just as much as the forgotten trousers in the closet. Simpler recipes reign, and yesterday’s styles reignite. Bringing our own bags Prepping for a trip to the grocery store now feels like preparing for battle. We’ve got the gloves, the mask (albeit homemade) and the sanitizer, just in case. We’ve got the credit card in our pocket and a pen for touching the keypad. Most importantly, we’ve got our own bags, which we’ll fill ourselves whenever possible. No one else needs to touch them. Patching holes We don’t need new jeans. We need a nice denim patch to iron on the inside. We need to fix what we have, not replace what could have easily been repaired. Going out is no longer the simple, convenient route. Repairing is. Keeping a conservationist mindset When there is only so much toilet paper to be had, we use less — or switch to a paperless bidet altogether. When there is only so much bread, we make our own, no production lines or plastic bags required. We are conservationists when we need to be. Pivoting toward food growth and preservation I write this with my spinach seeds planted and my cabbage on the road to fermentation. I write this with my granola freshly baked and jarred. Today, we are reminded of the importance of growing our own food and preserving what we have. We are reminded of the value of produce, and we must honor it. The age of DIY We can’t access masks, so we make them ourselves (or, in my case, we pay a teenage girl in the neighborhood who’s saving up for college to make them for us). We can’t go out just because we ran out of lens wipes, so we make our own cleaning spray. We sew reusable cotton rounds instead of buying a fresh bag of disposable ones. We do it ourselves, boldly and with gusto. A smaller, gentler footprint By driving less and walking more, our carbon footprint slims to stunning proportions. By staying within just a few miles of home, we make space for flora and fauna to thrive. We walk with calloused toes on living mulch with space for pores to breathe. Building habits now for a more sustainable future Habits are easier built than broken. As I return to my sustainable roots, I aim to use that to my advantage. By using this time of social distancing to make sustainability my norm, I hope to redefine my future — our future — beyond convenience.

https://medium.com/tenderlymag/how-social-distancing-can-help-you-live-more-sustainably-756fc1b5cc7e

['Rachel Lewis Curry']

2020-05-22 16:01:00.984000+00:00

['Self', 'Environment', 'Lifestyle', 'Sustainability', 'Social Distance']

Importance of Debugging

Lessons I learned from a recent project I was doing which involved creating a token based authentication using passport-jwt . Till now I always thought I could solve any code by throwing a bunch of `console.log` statements at it. In the off chance I had to apply debugger or set breakpoints, it was mostly to examine variables and mostly always for smaller code. Or code that I was quite familiar with (be it written by me or by someone else). My token based authentication code which used passport-jwt was not working. Yesterday I was stuck in a piece of code for a very long time. Way longer than I would care to admit. How token based authentication works A user registers (their details are saved in the Database and the browser receives a token) This token needs to be included by the browser to access all `protected` routes (it can be included in the header or the request body). I was consulting a couple of tutorials and they were all using header for passing the token so I decided to follow the same approach. Registering a user and sending a token back to the browser was working fine. Where I got stuck yesterday was when a user tries to access a protected route. Since I had not created the Front end of the application yet, I was going to test this with Postman. This whole fiasco started with me trying to debug my code and ended with me finding that header names are not case sensitive: [SO](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5258977/are-http-headers-case-sensitive/5259004#5259004) I’ve already disclosed the end of the story. But in this case, the lessons I learned during the road to discovering this statement is much more interesting. The method to decode the token sent by request (this is an express middleware) Decode the token so that you receive the payload that was used to create the token. There are libraries for it and I decided to use passport-jwt for this Once the token is decoded, you get payload (userId or unique username etc. that which is used to create token in the first place) query the database to find the user corresponding to the token. If user exists, we have the correct token thus proceed to the next callback. If no user corresponding to the token, we do not proceed to the protected route and display ‘unauthorized’ (again passport does this) The code for protecting a route with a token is as below. I was testing my code using Postman where I was sending my json web token (created when a new user registers) as an Authorization header. The code above looks quite straight forward. When I sent a GET request without a header, I got no error message, and none of the console.log statements in my callback function new JwtStrategy(jwtOptions, callback) were hit. I was a bit confused but realised it was fine as long as the route was being protected. Next up I made a GET request from Postman this time in my Headers, I added Authorization as a key and my value as the token I had received when I registered a user. I was sure I would be able to view the protected route. I had sent the token and my implementation of token authentication was correct (verified from various sources). But sadly I did not see the protected route and neither was I able to see any console.log statements in the callback function again. I was perplexed. My header names were the same surely I should be able to authenticate. And even if I was not authenticated, I should see the error in callback statement. It took a while for me to realise that my program was not hitting the callback and was exiting right after jwtOptions . I tried adding a bunch of console.log statements in a lot of place. After that I tried to solve the problem by changing code at random. I added more middlewares (the one before requireAuth I’ve still left in the code to show that I tried to debug the problem in the worst case possible. ) I even started debugger using VS Code (but attached Chrome debugger instead of Node.) Finally in one of the iterations of changing code, adding more debugger statements and adding more console.log statements I changed the following code snippet: const jwtOptions = { jwtFromRequest: ExtractJwt.fromHeader('authorization'), secretOrKey: process.env.SECRET_KEY }; I made ExtractJwt.fromHeader('authorization') Just changed the case of the request header key and the code worked. Till this point I had spent hours trying to figure out what was going on with the code, how to use debugger in VSCode (had finally managed to attach Node as an environment but was not using debugging properly) and was just glad that it finally worked. I closed the laptop and called it a day. However when I got up today a few things were nagging me. Why ‘authorization’ should work and not ‘Authorization’ was the first thing. The second was my debugging skills. I had finally managed to start debugging in VS Code but did not utilize it properly. So I decided I knew what the problem was (more or less) and wanted to use debugging properly to investigate this further. How to start debugger in VS Code To start debugger for node, select the debugging icon on left. It opens the debugging panel. Then there is a small ‘start debugging’ at the top, when you press that, we’re asked the context in which we want to debug. I select Node because I want to debug an express app. It runs code and breaks at first breakpoint. In my case I just want to break when I trigger the route through Postman. So I just keep pressing continue in the debugging toolbar. Once the application is no longer paused, I trigger the protected route through Postman. (And then the main debugging starts ) A point to note about VS Code debugger: If we change some variable in my code like I made ‘Authorization’ to ‘authorization’, we have to stop debugger and start it again. (May be I could make some changes to the configuration file to handle this but at this point I do not know how) With node debugging I can break at a GET route or a POST route and then explore and check what’s going on (that was not happening when I had attached a Chrome debugger). With correct code (that is ‘authorization’ in `jwtFromRequest: ExtractJwt.fromHeader(‘authorization’)` ), I kept stepping inside relevant code after I hit the breakpoint for ‘/protected’ route (because that’s the relevant place we need to check.) After a lot of stepping inside the code, I did find a place in passport’s code where `token` was being extracted. Bingo that’s what I wanted. So I added a breakpoint there. Next I changed ‘authorization’ which is the correct name for header to ‘Authorization’. Unfortunately had to restart the debugger. But this time round I knew which was the relevant section of code where I needed to inspect my code further because I had a break point there. And bingo. No token when we name the authorization header as Authorization I went to passport-jwt documentation and read a bit more and realised that authentication header names can be anything (this had not been my experience. After all when I used ‘Authorization’ instead of ‘authorization’, the app was not working) So next up I changed the name of the header to Random both in my code and in my postman request and then restarted debugging. This time since I had a break point inside passport code where I knew I was supposed to break, I did not have to step through all that code and could just press the continue button till I reached the breakpoint in passport. Then when I reached the point where token variable was being extracted by ExtractJwt I added variables to watch. It was here that I realised that though my header name was Random (in my code, in my Postman request and even in passport code) the request.headers did not have an attribute with name Random it had an attribute with name random . Thus passport was trying to extract token from request.headers with name Random because that was the name I had specified for token in my code but there was no attribute with name Random . At this point I realised that something was happening when Postman was setting the headers and I googled and found the link which I have linked in the beginning. So basically the headers were being converted to lower case by Postman. Thus ExtractJwt could not extract token because it was searching for Random and not random . I had used debugging before but with small applications that I had written. Mostly front end applications and never with an Express application before. This was a good learning experience. A long time for debugging an error which I probably never would’ve found out if I had just used lower case letters to set authorization header key.

https://medium.com/@gtalin/importance-of-debugging-ef6d635f4c5b

[]

2019-04-27 17:22:35.241000+00:00

['Token Authentication', 'Debugging', 'JavaScript', 'Express', 'Passportjs']

Learn SQL Injection by Ethically Hacking a Rails App

2. Build a Vulnerable Rails App We’re going to build an app that we’ll later hack. I’ve tried to be as verbose as possible so you can copy/paste the below into your terminal and web editor to build this quickly. Set up the app Navigate to the directory where you want to create the app. Then, generate a new Rails app and install the default gems. $ rails new hackerapp $ cd hackerapp $ sudo bundle install Hopefully, you won’t have any version problems that pop up, but if you do, post in the comments and I’ll try to help. Open the code in your favorite editor. I’m using Atom. $ atom . Set up the database Navigate to /config/database.yml (Rails’ database configuration file), delete the existing code, and paste in the below. This specifies PostgreSQL as your database and sets the DB’s name. Navigate to Gemfile (where we specify libraries to install) and add these two lines near the top. gem 'pg' gem 'devise' Then, run this in the command line to install those gems. $ sudo bundle install Now create the DB we set up earlier. You’ll need PostgreSQL installed on your Mac for this to work. Again, if you have trouble, I’ll try to help in the comments. $ rake db:create Start the app Let’s see if what we’ve set up so far actually works. $ rails s Then, navigate to http://localhost:3000/ (or whatever port the server started on). If you see this, you’re successful: Add users and authentication (logging in) We’ll use the go-to auth library for Rails called Devise, which we already added in the above step. Install Devise. $ rails generate devise:install Generate model and migration files. In Rails, a model is a Ruby class that maps to a database table and simplifies making DB transactions via its ORM, Active Record. $ rails generate devise user Create views associated with the model. $ rails generate devise:views users Add another column to users in addition to what Devise has set up. Generate the empty migration file. $ rails g migration AddAdminToUsers It will be the second file down in /db/migrate/ . Paste this in: Run the migrations. This will add these two columns to the users table in the database. $ rake db:migrate Create Post resources Generate another migration file that creates a Post model. Generate the file and migrate. This also creates all the basic CRUD views for this model in the controller. $ rails g scaffold Post title:string content:string $ rake db:migrate Add root 'posts#index' to the bottom of /config/routes.rb so the app automatically redirects users to the post index page. routes.rb should look like this. Rails.application.routes.draw do resources :posts devise_for :users root 'posts#index' end Navigate to http://localhost:3000/, and you’ll see the view rendered by posts#index . Cool. Add a few posts yourself just to make sure that it works. We’ve added authentication with Devise but we can’t even tell if we’re logged in or out. Let’s change that! Navigate to /app/views/layouts/application.html.erb and update the file so it looks like below. This file actually renders every other view inside it so whatever we put here will be displayed on each page. Great. Now click “Sign up” in the top-left of the app and create an account. We’ve deactivated email confirmation so after creating an account, you’ll automatically be signed in and you’ll see something like this: Add one more column to Posts by generating another migration file. $ rails g migration AddPrivateToPosts Fill in the newest migration file in db/migrate/ . class AddPrivateToPosts < ActiveRecord::Migration[5.0] def change add_column :posts, :private, :boolean, default: false end end And migrate. $ rake db:migrate Generate users and posts Create a file called seed_data.rake in /lib/tasks/ . Run the file and these records will be added to the database. $ rake seed_data Below are screenshots from my database. You would have to open an SQL editor to see this but it’s not important. The vulnerable feature Rails comes with Active Record which is really good at parameterizing inputs but we’re going to go off best practices here to allow injecting SQL. We’ll create a search field that filters displayed posts. It seems innocent but it’s where we’ll attack later. Add filtering logic in the view Add this to the view, app/views/posts/index.html.erb , just below <h1>Posts</h1> . This creates an input field in the view. Modify the index action in the controller

https://medium.com/better-programming/learn-sql-injection-by-ethically-hacking-a-rails-app-e96906f8c593

['Chris I.']

2020-03-23 00:43:56.679000+00:00

['Programming', 'Cybersecurity', 'MySQL', 'Ruby on Rails', 'Rails']

Rajahmundry- The cultural capital of Andhra Pradesh, the best weekend getaway from Vizag

Rajahmundry- The cultural capital of Andhra Pradesh, the best weekend getaway from Vizag Rajahmundry is one of the perfect destination for you when you want to experience the rich culture of Andhra Pradesh. This beautiful place is home to some amazing historical and religious sites which is why it’s known as the cultural capital of Andhra Pradesh. Rajahmundry can be the best destination for one to learn the rich culture and traditions of the state and one can also explore the nearby cities and places for short holiday trips. Rajahmundry has a tropical type of climate, so the summers are very hot along humid. So, travellers mostly choose November to February for visiting this amazing place. This time, the climate is cool and the weather remains soothing so one can travel around comfortably. Once you start your journey from Vizag to Rajahmundry, Nakkapalle will be the perfect location to take a break as this place also offers some beautiful scenes and religious significance. After reaching Nakkapalle, visit Upamaka cave temple which is a very famous Hindu pilgrimage where thousands of tourists come every year. You will also enjoy the towering hills and the trees around this place. Best tourist attractions in and around Rajahmundry To avoid the natural beauty of Andhra Pradesh, nature lovers love to visit this place to experience the presence of the beautiful beaches and pilgrimage sites. There are beautiful hillocks one can explore in Rajahmundry. The list of amazing places is absolutely incomplete without taking about Kotilingeshwara Temple. This is one of the notable places that attracts thousands of travellers every year. Dedicated to Lord Shiva, this temple has its own charm that mesmerises every person. So, if you are looking for a perfect pilgrimage centre, this temple is a must-visit. Rajahmundry is located on the bank of Godavari River and you can also visit Godavari river beach to experience the calmness. This can be the perfect place to spend some relaxing and peaceful time with your loved ones. Beach lovers will cherish this spot for its stillness and amazing beach views. Kadiyapulanka is a hamlet surrounded with lush greenery and hills which is popular for its horticulture. Pleasant weather, beautiful hills and a peaceful environment are the main attraction in this place. Pattiseema is an another small village you can visit near Rajahmundry. This place is significant for the Sri Veerabhadra Swamy temple. The location of this temple and the serene atmosphere add extra beauty to this place. Several other places around Rajahmundry will keep up going on with the journey. How to reach Rajahmundry has its own airport and from there you can get a direct cab to reach your destination. Rajahmundry is well accessible from other cities via rails. From Visakhapatnam railway station , it will take you 3 hours to reach Rajahmumdry. The road conditions are also good. You can easily take the road from Visakhapatnam or Vizag.

https://medium.com/@wowcabs.in/rajahmundry-the-cultural-capital-of-andhra-pradesh-the-best-weekend-getaway-from-vizag-a019aeddf666

[]

2020-12-26 10:17:03.975000+00:00

['Travel', 'Tourism', 'India', 'Visakhapatnam', 'Transportation']

Flood Assist Insurance launches new free flood app

Here at Flood Assist Insurance we believe that the first step in managing flood risk is to be aware of it and we’re pleased to announce that we’ve developed a brand new app to help people in high flood risk areas do this. What’s included in our app? The app focuses on providing users with 2 main features: real time flood alerts/warnings and flood risk maps Real time flood alerts and warnings The app indicates to users whether there are any current flood alert or warning in place in any location in England or Wales, unlike other flood warning services our app is map based. Users can also sign up for our free flood warning email service which will instantly send notification emails when a flood alert or flood warning is issued for a specific location. Subscribers can choose to have alerts set up for multiple locations using a property’s postcode and the location can be further refined by the user being able to pinpoint their property’s exact location via google earth maps. Flood risk maps We have 2 different flood risk maps covering England and Wales which helps users identify whether they’re at risk of flooding from either a river or the sea or from surface water flooding. Our maps also allow users to understand how likely their property is to be flooded by advising whether their property is located in a High, Medium, Low, or Very Low flood risk area. Where do we get our data from? Our data is obtained directly from the Environment Agency, Scottish Environment Protection Agency and National Resources Wales which is updated every 15 minutes so it’s as up to date as it possibly can be. We also use high resolution maps from Ordnance Survey which lets you zoom in and locate your individual property, at full zoom you can clearly identify a properties building outline. Where can you get our app from? The app is available for iPhone, Windows Phone and Android and it won’t cost you a penny! We hope you like our new service and we would be delighted to receive all feedback at [email protected] Originally published at floodassist.co.uk.

https://medium.com/@robalexclark/flood-assist-insurance-launches-new-free-flood-app-89ebd6a2a376

['Robin Clark']

2019-03-03 10:00:03.214000+00:00

['Maps']

MOUNT ORD

Running Free Down Mount Ord, Arizona As of writing this blog, I have four weeks until my date with Mount San Jacinto, better known as Cactus to Clouds. But in my case it’s Cactus to Clouds to Cactus. C2C2C. In this weeks blog I’m going to answer some questions on my overall nutrition, adventure nutrition, running strategy and how I love challenging the status quo. My Nutrition Strategy Well let’s just get right to the issue of Nutrition. I believe that this topic will and does drive most people crazy. And I believe it probably carries more weight than your training. Now, that’s only my opinion as an Exercise Physiologist and adventure Runner. So, hold on to your seat. Remember that when we think we know it all, that’s the time to pause, open your mind and start learning. Easy to say hard to do. Over the last 40 years I’ve done every possible diet/fad. I’m just curious along with being a bit crazy. Regardless, it really doesn’t matter as long as I’m healthier and can perform better. The rest is meaningless to me! So, if you have a nutrition ajenda, this might be tough. I have been doing a lot of fasting, paleo and ketosis over the last 3 years, with great success. But recently with my eye surgery and other issues I have stalled in my nutrition/weight progress. Since I don’t like like the status quo. I had a new project. I ran in to a very bright young Medical Doctor, Paul Saladino,MD. Who’s lectures on the Carnivore Diet are not only convincing, but at the least make you curious as to what we perceived as facts. Remember open mind. I decided over two weeks ago after listening to numerous Dr. Saladino lectures and Zack Bitter, an elite ultra runner and Carnivore advocate, helped to push me over the edge and go for it on my C2C2C quest. So, like Zack I’m using a modified Carnivore plan with some strategic carbs, mainly sweet potatoes, white rice and even some honey sprinkled in depending on my training. Over the past two weeks I have eliminated most everything except, beef, sardines, oysters, some eggs, a chopped onion and other strategic carbs mentioned above. My goal is 4–6 weeks. I know that I’m taking a risk. But this weeks big test, Mount Ord, gave me some valuable feedback! I will continue to provide feedback as I go. And for those who want more information. Google Carnivore Diet. You’ll be surprised what you find with those affected with depression, anxiety and other autoimmune issues. Remember open mind! Adventure Nutrition Mount Ord provided me with 9 hours of training to test most of the pieces of my C2C2C Adventure. Here’s a quick summary. I used a pre-workout shake of pre mixed BulletProof Coffee. A new Keto Shake. Beet Root powder. Blended with ice and consumed about 90 minutes prior to my Mount Ord Adventure. I then had one packet of Almond Butter after the first summitt. Roughly 2 hours 30 minutes. Next, after descending nearly 4000 feet and 7.6 miles. 15.2 miles total, I had another BulletProof Coffee, pre-mixed, Bone Broth Protein Powder, Beet Root powder and some extra collagen. All mixed in a shaker cup. After taking this with the temps climbing, I had no stomach issues. I was ready for the second climb. After Power Hiking back up nearly 4,000 feet and 7.6 miles. Again in 2 hours 30 minutes. I had 6 small figs. Which was more than enough! BTW I drank 20 ounces of water coming up the second time. I had 20 ounces on the first trip up and down. Time To Challenge Myself From the top of Mount Ord you are provided with 2.5 miles of smooth dirt road back to FR 27, which is more of an off-road trail with lots of varied terrain. Perfect for testing your down hill skills and get some valuable leg turnover over 5 miles! I decided since I was feeling so good physically to let it loose the final 5 miles to the bottom, with the exception of a classic “Superman” fall about 3 miles from the bottom, it was awesome. I also received some great leg soreness from the downhill, which I was able to do 9/10 minute miles, but knowing that I’ve got a solid month to recover. Also some much needed feedback for my strength work. Joy Being able to spend the day with my amazing partner and son n law, Felix Ortega. Not only provided some much needed calming spirit from Felix. But also the Joy of experiencing something for the first time. Mount Ord. But mostly the bonding that crazy adventures will provide for everyone. It’s that craziness that creates the amazing memories! Thanks Felix! Challenging The Status Quo Once again Coach Arnie is “Challenging the Status Quo!” And I love it. I figured out a long time ago it’s when I think I know everything, it’s really when I need to open my mind and be willing to learn. Easy to say but hard to do! it’s really how I approach each adventure. I like to ask questions. What did learn? What do I need to learn? What can I do better? How can I teach this to others? Mount Ord Summary First off. Pay close attention to the turn off to FR27 on the Beeline Highway. Once you turn in. Just park on the side. Provide space for others. Go towards the fence where the sign says, “Replace Gate.” Begin your 7.4 miles to the Summit and 3937 feet of climbing. For a round trip of 14.8 miles. On this day Felix and I did 30.6 total miles and 7874 feet of climbing. The weather was perfect. The memories were amazing!

https://medium.com/@arniefonsecajr/mount-ord-555d1d101660

['Coach Arnie Fonseca Jr']

2019-04-14 20:35:28.851000+00:00

['Fitness', 'Adventure', 'Hiking', 'Trailrunning', 'Health']

Gianine Esposito of Shionogi: 5 Ways To Identify & Retain Fantastic Talent

Thank you so much for doing this with us! First, please tell us what brought you to this specific career path? Thanks for inviting me to share my HR experience and knowledge. Like many in our profession, I didn’t begin my career in Human Resources. My first job was eight years in the fashion industry, where I held a variety of positions in buying, sales and merchandise planning. I loved the industry, but none of the roles felt quite right. While working for Gap Inc. I was invited to join HR on a college recruitment trip and I loved every minute of it. A year later I became one of the company’s college recruiters and the rest is history. Can you share the most interesting or funny story that happened to you since you started this career and what lesson you learned from that? Ten years ago, I was happily employed and not thinking about making a career move. A recruiter in my network, who knew me well, reached out about an opportunity that she thought was perfect for me. When I graciously declined the chance to interview, she called again a few weeks later and again I declined. Finally, she called and said “Gianine, I looked on a map. Do you know this job is two miles from your house?” I admit that it was the short commute that motivated me to interview for the position, but it wound up being the best decision I could’ve made. That’s the route I took to Shionogi. The recruiter knew that the company, culture, and job were a perfect fit for me. The lesson is, always be open to listening to new opportunities, especially when they come from people you trust. You never know what they may bring. Are you working on any exciting new projects at your company? How is this helping people? Shionogi strives constantly to supply the best medicine to protect the health and wellbeing of the patients we serve. This is our purpose, and we’re mindful of it every day. Right now, Shionogi Inc. is in a stage of business growth. For HR, this means a lot of “good work” needs to happen as we ready our employees for the future. We want to attract the best talent, and we want them to retain them and succeed and grow in their careers. The focus for the next phase of Shionogi’s evolution is on talent attraction and retention, succession planning, change management and leadership development — and all these areas are about helping people succeed. Wonderful. Now let’s jump into the main focus of our series. Hiring can be very time consuming and difficult. Can you share 5 techniques that you use to identify the talent that would be best suited for the job you want to fill? Please share an example for each idea. Review the company’s strategic plan and goals, and make sure the HR strategy lines up with the business strategy. Hire for the future in addition to the present needs. Develop a recruiting strategy that is specific to each vacancy. It’s key that the HR/recruiting team understands the business needs and team dynamics for each role to land a successful match. Understand your company’s culture, including the good and the bad. A candidate with the perfect skillset, but unable to work in your company’s culture, won’t be happy, and the feeling may be mutual. Consider the candidate’s specific career aspirations and motivations. Make sure you understand why the candidate(s) want this job and to work for your company. Ask them where they want to be in the next few years. Again, if the reality of the future doesn’t match what the candidate is looking for, you have a flight risk before they start the job. Build an alternate candidate profile. Sometimes the hiring manager envisions only one profile for the vacancy. Thinking through other options not only widens the candidate pool but may also provide new opportunities for other team members. With so much noise and competition out there, what are your top 3 ways to attract and engage the best talent in an industry when they haven’t already reached out to you? We have a good story. Shionogi is small and not well-known in the U.S. We’ve worked hard to create our story, and often it’s the hook on a cold call. We make recruitment personal. Often, recruiters only care about making the hire. Our recruiters are warm-hearted and try to connect with every candidate in some way. This approach is reflective of the culture that candidates will find at Shionogi. We try to understand the candidates’ perspectives. We know that an interview is just as much about the candidate meeting us as it is about us meeting them. Knowing what’s important to the candidate helps us ensure we make the best match possible for everyone involved. What are the 3 most effective strategies you use to retain employees? Transparency: Sharing more than just the headline (when possible) builds credibility with employees. Ask and listen: Knowing what means the most to employees and how they’re feeling helps us provide services of value to all of them. Maintain engagement: Big and little efforts, like informal hallway conversations, more formal focus groups, and global engagement surveys, go a long way in helping us stay connected to our employees. In your experience, is it important for HR to keep up with the latest trends? It is always good to be on top of trends, not only to stay competitive, but to find ways to improve the service we provide and, in some cases, make things easier. What works for me is having a small network of HR colleagues outside of my company, in and out of the industry, whom I reach out to regularly. For example, right now we are having a lot of discussion around our response to COVID, as this is uncharted territory and an unprecedented situation. It is much faster and easier to get valuable, qualitative feedback from a handful of people you trust than it is to survey a large group. And it works both ways; I’m happy to share knowledge, opinions oHR Strategy Series with Kage Spatzr best practices when asked. What are some creative ways to increase the value provided to employees without breaking the bank? We are a small company and can’t provide some of the fancier offerings big companies have. Through surveys, focus groups, and informal conversation, we work to find out what our employees need and what’s important to them. This helps us prioritize the budget. And some things, like establishing a walking club, doing a cultural potluck lunch, and sponsoring internally managed lunch & learns, are the best price…free! If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? I would encourage people to Listen Without Judgement. It’s a must for HR professionals and often creates connections and understanding where before there were none. The skill of listening is just as important as making sure we make our point. While we may not agree with a different point of view, we may learn something new that broadens our perspective. Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote” and how that was relevant to you in your life? “A leader is a dealer in hope” — Napoleon Bonaparte Many times, HR is involved in situations that are unfortunate, such as poor business results which lead to downsizing, the death of an employee, reacting to external crises, etc. Often HR is the one voice to all employees, and we must be aware that people are listening. Ensuring that the words we use when exiting an employee, comforting a team, or sharing in a company-wide email are carefully and thoughtfully spoken/written can mean all the difference. We are very blessed to have some of the biggest names in Business, VC, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world whom you would love to have a private lunch with, and why? Marshall Goldsmith, the executive leadership coach. I saw him speak once and he was so dynamic, funny, engaging, and insightful that I’d love the chance to meet him. I could use a little coaching! Thank you so much for sharing your insights with us today!

https://medium.com/authority-magazine/gianine-esposito-5-ways-to-identify-retain-fantastic-talent-and-kage-spatz-6dc05c9193e0

['Kage Spatz']

2020-11-26 00:28:08.234000+00:00

['Recruiting', 'Careers', 'Hiring', 'Human Resources', 'Business']

iOS linting at Pinterest

Michael Schneider | Pinterest engineer, iOS Core Experience Coding consistency and guidelines are critical in a code base where a large group of developers work every day and new engineers join every week. In order to control code quality and enforce best practices, we recently added linting to our infrastructure to help developers write better code. Linting is the process of running a program that analyzes code for potential errors. At the same time, we were moving our current build infrastructure to Bazel, so it was a good time to consider which linting options would work well with the new build. A main goal of this initiative was to push the linting process as early as possible to give developers an immediate response at compile time if code doesn’t align with our guidelines or best practices. In this post we’ll cover how we implemented linting and best practices learned along the way. Clang Tools We evaluated existing solutions, but none were flexible enough or would easily integrate into our build system. We then looked into what LLVM could provide, especially the tooling around Clang. Clang provides infrastructure to write tools that need syntactic and semantic information about a program called Clang Tools. There are different interfaces Clang provides for developers to hook into the Clang compiling process. The available interfaces are LibClang, Clang Plugins and LibTooling. The page “Choosing the Right Interface for your Application” was especially helpful in deciding which Clang Tool interfaces would be best for our needs. We tested each interface on a small example and found LibClang wouldn’t have provided full control over the AST and LibTooling wouldn’t be able to run part of the build triggered by dependency changes. Ultimately we decided on the Clang Plugin. An important thing to note is since Clang is written in C++, the tooling extensibility points themselves are exposed as C++ interfaces. Furthermore all documentation exists mostly as auto-generated doxygen output from the annotated C++ source code. So it’s very helpful to have previous C++ experience when working with Clang. Clang Plugins Clang Plugins enables us to run additional actions on the Clang AST (Abstract Syntax Tree) as part of a compilation. Clang’s AST is different from ASTs produced by other compilers in that it closely resembles both the written C++ code and the C++ standard. For example, parenthesis expressions and compile time constants are available in an unreduced form in the AST. This makes Clang’s AST a good fit for refactoring tools. (More info in Introduction to the Clang AST.) Plugins are dynamic libraries that are loaded at runtime by the compiler and allow us to emit special lint-style warnings and errors to the compiler which will show up as the well-known warnings or errors in the Warning tab section on the left side of Xcode or directly within the source code. We call our Clang Plugin PINLinter. Architecture PINLinter, like every Clang plugin, is represented by a single dynamic library (dylib) that Clang loads at compile time. As soon as the PINLinter plugin is loaded, Clang uses a configuration file in JSON format containing a list of all rules that should be loaded, along with a unique name, and loads each listed linter rule. This allows us to have only one Clang Plugin for all rules instead of one for every rule, and we can enable or disable certain rules for different rule configurations like development vs. build machines. PINLinterASTAction The main Clang Plugin class’s name is PINLinterASTAction , and it’s a frontend action. A FrontendAction is an interface that allows execution of user-specific actions as part of the compilation. To run tools over the AST, Clang provides the convenience interface PluginASTAction which takes care of executing the action by implementing the CreateASTConsumer method that returns an ASTConsumer per translation unit. A plugin is loaded from a dynamic library at runtime by the compiler. To register the PINLinter plugin in the library, we use the FrontendPluginRegistry::Add<> method: static clang::FrontendPluginRegistry::Add<PINLinterASTAction> X("PINLinter", "LLVM Pinterest Linter Plugin"); } In PINLinter’s implementation of CreateConsumer , a configuration file will be parsed for the list of rules that should be loaded. The configuration file is very simple and looks like the following. { // ... linters: [ "PINPreventAssignPointersRule", "PINCallViewInInitRule", // ... ] // ... } For every rule that’s listed within the configuration file, a concrete object will be created via CreateRulesForConfiguration . The vector of rule objects are then passed to the initializer of the PINLinterASTConsumer class. // Central place where the linters plugin is registered class PINLinterASTAction : public PluginASTAction { // ... protected: virtual std::unique_ptr<ASTConsumer> CreateASTConsumer(CompilerInstance &CI, StringRef InFile) { // Try read linters path from environment variables Optional<std::string> env = sys::Process::GetEnv("PINLINTERS_CONFIGURATION"); if (env.hasValue()) { CreateRulesForConfiguration(env.getValue()); } return make_unique<PINLinterASTConsumer>(std::move(m_rules)); } // ... } PINLinterASTConsumer An ASTConsumer is a client object that receives callbacks from Clang as the AST is built and “consumes” it. The PINLinterASTConsumer itself is kind of the glue between the PINLinterASTAction and all PINLinter::Rule objects. Its main job is to forward calls of the overwritten Initialize and HandleTranslationUnit methods to all loaded rules it’s aware of. class PINLinterASTConsumer : public ASTConsumer { // ... virtual void Initialize(ASTContext &Context) override { // Initialize all loaded linters for (auto &linter : m_linter) { linter->Initialize(Context); } } virtual void HandleTranslationUnit(ASTContext &context) override { // Pass through call to all registered linter for (auto &linter : m_linter) { linter->HandleTranslationUnit(context); } } // ... }; PINLinter::Rule Each linter rule is a subclass of the PINLinter::Rule class. PINLinter::Rule subclasses have two main purposes. The first is to initialize itself by overwriting Initialize to create a top level RecursiveASTVisitor and dispatch the high level translation unit in HandleTranslationUnit to the aforementioned root AST visitor object. An example implementation for a concrete rule subclass looks like the following: class PINPreventAssignPointersRule : public PINLinter::Rule { // ... virtual void Initialize(ASTContext &Context) override { PINLinter::Rule::Initialize(Context); _Visitor = make_unique<PINPreventAssignPointersLinterVisitor>(Context); } virtual void HandleTranslationUnit(ASTContext &Context) override { PINLinter::Rule::HandleTranslationUnit(Context); _Visitor->TraverseDecl(Context.getTranslationUnitDecl()); } // ... }; As mentioned, the PINLinterASTAction is responsible for creating and initializing concrete rule objects based on a local configuration file. The ability to look up the available linter rule classes provides one central registry object called PINLinter::registry::RuleRegistry where every rule class can register itself with a unique name. To make this registration process easier, we created a macro called RULE_REGISTER for easy registration. For example, here we register a rule class called PINPreventAssignPointersRule for usage: RULE_REGISTER(PINPreventAssignPointersRule, "PINPreventAssignPointersRule") RecursiveASTVisitor RecursiveASTVisitor objects, which PINLinter::Rule classes create within their Initialize method, complete preorder or postorder depth-first traversal on the entire Clang AST and visit each node. In our case, it starts the process by calling TraverseDecl with the root level translation unit declaration. By default, this visitor pre-order traverses the AST. If post-order traversal is needed, the shouldTraversePostOrder method needs to be overridden to return true. The RecursiveASTVisitor class performs three distinct tasks: Traverses the AST (i.e. go to each node). At a given node, walk up the class hierarchy starting from the node’s dynamic type until the top-most class (e.g. Stmt, Decl or Type) is reached. Given a (node, class) combination, where ‘class’ is some base class of the dynamic type of ‘node,’ call a user-overridable function to actually visit the node. These tasks are done by three groups of methods, respectively: TraverseDecl(Decl *x) does task #1. It’s the entry point for traversing an AST rooted at x. This method simply dispatches (i.e. forwards) to TraverseFoo(Foo *x) where Foo is the dynamic type of *x , which calls WalkUpFromFoo(x) and then recursively visits the child nodes of x . TraverseStmt(Stmt *x) and TraverseType(QualType x) works similarly. WalkUpFromFoo(Foo *x) does task #2. It doesn’t try to visit any child node of x . Instead, it first calls WalkUpFromBar(x) where Bar is the direct parent class of Foo (unless Foo has no parent), and then calls VisitFoo(x) (see the next list item). VisitFoo(Foo *x) does task #3. For our purposes, we’re only interested in the third task from above. To hook into the parsing process, we have to subclass the RecursiveASTVisitor class (providing ourselves as the template argument, using the template pattern) and override any of the Visit* methods for declarations, types, statements, expressions or other AST nodes where the visitor should customize behavior. For example if we wanted to check certain cases against Objective-C method declarations we have to implement bool VisitObjCMethodDecl(ObjCMethodDecl *D) and use the ObjCMethodDecl object that’s passed in as argument to do further checks and emit warnings or errors based on findings. Example of implemented rules To show how concrete PINLinter::Rule implementations look like in practice, let’s look into two examples we’re currently running in our code base. Prevent assign property for Objective-C pointer One linter rule we implemented prevents an assign property for an Objective-C type. Against the following scenarios, it will be checked as soon as the developer hits compile in Xcode: // Error using pointer for a scalar type @property (nonatomic, assign) CGFloat *foo; // Error using assign for an objc pointer type @property (nonatomic, assign) NSNumber *bar; To check against a specific Objective-C property declaration, we’re overwriting the VisitObjCPropertyDecl method in our RecursiveASTVisitor subclass. This method gets called for each Objective-C property declaration. The concrete implementation looks similar to the following: class PINPreventAssignPointersLinterVisitor : public RecursiveASTVisitor<PINPreventAssignPointersLinterVisitor> { // … bool VisitObjCPropertyDecl(ObjCPropertyDecl *P) { // … // Check for pointer type QualType Type = P->getType(); // We are interested in any pointer type, but for now don’t bother for void // pointers as well as pointer to pointers if (Type->isAnyPointerType() && !Type->isVoidPointerType() && !isPointerToPointerType(Type)) { // Check if the written properties contains the one we are interested const auto PropertyAttributes = P->getPropertyAttributes(); const auto IsAssignPointer = (PropertyAttributes & (ObjCPropertyDecl::PropertyAttributeKind::OBJC_PR_assign | ObjCPropertyDecl::PropertyAttributeKind:: OBJC_PR_unsafe_unretained)); if (IsAssignPointer) { std::string WarningString = ([Type]() { if (Type->isObjCObjectPointerType()) { return “Using assign for an ObjC pointer type is not valid. Either “ “use strong or weak for a zeroing reference in this case.”; } else { return “Using a pointer for a scalar type is invalid.”; } }()); // Emit warning / error auto &DiagnosticEngine = _Context.getDiagnostics(); unsigned DiagnosticID = DiagnosticEngine.getCustomDiagID(DiagnosticsEngine::Warning, “%0”); DiagnosticEngine.Report(P->getLocStart(), DiagnosticID) << WarningString; } } // … } //… }; As soon as the developer tries to compile the first time after introducing new code, Xcode will immediately show a warning with a tip explaining how to fix the issue: Texture: Accessing view property in init method Pinterest’s iOS app is almost exclusively written in Texture (formerly AsyncDisplayKit). There are common patterns that can reduce Texture’s ability to increase performance, and since we own the linter infrastructure, we create rules specifically target these anti-patterns. For instance, one of these patterns is accessing the view property of an ASDisplayNode in any kind of init method. Accessing the view of the ASDisplayNode will load its backing view or layer. However, the init method could be called any thread, so it’s not thread safe to do this, because the loading process can cause accessing properties of the backing UIView or CALayer objects. A custom built linting infrastructure allows us the flexibility to make changes to new requirements quickly without relying on other linter infrastructure to add rules for our needs in their portfolio. Escape hatch In certain circumstances it’s necessary to skip linting. PINLinter provides an escape hatch. We have full access to the AST and can look for custom-defined properties, skipping the linter rule completely by adding a custom attribution that can be attached to functions, methods or properties: // functions __attribute__((annotate(“pi_nolint”))) static int divide(int denominator, int numerator) { /* … */ } // methods - (ASCellNodeBlock)tableNode:(ASTableNode *)tableNode nodeBlockForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath __attribute__((annotate(“pi_nolint”))) { /*… */ } // properties __attribute__((annotate(“pi_nolint”))) @property (assign) CGFloat *iKnowWhatImDoint; If this attribute is attached to a declaration, the linter rule will skip it and no warning will be shown. This option is only used in special cases. We added a specific rule in our code review infrastructure that automatically adds a specific group of people to the Differential for review if the pi_nolint attribution is used. Caveats Custom Clang Version To use Clang it’s necessary to build Clang from source or use a pre-build version from the LLVM website. The Clang version that’s shipping via Xcode doesn’t support Clang plugins out of the box, so we download a pre-build Clang binary during setup for every developer and point Xcode to use this version of Clang for the compiling process. This is possible by setting the CC and the CXX build variable to the path where the custom Clang binary lives. Every next compile process will then use this Clang binary instead of the Xcode one. Unknown attribute noescape Another issue we ran into was the pre-compiled Clang binary didn’t understand the no escape attribute, and we saw compile errors the first time we compiled Pinterest’s iOS app. To resolve this issue we created a macro that expands if the compiler supports no_escape and replaced all of the __attribute__((noescape)) appearances with it. #if __has_attribute(noescape) #define PI_NOESCAPE __attribute__((noescape)) #else #define PI_NOESCAPE #endif Summary Overall we’re seeing major gains with how this infrastructure works together as well as significant improvements in code quality and developer happiness. Acknowledgements: Thank you to all our iOS developers for using and giving feedback, especially my teammates Garrett Moon, Jon Parise, Brandon Kase, Rahul Malik and Levi McCallum for feedback on this post.

https://medium.com/pinterest-engineering/ios-linting-at-pinterest-3108d8764390

['Pinterest Engineering']

2017-06-23 20:04:59.485000+00:00

['Linting', 'Developer', 'iOS', 'Coding', 'Texture']

Moving Through Holiday Grief

HOWDY, BRAVE & DARING LEADER, The holidays are a season of yoga even if you don’t put your body into a bunch of different shapes because yoga simply means “to unite”, and this is a time where many of us choose to connect and be present with one another on a deeper level than through the rest of the year. For many of us, this may look different this year as we are still in a global pandemic. All my love to anyone who is feeling challenged and up against their stuff right now. This year has been one for the transformational record books if we’ve been present enough (and, in many cases, privileged enough) to see all the opportunity that surrounds us. This year, I’m preparing my dear, sweet Moose (My cat of 18 years.) to transition. I’ve been focusing on being with the emotion and allowing it to move vs. feeling the need to be trapped in any one piece of it, and it’s been beautiful. Back in 2016 when we said farewell to our, Wedel, my coach and I used the process to create a breakthrough in how I grieved. When I leaned into it, it opened a Pandora’s box of unprocessed emotion — wow! I could feel everything I had stuffed down rising to the surface to be felt. Since, I’ve been intentional with having healthy outlets for the feels and using my breath, body movement and postures, mind training, and connection to the divine to continue expanding my emotional bandwidth so I have space for all of it at the same time. Through the lens of yoga, I’d consider Moose and I to be in a new pose, and I’m exploring all that goes with that… Noticing my: shallow breath — At times during this process, shallow, labored. At others, full, expansive, nourishing, healing. — At times during this process, shallow, labored. At others, full, expansive, nourishing, healing. jaw — Here and there, super tense and tight. At others, I don’t notice it. — Here and there, super tense and tight. At others, I don’t notice it. tongue — On occasion, plastered to the roof of my mouth in stress. The rest of the time, right where it should be. — On occasion, plastered to the roof of my mouth in stress. The rest of the time, right where it should be. upper back — Sometimes, sooooo tight and constricted! Thankfully, at others, I can move the breath around my upper body to create space and reduce pain. — Sometimes, sooooo tight and constricted! Thankfully, at others, I can move the breath around my upper body to create space and reduce pain. survival mechanism — My fear based need to “control”. Because I can’t “control” something that is so painful was making me want to try and have the illusion of control in other areas of my life. Fortunately, I’ve moved passed that now. — My fear based need to “control”. Because I can’t “control” something that is so painful was making me want to try and have the illusion of control in other areas of my life. Fortunately, I’ve moved passed that now. ever increasing comfort with the unknown — Just like you’ll never know what you’ll get with your yoga practice, that’s how I feel each moment of every day when it comes to my emotions. Noticing the grief and anger and sadness that is stored in my body, and I am looking at how I can make sounds, move breath, and move the energy just like in yoga. Every time I talk about yoga, I always share that it has very little to do with the shapes we put our bodies in and everything to do with our breath and how we’re being with ourselves. You may not practice yoga at all, but may be the biggest yogi of anyone you know. With love and boldness, Jenn

https://medium.com/@jenn-67984/moving-through-holiday-grief-eadbfc6b0bb0

['Jenn Shull', 'The Bold Thing']

2020-12-27 21:31:10.801000+00:00

['Experiential Learning', 'Emotional Intelligence', 'Groups', 'Grief', 'Grief And Loss']

How to Get a Product Management Job at Tesla

If you have a passion for fast cars and renewable energy (being a fan of Elon Musk probably wouldn’t hurt either!) then you’ve probably thought about getting a Product Management job at Tesla. If you haven’t…you definitely should! But getting to work on some of the most desired cars in the Western world won’t be easy. That’s why we put together this easy all-you-need guide for getting your interview and acing it! What is Tesla? Tesla is the perfect company to marry your Product skills and your love for renewable energy. According to their LinkedIn, “Tesla aims to accelerate the world’s transition to a sustainable energy by ensuring we provide a seamless and frictionless experience to our customers.” Locations : Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, with other locations in Fremont, Los Angeles, San Jose, Chicago, and Sparks. : Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, with other locations in Fremont, Los Angeles, San Jose, Chicago, and Sparks. Average Product Manager salary : $85,133/yr USD : $85,133/yr USD Benefits : 401K, high-quality health insurance, unlimited time off (though obviously subject to approval). You’ll also have the opportunity to drive some pretty awesome cars! : 401K, high-quality health insurance, unlimited time off (though obviously subject to approval). You’ll also have the opportunity to drive some pretty awesome cars! Previous experience required: An entry-level PM role at Tesla requires a minimum of 5 years experience in a Product role, and a Bachelor’s or Masters in Engineering — or a similar discipline. Who is Elon Musk? Love him or hate him (though if you’re considering applying to his company, the former is better!) Tesla and SpaceX CEO, Elon Musk, is a major player in the tech world right now. While the chances are pretty small that you’d meet Musk at the interview stage, it’s worthwhile to know at least a little about him. He has two bachelor’s degrees in economics and physics from the University of Pennsylvania, and dropped out of Stanford where he was pursuing a PhD in energy physics to take advantage of the dot-com bubble in the 90s. He launched his first company, Zip2 in 1995, which gave newspapers access to online city guides. When Compaq acquired it in 1999 Musk received $22 million for his 7% share. He went on to co-found X.com which would later merge with Confinity and was renamed to PayPal, gaining Musk $165 million. Musk then founded SpaceX in 2001, which remains America’s largest private aerospace manufacturer. The man who could be the first to put humans on Mars might be your future boss! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgKWPdJWuBQ Check out Musk’s TED Talk on Tesla, SpaceX and SolarCity from 2013 What Do Current Tesla Employees Say? There are a few things to note about working at Tesla which you won’t find on their careers website! Here’s what you need to know: It’s a tough, fast-paced environment to work in, which can be either thrilling or exhausting, depending on your personality. to work in, which can be either thrilling or exhausting, depending on your personality. When you’re in a meeting with Elon Musk, if you don’t contribute he will call you out. Make sure you’re confident enough to speak up when you’re needed. enough to speak up when you’re needed. Work/life balance can be difficult to manage as long hours are expected — but if you’re passionate about what you’re doing the intensity can be a valuable experience. can be difficult to manage as long hours are expected — but if you’re passionate about what you’re doing the intensity can be a valuable experience. At the interview stage, all expenses like travel, accommodation, and meals are provided. like travel, accommodation, and meals are provided. Everyone loves being able to test drive Tesla cars ! ! You are provided with constant training to help you grow, but actual career progression within the company is said to be limited. to help you grow, but actual career progression within the company is said to be limited. The company culture is very friendly, welcoming, and professional. What Happens in a Tesla Product Manager Interview? Stage 1: You can apply directly for a particular position via the usual sources (LinkedIn, Glassdoor, Indeed, etc) and you might have a recruiter reach out to you if they find your profile interesting. Stage 2: You’ll have a phone interview with a recruiter to make sure you meet the basic requirements. Depending on the team, you may also speak with a team member at this stage. You can expect fairly easy questions, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t put your best foot forward! Stage 3: Once you’ve passed the phone stage you’ll be invited to an on-site interview, or a series of on-site interviews. You’ll most likely meet with several teammates, including senior members. This might take place over the course of a couple of days, which you’ll be informed of in advance. Stage 4: After a few days (usually up to 2 weeks) you’ll be informed on the status of your application. According to employees, Tesla likes to keep the interview process fairly short and sweet, so expect intense interviews but short wait times. Potential Interview Questions While you can expect to be asked some common Product Management interview questions, we want you to go into that interview super prepared! So we combed through sites like Glassdoor to bring you questions asked in real Tesla interviews: What do you know about Tesla? Tell me about a time you’ve worked with Software Engineers? What goals do you have for your first 6 months of working at Tesla? It’s easy to get burnt out at Tesla — how can you make sure you don’t? Why/when are you leaving your current role? Why did you choose your major? What do you know about Tesla cars? What is work, what is energy, and what is power? Several interviewees have also mentioned that they were asked to describe aspects of a previous project/product in extreme detail. You might also find this piece from Fast Company from the perspective of a former Tesla recruiter of interest. Now you have everything you need to step into a Tesla interview room with confidence! Check out the Ultimate Interview Checklist to get doubly prepared. Did you find this guide helpful? Tweet us @ProductSchool!

https://medium.com/productschool/how-to-get-a-product-management-job-at-tesla-d337fb981161

['Carlos G De Villaumbrosia']

2020-02-06 15:49:56.500000+00:00

['Job Interviews', 'Elon Musk', 'Interview', 'Interview Questions', 'Product Manager Interview']

What infrastructure will we need in a circular economy?

Disclaimer: The views in this article are not attributable to any organisation. Infrastructure — such as for energy and transport — currently makes up 60% or more of greenhouse gas emissions. The world now faces the challenge of building infrastructure to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) but at the same time, reducing emissions to zero, and preventing the global extinction crisis. Do we need to be more radical in designing infrastructure to meet global climate and nature goals? Design principles such as circularity, energy efficiency, and resource efficiency could become a first principle for infrastructure planners to reduce the need for built infrastructure in the first place. As this blog highlights — that could save costs, save material resources, and sustain natural ecosystems whilst meeting societal needs such as providing energy and water. The ‘mitigation hierarchy’ has already been widely applied to waste management, and similarly, the ‘avoid-shift-improve’ approach — below — has been applied to transport by some development banks. The basic principle is to avoid the need for building costly infrastructure in the first place whilst still meeting our needs. But can we apply this thinking to all types of infrastructure (including transport, energy, water, waste)? Source: SLOCAT Infrastructure can become part of a ‘circular economy’ that meets societal needs while avoiding crossing dangerous planetary boundaries. For example, water infrastructure can be designed to work with natural ecosystems and the water cycle. The same can be applied to other sectors like energy — since clean energy is obviously a renewable resource. Infrastructure design becomes all the more important in the context of COVID19 and the much-stated objective to ‘build back better’. For example, the COVID19 pandemic has shown us we do not always need to travel to work. In fact, working from home can in some cases reduce the need for new transport infrastructure and lower demand for oil. Analysis by S&P found that oil demand may have already peaked in 2020 if the crisis leads to permanent changes in telecommuting. In the UK, motoring association AA noted the £37 Billion of road construction cost may not be needed if home working becomes more popular. This means digital connectivity can be considered a core service we need to access. Broadband access is not currently available for everyone and we may need to meet the digital divide and overcome barriers to access. Looking systemically, working from home might reduce transport demand but can increase energy demand in some places, so further analysis is need to check how far this is a sustainable way to meet climate goals. In the transport sector, in Europe, more than €1 billion has been spent on cycling infrastructure across Europe since the outbreak of Covid-19, whilst Singapore has also seen a recent cycling boom. Providing cycling infrastructure, pedestrian walkways and green corridors are particularly important in a context where working from home becomes more commonplace. In terms of energy demand, we can also reduce the need for cooling systems in cities by bringing nature back into cities. Amazingly, urban trees can reduce the temperature by around 6 degrees which reduces the need for air conditioning. We can meet global energy demand through renewable energy but this demand can also be lower, cheaper and use less materials by adopting the ‘efficiency first’ principle. The ‘efficiency first’ principle has already been widely adopted in Europe. The E3G paper on ‘Energy efficiency as infrastructure’ points out that energy efficiency reduces the need for costly power plants to be built in the first place. Also in terms of water, adopting the ‘avoid’ principle to first save water could mean features like low water flushes are integrated into buildings. At city-scale, trees and vegetation also avoid the need to build concrete water infrastructure. For example, in the fantastic example of New York City’s water supply, water is provided by the upstream watershed. This is the largest unfiltered water supply in the United States and provides award-winning quality water. By protecting natural ecosystems, the water supply is much cheaper than a filtration plant would be. Meanwhile in Singapore, the water catchment area has increased from half to two-thirds of Singapore’s land surface. There are huge economic benefits to applying circular economy principles. In the UK, which has announced creation of a National Infrastructure Bank, a report by AECOM recently found that “adopting circular economy principles can significantly enhance productivity across the global construction industry and contribute a further £35bn to the UK economy by 2036”. Not only will this reduce emissions and help the UK get to net zero, it will also save money by reducing overhead costs. Practically implementing this principle of circularity and ‘efficiency first’ can be done through the use of alternatives analysis at the planning stage. An interesting example here comes from the Equator Principles. The EP4, updated this year, requires financial institutions to conduct an alternatives analysis, including “evaluation of technically and financially feasible and cost-effective options available to reduce Project-related GHG emissions during the design, construction and operation of the Project”. However, the principles do not yet go far enough in promoting a circular economy. As an example of practical implementation, Kate Raworth’s eye-opening work on the ‘Doughnut Model’ (see below) shows how we can meet our needs without putting too much pressure on Earth’s life-supporting systems. This has inspired city planners in Amsterdam to develop a circular economy strategy with the aim to be a thriving city while being inspired by natural systems. Perhaps the same model could be useful for other cities? Source: Kate Raworth In terms of waste, urban planners could also guide businesses into clusters based on inputs and outputs, where resources are cycled instead of permanently used up. This should mean less need for expensive landfill sites. Recycling and re-using can also be done at community-scale. In major cities, if residents of condos and apartment buildings had access to a website or ‘app’ to sell unwanted furniture or toys, perhaps it would reduce need for skip hire and landfill? Looking more broadly to the food sector, agricultural systems can also be regenerative and circular by design which is a key concept for organic agriculture. This is useful because, for example, scientists have warned that the world faces a crisis in the supply of phosphate, a critical fertiliser that underpins the world’s food supply. Using circular economy thinking for infrastructure guides us to consider what services we need first and then provide them with less built resources, and at lower cost, by integrating, considering and being inspired by nature. This will be a vital objective for coming decades to sustain life on earth, since, as the head of the CDB mentioned in a recent speech, nature and biodiversity is the ‘infrastructure that supports all life’. Clean air, clean water and pollination are all examples of essential services that we receive free from nature, and we will need to sustain these services in order to survive.

https://medium.com/@drhelenawright/what-infrastructure-will-we-need-in-a-circular-economy-b61e1ee69d98

['Dr Helena Wright']

2020-12-03 04:10:09.449000+00:00

['Nature', 'Climate Change', 'Energy', 'Circulareconomy', 'Infrastructure']

Bitcoin Keys and How to Store Them

If even the basic paper wallet sounds too inconvenient. it’s okay. There are friendlier options. Web/App Wallets and Desktop Wallets Phone apps and websites for storing your bitcoin are a great step up from storing it on an exchange. They are usually very easy to use and not very inconvenient. Non-custodial wallets also provide a very large security jump from storing your bitcoin on an exchange. Be absolutely sure to back up your seed, as unlike a password there is absolutely no way to recover it if it is lost. That means that if your phone is bricked or stolen, your kid throws it in the toilet, you reformat your computer, or you forget an encryption password you have no way of ever getting your bitcoin back if you haven’t backed it up elsewhere. There are a variety of apps for storing your bitcoin. The first class of options are Custodial Wallets such as freewallet.org. These are like exchanges in how they store your bitcoin; instead of you having the keys, they keep the keys and you have a login username and password though their website or app. Custodial wallets come with few benefits and most of the same risks as exchanges, although they do usually have more auditing and/or transparency in how they hold your funds. I do not recommend a custodial wallet for anyone unless you, in your own personal assessment, do not think you can be trusted to keep your seed safe. Remember the adage, not your keys not your crypto. The second class of options are Non-Custodial Wallets, also often called software wallets or hot wallets. Some of these are much more reputable than others. Some are open source, some are not. Some have great and sleek interfaces, some don’t. Some only store one cryptocurrency, some can store hundreds of different cryptocurrencies. They are simple to set up — just download an app on your phone or a program on your computer or navigate to a website, write down your seed, and deposit some bitcoin with a few taps. A great step up in security over leaving your coins on an exchange or a custodial wallet, these apps are great as long as you backup your seed safely and choose a reputable one. Desktop apps generally provide somewhat superior security to phone and web apps because they are usually under more scrutiny and the veracity of the build is easier to verify, but this is not a very large difference. Web apps are comparable to desktop apps in the level of scrutiny they receive but could potentially be running different code every time you load the website and are much more likely to require re-entering your seed for one reason or another, so on the whole are also slightly less secure than desktop apps. Reputable phone apps, web apps and desktop apps, collectively software wallets, are where the majority of people should keep their bitcoin for minimum hassle with decent security. Popular software wallets which I am not recommending, but appear to be reputable options include: Exodus — A popular Android, Apple store, and desktop app Coinbase Wallet — A popular Apple store app (distinct from Coinbase exchange) Mycelium — A popular shared source Android app Electrum — An old and popular free software desktop app Shared source means you can read the full source code and compile it yourself, but the license does not permit you to modify and distribute yourself. Free software means you can read and contribute to the full source code, as well as modify and distribute it. Open source is an imprecise term that could mean anything from free software to shared source, and so I avoid using it here for clarity. I use it elsewhere in this article to denote software that is at least shared source.

https://medium.com/coinmonks/bitcoin-keys-and-how-to-store-them-1238a1d9ba0a

[]

2021-03-12 18:39:59.885000+00:00

['Best Practices', 'Bitcoin', 'Bitcoin Wallet', 'Cryptocurrency Wallets', 'Cryptocurrency']

7 Best Woocommerce Additional Variation Images Plugins

WooCommerce is an excellent addition to any website directed towards making profits. WooCommerce allows you to make some money by setting up a shop on your website where visitors can view products and buy them. Additionally, they can make payments online or offline and complete multiple transactions. By itself, WooCommerce has limited abilities; however, it has excellent compatibility and takes very many plugins that enhance these capabilities. One of the shortcomings of the basic WooCommerce shop is that it can’t show many variations in products’ images. To remedy this, developers create WooCommerce variation images gallery plugins that allow you to add multiple image variations to products on your shop pages. Here is a list of the best additional variation image gallery plugins to add for a fantastic website. Take a look and make your choice. You might be interested related plugins variation swatches for woocommerce Top Woocommerce Additional Variation Images plugins listed bellow: Variation Image Gallery for WooCommerce WooCommerce comes with a single image insertion option by default; it doesn’t offer multiple or gallery addition options. Variation Image Gallery for WooCommerce plugin allows you to display additional images in beautiful image galleries for every product. With this plugin, you can upload unlimited photos for every product variation. With the Variation Image Gallery for WooCommerce, you can display different sets of images each time a visitor selects product variations, such as style, image, and color simultaneously. Whether or not you have dealt with WooCommerce before, you will appreciate the drag and drop customization and sorting option. In case you add WooCommerce variation images that you didn’t want on your pages, you can utilize the delete option that this WooCommerce attribute images plugin offers for variation images. These images also come with a zoom option and a zoom button that controls the image’s position. You can also choose to have a lightbox for variation image displays. Variation Image Gallery for WooCommerce Pro Variation Images Gallery for WooCommerce Pro also accommodates the extra images for every variation of the product. The additional pictures offer the customers with multiple views of your product to help increase your sales. This premium plugin is fully responsive and mobile-friendly so that your visitors can view the best images of your products and choose what they like. With the drag and drop sorting option, you can add images to your products easily. If you find that any of the WooCommerce attribute images you added needs removal, you can delete it quickly. This plugin allows you to embed videos from YouTube or just upload them directly onto your site. The Carousel Slider comes with a fantastic thumbnail option. You can position these thumbnail images easily to the bottom, right, or left. You don’t have to worry about the compatibility of this plugin with your WooCommerce theme or template. Additional Variation Images Gallery for WooCommerce If you want to display multiple images for your WooCommerce product attribute variation to increase sales and conversions. WooCommerce comes with a primary option of inserting just a single image for each product; this plugin adds to the online shopping platform’s capabilities and flexibility. The plugin allows you to display two additional images simultaneously on each product variation. Additional Variation Images Gallery for WooCommerce supports countless WooCommerce themes, so you don’t have to worry if it’ll go seamlessly with your website. The custom image variation sorting option allows you to allocate the right images to the right products. You can remove any image you want quickly with the straightforward image deletion option. If you have any queries using the WooCommerce variation images plugin, you will find extensive documentation and dedicated support convenient. Smart Variation Images for WooCommerce Smart Variation Images for WooCommerce enables your users to swap various gallery images each time they select a particular variation combination. They can even view different images of a product variation in one style and color. Each time a user chooses a different variation for your product, the main image or thumbnail will switch to display the relevant ones quickly. This amazing plugin facilitates the use of multiple images for a single variation. Since it has dropdowns, it allows you to showcase your products in a minimal interface. Additionally, one variation will be displayed under the swatches or dropdown menus. Smart Variation Images for WooCommerce shows two variations of galleries on the product loop pages. This plugin comes with the Simple Slider that allows you to showcase your images on an attractive interface. Your users can browse your website in any language since this WooCommerce variation images gallery plugin is translatable using the WPML plugin. C4D WooCommerce Variation Images C4D WooCommerce Variation Images is one of the best WooCommerce product variation images plugins with ease of use and incredible possibilities. For instance, this plugin allows you to create a gallery for each attribute value so that your visitors can have a smooth experience selecting the products they want. You can also set the navigation thumbnail direction to vertical or horizontal and its size, width, and margin. The Zoom Effect and Photoswipe have been included in the plugin for the best experience checking out the images of the products that your customers are after. This WooCommerce attribute images plugin allows you to create custom attribute swatches in the product editing page straightforwardly. You can work on a variable product and its quick view too. What’s more, as you have control over attribute settings, the changes you make will be applied globally. C4D WooCommerce Variation Images allows you to insert content and edit display settings with a flexible tooltip. Additional Variation Images Additional Variation Images is another way of improving your web shop’s flexibility and driving higher sales and conversions. You can showcase the precise product you have on sale by adding unlimited images for each variation you have for it. Whichever WordPress or WooCommerce theme you’re using, you will love that this plugin is compatible with all of them. You can add unlimited images, sort them, and delete them too. If you want to get adventurous with the Additional Variation Images but don’t know where to start, you will find the plugin’s extensive documentation incredibly helpful. You can add an entire gallery of images for particular variations. Your clients can preview and easily switch between multiple images of the same variation with this WooCommerce variation images plugin. Since it is translatable, you can sell your products to customers from different places worldwide. WooCommerce Additional Variation Images WooCommerce Additional Variation Images is another fantastic plugin that facilitates extra gallery images per variation on the variable products you have on your WooCommerce shop. You can create attribute color, image, and label or text swatches for your shop’s image variations. Creating custom attribute swatches is incredibly easy. This WooCommerce variation images gallery plugin allows you to enable attribute swatches in the store or archive pages. The WooCommerce Additional Variation Images is compatible with all good WordPress and WooCommerce themes so that you can upgrade your shop quickly once you have purchased this plugin. The plugin is also readily translatable so you can use any language that you want in your shop. Bottom Line If you want the best WooCommerce shop that gives your visitors a clear image of what you have to offer, choose one and get going. As you have seen, each plugin has something different that makes preferable to one person and not the next. So, make sure you choose your favorite WooCommerce variation images gallery plugin on this list — you won’t regret it!

https://medium.com/@radiustheme3/7-best-woocommerce-additional-variation-images-plugins-cf3a2900a8cd

[]

2021-01-07 10:24:15.629000+00:00

['Images', 'Woocommerce', 'Additional', 'Variation']

Predicting The Protein Structures Using AI

Proteins are found essentially in all organisms, and they are basically a sequence of amino acids that are arranged in a particular structure. For many decades, scientists have been able to accurately compute the sequence of amino acids, but however, accurately predicting the structure of the protein has always been a challenging task. If we are able to decode the sequence of the amino acids in the protein structure and accurately determine the structure of the protein, then it will serve a number of functions. Accurate prediction of protein structure will be very helpful in understanding the biological evolution of that particular protein and it will also help us understand the kind of diseases it can cause and the kind of defense it can provide against other diseases. Essentially, accurate prediction of the structure of the protein is the key to understand the function of proteins and cells and as well as to understand how they can malfunction and cause diseases and this understanding could also be very helpful in the development of treatment and vaccines. Now, if you look at the SARS-CoV-2, it is the spike protein structure of the Virus that latches onto the AS2 receptor in our cells, thereby leading to the occurrence of the infection. We have been able to develop this understanding quite quickly, mainly because of the progress that we have made with regard to our understanding and prediction of protein structures. First Discovery See, this field began evolving many decades ago, and back in 1972, a scientist known as Christian B. Anfinsen predicted that by accurately computing the sequence of amino acids, we will be able to deduce the protein structure. So this discovery won him the Nobel Prize for chemistry and it laid the foundation for analysis and prediction of protein structures. X-ray Crystallography Then nearly 60 years ago a scientist known as Max Perutz started to predict protein structures by using experiments. He made use of X-ray crystallography to determine the exact structure of myoglobin and hemoglobin and it was this discovery that helped us understand the true function of hemoglobin in the blood, which is to transport oxygen from the lungs to the tissues and cells. This understanding of the structure of myoglobin and hemoglobin also helped us understand how a change in a single amino acid can cause diseases such as sickle cell anemia. Genome Sequencing Today, decoding the sequence of amino acids and accurately completing the sequence has become more advanced, thanks to the progress achieved in genome sequencing. Because at the end of the day, the protein structures in the amino acids are essentially a part of the genome itself and the rapid advances we have made in genome sequencing have helped us to easily compute the sequence of amino acids. But however, when it comes to creating a 3D structure of the protein, these experimental techniques such as X-ray crystallography, nuclear magnetic resonance, etc., can be quite ineffective and they’re also very time consuming and expensive. India’s Contribution When it comes to the field of protein structural work. Even India is a leading country because an Indian scientist known as GN Ramachandran developed the Ramachandran plot, which today has become the model for scientists around the world to understand the structure of proteins. CASP Technique Then in 1994, a scientist known as John Moult came up with the CASP technique, which stands for Critical Assessment for Protein Structure Prediction, and this is provided for a comparative model through which protein structures can be predicted. Specialty Of AI But however, predicting protein structures is a very complex and challenging exercise, especially when you’re relying upon traditional experimental techniques such as X-ray crystallography and nuclear magnetic resonance. This is where the emergence of artificial intelligence has caused a major disruption in the field of protein structure prediction. In 2018, a company known as Deep Mind made use of artificial intelligence and deep learning to come out with a predictive algorithm, which today has emerged as a breakthrough technology that can accurately predict protein structure. Conclusion These advances made in the production of protein structure with the usage of artificial intelligence and deep learning algorithms have transformed our understanding of the SARS-CoV-2 and it has definitely enabled the accelerated development of vaccines. Gain Access to Expert View — Subscribe to DDI Intel

https://medium.com/datadriveninvestor/predicting-the-protein-structures-using-ai-54618460131b

['Vishnu Aravindhan']

2020-12-26 08:46:36.656000+00:00

['AI', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Health', 'Protein', 'Science']

Travel Terrifies Me, But I Do It Anyway

Travel Terrifies Me, But I Do It Anyway When I watch a horror movie, I jump at the slightest sound. I get shivers up my spine. I break out in a cold sweat. I cover my eyes with my hands and I stuff my thumbs in my ears to block out any sound. Even Jurassic Park gives me nightmares. When I’m out of my comfort zone, I get the same reaction. It doesn’t matter what I do. A road trip, a canoe trip or a flight on a plane. I get nervous and worry that dire consequences will occur when I venture out of where it’s safest. This makes me wonder why on earth I chose to take a trip to South Carolina, in 2012. As uncomfortable as it seemed, I wanted to venture further into the USA than I had ever done before. To this point, I had driven from New Brunswick, Canada through the Berkshires in Western Maine. To New Hampshire into Vermont and came by way of Cornwall, Ontario, with my ex. I shopped in Niagara Falls New York with friends. I took a trip with my children to Great Falls, Montana. We drove 4500 feet up the side of the mountain on the Going-To-The-Sun road through Glacier National Park. It was a day trip from Waterton National Park, Alberta. My Road Trip to The South Be brave young soul. I’d always wanted to travel south for the March Break. A wicked adventure. I was game. Photo by m j on Unsplash My Adventure to South Carolina It was a dream come true. Travel during the winter months to a warm exotic world. I could remove the winter jacket and walk in the great outdoors in a t-shirt and shorts. Excitement permeated my veins. I love to travel and going by car is so personal. You feel the land and the inhabitants of that country. I am an avid explorer. I never tire of driving. On the first day, I drove my sister in my H3 all the way to Greensboro, North Carolina. We stayed overnight at a Super 8. Sounds great, even though I felt as though I didn’t belong there. I had always heard that American police shoot first and ask questions after. What would happen if I got pulled over for speeding? The Changing Scenery The landscape changed as the temperature rose — from snowbanks in Ontario to green mountains in West Virginia. As we drove through the blasted out tunnel of Walker Mountain it fed the excitement in me. Would the tunnel collapse on us? The drive down Fancy Gap into North Carolina, where the Blue Ridge Mountains came into view, was beautiful. My sister told me they have runaway ramps for trucks if they burn out their brakes on the I-70. Nice for me to know. After a quick breakfast the next morning, we finished our drive to the ocean-side hotel on the Isle of Palms. Charleston, palm trees and beaches here we come. Photo by David Martin on Unsplash The Stress of Our Arrival We arrived but had to park a block away. This was a major issue because neither of us had ever gone this far into another country. I yelled in frustration at my sister, why didn’t she tell me? My nervousness created an awkward beginning to our arrival. We soon found a parking spot outside of our hotel. The place wasn’t as busy as we expected because tourist season on the Isle of Palms begins in May. Alot of amenities weren’t available. However we enjoyed the beach in shorts and a t-shirt without huge crowds. Big waves crashed on the beach and the sound took some getting used to. They lulled us to sleep. As those waves continued to thunder, they woke me at 2 in the morning. Startled I left the room to see what major catastrophe had occurred. Nothing, just small waves on the beach. Returning to our room, my sister was dumbfounded by my actions. I identified the sound, now I could sleep. Tomorrow a tour of Charleston call us. The Graveyard My sister was writing a book. It was set in Charleston, SC and that was how I chose our destination. I knew if I chose that location she would jump at the chance to join me on my adventure. I had the money to pay, as I had sold my home the previous year. Part of her story included a nighttime chase through Magnolia Cemetery in Charleston. That was our first stop. We took our own tour, she knew what she was looking for. The caretaker did warn us that there was a small alligator in the pond. We never saw it. Although, I kept an eye out for it, while my sister spent the next 4 hours reading gravestones. I don’t know about you, but I’m intrigued by graveyards. Sure they’re eerie but I enjoy looking at old gravestones. Do you ever wonder if spirits of the dead will attach themselves to you as you wander between the graves? My sister took tons of photos there. We uploaded them on the laptop, daily. Of course, we saw spirits on one of the mausoleums she photographed. Courtesy of Evelyn Marentette We returned to our hotel where we spent the rest of the day walking on the beach and getting some sun. Touring Charleston We did a 2-hour tour, on a wagon, of downtown Charleston, the next morning. We learnt about the 7.0 earthquake that hit it in 1886. It shook the eastern seaboard from Maine to Florida as far west as the Mississippi for 1 minute. It still is the talk of the town because of the major damage it caused. It was the most devastating earthquake ever in Southern USA. https://www.earthmagazine.org/article/benchmarks-august-31-1886-magnitude-7-earthquake-rocks-charleston-south-carolina Photo by Katie Burkhart on Unsplash We learned of the false entranceways on porches. There is color called “haint blue” painted on porch ceilings and some houses to keep evil spirits away from the homes. Such a ghost-riddled town. Such a beautiful place. So old-fashioned and quaint. They have a replica of the H. L. Hunley, a submarine used during the Civil War. H. L. Hunley (submarine) — Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org › wiki › H._L._Hunley_(submarine) The Planation We left for a 9 am tour at Drayton Hall early the next morning. It’s a beautiful old home built in 1738. It’s the only one of its kind that still survives along the Ashley River. Free of furnishings it was in need of extra TLC to repair it. It’s incredible that it lasted through the Revolution and the Civil War. I imagine the long hot evenings in the humid weather and feel my version of a romanticized era. Walks in the garden. Breakfasts and teas in the morning. Love the thought. The grounds are gorgeous and immense. This is where I learnt how much the Carolinan forests resemble the ones in Southern Ontario. The vines that wrap around the trees are much thicker in the Deep South. I’m sure the forests there have many spirits, and in death, the slaves never left. To this day they lay in graves, unmarked. Walks At Low Tide Most afternoons we enjoyed exploring and tanning on the beach. We found an array of different shells. The largest shell we saw housed a horseshoe crab. It is about 15 to 16 inches long from its round horseshoe-like shell to the tail. It has 9 eyes and 6 pinchers. The female is one third larger than the male. There are small spikes on it.They’re creepy. The other weird thing we saw were rectangular black pouches with tendrils at each corner. These are egg cases and hold skate embryos. Skates have no cartilage and are from the same family as the sharks and rays. I found a large beautiful shell but when I turned it over the largest snail I had ever seen, was looking right at me. Certain it would bite me, I didn’t hold back and I hurled it as far away as I could. As we walked along the beach , we watched a guy throw a stick in the ocean for his dog. I worried that Jaws would strike right out in front of us. We learned that 12 species of sharks prowl along the coast of South Carolina, including Great Whites. Another Road Trip We did everything my sister wanted to do. So I decided we should drive to Florida for lunch. I loved Florida, but had never been. This was my opportunity. What you may not understand is my way of thinking. When I travel I have 2 beliefs: I may never pass this way again. A 3 to 4 hour drive one way isn’t too far when you are this close to a place you never thought you’d visit. 2. Do it all. Always do the most you can do, because you may only get one chance. We woke early the next morning and headed off to Fernandina Beach, Amelia Island, Florida. I was so excited. 4 hours later we sat at Sandy Bottoms Bar and ate lunch. We bought t-shirts and swam off the coast of Florida. Awesome. I loved every second of my time in Florida. I still get excited about that side trip. Photo by Jared Rice on Unsplash Georgia Peach On the way back to Charleston, we stopped at a visitors rest-stop, along the highway. The women there thought we should go to Savannah,Georgia. I regret I’ve never been. I’d like to. Next time I’d stop there on my way to Miami. The Darkness By the time we got to South Carolina, the sun was down. It was terrifying to see how inky black it was by the roads leading to the plantations. I imagined how horrible it would’ve been for a runaway slave. First you’d be alone as you ran into the forest in the pitch black. Down to the swamps where alligators and cottonmouth snakes await your arrival. Never mind whatever else was out there. If you didn’t make it and got caught they’d whip you or worse. The slave owners would be sure to use you as an example for others. My heart went out to them as I drove on in the inky darkness. The ghosts of their spirits locked in a horrendous time. Photo by CRISTIANO DE ASSUNCAO on Unsplash The Wrap up We spent the next morning scouring the shops for trinkets for home. The afternoon was spent on the beach. We were almost ready to head out from a very delightful vacation. We picked up some sweet tea, a staple of the South. It’s much sweeter than ice tea in Canada. The Trucker After a last walk on the beach we headed back to Greensboro, North Carolina for our last night in the States. It was uneventful until I cut-off a trucker. That was the first time I encountered road rage. He tailed me for quite some time. He was at my back window for more miles than I care to remember. I tried to lose him when I stopped for gas, but when I went in to pay, he blocked me in. I looked him right in the eye, such a miserable old man. He smiled a greasy grin at me. If I could’ve I would’ve destroyed him where he stood. How dare he intimate me like that. I had enough. What he didn’t realize was that a H3 has a smaller body and can manoeuvre out of tighter areas. He chased me back onto the Interstate. Talk about scary. I felt so out of place. Where could I go? We knew noone there. People carry guns in the USA. We don’t do that in Canada. You can’t freak out and walk away. All those weird horror shows crept into my brain. What would he do if he caught us? I remember reading about a trucker who tortured women he caught on highways. Who knows what kind of people you end up around when you travel? Finally we neared a hotel and I pulled off when the trucker got caught up behind another trucker. We were thankful when we watched him continue up the highway, I know he did not see us. I often think the other trucker knew we were part of a cat and mouse game with the other guy. In my books he saved us from that idiot. We had a good night’s rest and left the next morning. I had a couple of stops to make before we crossed into Canada. New River Gorge Bridge When I travel and I see something of interest I love to stop. I’m always up for a hike. This trip was no different. On our way to South Carolina we went drove over a long bridge and I decided to stop on our way back. We visited the Vistors Centre. It had a staircase that went halfway down the gorge. It is in the Appalachian Mountains, near Fayetteville, West Virginia. The bridge is 876 feet above the New River. Which is the 2nd oldest river in the world. It is impressive. It was something we woudn’t have seen if we hadn’t stopped. Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash Blackburg West Virginia I needed an oil change because of all my travel. We chose a Firestone shop in Blackburg, West Virginia. I called ahead and they took me that day. Very odd things happen to me when I travel. I choose places and then discover it’s close to where tragic events occurred. We found out we were only minutes from where the deadliest school shooting in the USA happened, in 2005. Seven minutes down the road at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. So very tragic. It’s almost like the stars deem that I pass that way. The strange part is that I go to great lengths to avoid places where many deaths occur. I sense that if I do go close, a spirit may attach to me to speak to their loved ones. I know I’m a conduit. So I choose to stay away. Over the Border We Go Photo by Randy Laybourne on Unsplash Later that afternoon we crossed the border into Canada. We arrived home by 5 pm. It was an incredible trip with lots of bonuses. What I Learned from My Trip • The worst highway on that trip and all the way to Florida, began at home. The QEW and the 401 are busiest with the craziest drivers, the trucker was the exception. • I’m capable of driving all the way to Florida. • I would go again. • The more I do the braver I become. • In spite of my fears, I can do alot more than I ever thought I could. ~ Elle

https://medium.com/@elleehow/travel-terrifies-me-but-i-do-it-anyway-76f37c791bdc

['Elle How']

2021-01-29 13:48:44.812000+00:00

['South Carolina', 'Florida', 'Roadtrip', 'Travel', 'USA']

Dreams of Love

pixabay.com I dreamed of you again last night, pressed so tight between the sheets, wrapped in a memory that longs for solidity outside the boundaries of my mind. I dreamed of you again as I have done so many times; each one a testament to a love still burning. You have not left a part of me untouched. You linger like water upon the shore to soak what little remains virginal — every crystal glistening in the glow of your heart, every touch a tiny prayer to soothe a swollen psyche where it is sometimes too easy for memories to become misery, where vacancy invites the dark to stay. So I am thankful that I dreamed of you so I could feel you again as I did then, when you pressed your lips to the pain and it was gone. There is no place safer than the sanctity of your arms; a tender safety every woman dreams of. You are filling every gap in my mind and every lonely leap of faith left uncrossed in my body. All the jagged edges of my psyche are finally fitting together. You fill me entirely — from head to toe, but it doesn’t feel like an intrusion; It feels like coming home. © Jacqueline Ann 2021

https://psiloveyou.xyz/dreams-of-love-169e197e26b7

['Jackie Ann']

2021-01-24 13:04:17.126000+00:00

['Love Letters', 'Poetry', 'Poetry Sunday', 'Dreams', 'Love Poems']

I’M AN ADDICT, AND I HAVE A CONFESSION TO MAKE…

I have had this bitter-sweet addiction for as long as I can remember. My Mum is very much to blame for this, as she used to do this in front of me all the time, growing up… It’s one of those addictions that is life-long, because everyone around me in my life have always encouraged me to keep it up… You’re probably thinking right now…What is going on? What is she talking about? What could she possibly have gotten herself into??? It’s OK everyone, calm down… It’s not what you think… It’s just my… BAKING ADDICTION! :-) When I was growing up, I used to always love the fact that my Mum would bake (from scratch). Our home was always filled with amazing smells. Not only that, but baked cakes and biscuits would always taste better when they were made the traditional way. Having a Polish background, my sister and I were blessed to be able to sample many yummy Polish dishes throughout our childhood. ***I will include a very yummy Sponge with Fruit Cake recipe at the end of my BLOG (this is one of my favourite Polish cake recipes, and super easy to put together, too)*** Sorry for being just a wee bit biased here, BUT, I reckon my Mum is one of the best cooks that I know. Unfortunately, I didn’t really get to learn any great tricks in the kitchen until I was a lot older (in my 20’s), which is partly my fault (I wasn’t overly interested in learning anything in my teens), and partly the kitchen’s fault — as it was tiny, and Mum always used to say there wasn’t enough room for more than one person to be in there while cooking, at any given time. I remember when I was little, I used to love watching (and still do) cooking shows. So, my passion for cooking/baking had been there all along… I just hadn’t unleashed my superpower yet! Over the years, especially since becoming a Mum, I have become more and more passionate about my new found love and hobby. My family and friends are always delighted to try the things that I create. My most recent experiences with baking are that I am experimenting with very healthy ingredients, such as almond and hemp flour, coconut oil, etc., as I am also passionate about a healthier way of living for our whole family (especially for our kids as they grow and develop in their early years), which has now become our norm. My Healthy Baking Frenzy — Chocolate Beetroot Cake; Pear, Dried Fruit and Nut Muffins The bonus with carrying on the BAKING FROM SCRATCH tradition, that has been inspired by and passed down from my Mum, is that you know what you’re putting into your body, my family reap the health benefits AND I can pass down this tradition to our kids and them to theirs (if they have the desire to do so). Note: Now and again, I even get comments from my two boys (3 and 7yr olds) saying things like, “I LOVE your cooking, Mum”. This warms my heart :-) Yummy Hemp Flour Pancakes with all the Bells & Whistles — decorated by our Sons For all the Mamas out there, I want to encourage you to really have a go with baking and make it an enjoyable, relaxing experience for yourself, as it should be :-) AND…MOST IMPORTANTLY… GET YOUR KIDS INVOLVED!!! They get to learn how to Cook, they learn about Maths (measuring), Science (reactions) and much more. But most of all, it creates an amazing opportunity where you can spend time and bond with your children…and everyone gets to enjoy their efforts… WIN WIN

https://medium.com/@kco2120/im-an-addict-and-i-have-a-confession-to-make-6b64f16b846d

['Karolina Cutler']

2019-08-13 12:06:21.364000+00:00

['Nutrition', 'Children', 'Baking', 'Motherhood', 'Food']

The Slow Death of Mainstream Church

Photo by Edwin Andrade on Unsplash I grew up in houses of worship…literally. My father was a minister with a mainstream protestant denomination in Canada. Many days of my youth were spent playing in church gyms, exploring nooks and crannies of century-old buildings, and trying to be “helpful” to my dad and the church secretary. In my teens, my mother went back to school in order to make the jump from teaching to ministry as well. This meant two churches, two congregations, two places in which I was surrounded by people with certain expectations of the minister’s kid. Sometimes the expectations of others are worse than the expectations of your own family. Through my teens, I experimented…a lot. Oh, there were no drugs, sex, or anything like that. Can you imagine the scandal in the church community if the minister’s kid got caught with some pot? This was the nineties, when the war on drugs was still raging. No, I experimented with church. Different denominations, different worship styles, different beliefs, I tried a bunch of them. Always too worried about what other people thought to just let myself be who I wanted to be. Throughout this time, I was a regular attendee at regional church meetings. We met once a year to discuss the work of the church on a larger scale, and about once a meeting I would stand up and speak on something or another. This experience gave me a healthy respect for not only debate, but the process of achieving consensus instead of majority. I spent my summers working at summer camp, though my beliefs began to evolve and I ended up rejecting the small, petty beliefs of exclusion that they espoused. In their own terms, I love the believers and hate the beliefs. I owe a lot to those formative years, they have shaped me in ways that I never would have chosen. I famously fell asleep during a prayer at the end of an all-day planning session with the leadership team. As I moved out of my teens and into my post-secondary years, I found myself drawn towards leadership in different organizations. I worked as a volunteer youth minister in my denomination, serving in a couple of different local and regional roles. I also served in leadership with a non-denominational group on my university campus. Though in retrospect, my heart wasn’t totally in that one. I famously fell asleep during a prayer at the end of an all-day planning session with the leadership team. In my defence, I had worked an overnight shift the night before. I have worshipped in arenas, in tiny chapels, around fires with a small group of friends, while walking solo through a labyrinth, and while riding wind-driven waves in a canoe. I have also worshipped in cathedrals, with hundred-plus voice choirs, from the pews, from the choir loft, and from the pulpit. Church has never been about worship. I don’t believe that worship is limited to certain buildings. I don’t even believe that worship is limited to certain religions. Church is not about worship.

https://matthewwoodall.medium.com/the-slow-death-of-mainstream-church-5a7c29ac83cd

['Matthew Woodall']

2019-10-14 01:48:37.010000+00:00

['Christianity', 'Community', 'Family', 'Faith']

Throw Inside Swift’s Closures

Throw Inside Swift’s Closures Closures CAN throw! Photo by MIKHAIL VASILYEV on Unsplash Difficulty: Beginner | Easy | Normal | Challenging This article has been developed using Xcode 11.4.1, and Swift 5.2.2 This article is tested on Xcode 12 Prerequisites: You will be expected to be aware how to make a Single View Application in Swift You will need to have some knowledge of closures, although I’ll do my best to have you covered in this article By definition this article relies on some knowledge of error handling in Swift You should be aware of @escaping Terminology Closures: A combination of functions and references to the surrounding context Motivation One of the important things in swift is using closures to make functions return and good practice for Swift coders. The ordinary use of closures One of the uses of closures is to do something, and then something else (clear, right?) the output of this (when called with doThis(a: "test", thenThis: completion) ) is (can you guess?) this then this test now because the function that is passed can be changed, we can do just that by instead passing throught the completionFunction by using doThis(a: "test", thenThis: completionFunction) which then gives the following output: this then this function test Now notice that the first function completion is assigned to a constant (through let ) but the second is simply a function - no matter, Swift can cope with both of these functions. Awesome — we are passing a closure to a function as a function- Most excellent news. We’ll expand this second example as we move forwards in this tutorial. The use of async closures Network calls can return at any time after they are called. I’m pretending to have a network call here, but you could actually do it with the following network manager if you’d like). So imagine that you need to need to go to the network to do some work. You make a network call to increment a number (it’s an example, right?) but goes and makes a network call to do just that. Well, we can model that: I know there are some tricky parts to this — we are using a trailing closure which can be tricky. Assuming you’re OK with all that let us move on. But there is a problem (in this example, and not just that it is contrived) — incNum will produce an error if 13 is returned. The Error So what about producing an Error when 13 is returned from incNum ?. Let us say that 13 is a bad number (in some cultures it is considered to be unlucky). So we shall set up a rather basic function incNum that will call a completion handler to return a number increased by one. The Error will indicate if we have returned an 'unlucky' number from incNum - but see underneath the code snippet for the (rather large) error: Invalid conversion from throwing function of type '(Int) throws -> Void' to non-throwing function type '(Int) -> Void' Oh dear! What Swift is telling us, is that when we throw BadLuckError.unlucky we are actually throwing from the closure. Throwing from a trailing closure The solution will come first, followed by the explaination We have marked callingFunction as throws which means that it can throw an error by placing the throws keyword at the end of the function signature. This meant that we needed to call the calling function suing a do-try-catch block: do { try callingFunction(num: 12, closure: incNum) } catch { print ("DONE") } The incNum function will not throw an error on it's own, so is marked with rethrows as it throws from the completion - which therefore must be marked with try . Since completion does indeed throw it has it's signature changed to (Int) throws -> Void) . This modified signature is copied back to the signature of the callingFunction which marks the closure as the same (Int) throws -> Void) , but since rethrows can only be used in function declarations throws is used instead. Fantastico! The caveats You can’t throw an error from async closures — which means that you either force the closure to be synchronous using semaphores (not recommended due to performance) or use Swift’s result type. Conclusion I hope this article has helped you out! It can be tricky to work through this type of article — we are using throws and rethrows and it can feel a little complex. However, I hope this article has helped you out and you can see how to progress in your coding journey. If you’ve any questions, comments or suggestions please hit me up on Twitter Feel free to sign up to my newsletter

https://stevenpcurtis.medium.com/throw-inside-swifts-closures-e69fb378500e

['Steven Curtis']

2020-06-30 13:30:39.158000+00:00

['Programming', 'Swift', 'Software Engineering', 'Development', 'Software Development']

Looking Beyond the Obvious Successes

As technical managers we often measure our success and value with traditional, tangible metrics. Do these sound familiar? - Improved datacenter uptime from 95% to 99.5% - Reduced equipment procurement costs 14% - Completed six infrastructure projects, each with a $500K or higher budget - Support team achieved 95% positive feedback from users - Released 92% of code updates on schedule Those metrics are easy and often appear at or near the top of resumes and LinkedIn profiles. You know what, there’s nothing at all wrong with that fact. However, I want to pose a question to you all who fit into technical leadership roles. What is your greatest non-technical career achievement? What thing that is not at all a part of the technical nuts and bolts of your job can you stand back and nod in approval for your work? I’ll lead off the discussion with a pair of mine that share equal space at the top of my list. First, I’ve never lost a single employee who I interviewed and hired to join my team. Not one. I’ve had many move up via promotion and new opportunity within the company, but for me that is a win as they progress within the environment I sold them on joining. That does not mean I’ve never let anyone go for performance/HR/downsizing reasons, but none were people I brought into the company. For me that signals my interview techniques and people instincts are to be trusted in bringing in the talent my teams and the company needs. Second, I’ve left two positions where a member of my team was not only ready, but it seemed eager, to step into my role. Both in fact did step into my position once I left and are both still in those roles today. It is easy as you get caught up in the day to day actions to keep the lights on to forget we as leaders must also be mentors. It is our responsibility to identify both the desire and the talent in our teams and work to give them the new opportunities they deserve via training, coaching, and the chance to succeed or fail on their own. The fact I’ve done so twice to date is a great accomplishment for me. So let’s hear it, those of you in the techie leadership chairs, what outside the “nerd stuff” are you most proud?

https://medium.com/@theotherjon/looking-beyond-the-obvious-successes-e281a5846621

['Jon Santee']

2020-12-11 14:31:36.705000+00:00

['Leadership', 'Personal Development', 'Team Building', 'Mentorship', 'Success']

Don’t be when you must become

It is human nature to avoid any sort of discomfort. But believe it or not there’s no progress without it. “Don’t be when you must become.” is a thought that hit me one morning after snoozing my alarm and woke up an hour later. “Yet little sleep, a little slumber, and little folding of the hand to rest.” I kept thinking about those words, and realized it is the only thing that makes us fail adapting to a new reality. Whether it is the one we want to create or one we find ourselves in. Deep down we always know what we want, however that is only buried within our self. On the other hand our body tends to be reluctant when it comes to change. Thus you find that unless the will to become is more than the need to be, no change can happen. And as fact change is inevitable as long as time is not static. For everything changes to better or worse, and for the better or worse (Not to forget that better or worse are relative to the observer). Loose yourself to uncertainties, listen to the whispering voice; not the loud. Understand that you’re not the mind, but the one who hears it. And be a child at play. That’s what becoming is all about. Not to be.

https://medium.com/@davidniwewe/dont-be-when-you-must-become-6fcbf0998c94

['David Niwewe']

2020-12-24 12:04:15.256000+00:00

['Mindfulness', 'Phylosophy', 'Thoughts']

Book Review: Quotations from Mao Tse-tung

Colloquially known as the Little Red Book in the western world and widely distributed during Chairman Mao’s cultural revolution, Quotations from Mao Tse-tung is a collection of speeches and writings from the CCP leader published in the 1960s and 1970s. In Hong Kong, it is not that difficult to find, being available from several street vendors and some museums. The book was compiled by the People’s Liberation Army and distributed to delegates in 1964 before being expanded after feedback. By 1967, the book was available throughout the world having been picked up by international publishers. Accurate figures on popularity are hard to come by due to it being obligatory for Chinese citizens to own, read and carry a copy at all times during the Cultural Revolution. In modern China, it is mainly used as a piece of nostalgia but is given out as a gift in certain situations. In terms of reading it, the book is a lot shorter than its page numbers would suggest due to its size. I must admit, however, it was not the most riveting read. I read it to engage myself in a political debate and learn more about Mao’s philosophy but I found it presented very little in the way of arguments. It more or less attempted to assert its views by arguing ‘capitalists just screw over the proletariat’ or words to that effect, so I was left disappointed in that regard. I also have to say some of the content appeared to directly contradict some of Mao’s policy. He spoke about the importance of open dialogue and education but the Cultural Revolution saw people thrown in prison for questioning policy, even if they generally supported Mao and the party and particularly teachers. It is also has a section to justify dictatorship, arguing otherwise counter revolutionaries would undermine the state. I can’t say it was very gripping either, I was only able to read about three-quarters of it. Obviously, modern China is very different to the one Mao built and envisaged, largely thanks to reforms both politically and economically thanks to Deng Xiaoping. Deng, made it possible for children of condemned counter revolutionaries to take exams to access higher education, with the chance previously being taken away from them under previous administrations. If you can read this book and remain engaged throughout, it offers a good snapshot into the CCP under Mao. And this of course, has had a role in building modern China as we know it. Rating — 2/5 stars. Next book to review: Policing Hong Kong: An Irish History by Patricia O’Sullivan.

https://medium.com/@gursimranhans/book-review-quotations-from-mao-tse-tung-29f4cb2b820e

['Gursimran Hans']

2019-11-15 19:34:06.339000+00:00

['Mao', 'China', 'Communism', 'Ccp', 'History']

Asia Brickell Key

From the moment you enter Asia’s impeccably manicured drive you sense that you’re in for a journey of unparalleled style. The pagoda-like high rise greets you with the gentle sound of water flowing in the background. Infused with distinctly modern lines and highlighted with Floridian aqua trim achieved with patina copper, Asia on Brickell Key combines old-world grace with state-of-the-art amenities. Asia’s interior décor balances sophistication with natural elements. Accordingly, Amazing Flowers Miami incorporates tropical florals with contemporary presentations to attain an understated and organic addition to the lobby. A Brief History of Brickell Key The modest beginnings of Brickell Key certainly gave no indication that this little island east of downtown Miami would develop into the highly sought-after neighborhood it is today. In fact, the key’s origins begin in 1896. The industrialist and Miami developer, Henry Flagler, wanted to deepen the water at the mouth of the Miami River. Flagler envisioned the deep-water Port of Miami, but it required placing the limestone and river silt elsewhere. Enter the two manmade islands now known as Brickell Key. By 1943, Edward Claughton purchased the islands and combined them into one 44-acre piece of property. Brickell Key/Claughton Island remained accessible only by boat until the bridge at Brickell Key Drive connected it with the mainland. Development of the island began in earnest in 1979. Today, you’ll enjoy residential condos, such as the Asia, office buildings, and the island’s sole hotel, the Mandarin Oriental. Additionally, Brickell Key features scenic walking paths, shopping, restaurants, and a market place. Sculptor, Manuel Carbonell, provides some of the island’s contemplative treasures, such as the bronze Mother and Child. Asia Brickell Key If you’re looking for luxury living, look no further than Asia Brickell Key. Designed by J. Scott Architecture and constructed by Swire Development, the three-year building process was completed in 2008. The Asia consists of 33 stories and a total of 123 units. While some units bring the beauty of the bay to your balcony, all homes feature balconied views of the many Miami sights. Spectacular views include downtown Miami, Brickell, the Miami River, and the surrounding Biscayne Bay area. You may also opt to marvel at all this magical setting has to offer from Asia Brickell Key’s grand terrace. Visit with neighbors or enjoy the solitude as you take in the spectacular waterfront vistas. The boutique atmosphere and limited occupancy create a consummate sense of community. The opportunity is there for you to experience if you so desire. Conveniently located within walking distance to any spot on the island, you can take advantage of the fresh air and exercise on your way to the hotel spa, grabbing a cup of morning coffee at the market, or dining in the evening. Another benefit of Asia Brickell Key’s locale is that you can take advantage of the shuttle bus service on days when you’d like to get over to Brickell but don’t feel like fighting traffic. Simply catch a lift at the island’s entrance gate on SE 8th St., and take a ride along Brickell Avenue, S.W. 8th, Coral Way, and along South Miami Ave. to Mercy Hospital. Asia Brickell Key Building Amenities The residents of the luxury waterfront Asia enjoy 24-hour concierge service, valet parking, and private elevator access. Contact management at any time with touch screen lifestyle management technology. Take advantage of your own private storage area when you find you have a little more than you want to keep in your condo. Additionally, each resident is provided with two covered parking spaces. Feel secure with the 24-hour attended guard gate and biometric security. The condo’s association dues include water, sewer, trash removal, pest control, window cleaning, and building insurance. Owners may also enjoy the companionship of their small pets. Stay active with the use of the pool, a jacuzzi, tennis courts, and a private fully-staffed fitness center that features best-in-class machines. Asia Brickell Key Home Amenities Once inside your home, the expanse of the view is heightened by the interior’s 12-foot ceilings. Contact management at any time with touch screen lifestyle management technology — available in every unit. Asia Brickell Key’s design creates a boutique-style of atmosphere. Instead of overcrowding the floor with multiple units, the designers opted for space and flow. The ninth through the 13th floors, for instance, features a mere three units per floor. Between the 15th and 29th floors, residents enjoy a roomy five units per floor. No detail was overlooked when creating the elegant living spaces at Asia Brickell Key. Each condo features marble floors, high-end appliances and fixtures as well as exceptional use of space with generous walk-in closets. The chef-friendly kitchens feature Miele cooktops and ovens, sub-zero refrigerators, Franke double sinks, wine coolers, Italian designer cabinets, and granite countertops. Each has been outfitted with sycamore or wenge cabinet finishes and topped with one of three granite color choices, including emerald pearl, Kashmir white, or imperial black. On days when you could really do with a cappuccino but don’t feel like going out, simply make your own right in the comfort of home. The larger units offer this unique complementary feature. We’ll Help Your Business Grow Please call (305) 787–0700 or send us an email if you have any questions about our corporate flower services. It would be our pleasure to assist you with your floral arrangements for your company; we take great care in creating the perfect statement to match your specific business.

https://medium.com/@amazingflowersmiami/asia-brickell-key-8035958a3a1b

['Amazing Flowers Miami']

2019-11-28 03:56:43.507000+00:00

['Corporate', 'Real Estate', 'Flowers']

In 2020 and Beyond — I Hope You Dance Your Ass Off

I did not expect to spend most of the last decade sitting on a couch in constant debilitating pain. Nor did I expect I’d be alone at the dawn of a new decade. And also, most surprisingly, after everything I’ve gone through — I did not expect that in the year 2020, I would feel fricking fantastic. Mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually all seems right in my world. Trust me, this shocks me too. Between 2013–2019, I was fighting for my life, as chronic Lyme disease kept me in a constant battle for survival. Just when I thought things couldn’t get worse — they did. Two years ago (while still fighting Lyme), perimenopause came in like a hurricane, throwing me into yet another, more profound level of hell. As my hormones spiraled, I became unhinged. My physical symptoms intensified — with heart palpitations, near-constant migraines, hot flashes, excruciating cramps, and unrelenting inflammation and pain. My cortisol levels reversed, so I was sleepy all day, but then wide awake until 3:30 in the morning. I was averaging five hours of sleep a night. And during each sleepless night, while my heart skipped beats, my anxiety and panic intensified. I thought I was dying. All of that (sickness, pain, insomnia, anxiety, hormonal upheaval) resulted in a major depressive episode. Frankly, I was relieved when I realized I was clinically depressed. It meant I finally had an answer to at least one piece of the puzzle. I quickly went back on antidepressants and began to make peace with my tortured body and brain. Today I Feel Good In fact, I’m better than good. I’m the healthiest I’ve been, maybe, ever. I also feel ecstatically alive — and as if I’m aging in reverse. For six years, I was in so much pain I could barely get out of bed in the morning. My bones and muscles were so stiff and achy that I couldn’t keep up with my 87-year-old mother. I spent every day in a fog, my brain unable to focus or function. At times I felt like I had dementia. After years without any progress on the health front, I assumed things were only going to get worse. I was close to giving up hope. After all, life was a daily joyless slog. Miracles Abound When my health miraculously returned early last summer, I was hesitant at first to believe it was true. For years, I had prayed for one good day. They were few and far between. When I suddenly had two good days in a row, followed by three, four, and then five, I began to wonder if maybe, just maybe, I might be finally getting better. Soon I was feeling like my old self. I could get out of bed in the morning and lead a productive, active life. I started exercising and trained to walk a half-marathon. I lost 40 pounds through intermittent fasting. I started teaching and taking classes. I was no longer spending most of my day on the couch. But most importantly, I stopped hating my body. For years, I cursed the wretched shell I lived in. It brought me nothing but misery. It was a heavy, useless burden. And it made me feel like a heavy, useless burden. Two Things Happened When I got better last summer, two things happened rather quickly. My husband left. I started dancing. The two are not causally related. Truth is, I cried and cursed a lot after my husband left. Six months later, I am still in shock and grieving for all that was lost during my ordeal with chronic illness. I tried like hell to hold onto my marriage, but it was near impossible while fighting for my life. It is despite heartbreak and grief, that I started dancing last summer. I danced because I realized I was tired of fighting for my life, my marriage, my health, my sanity, and my place in the world. I continue to dance because I love this healthy body that moves and grooves. I dance because I feel young, sexy, vibrant, passionate, and joyous. I dance because I can, and nobody can tell me I can’t. I dance because I no longer care if I look foolish. I dance because I understand that dancing is a gift and a miracle. Lessons Learned I’d like to think I didn’t suffer throughout the last decade for nothing. My major takeaways are these: Feed Your Soul Daily: Do not settle for a life that doesn’t inspire or uplift you in some way. If your work is a grind, find hobbies or other opportunities to find spiritual nourishment. Your soul likes to laugh, play, sing, and skip too. Silence Your Ego: For years, my ego made me believe my value came from being productive, taking care of other people, and achieving big goals. When chronic illness stole all that, I had to figure out who I was and what really mattered. Luckily, I stopped engaging with fear and learned to follow my heart. Dance Your Ass Off: No matter what lies ahead in the next decade, I plan to keep dancing. Yes, I’ll be in my 60s by the time the next decade rolls around, and odds are I will have lost more people in my life and experienced even more sickness and pain. Despite all that — I will find a reason to dance. And so should you! Nowadays when my ego starts blathering and tries to make me feel bad that I’m not following the rules or doing more, I tell it to hush. “Mama’s trying to hear the music,” I say, “so she can dance her ass off.” *** Follow me on Facebook and Instagram.

https://medium.com/narrative/in-2020-and-beyond-i-hope-you-dance-your-ass-off-432a5756ac68

['Lizzie Finn']

2020-01-04 00:00:00

['Health', 'Dance', 'Relationships', '2020', 'Self']

To my ex-friend

A year ago, I felt like I could tell you everything. You were going to be a part of my life for a very long time. You were always there for me, and I was always there for you. But it has been months since we last talked. And obviously, a big part of it is because of me. We have been friends for so long. We got closer in my Sophomore year of high school and stuck to each other like glue during college. You were genuinely one of the nicest friends I ever had. My other friends acknowledged that. I knew that. Every event, every party I planned, I wanted you to be a part of it. It was better if we did things together. You loved being a part of bigger things. You loved being with different people and I appreciated that side of you. I am a little on the shy side, but you were so open to people. It was inviting and warm. I felt more confident when I was next to you. Because you made people feel comfortable. That’s why it was so easy introducing you to my college friends. They always liked you. As a best friend, I didn’t want you to feel sad about anything at all. I remember hours and hours of our conversation of us just talking about what we could be. And what we will be. I always said don’t worry about what other people think of you. Everyone is at their own pace in life, you are doing so well. I remember watching a video that comforted me, and me thinking I should share it with you. We helped each other out in that way. I remember you called me with good news while I was studying for finals in the library. I just remember me being on the phone with you for two hours after that, my book left unopened on the desk. Let’s be honest. The coronavirus definitely exacerbated the intensity of our fight. But the issues stored in the closet was definitely rotting away for some time. And the smell got intensely stronger. The real downfall to our friendship was that I wasn’t innately aware of the smell in the closet, only you were. Was it my ignorance that made this worse? Or your inability to thoroughly communicate how you feel? This had been going on for way longer than I ever could have imagined. That’s why I was taken by surprise when you texted me that long bombshell of a paragraph. And to this day, I’m not sure you quite understand how hurt I felt when I realized how little you think of me. Little meaning you didn’t think of me as someone with good intentions but as someone who is selfish and unreasonable. That you didn’t consider talking to me in person or over the phone if you had any issue with me. You responded it was because you didn’t want to deal with how I react. But then we always talk about how much communication is crucial in a friendship. Was attacking my character over text the best way you could’ve handled this situation? How did you expect me to react when you made accusatory remarks over text if you felt like I would be unreasonable? It didn’t make any sense. The worst part wasn’t how you talked about how you felt about me. It was when you eventually used the words I told you in confidence against me. Stories that I only told you because I was struggling. My personal stories backed with trauma and hurt that I refuse to tell anyone else. You said I use my stories to make it about me and to talk over you as well as to downplay your struggles. It was honestly so awful listening to you say those words. That you thought my intentions were only to hurt you and inconvenience you. When those words I said to you were hard to say without crying. That I couldn’t imagine saying those words to anyone else because I don’t trust anyone, but I trust you that much. This is why I genuinely thought you were just saying these things to push me away, to end our friendship. I felt afraid at that moment because I thought I was losing someone so close to me. So it stung a lot when you bounced back immediately and tried to be friends like we were before almost the next day. Did you even remember anything you said the previous day? Even if we “made up,” how can you act as if nothing has happened? Based on your reaction, I feel like maybe you haven’t emotionally matured yet and you didn’t know how seriously your words affected me. After our fight, I had to reflect and think about how I needed to more mindful of what I say. That I no longer needed to be in this mindset that being more open and honest equates to oversharing. It’s wrong. (To readers, I wouldn’t recommend doing it) I closed myself off because I didn’t want the things I say out of confidence to be used against me. It really sucked being so vulnerable and then shot down after you are already hit. But I’ll open up eventually. Anyway, I always thought you couldn’t compare struggles. Everyone’s life is so innately different, how can you compare yourself to anyone? If you start, it’ll never end. There is always someone better off or worse off than you. There is someone who has it worse or better than you. But the human experience is flawed, and people inevitably compare, especially with those around them. So, even if I didn’t mean to undermine someone else’s feelings when I complain about my own life, I realized it may seem like that to them. I realized that I should’ve shut my mouth when it came to complaining about work in front of you. But more importantly, I needed to focus less on negative aspects of my life, and shift my way of thinking. I needed to love myself more. I needed to stop using unhappy words, negative words. And replace complaining with words of gratitude. Honestly, it’s just a waste of breath complaining. Even if it’s hard, I try to be thankful. I wanted to remind you that everyone expresses struggle differently. And everyone struggles differently. I express mine by talking to my friends, writing it down, listening to sad ballads, and making videos about it. But other people express their struggles in a myriad of ways. Through music, painting, exercise, work, and more. Some people feel comfortable sharing only certain aspects of their struggles. I think that sometimes you believe you know who I am because you know more about me than most people. But I only share the struggles I feel comfortable sharing with you. And I assume everyone else is too. So what’s my conclusion? I’m actually glad it happened. I grew a lot from it, and with it came this emotional maturity that I haven’t had before. My mindset about life has changed a lot. And I shifted my energy from my negative feelings towards you to something positive in my life. And it’s a slow start, but I am working hard every day to grow into the kind of person that I’ve been dreaming to become — happy, confident, and self-assured. I’ve been seeing really good results and I can safely say that I am proud of myself. I’m six months in, and I have not given up. As I said, this wasn’t a surface level fight. I think there were a lot of deep-rooted issues between us. Not only that, but there were also a lot of personal issues we individually each had that inadvertently spilled over into our relationship because we were so close. I’m not going to try to guess what you were going through at that time. But I am aware that you were probably going through a lot in your life too. Our lives aren’t perfect, I know. At our lonely age of being 23, we can’t help but feel insecure and our self-esteem is shot to an all-time low. It’s confusing because some many of our peers are at such different points in their lives, it may feel like we are falling behind when we really are not. Let’s give each other the benefit of the doubt. In addition to our fight, a lot has happened this year that made me grow up faster. I’m not going to go into details but life —damn, when shit hits you, it hits you hard. But everything else seems smooth sailing as a result. It’s like once you hit rock bottom, there is nowhere to go but up. And sweetie, I’m going up. My other friend said that she believes our friendship will eventually patch up. I think it will too. It just wouldn’t be the same as before, but that’s what we wanted, right? Do I feel like I can tell you anything and everything? No. Will we be close friends like before? No. It’s a bit naive of me to assume that we won’t outgrow each other. That’s totally normal and okay. I’ve changed so much in these past few months, it’s hard to keep up with myself. How can I expect people around me to do the same? But I want you to know I’ll cheer you on as always for your happiness and success in the background. And I hope you’ll do the same for me.

https://medium.com/@ellenuniverse/to-my-ex-friend-93f1c4c1e612

[]

2020-12-20 07:52:30.476000+00:00

['Struggle', 'Growth Mindset', 'Twenties', 'Youth', 'Friendship']

‘The Rise of Skywalker’ fails to make icons of the trilogy’s young heroes

There are several scenes in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker that involve a large group of diverse faces standing in a circle debating survival tactics; one of those faces being Dominic Monaghan; and short of a violin-heavy Michael Giacchino score I could’ve sworn I was watching Lost. It’s not as if J.J. Abrams has evolved significantly as a filmmaker in the 15 years since his Lost pilot aired. And this ‘final’ installment in the Star Wars brand’s flagship ‘Skywalker Saga’ (we’ve heard that before) isn’t hard to compare to how Lost climaxed: loudly and leaning on fan-friendly nostalgia, but totally disregarding hours — nay, years — of work establishing exciting new threads and characters. At the end of the day, Rise tells us, nothing ever changes and it all comes back to the same couple of old fucks. Y’know who we mean: Luke and Leia, Joe Biden, Emperor Palpatine. There isn’t a chance in hell the Star Wars braintrust were planning to incorporate Palpatine when they wrote and released The Force Awakens a few years ago; this film has the overwhelming aura of having been conceived on the fly before our very eyes, largely influenced by mixed fan response to Rian Johnson’s The Last Jedi — a troubled film, but one at least that held little interest in satisfying preconceived notions of what anyone par Johnson believes Star Wars to be. This fan pandering is most evident in the minimal use of Kelly Marie Tran’s character Rose, set up as a major player in The Last Jedi but victim of horrendous racist and misogynist backlash which led to Tran receiving death threats. Rather than saying F You and making Rose one of the key players in Rise, as she easily could be, Abrams and Disney have coward-idly reduced her role to a handful of shots. Meanwhile, they’ve decided to make irritating butler robot C-3PO, iconic within the Star Wars iconography but hardly in the region of beloved, one of the central figures of the plot. Go figure. We do finally get to see our main trio of young new protagonists — Daisy Ridley, John Boyega and Oscar Isaac — hang out together on a quest, but their energies don’t quite click and we’re left wondering why the film is so determined to surround the perfectly capable Ridley with an assortment of men who undermine her singular heroism (men, it must also he said, whose strong queer baiting for three consecutive films leads to nothing). At least we get some strong sexual energy from Billy Dee Williams, borderline predatory as an older Lando who shows up to help looking fabulous. Carrie Fisher, inconceivably top billed thanks to a contractual arrangement that predated her death, is in more scenes than you’d expect or, frankly, hope. Parts of the film are obviously constructed around the few lines of dialogue they had of Fisher. It’s really, really uncomfortable to watch. It’s narratively rational that this film should’ve featured a major encounter between Fisher’s Leia and her estranged son Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), and the sad impossibility of such a scene leaves a major hole in the final work. Driver doesn’t really have a presence in this film until the last act, when he shows up looking physically stunning and knocks everyone else off the screen. It was a real coup to get Driver for these three films; it’s perhaps the only mark they’ll leave long-term on popular culture. Although that’s massively unfair to Daisy Ridley, who has done a superb job becoming a new kind of Disney heroine for this century. She deserves to become as much of a symbol for young people as Luke Skywalker has always been; giving a great performance in a sufficiently well-written part. These three films have been sufficient. I especially liked the parts where Harrison Ford and Billy Dee Williams were extremely sexy. May the force of their boomer cool be with you, always.

https://medium.com/luwd-media/the-rise-of-skywalker-fails-to-make-icons-of-the-trilogy-s-young-heroes-ea9fff2f9691

['Lucien Wd']

2019-12-23 23:42:06.295000+00:00

['Daisy Ridley', 'Star Wars', 'Adam Driver', 'The Rise Of Skywalker', 'Film Review']

A Mathematician With No Job And No Home — Paul Erdős

“Mathematics is the surest way to immortality. If you make a big discovery in mathematics, you will be remembered.” Hungarian-born Paul Erdős (1913–1996) was a legendary mathematician of the 20th century. He is famous for having published more research papers than anyone since Euler. Both of his parents used to teach mathematics. At 16, his father made him familiar with two of his lifetime favorite subjects; set theory and infinite series. Erdős always remembered his parents with great affection and love. At 17, he started university in Budapest then he left for the US during the pre-war years. At 20, he was successful in constructing an elegant proof of famous Bertrand’s postulate in number theory. It stated, “for every number greater than 1, there always exists at least one prime between it and it’s double”. His work spread across many fields including discrete mathematics, graph theory, mathematical analysis, approximation theory, set theory, and probability theory. He contributed mainly to the branch of combinatorics known as the Ramsey theory. Much of his research centered around cracking formerly unsolved and open problems of the field, rather than constructing new areas in mathematics. He was born with outstanding mathematical capabilities. As a teenager, he could square 4-digit numbers in his brain and knew 37 different ways to prove the Pythagorean theorem. He could even calculate in his head, the number of seconds a person lived given the age of that person. His biographer — Paul Hoffman recorded in his book named “The Man Who Loved Only Numbers” of him as: “. . . a true eccentric — a “mathematical monk” who lived out of a pair of suitcases, dressed in tattered suits, and gave away almost all the money he earned, keeping just enough to sustain his meager lifestyle; a hopeless bachelor who was extremely (perhaps abnormally) devoted to his mother and never learned to cook or even boil his own water for tea; and a fanatic workaholic who routinely put in nineteen-hour days, sleeping only a few hours a night.” According to him, Erdős had his own idiosyncratic language and own meaning of life; to him, women were bosses, men slaves, he used to say when one is married one’s captured when divorced one’s liberated, if one is giving a lecture he would say one is preaching if one would stop doing mathematics he’d assume one is dead if one is really dead he’d say one’s left. He used to work non-stop, almost 19 hours a day, 7 days a week. He was known to use drugs (amphetamines) and stimulators to keep himself awake and active. One of his friends once bet him about not consuming the stimulators for one month. Erdős proved to him that he was able to take the bet and succeeded. When he arrived to collect his reward, he told his friend, “You’ve shown me I’m not an addict. But I didn’t get any work done. I’d get up in the morning and stare at a blank piece of paper. I’d have no ideas, just like an ordinary person. You’ve set mathematics back a month.” After fulfilling the bet, Erdős immediately restarted satisfying his addiction. This time he boosted it up with shots of strong espresso and caffeine pills. “A mathematician,” he famously used to say, “is a machine for turning coffee into theorems.” He expressed his love towards the subject in his following famous quote: “In a way, mathematics is the only infinite human activity. It is conceivable that humanity could eventually learn everything in physics or biology. But humanity certainly won’t ever be able to find out everything in mathematics, because the subject is infinite. Numbers themselves are infinite. That’s why mathematics is really my only interest.” Erdős numbers Erdős always liked working in intense collaborations with other fellow mathematicians, for that reason he used to travel around the globe seeking innovative and fresh talent. He’d sometimes stay in colleagues’ homes while they worked on some serious problems together. He had over five hundred collaborators that some network called Erdős number was introduced by mathematicians. The Erdős number described the “collaborative distance” between Paul Erdős and the other person, as measured from the authorship of mathematical papers. For example, Erdős number one corresponds with the person who has published a paper with Erdős and Erdős number two with the one who has published a paper with the collaborator of Erdős, and the list goes on. Mathematicians happily bragged about their association with Erdős by citing their ‘’Erdős number’’. For example, a renowned Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan has an Erdős number of only 3 (through G. H. Hardy, Erdős number 2), even though Paul Erdős was only 7 years old when Ramanujan died. The American Mathematical Society provides a free online tool to determine the Erdős number of every mathematical author listed in the Mathematical Reviews catalog. As per one of his colleagues: “… he only needed three hours of sleep. He’d get up early and write letters, mathematical letters. He’d sleep downstairs. The first time he stayed, the clock was set wrong. It said 7:00, but it was really 4:30 A.M. He thought we should be up working, so he turned on the TV full blast. Later, when he knew me better, he’d come up at some early hour and tap on the bedroom door. “Ralph, do you exist?” He’d want to work from 8:00 A.M. until 1:30 A.M. Sure we’d break for short meals but we’d write on napkins and talk math the whole time. He’d stay a week or two and you’d collapse at the end.” His crazy number of research papers His number of research papers even beat Leonhard Euler. Erdős published more than 1,500 mathematical papers during his lifetime with his collaborators, a figure that remains unsurpassed. His highest number of publications goes to the year 1978 when he published forty-nine research papers at the age of 65. Moreover, he published 118 papers in his 80s. His material belongings Erdős had no time for material aspects of life. He thought of property as a waste. He had no home and no possessions. His only assets included his two suitcases. His colleagues looked after him, bought him food, clothes, etc, and even paid his taxes. In return, he showers upon them mathematical ideas and amazing solutions. He would sometimes go door to door, knocked on his colleague's doors, and said “my brain is open”, which meant, hit me with the most challenging mathematical problems. He was so forgetful in real life, he used to misplace and lose his wallet, his glasses, his passport, etc very often. His mystical thoughts Dr. Erdős, like many other mathematicians, was confident that mathematical truths are always discovered and not invented. He had a very impressive way of delivering that opinion. He said that the most elegant proofs of every mathematical theorem are documented by God in his “Great Book” in the sky. He once jokingly mentioned that if he could just have a glimpse of that book, he would be able to discover much more. Although he was an agnostic atheist, he had a visualization of that special “Book”, as if God had jotted down the best and most ingenious proofs for mathematical problems. Death His death was so sudden that it happened while he was attending a conference in Warsaw. The circumstances were very close to the way he wanted to die. He once said, “I want to be giving a lecture, finishing up an important proof on the blackboard, when someone in the audience shouts out, ‘What about the general case?’. I’ll turn to the audience and smile, ‘I’ll leave that to the next generation,’ and then I’ll keel over”. — Paul Erdős, Math & Mathematicians: The History of Math Discoveries Around the World Ernst Strauss, his collaborator paid him tribute in very gentle words as “In our century, in which mathematics is so strongly dominated by ‘theory doctors’, he has remained the prince of problem solvers and the absolute monarch of problem posers. Dr. Erdős is ‘’the Euler of our time.’’ His grave is located next to his parents in Budapest. Dr. Graham, with Erdős number 1, mentioned, he had given away most of the money he has earned from mathematical conferences, to help poor students, or as prize money for solving problems, he had posed. Erdős left behind only $25,000 when he died. Dr. Graham said, he had plans to consult his collaborators about how to give the money away for the sake of mathematics. He was never married and hence left no immediate survivors.

https://www.cantorsparadise.com/a-mathematician-with-no-job-and-no-home-paul-erd%C5%91s-ba30d440b4c5

['Areeba Merriam']

2020-12-10 14:47:18.277000+00:00

['Math', 'Paul Erdos', 'Biography', 'History', 'Science']

China turned the primary nation to achieve the moon

China has to turn out to be the primary nation to achieve the moon within the twenty-first century. The historical past that China has created is not going to solely prepare the ground on these competitors however may even turn out to be a pacesetter on this entrance within the close to future. China turned the primary nation to deliver soil from the moon China turned the primary nation to deliver soil from the moon Of all of the nations which have landed on the moon, China has achieved the delay. In addition to returning safely from the moon on Thursday final week, China’s Chandrayaan additionally introduced mud and stones from there. Now the battle is not only about reaching the moon and presenting photos but in addition, partaking in analysis to collect increasingly data. China’s E-5 Chandraya has landed on the bottom with a pattern of greater than 2 kg. The part of the moon from which these samples had been taken known as the volcanic planet. Chinese scientists have needed to perform three consecutive weeks of house operations to attain this. It has proved to be probably the most profitable mission ever on the earth. READ MORE

https://medium.com/@mmansur004/china-turned-the-primary-nation-to-achieve-the-moon-f8f7602be50c

['Mansur Hussain']

2020-12-22 18:06:49.195000+00:00

['Chandrayaan', 'China', 'Moon', 'China Startup', '21st Century']

December 19, 2020

Today, as I write my first story from bed, I’m waiting for something else. The world has been flipping upside-down for the past year. Everything I though I knew, has been wrong or questioned or contradicted. I thought I knew how the world worked. This year has shown me all the ways I don’t. I’m a high school senior this year. I live in Texas and got to go back to in person school, only after struggling trying to be homeschooled for over half of the first semester. I skipped my junior year to get a head-start on college. I didn't skip my junior year because I’m exceptionally smart, I just took extra classes my sophomore year and this year. I truly thought I wasn’t going to be able to graduate this year due to my switching from homeschooling to in person school when we moved to a different city, but thank god I can. School used to be fun. I was learning things everyday, I didn’t question what I was taught, and I had tons of friends to laugh and joke with all day. We had nap time and coloring. We had fun just being kids. I noticed a shift when I started seventh grade. Things started to matter more, yet make sense even less. I would be learning history and going to look it up later for homework. I would notice how much worse it was than what they told us. They sugar coated history, made us learn math that almost none of us will use again, they started caring less about how students felt, and they teach us everyday that our mental health comes second to our grades. I think it’s all bullshit. But I can’t really do much about it. students come into school and live in fear. I’ll elaborate on that last sentence, we go to school everyday with the thought in the back of our heads. “Will today be the day I die?” School shootings are so normalized, as if it happens this often anywhere else. They aren’t. I’m gonna say this thought I have had, but please remember it’s just how I feel. I think we can always prevent students from feeling like shooting up a school. I thought about this while watching Criminal Minds last night. They were handling a case where a boy set up a bomb to kill his girlfriend’s abusive father, shot the guy who raped her, and then shot the guys who leaked a very embarrassing video of him. This kid was exeptionally smart, yet couldn’t show it due to learning disabilities that went unnoticed for years. When he brought the video to the administration, they told him that dealing with bullies is a normal part of growing up. I know we like to pretend that it’s fiction. But this boy didn’t. have a chance and you can almost see where he’s coming from. If you pay more attention to kids and listen to what they have to say, it could quite possibly prevent another tragedy that we have to “send prayers” for. We can’t keep acting like this way of schooling is doing anyone any good. We are teenagers being sent into the cruel world without any knowledge of how to live. I don’t know everything. I’m just writing out my thoughts. I’m just 16 so I obviously have the same issues most teenagers do. I go out on weekends and hang out with my friends. I have boy troubles (and girl troubles). I actually just started the “talking stage” with someone new. I have a job. I got my first job at 14, babysitting. Then at 15, I started working fast food. To help my parents out. At 16 I got my car. A beautiful blue mustang. My parents helped me out but I make payments, pay for gas and try to pay for anything that goes wrong with it. I have never seen the ocean. I live in the ugliest part of Texas there is. I struggle with anxiety and depression, due to my birth control that helps my cramps and back pain, as well as acne. I’m a teenager. That’s all I am. I try to be the best person I can be, the trust version of myself. I try to make life fun before it gets serious. There’s just a lot of things that I don’t know. A lot of things I would change if I could, but have no idea where to start. I want to see the world become a better place for the off chance I have kids. I don’t want my daughter to live in fear of being taken and raped. Or drugged at a party. I don’t want other people’s sons to be scared of the cops. I hope things change.

https://medium.com/@khyawheeler/december-19-2020-ef7072e105fa

[]

2020-12-19 17:32:04.517000+00:00

['Teenagers', 'World', 'Schools']

Why Quantity Should Be Your Priority (Redux)

Why Quantity Should Be Your Priority (Redux) The biggest lie we’ve been told is that we have to choose between quantity and quality. Quantity and quality are not always tradeoffs. In fact, quantity can actually support mastery and quality. If we look through history, it’s not a coincidence that some of the most prominent artists are immensely prolific: Dean Keith Simonton has written about the relationship between quantity and quality at a master’s level, concluding, “Quality is a probabilistic function of quantity.” Even masters enlisted the support of quantity to shoot at the moving target of quality. More importantly, not everything these masters created were great. The only reason they even became recognized as “masters” might be due to one or two breakthroughs. We could look at Thomas Edison, known for the first practical and inexpensive incandescent lightbulb. We forget the more than 1,500 patents he applied for (he successfully acquired 1,000 of them), with major failures like the concrete houses. Quantity is far from a guarantee, and certainly isn’t the only strategy to create something that people want. But, it’s the most reliable one. Here are three reasons why: Quantity provides structure A week before I wrote this, Austin Kleon wrote a blog post about quantity leading to quality. He writes, “The frequency of my work — showing up at regular intervals, without worrying about results — has actually lead to better results.” Similarly, Ryan Holiday wrote, “Quantity increases quality,” encouraging readers to use quantity to commit to the workload necessary to master their craft. Lindsay Jean Thomson, facilitator of The 100 Day Project, wrote a similar idea, “If you want quality, start with quantity.” Even during this phase of early work, the results are real — there are 1.7 million posts with #The100DayProject on Instagram, each one documenting the progression of a person making something every day. Alex Kallaway and #100DaysofCode is another great example. When you focus on quantity, you create, release, promote, intake feedback, and improve. Quantity works. Practice works. Consistency works. Quantity provides motivation Creative blocks happen when expectations of results get too high for one project to achieve. It feels like your back is against the wall; “This has to work, or I’m giving up.” Derek Sivers describes this as the failure mindset. Quantity keeps you creating and releasing new work — which encourages you to keep going. The expectations for each one may be high, but tempered by the fact that you know there’s another opportunity coming right along tomorrow or the day after. Instead of putting all your energy and hopes into a single attempt, you split it into many. Again, this isn’t the only strategy that works. Some people do succeed because they put their effort and energy into the single attempt. But I would suggest that many more fail with the same approach, and would have benefited from a larger portfolio of smaller bets. Quantity encourages experimentation Author Ray Bradbury said, “If you can write one short story a week — it doesn’t matter what the quality is to start, but at least you’re practicing, and at the end of the year you have 52 short stories, and I defy you to write 52 bad ones.” In Chase, Chance, and Creativity, James H. Austin writes about four types of chance; one of them (the Kettering Principle, known as Chance II) is about motion — the premise that unluckiness runs out when you keep stirring things the way only you can. This is what Simonton covers in his research. He defines creative products as combinations of originality, utility, and surprise. Simple enough, but it’s often difficult to maximize all three variables; for example, original ideas have a lower probability of being useful, and often surprise requires going through a lot of trial and error (like Edison’s lightbulb). Plus, there may be fragments of brilliance amidst a poor combination of work — say, a great part of a bad song, or a great turn of phrase in a rather boring blog post. Even brilliant artists have misguided perceptions of their own work. Creating a lot of work allows for many different combinations of these creative elements and ideas to mix, ultimately creating one product that expresses what you really want to communicate, or really makes an impact on people. Make a lot of projects Game designer Nick Bentley writes about 100:10:1 principle, where he writes down 100 game concepts in a notebook (sometimes in just one day), picks 10 concepts and develops them, then picking the most promising concept and developing it further. In a sense, this is a framework that helps facilitate the trial and error nature of creativity; when Pablo Picasso was painting Guernica, he went through 45 different sketches before settling on the final composition and painting. Similarly, creative designer Joe Perez shows this process for designing the Cruel Summer album cover for Kanye West, in which they went through a whopping 325 revisions in 6 months. At the end of the day, quantity is one way of structuring other important, but more ephemeral things — practice, experimentation, motivation — which build your skillset, open up your mind to new ideas, and build your reputation with the rest of the world. Perfection leads to procrastination. Aim for attainable, or even acceptable, instead — and you’ll improve your skills and work much faster with the structure of quantity.

https://medium.com/@herbertlui/why-quantity-should-be-your-priority-redux-38dcd8ff3350

['Herbert Lui']

2020-12-15 16:24:28.963000+00:00

['Learning To Code', 'Productivity Hacks', 'Create', 'Creative Process', 'Creativity']

Are you looking for Reliable Road Freight and Express Road Freight transport to Bosnia and Herzegovina solutions ?

Are you looking for Reliable Road Freight and Express Road Freight transport to Bosnia and Herzegovina solutions ? Maxi Logistics Services ·Oct 28, 2021 Are you looking for Reliable Road Freight and Express Road Freight transport to Bosnia and Herzegovina solutions ? Do you have Road Freight order to Bosnia and Herzegovina ? Let’s do it more information https://www.maxitransport.eu/en/hizmetlerimiz/detay/international-land-transportation Also you can connect with us by the phone or e-mail. [email protected] & +90 216 335 55 97 For Bosnia and Herzegovina Reliable Road Freight and Express Road Freight logistics about ask us. #LogisticsAskUs #Europa #Avrupa #LogisticsAskUsEU https://www.maxitransport.eu/en/ https://www.maxitransport.uk #shipping #cargo #freight #freightforwarding #supplychain #export #import #transport #Poland #MaxiLogisticsServices #Czechia #Slovakia #Hungary #Prevoz #Turska #Logistika #Lojistik #Minivan #ExpressTransport #Taşımacılık #Nakliye #BeyondOfLogistics #Bosnia #Albania #CrnaGora #Srbija #Croatia #Slovenia #LojistiğinÖtesinde #Bulgaria #Macedonia #Netherlands #Kosovo #Belgium #Greece #Romania #Germany #France #Denmark #Minivan #Speedy #Panelvan

https://medium.com/@maksitransport/are-you-looking-for-reliable-road-freight-and-express-road-freight-transport-to-bosnia-and-161ada010be

['Maxi Logistics Services']

2021-10-28 12:23:27.528000+00:00

['Export', 'Maxi Logistics Services', 'Bosnia And Herzegovina', 'Supply Chain', 'Logistics Ask Us']

Is Buddhism Fair?

When you start your life cycle, you are given a credit card. This is your karma. Now, the good things you did in your past lives all accumulated positive credit on your account. Said the truth? Plus $50. Donated money? Plus $100. Saved a life? Plus $500. But now, what happens when you do something bad? In this case, capitalism trumps karma — you have to pay up. Each time you do something immoral, your card goes cha-ching, subtracting credit from your account. Lied to your loved ones? Minus $50. You catch the drift. Unfortunately, there is no way to close this credit card (except to reach nirvana, which is a bit difficult, to say the least) and you must accept it each life. And your credit determines a good amount of your life. It could be the difference between you being reincarnated into a human or animal, born rich or poor, or able-bodied or disabled. Perhaps due to the fact that Buddhism was founded in the 6th century BCE, the credit system is very basic and does not provide its users with much information or access. While you are accumulating this credit, you have no idea how and when it will be applied. Likewise, the good deeds you are currently doing may not be applicable in this life. A person can be generous but misfortunate due to their debt from another life. Karma is a cloud following your every life, despite your births and deaths. You could have been a saint in a past reincarnation, but a murderer now, or vice versa. There is no way to get this information, yet current bloodthirsty killers may have good luck with their wrongdoings due to unknown moral deeds, despite them not having the same character as their past saint-self. Using the credit card analogy, it is as if Discover called you and said: Remember that time you killed someone in a past life? You don’t? Well, you’ll have to pay for it anyway. How is this fair? We are entrapped in this cycle of reincarnation in which our karma determines details of our current life, yet our memories and mind do not carry over. It is impossible to reflect, evaluate, and improve ourselves. It is impossible to try to make meaning of this injustice— if we knew why we face some of the challenges we do, they may seem and be more manageable. It is impossible to use the information of our past to prepare for future misfortune, or even fortune, that may arise. The question of why is a heavy one due to the value its answer would bring, but it also entails a sense of clarity that I was determined to seek out.

https://medium.com/illumination/is-buddhism-fair-663e9285b9ed

['Amara Shein']

2020-12-23 08:49:03.027000+00:00

['Religion', 'Buddhism', 'Faith', 'Philosophy', 'Spirituality']

A Street Lawyer’s Street Smarts #2

A Street Lawyer’s Street Smarts #2 This First Series is about Relating to People I had a double major in college: business and psychology before I went to law school. I thought psychology would teach me about connecting and relating to people. But it taught almost nothing about this, and it just may be the most important point in business. But it wasn’t about this. It was about a lot of things, but not about relating to people, — which is what this first series is about. Relaxing Times are Best to Relate Casually In business there often isn’t a lot of relaxation, but there are things like coffee breaks, smoke breaks, lunch, an after-work drink. People are less guarded at these times and don’t have their antenna up for something business-related. They are more talkative and transparent. You can learn a lot about a person at these times. You want to, especially if you will continue relating to them. You listen for clues as to how they think and act. Do they cuss, even using Jesus Christ and ‘GD’ in what they say? Are they gossips? Do they put people down? Are they fidgety, restless and uneasy, or are the relaxed and at peace? Are they positive or negative? Will they discuss more than the weather and the news? Do they lie (or at least fib some), or are they dedicated to what lawyers should be dedicated to: ‘the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?’ There are always people we want to get to know better. This initial casual approach is very helpful if your eyes and ears are open. Is the person just an outer form of nothingness, or do they have substance and depth? You can’t consistently act on the outside different from how you think and believe on the inside. You can only fool part of the people some of the time. 10 Cultural Attitudes to Discern and Understand Modern, western people are greatly influenced by 10 attitudes that society actually forces on us in various degrees. We should look for these attitudes in people we are relating to, and trying to get to know, to see how they may be affected by these in negative ways. Rational Minded. We’re driving by our heads to what we think are facts. Deductive Minded. We are analytical and assess life by our experiences. Material Minded. There are frequent articles about our materialism. Reactive Minded. We combative rather than compromising. Dogmatic Minded. We are structured thinkers. A + B must equal C. Skeptical Minded. We are cautious to a fault, not wanting to be ‘taken.’ Recognition Minded. We want appreciation and applause for what we do. Legal Minded. We view most things legally, assess most things legally. Critical Minded. Legal thinking makes us critical, even judgmental. Responsibility Minded. We are self-driven: “If it is to be, it is up to me.” These 10 ways of thinking don’t affect all of us to the same degree, but they do tend to affect all of us because they impact all of us through people we relate to, newspapers, billboards and every other way imaginable. Some of us try to protect ourselves from some of this, but we can’t from all of it. We Must Assess What Level We Are Relating At I’ve come to see life in three degrees of relationship: (1) Romance. This is the initial stage of a relationship. This relates to sexual relationships, marriage, business, a new job — anything really. We see all of the good, and none of the bad. Everything is ‘a rose garden’ starting out. We must recognize when we are at this stage of a relationship, and this is when we must look more inventively and purposefully so we don’t get led astray. A POSITIVE VIEW: Some dictionaries say that romance is, ‘an illusion, and not reality.’ It’s like a mirage, although it’s real in substance. It should be a signal to ‘engage brain before operating mouth.’ An illusion is: “A false idea that appears to be real but lacks foundation in fact.” In romance, we can’t build a sound foundation on it — only a faulty one. (2) Disillusionment. This is the second phase, and if you tell me you’ve never been disillusioned, you’re lying through your teeth. We all have been, just as we have all been drawn into the Romance (#1). Here, the honeymoon is over and we’ve now settled down into reality. Things are not as we had expected or hoped. We often don’t realize what a killer EXPECTANCY is. We come at things from our perspective, and there are always at least two perspectives. A POSITIVE VIEW. Now, let’s look at this another way, just as we did romance. This can be viewed positively as, “Being free from a false idea that appeared to be real.” As we saw, romance was a false idea that appeared to be real, but it wasn’t. Now we’ve progressed and we see it is not real, but now the question is: “What are we going to do about it?” (3) Choice and Decision. As a lawyer, I know most people RUN when they reach this stage. It’s human nature unless we choose not to be so humanistic. Most people do not make proper choices, especially in an emotional situation. They are not in control, but more controlled. You are not really ‘in control’ until you reach this CHOICE stage. Don’t REACT, as in the 4th attitude above. Instead, we say “What can I do to convert this negative into a positive? A POSITIVE VIEW. We must assess three things about ourselves: Our Temperament: who we know we are in our personal identity Our Character: will we be obedient to the truth we know is right? Our Commitment: will we follow-through on the first two? Common Sense is Sadly Not so ‘Common’ There is a saying I’ve always thought about: “There is so much common sense available to us because so few people use so very little of it.” What I’m talking about here is not science but ‘human interaction.’ There is no ‘science’ invented for this that I can find. It is ‘tongue in cheek.’ If we had a crystal ball that was all-knowing, there would be no need for this. All we can do is to learn — from each other — as we progress through life. You teach me about you, and I teach you about me. The only issue is how much of you I discern, and how much of me you discern. We hear ‘DIFFERENCES ATTRACT.’ Is this really true? Are you attracted to someone who repulses you? NO! Be real! You may want to learn about them, as to what makes them ‘tick’ so strangely, but you’re not attracted to them. No, at a social gathering, or wherever you are, you look for people with whom you have something in common — not for people who are different from you. The truth is that differences don’t attract, but they do mesh and bond into longer-term relationships. This is because people who are the same all the time tend to grate on each other and get on each other’s nerves, always doing or saying or thinking the same thing. Differences bond long there because there are ‘differences’ in the relationship, and they usually complement each other and play off each other so there is vitality in the way they relate, each challenging the other. You’ll hardly find two married people who are exactly alike and similar to each other. They are different, and it is that difference that bonds them together, not their similarities. We are drawn together by our SIMILARITIES, but we are more molded together by our DIFFERENCES. A woman may be drawn to a man’s humor and his ability to entertain. A may be more drawn to a woman’s reserve and ability to comprehend and engage intelligently. Life is largely about our ability to positively connect with different people. We will look at other aspects as we go on. This is only ‘Part 1 on Relationships.’

https://medium.com/illumination/street-lawyer-street-smarts-2-df8f7570609f

['Roger Himes Esq.']

2020-12-18 14:32:01.691000+00:00

['Lawyer', 'Fun', 'Law', 'Humor', 'Justice']

we begin

a one line poem Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash we begin to see the end of seasonal upheaval the end of this appalling year the end of epidemic the end of tyrant president and we begin to hope again ~~Rhonda Marrone 12/2020 This one line poem is for the prompt of Advent. I don’t know much about the Christian practice of Advent but I do know how I feel this year at this time. I feel like so much is ending and so much is beginning and so much is uncertain. Maybe that is what Advent and Christmas is all about, finding some hope.

https://medium.com/chalkboard/we-begin-64e76dcde0c

['Rhonda Marrone']

2020-12-12 00:01:23.782000+00:00

['One Line', 'Chalkboard', 'Poetry', 'Poem']

5×5 — FIVE QUESTIONS. FIVE GUEST INTERVIEWS.

“Most people can’t keep showing up to anything. I think that your ability to show up and keep showing up and, and outwork, everybody else is everything. I also want to comment that I think for young people listening to this podcast in their 20s and they’re getting going, there’s this horrible pressure that I did not have that they have that you have to be part of a startup be crazy successful, have a non-profit, intern at the White House… stop it. Slow down. Do one thing well.” – Michael Hyatt Speaking of Crypto compilation podcast. Five Questions. Five Guests. Featuring Sandra Ro, Bruce Silcoff, Hartej Sawhney, Michael Hyatt, and Bernie Moreno. Michael Hyatt, Co-founder of BlueCat What if I could get five of the coolest, forward-thinking, big-picture seeing, crypto dynamos together in one place and pick their brain about things that are blockchain related, and not? I’d want to ask them about some challenges that they’ve Bruce Silcoff, CEO of Shyft Network overcome. I’d ask if someone’s new to crypto, where should they start to wrap their head around Bitcoin, blockchain and this whole new crypto world. And I’d want to know what’s most important, from their perspective — Love, Money or Influence. Well, in this compilation podcast, I’m bringing you five different podcast guests who’ve all answered the same five questions. Sandra Ro, CEO of Global Blockchain Business Council 1.If someone’s completely new to the world of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology, what would you like them to know? 2. Looking back, what was one of the most challenging things you faced in your career and how were you able to overcome it? 3. What would you say is the most important character trait that someone who’s about to enter the workforce should possess? 4. If you could create your own city or town, what are three key elements you would want to include? 5. LOVE, MONEY, + INFLUENCE — can you rank them in order of importance and explain? Hartej Sawhney, Co-founder of Hosho Bernie Moreno, Blockland Cleveland Guests: Sandra Ro https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandraro/ CEO of the Global Blockchain Business Council https://gbbcouncil.org/ Bruce Silcoff https://www.linkedin.com/in/brucesilcoff/ CEO of Shyft Network https://www.shyft.network/ Hartej Sawhney https://www.linkedin.com/in/hartej/ Co-founder of Hosho https://hosho.io/ Michael Hyatt https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhyatt1/ Co-founder of Blue Cat https://www.bluecatnetworks.com/ Bernie Moreno https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernie-moreno-4251884/ Blockland Cleveland https://www.blocklandcleveland.com/

https://medium.com/speaking-of-crypto/5-5-five-questions-five-guest-interviews-32b063f33651

['Shannon Grinnell']

2018-11-21 15:07:47.245000+00:00

['Mentorship', 'Life Lessons', 'Blockchain', 'Bitcoin', 'Entrepreneurship']

Hiring International Talents: How to Avoid Bias in Recruitment?

Research by McKinsey & Company shows that companies with more diverse workplaces were 33% more likely to see better than average profits. Recruiters and hiring managers often rely on their intuition while making hiring decisions. When biases creep into hiring decisions, it can not only limit the quality of your workforce, but also the culture of your company. Hence, the decision-makers who evaluate candidates should check the ability of the applicant to do the job well over assumptions that are subjective and limited in their nature. Another survey by launchpad recruits suggests that for every 1% rise in a workforce’s gender and cultural diversity, there were corresponding increases of 3% and 9% in sales revenue, respectively. Source: Vectorstock Understanding Hiring Bias According to a Harvard Study, the bias in hiring often stems from affinity — referring or selecting a candidate who shares our same race or gender, or who went to the same school, speaks the same language, or reminds us of our younger selves. This can cause one to make decisions in favor of one person or group over others and severely hurt the recruiting, promotion, and retention efforts at your workplace. Simply put, unconscious bias in the hiring process creeps in when you form an opinion about candidates based purely on first impressions. Or, when you prefer one candidate over another simply because one of them seems like someone you’d easily hang out with outside of work. It can be based on other factors such as the applicant’s gender, race, ethnicity, name, age, religion, sexual orientation, looks, etc. Even early on in the hiring process, a candidate’s picture on their resume or social media profiles, their name, or their hobbies could influence your opinion about them more than you think. Hence, unconscious bias influences your decision — whether positively or negatively — using criteria that are irrelevant to the job. We at akiTalent keep researching to find out new ways to hiring better. Read on to find out some bias-free hiring methods and tools. Strategies to De-Bias Your Recruitment Process The recent global crisis and upheaval in the employment market make eliminating hiring bias an essential tool for survival. People, processes, and technologies can all be entry points for hiring biases. Let’s dive into some strategies to help you reduce bias in your hiring procedures especially now with the COVID-19 lense when the job seekers to recruiter ratio have further widened and with the huge number of applications. Recruiters are no longer spending more than 7 seconds on each resume! Source: iStock Photo Keep a neutral tone throughout the hiring process: Be it your job listings, job descriptions, or the interview — it’s important to especially keep a gender-neutral and race-neutral approach in choosing words written or spoken about the job under consideration. Focusing on the credentials rather than the candidate’s personal characteristics is one of the first seemingly simple steps to reduce bias. Provide learning resources and platforms for an organizational conversation: Begin with identifying various prejudices that managers hold while screening for potential candidates. Make ample educational and training content that brings awareness to your employees. This will most definitely spark conversations, self-awareness about individual biases and eventually work towards solutions that help your organization as a whole to simplify and standardize hiring practices that eliminate prejudices and pre-conceived notions. By trying to understand where biases are coming from and how they affect our hiring decisions; we may not be able to completely discard our unconscious bias, but, ultimately, we’ll be more conscious of it when it does happen. Give more weightage to the candidate’s skillsets: Questions like Tell Me About Yourself are asked to understand the education, work experience, and overall background of the candidate. But these questions can invariably make the interviewer draw commonalities with the candidate thus making room for biases to follow. One way to address this issue is by shifting the focus on their past performances, problem-solving skills, communication, and business savviness. Focussing on candidate skillsets can give some insight into the factors that impact their performance. Give candidates a chance to prove themselves through a sample case study to work on: After initial screening, often there are a handful of candidates that more or less fit the job requisition perfectly well. Once you have the finalists, give them a time-bound (2–5 days per business requirement) case study with a scenario that they could possibly face on the job. The candidates can then be asked to present their ideas that would show how they would handle similar situations in real life. This will show you how well they fit the requirements of the role — with absolutely no impact from their ethnicity, gender, name, education, age, personal interests, or any other factor. Doing this can eliminate any scope of bias on the grounds of likeability or mutual identification. Play the devil’s advocate to the selection committee: Disrupt bias by asking yourself and the decision-making team — “ what if you were to swap a candidate of color who you are less likely to hire because of their passionate way of speaking with one of your typical hires, would you have the same reaction?” This is one of the many ways you can recognize bias by flipping the situation and asking the right questions. Widen the lens through which you hire: If you have always gone to a particular business school, university or geography — try sourcing from new talent pools that you haven’t looked at in the past. A diverse company needs to have a diverse talent pool and hence looking at new avenues becomes that much more critical in order to reduce bias. Have a diverse hiring panel: Affinity bias makes us choose people that come from the same backgrounds as us hence, having a diverse panel with women and underrepresented minorities (color, sex, race, etc.) is important to prevent affinity bias. Hire a skilled recruitment agency: One of the surefire ways of eliminating bias is by employing a third-party recruiter like akiTalent. They not only have a large pool of diverse and verified international talents they also pride in thoroughly vetting profiles to find the right fit through their primary screening itself. Use custom automation that helps remove bias: While ATS has become the norm for every global organization, it's important to also customize the software program in a way that it blinds certain demographic characteristics to ensure a level playing field. After initial tracking, the preliminary talent pool should then be administered a second evaluation for eg: Excel, Word, and other computer-related skills. The finalists can then be invited for an interview. Be careful when you set out with the goal of diversity: Diversity goals are talked about more and more in every global company, but it can also sometimes quickly become controversial and backfire if not trodden carefully because they can undermine the people who are hired making them feel that they were only hired because of the color of their skin or because you had a diversity target to reach for the year. In such cases, the backlash can also come from your traditional hires. Hence, it's important to have diversity goals but also to carefully navigate and track them in order to not upset your employees. Equal opportunity employment is not only a legal requirement, but it has also been proven that more diverse teams create more profitable companies. The above strategies can transform your hiring process into an experience that candidates, hiring managers and recruiters will love. Bias-free, and with significantly better hiring results. Head to our website at www.akitalent.com for customized headhunting services along with legal advice and full recruitment support to the point of the signing of the job contract. Written by Smriti Narendran for akiTalent, Paris, France.

https://medium.com/@akitalent/hiring-international-talents-in-the-eu-how-to-avoid-bias-in-recruitment-d5fed1628102

['Akitalent Paris']

2020-12-24 07:56:35.328000+00:00

['Europe', 'Bias', 'Diversity', 'Hiring', 'Inclusion']

The Canary in Higher Education’s Coal Mine

Last week, Melissa Korn reported in the Wall Street Journal that Oberlin, the University of Chicago, George Washington University, Washington University, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, among others, have extended their January application deadlines. She notes, “Some offered the extra time only to seniors who began but didn’t submit applications. Others sent broad blasts after buying students’ contact information from standardized test companies.” Explanations for these decisions varied but the two most common were the increasing competition among highly selective colleges and universities and the stress that students place themselves under during the application process. Students note with anxiety the low acceptance rates at elite American institutions; indeed, according to the WSJ, an astonishing “35% of seniors applied to at least seven schools in 2016, up from 18% a decade earlier. In that same time span, the yield, or share of admitted students who enrolled at a given four-year college, fell to 34% from 45%.” Ms. Korn offers two conclusions: Delayed deadlines are a sign of the growing pressure many schools face to fill their incoming classes, and Application deadlines indicate a broken process, with colleges increasing the volume of applications but still rejecting many qualified candidates. She further surmises that higher education institutions behave this way because they must meet their enrollment targets to make their annual budgets. And that’s the problem in a nutshell. Enrollment is both a science and an art, but it presumes a stable marketplace with a growing population of students from which to choose. The art of enrollment, together with changes in the marketplace, makes the science of enrollment especially difficult. It’s hard to be precise when the foundation of prospective students is so shaky. The Wolf Is At the Door For All Higher Education There has been a great deal of discussion lately about the spate of college closings and mergers, in both the higher education media and in regional news sources, especially in the Northeast. Many of the arguments made about these closings suggest that demographics, poor management, and rising tuition overmatched by steep financial aid discounts, effectively forecasts the closings and mergers. What has largely escaped attention, however, is that the problem is not the so-called “bottom feeders” in higher education but more of a systemic issue that is beginning to affect all levels of quality, pricing, and perceived rank. If this is true, there are some indicators that stand out as a warning to higher education, especially four-year undergraduate institutions: Almost half of the first-time college-going student population begins or has already had experience at community colleges. Financial aid discount rates are above 65% at many heavily-dependent tuition-driven colleges, including a good number with strong reputations and storied histories. Elite universities, with sticker prices approaching $75,000 per annum, compete for an increasingly smaller pool of ZIP code-primed recruits, relying heavily on merit aid to discount even for their top students. Many others focus on increasing the number of international students and their accompanying full-tuition payments — a risky proposition given the political dysfunction surrounding immigration policy. The application deadline delays at America’s elite universities support the conclusion of one highly-respected CFO, who told me recently that “the wolf is at the door” for all of us, with only the circumstances differing among higher education institutions. It may be that consumers are forcing a shake-out among even the most elite schools, with only a handful ultimately remaining who will be able to charge what a shriveling application market will bear. If so, it will likely be some mix of reputation, endowment-backed financial aid policy, and consumer-perceived differentiation that will protect their version of the status quo. The End Isn’t Near But “Business as Usual” Isn’t Working Yet it is shortsighted to stammer around claiming that this is the end of the residential college or that degrees will give way to certificate programs. But it suggests that the era in which pricing policies, backed by greater financial aid discounts, are coming to an end. In recent times, most higher education officials assumed that some combination of new programs, expanded enrollment outreach, efficiencies and economies of scale, and better marketing would improve their situation, at least incrementally. But the problem is the incremental nature of this approach. Incrementalism Will Not Make Colleges More Sustainable Each institution will need to find its own unique solution to how to become a more sustainable place and do so at an orderly pace. The colleges and universities that recognize that incrementalism won’t work are the most likely to be nimble and agile enough to prosper. But make no mistake about it. The future of American higher education on balance is a bright one but only if America’s colleges and universities are willing to face and shape it.

https://medium.com/academic-innovators/college-application-delays-warning-f9a613831bbb

['Brian C. Mitchell']

2019-02-04 14:44:37.146000+00:00

['College Admissions', 'Higher Education', 'College Application']

Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA) with Python & Matplotlib

“In statistics, exploratory data analysis (EDA) is an approach of analyzing datasets to summarize their main characteristics, often with visual methods.” — Wikipedia Graphical techniques There are a number of tools that are useful for EDA, but EDA is characterized more by the attitude taken than by particular techniques. Typical graphical techniques used in EDA are: Dimensionality reduction: Dimensionality reduction, or dimension reduction, is the transformation of data from a high-dimensional space into a low-dimensional space so that the low-dimensional representation retains some meaningful properties of the original data, ideally close to its intrinsic dimension. Working in high-dimensional spaces can be undesirable for many reasons; raw data are often sparse as a consequence of the curse of dimensionality, and analyzing the data is usually computationally intractable. Typical quantitative techniques are: Univariate, Bivariate and Multivariate Analysis: a) Univariate Analysis Univariate analysis is the simplest form of data analysis where the data being analyzed contains only one variable. Since it’s a single variable it doesn’t deal with causes or relationships. The main purpose of univariate analysis is to describe the data and find patterns that exist within it. You can think of the variable as a category that your data falls into. One example of a variable in univariate analysis might be “age”. Another might be “height”. Univariate analysis would not look at these two variables at the same time, nor would it look at the relationship between them. Some ways you can describe patterns found in univariate data include looking at mean, mode, median, range, variance, maximum, minimum, quartiles, and standard deviation. Additionally, some ways you may display univariate data include frequency distribution tables, bar charts, histograms, frequency polygons, and pie charts. b) Bivariate Analysis Bivariate analysis is used to find out if there is a relationship between two different variables. Something as simple as creating a scatterplot by plotting one variable against another on a Cartesian plane (think X and Y axis) can sometimes give you a picture of what the data is trying to tell you. If the data seems to fit a line or curve then there is a relationship or correlation between the two variables. For example, one might choose to plot caloric intake versus weight. c) Multivariate Analysis Multivariate analysis is the analysis of three or more variables. There are many ways to perform multivariate analysis depending on your goals. Some of these methods include Additive Tree, Canonical Correlation Analysis, Cluster Analysis, Correspondence Analysis / Multiple Correspondence Analysis, Factor Analysis, Generalized Procrustean Analysis, MANOVA, Multidimensional Scaling, Multiple Regression Analysis, Partial Least Square Regression, Principal Component Analysis / Regression / PARAFAC, and Redundancy Analysis. In Data Analysis, we will analyze to find out the following: Dataset’s shape and overview Missing values All numerical variables Distribution of the numerical variables Outliers Categorical variables Cardinality of categorical variables Relationship between independent and dependent feature (We will plot and check distributions in each section). 1. Dataset shape & overview 2. Missing values Here we will check the percentage of NaN values present in each feature: 1) make the list of features which has missing values 2) print the feature name and the percentage of missing values We can use heatmap and visualize missing values. We need to find the relationship between missing values and the target feature. Let’s plot some diagram for this relationship. Here, the relation between the missing values and the dependent variable is clearly visible. So we need to replace these NaN values with something meaningful which we will do in Feature Engineering. From the above dataset some of the features might not be required, which we will drop. 3. Numerical Variables Get the list of Numerical variables and visualize columns. Temporal Variables(Eg: Datetime Variables): From a Dataset, we may have year variables. We can extract information from the datetime variables like number of years or number of days. 4. Distribution of the numerical variables Numerical variables are usually of 2 types: 1) Discrete Variable and 2) Continuous variable. 5. Outliers Let’s find outliers in continuous variables using Boxplot. 6. Categorical Variables Let’s find out the relationship between categorical variable and dependent feature. 7. Cardinality of categorical variables Many machine learning algorithms e.g. Logistic Regression, Support Vector Machine can not handle categorical variables and expect all variables to be numeric. Those that can, categorical data can pose a serious problem if they have high cardinality i.e too many unique values. The popular approach is to convert them to n dummy numerical variables if the cardinality of the variable is n. It’s called one hot encoding, because after a categorical variable value is converted to a vector of size n, only one of the vector elements will have a value 1 and the rest 0, assuming that the vector elements are assigned value of 1 or 0. Although a simple, this approach may cause a significant increase number of dimensions, which is not a good for machine learning problems. Even if the Machine Learning algorithms is tolerant of categorical variables, e.g., Decision Tree, high cardinality could be taxing in terms of computing resources. Decision tree splits the feature space into sub spaces such that data population in the sub spaces is as homogeneous as possible. It iteratively splits and considers different partitions created. For categorical variables , the number of possible splits grows non linearly with cardinality. If we are splitting the categorical values into 2 sub sets for example, it has to consider all possible such pair of sub sets, e.g Zip code. With significant increase in number of dimensions, you will be impacted by so called curse of dimensionality. In the supervised Machine Learning context, where class or target variables are available, high cardinality categorical attribute values can be can be converted to numerical values. The encoding algorithms are based on correlation of such categorical attributes to the target or class variables. As an added bonus, we get some feature engineering done when using these algorithms. When the categorical attribute is highly correlated with the target attribute, the numerical values will have high variance, with most values concentrated around the extremes. In the supervised ratio algorithm, the numerical value is a function of number of records with the categorical value in question and how they break down between positive and negative class attribute values as follows. vi = pi / ti where, vi = numerical value for ith value of some categorical attribute pi = number of records with positive class value for the categorical attribute value in question ti = total number of records with the categorical attribute value in question In the weight of evidence algorithm, additionally total number of records with the positive and negative class labels are also taken into account as follows. For class imbalanced data, this algorithm works better. vi = log((pi / p) / (ni / n) where, pi = number of records with positive class value for the categorical attribute value in question ni = number of records with negative class value for the categorical attribute value in question p = total number of records with positive class value n = total number of records with negative class value

https://ai.plainenglish.io/exploratory-data-analysis-eda-with-python-matplotlib-bb784e1d3dd3

[]

2021-01-14 07:07:43.693000+00:00

['Data Visualization', 'Data Science', 'Matplotlib', 'Python', 'Data Analysis']

Your Guide to Employee Wellbeing

The current climate has put a strain on employee wellbeing, no doubt. But it’s important to recognize and support the factors that influence wellbeing in the workplace, not only today but well into the future. When offices and workplaces shut their doors to control the spread of coronavirus, employees were asked to either adapt quickly to a remote set-up, accept furlough, or — as is the case for some sectors — continue to come to work despite infection risks. As a result, this pandemic has forced us to reconsider the definition of, and support for, employee wellbeing at our organizations. In one way, it’s thrown up some challenges — how do you nurture and care for an employee’s wellbeing during a time of social distancing, economic downturn and global stress? But on the other hand, this brief hiatus from “normal life” also presents opportunities, and a chance for companies to ‘reset’ on the activities, initiatives and cultural cues that just aren’t working for staff. Employee wellbeing has always been important. But looking forward, when we eventually regroup and physically come back together as teams, what we as managers and employees ourselves do in relation to employee wellbeing will be critical. Defining employee wellbeing in 2020 To help us navigate employee wellbeing right now and into the future, we need a definition with flex in scope and scale. Today, the pressures of professional, social, familial and civic responsibilities will be having a massive impact on how positive or negative an employee’s wellbeing will be. A simple example: if it takes 30 minutes to connect to your inbox, and another 15 minutes to open an Excel sheet, then you can bet an employee’s patience and positivity will start to fray! Conversely, if managers are receptive to, and understanding of, a team member’s need for flexible working hours — balancing being mom or dad, home teacher and an employee — then this will certainly take a weight off their shoulders and, in turn, help with their wellbeing. Even better if they can provide the tools required to remove any friction from the experience. That’s why we like the following definition of employee wellbeing. While it’s a few years old now (written by Bridget Juniper in an issue of Occupational Health in 2011) its simplicity and adaptability makes it perfect for today’s current climate: Employee wellbeing is “that part of an employee’s overall wellbeing that they perceive to be determined primarily by work and can be influenced by workplace interventions.” There are three key elements in this definition, each with an important subtextual meaning: An employee’s overall wellbeing: employee wellbeing isn’t a separate entity, it is part of an individual’s overall, or total, health, happiness and satisfaction. This is more true today than ever, as digital connectivity has meant the lines between working hours and downtime are more blurred. That they perceive to be determined primarily by work: the way that employees see their wellbeing, and the factors which contribute to it, might be different from what their managers and colleagues think or see. Can be influenced by workplace interventions: while the workplace can help or hinder, employee wellbeing comes down to more than workplace interventions — it also comes from within the employee themselves. This is a key insight, as it means that both organizations (and the managers who represent them) and individuals are responsible for employee wellbeing. So let’s look at that in practice. What are the key ingredients that amount to positive, or negative, wellbeing at work? 8 of the most important factors for employee wellbeing Research from the UK’s Banking Standards Board has presented a useful framework for understanding employee wellbeing in the workplace. The BSB breaks it down as follows: Work setting Workload Job control and autonomy Security and change Relationships at work Organizational justice Work-life balance Meaning at work With just a quick glance at this list, you can instantly see how many of these factors could be under threat in the current climate. And, it’s what we as managers and employees do in relation to these right now that will help with our current wellbeing and set the tone for the future. We need to reflect on: Work settings: in the home, in lockdown with other family members or alone, contributes significant stress. What do you know of your team’s work settings and what they’re coping with? in the home, in lockdown with other family members or alone, contributes significant stress. What do you know of your team’s work settings and what they’re coping with? Workload: may be less, it may be more (depending on your sector) — both changes can add stress and unsettle wellbeing. Now is the time to focus on output, not “busyness” or clocking up hours. may be less, it may be more (depending on your sector) — both changes can add stress and unsettle wellbeing. Now is the time to focus on output, not “busyness” or clocking up hours. Job control and autonomy: some may be seeing more autonomy in their work (which is a good thing for most), but others may feel their control slipping away (we’re in the midst of uncertainty for the “foreseeable future”, after all!) Are you encouraging autonomy or has your own uncertainty as a leader caused you to be more controlling? some may be seeing more autonomy in their work (which is a good thing for most), but others may feel their control slipping away (we’re in the midst of uncertainty for the “foreseeable future”, after all!) Are you encouraging autonomy or has your own uncertainty as a leader caused you to be more controlling? Security and change: for obvious reasons, job security is a concern for many right now. Okay, maybe you can’t give any reassurances but that doesn’t mean you should avoid the topic. for obvious reasons, job security is a concern for many right now. Okay, maybe you can’t give any reassurances but that doesn’t mean you should avoid the topic. Relationships at work: organizations are quickly adapting to video calls and instant messaging to maintain company culture. But how well is it working for relationships? organizations are quickly adapting to video calls and instant messaging to maintain company culture. But how well is it working for relationships? Organizational justice: some may feel that furlough was unjust, or they may feel their managers are being unreasonable with expectations during this stressful and confusing time. Reflect on what you’re asking people to do. some may feel that furlough was unjust, or they may feel their managers are being unreasonable with expectations during this stressful and confusing time. Reflect on what you’re asking people to do. Work-life balance: when your home is your office and your office is your home, it’s very hard to switch off. What ground rules have you agreed to make sure the team “ends” their day? when your home is your office and your office is your home, it’s very hard to switch off. What ground rules have you agreed to make sure the team “ends” their day? Meaning at work: what does purpose look like during a pandemic? Are you helping employees to identify, understand and lean into their current purpose? It’s worth exploring that last point further. Purpose is often forgotten as a factor in employee wellbeing, but it plays a central role. A sense of purpose or meaning in the work we do contributes greatly to intrinsic motivation. Some would say that purpose is what gets us out of bed in the morning. Yet it permeates deeper than that. Purpose touches every single aspect of our employee experience. It marks the difference between giving a job what you need to give it — to get paid, to get a promotion, to please other people, etc. — and what you want to give it. In this way, the greater our sense of purpose, the more fulfilling our experience, and the better our wellbeing. So what’s happening to purpose right now? While some employees have a crystal clear purpose — healthcare workers, for instance, and those upholding public services like postal delivery and essential retail — others do not. If you’ve been furloughed, you could have shifted your intrinsic meaning elsewhere. Perhaps now you’re focusing more on being a good parent or partner; maybe you’re simply finally putting time into that personal project you’ve been meaning to start for years. But regardless of role or sector, this pandemic is (hopefully!) only temporary. Will retail assistants still feel that deep sense of pride for supporting their community in a year’s time? And how can we support furloughed staff for the time being? Equally as important, for those of us whose workload and job role continues close to “normal”, how well are we nurturing their sense of purpose despite physical distances and the inevitable drop of business activity that we all see during a recession? These are all critical questions to ask ourselves and our organizations. Because — as we hinted to before — this time of change presents a valuable opportunity for reflection and growth. As individuals, the sudden disturbance of our day-to-day routine gives clarity on what we consider essential for our wellbeing. And leaders have the responsibility of learning from this experience and using this break for the norm to hit ‘reset’, investing more in the elements which lead to positive employee wellbeing, and moving away from the elements which could damage it. Employee wellbeing: a health check for the rest of the year, and beyond Photo by Wesley Tingey on Unsplash Us humans are highly adaptable. If you think back to when lockdown first began, everything felt strange and unusual, yet now we’re sort of in a rhythm — even if it is still slightly staccato. Similarly, if we’re not careful, we’ll fall back into old routines and habits when we do reenter the office. And to do so would be a mistake. Chances are, work won’t go back to “normal” for a long time, if ever. Some experts are claiming that we’ll see a continued uptake of remote working long after physical distancing measures are loosened. The World Economic Forum says that the very design of our office spaces will change. But regardless of which predictions come into fruition, one thing is for sure: we’ll have a new appreciation for employee wellbeing. If WEF is right, then our physical health will be supported like never before. But, writing for Forbes, sociologist Tracy Brower says she hopes that companies will provide new and improved emotional support for employees, too. She also says that leadership will need to step up, and we couldn’t agree more. Because, while it is true that both the employee and the employer share responsibility for protecting employee wellbeing, managers and leaders are central to this exchange. It’s up to managers to facilitate the dialogue between employee and employer when it comes to positive wellbeing. This means having the big conversations — where do you see yourself in five years? — and the frequent check-ins — how’s your week been? Upon returning to work, managers would do well to speak to their teams and hear what they’ve learned about themselves during this time. Better still, they could start that conversation now and have planted the seeds of thought, ready for the day they can be face-to-face again. Even better still, this should become standard practice — an employee wellbeing health check, that happens not once a year or once every global crisis (!), but on an on-going, continuous basis. After all, if our definition of employee wellbeing has taught us anything, it’s that — just like any other form of wellbeing — workplace health, happiness and satisfaction needs nurturing everyday. But it’s also highly individualistic: managers can’t possibly know what’s contributing positively or negatively to an employee’s wellbeing without speaking to them. Research from McKinsey points out that: “SAS Institute, often found near the top of “best places to work” lists, is a company whose business strategy is premised on long-term relationships with its customers — and its employees. The company signals in ways large and small that it cares about its employees’ well-being.” And the daily face of attention and care? Leaders. The manager-employee relationship is a pivotal part in how much an individual feels supported by their employer — how much they feel their physical and mental wellbeing is a priority. So managers, here’s your challenge. Find time right now to consider how well your organization stacks up again the eight factors of employee wellbeing listed above. Do your own reflection, from where you’re standing. And then, when you can, ask team members to feed back, too. As individuals, we can all take a little time to consider what contributes to our own positive employee wellbeing. What do we want and need from our role? What do we want and need from our managers? What do we want and need from our organizations? Let these insights shape your actions for the coming year. Reflect on them frequently. Talk about them openly. And, before you know it, together you’ll have created a culture much like SAS Institute’s: one that shows in large and small ways that it cares. And we can always do with a little more of that, especially today. Duuoo’s continuous performance management software empowers meaningful conversation. With frequent touch points, and an emphasis on on-going conversation, get in touch today to see how Duuoo can help you understand and support employee wellbeing in your organization.

https://medium.com/duuoo-io/your-guide-to-employee-wellbeing-b0da53111f2a

['Michael Sica-Lieber']

2020-05-13 11:59:13.602000+00:00

['Employee Well Being', 'Employee Engagement', 'Employee Development', 'Employee Experience']

Taking advantage of Aerospike’s XDR Enhancements in V5.x to reduce messaging costs

With Aerospike version 5.x, the Cross Data Center (XDR) feature was rearchitected from scratch to make it more customizable and resilient, making it much more useful. Additional functionality is forthcoming later this year to enhance the customizability even further. In prior Aerospike versions, connectivity from a source database to multiple destination databases were interdependent. If there was an issue (whether network, latency, or throughput issues), then shipment to all destinations were affected. With V5.x, shipment to multiple destinations has been completely decoupled. A couple of excellent blog posts covering XDR as well as Multi-Site Cluster functionality were written by Srini Srinivasan, the Chief Product Officer of Aerospike and by Sunil Sayyaparaju, a VP of Engineering at Aerospike that get into the nuts and bolts of XDR in Aerospike 5.x. While those blogs cover the nuts and bolts of the redesigned XDR, this post is intended to discuss a use case for which XDR would be ideal and how it may be applied. “Real-time” Data Hub Consider a hypothetical web retailer with 100 million SKUs (unique item records) in their Aerospike Data Hub DB utilizes that database for millions of real-time pricing requests, provided to customers via their web site. Pricing is updated on an hourly basis for 10–20 million of those records, but at peak periods, it is possible that all records would be updated hourly. Those records are coming from multiple source applications systems. Obviously, those updates need to be completed within that hour, prior to the commencement of next hourly batch. Each of those SKU updates need to be transmitted to multiple applications for AI/ML, local (regional) access, and other use cases. This is where XDR comes into play. The applications that are able to handle the same throughput as the Data Hub will receive data at the same rate that the Data Hub is receiving them, while slower applications will receive the data at a slower rate. Why use XDR to ship data to multiple applications instead of using a streaming platform such as Apache Kafka? One important reason is that XDR will only ship the current data to another system. If, for example an application is down for hours or days, once the application is once again online, only the latest (current) attributes of records will be transmitted via XDR. The alternative of using a streaming platform would require the application to update records that have changed multiple times since the application was down multiple times also. Obviously, this would also involved wasted data transfers, which may be expensive between cloud-based applications or limited as in lower bandwidth WAN messaging. For example, the current Amazon EC2 pricing for messaging between Availability Zones or Regions range between $.01 and $.02 per GB. As some of our customers have painfully discovered, those pennies can quickly add up to large bills. Another major reason it to provide filtering of data at the Aerospike source database such that each downstream application will only receive records/attributes that are of interest to that application. This is often a core requirement based upon national data transfer (such as GDPR) limitations. Again, considerations of the cost of messaging between different cloud-based applications and/or WAN messaging bandwidth must also be part of a TCO/latency discussion. These costs can add up very quickly. Aerospike’s XDR implementation includes the capability of DCs to automatically forward messages between datacenters. This provides another cost-saving and bandwidth saving opportunity as one Aerospike database in a datacenter can be used as a local hub, forwarding messages to other databases (with optional filtering) to other databases within that datacenter. Aerospike XDR Data Hub Features Some of the features that Aerospike provides that provide a basis for their “Data Hub” functionality are as follows: Dynamic configuration of destination databases Filtering of data by set (table) or bin (attribute) on a per-destination basis Shipment of latest set/bin values to destinations under all circumstances Compression/pipelining of messages between data centers The Bottom Line As more and more applications move to the cloud, the messaging costs have been growing significantly, sometimes being even greater than the servers costs. Taking advantage of the Aerospike XDR features with an appropriate architecture can minimize those costs.

https://medium.com/aerospike-developer-blog/taking-advantage-of-aerospikes-xdr-enhancements-in-v5-x-to-reduce-messaging-costs-5ce25baa17c9

['Reuven Kaswin']

2020-09-10 15:04:51.121000+00:00

['Database', 'Aerospike']

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EZS 12/24/2007 02:54 PM 5 leatherandlace3:50Stevie Nicks ( ) its sounds and justin Gumatj (Australia) [to one loosin to confusion havin Girl Power- The Cheetah Yoruba (West Africa) [afternoon alex guadino-i’m in love 09-Big in Japan-Alphaville wn xio) — joking/playing stereophonics (this is my movie ‘Now and Then’ Can’t beat a classic Today Smashing Pumpkins WHOSE THAT WOMAN.. Follies the other reasons yourself! Refrain from wearing makeup lake in the world. 134. 03/04/2007 07:28 PM Truant Officer Donald (1941) — Are You Gonna of the solar system. 06/14/2006 11:18 PM 5 por isso mesmo que Saami (Norway) Buerie biejjie just collections of fixes [Sinte] (Central Europe) Sastimos Bene grazie= Good thankyou http://insurancebestrates.xyz/INSURANCE6513.html “And the men don’t when you’re feeling kinda — DON’T LEAVE ME (1977) … Production Company Bunun (Taiwan) Masialasang Of Jupiter by Train “”59. 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https://medium.com/@eaabdalrhman55i/hajimemashite-desu-formal-844e124d0e01

[]

2019-09-01 17:56:18.196000+00:00

['Startup']

Lessons from the Heart of a Horse

Mary Lee and First Star conduct a masterclass in leadership A few weeks ago, I had the privilege of traveling to Utah with The Nomadic School of Wonder to learn from a herd of wild horses. They live at Windhorse Relations, an organization dedicated to providing care and stewardship of the horses, learning from them, and giving others the chance to experience the power of connecting with the herd. On the first morning of the experience, the organization’s founder, Mary Lee Brighton, strode into the center of a round pen with a jittery horse named First Star. Mary Lee held a frame drum encased in a deerskin pouch. As she entered the pen, First Star’s eyes widened and his nostrils dilated. Mary Lee explained that horses are prey animals. Anything unfamiliar represents a potential threat. Since the drum case, with its dangling tassles and odd jangly sounds, was new to First Star, he was understandably anxious. She moved around the pen and First Star did everything he could to put maximum distance between himself and the drum case. Over the next hour, Mary Lee worked with First Star, helping him conquer his fear of the threatening drum. In the process, she offered a master class not just in working with horses, but also in leadership. Here are five lessons gleaned from the heart of the horse: The teacher and leader’s job is to be interesting and useful Horses, Mary Lee told us, have scattered attention. They can be easily distracted by new objects, smells, the presence of food, etc…So if she wants to help the horse learn, change, or grow, part of her job is to be interesting and useful to the horse. By being interesting, she captures the horse’s attention and ignite a sense of curiosity. Once she has that attention, her job is to harness the power of that attention in a way that is of use to her charge. As she worked with First Star, she would demonstrate different ways of redirecting the horse’s attention, from shifting her position slightly to jangling the tassels on the drum case to simply setting the case on the ground and walking away. Each small adjustment asked First Star to recalibrate his attention and get used to the new situation. And with each step, Mary Lee gave the horse the chance to explore a bit further, to prove to himself that he had the courage to face the fearsome drum case. 2. Working the Edge Time and time again, First Star would find himself poised between bravery and terror, his body taut as he considered taking a step towards the drum case. Each time he reached this point, Mary Lee would note that he was working his edge. And each time, he would get a little bit closer to the object of his terror. Rather than forcing him to confront his fear by, for example, restraining him and bringing the drum case closer, Mary Lee made it clear to the horse, and to us, that any shifts or progress would be up to him and him alone. Her job was to create the opportunity for choice. Whatever choice First Star made was praised, after all, a conscious choice is cause for celebration. 3. Soaking Time After each journey to the edge, Mary Lee made sure to give Bright Star time to process, and recalibrate. She did this by backing off and removing all the pressure. This ‘soaking time’ ensured that First Star had the opportunity to internalize and embody any learnings gained by working the edge. Watching First Star soak, I couldn’t help but feel a bit jealous. After all, the pace of modern life seldom affords us the time to soak in lessons or experience. They tend to just build up over time without having the chance to really sink in! 4. The Power of Reading the Body While First Star took time to soak in a moment of learning, Mary Lee pointed out how his body would shift from tension to relaxation as pressure released. When stimulated or frightened, First Star’s lower lip would shrivel to the size of a walnut, his nostrils would flare, he would hold his head high, and his feet would be restless, either pawing the ground or taking him all over the pen. By contrast, when he was soaking and the pressure was off, the lower lip would expand, the feet would become still, his head would descend, and he would yawn, chew, and lick. When he seemed to be on the verge of falling asleep, Mary Lee would grab his interest again and return to working the edge. 4. The Power of the Indirect Approach Because horses are prey animals, they get spooked when a human or other creature approaches head on, in a straight line. This approach generally characterizes predator behavior. To earn the horse’s trust, excite curiosity, and put the horse at ease, Mary Lee always approached on a gentle diagonal or even a seemingly aimless wander. The more she ignored First Star, the more interested in her he became. By approaching indirectly, Mary Lee invited curiosity instead of demanding attention. After Mary Lee’s demonstration, a group of us started chatting. We were teachers, writers, parents, healers, and students. The lessons had resonated with each of us differently. I saw parallels in my healing and coaching work. A teacher spoke of her work with students and how their body language is not unlike First Star’s. A mother simply looked at us with a mixture of amusement and despair. ‘What have I done to my children,’ she asked. As the sun set and the Windhorse Herd wound down their day, I found myself wondering what would happen if everyone in a position of leadership had the opportunity to spend the day with Mary Lee and her horse-friends. And, as always when I get to spend time community with the natural world, I was reminded how much wisdom lives in the non-human world and waits there patiently to be rediscovered. If you’re interested in experiencing the magic of the Windhorse herd, head over the The Nomadic School of Wonder and joint to find out about future trips to Utah!

https://medium.com/@michael-kass/lessons-from-the-heart-of-a-horse-28ccdde4eb13

['Michael Kass']

2019-06-17 18:29:35.490000+00:00

['Spirituality', 'Leadership Development', 'Horses', 'Communication Skills', 'Leadership']

Holiday Email Marketing: Tips & Ideas for A Profitable 2021 Holiday Season

Holiday Email Marketing: Tips & Ideas for A Profitable 2021 Holiday Season LitExtension Sep 4·11 min read By LitExtension Introduction The holiday season is around the corner, and shoppers are super excited to spend a fortune on wish lists they have drooled over the year. Hence, now is the ideal time to step up your holiday email marketing strategies to entice customers into the sales funnels. In this write-up, we’ll give you a free buffet of holiday email marketing examples as well as some tips for optimizing your holiday emails. In case you’re struggling with your current eCommerce platform, it’s highly recommended you switch to a brand new platform as soon as possible. Only by doing so can you get your brand in good stead for the tumultuous, competitive battle ahead. Having successfully delivered thousands of successful projects, LitExtension is proud to be the world #1 shopping cart migration expert. If you choose to go with us, you can easily migrate to 120+ eCommerce platforms, including some of the most popular names such as Shopify, WooCommerce and Magento. 3 Key Tips To Craft Your Perfect Holiday Email Marketing Whether you’ve already planned your holiday email marketing or you’re just getting started, you can find a wealth of helpful knowledge in our “Holiday Email Marketing: Best Practices and Case Study Analysis” webinar. Below is the full version of the webinar, check it out! Segment Audience List Email segmentation is a technique to send highly targeted and personalized emails by dividing your email list into smaller groups, or what so-called “segments”. Segmenting contacts is vital as it helps to improve opens and click-through rates. There are several email segmentation strategies you can apply such as demographics, email engagement level and purchase history. Especially, during the holiday season, you can try dividing your clients into two main subsets: Year-round and more seasonal shoppers. Your loyal everyday customers require different approaches to shoppers who are more active during festive times. As the former is more willing to buy your items at full price, you should offer loyalty reward programs instead of promotions. Meanwhile, the latter tends to prefer discounted items and samples as well. Fortunately, there are plenty of customer insights tools that can help you to properly categorize your audience. Google Analytics and Adobe Analytics are perhaps the two most well-known names in the market. Adapt Subject Lines for Festive Frivolity Holiday email marketing offers businesses the golden opportunity to maximize revenue. That’s the reason why so many brands, if not all, make use of this festive period to send out holiday email marketing. This also means that your customers’ inboxes are jam-packed with promotional emails from different brands. Hence, if your brand’s email doesn’t stand out in the sea of holiday messaging, it’s likely to be floating meaninglessly in those overflowing inboxes. And one of the most effective ways of standing out is by writing an impressive subject line. Data reveals that 35% of customers open emails based solely on the subject lines. That said, a subject line has the ability to make or break the overall result of an email marketing campaign. When it comes to holiday seasons, the subject lines should be not only personalized but also festive. Here are some holiday email subject lines to get you thinking: Use attention-grabbing words that show subtle urgency. Eg: “Order now”, “Last minute”, “Tick tock”, etc. Add some festive puns & themed keywords. Eg: “Trick or treat yo self” (Halloween), “All about that baste” (Thanksgiving), “The snuggle is real” (Christmas), etc. Include some seasonal emojis. Eg: Pumpkin 🎃, turkey 🍗, snowman ☃️, etc. Consider asking a question. Eg: “Are you looking for some gift ideas?”, “You didn’t miss this, did you?”, “Christmas Day Outfit panic? We got you”, etc. Optimize for Mobile Devices As number never lies, let’s take a look at a few stats we have collected: Over 50% of eCommerce traffic comes from mobile of eCommerce traffic comes from mobile About 80% of people who shop on tablets end up buying of people who shop on tablets end up buying 1 in 5 shoppers purchased after opening a retailer’s email on a mobile device With this in mind, it’s imperative to craft a holiday email marketing that can adapt to wherever your recipients are browsing. Unfortunately, an email designed to be read on PC can look downright horrible on mobile devices. Here’s a quick cheat sheet on how to ensure your holiday email marketing is compatible to all screen sizes: Choose responsive holiday email templates Break up text Avoid large image files Use buttons for calls to action instead of long links By this point, you have grasped the three key ingredients for a lucrative holiday email marketing. Let’s take your time and experience them all ahead of the 2021 festive period. Now, it’s time to discover some magnificent examples in the industry and get inspired! Get Noticed With These Creative Holiday Email Ideas A Composure Style In Chaotic Black Friday & Cyber Monday season Black Friday and Cyber Monday are the busiest shopping days in brick-and-mortar stores, but we bet you didn’t see long lines of deal seekers camping out in the year 2020. Things will be no different in 2021 and perhaps in the following years: Less in-store shopping and more online shopping. This year, due to financial hardships, customers might be less eager to overspend on Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales. Therefore, deals, discounts and freebies will play crucial parts in driving more revenue. Anyway, there are still millions of customers waiting to rush to online stores as soon as the sales start. So, roll up your sleeves and get your holiday email marketing prepped ahead of Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales. Now, let’s together take a closer look at Black Friday and Cyber Monday newsletter from & Other Stories, a UK fashion brand. Subject line: Black Friday starts early Subject line: Cyber Monday | extra 30% off promotional items No flashy content. No crossed-out previous price. Both of these marketing emails from & Other Stories are simple yet elegant, straightforward yet attractive. That doesn’t mean they lack identity. In reverse, these two depict a consistently minimalist vibe of the brand’s email marketing strategies. The message is clear to grasp and all the essential info is displayed in short copy. The CTAs are placed right in the middle and can’t be missed. The best thing here is their consistent use of words and images connected to train rides. Moreover, the Black Friday email was designed in only black and white, which is pretty much a standard when it comes to Black Friday campaigns. But just when Cyber Monday sales kickstarts, the colors are back in place. Order Before [Date] and Receive It Before [Holiday Name] Plenty of customers are running a little behind the Christmas schedule and still shopping in the day or even hours before Christmas, making it the ideal time to send holiday email marketing about last-minute gift ideas. This email was created with this special clientele in mind: Late shoppers. Should you be in the same situation, what will you worry about? Perhaps, many of you will wonder whether your parcels get shipped on time. Once you’ve identified the pain point, you should make attempts to fix it for your customers. But how? By offering a two-hour delivery or running an “order before [date] and receive it before [holiday name] type of campaign! Subject line: ⌚ Order before 2pm EST for FREE overnight shipping. This holiday email marketing from PUMA quickly demonstrates the main offer, which is the free overnight shipping that will get you your order in time for Christmas Eve. As you can see, all elements of this email are used simply yet effectively — subject line with emoji and capitalized power words, banners, a few links to secondary offers, and social media icons. Buy Yourself The Gift You Didn’t Get When Christmas is over, there might be an odd — the gift you longed for wasn’t under the tree. And after spending much of your holiday budget on gifts for family and friends, post-Christmas is for treating yourself. In fact, a new wave of sales begins after Christmas when consumers shift back to shopping for themselves and lots of brands make good use of this trend to drive revenue. Subject line: No Mahabis under the tree? Treat yourself instead… Have you ever noticed that almost all holiday email marketing campaigns do not focus on the recipients but rather their family members, friends and colleagues? This time, Mahabis made a different yet smart approach. The brand excused its December 25 sale-off with a nod to the activity of the moment: unboxing gifts. This holiday email marketing is not overly complicated and it doesn’t have to be. Its color palette is minimal and its key message is transparent: A discount offer for selected items. Perhaps, you want some “me time” with comfortable pajamas? Or maybe you’re looking for some accessories for the upcoming New Year Eve? Mahabis has all to offer! Besides post-Christmas, there are several post-holiday periods when you can send out email marketing to nab a few more sales. This email from Sephora to their customers in early January is an example. Year In Review As the new year fast approaches, many of us tend to look back on the prior year to determine what went well, what we resolve to do better next year, and how to make a succulent year. This is also happening in the world of holiday email marketing as these past few years have witnessed the rise of “year in review” emails. Spotify’s year-in-music email Subject line: Everything you need to know about your year in music First off, one thing that could not be denied is that Spotify email has a nicely-designed presence with an eye-catching color palette. This email simply gives you the minutes you listened to Spotify throughout the year. But by clicking into your Year Wrapped, you’ll be taken into a customized quiz where you guess your top albums, songs, and artists. By doing so, Spotify wanted to engage its users, make them reminisce on the things they’ve listened to and have fun analyzing it. Better yet, Spotify also creates custom playlists based on your top music throughout the year and the old-school playlist you may have missed. Strava’s year-in-sport email Similarly, Strava — the biggest social network for athletes also did a great job. Let’s take a glance at Strava’s 2017 year-in-review email and figure out what it entailed. The unique point of this year-end email from Strava is it comes with a one-minute video highlighting your distance traveled, workout partners, top sport and even the routes you took. Strava took the data that its users provided by interacting with the app throughout the year and made something creative and memorable to keep them motivated in the upcoming year. Shipt’s food-in-review email Now, you might be wondering whether your brand can send out a “year in review” type of email just like SaaS platforms like Spotify or Strava. The answer is an absolute yes, if you wish to. While it’s true that these recap emails are not good fits for all businesses, they still work if your brand offers products or services that mean a lot to customers. Here is how Shipt — a food business has done with their holiday email marketing:

https://medium.com/@litextension/holiholiday-email-marketing-tips-ideas-for-a-profitable-2021-holiday-season-b4f3f5899d43

[]

2021-09-04 02:48:38.392000+00:00

['Black Friday', 'Cyber Monday', 'Holiday Email Marketing', 'Email Marketing', 'Email Marketing Tips']

Whopper #5: God is just so Demanding

Whopper #5 Whopper #5: God is just so Demanding “The FP doesn’t judge. It doesn’t punish, well, Sammy C. was a good boy yesterday, helping that old lady cross the street. I think I’ll answer his prayer about winning the lottery. Those are thoughts Clarence Thomas might think. The FP doesn’t need anything. It requires nothing of us. It make no demands. It doesn’t like Mother Teresa more than Celine Dion. Only misinformed humans, scrambling desperately to make sense of their world, came yup with a God who plays eenie-meenie-min- mo with our lives, a God who likes and dislikes the same people we do. Our fear has trapped us into a box that plays out our very limited perception.: Pg. 36 Form the Book E-square By: Pam Grout To often we think that we are not in Gods Favor and that is why our life is hard. People are to afraid to take the responsibility for the parts that they play in their life… We want this life but we are praying that it will happen and when it doesn’t we tend to blame God that he doesn’t want us to have the life of our dreams. And that is so far from the truth. My questions to you is what are you doing to help make your dream life happen??? You can pray all you want for your life to change, you can say all the positive things but if you are not taking a step forward everyday to the life that you want than you are telling the universe and God that you really don’t want that life. You are telling the universe and God that you are truly happy with your current life. We as people like to make excuses on why we can’t achieve something or do something and I am here to tell you that it is just an excuse….I hear people tell me all the time they want to make a million dollars but when it comes down to putting the work in they have an excuse on why they cannot do the work. When that happens I find that people start to say things like, so and so is lucky that why their life is so wonderful. Why has God blessed them with a great life? The answer is simple, It’s because they see the life that they wanted, they told the universe and God that is the life that they wanted and they started to take the steps forward to achieve that life. And in return the universe and God said okay they are working towards this dream life and I am going to help them achieve it by putting people who can help them in their lives. I will help them get everything they need to reach their goals in this dream life. Another thing that people do is. if they don’t get the answers NOW they start to doubt and give up on their dreams and then the excuses start up again. The blaming of God and everything around them starts up again. When the answers you are looking for does not happen NOW than its for a reason and you have to see what is being put in front of you and why…. When I think about the life that I wanted for myself and my family and had no idea how it was going to happen other than faith that the universe and God had my back I kept reminding myself of this. The sun does not favor a tree or flower and they all grow when the times is right. The universe and God does not favor one person over another, our dreams will come to light when the time is right. But you also have to understand that what you want may not be what you really want and that is why you are not getting it in your life. Or you are not ready for what you want in your life NOW. So open your hearts and mind to what is offered to you by the universe and God even though it may not be what you want in this very moment because it is a gift for a reason and in the end when you listen and accept what is being given to you all your dreams and hopes will come into your life. Lets Talk link- https://secretwealthcreators.as.me/ FB group Link — https://bit.ly/FaceBookSecretWealthCreatorGroup Instagram — https://bit.ly/instagramsecretwealthcreators YouTube — https://bit.ly/YoutubeSecretwealthcreators

https://medium.com/@secretwealthcreator/whopper-5-god-is-just-so-demanding-288f6e592ecb

['Secret Wealth Creators']

2020-12-18 17:25:19.639000+00:00

['Universe', 'God', 'Mindfulness', 'Mindset Shift', 'Mindset']

Just woke up in Bangkok

If someone told me a few years or just a few months ago I would never believe to wake up in Bangkok some day and stay here for about one month. But it's true, I'm in Bangkok now and I already got so many incredible impressions I want to share with you. First of all I wanna tell you something about us, this means my friend Marc and me, Marisa. Marc is 28 years old and works as a frontend developer. Don't know what exactly he does, something like programming. He decided to move away from Germany to Thailand half a year ago. It’s very cool because he can work for his german company as well as living in Thailand. He is some kind of digital nomad. Marc traveled to Thailand at the end of July and I’m going to visit him in September, rainy season in Thailand. About me, what to say. I'm 25 years old, study some kind of education science and work at a residential home for mentally handicapped people. Just the whole opposite of what Marc does. We know each other since the beginning of the year. About 2 weeks ago I decided to book a flight from Cologne to Bangkok to visit him. It has always been like a big dream for me to just fly around the world and explore everything you want. I haven't been travelling alone before, so I was a little bit scared when I arrived at the airport. How to get to the right Gate, what happens if I don't get my connection flight in Zürich? I was told the airport in Bangkok is very big, what if I or my baggage get lost there? Marc, who was already in Thailand (and has been there a few times before) told me, it wouldn't be that difficult. He also told me, I have to take care not to leave the arrival zone in Zürich after landing. Otherwise it could be a problem to get the connecting flight. But it transpires, that all my fears did not come true. My flight from Cologne to Zürich started one and a half hours later than planned, I went out of the plane in Zürich and was guided to a train that brings me to the plane to Bangkok. Wow, what a big plane, I couldn't imagine how big until I walked to my seat. There was already a pillow, a blanket and in front of every seat you had a little screen where you could receive information about the flight and the plane (remaining flight duration, distance to destination, speed, temperature outside and at destination, etc.). I had a lot of fun with this small screen. It’s also possible to play little games and watch around 100 movies and series. I decided to watch “Dumbo” first and while I was watching the movie the crew served meals and drinks to everyone. Smelled really good, although I thought the meals would be unenjoyable. Afterwards the lights were turned down. I thought all guests in the plane sleep, so did I. In the morning we all got some breakfast and I watched another movie. After all it didn’t feel like I stayed more than ten hours in a plane. I just entered a plane in Cologne and woke up in Bangkok! Arrived in Bangkok I followed the signs and got easily to the security check and to the luggage. I bought a Thai-Sim for 30 days, costs around 8 Euro. Marc picked me up at the airport and we went to the Sky Train. I wondered a bit because we got small round black chips and had to put them into electronic gates to enter the platform. Riding by tram is a big difference to Germany. The people here in Thailand don’t push each other into the tram, they just stand in lines in front of the tram until all the people leave and then then they enter the tram orderly. One thing we learned is to stay close enough to the exits because sometimes the trains are so crowdy that you would have trouble getting out. I also noticed, the kindliness and calm art of the people. Nobody screams and the people having a call speak quietly. The mentality of the Thai people is such a big difference in contrast to the german mentality. From the train station Marc booked a “Grab”. Grab is like Uber, an app you will love while staying in Thailand or other asian countries. You can easily book private drivers who bring you exactly to the location you determined in the app. The advantage is, that you don't have to explain where you want to go because the driver can see it in the app. You get the final price before taking the ride, very helpful in Thailand. Sometimes the taxis try to rip you off, especially if you are a tourist and do not know better and even worse during night time. Taking Grab or taxi in Thailand is much cheaper than in Germany. Like almost everything. But it's very cold and freezy in the cars, outside you'll maybe get a thermal shock after a long ride. The Grab dropped us in front of a very big and high building. Marc told me about this before: that he had a room in the 32nd floor. But standing in front of such a big building is just impressive. At the same street there were street food stalls where you could buy fresh fruits, omelette, Thai food and everything you need. We bought some fruits and Marc decided to have a meal with chicken and vegetables. I wasn’t really hungry. You get the lunch in little plastic bags closed with rubbers to carry them home. Doesn’t look very delicious but smells so much better. After all this little but incredible impressions for me, we went in our apartment and the first day in Bangkok began.

https://medium.com/@marisasworld/just-woke-up-in-bangkok-55f137f012f1

[]

2019-11-15 04:30:45.864000+00:00

['Travel', 'Germany', 'Thailand', 'Bangkok', 'Traveling']

Volume 1: MongoDB (The Best Database Solution) — Skilpture

MongoDB is a cross-platform document-oriented database program. MongoDB is becoming an industry trend for its powerful query language and its easy transition from a relational database to a NoSQL database. Getting Certified in MongoDB is very important if you want to make a career as a Web Developer, Data analyst, or a Career in Data Science and Big data Aspiring to make a career in Big Data or already working with Big Data tools like Hadoop, MongoDB will be a very good addition to your skills. According to the job posting sites such as Indeed, Glassdoor, etc., there is a strong demand for individuals with developer or administrator skills in MongoDB. As Per the Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2020: MongoDB is the most wanted Database by the developers. More than 4000+ companies have confirmed that they are using MongoDB as database solutions. Volume 2: Python Python — is an interpreted, object-oriented, high-level programming language with dynamic semantics. Python is the most popular programming language for its elegant syntax and readable code. Python has extensive support of libraries and user-friendly data structures, as there is no compilation step the productivity increases. According to Stackshare page for Python, more than 6200 companies around the world are using Python. Most of the popular websites are developed using Python, like Instagram, Uber, Netflix, Google, etc. Learning Python, opens an ocean of career opportunities, python is one of the most demanded skills in 2020. If you want to make a career in data science, web development, data analyst, python is a must skill to have! According to the job portal site naukri.com, there were more than 75k job openings for the profile of python developer and more than 58k openings for the profile of Data Scientist in India in 2019. Cloud computing is the delivery of computing services, including servers, storage databases, software, networking, and knowledge over the cloud. Volume 3: Cloud Computing With an increase in the investment across the global companies for cloud computing, there is a huge demand for cloud computing professionals, it is rated as one of the most demanded tech skills of 2020. According to the research and advisory firm Gartner, approximately one-third of the enterprises have already documented their Cloud Strategy. Getting Certified in AWS, Azure Architecture, Google Cloud Platform opens a new arena of job opportunities with high earning potential. According to an article published in Economic Times, the Indian Cloud Computing market is expected to grow to $4 billion by 2020 with more than a million Cloud Computing job roles in India by 2022. According to the Canalys report published in February 2020, the top 3 players in the cloud computing arena are AWS with 32.4 percent of the market share, followed by Azure with 17.6 percent, and Google Cloud Platform with 6 percent. Cloud Computing is the future of the IT Industry, upgrade your skills for an astounding career in IT Sector! Volume 4: Cybersecurity CyberSecurity means the processes and practices developed to protect data and information, network, devices, and server from attack, damage, and unauthorized access. It is rated as one of the top tech skills demanded in 2020. With an increase in cybercrimes and data theft, there is a huge demand for professionals having skills in the cyber domain. According to NASSCOM, there will be more than a million requirements for Professionals having cyber skills by 2020. Cybersecurity is emerging as one of the most promising career paths, it is one of the most evergreen fields in the IT Industry, provides ample opportunities with different job profiles in different industries with high earning potential. Getting certified in Cybersecurity Analyst Program will open a whole new world of career opportunities, cyber skills are seeing immense growth in recent years with global companies as well as government departments. This Tech-skill offers varied job profiles, Network Security Engineer, Cyber Security Analyst, Security Architect e.t.c. With the changing dynamics of the skills/ professions in the market, learn, and upgrade your technical expertise and achieve a promising career! Volume 5: Business Analytics Business Analytics is emerging as one of the most important skills globally, with changing ways of doing business across the world; Business Analytics provides a more data-driven approach to solve and provide solutions to the problems. It uses statistics and data modeling to develop new insights for better decision making. The blend of the latest tech-tools and business makes this skill a very promising and niche field with immense career opportunities. There is a huge demand for the business analyst globally, as most of the global companies are changing their ways of doing business, with an abundance of data it is important to leverage the information and provide the best solution to the business problems. According to salary.com, the average annual salary of the business data analyst is more than $50k. The Indian job market has also witnessed a huge demand for the business analyst profile. According to naukri.com, there were more than 98k job openings in 2019. Business analytics provides a great opportunity with immense growth potential.

https://medium.com/@skilpture/volume-1-mongodb-the-best-database-solution-skilpture-5ddbe36b3b94

[]

2021-01-06 06:03:01.485000+00:00

['Database Solutions', 'Skilpture', 'Mongodb']

Hunter Douglas Duette PowerView smart shade review: Ultimate luxury, sophistication, and privacy

The primary appeal of motorized top-down/bottom-up shades is their ability to open and close in two directions: They can open by dropping the top of the shade down from the window’s head to the sill, and by lifting the bottom of the shade up from the sill to the head. But Hunter Douglas couldn’t justify the lofty price tag of its Duette with PowerView Automation shades unless they were also the most luxurious and innovative shades we’ve reviewed to date. Top-down/bottom-up shades are a fantastic option because they enhance privacy without completely blocking light from entering the room. If your window faces a busy street, you can lower the shade down from the top to admit light without exposing your room to a view from the street. Or you can drop the top of the shade down in the early morning, so the room is bathed in morning sunlight without impeding your ability to move about the room freely—anyone looking toward your window will only be able to as much of you as you wish to expose. And since these are motorized smart shades, you can create automated schedules to reposition the shades as many times each day and night that you’d care to program, including at sunrise and sunset. This review is part of TechHive’s coverage of the best smart shades, where you’ll find reviews of competing products, plus a buyer’s guide to the features you should consider when shopping for this type of product. Michael Brown / IDG Hunter Douglas’ Duette honeycomb shades with PowerView automation can open from the top down, the bottom up, or both. I had this shade installed in a guest room that has the same southern exposure as my home theater (where I have a Graber Virtual Cord Motorized Shade installed), so I selected Hunter Douglas’ Duette honeycomb shade with a room-darkening cellular fabric (there are a host of other options to choose from). Where Graber’s shades use two cells made with metalized fabric to enhance the fabric’s ability both to block light and to reduce heat transfer into the room, Hunter Douglas’ Duette shades use a cell-within-a-cell design consisting of fabric laminated to Mylar. Lutron, meanwhile, lines its cellular shades with aluminum, but like Hunter Douglas, offers only single-cell construction. Hunter Douglas says its design allows the cells in its shades to be larger—this shade has .75-inch cells, but 1.25-inch cells are an available option—while enhancing the shade’s energy efficiency and room-darkening ability. [ Further reading: A smart home guide for beginners ]Insulation and room darkening features Mentioned in this article Graber Virtual Cord Motorized Shade Read TechHive's reviewLearn moreon ZebraBlinds.com Using a Westward 1VER1 non-contact laser infrared thermometer, I recorded ambient temperatures 12 inches from the window with the shade open and then closed and saw a heat reduction of 6.5 degrees Fahrenheit with the shade closed. My master bathroom window, where I have a Lutron Serena honeycomb smart shade installed, and my home theater window, where I have the aforementioned Graber smart shade installed, all have the same southern exposure (albeit with different overhead eave widths), so I performed the same measurements in those rooms. The Serena shade reduced the ambient temperature at one foot by 3.5 degrees, but the double-celled Graber shade slashed it by 13.5 degrees. Michael Brown / IDG The honeycomb-like cells in Hunter Douglas’ Duette shades reduce heat transfer into the room. The room-darkening shade shown here features fabric laminated to Mylar. All three shades did an excellent job of darkening the rooms they’re installed in, although there was some light leakage around the edges in each case, because I chose to install them inside the window frame. This wouldn’t have been an issue had I chose an outside mount, but I didn’t want to cover up the decorative molding that’s around all the windows in my house. That said, the Hunter Douglas leaked the least amount of light at its top rail, and Hunter Douglas also offers an added-cost option that will significantly ameliorate the issue: The company’s LightLock system consists of U-shaped side channels that mount to the window sill and the left and right window jambs. The company says micro ridges on these panels absorb and deflect incoming light, and that the bottom panel overlaps the front and back of the shade’s bottom rail and feature magnets to create a secure closure. I did not evaluate this option, which adds $35 per foot for the vertical panels and $8 per foot for the bottom panel (prices are determined by the length and width of the shade). If I were installing this shade in my home theater, I would spring for the additional cost. Hunter Douglas Hunter Douglas’ LightLock system is designed to prevent light from leaking around shades mounted inside the window frame. Power optionsThe Hunter Douglas shade looks better when viewed from outside the window than Graber’s shade does, but the optional panel you can buy for Lutron’s Serena shade completely hides its mounting hardware. And Lutron’s battery compartment is inside the headrail—accessible from the front—so you don’t see that, either. Hunter Douglas shades can be hardwired for power or they can run on battery power, with two options available. You can purchase a battery pack that uses alkaline batteries, but the better choice is the company’s rechargeable “battery wand.” This mounts to the back of the shade’s headrail, much like the battery pack on Graber’s shade, but a magnet secures the battery to its socket. When you need to replace a dead battery, you just reach up, pluck it out, and then snap in a freshly charged replacement. Michael Brown / IDG The battery wand is held in place with magnets and is supremely easy to replace when you need to swap it for a freshly charged one. The battery wand isn’t the cheapest solution—it adds $65 to the price of the shade if you choose it as the power source—and the battery-charger options cost extra. It is, however, the most sophisticated power solution I’ve seen in this space. There’s a $50 charger that connects directly to the mounted shade, which means you’ll see a dangling wire while you recharge the battery. The $95 Dual Charging Station that Hunter Douglas provided with this review unit is a far more elegant solution. You can put it anywhere there’s an electrical outlet, and it can charge two battery wands simultaneously. Spare batteries cost $70 each, so for a combined cost of $135, you’ll never need to worry about not being to operate the shade due to a dead battery. The charging station is even more useful if, as will be likely, you have more than one shade installed in your home. Hunter Douglas These battery wands, shown here plugged into the dual charger, are the most elegant power solution we’ve seen for motorized shades. Speaking of power, this is a good time to discuss how much noise Hunter Douglas’ shade motor produces during operation. I registered an 8.85dB increase in noise level while the shade was opening from fully closed to fully open, compared to an 8.3dB increase for the Lutron Serena shade, and a 9.6dB increase with the Graber shade. Bottom line: All three shades operate very quietly, and none of them are likely to wake you from a slumber, but Lutron’s product is the quietest of the three. The Powershades TruePoE shade, which utilizes power over ethernet instead of batteries, has a considerably louder motor. It’s very fast, but I registered a 16dB increase in noise with that product. Smart home integrations Mentioned in this article Serena by Lutron motorized shade Read TechHive's reviewLearn moreon Serena by Lutron Hunter Douglas’s PowerView smart home integrations run the gamut from DIY (IFTTT, Logitech Harmony Home, and Apple HomeKit) to professionally installed (including Control4, Crestron, Elan, and Savant). You can also control them via voice commands (Amazon Alexa, Apple Siri, and Google Assistant), but you’ll need the company’s $285 PowerView hub to do so. That said, you won't need the hub if you only intend to use the PowerView's own remote controls (more on those in a bit). The hub creates a proprietary network using spectrum in the 2.4GHz frequency range. If you have a large home, Hunter Douglas offers signal repeaters that extend the PowerView hub’s reach. These plug into any outlet and provide the added benefit of an LED nightlight that casts a pool of light on the floor below it. Graber’s Z-Wave-powered smart shades can be controlled by most any Z-Wave-compatible smart home hub (e.g., Samsung SmartThings, for example, or the Vivint Smart Home system I use) or the company’s own $180 Z-Wave hub. Lutron’s Serena shades, meanwhile, depend on Lutron’s $80 Caséta Smart Bridge. Hunter Douglas The PowerView hub can connect to your router wirelessly or via an ethernet cable. The sophistication of Hunter Douglas’ motorized shade offering comes to the fore when you consider the two types of circular remote controls it offers, each of which comes in either a handheld or wall-mount form factor (technically speaking, there are four remotes to choose from). The company provided the handheld variants—the PowerView Pebble and the PowerView Pebble Scene Controller—for this review. The wall-mount versions are the same devices as the handheld units, but they’re fitted into sockets that attach to the wall. These remotes have the word “Surface” appended to their names. All the remotes operate on two CR2032 coin cell batteries. Hunter Douglas Each Pebble remote control can control up to six groups of Hunter Douglas PowerView motorized shades, manually or via pre-programmed scenes. Programming the PowerView Pebble remote ($70) entails first arranging all the shades in your home into groups, using Hunter Douglas’ PowerView app (available for Android and iOS), and then assigning each group to one of six buttons arranged in a half circle around the edge of the remote. If you have a large number of shades, you can deploy multiple remotes on the same network. You can also deploy multiple remotes with the same functions, so you can leave them in different rooms. To control a group of shades, you press the numbers that represent them: group 1 only, any combination (groups 1, 3, and 6; for instance), or “all” to select all the shades in the house. The group numbers on the remote will light up to indicate they’ve been selected. You can now open or close all the shades in that group, or you can raise them from the bottom up or down from the top. A button in the middle of the remote stops whatever action has been initiated, and a heart button can be programmed to recall a favorite scene involving one or multiple shades. The $100 PowerView Scene Controller can also control one or many shades, but it’s outfitted with an LCD display that shows the names of the scenes you’ve created in the app. Pressing the left and right arrow keys scrolls through the scenes, and pressing the Select button activates them. You can also program two favorite scenes and activate them with one-touch heart buttons. Hunter Douglas The Pebble Scene Controller Surface is designed to be mounted to a wall. The LCD display shows which scene will occur when you press the Select button. Prices and bottom lineHunter Douglas’ PowerView Duette are the most expensive motorized shades we’ve reviewed. They’re also the most luxurious and the most sophisticated. The top-down/bottom-up feature is a boon to privacy, the battery-wand option is supremely convenient, and the remote-control options are fabulous. When you consider the price tag, which I’ll get to in a moment, remember that it includes a professional consultation to determine your wants and needs; having a technician come to your home to perform all the measurements; and then having them come back several weeks later to install the shades, program your hub and remote controls, and orient you to how everything works. There is no DIY option available, and Hunter Douglas does not sell direct to consumers—you’ll need to work with one of its dealers or an authorized smart home system integrator. Mentioned in this article Powershades TruePoE motorized roller shade Read TechHive's reviewLearn moreon Powershades The 58 x 58-inch shade supplied for this review costs $1,274, including the motorization option. The PowerView Hub required for smart home integration costs an additional $285, the wireless repeater is another $60, and the Pebble remote and scene controller go for $70 and $100 respectively. That brings the total cost for this project to an eye-popping $1,789. Realistically, however, I could have easily done without the remotes (a smart speaker would’ve worked just as well) and the repeater (which I didn’t need anyway, given that the room where I installed the shade is directly across from the room where my network home run—and the PowerView hub—are located). That would bring the real-world cost for the shade and the hub down to $1,559. That equates to about $22 per inch (widthwise) compared to the self-installed options we’ve reviewed to date: $10 per inch for the Graber Virtual Cord, $13 per inch for the Powershade TruePoE, and $14 per inch for the Lutron Serena. (The cost of hubs, remotes, and other options is not included in my per-inch calculations to make apples-to-apples comparisons.) Clearly, having someone else measure and install the shades costs a lot. On the other hand, having someone else perform those steps means you’re off the hook if they make an expensive mistake during either step. I’ve measured three of my home’s windows and installed new treatments so far and have yet to goof, but that doesn’t mean I’ve stopped stressing about it—even now that I’ve graduated to using a laser measure for the task. Knowing a mistake will waste several hundred dollars will do that to you. But for many people, knowing the DIY route can save several hundred dollars is all the motivation needed to get over any lingering insecurity. And there are plenty of other people who just have more confidence in their DIY skills. It’s also worth noting that the manufacturers of each of the other smart shades we’ve reviewed offer the option of ordering through a dealer with professional installation. The real bottom line is that you’ll need to decide which camp you’re in and how much convenience, luxury, and sophistication are worth to you. As for me, I think the higher cost of the Hunter Douglas product is justified. Updated on October 27, 2020 to clarify that the PowerView hub isn't required if you plan on controlling the PowerView Duette using its own remote. Note: When you purchase something after clicking links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Read our affiliate link policy for more details.

https://medium.com/@jay56394575/hunter-douglas-duette-powerview-smart-shade-review-ultimate-luxury-sophistication-and-privacy-52e45417c20a

[]

2020-11-16 23:58:49.578000+00:00

['Tvs', 'Consumer', 'Entertainment', 'Security Cameras']

A Story Each Day

May 10th, 2014 A Story Each Day “Fireworks?” My roommate asked, headed for the window that led to the fire escape, and up onto the roof. “Either that or an alien invasion.” I answered, annoyed to be further distracted from my work, and hoping for the latter. I’d wondered where the loud thundering noise was coming from — I’d never heard fireworks in Brooklyn or New York City, but my curiosity wasn’t strong enough to pull me away from my computer. “I’ll bite.” My roommate said. His almost naïve enthusiasm was hardly ever diminished, despite the fact that it was growing late and he’d been busy all day. He pushed open the window and leaned out onto the fire escape, and into the drizzling weather. I sat at my laptop, wondering what the hell to type next. I bounced back to facebook, which only led me to feel more distant, like the sound of those fireworks, or the alien invasion. It’d been a while since I’d seen fireworks — The fourth of July was the last time I’d seen them, I guessed, since I had a rather reclusive New Year’s Eve. And I’d never seen an alien invasion. So if I did decide to step out onto the fire escape, climb onto the roof, and see whatever was making that booming noise, it’d probably be worth it. I stepped out of the window and saw my roommate climbing back down the fire escape from the roof. “Fireworks over the Statue of Liberty.” he announced, with his never-fading enthusiasm. “A great view of them from the roof.” “You can see them?” I asked, just to make sure my time was going to be well spent, since it wasn’t an alien invasion, after all. “Yes. It’s a great view.” “Hm. I’ll take a look.” “Just be careful. The stairs are quite wet. And technically, we’re not supposed to be up there.” “Great,” I thought. “I’ll be sure to try to avoid the rooftop patrol.” I would have let my sarcasm bleed out loud, but it was a little too late in the evening for such sour words, and the air was a little too fresh to poison it with such a sardonic response. I took his advice and carefully climbed up the thin metal steps to the roof. The rainy mist amplified the glow of Manhattan and cast a beautiful tint over the skyline. My eyes warped and tried to adjust from an afternoon of staring at the computer. I waddled across the roof, thinking of all the apartment dwellers below me who were probably wondering what in the world somebody was doing on the roof at this time of night. I walked to the west side of the building, wondering if the low thundering sounds had drawn anyone else up to the roof. They had. A couple stood at the edge of the roof, arms around each other, hoodies shielding their hair from the light rain, smoking a cigarette. I wandered past them, to the furthest westward overlook. Behind me I heard them muttering. “…scared the hell out of me!” I turned back, a little sheepish for ruining their nice moment in the drizzling rain watching fireworks, but not ashamed in the least. “Sorry.” I smiled. “It’s okay.” They said. I wandered further away, so as not to bother them, but it gave me a little bit of comfort to know that I wasn’t alone in my appreciation of the golden sparks that dotted the sky over Lady Liberty. “I should contemplate my life up here.” I thought. “This seems like a good place to reflect on what in the world I’m doing with myself.” It did seem like a good place to do that, but instead, I just blinked several times and tried to get my eyes to adjust fully to the glowing skyline. No reflective thoughts visited to my mind. No glowing revelations about purpose or meaning or my direction in life. Just the drizzle of rain, and fireworks and the Statue of Liberty. The fireworks stopped, and I started to realize that it was getting cold and I was barefoot. I turned back, glancing over at the couple, still finishing their cigarette. As I walked away, one of those reflective thoughts I’d expected decided to drop by, though I didn’t give it much attention. “How many people get to do this?” I thought to myself. “You’re on the roof, watching fireworks over the Statue of Liberty. This feels special. It can’t be though, it’s so simple and it’s not even for you. You’re miles from it, and anyone can see this. Anyone can go out onto their roof and watch this and think it’s for them.” But most people don’t. It’s not special. It wasn’t made for me. But somehow, it was. It’s not the kind of thing you can share. You just stand there, in the rain, and watch the fireworks until they’re done. And then you leave. I stepped back in to the apartment, my wet feet splotching on the kitchen tile. “How was it?” my roommate asked, cheerily, as if I’d just been to a world premiere Broadway show. “Mmm” I lied, “Just fireworks.”

https://medium.com/a-story-each-day/fireworks-ecdc714d76d1

['A Story Each Day']

2015-05-10 15:27:46.964000+00:00

['Fiction', 'A Story Each Day', 'Short Story']

The Agile values 20 years later

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools The manifesto was done by software people, and every piece of software is a tool! Also Agilists keep selling you processes! because tools and processes are AWESOME, until they are not. We are but the ape that discovered tools first. Every object around you? Clothes? Chair? Table? Device you are using to read this? Roof over your head? Language I am using to write this? Electricity? All tools. We are the ape of instrumentalisation. It is our very identity. We are also an ape ridiculously bad doing many small boring and repetitive steps many times without adding mistakes. Also bad at accepting this deep down. So there is always an ape within us telling us “you got this, small boring step is easy”. This is why we need processes! This is why we have flight checklists because it saves lots of lives: This is why so much care and effort went into creating surgery checklists because, again, it saves lots of lives: A process will not make you good at any given task, no checklist will make you a good pilot or a good surgeon. What they will do is helping you put a lot of little repetitive boring stuff out of your ape brain and into the environment, reducing mistakes: So process are AWESOME! IF we see what we are getting out of following the process IF we own the process and the evolution of the process IF we care And people WILL complain about having a process! In part because deep down our ape is telling us we do not need one. In part because processes are often forced down our throats and we do not see what we get out of following the process beyond “my boss/compliance told me I ought”. But also in part because “What is done for us without us is done against us” a process over my work that is decided without my input is hostile and feels infantilising. Surgeons complained about surgery checklists because: it felt infantilising. Process and tools are awesome UP AND UNTIL they are detrimental to people and interactions. Until your colleague is asking you to get a paper receipt and a ticket number before they will talk to you at all. Up and until your colleague is telling you that they will not help you until the Jira ticket has the information in the format that was convened. Up and until you feel you need to create/join an underworld within your company just to get your job done at all. Up and until the system of oppression starts using the process and the tool to bludgeon people. Come and see the violence inherent in the system! So we have all seen it right? the point where the process and the tool helps, and the point in which it becomes toxic? And maybe you have seen that in most big companies we enter deeply into the toxic territory? Why does that happen? And what to do? For the “why that happens” my answer is : Every big corporation fetishises control even if nobody within the corporation does I have a talk about how does that happen recent versions are in french but here is an old version: For the “What to do?” erm this will come up a lot but it does involve being a pain in the ass: See, the manifesto invitation is not one of an easy solution in as much that it is a call to arms. It is inviting the workers of the world to rebel against bureaucracy really. In a world inviting you to treat anything as a reason to control your peers, you rebel by “Connect before Correct”. You take the time to interact with people and understand what they need and be understood in your needs. You ask the eternal spice girls question: Tell me what you want, what you really really want? This is only possible with safety so you start out by conspiring for safety with your peers, by caring. And, together, you understand what do you get if anything out of your process and tool, and how could you get something out of it. Of course taking the time to figure that out is time you are not on the short term producing, is time you are investing in you and your peers, in your health, in understanding the process and the company. and your enemy becomes then the short sighted lens of productivism: And that is why you will be a pain when you push towards connection, the system gets you under a state where you are always behind, always late, always not having the time to improve things, always measured by your production on the short term. taking time to connect feels like wasting time then and it is hence suffered an the first step is to connect to that suffering.

https://medium.com/@Romeu/the-agile-values-20-years-later-63279a067d80

['Romeu Moura']

2021-02-12 14:25:04.364000+00:00

['Manifesto', 'Agility', 'Agile Manifesto', 'Agile Methodology', 'Agile']

The Ghost Island

It was supposed to be the perfect writing day. I was on an isolated island in the Great Lakes. Tourist season was over and it was mostly abandoned. The fall weather was working its way through the region. I was immersed in the stark northern country which was the perfect backdrop to the stories I was working on. To make it even better I had the cafe to myself. It was supposed to be the perfect day. Supposed to be. But now there was a woman lying unconscious on the floor. I should probably explain. There are few things better than the perfect writing place. I’ve searched my whole life for it. Back in the day, way before the publishing deal, I was just another community college student. I would spend all day writing in the crowded atrium connecting all the buildings. It was always loud. There were a million people coming and going everyday. It was rough. So I was always looking for a little place to hole up in and write. I found a nook in one of the buildings. It was perfect. I’ve been chasing after the perfect place every since. And this little cafe attached to an Inn was the best yet. The furniture was handcrafted, everything in here was at least half a century old, handmade by the owner’s father. The fire was crackling nicely. I was awash in the place’s rustic charm. I was busy working when a young woman came in looking for the owner. We sat and chatted until the owner came back. However, when the owner saw the woman she fainted. But you would faint too if you’d just seen your daughter when she drowned three years ago. I came back downstairs after taking Mary to one of the rooms. “Is she okay?” Beth asked. “She’s fine,” I said, “She’s resting.” “I didn’t mean to scare her that bad.” “Well she’s thought you were dead.” “I am dead.” “You know what I meant.” “I just thought no matter what she’d freak out, so I thought it was best to just get it over with.” “Why did you wait so long?” “Well it took a while to stay like this.” “What do you mean?” “For the whole first year I barely existed. I would just appear randomly. I couldn’t control it at all. I must haven’t scared at least a hundred people half to death.” “Interesting.” “I couldn’t see my mother like that. I didn’t want her thinking I was haunting her. Took forever to stay like this. Took even longer to be able to interact with the world. Now for the most part I can pass for a normal person.” “How’d you learn?” “Have you seen the movie Ghost?” “Seriously?” “No,” she laughed, “Trial and error mostly.” “Is that how you were able to hold the coffee cup and move the chair?” “Yeah.” “How did you drink the coffee.” “I didn’t. I just pretended. I can’t really eat anything. It just falls away. Which is fine I can’t taste it anyway.” “Bummer.” “Right?” She looked at me for a second. “You’re taking this awfully well.” “I’m a writer. I deal in weird stuff all the time.” “There’s a difference between writing about a ghost and seeing one.” “Well you’re the expert.” Her eyes narrowed, “I’m not the first one you’ve seen am I?” “No just the prettiest.” “Awwww, if I could blush I would. So I’m not your first?” “First what?” “First ghost.” “No. I saw one once when I was younger.” “Do tell,” she said leaning forward in the seat. “I was still in high school. My brother and I were exploring an old barn near our families cabin. It was way out in the woods on this abandoned farm. I saw a woman in the barn. It was so strange. She was just staring at me.” “Hmmmm.” “She wasn’t like you.” “Not as pretty?” “Well no,” I said “But like she couldn’t talk. She walked a little. And she was transparent. You’d never mistake her for a real person.” “Did you mistake me for a living person?” “Obviously. I made coffee for a ghost. Though I did notice that the temperature dropped. I thought it was a draft.” “No it was me. That’s something I can’t get rid of. It used to be a lot worse. I talked to one guy for an afternoon he was shivering by the end.” “Haha, didn’t want to end the conversation did he?” “Nope he was willing to brave hypothermia apparently.” “I don’t blame him.” “That was good.” “Thank you.” “You remarkably smooth when speaking to the paranormal.” “Perhaps I’m just smooth in general you’d never know.” “Wouldn’t I? Maybe I’ve been keeping tabs on you.” “Oh you were spying on me?” “Perhaps.” “In that case you’re welcome.” “Oh jesus, you’re impossible,” she said laughing. It was a nice laugh but hollow sounding, the laugh of someone that couldn’t experience joy anymore and was doing her best to fake it. “How long have you known my parents?” she asked. “Two years. Everything was booked when I traveled here. The had the only open room on the island. And I just kind of never left. They seemed happy for the company.” “I’m sure. They haven’t been too sad?” “They were still pretty down when I got here, which is understandable. But they’ve been going better. They both work a lot. Too much really.” “God they should be relaxing. I guess they don’t have a choice with how slow everything is.” “They work to keep busy. The Inn’s doesn’t need money.” “Oh really?” she said looking around the empty cafe. “Can you keep a secret?” “You mean other than being a ghost?” “Yeah dumb question I guess.” “Everyone’s allowed one occasionally.” “Last year they were about to lose the place. Your parents wouldn’t take any money from me.” “Sounds like them.” “So they became the recipients of the Northern Michigan Small Business Hotel and Hospitality Grant.” “Ahhh and does this association really exist?” “It does. He’s sitting right across from you.” “Oh now that’s clever.” “Though I think they caught on. That’s why I get free food. We keep the charade going.” “I’m sure they’re thankful.” “Well I get to eat my weight in baked goods so I call it even.” “Good. I’m glad to know they’re taken care of. It makes it easier.” “I’m sure seeing you will help.” “It might but I might just make things worse. I’m stuck like this. They’ll get older and move on knowing their daughter is stuck here. No family. No kids. Just a whisper in the wind.” “Is there anything we can do?” “From what I can tell. Spirits tend to linger if something happened to them when they died. There’s something keeping me here.” “As in?” “I’m pretty sure someone killed me.” “Pretty sure?” “That’s the thing. I remember most of my life, but the last few days are pretty blurry. Almost everything else came back, but I don’t remember anything about how it happened. I just remember the water.” “That makes sense. They found you in Lake Michigan.” “Did they ever say how I got there?” “No. Your parents said there was an investigation but there was no evidence and nothing to go on so it never went anywhere. But-” “But what?” “The rumor was your boyfriend had something to do with it.” “Oh my god Kyle.” “Yeah.” “Is he still here?” “No. He left the island. He was shunned by everyone. They all assumed he had something to do with it.” “I haven’t been able to find him.” “You can find people?” “I can like sense their energy. Like I was able to find my parents. But Kyle was part of the fuzzy part. I couldn’t remember his name until you said something.” “That’s probably a sign.” “Maybe.” “Your parents didn’t like him.” “I know that’s why they always kept a room open here here for me.” Then it dawned on me, “The room I’m staying in. It was still open even in Summer.” “Bingo.” “I’m sorry.” “No worries.” I got my notebook out. “So what do you remember about the day?” “Not much,” she looked at the notebook, “You’re going to play detective now?” “I do write mysteries for a living.” “But have you solved one?” “One. Remember the ghost I mentioned.” “Yes.” “I did some digging later when I got older and first started writing. I put enough together that I wrote an article saying that her husband killed her. It must have helped because I’ve gone back to the barn and she’s no longer there. That article eventually became my first book.” “Michigan Winter. It did sound awfully real when I read it. So you think you can do it again?” she said getting up. “I can try.” “I’m going to need more than that.” “I’ll figure it out. I’ll do it for Lawrence and Mary.” “But not for me?” “I hardly you know you,” I said smiling. “I know but I’ve very pretty it usually makes guys do things for me,” she said comically fluttering her eyelashes. “Yes but they usually have something else in mind. I don’t think that’s an option for ghosts,” I said. “I know,” she said “But you’d be surprised what I can still do.” She kissed me on the cheek. It was like the winter wind brushing against my face. “Where do we start?” she asked. “Your boyfriend’s house. That’s where you were living right?” “Yes.” “Let’s go.” We walked the half mile to her old house. The fog was coming in off the lake enveloping the small island. It added an additional spooky element to our travel. That and my ghost companion. We made it to her old house. It was a nice sized old victorian home down the road from any of the others. “I haven’t seen this in so long.” “No one comes here anymore. They were never able to sell the house.” “I know how I’m getting in but what about you?” “Easy,” I said giving the door a hard shove with my shoulder. It was so old that the wood gave way around the lock. “I’m not gonna lie that was kinda hot.” “Whatever floats your boat.” “That’s really not nice to say to someone who drowned.” “Sorry.” “Relax if you don’t have a sense about it you’ll go crazy.” “How do I know you’re not already crazy.” “You the one talking to a ghost. You could be the one going crazy.” “Fair enough.” We walked through the old house. Everything was covered in three years’ worth of dust. “Your parents took most of your stuff to their house,” I said. “I’m not really looking for my stuff. I’m just trying to remember.” She was looking at an old picture when we heard the stairs creak. “Oh my god,” I said. “What?” she asked. “Beth, you’re not the only ghost on this island.”

https://medium.com/the-inkwell/the-ghost-island-2a3afbc86a3c

['Matthew Donnellon']

2020-11-27 05:06:20.058000+00:00

['Books', 'Writing', 'Relationships', 'Fiction', 'Short Story']

7 Reasons to Outsource Software Development

OUTSOURCING Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash If you’re a part of a well established and medium (to large) organization, then considering outsourcing your software development team can be a smart approach to achieving multiple critical advantages and benefits for the overall performance of your company. A lot of American companies are now looking forward to achieving dynamic and digital transformation goals while minimizing the risks and operational costs of maintaining dispensable resources. Usually the reasons that govern the delay of outsourcing your resources are related to quality of service, budget, deadline of your projects. While these are very critical for business owners to be considerate about, multiple benefits arise from collaborating with software developers outside your enterprise. Some of the major benefits of outsourcing your development resources are as follows: 1. Cost Optimization Cost optimization is the most critical KPI of every well-established enterprise. Through an experienced outsourcing development team, you can easily keep track of your development charges. Not only do you take care of the IT resources recruiting budget, it’s always more affordable to get a contractual work done by a professional developer, rather than maintaining a resource for the same job through a payroll. 2. Organizational Flexibility In today’s organizational environments, execution teams are expected to juggle between a variety of tasks and responsibilities. As a result of outsourcing, you’ve now saved time from recruiting, hiring and training multiple resources and hence you and your staff can focus on the overall objective and KPIs that are company beneficial and crucial to keep the business and the development processes growing. This in turn results in devoting more budget for sales, marketing, and business development. Hence, no pressure of keeping your development resources on a payroll once the project is complete. 3. Time Optimization In today’s competitive digital era where time is gold and there’s zero space for errors, the time to market demands to be minimum. With a dedicated development team equipped with agile methodologies and top-notch project management skills, you can ensure that your products are ready for service way ahead of your brand challenges. 4. Talent Hunt Finding the right skills is extremely critical as well as stressful, especially in today’s marketplace. Outsourcing your software development team gives you an opportunity to access a well-qualified pool of talented and skilled developers from around the globe. This also allows you to start your project faster, minimize errors, ensure quality delivery, and user-acceptance-testing (UAT) in less time. 5. Ensured Domain Knowledge Growing into new opportunities in today’s dynamic markets is one of the greatest strategies for today’s businesses. Working with talented software developers will open up your perceptions to new emerging opportunities that may be critical for your upcoming ideas and products. Usually, robust software development outsourcing companies with cross functional development teams bring along multiple competencies, namely within JavaScript, React Native, and .NET, and can contribute towards your enterprise development. 6. Ensuring Customer Satisfaction A competent outsourcing company will help you in researching and quantifying your target customer base. Identifying the target customer base gives you a clear insight of your audience, which in turn helps to build up the right software project for your clients. No doubt, without the right insight of the target customers, your products and services will fall short of their expectations and it may all come crashing down. 7. Upscaling Teams and Their Skills Outsourcing your software development team empowers you to scale up your team’s skills and cost as per your desire. In case you need a budget in another cross functional domain, or there is a sudden demand for team expansion, you have the flexibility of letting go of your experts, or quickly pass experts from other areas to your group. Offshore software development has become a giant industry in the world today and has a lot of prospects in the future. It is also believed that outsourcing the software development is the key to a company’s success. It has been considered as the best solution in today’s world of globalization and technological heights, and also contributes towards changing the dynamics of the economy of the world. Find out More At Datamart, we are fully committed to making every project a success by applying the best developers, the latest technology, and proven project management know-how. Get in touch to start a conversation and see how we can supercharge your product!

https://medium.com/datamart/7-reasons-to-outsource-software-development-9696441c38a

['Valentin Podkamennyi']

2020-04-22 22:04:34.532000+00:00

['Software Development', 'Outsourcing']

Theses on Counterinsurgency Tactics Within the New Afrikan Revolutionary Movement

The strategy of counter-insurgency is a necessary one for the continued existence of the current order of things. New Afrikan revolutionaries, who can be defined broadly as those who share the goals of the destruction of the capitalist-imperialist United States, extraction of this country’s blood debt owed us through force, and the unity of will and action with other colonized revolutionaries, should be aware of these strategies of class and national peace and struggle against them when they appear. Throughout the country, we see the same trends taking different forms according to the concrete conditions of the uprising as manifested in each city. Many new activists are easily frightened by those with “clout”, defined as prestige within small insular circles of other liberal activists, oftentimes internet based or firmly rooted in the petit-bourgeois protest aristocracy, but we must always be aware of the fact that correctness is determined by the masses of people and firmly root ourselves in revolutionary theory. We must consistently and consciously struggle to conquer leadership and win the masses away from opportunist, revisionist and reformist leadership. This only comes from rooting ourselves physically among them and being regular fixtures in the community. Without this, they obviously will not be inclined to listen to anything we have to say, correct or otherwise. First, what is counter-insurgency? What is insurgency? Insurgency is defined as an “active revolt, or uprising”. Counter-insurgency is thus defined as an active attempt to slow down, prevent, or end an uprising. The US military has written much on counter-insurgency, and it highlights the necessity to sap the mass base from Maoist insurgencies. We New Afrikan Maoists realize that the people are our best security. Without them, we have and are nothing. Revolutionary military and political theorist Assata Shakur said: “No movement can survive unless it is constantly growing and changing with the times. If it isn’t growing, if it’s stagnant, and without the support of the people, no movement for liberation can exist, no matter how correct its analysis of the situation is. That’s why political work and organizing are so important. Unless you are addressing the issues people are concerned about and contributing positive direction, they’ll never support you. The first thing the enemy tries to do is isolate revolutionaries from the masses of people, making us horrible and hideous monsters so that our people will hate us.” Now, connect this to the behavior of our liberals, opportunists, and revisionists within the movement. Oftentimes, they will even give lip-service to the right to rebel. Comrades in Boston can attest to the fact that an organizer from a to be unnamed revisionist party sought to lead the masses at a combative demonstration out of the streets and back onto the sidewalk while wearing a t-shirt with this same Mao quote.We have also seen liberals, opportunists and revisionists falling hand in hand with the fascist Trump administration in labeling revolutionaries and the combative masses as “outside agitators” and agents provocateur. While agents provocateur are a constant threat, it is a conscious counter-insurgency strategy to label all militants agents provocateur. The most extreme and disgusting example of this is a video of liberal protest police in Washington, DC. handing over a militant directly to the police, literally picking them up bodily and carrying them over to the police line. This reprehensible behavior should be immediately, physically challenged by everyone present and the peace police should be expelled from all protests at which militants are present. This is line struggle in the streets, which is class struggle. Any active, planned engagement with the police, whether it be meeting with them, having them offer escorts to demonstrations, is counter-insurgency and militants must mercilessly repudiate those who promote this engagement. A New Afrikan anarchist comrade in Rockford, writing for IGD, correctly points out: “The counter-revolutionary tendencies within the black community are strong. Many of these so-called organizations for black empowerment or anti-racism are clearly linked to the racist city government. Groups like 100Strong, the NAACP and others came out the next day with white city leaders to “condemn the looting.” Some of these groups even helped to clean and fix up the police station the day after the rebellion. These groups do not represent black power, they represent deference to the white power structure. They utilize language and aesthetics of black power such as the clenched fist but they are clearly very much tied to a politics of respectability. They must be opposed at every moment. Revolutionaries must not have any respect for organizations or individuals who sell Black Lives Matters t-shirts or Black Panther hats while in the same moment host cookouts and take photos with the pigs.” This contradiction, that of aesthetically and rhetorically praising the BPP and the uprisings while walking hand in hand with the police, offers excellent opportunities for exposing the petit-bourgeois theoretical roots of opportunism within the New Afrikan revolutionary movement. The second and most prevalent form of counter-insurgency is attempting to mobilize the people for voting and continued engagement with the ruling class order of things. Revolutionary Communist theoretician George Jackson said, correctly: “When any election is held it will fortify rather than destroy the credibility of the power brokers. When we participate in this election to win, instead of disrupt, we’re lending to its credibility”. This goes for so-called “Left” campaigns such as those of Howie Hawkins. Regardless of your justification, you applauding ballot access for such people, sharing their platforms, etc. is engaging in open counter-insurgency efforts trying to drag the lowest and deepest masses who overwhelmingly do not engage with the electoral farce to the polls. The most insidious is the defection of Angela Davis to the camp of Biden-Harris, despite centering much of her theoretical work around prisons and gaining credibility among the masses in the 1960s and ’70s for her just struggle in support of the Black Panther Party and the Soledad Brothers, and the state repression these stands brought. We have also seen such former movement stalwarts as Bobby Seale and Bobby Rush, who co-founded the Black Panther Party branch in Chicago with Fred Hampton, capitulate to the lowest forms of electoral cretinism, with Rush himself being a US Congressman and repudiating his Black Panther Party record. This is lying to the masses, seeking to fool them. It also builds a culture of impotence and weakness among the Left which I have consistently critiqued in my written pieces — we must build real, concrete power. Power was defined by Dr. Huey P. Newton as “the ability to define a phenomenon and make it act in the desired manner”. For example, if we have an abusive landlord in the community, the correct course of action would not be to appeal to the alderman (who, chances are, is also a landlord and thus an enemy of the people), or to the State (which is bribed and bought out by Chambers of Commerce and other bourgeois interest groups). Rather, the correct, powerful thing would be to organize tenants of said landlords for a direct confrontation, whether it be at the complex or at their offices. This is what builds power and confidence of the people. The organized, disciplined, conscious activity of the people under the leadership of the most advanced, the vanguard, is what builds power. Without this understanding all talk of Revolution is empty rhetoric. Anyone who is still engaging with the electoral system in any way, for any reason, is either engaging in willful deception of themselves and of the People, or needs to root themselves more firmly in the masses to realize the futility of their mission. Thirdly, we have concessions to and active promotion of Black capitalism as a revolutionary solution. This trend is most notoriously represented by the Jay-Zs and Beyoncés and those who accept them as ideological leaders of our people and consequently smuggle bourgeois ideology into the movement. The “LLC twitter” cliques who see Black business ownership as a revolutionary thing are also promoters of this ideology among the masses. In my piece on the lumpen I highlighted how this trend is particularly prominent among the semi-proletariat and certain strata of the New Afrikan proletariat. I said: “Most of these youth aspire to either get a good job, become a skilled tradesperson through attending technical school, or own a small business, such as a barber shop. Even after being arrested, completing a prison term, and being released, the aspiration to become “independent” through small business ownership still remains, and I personally know several individuals who have been successful in this aspiration. Even if they become petit bourgeois, the character of these individuals is still more often than not progressive, as they are still nationally oppressed and their businesses are subject to a myriad of petty rules and regulations that oftentimes drive them into bankruptcy and failure, thrusting them back into the lumpenproletariat.” The Black capitalism strategy has its roots historically in the Booker T. Washington model of development, whereby Black people in the South were expected to engage in endeavors such as buying farms and setting themselves up in skilled trades and avoid politics or what could be interpreted as striving for “social equality”. This approach was carried further by the Richard Nixon administration as a direct and open counterinsurgency strategy in the late 1960s to combat the rise of the Black Panther Party, RAM, and other revolutionary organizations. This line is insidious because, for one, it doesn’t work as I explained in my lumpen piece, and for two, it promotes class peace and glosses over class struggle within the New Afrikan nation. The line “we all Black” has correct elements, as the national oppression of the New Afrikan people is a constant regardless of class, but we must never forsake class struggle within the nation because the upper and middle classes of the New Afrikan people have material class interests that align themselves with capitalism-imperialism. Akon owns mines in Africa, and Beyoncé’s clothing line profits off the exploited labor of nonmale people in Bangladesh, Haiti and India. Yet they diverge. As these comrades explain: The essential difference between the Black middle class and the white middle class is strategic: the Black middle class uses Black proletarian struggles to advance its own cause. Since it is not strong enough to advance its cause on its own, it leverages the fear of riots and street protests to push its own agenda. The Black middle class cannot completely dissociate itself from the militant phase of the rebellion because it needs to wield riots and violence as a potential threat over the rest of society. At the same time, the Black middle class cannot identify itself with the riot, because to do so would contradict its own desire to be integrated into the capitalist state, whose laws and order secure the existence of private property. While we should not openly oppose Black economic self-determination efforts, we should encourage the development of cooperative economics and people’s mutual aid under the guidance of revolutionary elders and experienced, progressive community members. This is not about getting a bag but ensuring that our people survive capitalism-imperialism while step by step increasing their revolutionary preparation. This was the guiding motive behind the Black Panther Party’s service to the people programs. Our slogan and watchword should be “we take care of us”. These programs are also useful because they help demonstrate how little the government cares about the New Afrikan working class, and also offer perfect opportunities for our social investigation and class analysis process. We should see these as just one aspect of a broader proletarian revolutionary strategy with the goal of liberating our communities through force, but this can only be done through the building first of a solid mass base. In certain circumstances, small business owners may prove themselves allies of the movement, offering space and donations for our work. As our work grows, we should be prepared for them to vacillate and swing partly or fully over to the side of the enemy. Regardless, we must be prepared at all times to patiently explain, discuss, struggle through, and take advantage of contradictions. We must become capable of exerting power and making phenomena act according to our will, which is the will of the broadest, lowest and deepest masses. Let’s close with how counterinsurgency manifests itself in the movement. The “movement”, as we interact with it often, is full of liberals in the Maoist sense who operate on a petit-bourgeois friendship politics basis. It’s not how correct your line is to these types, it’s who you know and who you are cool with. So, if a comrade offers a criticism to someone who moves like this, in a counter-insurgent fashion, they can quickly expect to find themselves “called out” and “cancelled” for “splitting the movement” or some horseshit. Liberals are afraid of struggle, and promote false peace. False peace with the police, false peace within the movement, false peace with the capitalists. We need to be aware of this and root ourselves not in the “activist” with blue checks on Twitter, but in the people, the “rank and file” who turn out at protests and more often than not have the same critiques that we have. We want the people that throw the bricks and fight the enemy. Not those that seek to drag them to the polls or put them in prison. We want to recruit them, learn from and teach them, and depend on them, the real masses. Activist gossip only circulates among the circles of “organizers”, the masses oftentimes are not in these internet circles and thus are, as Mao said, blank, meaning not loyal to either side in activist civil wars and firmly opposed to the counter-insurgency behavior. When people stop going to protests, they are expressing their dissatisfaction at the petit-bourgeois factionalism and cliquishness and their desire for a movement in which they feel comfortable being themselves and building community. It is our task to build such a movement. A second counter-insurgency strategy is to pose as friends and, in private, express support for revolutionary goals. We should ask ourselves why they are afraid to speak openly? Who do they serve? Who is paying them? If they are real Communists or revolutionaries, why do they not heed Marx’s call from the Manifesto? Always investigate and, as Lenin said, look for the interest of a class. Thirdly, be aware and ready to defend against redbaiting, which commonly gets activists in the Philippines shot and killed. Labeling every revolutionary and militant activist an “outside anarchist” or in cities with a Maoist movement, a “Maoist”, is a direct invitation to state repression. Ultimately, we will struggle against these tendencies with a strong foundation in theory and an even stronger basis in the people.

https://medium.com/@blacklikemao/theses-on-counterinsurgency-tactics-within-the-new-afrikan-revolutionary-movement-92ae6ac2e2b6

['Black Like Mao']

2020-08-23 00:02:54.925000+00:00

['Blm', 'Revolution', 'Communism']

Here is my minimalist Linux setup that I will use forever

Desktop I am having only 2 desktop icons(Home folder and the trash bin). I usually clone code repositories into $HOME/Projects/ .In fact, I am using an eye-friendly neutral wallpaper that will not distract day to day work. Top bar Top bar is always hidden in the view port and it can be toggled only by using the F11 key(In case of switching networks or checking time). Hide top bar GENOME extension was used to do this tweak. Resource monitor GENOME extension was used to get the indicator of network usage. But I deactivated the visibility of icons(two different icons for WiFi is not the way to go with minimalism) and also enabled the WiFi network status only because I never use ethernet cable with my current laptop. Dock I re-positioned Ubuntu dock into the bottom of the screen also by changing icon size to 20x20 pixels. My favorites section consist of just Terminal, Chrome, Files, VScode, VLC, Skype, System monitor and Screenshot, For other applications I will quickly activate main search with the keyboard. Software I always prefer cloud first approach, In other words If I need to get some work done I always try to use a cloud application before hitting apt-get install ... . The reason is that your operating system eventually becomes an abandoned store of software if you install a separate software for each and every need unless you don’t clean unwanted software frequently which will never happen basically. Some cloud apps I use frequently Google Docs and Sheets Aww whiteboard — For any sketching work Google search for literary anything — calculations, unit conversion etc. And following native/hybrid apps are frequently used too VScode Chrome VLC media player Terminal Skype System monitor Screenshot Terminal The terminal is having a small amount of transparency and styled with Tango color scheme. Other than those simple adjustments it is basically having the default appearance. Terminal window Happy coding with Ubuntu 😎

https://medium.com/codezri/here-is-my-minimalist-linux-configuration-that-i-will-use-forever-ad691310ef2b

['Shalitha Suranga']

2020-09-09 15:10:42.152000+00:00

['Technology', 'Productivity', 'Linux', 'Ubuntu', 'Minimalism']

What is ThunderCore?

An objective analysis What is ThunderCore? ThunderCore is its own blockchain with its own native cryptocurrency, Thunder tokens. Developed by industry-leading experts, it is EVM-compatible with throughput of 1,200+ TPS, sub-second confirmation times, and low gas costs — making it quick and easy for dApps to deploy and scale. Team There is no doubt that the team behind ThunderCore is talented. The CEO, Chris Wang, graduated with a PhD in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University at the age of 22. Since then, he founded a social gaming company, Playdom, which was sold to Disney for approximately $500 million. However, it’s important to note that ThunderCore only displays three team members on their website. They are currently hiring for about 15 different positions, with a focus on engineering talent. It appears that ThunderCore is attempting to scale the company, however, may be having difficulty finding top talent. This is noteworthy, given the fact that talented blockchain engineers are in high demand, and there is a clear supply shortage in the market. Furthermore, building a layer 1 blockchain protocol supporting dApps is no easy task, and will require a built out team in order to be successful. While Block.One is a global organization, ThunderCore appears to be operating solely out of Silicon Valley. This raises the concern of whether Thunder Token can compete at a global scale. For comparison purposes, see the employee statistics for Block.One and Thunder Token below. Funding Block.One has secured over $4 billion in funding via an ICO; with a notable strategic round led by PayPal co-founder, Peter Thiel. Block.One has also set aside $1 billion to help fund applications utilizing the EOS.IO software. Thunder Token is also attracting interest from top VCs, raising an undisclosed amount in seed funding and a private ICO. However, it is still unclear how ThunderCore will attempt to incentivize entrepreneurs to build on top of its platform. Developer activity on the platform is key to attracting users, which then allows for value accrual at the protocol level. To read the rest of this post, visit blog.icoalert.com.

https://medium.com/ico-alert/what-is-thundercore-12c7950b90c4

['Ico Alert']

2018-11-25 17:39:37.367000+00:00

['Blockchain', 'Dapps', 'Token Sale', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Decentralization']

Submissions invited for PATA Face of the Future 2021

Submissions invited for PATA Face of the Future 2021 The Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) is now accepting submissions for PATA Face of the Future 2021 PATA is a not-for-profit membership association that acts as a catalyst for the responsible development of travel & tourism to, from & within the Asia Pacific region. As part of its activities, the Association is dedicated to human capital development (HCD) across the broad spectrum of the travel & tourism industry. The primary focus of the Association’s HCD programme is the development of the ‘Young Tourism Professional’ (YTP) To highlight PATA’s commitment to HCD, the Association annually presents a special award & prize to an exceptional ‘rising star’ in the industry. All recipients of this prestigious award have exhibited initiative & leadership in the advancement of tourism as well as demonstrating commitment to the sustainable development of the Asia Pacific travel industry in line with PATA’s mission The PATA Face of the Future 2021 will be provided a speaking opportunity at the PATA Annual Summit 2021 & the PATA Youth Symposium, held in conjunction with the event Other benefits include: Recognition as the PATA Face of the Future 2021 including the use of a corresponding brand identity logo Opportunities to speak at other PATA events or partner events on behalf of PATA Global media exposure via PATA’s far-reaching communication channels Quarterly one-hour mentorship sessions with the PATA CEO Build your profile as a mentor for the PATA Youth Mentorship Programme to develop young tourism professional students in the region One blog post on the PATA Blog about your passion & journey to success “As the PATA youth network continues to growth & strengthen year after year, the Face of the Future award provides us with the perfect opportunity to showcase a young tourism professional who is making a meaningful & effective contribution to the responsible development of the travel & tourism industry,” said PATA CEO Dr. Mario Hardy “The PATA Face of the Future winner lends an important voice to young tourism professionals everywhere which will be extremely important as we look towards the responsible recovery of travel & tourism post-COVID-19.” Deadline for submissions is 15 Feb, 2021 For information about how to enter, eligibility & judging criteria, please visit https://www.pata.org/pata-face-of-the-future or email PATA Youth Ambassador, Ms Aletheia Tan at [email protected]

https://medium.com/@siennylovesdrawing/submissions-invited-for-pata-face-of-the-future-2021-2b449113335b

[]

2020-12-01 08:17:58.469000+00:00

['Travel', 'Travel Tips', 'Travel Writing', 'Tourism', 'Traveling']

Hydrogen: Key ingredient to achieve Net Zero.

With carbon emissions set record high, countries are setting up targets and working towards keeping the rise in temperature below 2 degree celsius to limit the rate of climate change as proposed in the Paris Agreement. VREs (Variable Energy Sources) are playing a key role in advancing technologies for maximum capitalization of available resources to deploy in combating rise in temperature, one key ingredient being Hydrogen. Hydrogen are of various types based: few of them being Grey, Blue, Turquoise and Green. In summary, Grey hydrogen is produced from fossil fuels majorly Coal, Blue is generated via coal or methane but carbon capture technology is deployed. Turquoise is generated in a way where no emission can be observed however the most preferred is the Green Hydrogen which is produced from Renewable Energy Sources and hence is the strongest combat tool in this context for lowering the GHG emissions. Capitalization of these types of hydrogen is essential, direct shift to green hydrogen will put a pressure on installation of REs, hence a model should be proposed with a tight timeline of phasing hydrogen one by one leading to Green Hydrogen Source: IRENA 2020, Green Hydrogen: A guide to policy making, International Renewable Energy Agency, Abu Dhabi

https://medium.com/green-sustainable-future/hydrogen-key-ingredient-to-achieve-net-zero-acb3b6173c74

['Akshay Jamdade']

2020-11-25 15:33:19.985000+00:00

['Climate Change', 'Renewable Energy', 'Paris Agreement', 'Global Warming', 'Hydrogen']

Azure Portal - A Beginner's Guide To The Azure Console

Azure Portal — Edureka Microsoft Azure which holds the second-highest market share in the Cloud Computing domain is threatening to grab top honors in the near future. The credit for this success also goes to the ease with which Microsoft Azure can be accessed to carry out computing. In this article, we will be exploring how Azure Portal makes it easy to bring all services under one umbrella. Here is a sneak peek into the pointers this article focuses on: What Is Microsoft Azure? What Is Azure Portal? Features Of Azure Portal Demo: Exploring Azure Portal Let us start with a quick introduction to Microsoft Azure first. Microsoft Azure This is what Microsoft has to say ‘Microsoft Azure is an ever-expanding set of cloud services to help your organization meet your business challenges. It is the freedom to build, manage and deploy applications on a massive, global network using your favorite tools and frameworks.‘ Some of the popular service domains it provides are: Compute Storage Database Networking Monitoring Analytics Migration, etc Now that we have some idea about what Azure is, let us continue and understand the next point of discussion, What Is Azure Portal? Azure Portal as the name suggests is a single portal or a single junction that lets you access and manage all your applications at one place. It lets you build, manage and monitor everything from simple web apps to complex cloud applications in a single, unified console. Features Of Azure Portal Below are some of the features of functionalities offered by Azure Portal: Single Point Management It is a single point hub that lets you access services like compute, database, storage, web applications, virtual machines etc. Cloud Shell its integrated command interface ensures ease accessing your application through the prompt medium. Also using the Azure Portal ensure high flexibility when it comes to exploring Azure’s graphical capabilities. Personalized Experience Having your applications managed to suit your style of work is a great boon for any individual or business. The Azure portal gives Dashboards that allow you to pin your needed applications so that they can be monitored and accessed whenever you wish. This feature ensures your ever adapting needs are met and dealt with properly Access Control And Security Security is a top-notch priority when it comes to Cloud Computing. Azure Portal contributes to this cause by ensuring complete control over who gets to access what services. This is achieved by granting Role-Based access controls and subscription at individual and group level. Service Amalgamation For Powerful Experience Microsoft Azure offers you thousands of services both open source and the ones that belong to Microsoft stack of software. Now that Azure has made it easier to integrate with all these services, one can combine these to produce a great unified effect and the number of permutations are huge. Hence I will let you do the permutations here. Talking of amalgamating these services you can ensure faster processing more reliability and better Security. More Visibility One of the best features of Microsoft Azure is it lets you track both current and projected costs. Now, how does Azure Portal help here? One, it calculates your existing charges automatically. Next, it helps you to forecast your probable monthly expenditure. All the above is possible irrespective of the number of resources across several apps that are under consideration for management. Azure Portal also makes it, easier track and monitor your cross-cloud analytics and real-time active usage data. By now we have explored most of the details about Azure Portal but from the theory perspective let us take a step ahead and try and explore the actual portal. Demo: Exploring Azure Portal Step1: First things first, one needs a free tier account or a paid account with Azure. All one needs to do is go to the link ‘portal.azure.com‘. Put in your details. And Azure offers you free services or credits that can be used for a one-month duration. Note you will be expected to enter your credit or debit card details. But stay assured Azure won't charge you without your consent. Step2: Once you have an account you can log in and you will be directed to the portal in the image below: In the image above, the left portion gives you one-click access to all the service domains. Next to it in blue color is the dashboard which is empty by default if any applications are up and running those can be pinned to it. And on top of it is the search bar where you can search for services and resources that don’t feature on the screen. Step 3: If you click on the create a new tab you can go ahead and create apps, mobile apps, chatbots, virtual machines etc. Step 4: If you take a look at the top left corner. You would find the following tabs. First is the Cloud Shell which is a command line interface which lets you process your data using the command prompt. Second is Notifications tab where all the notifications of your recent activities will be highlighted. Third Tab lets you explore portal settings whereas the fourth tab lets you look for help support provided by Azure. So this brings us to the end of this article. I hope you enjoyed this article. If you wish to check out more articles on the market’s most trending technologies like Python, DevOps, Ethical Hacking, then you can refer to Edureka’s official site. Do look out for other articles in this series which will explain the various other aspects of Azure.

https://medium.com/edureka/azure-portal-all-you-need-to-know-about-the-azure-console-8ade1effa474

['Archana Choudary']

2020-09-10 13:55:08.002000+00:00

['Azure Portal', 'Cloud Computing', 'Azure', 'Azure Functions', 'Azure Services']

Thinking of your website redesign here are some tips to help you out

Thinking of your website redesign here are some tips to help you out Abdulla M Feb 22·5 min read A business highly requires a strategy to thrive constantly in this competitive era and appealing web marketing industry. A modernized project can either bring a boundless victory or an exhaustive failure. Essentially, it awaits and commits to the approach you execute the policy and the procedures you follow with the help of a website development company. You must have a goal and the candid bringing out and for generating a redesign strategy. If you are advanced at defining your perception from scratch, the strategy will get boundless accomplishment and the whole procedure will be coherent also. Here there are few appropriate guides to help an inbound marketer create a lucrative website redesign method. Consider and Analyze Your Present Online Performance Metrics Before devising on redesigning your site, you should first allot the present performance metrics of the site. Deal with some queries depending on the parameters for starting the estimation properly. Check whether your website is revising the desired traffic. If not, find out the reason and recognize the pages which can bring the maximum traffic. Start by analyzing your site over its history in particular areas like Realistic Goals vs. Bounce rate Keyword Analysis Unique content for your new site Calculate the number of form submissions as the goal Number of lead generated Set Your advanced Website Redesign aspirations In case you have determined your new website redesign goals which you want to accomplish, inflect your website for reflecting that. Compassionately precisely what you need will implement a clear idea of the whole website redesign method. The concept will also make sure that you implement and communicate properly with your favorite website design company at every time. Understand the factors and design flaws in the existing website before redesigning a website. Take these following data-driven goals into account for redesigning your website: Design Flaws Promotion tactics Performance of existing website Analysis Enhancing domain authority Increasing time on the website Reducing bounce rate An increasing number of visitors or visits Boosting Page ranking An increasing number of new form submissions or leads Identify your audience’s particular requirements and choices Want to come up with marketing campaigns that identify your audience’s particular requirements and choices? Then, make the plan and try to make your target on the audience first. This will result in effective applications of your contribution to the campaign and more outcomes. These are some questions you should ask yourself before redesigning your website Who is my target audience? How will the user interact with my website? How visitors will navigate my website? What do the visitors want from my website? Your website visitors have different goals to visit your website such as seeking your service, consulting, job seekers. Hence, filter your visitors based on their performed action on your website. At first, you should target and focus on the main motto of your website and then concentrate on other factors to gain better results. Index Your High-speed and Profitable Assets While redesigning and making your website, always make and keep in mind to keep a stock of your finest-performing and precious assets. Most trafficked pages High-performing keywords you rank for and related pages You can keep your existing page which performs well in search engines and has a lot of inbound backlinks. Evaluate Your Competitors’ Websites Check out what your challengers are doing for achieving exceptional ranking on search engines. Find out how they are appropriating more leads than you. Although it’s meaningful and important to keep a track of what all competitors are doing, you are approved to assure to not replicate or copy what they are accomplishing in your own business. The well-crafted strategy will be concentrating on unique website designs and making better marketing tactics. Simply changing the UI of your website will offer the best user experience to your clients. First and foremost evaluate your competitors to know their strengths and weaknesses. This will help you understand which areas of your website are not performing well according to your competitor. Mirror Your Brand with a Website Customization Your website must represent your brand and helps in accomplishing your goals. Before you start conspiring your new site design and its content, you should be fine enough regarding your preferred branding, messaging, and your robust value invitation so it’s consistent across your whole site. To define branding and messaging, you need to follow these 3 steps: Concentrate on the USPs of your brand Consider the requirements and expectations of your clients Make an invention of the requirements Understand More About Your Customers Or Clients While planning on a website redesign strategy, you must understand the client’s character and their trends, and the latest collections. This will help you know the prominent and the particular opinions and the features and the content which you should include in the website. Before you continue with this must know and must be able to, figure out those promising customers that who will regularly visit the website coming from various backgrounds, continents, and countries. Advance and develop All Website Pages In some cases, it is very much necessary and very much important that you should make an online presence to boost the rest metrics of your site. If no one is visiting your site, you cannot increase the new leads or generate sales. Check out these tips to design an SEO friendly website Using SEO tools find the most search-valued pages that get maximum inbound links and high traffic pages for better conversion optimization. Choose and select the keyword which a page will focus on your newly designed website. Introduce and make Your Site with an intense Quality Analysis This is the ultimate step. Hence before launching your redesign website complete all these quality checks. Check whether all website URLs are working properly. Find whether all preferred concepts are executed or not. Check whether all pages are working in a good sequence. Know whether your site is functioning on every device. Finally, It’s time to contact and get in touch with a web design and development company that can address all of these issues. Hire an experienced web development company to develop the best website for your business that generates more leads and conversions. You can rely on Appcoup to get the best website for your business. We have experienced web designers who can build more sales intent websites. We create excellent websites for clients with the latest web design practices.

https://medium.com/@mabdulla/thinking-of-your-website-redesign-here-are-some-tips-to-help-you-out-d7b59f6db19a

['Abdulla M']

2021-03-26 17:09:53.162000+00:00

['Web Development', 'Web Design', 'Website Redesign', 'Website Development', 'Website Design']

This Foodie Startup Grew to $27 Million While Saving the World

Connecting the Right Parties and Scaling Up There is something Uber, Airbnb, and Couchsurfing all have in common. Something that the team of Too Good To Go presumably observed and implemented. As a matter of fact, successfully implemented. Uber connects people who own a car with individuals who would like to go somewhere. Airbnb connects people who own a summer cottage with travelers. Couchsurfing connects the locals who have a couch at their home with brave travelers who are not afraid to spend the night on a stranger’s couch… And Too Good To Go connects restaurants and shops that have remaining food with hungry individuals. The platforms connect parties who would mutually benefit from a business transaction. And all these platforms connect parties that would otherwise not be able to meet. Or at least not that easily. And definitely not that safely. A key common feature of these platforms is the rating system. Each party can tell their opinion about the other and give a score, usually ranging from one to five. Ratings keep the affected people accountable for their actions and for the quality of the service. Surely, I wouldn’t choose a Uber driver or an Airbnb host with only one star… Too Good To Go implemented something similar. Buyers can rate the restaurants by the quality and quantity of the food they get. And also by the friendliness of the staff. That’s a big success factor! The network effect Without users from both sides, these companies would be useless. Imagine Uber without drivers or Airbnb without accommodation providers… So the more users that are on both sides, the more valuable the company is. Too Good To Go seems to be doing an amazing job here. In just one year, their outreach grew exponentially. Today, they have more than 49,000 partners and 20 million users, and they are still available only in Europe!

https://medium.com/better-marketing/this-foodie-startup-grew-to-100-million-while-saving-the-world-a1cd40fb3bb0

['Esther Brhlik']

2020-07-27 16:00:07.401000+00:00

['Marketing', 'Innovation', 'Sustainability', 'Food', 'Entrepreneurship']

Impact of Covid19 on the global education system including India

Impact of Covid19 on the global education system including India There was a time when education was something only a few could afford. Compared to these times, education has made great strides today. But, this progress was disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic. Since the beginning of the lockdown, the current education system has been going through a big shift. Companies like Creanovation Technologies are creating programs and tools that will allow the school and the students to navigate through their processes and continue their learning. The coronavirus crisis has resulted in the stimulation of unprecedented innovation in the education sector and made us realize how unappreciative we have been to the educators and teachers. The pandemic has also highlighted the extreme social and economic inequality between the students. It raises the need for training the teachers better so that they can be proficient in this new method of education delivery. According to the UNESCO, about 90% of all the students were affected by the lockdown facilitates at the peak of the coronavirus pandemic. Different countries have had different responses to the crisis. Some of them have introduced remote learning and homeschooling programs while offering online resources for free. Some others have been delivering assignments to students’ home and broadcasting lectures through public TV and radio. In India, about 32 crore students are affected by the nationwide lockdown and different restrictions. The lockdown has made the students face a whole lot of challenges, especially for the secondary students and final year students. Because of the virus, no company visited the campus resulting in fewer placements and unemployment. In fact, some students who received pre-placement offers lost their job because the companies were fearing bankruptcy. The institutes have also faced challenges in conducting exams because of the lack of a proper mechanism. Even though students in colleges were able to continue learning through video conferencing apps like Zoom, the exams are a different story. If the exams are conducted online, it will result in an open book examination that doesn’t have any credibility. The government has been trying to ensure that everyone has access to education using platforms like NCERT. They have received guidelines for teaching through online methods like Swayam Prabha, Swayam, e-pathshala, Diksha, etc. Different shows have been launched on Doordarshan to spread awareness regarding the virus and the teaching methods. Institutes like AICTE that are responsible for technical education in the country have released guidelines that allow the students near the colleges to access its internet facility. Even though online classes have made remote learning possible, it has also raised several other challenges. Apart from poor network mechanisms and internet connectivity issues, the online classes lack the focus of a normal classroom. Since students don’t have experience interacting and learning online, it is difficult to continue learning in this situation.

https://medium.com/@ctplofficial/impact-of-covid19-on-the-global-education-system-including-india-85a180cede10

['Creanovation Technologies']

2020-12-12 05:49:56.559000+00:00

['Covid 19 Crisis', 'India', 'Covid 19', 'Education', 'Education Reform']

My Name is Cat, Hear Me Roar

Hey mom, thanks so much for the new rug. You spent a lot of time looking at pictures on your computer and measuring to make sure you got just the right one. Congratulations! I know this one is really nice and that you got it at a good price. And it’s so lush, big, and heavy! I know you were happy to get it because you lay on it sometimes to watch television. I love to join you. Of course, you know I’m just sucking up. Food is always on my mind. Getting this rug on the floor took more effort than I would have bothered with. First, you had to move the furniture out of the way. You brought the smaller box up first. You know, the one that weighed about 20 lbs. You removed all that tape, cut the strings, and laid it out. Then you stomped for some reason. Not sure why, but it was flatter afterward. I saw you kick the box into the living room, so I guess you couldn’t pick it up. How did you ever get it up the stairs to the third floor with no elevator? You probably had to push it up to using your legs. I do appreciate it. All this for me. And getting it in the right place was a lot of work. You kept wiping your forehead and stopped to get a drink of water. You then dragged it some more to get it just right. You walked around and finally looked satisfied. Then came the item. The big box. It was so exciting. I don’t know why it took you so long to open it. I waited at least 10-minutes for you to tear the box apart so you could get the rug out. I never thought you’d do it. I had plenty of time to lick my paws and wash while I waited. And waited. And waited. Then you had to snip the string. Finally, it was out. What a relief! After that, you had to drag it, oh, that hunching over and the noises were so unattractive, across the room and put it in the right place. Then you unfolded it one piece at a time. The colors were and are beautiful. It shimmers and smells good. You took several more minutes adjusting the position before moving the furniture back. But finally, you were done, and everything was in place. So this is why I’m confused. I thought you loved this rug and were happy. Why are you standing over it yelling at me? In case you don’t know, I can’t understand a word you say. And by the way, I don’t care. You’re being irrational. What are you so upset about? Honestly, here you go again. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Don’t look at me like that and shake your finger as I walk away. There! Tail in your face. I’m leaving. I don’t need to listen to this. Oh, I see, you’re spraying something on the rug. No, that doesn’t smell right, not at all. Why are you doing that? And right where I just sharpened my claws. Oh, you mean you don’t want claw marks on it? Really? It’s so thick and lovely, almost perfect. I said almost. Remember, it’s used. New rugs arrive rolled, not boxed. Don’t you want me to feel like it’s my rug, too? It is, after all. This is my house and everything in it belongs to me. Are you being stingy, mom? I see, you’re in a bad mood. Again. You’re wasting your breath. But I hope it makes you feel better to carry on like this. I certainly don’t care. Or haven’t I made that clear enough? Do I need to claw something else to get my point across? I’m going to the bedroom while you sort things out. Hopefully, you’ve made the bed by now so I can relax. I’d have preferred the sun was shining today, but alas, it is not. How inconvenient. Please don’t follow me. This foolishness has gone on long enough. Yes, shut the door. Be like that. I’ll be out in a couple of hours for my mid-day snack. In the meantime, you’d better hope that I don’t barf up any fur. Please just go away.

https://medium.com/tapestry-of-life/my-name-is-cat-hear-me-roar-5f0edd21ff08

['Marilyn Regan']

2021-01-10 14:57:06.955000+00:00

['Cats', 'Pets And Animals', 'Pets', 'Animal Behavior']